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 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
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 ■HJ Westcott, Brooke Foss, 1825 
 ^^^^ 1901. 
 
 Christian aspects of life 
 
CHEISTIAN ASPECTS 
 
 OF 
 
 LIFE. 
 
CHEISTIAN ASPECTS 
 
 OF 
 
 LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D.; D.C.L. 
 
 BISHOP OF DURHAM. 
 
 Honbon : 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 
 
 NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. 
 
 1897 
 
 \A\l Eights reserved.] 
 
PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
TO THE MOST DEAK MEMORY 
 
 JOSEPH BARBER LIGHTFOOT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM, 
 
 FENTON JOHN ANTHONY HORT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D. 
 
 LADY Margaret's professor of divinity, Cambridge, 
 
 EDWARD WHITE BENSON, D.D., D.C.L., 
 
 lord archbishop of canterbury, 
 
 WHOSE FRIENDSHIP HAS BEEN 
 
 INSPIRATION AND STRENGTH 
 
 THROUGHOUT MY LIFE. 
 
 B. F. D. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 TOURING the last three years the duties of 
 -'-^ my office have forced me to consider afresh 
 the application of our Christian Creed to many 
 problems of life. The efforts which I have thus 
 made to estimate with perfect frankness the 
 contrasts between modern society and the Apo- 
 stolic Church have been fertile in lessons of 
 warning and of hope. We require, I cannot 
 doubt, to modify very largely both our ideals and 
 our practice : to study more carefully than we 
 have hitherto done the characteristic endow- 
 ments and history of our nation and of our 
 Church in relation to other peoples and other 
 faiths : to calculate the moral effects of the 
 popular types and aims of education : to bring 
 the differences of our work and circumstances 
 under the ennobling influences of one supreme 
 fellowship : to cultivate generally the capacity for 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 delight in the common treasures of manhood and 
 nature : to strive habitually to see God in His 
 works and in His working. All this has been 
 made possible for us by our Faith; and the 
 prevailing currents of opinion are favourable to an 
 effective review of our present position. There is 
 a growing tendency to judge conduct by reference 
 to the whole and to the eternal : to subordinate 
 personal to social interests. In any case it will 
 be an adequate compensation for many failures if 
 the thoughts which have been suggested to me 
 by my own experience should direct others to 
 surer hopes and more fruitful labours than I have 
 found. The victories of later generations will 
 bring, as we believe, the fulness of blessing to 
 those who have greeted from afar the promises 
 which their children have been enabled to realise. 
 
 B. F. DUNELM. 
 
 Chollerford 
 North Tyne 
 
 April \Wi, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Some Conditions of Religious Life. 
 
 Our Position. 
 
 The Cathedral, Durham, Oct. 21, 1896 . 3 
 
 Personal Life. 
 St MichaeVs, Bishop Wearmouth, Oct. 24, 
 
 1896 21 
 
 Corporate Life. 
 
 The Chapel, Auckland Castle, Oct. 28, 1896 36 
 
 I. The National Church. 
 
 The National Church the Spiritual Organ 
 of the Nation. 
 Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, May 16, 
 
 1893 59 
 
 The Duties of the National Church to 
 Christendom and to the Nation. 
 Diocesan Conference, Stockton-on-Tees, 
 
 Oct. 15, 1895 69 
 
 The National Church Progressive. 
 
 Consecration of St Mark^s, Jar row, June 
 
 6, 1896 86 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The National Church (continued) 
 
 Citizenship, Human and Divine. 
 
 St Philip's Churchy Biryningham^ Oct. 3, 
 
 1893 102 
 
 The National Day of Rest. 
 
 St Andrew's^ Bishop Auckland^ June 26, 
 
 1894 119 
 
 II. Foreign Missions. 
 
 The Call of the English Nation and of the 
 English Church. 
 St PauVs Cathedral, London, May 28, 1894 141 
 
 Missions a Revelation of the Mystery of 
 God. 
 St Bride's Church, London, A.^v\\ 29, 1895 158 
 
 III. Education. 
 
 Master and Scholar : a Memory and a Hope. 
 Grammar School for Girls, Camp Hill, 
 
 Birmingham, Jan. 26, 1893 . .187 
 
 The Aim and Method of Education. 
 
 Colston Hall, Bristol, Dec. 1, 1896 . 202 
 
 IV. Social Service. 
 
 The Christian Social Union. 
 
 Cambridge, Dec. 3, 1894 . . .219 
 
 The Christian Law. 
 
 Manchester, Nov. 25, 1895 . . . 242 
 
 The Co-operative Ideal. 
 
 Sunderland, May 12, 1894 . . . 258 
 
Contents. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 V. Social Eelationships. 
 
 Speech at the Northumberland Miners' Gala, 
 
 Blyth 283 
 
 The Christian Faith and War. 
 
 Canterbury Diocesan Conference^ July, 1889 295 
 
 International Arbitration. 
 St Thomas\ Sunderland^ March 7, 1897 . 306 
 
 Members One of Another. 
 
 Hoiighton-le- Spring, June 30, 1894 . 324 
 
 Love of the Brethren. 
 
 Meeting of Lay Workers, Auckland Chapel, 
 
 July 14, 1894 340 
 
 The Power of Ministry. 
 
 Ordination, Auckland Chapel, Sept. 1897 353 
 
 Consider the Lilies. 
 
 Sedhergh, 13th Sunday after Trinity, 1896 369 
 
 Via Hominis Visio Dei. 
 
 Cambridge, 4th Sunday after Trinity, 1 894 387 
 
 Appendix 
 
 I. Spiritual Work of Laymen. 
 Diocesan Conference, Gateshead, Oct. 31, 
 
 1893 407 
 
 II. Titles of Christians. 
 
 Lent, 1894 418 
 
 III. Morning and Evening Prayer. 
 
 Lent, 1896 424 
 
INTEODUCTOEY. 
 
 SOME CONDITIONS OF RELIGIOUS 
 LIFE. 
 
 w. m 
 
I. OUR POSITION. 
 
 THE CATHEDRAL, BVRHAM, Oct. 21, 1896. 
 
 II. PERSONAL LIFE. 
 
 ST MICHAEL'S, BISHOP WEARMOUTH, Oct. 24, 1896. 
 
 III. CORPORATE LIFE. 
 
 THE CHAPEL, AUCKLAND CASTLE, Oct. 28, 1896. 
 
I. 
 
 OUR POSITION. 
 
 On the occasion of this Visitation, which must 
 be for all of us a most solemn season of reflection 
 and self-examination, I propose to speak of some 
 conditions of religious life. Today I shall en- 
 deavour to mark one or two characteristics of the 
 present time and to shew how far they enable us 
 to realise new aspects of the Faith. At our two 
 later meetings I shall seek to apply more in 
 detail to our personal and social obligations the 
 lessons which are suggested by our position. 
 
 I have said that a Visitation is necessarily a 
 most solemn season ; and this Visitation comes at 
 a time when the whole Anglican Communion is 
 bowed down by a sudden and overwhelming blow. 
 Not many days ago when we looked forward to 
 the coming year, w^hich must deeply affect the 
 future of our Church at home and abroad, we 
 rejoiced in the confident hope that one who was 
 
 1—2 
 
4 The lesson of our loss. 
 
 uniquely fitted by natural gifts and varied expe- 
 rience to vindicate its apostolic authority and to 
 bind in closer fellowship all its members, would 
 use nobly to the glory of GoD and the good of 
 Christendom the great opportunities over which 
 he had long meditated. A visit to Ireland had 
 proved under new conditions his power to inspire 
 the enthusiasm of service and to win all hearts by 
 gracious sympathy and self- forgetful devotion. 
 The public mission was accomplished. The words 
 of peace fell on his ears in the House of GoD, 
 and, as we humbly believe, he entered into life. 
 In a crisis of anxiety he bade us pray to GoD 
 that He would ' cleanse and defend His Church.' 
 In our bereavement let us not doubt that the 
 prayer — we know not how — will find uninter- 
 rupted fulfilment. 
 
 Such losses indeed bring a corresponding gain. 
 They give a human reality to the unseen world. 
 Those on whom we look no longer are, in some 
 sense, felt to be more continuously near than 
 when they moved among us under the limitations 
 of earth ; and their spiritual presence supplies a 
 living and intelligible form to the Communion of 
 Saints, through which we enter on the powers of 
 the eternal life. 
 
 The lesson is for us all ; but forgive me if in 
 this stress of universal grief I venture to speak of 
 
Tendencies of modern Thought. 5 
 
 that which is personal, for I need your help more 
 sorely than ever. It was by the counsel and with 
 the encouragement of the late Archbishop that I 
 dared to come here. During the six years w^hich 
 have passed since, that counsel and encourage- 
 ment have never failed me. Now he has passed 
 away, the last of the three friends with whom I 
 began to work forty-seven years ago, and I, the 
 eldest of the little band, must face alone what- 
 ever may still be given me to do. Once again 
 then I am constrained to repeat the request which 
 I have made twice before, and made, as I know, 
 not in vain. Brethren pray for us. 
 
 At the close of a long and busy life it is 
 natural to look back and strive to bring together 
 what the years have taught as to the direction 
 and prospects of human movement. Such a re- 
 view however imperfect is, I believe, fitted to 
 bring fresh hope and offer some guidance for the 
 labourers of the next generation. 
 
 The fifty years during which I have watched 
 and worked have been fertile in great changes, 
 religious, political, social, intellectual, industrial, 
 but through all changes one general influence has 
 everywhere made itself felt, the growing sense of 
 
6 Conception of 
 
 the interdependence, the continuity and the 
 solidarity of all finite things which fall under our 
 notice. The rapidity with which the general 
 doctrine of evolution has gained acceptance is an 
 impressive illustration of the tendency ; for it has 
 prevailed more by its inherent fitness to shew 
 how ' all creation is one act at once ' than by 
 arguments which suggest rather than establish it. 
 At the same time we have gained a truer esti- 
 mate than our fathers were able to form of the 
 variety, the vastness, the complexity of creation 
 as made known to us under the conditions of time 
 and space. 
 
 Taught by a closer study of nature and history 
 we have mastered new conceptions of the relations 
 of man to the material world, to his fellow men 
 and to God, of his individuality at once and of 
 his dependence. Without surrendering the in- 
 alienable prerogative of personal responsibility, 
 the central fact of consciousness, we strive in all 
 directions to realise the unity of life and being. 
 We look at the present in relation to the past 
 and to the future. We study our contemporaries 
 as children of the last generation and parents of 
 the next. We study nations as wholes and also 
 as parts, charged with a corporate office and con- 
 tributory to one humanity. 
 
 Such thoughts which are in the air give a new 
 
the imity of being. 7 
 
 meaniDg to the opening chapters of the Bible. We 
 are able at length to read, as no earlier generation 
 could do, the Gospel of Creation, and perceive a 
 little of the idea and method of the Divine work- 
 ing revealed under natural human imagery. All 
 on which we look, all of which we have any record 
 or any anticipation, becomes under this aspect 
 one thought of God, made manifest to us in an 
 orderly succession, disturbed but not destroyed by 
 man's self-assertion. The assumption that GoD 
 is the Creator and King of all men and of all 
 things is made in the first page of the Old 
 Testament, and underlies the whole of the 
 chequered record. This involves a supreme 
 unity in things which makes all other partial 
 unities possible. And it is worthy of remark that 
 in the prophetic portraitures of Babel and Sion we 
 can find under significant symbols views of the 
 human and divine ways of reaching that unity 
 which is the crown of life. In the one man seeks 
 to hinder separation and diversity : in the other 
 the ripe results of the fullest human develop- 
 ments are brought into the Holy City, which is 
 the Sanctuary of GOD. 
 
 Stirred by this sovereign conception of the 
 essential connexion of all forms of being, forced 
 upon us by the experience of life and offered for 
 our devout contemplation in the primitive records 
 
8 The Church a revelatioii of 
 
 of our Faith, we turn again to the writings of the 
 New Testament to see if these meet the great 
 hope with any messages of divine assurance. Nor 
 do we turn in vain. Twice in different relations 
 St Paul affirms God's purpose of bringing to a 
 final unity the works of His hands, of summing 
 vp all things in Chinst, the things in the heavens 
 and the things upon the earth (Eph. i. 10), and 
 again of reconciling them unto Himself, having 
 made peace through the blood of [Christ's^ cross, 
 in luhom all things were created and m whom all 
 things consist (Col. i. 20, 16, 17). Thus we are 
 taught that the counsel of creation shall at last 
 find its fulfilment, and find its fulfilment in spite 
 of sin. The Apostle does not dissemble the ter- 
 rible consequences of human disobedience both 
 for man himself and for his earthly kingdom, but 
 he points to an all-sufficient atonement, and sees 
 in the sorrows of creation the travail-pains of a 
 new birth (Rom. viii. 22). 
 
 Such teaching indeed follows necessarily from 
 a serious consideration of the Gospel of 'the 
 Word become flesh.' The Incarnation justifies 
 the loftiest ideas which we can shape of the 
 destiny of finite being. It supplies unfailing 
 inspiration for all personal and social effort. It 
 offers to us two fundamental thoughts unimagined 
 before, the thought of the inherent value of each 
 
human Fellowship. 9 
 
 man as man, and the thought of the social 
 destination of all men. 
 
 These thoughts, these truths, presented in the 
 life of the Son of man in time and beyond time 
 and sealed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, were 
 a new creation of humanity. In order to realise 
 them and to bring them to bear upon the world, 
 the brotherhood of believers, the Church, was 
 founded. By them this Christian Society, the 
 Body of Christ, is distinguished from all prse- 
 Christian Societies, and so far as they determine 
 the actual relations of human life, that organic 
 unity is gained for which humanity was created. 
 
 So the master-thoughts of human fellowship 
 were given to men once for all, and left to work 
 through the unfolding of the ages. They were not 
 realised at first : they are not fully realised now. 
 But, as we look back over the past history of the 
 Church, we can see how they have been appre- 
 hended in many parts and in many fashions as 
 circumstances prepared the way for their ac- 
 ceptance. Each age has its own work, and the 
 end will be reached through the accumulated 
 results of the works of all. 
 
 Thus when the Church had entered on the 
 full inheritance of the Old World and came 
 face to face with new races in the West, the 
 second thought became dominant in a strong 
 
10 The value of the individual : 
 
 organisation of corporate life, through which the 
 treasures of ancient civilisation were preserved 
 and the Northern peoples disciplined for their 
 later work. At the Renaissance and the Reform- 
 ation again the first thought asserted itself. The 
 worth and the responsibility of the individual 
 have from that time onward found vigorous ad- 
 vocacy, and have now obtained among the fore- 
 most nations general recognition. We can never 
 again acquiesce in the assumption, on which the 
 civilisation of the Old World was based, that one 
 class may be sacrificed for the higher develop- 
 ment of another. Meanwhile in the reformed 
 Churches, I speak especially of our English 
 Church, the sense of brotherhood has been in a 
 great degree lost. The obligations and the 
 authority of the Body have almost passed out of 
 sight. The formal meeting of the Congregation 
 in public service, to speak broadly, remains the 
 one sign of fellowship. 
 
 Now at last we caa recognise the influence 
 of a reaction. The perfect enfranchisement of 
 the individual among us is leading to an as- 
 piration after a corporate life. We are beginning 
 to acknowledge with a new conviction that it is 
 the office of the Faith to guide humanity and 
 not only to console individual men, that it rightly 
 has to do with the general conditions of life, and 
 
corporate life. 11 
 
 we are feeling after some form of common action 
 of the Church which shall not be shaped by any 
 force from without, but answer to the spontaneous 
 activity of the awakened conscience of believers. 
 We have learnt that individuality in the fullest 
 sense is an element and a presupposition of unity. 
 And if, as I have said, each age has its own work, 
 many converging tendencies, — the importunate 
 demand for equality of opportunity, the growing 
 devotion to social service, the general craving for 
 a fuller life, — shew beyond question that it is the 
 work of our age to harmonise in Christian practice 
 the completest freedom of the individual with the 
 paramount claims of the Society. To gain this 
 end through the life of the Church is, I repeat, 
 our work. 
 
 And we can dare to undertake it, because we 
 believe that it answers to the will of God. We 
 believe that He speaks and works not only 
 through individuals but through the Body. We 
 believe that now in the fulness of time we are 
 called to seek in this completest way for the 
 manifestation of the Spirit among us. We believe 
 that the Church will fulfil its office for the world 
 through corporate activity representing the mani- 
 fold sum of individual endowments consecrated 
 to a common purpose. 
 
 Circumstances are favourable to the effort 
 
12 The power of great ideas. 
 
 We have grown familiar with the influence of 
 great ideas and with methods of social coopera- 
 tion. We have seen the political constitution of 
 the United States re-shaped under the influence 
 of the enthusiasm of abolitionists. We have 
 seen the Map of Europe re-made by the force of 
 appeals to the principle of nationality. Almost 
 at the same time the Oxford Movement and the 
 Scotch disruption proved in different ways how 
 powerfully our countrymen can be moved by 
 jealousy for the authority and freedom of the 
 Christian Society. And while English citizens 
 have been relieved from all religious disabilities, 
 the vital importance of the national confession of 
 the Christian Faith is better understood and 
 more firmly held now than it was half a century 
 ago. 
 
 At the same time social action in ecclesi- 
 astical affairs is extending on all sides. I have 
 watched in my own working-time the rise and 
 growth of Diocesan Conferences, Church Con- 
 gresses, Lambeth Synods, the reassembling of the 
 Houses of Convocation, the formation of Houses 
 of Laymen, and the quickening of our Cathedrals 
 with fresh and vigorous life. In these ways we 
 have learnt little by little to recognise the unity 
 which comes through sincere devotion to one 
 common service, and the strength which is 
 
Social cooperation. 13 
 
 matured by the candid comparison of partial and 
 conflicting views. 
 
 The feelings which have led to these results 
 in our own Communion have extended beyond 
 the sphere of organisation. The thought of the 
 reunion of Christendom has had a larger place 
 in men's minds during the last fifty years than 
 ever before. At one time the dominant hope of 
 reunion has been directed to the Latin Church, 
 at another to the Greek Church, at another to 
 Nonconformists. But deeper than all these 
 special hopes lies the growing conviction that 
 the unity of believers is the will of GoD and that 
 we must spare no sacrifice except the sacrifice of 
 trutli to make visible to the world that which 
 really is. And perhaps we have already learnt 
 through successive disappointments that the end 
 for which w^e pray and w^ork and look, will come 
 not through any scheme or compromises of our 
 making, but when all who call upon the Name 
 of Christ are enabled to see habitually everything 
 in Him. 
 
 The soul when smitten thus 
 By a sublime idea, whencesoe'er 
 Vouchsafed for union or communion, feeds 
 On the pure bliss and takes her rest with God. 
 
 This spread of sympathy, of tolerance, in the 
 highest sense of the word, of largeness of view 
 
14 The teaching of the Nations. 
 
 has received a powerful impulse from the deeper 
 study of the history and the scriptures of Israel in 
 connexion with the history and the scriptures of 
 the Gentiles. We can now see, as could not be 
 seen till lately in authentic records, how GoD made 
 preparation for the coming of the Christ, through 
 the natural growth of ' the nations,' not unvisited 
 by His Word, as well as through the continuous 
 discipline of ' the people.' We can see in different 
 races characteristic signs of a Divine counsel ful- 
 filled through them and promises of future service. 
 Such a view cannot but lead to a fuller and 
 deeper intelligence of the one Divine purpose 
 slowly accomplished through all the world in all 
 time. It fills us with invincible patience. New 
 duties flow from new knowledge and, as they are 
 fulfilled, disclose the practical meaning of the 
 lessons which we have learnt. Thus Foreign 
 Missions have assumed a fresh aspect within our 
 own memory. We go to strange peoples not only 
 to bear a Gospel but to claim an offering. These 
 too have received special endowments: these too 
 have had an education in life : these too in dif- 
 ferent degrees have gained that which belongs to 
 the fulness of humanity in Christ. Christianity 
 can no longer be regarded as isolated while it 
 is shewn more clearly than before to be unique. 
 It finds points of connexion everywhere, and 
 
Need of spiritual force. 1 5 
 
 gathers up and completes all the spmtual aspira- 
 tions of men scattered throughout the world. 
 
 It is of still greater moment, with a view to 
 the fulfilment of our work, that men feel at the 
 present time perhaps more keenly than ever 
 before the need of some fresh manifestation of 
 spiritual force for the relief of human sorrows. 
 At the beginning of the last generation there was 
 unbounded confidence in the power of material 
 and intellectual improvements to reform society, 
 and in the power of physical research to solve the 
 problems of existence or at least to remove the 
 awe with which we naturally regard them. Such 
 expectations have failed past renewal. It is 
 acknowledged even in disappointment that moral 
 effects require moral causes. Good conditions of 
 life, however needful for other reasons, do not 
 make good men. Social improvement is bound 
 up with individual improvement. Legislative 
 enactments are inefficient unless they are matched 
 by citizens of like temper. Science has no answer 
 to the questions which we cannot silence : What ? 
 Whence ? Whither ? Increased command over 
 the forces of nature gives in itself no promise of 
 increased happiness for mankind. We must look 
 elsewhere than to physical discovery for our ideal 
 of man and for the means of reaching it. 
 
 And here the Gospel does not fail us. It has 
 
16 The teaching of 
 
 resources to meet the necessities of the present 
 age as it had to meet the dissolution of the Old 
 World. Looking to its first victories we can take 
 courage to face our own distresses. In the crisis 
 of its first proclamation it proved itself to be 
 literally a new birth of society, and the life which 
 was then communicated to the Church still 
 remains unexhausted and inexhaustible. Some 
 of the effects of the message of the Incarnation 
 have been generally welcomed, and we are inclined 
 to rest in them. But, as Bishop Butler observed \ 
 it is not incredible that the Bible contains many 
 truths as yet undiscovered, which enlarged expe- 
 rience may enable us to recognise. Such a truth 
 not yet translated into deed seems to me to lie in 
 St Paul's characteristic phrase ' in Christ.' In 
 this phrase we have the sure foundation of that 
 sense of the unity of creation which is to be, as I 
 believe, in the near future the inspiration and the 
 guide of human labour. If in the light of recent 
 observation we consider seriously and fi-ankly 
 what the Apostle means when he says that * all 
 
 1 Analogy, p. ii. cb. 3, p. 183 (ed. 1844) 'Nor is it at all 
 ' incredible that a book, which has been so long in the posses - 
 ' sion of mankind, should contain many truths as yet un- 
 ' discovered.... And possibly it might be intended that events, 
 ' as they come to pass, should open and ascertain the meaning 
 ' of several parts of Scripture.' The argument applies to 
 results of physical research no less than to historical occur- 
 rences. 
 
St Paul's phrase 'in Christ'. l7 
 
 things luere created in Christ! that 'all things 
 consist (hold together) in Christ' (Col. i. 16, 17), 
 that we are ' in Christ,' we shall find that we have 
 in such statements a pledge of that unity of 
 things which we have not to make but to acknow- 
 ledge. The unity is in the past and in the 
 present. It affects the true being of all that 
 exists. Each least fragment finds its appropriate 
 place in a whole which answers to a Divine 
 counsel of wisdom and love. Even if the eternal 
 truth is not yet laid open to our eyes we can 
 guard our hope by faith where sight fails, remem- 
 bering that if God waits long, as we measure 
 succession, we also can wait. Nor is it without 
 significance that the dominant phrase in St Paul 
 is ' we in Christ ' and not ' Christ in us.' He is 
 in us as we are in Him. But the use of the 
 phrase 'in Christ' takes us at once to the Spiritual 
 realm, and fixes our thoughts on the centre of 
 unity, the one common Divine fountain of life. 
 In Christ we have fellowship with all who are in 
 Him. In Christ the personal effort which He 
 sustains, is lost in His action. In Christ we do 
 not ' press on to perfection,' but are * borne to it ' 
 as we yield ourselves to His vital influence. 
 
 We cannot doubt as to the end ; but even 
 while we feel most deeply the victorious power of 
 the revelation which is conveyed to us by these 
 w. 2 
 
18 Our temptations. 
 
 words 'in Christ/ we have no reason from past 
 history to expect that it will work any sudden 
 change in the order of society. Still less can we 
 look for any unprepared revolution on the earth 
 through some Divine interposition. It was not so 
 at the Advent. Outwardly men's expectations 
 were disappointed then. The Lord 'came/ but 
 not as superficial students of the prophets looked 
 for His coming. None the less the message of 
 the Incarnation and the Resurrection, ratified by 
 the Fall of the Holy City, brought with it by slow 
 and necessary action the changes which men had 
 anticipated in another form. So it will be with 
 each fuller apprehension of His Nature and His 
 work — with each fresh coming. So it will be now. 
 The Truth must be left to work. But to this end 
 we must ourselves ponder it, master it, express it 
 in our own lives. 
 
 The duty brings with it its own peculiar 
 dangers. The same general temper which pre- 
 pares us to welcome the teaching which lies in 
 the phrase ' in Christ,' exposes us to grave temp- 
 tations. The feeling after unity in created things, 
 the feeling that there is a unity in them, the 
 recognition of God's working everywhere, may 
 easily lead to a vague quietism in those who 
 forget that GoD claims from men the personal 
 fulfilment of His will. He prepares their works 
 
Our opportunities. 19 
 
 aforehand, but He requires them to walk in them. 
 He acts, but He acts through ' surrendered souls ' 
 who know in Whom they trust. Even in the 
 presence of the loftiest ideals indecision and in- 
 definiteness are as fatal to the Christian life as 
 restlessness and impatience. 
 
 Meanwhile we must endeavour to recognise 
 more and more completely how the realisation in 
 peisonal and social life of the thought included 
 in the words ' in Christ ' corresponds with our 
 position in Christendom, as members of a Church 
 which possesses in a unique combination a heritage 
 of Catholic doctrine, unbroken historical continuity, 
 and intellectual freedom, a Church which is able 
 to welcome and to discipline the development of 
 national life and to embody new aspects of truth 
 disclosed in the course of the ages. We must take 
 the words as the test of our own lives, and press 
 them upon others. We must keep our ideal 
 before the eyes of men and justify it by our efforts. 
 ' In Christ ' fixes our attention on the will of GoD 
 and not on our own powers or achievements. It 
 enables us in all delays to ivin our souls in patience. 
 It quickens our eyes to see the eternal in every 
 common thing about us. It opens our ears to the 
 many voices of the Holy Spirit who is even now 
 taking of the things of Christ and revealing them 
 to us. And this keen sensitiveness of eye and ear 
 
 2—2 
 
20 Our opportunities. 
 
 to Divine signs is the most effective safeguard for 
 men and nations in times of change. So may 
 God in His love enable us to know the day of the 
 Lord's coming and to use for the good of all men 
 the treasures — individual, social, national — which 
 He offers for our stewardship. 
 
II. 
 
 PERSONAL LIFE. 
 
 I HAVE endeavoured to shew that a tendency 
 towards the recognition of the inter(iependence, 
 the solidarity, the unity of created things is cha- 
 racteristic of our time : that this view of the world 
 brings home to us with peculiar force the sense of 
 the presence and working of God : that it is 
 summed up for us in the words ' in Christ ' as ex- 
 pressing the origin, the preservation, the life of 
 man and men, and of the creation over which man 
 is set ; and that it is our special duty to ponder 
 and to apply this revelation of our relation to 
 our Maker and Redeemer to the fulfilment of 
 our appointed work. 
 
 I desire now to point out how the revelation 
 affects our personal life, and then afterwards in 
 my last address how it affects our corporate life. 
 
 It is at once evident that the fact of the 
 creation and preservation of all things ' in Christ ' 
 gives to all things, and to all men, in their essence 
 an ineffable worth and dignity. We are utterly 
 unable with our present powers to form a distinct 
 
22 Immeasurable value of life in Christ. 
 
 apprehension of the fact, but it is, an inex- 
 haustible spring of reverence and of hope. Each 
 individual man, the most desolate in our eyes and 
 the most degraded, is an element in one, im- 
 measurable life, touching through sure if subtle 
 connexions all the past and all the future. We 
 can feel in some degree, how the truth is forced 
 upon us by the phenomena of earth, how deeds, 
 words, thoughts long forgotten start up again 
 after years or generations and bear fruit ; how 
 * the dead,' the unnumbered and unremembered 
 dead, ' rule the living ' ; how in a most true sense 
 'the history of the world is the judgment of 
 the world ' reaching backwards and forwards in 
 condemnation alike and in hope. The phrase ' in 
 Christ ' gives to the temporal consequences which 
 we are able in some degree to note and to measure 
 a place in the eternal order. Our powers, I 
 repeat, are too feeble to grasp the fulness of the 
 idea ; but at least we can all feel the intense 
 significance which it brings to the simplest lives. 
 We cannot isolate ourselves in anything which we 
 do or say or think. The condition of others affects 
 us. We suffer ourselves and our lives are marred 
 if the poor are uncared for and their sufferings 
 unrelieved. We are defrauded if great capacities 
 are unused. We all have a divine mission, ful- 
 filled or unfulfilled. 
 
Meaning of 'repentance' ' self -denial' 23 
 
 Most men, we admit, live as yet unconscious of 
 the unlimited influences which pass from them, 
 but ignorance does not neutralise the potency of 
 their lives; and to us who have learnt that all 
 life is, in the Divine thought, a unity ' in Christ ' 
 made up of duly related parts, there is given a 
 clue to our personal duty. 
 
 We hold that for each man a special work has 
 been ' afore prepared ' by GoD, answering to his 
 'peculiar difference.' The one desire of the 
 believer will be to recognise, and to fulfil his 
 appointed work. Such an ideal excludes every 
 form of social rivalry. All self-assertion is un- 
 natural. As a Christian discerns God's will he 
 must seek to make it his own, and by working 
 with God to lay aside ' the weight of chance- 
 desires ' and gain perfect freedom. 
 
 Such a conception of life rests upon a definite 
 purpose. As to our purpose we can be sure, and 
 the general nature of the Christian purpose is 
 clear, though it is frequently forgotten. It repre- 
 sents a direct application to our particular cir- 
 cumstances of the ideas of 'repentance' and 
 ' self-denial.' But the popular ideas of repentance 
 (/jLerdvoia) and self-denial offer a singular illustra- 
 tion of the inadequacy of the common estimate 
 of the fundamental conditions of life ' in Christ.' 
 Repentance is not simple regret for the past but 
 
24 Growth under the influence of the %uorld : 
 
 a total revolution in our thoughts of God and man 
 and the world, which at once prepares for and 
 follows from the acceptance of the Gospel. ' In 
 Christ ' the range of life is seen to be indefinitely 
 extended. 'In Christ' each act belongs to the 
 eternal as well as to the temporal order. Self- 
 denial again is not merely refraining from special 
 objects of desire, but the complete surrender of 
 our individual will to the divine will : the losing 
 of life that we may find it. Egotism is not only 
 suppressed but made impossible (Gal. ii. 20). 
 
 The life which is the embodiment, however 
 imperfect, of such a purpose is a continuous 
 growth in the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Wordsworth has described in a memorable and 
 familiar passage the history of human life as it is 
 developed under the influence of the world, the 
 sum of external and transitory things. 
 
 The soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 
 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
 And Cometh from afar : 
 
 Not in entire forgetfulness, 
 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 
 From God, who is our home : 
 Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
 Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
 
 Upon the growing Boy, 
 But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, 
 
 He sees it in his joy ; 
 
growth in Christ. 25 
 
 The Youth, who daily further from the East 
 Must travel, still is Nature's Priest, 
 And by the vision splendid 
 Is on his way attended ; 
 At length the Man perceives it die away, 
 And fade into the light of common day. 
 
 This description of the experience of the grow- 
 ing child is the exact reverse of the truth in regard 
 to the life 'in Christ.' The fresh rays of glory 
 which the boy sees about him do not ' fade ' or ' die 
 away ' with advancing years, but, as his power of 
 vision is strengthened and disciplined by continu- 
 ous use, are seen to spread from point to point 
 with undimmed lustre, till at last all Nature is 
 flooded with the heavenly splendour. The solitary 
 star is found to be the quickening sun. Love for 
 the Ascended Christ continually calls forth fresh 
 and more glorious manifestations of His Person 
 and will (John xiv. 23). 
 
 Life ' in Christ ' is, in other words, a progressive 
 realisation of a personal fellowship with GoD in 
 thought, word and deed, which brings an ever- 
 increasing power of discerning Him in His works 
 and a surer faith by which we apprehend the 
 invisible (Hebr. xi. 1). Thus the Christian appro- 
 priates in action little by little what has been 
 done once for all, and gladly recognises the ' good 
 'works {KoXa epya) which GoD afore 'prepared 
 'that [he] shoidd walk in them' (Eph. ii. 10). 
 
26 Individual character. 
 
 He is himself God's ' workmanship ' and his cha- 
 racter is a reflection of the living Christ, gained 
 in the common business of life as he places 
 himself before His open presence (ii. Cor. iii. 18). 
 
 A life fulfilled on this plan leads to individual 
 completeness ; but as a fragment of a divine whole 
 the Christian life is not for the Christian alone. 
 No personal achievement can bring satisfaction 
 to him. No success is for himself His desire 
 is that when men see in him that which demands 
 their admiration they 'may glorify his Father 
 which is in heaven.' His ruling passion is to com- 
 municate that which he has found. Everything 
 that is made mariifest is light (Eph. v. 13). 
 
 This thought finds expression in the relation 
 which St Paul lays down between ' the theological 
 virtues.' By the side of faith and hope he sets a 
 third which belongs to the eternal order, love, 
 which is of the essence of God Himself That 
 which is permanent in life is not knowledge, how- 
 ever mastered and enjoyed, for knowledge is 
 conditioned by transitory forms, but love which 
 transcends them. Thus the Gospel itself is first 
 effective in believers. The Lord says to His 
 disciples Ye are the salt of the earth (Matt. v. 13 f) 
 — 'ye' and not the abstract message : ye are the 
 light of the luorld, communicating to them that 
 which is His own prerogative (John viii. 12). 
 
The po2uer of love. 27 
 
 It is not by holding the truth simply that we 
 ' grow up in all things unto Christ' but by ' living 
 the truth in love' (Eph. iv. 15). It is character, in 
 other words, and not intellectual powers or attain- 
 ments, not the abundance of possessions (Lk. xii. 
 15), which is the effective force in society and the 
 condition of personal happiness. Spiritual equality 
 is independent of outward things. Circumstances 
 the most widely different give equal opportunities 
 for the disciplining of character. No circumstances 
 can exclude the activities of love. Love is the 
 test of the greatness and the littleness of the 
 present. Where love is there is the assurance of 
 infinite fruit : where it is not, the largest results 
 of labour perish with the scene to which they 
 belong. Some old speculators, bewildered by the 
 differences in the capacities and attainments of 
 men, supposed that in the consummation of things, 
 lower natures would gain happiness and peace by 
 losing the sense of everything higher than them- 
 selves. But * in Christ ' we see that it is not any 
 'Great Ignorance' (tJ fxe^aXrj ayvoia), but com- 
 plete knowledge which brings perfect rest. Each 
 man contributes to the one life according to his 
 power and shares in it according to his capacity. 
 
 It follows from what has been said that our 
 thoughts are fixed upon the Ascended Lord in the 
 fulfilment of our work. In Him we live, and in 
 
28 Our historic Creed. 
 
 Him we have through His human nature and His 
 earthly life a perfect revelation of the Father. 
 The fact that we have been enabled through 
 recent researches to realise more completely than 
 former generations His historical environment, 
 does not in any way lessen the majesty of the 
 Gospels, but rather leads us to recognise the 
 hidden glories of common life. And if our fellow- 
 ship with Him is to be real and vigorous, we must 
 continually keep in mind the limitations of our 
 knowledge and the infinite grandeur of those 
 things of which a little is revealed to us in order 
 that love may interpret the sign and pass within 
 the veil. Nothing but the sense of the infinite 
 life can save us from the temptation of allowing 
 the marvels of a fragment to blind us to the 
 presence of more exceeding glories. 
 
 Such considerations enable us to understand 
 in some degi'ee how it is that our Creed is given 
 to us not, as we might have expected, in a series 
 of dogmatic definitions but in a summary of 
 historic events, not in formulas but in a life. For 
 since this is so, our Creed is capable of indefinite 
 application and verification. Each clause leads 
 us to Christ and offers an interpretation of life 
 ' in Christ ' which experience justifies. 
 
 * Facts ' are in the Divine order the partial 
 exhibition of Truth under the limitations of time 
 
Phenomena are signs. 29 
 
 and space. We do not ever rest in phenomena. 
 The physicist no less than the theologian deals 
 with what the phenomena suggest and not with 
 the phenomena themselves. The phenomena are 
 signs which point to something beyond them- 
 selves. Thus the world as GoD made it 'very 
 good,' would have been a complete revelation of 
 God for a being like man if he had lived his true 
 life. Little by little he could, we may suppose, 
 have deciphered the lesson of its beauty— 'and 
 knowing this is love, and love is duty ' — and so 
 by obedience he would have attained the divine 
 likeness and his consummation in union with 
 God in His Son. But sin — the self-assertion of 
 the finite will — entered in and disturbed at once 
 the original order and man's power of inter- 
 preting it. Yet even so hope was left. For 
 there is an essential difference between the Fall 
 and the Incarnation; the latter is an eternal 
 Truth answering to the will of GoD, the former 
 is of time and answers to man's will. So it was 
 that in the fulness of the seasons the Word be- 
 came flesh under the conditions of a sinful world 
 and shewed love triumphant through death. 
 Once again man could read in the Birth, the 
 Passion, the Resurrection, the Ascension of Christ 
 the will of God for his race, and those facts be- 
 came the signs of his weakness at once and of his 
 
30 The limitation of 
 
 destin}^, a universal Gospel which has vindicated 
 itself continuously since it was first proclaimed. 
 
 And here we can see the true function of 
 Christian Doctrine, the systematic expression of 
 the spiritual experience of those who have gone 
 before us. 
 
 Christian Doctrine is designed to direct and 
 sustain us in our efforts to hold a personal and 
 living intercourse with a personal and living Lord. 
 True doctrine is not an end in itself: it cannot 
 carry us beyond the region of the intellect ; and 
 religion belongs to the whole life, our will answer- 
 ing to the will of God. The multiplication of 
 ' true ' doctrines is even perilous to the spiritual 
 life, for it tends to distract our attention and, 
 fixing it upon fragments, dulls the sense of the 
 immeasurable whole. All formulas are of the 
 nature of outlines : they define by exclusion as 
 well as by comprehension ; and no object in life 
 is isolated. Our premisses in spiritual subjects 
 therefore are necessarily incomplete and even 
 logical deductions from them may be false. Thus 
 the scholastic theology of the 13th and of the 
 I7th century was found to fail in view of the facts 
 of life ; and systems of doctrine must fail so far 
 as they do not minister to the present fellowship 
 of the believer with his Lord. 
 
 The growth of that which is spoken of as ' the 
 
the function of Doctrine. *31 
 
 scientific spirit' emphasises the necessity of insist- 
 ing on this limitation of the function of doctrine. 
 It is said that we are to pursue Truth for its own 
 sake. Nothing in man's constitution : nothing in 
 the requirements of life suggests any such conclu- 
 sion, even if it is possible to give a distinct mean- 
 ing to the phrase. As far as we can judge man 
 was made to act and not to know, or rather to 
 know only in order that he may in the fullest 
 sense live worthily of his place. ' If to acquire 
 knowledge ' Bishop Butler has said ' were our pro- 
 ' per end we should indeed be but poorly provided : 
 'but if somewhat else be our business and duty, 
 'we may, notwithstanding our ignorance, be well 
 ' enough furnished for it ; and the observation of 
 ' our ignorance may be of assistance to us in the 
 * discharge of it.' And on the other hand it is evi- 
 dent that there may be great moral waste in the 
 undisciplined investigation of transitory things. 
 
 There is however no arbitrary boundary fixed 
 to the field of Christian inquiry. All knowledge 
 which promises to throw light on the life 'in 
 Christ,' knowledge of human life personal and 
 social, knowledge of the history and the constitu- 
 tion of nature, falls within the range of our 
 reasonable culture. The one sufficient test of 
 every pursuit is the apostolic command that it be 
 undertaken ' in the name of the Lord Jesus ' (Col. 
 
32 The 'pursuit of knoivledge. 
 
 iii. 17), with the definite purpose of learning a 
 little more of the revelation whereby we are 
 taught that the Son of man is the sovereign of 
 the world. And in this aspect the resolute pur- 
 suit of knowledge is a duty. Those who are ' in 
 Christ ' are bound to serve God with their whole 
 being, with their intellect no less than with their 
 heart and their strength and their substance. 
 They are distinguished from others not by any 
 difference in the strenuousness of their labours 
 but by their motive and their aim. For them all 
 that falls within human observation is a potential 
 parable of spiritual realities, through which a 
 fresh vision may be gained of the glory of God. 
 They will be keenest of men to watch for the 
 dawn of new ideas. For them there can be no 
 despondency and no indifference. They bring to 
 the Lord the firstfruits of all that He has lent to 
 them and commit their gains to His keeping. 
 
 Christians have indeed an overwhelming mo- 
 tive for untiring study. They cannot fail to 
 recognise that the formulas which express the 
 Truths suggested by the facts of their Creed are 
 themselves of necessity partial and provisional. 
 Formulas do not exhaust the Truth : still less are 
 they the Truth. They introduce us to the Truth : 
 they bring us nearer to it ; but we must ourselves, 
 as we have already seen, hold converse with the 
 
Our obligations. 33 
 
 Truth — with Him Who said / am the Truth — and 
 not rest in them. The character and expression 
 of Doctrine in other words is relative to the age. 
 The lessons of the past are unspeakably precious, 
 but we in our turn must learn our own lesson 
 that we may do our own work. 
 
 These indeed are great words, but we must 
 not shrink from facing the obligations which life 
 
 * in Christ ' brings to us. The declaration Ye 
 have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye 
 hioiu all things (1 John ii. 20) was made to 
 Christians as Christians, not to any order or class. 
 
 * The powers of that which was ' the age to come' 
 in the time of the apostles are our inheritance 
 (Hebr. v. 5). 
 
 The far-reaching conceptions on which we have 
 dwelt, creation 'in Christ,' life *in Christ,' illus- 
 trate what has been said. The circumstances of 
 our age have given to them a new power. We 
 are constrained to regard men not only in their 
 responsible individuality but also in their cor- 
 porate unity. 
 
 In one sense life ' in Christ ' is potentially the 
 possession of all who share the human nature 
 which He the second Adam has taken to Himself. 
 So far it is the stay of our hope. We can plead 
 with men not in order to make them sons of God 
 but because in His will they are sons who share 
 w. 3 
 
34 Light on the Atonement: 
 
 the nature which was taken by His Son. Yet 
 the idea of sonship has also a fuller meaning 
 which is the inspiration of our work. If GoD 
 loves the world, He loves those who love Christ 
 with a nearer personal love and works through 
 them. What they do, He does. 
 
 Now this thought of man's divine sonship in 
 the Son of man in its general and in its special 
 sense throws light on two great mysteries, the 
 Atonement and the Communion of Saints. It 
 throws light on the Atonement. Christ took 
 humanity to Himself In this all men are es- 
 sentially included ; and each believer by faith 
 realises his own part in the humanity which 
 Christ has saved at once and consummated. ' In 
 Christ' he enjoys what is prepared for all. As 
 there is for men a solidarity in sin, so there is 
 also a solidarity in redemption. 
 
 And again it throws light on the Communion 
 of Saints, Whoever is 'in Christ' is in fellowship 
 with all who are in Him. In Him we are in 
 fellowship with the dead in Christ. Whatever 
 ministry we are allowed to offer to the least 
 member of His Body in prayer or service reaches 
 to them ; and, though the veil is not lifted from 
 the unseen world, we may believe that whatever 
 ministry they render reaches to us also in blessing 
 through the unity of the one life. 
 
the Communion of Saints. 35 
 
 In this respect the whole temper and life of 
 the English Church encourages our watchful 
 desire to win and to welcome new truths for 
 common use. Our Reformation was not an en- 
 deavour to fashion afresh a complete religious 
 system. It was essentially designed to meet 
 acknowledged evils in the Church which had 
 grown with the nation and to leave much open 
 for later treatment if the necessity should arise. 
 For us a Catholic inheritance is the guarantee for 
 generous freedom. We hold it as a fertile and 
 not as a barren treasure. No barrier is intei-posed 
 between the believer and God. All alike are 
 taught to offer themselves, their souls and bodies, 
 to be a reasonable, holy and lively sacrifice to 
 Him. At ^ach point we are brought back to 
 Christ that we may realise the truth that He is 
 in us and we in Him and that not in one depart- 
 ment of duty, or in one sphere of interest, but in 
 all. For there can be no division in the Christian 
 life : whatever the Christian does he does as a 
 Christian. 
 
 This is the message which w^e have to master 
 ourselves and to deliver. 
 
 3—2 
 
III. 
 
 CORPORATE LIFE. 
 
 In what has been said we have considered 
 the Christian as far as possible by himself, in his 
 personal relations. We have seen that he aims at 
 the fulfilment of his proper work without self- 
 assertion and without rivalry : that his life is a 
 growth realised with steady purpose in con- 
 tinuous fellowship with God 'in Christ': that the 
 motive and support of his activity is love : that 
 for him doctrine is not in itself an end but a help 
 towards more intelligent service : that his pursuit 
 of knowledge is followed 'in the name of Jesus': 
 that from first to last he finds his guidance his 
 strength, the proportionate development of his 
 powers ' in Christ.' 
 
 But the Christian is not and cannot be iso- 
 lated. Our life is essentially social. The in- 
 dividual himself cannot be the final unit of society, 
 though the civil law up to a certain point so treats 
 him. Whatever we do or refrain from doing 
 affects our 'brethren' and the world. So far as 
 
The sense of corporate life 37 
 
 the power of love is not realised in action we 
 relapse into paganism. ' In Christ ' we all share 
 a corporate life. The corporate life is perfected 
 by the most complete personal development of all 
 the members of the body; and it is the con- 
 currence of the fullest development of the in- 
 dividual with the social instinct which gives the 
 assurance of the noblest progress. 
 
 For him who is ' in Christ ' the corporate life 
 is of supreme moment. The gift of the Spirit at 
 the re-creation of humanity was made to the Body 
 (John XX. 22, 23) ; and it is through the Body that 
 the mind of Christ finds its natural expression : 
 that the fulness of the Truth is reached : that the 
 Christian character is effective in the world. As 
 the common life is felt, it will be expressed. 
 Enlarged power and wisdom is the normal result 
 of the characteristic growth of the Body, while 
 each member presents the result according to his 
 special function. 
 
 As yet however the feeling of the one life is 
 feeble among us. The unity of the Body of 
 which we are members is not clearly realised, and 
 there is no acknowledged judgment of the Body. 
 
 Nor is there any just cause for discouragement 
 in this. Our power of seeing depends in part 
 upon our position. And there can be no doubt- 
 to repeat what has been said before— that the 
 
38 hitherto iveak, but giviuing. 
 
 general direction of the moral growth of Western 
 Europe, and especially of England, during the 
 last four centuries has been towards the recog- 
 nition of personal responsibility — of the power, the 
 ' rights,' the duties, of individuals. 
 
 But now at last we can discern the dawn of a 
 new age. There is a widespread feeling of the 
 advent of closer vital relations between men and 
 nations. We are able to realise as never before 
 the range and meaning and unity of life. Each 
 man, each group of men, is found to touch all 
 men, all groups. Life is not a fragment bounded 
 on both sides by darkness, but a whole not limited 
 by time or place. The Christian ' in Christ ' has 
 already found eternal life. The discovery changes 
 the measure of human action. Conduct which 
 might be regarded as irrational if judged only by 
 what we can see on earth, is seen to be supremely 
 rational when regarded under this wider aspect. 
 In such relations we have learnt through the Holy 
 Spirit the true value of the individual. In the 
 fulness of time we have yet to learn the true con- 
 ception and the true value of the Christian 
 Society. 
 
 Here lies our peculiar need and duty at the 
 present time. In the Middle Age there was a 
 strong organisation of Western Christendom, 
 effective for the work which was then to be done. 
 
The Church the sphere of corporate life. 39 
 
 But its action was external and legal. Now we 
 look for corporate action of a different kind, pre- 
 vailing not by force but through the spontaneous 
 devotion of men who feel and confess that they 
 are Members of the Body of Christ, living by one 
 life and striving towards one end. In a Church 
 quickened by this feeling the believer finds the 
 appropriate medium for his wider activities. Here 
 in the manifold relations of corporate life he is 
 still ' in Christ.' He is in ' the world,' but ' the 
 world ' is not the appointed sphere of his social 
 development. 
 
 It is true indeed that the ' natural ' growth of 
 society, and the discipline of revelation are both 
 of God. But the former has been marred by 
 man's self-assertion. 'War, law, trade' are, it has 
 been rightly said, opposed to the teaching of the 
 Sermon on the Mount which gives the ideal rule 
 of the Christian community ; and it is the office 
 of the Church to win the world which Christ has 
 overcome to the ideal. The work has been at- 
 tempted with whatever failures, and the morality 
 of the Gospel however imperfectly established 
 has been the strength of 'modern' life. But 
 hitherto Christian influence has failed of its 
 legitimate effect because it has been personal and 
 isolated and not corporate. We have wronged 
 our Faith by failing to offer to the world a clear 
 
40 Public worship. 
 
 and harmonious view of Christian aims, motives, 
 methods. What is done or attempted by Christians 
 appears as the result of individual judgment and 
 not as the action of the Christian Body. It is 
 sufficient to recall what the Society of Friends 
 has accomplished through devotion to one purpose 
 that we may perceive what the National Church 
 might do if the moral convictions of its members 
 found united expression in the power of the 
 Holy Spirit Who is the spring of its life. Perhaps 
 the time has come when we may at least steadily 
 contemplate together the characteristics of our 
 Christian citizenship by which we prove ourselves 
 citizens of a heavenly city with a resolute joy 
 corresponding to the gladness and devotion of the 
 service which we render to our country. 
 
 This citizenship finds its special outward ex- 
 pression in public worship. In public worship we 
 meet as ' brethren ' and confess one to another our 
 faith in the Incarnation which determines once for 
 all the character of our mutual responsibilities 
 and duties. Through all failures and degeneracies 
 public worship has remained to believers the 
 witness of fellowship 'in Christ.' Worship is 
 doctrine in form. When the Word became flesh 
 the material which had hindered man's approach 
 to God was made in one sense a way to Him 
 (Hebr. x. 5 ff.). 
 
Worship interprets life. 41 
 
 This fact enables us to understand in what 
 sense Christianity is essentially sacramental as the 
 ethnic religions were symbolical and Judaism was 
 typical. Christianity affirms that there is a true 
 correspondence between things seen and unseen, 
 which had been indicated before by human instinct 
 or divine appointment. It enables us to recognise 
 that the whole of human life, personal and social, 
 has a spiritual side : that the eternal lies beneath 
 things temporal : that in all earthly phenomena we 
 are called to penetrate to the spiritual truths of 
 which they are ' signs.' ' The two Sacraments of 
 the Gospel ' present the truth in the most solemn 
 and far-reaching form. We lose indeed much of 
 their meaning by their separation from the daily 
 homely acts — the bath, the meal — which are 
 hallowed by them. But none the less they en- 
 shrine the lesson for our constant use ; and taught 
 by them we can find once more in nature and in 
 history schools of Divine wisdom. Worship in a 
 word interprets life. 
 
 This consideration determines the function of 
 ritual. The Incarnation has given a new signifi- 
 cance to forms so far as they are effective signs of 
 spiritual realities. But there is always a danger 
 lest they should occupy and engross us. Against 
 this we must guard with the most watchful care. 
 We must admit nothing which turns our worship 
 
42 Failure to apply the interpretation. 
 
 from inward to outward, which tends to set the 
 transitory in place of the eternal. Nothing ex- 
 ternal, however splendid and impressive, can 
 bring us nearer to the Divine; but external 
 things may engross and exhaust our powers of 
 devotion. Veils of sense, no less than veils of 
 intellect, may come between us and the spiritual 
 in which alone we can rest. To rest in forms is 
 idolatry. Earth may hold us still under the guise 
 of heaven. 
 
 Worship, I said, interprets life. But when we 
 pause to consider how far we use the interpreta- 
 tion as a guide in ordinary conduct, we cannot 
 fail to be struck by the difference between our 
 theory and our practice. In the Congregation, 
 when Christians meet as Christians in the 
 presence of God, we necessarily see something of 
 the unity of the Body of Christ. But how long 
 does the vision survive ? How^ much remains 
 of the consciousness of a common aim and a 
 common motive, when we have passed to the work 
 or the pleasures of the day ? 
 
 Or to narrow the range of our inquiry, what 
 vital recognition of fellowship is there among the 
 Communicants of a Parish ? The Communicants 
 are united in a brotherhood held together by a 
 bond stronger than any social or political tie, aud 
 yet what effect has this eternal connexion on the 
 
Need to build up 43 
 
 circumstances of our ordinary relations one to 
 another ? 
 
 In a body each member lias some characteristic 
 function, which is fulfilled for the good of the 
 whole : can we point to such service naturally 
 fulfilled by all those who thankfully acknowledge 
 that they are 'very members incorporate in the 
 ' mystical Body of the Son of God ' ? 
 
 When we reflect on such questions, we cannot 
 but sorrowfully acknowledge that we have hardly 
 taken to heart seriously the facts and promises of 
 our corporate life. It is no wonder therefore that 
 Christian opinion, unconcentrated and undisci- 
 plined, fails to move the world. We are 'in 
 Christ ' : we pray habitually that we may ' con- 
 tinue in that holy fellowship ' ; and still for the 
 present we make no united effort to claim and to 
 use the powers which belong to the Body as the 
 Body of Christ. 
 
 Yet the Services in which we join are them- 
 selves fitted to inspire us with larger views. When 
 we meet in Church for Common Prayer and Holy 
 Communion, we do not simply think of our own 
 needs, but confess our desire to share the burdens, 
 the sorrows, the weaknesses, the joys, the divine 
 resources of the one life 'in Christ.' We have 
 missed the main object of our assembling ourselves 
 together if we do not go forth strengthened by 
 
44 the Congregation. 
 
 the powers of this life that we may do our work — 
 the work which God has prepared for each one of 
 us severally — ' in Christ ' : that we may keep in 
 touch with those who are united with us in Him : 
 that we may make clear to all what our Christian 
 hope is. 
 
 To this end it is necessary that we, to whom 
 the ministry of the Word and Sacraments is 
 given, should labour more directly than we have 
 hitherto done to build up the Congregation. It 
 is our duty no less to discipline and train the 
 Society than to win individual souls. Indeed 
 under present circumstances it is perhaps through 
 the Congregation that the most effective Evan- 
 gelistic work will be done. St Paul describes the 
 service of the primitive ministry, 'apostles, pro- 
 phets, evangelists, pastors and teachers' — the gift 
 of the Ascended Christ to men — as directed to 
 the perfecting (the equipping) of 'the Saints' — 
 the whole body of the faithful — ' unto their luork 
 ' of ministering, unto the building up of the Body 
 ' of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the 
 'faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God...' 
 (Eph. iv, 11 ff.). The aim of the ordained ministers 
 is, in other words, to win the Congregation to be 
 their fellow -labourers. It must be so. The end 
 towards which we reach can only be gained by 
 the cooperation of all who have received the truth. 
 
The opportunities of Confirmation. 45 
 
 The sharp distinction which long habit has made 
 between the prophetic and evangelistic offices of 
 clergy and laity is not only perilous to the con- 
 ception of the Christian life but grievously hinders 
 the work of the Church. For religion is not an 
 appendage to life : it is of its essence and supreme. 
 It claims to inspire and control all occupations. 
 Against its dictates no rules or customs of society 
 have authority. And all believers are its ministers. 
 The ordinances of our own Church provide 
 most naturally for the ' equipping of the Saints ' 
 for their social function. Confirmation — with the 
 personal confession of each Candidate and the 
 la^dng on of hands — offers a priceless opportunity 
 both for impressing on each member of the Church 
 the fact of his solemn appointment to a life-long 
 service, and for calling into exercise the ministries 
 of those who have been admitted to full communion 
 in the Christian brotherhood. Already, I rejoice 
 to know, Candidates for Confirmation have in 
 many cases among us godparents ' as witnesses of 
 their Confirmation,' according to the direction of 
 our Prayer Book, and I trust that before long the 
 practice will be universal. The relation is likely 
 to be fruitful in blessing on both sides, giving 
 occasion for tender watchfulness and responsive 
 confidences, and it cannot fail to issue in the 
 beginning at least of a true corporate life. 
 
46 The duty of Communicants to 
 
 But to this end the utmost care must be taken 
 that no one shall be presented for Confirmation 
 who has not recognised the obligations as well as 
 the blessings which the rite brings. The time of 
 preparation will have revealed the capacities of 
 each for teaching, for membership in the Choir 
 or the like, through which the young Communi- 
 cant will be trained for maturer service. 
 
 In this connexion the admission of the newly - 
 confirmed into the circle of the Communicants of 
 the parish, the inner brotherhood of the Church, 
 ought to be marked by every sign of reverence 
 and love. A first Communion is not a personal 
 act only: it is a social act. The whole body of 
 Communicants is affected by it, and the new Com- 
 municant should feel the strength which comes 
 through sympathy. Hitherto, I venture to think, 
 this subject has not received the attention which 
 it claims. It is indeed impossible that it should 
 have done, for the Communicants are hardly 
 regarded among us in their corporate aspect. 
 Still it is clear that we have in the Communicants 
 a body in whom we have a right to look for the 
 fulness of sympathy between representatives of 
 every class, for the energy of the manifold sides 
 of Christian activity, for the formation of a defi- 
 nite Christian judgment on great questions of 
 private conduct and of public policy, for a common 
 
emhodij the Christian life. 47 
 
 Christian life, in a word, realised in the unreserved 
 offering of themselves bj all who share it to one 
 Lord. If this were the acknowledged position of 
 the Communicants among us it would be felt to 
 be a privilege and a strength to be admitted to 
 such a body in which Christ's promise of the 
 multiplied affections of the natural family in His 
 household would find accomplishment (Matt. xix. 
 29), and the recognised value of church fellow^ship 
 would provide an adequate basis for effective 
 discipline. 
 
 There can be no question that this was the 
 general character of the early Christian communi- 
 ties, but it has been lost in our individualism. 
 The corporate feeling among us expresses itself 
 in secondary associations which recognise different 
 types of obligation, and even different standards 
 of duty. The sense of proportion is lost in the 
 multiplication of such societies ; and the common 
 life is impoverished by the isolation of special 
 forces, gifts, ministries, which in due measure 
 belong to the whole body. Has not then the 
 time come for making a serious endeavour to 
 give a definite form to the Christian life of the 
 Congregation ? to develop, strengthen, consolidate 
 Church life as a life of the w^hole society through 
 the Communicants ? 
 
 I know the difficulties which beset the endea- 
 
48 The corporate life can thus he shewn. 
 
 vour; but I believe that it is the endeavour to 
 which the Spirit sent in Christ's name invites us 
 at the present time. And if we surrender our- 
 selves willingly to His guidance we shall at once 
 feel the full force of the one Divine life in every 
 Christian enterprise. 
 
 No one can deny that we need such a unity 
 of impulse and devotion to bring order and power 
 to our disconnected efforts. On a former occasion 
 I sought to shew the obligations which our faith 
 in the Incarnation lays upon us. Without repeat- 
 ing what I then said, I will only remark that in 
 our social work we have ' in Christ ' a duty to 
 ourselves, a duty to our brethren, and a duty to 
 those without. For the fulfilment of these duties 
 it appears to me that the restoration of our cor- 
 porate Church life through the completer training 
 of our Communicants is essential. I do not enter 
 into the details of the training which is required. 
 The question calls for full and many-sided study, 
 and I commend it most earnestly to the conside- 
 ration of the Clergy in close consultation with 
 their Communicants. 
 
 The necessity for the training lies, as I have 
 said, in the obligations which are laid upon us by 
 our Faith. We have ' in Christ ' a duty to our- 
 selves. We claim to pursue industry, commerce, 
 science, art, literature, as belonging to the work 
 
Our duty to the brethren : 49 
 
 which is committed to us. Our Faith therefore 
 must supply the spirit with which we engage in 
 them. No principle can be admitted to direct 
 our conduct which is inconsistent with the rela- 
 tions of brotherhood. The intercourse of business 
 cannot suspend the golden rule. All opportuni- 
 ties, endowments, powers must be used as trusts 
 for social advantage. The fulfilment of a public 
 service and not the effort after private gain must 
 be the dominant motive of all Christian labour. 
 In many professions this truth is fully recognised. 
 It has yet to be made universal. The apostolic 
 view of the real source and agent and end of all 
 things admits no limitation (Rom. xi. 36). 
 
 Our duty * in Christ ' to ourselves passes at 
 once into our duty to our brethren. The self- 
 denial, which is one of the master principles of 
 the Faith, must rule our social action. We admit 
 that the Christian view of labour as service to 
 God in men is beset in practice by innumerable 
 difficulties and temptations. These can only be 
 met by the help of a strong Christian opinion; 
 and it is here that brother silently helps brother. 
 The unwritten law which embodies the general 
 conviction executes itself It is not determined 
 by mechanical rules, but by a prevailing spirit 
 which deals with problems as they arise. At the 
 same time the habitual fellowship of Christians as 
 w. i 
 
.50 to those without 
 
 Christians is able to bring a true understanding 
 between different classes. The gravest danger of 
 our present condition is the mutual suspicion 
 born from ignorance which separates men from 
 men. Such suspicion cannot but disappear through 
 the fellowship of all in the consideration of the 
 gravest problems and hopes of life. We may go 
 further and believe that experience will not fail 
 to shew in due time how we may be able to 
 connect our Eucharist with a ' Love -feast ' corre- 
 sponding to our own circumstances. Every gift 
 has its perfect scope, and each believer is strength- 
 ened by his ministering. 
 
 The fulfilment of our duty ' in Christ ' to our 
 brethren carries with it the fulfilment of our duty 
 to those without. The Christian society is neither 
 secluded nor lost in the world. Just so far as it 
 offers the spectacle of the Faith, adopting and 
 ennobling every form of service, it will be effective 
 in proclaiming the Gospel. We have committed 
 to us a twofold message of which each part justi- 
 fies the other, the message of righteousness and 
 the message of truth. We shall prevail as we are 
 enabled to shew that right doctrine is the soul of 
 right conduct, and that life 'in Christ' is the 
 unfailing source of noble morality, both in the 
 internal economy of nations and in their mutual 
 relations. Our duty is to obtain the recognition 
 
The Holy Spirit tvorks 51 
 
 of principles : the application of the principles in 
 detail must rest with those to whom the conduct 
 of public affairs is entrusted. If we are agreed 
 that a Christian solution of problems of domestic 
 and foreign policy must be found, we may be 
 confident of the result. This is our contention. 
 The Faith presses upon man his noblest desires 
 as obligations and makes their attainment possible 
 by the gift of the Spirit. 
 
 In these three directions we can see how 
 immeasurably the influence of the Christian 
 Creed would be increased by the corporate fellow- 
 ship of those who hold it. And more than this : 
 as we look back over the past we shall observe 
 that the power of the Holy Spirit has been exerted 
 corporately and not only individually. The Creeds 
 of our Services — the Apostolic and 'Nicene' — 
 and the Canon of Scripture were not settled in 
 formal councils but through the action of the 
 Christian Society. Nothing, indeed, illustrates 
 more clearly the working of the Spirit in the 
 Church than the differences of the ' Nicene ' 
 Creed of the Liturgies from the text of the Creed 
 of Nicsea. Our strength, our hope, our progi^ess, as 
 incorporate in the Body of Christ, depend on our 
 effective belief, justified by such experiences, that 
 the Holy Spirit sent in His Name — the Spirit of 
 Truth — still works through His Body. Watchful 
 
 4—2 
 
52 through the Body. 
 
 dependence on the guidance of the Spirit is the 
 test of a standing or a falling Church. So far as 
 we are 'in Christ/ we cannot fail to hear His 
 living voice. 
 
 This is the truth which our very distresses 
 bring home to us. Happy shall we be, calm, 
 resolute, patient, if we believe, and live as 
 believing, that even now the Spirit takes of that 
 which is Christ's and declares it unto us. 
 
 If I have refrained from speaking of the contro- 
 versies which fill our minds today, it is not that 
 I have forgotten them. It is because I feel how 
 grievously they hinder our work that I have 
 ventured to point to truths of immeasurably 
 greater moment (as I hold) which we have not 
 made our own. If these truths are brought into 
 life our controversies will be composed. When 
 the Church is filled with the consciousness of her 
 mission by the power of the Holy Spirit, our 
 differences will fall into their true place. But we 
 do not seem for the most part to take our Faith 
 seriously, and men judge of it from our attitude. 
 We weary ourselves in endeavours to prove that 
 which is self-attested. The Christian life, the life 
 * in Christ,' is the one infallible sign of the truth 
 of the Christian revelation. The consciousness of 
 
Needful changes will come 53 
 
 life ' in Christ ' is the one invincible bond of 
 peace. 
 
 When we look round it is not possible, I venture 
 to think, to overlook the power of the Gospel which 
 has been revealed in great crises of history : the 
 order in which its manifold treasures so far have 
 been brought out : the characteristics and needs of 
 our own age : the pessimism which has followed 
 from our partial relapse into paganism : the 
 capacities of our own Church for preparing the 
 way to a wider union ' in Christ.' And in the brief 
 space of my work here nothing has filled me with 
 greater thankfulness than the response which has 
 been made in many ways to appeals for fellowship. 
 
 We need, I admit, the sobering, chastening 
 sense of the great difficulties and sorrows of life ; 
 but we need no less the sense of the immeasurable 
 powers and glories which are included in the idea 
 of fellowship, unity, 'in Christ.' The pressure 
 and distractions of ordinary duties tend to hide 
 both from us. Fellowship with Christ, with His 
 death and His Resurrection presents to us the 
 apparent triumj)h of the forces of evil and their 
 final overthrow. Whatever may befall us. He has 
 borne. Whatever we may be called upon to 
 undertake, He has done. And the Spirit sent in 
 His name enables us to know that God is still in 
 the world which He made and in us. As we feel 
 
54 through the quickening of corporate life. 
 
 Him within, we shall be enabled to discern Him 
 without. 
 
 There are not a few changes which I desire to 
 see in ecclesiastical procedure, in discipline, in 
 public services. They will come when a way is 
 made for the action of the Holy Spirit through 
 the restoration of our corporate life. Meanwhile 
 our strength lies in self control, in the repression 
 of caprice, in loyal obedience to the authority 
 which still remains among us. We have at our 
 command all the forces by which the early Church 
 was enabled to conquer the Roman Empire. In 
 proportion as we feel the greatness of the life ' in 
 Christ ' we shall be content to work and to wait 
 for its outward development. To have looked 
 upon it from afar is to have found a glorious hope. 
 May we then take to ourselves the words with 
 which St Paul points the lesson of the most 
 magnificent vision ever opened to man of the 
 triumphs of the Gospel : 
 
 / therefoj^e, — ' therefore,' because you have 
 been allowed to contemplate for a little space 
 promises which pass all knowledge, all thought, 
 all imagination — the prisoner in the Lord, beseech 
 you to walk worthily of the calling tvhereivith ye 
 were called, with all lowliness and meekness, luith 
 long suffering, forbearing one another in love; 
 giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
 
Our charter of hope. 55 
 
 the bond of peace. There is one body and one 
 Spirit, even as also ye luere called in one hope of 
 your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one 
 God and Father of all, luho is over all, and through 
 all, and in all (Eph. iv. 1 — 6). 
 
THE NATIONAL CHUECH 
 
THE NATIONAL CHURCH THE SPIRITUAL 
 ORGAN OF THE NATION. 
 
 ROYAL ALBERT HALL, KENSINGTON, Maij 16, 1893. 
 
 THE DUTIES OF THE NATIONAL CHURCH 
 TO CHRISTENDOM AND TO THE NATION. 
 
 DIOCESAN CONFERENCE, STOCKTON-ON-TEES, 
 Oct. 15, 1895. 
 
 THE NATIONAL CHURCH PROGRESSIVE. 
 
 CONSECRATION OF ST MARKS, JARROW, 
 June Qth, 1896. 
 
 CITIZENSHIP, HUMAN AND DIVINE. 
 ST PHILIP'S CHURCH, BIRMINGHAM, Oct. 3, 1893. 
 
 THE NATIONAL DAY OF REST. 
 
 ST ANDREW'S, BISHOP AUCKLAND, June 26, 1894. 
 
THE NATIONAL CHURCH THE SPIRITUAL 
 ORGAN OF THE NATION. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel that our present 
 anxieties have been fruitful in instruction. When 
 men are pressed by foes without we are told that 
 they build higher. So the sense of danger has 
 led us to take a loftier view of the interests 
 which are now at stake. The demand for 
 Disestablishment, and it is in principle nothing 
 less than this which is raised, has forced us to 
 consider seriously what is the idea of a National 
 Church, what is the idea of a Nation? The 
 progress of thought during the last fifty years 
 has prepared the way for a true judgment on 
 these momentous questions. We have risen little 
 by little, through the action of many forces, 
 above that narrow individualism which early in 
 the century made the conception of humanity 
 impossible, and reduced the State to a provision 
 
60 A sjnritiial organ necessary for 
 
 of man's making for the protection of material 
 and personal interests. We are now learning to 
 realise with more and more practical conviction 
 that the Nation, like the Family, lies in man's 
 very nature, and is brought to maturity through 
 the discipline of the ages : that the Nation, like 
 the Family, has a corporate life: that the Nation, 
 like the Family, is essential to the full develop- 
 ment of human powers: that the perfect Nation 
 is a condition of the perfect Man. We are coming 
 to grasp the truth which was foreshadowed in the 
 old dream that the Nation is a greater Man, a 
 living, a divine whole, through which mankind 
 reaches out to the full expression of its God-given 
 endowments in obedience to a God-given law. 
 
 Now, if this is so, and the whole force of the 
 social teaching of the Gospel, based on the 
 Incarnation, bears us to this conclusion, which 
 answers, as we are beginning to see, to the widest 
 lessons of Nature and History, can we believe 
 that that which is essential to the highest life of 
 the Individual, essential to the highest life of the 
 Family, is of no importance for the highest life of 
 the Nation as a Nation? Can we believe that 
 the Nation will not require for its perfection in 
 some form, answering to its complex life, that 
 which corresponds with the spiritual element in 
 the citizen? Can we believe that that which is 
 
the completeness of a Nation. 61 
 
 highest in man ought not to find a place in the 
 body which is at present the highest manifest- 
 ation of social life? 
 
 The recognition of the powers, the obligations, 
 the duties, of the spiritual life by a Family, as a 
 Family, even if the recognition is partial and 
 imperfect, is yet found to be a blessing to all the 
 members of the home. It is an inspiration and 
 a support to have the noblest brought naturally 
 and continuously before us in the hearth circle. 
 Can the recognition of the spiritual life be less 
 vital to the highest welfare of a Nation ? 
 
 I am a Churchman, I have no fear for the 
 life of the Church. But I am a citizen also, a 
 citizen of no undistinguished Nation ; and I fear 
 lest through impatience, or wilfulness, or ignor- 
 ance, we may, in a brief moment of excitement, 
 allow a motley combination of adversaries to 
 secularise our national life as national, and to 
 discard that which has been the moulding, in- 
 spiring force of England. 
 
 For the position and the history of England 
 are unique. The English nation has had from 
 the first a spiritual organ in the National Church. 
 It has found the great line of Spenser true on 
 the largest scale that 
 
 "Soul is form and doth the body make." 
 If we had no such organ we might well desimir 
 
62 The work of the National Church. 
 
 of calling it into existence. Yet the Christian 
 patriot would strive towards that supreme end. 
 As it is, shall we disown the peculiar glory of our 
 inheritance? Shall we mutilate the body of our 
 commonwealth ? Shall we cast away for ever 
 that which proclaims that the life of the Nation 
 is divine? For if the National Church ceases to 
 be national — national as accepting the pastorate 
 of the whole people and expressing generally 
 their spiritual convictions — no other Communion 
 can take its place. No other organ can be found 
 through which the Nation can declare its faith. 
 No concurrent endowment can guard the truth 
 which it embodies. Is such a change, such a 
 sacrifice, in view of the whole direction of human 
 growth, which tends more and more to enlarge 
 the duties of the State, an advance or a fall ? Is 
 it a generous endeavour to reach a loftier ideal, 
 or a disastrous national retrogression? 
 
 We must face the issue. It is not a question 
 whether the State shall favour a particular 
 religious body, but whether it shall recognise 
 a certain human need : whether it shall provide 
 for the fulfilment of a definite function, and that 
 the highest function in our corporate life : whether 
 it shall openly declare that religion is not an 
 accident of humanity, but an essential element in 
 every true human body. 
 
Tlte National Church a witness. 63 
 
 And why is the sacrifice to be made ? The 
 Church, we are told, has failed as the spiritual 
 organ of the Nation. But has it failed more than 
 any other organ through which the Nation exerts 
 its vital force ? We admit the errors and im- 
 perfections of the National Church, and we ask 
 all who care for spiritual truth to help us to 
 amend them. We ask the more urgently because 
 we are coming to a time when we can first see 
 the true meaning of social movements, and feel 
 the paramount importance of a large-hearted 
 spii'itual influence upon the changes which are 
 before us. 
 
 And however imperfect the confession of the 
 National Faith through the National Church may 
 be now, it is increasingly powerful as a witness, 
 and rich in promise for the future. 
 
 The National Church is, I say, powerful as 
 a witness. The continual unforced natural 
 acknowledgment of the sacred destiny of things 
 by the State exercises silently a subtle and 
 penetrating moral influence. It adds the con- 
 firmation of a Divine sanction to the sense of 
 duty. It unceasingly, by the very law of our 
 civil life, turns our thoughts to the highest, 
 to which we are akin. Those who are without 
 can trace its effects. It was not one of us who 
 emphatically called attention to the beneficent 
 
64 The National Church a luitness. 
 
 influence which the Church Catechism has 
 exercised upon the English character. In part 
 the English character is reflected in the Catechism, 
 and in part the Catechism develops and supports 
 the character. The daily Prayers in Parliament 
 continued from generation to generation are 
 something more than the private petitions of 
 believers. The Coronation Service, which has 
 remained substantially unchanged for centuries 
 — and would that more Englishmen studied it — 
 leaves an abiding mark upon the Sovereign ; and 
 we must all have rejoiced that at the Royal 
 Jubilee a service was ready in which monarch 
 and people could offer praise and thanksgiving as 
 the spontaneous utterance of one body and one 
 spirit. Thus the National Church brings all the 
 great crises of national life into connection with 
 the unseen and the eternal. And this acknow- 
 ledgment of the spiritual by the Nation is a fact 
 different in kind from the acknowledgment by a 
 crowd of citizens. The fulness of the truth which 
 it presents may not as yet be apprehended. But 
 the idea is with us. And for statesmen ideas are 
 the support of resolute patience. For the people 
 they guard the nobility of political enterprise 
 from the irony of selfishness. 
 
 At the same time the National Church, which 
 witnesses to an unchanging principle, expresses 
 
The National Church progressive. 65 
 
 it in correspondence with the growing beliefs of 
 the Nation. So it is, as I said, rich in promise. 
 The English Church is progressive, because it is 
 living. It has, from age to age, consistently 
 embodied the spirit of the English people, taking 
 up and interpreting according to the proportion 
 of the faith new thoughts at the Reformation, at 
 the Caroline reaction, at the Evangelical revival, 
 at the Oxford movement, and amidst the social 
 aspirations of the present day. 
 
 The National Church is not an exotic. It 
 is not the representative of a particular school, or 
 of a small group of men. Guarding treasures, old 
 and new, it offers to its members a guarantee for 
 healthy freedom. It is in constant touch with 
 every class ; and contact with the civil power 
 brings to its counsels a salutary and sobering 
 influence. It cannot, as long as it is national, 
 degenerate, like the Roman Church in France, 
 into a separate, a rival, an antagonistic society. 
 It is sustained and stimulated by the sense of 
 a universal obligation. It must continue to offer 
 every form of beneficent action which springs 
 from the Faith — and what does not? — to the 
 poorest as their birthright, and bring the solaces 
 of religion to those who need, and not only to 
 those who seek them. 
 
 Under this aspect of the work of the National 
 w. 5 
 
66 The National Church the heir of the j^^ist, 
 
 Church, we need not inquire whether the original 
 benefactors of the Church held in exact detail the 
 opinions which we now hold. We are their 
 children and heirs, and it is reasonable to suppose 
 that they would have been influenced as we have 
 been by the progress of English life. At any 
 rate under new conditions — and we cannot recall 
 the past — their gifts are still used as they desired 
 them to be used, in order to bring the ennobling 
 and consoling ministries of the Gospel to every 
 Englishman. 
 
 These endowments, which, if not essential, are 
 of the highest value for the efficient action of 
 the National Church, are at once a trust, and an 
 opportunity of service. We neither disparage 
 nor overvalue them. But we may not lightly 
 surrender that which has proved, in the past, 
 fertile in public blessings. And we can claim that 
 no funds are used more completely for the common 
 good than the revenues of the National Church. 
 
 I can understand how enemies of the Gospel — 
 enemies too often through unhappy misunder- 
 standings — should endeavour to silence the voice 
 through which the nation proclaims its allegiance 
 to the Faith. I can understand how those who 
 differ from the polity and from secondary teachings 
 of the National Church should stand apart from 
 it. But I cannot understand how those who join 
 
and trustee for the future. 6*7 
 
 with us in confessing one Lord, one Faith, one 
 Baptism, one God and Father of all, should unite 
 with their enemies and ours in the endeavour to 
 overthrow the national witness to fundamental 
 spiritual truths — which has made England what 
 it is — and inflict a heavy blow on Christianity 
 throughout the world. I cannot understand how 
 they should make impossible, because they believe 
 that they have the power, the realisation of an 
 ideal of national life towards which England has 
 advanced through the varied course of its history, 
 in which the temporal and the spiritual work 
 together in corporate unity for the fulfilment of 
 the noblest offices of human life. 
 
 We have then in England— to say all briefly — 
 that which gives completeness to our national life, 
 a National Church as the spiritual organ of the 
 Nation: a Church which has shaped popular 
 aspirations and welcomed popular influences; a 
 Church which has again and again proved its 
 power to assimilate new truths and to awaken 
 dormant forces ; a Church which in great crises 
 has been able to reconcile order with progress; 
 a Church which has used, and, with quickened 
 devotion, is striving to use great possessions and 
 great place, so as to bind all classes together more 
 closely in the unity of one life, and to offer in all 
 its freedom and grace a Gospel to the poor. 
 
 5—2 
 
68 Our Church applies a great idea to life. 
 
 Shall we then take the first step, I do not say 
 to destroy the English Church, that is impossible, 
 but to deprive the Nation of its spiritual organ ? 
 
 If the real issue is clearly seen I have no 
 doubt as to the judgment of the people. 
 
 " By nothing," it has been said most truly, " is 
 England so glorious as by her poetry " : glorious 
 that is by " the noble and profound application of 
 ideas to life." The National Church is, I believe, 
 the most conspicuous sign and the richest source 
 of this characteristic glory, for it maintains through 
 every failure the application of the divinest idea 
 to every fragment of a people's life. If the present 
 controversy leads Englishmen to realise this truth 
 with more vital power, it will bring to those who 
 are called to rule a loftier and purer standard of 
 political effort ; it will bring to those who are 
 called to teach more thoughtful considerateness 
 together with invincible patience and victorious 
 faith. And we, to whose special care the splendid 
 inheritance is entrusted, shall spare no endeavour 
 that we may not, through any neglect in our 
 guardianship, leave our country less able to meet 
 the social problems which are pressing upon us 
 for solution, and less able to fulfil in due time 
 that office for the race for which she seems to 
 have been prepared in the order of Divine Pro- 
 vidence by the long discipline of the past. 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE NATIONAL CHURCH 
 TO CHRISTENDOM AND TO THE NATION. 
 
 Many circumstances during the last three years 
 have forced us to think seriously of the relation 
 of our National Church to other Christian 
 Communions and to the Nation itself. I purpose 
 therefore to say a few words on these vast subjects 
 in the hope that we may be enabled to feel more 
 deeply perhaps than we have done the greatness 
 and the difficulty of the charge which has been 
 committed to us as English Churchmen by the 
 Providence of God. The views which we hold on 
 the widest responsibilities and duties which are 
 laid upon us cannot but influence largely the 
 judgements which we form on the practical 
 questions which we have to meet from time to 
 time, and which press heavily upon us now. 
 
 I. I will speak first of our relation to other 
 Christian Communions. It is obvious that the 
 English Church, by its constitution, by its history 
 
70 The English Church fitted to he 
 
 and by its character, is fitted to be a mediator 
 between the divided societies of Christendom. It 
 has points of contact with all. It has never 
 broken with the past, and it stands open to the 
 future. On the one side it has affinity with the 
 ancient Churches of the East and West by its 
 jealous maintenance of the historic Episcopate : 
 on the other side it has affinity with the non- 
 episcopal Churches of the Reformation by its 
 appeal to the Scriptures as containing all things 
 that are required of necessity to salvation. At 
 the same time it has refrained from imposing 
 fresh conditions of Communion in addition to the 
 common profession of Faith in the Baptismal and 
 Eucharistic Creeds, in which respect both the 
 Roman and Calvinistic bodies have laid on their 
 members a burden too heavy to be borne. So it 
 is that the teaching of our Church fixes our 
 thoughts upon the Person and Work of a living 
 Lord revealed to us with ever-increasing glory by 
 the Spirit sent in His Name. It is indeed a 
 necessity that definitions of doctrine should be 
 shaped from time to time according to the 
 thoughts and the language of the age, but they 
 necessarily include a transitory element, and to 
 enforce them for ever by anathemas is to exclude 
 the hope of growth, for all life is a process of 
 laying aside as well as of assimilation. 
 
a mediator between Ckristian Communions. 71 
 
 Strong then in primitive order and apostolic 
 simplicity we are bound to guard the fulness of 
 our heritage of catholic freedom. We differ from 
 others not by what we are but by what we have 
 received. Our heritage, in other words, is the 
 measure of our debt to the present and the future. 
 
 But it is said that the Church of England of 
 to-day is not what the English Reformers of the 
 sixteenth century designed to shape. So far as 
 the statement is true, it leads us to recognise in 
 our history — as indeed we recognise in the history 
 of the Church at large — the action of a Power 
 infinitely greater and wiser than man's. And the 
 more carefully I study the origin and revision of 
 our Articles — to make one illustration only — in 
 connexion with contemporary and later confessions 
 of Faith the more I feel the presence of a guiding 
 spirit which I can only call divine. 
 
 What then, we naturally ask, is our duty, as 
 English Churchmen, with regard to the eager and 
 deep desire for the reunion of Christendom which 
 finds expression on many sides in unexpected 
 ways ? Before attempting to answer the question 
 it may be well to acknowledge that the desire is 
 natural and even necessary for those who trust 
 in the fulfilment of the Lord's own prayer that all 
 believers may be one with a divine union, that 
 the world may believe that the Father sent Him 
 
72 The range and character 
 
 (John xvii. 20, ff.). And if we are wholly unable 
 to anticipate how this unity can be brought 
 about, or what shape it can take, we must ac- 
 knowledge also that in order to be effective it 
 must be in some sense visible, perhaps, to the 
 eye of the heart rather than to the bodily eye, 
 yet such as to carry the conviction of a divine 
 Presence in Christendom to those who are 
 without. 
 
 Looking forward, then, to this unity which is 
 the mind of Christ, the experience of our own 
 Church teaches us to keep in view all the bodies 
 in which the love of Christ finds a place. We 
 cannot leave out of sight Greek or Roman, Lu- 
 theran or Calvinist, or other Communions, on the 
 Continent and at home and in America, in which 
 the fruits of the Spirit are manifest. We cannot 
 look at the present only. We must take account 
 of the direction of religious movements, and 
 estimate the later results of our action. Outward 
 reunion, for example, of the English Church with 
 the Roman Church as it is now would, as far as I 
 can judge, postpone indefinitely the reunion of 
 Christendom. 
 
 Such reflections bring home to us the vastness 
 and difficulty of the whole problem of the reunion, 
 or rather of the unity of Christendom, yet, as we 
 have seen, in fidelity to our Lord we must face it. 
 
of the unity ivhich we seek. 73 
 
 But we must approach it otherwise than our 
 impatience tempts us to approach it. 
 
 The teaching of the past shows that the 
 principle and the beginnings of reunion are to be 
 sought from within and not from without. It is 
 possible for an external unity to exist ^ without 
 any spiritual force. The tragic history of the 
 Roman Church illustrates the fact. Wherever 
 the Roman Church has had complete and undis- 
 puted authority, as in Italy, Spain, South America, 
 Mexico, it has failed to retain the intelligent faith 
 or develop and control the moral growth of the 
 masses of the people subject to it. The outward, 
 indeed, is valuable only so far as it truly expresses 
 that which it professes to express. In religious 
 life it is most true that "soul is form and doth 
 the body make." And here lies a spring of 
 adequate encouragement. For though it may be 
 urged with great force that, as far as we see, the 
 course of human progress is directed by specialisa- 
 tion and antagonism, yet this very specialisation 
 and antagonism forces even partisans to recognise 
 that they are not masters of the whole of truth. 
 So it is that already our divisions have disclosed 
 lessons which are likely to be fruitful in the 
 future. On the one side we recognise differences 
 
 1 Comp. Dr Dale, " Fellowship with Christ: The Unity of 
 the Church," p. 315. 
 
74 A spiritual unity 
 
 of character, growing out of history and environ- 
 ment, which distinguish classes and nations, and 
 on the other side we recognise the infinite scope 
 of the Gospel of the Incarnation, which no one 
 type of thought or feeling can exhaust. We can 
 now grasp far better than was possible in an 
 earlier age the conception of the many nations 
 contributory to the fulness of the race by the 
 wealth of their distinct endowments, all of which 
 are due to Christ. Thus our thoughts are turned 
 to the very heart of things. We see that freedom 
 is not the power of the individual to do what he 
 will, but the power to fulfil his part in the social 
 organism. We see that the same sin — self-asser- 
 tion, selfishness — which separates us from one 
 another separates us from GoD. We see that our 
 union with Christ is not as units but as members ; 
 that so far as we are one with GoD we are one 
 with all who are in Him. The hymns which we 
 use in our common worship are a continual wit- 
 ness to the reality of the Communion of Saints in 
 the midst of our divisions. We silently confess 
 that men most sharply separated from one another 
 by their circumstances and by their forms of 
 thought have yet within them the same principle 
 of eternal life. Our own personal experience 
 confirms this consoling and inspiring truth. We 
 do not yet see how it can be embodied in the 
 
sought hy spiritual methods. 75 
 
 fulness of life. We do not cease to deplore the 
 moral waste which comes from our divisions. 
 But none the less we recognise at least the 
 beginning and the promise of that which shall 
 be when lowliness and meekness and long- 
 suffering and forbearance shall have their perfect 
 work in love (Eph. iv. 1, ff.). 
 
 For this consummation we shall pray instantly 
 and we shall rejoice in the knowledge that others 
 pray with us. We shall seek a spiritual end by 
 spiritual methods. We shall not dwell on the 
 presuppositions which in some cases give a special 
 shape to the prayers and seem to determine 
 beforehand what must be the form of the unity. 
 We shall, for our part, guard and use our own 
 inheritance with loyal and watchful care, seeing 
 that it is through this that we are set to serve 
 the common good, avoiding all things strange and 
 exciting which tend to lead souls away from 
 personal communion with GoD. In the last issue 
 we, and all who know what human infirmity is, 
 must pray, not that others may hold what we 
 hold, but that in common we may together hold 
 the Truth in its fulness, and gladly lay aside 
 whatever in our opinions, which we identify with 
 it, is only of human origin. It may be, so we 
 humbly trust, that in due season, when our self- 
 surrender is complete, God will disclose to us the 
 
76 The preparation for this unity. 
 
 perfect Truth in which every partial Truth finds 
 its place. Then at last, as we behold this trans- 
 cendent revelation, we shall know that in that 
 which we are essentially we are one. What out- 
 ward shape the unity which is thus disclosed will 
 take we do not attempt to define. We only 
 know that it will be a unity which the world will 
 recognise, fulfilling in some unimaginable way 
 the testimony of the first age to the Church, 
 " See how these Christians love one another." 
 
 Such thoughts carry us into higher regions 
 than those of human policy, and they are justified 
 by history. The end for which we look and pray 
 will not come through wise schemes of man's 
 devising or formal discussion. But meanwhile 
 we can each in our measure prepare for it. We 
 can use every opportunity for social intercourse 
 with those from whom we are separated by in- 
 tellectual and theological differences. Happily 
 our national habits encourage such unconstrained 
 friendliness ; and while nothing is more fertile in 
 exaggeration and misunderstanding than isolation, 
 the feeling that Christ is with those who follow 
 not with us opens the way for intelligent and 
 respectful fellowship. At the same time it will 
 deepen in us the sense of reverence and the sense 
 of responsibility. 
 
 Above all things we shall avoid theological 
 
The Church seeks unity for the Nation. 77 
 
 controvers}^ Controversy always accentuates de- 
 tails and generally turns upon them. But we 
 shall spare no pains to understand the difficulties 
 of those who differ from us and to present our 
 own Faith in its completeness living the Truth in 
 love (Eph. iv. 15). In this way we shall draw 
 nearer to our goal. The one effective refutation 
 of error is the Truth in action. The Christian 
 life in all its fulness is a power of conviction 
 without intellectual or spiritual waste. 
 
 II. It is natural to pass from the considera- 
 tion of the duties of our Church to other Com- 
 munions to the consideration of its duties to the 
 Nation at large. Here also it is called to be a 
 reconciler and to use its unique power for bringing 
 all classes together in mutual service. Its priests 
 are solemnly bound " to maintain and set forward 
 . . . quietness, peace and love among all 
 Christian people " (its bishops, with wider obli- 
 gation, ''among all men") and so to bring the 
 lessons of Holy Scripture to bear on common life 
 that " no place be left among those committed to 
 their charge for error in religion or for viciousness 
 in life." 
 
 The opportunities of the National Church 
 correspond with the fulfilment of this over- 
 whelming commission. It has representatives in 
 every class in the State. It has the right to 
 
78 The office of the Church to form 
 
 speak in the great Council of the Nation. It 
 reckons among its members men who hold first 
 places in every profession and every business. It 
 has forces which, if they were united, are strong 
 enough to mould public opinion and rule public 
 action, and to touch both with the enthusiasm of 
 a heavenly citizenship realised on earth. But 
 hitherto we have lived apart. We have not used, 
 we have not confessed, except in the offices of 
 worship, the paramount desire to use every en- 
 dowment and every possession, with one heart 
 and soul — leaders, teachers, labourers alike — as 
 trustees for our fellow-citizens and our fellow- 
 men, equally fellow-workers for one cause. 
 
 Perhaps the development of the national life 
 has not been fitted in the past to call out the 
 sense of this universal obligation. But it is 
 beyond dispute that the questionings of the 
 present day force us to consider what is involved 
 in our fellowship in one Catholic Church, what 
 duties and what powers it brings to us. 
 
 The changes of the last half-century, in- 
 dustrial, political, educational, have profoundly 
 modified, where they have not destroyed, the old 
 order, and as yet no new order has been fashioned. 
 No social ideal has been accepted or even shaped 
 in correspondence with the freshly-awakened 
 feeling of a full corporate life. The traditional 
 
an effective public opinion. 79 
 
 rules which fifty years ago regulated ordinary 
 Christian conduct have lost their power, and 
 nothing has taken their place. Here then is a 
 clear call to the National Church. It is called to 
 inspire all its members with devotion to public 
 service and to bring them personally once again 
 under the invigorating influence of a disciplined 
 life. The organisation of the Roman Church in 
 the Middle Ages gives us an impressive image of 
 externalised religious forces penetrating and 
 pervading all society from without : we need, if 
 the work of our age is to be accomplished, to 
 seek for its spiritual counterpart, sovereign in the 
 souls of men ; and it is the ofiice of the National 
 Church to quicken and to guide the quest. 
 
 To this end the National Church must accept 
 two tasks which fall naturally within its scope. 
 Its members must spare no effort to bring repre- 
 sentatives of all ranks and parties into friendly 
 intercourse. Its teachers must resolutely and 
 patiently lead their hearers to try all things by 
 the test of faith in the Incarnation. We must 
 all labour unweariedly to understand one another 
 and to understand our Creed. 
 
 It is true that no far-seeing statesman would 
 now draw the picture of "the two Nations" which 
 haunted me in my early College days, but none the 
 less the ignorance and suspicion which separate 
 
80 Knowledge, poiver, opportunities 
 
 the classes representing them to-day involve 
 grave perils ; and the perils are greater now be- 
 cause the distribution both of power and of 
 knowledge has been altered. The rich know 
 little of the temptations and feelings of the poor : 
 the poor know little of the burdens and anxieties 
 of the rich. And on the other hand it is difficult 
 to see that the Christian Faith exercises any 
 conspicuous influence over the entertainments, the 
 amusements, the general expenditure, of those 
 who profess it. Yet it is clear that the fact of 
 the Incarnation gives a distinct force, which 
 nothing else could give, to the responsibilities of 
 brotherhood, and claims to find open recognition 
 in conduct. It reveals possibilities in humanity 
 which sustain hope. It meets the aspirations of 
 men as men. It supplies a motive for untiring 
 labour to hasten the coming of the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 Now the foundation of pastoral work is know- 
 ledge of the people ; and the ministry of the 
 National Church, which reaches through the 
 whole fabric of society, can use its experience at 
 least to prepare the way for a sympathetic fellow- 
 ship of classes. Bishops, priests and deacons, 
 with characteristic gifts and functions, are all 
 alike heralds of good-will, and have a message 
 which they can spread throughout the Nation. 
 
brought through pastoral work. 81 
 
 The Clergy again can set in every parish, as 
 they are bound to do by their ordination vows, 
 a pattern of "plain living and high thinking." 
 
 But this work is not for the Clergy alone. It 
 is for the whole Society. The Church is set for 
 the revelation of the glory of GoD. Those who 
 have felt the power of the Gospel will even 
 unconsciously stir those who can feel it, and who 
 according to God's will are destined to feel it. 
 The eternal life, a present and not a future gift, 
 must make itself manifest where it is. We are 
 rightly reminded of the power of environment; 
 and a man's environment is finally his friends. 
 
 No doubt the double work which I have indi- 
 cated can only be accomplished by most patient 
 labours. It is no easy task to overthrow traditional 
 barriers of customs and habits which through long 
 use have ceased to be questioned. Judgement on 
 what is right and wrong in ordinary business 
 cannot be lightly improvised. There is need of 
 wide and long study in order to apply justly and 
 effectively what we believe to what we do. I 
 only claim that the National Church should 
 recognise the duty of facing the problems of 
 English society and English private life with all 
 their consequences. 
 
 The endeavour will, I believe, quicken a new 
 intellectual interest in the Gospel; and it has 
 w. 6 
 
82 Access of knoiuledge gives occasion 
 
 been said, as I hold, most truly " that in all the 
 great movements of religious reform that have 
 permanently elevated the religious life of Christen- 
 dom there has been a renewal of intellectual 
 interest in the Christian revelation." Viewed 
 under this aspect recent discoveries as to the 
 history of the earth and of man, as to the 
 continuous unfolding of life in orderly sequence, 
 as to the interdependence of all created beings, 
 "all thinking things, all objects of all thought," 
 as to the Divine method in the slow fulfilment 
 of the idea of the world, according to our powers 
 of observation, seem to me to illuminate passages 
 of the Bible which before were necessarily dark, 
 and to bring to serious students a new conviction 
 that the message of Christ Incarnate, Crucified, 
 Ascended, covers the whole of life with glad 
 tidings, widened and confirmed by the growth of 
 knowledge. 
 
 Happy are we if we pursue the lines of inquiry 
 which are thus opened. The Christian Law in 
 the Sermon on the Mount, which the human 
 heart welcomes, constrains us to look without for 
 help; and in giving the Law the Lord, though 
 this is often unnoticed, points to Himself as the 
 source of grace. Already we can read in it the 
 charter of discipleship : All things are yours and 
 ye are Christ's and Christ is God's. 
 
for closer fellowship witJi God. 83 
 
 Divine doctrine requires a divine life ; and 
 conversely a divine — that is a truly human — life 
 requires divine doctrine. This has been the 
 experience of all the religious leaders who have 
 widely moved the hearts of men. They have 
 prevailed by the force of definite dogmatic 
 teaching, widely different indeed in form, yet 
 alike directed to establish an immediate personal 
 relation between their hearers and the triune 
 God. So it was with the Reformers of the 
 sixteenth century, with the English Puritans, 
 with George Fox and John Wesley, with the 
 leaders of the Evangelical and Oxford revivals. 
 They were strong by bringing to men a fresh 
 sense of the truth that Christ lives and reigns, 
 present among His people through the Spirit 
 sent in His Name, and accessible with all the 
 treasures of His wisdom and power. This is the 
 truth which we have now to bring into the very 
 heart of our daily life, social and personal, the 
 truth which, as I have said already, our own 
 Church, Apostolic alike and Catholic, is specially 
 fitted by its history and by its constitution to 
 bring home to this generation. But if the in- 
 fluence of this Divine fellowship with the Ascended 
 Christ is to be realised among us in our corporate 
 and individual life it must be, I repeat, by the 
 action, not of any class or order, but of the whole 
 
 6—2 
 
84 The poiuer of this 
 
 Christian body, simply as believers ; and if it 
 is realised the Kingdom of God will not be far 
 off. 
 
 I have diverged very far from the usual type 
 of addresses on occasions such as this. I have 
 not attempted to discuss schemes of reform which 
 are present to the minds of all. I have rather 
 endeavoured to indicate the spirit in which we 
 should approach them and the one supreme 
 end to which they should be directed. There is, 
 unless I am mistaken, great need for this pre- 
 paratory discipline. Some strange irony leads us 
 to suppress our recognition of the greatest powers 
 of humanity. We commonly fail to remember, or, 
 at least, to enable others to see that we remember, 
 that the eternal life, which is the gift of God in 
 Christ, does not follow our earthly existence but 
 with all its immeasurable potencies is included in 
 it. We do not constrain men to take our Faith 
 seriously. We do not ourselves habitually pause 
 to consider what it means to us. We do not in 
 the face of great enterprises reckon the powers of 
 " the age to come " — of the age, that is, in which 
 we live — as our endowment. I speak from a 
 humiliating knowledge of my own failures. But 
 let me speak also of an experience fruitful in great 
 encouragements. No one can be called to wide 
 
Divine felloiuship. 85 
 
 spiritual oversight without learning something of 
 the unseen forces of life. For him what is other- 
 wise impossible is found to become possible through 
 the silent help of the body to which he ministers. 
 He feels, as he forgets himself, that he is strong 
 with a strength not his own through the sustaining 
 presence of a wider life. Such experience con- 
 strains me to turn, if I may, the thoughts and 
 the hopes of my fellow-workers to deeper and 
 more active reliance in all things on the power 
 of spiritual communion with GoD and with men. 
 The trust is not of words but of silence. And it 
 is through fellowship with Christ, fellowship with 
 all believers who are one in Christ, felt and 
 confessed, that that unity will come which will 
 conquer the world, and that transformation of all 
 labour into a divine service which will be the 
 Advent of the kingdom of God. 
 
THE NATIONAL CHURCH PROGRESSIVE. 
 
 TA apxaTa HApHAeeN, iAoY refONeN kaina. 
 
 The old things are passed away; behold^ they are become 
 
 new. 
 
 2 Cor. v. 17. 
 
 Nowhere could the first clause of this 
 memorable saying of St Paul find a more 
 impressive illustration than here at the birth- 
 place of English literature and English education. 
 Old things have passed aiuay since the days when 
 by the side of the haven of Egfrid, Benedict and 
 Ceolfrid and Bede laid the foundations of our 
 national culture, of art and scholarship and devout 
 learning. But through all changes one monument 
 of the past has borne its witness in spite of the 
 devastations of foreign invaders and of domestic 
 revolutions. The Mother Church of St Paul 
 has continued for more than 1200 years to shew 
 
The old becomes neiu by God's will. 87 
 
 what is permanent amidst the transitory shows 
 of earth. Old things indeed have passed away ; 
 but dare we complete the sentence and say: 
 behold, they are become neiu? Dare we say that 
 the resolute if quiet energy of the old life has 
 found a new shape in the restless industries of 
 the Tyne side : that the monastery school has 
 found its fruit in the public institutions which 
 bring the most varied treasures of knowledge 
 within the reach of all : that the devotion of the 
 cloister has passed into the service of the Con- 
 gregation ? This at least is God's will. This 
 is on a large scale the law of His Providence. 
 The old becomes new. The familiar words find a 
 loftier fulfilment than the poet thought of — 
 
 Nothing of (it) that doth fade 
 But doth suffer a sea-change 
 Into something rich and strange. 
 
 This, I repeat, is God's will and God's law. And 
 it brings to us strength and encouragement as we 
 strive to carry forward the good which we have 
 inherited to larger issues, and to overcome the 
 evil. It gives us the divine ideal of progress, 
 which every generation is charged to bring a 
 little nearer to fulfilment. The past had its 
 faults and its dangers which experience has laid 
 open. The present has its problems and its 
 
88 The past, which ive regret, 
 
 opportunities which it is our duty to face and 
 to use. Something there is at every moment 
 to be abandoned and something to be won. Thus 
 the words of the Apostle become to us a test 
 of the sincerity of our labour. We look backwards 
 and forwards with the one desire to hold and 
 hand down that which is good. We honour our 
 fathers and seek to prove worthy of honour from 
 our children. 
 
 The old things are passed away : behold, they 
 are become yiew. This close rendering of the 
 original words of St Paul brings out his central 
 thought more clearly than the A. V. : Old things 
 are passed away : behold, all things are become 
 new. St Paul is not speaking of a general 
 transformation but of a definite change. He 
 says not ' old things ' but ' the old things ' to 
 which our thoughts are turned with affectionate 
 regard: 'they/ the old things themselves, and 
 not ' all things ' are become new. What seemed 
 to be loss is proved to be growth. Yet even 
 in such a change there is a touch of natural 
 sorrow. The exact form of the Greek text 
 recognises it. Literally the Apostle says : * the 
 old things passed away.' He seems to pause 
 for a moment with a sense of regret. Then, as 
 he looks and looks, comes the sure feeling of 
 glad surprise, the revelation of the greater and 
 
lives in the j)7^esent. 89 
 
 abiding joy: behold, they — the things which 
 seemed to be gone for ever — are become new. 
 
 The old things are passed aiuay : behold, they 
 are become new. Such is indeed in the largest 
 acceptation of the words, as I said just now, the 
 Christian law of life. St Paul it is true is speak- 
 ing of the one momentous change w^hich is effected 
 when a man welcomes the revelation of Christ 
 and sees all being in the glory which it discloses. 
 But the law which the words express is universal. 
 Its action is continually brought before us. We 
 can see it fulfilled in the material changes of 
 the earth on which we live. We can see it 
 fulfilled in the history of the old world. We can 
 see it fulfilled in the history of post-Christian 
 nations. The great empires of the East passed 
 away, but not before they had transmitted 
 to the people of God the treasures of their 
 civilisation. Greece fell: Rome fell: but in 
 other forms they survive still. Let us only think 
 what we owe in our own intellectual life, and 
 in the expression of our religious faith, to Greece : 
 think what we owe in our civil and ecclesiastical 
 organization to Rome; and perhaps we shall be 
 inclined to confess with a new conviction that ' the 
 dead rule the living,' and recognise, humbled at 
 once and stirred by the grandeur of our obliga- 
 tion, that God has placed the future in our hands. 
 
90 Grotuth through change in the 
 
 But turning from these larger applications 
 of the Apostle's words we find this thought of 
 change through growth, of growth through change, 
 embodied with singular distinctness in the history 
 of England. England stands unique among the 
 nations for the continuity of its life through a 
 thousand years, which no vicissitudes of dynasty 
 have interrupted. We have passed through great 
 revolutions — the last and greatest in the present 
 century silent and often unnoticed — without 
 breaking with the past. Among us the old in 
 each crisis has become new. 
 
 Every part of our English life is a commentary 
 on this inspiring thought, but nowhere is it more 
 impressively displayed than in the history of the 
 English Church. The Church has grown with 
 the nation. It is not the creation of any states- 
 man or of any parliament. It stood by the cradle 
 of the nation and in the first ages it did much to 
 shape the nation. The liberties of the English 
 Church find the first place in the Great Charter 
 of English fi-eedom. The English Church con- 
 tinues to be to-day what it has always been 
 substantially, the spiritual organ of the English 
 people. It is the same Church as it was three 
 hundred or five hundred or a thousand years ago 
 in the sense in which the nation is the same 
 nation. The life which we live is the life of our 
 
English Nation and Church. 91 
 
 fathers, the same life made richer, fuller, larger, 
 by the fruit of their labours: the same not by 
 changelessness — which would be death — but by 
 vital unity. The England of to-day is the true 
 offspring and heir of the England of the Middle 
 Age and of the Reformation : of the Plantagenets, 
 of the Tudors, of the Stuarts. The English 
 Church of to-day is the true offspring and heir 
 of the Church in those earlier times. Elsewhere 
 the Reformers of the xvith century aimed at 
 establishing new Churches theoretically complete, 
 but our own Reformers sought to free the old 
 Church from the corruptions by which it was 
 deformed. The changes which they made were 
 designed to meet practical needs and not the 
 logical requirements of a system. Thus in a 
 most true sense the reformation of the English 
 Church is a continuous and unending process. 
 We can see how it has gone forward during nearly 
 four centuries and how it goes forward still. The 
 English Church has admitted modifications in 
 form and in opinion — and the growth still con- 
 tinues — under the action of the same influences 
 as have modified our constitution. It has lived 
 in conscious dependence on a Living Spirit. It 
 has welcomed the development of individual 
 responsibility and the exercise of a sober and 
 generous freedom. It has accepted the results 
 
92 Catholicity of our Prayer Booh 
 
 of fuller knowledge without any loss of faith 
 in old obligations. It has grown through the 
 forces of English character and not through the 
 forces of the character of Italy or Spain. And 
 who could wish it to have been otherwise ? Let 
 Italy and Spain bear witness to the effects of 
 an Italian papacy. 
 
 Meanwhile our English Church has guarded 
 and used her manifold spiritual inheritance. Our 
 Prayer Book is the memorial and the pledge of 
 our Catholicity. Our Prayer Book offers for the 
 daily, common use of all, and not of the clergy 
 only, treasures from the East and West, Hebrew, 
 and Greek and Latin. Above all it offers in our 
 public services constantly and not in any narrow 
 and arbitrary selection the full message of the 
 Holy Scriptures in the language of the people. 
 
 This richness and purity of our liturgical 
 heritage is generally acknowledged. But it is 
 not uncommon to hear words of disparagement 
 applied to our Articles in which the Clergy are 
 taught to acknowledge an authoritative definition 
 of their general dogmatic position. The Articles 
 are not indeed, nor do they profess to be, an 
 ordered system of theology, but a determination 
 of a series of cardinal questions, which, as they 
 filled men's minds in the xvith century, can never 
 lose their importance ; and I find it hard to believe 
 
and of our Articles. 93 
 
 that those who speak slightingly of theii' value 
 have studied them adequately in their relation 
 to the earlier and later Confessions with which 
 they must be compared if they are to be rightly 
 understood. For my own part I confess that the 
 more carefully I weigh the exact force of what 
 they say and take account of what has been left 
 unsaid or withdrawn or modified, the more I am 
 struck by the calm wisdom, the patient self-control, 
 the large and loving insight of their compilers — 
 themselves Confessors and Martyrs — who in times 
 of unparalleled popular excitement, tempted on 
 this side and that to neglect the proportion of 
 faith, have left us such a monument of Catholic 
 teaching ; and I do not indeed scruple to say that 
 I am unable to explain the final outcome of their 
 labours, except by believing that they found 
 effectually what they sought most humbly, that 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit which is promised to 
 those who pray for it in the Name of Christ. 
 Other men have laboured for us from the first 
 age until now and we have entered into their 
 labours, so that our English Church stands alone 
 in historic completeness and apostolic purity. 
 Other Communions may be able to shew some 
 special aspect of Christian truth or practice more 
 clearly or more effectively, but no one offers to 
 its members at once so wide a field for personal 
 
94 Our task to use our heritage 
 
 action, so large a measure of reasonable liberty, 
 so comprehensive a view of the Truth and so 
 complete a title to historic continuity. All the 
 wealth of former times has been brought into the 
 fabric of our religious life ; and that life, in every 
 crisis of change, has still the energy of growth. 
 
 To us is committed the stewardship of this 
 gathered wealth not for simple enjoyment but for 
 social use. And for the purpose of this great 
 ministry we stand by the grace of God each day 
 at a new starting-point. We are charged to shew 
 the vitality of our Faith by its power to meet 
 new circumstances. It is an inspiring charge. 
 We could not wish to live idly on what others 
 have left us. Our life is to use fruitfully what 
 our fathers have placed in our hands for the 
 preparation of the future. The old things have 
 passed away — old controversies, old modes of 
 thought, old conditions of society which at once 
 guarded and limited their activity. It is for us 
 to provide that all that their work truly expressed 
 may live on with nobler vigour under fresh 
 circumstances. What then are we preparing ? 
 What is our spirit, our position, our work ? We 
 see what we have received : what shall we give ? 
 What shall we hand down to our children ? How 
 will they j udge us ? Will they at least perceive 
 that we knew God's will, and offered ourselves 
 
in order to meet present needs. 95 
 
 for the doing of it ? I acknowledge most thank- 
 fully the multiplied signs of awakened zeal around 
 us: old churches restored and enriched with all 
 the furniture of dignified worship : new churches 
 built not unworthy of old models : untiring mini- 
 stries, restless devotion. But I remember the 
 xiiith and the xvth centuries, and I can find no 
 sure hope in these. The vision of God as the 
 interpretation of all life, communion with GoD 
 as the one stay of the soul, patient listening for 
 the voice of God and fearless obedience to it, 
 alone can save outward service from peril of 
 idolatry. Have we this vision, this patience, this 
 courage ? What, I repeat, will our children say of 
 our ruling spirit ? 
 
 Will they say, when they look back, that we 
 were possessed and overpowered by the splendour 
 of material things, that we made success the 
 standard of well-doing and riches the criterion 
 of national prosperity? Will they say that we 
 desolated our woodlands with poisonous vapours 
 and piled our river banks with blackened ruins 
 in our impatient struggle to grow wealthy ? Will 
 they say that even in our devotions — standing 
 apart as they did from the common tenour of our 
 lives— we sought honour one of another, and made 
 our temples monuments to our own glory ? Will 
 they say that we turned idly to the past to find 
 
9G How will our children judge us ? 
 
 models which we might reproduce, without seeking 
 by strenuous endeavour to clothe our noblest 
 aspirations in forms corresponding to a new age ? 
 
 Will they say this, or will they say, turning 
 to the record of our inconstant and imperfect 
 endeavours with reverent tenderness, Our fathers 
 were called to work in a season of new revelations. 
 No wonder that they were dazzled by the splendour 
 of unexpected worlds. No wonder that they often 
 fell and failed. Yet perplexed, distracted, burdened, 
 as they were, they courageously pursued the truth, 
 they desired, in all wanderings, to do the right, 
 they strove to bring classes nearer one to another, 
 they spared no effort to extend and deepen in- 
 tellectual and spiritual interests, they laboured 
 to make all races and all men partakers in the 
 fulness of one life. They fought unweariedly 
 against the temptations and jealousies and sus- 
 picions which troubled society in their time : they 
 cherished tenderly generous desires and dim hopes 
 and through manifold sorrows, distresses, failures, 
 they have handed down to us types of sympathetic 
 labour and clear thought which make nobler 
 achievements possible for us. The old things 
 have passed away : behold, they have become new. 
 
 That this may be their grateful testimony, a 
 right spirit must be met by a true sense of our 
 position and our call. English Churchmen are in 
 
Our inheritance unique. 97 
 
 a unique sense inheritors and stewards as I have 
 said of a National Church. There was a time 
 when in the West a Church outwardly one corre- 
 sponded to one temporal Empire. The combina- 
 tion was a splendid dream. But humanity was 
 not to be so disciplined. As men's thoughts were 
 widened the many nations succeeded to the one 
 Empire and began to develop in different direc- 
 tions their special endowments for the final 
 enrichment of the race. At the same time there 
 was a similar movement towards the recognition 
 of national and independent Churches which 
 might express the fuloess of the national life on 
 its spiritual side with capacity for corresponding 
 growth. In England alone the movement found 
 adequate accomplishment, though in the East a 
 nation and a Church are still s}Tionymous words. 
 It is our task then to do our work along the 
 lines of national progress : to bring the Faith 
 into vital contact with every region of national 
 activity. The special, the complex, life of a 
 nation with the peculiar problems which it offers, 
 and the characteristic forces which it calls into 
 play — problems and forces different for each 
 nation — constrains the believer to study afresh 
 the Gospel with which he is charged, and to bring 
 from it latent powers able to control and hallow 
 new energies. It has been so in the past : it 
 w. 7 
 
98 The claims of our Church self-justified. 
 
 will be so, if only we are faithful, in the 
 future. 
 
 It will be so if we keep our eyes steadily fixed 
 on the lessons of our history, on the splendid 
 service which GoD has prepared for us through 
 the ministry of former generations. But the 
 glory of the past often blinds us to the promise of 
 the future. There is a charm in the externalism 
 of the mediaeval Church which hinders us from 
 seeing its essential transitoriness. The coming age 
 cannot be the heritage of the Latin race or of the 
 Latin Church. As long as we regard the course 
 of events with a wide view the aggressive imperia- 
 lism of Rome will be seen to be an anachronism. 
 
 But we are in danger of being deceived by 
 bold words. We are tempted to forget our 
 strength, and to seek secondary supports for that 
 which rests on a divine foundation. Our Church 
 is strong enough to appeal to the fruits of her 
 labours, strong enough to be independent of the 
 testimony of hostile bodies. There is no field of 
 ministry which lies without the range of her 
 activity: there is no field in which she has not 
 vindicated her authority. The unity for which 
 we long and pray will not come through surrender 
 or compromise ; but when we all yield ourselves 
 with complete self-devotion to Him who is the 
 Way and the Truth and the Life. 
 
Watchfulness for the future. 99 
 
 What then — to come back to our question — 
 are we preparing ? what are we doing that when 
 the old thiags have passed away, they may 
 become new with a more effective and beneficent 
 influence ? that our enterprise may be directed to 
 social and not to private advantage, that our 
 energy may extend more widely the treasures 
 which grow greater as more share them, that our 
 endurance may find its reward in overcoming the 
 temptations of luxury ? 
 
 The question in its spiritual acceptation is not 
 for the Clergy only, but for all. Every Church- 
 man has some service to render. The Faith is 
 the intei'pretation and the strength of life. By 
 our simplest acts, through our common business, 
 through our ordinary bearing, through our chosen 
 amusements, we can shew — nay we must shew — 
 what this Faith is to us. God grant that as we 
 look to the great issue of what we call little 
 things we may hold fast the resolute conviction 
 that man was made for truth because he was 
 made for God : that life in all its parts is the 
 sphere of spiritual force : that worship is the 
 reasonable service of our whole nature, chastened 
 and raised by the thought of the Divine Presence. 
 
 To this end we should watch scrupulously lest 
 we mar our inheritance by impatience or self- 
 assertion. We shall keep reverently what we do 
 
 7—2 
 
100 Our strength lies in the confession 
 
 not use. We shall avoid equally a rigid main- 
 tenance and a hasty abandonment of traditional 
 forms. We shall take scrupulous care lest the 
 weakest of our fellow-churchmen should be led to 
 think that we look outside our own Communion 
 for a more perfect type of service, or a more 
 assured divine commission. We shall strive to 
 realise more and more that our solemn gatherings 
 are a confession before God and man of the 
 kinsmanship between brethren and sisters in the 
 Lord : the witness of our common hope : the 
 pledge, however imperfectly redeemed, of common 
 labour. 
 
 I do not dissemble the difficulties by which 
 such work is encompassed. I do not forget ' the 
 blasts of vain doctrine' which sweep round us on 
 every side. Such work is possible, only possible, 
 by the help of God. That help is to be gained 
 by serious effort. But for the most part w^e do not 
 take life seriously. We affect to live on borrowed 
 opinions. Yet borrowed opinions cannot avail us. 
 We must each make our Creed our own, a 
 reality — a present reality — not indeed by an 
 intellectual process but by spiritual sympathy, by 
 a divine fellowship. 
 
 Here is our hope and our strength. If we 
 are to provide on our part that our past may 
 bear its fruit, we must ourselves see clearly and 
 
of a present, living, Lord. 101 
 
 maintain firmly that which transcends all change, 
 the eternal power of a risen and a speaking Lord, 
 present with us all the days. 
 
 Hitherto our Church has been enabled to 
 make this truth the centre of its teaching. In 
 times of sore trial it has turned the thoughts of 
 its children from metaphysical subleties to a 
 living God, to the fact of the Incarnation as wide 
 as all experience, to the action of an abiding 
 Spirit. 
 
 So may it be for the years to follow : then 
 whatever unexpected changes may come, the 
 later generations who worship within these walls 
 will be able to say, as they look back over the 
 many stages in the growth of the Divine Society 
 to which they belong, neither exaggerating nor 
 disparaging the work of earlier days : The old 
 things have passed away : behold, they are become 
 netu. 
 
CITIZENSHIP, HUMAN AND DIVINE. 
 
 ZymhoATtai tcon AffcoN K<\i oiKcToi TOY OeoY- 
 
 Felloio-citizens with the saints, and of the household 
 of God. 
 
 Eph. II. 19. 
 
 St Paul was prepared by a twofold privilege of 
 birth, a twofold training, to give to the Church 
 the largest intei^pretation of the message of the 
 Gospel. As a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he knew 
 what was the counsel of GoD for man, whom He 
 made in His Own image. As a Roman citizen, 
 he knew what glory could attach to an earthly 
 society. 
 
 During his imprisonment at Rome he seems 
 to have dwelt specially on the latter thought. In 
 the light of his own experience he was enabled 
 to understand something of the growth of the 
 empire, of its power to assimilate strange elements, 
 
Influence of the Empire on St Paul. 103 
 
 of the majestic sovereignty of its law. Stirred and 
 touched by these lessous, he found in the Imperial 
 organization, as it appears from the Epistles of 
 the Captivity, a sign of the natural fellowship of 
 men, a partial realization of a common life of 
 humanity. 
 
 Looking at the vast body of the State, he saw 
 in the magnificent form of outward unity the faint 
 reflection of a Divine archetype. The citizenship, 
 of which he had experienced the virtue at Philippi 
 and Jerusalem and Csesarea, was to him a symbol 
 of heavenly privileges in a more august body. In 
 this spirit he bids the Philippians live as citizens 
 of God's kingdom, worthily of the Gospel of Christ. 
 Our country, he adds, the holy city to which we 
 belong, and in which we find the rule and in- 
 spiration of social duty, is in heaven, no creation 
 of today or yesterday. We as Christians have 
 already entered within its borders. Our King 
 reigns above, and we who have been raised with 
 Him, who have ascended with Him, find in His 
 presence a new light and law of life, which, sooner 
 or later, shall be revealed to the whole world. 
 
 This teaching, with all its far-reaching con- 
 sequences, culminates in the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians. The characteristic worship of the 
 Ephesian Artemis added the conception of a 
 universal religion to that of a universal State. 
 
104 The glory of the heavenly 
 
 And looking to the fabric which men had imper- 
 fectly fashioned for themselves, in obedience to 
 imperious instincts, St Paul shows how God had 
 satisfied their desires. Recalling the peculiar 
 glories of Israel, in order to emphasize the contrast, 
 he describes what the nations had been, and what 
 they now were through Christ. "Ye were," he 
 says, " separate from Christ, alienated from the 
 commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the 
 covenants of the promise, having no hope, and 
 without God in the world." In the times of 
 their ignorance they had lost that connection 
 with the personal revelation of the Lord which 
 was prepared for them in the blessing given to 
 Abraham. They had no sure stay in the troubled 
 course of national history. For them no splendid 
 assurance of the final triumph of righteousness 
 illuminated the future. No habitual intercourse 
 with a living GoD cheered the present. But now 
 all was changed. Every separation of exclusive 
 prerogative had broken down. "Ye are," the 
 Apostle writes — a Jew to Gentiles, with the ex- 
 ultation of victorious faith — " no more strangers 
 and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the 
 saints and of the household of GoD." Spiritual 
 outcasts before, they had found in their Father's 
 home an eternal resting-place. They had been 
 incorporated in a society of which Israel was but 
 
citizenship. 105 
 
 a shadow. They had been brought into fellowship 
 with God Himself. Christians as Christians — 
 such is St Paul's Gospel, without any distinction 
 of race, or class, or culture — are not " one " only, 
 but " one man {eh) in Christ," share in one Divine 
 life, move on earth as possessors of a heavenly 
 heritage, and charged with a heavenly service. 
 They are members in that glorious Body through 
 which the will of GoD is realized and made known 
 by the Spirit sent in Christ's name. Pressed on 
 every side by temporal anxieties, perplexed, baffled, 
 cast down in the eyes of men, they still walk in 
 the Spirit, rejoicing in the powers of the unseen 
 world. 
 
 It has often been urged, and fanaticism from 
 time to time has given colour to the accusation, 
 that such teaching tends to disparage the common 
 interests and obligations of earth. No charge can 
 be more false. It transfigures them. It shows 
 their transcendent significance. It reveals the 
 eternal thought which is struggling towards 
 manifestation through every energy of that nature 
 which the Son of God has taken to Himself The 
 consciousness of a heavenly citizenship brings home 
 to those enjoying it the type, the strength, the aim 
 of the Christian life fulfilled on earth. 
 
 (1) Many here will remember a memorable 
 passage in Plato's "Republic" in which, after 
 
106 A pattern in heaven 
 
 Socrates has shown that the upright man will 
 direct his action towards his own moral growth, 
 Glaucon says keenly, " He will not, then, engage 
 in politics." "Not in his native land, perhaps," 
 Socrates replies, "unless some Divine event be- 
 fall " — (" unless some Divine event befall," mark 
 the reservation) — " but in his own true State he 
 will." "You mean," Glaucon answers, "in the 
 State which we were just framing, a State which 
 is founded on theory, for I fancy it exists nowhere 
 on earth." " True," Socrates rejoins ; " nowhere 
 on earth ; but in heaven, perhaps, a pattern is 
 laid up for whoever desires to see it, and seeing 
 it, to make his home there." 
 
 The Divine event, for which the great teacher 
 half-unconsciously looked, has come to pass. 
 Through the Incarnation every relation and 
 circumstance of life has received a new meaning. 
 The simple joys and sorrows, the little duties and 
 occupations of an obscure position have been 
 brought into direct connection with GoD. In 
 the record of the Saviour's work we learn to 
 recognize an eternal element in commonest things: 
 behind all is the Divine. The humblest, the 
 feeblest, the most careworn among us who are 
 in Christ are fellow-citizens with the saints. Our 
 citizenship, our earthly citizenship can be fulfilled 
 in heaven, for heaven is the welcomed presence of 
 
of earthly citizenship. 107 
 
 God. The pattern laid up in heaven has been 
 brought to earth. If, then, we accept this pattern 
 we shall find in our natural obligations not only 
 the discipline which GoD has provided for our 
 education, but also the work which He has pre- 
 pared for us to do. We shall see that all human 
 work is, from the nature of the case, potentially 
 Christian work; that social, commercial, municipal, 
 national activity, is part of the one human life 
 which Christ has lived, an expression in due 
 measure of the nature which He has borne to 
 His Father's throne. 
 
 If we accept this pattern we shall strive to 
 make the standard of heaven the standard of our 
 own service. " As in heaven, so on earth " will be 
 the law of our endeavours to do the will of God, 
 as it is from our childhood the form of our prayer. 
 Because we are citizens of heaven we shall be 
 more resolute, more courageous, more enduring 
 in the discharge of our earthly citizenship. 
 
 And a life fashioned after this pattern — 
 complete in its range, loyal in its obedience, 
 unresting in its aspirations — is our true life. We 
 may have been alienated from it, but it is not 
 alien to our nature. We feel in our souls a 
 certain kinship to the noblest that men have 
 thought and done. Such a life is man's true life, 
 and it is open to all men. It does not depend 
 
108 The strength and end of eai^thly 
 
 un material conditions ; it consists not in a man's 
 abundance ; it does not spring from the things 
 which he possesses; it is in this world and not 
 of it ; it uses gifts of earth, few or many, need 
 alike and superfluity, as means through which 
 spiritual force may be shown. 
 
 (2) As we contemplate the heavenly pattern 
 we recognize our ideal, and our hearts fail us at 
 the remembrance of our weakness. But at once 
 we are lifted out of ourselves. If, as we believe, 
 all true life answers to a Divine archetype — a 
 pattern in the heavens, if the Word, Himself 
 God, became flesh, and by living hallowed life, 
 and by dying conquered death, then we, with 
 all our infirmities and failures, are brought near 
 to an inexhaustible spring of strength : w^e have a 
 promise, in deed, and not in word, which cannot 
 fail: we have a full assurance that there can be 
 no final defeat of God's righteous love. It has 
 conquered on the cross. We are not of ourselves 
 or unto ourselves, but of God and unto God. We 
 are — it is a marvellous phrase — " His workman- 
 ship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, 
 which God afore prepared that we should walk 
 in them." We and our works are God's making. 
 The workman and the work correspond by a 
 predetermined harmony. God gave and God 
 gives us the strength which we severally need : 
 
life found in the heavenly. 109 
 
 He provides for us the means and the occasions 
 for doing Him service. He encourages us to feel, 
 and the feeling is an inspiration which prevails 
 over every misgiving, that He accomplishes His 
 will through us. In some sense, according to the 
 language of the ancient mystics, He needs us ; 
 and He opens our eyes to see the vision of our 
 Master's glory, the transcendent victory of love 
 through sacrifice. 
 
 (3) In the vision of that glory we behold the 
 end towards which we are moving along many 
 ways. The glory is all ready and awaits the day 
 of revelation. Meanwhile, as we look heavenwards 
 we learn more and more perfectly that heaven is 
 about our feet : learn that we are here and now 
 placed in contact with a vast order and set to 
 labour towards a vast consummation : learn that 
 while we have a little thing to do, we are bound 
 together with an innumerable host of fellow- 
 workers: learn that in our most trivial and 
 routine activities we can fix our eyes upon the 
 whole : learn that as we fulfil our least office, 
 living the truth {dXrjOevovres:) in love, in the 
 Apostle's phrase, we hasten the time when the 
 Body of Christ shall reach the full measure of 
 its growth through the ministry of each several 
 part : learn that nothing is too small to be made 
 an acceptable offering through thoughtful love : 
 
110 Difficulties and opportunities 
 
 learn that nothing which is required of us can 
 be above our powers, if only we forget ourselves 
 and trust in Him in Whom we have our being, 
 " fellow-citizens with the saints and the household 
 of God." 
 
 We do not pretend that it is easy to present 
 in a perfect embodiment the citizenship of heaven 
 through the duties of earthly citizenship ; we do 
 not pretend that we have no formidable adver- 
 saries, seen and unseen, on the stage of earth and 
 in spiritual realms; we do not pretend that the 
 date of our victory is fixed within a certain time 
 measured by rising and setting suns ; we do not 
 pretend that nothing depends according to the 
 providence of God on human effort, painful, 
 intense, prolonged. But we do maintain, in spite 
 of all failures and delays and checks, that we must 
 prove our Divine endowments in the affairs of the 
 world ; that those who are with us are more than 
 those who are against us ; that the communion of 
 saints brings to us invigorating force now and 
 here; that the victory of Christ is complete 
 though every prize of it is not yet gathered ; 
 that no effort is lost, and no martyrdom — no life 
 offered — is fruitless. 
 
 Such thoughts are natural to me here and 
 today, when I recall how England and Birming- 
 ham have grown since I was christened in this 
 
of earthly citizenship. Ill 
 
 church. Every great building which represents 
 the social life of the city — a city, alas ! still with- 
 out a cathedral — schools, libraries, art galleries, 
 halls, council-chambers, courts of justice have 
 risen since then. Taken together this splendid 
 array of municipal institutions is an impressive 
 witness to the fulness of life. Each one ought to 
 be, each one may be, a sanctuary in which fellow- 
 citizens of the saints meet to prepare for their 
 work and to fulfil it. Each one — whatever oc- 
 casions may seem to have been lost — is still a 
 sign and a call to men who are citizens of heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 In order that the sign may find an interpre- 
 tation and the call an answer, we must recognise 
 the variety of functions through which a perfect 
 life is realized. The least of us has a character 
 shaped by a unique history, a work prepared for 
 him which no other can do. For the least of us 
 wherever we may be placed, life is a mission, and 
 each Churchman has been solemnly appointed to 
 his charge by laying-on of hands. Our differences 
 are the condition of our effective service. There 
 cannot be an external, mechanical equality among 
 men. If such equalization were possible it would 
 empty life of all joy. But while there is no equality 
 there is no conflict. The ministries which are 
 commonest, which seem to be least, are the most 
 
112 Civil work and Church work 
 
 necessary, the ministries of the hearth and of the 
 workshop, of the counter and of the office. 
 
 Love is the common measure of all forms 
 of work, and where love is there is God. We 
 have neglected — we sadly confess it — to claim 
 this variety of service for Christ in the past : we 
 claim it the more earnestly now. 
 
 And here in a city which stands first in our 
 empire for municipal energy, I venture to insist 
 with whatever force I can command, that civil 
 work is an essential part of the service of fellow- 
 citizens of the saints. Church work and civil 
 work act and react one on the other. We have 
 suffered grievously in the past by their separation. 
 On the one hand. Church life has wanted, or seemed 
 to want, breadth, reality, the freshening impulses 
 and masculine vigour which come through the 
 manifold activities of civil enterprise. It has 
 tended to pass into the traditional maintenance of 
 an intellectual creed, or the following a system of 
 emotional worship. On the other hand, our civil 
 life has wanted the elevating force which comes 
 from the frank acceptance of great ideals. It has 
 tacitly admitted a material standard and a material 
 aim. Education, in one form or other, is more 
 and more directed to provide the keenest weapons 
 for those who are to contend as industrial com- 
 batants. The object of the manufacturer is taken 
 
alike parts of Christian service. 113 
 
 to be the attainment of a monopoly of production 
 by the destruction of his rivals. Even the first 
 duty of a nation is supposed to lie in securing at 
 all cost ample markets for its merchants. Wealth, 
 material wealth, is assumed to be the sufficient 
 sign of success, and physical pleasure the satis- 
 faction of man's desires. 
 
 In such issues there can be no peace. Peace 
 will only come to man when a spiritual element 
 animates his whole activity ; when religion is not 
 treated as an appendage to life, but felt to be the 
 inspiration of life ; when the believer strives with 
 resolute effort to set forth the faith in every 
 relation of the family and the city and the State ; 
 when the man of affairs acknowledges, and is seen 
 to acknowledge, that each transaction in which he 
 engages is part of his tribute to his risen Lord ; 
 when the humblest toiler shows by his courage, 
 by his endurance, by his self-denial, by his hope, 
 that he moves on earth as a " fellow-citizen of the 
 saints and of the household of God." 
 
 But when I plead, and I do plead, with 
 the busiest men for personal confession of the 
 faith and personal service ; when I plead with 
 them for the deepening of intelligent sympathy 
 between class and class and man and man, by 
 patient intercourse, for the thoughtful application 
 of our Creed to problems of commercial life, for 
 
 w. 8 
 
114 Need of a simple life, and 
 
 the practical maintenance of a great hope mas- 
 tering our daily anxieties, I know the answer by 
 which I shall be met. I shall be told that in an 
 age of competition they are too closely occupied 
 by thoughts of business, too much exhausted by 
 its complicated and exciting vicissitudes, to under- 
 take obligations which require leisure and quiet 
 and painful reflection. Oh, my friends, the answer 
 reveals our fatal mistake ! We have transposed 
 the Divine sequence of duties. Instead of placing 
 our search for the kingdom of GoD first, we post- 
 pone it till we have satisfied every secular want. 
 We have forgotten the claims of life in our desire 
 to accumulate the means of living. A truly 
 human life, whatever be its nature, requires leisure 
 and quiet and reflection ; and still day by day we 
 seem to strive more eagerly to make them un- 
 attainable. "Late and soon, getting and spending, 
 we lay waste our powers." We need, then, to 
 learn once more what is the dignity and the grace 
 and the joy of a simple life, if we are to overcome 
 the growing evils of the time. The waste of 
 spiritual capacities is of all wastes the most 
 disastrous. The vitality of our faith is at issue. 
 Believers must embody the ideal which it supplies, 
 or it will pass from among us. For a faith which 
 does not prove its efficacy in life will soon cease 
 to be held by serious men. 
 
of the service of all. 115 
 
 But we cannot admit the thought of such a 
 future. To a great assembly like this, brought 
 together by one thought, appointed to one service, 
 fired by one hope, inspired by one great tradition, 
 all things seem to be possible, all things are 
 possible. Our English Church claims with a new 
 energy the ministry of all her children. She 
 guards for the citizen every treasure and every 
 consolation of the faith. She vindicates for 
 spiritual influences a place in every national work. 
 She offers a hospitable welcome to every patient 
 labourer for the truth. She finds a place for 
 every form of service. She covers with her 
 activities the whole range of human needs and 
 human endowments. She has never failed to 
 claim the fulness of the earth as a tribute to 
 God's glory, and the fulness of life, with all its 
 interests and occupations, as man's reasonable 
 offering. With all her shortcomings and all her 
 imperfections — and I do not extenuate them — she 
 has never dissembled the greatness of her re- 
 sponsibility or refused to acknowledge that her 
 precedence means the first place in danger and in 
 sacrifice. 
 
 But a great inheritance, a unique history, 
 splendid opportunities, are not an occasion or 
 an excuse for self-gratulation. They are a chal- 
 lenge to worthy endeavours ; and endeavours are 
 
 8—2 
 
116 The tuaste of human force 
 
 fruitless unless they are sustained by the Holy 
 Spirit. He alone is the strength — the all- suffi- 
 cient strength — of saints. 
 
 In this faith, in this hope, we are bidden once 
 again to live as citizens worthily of the Gospel of 
 Christ. The charge which is laid upon us is of 
 immediate urgency, when social problems are 
 uppermost in men's minds; and it is of in- 
 expressible solemnity. 
 
 We are all familiar with the story of the 
 Persian king, whose pride at the sight of the vast 
 hosts ready to do his pleasure was turned into 
 tears when he called to mind that not one man 
 out of all his armies would be left alive in a 
 hundred years; familiar, too, with the comment 
 of his faithful counsellor, who said that life, with 
 its inevitable sorrows and frequent tragedies, 
 made death itself a relief. But do we not feel 
 that that which gives the deepest sadness to the 
 spectacle of great multitudes is not the thought 
 of the transitoriness or of the griefs of humanity 
 which it suggests, but the thought of the in- 
 calculable spiritual force which is present among 
 them, unacknowledged for the most part, un- 
 disciplined, unconcentrated, unused ? 
 
 Yet the force is there ready to minister to the 
 energies of the life which is truly life. The most 
 forlorn and desolate of the sons of men, shep- 
 
The mission of the Church is for salvation. 117 
 
 herdless, distressed, and scattered, distracted by 
 conflicting cares and exhausted by unsatisfying 
 labours, are, even as we are, called to be fellow 
 citizens with the saints, and of the household of 
 God. Nay, Christ Himself comes to us in those 
 who share the nature which He has taken to the 
 right hand of GoD; and they, consciously or 
 unconsciously, look to us, who have at least 
 acknowledged man's destiny, to show them that 
 the faith is not a tradition but a life ; not simply 
 a record of bygone conquests, written in a half- 
 forgotten tongue, but a message given to us in 
 our own language and calling us to fi^esh achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 Do we ask how we shall obey the call ? I ask 
 in reply : Do we believe in the Holy Ghost ? If 
 we believe, all things are possible to us ; if we do 
 not believe, then for us Christ is not risen. But 
 now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the 
 first-fruits of them that are asleep. Now has He 
 brought us forth that we should be a kind of 
 first-fruits of His creatures. The words ought to 
 sink into our hearts. We are, as it were, a new 
 Israel to those who have not received the Gospel. 
 At present we have failed to realize the grandeur 
 of the mission of the Church to the world as the 
 body through which God works for its salvation. 
 We have not matched our hope with the spiritual 
 
118 Poivers and truths unused. 
 
 greatness of the least for whom Christ died. We 
 have not used the resources which the Spirit 
 places at our command, preoccupied as we are by 
 our o^Ti natural fears. We have not drawn the 
 bond between Christian and Christian as close as 
 it must be drawn, if we are to move the world by 
 the spectacle of conquering love. We have not 
 mastered the law of Divine progress; first the 
 union of the believer with GOD, then the union of 
 believers in God ; then the establishment of 
 God's kingdom ; then the fellowship of the saints. 
 
 What might not a congregation like this do if, 
 once more gathered all together round the table 
 of the Lord with one heart and one soul, they 
 were to recognize in that sacrament of fellowship, 
 human and Divine, their unity, their mission, 
 their power, and so, passing forth to the scenes of 
 common toil, were to fulfil every office of life as 
 fellow citizens with the saints and of the house- 
 hold of God ? 
 
 Does such a suggestion seem to be an idle 
 fancy ? I reply, and every soul will echo back 
 the words with a truer confidence than when they 
 burst from the lips of thousands at Clermont to 
 welcome the first crusade, " It is the will of God." 
 
 " It is the will of GoD." May He enable each 
 one of us in this place to hasten its accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
THE NATIONAL DAY OF REST. 
 
 Remember the Sabhath-day to keep it holy. 
 
 Ex. XX. 8. 
 
 / came not to destroy, hut to fulfil. 
 
 St Matt. v. 17. 
 
 When I was speaking about a year ago, at the 
 re-opening of the daughter church I took occa- 
 sion to point out some of the larger lessons of 
 public worship which are written for us in our 
 Book of Common Prayer. I endeavoured to show 
 that our gatherings in the House of God bring 
 vividly before us the social character of our Faith 
 — that they constrain us to remember that we 
 cannot live, that we cannot die to ourselves — 
 that they encourage us to take to our hearts the 
 joys and sorrows, the trials, the failures, the vic- 
 tories, of our fellow men — that they assure to us 
 a real share in the greatest thoughts, the most 
 
120 The Sahhath 'the day of 
 
 Divine experiences of the Saints in old times — 
 that they help us to rise according to the laws of 
 human life, through fellowship with the brethren, 
 fellowship with apostles, prophets, martyrs, to 
 fellowship with GoD and men in Christ — that 
 they open before us a vision of life which if it 
 passes all understanding brings to the soul the 
 confidence of peace. 
 
 But it may be asked by some — " How can we 
 who are burdened with daily cares, or we on 
 whom the requirements of material existence 
 impose an anxious struggle, or w^e whose future, 
 if w^e dare to look forward, is clouded by loneli- 
 ness and want ; how can we in our several stations 
 rise to such lofty views ? They require leisure, 
 and calm, and knowledge, which are denied to us. 
 We dimly feel their grandeur, but they are the 
 portion of a chosen few." 
 
 This is the question which I desire to answ^er 
 on this Festival of re-assembling in your renovated 
 Parish Church, under circumstances which lift 
 our thoughts with peculiar power to the unseen, 
 and the eternal ; and at once I reply that Sunday, 
 the new Sabbath — the Rest-day of the Resurrec- 
 tion, is the provision which God has made that 
 whatever is noblest in spiritual thought and affec- 
 tion may be within the reach of all — yes ! within 
 the reach of all, for the idea of the Sabbath, the 
 
the rest of the heart' 121 
 
 Rest-day — that is the meaning of the word — has 
 been degraded and materialized, but the institu- 
 tion itself is Divine and permanent. It answers 
 to the nature of humanity as it was created, and 
 to the destiny of humanity when it is consum- 
 mated. An early Assyrian tablet, discovered not 
 long since, gives an interpretation of the term 
 which goes to the very root of its meaning — " The 
 Sabbath," it says, " is the day of the rest of the 
 heart." 
 
 " The Sabbath is the day of rest of the heart " 
 — this is the thought which I ask you to make 
 your own — the thought which I ask you to as- 
 sociate henceforth with your church. This day 
 of the rest of the heart is the Sabbath which ^vas 
 made for man, and which must therefore endure 
 while the world lasts — the Sabbath of which the 
 Son of Man is Lord, and which He will therefore 
 adapt to the changing wants of every age, and 
 every race. Not all at once could the thought be 
 fully embodied in life. At first when the principle 
 of the Sabbath was affirmed in the Decalogue it 
 was necessarily expressed in outward forms. The 
 truth was, so to speak, made visible by a sharp, 
 clear outline. It was fenced round with safeguards, 
 effective for a rude people, and precious for dis- 
 cipline. But in the Fourth Commandment, as in 
 the others, the fulness of truth lay in germ to be 
 
122 The fourth Commandment 
 
 developed in due time ; and Christ when He came 
 unfolded all that lay beneath the letter of "the 
 ten words," and gave scope to the spirit. He did 
 not abrogate the laws which in a rudimentary 
 state defined our duty to God and our duty to our 
 neighbour, except so far as he may be said to 
 abrogate who deepens, extends, charges with a 
 wider meaning statements which no longer corre- 
 spond with the growth of Divine knowledge and 
 the sensitiveness of a quickened conscience. So it 
 was that He interpreted in their far-reaching im- 
 port the simple commandments spoken to the men 
 of old time : '* Thon shalt not kill" " Thou shalt 
 not commit adultery." So it was that He poured 
 fresh light upon the unity of God which we are 
 required to guard, and upon the Name of GoD 
 which we are required to honour. And as He 
 dealt with the other parts of the Decalogue He 
 dealt also with the Fourth Commandment. He 
 gave the whole for the part: the reality for the 
 sign. The Jewish Sabbath was a shadow to which 
 He brought the substance. But He made clear 
 that the old Sabbath existed in virtue of the 
 eternal principle to which it witnessed. This 
 principle is our debt to GoD, our Maker and 
 Redeemer. As soon as we feel what is our rela- 
 tion to Him, we feel also that we owe to Him a 
 definite part of our time, which He has been pleased 
 
spiritually interpreted by the Lord. 123 
 
 to determine as the thaukotfering, or the first- 
 fruits of our life. All our life indeed is His, and 
 in the end all will be consciously rendered to Him, 
 even as Christ showed in His own perfect un- 
 broken communion with the Father, working in 
 all even as the Father works ; but meanwhile He 
 gives to us our Sunday, the old Rest-day in a new 
 shape, to be a spring of fresh energy under the 
 present conditions of our being, stripping off from 
 it the heavy load of ceremonial observances with 
 which it had been burdened and disguised. And 
 we can see, as it has been well observed, from the 
 stern insistence with which He pressed His con- 
 troversy against those who had so overlaid it, 
 from the human interest which He claimed for its 
 appointments, from the authority over the method 
 of its observance which He vindicated for Himself, 
 that in this also His own declaration of the object 
 of His Mission is justified, that He came not to 
 destroy, hut to fidfil. He too says to us : Rertiemher 
 the Sabbath Day to keep it holy, in a truer sense 
 than the punctilious Pharisee even in the acts by 
 which He was accused of breaking it. For we 
 must remember that the Sabbath of which we 
 read in the Gospels is not the simple Sabbath of 
 the Law, the Sabbath of the Prophets. The Divine 
 institution had then become overlaid by tradi- 
 tional teachings. The thought of rest — rest in a 
 
124 The miracles of the Sabbath 
 
 living God — rest of the heart — was destroyed by 
 the accumulation of trivial rules which distracted 
 the soul of the anxious believer, and brought false 
 confidence to the pride of the Pharisee. In this 
 case therefore the Lord conveyed His teaching by 
 deeds, and not by words only. He shewed in 
 action the spiritual scope of the Sabbath. 
 
 Under this aspect the Sabbath miracles are an 
 interpretation of the Law of the Divine rest just 
 as the Sermon on the Mount is an interpretation 
 of the moral law. We cannot understand them 
 in any other light. For in the healings on the 
 Sabbath the Lord wrought publicly, spontaneously, 
 under no urgent pressure, and in such a way as 
 purposely, we must suppose, to call out opposition, 
 to provoke criticism, to arouse thought. No irre- 
 sistible appeal of an agonised sufferer pleaded for 
 relief; He brought relief unsought. It would 
 have made little difference to the man born blind 
 if the blessing of sight had been delayed for a 
 single day. He who had been paralysed for eight- 
 and -thirty years could have easily waited for a 
 few hours till the Sabbath was over for the resto- 
 ration of his strength. And yet more than this : 
 the acts which aroused the bitter hostility of the 
 Pharisaic party — the making of the clay, the wash- 
 ing in the Pool of Siloam, the carrying of the bed 
 — were not necessary to the cure. We cannot 
 
interpret its meaning. 125 
 
 doubt therefore that through these signs the Lord 
 leads us to see what the true Sabbath is. They 
 are revelations of a power of GoD which Christ 
 came to make known, of a Providence of God 
 which men are tempted to overlook. They incite 
 us to consider what we can do to advance the 
 Divine Counsel even when it seems to have failed. 
 They call us to reflect upon the wider duties and 
 larger relations of life : to take account of obliga- 
 tions which are not personal but human. They 
 present the Divine rest which answers to the 
 need of man, as a season for peculiar work. They 
 do not confound the Sabbath with other days, but 
 hallow it by an appropriate service and therefore 
 with a corresponding blessing. 
 
 For the Sabbath is not simply in a negative 
 sense a time in which we must refrain from work 
 for our own gain. It is that, but it is more. It 
 has also a positive office : we must, the Lord said 
 on the Sabbath, joining His disciples with Him- 
 self, work the works of Him that sent Me while it 
 is day ; the night cometh when no man can tuork ; 
 and again: My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
 work. Even under the pressure of tradition the 
 service of the Temple relieved its ministers from 
 the letter of the Law ; and the living Temple has 
 yet more Sovereign power. 
 
 The Christian Sabbath therefore is a season 
 
126 The Sabbath an offering to GOD 
 
 for entering, as we may be enabled, into the mind 
 of God ; for fulfilling, as He gives us power, His 
 work; for doing good even as Christ did in the 
 place of religious assembly, in the home, in the 
 hospital, by the wayside, to those who are suffer- 
 ing, and in whom the Divine Will has not yet had 
 its accomplishment. Our Rest-day is the oppor- 
 tunity not only for a religious exercise but for the 
 rendering of a solid portion of our life to GoD. 
 It is emphatically the Lord's Day, the Rest-day of 
 the Resurrection, in which it is given us to realise 
 the power of the new life. It guides our thoughts 
 to the contemplation of work begun and not of 
 work finished ; to the revelation of a spiritual 
 creation shewn in its first-fruits, and not of a 
 material creation regarded in its completeness. 
 / was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, St John 
 writes in the one passage where the title occurs 
 in the New Testament ; and the phrase brings 
 vividly before us its characteristic mark. The 
 Christian Sabbath is, in a word, the day of Spiri- 
 tual Communion, Communion with God in men, 
 with men in GoD. On our Sunday we too must 
 strive " to be in the Spirit." 
 
 Such an effort is required by all of us. If we 
 reflect on our nature and our position we shall at 
 once feel our w^ant of this "rest of the heart." 
 Mere repose, amusement, physical pleasure, brings 
 
for doing His luork. 127 
 
 no real restoration to the toiler wearied by a week 
 of heavy labour. They all belong to the same 
 order as our daily work. They cannot convey the 
 invigorating force of new influences — they open 
 no fresh springs in the parched soul. I would not 
 underrate the effects of literature, of art, of cul- 
 ture, of science ; but they demand a heavy price 
 for their ennobling lessons. Many of us cannot 
 pay it ; and GoD shews to us a loftier and a better 
 way. He offers Himself to us, the source of all 
 goodness, and truth, and beauty, to be reached by 
 the affections. That way we all know, we have 
 all followed. 
 
 In our most pressing needs, in our seasons of 
 desolation and distress, we turn to the sympathy 
 of a friend for the support and refreshment which 
 we require. And what is our Sunday meditation ? 
 what is our Sunday prayer ? In our brightest 
 joys we feel that something is wanted till we can 
 bid others rejoice with us over the loss which we 
 have repaired or the treasure which we have found. 
 And what is our Sunday praise ? What is our 
 Sunday thanksgiving? Nearer than we fancy, 
 more loving and more wise than our minds can 
 measure, is He who Sunday by Sunday, on His 
 Rest-day, bids us open every grief and every glad- 
 ness to Him, that through the effort we may be 
 assured of His presence. For in order that we 
 
128 The observance of our Sabbath 
 
 may know GoD, we must dwell upon His Majesty, 
 we must talk with Him, we must offer ourselves 
 to Him with reverent gratitude and sustained 
 effort. And the power of this Communion, with 
 all its treasures of consolation and of strength, is 
 the gift of His free grace to all. That we may 
 enjoy it. He asks nothing of us, save only that we 
 should turn to Him as His children. Each Sunday 
 He calls us afresh and shews us the opportunity 
 of obedience. 
 
 It follows from all that has been said that the 
 duties of our Sunday, our Sabbath, our Rest-day 
 of the Resurrection, our Rest-day of the heart, 
 cannot be defined by any exact and unchanging 
 rules. We cannot transfer directly to our own 
 age the laws or the precedents of the past, though 
 we can use them, when we compare former circum- 
 stances with our own, as a term in the proportion 
 which will suggest our present duty. It is possi- 
 ble that at one time it may be less necessary than 
 at another to make a sharp distinction between 
 the Rest-day and the work days. A particular 
 place, or a particular stage in the discipline of 
 life, may call for special provisions. The rules of 
 observance, whatever they may be, are the embodi- 
 ments of a principle according to the circumstances 
 of the Christian Society. They regulate the en- 
 deavour to realize a Divine fellowship, and Divine 
 
defined by principles not by rides. 129 
 
 service. They are moulded with a view to secure 
 for men the fullest present blessing from the insti- 
 tution which was designed for their good. Our 
 duty therefore is to consider our own position, our 
 own dangers, and so to decide how we can best 
 use the opportunity of our Rest-day so as to 
 quicken, to deepen, to embody the conviction 
 which we have of spiritual realities, and spiritual 
 obligations. 
 
 To apply this general reflection to ourselves 
 we may fairly say that our Rest-day will help us 
 to overcome some of the characteristic evils of 
 our time, the hurry, the impatience, the competi- 
 tion, the isolation of modern life. These form no 
 inconsiderable part of our trial. We are spared 
 many difficulties from which our fathers suffered. 
 We have then no right to murmur at our own. 
 There is a type of martyrdom, of solemn and 
 painful witness, for every age, and for every man. 
 We could not wish it otherwise, and so abdicate 
 for ourselves the crown of victory. 
 
 (1) Our Rest-day then, I say, is given to us, 
 to bring calm into the hurry of life. We are, 
 most of us restlessly busy, busy it may be with 
 serious occupations, or busy with the poor trifles 
 with which custom fills our days. But to be rest- 
 lessly busy — to have and to seek no leisure, to 
 accumulate what is equivocally called knowledge, 
 
ISO It is fitted to bring calm 
 
 to accelerate what is indefinitely called progress, 
 to offer ourselves to the service of every master — 
 is not necessarily to do our work. Nay rather, 
 this monotony of occupation excludes that exercise 
 of thoughtful choice, that clear vision of the end, 
 which gives the highest value to sacrifice. Then 
 comes the Rest-day. The sharp contrast which it 
 offers to other days constrains us in some degree 
 to listen to its message. The closing of familiar 
 books, the interruptions of familiar engagements, 
 the shut shops, the silent streets, the sense of free- 
 dom, the Church bells, almost force us to remem- 
 ber that man does not live by bread alone — to 
 interrogate the past and the future — to examine 
 our moral gains and hopes — to weigh the value of 
 the knowledge which we are storing— to ponder 
 the tendency and the end of the progress in which 
 we share — to estimate the fresh responsibility 
 which has been laid upon us by every fresh suc- 
 cess — to add to every dream of hope or ambition 
 the decisive question : " If it be realised, what 
 then ? " No one, I think, who knows anything of 
 himself will believe that he can dispense with such 
 still inward communings without great loss. No 
 one who carelessly or wilfully casts away the 
 opportunity of pursuing them which the Rest-day 
 brings, will regain it without sharp and long 
 struggles. I will allow, if the point be pressed, 
 
and faith 131 
 
 that at first sight the effect of our Sunday is 
 sombre ; but life has its grave side which no ex- 
 citement can remove ; and through this solemn 
 stillness comes the light of heaven for all who 
 wait for it. 
 
 (2) Our Rest-day again brings (at least it 
 was given to us to bring) faith amidst the 
 impatience of life. It is perhaps a necessary con- 
 sequence of the swift changes of things about us 
 that we are all importunately anxious for imme- 
 diate results of effort. We are ready to work, to 
 spare neither ourselves nor others, which is harder 
 still, but we expect to see speedy and definite fruit 
 of exertion. We are tempted to exact the utter- 
 most from those who minister unto us. If our 
 calculations fail in this respect we are tempted to 
 suppose that our plans were faulty, or that they 
 were badly carried out, or that success is unat- 
 tainable, or that we at least must acquiesce in 
 disappointment ; and so it may be with hasty 
 discontent we cast aside that which we had 
 deliberately chosen ; we shape some new scheme, 
 or we seek some new allies, or worse still, we 
 abandon all further endeavour. 
 
 Such is the temper which the common current 
 of action is calculated to call out in us. Then 
 comes the Rest-day. We are led to meditate for 
 a little while on the Divine order ; to regard the 
 
 9—2 
 
132 to coimteract competition 
 
 unexpected slowness of the fulfilment of God's 
 counsels ; to understand how He rested after 
 Creation, and yet works hitherto, fulfilling His 
 purpose through the laws which are the sign of 
 His Will ; to learn how constantly the promise 
 once made waits for its accomplishment w^hich 
 many things prepare in unseen ways ; to wonder 
 at the long-suffering of the All-Sovereign Ruler 
 of the world, and through wonder to rise to a 
 truer sense of the vastness of that scheme in 
 which differences of time vanish in the presence 
 of eternal issues. Perhaps also we recall the 
 lesson of considerateness which the day brings. 
 The Jews were bidden to give rest to their cattle 
 and to their servants and to the strangers that 
 were with them because they also had been bond- 
 men. 
 
 (3) Again our hurry and our impatience take 
 a sadder form in the competition which is preying 
 upon the worth and dignity of English life. The 
 present conditions of manufactures and commerce 
 bring temptations to pitiless selfishness which 
 nothing, I believe, but a spiritual power can over- 
 come. Here again our Sunday, our Rest-day can 
 help us. It breaks with a happy pause, the tenor 
 of business. The work forbidden on the Jemsh 
 Sabbath was that pursued for private gain. The 
 Prophet Amos tells us what was the cry of the 
 
and isolation. 133 
 
 oppressor in his days: When ivi 11... the Sabbath... 
 be gone that tve may set forth wheat, making the 
 ephah sinall and the shekel great, and falsifying 
 the balances by deceit? that lue may buy the poor 
 for silver, and the needy for a pair .of shoes...? 
 The same cry is heard now. Happy shall we 
 be if the still small voice of Sunday is more 
 powerful in our hearts; the voice which bids 
 us not only curb the passion for gathering wealth, 
 but yield ourselves to generous ministries for 
 those whom we can succour. 
 
 (4) Yet once again competition necessarily 
 issues in isolation. In the stress of business our 
 thoughts come to be concentrated on some frag- 
 ment of work, on limited interests, on narrow aims. 
 Even our studies, and our tastes, differences of 
 birth and means, tend in various ways to separate 
 us into small groups. We run the risk of losing the 
 due sense of the proportion of things, of exagger- 
 ating the importance of that which engrosses our 
 time, of making our own pursuits the standard of 
 labour, of forfeiting the inspiration of the greater 
 life, and the joy of human sympathy. Once more 
 our Sunday, our Rest-day, carrying to a higher 
 range the teaching of the Mosaic Sabbath, restores 
 to us a truer view. The Sabbath was given to 
 Israel as a sign between the Lord and them, that 
 they might know that it was the Lord that sanctified 
 
134 Our obligations to keep the Sabbath 
 
 them. It was designed to be a visible memorial of 
 their common destiny and of their common bless- 
 ings. It bound all together in the unity of one 
 equal service based upon one equal deliverance. 
 The silence of that weekly festival proclaimed 
 more plainly than the voice of a herald the fact of 
 the brotherhood of Israel before God. And is 
 not our Sunday still more eloquent now, if we 
 ponder its teaching, when it reminds us all alike 
 of our fellowship in the Son of Man, who on this 
 day conquered death ? reminds us that if we are 
 divided by the requirements of outward duties, 
 we are bound together by a spiritual bond which 
 lies beneath them. 
 
 So it is that if we realise our dangers, and the 
 thoughts which underlay the old Rest-day, we 
 shall easily obtain rules for the hallowing of our 
 own, and see how the Lord fulfilled but did not 
 destroy the law of the Sabbath. The principles 
 which received a partial and external form in the 
 first age will now be recognised as universal. Our 
 freedom in Christ is perfect obedience. Our ob- 
 ligations to Sunday observance are not less but 
 greater than those which bound the men of old 
 time, because we have received more. We shall 
 not indeed be swift to judge others, but we shall 
 be ready to acknowledge our own responsibilities. 
 For it is on those of us who have leisure that the 
 
greater than those of men of old. 135 
 
 charge is laid to make clear to the world what the 
 Sunday, the Christian Rest-day is. If we seek 
 only our own pleasure upon it, and do our own 
 will ; if we render no offering of our ease and of 
 our abundance ; if we make no burden lighter and 
 think only how we ourselves may come before the 
 face of God, on us must lie the sins of others 
 who imitate our example in coarse and repulsive 
 ways. 
 
 We must be even stern with ourselves. Fa- 
 cilities for self-indulgence, like every opportunity 
 of wealth, bring to those who possess them the 
 duty of more resolute self-denial. And it is 
 through such self-denial that God gives His 
 highest joys, joys which are open to all. No 
 difference of place, or power, or means brings any 
 inequality for the fulfilment of the true work of 
 our Rest-day. The realisation of the Presence of 
 God in confession and prayer and praise, the 
 frank and patient study of His word, the service 
 of Christ in His poor and sick, the spiritualizing 
 of family life. If we to whom much has been 
 given are enabled to show that these are the uses 
 to which we dedicate it, others will not be slow to 
 accept our ideal and find the glory which the day 
 can bring to the humblest estate. 
 
 Our Sunday, our Rest-day, the Rest-day of 
 the Resurrection, the Rest-day of the heart, is for 
 
136 Ou7' Rest-day a type, 
 
 us, in other words, a type, a witness, an influence. 
 It is a type of that Sahbath-Rest which remaineth 
 for the people of God : " The fruit of this, the next 
 world's bud." And if indeed we look for that rest 
 hereafter we must prepare ourselves for it now. 
 The vision of God can be no happiness to him 
 who has not dwelt lovingly on the lineaments of 
 the Divine beauty in the scenes of earthly dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 It is a witness, by which we can declare with 
 a force equally unobtrusive and irresistible what 
 we hold our Faith to be, surer than the eager 
 enthusiasm of impetuous innovators, stronger than 
 the passion of overpowering selfishness, universal, 
 in the quickening energy of a spiritual life. 
 
 It is an influence, by which we can reach 
 multitudes whom as yet no direct teaching will 
 touch. We can within the limits of our activity 
 still make visible to men one of the days of the 
 Son of Man, hallowed for His Worship and blessed 
 by His Revelation. 
 
 " The world is too much with us : " this must 
 be, I think, the spontaneous confession of all of 
 us. Happy are we then that we have still in our 
 Sunday, not only the opportunity but the invita- 
 tion to " rest awhile," to lay ourselves open fiom 
 week to week to the light and warmth of heaven, 
 to gaze while the clouds break and angels are 
 
a luitness, an influence, 137 
 
 seen ascending and descending upon the Son of 
 Man. Happy are we if we so listen to the call as 
 to learn the meaning of our appointed service. 
 Happy, if in these seasons of calm thought, we 
 come to know that the failures and w^ants and 
 sorrows and sins of men about us are occasions in 
 which we, as disciples of Christ, may work the 
 works of Him that sent us, in which we may work 
 even as our Father works. 
 
 So shall we wdn the manifold supports which 
 our Rest-day offers for our necessities, a truer 
 perception of the claims, the methods, the possi- 
 bilities of life, an intelligent hope strong in the 
 face of every evil, a trust warmed by human sym- 
 pathy. Without them, for most of us at least, 
 life will grow poorer and meaner and duller, closed 
 within ever narrowing limits till it becomes, as it 
 were, a solitary struggle through a blinding storm, 
 or a pitiful surrender to unreflecting self-indul- 
 gence. 
 
 Oh my friends, let us guard with the jealousy 
 of love our Sunday, our Rest-day, our Sabbath, for 
 I cling to that first name, though it has been dis- 
 honoured by material associations. Seek to join, 
 as I said before, the thought of this Rest-day of 
 the heart with the Restoration of your Church. 
 Our Sunday, our Rest-day has brought to us and 
 to our country more than we can know. It has 
 
138 a day of remembrance. 
 
 fixed a barrier against the rising flood of industrial 
 tyranny. It has kept strong in us the sense of 
 allegiance to an unseen power. It has pleaded 
 not in vain by seasons of unfilled leisure for 
 services of kindly sympathy. It has been to every 
 one of us, I am bold to say, at some time or other, 
 as an open gate of heaven, through which, if only 
 for a moment, we have caught a glimpse of Him 
 who has made it a promise, a beginning, a rest, 
 not from labour but for labour. In Him our Lord 
 and Saviour, in the memory of His example, in the 
 vision of His presence we shall find the law of its 
 observance. He, the Son of Man is its Lord ; our 
 liberty is His will. And whatever rules we may 
 make for our own guidance, all will be summed 
 up in this, that in every thought and word and 
 work on our " Rest-day of the heart " we shall bear 
 ourselves as those who receive the day from Him 
 with His blessing, and render it to Him for His 
 hallowing. " Remember the Sabbath day to keep 
 it holy." Remember the words of the Lord Jesus 
 how He said, "I came not to destroy but to 
 fulfil." 
 
II. 
 
 FOEEIGN MISSIONS. 
 
THE CALL OF THE ENGLISH NATION 
 AND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 
 
 ST PAUVS CATHEDRAL, LONDON. May 28, 1894. 
 
 MISSIONS A REVELATION OF THE 
 MYSTERY OF GOD. 
 
 ST BRIDE'S CHURCH, LONDON. April 29, 1895. 
 
THE CALL OF THE ENGLISH NATION 
 AND OF THE ENGLISH CHUECH. 
 
 6M0I To5 eA^xiCTOTepco nc^NTcoN ificdN eAoeH h ){ip\c 
 <\YTH, ToTc 60NeciN eYAfreAiCAceAi to angJixniacton 
 nAoYTOC TOY XpicTOY- 
 
 U7ito me tvho am less than the least of all saints was 
 
 this grace gioen to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearch- 
 
 ahle riches of Christ. 
 
 Eph. hi. 8. 
 
 It requires a serious effort bo understand the 
 pathetic grandeur of this confession, this thanks- 
 giving of St Paul. The Hebrew of the Hebrews, 
 the scholar of Gamaliel, the blameless Pharisee, 
 the persecutor of the Church, proclaims the 
 marvellous change which he had experienced 
 through the love of God. It was his Divine 
 privilege, he tells us, to make known that the 
 glories and the hopes which he bad believed to 
 be the unique heritage of Israel were the endow- 
 ment of all the nations of the earth : that the 
 
142 Tlie English Nation and Church 
 
 Messiah of the Jews was the Saviour of the 
 world. In the prospect of this universal Gospel, 
 brought home to him after long resistance, he 
 felt, even when he had gladly sacrificed all 
 wherein he had trusted, that he was less than the 
 least of those who had welcomed at first with 
 pure hearts the Son of Man. But the greatness 
 of his self-surrender was, he felt also, in some 
 degree a measure of the greatness of his commis- 
 sion. The experiences of his former life enabled 
 him to comprehend better than other men the 
 workings of God's power and the purpose of God's 
 will. For him old things had not so much passed 
 away as become new, so that he might serve with 
 more complete devotion. 
 
 The truth which he had seen — a part only of 
 the infinite treasures hidden in the Christ — laid 
 upon him an obligation of missionary labour in 
 which afflictions and weaknesses were forgotten. 
 He looked beyond the range of our present 
 horizon, and perceived that the issues of the work 
 which he " less than the least of all saints " was 
 allowed to begin would be a fresh revelation of 
 the wisdom of God to the hosts of heaven. 
 
 I. Brethren, is it too much to say that as a 
 nation and as a Church we stand to the peoples 
 of the world as St Paul stood among the Apostles 
 in the first age, startled, it may be, by an un- 
 
called to Missionary work. 148 
 
 expected charge ; roused to a new sense of the 
 purpose of the gifts committed to our keeping; 
 beckoned forward by a vision of the Divine 
 destiny of life? May we not say— humbled, 
 penitent, awe-stricken, acknowledging an un- 
 fulfilled obligation— that " unto us was this grace 
 given to preach unto the nations the unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ ?" The words are not vain 
 words. There is a corporate Mission for Christ 
 no less than a personal Mission. Nations are 
 called as well as men; and surely England and 
 the English Church have been called to an 
 unmistakeable oflSce for the promoting of God's 
 glory, and the building up of His universal 
 Church. By manifold workings of Providence 
 we have passed through great changes without 
 breaking the continuity of our national growth. 
 We have been brought into sympathetic contact 
 with the most various forms of life and thought. 
 And now in the fulness of our power, our long 
 education finds its end, when we are placed in 
 responsible connection with representative races 
 of every stock. In the sight of GoD we stand to 
 these races— can we dissemble the fact ?— as 
 guardians and stewards of the "unsearchable 
 riches of Christ," unsearchable by any private 
 effort, because the Gospel answers to the un- 
 imaginable needs of the individual soul, and to 
 
144 The grandeur and responsibility 
 
 the undeveloped powers of humanity as it grows 
 through all the ages : unsearchable, because the 
 Gospel is disclosed in unlimited personal com- 
 munion with a living GoD. The riches of Christ, 
 in other words, are commensurate with the powers 
 and wants of men. And the full powers of 
 humanity, broken up as it has been into frag- 
 ments, will not be realised till all the powers of 
 every race have been consecrated. The full 
 treasures of the Gospel will not be realised till 
 every element has been brought into use through 
 the wants of believers. 
 
 In the light of this unquestionable truth we 
 can see the peculiar responsibility of England, 
 the mother and the mistress of nations. Our 
 empire and the forces of character by which our 
 empire has been gained, and is now held, were 
 not given us for ourselves, for the satisfaction of 
 our own interests or ambitions, but for human 
 ministry. Nations are formed for brotherhood, 
 each according to its place. Nations are dis- 
 ciplined for service, each according to its gifts. 
 God has set us to be not only conquerors, or 
 pioneers, or masters, or furnishers of the materials 
 of outward civilisation, but, beyond all, evangelists. 
 The call is written in our history. I cannot 
 interpret in any other way the correspondence 
 of the unique completeness of our corporate life 
 
of the charge. 145 
 
 with the unique range of our dominions. As a 
 nation we can make known the message of Christ. 
 The peoples who are placed under our rule can 
 bring the largest possible measure of human 
 experience and powers to set forth its unsearchable 
 riches. 
 
 No call, no charge could be more momentous. 
 As we look back we can see how religious faith 
 has ruled— very imperfectly, it may be, but yet 
 most really— the social development of mankind. 
 Religious faith has not only shaped the growth of 
 every nation, but every nation has fallen into 
 decay when its religious faith has lost its power. 
 And to us has been intrusted in all its purity and 
 fulness the Faith in which every partial faith 
 finds the answer to the cry which it expressed : 
 the Faith which is fitted to call into play, to 
 exercise, to discipline, to hallow every impulse 
 and every power in man brought once again into 
 personal fellowship with God. We know what 
 the Faith has been to us : we knoAv what it can 
 be to others. We have found in Christ our 
 Redeemer and King; and Christ is, we believe, 
 the Redeemer and King not of one nation, but 
 of all the nations ; not of one age, but of all the 
 
 As we have received, we are debtors to all of 
 all spiritual truth. As we have received, it is for 
 
 ^- 10 
 
146 Missionary luorh calls for 
 
 us — no duty can be clearer or more sacred or more 
 urgent — to bring the Gospel to all who come 
 within the range of our influence, that they may 
 find in it the strength which they require and at 
 the same time disclose through the experience of 
 life new mysteries in the Incarnation. 
 
 II. How, then, do we regard this august 
 office ? Is the privilege of less account with us 
 than the pursuit of adventure or of commerce ? 
 Do we feel anything of the enthusiasm of St. 
 Paul, and reckon that the opportunity of making 
 known the love of Christ throughout the earth 
 is indeed a gift of God's grace ? What have we 
 done as a Nation or as a Church : as a Church 
 which is in this respect the representative of the 
 Nation ? 
 
 I do not pause to answer the questions. But 
 can we not see, if we reflect upon them, that they 
 are a revelation of our national power ? The 
 strength of a Nation is seen in the long run to 
 lie in the force of its spiritual witness. And at 
 the present time our own material development 
 has greatly overpassed our spiritual development. 
 In the search for wealth we are losing, where we 
 have not already lost, the true vision of things. 
 Our energy and enterprise and endurance and 
 loyal comradesliip, if they are to remain with us 
 for blessing, need to be tempered by sacrifice. 
 
all our national r^esources. 147 
 
 There are, indeed, happy signs at home that, 
 through the effect of new conditions of life, we 
 are learning something more than our fathers 
 could know of the breadth and power of the 
 Gospel; but we must look abroad for larger 
 lessons. Here, then, lies the paramount import- 
 ance of the Mission-field for us at the present 
 time. Within the limits of our own empire — 
 if we look no further — we can find claims for the 
 help which Englishmen are best fitted to render. 
 We can find scope for slowly building up nations 
 in the name of Christ. We can find in patient 
 love promises of fresh service to the truth from 
 those who may be won to Christ through our 
 ministry, the ministry, let us remember, according 
 to the New Testament, of faithful citizens no less 
 than of faithful clergy. We can find, to sum up 
 all, amplest opportunity for using most fruitfully, 
 as God's stewards, all the resources which He has 
 intrusted to us, to the English Nation, and to the 
 English Church. 
 
 The enterprise is the hope of the world, the 
 preparation for the brotherhood of Christian 
 nations. Each people has its own peculiar gift, 
 which will, as we believe, be brought in due time 
 to Christ through the Church. We are poor 
 judges of the relative value of each gift in regard 
 to the corporate life of His Body. But we are 
 
 10—2 
 
148 The consecration of the gifts 
 
 sure that all gifts which answer to the true 
 nature of man as created by God are necessary 
 for its completeness ; and we can see from the 
 experience of the past that the Gospel is able, 
 is alone able, to deal effectively with the manifold 
 endowments of different races and make them 
 tributary to the fulness of a Divine life. Already 
 much has been done in East and West, but still 
 more remains to do. There are great nations — 
 China and India — inheritors of ancient and fruit- 
 ful civilisations, endowed with intellectual and 
 moral powers widely different from our own, 
 which have yet, as we must believe, some charac- 
 teristic offering to render for the fuller interpre- 
 tation of the Faith. There are innumerable 
 tribes in Asia and Africa and America, which 
 seem likely to teach us with new force that the 
 Spirit, sent in the name of the Son of Man, is 
 able to give dignity to the forms of the simplest 
 life. All these lessons have to be learnt ; and 
 when they are learnt, they will be both for the en- 
 richment and for the illumination of our message, 
 which is one at once and infinite. Differences of 
 character, of circumstances, of history : differences 
 of social habits and political order : differences of 
 traditional modes of thought and personal inde- 
 pendence : all the differences which St. Paul 
 gathers up under representative types as diffe- 
 
of different nations. 149 
 
 rences of Jew and Greek, barbarian, Scythian, 
 bond and free, male and female, will, in the end, 
 find in the Incarnation that which combines them 
 harmoniously in the unity of one life, as each 
 according to its capacity embodies part of that 
 Divine likeness which man was created to gain. 
 
 Then the splendid imagery of the Apocalypse 
 will find fulfilment. "The nations shall walk 
 amidst the light " of the Holy City, which is one 
 vast sanctuary, and it will be given to them to 
 see how " the kings of the earth do bring their 
 glory into it." Little by little, as in old times, 
 the undiscovered teachings of "the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ " will be made known till at last 
 the redeemed from every kindred in the world 
 shall declare, each in their own tongue, the 
 wonderful works of God : no simple unison, but a 
 harmony of thought and feeling and expression, 
 as full and rich as the various faculties of man. 
 
 In the prospect of this vast unfolding, un- 
 covering, of the truth, deep beyond deep, in 
 different races, and peoples, which we are called 
 to further, we can dimly perceive what the 
 Apostle means when he says that it is through 
 the Church the manifold wisdom of GoD shall be 
 made known to principalities and powers ; that 
 to men a ministry is given not for earth only but 
 for heaven ; that tenants of the unseen order 
 
150 Reflex action of the work 
 
 gain from their labours fresh grounds for thankful 
 adoration to our common Lord. 
 
 III. Such far-reaching thoughts, brethren, 
 which extend on all sides the limits of the 
 spiritual world in which we live, and of the 
 spiritual forces by which we are sustained, 
 directly affect our own growth in Christ. It 
 has been said most truly that, " in all the great 
 movements of religious reform that have per- 
 manently elevated the religious life of Christendom, 
 there has been a renewal of intellectual interest 
 in the Christian revelation." It is, then, well 
 for us, cast down and perplexed as we often are 
 by daily cares and petty controversies, to lift 
 up our eyes to the sublime vision which the 
 Mission-field offers of the manifold wisdom of 
 God ; well for us, under that inspiring influence, 
 to feel the real scope and grandeur of our calling ; 
 to feel the issues which hang upon our faithful- 
 ness ; to feel the illimitable range of the spiritual 
 life. Humbled and awed, and yet invigorated by 
 the spectacle, we shall come back to our little 
 duties, and see, perhaps, more truly than before 
 what our witness to the work of Christ for 
 humanity tells us of the destiny of man. "Do 
 you really mean," some one asked me, "that 
 the savage is your equal ? " "I believe," was the 
 only answer that could be given, " that Christ 
 
upon ourselves. 151 
 
 died for him, and bore his nature to the Father's 
 throne." 
 
 What further may be sought for or declared ? 
 
 Brethren, do we not believe this ? and shall 
 we not let the world see the fruits of our belief? 
 As it is, by leaving our belief open to question, 
 we wTong others and we wrong ourselves. For 
 our world-wide witness to Christ in all its 
 majestic simplicity concerns ourselves most nearly. 
 It reacts upon ourselves. The foreign Mission- 
 field brings to us not only that larger conception 
 of our faith of which I have already spoken, but 
 also the immediate confirmation of it which we 
 need. It shows us new proofs of the power 
 of Christ to subdue all things to Himself And 
 we are stronger through each fresh victory. We 
 are all one body. We all share the fulness of one 
 growing life. As often as we hear of a soul 
 surrendered to Christ amid the unfamiliar 
 influences of a strange land we recognise the 
 signs of a Divine Presence. We recognise that 
 the Lord's last promise has accomplishment in 
 our midst, and that He is with us in these later 
 days. 
 
 And yet more than this. This frank acknow- 
 ledgment, nay, this joyful welcome, of our 
 spiritual obligations to all men discloses to us 
 
152 Human brotherhood rests on the Gospel. 
 
 the unseen foundations of one humanity in the 
 will of God. Our Gospel shows us that we are 
 one family, because we are children of one Father. 
 Christ became flesh, not to establish our connec- 
 tion with Him, but because it existed. "It 
 behoved Him," we read — literally, " He was 
 bound " ; it is a marvellous phrase — " to be made 
 like unto His brethren." As men, however widely 
 we may be separated in respect to natural 
 sympathy, and even to mutual intelligence, we 
 were created for union one with another and with 
 the Son of God. Popular leaders are looking on 
 all sides for support to the truth which they 
 divine. The Faith which bears us to the Mission- 
 field gives the one solid basis for their loftiest 
 aspirations. For there can be no other sure 
 foundation for human brotherhood, no other 
 adequate spring of love, than lies in the Christian 
 Gospel of creation and redemption. To feel this, 
 to feel with unquestioning- faith the potential 
 union of men with GoD and with one another 
 in God, which the Gospel implies, is the call 
 of the missionary ; to watch the gradual realisa- 
 tion of the hope is his great reward. And for 
 ourselves, as we become more conscious in our 
 common intercourse of the power which binds 
 Christian to Christian we shall acknowledge more 
 gladly the duty which lies upon us to extend 
 
The luork of God. 153 
 
 to others who are capable of sharing the same 
 blessing, that which has revealed in us the life 
 which is truly life, the pledge of spiritual unity. 
 
 IV. We might, indeed, well shrink from the 
 task of evangelising the world — our hearts failing 
 us for fear— if we had not the assurance of Christ's 
 victory. For indeed the evangelisation of the 
 world is His work. The victory is already won. 
 We have only to claim and to gather the fruits of 
 it. Christ is King. Our part is not to establish 
 His sovereignty, but to proclaim it. Beneath and 
 beyond our labours of an hour lies the Divine 
 purpose of the ages. The words which describe 
 the relation of things created to the mind of GoD, 
 if we may so speak, have an application to the 
 succession of events. It is true of the phenomena 
 of history no less than of the phenomena of 
 nature, " they were and they were created." That 
 which we permanently work out is a disclosure in 
 time and space of that which GoD has willed. 
 
 Such a faith, while it does not lessen our 
 responsibility, takes away our fear. Failures, 
 delays, defeats bring no final despondency. The 
 will of God will be done ; but oh, the unspeakable 
 difference for us if we have missed our opportunity 
 of doing it ! For while the work is God's work, 
 He works through believing men. In the bold 
 language of early mystics Christ needs us no 
 
154 To us this grace of Missionary 
 
 less than we need Him. The vine, to repeat a 
 familiar image, is fruitful through the branches. 
 The one Life acts through the many members. 
 It is an awful, though it is an enkindling, thought. 
 But what then ? We know Christ's will and 
 Christ's power. In this we have our commission 
 and our inspiration. "All authority," he said, 
 ''hath been given unto Me in heaven and on 
 earth. Go ye, therefore, into all the world." 
 ' Therefore,' because if you are weak, " My power 
 is made perfect in weakness " : ' therefore,' because 
 if the time seems long He that cometh shall come 
 and shall not tarry : ' therefore,' because if, as 
 must be, ye have "tribulation in the world, I 
 have overcome the world." 
 
 We know^, I say, God's will, written for us in 
 Scripture, written for us in history. Hence- 
 forward we must strive to make His will our 
 will, seeking to master it by more and more 
 perfect obedience, while through the actual ex- 
 perience of our labours, we shall gain a more 
 intelligent sense of the wisdom of God's patience, 
 and a more thankful conviction of His watchful 
 love. And may it not be that when the fuller 
 apprehension of the power of the Gospel of Christ 
 Incarnate, Crucified, Ascended, is borne into us 
 by fresh testimonies from every land ; when the 
 current of events brings home to us the greatness, 
 
ivork is given. 155 
 
 and, I will add, the shortness, of our opportunity ; 
 when the Spirit confirms to us the uniqueness of 
 our call as a missionary nation ; we shall catch up 
 the old cry, " It is the will of GoD," as the watch- 
 word of the new crusade. 
 
 " It is the will of GoD." 
 
 In order to proclaim Christ's conquest of the 
 world, the Church was founded. In order to 
 realise Christ's conquest of the world, the Church 
 was endowed with His Spirit. The Church lives 
 by growing, and, thanks be to God, it does grow. 
 
 Unto us, unto the English nation, and unto 
 the English Church, is "this grace given to 
 preach unto the nations the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ." 
 
 "Unto us is this grace given" — given, brethren, 
 let us ponder the word, for all is of God's love 
 from first to last, and not of our winning or of our 
 supplying ; given from Him in the quickening 
 impulse, through Him in the courageous toil, 
 unto Him in the ripe results : given to us, as we 
 have seen, beyond all question, by the unparal- 
 leled circumstances of our history, by the points 
 of vantage which we hold over all the earth, by 
 the Apostolic wealth and freedom of our Creed ; 
 given to us, I will add, by the fact that as a 
 nation we still have a National Church, and in 
 our corporate life confess the responsibilities and 
 
156 The day an epoch 
 
 claim the benediction of the Christian Faith, 
 through which we have grown in the past. 
 
 *' Unto us is this grace given/' this grace — let 
 us face the fact, for spiritual truth is for the most 
 part spread through apparent loss and pain — "not 
 only to believe on Christ, but also, if need be, to 
 suffer for Him." 
 
 "Unto us is this grace given," given in various 
 ways and in various measures to every Englishman 
 and to every Churchman ; and the work cannot be 
 fully done till the service of every one is gladly 
 rendered as an essential part of his Christian life, 
 in alms, in influence, in counsel. But chiefly the 
 treasury of prayer is open to all. The first mis- 
 sionaries were set apart with fasting and prayer. 
 They themselves asked for prayers. They were 
 supported by prayers. Our own lives are unintel- 
 ligible, save through the prayers of others. Mis- 
 sions — may I not dare to say it? — are impossible, 
 save through the prayers of the Church. And 
 if as yet our Offices have no form of constant 
 intercession, shall not the faith of the people give 
 definiteness to each wide petition in which we 
 seek the advent of the kingdom of our Father, 
 and beseech " the Creator and Preserver of all 
 men " that He " would be pleased to make known 
 His saving health unto all nations?" 
 
 "Unto us is this grace given." And to-day 
 
in our history. 157 
 
 we are met together for the first time as members 
 of one world-wide communion, forgetting all that 
 is personal in the surpassing claims of a common 
 duty, met to offer thanksgivings for what GoD 
 has done through our imperfect and fragmentary 
 efforts ; met to confess Avith shame the scantiness 
 of our offerings in service and in alms; met to 
 meditate on the grandeur of that companionship 
 with God in His work which is intrusted to men ; 
 met to acknowledge the charge, still unwithdrawn, 
 which God has prepared for us ; met, above all, to 
 pray with one heart and one soul that the charge 
 may be welcomed for His glory. 
 
 Unto us is " this grace given, to preach unto 
 the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 
 The day marks an epoch in our religious life. 
 May God, in His infinite mercy, gi-ant that our 
 solemn gathering may be not a lost opportunity, 
 but a spring of new life. May He enable the 
 English nation and the English Church to fulfil 
 their divine stewardship for the salvation of the 
 world. 
 
MISSIONS A REVELATION OF THE 
 MYSTERY OF GOD. 
 
 Eic enifNoociN toy MycTHpioY toy Oeof, xP'Ctoy, 
 feN (|5 eici nd^NTec oi eHCAYPOi thc coct)id.c kai fNcoceoiC 
 
 AHC KpY<t>0'- 
 
 That they may know the mystery of Ood^ even Christy in 
 Whom are all the treasure of loisdoin and knowledge hidden. 
 
 CoL. II. 2, 3. 
 
 It has been most truly said that " the hours 
 of worship are the great, the sacred hours of life." 
 The conviction must be forced upon us now when 
 we are met together in the Name and in the 
 Presence of Christ to think upon the commission 
 which He has left to His Church, upon His 
 present continuous call, and upon our correspond- 
 ing duties. Here we may assume thoughtful 
 preparation on the part of all, met with one heart 
 and mind, to catch the faintest voice of His 
 Spirit. Here one prayer rises now from all, as 
 
The mystery of GoD. 159 
 
 it has already risen, that He will guide and bless 
 every effort directed to His glory. 
 
 On such a unique occasion every part of the 
 service, however familiar, takes a fresh colour from 
 our own thoughts. God Himself speaks to us. 
 Old words become charged with new meanings; 
 and so many while they listened to the Second 
 Lesson must have felt that St Paul gives us 
 in that an apostolic commentary on Foreign 
 Missions, fertile in consolation, in warning, in 
 encouragement. He shows us the freedom and 
 the universality of the Gospel as '' the mystery," 
 the opened secret of God, first made known after 
 Christ's triumph. He shows us the whole world 
 as the object of God's love, and the realm of 
 Christ's Sovereignty. He shows us the work of 
 the evangelist fulfilled through suffering, lightened 
 by hope—" the hope of glory." He shows us the 
 message of redemption preached within a few 
 short years, "in all creation under heaven," and 
 claiming the allegiance of "every man." He 
 shows us that no human faculty lies outside the 
 hallowing influence of the Gospel, and that no 
 human want is unsatisfied by its power. He 
 shows us Christ Himself, " a light for revelation 
 to the Gentiles," justifying the ways of God, so 
 that he who welcomes Him knows God's counsel of 
 love and discipline of patience. " Christ dwelling 
 
160 Foreign Missions a witness of 
 
 among the Gentiles " is the mystery — the revela- 
 tion — of God. In Him, the Son of Man, and not 
 the Son of David only, " are all the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge hidden " — hidden, that 
 they may be made known in the course of ages, 
 as believers gathered from every tribe and tongue 
 are able to bear and to use the truths which they 
 contain. We linger over the pregnant sentences, 
 and we come to understand how the earliest and 
 greatest of missionaries to the Gentiles brings 
 before us the meaning, and the message, and the 
 power of the work which was first entrusted to 
 him. Foreign Missions, St Paul teaches us, are 
 an open witness to the Will of God for the world. 
 Foreign Missions proclaim a living Saviour and 
 King of all men. Foreign Missions vindicate for 
 the Church the energy of a Divine life. Foreign 
 Missions, in a word, express a great hope, kindle a 
 sovereign love, feed an unconquerable faith ; and 
 we, too often depressed, chilled, disheartened, by 
 the cares of the passing days, require the in- 
 spiration which they bring for the blessing of 
 our lives. 
 
 I. Foreign Missions are a witness to the Will 
 of God for the world. To know that Will is to 
 gain light on the dark places of the earth ; and 
 those who look with open eyes upon the world 
 must confess that we need it. If we endeavour 
 
the tvill of God for the ivorld. 161 
 
 to realize the condition of mankind at any time, 
 the outward spectacle as it meets the eye may 
 well fill us with dismay. We seem to look upon 
 a tumultuous conflict of selfish forces, swayed to 
 and fro without any common aim or growing 
 result. It is hard to see in it the signs of a 
 victorious counsel of love. So it was in the 
 Apostolic age, both within Israel and without. 
 The Tempter could claim that all the glory of 
 the civilized earth was his ; an Apostle could say 
 that the whole world lay in the Evil One. Yet 
 when we look back now over the age-long history 
 of which this was the issue under one aspect, we 
 can see that from first to last the purpose of God 
 had been accomplished ; that the time of anguish 
 and distress, of failing hopes and overwhelming 
 terrors, was indeed " the fulness of the seasons " ; 
 that in '' the people " and in " the nations " there 
 had been a preparation for the Advent ; that the 
 Divine object of man's creation, even that he 
 should '' seek after God," had not been frustrated ; 
 that, on the one hand, through tragic vicissitudes 
 of a stern discipline, faithful Jews had been led 
 to look for some personal manifestation of the 
 Lord among them ; and, on the other hand, men 
 of different races, freely following the leading of 
 nature, had defined wants for which they could 
 find no satisfaction ; that, in other words, " the 
 w. 11 
 
162 The will of God 
 
 Christ had been in a true sense prepared for the 
 world, and the world for the Christ," when the 
 Christ came. It is true that as we follow the 
 chequered course of this twofold preparation, we 
 wonder at the silence, the slowness, the reserve, if 
 we may so speak, of the working of GoD, at His 
 patience. His long-suffering. His forbearance. But 
 we are reminded that time is no measure of the 
 action of God ; with Him " a thousand years are 
 as one day." In nature and in grace He works 
 to our eyes in the same way ; yet works so that 
 on a larger view we can recognize both in the 
 physical and in the moral order through all per- 
 plexities and checks 
 
 "one law, one element, 
 And one far-ofif Divine event 
 To which the whole creation moves." 
 
 We wonder, then, and we draw hope from the 
 marvellous vision, when we see that GoD works 
 still after the Advent as He worked before it. It 
 no longer disturbs us that He prepares " in many 
 parts, and in many fashions," the Kingdom of His 
 Son even as He prepared His coming. And so, 
 as we labour, taught by the past, "we win our 
 souls in patience," the patience not of indolent 
 or selfish unconcern, but the patience of loyal 
 hearts which feel the disappointment and the 
 evil, and trust the Lord of life. We wonder and 
 
slowly accomplished. 163 
 
 we draw hope even from apparent failures. For 
 God works still (and thus works most effectively, 
 we are justified in believing) as He worked in old 
 time, not only slowly, but by a few, by a remnant. 
 We indeed should have looked for different 
 methods and results, but, as far as we can yet 
 observe, the Divine action is everywhere in the 
 same form. And, if we are saddened by what 
 appears to be loss and waste, infinite depths of 
 consolation lie in the apostolic words which de- 
 scribe Christians as " a kind of first-fruits of the 
 creatures " of " the Father of lights." " A kind of 
 first-fruits " : we take the phrase to our hearts. 
 The Will of God for the world remains unchanged, 
 and it is our privilege to serve it. 
 
 The Will of God goes forward, and therefore 
 we are bound to take account of the circumstances 
 under which we are set to serve it. Missionary 
 enterprise has now passed beyond the stage of 
 experiment. We have experience of every variety 
 of manner and condition of evangelization. During 
 this century the whole field of Missions — the 
 world — has been laid open. The Sacred Books of 
 all the great religions have been made accessible 
 in trustworthy forms. We can feel as never before 
 what is needed. W^e can see by what thoughts 
 Gentile faiths have prevailed. We can hear and 
 distinguish the manifold cries of various races 
 
 11—2 
 
164 The place of Englishmen 
 
 which they contain. We can trace out with 
 reverent devotion in all the records of human 
 activity the progressive action of the Word, the 
 Son of God, the Maker and the Heir of the world 
 in the many phases of its development through 
 time. We can discern the broad outlines of that 
 which we may speak of without presumption as 
 the Divine plan in the education of the world, 
 using the privilege which the Lord bestowed 
 upon us when He called His disciples " no longer 
 servants, but friends," as capable of entering into 
 the Father's counsel. 
 
 This perception of a Divine plan in the move- 
 ment of human life brings home to us a fact of 
 momentous interest. In this plan of God we have 
 a definite place. Our office is not of our own choice 
 or of our own devising. We are " God's workman- 
 ship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which 
 God afore prepared that we should walk in them." 
 We are included in the Divine idea of the world, 
 " created in Christ Jesus." Our works are ready, 
 " prepared afore by GoD." There can be no failure 
 if we claim them. No labour will be lost if we 
 offer ourselves in perfect humility for the fulfil- 
 ment of the Will of God. 
 
 Our works are ready; and what these works 
 are can be seen from our position and endowments. 
 For if as Englishmen, as English Churchmen, we 
 
in the Divine plan. 165 
 
 consider our national character, our history, our 
 necessary influence, our possessions, we cannot fail 
 to acknowledge that we are called, as no other 
 people have been called, to missionary labour. 
 More than a hundred and fifty years ago Bishop 
 Butler, the soberest of great thinkers, pleaded in 
 this city that "navigation and commerce should 
 be consecrated to the service of religion by being 
 made the means of propagating it in every country 
 with which we have any intercourse^" He spoke 
 when the foundations of our Colonial Empire were 
 barely laid, when our foreign trade had not reached 
 more than about one-thirtieth of its present 
 volume ; and how can we measure now the weight 
 of the obligation which his words lay upon us ? 
 Since Butler wrote, not to speak of remoter if 
 unquestionable duties, India has been added to 
 our sovereignty— the most splendid, the most 
 arduous trust ever committed to a nation, com- 
 mitted to us as stewards of God, that by patience 
 and tenderness and sympathy we may interpret 
 and complete the thoughts of many races, and, 
 taught by the Spirit sent in the Name of Christ, 
 may confirm and satisfy the aspirations of many 
 faiths. 
 
 It has required a long discipline to teach us 
 
 1 Sermon preached before the S. P. G. in the church of 
 St Mary-le-Bow, February 16th, 1738-9 ; Works, ii. p. 216. 
 
166 The problems of India to he solved 
 
 the conditions under which the conversion of 
 India, a task far greater and more difficult than 
 the conversion of the Roman Empire, has to be 
 accomplished. At length, perhaps, we have justly 
 ceased to look for speedy and wide successes if our 
 mission is to be surely fulfilled. We are beginning 
 to understand the variety and complexity of the 
 problems with which we have to deal in a popula- 
 tion three times as numerous as the subjects of 
 Augustus, and held together by a strong and 
 penetrative organization. At the same time, such 
 knowledge forces us to confess that we have not 
 yet made any adequate provision to satisfy our 
 obligation. We must give freely, as we have not 
 yet given, of our greatest teachers to India, where 
 the respect for teachers is highest, if we are to 
 substitute for the sterile theism of Islam and the 
 shadowy vagueness of Hindu philosophy a belief 
 in a living and speaking God; if we are to call 
 out in a people enfeebled by long subjection that 
 sense of personal responsibility from which spring 
 the consciousness of sin and the devotion of love. 
 We must establish in the representative centres 
 of Native life strong Missions,- which may present 
 in an impressive form, where the ties of family 
 are strongest, the free and generous relations of 
 Christian brotherhood ; if we are to secure the 
 continuity of our work through the necessary 
 
hy self-sacrifice and self -repression. 167 
 
 changes of workers, and found a Church which 
 shall be independent of our presence and support; 
 if we are to replace the hierarchy of caste by that 
 fellowship of mutual and ordered service of which 
 caste is the mechanical representative, and show 
 that religion is not the performance of multitu- 
 dinous rites, but a continual communion with a 
 Father in heaven. We must, above all thincrs 
 seek in the fulfilment of our Evangelistic office, 
 with all meekness and lowliness of heart, the spirit 
 of self-repression and self-sacrifice, which gladly 
 accepts a preparatory and transitory function, 
 which guards and cherishes strange and weak 
 beginnings of faith, which rejoices to leave a 
 free course for unforeseen operations of the Holy 
 Ghost, if we are to enable peoples widely different 
 from ourselves to bring to God the gifts with 
 which He has endowed them in all their freshness 
 and purity. 
 
 Let us ponder these great and difficult re- 
 quirements in the light of our obligations and 
 our opportunities; let us consider them in relation 
 to what we can see of the past teaching of God's 
 ways ; let us ask calmly, humbly, patiently, if they 
 do not correspond with the Apostolic work which 
 He has prepared for our country, and for our 
 generation; and then, if we feel, as I think 
 we shall feel, that they answer to the present 
 
168 The Church proclaims 
 
 revelation of His will for us, let us turn to Him 
 with the prayer of self-devotion, and He will assu- 
 redly raise up from among us those whom He will 
 bless so to serve Him. Our need is urgent — more 
 urgent because the time is short — but we believe 
 that God has called us to be a missionary Nation 
 and a missionary Church. We believe that it is 
 His will that India should find its unity in Christ, 
 and find it through our ministry. We believe that 
 Missions, which express the loftiest faith in the 
 love of God and the destiny of men, have, through 
 all time, confirmed the faith out of which they 
 have sprung. 
 
 11. Foreign Missions are, I have said, a witness 
 to the Will of God for the world; and it is through 
 the Church, " the congregation of faithful men," 
 that the Will of God is to be fulfilled. The 
 Church — the Body of Christ — exists for this very 
 purpose. We may well be overpowered with awe 
 at the thought that the salvation of men should 
 be made dependent on the labours of those that 
 believe. Still, nothing less than this is the good 
 pleasure of God. Man made in His image is taken 
 by Him as His fellow-worker in accomplishing the 
 end of creation. Even as the Word became flesh, 
 He now carries forward His purpose of infinite 
 love through those whom before the Incarnation 
 He was not ashamed to call His brethren. The 
 
a living Saviour. 169 
 
 Divine Head acts through human members. The 
 Vine is fruitful through the branches. Fear, doubt, 
 pride can have no place in us when we reflect on 
 our position. Our very life is the acceptance of 
 ^the Father's Will for our own, and the doing His 
 works. Self is lost in a Divine co-operation. If 
 we plead with men, it is as giving an articulate 
 voice to the pleadings of God. If we rejoice in 
 afflictions for the sake of Christ's body, it is that 
 Christ deigns to apply through us the virtue of 
 His passion to a later generation. If we bear 
 witness to Christ, it is that our own experience, 
 widening and deepening with our life, may give 
 distinctness to the witness of the Spirit of truth. 
 Our work, while it is in one sense, through that 
 glad self-surrender which is our only freedom, our 
 own work, is in its origin and strength the work 
 of the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit\ 
 This fellowship determines our message. We 
 proclaim Him in Whom we are. Him whose perfect 
 obedience has made our obedience possible. We 
 proclaim not merely a system of theology, not an 
 abstract idea, but a "Person" Whom we ourselves 
 know, a "Person" loving and to be loved, speaking 
 and to be spoken to, a Saviour, Priest, and King, 
 
 ^ Compare Dr Pierson, The Divine Enterprise of Missio7is, 
 pp. 103 ff . ; and on the whole subject, a noble missionary 
 sermon by Dr Dale, Fellowship loith Christ. 
 
170 The message of the Gospel 
 
 present with us all the days. Our message is the 
 test of what the Gospel is to us. We cannot in 
 the case of races among whom the historic sense 
 is undeveloped, at once appeal to the events of 
 the Passion and the Resurrection as past facts of 
 unique and infinite significance, but we can point 
 them to the present effects of the love and power 
 which those events revealed and still communicate. 
 We can make clear what they are to us ; we can 
 make clear how they fill us with tenderness and 
 courage ; we can make clear that we believe and 
 act as believing that Christ not only died and 
 ascended for the most desolate, but that He lives 
 for them now, that He bears them in His heart 
 on His Father's throne, that He is as near to 
 them as He is to us. The living, loving, reigning 
 Christ, Son of Man and Son of GoD, uniting in 
 Himself earth and heaven, time and eternity, 
 this is the Gospel which we are charged to 
 publish. 
 
 We shall, indeed, always feel and show tender 
 and sympathetic regard for the partial truths, not 
 untaught by the Word "that lighteth every man," 
 through which great faiths have preserved the life 
 of nations for long ages ; but we shall not exagge- 
 rate them, and we shall not dissemble our own 
 claims. We have committed to us " a new thing 
 in the earth," a revelation absolutely unique. 
 
unique and new. 171 
 
 essentially different in kind from all other religions. 
 The " repentance " — a most inadequate rendering 
 of the original word — which we preach is not 
 simply genuine sorrow for the past, but a complete 
 revolution in our natural view of God and self and 
 the world. The "remission of sins" which we offer 
 in Christ's Name is no simple act of sovereign 
 mercy, but a disclosure of human and Divine 
 relationships, reaching to the depths of the indi- 
 vidual soul and to the utmost extent of being, as 
 we with our poor powers can conceive of them. 
 We set forth, as I said, Christ Himself, in His 
 self-sacrificing love, as " the image of the invisible 
 God through Whom it was the good pleasure of 
 the Father to reconcile all things to Himself, 
 having made peace by the blood of His Cross," 
 the spring and the support of life. Of this Gospel 
 there is no anticipation in the noblest utterances 
 of prse-Christian Gentile teachers, though their 
 speculations and their hopes cannot find satisfac- 
 tion without it. And we must not scruple to 
 insist on the novelty of our message. At the 
 present time there is great danger from loose, 
 vague ways of thinking by "ungirt minds." There 
 is a temptation to transfer to primitive times 
 thoughts which we recognize as answering to our 
 nature and our condition when once they are 
 made known. Christ is indeed the touchstone of 
 
]72 The Gospel reveals 
 
 humanity. He answers to the witness which GoD 
 has left of Himself among all peoples. This is our 
 starting-point, but it is not our end. He is what 
 He is revealed to be, that in Him every desire of 
 man as GoD made him may find full expression 
 and be satisfied. 
 
 Now, as I have said, within the last generation 
 we have been enabled to learn what is in man, his 
 achievements, his failures, his wants, his hopes, 
 over the whole field of life. " In Christ " we can 
 regard the result with untroubled trust. The 
 universality of our faith has been proved by all 
 past experience. From age to age believers have 
 brought out new treasures of Christ, to match new 
 capacities of men ; and the world-wide, time-long, 
 unanticipated correspondence of human nature 
 with the Gospel brings to us the strongest con- 
 ceivable assurance that He Who gave the Gospel 
 is the Creator of men. So encouraged, we lift up 
 our eyes to the loftiest promises of God, which 
 pass into light unapproachable. We see infinite 
 possibilities of Divine love wherever there is in 
 rude and wilful natures a faint sympathy with 
 higher things. We see glimpses of some larger 
 fellowship, when the revelation of the sons of GoD 
 shall fulfil the earnest expectation of Nature, and 
 her travail-pains shall issue in a new birth. We 
 see, if with fixiling vision, innumerable worlds with 
 
the thoughts of men. 1/3 
 
 which we are bound together, rejoicing in the 
 triumph of Him to whom *' all authority hath 
 been given in heaven and on earth," even as 
 "there is joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God over one sinner that repenteth." 
 
 We have, we cannot doubt, still much to learn. 
 The treasures of the Son of Man are not yet 
 exhausted. And, if we watch with reverent care 
 how the old message is received by men of childlike 
 nature and by men of ancient civilization, we shall 
 be enriched by the thoughts which it reveals out 
 of many hearts, and the glory of GoD will be more 
 fully known. And meanwhile, as we keep hope 
 undimmed and unlimited, w^e shall not forget the 
 lesson of the Lord's tears, and the awfulness of our 
 own relation as men " in Christ " to other men. 
 But, cheered alike and chastened, we shall strain 
 towards the things above. " We know no man 
 after the flesh ; though we have known Christ 
 after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no 
 more." We fix our eyes upon Him Who is at 
 the right hand of God, and from the mission-field 
 comes the assurance that He finds willing subjects 
 and precious tribute in every nation. 
 
 III. Foreign Missions are a witness to the 
 Will of God for the world. Foreign Missions pro- 
 claim the sovereignty of a living Saviour and King 
 of men. Once more. Foreign Missions vindicate 
 
174 The life of Christ the spring 
 
 for the Church of Christ the energy of His 
 life. Christ Himself is their message, and Christ 
 Himself is their strength. His universal authority 
 is the spring of His disciples' power. The present 
 and constant action of the Holy Spirit is alone 
 sufficient to guide and to sustain the missionary, 
 and to give effect sooner or later to his labours. 
 A sense of duty, heroic resolve, strong conviction, 
 are in themselves inadequate for this end, but 
 they lead those to whom they are given to Him 
 from Whom they come. This is made clear to us 
 by the representative record of the Acts, which 
 lays open the workings of the Spirit at the 
 foundation of the Church. In that we can read 
 how the Spirit sent in Christ's Name prepared 
 and endowed the Apostles and believers for their 
 Mission ; how He inspired them with courage and 
 wisdom ; how He opened glimpses of the future 
 for their guidance ; how He directed their judg- 
 ment at crises in the history of the Church ; how 
 He separated and sent forth the workers and 
 determined the fields of their work. And all this 
 is written for our learning. He is with us no 
 less truly and continually and effectually than He 
 was with the first generation of Christians. The 
 fruitfulness of our work depends on the directness 
 with which we realize our Divine fellowship. We 
 ourselves must feel that our message is indeed 
 
and pattern of the Christian life. 175 
 
 His message, feel this by our own experience, 
 and help others to feel it. 
 
 The life of Christ, the Head, is, I repeat, the 
 life of the Body, the Church. In Christ the 
 Church is not only strong against all assailants, 
 but assured of their final overthroAv. Yet here, 
 while we abate nothing from our largest hope, 
 nothing from our most confident trust, we require 
 to learn a lesson which is hard and unwelcome. 
 If the life of Christ is our life. His life must be 
 the type of ours. If His strength is our strength, 
 we must be strong as He was. We must accept 
 His pattern of sacrifice as the rule of our noblest 
 service. We must seek to make His mind our 
 own. Who did not call down fire to consume His 
 enemies, or legions of angels to guard His Person, 
 but "emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." 
 The truth has an application in the Mission-field 
 which is commonly overlooked. There our very 
 advantages become a danger. For in spite of the 
 consciousness of social and intellectual superiority 
 with which we are filled, in spite of the national 
 force which sets us as conquerors where we come 
 as evangelists, in spite of the distrust and suspicion 
 with which those who receive our Gospel are in- 
 clined to regard ourselves, we must loyally and 
 lovingly remember that we come among them 
 " not to be ministered unto but to minister," ves 
 
176 Sacrifices required from teachers 
 
 and if need be, to give our lives for those whom 
 we serve. Sympathy was the mind of Christ, and 
 sympathy is the soul of Missions. The great word, 
 " Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and 
 die, it abideth by itself alone," holds good of nations 
 and churches and men. We can see how St Peter 
 and St Paul and St John died to much that was 
 dear to them before they did their work. May it 
 not be that for some of us corresponding experi- 
 ences are prepared ? It is still true that the way 
 into the Kingdom of God is through many afflic- 
 tions ; it is still true that believers must fill up 
 "that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ"; 
 and yet we are tempted to believe, even as our 
 faith is surest, that when we overthrow beliefs 
 which have had a longer sway than our own, we 
 shall at once be received as benefactors ; that the 
 truth which we declare must at once be welcomed 
 by those who share the nature of the men who 
 killed the Prince of Life. Do we not practically 
 forget that "a servant is not greater than his 
 lord " ? If men kept not Christ's Word, how will 
 they keep ours ? There must still be the deaf 
 ear, and the hard heart, and the pitiless will. 
 There must be suffering for the teacher no less 
 than for the taught, suffering which brings him 
 nearer to his Saviour and to the springs of Divine 
 love, suffering in which he can learn to rejoice. 
 
and from converts. 177 
 
 Such thoughts have a most pathetic applica- 
 tion to our work in India, — and forgive me if I 
 speak of India again. What are the sacrifices 
 which we make there in comparison with the 
 sacrifices which we demand ? Can we say that 
 those who, touched by the Spirit of God, " have 
 left wife, or brethren, or parents, or children," at 
 our call, "receive manifold more iu this present 
 time," in the affectionate intercourse of Christian 
 life ? Or do we allow them to think that divisions 
 of race are in fact of more power than the uniting 
 force of the one Faith ? Have we made any serious 
 endeavour to show, even now, on the mission-field, 
 that " there can be among Christians neither Jew 
 nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, 
 there can be no male and female, for they are all 
 one man in Christ Jesus " ? I know that the 
 question may be addressed to us at home with 
 even a sterner voice ; but I know, too, that if we 
 strive humbly, patiently, tenderly to answer it in 
 the spirit of our Creed, there can be no more 
 convincing sign of the power of God among us. 
 The unity of love, which we so feel after, is that 
 which will, as the Lord has said, lead the world to 
 believe in His Mission. Perhaps it is here that 
 we shall find the true interpretation of the words 
 in which Christ bids the disciple " take up his 
 cross," not to bear some trivial vexation, but to 
 
 w. 12 
 
178 Need of the sjm^it of brotherhood. 
 
 die shamefully in the eyes of men, to die to all 
 that keeps Christian apart from Christian — the 
 vainglory of life in its countless forms — that so he 
 may know the fulness of the eternal life which is 
 untroubled by differences of time. If this seems 
 a hard saying, an impossible demand, I will only 
 ask whether we have brought into a living con- 
 nection with our own position the circumstances 
 under which the Lord said, "The things which are 
 impossible with men are possible with God." 
 
 This is not the time to follow out these far- 
 reaching thoughts, but in new Churches we can 
 at least aim resolutely at this ideal of a brother- 
 hood of believers, and perhaps hereafter we shall 
 ourselves be brought nearer to it. Meanwhile we 
 shall not look anxiously for large results. Results 
 will answer to the wise counsel of God. Of the 
 immeasurable scheme of His working we can see 
 little, but we see enough to determine our duty 
 and to support our faith. There is a Divine 
 " must," and there is a Divine " cannot." Yet 
 already " a great multitude out of all tribes and 
 peoples and tongues," in answer to our appeals, 
 feeble and intermittent, have borne witness that 
 the Gospel has been to them a new life ; and the 
 experience of the past enables us to look forward 
 to the time when " the kings of the earth shall 
 bring their glory" into the sanctuary-city of the 
 
The luork of Missions for all. 179 
 
 Lord. But success, I repeat, as we count success 
 — and in my judgment the success of Foreign 
 Missions is out of all proportion greater than the 
 efforts which we have made — is no measure of the 
 power of God that is with us. Missions, as we 
 believe with a conviction wrought by spiritual 
 experience, answer to the Will of God for the 
 world ; and, as we offer ourselves for the fulfilment 
 of His Will, He is with us, with us even in what 
 we count failures, with invincible might. 
 
 IV. These thoughts which Foreign Missions 
 present with commanding force — the thought of 
 the Will of God for mankind to be fulfilled by 
 our service ; the thought of a glorified Saviour 
 waiting to satisfy every human need and to 
 hallow every human endowment ; the thought 
 of God Himself, as the worker of all that we 
 do in His Name — touch us all nearly. 
 
 We have in a great measure forgotten that 
 it is the privilege, not of the clergy only, but of 
 all believers, of women no less than of men, to 
 bear witness to the truth according to their ex- 
 perience of it. As Christians, all have become 
 partakers of the Christ, and are debtors to all 
 men\ 
 
 1 Bishop Butler's measured words are again worth quot- 
 ing : — ' ' No one has a right to be called a Christian who doth 
 not do somewhat in his station towards the discharge of this 
 
 12-2 
 
180 The lessons of Missions 
 
 We have failed to realize adequately the 
 majesty of the ascended Son of Man. Yet, if 
 we look up, we can understand that it was 
 expedient for us that He should go away. Out 
 of heaven He called the Apostle of the Gentiles 
 to his work; and at the Father's right hand 
 He is brought equally near to the whole world 
 in His present glory. 
 
 We have lingered at the Cross, and not follow- 
 ed the Lord through the rent veil into the Holiest, 
 to the very presence of the Father — His Father 
 and our Father — in order to claim in Him the 
 power which He has gained for us, and to use it 
 after His example. 
 
 In each direction the lessons of Foreign Mis- 
 sions correspond with our present trial. They 
 bring back to us a true sense of our inheritance 
 in the nations as "heirs of God and joint-heirs 
 with Christ," and move us each to seek some 
 
 trust [the stewardship of the faith in behalf of others]; who 
 doth not, for instance, assist in keeping up the profession of 
 Christianity where he lives. And it is an obligation but little 
 more remote to assist in doing it in our factories abroad and 
 in the colonies, to which we are related by their being peopled 
 from our own mother-country, and subjects — indeed very 
 necessary ones — to the same Government with ourselves; 
 and heavier yet is the obligation upon such persons in par- 
 ticular as have the intercourse of an advantageous commerce 
 with them." L.c. p. 214. 
 
meet our present tmals. 181 
 
 share in gathering the fruits of His victory. 
 They constrain us to look beyond the noblest 
 results of man's thought and feeling in the past 
 to a living Lord Who is the Truth, and Who still 
 discloses fresh treasures to His disciples as they 
 have power to guard and to administer them. 
 They raise us above ourselves, and inspire us 
 with sure trust in the infinite resources of a 
 Divine fellowship. They bind earth and heaven 
 together in one great work of love, and reveal 
 the awful calling of believers as God's ministers 
 for the salvation of men. 
 
 Such thoughts, I say, touch us all; but to 
 you, my sons in the faith, to whom the ways of 
 life are still open, they come with a fulness of 
 promise which is able to transfigure all work. 
 All true work for Christ, wherever it is offered, 
 IS one work, one as the answer of unquestioning 
 obedience to His voice, one by the unuttered 
 intercession for the fulfilment of His Will, which 
 is its informing Spirit, one by the quickening 
 force through which it calls into action every 
 capacity for service with which it comes in con- 
 tact. Take, then, thoughts from the mission-field 
 as master principles of all your ministry, whether 
 as clergy or laymen. You will be tempted, 
 perhaps, when you look on your narrow range 
 of labour, to think that the affairs of men are 
 
182 Foreign Missions a spring 
 
 swayed by some blind fate. At such a time 
 lift up your eyes, and see how God's counsel 
 of love for His creatures has gone forward through 
 all the ages and over all the earth, and never 
 more surely than to-day. You will be tempted 
 to rest in forms of words which enshrine the 
 precious experience of our fathers. At such a 
 time lift up your eyes to the Risen Christ, and 
 see how He still speaks through His Spirit to 
 new nations in their own language, and justifies 
 His sovereignty by their glad allegiance. You 
 will be tempted to lose heart when you contrast 
 your weakness with the requirements of your 
 charge as believers. At such a time lift up your 
 eyes, and remember, penitent and humbled, that 
 you are in Christ, lest you should accept any 
 earthly measure for your duty, and that Christ is 
 in you, lest you should be dismayed by any earthly 
 difficulty or disappointment. 
 
 So may God in His mercy enlarge the hearts 
 of all of us through the teaching of Foreign 
 Missions to welcome deeper currents of His 
 love. May He enlighten our understanding to 
 master fresh lessons of His truth. May He 
 confirm our souls to use to the full the gift of 
 His strength for suffering as for doing. May 
 He enable us to discern with pure eyes " the 
 good works which He has prepared for us to 
 
of personal encouragement. 183 
 
 walk in/' and move us as a Nation, as a Church, 
 as believers, to do them. May He grant to us 
 the Christ-like joy of sowers, that we may here- 
 after share the gladness of those who will enter 
 into our labours, when "the hope of glory" becomes 
 fruition, when nature and life are revealed as they 
 are according to the Will of the Father, and " all 
 the treasures of wisdom and knowledge " answer- 
 ing to the rich results of human thought and 
 observation, which are in the Son of Man, in the 
 Unity of His Divine Person, have been brought to 
 light through the ministry of the nations. 
 
III. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
MASTER AND SCHOLAR: A MEMORY 
 AND A HOPE. 
 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, CAMP HILL, 
 BIRMINGHAM. Jan. 26, 1893. 
 
 THE AIM AND METHOD OF EDUCATION. 
 
 COLSTON HALL, BRISTOL. Dec. 1, 1896. 
 
MASTER AND SCHOLAR: A MEMORY 
 AND A HOPE. 
 
 I THINK I ought to begin by frankly con- 
 fessing that I belong to the pre-reformation period 
 as the Bailiff has reminded you. A less kind 
 critic would have said that I belong to the Dark 
 Ages. But I may plead in extenuation that I 
 accept with all my heart the reformation which 
 has followed — at least (may I add ?) as far as it has 
 affected those who came after me. This is indeed 
 the fiftieth year since I obtained my exhibition at 
 King Edward's School, and the half century which 
 has passed since has been full of great and salutary 
 educational changes. This building itself, in its 
 structure and in its purpose, is a symbol of that 
 revolution ; for I cannot but contrast the class- 
 rooms which I have already seen with the great 
 hall in New Street, in which some 250 of us were 
 taught together, not always in undisturbed quiet. 
 
188 The memoi^y 
 
 I can remember the continuous hum of smothered 
 whisperings there, broken from time to time by 
 angry voices and sharp cries. I can remember 
 the uncertainties of our time-table, the inadequacy 
 of our material appliances, the imperfections of 
 our arrangements ; and yet, when I remember all 
 this, I feel at the same time that wherever my 
 own education failed, the failure was due to 
 myself alone. 
 
 Text-books, appliances, methods of instruction, 
 are capable of almost indefinite improvement, but, 
 after all, the teacher is the school for the highest 
 purposes of education. It is not the machinery, 
 but the personality of the teacher, which makes 
 the lasting impression. The teacher is the spring 
 of life and inspiration to his scholars. That edu- 
 cation is most perfect which kindles in the young 
 a passion for studying liberally, for thinking 
 seriously, for serving gladly ; and whatever else 
 we may have lacked in New Street fifty years 
 ago, it was certainly our own fault if we were not 
 touched by this enthusiasm. When, therefore, I 
 desire, as I do now, to express the loftiest and 
 most earnest wishes for the success of the founda- 
 tion to which I owe the preparation for my whole 
 life's work, it is natural that I should look back to 
 my own master, James Prince Lee — the greatest, 
 as I believe, among the great teachers of his time 
 
of a great Master. 189 
 
 —for the guidance of my thoughts. An old boy 
 never grows old ; he is a boy still. Happily there 
 are some things that never feel the touch of age. 
 The presence, the expression, the voice, the man- 
 ner of my old master have lost nothing of their 
 vivid power by the lapse of half a century. I can 
 recall as if it were from a lesson of yesterday the 
 richness and force of the illustrations with which 
 he brought home to us a battle scene of Thucy- 
 dides, or a landscape of Virgil, or a sketch of 
 Tacitus ; I can recall the eloquence with which he 
 discoursed on great problems of life and thought 
 suggested by some favourite passage of Butler's 
 "Analogy"; I can recall the depths which he 
 opened to us in the unfathomable fulness of Apo- 
 stolic words ; I can recall the appeals he made to 
 the noblest instincts in us, revealing us to our- 
 selves, in crises of our school life and of the life of 
 the nation. We might be able to follow him or 
 not ; as we grew older we might agree with par- 
 ticular opinions which he expressed, or we might 
 not ; but at least our souls were touched, and we 
 felt a little more of the claims of duty, a little 
 more of the possibilities of life, a little more of 
 the pricelessness of opportunity. And when I 
 look back upon all he did and all he suggested, in 
 the light of my own long experience as a teacher, 
 I seem to be able to discern something of his 
 
190 Scholars felloiu-workers. 
 
 secret, something of the secret of the teacher's 
 influence at all times. Let me try to tell you, as 
 simply as I can, what that secret was and is. 
 
 Above all then, our Master claimed that we 
 should be from the very beginning his fellow- 
 workers. He made us feel that in all learning 
 we must not be receptive only but active ; that 
 he only learns who thinks, just as he only can 
 teach who learns. He encouraged us to collect, 
 to examine, to arrange such simple facts as lay 
 within the range of our own reading, that he 
 might use the results in dealing with some larger 
 problem. In this way, little by little, we gained 
 a direct acquaintance with the instruments and 
 methods of criticism, and came to know something 
 of confident delight in using them. We rejoiced 
 to discover a little thing which we each could 
 severally do, a service which we could render, an 
 oifering which we could make towards the fulness 
 of the work in which we were engaged. 
 
 This feeling was deepened by his own kingly 
 independence. In those days we had for the 
 most part nothing but simple Greek and Latin 
 texts — editions of Tauchnitz and Black — without 
 note or comment. Every difficult phrase, there- 
 fore, was a problem to us ; and grammars and 
 lexicons were the only instruments at hand for 
 the solution of it. But we were trained to 
 
The force of words. 191 
 
 recognise the elements with which we had to deal, 
 and to trust great principles of interpretation. 
 Such discipline you will easily understand could 
 not fail to brace and to stimulate. And lest our 
 zeal should flag, the few English commentaries 
 accessible at the time were used to furnish terrible 
 warnings against the neglect of absolute thorough- 
 ness and accuracy. 
 
 For Mr Lee — that was the name by which we 
 delighted to think of him to the last — had an 
 intense belief in the exact force of language. A 
 word, as he regarded it, had its own peculiar 
 history and delivered its own precise message. 
 A structural form conveyed for him a definite idea. 
 In translating we were bound to see that every 
 syllable gave its testimony. It might or it might 
 not be possible to transfer directly into English 
 the exact shade of meaning conveyed by the 
 original text ; but at least we were required to 
 take account of the minutest turns of expression, 
 required to seek at least for some equivalent for 
 their force, required at last to recognise the loss 
 which was involved in our own renderings. And 
 if I were to select one endowment which I have 
 found most precious to me in the whole work of 
 life, I should select the absolute belief in the 
 force of words which I gained through the strictest 
 verbal criticism. Belief in words is finally belief 
 
192 Belief in words. 
 
 in thought, belief in man. Belief in words is 
 a guide to the apprehension of the prophetic 
 element in the works of genius. The deeper 
 teachings of poetry are not disposed of by the 
 superficial question, "Did the writer mean all 
 that?" ''No!" we boldly answer; "yet he said 
 it, because he saw the truth which he did not and 
 perhaps at the time could not consciously analyse." 
 
 Still the strictest precision of scholarship was 
 never allowed by our Master to degenerate into 
 pedantry. Scholarship was our training, and let 
 me confess, as belonging to the Dark Ages, I have 
 found no better yet. But our Master pressed 
 every lesson of art and science, and history, and 
 travel into its service. When we came back from 
 the holidays the welcome question was, " Well, 
 what have you read ; what have you seen ? " The 
 reward for a happy answer was to be commissioned 
 to fetch some precious volume from his library — I 
 looked on the shelves this morning, and I could 
 see the places of well-remembered books — so that 
 he might fix some thought by a new association. 
 In this way we gained a knowledge of great 
 books ; and there is, I believe, something elevating 
 even in that outward acquaintance. 
 
 Then came lectures on art, and archaeology, 
 and physics, which he enabled the senior boys to 
 attend. These lectures opened to us new regions. 
 
Interest in many studies. 193 
 
 and stirred in us that generous wonder which 
 is the condition of wisdom. I can remember 
 watching in the darkened theatre of the Philo- 
 sophical Society in Cannon Street, what was I 
 believe the first public exhibition in Birmingham 
 of the electric light. We were watching ; and Dr 
 Melson said, '' The experiment may not succeed — 
 I cannot tell," and then suddenly flashed out that 
 blmding splendour which we are now tempering 
 to use. I can remember, again, a striking series 
 of lectures on painting by Haydon, and one sen- 
 tence in them suggested a parable, on which I 
 often ponder still. " Look," he said, pointing to a 
 beautiful chalk-drawing of Dentatus by his 
 pupil, G. Lance—" Look, it has no outline. There 
 is no outline in nature." " There is no outline in 
 nature." Is it not a parable worth pondering ? 
 
 I lay stress on these wider if most fragmentary 
 teachings, because I believe they were essential 
 to our Master's view of his work : because I still 
 believe that they are the most efficient method of 
 awakening dormant powers. If our proper labour 
 lay within a narrow circle — and I venture to say 
 that it is certain that the best disciplinary edu- 
 cation must lie in a narrow circle — we could not, 
 he held, labour rightly till we knew the splendour 
 and amplitude of our inheritance. For him, and 
 so he would have it be for us, the world was " no 
 
 w. 1 
 
194 Principles remain unchanged 
 
 blot, nor blank, it meant intensely and meant 
 good." He looked around, and he looked forward, 
 nothing dissembling, nothing doubting, and he 
 bade us also look, through every imperfection and 
 every cloud, on to the perfect truth and the pure 
 light. The single word that is inscribed upon his 
 tombstone is, I think, unsurpassed as a confession 
 of triumphant — I had almost said of proud — faith : 
 ^akiriaei, " The trumpet shall sound." 
 
 My last lesson — forgive me if I speak of it 
 again here — my last lesson was the fullest revela- 
 tion of my Master. I was staying with him for a 
 day or two at Mauldeth a short time before his 
 death. We were alone. After dinner I turned 
 the conversation from work at Manchester to 
 work at Birmingham. I think he was glad to go 
 back to those old days. He talked with fervent 
 eloquence of the great classical authors whom he 
 delighted in, as if they were still his familiar 
 companions. He poured out, as he had done to 
 us in school days, quotation after quotation, and 
 dwelt, if I remember rightly, upon that which he 
 said was the finest single line in Latin literature 
 — Virtuteni videant intabescantque y^elicta. Then 
 came graver and sadder subjects, memories of 
 disappointment and of foilure. A long silence 
 followed. It was growing dark. He turned to 
 me and said, "Ah, Westcott, ixi) (f>o^ov, fiovov 
 
in changing methods. 195 
 
 TTicrreve " (Fear not, only believe). — Those four 
 words — no more were spoken — were I think a 
 perfect interpretation of life as the Master saw it, 
 and as he taught his scholars to see it : work to 
 be done, work to be done in face of formidable 
 difficulties, work to be done in faith on God. 
 
 Such, in brief outline, was my great Master, 
 such the method of his work ; and is it not then 
 natural, when I desire most earnestly every blessing 
 for this new school, that I should offer for those 
 who will work here his conception of the teacher's 
 office which I would fain believe is the traditional 
 conception in this ancient foundation, a conception 
 which has been confirmed and hallowed for me by 
 manifold experience ? Methods may change, but 
 these remain as the master powers of education : 
 sympathy as the spring of the teacher's influence, 
 service as the end of the scholar's effort — in- 
 dependence, conviction, largeness of view, faith. 
 And I venture to lay stress upon these qualities 
 at the beginning of a work which cannot but 
 profoundly affect the Birmingham of the next 
 generation ; because the very perfection of the 
 modern educational system in its orderly routine, 
 and the completeness of the helps available for 
 the acquisition of exact information — " information 
 the least part of education," in the sharp phrase 
 of my great predecessor. Bishop Butler — tend to 
 
 13—2 
 
196 The aim of education 
 
 obscure their pre-eminence. The extreme sub- 
 division of subjects, the precision and universality 
 of examinations, the keenness of competition, 
 necessarily tempt teachers and learners to con- 
 centrate attention on measurable results and 
 marketable acquirements. But the highest re- 
 sults of education — results to which all others are 
 subordinate and contributory — cannot be tried by 
 any outward or present test. They will be first 
 seen in the life of the coming age. But "in 
 hours of insight," at least, we perceive that we do 
 not want living encyclopaedias or perfect machines 
 for human work — but men and women eager and 
 fit to take part in social service. Our sincerest 
 desire for our children is not that they should 
 simply accumulate knowledge, but that they 
 should acquire a character — a character inspired, 
 if it may be, by the invigorating sense of the 
 dignity of labour, of the responsibility of wealth 
 and power and place, of the transfiguring virtue 
 of hope. 
 
 We want, I repeat, as the ripe product of our 
 schools, men and women — not men and women 
 trained for professional work. It is vital, as I 
 think, for the welfare of our nation that we should 
 jealously guard education as a preparation for life, 
 a discipline not for the conflicts of industrial 
 warfare but for the service of English citizens, for 
 
to train men and tuomen. 197 
 
 the service of citizens of the Kingdom of GoD. 
 Our methods of education, our subjects, our 
 teachers, must be judged by their fitness to secure 
 this end. We believe, and not vainly, that vic- 
 tories greater than Waterloo can be won in our 
 class-rooms and in our playing fields — victories 
 which shall hasten the advent of righteousness 
 and peace and joy. 
 
 Such considerations would be important any- 
 where, but they seem to me to be especially 
 important in this city and here. Our foundation 
 — may I still be allowed for a moment once again 
 to identify myself with it ? — our foundation will 
 practically direct the whole higher education of 
 the city. If the spirit of our foundation be sordid 
 and selfish, directed to immediate and material 
 aims, I dare not look forward. But I cannot 
 contemplate such an issue. I find something 
 very different indicated in the ceremony of to-day. 
 It is a good omen for the foundation that it has 
 provided — provided most liberally and wisely — 
 that girls may be prepared to take their place 
 and fulfil their office hereafter in the body of the 
 commonwealth. In the body of the common- 
 wealth — let us mark the image — in the body, in 
 which we are not units but members. 
 
 No one can rejoice more than I do in the 
 improvements which have been made during the 
 
198 We need to guard 
 
 last half-century in the education of women. No 
 one can rejoice more than I do that the freer 
 culture, the fuller life, the larger interests which 
 have made our sons what they are, through our 
 public schools, are now freely offered to our daugh- 
 ters. Yet I hold, with equal confidence, that 
 these improvements would be dearly purchased if 
 they should lessen, or disparage in popular esteem, 
 the gifts of " distinctive womanhood." 
 
 Humanity would be impoverished if women 
 were to set themselves to do all that men do, as 
 their rivals and not their helpmates. I do not 
 attempt to adjust in any balance the gifts and 
 graces of men and women. I only contend that 
 they are different, and precious because they are 
 different. I cannot compare their relative value, 
 nor can I compare the relative value of the ser- 
 vices which great poets and great artists render 
 to their countrymen. But I know this : that the 
 world is richer through the services of poet and 
 artist alike, far richer than it would be if one 
 were lost in the other. , And even if it may seem 
 to be an old man's prejudice, I can form no loftier 
 wish for woman than the poet formed forty years 
 ago, that 
 
 . . . at the last she set herself to man, 
 Like perfect music unto noble words. 
 
 This, then — let me frankly express my mind — 
 
' distinctive womanhood' 199 
 
 is my hope for the future : that it will be the 
 desire of those who guide this great school, and 
 the aim of those who teach in it, that the scholars 
 may grow up to be true women, offering each to 
 God, and to man by His help, their womanly 
 characteristics, their particular differences in the 
 unity of the one body. And I dwell on this thought 
 of the body with more insistence because it is, I 
 believe, through the faithful acceptance of this 
 conception of the body — the body of the nation, 
 the body of the nations — that we shall find a 
 remedy for our greatest sorrows. At the same 
 time the thought of corporate unity and individual 
 function guards the variety and the power of 
 citizens and of peoples. It averts the peril of an 
 equally diffused and superficial civilisation. And 
 in this respect we have not — I confess it sadly — 
 we have not yet sufficiently studied the part of 
 women, or claimed their help. They have a power 
 of spiritual vision which men have not. It was 
 not an accident that a woman was the herald of 
 the Resurrection. She may be yet again, in a 
 fuller spiritual sense. To women great ideals are 
 natural. They have an intuition of the whole of 
 things. They have capacities for training and 
 educating which we have not yet used. They 
 have received, not for themselves but for humanity, 
 special treasures of tenderness, of sympathy, of 
 
200 The work of woman 
 
 reverence, of faith, of purity. We ask, then, that 
 they be taught to acknowledge, to prize, to use 
 their most precious endowments. 
 
 We men know, as long as we think calmly, 
 that our highest imaginations for ourselves, for 
 our fellows, and for the world, are the truest. We 
 cannot fancy anything better or nobler than God 
 wills. But then, in the rude turmoil of life, it is 
 hard for us to lift up our eyes to the distant glory, 
 and how much more hard to keep our e3^es fixed 
 upon it ? It is far easier to think meanly of things, 
 but the penalty is that we grow like our judg- 
 ments. Here, then, I say, it is the part of women 
 to help us. They, if they are true to themselves, 
 can keep our hopes fresh, and our hearts pure, 
 and our aims lofty, and our faith strong. To 
 prepare them for this office will be, I trust, the 
 work of this school. 
 
 The preparation will answer to the guidance 
 of such a teacher as I have tried to sketch. The 
 scholar whom I picture to myself will learn that 
 she is not her own, but that diligent self-culture 
 is the condition of a service, great or small, which 
 she only can render to society. She will try with 
 resolute thoroughness to make some subject her 
 own, questioning the facts till they become as it 
 were familiar friends, and make knowledge a living 
 power. She will " win her soul by patience," and 
 
essential for the work of man. 201 
 
 find assured rest in the eternal realities which lie 
 beneath and beyond the changeful shows of life. 
 She will gain that sense of one vast Divine life 
 revealed through the uniformities of nature, 
 through the representative works of art, through 
 the prophetic voices of literature, which is strong 
 enough to bear all trials and all disappointments 
 within and without, and to keep love to man 
 unchilled and faith in God invincible. And then 
 at last she will pass to her own home, to bring 
 the strength of pure and lofty purposes to those 
 who are in danger of losing heart and missing 
 their destiny through the temptations of selfish 
 struggles. 
 
 She will pass to her own home. Home is 
 already recognised as woman's kingdom. As the 
 home is, so is the nation ; as the woman is, so is 
 the home. My last words, then, shall be the 
 expression of a heartfelt desire — which sums up, 
 indeed, all I would say — that hereafter many a 
 home in Birmingham and elsewhere may witness 
 that this school has in its measure hastened the 
 coming of a life simpler, nobler, more religious, 
 more full " of joy in widest commonalty spread," 
 than we have hitherto known. As we look for- 
 ward to the prospect — it is no dream, but a 
 waking vision — the future grows radiant with 
 promise. 
 
THE AIM AND METHOD OF EDUCATION. 
 
 On two former occasions I have endeavoured 
 to indicate the general principles of the Christian 
 Social Union, and the essential character of the 
 Christian law which it is our desire to make the 
 rule of our life. To-night I wish to say a few 
 words on Education, on its true aim and method. 
 The subject is of vital importance to all of us. 
 Each generation in its turn forms that which next 
 follows, and we ought to be ready to face greater 
 sacrifices for the making of the nation than for 
 guarding its material interests. What men are 
 is more momentous than what they Kave. As we 
 are we use all that is committed to us. 
 
 And to us at the present time the subject is 
 of urgent interest. The state has at length 
 accepted without reserve the proposition that the 
 claim of the people to education is as undeniable 
 as their claim to the preservation of their life. It 
 
The object of Education. 203 
 
 has therefore undertaken the responsibility of 
 providing training for all ; and the type of edu- 
 cation which is adopted must be the dominant 
 factor in determining the future of our country. 
 Education, by God's help, makes men, and men 
 make the Nation. When we face this issue we 
 cannot but ask ourselves with some anxiety : 
 Whether we have chosen our system of national 
 education, after large and careful thought, as that 
 which is most suited to secure the result which 
 we deliberately judge to be the best, or have 
 drifted into it under the influence of currents of 
 popular opinion ? Whether we have patiently 
 considered how children are likely to be perma- 
 nently affected by that which they are taught, 
 and by the manner of teaching? Whether the 
 opportunities of childhood are used as effectively 
 as possible for the development of human faculties, 
 or exhausted in the premature appropriation of 
 borrowed experience ? 
 
 Leaving these questions unanswered for the 
 present, I will beg you to go back with me to the 
 elementary conception of Education, and to take 
 account of some facts on which I venture to hope 
 that we shall be agreed. 
 
 We shall be agreed, I assume, that the object 
 of Education is to train for life, and not for a 
 special occupation ; to train the whole man for 
 
204 Character' the result of Education. 
 
 all life, for life seen and unseen, for the unseen 
 through the seen and in the seen ; to train men 
 in a word and not craftsmen, to train citizens for 
 the Kingdom of God. As we believe in God and 
 the world to come, these must be master thoughts. 
 
 We shall be agreed further that with this 
 object in view, education must be so ordered as 
 to awaken, to call into play, to develop, to direct, 
 to strengthen powers of sense and intellect and 
 spirit, not of one but of all : to give alertness 
 and accuracy to observation : to supply fulness 
 and precision to language : to arouse intelligent 
 sympathy with every form of study and occupa- 
 tion : to set the many parts and aspects of the 
 world before the growing scholar in their unity : 
 to open the eyes of the heart to the eternal of 
 which the temporal is the transitory sign. 
 
 We shall be agreed again that the elements of 
 restraint alike and of personal development which 
 enter into education will be used to harmonise 
 the social and individual instincts, and to inspire 
 the young, when impressions are most easy and 
 most enduring, with the sense of fellowshijD and 
 the passion for service. 
 
 We shall be agreed once more that the noblest 
 fruit of education is character, and not acquire- 
 ments : character which makes the simplest life 
 rich and beneficent, character which for a Christian 
 
TJie tvork of the Teacher. 205 
 
 is determined by a true vision of God, of whom, 
 through whom, unto luhom, are all things. 
 
 This being agreed, we can form a just idea of 
 the proper work of a teacher. He will recognise 
 that little children, even under the saddest over- 
 growths of evil, still inherit a blessing : that they 
 are, in some sense, what others must become : 
 that they have a power of insight into the invis- 
 ible: that they were born to see the true, the right, 
 the beautiful, and have, as we may humbly trust, 
 faculties for apprehending them : that they feel a 
 keen interest in concrete things, through which 
 language gains definiteness and power. He will, 
 therefore, from the first, encourage them to observe, 
 and to describe what they observe, and not com- 
 municate at once his own observations : he will 
 let things speak to them for themselves — remem- 
 bering all the w^hile " the mighty sum of things 
 for ever speaking " — even if at first they give an 
 uncertain voice. The brief summary of the Creed 
 in our Catechism will, as he applies it, serve to 
 give a new meaning to nature and to life, and to 
 provide (I will dare to say) the necessary clue to 
 the perplexities of our present experience. 
 
 At the same time he will strive that their 
 knowledge shall be a growth and not a vestment, 
 increasing from within and not added from without. 
 He will make memory the handmaid of the mind 
 
206 TJie office of Literature. 
 
 and not its substitute : he will strive that all 
 lessons shall, as far as possible, be of life and 
 not of books, feeling that " knowledge must be 
 incorporated before it is real," and that all that 
 lives is of the living. In this way he will guard 
 against the evil which the Egyptian king foresaw 
 was likely to arise from the art of writing, that 
 by this men " would learn many things by hearsay 
 without real instruction, and seem to have great 
 knowledge, while, for the most part, they would 
 be utterly ignorant and unfit for social intercourse, 
 having become seeming wise and not truly wise\" 
 But, none the less, the teacher, while he lays 
 the greatest stress on the development of the 
 intuitions of his scholars and of their powers of 
 observation, will not neglect or disparage the 
 splendid inheritance which we have received from 
 the past. It is this inheritance in thought as well 
 as in life which distinguishes the civilized man 
 from the savage. The teacher will therefore use the 
 works of the masters of literature to interpret per- 
 sonal experience. Through them he will shew that 
 there is, as has been said, "a certain humanity 
 common to the greatest men with the least," and 
 those who follow him will grow familiar with the 
 golden deeds of heroes and saints, and learn 
 through admiration to claim kinship with all who 
 1 Plato, Fhcedr. 275 A. 
 
IChe fruits of Wisdom. 207 
 
 have best served their race. Little by little they 
 will come to know what they owe to their fathers ; 
 and in this way they will see that courageous and 
 lofty actions are congenial to their true nature, 
 and a generous sympathy with things pure and 
 lovely and of good report will keep in check their 
 baser desires. 
 
 By such subtle and vital influences the teacher 
 will cherish in his scholars the graces of humility, 
 and obedience, and tenderness, and gratitude, and 
 generosity, and reverence. He will guard as far 
 as possible the individuality of each one of them, 
 and yet impress on each that he is a member of a 
 body. He will remember that he is called to be 
 a teacher of wisdom, who is the mother of " fair 
 love, and fear, and knowledge, and holy hope^" 
 and that in that quaternion knowledge is shewn 
 in its due relation to feeling and conduct. And 
 he needs the lesson for the support of his largest 
 aspirations; for if knowledge alone were the 
 teacher's aim, he would foresee how soon differ- 
 ences of opportunity must hopelessly divide 
 
 1 Ecclus. xxiv. 18 (A. v.). This beautiful phrase is no 
 part of the LXX. text, and is excluded from E.V. But it is 
 found in all the Latin MSS. (Jerome adopted the Old Latin 
 Version in this book without change), in two Greek MSS. and 
 in the Complutensian text. It passed from the Vulgate into 
 A. v., and is certainly deserving of record. 
 
208 The personal element in teaching, 
 
 classes of men whom " fair love, and fear, and 
 
 holy hope " — 
 
 Hope the paramount duty which Heaven lays, 
 For its own honour, on man's suffering heart — 
 
 bind together in a noble fellowship. 
 
 From all that has been said it will be clear 
 that Education is a spiritual relationship. It 
 becomes operative through sympathy. The per- 
 sonal element in it is supreme. Faith and love 
 and religion can only be taught by those who 
 possess them. The teacher indeed communicates 
 himself, and then perhaps most effectively when 
 he is off his guard. Thus his moral teaching will 
 be for the most part indirect : on the one side an 
 awakening of the sense of responsibility and on 
 the other a welcome of something which is felt to 
 belong to the true self His final appeal will be 
 not to ambition, not to self-interest, but to love. 
 Two questions will be an adequate test of his 
 work. How far and in what way is this task, and 
 that discipline likely to affect the character and 
 conduct of the scholar by increasing his capacity 
 for action and strengthening right motives? 
 Whom or what is the child learning to admire, to 
 reverence, to love ? 
 
 It will be said that I have sketched an 
 ideal, — an unattainable ideal. But what then ? 
 Does the ideal correspond with what we desire, 
 
Dangers of the present time. 209 
 
 with what w^e have seen fulfilled with the happiest 
 results in this part and that ? And if so, are we 
 not constrained to confess that many so-called 
 improvements in popular Education carry us 
 farther and farther away from it ? Is it not true 
 that the ever-increasing effort to meet the claims 
 for definite knowledge, and in the present day to 
 meet technical requirements, tends to obscure the 
 paramount object of Education, which, as Bishop 
 Butler reminded us 150 years ago, is "to put 
 children into right dispositions of mind and right 
 habits of living, in every relation," — " the highest 
 relations in which they stand," — ''and every 
 capacity"? We grow more and more impatient 
 of processes which do not yield speedy measur- 
 able results. The communication of information 
 which can be reproduced with the most complete 
 exactness and the least independent thought, is 
 coming to be regarded as the teacher's supreme 
 aim. The motives on which the surest reliance is 
 placed are anti-social — personal eaiulation, and 
 material interest. In some classes competition 
 threatens to invade the nursery, and in others 
 Education is habitually regarded simply as a 
 preparation for industrial conflict. Even the 
 training of teachers is in danger of becoming 
 more and more purely intellectual, and within 
 that narrow range more and more mechanical, 
 w. U 
 
210 Vital importance of 
 
 The reading of great books is, I am informed by 
 those who can speak with authority, less common 
 in the North in the present day than it was forty 
 years ago. The influence upon our working 
 classes — to go no further — of the highest litera- 
 ture is hardly appreciable. And yet they shew 
 keen delight in the noblest ideas when they are 
 offered to them, but they have not learned in 
 their childhood to recognise the greatness for 
 which they were born, to claim the earth and the 
 sky with their innumerable marvels for their 
 common heritage, and our prophets and poets for 
 their friends. 
 
 Now all this concerns us as members of the 
 Christian Social Union most deeply. The founda- 
 tions of our work must be laid in the beginnings 
 of life. We believe that character is the unfailing 
 spring of strength to the nation, and of joy to the 
 citizen. We believe that " we live " so far as we 
 truly live "by admiration, hope and love," or to 
 express the truth in its final form in the impres- 
 sive words of one of the earliest Christian Fathers 
 that the " life of man is the vision of God." We 
 believe that the helplessness of our early years 
 represents on the other side our unique capacity 
 for being freely moulded to a higher type by ex- 
 ternal influences. We believe, according to a 
 memorable saying, that "the education of children 
 
our conceptio7i of Education. 211 
 
 is the reformation of the world " — institutio piieri- 
 lis reformatio mundi. We believe that if the 
 scope of education is narrowed to the cultivation 
 of one part of our nature a disastrous deteriora- 
 tion of public and private spirit must follow, and 
 that even if our inheritance from the past save us 
 from fatal decay we shall be unprepared to fulfil 
 the office to which we are called for the service of 
 humanity. 
 
 What then we need at the present time with 
 a view to our national development is a clear 
 view of the nature of Education as the training of 
 the whole man — body and soul and spirit — for 
 social service through the harmonious cultivation 
 and disciplining of his personal powers. If once 
 we are agreed on the aim of the work, the proper 
 method for attaining it will soon and surely be 
 determined. 
 
 Meanwhile there is much that we can do. It 
 need not be said that home is the most effective 
 school of character. On the duties of home I 
 cannot dwell now. But there is a more general 
 influence of common tone and habits of which 
 serious account ought to be taken. We are at all 
 times unconsciously educating others by our own 
 example. Our standard of duty in the discharge 
 of business and in the use of leisure necessarily 
 influences the desires and the actions of those who 
 
 14—2 
 
212 Responsibility for use of leisure. 
 
 look to us for guidance. The young are quick- 
 eyed critics, and the sight, of quiet devotion to 
 work, of pleasure sought in common things — and 
 all truly precious things are common — will enforce 
 surely and silently some great lessons of school. 
 We do not, as far as I can judge, rate highly 
 enough our responsibility for the customary 
 practices of society. Not infrequently we neutra- 
 lise our teaching through want of imagination 
 by failing to follow out the consequences of some 
 traditional custom. We seem to be inconsiderate 
 when we are only ignorant. 
 
 And here I cannot but remark that the right 
 use of leisure is an object of Education not 
 second — this is, you remember, the judgment of 
 Aristotle — even to the right fulfilment of work. 
 In this respect an obligation is laid upon the 
 more cultured classes to watch heedfully the 
 pattern which they set, lest those who follow them 
 at a distance should be corrupted in their amuse- 
 ments. We are often told that "the battle of 
 Waterloo was won in the playing fields of Eton." 
 Do we consider what that saying means ? Surely 
 this, that that which was then most social in our 
 Education, that in which the individual was most 
 completely lost in the body which he served, was the 
 spring of our national strength. We pray that the 
 spirit of such games may be the spirit of our life. 
 
Opportunities of Managers of Schools. 213 
 
 Some of us again are directly responsible for 
 Elementary Education as Managers of Schools or 
 Members of School Boards. And here there is a 
 priceless, and, as far as my experience goes, an 
 almost unused opportunity of service for laymen. 
 The work of the teacher is exhausting and often 
 depressing. He requires the encouragement of 
 active sympathy. The visits of the clergy are 
 naturally regarded as part of their professional 
 duty. But if laymen— employers of labour for 
 example— shew their personal interest in the 
 School, it is to teachers and pupils alike a 
 welcome testimony to the public importance of 
 their tasks. A recitation or a reading lesson will 
 give occasion for kindly counsels from men of 
 large experience in affairs. Opportunities will be 
 found for creating an interest in local history and 
 local treasures, in the flowers, the birds, the 
 scenery, the monuments of the neighbourhood. 
 Bare walls will be covered with good pictures, 
 which, perhaps, more than anything else, stimulate 
 a healthy curiosity and enlarge a child's field of 
 view. The school will take its true place in the 
 common life, and the scholars will learn to be 
 proud of their peculiar heritage, and be filled 
 with generous desires which other forms of in- 
 struction will afterwards satisfy. 
 
 And perhaps there are some among us who 
 
214 What training do we desire 
 
 will be able to make yet ampler provision than 
 there now is for the effectual training of Teachers. 
 Technical, intellectual fitness, which can be tested 
 by examination, is only one part of their qualifi- 
 cation for their office. For the rest I can see 
 nothing which can supply the place of the 
 residential Colleges, which offer to students the 
 privileges of close companionship, of healthy 
 discipline, of social energy, of religious com- 
 munion, all the powers in short of a large, varied 
 and continuous life, through which the professional 
 details of their preparation will be connected with 
 wider obligations. 
 
 I have only touched upon subjects which 
 admit of manifold development and illustration. 
 I have barely indicated, here and there, changes 
 which I desire ; but I have said enough, I trust, 
 to commend the broader aspects of Education to 
 your serious and practical consideration. They 
 open out questions more far-reaching in their 
 consequences than the questions of present con- 
 troversy: and yet there is great danger lest 
 judgment upon them should go by default, or 
 even that they should be unregarded. 
 
 It has been said, " Look on thy heart and 
 write." As far as I have been able I have done 
 so. I have looked back upon my school time 
 
for those tvho luill come after us? 215 
 
 and read afresh the lessons which have lived 
 with me through all my days. I have looked 
 back upon the years when I endeavoured to 
 teach, and noted again the causes of results 
 below hope and sometimes beyond hope. In 
 both retrospects alike, I have been assured that 
 Education is, so far as it is true, of the whole life 
 by the whole life. I have been assured that the 
 highest is for all in Christ, and not for any 
 privileged class. I have been assured, that when 
 we narrow our aim, we wrong our Faith. In this 
 assurance I ask you to reflect what you desire to 
 provide for shaping the character of the genera- 
 tion which will follow you, what sacrifices you 
 will gladly make to secure your object ; and for 
 your own part I ask you to offer to all whom you 
 can reach, as opportunity is given, the best which 
 you have, and to claim from them at the begin- 
 ning of life the service in which you have found 
 your highest joy. 
 
IV. 
 
 SOCIAL SEEVICE 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNIOK 
 CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 3, 1894. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LAW. 
 
 MANCHESTER, Nov. 25, 1895. 
 
 THE COOPERATIVE IDEAL. 
 
 SUNDERLAND, May 12, 1894. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION. 
 
 It is impossible for me not to express my 
 thankfulness that I am allowed now, at the close 
 of life, to welcome here, in Cambridge, the repre- 
 sentatives of a great and vigorous society of the 
 young, which embodies the desire of my under- 
 graduate days fifty years ago, that we who believe 
 should seriously endeavour to make our Christian 
 Faith the direct rule of our whole life — of our 
 social and civic and national life, no less than 
 of our personal life — keeping our ideal steadily 
 in view while we face the perplexing details of 
 conduct. 
 
 No doubt, my friends, you will meet with 
 many delays, disappointments, failures, in the 
 pursuit of your end. Ways which in prospect 
 seem to be full of hope, will be discredited by 
 trial. But the confession itself, made humbly in 
 the face of GOD and men, the resolute purpose. 
 
220 The principle of 
 
 the patient inquiry, the sustained thought, the 
 unfailing prayer, will in due time justify them- 
 selves. 
 
 The Christian Social Union, as I understand 
 its constitution, affirms a principle sovereign over 
 life. It lays down lines by which we may 
 approach and deal with social problems. It im- 
 poses on its members grave personal obligations. 
 
 It is, then, of this principle (I.), of these lines 
 of inquiry and reflection (II.), of these personal 
 obligations (III.), I desire to speak. 
 
 The principle of our Union is held implicitly, 
 by all believers. We " claim for the Christian 
 law the ultimate authority to rule social practice." 
 We cannot claim less. The Christian law, the 
 double law of love — love to man springing out 
 of love to God : love to God shewn through love 
 to man, — interpreted, enforced, made possible by 
 the Incarnation, includes in its scope every form 
 of human activity. If it does not do so in fact, 
 it is only because we have not yet fully mastered 
 the meaning of the Faith, which can, indeed, 
 only be mastered in mcmy parts and in inany 
 fashions through the teaching of the Spirit as 
 time goes forward. 
 
the Christian Social Union. 221 
 
 This Christian law is written out in detail 
 slowly from age to age ; but the truth itself, 
 which the manifold experience of saints and 
 prophets prepares for application to common life, 
 finds a perfect expression in the simplest summary 
 of the lessons of the Creed. If we believe that 
 the world, filled with unfathomable mysteries, 
 was made by our Father ; that all men, stricken 
 and divided as they are by sorrows and strifes, 
 were redeemed by our Saviour ; that the people 
 of God, wayward and sin-stained, are all hallowed 
 by one Spirit, — it is clear that our view of nature, 
 of humanity, of God, must differ essentially from 
 that of others who do not share our belief This, 
 I say, is clear ; but, as yet, we have not consis- 
 tently applied the truth to action. We have not 
 studied social and national duties in the light 
 of the Creed. We have removed God from the 
 world of sense. Our conduct in commercial and 
 political life is not habitually an intelligent and 
 definite answer to the question, ''What ought I 
 to do as a Christian?" 
 
 It is true that this question is sometimes 
 treated as irrelevant. It is said that life is 
 complex : that a great part of the fabric of civil 
 society with its rules and customs is built out 
 of non-Christian elements : that here the Faith 
 has no place. I cannot admit the validity of the 
 
222 What is Christian? 
 
 conclusion. No one can value more highly than 
 I do the inheritance which we have received from 
 the old world. I know what we owe intellectually 
 to Greece, even in the definitions of doctrine. I 
 know what we owe to Roman organization, even 
 in the structure of the Christian society. But 
 we do not accept this manifold inheritance on 
 the independent authority of those from whom 
 it has come down to us. We try, or we are 
 bound to try, every part of it by the Christian 
 rule. We accept as Christians what we do 
 accept, welcoming, in prse-Christian principles 
 and institutions, not the creations of philosophers 
 or statesmen, but the work of the Word Who 
 lighteth every man. "The nations" had their 
 share in the preparation for the Incarnation no 
 less than "the people." The treasures of ''the 
 Gentiles" are as much the treasures of the Christ 
 as the treasures of " Israel." Both are received 
 and used in His Name. He hallows the eternal 
 element in both. That, in a word, is Christian 
 which, in any case, duly represents now the 
 application of the teaching and the power of 
 Christ's person and work to human circumstances. 
 We cannot rest in anything till we come to a 
 Divine foundation. So it was that St Paul recog- 
 nized the various officers of the Roman Govern- 
 ment as ''ministers of God." For there is no 
 
Mans life is one. 223 
 
 opposition between ''the things of C^sar" and 
 nhe things of God:" the latter in one sense 
 include the former, and reveal their true character. 
 No one who believes that of the Lord and through 
 H'im and unto Him are all things, can admit that 
 there is a final division between the several 
 regions of life. 
 
 The same conclusion follows directly from the 
 fact that human life is one both personally and 
 in its final sum. It is no doubt desirable to 
 isolate and to analyze in detail special impulses, 
 powers, aims, for purposes of study, with a view 
 to the fullest self-development; but, in doing 
 this, we deal with abstractions. In living, the 
 elements of life cannot be separated. They act 
 and react one upon another in indissoluble con- 
 nection. The life of the man is one because the 
 personality is one. What a Christian does he 
 must do as a Christian. He stands before others 
 m his whole life as the representative of his 
 Faith. 
 
 The life of the man is one, but it is not 
 solitary. Man is not a whole, finally and self- 
 complete. His unity leads up to a higher unity. 
 He is constrained to seek completeness in fellow- 
 ship with his fellow-men and with God. He 
 cannot reach his own perfection except through 
 social action. The harmonious development of his 
 
224 The unity of life. 
 
 powers is relative to a social function. Wealth 
 in every form, material, intellectual, moral, has to 
 be administered for the common good. God only 
 can say of any possession " My own." As for 
 ourselves, it is made known to us that we are 
 members of a Divine body, and become "one man 
 (el9) in Christ Jesus " — " one man " in whom the 
 perfection of every individual is found to be 
 contributory to one true human life. 
 
 Looking, then, to this revelation of our des- 
 tined end, this unity built up of unities, in which 
 every variety of gift and effort finds its place, 
 we must, as Christians, accept literally, with what- 
 ever imperfection of accomplishment, the twofold 
 apostolic rule as the standard of our action : 
 Whatsoever ye do ... do all in the Name of Jesus 
 Christ: do all to the glory of God. For believers 
 are set to fulfil a double office. They are as salt, 
 to save the perishable things of earth from cor- 
 ruption : as light, to shew forth the Divine, that 
 men may see their good works, and glorify their 
 Father ivhich is in heaven. 
 
 We are all familiar with this conception of 
 the unity of life in the individual and in the 
 society ; but, for the most part, we hold it simply 
 as an august idea. We do not follow it to its 
 consequences. Our beliefs become crystallized 
 into formulas. They cease to be living and life- 
 
The Sjnrit interjjvets the Incarnation. 225 
 giving forces; yet it is for this end they are 
 given, and the gift brings with it the necessity 
 of untiring endeavour. There can be no station- 
 arinessin human circumstances; and Christianity 
 proves its vitality by dealing with new conditions 
 of life. 
 
 In this respect it is encouraging to notice that 
 the main lines of human progress correspond with 
 the fuller apprehension of the Christian con- 
 ception of man and men. The Incarnation 
 reconciles the partial truths which give power 
 to the conflicting theories of Individualism and 
 Socialism; and progress depends on the ever 
 clearer and more effective recognition of personal 
 responsibility and corporate dependence. There 
 has been no growth, as far as we can observe, 
 in the intellect or virtue of individuals. The 
 masters and saints of old times are masters and 
 saints for us still. But, as time goes on, the field 
 on which intellect and virtue act is enlarged and 
 made more fruitful. Wider views of our destiny 
 and of our interdependence gain currency. The 
 popular environment becomes more favourable to 
 the cultivation and diffusion of generous thoughts. 
 Then the Spirit brings to the mind of the Church, 
 we know not how, some new truth out of the 
 depths of the unchanging Gospel which meets 
 and satisfies a vague desire. It is so now. The 
 
 15 
 
226 Application of larger views of life. 
 
 unity of life in Christ, the solidarity of believers, 
 their work for the world, are thoughts which 
 I have seen rise upon us with fresh hope during 
 my own working time. These thoughts, as I 
 believe, answer to the trials of the coming age, 
 and they are adequate to vanquish them. They 
 reveal to us, as we regard them in their manifold 
 applications, the full grandeur of our position and 
 of our calling in a world disordered by sin. 
 When, therefore, we consider the inheritance on 
 which we have entered, we shall ask with anxious 
 and grateful hearts what we are preparing for 
 those who will come after us, children ourselves 
 of the past, fathers of the future. Touched by a 
 new sense of social obligation, we shall recognize 
 that it is for us to bring the latest teachings of 
 our Faith to bear with sobering, chastening, 
 sustaining force on the thoughts and aspirations 
 of our fellow-men : to give calm consistency to 
 feelings which are often impatient and undefined: 
 to concentrate and transmit the spiritual impulse 
 which we have ourselves felt ; for humanity can 
 be enriched, not only by the accumulations of 
 knowledge, which have been handed down from 
 generation to generation, but also by the spiritual 
 energy which is conveyed from soul to soul. We 
 shall recognize that it is for us to shew that, as a 
 body, we must suffer and rejoice together, and 
 
Progress sloiu and painful. 227 
 
 that if wrong be done, he who does it is a greater 
 loser than he who bears it. We shall recognize 
 that it is for us to accept no rest till all men 
 become workers together for one end, with oppor- 
 tunities corresponding to their powers, and till all 
 enjoy according to their capacity the whole life 
 which they help to support. 
 
 11. 
 
 How, then, shall we fulfil this overwhelming 
 charge ? How shall we bring our Gospel to bear 
 on the evils of the time ? Is fulfilment possible ? 
 The past history of the Church will save us from 
 some misapprehensions and disappointments, 
 while we maintain an answer of unwavering hope. 
 
 Looking back we see, however imperfectly, 
 that Gop has revealed Himself through the Holy 
 Spirit sent in Christ's Name, who takes of that 
 which is Christ's and declares it unto us, and 
 carried forward one growing purpose. We see, 
 also, that He has often brought about results 
 different from those which His instruments de- 
 signed. We see that the present is the preparation 
 which His Spirit makes for the future. Nothing 
 leads us to think that we may look for rapid 
 changes, still less for painless victories. Nothing 
 indicates that the Lord proposed to take sorrow 
 
 15—2 
 
228 Economic ' laius ' do not ansiuer 
 
 out of life : He came not to make life easier hut 
 to make it nobler. 
 
 Even if man by his self-will had not hindered 
 the normal fulfilment of the design of God, it is 
 evident that society could only have advanced 
 little by little towards its goal. It could not, as 
 we regard it, have been created complete or made 
 complete all at once. As it is, progress has been 
 achieved through wars, revolutions, conflicts. 
 Every nation is founded on the ruins of earlier 
 civilizations. No organization of society is per- 
 manent. Provision must be made for change 
 without intermission. But not to enter on the 
 perplexed questions suggested by these irregular 
 movements, we turn to the problems of industrial 
 life with which we are more directly concerned. 
 Here it is said that we are on surer ground, that 
 the " economic laws " to which they are subject 
 are " founded on the characteristic attributes of 
 human nature." The statement leaves much to 
 be desired in precision, but looking only at its 
 general scope it is obvious that it would be more 
 correct to say that economic laws are generaliza- 
 tions from the observation of the conduct of 
 average men at particular times and places under 
 a particular aspect. Even if they answer to 
 human nature as it is in the full sense of the 
 phrase, we cannot forget the call which heralded 
 
to the luhole of human nature, 229 
 
 the Gospel, fjueravoure — a call which required of 
 the hearers, not only repentance for the past, but 
 a complete change of mind, so that they should 
 place God, and not man, at the centre of their 
 moral system. As believers in the Risen Christ, 
 we believe in a new birth. 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, the end and the 
 motive which are presupposed in present economic 
 theory have not been universally recognized. 
 Material wealth has not always been treated as 
 the supreme object of human endeavour. It was 
 not so regarded in Greece or Rome when they 
 were greatest, nor in the Middle Ages. Self- 
 interest, as distinguished from social service, has 
 not always been the master-motive of men. If 
 we carry our thoughts back to the ancient world, 
 we shall see that the abolition of slavery once 
 appeared to be as incompatible with the pro- 
 ductiveness of industry as the abolition or definite 
 restriction of competition appears to be now in 
 common opinion. 
 
 In any case, sucli "laws" declare what actually 
 is, and not what ought to be: they convey limited 
 information, and not either moral judgments or 
 commands. We must, therefore, take account of 
 them, but not necessarily accept them as deter- 
 mining our action. They shew what we shall 
 gain or suffer under certain conditions, but the 
 
230 Economic questions fall within 
 
 hope of gain and the fear of suffering are not the 
 only forces which influence our conduct. It may 
 easily happen, as in the United States, that other 
 than economic {i.e. chrematistic) considerations 
 will determine the policy of a nation. 
 
 Yet more, in considering the problems of 
 industry, we have to take account of the dis- 
 tribution of wealth no less than of the production 
 of wealth. Methods of action which are most 
 effective for production may be unfavourable to 
 equitable distribution. At the same time, methods 
 which provide for more equitable distribution may 
 so limit production that employer and employed 
 will alike sutler. There will be need, therefore, 
 from time to time, of a careful adjustment of 
 forces which tend in different directions, in order 
 to obtain a result which shall be adequately 
 remunerative to capital and just to labour in 
 every form. 
 
 The questions which are thus opened admit of 
 various answers under different circumstances. 
 There is, then, nothing inconsistent with what we 
 know of the motives by which men are swayed, 
 and of industrial history, in endeavouring to 
 improve the conditions of labour through the 
 influence of public opinion which may finally be 
 embodied in law. For we cannot rightly limit 
 the function of the State to the administration of 
 
the scope of Christian activity. 231 
 
 retributive justice, or to the repression of crime, 
 or to the furtherance of the material prosperity of 
 a people. It must deal in some way with the 
 circumstances of social life, with pauperism, with 
 the unemployed, with intemperance, with im- 
 purity, with gambling, with marriage, with 
 parental and filial responsibilities. The Christian, 
 therefore, as Christian, cannot but have something 
 to say on these topics. The State embodies in 
 the temporal order the principles which belong to 
 the spiritual order so far as they have been 
 recognized in common life. Organization, as we 
 fully admit, cannot of itself make good men, .but 
 it can lessen temptations and enforce considerate- 
 ness, and direct the labours of the good into right 
 channels. The Christian, therefore, I repeat, as 
 Christian, will take his full part in preparing for 
 the amelioration of the conditions of men no less 
 than for their conversion. He will in due measure 
 strive to follow, under the limitations of his own 
 labour, the whole example of his Lord, who 
 removed outward distresses and satisfied outward 
 wants, even as He brought spiritual strength and 
 rest to the weak and weary. Moreover, this 
 effort, based upon resolute thought, belongs to 
 the completeness of the religious life of the 
 Christian. For the discipline of his whole nature 
 he must claim his proper part in affairs. Such 
 
232 Need of patient and 
 
 action is necessary alike for the well-being of the 
 nation and of the citizen. The Greek Empire 
 perished because the faith of the people found no 
 exercise in the service of the State. 
 
 We shall, then, mindful of the Christian ideal, 
 strive, on the one hand, without impatience and 
 without intermission, to secure the richest variety 
 of service among citizens for the good of the 
 commonwealth ; and we shall strive, on the other 
 hand, to make the conditions of labour for the 
 humblest worker such that he may find in it the 
 opportunity of a true human life. To take part 
 in class movements on class grounds will be im- 
 possible for those who believe that the highest 
 welfare of the body is the highest welfare of all 
 the members. To sacrifice the future to the 
 present will be impossible for those who feel that 
 we are sharers in one life which reaches through 
 time and beyond it. 
 
 In the prospect of such obligations it is clear 
 how wide, how penetrating, how sympathetic must 
 be the inquiries through which our judgment will 
 be formed. Our own experience must convince 
 us that great errors and great evils come from 
 want of consideration — "the only eye of the soul," 
 as Law said, — and from want of social imagination. 
 We habitually interpret circumstances by the 
 effect which they would have upon ourselves ; we 
 
considerate labour. 233 
 
 confuse material poverty with the conditions 
 under which some poor live ; we transfer without 
 reflection to modern life rules which expressed in 
 a different state of things the principles that we 
 still hold. Almsgiving in apostolic times, and 
 interest in the Middle Ages, are essentially 
 different m character from what we call by the 
 same names. We forget that right action is for 
 the most part determined by a proportion between 
 eternal principles and the changing conditions of 
 a complex life. We cannot appeal to the past to 
 relieve us from the responsibility of unw^earied 
 study of the moral history, and of the present 
 state, and of the possibilities of ourselves and of 
 our fellow-men. Material advantages, apart from 
 the corresponding intellectual and moral qualifi- 
 cations, are no blessings. They cannot be kept or 
 won, unless men are themselves to match. That 
 which is best at any particular time, is not that 
 which is ideally best, but that which tends on the 
 whole to advance the general movement towards 
 the ideal. 
 
 This being so, it follows that no one student, 
 no one line of study, no one school of thought, no 
 one type of character can secure that mastery of 
 the facts which we require in order to take the 
 next step in social reform rightly. We require 
 the help of all who recognize that our Christian 
 
234 Office of legislation. 
 
 Faith must rule our whole life. Such a com- 
 bination of thinkers and workers, wide as our 
 Church, will give practical definiteness to our 
 ideal and solidity to our judgment. But for the 
 present, at least, our corporate work is not action, 
 but preparation for action. I have indeed — 
 probably we all have — plans for action in which 
 I place confident trust, but it is, I know, far more 
 important to confess our great principle, and to 
 gain for it a wide and intelligent welcome, than 
 to press forward special reforms which a majority 
 may favour. 
 
 It is, indeed, unnecessary to dwell on the 
 perils of hasty legislation. To expect stable 
 progress from legislation alone, is like expecting 
 human perfection from the conquests of science. 
 Legislation is often a mere appeal to force under 
 the influence of some season of excitement. So 
 far as it is effective without the intelligent 
 support of public opinion, it impairs, if it does 
 not destroy, the moral value of the action which 
 it controls. So far as it is ineffective, it injures 
 the general respect for law. Legislation is the 
 last and not the first thing in social reform. Its 
 proper function is to register each successive 
 advance in the popular conception of the just 
 conditions of life. It is with this conception we 
 have first to deal. We need, in fact, fjir more to 
 
Education of opinion. 235 
 
 reform the unwritten laws of social intercourse 
 than to alter the statute book. Let a well- 
 considered judgment first be formed and find 
 acceptance, and it will soon receive adequate 
 and authoritative expression. The lessons taught 
 by spontaneous generosity will be embodied in 
 law. The law will then serve for the develop- 
 ment of freedom ; and " I must," will suggest 
 the further question "What ought I to do?" 
 
 Conscious, therefore, of the infinite power of 
 the message which is committed to us, and of 
 the vast scale of the Divine work, we shall take 
 careful account of our contemporaries and of ''the 
 greater number" who will come after us. We shall 
 scrupulously avoid every action or type of action 
 which would impair the vigour of individuality 
 or imperil the character of our children. We 
 shall accept no swift success, gained by the least 
 distrust of the wisdom, or of the laws, or of 
 the sovereignty of God. The lessons of the 
 Temptation will be present before us. We shall 
 remember how, after the Resurrection — after the 
 Passion — the Lord claimed as His own more than 
 Satan offered: All authority, He said, hath been 
 given to Me in heaven and on eai'th. It follows 
 that the type of our common action will be that 
 of the Early Church, spontaneous, from within, 
 vital. The work of the Christian reformer is 
 
236 Sacrifice the condition of progi^ess. 
 
 that of the sower, and not that of the conqueror. 
 This was, and it is still, a main part of the 
 mystery of the parable. The secret of Christ's 
 victory is the secret of the victory of His disciples. 
 The redemption of Society is through sacrifice. 
 We might have supposed that it would have 
 been otherwise, and that it would not have been 
 necessary still to enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven through many tribulations. But there 
 has not been, nor can there be, any withdrawal 
 of the command by which we are charged to take 
 up our cross. The Incarnation reveals the ideal 
 of creation. The Passion reveals the way by 
 which the ideal must be attained. 
 
 We start from self-sacrifice, and we claim it. 
 Perhaps, hitherto, we have not recognized, as 
 we must do, the necessity and the power of 
 the appeal. Reforms which are effective must 
 develop and strengthen character ; and the spirit 
 of self-sacrifice can be quickened and spread. In 
 this lies the characteristic energy of the Christian 
 Faith ; for all experience shews that the Christian 
 Faith is able to strengthen indefinitely the forces 
 which tend to modify selfish and material motives. 
 No doubt such methods of action as I have in- 
 dicated seem, to our hasty zeal, to be slow in 
 their operation ; but they will enable us to win 
 our souls in patience, and to convince the world. 
 
237 
 
 III. 
 
 At the same time, we have each our own 
 work. As a Society, we shall unite in the clear 
 and unwavering affirmation of our principle and 
 of our end, in the diligent prosecution of many- 
 sided study, and in the watchful formation of 
 opinion. Meanwhile, for ourselves personally 
 the way of action can be made plain. Our 
 influence lies in the giving of our life. But we 
 can give ourselves only as (in one sense) we are 
 our own and as we are. We must ascertain our 
 highest duty by resolute questioning, and then 
 face it. If, as I have maintained, no devotion 
 to the highest private interests can absolve us 
 from public service, it is no less true that no 
 devotion to public service can absolve us from 
 the obligation of private discipline. The single 
 will touched by the Spirit of God is the only 
 moral force. For those who have the charge or 
 the opportunity of teaching, the acceptance of 
 formal rules and a conventional standard can 
 bring no rest. The power of teaching comes 
 only through continuous learning, and there is 
 incalculable peril in seeming to acquiesce in 
 customs which we do not approve. All that 
 depends on individual choice — our recreations, 
 our expenditure — can be brought to one test. 
 
238 The study and teaching 
 
 which we are generally able to apply : Does this 
 or that help me to do my work more effectively? 
 To us most literally, even if the confession 
 overwhelms us with shame, whatsoever is not of 
 faith is sin. 
 
 And here the clergy have a special part and 
 a special advantage. All their social, public 
 work — and for them, as for others, some share in 
 public work is an essential part in their Christian 
 life — will be done in the light of their ordination 
 vows. This being so, they are guided and 
 sustained by the unique charge which is laid 
 upon them to concentrate their studies on Holy 
 Scripture. For the charge carries with it the 
 obligation of paying devout attention to the facts 
 of human experience. In one dominant aspect, 
 Scripture is the manifold record of the Divine 
 education of the world. The most careful in- 
 vestigation of the circumstances of life helps to 
 the understanding of the Bible, and the most 
 careful investigation of the Bible helps to the 
 understanding of the mysteries of life. The 
 Old Testament invests social, economic, political 
 problems with a sacred dignity. The voices of 
 lawgiver and prophet guide us to their eternal 
 lessons. At the same time, the New Testament 
 keeps ever before men the terrible realities of 
 sin, the power of the Redemption as a spiritual 
 
of the Bible. 239 
 
 force, and the supreme fact of the presence 
 among us of a living, speaking, ruling GoD. 
 Those, then, who have this 'Divine library' as 
 the source and rule of their teaching will be 
 enabled — nay, they will be constrained — to place 
 the questions, which are too often made battle- 
 cries of conflicting parties, in the serener light 
 of their human, their Divine, significance. They 
 will point to the infinite element which is 
 included in common things, and shew that hope 
 lies in the conquest of sin and not in the removal 
 of some of its consequences. They will seek 
 to understand through pastoral intercourse the 
 sorrows and the aspirations of thoughtful artisans, 
 the anxieties and trials of men of affairs, and 
 gain even for novel and unpopular theories a 
 patient hearing from those who instinctively con- 
 demn them ; for it is the disregard of another's 
 thoughts, and not the rejection of them, which 
 embitters. They will neglect no opportunity 
 of bringing together representatives of different 
 classes with a view to strengthening the sense of 
 fellowship by mutual understanding. They will 
 enforce the weight of personal responsibility — 
 the responsibility of employer and employed, of 
 buyer and seller, of landlord and tenant ; and the 
 reality of our social connexion as partners in one 
 Redemption, brethren and sisters in one Lord. 
 
240 The luork of the Clergy. 
 
 They will trace out the many offices of the one 
 life in which we all share, and so in their measure 
 keep effort at its highest level, and give to routine 
 labour its proper dignity. They will shew that 
 every connexion of man and man involves a form 
 of human fellowship, and cherish and develop 
 and deepen the sacred relations of the family in 
 which all the relations of social life find their 
 root. They will present untiringly to men a 
 perfect ideal and an effective motive — a motive 
 able to overcome the spiritual indifference which 
 paralyses the highest powers of the nation, and 
 to kindle a passion for things noble and just 
 and gracious. They will, in a word, maintain 
 naturally in the fulfilment of their office the 
 religious basis of all life, and lay upon the 
 consciences of their hearers to determine the 
 application of the Faith to the circumstances of 
 their own daily work. 
 
 The consummation for which we thus look 
 and work and pray, when every nation shall 
 reach its own perfection through the perfection 
 of every part, and the nations shall bring together 
 the tribute of their glory into the sanctuary of 
 God, may seem to be far off. Yet it is strength 
 and peace to fix our eyes upon it as it has been 
 made known to us. There is the permanence of 
 essential vitality in great ideas and great ideals. 
 
The Faith the potuer of their luhole work. 241 
 
 The Christian Faith, if we dare to regard its 
 largest range, gathers into one sovereign and 
 eternal fact the greatest thoughts which men 
 can conceive of their duty and of their destiny, 
 reconciling the saddest results of human sin with 
 the assurance of Divine victory. 
 
 The Christian Faith — it is to this, to this 
 only, I have ventured to appeal without reserve 
 in all that I have said. I cannot find any other 
 sufficient stay for the infinite hope for which we 
 were born. And it is, I believe, of paramount 
 importance at the present time that those who 
 believe in Christ as a personal and present Lord 
 should also confess Him when in their hearts 
 they recognize His Presence. Such confession is 
 the very life of our Union. We hold that the 
 most perplexing riddles of the world, the last 
 sorrows of earth, find their solution in the Gospel 
 of Christ Incarnate, Crucified, Ascended, through 
 the Spirit sent in His Name. We must not for 
 one moment allow our position to be in doubt. 
 We have nothing of our own to offer ; we desire 
 to let the glory of God be seen. We do not 
 make Christ King ; He is King — King and 
 Priest : we simply declare His work, and claim 
 for Him His Sovereignty. 
 
 w. 16 
 
THE CHRISTIAN LAW. 
 
 The fundamental principle of the Christian 
 Social Union is " to claim for the Christian Law 
 the ultimate authority to rule social practice." But 
 what is " the Christian Law " ? We are often 
 reminded that Christ left no code of command- 
 ments. It is in Him — in His Person and His 
 work — the Law lies. He has given indeed for our 
 instruction some applications of the negative pre- 
 cepts of the Decalogue to the New Order. He 
 has added some illustrations of positive duties, 
 almsgiving, prayer, fasting. He has set up an 
 ideal and a motive for life ; and, at the same time. 
 He has endowed His Church with spiritual power, 
 and has promised that the Paraclete, sent in His 
 Name, shall guide it into all the Truth. 
 
 The Christian Law, then, is the embodiment 
 of the Truth for action in forms answering to the 
 conditions of society from age to age. The em- 
 bodiment takes place slowly, and it can never be 
 
The Christian ideal reached sloiuly. 243 
 
 complete. It is impossible for us to rest indolently 
 in the conclusions of the past. In each generation 
 the obligation is laid on Christians to bring new 
 problems of conduct and duty into the Divine 
 light, and to find their solution under the teaching 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 The unceasing effort to fulfil the obligation 
 establishes the highest prerogative of man, and 
 manifests the life of the Church. From this effort 
 there can be no release ; and the effort itself be- 
 comes more difficult as human relations grow 
 fuller, wider, more complex. 
 
 But none the less, as we look back, we can 
 trace progress towards the Christian ideal. The 
 history of the Church is a series of ethical vic- 
 tories, but the latest is not final. It is true that 
 the earliest types of saintly character are not 
 surpassed, but the type is more widely spread, 
 and guarded by more complete intelligence. At 
 the same time each advance reveals in men new 
 capacities and new powers. Personal, social, poli- 
 tical activity all belong essentially to man as man, 
 to Christians as Christians, though the spheres 
 in which they are severally exercised are opened 
 successively during the growth of humanity — 
 "the man who lives and learns for ever" — and the 
 believer in due course meets in each the Incarnate 
 Word ; and, as he looks to Him, finds guidance by 
 
 16—2 
 
244 The Christimi Law an interpretation of the 
 
 the application of the same unchanging facts to 
 his proper work. If sin had not entered into the 
 world, man's movement towards his goal would 
 have come, as we conceive it, through a gradual 
 and harmonious interpretation of nature and life. 
 As it is, his progress is through conflict and con- 
 quest, not without checks and reverses. 
 
 In this conflict we have our part. What the 
 part is will appear from a review of our position 
 in the light of the Christian Faith, even as our 
 fathers found theirs. For as time goes on, man's 
 conception of the Faith is deepened, and his 
 knowledge of the limitations and issues of human 
 action is enlarged. Thus the old questions are 
 proposed afresh to each generation : Is the present 
 order according to the mind of Christ ? If not, 
 and as far as it is not, are we preparing to remedy 
 the evils which distress us ? We alone can answer 
 the questions for ourselves ; and as we reflect 
 upon them we shall find that our intellectual 
 interest in the Gospel and its moral influence are 
 quickened together. " In all real and permanent 
 religious reformations," it has been said most 
 truly, "there has been a positive advance in 
 morality^" It cannot be otherwise. Christ, who 
 
 1 R. W. Dale, The Evangelical Revival, p. 81. Dr Dale has 
 developed in this book with great power many thoughts which 
 I have only indicated. 
 
mind of Christ in the light of each age. 245 
 
 is Lord of Truth, is also Lord of Life. He claims 
 authority over our conduct no less than over our 
 belief. Christian doctrine and Christian morality 
 alike belong to the supernatural order. The true 
 expression of the one and of the other can only be 
 gained by study and faith. The desire to do right 
 does not bring the sense of what is right. "Things 
 which are impossible w^ith men are possible with 
 God." The words of prophets and apostles, the 
 words of Christ Himself, cannot be vain words. 
 If the Lord bids us " be perfect as our heavenly 
 Father is perfect," it is well for us to remember 
 that He gives the overwhelming command in the 
 form of a promise. Li faith, then, we are bound 
 to study unweariedly "how to apply the moral 
 truths and principles of Christianity to the social 
 and economic difficulties of the present time." It 
 is through such patient study only that we can 
 gain a right perception of the Christian Law for 
 ourselves. And if we find that we are driven to 
 and fi'O by the current of events, it is a warning 
 that we must ask yet again whether we have 
 indeed faced the problems which our circum- 
 stances create — the problems, that is, which are 
 offered for our solution. 
 
 At no time has the inquiry been more neces- 
 sary than now. I have myself lived through a 
 silent revolution, which is in^evocable because it 
 
24() Tlie Christian Laiu in relation to 
 
 has not been wrought by force. The "great 
 industry/' free and universal education, the wide 
 diffusion of political power, have made a new 
 England. And the contrast between the England 
 into which I was born and the England in which 
 my work is closing constrains me to inquire, not 
 without sadness, whether we Christians have con- 
 sidered the new duties which spring out of the 
 new order : whether we have heard the clear voice 
 of the Christian Law. 
 
 Let me endeavour to illustrate my meaning 
 by indicating some of the problems which each of 
 these great changes has raised, problems for 
 which the Christian Law must find the ultimate 
 solution. 
 
 1. Have we, then, studied with deliberate 
 and farseeing care the opportunities and dangers 
 of the new forms of manufacture, commerce, trade? 
 The "great industry" has destroyed the old rela- 
 tions of employers and employed : it has altered 
 the relations of both to the consumer: it has 
 intensified competition. We cannot, it is true, 
 restore the personal connexions which gave human 
 interests to business in the old order; but can no 
 moral use be made of the great and stable organ- 
 izations of capital and labour ? Surely these offer 
 scope for the effective representation of both on 
 voluntary councils, in which the conditions of 
 
the neiu conditions of industry. 247 
 
 employment may be discussed with due regard to 
 the present and to the future, to home and foreign 
 production and demand, and that with a full 
 knowledge of the difficulties and needs felt on 
 both sides. 
 
 I do not presume to say how the antagonism 
 of classes can be finally removed, but I do say 
 that one thing has never disappointed my hope. 
 I have never been allowed to see men brought 
 together in equal social intercourse who have 
 supposed themselves to be irreconcilably separa- 
 ted by interests and feelings, without noticing at 
 least the beginnings of the victory of larger 
 human sympathies over the narrownesses of class. 
 And this experience is not without importance 
 at a time when the wage-earning masses are 
 beginning to range themselves against the owners 
 of land and of the means of production. For 
 those to whom the stewardship of these gi^eat 
 possessions is committed have still a natural 
 opportunity of shewing how their endowments 
 enable them to serve best the common good. I 
 cannot think that the phrase "industrial war" 
 describes the position in which men ought to 
 stand to one another who are engaged in a 
 common service to their kind. We only need to 
 look forward a little to see what unrestrained 
 competition must mean in the end. Regarding 
 
248 The Christian Law in relation to 
 
 the question from the other side, do we pur- 
 chasers reflect what cheapness means : what 
 fashion means ? Do we reckon in the cost of our 
 necessaries or our luxuries the weary hours of 
 exhausting labour, the uncertainty and irregu- 
 larity of employment, caused by our caprice, the 
 alternations of excessive strain and enforced 
 idleness, the wanton destruction of many of the 
 most beautiful creatures of God ? 
 
 Such questions extend over a large part of 
 our life. They ought to be answered with 
 adequate knowledge. As Christians we are called 
 to exercise a benevolent kingship over nature, 
 and to fulfil the claims of fellowship towards men. 
 Must we go to Uganda to learn that all labour 
 demands from us the response of gratitude ^ ? 
 
 2. Again : have we studied in the light of 
 the Christian Law the responsibilities which are 
 thrown upon us by the spread of education with 
 increased facilities for movement, intercourse, 
 criticism? Under such circumstances the instinct 
 of imitation gives to example an exceptional 
 power, and we can understand how times of 
 reform are times also of discontent. Fresh wants 
 
 1 Bishop Tucker told me that it is the custom there for one 
 who passes another, mending the road or working in a field, to 
 salute him with words which we may well lay to heart, " Many 
 thanks; well done." 
 
ne^v social conditions. 249 
 
 are felt by the poorer which are not easily satis- 
 fied. Are those of us to whom larger means have 
 been given, careful to use them so as to create no 
 offences or temptations for others ? Are our 
 entertainments, for example, such as are fitted to 
 give guidance to those in whom the desire for 
 social pleasures has been quickened ? The old 
 feasts were sacrifices. For Christians all meals 
 have something of a sacramental character. In 
 the earliest Christian pictures it is sometimes 
 hard to distinguish the social meal from a 
 Eucharist. 
 
 Or, looking at our obligations in another light, 
 how far do we make occasions for emphasizing the 
 human as distinguished from the commercial value 
 of education, training powers of observation and 
 imagination and opening the many sources 
 
 " Of joy in widest commonalty spread"? 
 
 How far do we seek to prepare those who will 
 come after us for reasonable delight in nature 
 and art as revelations of spiritual truth ? For if 
 these great and universal teachers are to give 
 their message, the student must ''grow to match" 
 them. How far do we, both in act and word, seek 
 to temper the passion for excitement, out of which 
 spring some of our great social sins, and commend 
 the quiet joys of the country which, if duly felt, 
 
250 Tlie Christian Laiu in relation to 
 
 may win back to their old homes men who have 
 been carried away by the stir and turmoil of 
 towns ? 
 
 3. Yet once more: the extension of political 
 power to the masses of our countrymen, forces us 
 to weigh heedfully our share in national and 
 imperial affairs. We can now hardly fail to in- 
 quire what obligations are laid upon us by the 
 habitual prayer "that it may please God to 
 give to all nations, unity, peace, and concord." 
 Christianity is not allied to any form of govern- 
 ment, but, none the less, Christians, as citizens, 
 are bound to secure, if they may, that form which, 
 as they believe, will best enable their country to 
 fulfil its service to the race. For India and our 
 Colonies must keep ever before us the conception 
 of humanity, made up of many peoples, each 
 charged with special gifts for the good of the 
 whole, many peoples which the sense of one 
 manifold service to GOD is alone able to unite. 
 
 And in this connexion some of us must have 
 noticed with thankfulness that a statesman, cold 
 and reserved for the most part, has, within the 
 last few days, expressed the hope that — 
 
 "the limited co-operation of the great Powers — a co- 
 operation inspired by the dangers and exigencies of our 
 time — may bring a sohition of some of the most formidable 
 })robleras that oppress us, and, above all, in due time 
 
neiu political conditions. 251 
 
 enable us to put a stop to that condition of armed peace 
 which presses now on the industries of the world." 
 
 Enough has been said to shew, if only in a 
 bare and partial enumeration, that the last sixty 
 years have brought before us grave and perplexing 
 problems which call for anxious study in the light 
 of the Christian Law. It is evident that they 
 concern not a class only, but the whole nation — 
 the whole life of the nation. They concern us 
 above all men. "All things," St Paul says, " are 
 yours, and ye are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 23). So 
 it is that, in a time full of pathetic doubts and 
 questionings, it is our duty to appeal to the 
 transcendent truths of our Faith ; and for this 
 reason the Christian Social Union presses the 
 problems on the thought of Christians as Christ- 
 ians, and claims their co-operation in meeting 
 them according to the dictates of the Christian 
 Law. 
 
 The Union is a Social Union : it aims, that is, 
 at dealing with the social side of the Christian 
 life. Modern thought has gone beyond, without 
 forgetting, the individualistic lessons of the last 
 three centuries. But hitherto we have not rea- 
 lized the lessons which flow from the newly- 
 awakened sense of our fellowship as Christians 
 and as men. A recognized social ideal is one of 
 our sorest needs. Our ordinary conduct at present 
 
252 The obligation laid on Christians 
 
 wants decision and unity. To assist, however 
 humbly, in shaping this ideal, in giving reality to 
 the Christian Law, is the aim of the Christian 
 Social Union. We have the elements of our 
 work made ready for us. The Evangelical revival 
 taught effectually personal responsibility for work. 
 The Oxford revival taught, in part at least, the 
 truth of our corporate unity. It remains to bring 
 the two facts together, so as to make work co- 
 operation, and to give definiteness to a type of 
 life characteristic of our time and yet above time. 
 
 The Union affirms a principle, enforces an 
 obligation, confesses a Divine Presence. It has 
 no programme of immediate reforms. Members 
 reserve their freedom of opinion, and use it ; but 
 it would be disastrous if the Union itself were to 
 be identified with a party or with a class. The 
 ideal, which we dimly see, involves the highest 
 good of all ; and with a view to its attainment we 
 ask the counsel of all, of clergy and laity, of 
 wage-earners and capitalists, that through their 
 manifold experience the claims of righteousness 
 may be defined more exactly and its sovereignty 
 enforced. 
 
 In the pursuit of this great end we need the 
 strength of fellowship. We were not made mem- 
 bers of the Church to live alone : " In Christ we 
 are one man." And at the present time it is 
 
to confess their Faith. 253 
 
 urgently required that Christians should in some 
 way openly acknowledge their peculiar respon- 
 sibility. In the first age the Church stood 
 out clearly before the world. Its light was 
 unmistakable. It witnessed to the truth by its 
 very existence. There was no need for individual 
 testimony. But the case is not so now. The 
 Church and the world are externally confused, 
 though they are essentially separated by an 
 impassable gulf. For the motives, the aims, 
 the powers of the one lie in the eternal and 
 unseen order, of the other in the seen and the 
 transitory. It follows that we are called to affirm 
 the difference, and to justify our faith by its 
 works; while the warning rings in our ears, 
 " What do ye more than others ? " If we obey 
 the call, God will fulfil His purpose through us. 
 The motive to which we appeal, the aim towards 
 which we strain, the power in which we trust, are 
 all spiritual. But, at the same time, we labour 
 under the conditions of earth which the Incarna- 
 tion has revealed in their true nature. 
 
 While, therefore, we do not believe that the 
 happiest physical environment can regenerate 
 men, we do believe that physical misery tends 
 to imbrute them, and that, even if they escape 
 the degradation, it is contrary to the will of God. 
 The neglect of Lazarus by his rich neighbour was 
 
254 The tvork of the civil law 
 
 not less condemned because Lazarus was carried 
 by angels into Abraham's bosom. 
 
 We believe also that certain physical conditions 
 are favourable to a generous character, and that 
 the well-being of the nation is measured by the 
 character of its citizens and not by the accumula- 
 tion of material wealth. Moreover, in regard to 
 wealth itself, we believe that the problems of 
 distribution — however difficult they may be — are 
 of no less national importance than the problems 
 of production. 
 
 We do not, as I have said, trust to material 
 improvements for the fulfilment of the Christian 
 Law, though the Christian Law may require 
 them ; and we do not trust to legislation. We 
 are content to leave the decision of personal duty 
 in detail with those who, looking to the eternal in 
 the Person of Christ, find no rest till " they are 
 persuaded in their own mind" with full assurance. 
 There was no social polemic in the apostolic age, 
 but we cannot believe that Onesimus continued 
 to be a slave. 
 
 Yet none the less we recognize that legislation 
 has its place in the moral progress of nations. It 
 records and gives distinctness to the judgments 
 of the popular conscience. It serves as a school- 
 master for the immature and the undisciplined. 
 Just laws are an elementary lesson in righteous- 
 
and of tlie Christian Law. 255 
 
 ness. They cannot create love, but they can 
 support the weak, defend the helpless, repress 
 wrong, remove stumbling-blocks, lessen tempta- 
 tions. Civil laws are set primarily for the lawless 
 and the evil-doer. They furnish no standard of 
 duty. Immeasurably beyond them is the un- 
 written law, shaped silently and unceasingly 
 through the life of the Church, to which the 
 Christian renders a glad obedience, answering 
 with his spirit to the Spirit of God. 
 
 The sanction of this Law is not fear of punish- 
 ment, but that self-surrender to an ever-present 
 Lord, of those who are His slaves at once and 
 His friends, which is perfect freedom. This Law 
 animates the heart of him who receives it with 
 the invigorating truth that character is formed 
 rather by what we do than by what we refrain 
 from doing. It requires that every personal gift 
 and possession should minister to the common 
 welfare, not in the way of ransom, or as a forced 
 loan, but as an offering of love. It reaches to the 
 springs of action, and gives to the most mechanical 
 toil the dignity of a Divine service. It makes the 
 strong arm co-operate in one work with the warm 
 heart and the creative brain. It constrains the 
 poet and the artist to concentrate their magnifi- 
 cent powers on things lovely and of good report, 
 to introduce us to characters whom to know is a 
 
256 Characteristics of 
 
 purifying discipline, and to fill the souls of common 
 men with visions of hidden beauty and memories 
 of heroic deeds. It enables us to lift up our eyes 
 to a pattern of human society which we have not 
 yet dared to contemplate, a pattern which answers 
 to the constitution of man as he was made in the 
 Divine image to gain the Divine likeness. It 
 forbids us to seek repose till, as far as lies in us, 
 all labour is seen to be not a provision for living, 
 but a true human life; all education a preparation 
 for the vision of GoD here and hereafter; all 
 political enterprise a conscious hastening of the 
 time when the many nations shall walk in the 
 light of the holy city, and the kings of the earth 
 bring their glory into it. 
 
 This is the Christian Law, unfailing, unlimited, 
 answering to each question of the enlightened 
 conscience with a sure voice, the inspiration and 
 not the check of our vital energies, the Law which 
 we claim to be the ultimate authority to rule 
 social practice, the Law which it is the privilege 
 of each one of us, relying on the Spirit of a 
 speaking Lord, whose we are only and wholly, to 
 bring to richer fulness through our own experi- 
 ence, and to commend to the world by the 
 teaching of our own life. 
 
 As we welcome the privilege and use it in the 
 sight of men frankly, simply, faithfully, claiming 
 
the Christian Laiu. 257 
 
 their help as sharers with us in our birthright, we 
 shall in due measure, in spite of innumerable 
 weaknesses and failures, convert the necessity of 
 change under which we live into the realization 
 of a Divine growth, and hasten the Kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 w. 17 
 
THE CO-OPERATIVE IDEAL. 
 
 Great ideas are of necessity slowly defined 
 and slowly embodied, and, for the most part, 
 through partial errors and failures. It has been 
 so with the idea of Co-operation. When we 
 consider the scope and the power of this idea, 
 which is a master principle of life, it cannot 
 appear strange to us that it has been found to 
 be larger and more difficult of realization than it 
 was supposed to be at first, and that successive 
 embodiments have fallen very far short of the 
 true conception, and in some degree missed it 
 altogether. Co-operation, in its simplest sense, 
 expresses the right organization of labour. Labour 
 is the condition of healthy life, and labour ought 
 never to be vain or conflicting. But co-operation 
 is more than this. Co-operation defines the right 
 relation, not only of the members of a society one 
 to another, but of men as men bound together in 
 
The test of progress. 259 
 
 the fellowship of one nature, one life, one destin}^ 
 Co-operation is the harmonious action of men and 
 classes and nations, bringing together the ripe 
 results of their powers, their endowments, their 
 opportunities for the good of the race, as fellow- 
 workers for the establishment of a Divine unity, 
 the crown of common service, and the reward of 
 individual labour. 
 
 It may be said that the end of co-operation to 
 which I have pointed is unattainable. At any 
 rate, I do not think that it will be said that it is 
 undesirable. And if we agree as to the ideal 
 towards which human endeavour ought to be 
 directed, we shall have a test of progress. 
 
 Such a test is not superfluous. Few words 
 are used more confidently or exultingly, at the 
 present day, than " progress ; " but I cannot re- 
 member ever to have met with a clear definition 
 of it. It does not follow that, if we are moving 
 quickly, we are moving towards our desired goal. 
 Change is not necessarily improvement. The 
 accumulation of the instruments and means of 
 living may destroy life : at the most they supply 
 facilities for action ; they include no assurance or 
 promise of action which we should deliberately 
 approve. 
 
 I admit that we are commonly satisfied with 
 a narrower view of co-operation. I admit that, 
 
 17—2 
 
260 Progress movement towards 
 
 as yet, we have hardly approached the question 
 of co-operation under its loftiest form in regard to 
 the special fitnesses of the several nations for the 
 fulfilment of special services to the race. But 
 none the less I lay stress on the widest application 
 of the principle. The whole influences the least 
 part. The least part gains its proper dignity from 
 the whole. If we are to estimate rightly the value 
 of a single step, we must know and remember our 
 end. 
 
 There are, indeed, two opposite lines of move- 
 ment in social change w^hich find advocates among 
 us, the one towards uniformity of conditions, the 
 other towards the development of personal differ- 
 ences ; two opposite motives on which reformers 
 rely, the immediate interest of the individual 
 and the final good of the society; two opposite 
 standards of success, material prosperity and 
 nobility of character. We must, then, make our 
 choice between these rival views of the aims and 
 methods of life, before we can speak rightly of 
 progress. Progress in regard to one is retro- 
 gression in regard to the other. Nor will the 
 choice be difficult if we look away from the 
 perplexing tumults of the day to the majestic 
 record of nature and history. In the annals of 
 life, as we can read them, there is a steady 
 increase in the distinctness of parts and in the 
 
a perfect coiy orate life. 261 
 
 complexity of the whole : in the development of 
 man there is a continual triumph of social interests 
 over personal interests, as far as they fall within 
 the range of our observation : in the final judgment 
 of the world character is set before wealth as the 
 most precious treasure of humanity. 
 
 As labourers together, therefore, for progress 
 we shall guard ourselves from sacrificing the whole 
 to the part, or the future to the present, or the 
 spiritual to the material. We shall strive to 
 secure that each man, each class, each nation 
 shall be enabled to bring to mankind that which 
 is its proper service, without jealousy and without 
 reserve ; that the power of a wider vision and a 
 larger sympathy shall control and discipline the 
 impulses to selfish aggrandisement ; that the lofti- 
 est thoughts shall find a natural home in every 
 family. 
 
 For us, human progress, in a word, will be the 
 advance "in many parts and in many fashions" 
 towards the realization of that corporate life to 
 the fulness of which every man brings his peculiar 
 offering, and in which each man shares according 
 to his capacity, all bringing alike and sharing, 
 without waste and without self-assertions. And 
 for this progress we shall gladly spend and be 
 spent. 
 
 Such a conception of the end of life, which 
 
262 The ideal oj 
 
 illuminates the study of personal, and national, 
 and human development, however far it may seem 
 to be removed from our present circumstances, 
 has a definite bearing on the problems which 
 meet us from day to day, on the problem of 
 co-operative production which is before us now. 
 If we accept it, it will guide us in choosing our 
 line of action, and bring something of the enthu- 
 siasm of a great cause even into small efforts. 
 Clearly recognizing our end, we shall welcome all 
 forms of association which tend in any degree to 
 bring us nearer to it. 
 
 Thus, in seeking for improvements in the 
 conditions of industry and commerce, we shall 
 not think simply of higher wages, or of cheaper 
 production, or of the advancement of one class, 
 but rather of reconciling interests which appear 
 to be conflicting, of developing trustful fellowship 
 between those who have to fulfil different 
 functions, of making labour itself, in all its 
 different forms, a true human life and not a 
 provision for living. To this end, keeping our 
 ideal full in view, we shall consider from time to 
 time what element in the ideal may be realized, 
 what is the next step towards the goal which can 
 be securely taken. 
 
 In this light, co-operative production in a wide 
 sense — the co-partnership of all fellow-workers, of 
 
co-operative production. 263 
 
 undertakers, that is to say, artificers, merchants, 
 distributors — is seen to be a clear and possible 
 advance towards industrial concord. It marks a 
 stage in national growth. It has a moral value 
 which is even greater than its economic value. 
 It is a combination of all, through all, for all. In 
 scope it goes beyond the limits to which it has 
 hitherto been confined : beyond the range of the 
 Rochdale programme, while it follows out the 
 same lines : beyond the two alternatives of Mr. 
 Mill, who thought that the industry of the future 
 would be organized, either in associations of 
 labourers with capitalists, or in associations of 
 labourers among themselves. It takes account 
 of " engineering " in business, which is the func- 
 tion of genius, no less than of routine. Ideally, 
 co-operative production includes in one fellowship 
 all who are engaged in any work, however different 
 in function, and gives to all a proportionate share 
 in the profits of the business, and in the control 
 of the administration. 
 
 Such an ideal, even if we can only approach it 
 at present tentatively and from afar, and I fully 
 allow that we can do more, demands serious 
 consideration. It answers to the present stage of 
 our social evolution. It offers a solution of some 
 urgent problems. It has already proved its value. 
 It is in an especial sense an appeal to England. 
 
2G4 Co-operation answers to the 
 
 Let me say a few words on each of these 
 four points ; and if I touch on great subjects 
 most briefly and imperfectly, believe at least 
 that I speak with a conviction which has never 
 wavered during the five and twenty years through 
 which I have studied them with the keenest 
 interest. 
 
 1. The time, I say, is opportune for the 
 establishment of co-operative production. The 
 individual, after a struggle of four centuries, has 
 gained, in England at least, his complete enfran- 
 chisement. But the development of personal 
 liberty has placed in the strongest light the 
 necessity for association. Men cannot stand 
 alone : we gain freedom that we ma}^ advance 
 to union. So the age is characterised by a 
 variety of partial combinations, some of them 
 illegal till seventy years ago, by friendly societies, 
 trade-unions, federations of workmen and of capi- 
 talists. Hitherto the combinations have been 
 mainly directed to special objects or to the 
 interests of separate classes, but none the less 
 they have given distinctness and dignity to the 
 different forces which combine to produce social 
 and commercial results. We have learnt to feel 
 with practical effect the reality of human depend- 
 ence and solidarity. The extension of political 
 power and education throughout the people has 
 
present stage of social evolution. 265 
 
 brought on the one side a deeper sense of 
 responsibility, and on the other side a stronger 
 desire for justice. The genial condescension of 
 the patriarchal system fails to satisfy the spirit of 
 the time, which is still less inclined to respect the 
 good old rule, — 
 
 the simple plan, 
 
 That they should take who have the power, 
 
 Aud they should keep who can. 
 
 At the same time, the Great Industry and the 
 continuous improvement of machinery have limited 
 the direct expression of individuality in craftsmen 
 and artist. Capitalists, as has been pointed out 
 often, have inherited a large share of feudal power 
 without feudal obligations. We need therefore — 
 this is the general conclusion to which all these facts 
 lead — some industrial organization corresponding 
 to the old military organization, an organization 
 of service in place of an organization of force, 
 which shall at once guard great powers, posses- 
 sions, traditions, as a common inheritance, and 
 supply noble interests and the opportunity of 
 generous activity to every workman. Privilege, 
 if rightly interpreted, is a call to special devotion. 
 Fellowship in labour is the condition of happy 
 and lasting peace. 
 
 We want, I say, an organization of industry 
 which shall stir enthusiasm like the military 
 
266 The glory of industrial organization. 
 
 organization of the Middle Age. Nor should this 
 appear to be an impracticable desire. There is 
 nothing in the character and conduct of war 
 which gives to the soldier a monopoly of lofty 
 devotion. Peace offers fields to be won by equal 
 sacrifices. It is surely no less honourable, and it 
 is certainly no less difficult, to discipline the forces 
 of a people in effective production, than to direct 
 them in efforts of desolating violence. Manu- 
 factures, commerce, trade, agriculture, if once the 
 thought of personal gain is subordinated to the 
 thought of public service, offer scope for the most 
 chivalrous and enterprising and courageous. It 
 can only be through some misapprehension that 
 it seems to be a nobler duty to lead ^ regiment 
 to the battle-field than to inspire the workers in 
 a factory with the enthusiasm of labour. The 
 time will come before long, as I trust, when 
 leaders of men shall plant colonies and dress and 
 keep strange wildernesses, and win for themselves 
 the honours of founders ; when not a few mer- 
 chants and dealers will take up the challenge 
 which has been offered to them, and say what 
 they are ready to die for. 
 
 Then the arts of peace will be seen in their 
 true grandeur; then, purified from all that is 
 selfish and sordid, they will attract the noblest 
 servants of the commonwealth ; then citizens and, 
 
Co-operation a spring of confidence. 267 
 
 in due time, nations will be labourers together in 
 a kingdom of GoD. 
 
 Such thoughts are in the air, and, when we 
 look on the ideal which gives them shape, I think 
 that we feel that it answers to desires within us. 
 The glory of the whole is seen in our estimate of 
 each smallest part ; our estimate of each smallest 
 part contributes to our vision of the glory of the 
 whole. It is no descent, then, if we pass from the 
 ideal to the humble preparations for it which we 
 welcome to-day. For even on the narrowest scale, 
 industrial co-partnership is a step, an irretraceable 
 step, towards the end for which we are bound. 
 
 2. This will appear, if we consider a little 
 more closely what industrial co-partnership — pro- 
 ductive co-operation as I have defined it — includes. 
 We are all agreed that the greatest obstacle to 
 social concord is want of confidence between man 
 and man, and between class and class. If once 
 we can be satisfied that all work for each, and 
 that each works for all, then there will be among 
 us "righteousness, peace, joy," the signs of that 
 kingdom for the advent of which we pray. Con- 
 fidence springs from knowledge. At present it is 
 difficult to say whether the employed is more 
 ignorant of the difficulties, the troubles, the 
 anxieties of the employer, or the employer of 
 the trials and the temptations and the vital 
 
26cS The necessity of 
 
 conditions of the employed. How many share- 
 holders in a colliery, for example, visit the homes 
 of the pitmen ? How many pitmen understand 
 the weary, sleepless nights which follow baffled 
 calculations ? But co-partnership in work, bringing 
 natural opportunities for confidential intercourse, 
 must become to employer and employed alike a 
 revelation of life. On the one side, an insight 
 into the actual conditions of commerce, into the 
 disturbing forces of competition and circumstance, 
 is an education, fruitful perhaps in problems which 
 await solution. On the other side, a sympathetic 
 understanding of the wants, the aspirations, the 
 hopes of those who are feeling tkeir way to the 
 true claims and obligations of labour is — I speak 
 of that which I know — a spring of deep encourage- 
 ment. If it is ennobling to the employed to feel 
 that they have a share, real if small, in a great 
 business : it is no less ennobling to the employer 
 to feel that those who work with, and not only 
 for, him can enter into his cares. On both sides, 
 frank, sympathetic interchange of thought must 
 produce a sense of fellowship, of unity, growing 
 out of mutual dependence and strengthened by 
 pride in the results of common work. 
 
 No doubt, even in this co-partnership, occasions 
 for difference are still left. If, for example, it is 
 agreed that any profits which remain after the 
 
mutual knowledge. 269 
 
 normal payment of labour and capital are to be 
 divided among the workers, the proportion in 
 which they are to be divided between workers 
 of different classes has to be decided. But the 
 just decision will be easier if it is sought in 
 friendly intercourse by those who have the power 
 and the opportunity of understanding the whole, 
 and are directly capable of forming a clear judg- 
 ment as to the proportion which is likely to 
 secure an adequate supply of capital and labour, 
 than when half-blind claims are pressed by force. 
 
 In any case there will be dififerences of capacity 
 and skill and energy among workers of the same 
 class ; and the old question will be asked, Are all 
 to have the same reward ? All, I reply without 
 doubt, who are found worthy to work ought to 
 receive the same material reward, which makes 
 the work possible for them. That is the very 
 meaning of wages. The weakest perhaps may 
 requii'e the most sympathy and care where 
 all receive consideration. But there are other 
 rewards, which follow infallibly according to 
 deserving, the joy of generous service and un- 
 calculated efforts, and not unfrequently the re- 
 cognition of grateful hearts. 
 
 Shall the artisan's pay, it is said again, depend 
 on the undertaker's skill ? Again I reply. Why 
 not ? Is it not of necessity always so ? Is not 
 
270 Sacrifices not without 
 
 the soldier's honour in the hands of his captain ? 
 And will not the captains of industry be stirred 
 by this thought, no less than the leaders in war ? 
 
 When we take account of such influences as 
 these, it seems likely that the material results of 
 a business conducted by workers bound together 
 in a co-partnership of labour will be better than 
 those which are secured under the ordinary con- 
 ditions. 
 
 But the results of such a co-partnership as we 
 contemplate are not to be measured by increased 
 economy and efficiency. It may entail, at least 
 for a time, sacrifices on both sides. The employer 
 may gain less, and the employed may give more. 
 But what then ? Great changes — and great 
 changes in the conditions of labour are assuredly 
 imminent — may demand them. And shall they 
 not be made gladly ? We are all ready to offer 
 our substance and our lives, if need be, for our 
 country ; and shall we not be ready to offer both 
 for the welfare of our fellow-citizens ? Men are 
 more than wealth. Common experience proves 
 the Divine saying true, that he who will lose his 
 life shall not save it only, but bring it to a fuller 
 birth. And perhaps we have all found that our 
 highest satisfaction lies in looking forward, with a 
 confident hope that those who come after will 
 reap in joy the harvest which we have sown not 
 
compensation. 271 
 
 unfrequently in tears. If our immediate interests 
 are surrendered, we too have a share in the life 
 which shall be. Thus there is a sense in which 
 we can realize that the highest good of the indi- 
 vidual w^ho seems to perish is found in the highest 
 good of the whole. The thought of the future 
 which we are all shaping is able to chasten and 
 to support us. We do not, we cannot, pity the 
 man who falls in a heroic venture. We are 
 stronger by his example ; and we cannot believe 
 that he himself is a loser. 
 
 Thus in many ways the spirit of co-operation, 
 even when it asks much of him who takes his 
 place as a fellow-worker with a varied company, 
 makes him at the same time more sensitive, 
 through larger sympathy, to "joy in widest 
 commonalty spread." This sympathy, this power 
 of larger vision, this delight in furthering a great 
 cause, grows as our interests grow, and with its 
 gi'owth the passion for a fuller growth grows also. 
 Such a passion supplies a motive strong enough 
 to stimulate and sustain individual energy and 
 creative force. 
 
 For co-operation does not dispense with 
 leadership. It dii^ects to the fulfilment of social 
 functions the power which becomes perilous when 
 it is used for private gain. We reach compara- 
 tively soon the standard of a simple, cultured 
 
272 The benefits of Go-operation proved. 
 
 life ; and all beyond is valued chiefly as a sign of 
 success, which can be attested in less ambiguous 
 ways. 
 
 3. The manifest tendency of industrial asso- 
 ciation to produce these results, to remove the 
 suspicion and unrest, to check the unreflecting 
 self-assertion, to displace the sordid quest for gain, 
 which trouble modern commerce and manufacture, 
 has been established by experience. Even when 
 tried imperfectly and on a small scale, co-operative 
 production has vindicated the claims which theo- 
 rists have made for it. I will not repeat what 
 others have recorded from their own experience 
 in instructive detail. It is enough to remind you 
 that capitalists have been found willing to make 
 financial sacrifices which, they say, have brought 
 them a satisfying return ; that workmen have 
 responded generously to the generosity of em- 
 ployers ; that the feeling of fellowship, essentially 
 different from the fear of loss, has developed 
 among partners in industry effort, intelligence, 
 pride in the results of labour. And if it be 
 argued that the actual addition to wages which 
 has been obtained by "profit-sharing" is rela- 
 tively small, and might have been gained in 
 other ways, I can only say that the feeling of 
 partnership is not measurable by money. It 
 carries work at once to a higher level. 
 
Go-operation a tuork for England. 273 
 
 So it has been that, after the lessons of early 
 failure, the cause of co-operative production has 
 gone forward, surely, if slowly. Others have told 
 the story. I will only remark that one of its 
 latest victories promises to epoch-making. It was 
 not unusual to quote, till quite lately, the action 
 of the Scottish Wholesale against the principle of 
 the co-partnership of labour. Now that that 
 typical society has adopted the principle both in 
 respect to profits and to administration, we may 
 expect that the example will spread southwards. 
 
 4. The development of co-operation is, in- 
 deed, specially a work for England. The Great 
 Industry was created here. Here, then, we may 
 reasonably look for the discovery of the remedy 
 to the evils which it has brought. Our social 
 evolution has been stable and continuous. There 
 is no sharp division of classes among us. Mutual 
 understanding is comparatively easy. Individuals 
 pass continually from one class to another. The 
 National Church has retained in some measure 
 its old characteristic, and united all classes by 
 sympathetic contact. We are familiar with 
 orderly change. Every shade of opinion finds 
 free and vigorous expression. In spite of all our 
 differences, we are one nation, proud of a great 
 past and confident of a great future. What we 
 have overcome and achieved teaches us to look 
 
 w. 
 
 18 
 
274 Our heritage of 
 
 forward with hope. The silent revolution of the 
 last sixty years has consolidated the unity which 
 at first it seemed to threaten. The general spirit 
 of our people rejoices in the common life fed from 
 many sources. It is therefore easier here than 
 elsewhere to recognize that collectivism would 
 impoverish life, and is essentially selfish, sacri- 
 ficing the future to the present — " the more" who 
 shall be, to the living generation. We are apt 
 to forget or to disparage this splendid heritage 
 of a true national unity. It is well that foreign 
 students should remind us of it. Let me, then, 
 quote, though I have quoted the words before, the 
 witness of a German who knows Durham well : — 
 
 In England "the knowledge, religion, and culture of 
 the upi3er classes nowhere wakes the opposition of the 
 lower, for it is their own knowledge, religion, and culture, 
 and they are more and more conscious of being the heirs 
 and participators of its blessings. Church and University 
 stand impartially above the j)arties, as representatives of 
 public opinion withdrawn from the political struggle ; and 
 the people, instead of looking askance at them as class 
 institutions, realize that they are a possession of their own, 
 which they are more and more fully grasping, i" 
 
 Now, I venture to say that this unique heri- 
 tage, this common enjoyment of the highest 
 forces for inspiring and disciplining a generous 
 character, not only prepares us to face the prob- 
 lems of the organization of industry as a fellowship 
 1 Von Scliulze-Gaevernitz, Social Peace, pref., pp. xix., xx. 
 
national unity. 275 
 
 of service, but lays on us the obligation of doing 
 so. The life of nations is a mission no less than 
 the life of men. And, unless the teaching of 
 history misleads us, this is part of the mission of 
 England. May the will answer to the call : — 
 
 Men, upon the whole. 
 Are what they can be,— nations, what they would. 
 
 At the same time, we are now fairly able to 
 determine the circumstances under which the 
 organization must be undertaken. Experience 
 has shown that the greatest economy of pro- 
 duction is secured in a business confined within 
 reasonable limits, and requiring no more capital 
 than a combination of co-operators can secure. A 
 wise choice of enterprises in the first instance 
 will train agents through established routine for 
 tasks requiring vigorous and independent judg- 
 ment. In this way, step by step, the Great 
 Industry, full of dangers as it seemed to be at 
 first, will — may we not dare to prophesy ? — be 
 made to contribute to the material and moral 
 elevation of all who are engaged in it, not as 
 separate or conflicting units, but as parts of the 
 social organism. 
 
 The end can only be reached by patience 
 and by sustained effort. It can only be reached 
 by many partial and tentative experiments in 
 
 18—2 
 
276 Our responsibility and 
 
 different directions, which will all have an educa- 
 tional value if the ideal is kept in view. It can 
 only be reached — and let me lay stress on this — 
 by the intelligent help of consumers no less than 
 of producers. We who use are, in a great degree, 
 responsible for the worst vices of competition. 
 We fail to realize the temptations which our 
 passion for cheapness or our irregularity in 
 payments offers to those who minister to our 
 wants. Every purchase which tends to encourage 
 unhealthy production is an offence against our 
 common brotherhood. I know how hard it is to 
 learn the history of the goods which we buy. At 
 least we should strive to learn it, and be prepared 
 to establish, even through inconvenience and loss, 
 a real sympathy with all the unknown toilers who 
 support and adorn our life, so that when we meet 
 hereafter face to face they may not reproach us 
 with having inflicted upon them in their helpless- 
 ness wilful or thoughtless wrong. 
 
 It will be said by some that the thoughts 
 which I have offered to you are the thoughts of a 
 student or a dreamer. I have indeed conversed 
 gladly with the great of all ages ; I have striven 
 to lift my eyes to the mountains : but from my 
 boyhood I have also been familiar with the life of 
 the poor. I know something of their trials and 
 of their desires. With that knowledge I rejoice 
 
the hope of fulfilling it 277 
 
 to welcome them as fellow- workers for the 
 greatest of earthly objects. I have assumed that 
 they, that all men, can be quickened with the 
 spirit of self-devotion and contemplate with steady 
 hope a great if distant ideal. I have assumed 
 that men can live for one another if they can live 
 for God ; that they can work with one another 
 if they are called to work with GoD. Such 
 assumptions are not vain unless our Creed is vain. 
 Can we question that those are capable of human 
 fellowship who are capable, as we believe, of a 
 Divine fellowship ? Men grow stronger as more 
 is demanded from them. They respond when 
 they are reminded of their true selves. But we 
 to whom wider knowledge has been granted too 
 often dwarf characters by failing to require from 
 others what we ourselves are willing to give ; by 
 failing, that is, as Hinton said, " to love them as 
 ourselves." 
 
 And the co-operative movement is, in fact, 
 popular in its origin, like all great social move- 
 ments. For where the force of custom lies least 
 heavily there social instincts are purest and most 
 powerful. But co-operation has never wanted 
 enthusiastic advocates in all classes. The move- 
 ment is from the masses, but it is not confined to 
 them. The fact is of momentous importance. It 
 is in the predominance of the social instincts that 
 
278 Our task to bring the idea of the family 
 
 we now find our surest trust. The preparation 
 for the future lies in the recognition of the unity 
 of humanity as a living whole, interdependent in 
 all its parts. Our task, then, is to bring this 
 transcendent thought into our daily relations ; for 
 effective service is only possible when we are 
 assured of the nobility of the issues of life. Such 
 an assurance has been given to us ; and I should 
 be false to my deepest convictions if I dissembled 
 my own belief that a spiritual power, a Divine 
 fellowship, is necessary for the attainment of our 
 end, and that it is offered to us. Christianity 
 won its social victories in the first ages by 
 extending the affection of the family to the 
 household of faith. So the love of the brethren 
 became the sign and the promise of the love of 
 men. 
 
 It is for us, under new conditions, to bring 
 the sacred lessons of the family to the solution of 
 larger problems. Happily the family is left to us, 
 honoured still by the nation's reverence, as our 
 social inheritance from the religious Reformation 
 of the sixteenth century. In the family is the 
 type of the co-operation for which we look, — not 
 an impossible and death -bringing equality of 
 conditions, but a glad fellowship in service. 
 
 For you will observe that the subordination of 
 individual to social instincts, which, as history 
 
to the larger relations of life. 279 
 
 shows us, is the law of the progi^ess of the race, is 
 the strength and the joy of the family, the 
 strength and the joy of co-operation. Progress, 
 no doubt, will continue under the same conditions 
 as in the past. This law, that is the will of God, 
 which the " law " represents for us, must find 
 fulfilment. But what will be the difference for 
 us, as we resist it or make it the rule of our own 
 efforts? To welcome it, to follow it, as we are 
 enabled, is to enter into the joy of the Lord, not 
 to he ministered unto, but to minister. 
 
 Thus we see that the ideal of co-operation is 
 coincident with the conception of the family, 
 with the highest hope of life, and that the hum- 
 blest fellowship in labour contributes something 
 towards its attainment. If then, as has been 
 said, combinations are likely to play a great part 
 in the future, I ask you to use the opportunity, 
 and to make them fellowships in service, 
 extensions of the family. 
 
 I ask you as co-operators to cherish your 
 noblest thoughts even in the fulfilment of your 
 simplest duties. 
 
 I ask you to think of those who will enter 
 hereafter on the fruits of your work, when you 
 are pressed by importunate temptations to self- 
 assertion and self-indulgence. 
 
280 The ideal rules life. 
 
 I ask you to be good stewards of the in- 
 heritance which you have received as citizens of 
 the English nation. 
 
 The present rules the future as the past rules 
 the present. The ideal which we cherish, that 
 "which we aspire to be," gives the character to 
 our life. This will survive us. 
 
V. 
 SOCIAL EELATIONSHIPS. 
 
SPEECH AT THE NORTHUMBERLAND 
 MINERS' GALA, BLYTH. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND WAR. 
 
 CANTERBURY DIOCESAN CONFERENCE, July, 1889. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. 
 
 S. THOMAS', SUNDERLAND, March 7th, 1897. 
 
 MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER. 
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING, June SOth, 1894. 
 
 LOVE OF THE BRETHREN. 
 MEETING OF LAY WORKERS, AUCKLAND CHAPEL. 
 
 THE POWER OF MINISTRY. 
 ORDINATION, AUCKLAND CHAPEL, Sept. 1897. 
 
SPEECH AT THE NORTHUMBERLAND 
 MINERS' GALA, BLYTH. 
 
 I WISH, my friends, that I could express to 
 you what I feel when I look on this magnificent 
 gathering, and how deeply I was touched when I 
 received from your Executive an invitation to be 
 present with you to-day. You invited me, I 
 believe, because you know that my whole soul is 
 filled with the desire to spread peace and good- 
 will and fellowship among men ; and if I cannot 
 profess to agree with all that has been just said 
 to us, I do sympathise most heartily with the 
 spirit of those who have addressed you and with 
 the temper with which you have listened. 
 
 I have been frequently asked by some of your 
 own number how it is that I, who have much 
 other work to do, have given time and thought to 
 industrial questions since I came to the North. 
 I have had, let me say, three main reasons, each 
 
284 Personal reasons for interest 
 
 one of which is sufficient to explain the course 
 which I have followed. I believe in my office. 
 I believe in my message. I remember the 
 experiences of my own life. 
 
 Let me speak frankly. I believe in my office. 
 You may not agree with me ; but you would 
 rightly despise me if I held an office which I did 
 not believe in. It is well, I think, that there 
 should be some men in the nation solemnly 
 pledged under the most afifecting conditions, as 
 bishops are pledged at their consecration, to " set 
 forward quietness, love and peace among all men," 
 and to " shew themselves gentle and be merciful 
 for Christ's sake to poor and needy people, and to 
 all strangers destitute of help." It is well that 
 there should be some men to whom high place 
 and large means are committed as a trust to 
 be administered for GoD and for the people 
 without any distinction of class. And I ask you 
 to believe that bishops w^ho make these promises 
 and receive this trust can never forget their 
 obligations, and that according to their oppor- 
 tunities they strive to fulfil them. One of my 
 predecessors, Bishop Barrington, is, as some of 
 you may remember, the hero of Mr Holyoake's 
 Self-help a hundred years ago. I know how hard 
 it is to keep the promises, to administer the trust; 
 and yet, I repeat, it is well that there should 
 
in industrial questions. 285 
 
 be among you some who, through all failures, 
 endeavour to bear the burden of great duties. 
 
 I believe in my office ; and I believe also in 
 my message, and in this you will agree with me. 
 There has never been a time when the Christian 
 Faith had a more direct application to national 
 problems than it has to-day : never a time when 
 its power was more effectively vindicated. The 
 relief to our troubles will come through the 
 Gospel, which covers all life, claims all life, and 
 hallows all life. I could not speak here without 
 acknowledging openly the ground of my hope. 
 
 But I have yet a third reason for being 
 keenly interested in popular movements. My 
 first distinct recollection of a public event is of 
 the gathering of the Political Unions on Newhall 
 Hill, Birmingham, before the passing of the first 
 Reform Bill. The crowded platform, the Crown 
 set up in front, the Royal Standard formed a 
 picture which is still fresh in my mind and full of 
 meaning to-day. During my school and college 
 life I followed the history of Chartism. I saw 
 houses burnt down in Birmingham and the streets 
 occupied by soldiers. When I had just taken my 
 place for my last University Examination at 
 Cambridge, the late Lord Derby came in and 
 said, " Louis Philippe has landed, a fugitive, in 
 England." The first time I went abroad I passed 
 
286 Our duty to guard 
 
 between the outposts of two contending armies in 
 the revolutions of '49. You will understand then 
 with what keenness I have followed the vicissitudes 
 of the development of the popular cause. And 
 one great truth came out as I watched the current 
 of events, a truth hardly recognised sixty years 
 ago, that a nation is a real body with a true life, 
 that humanity is, as Pascal said, *a man who lives 
 and learns for ever.' Looking then at this great 
 fact that a nation is a body of which all the 
 citizens are members, I have learnt four lessons 
 among others : that we must guard the treasures 
 of the past for the sake of the present and of the 
 future: that we must develop the characteristic 
 powers of each constituent part for the good of 
 the whole : that we must cultivate association : 
 that we must keep in view the social destination 
 of all work. These lessons are, I venture to say, 
 of momentous importance at the present time. 
 Every Englishman ought to master them, to lay 
 them to heart, to bring them into common life. 
 
 1. We must guard the treasures of the past 
 for the sake of the present and of the future. 
 The truth is symbolised for us in one of the finest 
 views in the world, the view of Durham from the 
 Kailway Station. In that we have a picture, 
 absolutely unique, of English life and English 
 history. There is the bridge over the Wear, the 
 
our inheritance from the past. 2(S7 
 
 work of a bishop of the 12th century, the symbol 
 of social intercourse and commerce. Above it 
 rises the Castle, the old home of the bishops, the 
 symbol of civil government. And the Cathedral 
 crowns all, the symbol of the Christian faith. 
 Each has been modified as the years have gone 
 by, and now all stand before us as an unbroken 
 harmonious growth of seven centuries of which 
 religion has been the soul. Such is England, 
 
 A land of settled government 
 A land of just and old renown, 
 "Where freedom broadens slowly down 
 
 From precedent to precedent. 
 
 We have never broken with the past. Think 
 what this means. Contrast our history with the 
 history of France, a country endowed with gifts, 
 in many respects greater than those which we 
 have received. There have been in France during 
 the last century "nine changes of government, 
 seven violent revolutions, two occupations of the 
 capital by foreign armies, and at the end the 
 people enjoy a measure of liberty neither so full 
 nor so secure as that which we have won in 
 peaceful ways by patience." So it has been of 
 old, and our social evolution still continues on 
 the same lines, directed by careful and resolute 
 thought and supported by popular conviction. 
 There is no sharp division of classes in England. 
 
288 We must recognise tJie obligations 
 
 Men pass from class to class. We are all one 
 nation, proud of a great past which is our common 
 heritage, and confident of a great future because 
 we reverence the past. 
 
 2. At the same time while we reverence the 
 past, we are no less bound to acknowledge the 
 office and the obligations of the present, the duty 
 and the work of the citizens of to-day. If we 
 look back we see how the individual man has 
 slowly risen to his dignity as man. In the great 
 empires of Asia a few despots ruled over helpless 
 multitudes of subjects. In Greece and Rome, 
 spoken of as free states, all power was concen- 
 trated in the hands of a privileged few during 
 the times of their greatest prosperity. In the 
 Gospel at last the decisive word was spoken. 
 God was revealed as the Father of men; and 
 the Fatherhood of God involves the brotherhood 
 of men. Even so the lesson was learnt with 
 difficulty, and only after long struggles we have 
 ourselves seen slavery finally abolished in Christian 
 countries. 
 
 Now we acknowledge in theory at least the 
 equality of men as men, and as opportunity is given 
 we strive to realise it in fact, not indeed any 
 mechanical equality, but an equality of service 
 according to powers and opportunities. The 
 highest welfare of society requires that which each 
 
of all citizens. 289 
 
 man can give ; and we need more than ever the 
 injBuence of great men, for the healthy vigour of the 
 democracy depends on wise and thoughtful leaders. 
 Such equality does not obliterate differences but 
 makes them contributors to a fuller being. Here 
 as everywhere in nature progress depends on the 
 increasing distinctness of parts. The end of 
 uniformity is death : the end of the harmonious 
 development of different members is one full life 
 in which all share. 
 
 3. So it is that the development of indivi- 
 duality enforces the third lesson of which I spoke, 
 the necessity of association. Each man trains and 
 exercises his special powers that in combination 
 with others he may enrich the whole body. The 
 growth of the great industries has had the same 
 effect. And on the other hand, combinations of 
 men for special purposes have been powerful 
 agencies for education and discipline. In my own 
 life I have seen what Trade Unions, Friendly 
 Societies, Co-operative Societies have done for 
 large masses of my countrymen. They have 
 contributed largely to an improvement in wages, 
 an amelioration of the conditions of labour, an 
 increase in the length of life, and a decrease of 
 pauperism. 
 
 4. Let us now combine the second and third 
 lessons, the development of the individual and 
 
 w. 19 
 
290 The social destination 
 
 the necessity of association, and we shall see what 
 is meant by the fourth lesson to which I referred, 
 the lesson of the social destination of all labour, 
 labour of the head and labour of the hand. All 
 w^e have received, all we have, is committed to us 
 for common service. So far as we recognise the 
 truth we find peace. If private gain is our end 
 the more we have the more we shall desire. It 
 is at present the unique glory of the medical 
 profession that no one can monopolise a discovery 
 for his private aggrandisement. But I am sanguine 
 enough to believe that in your time if not in 
 mine the great captains of industry will find their 
 adequate reward in the joy of leadership. Special 
 privileges, great powers, a splendid inheritance, 
 are so many calls to exceptional devotion ; and 
 if the call is obeyed such devotion is answered by 
 an enthusiasm of service. 
 
 This interdependence of services, the fact that 
 we live by and for one another, throws light both 
 upon labour and upon the disputes which often 
 unhappily divide fellow-labourers. In all our 
 relations we must take more conscious account 
 than we have done of others. It is to the interest 
 of employer and employed alike that every 
 workman should receive in return for the service 
 which he is able to render that which will make 
 it possible for him to develop his own powers and 
 
of labour. 291 
 
 fulfil his office as a true man. The end of the 
 State is the formation of noble character, and not 
 the accumulation of wealth. Even sacrifices of 
 personal advantage may wisely be made with a 
 view to future good. The justest claims may 
 justly be withdrawn if a timely concession gives 
 reasonable hope that a permanent settlement of 
 differences will be secured. So our last Durham 
 coal strike was settled. And in such cases those 
 who make the sacrifice will not in the end be 
 losers. They strengthen, they ennoble their own 
 cause. They prepare the way for methods of 
 conciliation which must be the results of good 
 will and not of legislation, springing out of frank 
 and quiet discussion and intelligent confidence in 
 the power of truth and justice to work conviction. 
 Such a spirit of conciliation offers an adequate 
 test of industrial progress which is measured by 
 the growth of trustful fellowship between fellow- 
 workers, and of enthusiasm for work as a true 
 social service. If our advance towards complete 
 co-operation is slow, we who believe in God can 
 wait. 
 
 Meanwhile our personal duty has to be done. 
 A wise teacher said truly, " We all need some one 
 to make us do what we can do." There is much, 
 I believe, which is corrupt in society. What then 
 are we doing to keep our own lives, our own 
 
 19—2 
 
292 AU beneficent chawjes 
 
 families pure ? We have no right to teach till we 
 have endeavoured to act. We are anxious, we 
 cannot be too anxious, for better education. But 
 the true fruit of education is character, and not 
 marketable knowledge. The most enduring edu- 
 cation is in the home. What, then, is the teaching 
 which parents among us give in word and deed ? 
 Do they say to their children : " Get money : seek 
 pleasure : follow your own material interests with 
 all your heart." If so, the future is dark indeed. 
 Nay, rather, I trust they say: "Be strong: be 
 righteous : be pure. The highest is for all. It is 
 the spirit which makes the man and not the 
 occupation." 
 
 Before I close may I say one word to the 
 young men who are about me. The future is 
 yours. The England of the next generation will 
 be what you make it. Cherish then the highest 
 thoughts which are put into your hearts: they 
 are God's will for you. All the beneficent changes 
 which have been wrought in the history of 
 our nation — I say it without reserve — have been 
 wrought by faith. Faith alone can give a true 
 aim and strength to reach it. I was speaking a 
 few days ago to one of our greatest living his- 
 torians (Prof Seeley) and he said, " It is hard to 
 have to fight three monsters at once. Agnosticism, 
 Pessimism, Anarchism." "Well," I replied, "I 
 
wrought hy Faith. 293 
 
 don't think that they trouble us much in Durham 
 or Northumberland." No, young men, I need not 
 tell you to be courageous or hopeful or loyal. 
 You know what your fathers have won for you, 
 and how. Following in the same path of resolute 
 patience you know that in due time you will 
 make good every just claim which you prefer. 
 Still the work is not easy. The cross is not, as 
 we are too apt to think, only an ornament. 
 There is need of untiring labour. The Jews have 
 a beautiful thought, that an angel only lives while 
 he serves. That assuredly is the true ideal of 
 men. Men live only while they serve. Do not, 
 then, sacrifice the whole to the part. Do not 
 sacrifice the future to the present. Do not sacri- 
 fice the spiritual to the temporal. When I was a 
 boy I was told that our aim should be the 
 greatest happiness — I trust that meant the 
 greatest good — of the greatest number. We 
 must then, on this principle, look to posterity and 
 not to our contemporaries only. What will those 
 who come after say of us ? Will they say, " The 
 men at the end of the nineteenth century were 
 greedy only of quick gain, and have left to us 
 defiled rivers and desolated fields." Or will they 
 say, "They lived in hard times, but they faced 
 their trials courageously in faith, and have made 
 our life easier: blessings be on their memory!" 
 
294 TJie noblest ideal to he kept. 
 
 It is for you to decide ; and you know that ' the 
 way of duty is the path to glory.' Strive then 
 as you have opportunity to establish an organi- 
 sation of industry which shall stir enthusiasm in 
 all its members. Strive to establish an organi- 
 sation of industry of which love shall be the 
 motive power. Strive to keep ever before your 
 eyes the noblest ideal which you have ever 
 formed, and then to do yourselves and help others 
 to do the works which God has prepared for His 
 servants, and so bring a little nearer the end for 
 which our life is given us to labour, when citizens 
 and nations alike shall be members of the King- 
 dom of God. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND WAR. 
 
 In introducing the great subject which is 
 proposed for discussion this morning, I shall not 
 attempt to discuss details of action. It does not 
 seem to me that we are at present prepared to 
 support any definite line of policy with that 
 reasoned and solid conviction which alone can 
 command success. The question of international 
 relations has not hitherto been considered in the 
 light of the Incarnation, and till this has been 
 done, I do not see that we can look for the 
 establishment of that peace which was heralded 
 at the Nativity. I wish simply to claim that as 
 Christians, and especially as English Churchmen, 
 we should at length face the question with sincere 
 and resolute hearts : that we should ask ourselves, 
 without reserve and without prepossessions, what 
 the Faith teaches us upon it at this point in the 
 development of the life of men : that we should 
 
296 The growth of the conception 
 
 accept the responsibility of bringing the results of 
 our inquiry, without fear and without impatience, 
 into the field of public life. 
 
 If we can ascertain what is the will of God, 
 we shall assuredly not admit that it is impossible 
 to fulfil it. Failure is no more than a lesson of 
 experience when we are striving towards a divine 
 end. What, then, does the Christian faith teach 
 us on international duties now ? I emphasise the 
 condition of time. There is an order in the 
 apprehension of the truth. The scope of the 
 Gospel is not grasped at once. As our thoughts 
 grow we feel its larger lessons. Life is change, 
 and Christian life, in the widest range, is pro- 
 gress. If we look back to the sixteenth century 
 we cannot mistake the general influence which 
 Christianity has had upon the later history of the 
 West. It has evoked and fostered and disciplined 
 and hallowed all that is summed up in the word 
 individuality. It has brought home to us the 
 value, the dignity, the obligations of the single 
 man. It has translated into a spiritual command- 
 ment the watchword of the modern revolution — 
 " Liberty, equality, fraternity." We all acknow- 
 ledge, in theory at least, that we are "members 
 one of another," that we cannot live alone, that 
 by an inexorable necessity we suffer, as we rejoice, 
 together, that we owe to our fellow-men the in- 
 
of corporate life. 297 
 
 exhaustible debt of love, that we exercise towards 
 them the inalienable prerogative of service. 
 
 And now wider thoughts are rising into promi- 
 nence. The one conception which I have watched 
 all my life steadily gaining in clearness and force 
 is the reality of our corporate life. Few now 
 will deny that the nation and the race have a 
 substantive being, no less than the family, and 
 that it is through the harmonious ministry of the 
 nations that the race must reach its consum- 
 mation. 
 
 Such thoughts as these are in the air, and 
 what has the Gospel to say to them ? It is, to 
 gather all into a word, their satisfaction. When 
 we confess the Incarnation we place every element 
 of humanity in connexion with GoD. In that 
 fact we see that every element is contributory 
 according to its proper character to the accom- 
 plishment of the purpose of creation. And we 
 can understand that the end will be reached 
 when the Kings of the earth, according to the 
 language of the Apocalypse, bring the glory and 
 honour of the nations — all that they have gathered 
 in thought and achievement — into the heavenly 
 city. We have not to create the new order, but 
 to discern it : not to supply the strength which is 
 required for its establishment, but to receive the 
 strength which God oflPers. The state serves the 
 
298 The hrotlierhood of Nations. 
 
 race just as the citizen serves the state. In the 
 liocht of the Christian faith the true interests of 
 nations are identical, because they are the in- 
 terests of humanity. The loss of one nation is 
 the loss of all ; the gain of one nation is the gain 
 of all ; the disproportionate preponderance of a 
 single power is an impoverishment of the whole 
 body. An unrighteous victory is above all a 
 calamity to the conquerors. If the extremity of 
 conflict must be endured, our prayers ought to be 
 such that our adversaries could join in them. 
 The nations have one common life, one common 
 end. 
 
 We advance a step further. If nations are, as 
 history has proved them to be, factors in human 
 progress, the Incarnation proclaims a brotherhood 
 of nations no less than a brotherhood of men. It 
 follows that every duty which is recognised in our 
 private dealing one with another, every virtue 
 which ennobles the intercourse of man with man, 
 every aim which gives dignity to personal effort, 
 every aspiration which brings enthusiasm to per- 
 sonal sacrifice, all the treasures of tenderness and 
 sympathy which sweeten and illuminate common 
 life, must find an analogous place in international 
 relations. And, again, every vice which we in- 
 dignantly condemn among ourselves — arrogance, 
 deceit, overbearing violence, self-seeking — remains 
 
War opposed to the Gosj)el. 299 
 
 a vice, however imposing may be the scale on 
 which it is displayed. As Christians, then, we 
 oppose war, not simply as wasteful of material 
 wealth and fertile in suffering — for truth's sake 
 we could bear greater sacrifices and greater pains 
 — but because it hinders what has been made 
 known to us as the Divine counsel for the pro- 
 gress of man both in its methods and in its 
 results. It tends to give sanction to modes of 
 action universally condemned in private life : it 
 connects great virtues with unworthy or, at least, 
 questionable motives: it is the extreme form 
 of self-assertion maintained by force : it leaves 
 behind a sad heritage of discontent to the van- 
 quished and of arrogance to the victor: it separates 
 with a legacy of bitterness those through whose 
 generous co-operation the end of creation must be 
 reached. 
 
 Such a judgment lies — I see no possibility of 
 gainsaying the conclusion — in the simple accept- 
 ance of the Apostolic Gospel, the Word became 
 flesh. It is not the embodiment of our wishes, 
 the precarious result of our reasonings, the trans- 
 formation of a dream into a belief: it is the 
 interpretation of a fact in the light of present 
 experience, a fact which is at the same time a 
 promise. We all know this ; and yet dare we 
 say that we have used our knowledge ; I find it 
 
300 Gradual o.pjyrehension of the Gospel. 
 
 stated by a most distinguished writer that "in 
 international affairs religion does little [now] but 
 fan antipathies." Even if the charge be over- 
 stated, can we plead that we have habitually used 
 our opportunities to extend and deepen and ener- 
 gise that sympathy, that goodwill, that love — I 
 will venture to use the word — which ought to 
 exist no less between people and people than 
 between man and man ? And if not, have we not 
 wronged our faith ? I do not blame our fathers. 
 That was not clear to them which is clear to us. 
 Each age has its own lesson to master and to 
 convey. We have ours, and every sign shews us 
 that it lies in these broader applications of the 
 one eternal, infinite Gospel. For if we bear no 
 witness to the divine brotherhood of nations which 
 carries with it inexhaustible obligations of service 
 and sacrifice, the teachers of the new democracy 
 in Italy and France and America, in Germany 
 and England, are not silent. They have stated 
 the hope of the generation to come, which Christi- 
 anity only can satisfy. 
 
 But you will say. The evil of war has been 
 since the world began and God has brought good 
 out of it ; so He will work still. I reply that His 
 will is unfolded to us in many parts, little by 
 little, in order that it may be fulfilled by the 
 loyal labours of successive generations ; that now, 
 
What lue can do. 301 
 
 for the first time, the function of nations in the 
 development of mankind is made plain ; that now, 
 for the first time, that aspect of war is revealed 
 through which its evil is seen in its full spiritual 
 magnitude ; that now, for the first time, the duty 
 is laid on believers of applying the social power of 
 the Gospel to hallow and fulfil the spontaneous 
 aspirations of troubled hearts towards inter- 
 national concord. 
 
 Still you ask, perhaps sadly. What can we do ? 
 We can at least, we to whom the office of teaching 
 is committed, confess our faith before GoD and 
 man : we can study the problems of international 
 duty as problems to which we must find a Chris- 
 tian solution : we can in some degree temper the 
 rude expression of overbearing pride which usurps 
 the name of patriotism : we can strive ourselves 
 to realise that foreign races have offices to fulfil 
 in the providence of GoD which we cannot fulfil, 
 though we may delay their fulfilment, and we can 
 guide others to the same truth : we can reflect 
 and ask others to reflect whether there have not 
 been times when England has used and gained 
 truer power by accepting failure than when she 
 has enforced her will by crushing might. We can 
 recognise that there is in the hearts of men, below 
 the surges of passion and selfishness which trouble 
 them, a zeal for righteousness, a deep longing for 
 
802 The duty of 
 
 fellowship, and seek to give it free course, and 
 trust ourselves to its influence. We can, by calm 
 and sympathetic counsel, guard the spiritual 
 truths of politics from being degraded into party 
 cries. We can bring home to the conscience of 
 the nation that as long as life is centred in the 
 perishable things of sense, " wherein companion- 
 ship is oue with loss," there must be envyings and 
 strife : that the popular acceptance of a material 
 standard of prosperity must be the fertile source 
 of war; and that peace wdll then finally be 
 established when the test of well-being and of 
 greatness for peoples, as for men, is found in 
 generosity of service. In all these ways we can, 
 each in the natural sphere of our influence, kindle 
 sympathy and discipline individual feeling : we 
 can contribute to form that j^ublic opinion which 
 becomes more and more necessary for the right 
 conduct of affairs. 
 
 The master thoughts of national policy, the 
 principles and aims of national action, have now 
 been placed within the range of popular judgment. 
 The nation can no longer transfer or put off its 
 moral responsibility ; and we may remember for 
 our encouragement that the gains of the national 
 conscience are permanent. We could not think 
 of a Frenchman as Nelson did. Under this aspect 
 we cannot fail to recognise the unique office. of 
 
the English Church. 303 
 
 our National Church. It is the spiritual organ of 
 the whole people which has grown with their 
 gi'owth, embodying, according to its own Divine 
 law, the lessons of our history, and presenting to 
 us its Divine message according to the pecu- 
 liarities of our position and character. No other 
 body can share its heritage of duty, its prerogative 
 of universal ministry. And if we who are charged 
 to speak in its name are silent on the greatest 
 sorrows and the largest hopes of the world : if we 
 have no Gospel to proclaim which meets cries for 
 help now becoming articulate, we, as far as lies in 
 us, write the sentence of its condemnation. But 
 I cannot believe that GoD has only prepared 
 failure for our English Church through the dis- 
 cipline of an unparalleled historj^ I believe, in 
 spite of every adverse sign of wilfulness and self- 
 assertion, that He will through the loyal obedience 
 of her sons, obedience alike to authority and to 
 truth, provide for the time to come the social 
 gospel of the Incarnation for which the peoples are 
 waiting. I believe that it is through a common 
 devotion to new questions which arise out of a 
 new stage of human development, that He will 
 lift us above the region of the unhappy divisions 
 and misunderstandings in which our energies are 
 in danger of being wasted. 
 
 No doubt the revolution in popular feeling 
 
304 Let the duty 
 
 which I have indicated can only be effected 
 through infinite patience. So private war and 
 slavery were abolished. Meanwhile it will be 
 something to confess our hopes, our aims, before 
 men. It will be more — it will be all — if we 
 confess them before God. The prospect of a 
 confederation of the nations of the West, leagued 
 together for the fulfilment of a spiritual mission to 
 the world, may seem to be the vision of a dream. 
 I can only say that if the Incarnation is a fact, I 
 see, from the teaching of the past, no other issue 
 in which that final message of GoD can find its 
 consummation. For the rest the Church lives by 
 pursuing, and in the past not without success, 
 what the world calls impossibilities. What, then, 
 can we do ? I will venture to offer one definite 
 suggestion. We have all felt how much the 
 interest in foreign Missions has been quickened 
 and deepened by the annual day of thanksgiving 
 and intercession. May we not, then, ask that a 
 day may be appointed on which we may be 
 charged to ponder together in the light of our 
 Faith what we mean and what we expect when we 
 pray in words which cover the whole subject of 
 our discussion " that it may please GOD to give to 
 all nations unity, peace, and concord" — unity in 
 the harmonious fellowship of every class within 
 them, peace in their mutual relations without, 
 
be recognised. 305 
 
 concord in their glad co-operation for social ends ? 
 If the prayer is to be answered it must be made 
 in the assurance that it corresponds with the will 
 of God. Such assurance can, I know, be gained, 
 but not without resolute and patient thought. 
 
 20 
 
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. 
 
 It is characteristic of the religious feeling of 
 the time that Christians claim with ever-increasing 
 energy that their Creed should be applied to the 
 solution of all the problems of social and national 
 life. They still appeal, as they must do, to the 
 conscience of the individual, but they extend the 
 sphere of his moral obligations and activity to 
 the widest possible range. Motives, institutions, 
 policies are tried in the light of our Faith. Our 
 view of war, to take the most extreme case, is a 
 crucial test of our view of Christianity. If war is 
 an essential condition of the constitution of human 
 society, then the Gospel fails of the fulness of its 
 hope. Our habitual prayer for the coming of our 
 Father's Kingdom, on earth as in heaven, finds no 
 justification in life. If on the other hand we 
 maintain that war never has been and never can 
 be defensible, we seem to neglect the lessons of 
 
Christendom a preparation for j^eace 307 
 
 history. But we are not constrained to adopt 
 either of these extremes. A wide survey of the 
 general course of life encourages us to maintain 
 the Divine ideal of a stable peace as the reasonable 
 object of our aim, and to recognise that we move 
 surely if slowly towards it. Christianity enters 
 on the actual scene of human life in order to 
 purify it and not to perpetuate it as it is. 
 
 The prophetic visions of the conversion of the 
 nations to the service of the Lord which illuminate 
 the Old Testament are not removed, as some have 
 held, to another order in the New Testament, but 
 rather the message of the Incarnation brings into 
 the world the great principles through which we 
 see that they can be realised. As far as the 
 message is accepted it must check the causes of 
 war, and no limit is set to its acceptance. For 
 ourselves as often as we pray that " it may please 
 God to give unity, peace and concord to all nations" 
 we imply that the blessing is attainable. 
 
 It is often said that in 1800 years Christianity 
 has done nothing towards the establishment of a 
 reign of peace. I should venture to say on the 
 contrary that the whole history of Christendom is 
 a gradual preparation for it. At first under the 
 Roman Empire there was little room for the social 
 and political work of the Gospel. In the personal 
 relations of men an established law was supreme; 
 
 20—2 
 
308 Brotherhood and 
 
 and there was as yet no scope for the development 
 of the life of nations. With the conquests of the 
 Northern races the new order began. From that 
 time onwards the sovereignty of reason, justice, 
 law has been continuously extended under the 
 direct influence of Christian teaching. It is 
 needless to repeat how the wager of battle, and 
 private wars and provincial w^ars have been 
 successively abolished. Now at last the nations 
 of the Old World and of the New stand defined 
 in their completeness. All the forces of mankind 
 are within view. We can recognise the charac- 
 teristic functions of different peoples. For the 
 first time we are brought fully face to face with 
 the problems which this great marshalling of 
 human powers suggests. We can ask at length 
 with a full sense of the meaning of the question 
 whether nations can be brought under the 
 dominion of law, under the authority of a common 
 conscience : whether we can reasonably cherish 
 the hope that war will be superseded by reason as 
 the arbiter of international disputes. 
 
 This is the question which I wish to set before 
 you this afternoon ; and the question in its real 
 significance is, I repeat, a new question addressed 
 to our own generation. It answers to the 
 position which we have reached in the life of 
 humanity — " the man who lives and learns for 
 
membership in Christ. 309 
 
 ever." There is an order in the providential 
 government of the world. We do not accuse our 
 fathers of blindness or neglect because they did 
 not anticipate our peculiar task. But we our- 
 selves must not shrink from it. We have been 
 enabled to recognise that the Incarnation, as I 
 have already said, offers to us a revelation of the 
 true relations of man to man, of class to class, 
 of nation to nation, in the ideal unity of mankind 
 in Christ ; and we must bring the truth into life. 
 This central thought of unity as it is brought 
 before us in our Christian Faith involves two 
 distinct conceptions. On the one side it presents 
 the conception of brotherhood in Christ, which 
 implies a relation of true spiritual equality between 
 all the parts ; and on the other side it presents 
 the conception of membership in Christ, which 
 implies a common destination of all the parts to 
 one sovereign end. The two conceptions are 
 essentially distinct. The one has now become a 
 common-place. Everyone speaks of ' the brother- 
 hood of men,' but we have not yet mastered the 
 complementary thought of 'membership,' the 
 truth that each man, each class, each nation, has 
 a special office in regard to the body which it helps 
 to form : that the welfare of the body depends 
 on the welfare of the constituent members with 
 their characteristic differences: that all we do 
 
310 Prog7'essive application 
 
 either individually or corporately must be referred 
 to the whole, and to the eternal. 
 
 Momentous consequences follow from the ac- 
 ceptance of these two most certain principles. 
 Under this wider view actions which otherwise 
 appear to be irrational are seen to be most truly 
 according to reason. Time does not limit the 
 effects of our actions. All conduct which is 
 simply self-centred and self-regarding is shewn to 
 be essentially faulty. It becomes clear then that 
 the one legitimate end of all effort is the es- 
 tablishment of justice, the true relation of all the 
 parts to the whole, and not private or public 
 aggrandisement. The method of attainment is 
 the way of reason, and not of force. The motive 
 is love, and not gain. 
 
 Little by little these principles have been 
 applied more and more effectually in ever-in- 
 creasing range. There was a time when the 
 disputes of man with man were settled by force. 
 Now in this realm law, the most perfect collective 
 expression of justice, is supreme. All men are 
 reckoned as equal in the sight of the law. The 
 duty of self-sacrifice is acknowledged even beyond 
 the Christian sphere. The individual, that is, in 
 view of the whole and of the future is deliberately 
 subordinated to the body. In our personal re- 
 lations the supreme authority of righteousness 
 
of the trutlis to men and classes. 311 
 
 and reason in the largest sense is generally 
 accepted. 
 
 Again : in the relations of classes there is a 
 steady tendency towards the same result. Here, 
 I cannot doubt, in spite of manifold disappoint- 
 ments, methods of conciliation, methods of reason 
 and justice, are slowly gaining ground. Our 
 industrial leaders unanimously advocate them, 
 and as they are better understood they must 
 prevail. At the same time the privileged classes 
 shew increasing readiness to surrender traditional 
 advantages and to recognise public obligations. 
 The spirit of brotherhood and membership in 
 other words is gradually modifying the whole 
 temper of our social relations one to another. 
 Under one aspect even the development of ' the 
 great industry' tends to substitute for the in- 
 definite hope of material gain the more generous 
 ambition of commercial leadership, the joy of 
 association for the excitement of individual enter- 
 prise. 
 
 From the relations of men and classes Ave pass 
 on to the relations of nations. Can law rule here 
 also ? We acknowledge at once the vast difficulty 
 which attends the settlement of international 
 disputes by principles of reason and right. The 
 magnitude of the interests which are involved 
 stirs men's passions. It rarely, if ever, happens 
 
312 War and Slavery. 
 
 that the right is unquestionable or all on one side. 
 If we look back, it is hard to see how changes in 
 government and territory which we now recognise 
 as beneficent could have been accomplished with- 
 out violence. But none the less we remember that 
 nations, as well as families, belong to the essence 
 of human life and not only to a disordered life, 
 and that Christianity claims to deal with the 
 fulness of our nature. 
 
 We acknowledge, I say, the difficulty of the 
 problem which is set before us in preparing for 
 the abolition of war ; and then we remember that 
 a difficulty which once seemed to be no less 
 invincible has been overcome. The civilisation 
 of the Old World was definitely based on slavery, 
 on the deliberate sacrifice of whole classes for the 
 advantage of the minority. Slaves and artisans 
 were held in Greece at the time of its greatest 
 prosperity to be incapable of virtue. In the first 
 Christian age universal peace must have seemed 
 to be nearer to attainment than the abolition of 
 slavery. Yet the Christian conscience after long 
 discipline recognised that slavery is opposed to 
 the mind of Christ, and slavery has within our 
 own memory practically ceased in Christian 
 nations. We hold that war is no less opposed 
 than slavery to the mind of Christ — to the ideas 
 of our brotherhood and membership in Him. 
 
Limitation of poiuers of belligerents. 313 
 
 Therefore we can confidently look for its sup- 
 pression in due time and work for this issue, 
 though the end is not yet. 
 
 If, then, it is said that war always has been, 
 and therefore it is concluded that war always will 
 be, we sadly admit the assertion but we deny the 
 inference. The experience of the past does not 
 limit the possibilities of the future. All reform 
 is an innovation on ancient precedents. And we 
 can point to a growing tendency to bring all 
 conduct to moral tests. In this movement there 
 is no retreat. It is likely to be rapidly accele- 
 rated. The instinct for justice is strong in the 
 minds of the masses of men ; and power is falling 
 surely into their hands. We stand on the edge 
 of a new world, charged wdth new promises and 
 new hopes. 
 
 And more than this, we notice in the region 
 of international disputes that there has been a 
 continuous limitation of the powers of belligerents. 
 The wilfulness of mere force has been continuously 
 restrained. The recognition of the complete in- 
 ternational equality of independent states has 
 removed some of the most perilous temptations 
 to aggression. In these respects a body of rules 
 has been accepted by general consent which ex- 
 presses the voice of the common conscience of 
 civilised people so far as it has become articulate. 
 
314 The beneficent results of tuar 
 
 The acceptance of this growing series of 'cus- 
 tomary law' points onward to a more complete 
 application of methods of reason and justice to 
 the settlements of the differences of states. And 
 at the same time it meets one of the chief 
 objections which are urged against the efficiency 
 of international arbitration. What power, it is 
 asked, will enforce the decision ? The same 
 power, it may be replied, which demands it, the 
 common conscience of nations. The same sense 
 of justice which has established the Court will 
 uphold its verdict. Neither men nor peoples can 
 with impunity disregard the authority which they 
 have recognised. All government rests finally on 
 moral sanctions. 
 
 But it is alleged that war can shew beneficent 
 results both politically and socially. I have 
 already acknowledged that salutary changes in 
 states have been brought about by force. God 
 has used war, the fruit of our self-will, for our 
 chastisement, and through it established His own 
 counsels. So He deals with all evil. Sin itself 
 has been the occasion of the most glorious mani- 
 festation of His love ; but we shall not dare to say 
 that He ordained sin, or that it was necessary for 
 the highest revelation of His goodness. 
 
 We may even admit that as things are war is 
 in certain cases the less of two evils, not to speak 
 
obtainable in other ways. 315 
 
 of the necessary chastisements of enemies of 
 society which are matters of police. But this 
 concession does not shew that war corresponds 
 with the ideal of the Sermon on the Mount, or 
 release us from the duty of looking to the ideal 
 and of striving for the establishment of the better 
 order. So too while I willingly acknowledge that 
 war tends to quicken the energy and call out the 
 devotion of peoples, I cannot allow that war alone 
 has this power. I would not disparage the nobility 
 of military heroism, but there is a heroism in self- 
 sacrifice as well as in self-assertion. We may be 
 as justly proud of what we suffer as of what we 
 do. Many who know South Africa well assure us 
 that our self-control after the disaster of Majuba 
 Hill did much to place our authority there on a 
 solid foundation. In any case I cannot forget the 
 memorable words of Mazzini : " When any one 
 says to me : Behold a religious people, I inquire 
 what it has done and suffered to bring humanity 
 to its belief" Peace has its labours and conflicts. 
 For the peace for which we look is not indolent 
 weakness or luxurious self-indulgence or cowardly 
 inactivity but the energy of sure and unhindered 
 service to the common good. The true patriot 
 rejoices when his country fulfils its ofiice for other 
 nations, and not when it brings them under its 
 yoke. 
 
316 Failures of arbitration. 
 
 For my own part I believe the time will come 
 when a nation — not the rulers of a nation only — 
 will be ready to sacrifice its immediate interests 
 for some larger good to the race. Such sacrifice 
 could not but be fruitful. Is it possible that what 
 is essentially noble for a man should be essentially 
 wrong for a nation ? ' Man lives for ever ' and 
 nations also. I must hold therefore that the 
 glory of a nation lies in the unhesitating appeal 
 to justice. The course of events, the movement 
 of opinion, the condition of the civilised world, are 
 all favourable to the appeal. 
 
 But even if it is admitted that the one aim in 
 the settlement of national controversies is the 
 establishment of justice, and that it is natural to 
 seek justice by the way of reason, it is said that 
 arbitration, the appeal to reason, may miscarry. 
 It is enough to ask in reply where we have any 
 assurance that force will vindicate the right. The 
 risks of the miscarriage of justice are infinitely 
 greater in war than in arbitration. In arbitration 
 the decision and the grounds of the decision are 
 before the world, and in the end the judgment of 
 the world is effective. On the other hand a nation 
 is not more likely than a man to be an impartial 
 judge of the righteousness of its own cause. And 
 there is no tendency in war to secure at last a just 
 result. War settles nothing except the immediate 
 
Hindrances to its acceptance. 317 
 
 preponderance of force, and leaves a legacy of evils 
 to the next generation. The spoils of a decisive 
 war are now an abiding menace to the peace of 
 Europe. 
 
 If then so many arguments recommend the 
 substitution of methods of reason for methods of 
 force in the settlement of international contro- 
 versies : if the general course of history points to 
 the same reform : if the miscarriage of arbitration 
 would be finally less disastrous than the precarious 
 issues of war : what hinders the general acceptance 
 of the great change ? what fosters the military 
 spirit ? It is not, I believe, primarily ambition or 
 pride, but international misunderstandings, pre- 
 judices, suspicions. The experience of the last 
 year has been fertile in lessons perhaps unwelcome 
 and unexpected. We are startled if we find that 
 serious and distinguished writers interpret our 
 abolition of West Indian slavery as a scheme of 
 calculated self-interest : startled if the continental 
 nations were unfeignedly unable to believe that 
 our policy in regard to Turkey was disinterested : 
 startled if a few ill-considered words aroused a 
 passionate outburst of hostile self-assertion against 
 us in the United States. 
 
 Yet such revelations are an occasion not for 
 resentment but for reflection. They press upon 
 us the patient consideration of two neglected 
 
318 Our duty to other Nations. 
 
 duties, a duty which we owe to other nations, and 
 a duty which we owe to our own. These we must 
 seek to fulfil, if we are to remove the causes of 
 war. In the past we have failed to strive 
 resolutely to understand other nations, their ex- 
 periences, their offices for the race, their ideals, 
 which may rightly be widely different from our 
 own. And again we have failed to rec6gnise the 
 peculiar obligations which are laid upon our own 
 nation by our history, by our discipline, by our 
 opportunities. We have forgotten that we are not 
 set to offer a standard to others, but to fulfil a 
 ministry towards them. 
 
 For every nation has its part in the one 
 human life. All suffer if the characteristic work 
 of one is hindered. Nations which are con- 
 temporary in time are not all at the same stage 
 of development. There is for each a proper law 
 of growth. If we can discern it, much which 
 perplexes and discourages us will appear in a new 
 light. 
 
 And here the great thoughts of brotherhood 
 and membership from which I started come to 
 our help. So far as they are mastered war will 
 be seen to be unnatural. Not men and classes 
 only but nations also will learn to look for and to 
 rejoice in popular gifts and achievements w^hich 
 are not their own. Every national endowment 
 
The ideal not a dream. 319 
 
 will become more precious when it is found to 
 have a world-wide value. All states will recognise 
 that no one can be independent of humanity. 
 
 It may be said that this conception of a fellow- 
 ship of nations in which each contributes of its 
 wealth to all the others and receives of their 
 fulness is a dream. I can only reply that I do 
 not see how a Christian can rest in anything 
 short of it. We believe that the kingdom of the 
 world will become — become by the fulfilment of the 
 Divine law — the kingdom of our Lord and of His 
 Christ. And such a conviction is effective for our 
 immediate work. Our view of the future deter- 
 mines for us the value of the present ; and our 
 faith determines our view of the future. We 
 admit that the end to which we are thus en- 
 couraged to look cannot be gained by material or 
 intellectual progress. Illusions of this kind have 
 been rudely dispelled during the last century. 
 But let us once feel that there is a Divine purpose 
 for the world to be wrought out by man and all 
 things become possible. We look to ourselves, and 
 we are unequal to our common tasks. We look 
 to God, and His strength becomes the measure of 
 our capacity and His will the inspiration of our 
 life. There is nothing contrary to experience in 
 the transforming power of such an ideal as I have 
 indicated. Such an ideal is able to inspire energy 
 
320 The obligations of the 
 
 and to save waste. We shall not indeed press 
 its acceptance prematurely ; but we shall keep it 
 in view at each step forward. Every great reform 
 in society has been the embodiment — partial 
 perhaps at the best and imperfect — of an ideal. 
 The dream of one age becomes the hope of the 
 next, and the possession of that which follows. 
 
 Under this aspect we must take account of 
 the special opportunities and obligations of the 
 English-speaking races. The relative rapidity of 
 their development foreshows their future predo- 
 minance. Their common heritage in language, 
 literature, free institutions, law, unites them by a 
 bond of generous thoughts. The late crisis of 
 anxiety revealed in them the deep feeling of 
 kinsmanship. When some persons in America 
 talked lightly of war with England, those who 
 could speak with authority declared that such a 
 war was impossible. Responsible statesmen gave 
 shape to the conviction in an arbitral treaty 
 between England and the United States. Even 
 if this should fail to be ratified by the American 
 Senate the work will not have been in vain. The 
 general principle of International Arbitration has 
 been solemnly affirmed by representative states- 
 men. The example will be fertile. And it is 
 significant that the amendment of the Treaty 
 which is supposed to 'reduce it to a useless 
 
English-speaking peoples. 321 
 
 formula of goodwill' still leaves substantially 
 embodied the " scheme for an International High 
 Court adopted by the Parliamentary represen- 
 tatives of fourteen European States at Brussels in 
 1895." Yet this is thought to be nothing: so 
 quickly grow the thoughts and hopes of men. 
 
 Yet there is still need — as the sharp debates 
 on the ratification of the Treaty remind us — of 
 watchful forbearance, considerateness, self-control, 
 on the part of all lovers of peace: need of training 
 ourselves to see more than is visible from our own 
 point of sight : need too of active personal courtesy 
 and goodwill : need of the love which, we are just 
 now reminded, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
 endureth all things. We can check in ourselves 
 the dispositions which make for war. We can 
 prepare for the better time. And here we can all 
 help by sympathy with those from whom we are 
 separated, by patience, by long-suffering, repressing 
 with resolute courage all ungenerous judgments, 
 all hasty words, all presumptuous claims, all the 
 impulses of self-assertive pride. And, as I have 
 already said, the burden of political responsibility 
 is now laid upon every citizen. Public opinion is 
 becoming more and more directly the dominant 
 force in government. Every Englishman therefore 
 is bound to form his judgment on public affairs 
 w4th such reverent care as shall match the great- 
 w. 21 
 
322 The vision of 
 
 ness of the issues which are involved in it. He 
 can at least be sure as to his aim when he is 
 uncertain as to his way, and he can tell whether 
 it answers to the will of God. To accept anything 
 lower than this as our standard is to betray our 
 faith. 
 
 I ask you then to welcome as a light upon the 
 future the thoughts of the brotherhood, the mem- 
 bership, of nations. I ask you to trust without 
 reserve the noblest ideals which you have formed 
 of the destiny of mankind upon earth, and not to 
 part with anything of their splendour because 
 their accomplishment lingers. I ask you to 
 remember in all the disappointments and delays 
 which will beset your efforts for peace, that it is 
 God's will that the nations — not the nations of 
 them that are saved with the implied limitation 
 of the later gloss — shall in due time, which men 
 can shorten, walk in the light of the Holy City, 
 which is the sanctuary of the presence of God, 
 and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it, 
 even the august trophies of victorious self-devotion 
 through which the eternal powers of humanity 
 are made known. I ask you to pray and to work, 
 as our Church bids you, for 'unity, peace and 
 concord among all nations' with that vision of 
 St John before you. I ask you to approach every 
 problem of life, and this last problem above all, in 
 
the Apocalypse. 323 
 
 the strength of your Christian Creed, looking to 
 the revelation of ' the Word become flesh.' I ask 
 you to remember the debt which Christians owe 
 to their fellow-men, by shewing that your faith 
 was not given you as an intellectual substitute 
 for righteousness but as an effectual help for 
 gaining the Divine likeness in every relation of 
 life. If you accept the call your hearts cannot 
 fail you : your efforts cannot be fruitless. You 
 know that it is the conflict with evil which 
 enriches and ennobles manhood. You know that 
 each witness for justice and humanity becomes 
 part of the inheritance of nations and hastens 
 the advent of peace. 
 
 21—2 
 
MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER. 
 
 oi noAAoi en ccSma gcmgn gn XpiCTCo, to Ae kaG' 
 
 eTc aAAhAcon mgAh. 
 
 Rom. XII. 5. 
 
 St Paul uses two expressive images to illus- 
 trate the idea of the Christian Society which 
 have passed so completely into common language 
 that we are apt to forget their peculiar force. We 
 speak of ''edifying" — building up — without any 
 clear thought of that stately fabric of Christendom 
 which is being reared from generation to genera- 
 tion by the accumulation of human actions and 
 characters: we speak of "membership" without 
 any clear thought of that one life in which we are 
 all at the present moment bound together, and 
 which we manifest according to our measure. 
 And still these conceptions of the Church as a 
 Temple raised on the foundation of Christ, in 
 which each believer finds his appropriate place : 
 
The Church a Body and a Temple. 325 
 
 as a Body of which Christ is the Head, in which 
 each believer has a vital office to fulfil, have a 
 power of instruction which must make itself felt 
 when we consider the consequences which they 
 involve. 
 
 The two conceptions complete each other. 
 From the one we gain the ideas of solidity, of 
 permanence, of outward ordering in the Christian 
 Society: from the other the ideas of movement, 
 of adaptation, of inward quickening. Each is 
 imperfect without the other. And so in Scripture 
 the two are combined. The spiritual Temple is 
 built of living stones: the spiritual Body is 
 framed so as to become a holy sanctuary. The 
 past, with all its treasures, is seen to minister to 
 the present. The present is the living sum of the 
 past. Of that past we are all members : in that 
 present we are all fellow-workers: members one 
 of another. 
 
 Our gathering here to-day brings the idea 
 before us in an impressive form. We can at once 
 recognise, when an occasion for reflection is given 
 to us, that a great parish is something more than 
 a portion of land marked off by accidental circum- 
 stances, in which men are associated together for 
 the pursuit of material advantages. A great 
 parish has a life in which every parishioner 
 shares, a life to which every parishioner con- 
 
326 Membership follows 
 
 tributes for good or for evil, a life which is more 
 than transitory possessions, a life which by its 
 unseen and subtle influences goes far to mould 
 the character of those through whom it is mani- 
 fested from generation to generation, a life which 
 spreads and takes new forms ; for a great parish 
 is a fruitful mother, which rejoices in her children, 
 and welcomes in them fresh channels through 
 which the old spirit shall gain new victories of 
 faithful love. 
 
 It is well then for us to reflect this morning 
 for a little space on this social membership, 
 happily brought before us by the presence of the 
 representatives of ten daughter parishes, who 
 return to-day to their old home, thinking of 
 debts and tributes of affection, rejoicing in great 
 memories which are a common heritage, offering 
 thanksgivings which are a source of new strength, 
 as knowing that this larger fellowship in manifold 
 service finds its foundation in Christ, in Whom it 
 will hereafter find its consummation : as knowing 
 that our membership one of another is a necessity, 
 and that even now the acknowledgment of our 
 membership is effective for our strengthening, for 
 our solace, for our inspiration, in the actual work 
 of our fragmentary and chequered lives. 
 
 1. We are member's one of another. This is, I 
 say, a necessity of our existence. The fact of our 
 
from dependence. 327 
 
 membership one of another is brought home to us 
 by the unquestionable fact of our dependence one 
 on another. We are, in the whole range of our 
 lives, dependent alike upon those who have gone 
 before us and upon those who are for the time 
 with us. What have we, we ask in moments 
 of calm self-questioning, which we have not 
 received ? We are debtors to unnumbered gene- 
 rations for the words in which we are enabled 
 to enjoy the intercourse of mind with mind: 
 debtors for the splendid heritage of great thoughts 
 and great deeds which set before us the possi- 
 bilities of the life which has been entrusted 
 to our stewardship: debtors for that ordered 
 economy of the state which supplies the happy 
 conditions of our social labour: debtors for the 
 generous traditions which connect great obliga- 
 tions with great endowments of place or wealth 
 or power. And when we look back on our own 
 experience we see what we owe, beyond all return, 
 to the tender and unceasing ministries of home 
 and friends in the slow unfolding of character and 
 purpose from year to year. If we take away in 
 imagination from what we are now all that we 
 can refer directly to the action of those among 
 whom we have grown, we shall be startled by the 
 meagre remnant which is left. We have lived, 
 and we must ever live, through others. And 
 
328 The parts instinct with personal life. 
 
 conversely, whether consciously or unconsciously, 
 we must live for them. It is true, true beyond 
 our utmost power of apprehending the truth, true 
 beyond the limits within which our thoughts are 
 confined, that none of us liveth to himself and none 
 dieth to himself 
 
 This fact of our dependence upon that which is 
 without us — upon our human environment no less 
 than upon our physical environment — can be and 
 has been used to depress our sense of responsible 
 effort. The Gospel gives to it a truer interpreta- 
 tion and uses it to enforce our mutual duties. 
 We are not, as the truth is revealed in Christ, 
 isolated products of countless forces, but parts in 
 a whole, conscious of our connexion. In the 
 light of Christ's work physical necessity becomes, 
 as it were, the school of spiritual freedom. For 
 the Christian each relation in the family, in the 
 parish, in the state, in the race, is found to be an 
 opportunity of fellowship. At every point in the 
 great chain of action the unity of life is disclosed, 
 and the gift of life is realised. Both truths are 
 momentous. There is a difference which is 
 infinite between a sum of scattered units and a 
 living body. And there is hardly less difference 
 between a body of which the several elements 
 simply act and re-act upon one another in accord- 
 ance with the laws of matter, and a body in which 
 
Membership passes into fellowship. 329 
 
 every fragment fulfils its office as a duty and 
 receives service with thanksgiving. Such a body, 
 instinct with a personal life in every part, is the 
 one body of Christ even now, in spite of our 
 blindnesses and imperfections, the body of Christ 
 in which we are members one of another. 
 
 2. We are members one of another. This, I 
 repeat, is a necessity ; and as we dwell upon the 
 thought we see how the Christian faith converts 
 dependence into fellowship ; and the sense of this 
 fellowship is, as I said, for our strengthening. 
 It is, as we recognise it, an acknowledgment of 
 unseen forces in which we live and move. The 
 embracing energy of the larger life is not of our 
 creation. It does not belong to us : we belong to 
 it, as organs through which it is made known. 
 This conviction is one which we need to realise 
 practically for the maintenance of our widest 
 hopes. Our circumstances tempt us to think each 
 of ourselves, of our weaknesses and incapacities, 
 of the narrow range of our influence, and of the 
 brief duration of our activity. In such a prospect 
 our hearts must sink within us. Then perhaps by 
 God's grace we are taken out of ourselves, and 
 beyond ourselves, and we are strong again. We 
 feel that the life of the whole is far more than we 
 can measure in the several parts. We feel that 
 we live just so far as we share in this greater life, 
 
330 The sense of membership a solace 
 
 and open the way for its influence and provide for 
 its wider extension. We feel with the joy of 
 perfect confidence that God is working not 
 through us only, but through all for the ac- 
 complishment of His will : that He is working, 
 and that in His wise love He takes just what each 
 servant can offer as his true service : that He 
 is working, and that in His loving wisdom He 
 combines every variety of service for one end 
 which cannot fail. Through this bracing discipline 
 we learn to enter into the joy of the herald of 
 Christ, who gladly accepted eclipse when his 
 preparatory work was done : learn to rejoice that 
 there are many who accomplish for grateful 
 multitudes what we also could have accomplished 
 if the opportunity had been given to us : learn to 
 offer natural thanksgivings for successes won in 
 the field where our best labours seem to have had 
 no return : learn to acknowledge spontaneously 
 that whenever and however the will of our 
 Father is accomplished we possess the object of 
 our own desires, for all that is done for Him 
 becomes part of our inheritance as sons. 
 
 3. So it comes to pass that our membership 
 one of another — our membership in Christ — which 
 is a source of strength, becomes to us also an 
 adequate solace in view of the contrasts, the 
 failures, the disappointments, by which we are 
 
in view of tlie contrasts of life. 331 
 
 beset within and without. There is, to our eyes, 
 such an immeasurable difference between the 
 opportunities of men : such startling extremes of 
 temptation and sheltering care: such strange 
 repugnances of taste and character ; that our very 
 blessings would be to us an overwhelming burden 
 unless we could feel that we are able to use them 
 as a common trust, even for the most desolate 
 and wayward, and to work by the sympathy of 
 spiritual force for and with those from whom we 
 are separated by every circumstance of earth. 
 We cannot be happy alone ; and Christian 
 fellowship transcends all national, all transitory 
 barriers. When we are conscious that we are 
 vfiemhers one of another, the petty rivalries and 
 heart-burnings, which mar the gladness of life even 
 more than its great sorrows, are done away. 
 Even the greatest sorrows of " this unintelligible 
 world " are not beyond alleviation through a 
 silent communion of souls. Nothing, I think, is 
 more cheering than to know when we face a 
 crowd, unloving and unlovely, as we judge, which 
 would regard our words and acts with suspicion, 
 that we can still give them of the wealth of our 
 own life in the swift prayer, in the thought of 
 Christ's love turned to them, in the compassion 
 which is not simply a feeling for them but a 
 feeling luith them. 
 
332 The sense of membership 
 
 At the same time, in the strength of the larger 
 life, we are encouraged to bear without distrust 
 the hindrances and the delays which impede the 
 outward course of the Faith. *'It does move," 
 in spite of every plausible argument for its station- 
 ariness. The life in which we are united is divine ; 
 and if God is pleased to wait for its maturity we 
 can wait too. Let us rate as highly as we may 
 the faults, the errors, the misunderstandings, of 
 those who bear Christ's Name : let us acknowledge 
 with the bitterest grief how constantly we forget or 
 disguise the bond by which we are held together : 
 let us allow with shame that after eighteen cen- 
 turies the kingdoms of the world have not yet 
 become the kingdom of GoD : still, in our humi- 
 liation and in our confessions, let us also remember 
 that the fact of the Incarnation, in all its amplitude 
 and all its virtue, is beyond and above the imper- 
 fection, the self-will, the dulness of men. The 
 Word became flesh : that revelation of life touches 
 every man in virtue of his nature. That founda- 
 tion of endless hope stands fast, and we can stay 
 our souls upon it. 
 
 4. We are members one of another. The life 
 is more than the support of life. The life is more 
 than its most conspicuous organ. Life in Christ, 
 wherever it is, is essentially the same; and the 
 sense of our membership one of another in this 
 
a spring of strength. 333 
 
 divine life, which brings strength and solace to all 
 who enjoy it, helps us also in the fulfilment of our 
 several tasks. It consecrates the various duties 
 of the family, of husband and wife, of parent and 
 child, of brothers and sisters, which give to 
 modern life a tenderness and wealth of affection 
 unknown in the ancient nations. It shews the 
 surpassing dignity of the commonest things, and 
 their inherent power to give the human heart its 
 noblest satisfaction. It enables us to meet that 
 which is one of our most pressing dangers — the 
 silent presence, perhaps the silent increase, among 
 us of a class which acknowledges no responsibility, 
 no ideal, no spiritual force. It claims that we 
 should make known what we have found to be the 
 secret of the joy of our Lord, self-surrendering 
 devotion to the Father's will, and appeal to that 
 which is highest in others, which is the highest in 
 ourselves. It constrains us to labour unweariedly, 
 that in the simplest and purest form the fulness 
 of life shall be within the reach of everyone — the 
 fulness of life, where the feeling of personal 
 pleasure is hallowed and blessed by the conscious- 
 ness of personal service. 
 
 And such a result is not beyond reasonable 
 hope. It depends essentially on a power of 
 divine vision. In the fellowship of Christ things 
 great and small, as we count them, are alike lost 
 
334 The intuitions of the soul 
 
 in the infinite. The same thought which bears 
 us to the sublimest heights of speculative faith 
 enters into the humblest duties of our daily 
 intercourse, and gives to them of its glory. 
 
 We are members one of another. Our union is 
 more than participation in a common life. Other 
 lives enter into our life ; and our life enters into 
 the life of others. " We live," it has been well 
 said, " because others are vigorous " ; others live 
 because we shew the truth. Work for one is 
 work for the body. Work for another is work for 
 self We are strengthened by every soul which 
 is redeemed ; and, on the other hand, we suffer 
 loss when we withhold the least service; when 
 we check the word of sympathy; when we 
 dissemble our highest aim through false shame. 
 There can then be no discharge from our obli- 
 gation. We are all debtors to all with a debt 
 which is seen to grow in payment; and still 
 default would not be possible if each one of us 
 would openly acknowledge the loftiest aspirations 
 which God gives him, and claim the help of 
 others to realise them ; if, when our own zeal 
 grows faint, we could at once draw energy from 
 the sight of others' needs; if, when we shrink 
 from effort through a sense of our own feebleness, 
 we could remember, with a faith which reveals us 
 
as valid as the reports of the senses. 335 
 
 to be heirs of all that is good in the world and 
 fellow-workers with the noblest, that we are 
 indeed members one of another. 
 
 It will, perhaps, be said that in dwelling on 
 the fact of this membership in Christ, as the 
 stay, the joy, the law of life, I am pointing to an 
 imaginary and impossible ideal : that I am substi- 
 tuting mystical fancies for the stern realities of ex- 
 istence : transient emotions for effective motives : 
 the desires of the heart for the provisions of 
 nature. But such fancies, such emotions, such 
 desires, are not to be disposed of by a passing 
 contrast. If the ideal towards which we have 
 looked brings satisfaction to anxious and in- 
 evitable questionings : if it consoles actual sad- 
 nesses : if it stirs and feeds elevating thoughts : 
 if it fulfils the noblest expectations which poets 
 and philosophers have shaped of the possibilities 
 of life : if it supplies a new and sovereign impulse 
 for action : if it ennobles ordinary duties by the 
 light of a being which transcends physical ex- 
 perience : I venture to maintain that it brings its 
 own attestation to all who believe in the general 
 truth of things, for no valid reason can be given 
 why we should trust the reports of our senses as 
 to the outward world and refuse to trust the 
 intuitions of the soul on the spiritual order. 
 Thus regarded the human longings with which 
 
336 Our membership one in another 
 
 the ideal corresponds become a prophecy of 
 the Gospel. The ideal, which was imaginary and 
 impossible before the Word became flesh, has been 
 brought very near to ns in the Son of Man. In 
 Him the fact is given to which the ideal pointed, 
 and the power is given which the heart craved. 
 In Him we have the revelation of life, keen and 
 piercing, for the determination of our personal 
 responsibility, infinite in its eternal scope, in- 
 vigorating in the vision opened to each believer 
 of an inexhaustible spring of sympathy. In Him 
 we have also the inspiration of life, through the 
 Holy Spirit sent in His Name, Who shews us 
 ever more and more of His righteousness and 
 love and patience out of the circumstances of the 
 passing years, and brings with each fresh trial the 
 promise of a fuller rest. We turn away from 
 Christ, and the soul is disquieted by a generous 
 discontent, haunted by splendid hopes which it 
 cannot disown, which it cannot abandon, which it 
 cannot realise. We turn to Him, and labour, 
 sorrow, death itself, find their place in the accom- 
 plishment of a divine counsel, in the sight of 
 which resignation is changed into the joy of 
 willing service. 
 
 Brethren, if you have followed the line of 
 thought which I have suggested, you will have 
 
rests in membership in Christ 337 
 
 anticipated the practical conclusion to which it 
 leads. Our membership one of another finds its 
 stay and its blessing in our membership in Christ. 
 He Who has revealed to man the divine end of 
 his being can alone enable him to reach it. It 
 has been said that "religion is at the cradle of 
 every nation and philosophy at the grave." If 
 we transpose the saying into another shape, it 
 conveys a memorable warning : " When religion 
 loses its power on a nation, the nation is ready to 
 die." It must be so. Secular forces are unable 
 to evoke or sustain that self-devotion, the child 
 at once and the parent of reverence, by which 
 nations live. The faith in a divine Fatherhood is 
 the necessary foundation of faith in a divine 
 brotherhood; and without faith in brotherhood 
 there is no lasting hope for men. Art and 
 literature could not save Greece : wealth and 
 enterprise could not save Carthage : wise laws 
 and strong legions could not save Rome. When 
 the Lord said to His disciples, " Ye are the salt 
 of the earth," He declared the secret of social 
 permanence. Faith in GoD, in God made known 
 in Christ under the conditions of earth, is alone 
 able to keep in check the germs of corruption 
 which lie deep in the children of men. But 
 that is able. The soul in fellowship with Him 
 becomes a source of saving energy which gathers 
 w. 22 
 
338 Tlie fulness of on?- Faith 
 
 intensity as it spreads. It uses, in the apostolic 
 phrase, the powers of the luorld to come. It brings 
 a purifying light upon the dark places of the 
 world. It has learned the lesson of patience. It 
 knows the might of prayer. It has used the 
 message of redemption. "When anyone says to 
 me," wrote one who drew his strength from the 
 Creed which he did not confess, " ' Behold a good 
 " man,' I ask, ' How many souls has he saved ? ' 
 " When anyone says to me, ' Behold a religious 
 " people,' I enquire what it has done and suffered 
 " to bring humanity to its belief" If, then, we love 
 our country, and believe that she has a divine 
 mission for the nations : if we acknowledge with 
 devout gratitude that God has still preserved to 
 us a national Church, the heir of all that is best 
 and noblest in our past history, and fitted to be 
 the Catholic interpreter of the present: if we 
 have experienced, however feebly, that there is a 
 heavenly grace which meets and sustains and 
 fulfils our highest desires : may we, in the widest 
 intercourse of life, accept the charge, the heavy 
 charge, which is laid upon us, and confess our 
 faith in Christ, Born, Crucified, Ascended: may 
 we strive to embody it as having for its scope all 
 that is on earth, and for its stay our Father in 
 heaven : may we shew that we hold it at all cost 
 in deed and in truth, as the master-test of our 
 
claims confession. 339 
 
 opinions, the standard of our aims, the inspiration 
 of our labours, the remedy for the greatest sorrows 
 of the world, the fulfilment of man's greatest 
 hopes, the final, the universal revelation of life. 
 
 We, luho are many, are one body in Christ, and 
 severally members one of another. That is the 
 thought which this Festival of Union brings 
 before us to-day with most impressive power. 
 May the thought be to all, by God's blessing, a 
 spring of strength and joy and peace in the days 
 to come. 
 
 22—2 
 
LOVE OF THE BRETHREN. 
 
 H 4)iA<\AeA(t)iA MGNeTca. 
 
 Hebr. XIII. 1. 
 
 On two recent occasions I have spoken of the 
 vital relation in which Christians necessarily stand 
 to one another and of the master motive by which 
 their whole life must be inspired. Three weeks 
 ago at Houghton I endeavoured to shew that 
 through our fellowship in Christ we are one body, 
 and severally members one of another : a fortnight 
 ago at Sunderland, I sought to bring out that in 
 things both great and small, in facing the sorrows 
 of the world and in fulfilling our individual duties, 
 the love of Christ constraineth us, with a revelation 
 of love reaching through all creation, and a force 
 made effective in our weakness. 
 
 This afternoon I wish to present the truth 
 which supports these two thoughts under another 
 aspect. We are members of one body : we are 
 
Use of the title ' brethren! 341 
 
 quickened by one spirit: we live so far as we 
 really live because Christ lives in us ; but none 
 the less we are distinct each in our personality. 
 Christ has taken to Himself in its completeness 
 the nature which we severally share : we are all 
 " one man " in Him, but none the less He is not 
 ashamed to call us brethren, Himself the firstborn 
 among many sons. We are, therefore, standing 
 each apart, in the face of the world and in the 
 face of God, brethren of Christ, and, if brethren 
 of Christ, then brethren one of another. 
 
 This title " brethren," as the characteristic 
 name of Christians, has grown so familiar, that 
 we forget that it was a gift of the Gospel to 
 the world. It was indeed the gift of the Risen 
 Lord. He Himself bestowed it upon His infant 
 Church when He said to Mary Magdalene, Go 
 unto My brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto 
 My Father and your Father, and My God and 
 your God. 
 
 And the gift was at once welcomed. We find 
 the title adopted in the earliest record of the 
 corporate life of the Church. In the first chapter 
 of the Acts we read that St Peter stood up in the 
 midst of the brethren when he counselled them to 
 complete the number of the twelve, by electing 
 one of their number into the place of Judas. 
 Thenceforward "brethren" has continued to be, as 
 
342 Brethren the name of fellow-Christians. 
 
 I have said, the characteristic title of Christians, 
 even though its peculiar force has been left out 
 of sight. 
 
 For Christians, we need to remind ourselves, 
 as Christians, are brethren. This close fellowship 
 belongs to them not as men, but as believers. 
 Baptized into Christ, they have in common as 
 "members of Christ, the children of God, and 
 heirs of the kingdom of heaven," all that goes to 
 form the most perfect brotherhood. The one 
 Faith is the source, the sanction, the support of 
 their connexion. The acknowledgment of this 
 brotherhood, indeed, more enduring, more sove- 
 reign than the brotherhood of blood, comes to us 
 in virtue of the confession of the fact of the In- 
 carnation. The feeling by which the Christian 
 society is held together, the feeling by which all 
 who are united in it are inspired, is the love 
 of the brethren; and this relationship which is 
 realised by Christians is potentially, in virtue of 
 the Incarnation, the inheritance of men. 
 
 The conception of such a brotherhood of men, 
 united one with another and with God by love, 
 was altogether new when it was proclaimed to 
 the world ; and we have not mastered it yet. It 
 is indeed hard to keep the thought before us, and 
 to apply it in the ordinary business of the passing 
 days. But fellowship inspired by love is God's 
 
Love of the hrethren taught of God. 343 
 
 will for us : it is God's gift to us. It can, then, 
 hardly fail to be helpful to us on an occasion like 
 this to consider a little more in detail the " love 
 of the brethren " which we are charged to main- 
 tain. 
 
 The word which is rightly rendered " love of 
 the brethren" in the Revised Version, occurs 
 five times in the New Testament. If we take 
 these five passages just as they stand we shall 
 learn better than in any other way what is the 
 source, the scope, the importance of the feeling : 
 how it is a true test of the reality of our faith, 
 and the divine way to the largest offices of love. 
 
 1. The virtue occupies a conspicuous place 
 in the earliest letter of St Paul which has come 
 down to us, probably the earliest Christian docu- 
 ment. Concerning love of the hrethren, the apostle 
 writes to the Thessalonians, you have no need that 
 we write to you, for you yourselves are taught of 
 God to love one another. We may well wonder at 
 the words when we remember that St Paul had 
 instructed these new converts for not more than 
 three or four weeks, and still see that writing to 
 them a few months afterwards, he is assured not 
 only that they were familiar with this practical 
 consequence of the faith which they had lately 
 embraced, but that they had realised it in life. 
 " Love of the brethren " was for them found to be 
 
344 The feelings of hlood-relationship 
 
 one of the first lessons of the Creed, and it was a 
 divine lesson. Thus our wonder at their rapid 
 progress will cease when we notice the ground of 
 the apostle's confidence. God Himself had been 
 their teacher. GoD Himself had revealed in their 
 hearts the meaning of the Gospel. Love of the 
 brethren follows necessarily from the foundation 
 truth of Christianity, but God alone can bring 
 home the truth to the soul of the hearer. No 
 inan can say, St Paul writes elsewhere, Jesus is 
 Lord but in the Holy Spirit : no one, that is, can 
 say this not with the lips but with a life which 
 witnesses to the fact that the Lord became flesh. 
 This vital belief that Jesus, Son of Mary and Son 
 of God, is Lord, is for all who hold it a proof of 
 their Divine Sonship a declaration of brotherhood 
 with their fellow-believers. Everyone, St John 
 says, that believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is 
 begotten of God, and everyone that loveth Him that 
 begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him. 
 All believers know that they have one Father, if 
 their belief is real : they know, therefore, that 
 they are brethren. They need no other motive 
 for affection. They cannot but love one another. 
 2. Here, then, we learn the origin of " the 
 love of the brethren" among Christians in the 
 common feeling of sonship involved in the living 
 conviction that the Son of GoD has taken our 
 
transferred to the 'brethren' 345 
 
 nature to Himself. But how are we to apply the 
 feeling to conduct ? St Paul answers the question 
 in his injunctions to the Romans. "In love of 
 the brethren" he writes, " be tenderly affectioned one 
 to another." We must, that is, transfer all the 
 graces of the natural family to the household of 
 faith. No word could be more expressive than 
 that which is rendered "tenderly affectioned." 
 It includes the love of husband and wife, of parent 
 and child, of brother and sister, the love in a 
 word which hallows and ennobles the typical 
 relations of difference, of authority, of equality 
 which must exist among us. In whatever position 
 we may stand one to another in the circumstances 
 of earth, we have in the family an image of our 
 respective duties ; and the Faith takes that image 
 and fills it with a quickening force, able to bring 
 into a gracious harmony the various conditions of 
 men. Diversities are not removed, but ennobled 
 and hallowed ; and, my friends, if only we could 
 welcome this teaching for our own guidance, what 
 peace and joy and righteousness it would bring 
 into our daily dealing, what considerateness it 
 would give to power, what beauty to service ; 
 how it would banish every feeling of jealousy, and 
 lighten the burden of great possessions through a 
 sense of a fellowship of life. 
 
 It is said that when a king of Lydia asked 
 
346 Love of the h^ethren a support 
 
 one of the old sages of Greece " if he had wealth 
 enough," he replied, " Twice as much as I could 
 wish, for my brother is dead." If we extend the 
 spirit of the answer to the Christian brotherhood, 
 we can see how the first Christians refused to say 
 that anything they had was their own. We can 
 see how we must, if we are faithful, use all that 
 is committed to us as stewards for the common 
 good. 
 
 3. The maintenance of such a temper is not 
 easy. A thousand influences tend to separate 
 us : to obscure that which is deepest by superficial 
 veils : to turn our attention from the eternal to 
 the transitory. Therefore the writer of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, the most human, the most pa- 
 thetic of the books of the New Testament, says, 
 Let love of the brethren continue. Those whom he 
 addressed were called to make great sacrifices : to 
 surrender much that was most dear to them by 
 long use: to face heavy disappointments and 
 bitter reproaches. Old ties had to be broken. 
 In this season of unrest and trial, the close com- 
 munion of believers became more precious than 
 before. The Hebrews had once known what it 
 was: they were charged to preserve it. What- 
 ever might be lost by them through the dissolving 
 of former friendships could be found again in this 
 closer brotherhood, a love begun to last for ever. 
 
in times of trial. 347 
 
 Whatever might be lost through their exclusion 
 from a share in the time-hallowed ritual of the 
 Temple would be more than compensated by the 
 sense of the presence of their Lord in their humble 
 assemblies. There could be no isolation for those 
 who were united by a vital bond with men and 
 God : no dependence upon earthly accessories, 
 however majestic, for those who found God in 
 the simplest circumstances of life. Perhaps we 
 ourselves need this assurance still. It is of price- 
 less value to us, when many traditional forms of 
 belief are shaken, to be constrained to turn to 
 Christ Himself, and to recognise that He is with 
 us still, and to feel the proof of His Presence in 
 the fellowship which His Spirit quickens and 
 sustains. So it is that our very temptations and 
 sorrow^s place the apostolic command upon us 
 with more than its first authority : Let love of the 
 brethren continue. 
 
 4. This love, as we have seen, springs from 
 the acceptance of the Christian Faith. But ac- 
 ceptance must be of the life and not of the reason 
 only. The Truth must be embodied, and not 
 simply held or defended. Thus "love of the 
 brethren " becomes a test of the sincerity of our 
 Christian profession. So St Peter writes : Seeing 
 you have purified your souls in your obedience to 
 the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love 
 
348 Love of the brethren a test of our Faith, 
 
 one another from the heart fervently : having been 
 begotten again . . . through the word of GoD 
 which liveth and abideth. Obedience to the Gospel 
 must go before the fruits of the Gospel. By the 
 discipline of obedience the Lord Himself was 
 made perfect ; and there is no other way to that 
 love by which He said that His disciples should 
 be known. At the same time the range of obe- 
 dience is continually increased as we learn more 
 fully the meaning of our faith, and together with 
 the range of obedience, the range of love also. A 
 Christian cannot be occupied by his own things 
 alone. We wrong our Creed grievously when we 
 allow it to be thought that our efforts are concen- 
 trated on securing our own happiness. The one 
 way of growth is service. Our first privilege, the 
 first gift bestowed on us by God in Holy Baptism, 
 is that we are made " members " of a body. We 
 are, and this is the noblest opportunity of life, 
 " our brothers' " keepers. We rejoice in their joy 
 and are gladdened by their success. " Whenever 
 a godly man sees his Father's image," it has been 
 well said, "he is forced to love it." Wherever 
 the works of the Spirit are manifest, there is 
 boundless hope. 
 
 5. So far we have been led to consider the 
 action of the love of the brethren upon Christians 
 one with another, upon the brethren themselves. 
 
and the source of Love, 349 
 
 But it has a larger issue. In his second Epistle 
 St Peter thus marks the two last steps in the 
 development of the Christian character : In your 
 godliness — your godly reverence — supply love of 
 the brethren, and in your love of the brethren, love. 
 Love of the brethren makes us, through happy 
 experience, to rate at their true value all transitory 
 differences between man and man. It supplies 
 a solid foundation for " philanthropy," not as a 
 vague general feeling, but as a personal connexion 
 answering to the will of God. He who is not our 
 brother in the unity of the Body, is still our 
 neighbour. Our Christian Faith must affect our 
 view of the whole world and of all men. Love of 
 the brethren enlarges our vision. The command, 
 strange as it must seem at first sight when we 
 realise its extent, Honour all men can be met by 
 believers with an intelligent welcome. For the 
 most forlorn and wilful of men Christ died and 
 rose again. Love of the brethren, therefore, 
 carries us on to love, and at last when perfected, 
 shews us to be partakers of the Divine nature, for 
 God is love. 
 
 Brethren — let me use the word in its most 
 literal and impressive meaning — can you not see 
 in these five passages a vivid picture of the 
 Christian life, of its springs, of its support, of its 
 universal influence ? Each passage adds some- 
 
350 Love of the brethren not yet 
 
 thing to the others. Taken together they offer a 
 marvellous illustration of the hidden harmonies 
 of Scripture. They have no pre-arranged con- 
 nexion. They are not united by any common 
 purpose. Yet set without selection side by side 
 they form a complete whole. They are, if I may 
 use such a phrase, a lesson in inspiration. As we 
 reflect upon them quietly and patiently we shall 
 see that the family with its thoughtful services, 
 its natural sacrifices, its delicate tendernesses, is 
 the type of this Christian society: see that 
 wherever we are set we are enabled as Christians 
 to bring into our common duties the grace of 
 affection : see that in the strength of the Gospel 
 of the Word become flesh effective ministry is 
 made possible to all according to their several 
 endowments : see that the work of the Faith, the 
 work of our National Church, cannot be accom- 
 plished, till the universal obligation of service 
 springing out of " love of the brethren " is recog- 
 nised, embodied, openly shewn to the world by 
 those who hold it. The love of Christians is, 
 according to the Lord's own words, that which 
 must conquer the world. As it is, does it not 
 seem as if the world had conquered us ? and it is 
 in us the Faith must be judged. Ye ai^e our 
 letter ... St Paul said to the Corinthians . . . 
 known and read of all men. He anticipated the 
 
embodied among us. 351 
 
 modern epigram that "Christians are the only 
 Bible which men of the world read." 
 
 What, then, do those who look at us read 
 when they read our lives ? Is it that we grieve 
 over the faults of our " brethren as if they were 
 our own," as was said of those Corinthians a short 
 time afterwards ? Would their comment on our 
 conduct still be, " See how these Christians love 
 one another, and are ready to die for one an- 
 other " ? 
 
 Are Christians as Christians" constant in their 
 intercessions for one another : employers for em- 
 ployed, employed for employers — masters for 
 servants, servants for masters — brethren in all 
 conditions for brethren ? 
 
 Such questions must reveal us to ourselves, 
 and constrain us to ask, as those who are called 
 to be fellow-workers with GoD, whether we, you 
 and I, have pondered sufficiently the obligations, 
 the opportunities, the blessings, brought to us 
 by the " love of the brethren," whether the " love 
 of the brethren " is. as Christ would have it be, a 
 master principle of our lives. And as we reflect 
 on the grandeur of our inheritance in our nation 
 and in our Church : on the restless and not 
 ungenerous discontent and questioning by which 
 we are troubled: on the power of the Faith to 
 meet naturally in the ordinary ways of life every 
 
352 Its fulfilment to he sought. 
 
 want of man and men ; the prayer must rise in 
 our hearts, may Christian with Christian learn 
 more and more in daily intercourse the power 
 and the attractiveness of Christ present in the 
 least of His little ones : may " love of the bre- 
 thren" continue, nay, may it spread among us 
 with quickening force, that we may all feel the 
 invigorating energy of a fuller life. 
 
THE POWER OF MINISTRY. 
 
 My Sons, 
 
 During the last three days I have dwelt 
 on some aspects of the work of Christian Ministers 
 as Messengers, Watchmen, Stewards of God — of 
 the duties, the difficulties, the privileges of their 
 office, of the temper and strength in which it 
 must be fulfilled. Now I wish to gather up 
 much that has been said in one expressive trait 
 from the Gospel. This by God's blessing may 
 perhaps remain with you in unimpaired freshness 
 when the memory of the spoken words has faded 
 away. It is taken from a familiar narrative. 
 When the Lord had descended from the Mountain 
 of the Beatitudes a leper met Him. The sufferer 
 declared his case, confessed his faith, and simply 
 left himself to the Lord's mercy. The Lord 
 accepted the unuttered petition and then, we 
 read, He stretched forth His hand and touched him. 
 
 w. 2^ 
 
354 The ' touch ' a symbol of Christ's luork. 
 
 " He touched him" : this short phrase offers us 
 in a plain and vivid form the secret of the Lord's 
 earthly work, the secret of our own ministry. 
 The touch of the hand becomes for us the symbol 
 and sacrament of the touch of the soul : the 
 effectual sign of the power to conquer. 
 
 " He touched him " : the original word, as you 
 remember (r/yjraro, not eOiyev), expresses more 
 than a mere superficial contact. So it was that 
 Mary Magdalene sought to "touch" the Risen 
 Lord, clinging to His feet, that she might retain 
 the Saviour whom she had again found. 
 
 The act was in no way necessary. A word 
 spoken at a distance would have been sufficient 
 for the cure as on other occasions. The act was 
 even perilous. To touch the leper was to incur 
 ceremonial pollution. But here the Lord was 
 pleased to shew outwardly His penetrative sym- 
 pathy with those whom He relieved. We find 
 indeed in the records of the Gospel that this 
 touch of strength and tenderness was peculiarly 
 characteristic of His mind. He touched the fever- 
 stricken, the blind, the dumb, the wounded, the 
 dead. That touch was a force to purify, to re- 
 store, to strengthen, to raise, the chosen channel 
 of a spring of life. St Peter knew what it meant 
 when the Lord laid hold of him as he was sinking 
 in the storm. The apostles knew what it meant 
 
Redemptive power in sacrifice. 355 
 
 when they had fallen to the ground awe-stricken 
 by the glory of the Transfiguration. 
 
 The touch, we must remember, cost some- 
 thing. It brought, as I just said, pollution with it. 
 And by this the Lord revealed the method of His 
 working. He took our infirmities and bare our 
 sicknesses when He removed them by an authori- 
 tative voice. The sovereign King was also the suf- 
 fering servant, most gloriously King when He was 
 most tenderly servant. This law finds fulfilment 
 through all the circumstances of the Incarnation. 
 St Paul marks the sevenfold humiliation of the 
 Son of man, and then he adds, Wherefore also God 
 highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name 
 which is above every name; that in the name of 
 Jesus every knee should hoiu, of things in heaven 
 and things on earth and things under the eay^th, 
 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
 Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
 The reward answered to the sacrifice and grew 
 directly out of it. 
 
 And in this respect, and in this respect only, 
 the example of the Master is offered for the 
 imitation of the disciple. His experience em- 
 bodies a universal truth in redemptive service. 
 His mind must, therefore, through His gift, be 
 ours also. We can follow the pattern of His 
 humility. We can with trembling prayers wel- 
 
 23—2 
 
356 TJie touch of Christ 
 
 come suffering as fruitful. For us also the effect 
 of labour corresponds to the cost. The promise 
 stands written for our encouragement : In your 
 patience ye shall win your souls. Yes : we must 
 win ourselves, and, in one sense, ourselves first. 
 Such a victory cannot be without pain. Each 
 one of us has in some form or other to face the 
 same kind of trial as determined the course of 
 St Francis. Though you all, I hope, know the 
 story, I cannot refrain from quoting it once more. 
 The service gives it a fresh meaning. 
 
 Francis, it is said, already full of thoughts of 
 self-devotion, but as yet uncertain as to his 
 special duty, was riding near Assisi when he 
 suddenly came upon a leper. He was greatly 
 shocked at the sight ; but then, remembering 
 that he who would be Christ's soldier must first 
 conquer himself, he got down from his horse that 
 he might come near him. The leper stretched 
 out his hand for an alms. Francis gave him what 
 he asked and added a kiss to his gift. He then 
 remounted, and when he looked back all over the 
 open plain no leper could be discovered. He 
 had seen and touched the Lord. He had touched 
 the Lord and was himself touched by Him. 
 
 He stretched forth His hand and touched him. 
 The words, I have said, shew under a figure the 
 characteristics of Christ's ministry and of our 
 
luas symjMthetic. 357 
 
 own. Let me mark three characteristics only 
 out of many. This touch of Christ was sym- 
 pathetic, considerate, living. 
 
 1. He touched him. By this spontaneous 
 action He established a true fellowship with the 
 sufferer whom He purposed to relieve. He shewed 
 that He felt with him and not only felt for him. 
 He did not look at him from above, at a distance, 
 in condescension. He placed Himself on his level 
 that so He might more surely help him. Here 
 and in all His earthly work. He showed the truth 
 of Aristotle's noble words, in a sense beyond 
 Aristotle's imagining, "Every man in his wan- 
 derings is essentially akin to man and dear." 
 We all need to make the thought practically our 
 own. In the course of your service you will 
 constantly find much that is repulsive to you 
 physically and morally in those to whom you 
 draw near. You will find a natural shrinking 
 from your task. I will even say that you ought 
 to feel it. No familiarity with evil in any shape 
 ought to make it less loathsome. But what 
 then ? You can think of that touch of the leper. 
 You can set what you have in common with the 
 most degraded and forlorn in comparison with 
 that which separates you from Him : the eternal 
 with the temporal. Christ's love will support 
 yours. Here is your first lesson of Christ's touch. 
 
358 The touch of Christ 
 
 Your approach to men must be sympathetic. 
 You must look through all that which hides from 
 the unloving eye the true humanity on which 
 Christ's love rests. 
 
 2. He touched him. The touch — the whole 
 action — was considerate. The restoration was 
 complete when the purifying hand was laid upon 
 the leper. Yet the Lord would " fulfil all right- 
 eousness." It was His will that the familiar test 
 of the Law should be satisfied. He had regard 
 to the feelings of others, to the feelings of the 
 man himself who was healed ; He was careful lest 
 any scruple born of custom should be left un- 
 satisfied. Go thy way : shew thyself to the priest, 
 and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a 
 testimony unto them. No certainty of power ab- 
 solved from the observance of common require- 
 ments. 
 
 Here again you find a pattern for yourselves. 
 You must spare no pains to " enter into " — think 
 what the phrase means — the thoughts, the posi- 
 tion of those wdth whom you have to deal. It is 
 not enough that you should be assured beyond 
 all doubt of the truth and the efficacy of your 
 message. You must reflect how it will appear to 
 those who hear it. You must not only rigidly 
 confine yourselves to speaking what you know : 
 you must also patiently consider what impression 
 
ivas considerate. 359 
 
 yonr words will convey to others. Words have 
 not an absolute value. They do not mean the 
 same to all men. You must then not rest till 
 you ascertain what your words mean to those 
 whom you desire to teach. So you will give 
 reality to your knowledge both for others and for 
 yourselves, not setting your mind on liigh things 
 hut condescending to things that are loiuly. Your 
 ruling desire will not be that others should 
 speak as you speak, but that they should hold 
 the truth which you hold. Nothing is less 
 satisfying than a mechanical sameness: nothing 
 is richer than fellowship in differences of form. 
 
 This is the second lesson of Christ's touch. 
 Your efforts to correct and to instruct must be 
 guided by thoughtful tenderness. 
 
 3. Yet once again. He touched him. The 
 touch was the exertion of a stronger life. The 
 Lord, secure in His vital force, could not contract 
 any uncleanness. No power of evil found in Him 
 anything to which it could attach itself. He 
 destroyed by bearing that which He took. At 
 the same time He gave of Himself, of His larger, 
 fuller humanity, to him whom He relieved. So, 
 too, must it be with you. You also in your 
 intercourse with others must give of yourselves. 
 If it is your duty to face evil you must not shrink 
 from it. It will not harm you. That which is 
 
360 The touch of Christ gave of His life, 
 
 required is not judgment or pity, but active help. 
 And you cannot give more than you truly have 
 and are. 
 
 You cannot give more : nor again can you 
 rightly give less. Every advantage, every en- 
 dowment, every opportunity, is to be administered 
 as a trust. You with all your possessions are 
 instruments — glad and conscious instruments — 
 through whom God works when you offer your- 
 selves to Him. So far as you live in Him and 
 He in you. He will make your life effective for 
 others. Common experience bears witness to this 
 " magnetic influence," as we say, of life upon life. 
 Power goes forth from those in whom GoD dwells. 
 
 This is the third lesson of the Lord's touch. 
 You will do your work by giving of yourselves to 
 those whom you serve. 
 
 He stretched forth His hand and touched him. 
 We have seen in some degree how that which 
 this action expresses — this sympathetic, conside- 
 rate, living touch — symbolises the power of the 
 Christian ministry. Nothing can take the place 
 of the direct personal intercourse which it repre- 
 sents — our contact with Christ first, and then 
 through Him our contact Avith men — not organi- 
 sation, however complete, not preaching, however 
 persuasive, not public services, however con- 
 tinuous. 
 
We too must give ourselves. 361 
 
 Not organisation. The man, I repeat, is 
 finally his message. It has been said that " the 
 true Judge is as it were an embodiment of 
 Justice." In the same sense the true priest is an 
 embodiment of religion. We touch others at 
 every point by our life for good or for evil. 
 
 Not preaching. Preaching may become both 
 for speakers and hearers an intellectual pleasure 
 or excitement. Though I speak tuith the tongues 
 of men and of angels, but have not love, I am 
 become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, 
 "mere noise and fury signifying nothing." Nay 
 more than this, words not followed by deeds 
 discredit the Gospel. 
 
 Not even public services. You all know " the 
 Legend Beautiful." 
 
 "Hadst thou stayed I must have fled," 
 That was what the vision said. 
 
 " To leave our prayer when we are called to 
 do some act of charity for our neighbour/' said a 
 great teacher of the Renaissance, " is not really a 
 quitting of prayer, but leaving Christ for Christ." 
 "It is good for us" to be on the Mount, but 
 only on the condition that when we have 
 ' looked upon the glory ' we descend to take our 
 part in the conflicts and sorrows of common life. 
 The Spirit works through services, but we are 
 charged to apply them. That you may do so. 
 
362 A fruitful ministry rests on love. 
 
 study your people as indeed part of yourselves. 
 In this way you will, as I have said before, learn 
 as you try to teach. It is not power or know- 
 ledge which will bring a fruitful ministry — these 
 may exist in the worst men — but love. Strenuous 
 work calls out respect and our people honour us. 
 Ability compels obedience and our people follow 
 us. Wisdom inspires confidence and our people 
 trust us. But love kindles love which becomes a 
 spring of love, and our people glorify our Father 
 which is in heaven. Even in its external and 
 partial embodiments love has a winning grace as 
 chivalrous courtesy and spontaneous generosity. 
 In its highest form it rests on a Christian basis. 
 
 The love of the brethren — the love which 
 comes from fellowship in the family of GoD, 
 created and supported by one faith and one hope 
 — is the only adequate foundation of love, which 
 sees in all men those for whom Christ died. 
 
 The fruit of love's work will not indeed come 
 at once, but it will come. In your disappoint- 
 ments and delays let your thoughts turn to Him 
 who said, /, if I he lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto myself If Christ waits cannot 
 we wait also ? 
 
 Meanwhile we are not left without our reward. 
 If perfect love casteth out fear, love as it grows is 
 a solace of sorrows, and a defence against temp- 
 
The lessons of our Chapel. 3G8 
 
 tation, even as it springs out of the effort to 
 touch — to heal, that is, and to guard. 
 
 Such thoughts of the source and power of 
 ministering love, the soul of our ministry, are 
 natural everywhere ; but in this Chapel they are 
 forced upon us by signs and by memories. Love 
 speaks to us from the fabric : love speaks to us 
 from its associations. Take one example onl}^ 
 We lift up our eyes and see the Church endowed 
 with its Divine life by the gift of Pentecost. 
 Directly below the Church, under the familiar 
 emblem, offers her blood for the support of her 
 offspring. The gift of God makes man's offering 
 possible, and the blessedness of man is to use for 
 others the life which he has received. 
 
 He stretched out His hand and touched him. 
 Christ touches still with a touch to cleanse, to 
 invigorate, to enlighten, to bless, to quicken. 
 What His minister does in His Name, He Him- 
 self does. He touches, that we in our turn 
 through Him may touch others. Take the words 
 then, my sons, with all their lessons of love — love 
 shewn, love welcomed, love communicated — as a 
 watchword for your work : take them as you bear 
 your message to alien races in distant lands : take 
 them as you bear your message to the forlorn and 
 sin-stained among our own countrymen : take 
 
864 The laying on of hands hinds togethe?^ 
 
 them to remind you of what you have received 
 and what you owe. 
 
 Take them with the peculiar memories of this 
 most solemn day. You are waitiDg to receive a 
 world-wide commission which you will fulfil, some 
 at home and some abroad. Thus the very cir- 
 cumstances of the work to which you look forward 
 become to you a parable of the Communion of 
 Saints. One " touch " will shortly bind you to- 
 gether in an irrevocable fellowship. Those who 
 go from among us will be with us still. They 
 will not cease to be of our body if they are en- 
 gaged on Foreign Service. Nay rather, the 
 soldier on Foreign Service learns and teaches 
 something more than the soldier at home of the 
 greatness and nobility, of the hopes and op- 
 portunities of the cause to which he has offered his 
 life, and kindles in his comrades, through natural 
 sympathy, the enthusiasm of devotion. Durham 
 owes more than we can calculate to Durham 
 clergy in Central Africa, in India, in Australia, 
 who are with us still. God grant that their 
 numbers may be multiplied tenfold, and that every 
 land may know their labours. So through mani- 
 fold ministries, and unceasing spiritual intercourse, 
 may we and they gain the inspiration of a larger 
 unity and share the joys of fresh victories. Our 
 
in distant services. 365 
 
 end is the coming of God's kingdom, our con- 
 fidence is the promise of God's presence. And 
 whatever may be the work which He has afore 
 prepared for each one of you, may you welcome it 
 with glad thankfulness ; and if your hearts fail, 
 may you feel, as the prophet felt in old time, 
 that the hand of the Lord is strong upon you. 
 
CONSIDER THE LILIES. 
 
 SEDBERGH. 13th Sunday after Trinity, 1896. 
 
KATANOHCATe TA KpiNA. 
 
 S. Luke, xii. 27. 
 
 KATAMA9eTe TA KpiNA TOY AfPOY- 
 
 S. Matt. vi. 28. 
 
CONSIDER THE LILIES. 
 
 A Flower Festival suggests to our minds 
 trains of thought by which we are not often 
 visited. It brings the commonest gifts of Nature 
 into close connexion with our Faith, and reminds 
 us of Divine teachings everywhere about our 
 paths which we fail too often to acknowledge 
 and to welcome. For Nature, though it has been 
 marred by man's lawless self-assertion, has a 
 message to the soul. We may rightly suppose 
 that if the Fall had not interrupted the course 
 of our growth before GoD we should have been 
 enabled to read little by little His purposes of 
 wisdom and love in the works of His hands and to 
 grow into His likeness through faithful obedience 
 under the transforming influence of His recognised 
 Presence. But an enemy has found entrance into 
 the world. Waste and ruin have a place there. 
 Its glories are clouded and disturbed. Yet the 
 w. 24 
 
370 The interpretation of Nature 
 
 human heart has at all times felt something of 
 their splendour and felt that this is of GoD. The 
 familiar language of the Psalter and the Benedicite 
 claims for us fellowship with earth and all the 
 creatures of earth in our habitual worship. We 
 say with more or less conscious intelligence month 
 after month, year after year, Praise the Lord upon 
 earth... mountains and all hills, fruitf id tr^ees and 
 all cedars. all ye works of the Lord, bless ye 
 the Lord: praise Him, and magnify Him for ever. 
 And these are not idle phrases. The fact that 
 The Word became flesh has filled them with a sacred 
 and abiding power : the Son of God by His Birth 
 and Life, by His Passion and Resurrection, has 
 hallowed afresh the scene and the conditions of 
 our life. He has given, if I may so speak, a 
 sacramental value to the commonest things. He 
 has Himself encouraged us to see in sunshine and 
 rain, in the flowers of the field and the birds of 
 the air, signs of the will and power of our Father 
 in heaven, parables of life and action. But the 
 interpretation of Nature is only to be gained by 
 effort. To the careless and the unloving it will 
 be undiscoverable. He bids us therefore ^Consider 
 the lilies.' It is not enough to cast on them — and 
 they may be taken as representatives of all natural 
 objects — a hasty glance as we pass by. We must 
 fix our mind upon them, and question them and 
 
to he gained by effoi^t. 371 
 
 gain something at least of their secret. The 
 original word for ' consider ' is expressive both in 
 itself and from the connexions in which it is used 
 in the New Testament. It describes the intent 
 and thorough observation of one who knows that 
 there is something before him which it concerns 
 him to understand. It is the word which is used 
 of Moses when he drew near to examine the burning 
 bush: of the disciple who fixes his attention upon 
 his ascended Lord : of the brother who reflects 
 how he can help brothers in the Christian battle. 
 Yet the impression which is received may be 
 short-lived, and therefore in the parallel passage of 
 St Matthew the original word is different, though 
 our English rendering is the same. There the 
 Lord says literally : Learn the lesson of the lilies: 
 read their meaning with diligent care and make 
 it your own with resolute purpose. 
 
 Consider the lilies: Learn the lesson of the 
 lilies. Study, that is, diligently what Nature 
 teaches in all that comes before you and take 
 the teaching into life. For many obedience to 
 the command is impossible. For many 'barrica- 
 doed evermore within the walls of cities,' no 
 green meadows, or golden corn-lands, or flower- 
 bordered lanes, or fern-wreathed hill-sides are 
 accessible. They have indeed great problems of 
 life pressed upon them in the din and tumult of 
 
 24—2 
 
372 We must look thoughtfully 
 
 street and mart. Of these however we do not speak 
 now. But yoii, my friends, have about you all 
 the varied wealth of the country, and GoD bids 
 you consider it, learn its lesson. To do so requires, 
 as I said, a continuous effort. You will be learners 
 to your lives' end under this discipline of loving 
 watchfulness. The reward for a lesson mastered 
 will be to the true scholar a new lesson ; the reward 
 of a precept, as it was said in old times, is a 
 precept. A duty fulfilled opens the way to a new 
 duty. ' Grace for grace ' is the beneficent law of 
 the Divine school in which we are all scholars. 
 To him that has used his talent well more is 
 given. 
 
 How then can we to whom the opportunity is 
 offered fulfil the Lord's wprds ? How can we 
 make our own the open secrets of Nature? 
 
 I will mention four rules out of many for our 
 guidance. We can reach the great end by looking 
 thoughtfully at common things: by regarding them 
 reverently : by seeing through them the unseen : 
 b}^ welcoming, when we have done what we can 
 do, unsolved riddles. 
 
 1. We must, I say, look thoughtfully at 
 common things. As we are ourselves so will be 
 the vision which we gain. We carry ourselves, 
 our spirit, our temper, our powers, wherever we 
 go. We can see no more than we have the will 
 
at common things. 373 
 
 and the faculty for seeing. Of one man it is 
 
 true : 
 
 The primrose by the river's brim 
 A yellow primrose is for him, 
 And it is nothing more. 
 
 To another, touched by spiritual sympathy, 
 
 the meanest flower that blows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 
 
 But within certain limits it rests with us to 
 which class we shall belong. As our choice is 
 made so will our life be. He who looks for much 
 humbly and patiently finds much. He who gives 
 no heed to what falls in his way is left poor by his 
 pride. When Coleridge said 
 
 Lady, we receive but what we give, 
 
 And in our life alone does Nature live : 
 
 Om-s is her wedding garment, ours her shroud, 
 
 he expressed perfectly the condition of the inter- 
 pretation of Nature. In herself indeed Nature is 
 independent of us. We do not create what she 
 bestows, but none the less there must be a vital 
 correspondence between ourselves and that which 
 we observe if her gift is to be effective. It is 
 universally true that there can be no understand- 
 ing without love. 
 
 Nature, I say, in herself is independent of us. 
 And here we are met by a mystery. Some one 
 
374 Reverence a condition 
 
 perhaps may ask what shall we say then of the 
 innumerable marvels of beauty which in past 
 ages have passed away unseen by human eye, of 
 the innumerable marvels of beauty which could not 
 have been seen by human eye till our own time ? 
 Are these all lost, wasted ? Nay, rather, does 
 not the fact suggest to us that other beings share 
 our inheritance, and that we are surrounded by 
 unknown hosts of spectators to whom the treasu- 
 ries of God are open ? The thoughtful look opens 
 to our vision undreamt-of ministers of GoD. 
 
 2. We go on then to the next point. After 
 we have seen all that we can in flower, or lake, 
 or mountain, or star, with what feeling does 
 the object touch us? The answer ought not to 
 be doubtful. Thoughtful looking, if it has its true 
 result, passes into reverent regard. When we 
 replied each one of us to the question, * What 
 dost thou chiefly learn in the Articles of thy 
 Belief?' we said as children, and the childly 
 mind befits us best to the end of our days, 'First 
 I learn to believe in God the Father, Who hath 
 made me and all the world.' ' Me and all the 
 world': it is a phrase of wonderful significance. 
 Do we ponder it in these later years ? ponder it 
 still with the childly mind? 'Me and all the 
 world.' Do we indeed carry this belief spon- 
 taneously into all we do and think ? Do we for 
 
of reading the lessons of Nature. 375 
 
 instance if we come upon some wonderful bloom 
 in a solitary place, say at once in our hearts, 
 touched with a fresh sense of God's amazing 
 providence and far-reaching care, ' He Who made 
 me made this also ?' Do we bear ourselves in the 
 face of things as those who behold and use and con- 
 sume what God has made, truly made, through 
 whatever unimaginable cycles of change they have 
 reached their present form? Do we really hold 
 that all the objects which fill the earth and sea 
 and sky are as truly God's workmanship as our 
 own bodies ? Dare we appeal to the witness 
 borne in our actions ? It does not seem possible 
 that we should without one moment's thought 
 defile the air and desolate the earth in the 
 premature pursuit of gain if we really believed 
 our own confession. For my own part I cannot 
 suppose that it is God's will that any treasure 
 which He has laid up for our possession should be 
 procured at such a cost. Reverence and patience 
 would find some better way of securing it in due 
 time ; and even now there are cases when the 
 discovery comes, but comes too late to heal the 
 ruin which has been already wrought. 
 
 The flower torn up and thrown upon the 
 ground, the sea-bird shot upon the wing in 
 the wantonness of skill, the dog tortured in vain 
 curiosity show the same temper. And such actions, 
 
376 Trreverence destroys our joy 
 
 trivial as they may seem, profoundly affect the 
 character of the doers. When we violate the 
 reverence due to God's creatures v^e grow in- 
 sensible to the joy which they can bring. We 
 spoil and waste our heritage. On the other hand 
 the spirit of devotion is strengthened by habitual 
 tenderness. There are many among us, I trust, 
 who have felt something of the truth expressed 
 in the familiar words, 
 
 He prcayeth best who loveth best 
 All tilings both great and small ; 
 
 For the dear God who loveth us, 
 He made and loveth all. 
 
 We lose, I have said, by irreverence the joy 
 which the least work of God can bring to the 
 beholder : we lose also the capacity for interpret- 
 ing it. The works of our earthly parents tell us 
 something of themselves, of their character, their 
 power, their purpose. Much more surely the 
 works of our Father in heaven witness to His 
 wisdom and love. But their testimony is only 
 intelligible to the opened eye and ear. Many, as 
 you were reminded this morning — the wise and 
 understanding according to earthly estimate — saw 
 no beauty in the Saviour of the world that they 
 should desire Him, because their eyes were closed 
 and their ears dull of hearing and their hearts 
 
in the works of God. 877 
 
 hardened. So it is always : such men, wise in their 
 own conceits, can read no parables. 
 
 We are set it is true in the midst 'of a mighty 
 sum of things for ever speaking/ but their message 
 is unintelligible till we learn the language in 
 which they speak. This we can do only if we 
 wait and listen with loving hearts for the revela- 
 tion of God. Such waiting and such listening 
 become springs of generous feeling : we are 
 ennobled as more of reverence dwells in us. 
 Admiration lifts us above ourselves. Perhaps 
 indeed we may at last be overwhelmed by the 
 grandeur and beauty of the creation about us. 
 When we are fully alive to its marvel, we may 
 cry with the Psalmist, When I consider Thy 
 heavens, the ivorh of Thy fingers, the moon and 
 the stars tuhich Thou hast ordained ; ivhat is man 
 that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man 
 that Thou visitest himV and then the great truth 
 of the Incarnation rises before us. We do not see 
 the end yet : we do not see man restored to his 
 rightful sovereignty; but we do see Him, who 
 hath been made a little lower than the angels, even 
 Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned 
 with glory and honour, and in His triumph we 
 have the assurance of our destiny. 
 
 3. Thus from the works of GoD which speak 
 of Him, we rise to God Himself Thoughtful 
 
378 Through Gob's works we 7'ise to God. 
 
 looking, reverent regard, enable us to see Him 
 Who is invisible. We do not as Christians rest 
 in anything outward. We lift up our eyes to the 
 Son of Man seated on the Father's throne. The 
 feeling that we can do this gives for us stability 
 to the present order. The successions of pheno- 
 mena which we speak of as laws of Nature are 
 for us manifestations of the will of Him Who 
 changeth not. For us there is the certainty of 
 progress to a glorious end because He through 
 Whom God made the world is also its heir, and is 
 even now bearing it to its appointed consummation 
 by the word of His power. Thus the seen carries 
 us onward to the unseen, and, like Moses at the 
 crisis of his fate, we endure as seeing Him Who 
 is invisible. Bowed down by the sense of our 
 own infirmities, awe-stricken by the spectacle of 
 the vastness of the material world, we remain, 
 each one of us, conscious of a Divine fellowship 
 and 
 
 Feel that we are greater than we kuow. 
 
 In spite of all disappointments and reverses, in 
 spite of checks and failures, we can in the strength 
 of that vision win our souls in patience. 
 
 4. For, as I said, we do not see the end though 
 we look forward to it with untroubled hope. 
 Nature at the best gives an imperfect record. 
 
Ignorance can he cheerfallij home. 379 
 
 We cannot explain the mysteries of droughts and 
 floods, of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is enough 
 for us to know that through them GoD works out 
 His purpose. And there is nothing of sadness in 
 this ignorance. How poor the world would be if 
 we could master all its secrets. Difficulties are a 
 call to effort. For beings such as we are shadows 
 are a condition of clear vision. Perfect light to 
 us would be one with blindness. The conscious- 
 ness of incompleteness is for the believer a promise 
 of that which is to come. Our present condition is 
 summed up by St Paul in words which are the very 
 heart of the New Testament, The tuhole creation, 
 he writes, groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
 until now. And not only so, hut ourselves also, 
 which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we 
 ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our 
 adoption, to wit, the redemption of our hodij. 
 There are sorrow and pain; but not one sorrow, 
 not one pain, is fruitless. They are the conditions 
 of the new order. 
 
 I saw here a few days ago, as many of you must 
 have seen often, a perfect parable of human life. 
 I was standing in sunshine : a storm cloud hung 
 over the valley. On the cloud was the rainbow, 
 the token of the covenant ; and on the horizon the 
 distant hills lay in untroubled light. From the 
 light to the light — not from the darkness to the 
 
380 The lessons of Nature 
 
 darkness — that is the figure of the life of faith, 
 though transitory shadows may cross the way of 
 the believer. 
 
 'Consider the lilies:' 'learn their lessons.' — 
 What then do we gain if in obedience to the 
 Lord's command we strive to enter into the teach- 
 ing of Nature, thoughtfully, reverently, looking up 
 to God, and humbly recognising the inscrutable 
 mysteries which limit our knowledge ? We gain, 
 I reply, a fresh and inspiring sense of the im- 
 measurable patience of GoD, of His unfailing 
 Providence, of His unimaginable power, of His 
 victorious love; and each fuller truth becomes 
 effective for our instruction. If He waits through 
 untold ages for the accomplishment of His most 
 certain purpose, we shall be taught to brook delays 
 in the satisfaction of our noblest desires. If He 
 fits into a harmonious whole the earliest and 
 latest events in time, we shall be taught to leave 
 our works in His hands, knowing that 'theie shall 
 never be one lost good.' If He keeps for Himself 
 the 'unapproachable fountain of life,' we shall be 
 taught to trust Him to guard the gift which He 
 has bestowed. If He in spite of our wilfulness 
 fills the whole creation still with light and glad- 
 ness, we shall be taught through the discipline of 
 earth to embrace with a livelier faith the crowning 
 message of His love that He sent His Son to be the 
 
a spring of common joy. 381 
 
 propitiation for our sins ^ and not for ours only, hut 
 also for the whole world. 
 
 And these lessons, my friends, by which the 
 whole world is transfigured lie everywhere about 
 your steps. They are not the endowment of a 
 few but the appointed treasure of all. The splen- 
 dour of sunrise and sunset, 'the silence of the 
 starry sky,' the majesty of wood and mountain 
 and sea, the varied beauty of the wayside flowers, 
 the delicate carving of the tiny mosscup are 
 teachers for every one who is allowed to live in 
 their presence. Blessed are the eyes ivhich see the 
 things that ye see, if you look on them in the light 
 of the Incarnation. Then 
 
 this world's no blot for you, 
 No blank ; it means intensely and means well. 
 
 But for the most part, faithless to our faith, we 
 are inclined to neglect common joys and carry our 
 own cares to the view of Nature, forgetting the 
 sure lesson of age that ' all that is most precious 
 is common.' 
 
 'Consider the lilies:' 'learn their lessons.' 
 Learn their lessons and spread them. This is 
 God's charge to you to whom the country life is 
 given. For others whom He has set to work in 
 the crowded thoroughfares of towns He provides, 
 as I have said, other teachers and other lessons. 
 But love interprets these too, and is enabled to 
 
382 Such joy greater 
 
 lind in them tokens of God's love. So far in coun- 
 try and in town there is one rule for us all alike. 
 Our duty is to look to the heart of things : to 
 pierce through that which is superficial and tem- 
 poral to that which is eternal. In this lies our 
 sure and sufficient hope in our present distresses. 
 But as it is we look for material remedies for 
 spiritual evils. We deal with the symptoms and 
 not with the malady. We weary ourselves in 
 restless endeavours to gather earthly treasures. 
 We encourage others to join in the struggle, as if 
 these were the prize of life. But such possessions 
 are necessarily limited, and to share them is to 
 suffer loss. They cannot from their very nature 
 bring wide satisfaction. Meanwhile there is near 
 to us an inexhaustible store of imperishable wealth 
 which grows greater as more share it. The broad 
 fields of nature, the narrow circle of home, supply 
 all that we require for a Divine companionship. 
 What we need most, w^hat all are called upon to seek 
 with importunate and undiscouraged endeavour, is 
 not greater riches or costlier pleasures, but the open 
 eye and the loving heart, the open eye which sees 
 the invisible, the loving heart which transforms 
 affliction. These are able to lighten with the glory 
 of heaven the poorest outward lot. These disclose 
 the way to 'joy in widest commonalty spread.' 
 Having these we want no more. For the vision 
 
as more share it. 383 
 
 of God, that is the fulness of human life; and 
 He can be seen in the least thing which He 
 has made, by the weakest child who calls Him 
 Father. 
 
 Yes : ' the life of man is the vision of God' — 
 they are words of one of the earliest leaders of the 
 Church — 'the life of man is the vision of GoD,' 
 ' here in a glass darkly, hut then face to face! 
 
VIA HOMINIS VISIO DEL 
 
 Errahant quidem adhuc et 'patriam quaerehant; sed duce 
 Deo errare non poterant. Via illis fuit visio [jussio iiss.] 
 Dei (Aug. in 1 Ep. Job. Tract, vii. Edd.). 
 
 w. 25 
 
n6(l)£AJTICM6NOYC TOyC 6(t)0<\AMOYC THC K^pAlAC. 
 
 Eph. i. 18. 
 
 ST MARY'S, CAMBRIDGE. 
 Fourth Sunday after Trinity {June llth), 1894. 
 
VIA HOMINIS VISIO DEI. 
 
 The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us 
 in memorable words how the deliverer, the leader, 
 the lawgiver of the people of God was strength- 
 ened to bear the heavy discipline of disappoint- 
 ment and delay in the fulfilment of his appointed 
 work. He endured, he bore himself courageously 
 when the expected welcome failed, as seeing Him 
 that is invisible. He looked below the surface of 
 things and beyond their present interpretation. 
 That which perplexed him was, he knew, of God's 
 ordering, and he could wait till the lesson of love 
 was made clear, and win his soul in patience. 
 He trusted not in an impersonal force or in an 
 unchangeable law, or in a beneficent order, but 
 in a living, speaking, reigning Lord. He realised 
 even from the first that Divine communion which 
 at a later time was rightly held to distinguish 
 him from other prophets when God spake unto 
 
 25—2 
 
388 The way of man 
 
 him as a man speaketh unto his friend. He 
 endured as seeing Him that is invisible. 
 
 St Augustine extends to the people that which 
 was the characteristic privilege of their chief. 
 The way of Israel was, he says, the Vision of God, 
 via illis fait visio Dei. 
 
 This then is the thought which I wish to offer 
 for consideration this afternoon; the Vision of 
 God, the presence and the power of the unseen. 
 When in the prospect of to-day I looked back 
 over long and happy years spent here in learning 
 and teaching, — in learning above all through 
 teaching — I could find no other thought which 
 seemed to be more natural to this school of great 
 memories and great hopes, no other thought 
 which answered more completely to whatever I 
 have found most precious in my own experience, 
 no other thought which I could desire more 
 earnestly to leave to those who will come after 
 as my last message, the sum of all that I have 
 wished to say in days gone by on the true joy 
 and glory of the world in which we are set to 
 work. 
 
 The way of man is the Vision of GoD. The 
 Vision of GoD is the rule and the crown of life ; 
 now through a glass in a riddle, as we strive to 
 put together the lineaments of unearthly beauty 
 dimly visible and only partially traced ; but then 
 
is the Vision of God. 389 
 
 face to face, when we shall be transformed into 
 that likeness which we were made to gain. We 
 have the capacity for the vision, and God is 
 pleased to satisfy it. It belongs not to any 
 special faculty, to the reason or to the under- 
 standing — as the scribe thought who by an 
 intelligible impulse altered the Apostle's word — 
 but to the heart w^hich expresses the whole 
 character of man. Blest are the pure in heart, 
 for they shall see God. And so St Paul prays 
 for those among whom he had laboured with 
 tenderest solicitude, that they might be en- 
 lightened in the eyes of their heart, and that 
 not with any vague expectation but for the 
 attainment of three definite ends, that they might 
 know the hope of God's calling, the riches of the 
 glory of His inheritance in the saints, the exceed- 
 ing greatness of His power to us-ward who be- 
 lieve. 
 
 In each case it is the sight of God which is 
 dominant. It is His calling, His inheritance, His 
 power, which we are enabled to behold. Looking 
 to Him we are lifted up above ourselves, and 
 taught to form a true view of our own destiny, of 
 the purpose of creation, of the present working 
 of transforming love. Looking to Him we are 
 guarded against the three sore temptations which 
 come to us from the sense of necessary failure, of 
 
390 Our highest hope lies 
 
 apparent loss, of personal weakness. Looking to 
 Him we take courage and press forward unhasting 
 and unresting. Via hominis visio Dei. 
 
 1. The way of man is the Vision of God. In 
 order that we may recognise the end of our way 
 we fix our eyes on the hope of God's calling. 
 Our highest hope reveals us to ourselves and to 
 others. Our highest hope is the measure of our 
 character and of our faith. We are — we were — 
 in the startling language of the apostle, saved by 
 hope. Already we understand in part the mean- 
 ing of the phrase through our own experience. 
 Looking within we refuse to acquiesce in the sad 
 issues of defeat and claim for ourselves the great 
 confession 
 
 "What I aspired to be 
 And was not comforts me." 
 
 Looking without upon the manifold checks of 
 a great cause we keep hope with resolute con- 
 fidence — 
 
 "the paramount duty that Heaven lays, 
 For its own honour, on man's suffering heart." 
 
 The end is not yet nor here. The end is deter- 
 mined by God's calling. It was not an idle 
 dream when men of old time, trusting to the soul 
 naturally Christian, aspired to be made like God. 
 That is His will for us. He calls us to Himself, 
 
in the call of GoD. 391 
 
 as He calls He will enable us to follow. He is 
 our hope, present with us still in all the forms in 
 which He was present to His people from the 
 first. He walks with us in the cool of the evening. 
 He comes to us through spiritual visitants. He 
 addresses us through His prophets. The In- 
 carnation gives distinctness to all these familiar 
 representations, no mere theophany, but the 
 complete fulfilment of that union of God and 
 man in which there is the perfect peace of hope 
 realised. 
 
 God calls us; and His call discloses the un- 
 seen depths of life. As we listen the sense of 
 our kinsmanship to Him whose voice we recognise 
 is awakened in us. We feel that we are His 
 offspring, and not we only but all who share our 
 nature. The companionship which we welcome 
 is within the reach of all. So hope revives in 
 spite of the distressing appearances of the hour. 
 We assert ourselves against the tyranny of time 
 in the strength of the eterual. Our endeavours 
 however imperfect confirm our resolution. It is 
 after all the loftiest claims which stir and attract 
 our fellow-men, and our own powers of action are 
 immeasurably enlarged when we are moved by 
 the conviction that the highest is possible for all. 
 God calls us. For us the one thing needful 
 is to sit still in calm moments and listen to His 
 
392 , Through the darkness we can see 
 
 voice. As we listen the meaning of our destiny, 
 in spite of all the hindrances and sorrows which 
 throng oar way, becomes clearer. We can return 
 a response, however feeble, to the voice which 
 bids us onward. And in our distress we turn to 
 the Son, in Whom we are sons, Who met the 
 Father's will with perfect obedience, and found 
 suffering infinitely fruitful, and death, welcomed 
 in place of a translation in glory, the spring of 
 indissoluble life. 
 
 Looking then to God with the eyes of our 
 heart enlightened we see the end of our way in 
 the hope of His calling. Via hominis visio Dei. 
 
 2. But this is not all. That we may regard 
 with calm, sure gaze, the mysteries of the world, 
 we fix our eyes upon the riches of the glory of 
 God's inheritance in the saints, and discern the 
 great purpose which goes forward through the 
 ages. We cannot stand alone. We cannot sepa- 
 rate ourselves from all that by which we are 
 surrounded. We are dismayed when we look 
 back over the waste, as it seems to us at first 
 sight, of men, of generations, of nations. We 
 look forward and see, as we think, an inevitable 
 heritage of sorrow prepared for new races ; and as 
 far as we can trace the facts of existence, the 
 pains and conflicts by which men are desolated, 
 seem to reach through all life. But what then ? 
 
the glory of God's inheritance. 393 
 
 Of God, and through God, and unto God are all 
 things. Man and man's realm are God's inherit- 
 ance. We were made for Him. Creation, as we 
 have heard this uiorning, waiteth for the mani- 
 festation of the sons of God. In this light 
 humanity and nature assume a new aspect. All 
 that really is, is for Him as it is in Him. " There 
 shall never be one lost good." 
 
 And even for us now the world is as we 
 ourselves are, mean and pitiful to the purblind 
 and querulous, but in its travail-pains rich in 
 promise to the humble and large-hearted. We 
 touch the seen and the unseen with our whole 
 nature. We can dwell on the outward and the 
 temporal; we can rise to the spiritual and the 
 eternal. We are ourselves part of all our experi- 
 ence. Heaven, it has been said, is required to 
 complete earth. I would rather say that heaven, 
 that is the Presence of God, is required to in- 
 terpret earth. If we can feel that Presence ; if 
 we can trust it ; if we can move about in the face 
 of our fellows and in the face of Nature, as 
 knowing the riches of the glory of God's inherit- 
 ance in the saints, we shall extend the joy of this 
 assurance to the interpretations of dark problems : 
 we shall not doubt that He will gather and guard 
 and purify all that can bear the light of His 
 countenance. We shall, perhaps, come to under- 
 
394 Even now earthly things 
 
 stand, even in the narrow range of our labours, 
 that that which hath been made — that which 
 hath come to be — was life in Him : we shall not 
 forget the infinite in things under the stress of 
 present distresses, and endure as seeing Him who 
 is invisible: we shall bring to Him all that He 
 has given us in powers, in resources, in oppor- 
 tunities, that so we may be enabled to enjoy 
 them for ever. 
 
 We see little, but we see enough to trust 
 much. All things end in a mystery — how can it 
 be otherwise for creatures such as we are ? a 
 mystery not yet made known, except so far as all 
 the mysteries of being are included in the central 
 mystery, the Word became flesh, in Whom, as we 
 read with thankful hearts, it was the good pleasure 
 of the Father, to sum up all things, the things in 
 the heavens and the things upon the earth, in 
 Him, in Whom also we were made an heritagfe. 
 
 In that counsel of loving wisdom and righteous 
 love, — for wisdom and righteousness and love are 
 indeed all one — we find rest, and the form in 
 which the wisdom is conveyed to us opens a 
 glimpse of wider relationships through which the 
 significance of human life is immeasurably exalted. 
 It shews depths beyond depths, as we speak : 
 
 " Worlds 
 To which the heaven of heavens is but a veil." 
 
pass into the unseen. 395 
 
 That which was wrought on earth extends to the 
 utmost limits of existence. Orders of being of 
 which we cannot form any conception share the 
 blessings gained by the Son of Man on the scene 
 of our service. Even now we are come unto the 
 city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, 
 and to innumerable hosts of angels in festal as- 
 sembly, and these by God's appointment minister 
 to us. To realise this is to master the august 
 truth to which the first of Greek philosophers 
 pointed when he said that " The world is full of 
 Gods." The world is full of the hosts of God, 
 fellow-servants with us. We are not set to do 
 our work alone in sterile vacuity, but compassed 
 about with a great cloud of witnesses, who, as 
 God bids, breathe into our souls, from their ex- 
 perience, victorious confidence. 
 
 Looking then to GoD with the eyes of our 
 heart enlightened we can regard without mis- 
 giving the mysteries of our way, beholding even 
 here the riches of the glory of His inheritance in 
 the saints. Via hominis visio Dei. 
 
 3. Yet there is an element of awe in the 
 spectacle of the fulness of life which is disclosed 
 to us in the revelation of the issues of Christ's 
 work. St Paul sets it plainl}^ before us when he 
 describes the nature of our conflict. Our wrestling, 
 he says, is not against flesh and blood, but against 
 
396 In the Ascended Christ 
 
 the principalities, against the powers, against the 
 world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual 
 hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. We 
 have all felt, I imagine, what the Apostle means, 
 those subtle questionings, those evil promptings, 
 those vain suggestions, assuredly not our own, 
 which hover about us; and we have cried in 
 sadness of soul, What are we that we should 
 meet such foes, matched in an unequal combat ? 
 Once again then that we may learn the strength 
 of our faith, we fix our eyes on the exceeding 
 greatness of God's power to us-ward who believe, 
 according to that working of the strength of His 
 might which He wrought in Christ, when He 
 raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at 
 His right hand in the heavenly places. The Apostle 
 piles word on word, fact on fact — power, strength, 
 might. Resurrection, Session — that he may convey 
 the thought of help equal to our uttermost distress. 
 Flesh and blood are, as every day teaches us, 
 exposed to the assaults of innumerable tempta- 
 tions. But the Lord Himself, Who took upon 
 Him the nature of those who were His brethren, 
 has borne them all and conquered. On the cross 
 He met our adversaries and triumphed over them, 
 fulfilling to the uttermost the will of GoD. By 
 His life and death and ascension He brings to us 
 the virtue of His victory. 
 
they^e is fulness of strength. 397 
 
 Meanwhile in the time of our discipline we 
 turn to Him, not as He hung upon the tree with 
 bowed head and closed eye, but seated on the 
 Father's throne, and looking^ to Him we recoo^nise 
 that there is nothing in our true nature which 
 may not be hallowed by His help. So once more 
 we renew the battle in which we have been 
 worsted, smitten down, yet not destroyed, always 
 bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, 
 that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in 
 our body. To the last the word is true : Via 
 hoininis visio Dei. 
 
 The way of man is the Vision of God. And 
 do we not all feel in our wanderings and way- 
 wardnesses, in our vacillations and despondencies, 
 in our restlessness and isolation, in our self-seeking 
 and self-distrust, that we require this guiding, 
 invigorating, inspiring, vision ? require to dwell 
 upon it with the eyes of our heart enlightened, if 
 we are to do our part as members of Christ's 
 Body? 
 
 The Vision of GoD brings a just proportion to 
 our estimate of claims and actions, and makes 
 clear that to love Him is the first commandment 
 and to seek His kingdom the first duty. It 
 guards us from the perils of living for the moment, 
 and enables us to anticipate the verdict of 
 
398 The Vision of God restores the sense of 
 
 righteous judgment. It lifts from us " the weight 
 of chance desires," and confirms the lesson which 
 our experience teaches us that what is is inde- 
 pendent of time. 
 
 The Vision of God restores hope in the 
 prospect of the greatest sorrows, and confidence 
 in the discouragement of present failure. For 
 since His love for His creatures is inexpressibly 
 greater and purer than our love, every suffering 
 is seen to be part of a discipline of mercy; and 
 for ourselves we need nothing more than to know 
 that so far as we are fellow- workers with Him, 
 the fruit of our labour cannot fail. 
 
 The Vision of God calms the passion for 
 excitement, which masters and torments us as 
 long as we forget His Majestic Presence. It 
 purifies literature and art, which become debased 
 when phenomena are treated as ends in them- 
 selves, all equally worthy of representation as 
 facts of human experience, and makes of both 
 interpreters of the unseen and the divine which 
 underlie them. 
 
 The Vision of God gives unity to thought and 
 action, and binds His servants together in one 
 communion. For each one coming to Him offers 
 in simplest sincerity all he has for the accomplish- 
 ment of His will, and finds himself in fellowship 
 with all who work in like devotion, so that all in 
 
hope, unity, progress, revelation. 399 
 
 due measure contribute to the life which all 
 share. 
 
 The Vision of God calls out all that is noblest 
 in us by revealing our affinity to our Father in 
 heaven, and imparts to him who has rested in its 
 transforming light a power of bringing conviction 
 to others, which none else can have. 
 
 The Vision of God justifies man's invincible 
 instinct that there is a progress in the course of 
 nature and history, which cannot be determined 
 by things themselves, and gives fresh energy to 
 the social feelings through which society moves 
 forward towards that final harmony of man with 
 man, and of class with class, and of nation with 
 nation, in which humanity, broken into fragments 
 for the complete development of its powers, gains 
 the consciousness of one being as the expression 
 of one thought. 
 
 The Vision of God makes of life, in the great 
 phrase of Origen, a continuous prayer, and opens 
 our hearts to prophetic cries which witness to the 
 fulfilment among us of the promise of the latter 
 days, while the Lord pours out of His Spirit upon 
 all flesh. 
 
 For we live in days of revelation. The Spirit 
 still takes of the things of Christ and shews them 
 to dedicated souls. We need no new message for 
 the fuller development of religious force among 
 
400 The Vision of God is a 
 
 us ; but we do need to take to ourselves the old 
 message with simpler faith, with completer trust, 
 Avith more loving self-surrender. We need to 
 bring it into all the relations of social and national 
 intercourse. We need to take it from the region 
 of intellectual debate into the market-place and 
 the council chamber. 
 
 The way of man is the Vision of God, and the 
 Vision of God is the welcome of the Incarnation. 
 " He that hath seen Me," Christ said, " hath seen 
 the Father." This fact, this truth, reaches through 
 all life, all being. It is the confirmation of the 
 hope of our calling, the sign of God's inheritance, 
 the pledge of the unfailing strength of all that 
 believe. To apprehend it with growing intelli- 
 gence, to apply it with resolute patience, to use it 
 as the inspiration of our efforts, is to make our 
 own the victory in which the world has been 
 overcome. 
 
 We are, as I believe, on the eve of a fresh 
 manifestation of spiritual power. During my own 
 working time I have watched with anxious atten- 
 tion the changing currents of thought. I have 
 seen some of my contemporaries seek peace and 
 strength in the calm study of physical phenomena, 
 renouncing the thought of all beyond : some in 
 the restoration of the opinions and practices of an 
 earlier age. I have seen some trust to the power 
 
fresh tvelcome of the Incarnation. 401 
 
 of self-interest to fashion a healthy and vigorous 
 society: some to the power of emotion to re- 
 generate it. I have seen some able to regard the 
 fortunes of their fellow-men as a drama enacted 
 for their amusement: some ready to use the 
 necessities of others as an occasion for their own 
 aggrandisement. But human life is greater than 
 the interpretation of any one time : greater than 
 that which falls under the senses : greater than 
 that which finds satisfaction in personal wellbeing 
 or exalted feelings. The unrest, the lack of self- 
 control and self-collection among us, the blank 
 pausings on the edge of unfathomable depths, the 
 eager questionings of the unseen, the vain strivings 
 to make spiritual things real by material embodi- 
 ments, the alternations of bold assertions and 
 timorous appeals to authority, bear the same 
 testimony. We have not that for which we are 
 made, and we know our need. 
 
 Even now God is waiting to supply it, to 
 supply it in a fresh coming of His Son. You, my 
 younger friends, friends as loving children of a 
 common mother, have opening before you, a time 
 of work richer in opportunity for England and for 
 the world than man has yet known, richer because 
 there has been a fuller preparation for effective 
 action. But that you may know the day of your 
 visitation pray without ceasing that the eyes of 
 w. 26 
 
402 The Vision of the living Lord 
 
 your hearts may be enlightened to see Him whom 
 to know is life eternal. 
 
 Pray that in that most awful and gracious 
 Presence you may lay down every self-centred 
 purpose, and know that you are called to be 
 members of a divine body, living only as you 
 serve. 
 
 Pray that you may cherish the loftiest ideals 
 of duty which rise before you, when you lift up 
 your eyes to your Father in heaven, and so 
 become faithful stewards of that fragment of His 
 inheritance which He has committed to your 
 care. 
 
 Pray that in your daily struggle against foes 
 within and without, you may use every power of 
 body and soul, as those who believe that each can 
 be hallowed through His might who raised Christ 
 from the dead and in Him placed our nature at 
 His right hand in heavenly places. 
 
 Pray that no impatience, however generous, 
 may hurry you into injustice, and no reverence 
 for traditional opinions, however natural, no charm 
 of novelty, however fascinating, may impair your 
 single-hearted devotion to truth. 
 
 Pray that in every act of worship and in every 
 deed of service you may look with the eyes of 
 your heart enlightened to the living, loving Lord, 
 Who is Himself the end of every form of earth 
 
our message and joy. 403 
 
 which He hallows, and of every ministry of earth 
 which He inspires. 
 
 Pray in the name of the Son of Man, trusting 
 His own promise — Ask, and ye shall receive, that 
 your joy may be fulfilled. 
 
 Via hominis visio Dei. No privilege can be 
 greater than to direct one soul to that way of 
 light which brightens to the perfect day, when 
 there shall be night no more. No joy can be 
 greater than to enter upon it, and to behold from 
 afar the glory of the Lord by which man is 
 transformed into the same image, from glory to 
 glory. 
 
 May God in His love grant to you all this 
 double blessing. The festival of England's first 
 martyr is a call for the dedication of fresh witnesses 
 to the faith. 
 
 Witnesses have never failed us, witnesses and 
 benefactors, by lives of open labour and silent 
 munificence. Within the last hour I have heard 
 that one has passed from among us to whose 
 loving care and unobtrusive generosity this church 
 will bear testimony to future generations. As to 
 his services to the Library I am told "that we 
 must go back three hundred years (or nearly) to 
 find a parallel." 
 
 26—2 
 
404 Our benefactors guide us. 
 
 There is a strange pathos in the fact that it 
 falls to me to notice this our latest loss. It is 
 more than forty years since I first knew Mr 
 Sandars as a pupil at Harrow. Gentle and affec- 
 tionate, he won my heart then ; and his life, too 
 quickly completed, as we think, has fulfilled the 
 promise which he gave of simple devotion to duty. 
 His benefactions were graced by thoughtful in- 
 terest in the object which he aided. His studies 
 were made to serve the larger cause to which 
 they were directed. In times of restless excite- 
 ment and ambitious piety we may be thankful 
 that there are still those who find strength in 
 quietness, and the exercise of Christian faith in 
 the unostentatious charities of the passing days. 
 We are stronger and calmer for their example. 
 They know, as we trust, what we strive to learn : 
 Via hominis visio Dei. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
I. 
 
 Our Conference to-day is, to me at least, a meeting of 
 deep and peculiar interest. We are gathered together 
 to hear primarily the judgment of laymen upon grave 
 practical questions of Church life. When, after the 
 Visitation last- year, 1 ventured to suggest that it would 
 be well if the next Conference were distinctly a laymen's 
 conference, the proposal was cordially received both by 
 the laity and by the clergy, and I confidently expect that 
 we shall learn much in every way from the frank and full 
 expression of lay opinion upon fundamental problems of 
 ecclesiastical work. 
 
 And now, in justification of my proposal and my 
 expectation, I will say a few words on the position of 
 laymen in the Christian society, as Churchmen, as 
 Communicants — for I cannot understand how anyone 
 can be a Churchman and not a Communicant — as 
 members of the Body of Christ. 
 
 I shall necessarily leave very much unsaid. I shall 
 not touch on the work of women — certainly not the least 
 part of lay work. I shall not anticipate the discussions 
 which will follow on the appropriate use of special lay 
 gifts. I shall endeavour to regard the subject in its 
 broadest aspect, and to show that the conventional 
 distinction which we draw between the general obliga- 
 tions of the laity and of the clergy has no foundation in 
 
408 The spiritual work 
 
 Scripture: that there is but one standard of Christian 
 service : that there is but one divine life in which all the 
 members of Christ share alike, according to the full 
 measure of their capacity and their situation: that the 
 testimony of the Church is misdelivered if any member is 
 left free to withhold himself and his endowments from 
 complete surrender to the claims of the Faith. 
 
 We need to face the question. The technical study 
 of theology is indeed the work of the clergy, but the 
 application of doctrine is for all Christians equally. As 
 it is, the words of the clergy are listened to : their teaching 
 is accepted with more or less intellectual acquiescence or 
 satisfaction ; but it is tacitly assumed that it does not 
 belong to everyday life. The result is a deadening of 
 religious effort; for nothing is more fatal to nobility of 
 conduct than the formal acceptance of lofty teaching 
 without regard to its consequences. Such a divorce of 
 thought and deed sets a man at variance with himself; 
 and it produces inevitably in others a suspicion of general 
 unreality and insincerity on the part of believers. Yet 
 we may easily be blinded to the grievous error. The 
 Christian view of the world, of life, of man, is of 
 unparalleled grandeur. It is fitted to engross our highest 
 powers, and to satisfy our highest aspirations. Engrossed 
 and satisfied with religious theories, we forget that the 
 value of doctrine does not lie in any speculative result. 
 Christian doctrine is intensely practical. The blessing 
 which it brings is not for knowing but for doing. It is 
 designed to give, and it is capable of giving, clearness and 
 breadth of vision, permanence and strength of motive, 
 inexhaustible force of action in every region of human 
 activity ; and the whole work of the Church is imperilled 
 if the Faith is not seen to make the powers, the endow- 
 ments, the opportunities of all who hold it, contributory 
 to the common good. 
 
 This is unquestionably the teaching of the New 
 
of Laymen. 409 
 
 Testament. It is assumed in the Apostolic writings that 
 in the rich variety of divine gifts no believer is left 
 without provision : that in the manifold complexity of 
 the body, no least part is left without its function. 
 And this teaching is not for the study but for the 
 council-chamber and for the market-place : for life in 
 its humblest routine no less than for life in its most 
 sublime ideals. 
 
 St Paul was not writing to the clergy but to the Church 
 when, in his earliest epistle, he bids the Thessalonians 
 admonish the disorderly^ encourage the faint-hearted^ support 
 the weak. 
 
 He was not writing to the clergy when he charged 
 the saints — the baptized — at Ephesus to prepare for and 
 engage in a spiritual warfare, and at the same time seek 
 for him — their teacher — power to fulfil his special office in 
 making known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel. 
 
 He was not writing to the clergy when he prayed 
 that God might give unto his readers a spirit of wisdom 
 and revelation, by the enlightenment of the eyes of their 
 heart. 
 
 It is needless to multiply illustrations. The Apostles 
 take for granted in all they say that the Christian life in 
 every shape is equally a sacrifice and a service, diflfering 
 in form but not in spirit. Lessons are seen to be 
 conveyed by the Holy Ghost through manifold varieties 
 of operation. No distinction of function brings schism 
 in the one life. And the fruit of every operation and 
 of every function, through the equal co-operation of Clergy 
 and laity, is required for the well-being of Christ's Body. 
 
 But through the action of many causes we have broken 
 up life into fragments. AYe speak in dialect on the highest 
 things. We live each in our own world. Public worship, 
 separated from the main sum of our lives, is our one 
 religious meeting-point. In consequence of this, the 
 Church is impoverished through the want of the charac- 
 
410 The ministry of Laymen in Society, 
 
 teristic spiritual witness of different workers. For if we 
 are Christians, our work, whatever it is, is our faith made 
 visible. If we are Christians, we have, as we believe, 
 light from the Incarnation upon all human problems, on 
 the problems of business and pleasure no less than on the 
 problems of opinion and devotion, and we must be seen to 
 walk in the light, that our Father may be glorified. 
 
 It is clear, however, that at present there are many- 
 problems for which we have not sought a solution from 
 the Faith. This is felt most keenly when social questions 
 occupy men's minds. Here, more than anywhere else, we 
 may expect the spiritual influence of the Gospel to reveal 
 itself with healing power, not so much through any heroic 
 efforts as by the silent and spontaneous assertion of its 
 true meaning throughout common life. But to this end 
 we need the knowledge of all and the help of all. We 
 need alike the sober wisdom which comes through ex- 
 perience in affairs and the generous enthusiasm which 
 springs from the vision of the destiny of creation. We 
 must take counsel one with another with perfect frank- 
 ness. We must through resolute patience first realise 
 ourselves and then show openly in deed that religion 
 is not simply, as has been affirmed, "a consolation of 
 the fears of men," but rather a confirmation of their hopes. 
 
 And this, as I have said, must be done naturally in 
 the ordinary way of life. The ministry of the clergy will 
 take one form, the ministry of the laity will take another 
 form, but both ministries are essentially one, and both are 
 .designed to give one message. Someone lately said that 
 " Christians are the only Bible which men of the world 
 read." St Paul anticipated the judgment in words which 
 pierce to the soul. " Ye" he writes to the Corinthians, 
 ^^ are our letter . . . known and read of all tnen" — carrying 
 assurance to my heart and clear testimony to the world — 
 "as ye are shewn to he a letter of Christ, . . , written not 
 luith ink, but loith the sph'it of the living God.'' 
 
in the Church. 411 
 
 The elements which are looked for in the ministry of 
 the clergy are familiar to us all. The elements of the 
 ministry of the laity, which are equally distinct in the 
 Apostolic writings, are less commonly recognised. 
 
 The layman, as a layman, has a spiritual servnce in 
 regard to public worship. The charge to the Church at 
 Thessalonica, to which I have already referred, closes with 
 the remarkable words, which find a frequent echo in other 
 epistles, ^^ Brethren, pray for us." In one of the earliest 
 Christian writings we read, among elementary precepts 
 of life, "My child, thou shalt remember him that speaketh 
 the word of God to thee by night and by day ..." 
 
 If congregations in this spirit habitually remembered 
 before God the difficulties of those who preach to them, if 
 they carefully prepared themselves to hear, if they listened 
 for the voice of the Spirit, even through the "speech" that 
 seemed to the outward ear "contemptible," it might be 
 that criticisms would be turned, uot unfrequently, into 
 thanksgivings. 
 
 There is yet another work in which laymen can most 
 eflfectually recognise the claims of Christian brotherhood. 
 Only a small proportion of those confirmed in Durham, 
 about one-third, as nearly as I can calculate, become 
 habitual communicants. It would, I believe, be otherwise 
 if they found themselves admitted at once by Confirmation 
 to a fellowship of friends ready to encourage, to guide, to 
 support them in the first steps of their new life. Such 
 loving oversight is not for the clergy only or chiefly, but 
 for "the brethren" ; and there ought to be in every parish 
 a band of Communicants ready to watch over the newly- 
 confirmed with tender aftection, "witnesses," in the words 
 of the Prayer-Book, "of their confirmation" as elder 
 brethren and sisters in the Faith. 
 
 I need say nothing of home, which is the layman's 
 sanctuary. As the home is, so is the Church, and so is 
 the nation. 
 
412 Ministry of Laymen in Education, 
 
 From the home it is natural to pass to the school- 
 room, and here I believe that there is a work for laymen 
 to do, of vital importance at the present time, as managers 
 and visitors, both in voluntary schools and in board schools. 
 Every school in a town, at any rate, ought to have a staff 
 of lay visitors. Such a body might do much which cannot 
 be done in any other way to cheer the teachers by their 
 sympathy and to stimulate the scholars by their interest. 
 In their kindly and welcome visits, abundant opportunities 
 would arise in which educated laymen could direct attention 
 to some object of nature or art, some picture or flower, 
 some wonder of science or literature, and so far widen the 
 children's range of observation while their minds are still 
 sensitive to fresh impressions, and guide them insensibly 
 to open springs of inexhaustible pleasure. Education 
 necessarily brings new wants, and we must prepare 
 betimes to satisfy them. It is the discontent of intel- 
 ligence which is chiefly perilous to states, and this admits 
 of reasonable remedies. 
 
 "God uses us to help each other so, 
 Lending our minds out." 
 
 There are other services which are generally recognised 
 as lay-work, but which are not as yet seen in their proper 
 light as a true administration of gracious gifts of God. 
 Churchwardens, guardians of the poor, magistrates, coun- 
 cillors, employers of labour, have ministries entrusted to 
 them in their respective offices through which the j)ower 
 of the Faith can make itself felt and seen. Those who 
 have time at their command are bound to meditate on the 
 great sorrows and the great hopes of the age and to give 
 expression to their thoughts ; the next generation perhaps 
 will realise their thoughts in deeds. In the meantime 
 there is abundant room for present labour in many forms. 
 Here provision may be made for reverent funerals. There 
 it may be possible to meet through an organisation of 
 
in social reforms. 413 
 
 private charity, supplemented by the aid of the Poor Law, 
 the needs of old age. First applications for relief and 
 first convictions open the way for friendly and effective 
 counsel: repeated offences, for merciful severity. Much 
 has been done lately for the dwellings of the poor, but 
 much still remains to be done. In many places open 
 spaces and recreation grounds can be provided and 
 committed to the care of volunteer keepers. And above 
 all, oj)portunities may be made and used for wide and 
 intimate social intercourse. It is through the sym- 
 pathetic mingling of classes, now often separated like 
 strange nations, that our j^resent distresses will find 
 most certain alleviation. We are as yet ignorant in a 
 gi-eat degree of the thoughts, the ways, the ideals of one 
 another. The poor know little of the cares and weariness 
 of the rich : the rich know little of the temptations and 
 resourcelessness of the poor. The changed conditions of 
 labour have made the old personal relationship of employer 
 and employed impossible. The individual man for gain 
 and for loss is merged in the Trade Union. At the same 
 time we are heirs of a patrimony of sad memories. If 
 anyone will study Mr Allen's Report on Education in 
 Durham in 1840, or the Sanitary Report of Sir J. 
 W^lsham in the same year, he will not wonder that a 
 sense of old neglect and wrong should siu-vive amongst us. 
 The suspicion and distrust which spring from this source 
 can be — may I not say, can only be ? — removed by the 
 familiar and sympathetic association of all alike in the 
 endeavom- to secure the common good. When men meet 
 face to face, not to defend a predetermined judgment, but 
 to discuss a problem or to compare experiences, they learn 
 self-respect and respect for others. If nothing else can be 
 done at once, the sense of wrong which exists on one side 
 or on both sides will be removed, and with the sense of 
 wrong the feeling of bitterness which makes fellowship 
 impossible. There is a strengthening, purifying j)ower 
 
414 The plea of want of leisure 
 
 in sincere conversation. Even in industrial disputes it 
 will be found that those Boards of Conciliation have been 
 most effective in the past in which there has been the 
 most continuous and equal intercourse between masters 
 and men ; and here lies our sure hope for the future. By 
 such intercourse we shall in time come to the root of 
 things beyond the region of temporary compromises. A 
 compromise may be good as the preparation for a truce, 
 but it cannot be the stable foundation of the enduring 
 peace towards which we strive. Meanwhile we can 
 endeavour little by little to translate into the terms of 
 our own circumstances the evangelic precepts for social 
 gatherings. Social life may supply the occasions for 
 friendly meeting which work has ceased to supply. The 
 means are not far to seek. We have not adequately 
 used endowments of position or of estate in the way in 
 which they may be used, as forces to harmonise and not 
 to accentuate differences of rank and wealth. 
 
 Now all these works, reaching through the whole 
 range of daily duties, are, I repeat, spiritual works, and 
 they are lay works. They belong to the fulness of the 
 Christian life. Those who fulfil them offer the first-fruits 
 of their special offices; and they may be in the truest 
 apostolic sense "helps" and "prophets." But as yet we 
 want the courage to confess our highest hopes. We do 
 not openly take our Faith in earnest. An irony is 
 dominant in society which is dangerous to generous 
 enterprises. We have still to learn to interpret the 
 Bible as a living Book, speaking to us a plain message 
 in our own language. 
 
 Perhaps, however, it will be said by those whose 
 confession and co-operation I desire most earnestly, that 
 they have no leisure to consider and still less to carry into 
 effect far-reaching measures, or to occupy themselves with 
 details of public work : that they are exhausted by the 
 labours of each day as it comes. 
 
IS 
 
 not valid. 415 
 
 The plea reveals the master evil of the time. The 
 leaders of industry in an age of unlimited competition are 
 worn out with seeking the means of living : they have no 
 time to live. But can we be satisfied with this use of 
 time ? Can we as Christian men rest contented with this 
 condition of trade and commerce? Business and worship 
 must be one; and, after all, the supreme desire of every 
 Christian, of every patriot, is to make men and not to 
 make money — to raise every citizen to the full standard 
 of his calling, both in its privileges and in its duties. If 
 we have wealth, we shall strive to use it for this end : if 
 we seek wealth, we shall be willing to subordinate to this 
 end our hope of larger gain. 
 
 Want of leisure, then, brings no valid excuse for leaving 
 the highest claims of life unsatisfied ; and I do not fear 
 that a second excuse which has been alleged sometimes 
 will be brought forward seriously. I do not fear that 
 anyone who has reflected on the central truths of the 
 Christian Faith will say that he has no power to fulfil 
 his share in the spiritual ministry of common life which I 
 have sought to indicate. He stands in present communion 
 with the Holy Ghost — lord of the treasures of the world to 
 come. The vast mass of indifference by which he is beset 
 will not dishearten him, for he knows that beneath it lies 
 a nature which is akin to God. He looks back over the 
 past, and, assured by the certain, if slow, progress of great 
 ideas, he recognises that the words are true which tell us 
 that "an appeal to the reason of the people has never been 
 known to fail in the long run." 
 
 The history of our own country during the last fifty 
 years is a striking commentary on this lesson of hope. It 
 seemed to impartial observers at the beginning of the 
 period that we were on the verge of a revolution. The 
 revolution has in fact been accomplished, but far other- 
 wise than was anticipated. The principle of association 
 was called into activity — the principle which Christianity 
 
416 The Christian life 
 
 claims and hallows as the rule of social life — and even in 
 our sorest troubles we can now discern that righteousness 
 and truth are more and more clearly acknowledged as 
 the law and goal of popular movements. Voluntary 
 combinations on a large scale have proved that masses 
 of men are touched by generous sentiments ; that they 
 can postpone personal to social aims; that they can 
 provide for the sagacious administration of complicated 
 affairs; that they can give and receive public honour as 
 the adequate reward of devoted service. We cannot, 
 indeed, rate too highly the power of lofty ideals; and 
 whichever way we look, the Christian ideal, alike in its 
 foundation and in its fulfilment, will be found to satisfy 
 the uttermost desires of men. 
 
 Here then our Faith has its place. It is entrusted to 
 our keeping and to our use. We, as Christians, clergy 
 and laity alike, with no difference of responsibility, are 
 charged to proclaim it as giving to men the pledge that 
 the highest can be attained. The proclamation will be, 
 not through great words only or great deeds, but in the 
 simplest offices of daily business and intercourse, done, in 
 St Paul's language, in the Name of the Lord Jesus. We 
 all are heralds in the whole sum of our lives, but the issue 
 is with God. We shall not, therefore, be disquieted if we 
 find no fruit of our labours. It is, perhaps, the noblest 
 office of men to prepare the harvest for the generation 
 which follows. 
 
 For the most part, we think too lightly of life. We 
 look upon its surface and judge that it is shallow. We 
 are distracted by its accidents and we forfeit the sense of 
 its grandeur. We labour incessantly to hide the end of 
 the transitory and we lose sight of the eternal. But for 
 every one, it has been most truly said, "life is a mission," 
 a mission from God. 
 
 This is the one thought which I have desired to 
 emphasise. This is the plain message of the Bible ; this 
 
a mission to the world. 417 
 
 is the plain charge of our Prayer Book. The words with 
 which we were severally "received into the congregation 
 of Christ's Church" are no graceful survival of some 
 earlier form of thought. They are literally and sternly 
 true. We are all set to be His "soldiers and servants to 
 our life's end"— soldiers who shrink from no peril, if we 
 can overcome or repel His enemies ; servants who shun 
 no burden, if we can bear one stone to the growing fabric 
 of His sanctuary; soldiers and servants, not by the 
 assumption of any exceptional duties, but by serving 
 Him who is invisible in our ordinary engagements. To 
 this warfare, to this service, we were all pledged in our 
 Baptism; to this warfare, to this service, we were all 
 solemnly appointed in our Confirmation by laying on of 
 hands, with the far-reaching prayer that we might "daily 
 increase in the Holy Spirit more and more." 
 
 Life, I repeat. Christian life, is a mission, a mission to 
 the world. We who believe are in the purpose of God 
 a kind of first-fruits of His creatures. Our part, then, as 
 men called all alike to some share, however humble, in 
 the fulfilment of this glorious office, is not to guard or to 
 acciunulate barren treasure, material or intellectual: not 
 simply to hand down a lighted torch with undiminished 
 lustre; but to kindle a flame, to spread the energy of 
 enthusiasm, to make great claims on men answering to 
 their highest powers and their divine destiny ; and, if our 
 faith fail not, they will answer in God's time. He who 
 said, "i/" they persecuted Me., they will also persecute you,^^ 
 said also, "/, if I he lifted up from the earthy will draw all 
 men unto Myself.''^ 
 
 Semen est sanguis Christianorum. The witness of life 
 and the witness of death are alike fruitful. 
 
 w. 27 
 
II. 
 
 This season brings to us again opportunities for 
 retirement and meditation and self-questioning, which 
 the temper and the thoughts of the age make more and 
 more necessary for our spiritual health and growth. There 
 are on the one side, as we know too well, restlessness and 
 impatience and unsettlement of old beliefs; and on the 
 other side an increase of vague spiritual aspirations and 
 moral fervour and social enthusiasm. Eager reformers, 
 intolerant of the words of Christians, meet us on every 
 side with the old cry, "Shew us your works." We cannot 
 reasonably disregard the challenge. The Gospel, if any- 
 thing, is practical. We are bound to ask, in the sight of 
 God, how our Faith influences our life; what fruits it 
 bears in our own character. How should we be known 
 as Christians, as believers in the Lord born, crucified, 
 ascended, by all among whom we move ? How should we 
 know ourselves to be Christians in the silent review of the 
 master-principles of our actions ? 
 
 We are timorously anxious in many cases about the 
 force of Christian evidences ; the one irrefragable evidence 
 is the experience of the Church and of the believer. We 
 are w^earied and perplexed by questions as to the external 
 history of the Bible : the one question which we need to 
 
Titles of Christians: 'Disciples' 419 
 
 answer is, Do we find in it "living oracles"? The problem 
 in both cases is finally not a problem of historical criticism 
 or of philosophy but of life. "No word of the Bible," it 
 has been truly said, "is to be understood save through a 
 deed." No article of a Creed has a saving force except so 
 far as it becomes a spring of spiritual power. 
 
 In order to realise these vital truths we need at the 
 present time, as it seems to me, to recover and deepen the 
 feeling of the brotherhood of believers as joint heirs and 
 stewards of divine blessings. We have preserved the 
 individualist type of religion which gives intensity to 
 personal faith. We have regained the ennobling sense 
 of the corporate life of the one Catholic Church in which 
 we all share. But we have not yet given a true expression 
 to the fellowship of the congregation : we have not drawn 
 the conclusion which St Paul draws from the fact that we 
 are partakers of the one bread (loaf) in the Holy Communion, 
 when he says that seeing there is one bread (loaf), ive who 
 are many are one body. 
 
 I wish then to propose for our consideration during 
 the coming Lent the commonest titles which are given to 
 Christians in the New Testament, in the hope that they 
 may bring distinctness and reality to some of the 
 fundamental privileges and duties which we are called 
 to exercise in our social life. We are disciples in the 
 school of a living and present Lord : saints consecrated 
 to the service of one God : brethren in union with Him in 
 Whom we were created and redeemed. 
 
 (1) We are disciples of a living and present Lord. 
 The Faith is essentially progressive; and the line of 
 progress is intelligible, because it is directed to a certain 
 goal. We were made to attain the divine likeness. That 
 likeness is presented to us in the person of Christ. As 
 we abide in His word we come to know the Truth. This 
 learning is not of the intellect only but of the fulness of 
 life. All experience contributes to the understanding of 
 
 27—2 
 
420 ' Saints; 
 
 the Incarnation; and fresh understanding of the Incar- 
 nation has a quickening energy. "Every reUgion," it 
 has been said, "is exposed to inevitable decay." But 
 Christianity, by its very nature, includes a power of 
 continual renovation. It is the interpretation and appli- 
 cation of facts. It grows therefore with the growth of 
 humanity. It embraces in its range every interest and 
 every endowment of man. As man masters the treasures 
 of his domain, he comes to see more clearly the treasures 
 of heavenly wisdom which correspond with them. All 
 things are ours ; and we are Chrisfs ; and Christ is God's. 
 
 Do we then accept gladly and humbly this position of 
 learners? Do we wait ready to welcome fresh voices of 
 the Spirit brought to us through history or nature ? Do 
 we dare to say without reserve. Speak, Lord, Thy servant 
 hearethi Do we rejoice without suspicion in truth as 
 truth, with sure confidence that sooner or later it will 
 minister to our knowledge of Him who is the Truth? 
 
 (2) We are not disciples only: we are saints conse- 
 crated to the service of one God. We must not shrink 
 from the title. This Christian has been offered and he 
 has offered himself to God. The whole of man's nature is 
 one. Every faculty, every energy, as it is now, has in it 
 that which survives death. This is the lesson of the 
 Resurrection. The destiny of man gives an infinite value 
 to all the details of earthly life. 
 
 The Incarnation again is not a Theophany, a transient 
 manifestation of God : the connexion of the Word with 
 humanity is permanent. The Incarnate Word reveals to 
 us the utmost which we can know of God. No man hath 
 seen God at any time; God the only begotten So7i, which is 
 in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. 
 
 Thus our consecration as saints is capable of being 
 realised in a constant divine communion. We look 
 beyond the greatest men to Him in Whom they are and 
 Who is in them. We do not rest in any one of the 
 
' Brethren! 421 
 
 highest human types. We have fellowship with God 
 Himself in Christ, and we know that He alone can bring 
 His message into our hearts. Looking to Him we are, 
 according to our measure, transformed into His likeness 
 from glory to glory. 
 
 How far then, we must ask, does the eternal enter into 
 our estimate of things? How far does the sense of our 
 destiny and of our heavenly kinship press on us the 
 obhgation of serious work, framed with a definite and 
 worthy purpose? Does our Christian belief find expres- 
 sion, imperfect at the best, yet ever tending to greater 
 and more natiu-al completeness, in our intercourse with 
 our fellow-behevers and with men ? Are we content that 
 the Gospel in its power and in its scope should be judged 
 from our conduct ? 
 
 (3) The answer to these questions must be found first 
 in our relation to our fellow-Christians. We are brethren 
 as Christians, we all enjoy in common a privilege which 
 transcends immeasurably every earthly difierence which 
 separates us. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath 
 bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; 
 and such we are. Here lies the sure foundation of the 
 self-sacrificing devotion which passes from the Church to 
 the world. The love of the brethren — the love which 
 springs from the joint confession of the Incarnation — is 
 the one adequate spring of love. Christians must draw 
 closer together as Christians if they are to fulfil their work 
 for the world. They cannot live the Christian life alone : 
 they must fulfil their mission, not simply as individuals, 
 but as a society. "See how these Christians love one 
 another," was the wondering cry of the old world. The 
 unity of Christians among themselves was, in that first 
 victory, according to the Lord's own promise, the sign 
 which convinced those without that the Father had sent 
 Him ; and so it will always be. 
 
 Now at present we have lost to a great degree the 
 
422 The obligation of the 
 
 feeling of this intimate communion between all those who 
 are faithful members of a congregation. We do not, I 
 fear, for the most part strive to acknowledge practically 
 those with whom we are joined locally in the fellowship of 
 the Faith as brethren, and bring for the edification of the 
 whole body whatever gifts God has entrusted to us. We 
 look often in vain for those who, with few home ties, will 
 take upon themselves the responsibilities and privileges of 
 sponsorship for little ones who are likely to be otherwise 
 uncared for. The newly confirmed do not find themselves 
 admitted to a brotherhood in which every member watches 
 over the welfare of all ; in which the mature and devout 
 offer their experience for the guidance and support of the 
 weak and unstable, and gain for themselves the chastening 
 discipline of patience and tenderness. The surest hope 
 for the solution of our social problems lies in the frank 
 intercourse of class with class, and the natural beginning 
 is to be found in the intercourse of the brethren. Every 
 necessary reform will then present itself as a fulfilment of 
 the will of God. 
 
 The sense of our potential relation to men through 
 the Incarnation, which is realised in our relation to the 
 brethren, necessarily determines the character of our 
 business, of our studies, of our amusements. In things 
 great alike and small we shall consider how our wishes 
 and our actions affect others. The demands of consumers 
 determine in no small degree the condition of workmen. 
 The thoughtlessness of investors may help to maintain 
 unrighteous tyrannies. The using of money is as perilous 
 as the gaining of it. In both alike we are bound to 
 consider not only the material result of what we do, but 
 also the moral result. Do we then limit our demands on 
 others by that which we ourselves in their place with full 
 knowledge should be ready to give? Do we resolutely 
 propose service and not self-aggrandisement in any shape 
 as the object of our labours ? Do we find our satisfaction 
 
Christian profession. 423 
 
 and joy in that which unites us to our fellows or in that 
 which separates us from them? Do we take care, as 
 much as lies in us, that no one who ministers to our 
 needs or to our pleasures shall through our pursuit of 
 cheapness or excitement be deprived of the opportunity 
 of a true human life ? The highest life is for all : do we, 
 starting from the love of the brethren, seek unweariedly 
 to bring it within the reach of all ? Do we in humble 
 thankfulness for the divine variety of endowments seek to 
 hasten the time when universal reverence shall witness to 
 the sanctity of life, reverence of the greatest for the least, 
 and of the least for the greatest 1 
 
 We cannot silently, patiently, sincerely reflect on the 
 inherent obligations of our Christian profession which 
 are involved in such questions without feeling that the 
 Christian Faith is not yet realised in deed or in thought 
 among us. At the same time we recognise that this 
 Faith alone can satisfy the vague aspirations of the time. 
 The presence of generous desires in the heart brings no 
 power of fulfiUing them. We then, as stewards of the 
 Faith, are called to vindicate its claims. The Gospel 
 supplies a motive for self-devotion in love kindled by the 
 love of Christ ; and it supplies strength according to the 
 wants of each by the Spirit sent in His Name. 
 
 "Shew us your works." When the demand was 
 addressed sixty years ago to Ozanam he gave an answer, 
 in company with seven friends, by the foundation of the 
 Society of St Vincent de Paul. 
 
 May the sons and daughters of om- own Chiu-ch render 
 an answer no less decisive according to the circumstances 
 of the time and place in which they are set to serve. 
 
III. 
 
 From time to time I have ventured to suggest 
 special subjects for our common consideration during 
 the season of Lent. It seems to me that the presence 
 of such subjects to the minds of all of us tends to bring us 
 closer together, to remind us of our fellowship in one 
 supreme work, and to give strength and solidity to 
 thoughts which may bear fruit later. 
 
 On this occasion I wish to call attention to some 
 aspects of our Morning and Evening Prayer, and especially 
 to the relation of these services to the worship of the 
 Laity. 
 
 We are tempted to forget that our services of Morning 
 and Evening Prayer are the only congregational represen- 
 tatives — the Service of Holy Communion does not now 
 fall imder our notice — of the ordinary Daily Worship of 
 Christendom in primitive times. " In one country alone, 
 in one form alone," it has been well said, " does the ancient 
 Western Ofl&ce really survive. Psalmody, Scripture, re- 
 sponsive Canticles, Preces, Collects, the media of Europe's 
 ancient worship, banished from all other lands, have taken 
 refuge in the Churches of the English Communion. The 
 English Church is in this matter the heir of the world. 
 She may have diminished her inheritance ; but all other 
 Western Chm'ches have thrown it away." That which is 
 elsewhere, in other words, the exclusive possession of the 
 Clergy and religious orders is with us the possession of the 
 whole Congregation. 
 
 This fact emphasises the peculiar privileges and obli- 
 gations which belong to the English Laity ; and it is 
 
Preparation for Public Worship. 425 
 
 reasonable to believe that our Book of Common Prayer, 
 with the unparalleled fulness of the Scriptural element 
 which it includes, has done much to shape our national 
 character. The Communion Office we share substantially 
 with others : Morning and Evening Prayer are our own 
 alone. 
 
 Services which have a history of more than fifteen 
 centuries, and reflect various phases of thought, cannot but 
 require careful study if we are to enter into the fulness of 
 their meaning. If confession, and thanksgiving, and 
 praise, and hearing the Word, and prayer — to take the 
 parts of pubHc worship as they are enumerated in the 
 General Exhortation— are severally difficult, it is evident 
 what need there is of sustained reflection if we are to 
 master the lessons which lie in the peculiar combinations 
 in which they are provided for our use in our Prayer Book. 
 Minister and Congregation alike must spare no pains to 
 possess themselves of the hidden treasures which are 
 offered for their quest. 
 
 But may I not say with truth that the want of serious 
 preparation for public worship robs oiu* services of their 
 proper energy and warmth— widely different from personal 
 emotion — which spring from the sense of a corporate life ? 
 Many recognise that pubhc worship is a duty, but few, it 
 is to be feared, look to it as their highest privilege ; few 
 realise the awful majesty of the solemn gathering ; few feel 
 when they take their place in the Congregation that (in the 
 words of a great teacher) " no other assembly in the world 
 is so august." Those who come together look rather to 
 obtaining personal benefits than to offering worship to God, 
 to receiving rather than to giving ; and, even so, they 
 make for the most part no adequate effort to gain the 
 moral attitude which befits the expectation of a blessing. 
 
 Such a temper necessarily affects the whole character 
 of the service, and is utterly alien from the spirit of our 
 Offices. In these two thoughts are dominant : the 
 thought of the majesty of God, and the thought of the 
 
426 The work of the 
 
 manifold wants of our fellow-men with whom we are 
 united ; the thoughts, that is, of praise and of sympathy. 
 The thought of self falls entirely into the background. 
 
 It could hardly fail to be profitable to trace in detail 
 throughout the Services these ruling ideas. The theme of 
 praise is given out in the first versicle and response, " 
 Lord, open Thou our lips : and our mouth shall shew forth 
 Thy praise," followed by the Gloria. It is developed in 
 the Venite ; and the recurring Gloria after Psalm and 
 Canticle reminds us that all the changes of life, all the 
 varieties of experience, all the fluctuations of feeling, have 
 one dominant purpose, that in them we may find God and 
 recognise His will with glad submission. 
 
 The praise of God is the soul and inspiration of 
 worship ; and when we turn to men we acknowledge and 
 welcome our connexion with others as His children. In 
 confession, in prayer, in intercession, in thanksgiving, we 
 take our share in the sins, and wants, and trials, and joys, 
 of those with whom we are united in one Body. Once 
 only do we claim to stand alone when we say each with 
 the personal conviction of his own heart : " / believe." 
 
 Such general thoughts require a continuous and 
 varying interpretation. We who come together must 
 watch for the fresh messages which the Living Spirit 
 brings to us' day by day through the old words. Fixed 
 formularies are likely to be used mechanically unless quiet 
 meditation prepares for the use of them. But if we recall 
 the experience of the last day or of the last week before 
 we engage in common worship, familiar phrases will be 
 filled with fresh meaning, and be found to anticipate the 
 feelings by which we are moved. Now some startling 
 exhibition of self-will will give intense reality to the words 
 " we have followed too much the devices and desires of our 
 own hearts." Now an unexpected loss will be transfigured 
 when we say "the noble army of Martyrs praise Thee," 
 Something in our own lives will teach us to understand 
 why we can take the language of saints on our lips, and 
 
Congregation. 427 
 
 join in reciting the Benedictus^ and the Magnificat, and the 
 Nunc Bimittis. 
 
 The Litany especially lends itself to this direct appli- 
 cation to passing events. There is scarcely a need which 
 is not met by some petition in it ; but the rapidity with 
 which thought follows thought often deprives the clause 
 on which our minds would desire to rest of its proper 
 effect. It would be well, therefore, in special times of 
 anxiety and trial, that the prayers of the Congregation 
 should be asked for a particular object, and a silent space 
 be kept for them after the corresponding j)etition. 
 
 In this way the wealth of the Litany would be gra- 
 dually realised, and the well-known words gather round 
 them sacred and lasting associations. To take one ex- 
 ample only : — In seasons, like this through which we are 
 now passing, of wars and rumours of wars we should not 
 only learn to bear our sorrows with tranquil confidence, 
 but also gain a clearer insight into the true relations of 
 nations, if we pondered the exact language in which " we 
 beseech the Lord," not thinking of ourselves alone but of 
 those also who may be arrayed against us, " that it may 
 please Him to give to all nations unity, peace, and 
 concord." 
 
 The spiritual power of public worship depends, I 
 repeat, on the temper of the Congregation. We can all 
 feel when the Congregation is praying and not languidly 
 following words of prayer ; if we are cold the fire is kindled 
 within us by their still fervour. Whatever may be our 
 failures and faithlessnesses no one of us can doubt what 
 Common Praj^er may become to us, and what it may do 
 for us, when we remember the Lord's words : If two of you 
 shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, 
 it shall he done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 
 
 The work of the Congregation in the ministry of the 
 Word, though the saying may sound like a paradox, is not 
 less important than in prayer and praise. The teacher 
 depends upon the people even as the people depend upon 
 
428 The Minister and the Congregation. 
 
 the teacher. There must be active sympathy between 
 them in order that counsels, encouragements, instructions, 
 may have their full effect. If thoughtful consideration 
 of special needs is required on the one side, watchful 
 attention, which can be felt, is required on the other. 
 There must be co-operation between speaker and hearer 
 if the Word is to be fruitful. Real gain here, as every- 
 where, is proportional to the effort made to secure it. And 
 more than this. In the earliest manual of Christian 
 practice which has been preserved to us a command is 
 given which claims to be remembered to-day: "My child," 
 the writer says, " thou shalt remember him that speaketh 
 to thee the word of God by night and by day ; and thoi 
 shalt honour him as the Lord." Dare we say that those ij 
 the Congregation who intercede for the preacher are a. 
 many as those who criticise him ? Is it not possible tha 
 the Congregation may be in fault if the sermon fails ii 
 power ? 
 
 I have very briefly indicated lines of study and teaching 
 and practice, which may, I believe, if followed out lead to a 
 fuller perception of the meaning and power of our Common 
 Prayer ; and through that to a deeper sense of the mar. 
 fold presence of God in all things about us ; of the reality 
 of the corporate life which we share ; of the strength which 
 comes to us through that vital fellowship of the members 
 of Christ, in virtue of which each member shares in the 
 fulness of the endowments of the whole Body. 
 
 Praises of God, confessions of human fellowship, ex- 
 periences of saints, divine lessons from history and life, 
 voices of to-day, are all offered to us in Morning and 
 Evening Prayer for our guidance and instruction. God 
 grant that the coming Easter may find us all with "the 
 eyes of our hearts" more fully enlightened that we may 
 know better the power of the new life which He has given 
 us in Christ. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY J. AND C. T. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
Date Due . ;.: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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