It then created a great sensation, and has since
been widely discussed. After an examination and a defense of the theory
of the connection between Church and State, Mr. Gladstone thus
summarizes his principal reasons for the maintenance of the Church
establishment:
"Because the Government stands with us in a paternal relation to the
people, and is bound in all things not merely to consider their existing
tastes, but the capabilities and ways of their improvement; because it
has both an intrinsic competency and external means to amend and assist
their choice; because to be in accordance with God's mind and will, it
must have a religion, and because to be in accordance with its
conscience, that religion must be the truth, as held by it under the
most solemn and accumulated responsibilities; because this is the only
sanctifying and preserving principle of society, as well as to the
individual, that particular benefit, without which all others are worse
than valueless; we must, therefore, disregard the din of political
contention and the pressure of novelty and momentary motives, and in
behalf of our regard to man, as well as of our allegiance to God,
maintain among ourselves, where happily it still exists, the union
between the Church and the State.
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