Qhe Gatfxjftc IFbeal <5t tEfce ^fomcfc 2lri <£s$m Qt^mcfc €htra## finite 1 ¦ - - i ..¦¦¦-¦¦ -_. ¦ ¦ . ... ^j_ ^HAlM^E^ Bf BREWSTER, D.D- JHS-_0**-OF='*CONi)KeK(-T.T; ifEW YORK F THCrlM_S siaiTTAitER a sife'i BtBfce House Vhe Catholic Tfbeal of Zbe Cburcb SLn i > BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT NEW YORK : THOMAS WHITTAKER 2 and 3 Bible House PREFATORY NOTE. The following essay had its first shape as one of a course of lectures delivered at Washington under the auspices of the Churchman's League of that Diocese. With some changes and additions it is now put forth in this form, with the hope that it may serve as a contribution, however slight, to the discussion of a sub ject of moment and practical importance. THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. The church " I believe one Catholic and invisible Apostolic Church" is an art icle of the Christian faith. As such, it takes us into the invisible things of God. Faith is concerned with "things not seen." The Church is invisible as regards its un seen Head, the ascended Lord, and its true life which is His Spirit; invisible as regards those of its members who have been removed from earthly sight ; invisible as being yet an ideal far from actual real ization, "a glorious Church not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The Church in some respects in- Also Visible ..,,., . ••in visible, is, however, also visible. There is the inward which is not seen. There is also the outward which is seen. Between the inward and the outward there is a distinction, but there is no necessary opposition. Throughout God's world must 4 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. be recognized inward and outward together and without contradiction. Spirit takes to itself form. The human spirit is, so far as we know it here, or shall know it hereafter, clothed in a body. " There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." Body without spirit is a corpse; spirit without body a ghost. Spirit gives life to body ; body gives manifestation to spirit. In the supreme revelation the Word was made flesh. The Church, which is to be for men the extension of that Incarnation, must be, like man, and like the God-man, not spirit alone but also body, and, as body, visible. The phrase "invisible Church" * is some times used to denote an inner Church the members whereof are known only to God. This some writers' call the soul of the Church. But the soul of the Church is the Holy Ghost. Such a doctrine of the invisible Church' is not justified by Scrip- 1 According to Dr. Archibald Robertson, Regnum Dei, pp. 178.187, 201, the idea of an invisible Church may be traced to St. Augustine. 2_. g., Pere Gratry, La Pkilosophie Du Credo, Paris, 1864, pp. 176, 177. THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 5 ture or by primitive Christian writings. The Creed voices a true instinct. I be lieve in the Holy Ghost, and then I be lieve in that manifest expression of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Church, with its inward life but its outward tokens and membership. That the life manifested in Christ should not pass with His bodily presence from the earth but abide here in potency, it was necessary that men should be its instru ments, and that they should be, for per petuity of influence, organized in a society. Such a society must be visible. Its pur poses were spiritual. But, heavenly though its Godward side might be, none the less for its membership it laid hold of men here on the earth.1 The ideal is not yet realized. The Church here on earth is far from being the perfect realization of the Kingdom of God. But'it is the King dom of God "in the making."2 That divine ideal in process of realization is found in a visible Church with its outward 1 Hort. The Christian Ecclesia, 148, 149, 1 Robertson, Regnum Dei, pp. 75, 76, 358-361. 6 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. sacramental signs of the inward and spiritual. " Except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." It is important to remember An Instltu- x tion social that Christianity was not a and Historic , ., , . _-. . , philosophy only. 1 he idea was embodied in an institution. That institution was social. Christ came not to save men as single individuals, but to gather all men into one. Nor did He come merely to hide in the world a secret leaven of social prin ciples. The principle of brotherhood must have outward shape in historic fact. The social obligation involved a society. The Son of God founded a society of the sons and daughters of God. That society was no mere loose aggregation of indi viduals according to the theory which would make Jerusalem an heap of stones. It was "as a city that is compact to gether." It was as a structure compactly built upon a foundation. " I will build my Church." It was, again, in its successive stages of realization historic. It was not a transitory "movement." It was a body, THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 7 and the body had in itself a life that was unfolded after its kind in human history. The Notes of As the life of the Church his- the cimrch toricany unfolds itself, we find it claiming and more or less fully mani festing certain characteristics which are summed up as the ancient Creeds describe the Church : One, Holy, Catholic, Apos tolic. These marks, or notes, are char acteristic of the Church's life. They are not merely descriptive of something cir cumstantial and superficial. As a matter of fact, they do not lie upon the surface. They are deeply essential attributes. As such, they are cognate with each other. The notes of the Church are not like a steamer's water-tight compartments that may be shut off from each other. They are closely connected. Indeed, they are marks or aspects of a common life, and that which is truly Apostolic must be able also to lay valid claim to unity, holiness, and Catholicity. I. The Church of Christ is one. He was the founder not of churches but of " My Church." In the 8 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. writings of His Apostles the "churches" are in different provinces and cities, local branches of a common stock. In any par ticular place there was only the one church, embracing all the flock in that community. The Church was one by reason of its origin, its worship, its com mon faith and hope and love. Moreover, the Church was one because its life was one. It was the mystical body of Him who was incarnate in order that He might incorporate men in vital con nection with Himself. The Church was more than an organization ; it was an or ganism. An organism has a unity which ts not that of the parts put together in a machine but which is a vital relation. An organism is a whole whose parts are re lated through one living principle. That principle is the life that builds up the whole body and each particular part, liv ing in each part and making each organ an instrument in the development of the whole. So the Church of Christ lives by the life He gave. And such organic unity belongs essentially to " the Church which THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. Q is His Body." The divine life of the or ganism is the. principle of unity. The Church's unity is the unity of the Spirit of life. There is one Body because there is one Spirit. " By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." It would be beyond the purpose of this essay here to dwell upon the theory which, satisfied with an invisible and spiritual unity, ignores the one Body ; and on the other hand upon the exaggeration of ex ternal unity in a Church which is a con tinuation of the Roman Empire, and which, substituting for the unity of a common life governmental consolidation under a central and external authority, in that measure ignores the one Spirit. By schisms in the Body, communion be tween the parts has been sadly interrupted. But within the divine organism of the his toric Church there may be interruption of inter-communion without a real disruption of the organic unity. So long as the sac raments are rightly and duly ministered and the one divine life flows forth from Christ to visit all the parts, their lack of 10 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. perfect agreement with each other may be functional disturbance and not organic dis ease. Unity is not destroyed while all cherish the divine object of worship, the common faith, the sacraments of unity, " one Lord, one faith, one baptism." x That Apostolic appeal for unity, how ever, continues : " One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." There still abides a tran scendent ideal of unity through that same Holy Spirit. The Church ought to ex hibit a oneness in manifoldness which should be an earthly analogue of the unity of God, that communion and fellowship of the Father and the Son in the unity of the Spirit of life and love. That di vine pattern of unity our Saviour beheld as He prayed, in His great High-Priestly prayer : " that they may all be one ; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us : * * * that they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one." aEph. iv: 5, 6. THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. II II. "Holy Church" was the language of the old Roman Symbol in the fourth century, and in this form the Article may be traced back at any rate to the early part of the third century. The first meaning of " holy " was separated, set apart and consecrated. Holy Church was a sacred institution be longing to God, not to man. It was not a voluntary association, but a divine insti tution, the members of which had been called by God and set apart to be His own elect people. So St. Peter calls them "a holy priesthood" and "a holy nation."1 That idea of hallowing soon adds to itself the deeper significance of spiritual consecration. This Article of the Creed may have been crystallized in the heated controver sies of the third century about pardon. It was at first immediately followed by " The forgiveness of sins." St. Cyprian employs the language, "remission of sins through holy Church."2 Thus it is holy Church as possessing the means of grace. ¦I. S. Peter ii: 5, 9. 2Ep. lxix: 2. 12 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. The Church's holiness is grounded upon the same principle as her unity, namely, the indwelling life. The ancient Creed ran: "And in Holy Spirit, Holy Church." I believe in holy Church because I believe in Holy Spirit. Therein the body has its animating soul. The Church is holy "ac cording to the Spirit of holiness." She holds to holy faith and holy sacraments and the great purpose to make men holy. That purpose were defeated if none ex cept the already holy might be admitted to or retained in her membership. The Church is the school of holiness. The school must admit the unlearned and the unruly, and include scholars in various stages of attainment. We speak of an institution of learning or of a learned uni versity because it is a school devoted to learning, although many who belong to it may be unlearned. In like manner we speak of holy Church. It is an institution devoted to holiness. All its members are called to be holy. And the divine ideal and aim is " that it should be holy and without blemish." THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 13 catholic m* "And in one Holy Catho lic Church." So ran the Article as given by St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lectures ' before the middle of the fourth century. " Catholic " is in many creeds' in yet earlier times. The Church is catholic, that is, universal, by the same Spirit. The Holy Ghost makes the Holy Catholic Church. God breathed into a body of men the Spirit of life, and men became a living Church. On that Pentecostal birthday of the Church the Eternal Spirit came anew in universality of mission for a pouring forth upon all flesh. ^ .. "Catholic" implies more than More than * world-wide world-wide extension. St. Cyr- Extension ^ in the lecture just referred to, goes on to explain the title as meaning not only extension over all the earth but also comprehensiveness in doctrine and universality of application. It was be cause she carried the Holy Spirit of universality and therefore was in pur pose and essential character universal 'xviii: 22. 14 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. that the Church spread everywhere. That external sense of the word "Catho lic" was naturally seized upon by the practical Latins and made much of in later polemics. But at the first there was this inner significance. It is not mere tautology when the account of Poly- carp's martyrdom tells how he prayed for " the Catholic Church throughout the world." * There was from the first in the title some premonition of a profound sig nificance that was universal. She was the Church throughout the world because she was catholic, with a meaning for all the world, a message and a purpose for all men. Where the title first appears, in an epistle of St. Ignatius,2 the passage reads: "Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." Jesus Christ, if lifted up, was to draw all men unto Him. His Church was designed to be — all men drawn unto Him. She is the Catholic Church because holding forth the Catholic gospel for "all men." ¦Cap. viii. 8 Ad Smyrn. Shorter version, viii. THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. IS "Aii the As she is the Church for all places, so also she is the Church for all times, the Church for all the genera tions, because of that everlasting Gospel, the truth that endureth from generation to generation. She is the Catholic Church because she has Catholic truth, truth in its entirety. This she has in having the Spirit of truth. " When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth." * It is not that the Church ex plicitly confesses each and every point of the vast circumference of all truth. But implicitly she holds the whole truth. The faith once for all delivered she holds as a vast inheritance to be entered upon and devel oped, as the Spirit guides into all the truth. There is a legitimate development of Catholic truth. That development has consisted, as for example in the develop ment of the Catholic creeds, in the ex plicit statement of that which had before been implicitly held. The decisions of the General Councils receive their ratification in the general consent of the whole 1 S. John xvi : 13. l6 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. Church. And the test, at each stage of the process of development, is the rule of St. Vincent of Lerins: "That we hold that faith which has been believed every where, always, by all." " While opposing novelties, he concedes a true development, a progressive increase "in its own kind."2 And it is to be tested by universality, an tiquity, general consent. IV. The Spirit-bearing Church Apostolic . . is Apostolic by reason of au thoritative and unfailing mission. " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He (breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost."3 The in stitution of the Church was potentially in the institution of the Apostolate. Apostle means one sent forth. "And He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth." "Whom also He named Apostles."4 On the eve of His ascension they were sent forth on a 1 Commonit. Cap. il. s Ibid. Cap. xxiii. 3 S. John xx : 21. 4 S. Mark iii-: 14; cf. S. Luke vi: 13. THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 1 7 universal mission, " unto the uttermost parts of the earth."1 And to the eleven had been given the Church's charter and a commission which was to be perpetual : " Disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you ; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 2 The whole It is because of that Apostolic Body Apostolic m;ssion) universal, perpetual, that the Church is Apostolic. It is the whole Body which is Apostolic. Within the Body are distinctions of function but not of caste. The whole Church is a royal priesthood, wherein every member has share by virtue of his vocation and minis try. The orders of the Apostolic Ministry were only organs, mouthpieces and instru ments, of the Apostolic Body. Apostolic It was none the less a body, succession an organism. And for the dis charge of its various functions it must 1 Acts i : 8. 1 S. Matthew xxviii : 19, 20. l8 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. have organs. They are essential to its completeness ; essential, moreover, to its life. The Body of Christ has perpetuated its life in accordance with the organic law of its being. From the Apostles' time the Society has maintained its continuity, its structural identity, and its fellowship with the Apostles, through men who succeeded the Apostles. "Apostolic Succession" has been to many needlessly offensive. It is a fact writ large in history that certain functions that had been discharged by Apostles devolved upon other chief pas tors in succession from them. The his toric fact has the vital importance of a principle that concerns the development and reproduction of the Church's organic life. It gives the Church visible and con tinuous Apostolicity. a DWine Here, then, is divine provision Fellowship for human fellowship in all times and places. For the individual man, no one need be in the isolation of spirit ual exile, a man without a country, but may be a fellow-citizen with the saints. For society, there is one commonwealth of THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. IQ man with the organized power of brother hood to regenerate the world. Godward, there is the great household for all the chil dren of the one God and Father of all. The catholic Turning to actual conditions weai we see another picture: schisms widening for centuries, many bodies of various names, forces bearing the same banner clashing in collision, estrangement, bitterness, and strife. But beyond the foreground with its lines of division there are vistas. We may look away to where there is shadow but also light. It is the light from afar of the holy city, having the . glory of God, and its distant bright ness is like unto a stone most precious, clear as crystal. The flash of that dia mond lustre Christian eyes have ever and again caught. Christian hearts have dreamed of a city of God that should be more than a heavenly vision. " Coming down out of heaven," it was destined for this earth. Always above the horizon has hovered the persistent ideal of a city of God, a commonwealth of His people, which should be an earthly realization of the 20 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. one kingdom of the God and Father of all, the Holy Catholic Church. In the Apos tles' Creed the single word "Catholic" may be taken as embracing also the ideas of unity and Apostolicity that found ex pression in the later statement of the faith. And this glorious ideal of the ages may be briefly described as the Catholic ideal. Over against this ideal there is Contrasted . with the what, with no opprobrious ref- Sect-ldea ., . erence, we may call the sect- idea. It may be worth while to note the radical contrast between the two princi ples : catholicity and sectarianism. Only let us enter upon the comparison with no feeling toward our fellow Christians save a large charity, and in all humility, remem bering that the sectarian spirit is to be found among our own people and that many brethren of other names have hearts filled with the Catholic yearning. It is not persons but principles we are now to compare. The Catholic ideal is incompatible with any small ideas of Christianity. It was in recognition of THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 21 this that Hooker pronounced denial of the Catholic Church a fundamental heresy, equivalent to saying that Jesus is not the Saviour of the world.1 Certainly the Catholic ideal is every way larger and more inclusive. (i) In the Catholic Church there might be many branches with manifold varia tions but only one stock. The sect is a section separated from the whole. (2) The Catholic conception of the Church is the notion of an organism. In stead thereof has been substituted the notion of organization. (3) The Catholic Church is an organ ism, a living body, whereof the members are all the baptized. The sect is an or ganization with inevitable limitation as to membership. (4) The sect looks to men as masters and leaders. On the other hand St. Vin cent of Lerins, in stating the notes of a Catholic, warns against the genius and eloquence of individual leaders.' 1 Serm. ii: 32. 8 Commonit. xx. 22 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. (5) The sect is, historically, founded in human leadership ; whereas the Catholic Church has a charter of higher than human authority.1 (6) In sectarianism may be traced an exaggeration of individualism, of the sub jective element in religion. As Maurice said: "The sect chooses Christ." But Christ said : " I have chosen you." The Church is chosen, the called, the elect. (7) The sect is built up by voluntary association, and a man joins his church as he joins his political party. The Catholic conception is that by baptism one is born into a commonwealth. (8) The sect is the association of those who agree in thinking alike upon subjects deemed of sacred importance. The Catho lic conception is that the Church is not an association of those who share the same opinions but a family of those who by birth inherit a common life, many men of many minds differing, it may be, widely but notwithstanding differences of opinion still brethren of one household of faith. 1 S. Matt, xxviii : 18-20. THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 23 (9) Sectarianism is based upon distinc tions, and usually negations, which cause men to separate. Catholicity is based upon affirmations uniting men in spite of differ ences. (10) The sect holds its measure of truth. But it is a segment cut out from the whole circumference. The true Catholic concep tion includes recognition of the largeness and the mystery of all truth. Truth is not a private pond nor a walled-in reser voir. It is an ocean vast and deep. We are like children on the shore. Yet men have parcelled out and partitioned that narrow strand, and called the lands after their own names, and we hear of Hicksites, Campbellites, Wesleyans, and Lutherans. Once it was enough forthe disciples to be called Christians. If more is needed, then mine be the words of St. Pacian: "Christian is my name, Catholic my surname." * (11) The origin of the sect has doubt less been in protest for some neglected truth. But its separation upon some nar row issue has tended to the partial and 1 Ep. i. ad Sympronianum. 24 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. defective, to exaggeration of special ten dencies and to a certain isolation and pro vincialism. On the other hand is the ideal of Catholicity comporting with the large ness and the fulness of the Kingdom of God. In its wide inclusiveness there is room for freedom; while the exclusiveness which began in individualism has, through magnifying of the particular tenet and insistence on the shibboleth, at length threatened individual freedom of thought and conduct and sometimes resulted in a sect-tyranny grievous to be borne. (.12) It should be observed that to-day sectarianism is largely worn away to mere denominationalism ; that is, a matter of names. But there remains division with its manifest evils : a broken front against the enemy, competition and an incalculable waste of power, confusion of tongues, a not unnatural but deplorable weariness of religious teaching, and a widespread doubt of what is truth. The umty of Meanwhile there is the ideal. aiim chrut The oneness of all in Christ Jesus is involved in His revelation as an THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 25 essential part of His truth. Fellowship with the Father includes the fellow ship of Christian brotherhood. It is an encouragement to remember the reality of spiritual unity. All who par ticipate in Christ as their life are one in Him. Tol>e But this spiritual oneness is visible not to remain a hidden secret. It must have outward manifestation. The visible Church, for the sake of its divinely purposed meaning, must have a unity that shall be visible. Our Lord prayed for a oneness that might have the evidential power of things seen : " That they may all be one * * * that the world may believe." The restoration of visible unity has been called "an iridescent dream." If it be so, it is one of those dreams foretold to be dreamed in the days of the Spirit, and it is iridescent with the rainbow hues of a glorious hope. It is a vision of faith to the uplift and the outlook whereof we are bidden as often as we say or sing : "And I believe one Catholic and Apos tolic Church." 26 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. The christian Surely it behooves all who pro- Attitude fess an(j ca]j themselves Chris tians to cherish in this regard not scepti cism but faith. We ought to pray for unity because for it our Lord in that supreme hour prayed. We shall pray, confessing the shortcomings wherein we have shared, in the expectance which should accompany prayer, yet in the patience which bides God's time and in the humility which seeks not' the triumph of our schemes but that unity which is agreeable to His will. We shall cherish a genuine brotherly love which shall manifest itself in mutual respect and courtesy, not call names or make the most of differences, but seek to under stand one another's position, keep to cen tral and essential things, and trust be neath differences to find a deeper and more fundamental agreement among all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. ™. __ « , So much for the Christian's at- The Outlook titude. What now of the im mediate outlook? Electricity and the THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 27 march of events are bringing men to gether. It is an age of national and imperial unification and of international approaches. Men's minds are turned to great unities of thought, of political and commercial, of social, and of religious life. Parts of Christendom separated by distance and division have been thrilled by common currents of Catholic thought. Many influences here conspire. Theo logical systems that have been towers of Babel for confusion of speech are crum bling. Studies in Christian history draw men toward primitive ground that ante dated separation. Larger interpretations of Scripture, concentration of attention upon the person of Christ, increasing perception that it is the true purpose of Christianity not to divide men by denials but to unite them in affirmations and build them up together in faith, the social trend of present-day activity, the practical experience of the ills of division in Chris tian work; all this has tended to beget enhanced appreciation of corporate Chris tianity and a general desire for unity, and 28 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. to create an atmosphere more favorable to it than for some centuries past. Coming now to the question Unity & i-i Distinguished of purpose and aim, let us from Union _ _ . . . note the distinction between unity and union. Unity means oneness ; union is the binding together of things that are not one. Men speak of the union of Christians : and it often means merely bringing them together as so many sticks in a cord of wood. Our Lord spoke of the branches abiding in the vine and of a like oneness of Chris tians in Him. Union is outward, acci dental and circumstantial. Unity is in ward and essential. Union is mechani cal ; it is put together. Unity is vital ; it is the oneness of a common life wherein the parts grow together. The endeavor after Christian Union may achieve Alliances and Federations. And still is perpetuated actual separation. At best you have different bodies confed erated together. It is a distinguished Congregationalist who says : "A confed eration of sects wears no seamless robe ; THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 29 its proper drapery is a crazy quilt." * Cer tainly such a confederacy falls short of unity. Genuine unity might find illustra tion in these United States together form ing in actual fact one Nation forever in separable. The unity of the Church means the organic and vital unity of many parts, members, and organs in one body. Chris tian unity in fulness of realization would mean that various Christian organizations should merge in one divine organism so that Christ's Church might be indeed His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Vnlty The unity of an organism is a Daits^„med oneness in manifoldness, a uni- uniformity ty in diversity. The several parts are developed each in a freedom of action which only the more fully ministers to the rich life of the whole. So above all must it be in that Body the members whereof are persons. The truest life of the whole is best served by the free develop- 1 Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon, Irenics and Polemics, p. 297. 30 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. ment and untrammeled personal life of the members. Its unity is to be distinguished, as we have seen, from the union which is a vain attempt to ignore differences. On the other hand, it is to be distinguished from the uniformity where tyranny would sup press differences and reduce all to the peace of a Chinese monotony or of death. It.is a unity living and free. There are dis tinctions of function and of administration; differences of opinion and in modes of worship. But these are made concordant because taken up into the large harmony of the whole in the one key of a common faith and a common life. It was with purpose looking The Overture x *¦ . . ° ofthe toward such a unity, a unity Bishops . . f .... comprehensive of differences, that there was put forth the declaration of English and American Bishops which is known as the Chicago- Lambeth Overture. In this Declaration, as first put forth at Chicago, let me ask you to note the recog nition of all who have been duly baptized with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 3I members of the Holy Catholic Church. Let me also ask you to note "that this Church does not seek to absorb other communions, but rather, co-operating with them on the basis of a common faith and order, to discountenance schism, to heal the wounds of the Body of Christ and to promote the charity which is the chief of Christian graces and the visible manifes tation of Christ to the world." It is not sought that all these other Christians shall become Protestant Episcopalians. It is not the idea that they shall be merged in us, but rather with us merged in that great Body of the future which shall be at once one with the organism of the past and also larger and richer and nobler far than any particular Church of to-day. " Who can count the dust of Jacob or the number of the fourth part of Israel!" Furthermore, the Bishops affirm certain principles which they " believe to be the substantial deposit of faith and order committed by Christ and His Apostles to the. Church" and " essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christen- 32 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. dom." Finally, they declare a desire and readiness "to enter into brotherly confer ence with all or any Christian Bodies seek ing the restoration of the organic Unity of the Church, with a view to the earnest study of the conditions under which so priceless a blessing might happily be brought to pass." unique Respecting the source of this ^Angiica'n116 invitation to brotherly confer- commumon ence there js this to be said: Among Christian bodies the Anglican Communion is unique in the fact that it contains within itself the widest divergen cies of theological and ecclesiastical opin ion and of ritual, without break or parting asunder. There is difference and there is sharp debate, but there is no split. There is thus afforded an example of the kind of unity which might prevail among all Chris tians. This Church presents this example because of her unique inheritance of cath olicity and liberty. Her inheritance also endows her with singular advantage and opportunity. More than a century ago an acute Roman Catholic, who had en- THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 33 joyed an unusual experience of and ac quaintance with ecclesiastical affairs in Italy, France, and Russia, wrote the often- quoted passage: " If ever Christians come together in that unity to which everything calls them, it would seem that the moving impulse must start from the Church of England. * * * The Anglican Church, which touches us on the one hand, on the other touches those whom we cannot touch ; * * * and may be considered as one of those chemical intermediaries able to combine elements otherwise irreconcil able." {Comme un de ces intermedes chi- miques, capable de rapprocher des e'le'ments inassociables de leur nature.y The truth of his observation is more evident now than when he wrote. So she stands, claiming her place among the ancient, his toric churches, and yet the home of a large liberty and in touch with the great Evan gelical communions, the Church at once Catholic and free. 1 Count Joseph De Maistre, Considerations sur la France Paris, 1821, p. 32 (first published in 1796). 34 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. contributions Granting that each of the now toward umty severed parts of Christendom has somewhat to contribute toward the full completeness of a reunited Church, what has this old Anglo-Saxon Church of England and of America to offer, which our Protestant brethren might find it worth their while to consider ? First, this Church has cherished the Catholic ideal. Second, for the realization of this ideal of one divine organism she offers the struct ural principle. The structural Unity is not likely to come principle through agreement in theo logical doctrine. There are no signs that Christians will in the future all think just alike, if indeed they ever did in the past. The unity we may hope for is a vital and human unity, centering in living personal ity. So, at the first, in the Apostles all the congregations found a center of unity. Such a center may still be found, if the Church of the future is to perpetuate historic Christianity, in the historic Epis copate locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs]]of THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 35 the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of His Church. That means not lord bishops, nor, again, bishops necessarily over immense dioceses. It means simply chief pastors who shall serve singly as symbols of local unity and to gether make the Church one flock under Him who is Shepherd and Bishop of all souls. Here is a polity not of unity for the sake of government but of govern ment for the sake of unity. It supplies for the organism a back-bone of historic continuity. A simple yet efficient bond of oneness with the Church throughout the world and the Church of all the past, it secures a visible, vital, and organic unity, which is able to tolerate wide differences and thus to exemplify the Christian liberty of a large diversity in essential oneness. Secondly, we may hope for Emphasis . '. , ,, , , upon Divine unity as it shall be sought in Principles , . . ... . . divine principles, that is to say as men are willing to forego their prefer ences in things of human choice and human ordering. Separations came through in sisting upon such things and confounding 36 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. with divine truth what were merely matters of human opinion. A broader fellowship will be found in larger convictions of diviner things, of profounder and sublimer truths. Let men lift their eyes above those man-built en closures to contemplate God's horizon. Let them see that no one man may con ceive, no separate sect contain, the vast circumference of all truth. Let them ap- preeiate the largeness of the spaces of the Kingdom of Christ. Let them see that it is possible to turn from the partial to the universal, from the human to the divine, from broken cisterns hewed out by men to " the river of God which is full of water," that river " proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb," and that, thus drinking of that one Spirit, and thus joined in the one Body to Christ, as He is one with God, to them may belong of right the Catholic claim : "All things are yours, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." umty m jesus F°r> thirdly, the lines on which Christ we work for Christian unity must meet in that corner stone which THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 37 is both divine and human, Jesus Christ Himself. Christian unity has its life in the one Spirit. It has its center in the "one Lord" Jesus Christ. It is as they draw near to Him that His people draw nearer to each other. The oneness of the whole body is through the common life that has its source in Jesus Christ. This oneness the Church will realize in pro portion as its members live in that life that pulses from the heart of Jesus Christ. Evils of dis- ^ is as men, fired by His love union Realized {q]. man> lov_, HJm and gjye themselves to Him, to go forth to preach the Gospel to every creature ; it is as Christians at home learn of Him sympathy with their fellow-men and side by side together work to help poor humanity up and on, and seek to win the multitudes of our cities and the dwellers in villages and the sheep scattered on the hillsides into the fold of Christ, that the practical diffi culties and the burning shame and the faithlessness of disunion will force them selves on men until they shall together 38 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. cry: " Behold how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity." Thus in genuine sympathy with Sympathy . . -, , with our the purposes 01 the baviour 01 Lord's Desire , t i t t - , .1 the world and working together with Him, men must feel themselves moved by the mighty uplift of His heart's desire and sublime aspiration: " That they may be one even as we are one: I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know" Let us not refuse to rise to the height of that great prayer. Let us contemplate that divine purpose and that divine ideal of unity. Let our eyes be open to the possibility of a unity more vital than either a mechani cal union on the one hand or a dead uni formity on the other, a unity that may embrace distinctions and differences with in the common life of the one Spirit in one Body. Christians today, as they sing Unity in 1 , . prayer and the same hymns and pray in that same blessed Name, in sensibly come to be more and more at one with each other and with the Holy THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 39 Church throughout the world. I have heard that in the great Civil War one night, as the hostile armies lay encamped on opposite banks of a stream, a homesick lad began to sing " Home, Sweet Home." Other voices took up the strain, at length the whole regiment, the brigade, the division. Then the boys across the stream joined in, and soon both those armies, gathered for the deadly strife of that cruel war, were singing the same song. War and its hate were forgotten while thoughts were far away with the loved at home. So sectarian strife is stilled in the strains of common song and in thought of our best Friend and our common home with Him,- Those who have crossed the river and gone to be with Christ, which is far better, what divides them from each other there, in that blessed presence ? Even here and now the like is true in the measure in which Christians draw nigh to Him and lift up their hearts unto the Lord in prayer and praise. And when worship mounts to its culmination in the Euchar- istic showing of the Lord's death and the 40 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. gathering, about the Father's table, there is the very sign and sacrament of brother hood in Christ. As Holy Baptism is the ground sacramentof of unity, so the Sacrament of Brotherhood T t i /-< » . i n Holy Communion is the rally ing point about which Christians may come together again. The Divine Liturgy is a corporate service of the whole ' Body, wherein is commemorated, represented and pleaded the great sacrifice in common with and on behalf of- "all thy whole Church." The Eucharistic sacrifice includes the of fering of the whole Church by that Church herself in her offering to God. As St. Augustine says : " The whole redeemed city, that is to say, the congregation or community of the saints, is offered to God. * * * This is," he continues, " the . sacrifice of Christians: we being many are one body in Christ."1 Then also it is a communion, a sharing in common, which unites those who share to one another in uniting them to God. As St. Paul says : " We who are many are De Civ. Dei, x: 6. THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. 41 one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread." * "And all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Commun ion " are included in that holy fellow ship. In the commanded oblation of the Altar the Church today appeals to God for Catholic unity as truly as in the ancient days when men prayed : "As this bread was scattered upon the mountains, and having been gathered together became one, so also, O Lord, gather together Thy Holy Church from every race and every country and city and village and house hold, and make it a living Catholic Church." • Yes: It is in these ways, as we all work for God and men in the same love to our common Lord and Master, as His people go forth to distant lands in mis sions to proclaim the Saviour who died for all, as the Lord's Service more and more regains its true position as the ser vice of the Lord's Day, and as Christians commemorate that precious death and ' I Cor. x : 17. 2 Bishop Sarapion's Prayer of the Oblation. 42 THE CATHOLIC IDEAL OF THE CHURCH. sacrifice in Holy Communion, — it is thus that, coming close to their Lord, they shall come into closer fellowship with one another, that they shall more and more realize the Communion of Saints in the unity of the Catholic Church, and appre hend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that they may be filled unto all the fulness of God.