IHfe UNIVERSITY LIBKAKY 
 
 flWVERSJTY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DltGt 
 
 IA- JOLLA. OAI I FORM i A 
 
 REUNION: 
 
 
 'HROUGH CHARITY AND PENITENCE 
 
 3v j&ennon 
 
 Preached at the Anniversary Festival of the English Church Union 
 in St. fames' Church, Biixton, on August 20th, 1896, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE VERY REV. THOMAS I. BALL, 
 
 Provost of Cumbra. 
 
 Price One Penny. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Gbe JEn0lt0b Cburcb 'diilon Office, 
 
 35, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, W.C.
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNiyCIWITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN OI'.GO
 
 REUNION: THROUGH CHARITY 
 AND PENITENCE 
 
 " Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among 
 you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the 
 same judgment." 1 Corinthians i. 10. 
 
 [From the Second Lesson at Mattins, Aug. 20th.] 
 
 I have been asked to speak to you to-day on the subject of 
 Reunion, and I do so with very special interest when I 
 remember that in only three weeks time from to-day it will be 
 just forty years ago since I was one of the little company 
 that met in the rooms of a clergyman in London to take 
 measures for the formation of the Association for the Promo- 
 tion of the Union of Christendom. 
 
 It is solemnizing to remember how many of that little 
 company have passed away during the nearly past forty years 
 to join the great Reunion of Christendom in the life of the 
 world to come. May they rest in the peace of Christ ! Of 
 us who remain the question may very well be asked, Has the 
 experience of the last forty years justified your action in 
 banding together to promote the union of Christendom ? 
 What progress has been made towards the accomplishment 
 of your end during this long course of time ? 
 
 As to outward signs of a visible answer to our prayers and 
 efforts, we cannot say much, but this we may boldly say that 
 every year that has elapsed since our Association was formed 
 has made it more and more evident that, as far as the good 
 estate of Christ's .Church Militant here on earth is concerned, 
 the reunion of Christendom is the one thing to be desired; 
 that the work which the Eternal Son of God came down from 
 heaven to do cannot be accomplished on earth without the 
 reunion of Christendom. The importance of reunion is 
 nothing less than this. 
 
 And we may presume to say this, because on this subject 
 we have the mind of Christ revealed to us. And here let me
 
 say that the longer I live the more I become convinced of the 
 supreme importance of looking at the religious problems of 
 the day from a purely Christian point of view, that is, from 
 Christ's own point of view. What was the mind of Prophets 
 and Seers on this or that siibject ? What was the mind of the 
 Jewish Church ? What was the mind of Apostles and Fathers ? 
 What was the mind of Councils, of Schoolmen, of Reformers ? 
 What is the mind of the Church of England, of the Prayer 
 Book, of the Church of Rome, of the Orthodox Church ? 
 All these questions are important, and the answers to them 
 are worthy of reverent consideration, but, after all, the only 
 question of absolutely supreme importance is, What is the 
 mind of Christ ? And when we once have a clear answer to 
 this question, nothing else matters. 
 
 What, then, is the mind of Christ as to the kind of union 
 that, according to His will, should exist among His 
 disciples ? About this, we are left in no manner of doubt. 
 
 Hear the Eternal Host offering his Eucharistic Prayer 
 before He consummates the Oblation of Himself : " Holy 
 Father keep through Thine Own Name those whom Thou hast 
 given Me, that they may be one, as We are . . . neither pray I 
 for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me 
 through their word ; that they all may be one ; as Thou, 
 Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in 
 Us."* 
 
 And the Holy Apostle St. Paul, speaking by the Holy 
 Ghost, thus seeks to bring home the Master's will to 
 the hearts of the Corinthian Christians : " I beseech you, 
 brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all 
 speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among 
 you ; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same 
 mind and in the same judgment."f 
 
 Here, then, is the union that it is Christ's will should exist 
 among His disciples, expressed by Himself, and expounded 
 by the Holy Ghost, a union as perfect as that which exists 
 between the Divine Persons, resulting in absolute unanimity 
 in mind and action, and tolerant of no divisions. Till this 
 ideal is realized, Christ's disciples are not, in His sight, as 
 He would have them to be. For nearly two thousand years 
 millions have prayed, " Thy Kingdom come," but, till the 
 will of Christ is accomplished in His people, the kingdom of 
 God cannot come on earth, and the prayer which our Lord 
 
 * St. John xvii. 11, 20, &c. t 1 Cor. L 10.
 
 has taught us to pray cannot receive in fulness the answer 
 which it is destined to receive. 
 
 It is not infrequently the case that a story, a fable, or a 
 comparison, which has its humorous side or application, may 
 have also a very grave and serious lesson to enforce. We 
 have all heard the fable of the Fox that lost his Tail. It is 
 full of sarcastic humour. A fox loses his tail in a trap, 
 and, to cover his disgrace, seeks to convince his fellows that, 
 after all, a tail is a clumsy, meaningless appendage, and that 
 one can get on much better without it. There are, alas ! 
 those who profess and call themselves Christians who act the 
 part of the fox in the fable with regard to reunion. The 
 divisions of Christendom are an accomplished fact which 
 seems as if it meant to maintain its place in the history of 
 the world to the end. After all, some dare to say, Are these 
 divisions a real evil ? Do we not gain much by them ? 
 Does not each Church or sect emphasize something valuable 
 that might otherwise be lost or obscured ? An unfortunate 
 person who professed to speak as a Minister of Christ in 
 an assembly of Christian people, said that it would take at 
 least three distinct Churches to bring out in fulness all the 
 aspects of Christianity. What is talk of this kind but an 
 attempt to represent, in fair and pleasing colours, a state of 
 things utterly alien from the mind of Christ as expressed in 
 His own words ? And what must be the guilt of those who 
 thus seek, from whatever motive, to lead Christians disloyally 
 to approve of that which is in contradiction with the ideal 
 set before them by their Master ? 
 
 " They have seduced My people, saying, Peace ; and there 
 was no peace."* 
 
 " From the prophet even to the priest every one dealeth 
 falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of 
 My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace ; when there is no 
 peaci. Were they ashamed when they had committed 
 abomination ? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither 
 could they blush. "f 
 
 Our divisions are indeed an abomination in the sight of the 
 Lord ; let us at least have the grace, if we cannot heal them, 
 to blush for them, and not to excuse them. 
 
 But some say, No doubt, theoretically, and in the 
 abstract, the divisions of Christendom are as wrong and 
 reprehensible as they can be; but after all they are an 
 
 * Ezek. riii. 10. t Jer. viil. 11.
 
 6 
 
 accomplished fact, and though one may not justify them, is 
 not simply to let them alone the only thing that can usefully 
 be done ? You can hardly pretend that reunion comes 
 within the range of " practical politics " (as the phrase goes) ; 
 why then excite or interest yourself about it ? 
 
 I would first ask anyone who would put the matter thus, 
 Are you a Christian ? Supposing the answer to be, No, I 
 might admit that from a non-Christian point of view it is 
 at best superfluous to treat the question of reunion 
 seriously. 
 
 But if the answer be, Yes, I would further ask, Have you 
 faced the fact that as Christians we are called upon (one 
 may almost say, from first to last), to work for the realiza- 
 tion of ideals which we cannot, as a matter of fact, hope to 
 see fully accomplished as long as this present state of things 
 lasts ? 
 
 To begin with, what ideal of perfection does Christ set 
 before us as the standard to which we are to strive to attain ? 
 i( Be ye perfect, even as your Father Which is in heaven is 
 perfect."* What P is the very perfection of the great God of 
 heaven, the holy and mighty, set before men born in siu, and 
 wounded by their own iniquities, as the standard to which 
 they should attain ? Yes, nothing less. This is the standard 
 proposed to you and me. And we shall attain to it ; but 
 hardly while this life lasts. Strive as we may here, the 
 utmost we can hope for is to draw in some slight degree 
 nearer to that to which we are called. But when we have 
 passed through fire and water, and are brought into the 
 wealthy place, when we have stood before the judgment seat 
 of Christ, when the fire has tried our works, and has burned 
 up the wood, hay, and stubble that we have wrought into our 
 life, when we are saved, so as by fire, then as living, re- 
 generate members of the glorious Church, not having spot or 
 wrinkle or any such thing, we shall stand before the Father's 
 face, conformed to the image of His Son, perfect as He is 
 perfect. Then, but not till then. And woe be to us if 
 because attainment is delayed, and seems impossible to us 
 here, we yield to the temptation to rest satisfied with any 
 standard short of that divinely proposed to us the perfection 
 of God in heaven. 
 
 We have thought of ourselves as individuals, now let us 
 turn our thoughts to the Church at large. What was the 
 
 *St. Matt. v. 48.
 
 task given to His Church, to do in His Name, by the Great 
 Head of the Church before His Ascension ? " Go, make 
 disciples of all nations." For nearly two thousand years the 
 Church throughout the world had been occupied with this 
 work ; and what some tell 'us with malicious glee, others 
 admit with faint-hearted shame, and that is, that the time 
 when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms 
 of our Lord and of His Christ seems as far off as ever it was. 
 So it may be ; and yet we know the accomplishment of the 
 work is only delayed ; the word " It is done " will be spoken 
 at the hour decreed ; the Lord will descend from heaven to 
 " claim the kingdoms as His own " ; all enemies shall be put 
 under His feet ; and He shall reign over redeemed humanity 
 as King of kings, and Lord of lords, for ever and ever. And 
 woe be to those who seek to dishearten the Church, and to 
 make her faint in striving to realize the ideal of a world 
 subdued to Her Master, Christ, because the day of the 
 Lord seems to delay its appearing. 
 
 " Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land 
 of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision 
 faileth ? Tell them therefore, thus saith the Lord God, I will 
 make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as 
 a proverb in Israel, but say unto them, The days are at hand, 
 and the effect of every vision."* 
 
 Apply all this to the matter immediately before us, to the 
 duty of striving for the reunion of Christendom. Christ has 
 prayed that His people may be united in a bond of unity 
 absolutely perfect. This is the will of Him Who alone of 
 all that ever wore human nature conld dare to look up into 
 the Face of the Great God and Father of all, and say, 
 " Father, I will." Heaven and earth may pass away, but this 
 word cannot pass away. His will must be done. Christ's 
 people must and shall be one, and blessed are they who strive 
 to bring about the accomplishment of their Master's revealed 
 will, blessed are they who despite seeming impossibilities, 
 t'ainthearted warnings, cold discouragements, or bitter sneers^ 
 work and labour to bring Christ's people all to speak the 
 same thing, that there may be no divisions among them, but 
 that they may be perfectly joined together in the same mind 
 and in the same judgment. Blessed are they, for when 
 Christ shall appear to finish His work, and to reign as King 
 of Peace, over the City of Peace, they shall receive the reward 
 
 * Ezek. xii. 22, 23.
 
 8 
 
 of peacemakers, they shall see God ; and can they ask for 
 more than this ? 
 
 The ideal set before as is nothing less than that of perfect 
 unity; its realization may seem prolonged, but it will surely 
 con:e. 
 
 That we may be workers together with God in the work of 
 bringing about, in its own appointed time, the perfected 
 onion of His people, we must, I need hardly say, first and 
 before all things make this great " heart's desire " of Christ, 
 and of those whose hearts beat in unison with His, the 
 subject of unceasing prayer. As He prayed " that they all 
 may be one," so we too must pray in union with Him. And, 
 indeed, implicitly at least, we do pray thus whenever, as 
 He hath tauglt us, we say " Thy kingdom come." 
 
 But on this duty of praying for union and reunion I do not 
 purpose now to dwell. I wish more especially to speak of 
 something that should be a consequence of our prayers. 
 What, in our intercourse with others, so far as it affects this 
 matter of reunion, should we specially try to promote in 
 order that, so far as our poor influence extends, it may set 
 f orward this blessed work of reunion ? 
 
 1 believe that it is possible for each Christian, even for the 
 poorest and meanest, to do something to increase the 
 prevalence among us of that which is the only power which 
 can bring about a reunion worth accomplishing, a reunion 
 which will be of value in the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 That power is the power of love, the power of charity. 
 
 Of what value would any reunion be that was not accom- 
 plished according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ ? 
 
 But Christ recognises one, and one only power, as the force 
 that, according to His will, is to bind His people to Himself 
 and to each other, and that force is love, that power is 
 charity. 
 
 " As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you ; con- 
 tinue ye in My love. 
 
 " If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love." 
 
 " A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one 
 another 
 
 By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye 
 have love one to another."* 
 
 And if we desire a description, given by Divine ir spiration, 
 
 * St. John xv. 10, 11 ; xiii. 34, 35.
 
 of what the essential characteristics of this love, this charity, 
 are, we have it in the sublime words of St. Paul.* 
 
 " Charity suffereth long and is kind ; charity envieth not ; 
 charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave 
 itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 
 thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in 
 the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
 things, endureth all things.f 
 
 Only if charity can go forth conquering and to conquer in 
 the hearts of Christians can any reunion be effected that will 
 be in the eyes of Christ anything but a mockery, a delusion, 
 and a snare. 
 
 But we at least speak as if we forgot this. We often seem 
 to take it for granted that the reunion of Christendom must 
 be a work, not so much of love, as of diplomacy. We are 
 eager to discuss how boundaries of jurisdiction can be 
 arranged here ; ho>v definitions can be accommodated there ; 
 how safeguards mast be secured in this direction, how freedom 
 must be conceded in that; and all the time the one thing 
 needful is ignored, we forget to ask, Are the hearts of the 
 divided Churches yearning the one for the other ? Is the 
 charity of Christ constraining them to long and desire to be 
 of the same mind one towards another H 
 
 It is quite possible that a reunion of Christendom might 
 be effected by diplomacy. But what would be the 
 value of it ? The history of the Council of Florence and its 
 results may be left to answer that question. Reunion by 
 diplomacy must break down the first time it is really put 
 to the test. 
 
 Some, however, are inclined to look on love, on charity, as 
 not sufficient, in itself, as a motive power to bring about 
 reunion. No, thay think love is all very well, it is a beautiful 
 adornment that should deck the work of reunion, indeed, 
 it is an adornment that cannot be dispensed with, we admit 
 this (they would say), but the actual work of reunion must 
 depend for its vital strength rather on skill in reasoning, and 
 astute statesmanship, than on love ; these must supply the 
 poiver, love must come in to give grace and beauty to the 
 work. 
 
 Those who talk or think in this way have never yet 
 
 * In the original, the word used in 1 Cor. xiii., which is rendered c/iarity 
 is the same as that rendered lore in St. John's Gosps), chapters xiii.,<fcc. 
 t 1 Cor. xiii. 4, &c.
 
 10 
 
 
 
 learned what love is. Why, love is the great ruling power in 
 the universe. The Eecret force which in reality shapes each 
 individual life among us is the love which draws each one this 
 way or that. And when the Holy Spirit would teach the 
 Apostle to speak of God in His ineffable essence in one word, 
 He inspires him to say not God is power, God is wisdom, 
 God is majesty, but God is love. God the Holy, God the 
 mighty, God the immortal, God, is love ! And yet some would 
 doubt the immortal power of love ! Again, I say, they 
 know not what love is. There was one who knew something 
 of what love is, hear his burning words : 
 
 " The noble love of Jesus impels a man to do great things, 
 and stirs him up to be always longing for what is more 
 
 perfect Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing more 
 
 courageous, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more 
 
 pleasant, nothing fuller nor better in heaven and earth 
 
 Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts 
 what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility ; 
 for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things 
 possible. It is, therefore, able to undertake all things, and it 
 completes many things, and warrants them to take effect."* 
 
 Oh, if God would but call for a new Day of Pentecost, if He 
 would but pour out in its fulness on His Church this gift of 
 mighty, unconquerable love, what would become of the 
 divisions of Christendom ? Like as smoke vanisheth, so 
 would love drive them away ; like as wax melteth at the fire, 
 so would all middle walls of partition perish at the presence 
 of love. 
 
 And if, by the power of love, the multitude of them that 
 believe could be of one heart and of one soul, none would 
 say that aught of the definitions or confessions which he had 
 hitherto possessed was his own (there would be no contend- 
 ings for my Thirty-nine Articles against your Decrees of 
 Trent), but all would have, in common, one expression of the 
 one faith ; then, indeed, with a great power hitherto un- 
 known, would the pastors of the Church bear witness to the 
 heathen world of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and 
 great grace would be on all. Love, and love alone, made 
 things to be thus once before. Love can realise all this 
 again. 
 
 " God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers 
 have declnred unto us, the noble works that Thou didst in 
 
 * Imitation of Christ. Book III., cap. 5.
 
 11 
 
 their days, and in the old time before them. Lord, arise, 
 help us, and deliver us for Thine honour." 
 
 But if we want to intensify our sense of the supreme and 
 all-important part that love must play in the reunion of 
 Christendom, we have but to turn to the history of the 
 disunion of Christendom. 
 
 The history of the divisions of Christendom may be all 
 summed up in one short sentence, Love had grown cold. 
 
 If we turn to the history of the great schism between 
 East and West, consummated in the tenth century, and never 
 healed since, it can but strike us that if on either side there 
 had been more of the constraining charity of Christ, no divi- 
 sion would have separated Old from New Home. 
 
 But when we turn to what more immediately concerns 
 ourselves ; when we read the history of that terrible period of 
 strife and division which, for want of a better name, we call 
 the time of the Reformation, if we read that history 
 impartially, and try candidly to look at it from all sides, we 
 may well ask, What, in che midst of the confusions of 
 that evil time, became of Christian charity ? Where did 
 Love hide herself ? 
 
 The history of the Reformation brings before us, on all 
 sides of the conflict, men of splendid intellect, of profound 
 learning, of brilliant eloquence, of exalted culture; we see 
 men displaying zeal, courage, self-devotion, skill, to the very 
 highest degree ; we hear of scholars and divines speaking 
 with the tongues of men and angels, searching into all 
 mysteries and all knowledge ; we read of men full of a faith 
 in the justness of their cause that might remove mountains, 
 gladly giving their bodies to be burned in testimony to what 
 they deemed to be the truth. 
 
 Yes, we hear and know of all this, but where is the one 
 conspicuous man, in all the history of the Reformation, who 
 is the exemplar of the meekness and gentleness of Christ? 
 Where ia the man, or Church, that stands forth to witness 
 to the fact that the adorable Founder of our holy religion 
 claimed above all things to be recognised as the meek and lowly 
 in heart ? Where, at the time of the Reformation, was there a 
 body of religionists, whether in communion with Rome, 
 England, Luther, Calvin, or with any other Church or leader, 
 who seemed to remember that, as Christians, the vocation 
 wherewith we are called obliges us to walk in "lowliness 
 and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in
 
 12 
 
 love ; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
 bond of peace " ? * 
 
 In truth, at the time of the Reformation there seems to 
 have been a kind of Satanic Pentecost; the spirit of envy, 
 hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness seems to have been 
 poured forth, in a fearful flood of iniquity, over the whole 
 Church. 
 
 And can any of the Churches which were divided from 
 each other at that evil time claim to be guiltless in this 
 matter ? 
 
 It can hardly be contended that it was the exhibition by 
 the Roman Court and Pontiff of the constraining charity of 
 Curist that provoked, or gave excuse to, those who began 
 the work that ended in destroying the unity of Western 
 Christendom. 
 
 And when the work of schism was begun, how was 
 it met ? Did the Supreme Pontiff and the prelates and 
 doctors, who held with him, remember that the Holy 
 Ghost had taught them that " the servant of the 
 Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt 
 to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose 
 themselves " ? f Did they remember that the typical 
 priest is described as called upon to " have compassion on 
 the ignorant, and on them that are in error, for that he himself 
 also is compassed with infirmity " ? Nothing seemed to be 
 further from their miuds than all this. Those who 
 opposed themselves, the ignorant, those who erred, were first 
 met with contempt and bitterness, and thtn were visited with 
 fire and the sword. 
 
 Was there ever a greater outrage committed on the Chris- 
 tian religion than when (as was the case in every country in 
 Europe) the image of the Crucified the image of God dying 
 for men was uplifted in the public places of cities, to give a 
 ghastly sanction to the burning to death of men, feeble 
 women, aye, and sometimes of those who were little more 
 than children, who had gone astray from the religion of their 
 fathers ? True, their errors were sometimes absurd, some- 
 times worse ; but where or when, I pray you, did Christ ever 
 commission His Church to burn sinners, even the worst of 
 sinners, for His sake ? Where could the love of Christ have 
 disappeared to, when under the sanction of His religion men 
 were burned to death ? Think what burning to death means. 
 
 * Ephcs iv. 1, &c. t 2 Tim. ii. 24, &c. t Heb. v. 2.
 
 18 
 
 Protestants, in their zeal to maintain a feeling of hatred 
 against the Roman Church, have so fatigued our eara with 
 references to the Tortures of the Inquisition and the Fires of 
 Smithfield, that we are inclined to yawn at their mention and 
 to disbelieve in them as facts ; bat for all that, the bloody per- 
 secution with which heresy and schism were met at the 
 Reformation is a fact a terrible fact, which did more than 
 anything else to stereotype the divisions of Christendom. It 
 is neither wise nor true to the truth to ignore or forget this. 
 
 It' the appearance of dissension and division was met on 
 the Roman side, not with the patient love of Christ, but with 
 fire and sword, what of the other side, or sides ? To pass by 
 for the present the conduct of those bodies of men who, on 
 simply Protestant grounds, separated, or were separated, 
 from the Roman Church, what are we to say of the spirit 
 exhibited by our own Church of England when those steps 
 were taken which resulted in our separation from tin Holy 
 See ? It is well not to forget, however, that whatever else 
 was or has been done, the Church of England has never 
 formally renounced ecclesiastical and spiritual communion 
 with the " Church " of Rome this by the way, but however 
 this may be, did our Prelates, our Priests, our Princes at the 
 time of the Reformation exhibit the coastraining love of 
 Christ in their dealings with men and things ? Can it be 
 candidly said that with lowliness and meekness, with for- 
 bearance and long suffering, they honestly endeavoured to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ? 
 
 With shame and confusion of face the candid Churchman, 
 who really knows the history of the Anglican Reformation, 
 must acknowledge that the only answer that can truly be 
 given to these questions is an emphatic and unreserved 
 negative. 
 
 It may seem to some of us that our Church of England 
 was not as deeply involved as some others in the crime of 
 blood-guiltiness, but even as to this we are not innocent. 
 But even if, in carrying through what they deemed to be plans 
 of reformation, our prelates did not often imbrue their own 
 hands with .blood, they at least connived at the spilling of 
 much that was shed by the civil power. 
 
 But murder is not the only sin against the charity of Christ. 
 Besides the sword of steel there is the sword of the tongue. 
 And when we come to read the controversial works of the 
 prelates and divines who carried through our Reformation, 
 we find therein committed every conceivable offence against
 
 14 
 
 Christian chanty that it is possible to name. And the same 
 characteristics are found in the reports of the disputations of 
 the Reformers with their opponents. Again and again, in 
 reading the controversial works of the Reformers, and the 
 reports of their public and private disputations, one is com- 
 pelled to pause and ask, Did these men for a moment imagine 
 that such language, that such a way of treating things, could 
 convince one single mind of error, or were they merely trying 
 to irritate and exasperate those whom they were unable to 
 convince ? It would have been a sufficiently humiliating fact 
 had the Reformers been only exasperating in controversy ; 
 alas ! with shame be it spoken, they were sometimes as well 
 both blasphemous and indecent. What was there between 
 such controversialists and the Love of Jestis Christ ? And 
 as were their words, so were iheir deeds. 
 
 Is it urged that, in all this, the other side was quite as bad ? 
 Possibly it may have been so. Bat how does this make the 
 Reformers any better ? 
 
 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter the work 
 of disunion which was done because men forgot to love, must 
 be undone by love. We who profess an enthusiasm for re- 
 union must be before all things Apostles and Evangelists of 
 the Love of Christ, zealots for charity. 
 
 And how are we' to fulfil our mission ? Well, chiefly by 
 labouring to school thought, ward, and pen to exemplify in all 
 that we think, speak, or write about the great Church of 
 Rome, for instance (and, indeed, about all Churches separated 
 from us), those characteristics of charity set before us by the 
 Holy Gbost through the mouth of St. Paul. Thinking for 
 the moment of what is, after all, only one direction in which 
 our aspirations for reunion tend, let us strive to be kind and 
 generous in our judgment of things specially Roman ; let us 
 avoid that petty unseemly habit of perpetually using names 
 or terms that imply contempt of what is Roman Catholic ; 
 let us shrink from puffing up ourselves as superior to our 
 Roman brethren. When Roman opponents seem to ns to be 
 bitter, unjust, discourteous, let us not be easily provoked, nor 
 return railing for railing. To act in this way, to bind thought, 
 tongue, and pen straitly in the bonds of charity, will no doubt 
 make us poor controversialists. But what of that, if thereby 
 we become better Christians ? 
 
 And here let me give one word of warning. There are 
 those who, by a strange perversion of the spirit of true 
 charity, seem to think (or to act as if they thought) that in
 
 15 
 
 order to heal the wound of division which separates us from 
 Rome (for instance) it is a good thing to create or foster 
 suspicion, discontent, and disputing among ourselves by a 
 contemptuous depreciation of everything Anglican. The 
 unreality and folly of such a course can hardly be exaggerated. 
 Can any reasonable man for one moment imagine that to 
 sow dispeace at home will help towards a good under- 
 standing with those abroad ? It may be enough here to 
 remember that the same charity which will enable us to see 
 all things Roman in the fairest possible light will enable us 
 to see things Anglican under the same aspect. A supposed 
 charity which does not produce this effect in us is a spurious 
 imitation of the real thing. 
 
 We dare not conclude without giving serious consideration 
 to a matter of overwhelming importance. It is an axiom of 
 our holy religion that no sin can be pardoned, that no repara- 
 tion can be made for sin committed, without repentance. 
 
 The Church of Rome and our own Church have bofrH 
 grievously sinned against the charity of Christ. Which 
 Church has repented as openly and clearly as she has sinned ? 
 I do not know that either Church has. 
 
 The reunion of Christendom waits for the repentance of 
 the Churches. Which Church will lead the way ? Which 
 will first set the example of repentance ? 
 
 The Bishop of Rome, in his character of Supreme Pontiff, 
 has lately put forth officially two documents worthy of our most 
 respectful consideration. In the one he calls on the people 
 of England to return to unity with himself; in the other he 
 authoritatively defines in what, from his point of view, unity 
 must consist. Nothing could be more temperate or pacific 
 than the spirit of these documents ; but where in either 
 document does the Pope by a single word express shame and 
 repentance for the wickedness of his predecessors ? wicked- 
 ness which was, as even Roman Catholics must admit, the 
 great reason why the evil power of schism was able to wreck 
 the unity of Western Christendom. No doubt it is right 
 for the Pope to remind Christians of that which belongs to 
 him (according to his own way of looking at things), as the 
 successor of St. Peter ; but ought he to forget that he is also 
 the successor of Alexander VI., to say nothing of others ? If 
 from the A.postle he has inherited a legacy of privileges and 
 prerogatives, he has certainly, from the Borgia and those like 
 him, come into an inheritance of guilt which cannot be 
 expiated by being ignored, but which must lie at the door of 
 the Angel of the Church of Rome, except he repent.
 
 But do we see on our own aide any greater signs of 
 repentance than can be seen on that of the Church of 
 Rome ? I fear not. Something like an acknowledgment of 
 fault on our side we do sometimes come across when prelates 
 and divines, speaking in the name of the Church of England, 
 deal with the causes of Protestant dissent. But vis-a-vis 
 with the Church of Eome, the attitude generally taken 
 by us is haughty, defiant, contemptuous, self -justifica- 
 tory. Little right, indeed, does the history of oar Reforma- 
 tion give us to assume any such attitude ! The sins of our 
 Church at that period are patent ; where is our repentance F 
 
 No, on public occasions the tone taken on our behalf by 
 our prelates and others, instead of being penitent, is too 
 generally full of blind self-laudation, of foolish proclama- 
 tion of our immeasurable superiority to everybody else. 
 Have we totally forgotten the warning, " Let another man 
 praise thee, and not thine own mouth ; a stranger, and not 
 thine own lips " ? * 
 
 Not so very long ago one in high ecclesiastical place among 
 us publicly said that the Church of England is the best and 
 purest National Church in the world. The best and purest 
 National Church ! There is only One Who is entitled thus 
 to judge the Churches ; only He Who tries the reins and the 
 hearts can tell which Church excels another. Let us shrink 
 from foolish boastings such as this, and leave the judgment 
 of the matter to Him to Whom alone it belongs. 
 
 Again, one of our own communion has publicly claimed for 
 us that we shall be called " The Church of the Reconciliation." 
 What do these fine words mean ? When has the Church of 
 England had the good fortune to play the part of 
 reconciler ? And between whom ? It is true that an 
 eminent Roman Catholic thought he discerned in our own 
 Church a capability for exercising a reconciling power ; but 
 we have done nothing in that way as yet nor shall we 
 become able to do work of the kind by snatching at laudatory 
 titles, nor without deep repentance for our own share in the 
 wickedness which resulted in the breaking up of the unity of 
 Western Christendom. 
 
 When, more than half a century ago, God in His mercy 
 raised up in our Church that band of chosen men who called 
 us back, with trumpet voice, to walk in the old paths, in the 
 good way which was fast becoming forgotten by us, what was 
 
 * Prov. xxvii. 2.
 
 the one thing which His Spirit most strongly impressed on 
 their minds, and which they, in turn, most solemnly enforced 
 by word and example on others ? Surely the necessity of 
 deep, stern, whole-hearted repentance. Are we not in danger 
 of forgetting the cry of this voice ? 
 
 Perhaps, on the one hand, the preachers of repentance may 
 have, to some extent, used exaggerated terms in delivering 
 their message ; perhaps they may have wished to see signs of 
 humiliation maintained where such signs are not appropriate 
 for instance, in the services of the sanctuary ; perhaps, in 
 these ways, they have weakened the power of their word ; 
 perhaps, too, on the other hand, the reaction against merely 
 Puritanical and artificial primness may have led men into 
 excess in the other direction ; but, be all this as it may, have 
 we not too great reason to fear that the call to repentance, 
 which the great Head of the Church sent us through those 
 His servants, whom we acknowledge as our fathers in the 
 faith, is losing its power over our minds ? Is not Catholic 
 Religion in the Church of England in danger of becoming 
 enervated, ineffectual, unprogressive, through the want of 
 penitential self -restraint in those who profess it ? 
 
 If we love our Church let us dread for it above all things 
 the incursion of a self-complacent spirit, satisfied with itself, 
 and conscious of no grievous deficiencies. Such a Church is 
 an object of nothing short of loathing to Him in Whose 
 hands are the destinies of all the Churches* ; self-satisfaction 
 can be to a Church (or an individual) the prelude only to 
 shame and rain. 
 
 If we would help our Church to escape from this dread 
 fate let us take the prophet Daniel as our examplef ; it was 
 when he confessed not only his own sins but the sins of his 
 people, the sins of Israel, the Church, and people of God, 
 that the Angel Gabriel was sent to him with the assurance of 
 personal acceptance, and with the prophecy of ultimate 
 restoration for the captive Church. Let us, too, in our 
 prayers and supplications, confess the sins of our Church, the 
 sins of our fathers, the sins of our prelates, our priests, and 
 our princes. " Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the 
 offences of our forefathers, neither take Thou vengeance of 
 our sins. Lord, deal not with us after our sins, neither 
 reward us after our iniquities." 
 
 And we need not fear, if we thus pray in simplicity and 
 
 * Eev. iii. 14, &c. t Dan. ix. 20, <fec.
 
 18 
 
 sincerity, that we shall become hypocrites, confessing other 
 people's sins and forgetting our own. No, the more we 
 realise that the sins of the Church corporate have kept back 
 good things from it, the more, if we be thoughtful and sincere, 
 we shall be brought to face the fact that our own lives are 
 destitute of many a blessing, which might have cheered and 
 strengthened them, but for the sins which have kept back 
 from us God's hand of benediction ; that gracious hand 
 which disperses every cloud of blackest sin, when the cry of 
 repentance is heard, confessing the sin, and seeking its 
 forgiveness for the sake of the great Sacrifice of Expiation 
 once offered on the Cross for the sins of the whole world, 
 mortal and venial, public and private, individual and 
 corporate. 
 
 It is the great Psalm of Penitence itself that teaches us, in 
 the midst of a very agony of prayer for personal restoration 
 to God's favour after sin, to be mindful of the good estate of 
 the Church, and to invoke His loving kindness on its behalf 
 also : 
 
 Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness. 
 
 Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy 
 Holy Spirit from me. 
 
 Be favourable and gracious unto Sion, build Thou the walls 
 of Jerusalem. Psalm li. 1, 11, 18. 
 
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