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. I. tfm- fumv^-^mi^

Pcflrv

Bo/

The GhaFeh of England

The GectFe of Unity.

BY THE
REV. OYSOM HAOUE. M. A.,

HiCTOR OF ST PAUl-S CHURCH, HALIFAX, N. 6.

•m

HALIFAX, N s

Mt'HTO.N & Co . rrill.lMHKRJ*.

"I CANNOT doubt tliat tho Anglican Church ts the
" tme centre round which may be raHhd in Und'H own
*' time ftll the scattered forces of those wJio rt«r«e in
*' aeeepttng IToIy Scripture as their standard of faith, and
" tlio croedrt of tJie undivided Chuixjh as their aummary
•• of doctrine." - ,

Birtiiop Ski.wyx.

" I nRMRVR in my.henrt that if this love shall make all
" nu>n take knowledge of us that we have been with Jc8us,
•' and compel them to say, see how these Churchmca
'* love one another, ve may in God's hands, be His
" iuf^truments to heal thPHc divisions which have rent tlie
"' seamlf'>4H rol>e of Christ."

Bwnop Wjiirri.E.

tin aii
oj

Kb:^

^e (\\(irQ\\ af Fpglaod

THE

(er)tre ef [|i)it]^.

arch is the
<»0(i'H own

9 itgro.e In /f/ea for union^ addressed to Churchmen^ and

• fttith.an.i I on enquiry into the causes 7v/iy tlu Church

rtununary |^ of England has failed to he the

unifier^ 7vith a suggestion as

sk!,\vyx. II to the way of success.

th JoHUrt,

urchmcii

be His

rent tho

f BY THE

RliV. DYSON HAGUK, M. A.,

RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHUitCH, HALIFAX, N. 8.

IPPi-B.

lirnti itnciflci qnoHiniii fiUi Ihi rucnbitntiir.

HALIFAX. N. S.:
MURTUN & Co., I'l'BI.IHHRRfl.

1MW.

This Hinall contribution to tlio groat cauno of Christii.n
unity is drawn up on tlic following lines:

1. The Church of England should ]>c the first of ail the

Churches, and the rallying-iKiint of unity.

2. The Church's failure to win, Ileasons i>ointe<l out.

The iiolicy of Churchnu-n hitherto in many cases
has been calculated to introduce and periietuate
disunion, ratlun- than union, to alienate rather
than to win outHiders.

3. A more excellent way,— the i>olicy of love and con-

sideration.
•}. Some remarkable cxamiiles of its successful

working.
5. The imnucea suggested. lA-t us all try love.

The ChaFCh of England— The Centre of Unity.

HE Cliiircli of Enojan:! was intended Tho church cf
1)V God to be tlie cliurcli of the En<r- r"'|^"'"« ^•''"-

lish-speaking people of the world.
For hun<lreds of years the church, planted
hy apostolic men, with its primitive order,
and scriptiyal doctrine, was not only the
Church of Enoland in name, but indeed
the church in England and the church of
England. And to-day, notwithstandinir
the ravao;(!s of time, she is atJmittedly the
only church to which all look as the rally-
inj^ centre of unity for the 'n-uat bodies
outside of the errinoj Roman church.

Unity tt day, thank God, is in the air of
Christendom. It is on the lips of millions ;
it is in the heart of myriads more. Count-
less Christians are cryin^^ to God that they
all may be one. And as to the visil)le
accomplishment of this <^rcat desire, it can
almost positively be said, that there is but
one church in the opinion of the great

The CJiJirch of Englaud,

body of thouofbtful Christians wliicb
seemingly is able to become the rallyin<ij-
point for unity, and make union possible
on scriptural, apostolic, and primitive lines.
That body is the C'hurcb of England.

As the great religious bodies stand to-
day with the one burnincr (uiestion of unity
before them, the Church of England, out-
siders themselves being the testifiers, re-

ceives the great majority of votes as the
one candidate that has any chance of
succe.is.

In tbe lann-uaefe of one of the noblest of
the successors of the apostles, the Into
Bishop Selwyn of Lichfield, the Anglican
Church is the true centre around whicb
may be rallied in God's own time all the
scattered forces of those who agree in
accepting Holy Scripture as their standard
of faith, and tbe creed of the undivided
Churcli as their summary of doctrine.

The reasons. The reasons for this are obvious. She
comes from the days of the apostles witb

/inns wliich
the rallvin*:-
lion possible
iruitive lines,
lijjland.

es stand to-
bion of unity
ingland, out-
.estifiers, re-
t'otes as the
' chance of

le noblest of
'S, the late
16 Anglican
Dund which
inie all the
) acrree in
iir standard
} undivided
►f doctrine.

v'ioiis. 8he
ostles with

The Centre of Unity.

an ancient heritage, and a splendid name.
The antiquity of her lineage is as indis-
putable as the sacraujents she adnunisters,
and the truth she proclaims. She was
planted by apostolic men with primitive
order. Her standard is the word of God,
and that alone. Her creeds are the cree<ls
of the undivided and Catliolie Church of
Christ. Her articles of religion are the
purest of doctrinal summaries. Her ser-
vices are saturated with scripture. The
bulk of her prayers and hymns are the
\itvy words of God. She is sound, because
scriptural, democratic though episcopal ;
practical, and admirablj^ suited for all
sorts of men ; best fitted for present day
needs, though the ancientest of all.

Each of these constitutes a powerful
reason. Together they form a phalanx.
To emphasize any one would be illogical.
And yet if we would lay stress on the two
things in the Church of England which
Juive of late years made her .so charndnt^
nnd attractive, it would be in addition to
these, those two great distinctions lately

"■•"■"fPUPP

i I

set forth by a distiiv^uished Presln'terian
who sought episcopal onHnation, viz. :

(1) The \von<i<,'rfiil power ol' editication
and comfort tliat is to he found in the
Church of England worship. The service
when ti'uly participated in hy a mind
hunicry and thii'sty after God, is alM^ays
uplifting, always nourislnng, always edify-
ing and always draws nearer to heaven.

(2) The practical effect of our religious
system in emphasizing continually the
foundation facts of the Christian system and
hrinoinof these columnar verities of Christi-
aidty, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the
Resuri-ection, the Ascension, the coming of
the Holy Ghost and the expected personal
appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, into
practical effect in the conduct and
vicissitude of human life.

nr. Shield^- But this is the language of Churchmen,

tt'sliiiuiiiy-

I will (jjive therefore the testimony of one
who as a uieniber of a great Christian
communion outside of the Cliurch of
England cannot be considered as speaking

Hid,

Pre.sV)vterian
)n, viz. :

)1' edification
ournl in the
The service
hy a mind
id, in always
ilways edify-
bo heaven.

onr religious
itinually the
.nsv'stein and
es of Christi-
ucifixion, the
lie coming of
ited personal
Christ, into
on<luct and

The Centre of Unity.

' Churchmen,
mony of one
;at Christian
Church of
I Rs speaking

with the hiasof n»eud)ership and hereditary
devotion.

In his sonjewhat famous papier on the
United Churches of i\w. United States which
appeared in the Century Magazine, Novem-
ber, 1(S85, after speaking of the apparent
liopelessness of unity on either doctrinal or
ecclesiastical irrounds, Dr. Shields jjfoes on to
state of the Prayer Book of tht? Church that
" there is no other extant formulary which
is so well fitted to become the rallying point
and standard of modern Christendom," and
that there is about it " an ideal fitness to
serve as the nucleus of a reunited Christi-
anit}'." In fact the whole of this remark-
able papi.-r is simply a voluntary testimony
from a Presbyterian to the fitness of the
Enijlish Church to be that longjed for Protes-
tant-Catholic Church of the Future which
shall conciliate all affections, and unite all
diversities.

Thus the various reli(iious l)odies as they
broaden in their sympathies, gravitate
towards the Church of England as naturally
as scattered children long for home. They

The Church of England,

aflopt ideas that for centuries liave been!
the possession of the ancient church, and'
just in p; oportion as they fall in line with
the broader cravinijs of enli<rhteninent and
culture, thev tin<l themselves, thoutdi
perhaps unconsciously, assimilating them-
selves to the tijothrr cl.urch. Tlie extensive
adoption by our Presbyterian and Metho-
dist brethren of the use of the Creed, the
Lord's Pi-ayer, the Ten Commandments,
the Te Deum, the Psalms an<l the Versicles
are straws on a threat churcli current. We
do not fondly imaixine that ormmic union
is a matter of easy and swifc accomplish-
ment : a thinjr of a day or a year. Not at
all. But we see these things. We caqnot
doubt the evidence of our senses. The}' are
facts. They reveal a drift, and a chanjre
of tone which is most significant.

Seeing thcni therefore we have faith
and hope ; we thank God and take
courage. We accept with gratitude what
we have, but we long for more. Wo
believe that the Church «f Kni;land .should
not only be what she now is, first in the

^ gland,

iries luive been

nt church, and

'all in line with

iijhtenrnent and

>elves, thouirh

imilatin^ theiu-

The extensive

ian and Metho-

the Creed, the

!^'()inniandnients,

i<l the Versicles

h current. We

; organic union

ift. acconipli.sh-

vear. Not at

L We cai]not

s(r8. The}' are

and a chan<^e

cant.

have faith
d and take
ratitude what
more. We
li^dand .<(hou]d
*, first in the

The Centre of Unity.

choice of many, hut become what she once
wa.s, first in the choice of all.

Primus inter pares

She is to many,
Pi'imus inter omnes

She sliould he to all.

But let Us not he deceived.

Brijrlit as has been, and to-day is, the Th." nuirch
prospect of the C/hurch of Enj^land, tiie '*''"'•
truth must be faced, that with a<lmitt<'(l
prestiije and magnificent chances, the
Church of En<^land has not taken, and is
not taking the place she should in tlie
esteem of the people of this country. The
fact of many paii«hes in n>any Dioceses,
as well as the figures of the Census Book,
ring out their solenin notes of censure, and
and tell us, thnt with the excrption of the
cities, not oidv are mt-mbers of the outside
religious bodies not being gathered exten-
sively into the Church, but that the two
great outside bodies allied most closely to
tlie Church of England, th'j one b^
doctrine, and the other by descent and the
use of her formularies, are increasing each

TJie Church of England,

year with a o-ivater increase.

Now tlicre must be causes for tliin.
As Cl.urclinion we know with nri(

le th(

cause lies not in our ( hurcli. We dare not,
we must not, we cannot Manie our Chuicli.

Like Cfusar

ife she stands aliove

sus

pic

ion. She is pure, slie is true, she is

faitlit'ul. Her liamls are clean. Hi'r form-
ularies Jire as sound, lier standard as iolty
as srtiictitied and s])irit-|L;uided hands could
nuike them. We must expose the true
offenders, and those really L»uilty njust

if(

that th

contess that tlu'V are. tlie snniei's. II c
the cltn/y ' ami u'c, (he peojAe of
tJie Church of Kn(jlan<l, are to
blame. If the Church has not been the
powei" that her anticjuity, and her ujany
attractions condiined to make her, it is
because we her representiitivi's have griev-
ously erred.

What are the secret causes of failure!
Ti>.' <«ms.>x of ^^ ,^ m'ueral rulo it is wisdom for u man

tailiui'. f^

when thin<;M go wron;j; to seek for the
reason of failure in himself. It is certainly

///'/,

r this.

'J> pi-ide the
Ve dare not,
Hir Cliuich.
ikIs aliove
'■ll<^ she i.s

Her form -
■<i as ioftv
inds couM

the tiiie
ilt;V must
Hers. ]jc
>^'^V>/^i of

are to
Ijt^en tlie
i«r many
t'r, it is

vti yriev-

lui'e !

r M man
tor the
3rtainly

77/t' TiV/Z/r ^/ 67///^.

a i-easonal.le experiment for C'luirehmen to
try now. In.stea.1 therefore of l.eratin-
the times, and hemoanina the fanits of

others, let US turn the searchlight in upon
ourselves. We have ^one on a lon^r while
now complainino- of the sinfulness, the
ohstinacy, and the invincihle unn-asonahl,,-
ness of dissenters, and denouncing tlu-ir
narrowness, unkindness ami folly. Yet all

the time we have i>een guilty of'thes,. ve, V
■^ins ourselves.

The reason of failure is threefold.

The want of wisdom. The want of life
I The ^vant of love. The Church of England
with tvevythimj before Aer, has lost so n.uch
•s.n.ply hecause her clergy and her people
>n so many cases have luvn w.u.tino- in
eoMMuon sense, in C^hristian earnestness'^and
in the love of God.

We have hem proud, when we should
have been ujeek.

We have been worldly, profcssin.r to

renounce its pomps ami vaniti
We have l>een hau^-htv wl

es.

»en wo N

mve l.een hund)led.

hould

^mmmm

T/ie Church of England,

And to-day vvdien we see all that we
have lo.st by our pride and vain glor}', by
envy, hatred, malice and awtul uneharit-
ableness we are still unconvicted of sin, and
consider the church is doing all that she
should. We have been acting as it* we did
not care for the unity of God's people, or
even as if we tliought the prosperity of
our church a thinji: worth attainin'f.

In a great many cases the church policy
adopted hitherto towards those outside of
the church might be defined in one of these
three terms.

The policy of non-consideration.

The j)olicy of denunciation.

The policy of irritation.

Tiu> iK.ii con- By tlu' policy of non-consideration, is

sUleratloii im»1- . ,i i. l\ \ l\ l\ l

icy. meant, that very thoughtless way that we

have often had of doings things, perhaps
small in themselves and non-essential, with-
out ev(?r thinking how much they ndufht
oHend and hurt the prejudices of those
wl)0 are just as it were on the jioint of
entering the church, or of omitting tiiose

11 that we
n glory, by

I uncharit-
\ of sin, and

II that she
s if we did

people, or
►sperity of

The Centre of Unity

n^'-

ircli policy
outside of
ne of those

)n.

e ration, is
i.y that we *
[^s, perhaps
ntial, with- \

hev niiixht

s of those I
le point of
btin<^ those

little acts of kindness and attention that
are always pleasinii: and never fail to win.
We have often talked and acted as if
outsiders were nothing to us; as if it were
a matter of no consiMiuence whether they
cared for our church or not, or that the
church should he so presented as to appear
fair in their eyes: as if it were a small
matter whether they were won or not. In
fact we liave sonietiuies forgotten the
exhortation of the spirit of Christ to be
"polite and courteous to all. We have even
gone out of our way to let outsidei's
know that we consider them generally
a very inferior sort of people.

To give anexaujple.

It is a small thing in itself, but a straw
indicates the current. W(^ all know how
we all love certain hymns, and how denr to
us are certain tunes. We all know too,
that there are certain grand hymns and
tunes that are the common property of all
Prtisbvterians, Metliodists and An-dicans.
Now I have often in the country parts
been at church services on anniversaries,

■HPlHRaai

wsm^mmmm

H T//e Church of England,

and other occasions, wlien^ there have been
present nearly 90 pei- cent of tlie Preshy-
terians and Methodists in the surroundinn- jwli
parts, and instead of there bein<r seh-cted for
those occasions some irrnnd ohl words and
tune in which all slmuhl join, the brethren
have been mufh to Jed their t^^ jiarateness
hy standino- in cold silence and listenino- to
the clinrch people sinoinpra hymn of whose
words they wei-e ignorant, and in the tune
of which tl'.ey could not join. Certainly
this, and like practices is not calculated to
win.

And I say this.

Not oidy can we not afford to lose these
people, hut we cannot as a cliurch affbi-d to
have them feel disinterested in the churcli
service when they conie. And it should le
the aini hoth of Church cler^ry and Church
people to do everythincr to make outsiders
feel that our s.-rvice is a service of the
people, and for the people.

We should seek by every metliod to
popularize the clun-cli. and make our ser-
vices so simple, so hearty, .so popular, that
the nieujbcrs of other religious bodies will

enj
1

pra
win
bey
our
Deo

ti cl:

luhi

oug

sum
fool
tion
kiiK
bret
thoi
wha
T

und(
witli

'iiii,

The Centre of Unity.

IV have been

the Preshv-

surrouiuliiin-

1, selected for
<1 words and
ihe brethren
"i' parateness
listeniTio- to
11 n of whose
in the tune
Cei'taiidy
alcuhited to

) lose these
ih atfoi-d to
the el in roll
it should he
i.n<l Church
e outsiders
^ice of the

rnetljod to
^e our ser-
)ular, that
bodies will

enjoy them.

They do not, ami cannot enjoy a service
where the choir monopolizes the service of
prayer as well as the service of praise, nuv
where tlie service of praise is altogether
beyond them. Far better to lose a little of
our dignity, and ornamentation, then to let
people think that the Church of England is
a church for the classes, not for the masses.

Tliis policy is wrong.

If a heathen actor could say : Homo sum,
Tuhil humani alienum puto ; much more
ought a Churchman to say: Christianus
sum, nihil humani alienum puto. No
foolish prejudices, or foolish church tradi-
tions should prevent u« from taking the
kindliest interest in all our dissenting
brethren as far as is consistent with
thorough devotion to our own church. 8av
what we will

Thet/ are our brethren.

(iiod has made them so, a. id we cannot
undo it. If we shew ignorant unsympnthy
with them, we tire guilty of wrong.

The ChurcJi of Ungiand,

The policy of <lt'nuncifition is worse.

The (hnuncia- That there may be sonietiines provoca-
tion policy.

tion is aihnitted. It is one of tlie sad
in^'steries of this dispf-nsation. that false-
hood is so often on the throne, truth so
often on the scaffold, and allies so often at

war with one anotln-r. But cle

ar, con-

sistent, aud fearless exposition of the
Church's principles, and Bible truth is one ^ i
thin''-, and bitter, sarcastic, and defiant

beratini( of sectaries and dissenters is
another, and a totally different thinij.

The

one ina^

itV:

»e a necessii

The other always is wroncj.

It is never ris^ht, it never can be right to
put on bitterness, and wrath, and evil
speakin;:;, with all malice, and be hard to
one another.

I have heard schismatics and dissenters
<lenounced in some church pulpits, and by
the lips of some Churchmen in a way that
positively made me sad.

There was no love in it.

Nay, think as charitably as we could, it
was impossible not to perceive that there

'and.

IS worse.
Mies provoca-
-' of the snd
\\ tliat false-
:>ne, truth so
es so often at
t clear, coii-
tion of the
truth is one
and defiant
lissenters is
'< thinL^

The Centre of Unity.

1 he right to

|i, and evil

he hai'd to

dissenters

its, and l»v

way that

was a stroni; vein of eartlilv bitterness,

and uns^nipatlietic pride. It was like the

intoleranee of hanj^hty Jews, and fierce

Inquisitors ; words that made the fiesh

creep ahnost. I felt as I heard them as if

I fain would cry aloud, and say : O biothers,

brothers. A truce to these aspersions and

denunciations ! Away with this sadden-

ing and uuchristlike policy ! An end to
these horrible accusations of schism, and

rebellion and the sin of Korah ! An kix\\\. to

these wretched accusations, these niis-

chievous taunts, these embittering upbraid-

ings I An end to these prideful vauntings,

and Phai'isaic boasts.

I thank Thee, God, I was not born in
schism,

And thus have not been <juiltv of dissent.

couhl, it
that there

The accusation of the sin of schism is so
eud)ittering a denunciation that nothing
but the most positive and certain proof of
its committal could justify the charge, and
while I am unwilling to open up anything
like controvers}' 1 think that all church-
uien may fairly take the position of tlic

Tlie Church of England,

late Bishop of Adelaide with regard to this
question.

The Bishop's position was this :

The Church of Rome pronounces all
outside bodies to be J^uilty of schism, and
regards as null r^nd void all their ministra-
tions.

The Church of England remirds their
orders as irregular and their ministrations
as irregular, but never in such wise as to
unchurch them.

In fact all really representative leaders of
the Church of En^jland have always
rejjarded those of the o;reat Pi'otestant
Christian communions as our brethren.

The history of the church in the I7th
century should at least make us hesitate
in throwing stones. Anyway it is not
going to win them back to us to remind
them of by-gone feuds and errors. For
nobody yet was ever softciued by logic, or
drawn by pride.

And alas so often our lanj^uaffe of denun-
iciation is uttered in the samo ispirifc,as the
prayer of the Pharisee.

nd,

pgard to til is

lis:

m ounces all
schism, and
:^ir niinistra-

.'<(ards tln'ir
lini.^tmtions
1 wise as to

/e leaders of
-ve always
Pi-otestant
•ethren.
1 the 17th
s hesitate
it is not
o remind
i'ors. For
logic, or

)f denun-
•ifc.as the

TJie Centre of Unity.

The policy of irritation is similar.

It is not exactly open warfare, but a
kind of continual shootinsf of little arrows
of insinuation, curtness, cohlness, social
snubs, and offensive patronizing. It con-
sists in the refusal of harmless courtesy
titles to the ministers of the other Christian
communions and the denial of simple acts
of Christian love from utterly mistaken
traditions of the Church's dignity and pro-
cedure.

To give an illustration.

Not once or twice in the history of tlie
Church, a lasting and irreparable blow has
been inflicted by an act wliich in my
opinion, and I know I have the concurr-
ence of multitudes of my brother church-
men in this view, could easily have been
omitted, and ought never to have been done
in the way in which it was done. I mean
the refusal of burial to an unbaptized
child, especial]/ the refusal of burial to the
child of parents who were either church
people or kindly dispositioned and leaning
towards the Church. The curt incjuiry,
has been followed by a still harsher and

Th»' irritation
policy.

■

The Church of England,

more peremptory refusal, and a family with
its far spreadinj^ descendants and connec-
tions irretrievalily lost to the Church.

But what can a Church clergyman do ?

He can at once obey the instincts of
Christian love, and at the same time act as
a consistent servant of the Churcli. The
Church of England has given him a direc-
tion, which if h" is aware of the fact of the
unhaptized state of the <iead, nnist he
obej^ed, since the Church explicitly says "it
is to be noted that the office, enmdng is not
to be used for any that die unbaptized," but
he can at the same time without violating
that rule perform a service of a siniple and
comforting character by reading a few
verses of scripture and using a few simple
prayers like tliose for instance in the
" Pastor in Parochia" of Bishop Walsham
How, an act that is not only consistent with
the Christian office of the Church minister,
but with the Christian liberty of the child
of God.

hi
w
CI
n(

SU.I

th
er

iii

faiiiilv with
md connec-
Inircli.

gym an do i
instincts of
time act as
nrch. The
i»n a direc-
fact of the
nnist he
Jy says "it
nng is not
tized," but '

> violating
iniple and f
ig a few ^
ow simple |

> in the
Walsh am
tent with
minister,
the child

The Centre of Unity.

There is nothing inconsistent in tliis.
On the one hand it is perfectly right for
him to <lo it. On the otlier hand it is
wronjj for him both as a Chnrcliman and a
Christian — not to refuse the service, that is
not my point at all — but to refuse it in
such a way as to embitter and alienate
those whom a little love, and a little consid-
eration, tvnd a little of the wisdom of the
Spirit of God would have won.

In many of these cases also, the want of
baptism has often been occasioned neither by
unwillinjjjness or neglect but on account of
such pardonable reasons, as distance from
Church, and unfrequency of pastoral vi.sita-
tion. But even if the cause has been
ignorance, or inherited prejudice, surely the
larger canon of love should overrule all
others, and the act be done in the beautiful
spirit of him who prayed of old :

" The good Lord pardon everyone, that
prepareth his heart to seek the God of his
fathers, though he be not clean.sed accord-
ing to the purification of the sanctuary."

The Church of England,

That one or other or jill of ihesu lines o? h
church policy has been adopted hy us to |1|
those outside of the Church no one can ii<
seriously deny. i

No one school of thoui(ht in the Church \
can be impeached as the guilty party, for
it is not the policy of any one school alone. |vi

We all have been guilty more or less. fvl

Churchmen of all schools, have witli a it
suicidal disregard of our Church's inUirests, inl
and a criminal <lisregard of the first and lu'
greatest of all Christ's laws combine<l in our \
foolish, vain, and alienating methoils of p*'|
procedure to those outside. Low Church-
men as well as High Churchmen, Broail F*^
Churchmen ns well as Narrow Churchmen, :^o
Evanijelical churchmen as well as " C'atho- I'*'
lie" churchmen, have sinned and done
wickedly. No. Not all ; nor all of one
school. And y^ti so many of us have, that
we must confess our poliey on th) whoh^
lias been that of non-consideration, irrita-
tion, and ignorant or inU^ntional vitupera-
tion.

If we will only reHect and think of the
way in which we have written, spoken, and

|S11

itV
h

'glixfid,

The Centre of Unity.

r the.su lines oflcted to our separated hrctliren, I tliink
'pted l,y us to |liere will be but few who will refuse to
^^ no one can

j'l the Church
•'ty P^U'ty, for
e .school alone,
ore or less.
, have with a
ch's int< 'rests,
fcljt' first and
"billed in our

'"ethods of

L-ow Ohurch-

Jinen, Broad

Churchmen,

' rts " Catho-

'ind done

^^W of one
■< Ji'ive, that

t'^'> whole
tion, irrita-
1 vitupera-

iink of the
poken, and

iknowledge this.

I A nd the policy has failed. tiu' n'suit.

It has failed utterly. It has failed.

i<,'ain and n<rain, and it will always fail

'herever, and 1»\' whomsoever tried. Anrl

It has always failed because coldness, an<l

inconsiderateness, and unsympathy can

^lever win men.*

Inconsiderateness does not win'. Cold-
ess repels. Hate <lrives away.

These thinus never fail. They never
[fail to break the bruised reed of weak and
i<,'norant and yet valuable Church attach-
ment in those within, and to (luench the
fsmokinor flax of a kindly church feelin<*- in
those without. Hate never fails to l)ec»'et
hate, and to arouse an;,'er. Denunciation
and violent langua«^e never fail to awaken

* I would t'nriifstly I'dinmi'iul to nil Churchnicit llw m»w
fttiiious H««rmoii «>f the V»mi. Arclul»a( Sinclair «»f

liomloii. prt'iiclud in St. PhuI's fatluMlrrtl on tiic iiftiT-
iiooii of lJulii.,uiiK(Mliiia Sunday. IXW. on "Our itnliapiiy
divlHionn." wl»i«-l> I rcrtd Hunif titni' nftiT I hftrnn wrltlnn
on thlHsultj.'cl. I tlumk (iod for It.nnd hnll It with idrasurf
i»Hoxpr<''<rtinKt'xaetly tin- hU'AA wliiiMi had U««ij W4»rkfd out
in tnv own mind.

The Church of England,

an aiKH'v CDuntur dctiince. Unkind looks
ond tlie thoufTlitkss puttini»' on of Church
airs only irritate and annov. Self-conceit
is always intolerable, and l)rai;<rin!jf about
ancient claims has less effect than clanLjini*'
brass, and tinklinnj cymbal, unless con- i
ioined witli a more living lu)liness, a
sweeter love, and more positive evidences
of a really chanijed heart.

Two-fold fall- The policy has failed in two ways.

ur»'

First, it has drive fi out (f the Church a
f^reat many who weie in it, and ought to be
in it now. And secondly, it has kept back
from coming into the Church a great many
people who were half inclined to enter, and
ought tt» be in it to-day. We need not go
back to 'the fourth century, or even to the
disastrous seventeenth century for instances
of this. They face us to-day througlmut the
land.

In every diocese we liave oidy to open our
eyes to sec the facts. Numbers of Church
faniiliea as certaiidy driven out of the Church
by neglect, or inconsidenvte tieatment, or

laud.

Unkind look.s
on of Chi7rch

Self-conceit

ai,^,«,nnir about

til Jin clanoino-

unless con-

Ijolincss, a
vo evidences

The Centre of Unity.

'/-^e Cliuroh a
ought to he
•^ kept hack
great numy
enter, and
'(*(] not (TO
ven to the
instances
.i.'liout the

o o|)on our

•r Church

It' Church

nient, or

unwise procedure on the part of Cluirchrnen,
as cattle out of a field. There are to-day in
certain districts of almost every diocese
hundreds upon hundreds of Presbyterians,
Methodists, and Ba[)tists in Church families
wiio were born and ))aptized as members of the
Church of England, who have been driven into
their present position by carelessness, incon-
sistency, and unwisdom on the i)art of tliose
whose whole genius should have been directed
to devising metiiods, and inventing expedients
for retaining them in the Church,

Sometimes they were, as it were, just
hovering on the confines of the Church's pale.
Various causes had led tliem to look kindlv
on those without, aad perhaps they were
related to them by marriage or otherwise.
They were in the balance. All that was
needed was a little tact, a little thought, a
little human kindness. Instead they got —
a warning, an expostulation, a homily against
separation. Tlie die was cast. The liubicon
of Church separation was crossed, never to be
crossed again. If the sins of omission are of

I i

TJic ChnrcJi of England,

cqnal gravity with the sins of comiriission,
then tliey were driven out, they did ;iot go
out.

Or perhaps it was the introduction of
some offensive practice in the Church.

All men liave a right to think, hut no one
has the riy;ht to make a non-essential thinj' ii
thing of such essential importance as to he
the occasion of schism. And if it ever comes
to a ([uestion as to who is to give way, the
ignorant and easily stumhled ])eople, or the
well taught, and strong pastor, the voice of
the Word of (fod gives forth no uncertain
sound.

The clergyy)i>in must give way, because
he is the strong one, and must shew more
love, and tenderness, and C(jnsideration.
Itom. xiv, I Cor. »'iii.

I am speaking now of course of non-
cssentials.

liut alas, too often, we of the clergy have
insisted upon our way, ami have at the j)oint
of the clerical bayonet introduced practices
which have driven the people away. They

\\\

«'
h<|

nil
hJ

St I
(^a

bi
be
in
av

w
tl

4
11

land.

■if r

The Centre of Unity.

of commission,
ley (lid :iot 00

itroductioii of
Church.
iJ<, hut no one
sential thin<^ ;i.
a nee as to he
fit ever comes
,'ive way, the
eoplo, or the
the Voice of
no uncertain

'(ly, because

|t shew more

•nsideration.

'se of non.

ilergy have
it tlie iK)int
[1 practices
^y- They

nay have been things of trifling ritualistic
lignificance, or even of no really edifying
lvalue in the opinion of their promoter, and
;he peo{)le's op[)osition may have been tainted
with no small degree of ignorance and
jtupidity, but the introduction of a single
Bven edifying ceremony or practice is dearly
bought if purchased by the loss of a single
member of the body. Or they may have
been practices of very doubtful legality, and
still more doubtful spiritual value, in which
case their introduction was not only unwise,
but very harmful. The effect though has
been the same. People began to lose interest
in the Church, and after a while have gone
away.

Strangely, too, it is those brethren
wlio hold the highest views with regard to
the saving ]»ower of the church who fre-
quently are guilty of this most disastrous
line of procedure.

This [K>licy of ours has had another effect.

It has not only lost to us many avIk* were
in, but has failed to win to us many wlio
wei*e out.

\ V''- ^ fK«i \

T/ie Church of England,

\\
vl
\\

;nn
)f

The kindly feeling that outsiders have t(
the Church of Enghmd, n6t withstanding tht
coldness, and haughty exclusiveness of th(
Church as represented by many of lie
members is to me phenomenal. It ha.
struck me again and again. Wherever I go
in whatever diocese, I have not failed t(
observe that the Church of England as a
Church, Church clergymen as ministers o
Christ, and Church members as Churchmei
arc treated by lioth the ministers and mem
bers of the Presbyterian and Methodist
Churches with a consid(^ration and courtesy
that I am free to confess we have not always
deserved. They seem to give us with cheer-
ful alacrity the ])lace of precedence in public
gatherings, and to speak with resix?ct and
honour of our Church's position.

(I except those cases in which ignorance
and vulgarity make groundless charges, and h(
also those cases in which the antagonistic
tone is that of men who have been irritateil
into the adoption of a retaliation policy ot
denunciation.)

Even where they do not like the Church
of England, and are by hereditary teaching

u,
til
lai
re

m
m

ilx

rglaud.

The Centre of Unity,

utsiders have t(
lithstanding the
isiveness of tht

many of lie
menal. It ha
Wherover I jjo
5 not fiiiled t(
f England as a
ag ministers o

as Churchmei
iters and mem-
and Methodist
)n and oourtesy
ave not always
5 us with cheer- But instead of being helped on, and helped

iienated from her system, the slightest
manifestation of kindness and consideration,
vokes an expression of respect and consid-
ration that is most significant.

It shews that they are well inclined to the
yhurcii.

So well inclined are they in many
iidividual instances that they would have
lent for the Church clergyman in cases of
emergency, and if there had been the spirit
if Christ, and the power of His love, become
levoted members of the Church of England.

once in public
1 respect and

)n.

lich ignorance

e antagonistic
)een irritated
tion policy of

n, they have had help given rather in the
)ther direction. The way has been made
lard instead of easv. Barriers have been
'rected instead of being smoothed down, and

? charges, and he kind word of welcome, has been

:e the Church
tary teachin

exchanged for a hard re(j[uirement most
nitimely, or a hard expostulation most
mseemly.

When the policy of common sense was
leeded, the policy of folly was adopted. At
he very time that they needed a little tender-

The Church of England,

ness, and wiusomeucss, more kindness, and
less exposure, more shewing liow scriptural
the Church is, and less shewing how irregu-
lar dissent is, tliey received logic and
history, if not sarcasm and censure.

If a blunder is worse than a crime, then
this policy has been worse than criminal

It has made the Church such an awful
failure, where it might have been such a
glorious success. It has turned allies into
enemies, and friends into bitterest foes.
To-day throughout our country few arc so
deeply set against the Church as the
Methodists, and Baptists, and Presbyterians
who are the sons and daughters of Churchmen
lost to the Church by the unsj)irituality, the
pride, the folly or the ignorant unsympathy
of Churchmen. I hold that with few excep-
tions, we, Ghurchnien are to blame for all
those who once were hut now are not mem-
bers of the Church of England^ for if we
had always been right they never would have
strayed.

If we had always been loving, always
been true, had always been so full of Christ

'and,

kindness, and
low scriptural
% ho
I I
ure.

w irregu-

ogle

and

t crime, then
criminal
Jh an awful
3een such a
J allies into
terest foes.
few arc so
h as the
esbyterians
linrclimen
uality, the
isympathy
w excep-
tc for all
not mem-
for if we
juld have

al ways
f Christ

T/ie Centre of Unity.

that men would have seen in us the beauty
of His life, and the matchless attractiveness
of His love, always faithfully preached the
living Christ, and always made Church
Christianity the highest known form of the
scriptural ideal we woirld never have driven
one soul away, never lost one living and
si)iritually minded member, and would
always have held that most valuable class
of Churchmen wbo with deeper si)iritual
longings, had resolved to turn from the
vanities of this present evil world, and live
wholly and solely the consecrated and separa-
ted and unworldly Christian life which the
Church of England insists on in all its
members.

Not only would we have held them who
were within, but we would by the exhibit-
tion of that worldly wisdom ascribed pre-
eminently by Macaulay to the Koman
conmiunion have seized with alacrity the
fervour, and enthusiasm of the Methodist
and Salvationist, and the practical spiritual-
ity of the earlier. nonconformists, and given

The Church of England,

them arn])le scope and freest })lay within the
pale of onr magnificent Chuvch, and by the
exliibition of the winsomeness of the religion
of Christ have drawn to the ancient and
apostolic Church a vast number of those who
would oidy too willingly have abandoned
their respective abodes.

Sav what we will facts tell us that the
Church of England has utterly failed to take
the position God intended her to take.

These facts are the figures of the census
book of 1892. We started first with every-
thing in our favour, and if we had had love,
and wisdom, and life we would have rallied
all in one.

Instead of that we became proud, and
indolent, and unloving and Pharisaic, and we
are what we are ; not last in the race by any
means, but still not first and foremost, and
strongest and best.

rei

taj

uil

eri

■','1

ly within the
' and by the
^ the religion
ancient and
:>f those who
abandoned

The Centre of Unity,

's that the
^ed to take
ake.

the census

ith every-

had love,

i-ve rallied

•o"(^, and
c, and We
e by any
lost, and

So much for the failure side.
It is a lamentable fact, but the recogni-
tion of it is the first step towards "the
recovery of our lost position. We never will
take our place as the Church of the future
until we abandon the policy of non-consM-
oration, denunciation, irritation and frigidity.
As I believe in my heart this church
policy has been a failure, I believe in my
heart there is a Church policy that would if
put into operation be a success. That policy
in one word is, the policy of Christlike lo^e.
Love never faileth.

Hate begets hate.

We know that to our own cost, and we
know too that pride begets pride, and
haughty looks arouse the retaliatory glance of
defiance. Scorn drives away, and unsym-
pathy repels. The poorest man will not come
to a place where he is not wanted, and until
we shew these our brethren that we do want
them, that we love them, our church will
dwindle and grow thinner. We ^xs^ We

Tho policy of
love.

r '

The Church of England,

glances to the wealthy, and to the fashion
able and the well-to-do, in our towns anc \
cities, and we fancy in our folly that ou
church is progressing because we gain a fevi;|
here and there from the ranks of the socially
aspiring. But the masses of the people, an il
not being won. We do not seem to conside \\
many of them worth getting, and sacrifice
nothing to get them in. Throughout the
country parts of all our dioceses as well as ir ril
our larger towns there are myriads whocouh all
be won to the ('hurch and are waiting to beliull
won by love.

Love begets love.

If we love them, they will love us, and the
more they love us, the more they will be
attracted to us, and we will be freed from
that schism-creating spirit of pride, and
bitterness.

^08

iig

vie

Its first effect. Now the Very Ifirst effect of the spirit of
love will be the production of a thing that
we all sorely need, the spirit of considera
teness. We look so much upon our own
side, and reason so much in the narrow

ii;,

mmm

\\\

;va
ar
or

'glami.

The Centre of Unity.

to the fashion

oove of sellish logic, that we are deaf to all

our towns ani :)ices save those that favour our own cause.
)' folly that ou It is only a supernatural cause that can
? we gain a feviake a man really try and sympathize with
s of the sociallj lose who are separated from him, and it is
^ the people, arnily supernatural love that can make him
eem to conside; ;el for them in their church position.

But the spirit of love will do this.

It will make us do on tlie Golden liule

5es as well as iijrinciple what we want them to do, i. e.,

ihiily and considerately endeavour to appre-

g, and sacrifice
rhrouoJiout th

riads who coul

'C waiting to be iate their standpoint.

|ove us, and the
they will be
•e freed from
>f pride, anc

the spirit o

a thing that

|of considera

)on our own

the narrow

^t will make us remember, first of all, that
hey are just as pi'ejiuUced in tktir church
losition as we are in turs. They think as
lighly of their church often as we do.

The slightest consideration therefore of the
neaning of the Christ charity would lead us
see that to speak slightingly of their
hurch in their presence from our pulpits is
is unbecoming as it would be for an aristo-
;rat to speak disrepectfuUy of a poor man's
aniily, or for an Englishman to sneer at a
oreigner's patriotism.

The Church of England,

\\\

It would make us lerrieniber too in the
2nd place, that tliey not only have reasons
for then' church position which are in their
opinion as scriptnrally well founded as our
own, but that some of our greatest church
authorities have acknowledged this also.

The hiixheHt of Hijjh-Churchmen in the
oM days never drean»ed of denyinf]^ that
Presbyterians had niucb to say on their
side. Archbishop Bancroft, for instance,
the man from wlioui Laud miined his stronj;
Church proclivities, was perhaps the
strongest Hii>;h-Churchman of his day, and
yet he went so far as to assert that there
was no necessity for the re-ordination of
a Presbyterian minister on his euibracintr
the Church. Andrewes. one of the holiest of
Higb-Churchmen, admitted that a Clmrcli
can be a Church without the Episcopate.
Even Laud himself did not go so far as to
say Unit those wlio were without the
Episcopate were without the Church.

They all believed in their hearts in our
orders and the language of the Preface to
the Ortlinal was the sentiment of their

The Centre of Unity.

creed as reorards the Church of England,
but they admitted also that neither a
comprehensive view of the scriptures nor
a concensus of the Fathers permitted
the theor}-^ that only an Episcopal succes-
sion carried the guarantee of Apostolical
commission.

Bishop Jewell, Bishop Cooper, Bishop
Babington, Bishop White, Bishop Burnet,
Bishop Stillingfleet, and Bishop Davenant,
join voices with Hooker, and Hall, and
Cosin, and Andrews, and Bancroft, an<l
Laud in declarinu^ that it is not possible for
Entjlish Churchmen to assert that a visible
succession is such a necessary sign of the
true Church and so clearly set forth in the
Fathers and Holy Scripture that all who
liold that the Presbuteroi and Episcopoi of
tin' New Testament belonged to the same
order are utterly wrong, and clearly
unreasonable.

To plainh^ accuse them of wilful sin does
not seem then to he consistent with that
spirit of considerateness that should be
ixercised toward men who are simply
holding in the firmness of simple faith the

3«

The Church of Etiglatidy

Church heritanre coiDiiiitted to them bv
loyal fathers.

What is schism ?

Schism, Blunt sa5's, is a wilful breach of
the unity of the visible Church.

Schism, says the fj^reat Barrow, consisteth
in disturbing the order of peace of any
sin<de Church, and in withdrawing,' from its
obedience ; in obstructing peace between
several Churches; o/ in refusing to main-
tain comniunion with other Churches with-
out reasonable cause.

Schism, says the inspirotl St. Paul, is the
causing of <livisions. The Schismatic,
therefore, is a person who deliberately
caused divisions in the Church of Christ,
and destroys its visible unity.

If we keep this in mind, and accuratel}'
consider what it really implies, we will be
.slow to make rash and endattering accusa-
tions, and will acknowledge our guiltiness
of tlie sin as well as theirs.

ag!^

shel

agi

It will make us remember, in the 3rd,
place, what I ftar we C^hurchmen find it
convenient at times to overlook, that they

o tlieni by

The Centre of Unity.

lave strong reasons for th

ul breach of

% consistetli
Hce of any
wv^ from its
ce between
ig to n)ain-
rche.s with-

Panl, is the

Schismatic,

hliberately

of Christ,

accurately

we will be

ng accusa-

guiltiness

I the :^ra,
en find it
that they

eir prejudices

ajjainst iis.

If the Church had been always what
she should be, the prejudices of outsiders
a<''ainst her would be much more censur-
able. If our Church were like a bright
and beautiful body amidst surrounding
darkness, beautiful for holiness, for hu-
mility, for self-sacrificing gentleness, in
generosity out-distancing all, in piety
notoriously first, there would V)e then small
reason for their still staying without, as
there would havebeen no reason for them
ever going from her.

But the Church has not always been
whal she should be.

Often, alas, she has been the very
reverse, and her members and her ministers
have been talked of, actually have been
talke^l of by outsiders as unworthy repre-
sentatives of the cause of Christ. What
clergyman of any varied experience is
there who does not know that words like
these are too often the language of out-
siders towards the Church ?

The Church of England,

"Join the Church of Enj^lanrl. VV
" should we ? You say you are the Chun
" of Christ, and we liave neither part or 1(
" in tliat body. But we know this, that th|
" Church of Christ is composed of faithful
" men, wlio love the Saviour, and renouncJ
"the world and sin. We know that we
" love Him, and see in our lives the fruit
'• of this love. We see more fruits of it in)
" our lives than we do in yours. You seenil
" to love the world. You join in its plea-
" sures, and efo with its ways, renouncing
" nothin<]f, and forsaking nothinf^.

" You sa}' our ministers are not ministers
"at all, and our ordinances are empty
" pc^rformauces, devoid of (,a-ace, hut wo
"judge by fruits not by words, and the
" Bible tells us that the fruit of the Spirit
" is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle-
"nesH, goodness, faith, meekness, temper-
" ance, and we do not see much of these
" things in the Church of England. We do
" see them among our people. It is no use
" talking of your clain»s. We look at acts,
" and deeds, and lives. Your logic lias not
" a feather's weight."

mam

^Jigland,

TJu Centre of Unity

En^Janrl. WhJ That's the way they have talked, and are
>u are the Chureljtalking to-day. Yes, and they say more
'either part or lojthan that. They say, in words that cut to
now this, that th^the very bone, for they seem to be spoken
posed of faithfu with a kind of sadness, and with apparent
ui", and renounce sorrow, not with hate in anj^er.

know that we " You wish to know what we think
• iives the fruit " about the Church of Encrhind and its

'e fruits of it in
'ur«. You seem
join in its plea-
*ys, renouncinrr
^hincr.

'lot ministers
'^ are eiupty
■ace, but we
i''J«, and tl^e
^f the Spirit
^ing, gentle-
t^««, temper-
cb of these
n J. We do
it is no Use
00k at acts,
'gic has not

[■I

"claims and position ?

" The common opinion about tlio Church
" of Encrland is that only the worldly need
" apply. Many are of the opinion that if
" you are a worldly person or formal, or
" anxious to j^et up in society, or wantinji;
" the name of Church membership with-
" out the inconvenience of professinof the
" possession of personal relii^ion, or beinff
" saved. an<l are willinj; to acknowledire the
" Church's claims, and to look slifrhtinirly
" on outsiders, and deny their orders and
" sacraments, tlien you are the person for
" the Church of En^jland. You may be
" covetous, you may love gaiety, you may
" love a butterfly life of pleasure, you may
" be a nightly fre(|uenter of the theatre, a
" player of cards, a devotee of the ball-

The ChnrcJi of England,

" room, and utterly ifjnorant of the fjlow-
" ing love of a spiritual life, but you may
*' be a uiember of the Church of England,
"and a good Churchman too.

" But—

" If you have been awakened to flee
"from the wrath to come, and are conscious
" of that great change from death unto life,
" and are tired of a mere fornial routine of
" devotion, and seek to save others, and
" long for n»ore spirituality and less
" formality, and give up pleasures, and
" st''ong di'ink, for Christ's sake, and want
" to bring religion into your home and
" family and have family prayer, aud talk
" to others about Jesus, and witness to
" others the joyful fact that your sins are
" all fori'iven, and that you have eternal
" life, and go about doing good, and
" renouncing the world, — the Church of
" Englaml is not the Church for you. You
" are not wanted there."

That is the way they are talking and
have talked.

TJu Centre of Unity,

does the Churehi

iiiian answer,
Yon are mistaken. You utterly niisun-
(lerstand the teachin<^ of the Church. The
Church of England ha^ a place for such.
Not only has the Church a place for such,
she has a place for no other. According to
the plain words of the Prayer Book, no
unconverted man or woman, to use your
lanyfuafje can be a member of the Church
of England. No one who has not pro-
fessed personal faith in Jesus, and complete
renunciation of the world, and forsaking
sin, and entire and perpetual consecration
to God openly before the Church, can
becotne a member in full communion with
the Church of England. True, the Church
does not use the word conversion, but that
is of little conse(|uence, for she insists on
the solemnest profession of worhl renunci-
ation, and personal faith, an<l no one can
assume the obligation of the baptismal and
confirmation vow without a profession that
is exactly equivalent to what you call the
profession of conversion, and any man
or woman, if there be any truth in what
you say, who dislikes the strict require-

TJie Church of England,

merits of the Methodist or Presbyterian
Churches and thinks that he or she can
tret in the Church the privilef^e of Church
membership without the exacting necessity
of an inwardly changed heart and an out-
wardly changed life, will simply perjure
their souls if they are confirnjed while
consciously having: a name only to live,
while reallv dead.

In vain does the Churchman argue this.

The old answer comes back again,

** Well that's the common opinion about
the Church. What you say may be true
as a theory, but practically the Church of
England does not require conversion, or
whatever you like to call it in those who
are members. We know of lots of people
who never seem to have had anything
like a changed life in their experience
who left us and joined the Church, and
are considered good Churchmen and take
the sacrament though they never have
family prayer, or think of talking to
others about their souls, or renouncing

The Centre of Unity.

sbj'terian
she can

P Church

necessity
an out-
perjure

id while
to live,

?ue thi.s.

(1 about
he true
lurch of
sion, or
se who
■ people
lything
erience
;h, and
d take
r have
Ing to

uncmsf

" worldly ways, and we know of lots of
"others who when they were spiritually
" awakened, and found peace and joy in
" believinir, left the Church of En(/Uvd\nd
"joined other bodies, Tlie Church of Eng-
" land is losing its most promising men"-
" ^'^'^'^ «^^^^y ^J'W. Men who are no goo.l
"spiritually, an.l never talk of the spirit-
" ual life, because they have no spiritual

" life to talk of and -w ^ii- i — :i.i- . • i

— '•••v^>* »*i6ii priue

"in belonging to the Church of their
"grandfathers, and trust in themselves as
" being righteous, and despise others, these
"are good Church members, but when a
"great change comes, and the fire of a new
" love begins to burn, and the tide of a new
" life to surge in his bosom, he leaves the
" Church of his fathers and joins son,e
" outside Church bodv.
" How is it ?

" Surely if the Church of P^nglai-d were
"full of this life, the living Church, it
" would welcome life and insist on it, and
" men who got it would turn to it, and not
" from it !" '

The Cluircli of England,

Not once, or twice, but often ; not in one
or two exceptional cases, but in many
places, has laniifuafre such as this been used
to express the common opinion entertained
by many outside of the Church, and rts
long as such prejudice exists, it is unrea-
sonable for us to suppose that the mere
dead cold logic of a superior ecclesiastical
polity will have any etfect.

We are not jj^oinf; to win tliem in that
way.

God forbid that I should say that the
Church principles are nothing, or that
separation for small reasons is not a griev-
ous error. Nothing of the sort. But
because we have the truth, and are a true
branch of Christ's One Catliolic and
Apostolic Churcli, we must sliew it, not by
words, not by deeds, not b\^ logic but by
love, not by pride but by life. We must
live up to the Sample, and consider how
the Church of Christ has ever been a com-
pany of faithful men, and the Church of
England, a Church that boasts the most
searching of all membership standards.

The Centre of Unity.

The mass of the people know only that a
Christian is one who lives for Christ, and
wliat they look for is Christian livin-.-

They understand Jesus Christ and His
disciples to be meek and lowly, and iovin.r
and heavenly. They know that Jesus was
a despiser of shams, and a hater of formal-
ity, that His disciples were foes to the
pomp, and pride, and enjpty glory of this
world, living as strangers and^ pilgnnjs in
this world, owl w, dare n^t deny that
again and again our lives as ministers
and peopJe (thank God there are bright
exceptions) have not been so beautifurin
holiness, and clearly separated from world-
linea. and the worldly, as to make the.n
i-egard our Church as a burning and a
•shining light, ^facile princeps in mercy,
meekness, piety, and the love of God.

I think when we renjeml)er these things
we will understand how it is that when vve
speak Jovingly of our Church's past
prestige, and dwell in glowing terms upon
her apostolic rank, and time honoured

The Church of Eiiglandy

olories, that those witliout are so uninovfnl,
rtiifl listen in stolid silence, untonche<I by
any responsive fire, and with all their
kindly feelings and open minds, ^jlay no
disposition to chansfc.

Naturally so.

Arounient begets argument, and logic
arouses answei'in^' logic, and if Church
claims are urged, counter claims can be
urged too. They can argue as well as we,
and they can say as much as we can, and
they can bring forth auguments v hich are
as perfectly satisfactory to theii ds as
ours are to us.

But there is one thing that never fails,
and that is love.

Love never faileth.

Let the Church clergymen and Church
people shew that they love them, let their
words and acts plainly declare that the
love of Christ is in their souls, that for
His dear sake they bear patiently with
their errors, and seek to co-operate with
them in the work of fighting sin, and
unbelief, that for love's sake they will

The Centre of Unity.

ininovfHl,

iched by

ill their

jjlaj' no

md looic

Church

s can bo

ell as we,

can, and

V ^lich are

>ds as

iver fails,

Church

let their

that the

:;hat for

ly with

De with

fn, and

v^ will

lUMonify points of union, and minimize
points of difference.

Let them instead of proclaiminjT formal
doctrines preach Christ continuplly by word
and deed, and make the supernatural life
of God the ordinary life of every day.
Let them stop all vituperation, cease all
hard speakinir, discountenance all malice,
and act with noble superiority to all
smallness and ujeanness and love more
when more hated, and bless more where
more cursed, and be more kind when most
ill-treated. Let them si "W primitive anrl
apostolic Christianity by shewing the lov'e,
the zeal, the meekness of Christ. Let them
be Ukore anxious about the essentials
of Christian love, and separation from
worldliness, and the heavenly life, than
the non-essential matters of form and order.
And there can be no doubt, let him dis-
pute it who will, that the Church of Eng-
land will rise by natural pre-emminence
into that place which we believe she should
occupy and become : First in the tight,
first in the work, first in the hearts of the
people.

Tlie CJiiircJi of England,

For, notwithstanding all differences, and
variations the feeling is widespread and deep
seated in the great mass of our separated
brethren that the Church of England is the
mother from whom they sp...ng, and is
possessed as an Ajiostolic Church of a
prestige and beauty^ that slie alone can
boast.

What we need then most of all is the love
of Chri.st, the life of Christ.

We kavit the body, and the forih, the
machinery and the polity. All we need is
the Divine gift fiom on high, the love of
Jesus in the heart and life. Tliis is the
unifying power and this we should earnestly
crave. (Jh that we might not see our need
of this, pnd understand its force.

BrnwirH orror We Churchmen in tlu; 19th century are

and IfH IpHHon. ^ i • i • i i

in danger of making the great mistake that
Jiobert Brown, the first and strongest of
Kuijlish difsenters made in the 16th.

The Centre of Unity.

iirown's great error was misapplied zeal.
He contended for matters of Church order
with as much zeal as for the fundamentals
of the Christian faith. Or in other words,
he gave his whole life strength to non-
essentials instead of to fundamentals.

The result was that he magnified such
trifles, as the vvearing of the surplice, the
ring in marriage, etc., to such a degree that
he neglected tlie greater matters of Christian
love, and Christian unity.

We to-day are in danger of doing the same
thing. We are so apt to sj)end our strength
in exposing the errors, and correcting the
judgment of others on the points of Church
order. Church discipline and Churcli polity.
We strive for points of Clinrch government
as if they were the fundamendals of the
faith, and contend earnestly not so much for
tlie faith once delivered to the saints, as for
the order and discipline once delivered to
the Church.

We give our life strength fi»r the form,
and neglect the thing. We sjKjnd and are

The Church of Etigland,

spent for the secondaries, and lose the
primaries. We magnify the form, and order,
and the correctness of the performance, we
overlook tlie realities, the inward essence,
the things themselves, and overlooking these
things we miss the blessedness of the Chris-
tian life, and introduce trouble into the
Cliurch of God.

If the great motto of the loving Melan-
cthon

In necessariis unitas

In dubiis libertas
In omnibus caritas
liad been adopted by Brown, he would never
spent his energies, and divided the Church
on matters of ritual and order.

It may be laid down as a rule that any
Christian minister who tjives the greater
part of his life forces to the things that are
secondary, to the letter rather than to the
sjurit, to the dt>ctrine rather than to the life,
to the vessel rather than to the contents, to
the vehicle rather than to the thing con-
veyed, to the decoration of the outward

The Centre of Unity.

tbe

', we
eiice,
these
:hvis-
the

lelaii-

nevt'V
bhuich

|iit any
>reater
iiit are
Ito tbe
lie life,
nis, to
It con-
llward

rather than the development of the inward,
to the position of the soul to the Church,
rather than to the position of the soul to the
Christ, to the form of the Church rather
than to its power, be it done mistakenly, or
intentionally, or without any consideration
at all, is almost sure to find that two great
effects will inevitable follow.

First. That the reality and blessedness
of the inward Christian life will be less and
less experienced, and the energies both of
ministers and i»eo{)le be directed to the
tilings that are visible, and audible, and
understood by the purely natural mind,
instead of the things that are unseen, and
eternal and seen oidy by faith and under-
stood in tlie spirit. Second. That the
peace of Clirist's Church will be disturbed,
congregations vexed, and disunioii provoked.
Tlie union of the spirit in the bond of pjace
is never bniken when men are consumed
with the love of Christ, and sj»end and are
spent in saving souls, liut when men get
away from the Spirit, and contend as merely
intellectual men over points of law, and

The Church of England,

matters of order, tliey are sure to introduce
trouble.

What was the cause of tlie great trouble
in the Churches of Galatia ?

It was sini])ly this, tliat they had loft the
substance and were contendini; for u form.

Wliat was the cause of tlie great Church
troubles of the 4th and atli centuries ?

It was siinplv this, that thev were for-
getting the realities of the Divine life, in
their zeal for |)oints of logic, and the form-
ulas of dogmatic truth. And noiirly all the
divisions and troubles of these latter days of
the Church have originated in carnal striv-
ings about the lesser matters pertaining to
the ap])earance, the ord(^r, and tlie form.

Not that the form, and order, and out-
wai"d are nothing. There may he, as Bis-
lioj) l^Mitler wisely said, form without
religion but there can be yo religion without
form. There must needs l)e authority, and
order, and dogma, ami ritual.

lUit — the form, the apjieamnce, the propel
administration, the outward must not be

TJie Centre of Unity.

uce

nV>le

the
■orm.
mrch

i for-
fe, in
fovm-
ill t\»o
lyj? of
striv-

ing to

out-

IMs-

phout

Ihout

and

[o])ei
be

made all in all, nor mnst souls be misled by
tlie great non-Church error that all receive
the grace of the sacraments who receive the
sacraments of God's grace. There can be
and is a sacrament that brings do commun-
ion, a form that has no substance, a letter
that has no spirit, a vehicle that however
rightly carried conveys notliing, and a con-
tinens that has no contentum.

To .s^icnd one's .strength on the outward
in the idea tliat the outward form always,
everywhere, and i ' all cases, conveys the
inward realitv is not faith but a sad delusion.
It is to go flatly in the face of the teaching
of the Churcli, which by safeguards many
and strong, and by reiterated prayers and
pleadings, endeavours to turn the attention
from the outward to the inward, and to
empluisize with nnmistakeuble clearness the
doctrine of the Word of (Jod that only in
such as worthly receive them have they a
wholemme effect or operation. It is to
forget that men need a Saviour not merely a
system, and that a system can never savd.

The Church of England,

As an eminent Church divine once said :
Those who have eternal life have a much
more important matter in common thai: all
they differ about, and can enjoy fellowsliip
in spite of grave theological differences.
But where life is wanting it is otlierwise ;
the dead can have no sympathy with the
living ; he that is born after tlie flesh still
persecutes him that is born after tlie 8[)irit.

Such is in my opinion the true cause of

the failure of our Church.

Some

Its because

men say,
lay workers."

Others : " Its because we have not insisted
enough on distinctive Church teaching."

Others ; " Its because ])eople are pre-
judiced, and ignorant, and captious."

I think that the Church has failed to win
and outstrip all others in the land because
we have been proud ^ and hitter and self-
conceited, and worldly, and instead of being
more humble, more loving, more Christlike
than the others, and thus shewing them that
we were Apostolic, we have deliberately

The Centre of Unity.

} said :
much
lai: all
owsliip
rences.
;r\vise ;
ith the
3h still
S[)ii'it.

I use of

ave uo

isisted
>>

pre-

lo win

Icause

self-

)eing

klike

that

Ltely

courted defeat by denouncing those whom
wc should have conciliated, and alienating
those who could have been won.

Now the question is, what can be done, ti,. ,1^^,,, way.
and how can we do it. with.-xHrn,.!..;

Granted that the policy of hate and cold-
ness has failed, how are we put into opera-
tion the policy of love, and acknowledging that
we have grievously failed in the past to win
dissenters to the Church, and that our own
pride, and unsympathy, and impolicy, and
intolerance have been the causes, is it
possible for us to remedy this disastrous
state of affairs.

I Uelieve that it is.

There is nothing better than a living
example, and I propose before I close,
just to tell what has been done by some of

The ChurcJi of England^

the best and noblest of our Anglican
clergy. All of them strong and loyal
Churchmen, all of them what would be
commonly called Hioh Churchmen.

Tln> Rev. T.

\V..()().

Among the noblest of the early Cana-
dian clergy was the liev. T. Wood, once a
missionary of the Church of England in New
Jersey, who came to Nova Scotia in the year
17G2.

He was a man of broad loving kindness,
wise, and generous, and sagacious in his
treatment of those outside of the Ciiurch.
As an instance of this, it is related by
Hawkins in his Missions of the Church (»f
Kngland, that when in the year 1762 the
(Roman) Vicar (Jeneral of Quebec, the
Abbe Maillard fell sick he was attended
with brotherly devotion all through his ill-
ness of several weeks by his Protestant
friend, who the day before his death, read, at
his rec^uest the Office for the Visitation of the
Sick, and then performed over his remains,
amidst a sympathising assemblage of
Acadian French, and Micmac Indians, the

The Centre of Unity,

funeral service according to the litual of the
Church of England.

Beautiful siuht I

In the presence of the dead, the unity of
man is proclaimed, and the great fact that
there is but one God, one Lord Jesus Christ,
and one faith in Him, as a Priest of the
Protestant Cluirch of England pronounces
the hope of the joyful resurrection over the
remains of a French Ptoman Catholic Abbe

Iness,
n bis
lurch.
1 by
h of
tbe
the
ded
ill-
tant
, at
tbe
lins,
of
Itbe

He was a good man like Barnabas, was
this Mr. Wood, and in the following year,
1763, with the consent of the Governor, and
of the Churchwardens and Vestry of St.
Paul's Church, Halifax, he was removed to
Annapolis, where he lived in peace and
harmony with all denominations, the great
majority of the dissenters in his missions
attending on his ministry.

His success was due it appears to one
great secret. He was a man of love. He
loved these people and they loved him, and
thus, and thus only, — not by denunciation
or exclusiveness — he disarmed prejudice

The Church of England^

against the Church. In simple but touch-
ing language the people themselves told how
it was, in a letter that was written years
after.

** We had been educated and brought up
"in the Congregational way of worshi|), and
"tlierefore should have cliosen to have a
" minister of tliat form of worship, but the
"Rev. Mr. Wood, by his preaching and per-
" forming the other offices of his holy func-
" tion occassionallv amongst us in the several
'* districts of the country hath removed our
*• former j^'^fj'^dices that we had against
** the forms of worship of the Church oj
*' England as by law established, and hath
" won us to a good opinion thereof, inasmuch
*' as he hath removed all our scruples of
" receiving the Lord's Supper in that form of
*' administering it; at least many of us are
" communicating with him, and we trust
"and believe many more will soon be
" added."

This good man, who lived for many
years afterwards reported to the Society

'.::f^;»!>^^«'^mmiimmk^.....

for the Pi-opa,mti,m~^^7TK~T^

,^ 1 r, Lion ot the Gospel in ]77.t

" -. t-.t now Ho :^ """" ''''•« *--'-
" '— eh that o p : "^^''"^"■•-''''-■^.
"-t contain uj/l"r: 77''^'-^'''

"-ve.-al person. ,w,oea,ne here,"";""
"communicants «' H / ""''^^""'^'X

30 .successfn) years 1 T\ "'^' °^""-
Annapolis ,77^ ■"""""•"- "^

Now this is n-li.,t r .

of love. '""W'othe policy

^'hat made Mr W,. j

'''-•'-'^'-'-•'M^l) 7^r™"■'"■-

"t•C.H„.ehs„ecess n ■ '""•'■'^--'

.lu.iiees agmnst the Church „f f ,
l-t ren,ove.l l,v love ""''""' '"'^

"-'-n«theCh„rchan,o,el /■?■"'"'

J" fncfc, nearly al] the p,,,.].. • •

The Church of England,

jukI to Imvo so (lisannetl prejinlice V>y the
cxlubition of te^ndurness, Jind Christian love
as to have jrained many adherents.

Wherever they came the dissentin::;-
interest (Uiclined, and all bitterness grad-
nally passed away, tlie people becominir
well affected towards the Church and
anxious to have a Church of England
clergyman.

We know how often, how very often the
very opposite is the case now-a-days, and
we ask, were dissenters then devoid
of prejudices, or indifi'erent as to which
Church they belonged ? Nothing of the
sort. Tliey were most strenuously attached
to that form of diurcli polity for which
their ancestors had forsaken all, and
regarded the Church of England as an un-
scriptural, and inconsistent Church. Were
the Church clerg\ indifferent to Churcl^
piiniciples, and wanting in fidelity ♦*> ^*'
own doctrine and discipline? Nothi, »f tti*
sort. They were niost loyal Churchui* i
in the hiirhest sense of the words.

•Stim

T/w Centre of Unity.

The oxplniuition is not far to seek.

With a vvistloin and a practical sairacity
dictated ahke )>v coniuion sense, and Christ-
like charity, the Society for the Propnj^ation
of the Gospel in Foreiij^n Parts, incorporated
i!i 1701, for th(^ double pm-pose of provid-
in<^ for the sj)iritual necessities of the
Church people in the plantations and
colonies, and factoi-ics of G/eat Britain
beyond the seas, and also for the preachin<;'
of tlie Gospel to the n.itions in those pai'ts,
had i^iven anioni'st other recommendations

XT) O

to its missionaries tlie follovvinir instruc-
tion :

" To recomnnnid^ and prdinote brotherly
" love arid Chrititiaii charity, particularly
" amoiifjHt all Protestants tvhere you
" exercise your ministry ^

{'I

As a whole the S. P. G., missionaries seem
to have loyally carried out this part of their
orders, with the most delightful results,
and as ones hears of family after fandly
and community after community of those
oiNide being drawn by the cords of a man
a with bands of love to the Church,

The Church of England,

until she who was looked on with suspicion,
find the coldness of io;norance caine to be
loved as theii' Alma Mater, one could not
help longin<»' that once more throughout
our land the Bishops of our Church would
likewise • carefully instruct tlieir clerjjr}' to
deal <,'ently with their Pi'otestant brethren,
and would propound to those who are to
be inducted to any Church or niission a
few (juestions such as these.

" Will you do all in your power to
"recommend and brinir about harmony and
" fellowship with the several denominations
" of Ch.ristians where you shall be sent to
" exercise your ministiy ?

" Will you abstain from all undefying
" cotitroversy and uncliari table reflections
" upon the character of their uiinistry \

" Will you l»y the simple settin*^ forth of
" Christ's gospel, and hearty devotion to
" the savinjr of souls rather than by ofl'en-

O ft

" sive protrusion of the Churcli's claims
" endtavours to win them to the Cluirch of
" En-dand '.

'.'• , > : m mmt«fa i .tMi t i i "Um U m t trnf i tr .

T/ie Centre of Unity.

In this way we would liave from the
very hiifhest (juarters the stroncre.st possible
impetus criven to the blessed cause of
modern Church unity by the use of the
best and only means. So deeply am I
impressed 4>y this wise and statesmenlike
sufTo-estion of the S. P. G., that I write
it again in the hope that we all may
endeavour more humbly and constantly to
carry out its suggestion :

" To recommend and promote brotherly
" love and Christian charity particularly
" among all Protestants where we exercise
" oui !iiinistry."

«i

hns

ot
to

\\\-
Ins
lof

Tliat this could be done without any
lowering of the Churcli's standard or any
<leparture from the (liurch's principles all
will surely admit, for as the Bisliop of
London said in a sernmn preached before
the University of Oxford in the year hS4r)

"The most ardent attachment to our
"holy forms, the fullest appreciation of
" their efficiency in guiding our ow n souls
'• in the way of life ; nay, a conviction that
" under Providence our own Church seems

The Church of England,

" more likely than an other to be be our
" Lord's instruiuent in spreading a pure
" and enlightened and orderly ( hristianity
" throughout the world — our condition ot*
" all this can have no 'natural covnadion
" wiih any uncharitable tVelings toward
" those who are not able to agree with us."

Dr. Jacob. Another broad-minded old Churchman

whose name should ije held in hi<>h honour
by Churchmen in Canada was the Rev. Dr.
Jacob, Principal of Fredericton College,
N. B. The words that follow, words
worthy of being written in lettei's of gold,
are a setting forth of his methods in deal-
ing with those outside the Church, and are
extracted from letters written by him in
the year 1884 to the S. P. G.

" Since my settlement in this part of tlie
" world, (he was then a travelling mi.ssion-
" ary in New Riunswick) 1 have nuule the
" disposition and character of the people
" my study."

I am afraid that is about the last thing
.some of US to-day, or ever think of doinL?.
We study books, and read theology, which

-:::«^b^;

The Centre of Ufiiiy.

lon-

l»ll»*r?

liii<;.

things we ouorht to do, but w^ neirlect the
study of human nature as exhibited in the
UK'n and women livin<T in our parish- their
needs, and prejudices, and the best w^ays to
win th(^ir love.

" And I tliink I perceive, he continues,
" the proper method to be pursued in order
" to gather tliem dispersed and wandering
" as they now are within the Church fob].

What then is the method of this good
Churchman ? We are anxious to hear.

" Tliey seem to have ind»ibed so much of
' the American principle on religious
' liberty that to bring forward the topics
' of ecclesiastical authority, and iiovern-
' ment can hardly produce any effect than
' to create on insurmountable prejudice
' against our ministrj*."
Exactly h&. That is a fact.
" But," he continues, " if we waive such
points as these and proceed in the actual
work of the ministry shewing an earnest
desire for their spiritual good, and if
possible greater diligence and affection
than other teachers, they become without

The Church of England,

'* any formal reasonincf on the subject
" attaclied to us as their best friends."

Precisely what I have said above.

I am positive that Dr. Jaco>i is right, and
I know that if we all will do what he
declares here he did, the Church will
V>ecome by God's j^race what He intended
her to be. Especially if we take the plan
whicli is so <:^ran<lly set forth in the words
that now follow.

" Having found the people divided into ,
'* several sects, although no regular minis-
'• ters of any denomination were settled
*' among them, I have judged it my most
'• advisable course not to call forth tlieir
*• antipathies by dwelling on those points in
*' which Calviuists and Arminians, J>nj)tist»
"and Methodists, differ from each other or
" from the tenets of our Established Church,
•• hnt^ by a, iibitivij the 'fulness of the Goi'j)eV
•• in a practical manner — note well tliese
" words — to meet tlie spiritual necessities of
**all, and if possible, ])roduce a general
•* impression that, whatever might bu the

T)u Centre of Unity.

'(l8

these
lies of
iTieral
V the

** case of other ministers, that of the Church
of England is certainly capable of supply-
" ing all which the soul of man requires for
" doctrine, reproof, and correction, and
** instruction in righteousness.

"With this view, while cautiously avoid-
** ing the unfathomable depths in which
" some have vainly sought the origin of evd,
" I have aimed so to apply the holy and
** unchangeable law of God to the conscience
" of my hearers, as to make everyone sensible
" of his own actual need of a Saviour from
"sin. Shunning scholastic contentions con-
"cerning justification, I have freely pro-
** claimed the great and glorious truth, that
" being justified by faith, we have peace
" with (rod through our Lord Jesus Christ,
*'by whom we have received the atone-
" ment. In the same manner, without
*' entering into a meta[)hy8ical discussion
** concerning regeneration and grace, I have
** universally held forth the promise of the
" Holy Spirit as the Christian Comforter, the
** peculiar privilege of the new covenant, the
" guide and patron of the faithful, umier the

The Church of England^

•* dispensation of the Gospel.

'* And finally, passing by the debateablc
" ground of the intrinsic merit of human
"actions, I have laboured, above all things,
" to lead on my flock to the great practical
" end and purpose of all religion, inculcating
" the evangelical lesson, that * sober, right-
" eous, and godly life* is the natural effect
"and indepensable criterion of a saving
•* faith, and that they only who thus * follow
" the Lamb,' will eventually find themselves
" redeemed by His blood.

" Sucli^ with occasional observations on the
** union ivJiich ought to subsist among the
*' ministers of Christ's Church, and cxhorta-
^' tiow^ to cultivate that spirit of mutual jor-
" bearance, peace and charity, which, in God's
" good ti)ne, might restore its primitive glory
•* and luippiness^ has been the substance of my
*' preachings and ivith humble gratitude, I am
** enabled to state tfiat the intended effect has
'^ been in some measure perceptible. I am
" informed t/iat persons of different religious
^^ professions liave been heard to express the

The Centre of Unity.

\thc
\the
\ta-

\ny
un
[as
\m

'• precise aonviction which I tvas anxious to
" create. I have seen men, widely opposed
''^ on the customary subjects of controi>crsy.,
" meet within our national sanctuary as if they
" had been of one communion. And I enter-
" tain a confident hope that, if the ministry of
** our Church ivould he thus maintained in
" tfie district^ the faithful and zealous pastors
*' who willy ive may trust , i?i process of time,
" be settled in its different parts ^ would find
*'''tlu general miiui prepared to receive tlum^
" and unite those in the bonds of t/w visible
*' Church, ivhom one and t/ie self-same spirit
'* had already united in one heart and oju
- sour

Thank (Jod for such a man ; thank Clod
for such words. To read theui is hke breath-

ing mouTitam air.

But who can i-ead Uieni without feeling
the hunentable contrast that ha* been o.(fered
by much of our teaching, and much of our
practice. With a future before us, glorious
beyond conception, and a people rtiuly to l)e
won to tlie Apostolic Ciiurch, we bavo

The Church of Eftgland,

deliberately courted defeat, and -have not
only not won them, but deliberately driven
them from us.

As one thinks of these good men, and all
they did one is reminded of the touching
lament of the Psalmist in the 81st Psalm,
and could almost thus adopt his very words.

Oh, tliat we Churchmen had hearkened to
such counsels, and adopted the methods of
conciliation, and peace. Oh, tliat we liad
preached the living Christ, and the power of
His love instead of dogmatizing about forms,
and preaching about things. God would soon
have led those who walk in otiier commun-
ions into fellowship with the Churcii, and
those wlio hated episcopacy, and disliked
the Praver Book would have been for.nd
amongst the number of their most ardent
upholders. God also, would have led us
victoriously against the hosts of secularism,
and united in the visible bonds of apostolic
communion the armies of those who believe
in the Lord.

Tlie next' instance is taken from the
life of that Catholic-minded Bishop of our

The Centfe of Unity,

beloved Church — a man whom all Church-
men delight to honour — George Augustus
Selwyn, 1st Bishop of New Zealand, and
90th Bishop of Lichfield.

He was a man to whom all men as men Bisiiop sei-

wyn.

were dear. He loved Christ, and therefore
he loved those made in his image, and sought
by His love. Therefore he was beloved,
and beloved with no common love.

" Is he a small man that he was so
beloved V was the touching language of his
heart-broken Maoris in ' their farewell ad-
dress. No. He was not a small man! He was
a man of a big loving heart, as incapable of
meanness and small-minded jealousy, as he
was of narrowness and spite.

^lic
;ve

Ibe
)ur

One of the Bisliop's characteristics noted
by his biographer was his intense hatred of
strife. He hated schism, and because he
hated schism he hated variance.

While it is not possible that the exact
letter of the Bishop's words which I am
about t^^ quote can be carried out, there can
be no doubt that the adoption of their spirit

The Church' of England,

would greatly benefit our Church. Preach-
ing in 1854 before the University of Cam-
bridge tlie Bishop sai<l :

" We make a rule never to introduce'con-
"troversy among a native people. If the
" ground has been preoccupied by any other
" religious body we forbear to enter. If we
" find mission work going on we never inter*
♦' fere, but after an exchange of kindly
** intercourse push on in search of unbroken
"ground. I speak fiom observation, rang*
" ing over nearly half the Southern Pacific
" Ocean that wherever this law of religious
*' unity is adopted, ther the Gospel has its
*' full and unchecked power.

*' I feel that there is an episcopate of
" love as well as of authority, and that those
" simple teachers, scattered over the wide
" ocean, live objects of the same interest to
" me as Apollos was to Aijuila."

This is truly Christlike language, and
springs from a heart filled with Christ's
love. Instead of stigmatizing them as
laymen, and schismatical laymen unauth-
orized to teach or preach, he regards them

The Centre of Unity.

its

)se

ide

Ind

It's
las

with sympathy, and takes a deep interest
in all their work.

" If in anythinjr," the Bishop fvoe.s on to
say, " they lack knowiedtre it seems to he
" our duty to expound to them the way of
"God more perfectly, and to do this as
" their friend and brother, not as havini^
" tlominion over their faith, l)ut as helpers
** of their joy.

" Above all thinijs, it is our duty to
•' guard against intlictinu- upon them the
" curses of our disunion lest we niake every
"little island in the ocean a counterpart of
*' the divided and contentious Church at
"home."

Was the use of lanj^^uage like this
calculated to encourage dissent ? Did it
tend to prolong schism? Did the Bishop
become a party to perpetuating the rent in
the body of Christ ? No.

It was anything but that. It was to act
like Christ. It was to heal, and draw, and
win, and thus to unify. It was to make
God's people one.

\\\\

If'

The Church of England^

BlHhop Whlp-
l)lt'.

The last instance will be from the late
convention address of the American
Church, Bishop Whipple of Minnesota.
Beautiful words they are, and worthy like
Selwyn's and Jacob's of beina: written in
sold.

They are a noble plea for the adoption
of the policy of love.

" Strife," said he, "strife is a great price to
pay for the best results, but strife between
kinsujen in th(# Lord's family is a griev-
ous sin. If any man have a passionate
devotion to Jesus Christ, if he has a soul
hunger for perishing souls, if he holds the
great truths of Redemption as written in
creeds, if he preach Jesus Christ crucified
as the only hope of salvation, count him
your fellow-soldier. The deepest lines on
my cheek and the heaviest sorrow in my
heart have come from the lack of love.

" In my life as a Bishop of the Church,
" I have never known of trouble between
" pastor and people or alienation between
" brothers which the love of Christ would
*' not heal.

The Centre of Unity,

3^,
ien

len

" God has never ^iven to any diocese a
" nobler field ; no diocese in America has
" shared so larofely in the bounty of His
" cliildren. No diocese has a niore blessed
" record of mission work in its red and
" white fields, and in no diocese in America
" is the Church more respected and loved by
" those ivithout her fold. It is due under
" God to Christian love, which I have tried
" to make the bond of all our work.

" When I came to this diocese there were
" three warring tribes of heathen red men ;
" there were sad divisions within and with-
" out the diocese amonj^ Chi-istian men.
" Ever}- Bishop selects his own seal ; I
" selected a cross M'ith a broken tomahawk,
" with the motto * Pax per sangnincm
'Urucis.' I have tried to live l:)y the
" motto which I made the motto of the
"seal of the diocese. I have passed my
" three-score and ten and am livinir on
" borrowed time, the m{t of our lovin^r
" Heavenly Father. These may be my
" last words ; they shall be, * Love one
" another.'

T/ie Churtu of England,

" I l>elievft in my heart that if this love
sliall make all men take knowledge of lis
thnt we had been with J(isus, and compel
them to sav, ' S^e how these Churchmen
love one another,' we may, in Go(^'s
hands, be His instruments to heal these
divisions which have rent the seandess
robe oi' Christ. And when I plead for
love, I i^lead for love for all whr love
Jesus Christ. Shall we not chMui as our
own kinsmen, Carey, the English cob'oler,
who wt-nt as the first missionary to India,
and translated for them the Bible ;
Moirison, the ti)st nnssionary to China ;
David Livingstone, the Scotch peace
weaver, who died for ('hrist in Africa ;
the Moravians who oti'ered to be sold as
slaves if rho Kiiiir of Denmark would
only let them gc and teil the po» i- black
.slaves in the West Indies of the love of
Jesus Ch: >t ? We may and will, in love,
witness for the V)lessed truths we have
received from tlv.; Prindtive Church, but
we C'Mi never forixet that there v.iil not be
one in that wliite-rol jd throng who shall
sing the prai.ses of the R»'deeuier who is
not our kinsman in Jesus Christ."

al'. ■■-iJ«Jk«*fc*-.v..-J*.

The Centre of Unity.

The episcopate of doi^nia is never going
to be instrument for the unification of
God's Church. The episcopate of power
has had its day also, and lias failed. But
the episcopatr of love, and the priesthood
of love, and the deaconnte of love the only
power that will iiiuke the Church attrac
tive to otiiers, and win outsiders to the
Church hns not yet had its trial through-
or<t the Church.

, " Had the (luirch leaders after St.

" Paul," says a wise and thoughtful

modern writer putting in my o])inion the

whole problem in a scntrMice, " had the

" Church leaders, after St. PmuI thou'dit a.s

" much of the spirit of love as he did, and

" less of law an<l force their dealintrs with
" heretics and schismatics wouM have been

" marked with greater success from tlie

" Christian standpoint.

" Sinip/y intellectual men can appreciate
" historic facts, can formulate doctrines, avd
" establish Church governments and repress
*' heresies, hut they cannot rightly under-
•• stand JesuR Christ, because not helnir
" rooted anti grounde<l in love they cannot

The Church of England,

" comprehend with all saints His love
" which passeth knowledi^e."

Try love.

This is the panacea of heaven. It has
heen trieil, and nover has failed. Do^ifnia
lias failed. Denunciation has failed. Law
and force have failed. But the attractive
law of love is as true in the workin^]^ as
the law of o;ravitation ; it never has failed,
and never will. ,

But possibly some one will say : What if
our love is not returned? What if our
love is not returned ? Love them all the
same, and love them niore. He who
taught us to love our enemies expects us
not to be discouraifed by the coldness and
churlishness which mav ijfreet our first
endeavours. If they are rude, then let us
be still more courteous. If they are rouj^h,
let us be still more gentle. If they sneer
and deri<le, let us be still more unfeignedly
* \ ictionate.

Love never faileth.

And we (Miurchmen as being the older
and more privileged should 'low more

""■:;^.

The Centre of Unity.

love tlmn tliey all. As we have the
<.;reater presti^-o, therefoi'e we should shew
more Christlikeiiess in act and word.
Bi'oansc we have orreater privileges we
shouM shew more life.

our
Uie

i\nd
rst

;b,

lilv

ler
Ire

But wluit if the}' take advantai^e of our
kindiu'ss, and make all the use they can of
our goochiess, without a return ?

Love them ad the same. We are not to
do oood for the return W(; iret, hut for the
love of (Jod. As the Church of
En;;Iand should he tlie most full of
Christ of all the Cliurches, so should
Churchmen he the holiest of all
men. Thei-e sliould he njore of the attrac-
tive love (jf Christ in the cler<;y of the
Churcli thaj) in any other l)ody of men on
tlie enrth. () that the (hiy will conie wlien
we shall h. honoured, not for our di"nitv
hut for our humility ; not for our know-
Icdi^^e of Church liistory, so much as for
our expcrimeiital knowledge of the love
of Christ.

^^!!i /

The Church of Evs^land,

To conclude.

If the Chui'ch of Enjijland is ixoinj; to be
the unifier, it will only be because she as a
Church is more ready than all others to
make sui renders of thinfrs dear to her for
the sake of securing* the blessin<^ souoht,
and i.s niore filled witii the spirit of love,
and peace. That the Church is pr(>pared
to make these concessions is abundantly
proved. She has been the first to step
forward in the blessed work of c(Miciliation,
an«l in her Lambeth Conference, (as a
Methodist, the Rev. Mr. Price Hughes
admitted in the Unity Conference at
Grindelwald) made concessions so great
that she lias offered an exaiiiple that
dissenters shouhl only be too ejiger to
follow.

For this Irt 1 oil's Holy Name lie
praised ; but more is nrcded. It is
not enougii for the Church in her
conferences to talk, an<l theori/e. What i.s
neede'l is for the Church in her daily walk
and life, in her clergy and people, in her
pulpit- jvnd members to be filled with the

:;,SMtiMfA:'^

it is
alk
bur

T/i^ Cejiire of Unity.

love of God. The l.est way to win dis-
senters into tl)e Church is to sliew love. If
tliat fails to shew more love. If that fails
to shew n.ore love still. The best way to
make our Church the unifier is not niJrely
by insisting upon episcopal ordination, and
forcing down our theories of the Chuich,
but by so livinor in the Life of Christ, and
preaching Christ as to make her as attrac-
tive as a light to groping travellers.

As the Church has been first in nuiking

concessions for the sake of peace in matters

logma, let her

first in exhibiting the

attractiveness of the love of (;h

rist.

Wei

wive tried the way of pride, bicrotry

supercdiousness, denunciation, and kee

thoiii at a distance

fail

pui
/e liave found it a

ure, for it is the devil's way. And
have tried the way of letting then> al
but that's not (Mi rist

one

s way; it is man's

way, and is -almost as bad. Now let
try the right way. Confessi

ng our .sin and

hrartily acknowledging that our infol
ance and pride, an<l unbroth«'rliness 1

er-

lave

been utterly disgraceful to the Church, and

/ , /

/ /

The Church of England,

deserving God's wrath and condemnation,
let us repent and act lovin<:(ly to all n»en,
especially to those who are our hrothers in
the fifjht ajj^ainst the devil.

This is Christ's way.

1 would su;To-e,st that each clergy-
man and nieniher of the Church
of England make a resolve to pray
definitely at least once a week — Thursday
being preferred — the prayer of our dear
Lord and Master that we all iDay he one,
with a special reference to our union with
our separated Protestant brethren.

Let us earnestly strive to promote all
things that n)ake for peace, by trying to
be lowly, and hundjle-minded and moi'e
concerned with our own sins and short-
comings than with our brothers. Let us
covet persistently the blessed possession of
love which the Holy Ghost will shed
abroad in our hearts as we yield ourselves
unfeignedly to Him, and the more we love
one another the more speedily will wc; be
unified in Christ.

The Centre of Unity.

In short,

Let us l)y Go«]'s grace put life in our
formuhiries ; let us by God's Spirit put
love into our services ; let us by Go^v} 1)^1 p
put such spiritual power into our lives
that n\en will take knowledyfe of our
Church that it has been with Jesus. Then
will our Church become what God intend-
ed her to be, the matrix, the germ of that
great body so Utopian to the dim eye of
reason, but so real to the clarified eve of
faith :

The Church of the Future.

The Centre of Unity.

The Protestant Catholic Church of
Christ.

ivo^

()ve

\jc

To the glor}' of His Holy Nanje who
prayed : That they all may be one, as Thou,
Father, art in me, and I in Tlw^e, that they
also may be one in us.

The Church of England,

I beseech you that- ye walk worthy of
the vocation wherewith ye are called, with
all lowliness and meekness with long-
suftering, forbearing one another in love.

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body, and one Spirit, even
as ye are called in one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.

One Go<l and Father of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all.

Blessed are the peacemakers : For they
shall be caUed, sons of God.

S-

" O (Ion. tlio Futlior of our Lord Jo.uis Christ, our only
".Saviour, the Princ.. of IVaco; (Jivo us grace soriously to
" lay to hourt the gn^at dan^.-rs wo arc in by our unhappy
"divi.sions. Tak.. away all hatred and projndlco. and
" whatovor (>!.(. may hindor us from godly Tnion and
" Concord; that as tlifro is hut one Body, and <.ne Spirit,
"and one hop.- of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one
" Baptism, one CJod and Father of us all, so wo may
"henceforth hoof on.^ heart, united in one lioly bond of
"Truth and Peace, of Faith and Charity, and may with
"one mind and one mouth glorify Thee; through Jesus
" Christ our Lord. Amkn "