■wrmr-- ,rrTT ' i; I'l--'.,- <: 'riTlggVfBKBwr- ' ] Gori>cli(is, by tl^e Gi*a^*e of Qod, ai^d faVop of tl7c Apostolic Sc^% -Ai*^*l^t>isl^op of Halifax. To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese, Health and Benediction in the Lord. Dearly Beloved : The life of our Divine Saviour whilst on this earth was a foresliadowing of the life of His church ; the oi)position, misrepresentation and persecution which He suffered w^ere to be borne likewise by her; because her mission was to be a continuation of His work of teachin<,y the truth, and of .giving testimony to Llis J )ivinity. Xotwithstandinf^^ the numerous and stupen- dous miracles performed by Je>us Christ, in the presence and with the knowledge of thousands -mii'acles which llis enemies did not attempt to deny — very few acknow- ledged His divine nature, or gave heed to His w^ords of eternal wisdom. Despite the many temporal blessings received at His hands He was scoffed at and reviled ; He pointed out the one only way to peace and light, and true liberty, but was met with the cry— "Thou hast a devil," whilst a few believed in their hearts, but because of the Pharisees did not confess it that they might not be cast out of the Synagogue; "For they loved the (Uory of men more than the Glory of God." (John XII— 42-43.) In reading the Gospel narrative of the manner in which the Saviour was treated we may, perhaps, marvel at the blindness and perversity of those who had the unspeakable favor of listening to His words and of seeing His actions. But our divine fjord gives us the explanation of their conduct— " Tlie world cannot hate you ; but me it hateth : because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John vii — 7 ) To admit his divinity would be to pronounce their own condemnation ; because were He God as well as man, then His teaching which condemned their ways and works must be true. Hence they shut their eyes to the light, closed their ears against his voice, and hardened their hearts against the influence of grace. He was too near them, and his condemnation of their vices was too intolerable. God the Creator they might and did admit, for he seemed afar off, and was not thundering His reproaches in their ears ; but this Man — this Jesus of Nazareth who claimed to be (Jod and equal to the Father, and who raised the dead to life, and gave sight to those who had been born blind, in testimony to His claim of I divinity, Him they would not own for King. They would only madly cry out — *' Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him ; * * * We have no king but Caesar." — Thus would they be avenged on Him ; and thus did they vainly hope to escape the wrath which he foretold for those who should reject His word. We see in this action of the Jews the blindness of passion in all its folly. The benefioient work of the Saviour in curing the sick, in caring for tlie poor, in instructing and uplifting the ignorant, was well known. The holiness of His doctrine was seen to be in keeping with the sanctity of His life. He had done no man harm ; He had broken no law ; He had gone around doing good. Strong in the consciousness of His abso- lute innocence He could challenge His enemies to bring forward any charge against Him — " Which of you shall convince me of sin^ If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me ? He that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not because you are not of God," (John viii — 40, 47.) Tlie only answei' they could make was personal abnse, tlius ad- mitting their inability to conviet Him of \vronn'-(h)ini>'. And yet they seemed to imiL;ine th it by (UiJitroyin;4- llim they would be relieved of the obligation of accept- ing' His doctrine and of keeping His commandments ; that they might continue in their errors and sins and still escape the wrath to come. With loving tenderness Jesns Christ sought to save them from their own obstinacy and perverseness. " I am the light of the world ; he that folioweth Me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life " (John viri — I'i) It is instructive to consider the actions of the Scribes and Pharisees and to compare them with those of the world to-day. Now, as then, Christ is the light of the world ; now, as then, no man can come to the Father except through Him ; now, as then. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. We will find on examination that the world acts towards Christ nuich in the same manner as did the Jews. Our Saviour said of them -"But I honor My Father, and you have dishonoured Me." (John VIII -49.) This dishonour was manifested in many ways, but chietiy in denying His divine Nature. His good works they could not deny ; the sanctity of His doctrine they could not controvert ; His purity of life and integrity of purpose they could not call in question. Still, they refused to accept His teachings, and to find some excuse for this they denied His God- ship so that they might reject His authority. This is what the unbelieving world has been doing for eiohteen hundred years. Satan waged war against God the Creator in Eden, and for long centuries appeared to be king of the world. He held mankind in bondage, and received the worship of his hapless slaves. He reigned over the hearts and in the intellects of men in whose souls God's image liad boon destroyed by sin. To uproot from the liiiman conscience a belief in God as a Supreme and All-perfect Being was the chief oliject of Satan before the Jledemj)- tion. His success was i^reat indeed. But Jesus Christ came at length. 'I'he Kteriial Son, equal to ai.d con- substantial with the Eternal Father, came to redeem and to teach. He came to repair on Calvary the shipwreck of Eden, to wrest the kingship of the world from the Devil, to break the shackles of sin to enlighten oiu' intelligence, and by the Truth to make men free, ]^y the Crucifixion the triunqdi over sin and <leatli was won, and the overthrow of Satan's usurped ])ower accomplished, 'ihe true liulit shone inthewoild; the doctrine of holiness and the graces of the Sacraments were entrusted to the Church for the benefit of man- kind. Then in his warfare the spirit of evil changed his tactics, and took up a new line of battle. God the Creator was no longer his foe ; his wrath was turned against God the Kedeemer. To dishonour and discredit him in the eyes of man was now his motive of action. With this object in view, he urged the Scribes and Pharisees on to contradiction, to abuse, and to the shame of the Cross. The denial of Christ's Divinity, begun by the Jews, was continued after his death and Resurrection. War against the divine nature of Jesus, the Kedeemer and Teacher, was proclaimed. Hence we find in the early days of C/hi'istianity that, whilst the existence of God was not denied, the leaders of error strove to persuade men that Christ was not God. Even in the days of the Apostle.-*, this dis- honour of the Saviour was preached, and gave occasion to St. John to write his Gospel, in which the Divinity of Jesus Christ is so clearly set forth, and so abun<lantly proved by his works. The Word that was with Clod from the beginning, and which was itself God, that same ''Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us" This was the testimony of John, who had seen his ylory, "the j^lory as of the only bof^otten of the Father; full of grace aiul truth." (John i — 14.) The various heresies of the early ages of the Chui'ch, whose forgotten names it is not now necessary to recall, attacked either directly, or by implication, the Saviour's Divinity. The battle was not always waged on the same lines, nor were the objections ostensibly of the same nature. At one time it was the Divine ]^crson of our Lord that was denied ; at another His divine will. Then his honour was impugned by detract- ing His Immaculate Motl)er; or by blaspheming Him in the lUessed Sacrament of the Eucharist ; or by vilifying his Vicur on earth, the Pope. Jn all these, and many other ways, did men dishonour Christ, and maintain the war of Satan against the divine nature of the Redeemer. During all that time the Church lK)re faithful witness to Him, even as He had borne witness to Himself. She proclaimed him God by being, not by adoption ; and, as Lord of all, entitled to the ohedien e and adoration of mankind. His doctrine was the light of the world. His precepts our binding rules of conduct. His service our noblest employment. Many listened to her voice, and enlisted under the banner of the Crucified King, and God and His Christ were glorified in the Church. Within recent years a new form of dishonour to Christ has become fashionable. Men have come to patronize Him, so to speak, — to call Him a great law- giver, a large-hearted philanthropist, a genial ascetic, and a practical mystic. They praise His sermon on the Mount, and the gentleness of His dealings with sinners. They will say He was God-like, filled with the Spirit of God, anything and everything noble except that He is God. But even this apparent homage to the character of our Saviour, which alas ! deceives many, and even deludes some of its professors into the belief that they are Christians, is another and subtle form of dishonour ; 6 for it refuses to liiin tl)at wliicli lie specially and exi)lic- itly claimed for Himself, viz: the title of ^on of (iod. Moreover, joiiHid with this ))retended reverence for tlu^ work and words of Christ there is plainly revealed the atteni})! to dishonour Ilim, by })lacing other real or supposed benefactors of the luunan race in the same cate<;'ory with Him, and by (pioting their teachings side by side with His woids so ie})lete with divine wisdom. \Vithout doubt there have been eminent men vvh;) con- ferred signal benefits on humanity, both by their wiitings and their deeds, — men who towering in intel- lect and. perhai)s too in piety, over their contemporaries, exercised an influence for <^ood both in the social and religious life of their country. Such men should be held in honour; and their teachings, when in accordance with the Gospel, should be revered ; but to name them with Jesus Christ, as though they stood on an equal footing, is to dishonour Him. The very miracles which He worked, and which His enemies could not gainsay, are now classed by the world with the wonders of the spiritualists, or the marvels of that latest development of modern unbelief and consecpient superstitious credul- ity, Tlieosophy. The lesson sought to be impressed on the reading public is, that Christianity and the various so-called religious systems of the world are so many speculations equally baseless, or equally well founded, according as one may choose to consider whether there may be any moral law, or not. We constantly hear men spoken of as "great Christian teachers" who do not believe in Christ's divinity, nor in his atonement ; and congregations that reject both Revelation and the Sacraments, styled "Christian Churches." Many men have not the courage of their impiety, and whilst reject- ing the author of Christianity they fear to call them- selves anti-Christians. Whilst this fact, together with the confusion of ideas resulting from a revolt against the Light, explains in part the attitude of the world as we find it ])ortr<aye<l in its piil)lic writin<ifs and speech, we must l)e{ir in mind that tliis is not the full explanation. It is Satan's war against Cln-ist's divinity carried on by the aid of masked batteries, and with an assumption of lofty impartiality. Just as the Scril)es and Pharisees could not deny the beneficent deeds of the Saviour, so the world of to-day cannot blind mankind to the regen- erating- and ennobling work of the Church in the social, intellectual and religions order ; yet with all the pride- b»orn blindness of these same Scribes and Pharisees it refuses to listen to Christ in His Church, just as they rejected the law from His own lips. And still calm reason should tell them that Christ must be God, as He claimed to be, otherwise His doctrine, so opposed to human passions and human modes of action, could never have been propogated, nmch less have lived for centuries, and be more wide-spread and flourishing to-day than ever before. Hut the restraints which it prescribes are difficult ; the subjection it claims is galling to undisciplined hearts ; the obedience it exacts is distasteful to human pride. True, it offers in retuiii light of intellect, peace of will, and joy of heart. But, in the hurry and struggle of life, men live for them- selves and in to-day; they do not think of eternity, nor do they wish to be reminded of it. The present is enouuh for them : it* pleasures are within their grasp; they look forward to none other ; and, not wishing to acknowledge a King who commands restraint, and foretells a future they cry out with the Jews, " We have no King but Ctesar." The revealed word of Christ is degraded to the level of a scientific speculation ; the Church of Christ is persecuted where it is politic to do so, and is every- where opposed and harassed more or less openly ; and, under the hypocritical plea of liberty, even Christian burial, and Christian education, are sought to be put entirely under state control. 8 By such moans tlie sentiment of Cliristiiinity is undermined in tlio souls of tlio uiu'etlcetin;,^ ; tlu; distinciion between truth and enor is obscured ; and indilference to tlie word of (lod follows as the natui'al conse(juence of this line of action, 'I'lius is the divinity of our Saviour dishonoured, and the hearts of many turned away from His service. The Jewish hatred of Him is renewed, under a less forbid- ding and femx'ious aspect, it is ti'ue, but all the more pernicious and deadly in its ellects, in our modern life, and by ])ersons who arrouate to themselves the name of Christians. To you, dearly Beloved, Jesus Christ adcb'esses the words which he spake to those of the Jews who believed in Him, when He said — " If you continue in My word you shad be My disciples indeed : and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And when they boasted that they iievei- had been slaves, our Saviour added: "Amen, Amen, 1 say unto you, that whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John VIII — 81, &c.) To keep God's law, then, is true liberty; to reject and despise it is the slavery and degradation of sin. Again, as Jesus Christ is the true Light, to know his revealed word is the highest wisdom ; whilst human science, disjoined from that revelation, is the fruitful mother of doubt, error and confusion. We see this exemplified every day. Elementary (juestions of morals, as well as Creation and the end of man, are puzzles to the first lights of the scientific world, whilst they are known and understood by the little ones of oui' flock. This knowledge which is of God is indeed a subject for gratitude, but not for vain glory. It is the (jffect of Faith in souls docile to the teachings of our divine Lord, living and working in and through Hisi Church. Guard that precious gift of Faith ; fortify it against the attacks continually made by Satan acting through the world, and endeavouring to eliminate the 9 Supernatural from the social life of nations. Let no one deceive you : wJHxner, or whatever contradicts the teachings of Christ's (Jhurch contradicts tiie Saviour Himself. They are like unto those to whom Christ said : "I go my way, and you shall seek me, and you shall die in your sin. Whitlier 1 jj^o you cannot come." (John VIII— 21.) During the coming Season of Lent, do you, dearly Beloved, seek to gh)rify by your sincere adoration and tender love the divine Person of our Lord, and by a worthy participation of the Holy Sacra- ments to conform your souls to His image and likeness. He bears your names wiitten in His Sacred Heart, and will give eternal life if you abide in His Faith and Love. Think less of the i)resent and more of the future, for our years here below will be few and short, but eternity endureth forever. Do you, dear 1 brethren of the Clergy, in your pastoral zeal, strive to thoroughly instruct the young in the Christian doctrine, and take measures, in con- junction with your people, to diffuse good books amongst your respect ive Hocks, so that Jesus Christ, the true Light of tiie WorM, may be adored as God, and obeyed as our Lord and King. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. This Pastoral shall be read in every Church of the Diocese on the first Sunday after its reception, that the Pastor officiates therein. E. F. MURPHY, Pro Secretary. ^ C. O'BRIEN, Archbishop of Halifax. Halifax. Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, at Antioch, 1892.