WORDS TO THE WISE
‘I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.’
We are met together not to exalt ourselves, but for the great and definite purpose of trying to build one another up in our most holy faith, and of learning how we may the better extend, both at home and abroad, the Kingdom of our Divine Lord, our beloved Master. Our object may be found in the words of St. Paul—That Christ may be magnified. Shall we not pray very earnestly for the gift of the Holy Ghost? Where He is there will be no error, for He is the Spirit of Truth. Where He is there will be no discord, for He is the Spirit of Unity. Where He is there will be no lack of Charity, for He is the Spirit of Love.
I. As Churchmen we need to define our position.—Not for trifles do we work and watch, do we pray and contend, but for the greatest and most vital realities. We maintain the supremacy of Holy Scripture as the one Rule of Faith, inspired—we ask not, we define not, how—by the Holy Spirit of God. We accept with all our hearts the blessed doctrine of the Trinity. We believe in the Fatherhood of God, in the redemption wrought out by Christ in the convincing, converting, sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost. We insist on the absolute necessity of good works and holy living. Trifles, indeed, are these things trifles? No more trifles than is the foundation-stone of a building.
II. We need to assert our Churchmanship.—We are deeply attached to our own beloved Church of England. We believe her to be the purest branch of the Catholic Church. We love with the deepest and tenderest love, with the warmest and most intense affection, our Book of Common Prayer. We value the Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself as ‘outward visible signs of inward and spiritual grace.’ We rejoice in the three orders of the Christian ministry—Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. We claim to be loyal, warm, sincere, devout. We object to any adjective at all—we are Churchmen.
III. We need to affirm that whilst we are valiant for the truth we are neither narrow nor illiberal.—We are thankful the Church of England embraces three schools of thought. We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to the one for brighter services and more beautiful churches; to the other for leading us to reconsider our interpretation of the Divine Word, and to question whether on some minor but not unimportant points the common may not have been the incorrect meaning; and to the third that the Evangelical fathers were instrumental in furthering personal holiness and increasing spirituality of worship and of life.
IV. We need to have knowledge of the times.—There is no reason why we should not accommodate ourselves and our services to the taste of the age, provided we do not sacrifice any principle or obscure any truth, or forget that God is Spirit and they that worship Him should worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
V. We need to be more united amongst ourselves.—There is undoubtedly great need for visible unity and cohesion amongst ourselves. Bishop Lightfoot thus closes his introduction to the Epistle to the Philippians: ‘To all ages of the Church—to our own especially—this Epistle reads a great lesson. While we are expending our strength on theological definitions or ecclesiastical rules, it recalls us from these distractions to the very heart and centre of the Gospel, the life of Christ, the life in Christ. Here is the meeting-point of all our differences, the healing of all our feuds, the true life alike of individuals and sects and churches; here doctrine and practice are wedded together, for here is the “Creed of Creeds” involved in and arising out of the work of works.’
—Rev. Henry Woffindin.
Illustration
‘ “I have lived a long life,” said Bishop Harold Browne, “and have seen and known leaders of all parties. In my youth it was my privilege to know Simeon, a leader of one section at that time. I knew Keble, who led another section, and I knew F. D. Maurice, and I can say that I agreed in the main points with every one of these great and good men, and honoured and loved them. I could heartily subscribe to the chief tenet of Simeon’s school that Christ is the only way of salvation, and that no creature earthly or heavenly can intervene between the soul of the sinner and his Saviour. I can subscribe to Keble’s faith in the assured presence of Christ in His Sacraments, the communion of the individual with his Saviour, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the Communion of Saints. I can join heartily in the teaching of Maurice that the Eternal Father regards with all-embracing love those He has created and redeemed. Nay, I doubt not, in the Kingdom of our Father we shall see each of these men, unless, indeed (as Whitfield said of Wesley), they are too near the eternal brightness for us to be able to discern them.” ’