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St. Mark's Sixtieth Anniversary 
 
 1850-1910 
 
 CATHEDRAL STONES 
 
 A Discourse delivered by 
 
 Rev. Spencer S. Roche, D.D 
 
 I N 
 
 ST. MARK'S CHURCH 
 
 BROOKLYN 
 
 Sunday, December II, 1910 
 
 At the Unveiling of Mural Fragments 
 from Glastonbury, Gloucester, Hereford, 
 Canterbury and IVestminster ^ ^ 
 
"^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
 Presented by £)>(p<^\n C^cSY' S .~¥-?OC.VnO ^3D :.D, 
 Section ..i.Q.Q. .P*^ 
 

 OCT 19 1911 
 
 "^^OEinM ^vli\^V^ 
 
 CATHEDRAL STONES 
 
 /4 Discourse delivered by 
 
 y 
 
 Rev. Spencer S. Roche, D.D 
 
 I N 
 
 ST. MARK'S CHURCH 
 
 BROOKLYN 
 Sunday, December II, 1910 
 
 At the Unveiling of Mural Fragments 
 from Glastonbury, Gloucester, Hereford, 
 Canterbury and Westminster j* e^ 
 
 PRESS OF HUNTER COLLINS, INC. 
 
 138 LIVINGSTON STREET 
 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 1911 
 
CATHEDRAL STONES 
 
 "What mean ye by these stones ?" — Joshua 4 :6. 
 
 The erection of monuments to commemorate notable achieve- 
 ments is as old as the history of the race. The divine sanction is 
 here given to the custom. Israel entering the promised land by 
 walking on the bed of the River Jordan, was to place a heap of 
 stones that would perpetuate the teachings of the event. The 
 River Jordan by the command of Jehovah, was dried up to assure 
 the people once more, as at the Red Sea where the waters had 
 been parted and Pharoah overthrown, that the divine favor was 
 with them. Picture the scene : Descending from the uplands 
 which lay to the east of Jordan, and leaving the groves of acacia, 
 they reached the river's brink. It was the spring of the year and 
 the river was at its flood, the waters reaching to the tangled 
 thicket growth on either bank. As the priests advanced with the 
 ark, the swelling tide was stayed. In the striking words of Dean 
 Stanley: "High up the river as far as the parts of Kirjathjearim, 
 thirty miles above the place of the encampment, the waters stood, 
 and rose up as if in a barrier or heap, as if congealed, and the 
 waters that descended towards the sea of the desert, the salt 
 sea, failed and were cut off." Almost from the Sea of Tiberias 
 to the Dead Sea, Jordan's channel lay open. By the banks the 
 sedge and pebbles appeared, while in the muddy bottom amid 
 stream, ancient boulders were uncovered. Where the deepest 
 tides had rushed, now stood the priests uplifting the Ark of the 
 Tabernacle, their feet in the ooze or sand. To their right as 
 they looked westward to" their new home, Jordan's billows were 
 restrained; to their left rushed the people tumultuous, fearful 
 lest the strange control of the river should suddenly cease. As 
 their eyes lighted on the priests and the Ark, and they thought 
 these must be carried down first, they regained confidence. The 
 
 3 
 
army, the women, the children, the sick and lame, with their 
 herds and flocks, all crossed safely. Once more Jehovah had 
 fulfilled His promise, and the tribes had conquered fear. 
 
 Of this event Jehovah commanded there should be a memorial. 
 The twelve chiefs of tribes were told to take each from the 
 channel of the Jordan, a stone, and to bear it aloft on their 
 shoulders before the priests, as they left the river bed. Lying 
 unseen for ages and this day exposed to the sun, these stones 
 were to be built together into a monument on the high ground 
 west of the Jordan. Right there at Gilgal was the first spot 
 pronounced "Holy" in the new land, and there the Tabernacle 
 stood till it was taken to Shiloh. How long did this cairn remain? 
 We cannot say, but scholars remind us that fourteen hundred 
 years later, John' the Baptist was preaching in Judea at Betha- 
 bara, the place where the people had passed over, as he baptized 
 the people unto repentance. It may have been this very historic 
 pile he pointed to when he said, "God is able of these stones to 
 raise up children unto Abraham." What we do know is that 
 God appointed these twelve stones to remain for the children's 
 children of these wanderers, in order that the lesson of His ever- 
 lasting faithfulness to His promises, might sound on through 
 coming generations. 
 
 So we, entering on our celebration of the sixtieth year, place 
 five stones beside our Font and Pulpit. Like those on the 
 bottom of the Jordan, they are in themselves eloquent me- 
 morials. They have intrinsic meaning. Instead of being 
 buried beneath a river's waves, they have been for centuries in 
 the walls of certain of the most renowned churches in Christen- 
 dom. They were secured by the Rector during a visit to England 
 in the summer of 1906. He personally obtained each fragment. 
 Let me first speak of their physical properties ; then of their 
 historical suggestions ; then of their prophetic teachings. The 
 stone from Glastonbury Abbey has a rough, rectangular form, 
 something like five inches in length by three inches in width. 
 It is heavy, indurated, having been long exposed to the elements. 
 On one side is ^ deep groove, perhaps a mason's device to secure 
 
 4 
 
the stone in cement. The stone from Gloucester Cathedral is 
 triangular, with a sharp edge at the back, rudely axform, having 
 on the face two flat grooves as if scraped or tooled in the rough, 
 soft, gritty, white-yellow sandstone. The stone from Hereford 
 Cathedral is quite hard, blue-gray, flat, having one side smooth, 
 the other rough. It appears to be a fine conglomerate. The stone 
 from Westminster Abbey is larger than the others, and forms a 
 rounded volute, or molding, or cornice. The face is weather- 
 stained but not like the Glastonbury stone, this being simply 
 blackened with London soot and fog, the stone underneath remain- 
 ing smooth. In texture this stone resembles that from Gloucester, 
 a yellow, coarse sandstone, almost chalky, a fine dust coming oflf 
 wherever the hand touches the newly-broken surface. From 
 Canterbury we have a fragment of reddish tile, with two smooth 
 sides, one foot-worn. 
 
 Now for a little history. The Abbey of Glastonbury, Somer- 
 setshire, England, represented to-day by a few crumbling walls, 
 is so old that its beginning is clouded with fable. It was cer- 
 tainly one of the earliest spots where the Gospel was preached in 
 England. Mr. Freeman says : "It is on any showing, a tie 
 between the Briton and the Englishman, between the older 
 Christianity of our island and the newer, the one church of the 
 first rank which lived through the storm of English conquest, 
 which passed into the hands of our victorious fathers as a trophy 
 of victory, undestroyed and unplundered." The monks declared 
 that the first church of Glastonbury was a little wattled or 
 thatched building, erected by Joseph of Arimathea as the leader 
 of the twelve apostolic missionaries sent over to Briton from 
 Gaul by St. Philip. About one hundred and sixty years later, 
 two missionaries were sent by Pope Eleutherius to the British 
 king, Lucius. These established a monastery, where three hun- 
 dred years later, St. Patrick introduced a very strict rule. In 
 the eighth century, the great West Saxon King Ine, greatly en- 
 larged the monastery. When the Danes invaded England the 
 church suffered, but it was nobly restored by Dunstan, appointed 
 abbot not long before the year 950. I pass over the feuds and 
 
 5 
 
squabbles of the monks of Glastonbury with other not over 
 religious clerics. Enough to say that the popes, and especially 
 the great Pope Innocent III., found it necessary to interfere in 
 the interests of peace. Nor shall I mention the shameful ar- 
 raignment and execution of the sixtieth abbot of Glastonbury, 
 Robert Whiting, one of the ablest and purest churchmen of his 
 day. Within the church, it was claimed, were the tombs of King 
 Arthur and St. Dunstan. With the Norman Conquest the new 
 rulers resolved to build a far finer church. After this in turn 
 had been destroyed by fire, Henry XL, King of England, entered 
 upon the construction of a magnificent edifice. From those walls, 
 erected about seven hundred years ago, this stone has been taken, 
 having for ages lain in the wall of St. Joseph's Chapel. 
 
 The stone from Gloucester is likewise from one of the oldest 
 foundations in England. The first Christian king of Mercia, 
 Wulphere, about 670 built a nunnery, which in the lapse of the 
 centuries developed into a very striking architectural mass. I 
 will not speak of the splendor of the present building, the cloisters 
 with their exquisite fan-vaulting having no rival in England. 
 Let me rather connect this old foundation with the Christianity 
 of to-day. That fragment may have been seen and even touched, 
 by a man who gathers into his experience and spirit almost every 
 element of our Church's present grandeur. John Hooper became 
 Bishop of Gloucester in 1550: He discharged his duty with a 
 diligence, zeal and self-sacrifice shown by very few bishops in the 
 history of the Christian Church. Perhaps no man comes nearer 
 to the exquisite creation by Victor Hugo, of the bishop who by 
 the spirit of his divine Master, redeemed Jean Valjean. It was 
 Hooper's custom to preach three or four times a day in the 
 towns and villages of his diocese. His wife implored his friends 
 to urge him to do less work in order that his Hfe might not be 
 prematurely poured out. He made the closest inquiry into the 
 learning, diligence, doctrine, behaviour and worldly condition of 
 his clergy. Wherever a priest was not receiving an appropriate 
 stipend, he augmented his living out of his own income. In the 
 hall of his palace, he supplied a dinner daily to the poor of Glou- 
 
cester, sittinc;^ down on the benches and sharing it with theni. 
 When Edward VI. died and Queen Mary came to the throne, he 
 was arrested, kept prisoner for eighteen months, tried for being 
 a heretic, condemned to death, and two weeks later was burned 
 ahve at the stake before his own cathedral! Not far from the 
 room in which Hooper spent the night before his death, stands 
 a house, timber-framed, where Robert Raikes, the founder of 
 our Sunday Schools lived and worked. 
 
 The flat, blue stone is from the singularly beautiful Cathedral 
 of Hereford, which exhibits, architects tell us, almost every step 
 in the successive development of what is known as the Old 
 English Style. What is more to our purpose, Hereford reminds 
 us of the turbulent and warlike conditions of the age. The old 
 Saxon ruler, Offa, lived not far from here. In the neighborhood, 
 he murdered Ethelbert ; on the hills in the immediate vicinity, are 
 the ruins of certain Norman castles, whose lawless barons had 
 constant battlings with one another. 
 
 The tiling is from one of the most fascinating and sacred 
 spots in the religious world. We have all heard of the glories of 
 Canterbury Cathedral. Here is the official residence of the arch- 
 bishop and primate of all England, the head of the Anglican 
 Church throughout the world. In its immense size, freshness of 
 aspect, endless vistas, and in its history, the structure is one of 
 the most notable ever erected in any land. On this ground it is 
 believed that a Christian church was built in Roman-British times 
 by King Lucius. Persecution arising, the Christians were driven 
 out and their edifice turned into a Pagan temple. W^hen St. 
 Augustine came to England in the sixth century, King Ethelbert 
 bestowed upon him this building, which had again become a 
 church. By the Norman Conquest, 1066, the old foundation had 
 almost disappeared. Lanfranc, the first Norman archbishop, set 
 about the erection of a cathedral. Finished in 1130, this structure 
 was burned in 1174, standing therefore but forty-four years. 
 Just four years before its destruction, martyr's blood stained the 
 walls. The king, Henry II., was enraged at certain acts of the 
 archbishop, Thomas Becket. Four barons thought they would 
 
 7 
 
serve the king's will by making way with the prelate. They came 
 in by a side door while the archbishop with his assistants was 
 reading the vesper service. His friends urged Becket to stop the 
 service and run into the vault under the sanctuary, or to ascend 
 to the roof, by a secret staircase in one of the great columns. 
 With characteristic courage he refused, and facing his assailants 
 was cut down, between the Chapel of St. Benedict and the pas- 
 sage to the crypt. What is believed to be the exact spot where 
 he fell, is marked by a small square incision in the pavement. A 
 mighty wave of indignation swept over the country, and indeed 
 over western Christendom. The king by the severest penance 
 endeavored to make it clear that he was not responsible for the 
 saint's death, and he immediately set about the erection of the 
 present edifice which we believe to be far more magnificent than 
 that sanctified by the death of this great churchman, though not 
 perhaps at every point prudent man. Yonder red stone has been 
 taken from the crypt of St. Benedict, within a very few feet of 
 the spot where the archbishop fell. 
 
 Our last stone is from Westminster Abbey. On the low 
 ground by the left bank of the Thames, on a point of land over- 
 grown with thorns and nearly surrounded by water, a church in 
 honor of St. Peter is believed to have been erected by Sebert, 
 the Anglo-Saxon king about 616. No need to recount any of the 
 history: it is writ large upon the entire structure of English 
 feudalism, royalty, liberty and progress. 
 
 But enough of the material objects. What of their teachings? 
 Why place these rocks in this St. Mark's Church in Brooklyn 
 as we commemorate our founding sixty years ago? Glastonbury 
 should teach us to deserve and to expect, and to prepare for long 
 life. Churches are planted to live and grow. Glastonbury stands 
 for the bringing into England of the Gospel, when our British 
 forefathers were still under the rule of the Roman Empire, 
 and possibly not long after the ascension of our Lord. Just how 
 long it is since that stone was quarried and set in the sacred wall, 
 we cannot tell, but we are certainly dealing with a vast stretch 
 of time. What better expression in visible form could we have 
 
 8 
 
of the perpetuity of the Church? What a fulfihnent of Christ's 
 words, — "On this rock I will build my Church and the gates of 
 hell shall not prevail against it!" St. Mark's Church is needed 
 now and on this very spot. He who imagines America will out- 
 grow the Gospel, reckons not with the spiritual instinct of the 
 human mind, nor with the shrewd common sense of the American 
 people, nor with their Anglo-Saxon liking for law and order, 
 nor with the conspicuous failure of the systems that rest on 
 superstition or on the negations of unbelief. Nor yet does he 
 recollect over how many obstacles Christianity has triumphed 
 since she emerged from the Catacombs and laid the first stones 
 in the walls of her earliest edifices. As we complete sixty years, 
 we may well build into these walls, that which should remind us 
 and whoever may worship within these sacred precincts, that the 
 Church has the promise of everlasting life, of absolute security 
 against evil, and all because the Church is the body, in this world, 
 of Jesus Christ, "who is the same yesterday, today and forever." 
 Human devotion may be so weak that the Church in any given 
 locality may lose its virility and die and be forgotten. But this 
 memorial should teach us that if we show the fidelity that every 
 Christian should exhibit, there is no limit to the good that the 
 Church of God may accomplish right here. The Church abides. 
 At many an hour of disappointment and defeat, she may seem 
 about to die, but wherever man does his part the Church lives on, 
 instinct with the eternity of goodness, immortal with the life 
 of God. 
 
 Quite different is the admonition from Gloucester. Here let 
 us think, not so much of our heritage from the past as of our 
 blessings and opportunities in the present. This Church is a 
 reformed church, free from medieval intolerance and superstition 
 and corruption. At a time when some irreconcilable bigots are 
 trying to forget the name, and to obscure the spirit of Protestant- 
 ism, we should not be ashamed that we have had martyrs who 
 died to secure our spiritual liberties and to dower us with the 
 freedom that is in Christ. Gloucester gave us the Sunday School, 
 and let this Church never forget, that among Christ's most tender 
 
 U 
 
and most insistent commands, this is one, — "Feed my lambs." 
 Thank God for all the Church has done in our day by pleading 
 the spirit of Christ in behalf of the physical care and the mental 
 culture and the spiritual instruction, and the legal protection of 
 children. But children are only one class. In this, as in every 
 age, the Gospel must vindicate itself in pointing out the method 
 to right the wrongs of that age. To glorify God, she studies 
 the conditions of the times and the peoples, and directs all attain- 
 able instrumentalities for human advancement. With every evil 
 of our times, Christianity is to contend. Not now does theological 
 controversy screw the rack and light the fagot, but yet selfishness 
 puts horrid sufferings on countless multitudes. The rapacious 
 landlord still herds the poor in foul, unhealthy lodgings, extorting 
 the last farthing of rent ; chartered corporations having the right 
 to transport passengers through our avenues, crowd men and 
 women indecently. Look at the riotous extravagance of the very 
 rich in face of a wide-spread poverty which hurries a father to 
 suicide and the tender children to crushing hours of labor ! The 
 Church of God must war against human pride, ostentation and 
 indifference to our brothers' sufferings. It is the Church's duty 
 to save women from excessive toil in factories ; to provide for 
 pensioning worthy workers ; to punish cruelty to animals. Just 
 as black slavery has been ended and the trafiic made everywhere 
 abominable, so white slavery must have the light of a national 
 indignation flashed upon it. Let Gloucester bid us be up and 
 doing in presence of every social injustice! Let the soul of 
 John Hooper march on ! Let each Christian feel that in sacred 
 energy and not in ignoble sloth, lies his duty. 
 
 Learn from Hereford that the Church is to continue to preach 
 a Gospel of peace, — peace betwen the penitent sinner and a recon- 
 ciled God; peace through divine grace in all life's troubles; peace 
 in the household ; peace among brethren ; peace between Capital 
 and Labor; peace through the world. Let us have in America 
 what Europe in the age of the builders of Hereford did not know, 
 concord between the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, 
 the employer and the workman. What our socially distressed 
 
 10 
 
age needs is a preaching not of charity, but of justice, — not of 
 pauperism but of love. Dives and Lazarus must be brought 
 together on terms of equaUty and in a sincere friendship. The 
 Church must address herself to heal the wounds of industrial 
 strife. She must plunge into the black, swift river of economic 
 injustice. 
 
 So Hereford pleads for the peace of the world, for universal 
 arbitration, and for the abolition of war. The battlings of 
 armies are as absurd as, and far more wicked than, duels between 
 men. The Church of God in arguing for peace sees, by faith, 
 the realization of the convictions of great thinkers like Penn and 
 Kant and Channing, and of the dreams of prophets like Isaiah 
 and Micah. We rejoice as we place this Hereford fragment in 
 the last days of 1910 because this very month humanity advances 
 far on the road to universal arbitration. President Taft has 
 just said: 
 
 "If we can negotiate and put thru a positive agreement with 
 some great nation to abide by the adjudication of an international 
 arbitral court in every issue which cannot be settled by negotia- 
 tions no matter what it involves, whether honor, territory or 
 money, we shall have made a long step forward by demonstrating 
 that it is possible, for two nations at least, to establish as between 
 them the same system of due process of law that exists between 
 individuals under a government." 
 
 Let the voice of this Pulpit be ever for Peace ! It is for wars 
 past and for wars to come that three-quarters of our terrible 
 taxes are levied. War, as one of the greatest generals of modern 
 times said, "War is hell." Sir Edward Grey's warning must be 
 heeded by all. 
 
 "Unless the incongruity and mischief of all this be brought 
 home not only to the heads of men generally but to their feelings 
 as well, so that they resent the inconsistency and realize the 
 danger of this tremendous expenditure, the rivalry will continue 
 and it must in the long run break down civilization. You are 
 having this great burden piled up in times of peace and if it goes 
 on increasing by leaps and bounds as it has done in the last 
 
 11 
 
generation it will become intolerable. There are those who think 
 that it will lead to war precisely because it is already becoming 
 intolerable. I think it much more likely that the burden will be 
 dissipated by an internal revolution, by a revolt of the masses 
 of men against taxation." 
 
 How much better to do as a matter of high principle, as ready 
 obedience to Jesus Christ, that which the very necessities of the 
 case will surely demand at some not distant day ! May St. Mark's 
 throw its influence on the side of the Prince of Peace ! 
 
 Let Canterbury serve as an expression of the central power 
 and dignity of Anglicism, and as a suggestion of the world-wide 
 unity of the Catholic Church. That tile has indeed its memories 
 of courage even unto death in defense of truth, but it teaches the 
 yet sublimer lesson of a universal sympathy with our Christian 
 brethren, and of the responsibilities of each believer everywhere 
 for the spread of the Truth that Jesus Christ proclaimed. We 
 ought to strive for the devotion of a Becket and for the Unity 
 which should reach much farther than does the authority of 
 Canterbury. "Neither for these only do I pray, but for them 
 also that believe on me through their word ; that they all may 
 be one ; even as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they 
 also may be in us : that the world may believe that thou didst 
 send me." 
 
 Last of all, Westminster Abbey is at once the spot where, 
 thru centuries, kings and queens have received their crowns 
 and sceptres, and where at length their bodies have been brought 
 in death. Here are the tombs of famous poets, orators, states- 
 men, discoverers, philanthropists. Here are centred the most 
 glorious traditions of English history. The influences that dig- 
 nify, the memories that inspire, and the emotions that move human 
 hearts, are all clustered about this magnificent pile. Westminster 
 grandly lifts before the world a golden banner, on whose ample 
 folds is emblazoned a cross with the device, "In this thou shalt 
 conquer." Those blackened arches, written over with mighty 
 names, invest humanity with the highest dignity and splendor. 
 That which glorifies Westminster, offers this, and every church 
 
 12 
 
a like splendor. More tlian ever before, this world needs the 
 Gospel, not as a symbol of aestheticisni, nor as a system of 
 philosophy, but as a leaven of righteousness. This particular 
 parish has been called of God to set forth in this definite locality, 
 that Truth which includes all other truths, which speaks of God 
 in His dealings with man, and of man in his duties toward God 
 and all his brethren. Christianity sounds every depth of man's 
 ethical and spiritual needs in this life, and lifts life to utmost 
 power by bringing into prominence the hopes and fears which 
 look out on eternity. Yonder graceful fragment, broken from an 
 ancient wall, points this church and all humanity to the spiritual 
 place of Manhood's coronation at the hands of our Great High 
 Priest. He that asks when, and whereby shall mankind enter 
 into the royal inheritance of culture, happiness and glory, must 
 kneel down at the feet of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We may sum up the teachings of these five stones in two 
 words. Liberty and Catholicity : — the Liberty that means Activity 
 for God, and the Catholicity that means Universal Love. Each 
 must work. Our effect as a Christian Church upon this com- 
 munity depends on our individual fidelity to Christ. Every man 
 must do his duty. Not a child in the Sunday School can be 
 exempted. Mass in final analysis is atomic. The danger in 
 all social institutions is loss of individual responsibility. As this 
 makes democracy a delusion, so it renders worship a mockery. 
 A congregation is the grandest thing on this side of heaven, 
 only when each heart lifts to that God who is a Spirit, true adora- 
 tion. We are not to lose the sense of personality in the rapture 
 of anthems from a thousand throats. With sympathy, each 
 soul must feel itself in the presence of God. Is it not so every- 
 where? Here is a board of bank directors. Let each for the 
 welfare of the bank, meet each question with his own individual 
 ideas of propriety and honesty and justice. The bank director 
 who sinks his own conscience in the board's conscience, betrays 
 his conception of right. Here is an army. The soldier is a 
 coward and traitor who says, — The rest are brave ; I can hide 
 behind a tree. The church attendant who lets others do the 
 
 18 
 
praying and receiving the Communion, is a hyprocite. Draw near 
 yourself to God. Act for yourself. Robert Louis Stevenson has 
 somewhere said: "To know what you prefer, instead of humbly 
 saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, 
 is to have kept your soul alive." Show energy for Jesus Christ ! 
 God forbid we should be dead stones ! If we say our Creed com- 
 placently without feeling it necessary to understand the Creed 
 and to spread acceptance of the Creed, we are lifeless stones ; if 
 we talk about "our beautiful service" and stay away 
 from its public rendering whenever we find it inconvenient 
 to go, we are motionless stones ; if we feel called on 
 to make no effort whatever to give that beautiful service 
 to the neglected of our own city and the heathen in other 
 lands, we are cold stones ; if we hear of the troubles of others by 
 sickness, poverty and vice, and yet feel called on to deny ourselves 
 nothing, to make no contribution to our brother's necessity, we 
 are bloodless stones ; if we would rather go to a club or a carnival 
 or a bridge whist, or a theatre or a dance, than to give that evening 
 to some poor sufferer, we have hearts of stone ; if we busy our- 
 selves about religion and relief only when we can do so without 
 troubling ourselves, without sacrificing our comfort or our money, 
 we are no softer than a stone ; if we know of a parish where 
 many people of this easy, luxurious, contented sort can be 
 found, then we've got a whited sepulchre, fair without but full 
 of dead men's bones. The great question for a modern Church 
 is this: Can these dead stones live? Bishop Gailor says that 
 the Episcopal Church in America is endeavoring to carry a 
 greater mass of dead timber, than can be found in any other 
 branch of Christendom. Let us as living stones be built up into 
 a spiritual house. Go to work, in the name of God ! Too much 
 have Christians thought of the care they must take of their own 
 souls. The doctrine of personal salvation has lodged itself in 
 morbid minds. Better stop asking, "What must I do to be 
 saved?" and ask, with the humble heart, "Who is my neighbor?' 
 and listen to the voice that says, — "Thou shalt not abhor an 
 Edomite ; for he is thy brother." 
 
 14 
 
So \vc come face to face with our other truth, the sense of 
 the CathoHcity of the Church which binds us in a spirit of Love 
 to every soul. Let our ideas here in St. Mark's soar above narrow 
 parochial, diocesan, national boundaries to the conception of one 
 Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, comprehensive of every 
 truth and activity that belongs to any of the scattered parts, 
 united, as Christ is one with the Father. As we pray in this 
 beautiful building, let us look toward these stones and realize 
 something of our Lord's meaning. "Other sheep I have which 
 are not of this fold : them also I must bring, and they shall hear 
 my voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd" (St. 
 John, 10:16). Overcome the common temptation to despise 
 Christians of other names, or to belittle or to ignore their work. 
 As we think of Greek and Latin Christians, and of many a scat- 
 tered church, and of many a company of those who differ from 
 ourselves and yet believe and call themselves Christians, and 
 consider their organizations to be true Churches, let us remember 
 those other words of Christ. When the beloved disciple told how 
 he had been perplexed as they saw one casting out demons in 
 Christ's name who yet followed not with the disciples, and how 
 it had seemed right to forbid him, Jesus said, "Forbid him not: 
 for there is no man who shall do a mighty work in my name, 
 and be able quickly to speak evil of me. For he that is not 
 against us is for us" (St. Mark, 9:38). The churches need 
 more sympathy between the people, a closer bond of interest. 
 Of the Bell Telephone System it is said that they have four 
 million five thousand telephones that can be instantly connected 
 with any of the others. I like the words that describe the method 
 that they employ. They call it inter-connection and inter-com- 
 munication, the one depending on the other. The people in all 
 the churches need to be inter-connected by Christ's great secret 
 of love, and when once this subtle and universal touch has been 
 given, we need the recurring inter-communication through all the 
 ramifying lines of Christendom. How foolish for us instead, 
 to render another illustration of Christ's truth, that the children 
 of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of 
 
 15 
 
light. We want the seamless robe of Jesus Christ. We should 
 find in the incident of this day, food for abundant thought. As 
 these distant and famous churches may be said to give something 
 of their strength to these walls, so the life of the whole Church 
 must partake of the life of each of the members. The fragments 
 of a broken Christendom must contribute to a new vitality. Into 
 the perfect Church of the future, each local and national church 
 will bring its own special character and excellence. Into this 
 Holy City yet to be builded, the kingdoms of the earth will bring 
 each its own glory. Catholicity will be all inclusive, while differ- 
 ences in method and varieties of spirit will be lost in the blazing 
 splendor of Perfect Love. 
 
 The intense, incisive question rings in our ears, "What mean 
 ye by these stones ?'" Shall not the whole body of our parishioners 
 reply, We will pledge our lives, our strength and our resources 
 to perpetuate in the life of ages, this Parish of St. Mark; we will 
 carry on this church in loyalty to the faith once delivered to the 
 saints ; we will show gratitude for the liberties won by the 
 advancing kingdom of God, from the cramping influence of 
 prejudice and from the malevolence of bigotry ; we will maintain 
 a church descended from the apostles and now planting herself 
 on the rock of faith in Christ and utilizing all modern progress 
 to evangelize the world of today. 
 
 16 
 
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