^ vr 1^. w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I L&|M IZ5 itt 122 12.2 U M |J4 IJ4 ' ^ 6" - ► Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WfST MAIN STRUT WUSTIR.N.Y. MSM (716) •72-4503 V ^\^ 4 ■i>^ <^ ^ >^ '^K\ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CiHIVl/iCMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical IVIicroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiquos .> Technical and Bibliographic Notaa/Notaa tachniquaa at bibliographiquaa Tha Instituta haa attamptad to obtain tha baat original copy availabia for filming. FaaturM of thia copy which may ba bibliographically uniqua. which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha raproduction, or which may significantly changa tha usual mathod of filming, ara chackad balow. 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This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ca document est filmi au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous. 10X 14X ItX 22X 2«X 30X I y 12X ItX »x 24X 28X 32X TIm eopy fllm«d Imt* Hm b««n raproduead thanks to tha ganaroalty «f : Library off ftrUamMit NatkHMl Library of Tha imagaa appaarlim poaalMa eonaldaring of tha original cofnr fllming contract condition In quality lagiblllty L'axamplaira fUmA fut raproduit gricfi i la g4n4foaitA dai La BMIothftqiM du Partanwnt at la BMIothlqiia natlonala du Canada. Laa Imagaa auhiantaa ont 4t* raproduitaa avac la phia grand aoin, cempta tanu da la condition at da la nattati da raRamplaira film4. at 1% oonformit* avae iaa condltlona du contrat da Original copiaa in printad baginning with tlM front eovar and aiHHng on tho laat paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa alon, or tha back covar whan appropriata. All othar original copiaa ara fNinad baginning on tho first paga with a printad or Hluatracad im p raa aion, and ending on tha laaf paga with a printad or illuatratad impraaaion. Laa aaiamplalraa originaux dont ki couvartura on papiar aat i m pri m da aont fHmda an commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant aoit par la da mrtr a pago qui comporta una amprainta dimpraaaion ou dliu a tradon. aoit par la aacond plat, a alo n la eaa. Toua laa autraa aKamplairoa ariginaux aont fUmda an commandant par la pra m iira paga qui comporta una amprainta dimpraaaion ou dlHuatratkm at mt tarminant par la dam H ra paga qui comporta una tallo Tha laat raeordod framo on aach microflcha ahail contain tha symbol «^ (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tho symbol ▼ (maankig "END"), whichavar sppliaa. Uk daa sym b oiaa auivants spparaltra aur la da m itra Imaga c!« chaqua microflcha, aalon la caa: la aymboia — *> aignifia "A SUIVRE". la symboia ▼ aignifia "RN". IMapa, piataa. charti. ate., may ba fNmad at d i ffarant raduction ratioa. Thooo too kwga to ba sntiraly ineludad in ono SKpoaura ara fHmad bagkming in tha uppar laft hand comar, laft to right and top to bottom, aa naany f ra ma a aa raqulrad. Tha following diagrama iihiatraca ttia method: Laa cartaa. p lanehaa. tablaa u x, ate., pauvam Atra f Bm da i daa taux da rMuetion dlff«ronts. Lorsqua kt document est trop grsnd pour Mrs reproiduit en un aeul cNehd. il est fHmd A partir da rangie supdrleur gaudie. do geuche i droite. et da heut sn bas. sn prsnant la nombro dlmegee ndeeeeeire. Lee dlegrammee auivants iihistrsntle mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 8 6 PERFECTING HOLINESS. % ^ttmn t * PREACHED BEFORE THE SYNOD OP ONTARIO AT ITB ElEVEKTH SESSION, Jl.*KE 4TH, 1872, IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. OEOROX, KINGSTON. BT TBI REV. T. BEDFORD-JONES, M.A., LL.D. RECTOR OF ST. ALBANS', OTTAWA. [TKsrSD BT RZQrBST.l PRICE: TEN CENTS. KINGSTON: |»RINTED AT THE DAILY NEWS OFFICE. 187S, & • V A. ■\ \ SERMON. i Vor. VII. I. " Ferfectiiig holiiieM in the f tar of Ood." Thie, brethren dearly beloved, is the great business of our lives. It is the end of our religion. It is the reason for our having any religion at all. Two very solemn responsibilities rest upon us all as menu>ers of God's Holy Catholic Church. But one exists only for the sake of the other. The one is a due regard for the fabric of religion, the maintaining in f. sound condition the organization, the temporalities of the Church ; the other is a due regard for what 4;he fabric shelters — the care, the ^ell- being of that for which there is any need of either organization or tempor- alities — viz : Wte il»iity or dying souls vf (lie Bedtemed ! Now while we all meet in the Synod here to concert measures for the health of the body of the Church, it seems to me the duty of the one priest, who is appointed to stand in this sacred place, to speak of things that concern the spiritual temple, the souls of his brethren lay or clerical. According to the ability that Qod gives him, he has to deliver a message without fear or favour of man on subjects that are more suited to the sanctuary than the Synod Hall. It is, I conceive, his duty to speak of the higher solemnities of our faith, to stir up those meeting together on the Church's business to a greater sanctity and more fervent charity — with the key of knowledge committed to him by his Master he should strive to unlock some of the inner chambers of Christian hearts, and under the Divine guidance, and praying for the Divine blessing, to leave there some thoughts that may bring forth fruit — man siuill nee the. Lvrd." Now, can we as men who have the Church's interests at heart account for this, iind if so, can we remedy it ? I think we can. We may, I believe, account for thn very low standard by which our people live, by the gewrdl )ie'jltit im thii part of the (^hnjn in pad and pfeseut dayn, to net up the Church' i standnr'i nf ]rL>linv^)i plaiitiy hi-fnre th^ ptvple, and tonnfifrce it thertisehe.'i h>j fxaviple w k-v" tt,'< h\i prwtpt. And here let me observe that Hulineds, like the other gifts of God is attainable (mly through his appointed Institutions, what we call i^Ieans of Grace. There is a wonder- ful and beautiful harmony as to where man's re8pon»il)ility rests in the Kingdom of Nature and Grace. The harmony is not indeed strange when we know that the same Divine Being is the Author of both, the same Almighty Sovereign still rules both. Man's responsibility as regards his body and his soul rests in making right use of his physical and mental powers, as he is divinely directed, "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,'* yet man must obey God's directions (such they must have been at first) in aowiiig grain, and eating ])reaH8e three means of Grace forward as Scriptural ordinances for the perfecting of holiness ; and that her officers, the nishops and priests especially, are sadly and shamefully derelict in their duty to the people's souls if they neglect to practice them and inculcate their observance. These means of Grace show I think plain- ly enough what is the Htandard of holiiuma to which at least our Church expects us all to attain. By the neglect of them we may account for the comparatively low standard that too often makes our pcoule's piet^ a by- word, and yet to a great extent the clergy have the remedy in their own hands. It rests with them to raise our people to a comparatively high standard— to the level to which the Church of England expects all Imr SUM to rise— a level which they may and must with God's blessing attain, if they will only obey her orders. Suffer me to say a word regarding each of these three means of Grace, as Seripturul urdiiMiicea, for I must not forget I am addressing a body of intelligent Bible-Kcading Laymen. We all know that from the very time that God organized his worshippers into a visible institution called a Churcli, He set apart u special order of men to be continually engaged in the ministration of His true religion. He defined precisely what these ministrations should be, and among them was the conducting of a daily service of praise and prayer. He commanded the priests to offer a daily intercession on belialt of the whole nation, then including all the members of God's Church in the world. This daily intercession was to consist of a confession of sin, and by a peculiar sacrificial ordinance before the Mercy-seat, the sin was to be transferred to the Immaculate Lamb of God. The sacrifice was a striking picture, a forcible method of teaching God^s people of the coming all-sufficient Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. It was not the blood of bulls and of goats that took away their sins, it was the precious blood of Christ, Who without spot of sin offered Himself up from all eternity, and actually and in fact on the Cross bore the punishment due to all sinners. When the Church of God restricted to the Jewish nation was widened into a Catholic Church, its essential features of faith and practice were not changed And so the inspired constructors of this Cburch Catholic continued the existing custom of a daily public confession of public sin ; they still went on offering daily not a bloody but a Eucharistic sacrifice (as the Prayer Book calls it) a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, in which then, as before, sin was transferred to the divine Sin-bearer, the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world. They still duly pleaded on behalf of the whole Church, now or soon to be co-extensive with the world, the sacrifice of the cioss in a divinely appointed institution which is in itself as true and forcible a picture of the Heavenly victim (His Body broken. His Blood shed) as that of the bloody sacrifice of the previous dispensa- tion. Thvs shmciwj forth to Ood ami vuin of the Lord'n d^th, took the place of all the Temple sacrifices, including the daily morning and evening sin- oflTering, and we are expressly told by an apostle, it was to be contimied until the Lord come ayain. Very soon, for reasons no doubt wise, the Church discontinued the daily celebration of iha holy Eucharist, but she never gave up a daily morning and evening service of confession, intercession and thanksgiving by word of mouth. Knowing what is re- quired for the due reception of the Holy Communion, it may be that the Church did not enjoin this every day on her children, for it involves or presumes the attainment of a rery high standard of holiness indeed, and she * may have refrained from imposing a burden and restraint on her sons in ordinary life that would urove beyond their strenffth. At ail events our own Church followed this rule as regards her people in general. She restricts the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice to everv Lord's day and certain other festivals and solemn fasts. About these she leaves no option to her people. But she makes an equally imperative rule that by imrd oj vumth all her ministers shall offer every day of the year a morning and uveninff sacrifice of prayer and praise along with the reading aloud of carofully selected portions of Qod's holy word. Every clergyman of our Church is as solemnly bound to have morning and evening service on every week day as on Sunday. I believe that it has been the general neglect of this that has more than anything else tended to malce our people bear and often deserve the stigma of Shinday Ohriatiavi. I shall not stay to show as might easily be done, what a blessing to the (iouls of the clergy themselves as weli as ot their fiocks, would be obedience to the Church's rule in this matter. I will only ask yon. my reverend brethren, to consider, how can you expect your people who hear you so often and so earnestly preaching the need of holiness and the duty of obedience to the Church's order, to give heed to your admonitions and exhortations, if they see you falliivg beloiv even the very lowest standard of the Church and openly disobeying her rules ; and this in a matter that is hallowed by the Church of God in every age? I feel my brethren dearly beloved, that in this, as in all else that affects holiness of life, we should be in advance of our people ; nay, wc should each be, I believe, in advance of the most spiritually advanced of our fiorks, if we desire to be respected as commissioners of Heaven, and as ourselves having faith in the Church's Means of Grace. The morning and evening Prayer is just as divinely appointed an institution as Confirmation and other like ordinances of the Church of God, and we who profess to hold by and live by a Scriptural and Apostolic rule Af faith, and to have an Apostolic succession of office, should not be slow to give the evidence of Apostolic devotion and prayer and self-denial. Two excuses are commonly made by the clergy for the neglect of daily prayer. One is that they can get few to attend. This excuse is unworthy of men who hold the Prayer-book in their hands. Two or three ineeting together in the House of Prayer, the place chosen by Jesus to place His Name, are assured of his blessed presence. It is evident that neither our Lord nor our Church expects many more than tm) or three for daily prayer. But the fact is, numbers, many or few, have nothing at all to do with this matter. Let the people come or stay, the duty of the ministers of the sanctuary, as priests of God, is plain and unequivocal. Each priest is to be on earth like his Master the great High Priest in Heaven, an intercessor as long as he lives. This is his high and holy office ; this the Church expects of him ; for this she gives him her commission; to perform this she provides "the order of Morning and Evening Prayer «laily, throughout the year." And few things would raise our office in the eyes of the people generally, more than seeing us day by day jtrmjing for f/jiem, even though they do not, perhaps cannot, come to pray nnth m. The other common excuse for neglect of Daily Prayer is the expense of fuel during the winter months. Well, this is an excuse that, if valid at all, is valid for only half the year. But I can assure you all, my brethren, that the expenditure for heating your Churches for Daily Prayer is but a trifling addition to that of heating them for one day in' the week. Tli© 8 expense of fuel all lust yeur from KasttT to Easter in my own (jliureb, and this coinfortttbly warmed Churcli and school-room lelow, for all purposes, morning, noon, and night, was but $52. There are many things in connection with Ibis subject I should like to have said, but whic.li time forbids me to notice at any length. The examples of Christians in early days, and of God's eminent servants in all ages. The success of the Church when, an stand in the presence of a right- eous sovereign and enjoy royal favours are not apt to be disloyal subjects. So with those who live in constant commiuiion with Jesus, and week by week receive from Him the gift of purity and peace, the gift greatest of all — Himself coming as a guest to enter the faithful heart of his loving disciple. It is this divine fellowship — Christ dwelling in us and we in Him — as closely united to Him as the body of a man is to his head — this it is that alone enables the Christian to keep God's laws and to perfect holiness in the fear of God. In very truth, mv brethren, true Christian worship as distinguished from Jewish worship consists only in the cele- bration of the Holy Communion. Without it our Lord's Day service, when we formally are assembled to otter our homage to, and declare our faith in, our Lord Jesus Christ, Crucified and Glorified, is utterly incom- plete and Avanting in its essential (;Iement. A^'ain. brethren, I attribute the low level to which our people genernily have fallen, to the neglect joined to a misconception, of the Holy Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood ; and to remedy this. I think we ou^d»t with one accord to set our- selves to obey the Church's rule, and teach ouri)eoi)le that their holiness depends more on the Bread of Ileaven and the Cup of Salvation than on any words of man however eloquent or impressive. The fact is, our sermons, as a rule, should be fewer and short, our pray crs many and real, and our communions frequent and reverent, celebrated with all solemnity and every mark of honour. This would, I believe, soon raise the standard of holiness all over the Diocese. Coming with proper feelings of peni- tence and faith to celebrate the weekly commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Son of God, our Heavenly Brother, Who vouchsafes to dwell in humble and contrite hearts, albeit He 1h the High and Lofty One wbo' inhabiteth Eternity, under His Divine influence, our dear lay brethren could not fail to show forth a brighter light to the world — a light reflected from the Sun of Righteousnebu with Whom they weiu holding m close and loving a communiou. Then indeed would all men take knowledge of Chiirchmen, that they had been with Jesus. Once more, we should teach our people to perfect holiness in the fear of God, by fastitig or self-denial. This was in Bt. PhuPs mind, for he says explicitly that tliis perfection of holiness is to be reached by clean- sing ourselves from all fllthiucss of the flesh uuU spirit. Now, ray brethren, we all know that fasting and abstinence nre the divinely insti- tuted means for mortifying the sinful lusts of the fl«sli. Therefore it being a Scriptural discipline for perfecting holiness, oar Church appoint* certain days, especially all Fridays, on which we should practice this Scriptural discipline. And again I say in this, as in the two other mat- ters, we may attribute the lo~.v level of our general standard of IIoHuess to neglect of our Church's directions. If anything at all is plr.l'i in the Bible, in the Old or New Testaments, it is the command of God to his servants to "keep under the body'' and to make the unruly flesh obedient to the spirit. The great temptation we all have — we who are t«ught to be more self-reliant — I mean to strive after holiness with less help from the ministers of religion — than our fellow-Christians in other commun- ions; our temptation is to pride and self-conceit. While we protest against the error of those who, we say, violate the Second Commandment and worship the true God under an image, we forget that we our- selves are boldly breaking the first, and worshipping a false God altogether. That idol is Self, which so many of us set up for ador- ation in the place of God. We see this Protestant idolatry breaking out everywhere, in all forms of pride and self-will, in reckless self-indulgence, in revolt against spiritual authority, in the scom- fiil disbelief of what does not suit the individual notions of truth and en'or Now the DWine corrective of this pride of spirit and pampering of flesh, of this gross idolatry of the creature man, is a stern and often severe restraint of oui bodily appetites, the curtailing of bodily wants, the resolute abstaining from meat, or drink, or pleasure, or anything which in any degree hinders growth of Holiness of Life. Many of these things are in themselves innocent enough, but Christians are not free to indulge in them for this reason — because, though harmless as regards ourselves or some of our brethren who may use them without excess or sin, they not only do not in any way tend to spiritual edification, but many weak brethren of the household of faith find it impossible to use them in moderation, and without falling from grace. In all things our duty is^o promote the glory of our Master, and this we do by strengthening our weak brethren on the struggle against sin at any sacrifice of personal gratificatiim, ''Lwill eat no flesh while the world standeth if meat make my brother to offend," cries St. Paul, and this should be our rule. It is a self-denial we should not be ashamed to practice. Then, as regards cer- tain days of abstinence, especially Fridays, our Church does not define fasting to consist in depriving our appetites of a peculiar kind of food for the sake of gratifiying them with another kind. But the Church, now as ever, does teach her children that it is an essential part of their Christianity to remember with contrition and shame, the death on the cross of the Son of God Whom their sins nailed to the accursed 10 trM. Too often they cannot turn their eyat to the bleeding, dying Ltmb of Ood on Whom is laid the Iniquity of us all. Is once a week too often ? And what is the Friday's Fa$t but the weekly recurring reminder of this dying love of Jetus, and the atonement offered and accepted for our many trananessionsf Just consider, should the few Fridays of Time which any of us has to spend be for the Ghristian days of feasting or days of &sting ? The question needs no answer. Ah, my dear lay brethnn, be persuaded thM in all these days, in all her ordinances and directions, our ChtircK'a grand object is to draw you to the Love of Jea^u and to the Life of Jesu». Christ, and Him crucified, would she have you cling to for your salvation — salvation from sin first and from eternal death at last. In the steps of Jesus— steps of daily prayer— and self-denial— of submissive obedience to the Divine Institu- tions of Gk>d^s Church — of self-sacrifice for the good of others, she would have you walk all your days. A liviiuf uuiort %nth Jetius would she have you maintain by having you week by week receive the Heavenly food of His Body and Blood; thus week by week would she have you renew your incorporation in Uim, your membership with His glorified manhood, for as St. Paul says, "we are members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones." Itj^s even thus, dear brethren, 1, by Daily Prayer in the presence of Jesus; 3, in the weekly humble observance of the sorrowftil crucifixion- day ; 3, in thejoyftil and yet reverent celebration (as the Lord commands), of His resurrection day ; it is thus, your Apostolic Church would perfect you in holiness in the fear of Ood, and so prepare you for the company of ■Jesus our Lord, to be seen by sight and not by faith, surrounded with angels and archangels in the blessed Home of the redeemed and sanctified — the House not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens ! Right Reverend Father in God, and my reverend brothers in the Ministry of Christ, I pray you forgive my presumption — if presumption it be — in urging you to make yourselves marked examples of holiness in private and public. It is because I am very jealous of your characters which will seem to be the character of our dear and holy Mother, the ancient Church of England, that I dwell on her Scriptural Means of Grace as the l>e»t, the only true help and guide to Godliness, i.«., God's likeness. Our ambition should be that as a body we should be conspicuous for holiness. We should stand in the van and front of all those who profess and call themselves Christians in this country to do battle with vice and infidelity. There is no reason on earth, my brethren, why you should not. You are well educated men ; you minister to a loving and liberal laity. You have liturgial services, hallowed by the use of generations of the faithful, that must ever attract and delight all intelligent and refined minds. You have the prestige of an ancient lineage reaching back to the days of the Apostles ; you can point to a long roll of Saints and Confessors and Martyrs from the days of the soldier Alban to Mackenzie and Patteson, the missionary bishops and heroes of yesterday, illustrinu*) examples given by your Church to all the world. Above all, you have now in your hands the alone infallible Word of Truth, which you have learned to divide rightly and enforce earnestly. You have holy ordinances instituted of God, divine Means of Grace which you are commissioned to dispense for the perfecting of holiness in the fear of God, for the salvation of men's immortal souls. Three of these I have very imperfectl^r endeavoured to rescue from comparative neglect, and vindicate as imperatively and wisely enjoined by our Church for the edification of all her u members. But I should be untrue to my conrictions wer^ I not to say, that before we can win the people to attain a higher standard of holiness by the obserrance of tnese means, we must all (and God knoweth I speak to mvself just as much as to you), we must all— Bishop, Priests, and JDeacons, show that there is in th«m a liyinc power to nuuse tM holy oiiraelvet. Our private standard of Holiness should be higher than that of men engaged daily in the concerns of secular life, in the necessary work of providing for men^s bodies. Our awfiil business is the concern of men's souls, and for this high and holy calling much has been given us, and, therefore, much will m required of us. Had I time I should have desired to speak to you about those means of raising ourselves to a high degree of spintuality, which have at home been found so fruit- ful of blessings : — anwtal retreats for the clergy, and associations wherein Bishop and clergy meet to take counsel together, to pray together and stir one another up to greater holiness, greater zeal and courage in doing battle against the unbdief of the age. And I rejoice to hear that our good Bishop purposes soon holding such meetings, and I pray that they may be blessed to us all abundantly. Ob, my brethren, we need great grace for our holy work, and we should value and use the means of grace ordained by our Church for our own sakes as well as those of our people. It is surely a solemn reflection that in some degree we have the immortal destinies of of our feflow-beings in our own hands. We have accepted a trust that deaU with the untold wealth of human souls, any single one of whom is so dear to Ood, that its redemption was accomplished only by the precious priceless blood of the Son of Ood. These souls under our care are members of the Holy Catholic Church, sheep of Christ^s fold in which we are shepherds. They have a right to and we should not dare to deprive them of any of the Churches means of grace, It is for them to accept, it is not for us to withhold. In the solemn warning of the Church herself, "Jf it shall happen any member thereof to take any hurt or hindrance hy reasftn of your negliyetiAse, ye know th* greatness of the fault and also the horrible p^inishnient that will ensite." Therefore, once more, in all humility, but with all the earnestness of which I am capable, I would implore you, my Reverend Brethren, you who have in a few years shown how, under wise administration, the youngest of the Canadian Dioceses has been brought to the foremost position of financial prosperity, show now equal zeal in bringing her to the foremost position of Holinejts. You, who have succeeded well in the difficult work of making your people give their money to Ood, go on and employ the same talents and energy in persuading them to give theitiselves to Ood. Money is a good test of sincerity to Ood, but it is not all the test. Alms-giving is not holiness. Many a man gives liberally who lives licentiously. Let us aim, then, my Brethren dearly beloved, at being ourselves true saints, patterns of Holiness, the epistles of God seen and read <^|d^men. Let each one of us be able to say to his flock with St Paul, ^^^ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ,''^ and let us not rest day or night until we have raised our people to at least the standard of Holiness set before us by our Apostolic Church. Let this only be the measure of our success. Let us not be content with anything less than this. Then only shall we have done our duty. Then only shaU wc be sure that we have ploughed and sown and watered as Ood directs ; that we have worked and are working with Ood's instruments of husbandry, which must be the best, and so may we expect His blessing in giving the increase, and hope to reap a bountifhl harvest of souls, and so finally shine like stars in the Heaven of heavens forever and ever.