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 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.