NEW TESTAMENT CHURCHMANSHIP.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14030, 29 April 1911, Page 12

NEW TESTAMENT CHURCHMANSHIP.

■A Sermon Preached at the Church Congress, Swansea, October S,-190u. By The Eight Rev. J. W. Diggle, D.D. Itord Bishop of Carlisle. "Tho Church, which is His Body." In the New Testament great elasticity is displayed in tho use of the term Church. Wβ read of the Church in. a house, in a neighbourhood, a eity t a province; and, above all, as including ihuL excelling all, of the Church which is the body of Christ: the fulness of Him that filleth all tilings. But throughout this large variety of usage there runs in every instance the thought yea, the necessity, of the Church's incorporation with the Christ; an incorporation by Sacrament and faith, by devoted love and perpetual service. Baptism and belief; departure from iniquity and fellowship with the brethern ; these always appear in tho New Testimont as the characteristic notes of Christian Cliurchmanship. Where these are. the Church is; where these are not, neither is the Church. And when-we enquire into the nature of these characteristic notes of New Testoment Ohurchmanship, ive find them all aliko marked by two chief I attributes, via., comprehensiveness and J simplicity. Baptism in the New Testa- ! meat, like the twin Sacrament of the I Supper, is a very vast and simple thing. I First administered only to adult converts, as is necessarily the case in all i missionary enterprise, it was both the I sign and the seal of belief in Jesus as Messiah, Saviour, and King. Sometimes this baptism was accompanied or ! followed by tho laying-on of hands. But there is no mention of this manual imposition either in our Lord's own j formula of initiation into Christian ; discipleahip or in such accounts of great I conversions as that on the Day of Pentecost. The ordinance of confirmation, therefore, although sanctioned by Scripture, is nowhere by Scripture commanded. It is a beautiful and fruitful ordinance when confirmees aro old enough and earnest enough to work together with God for its spiritual benefits; and we of the Church of England are unspeakably thankful for it. Wβ know the greatness of its opportunity and its gift. Wβ believe it to bo in acordance with the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. We wov«d not, part with it at any price. Yet taking Scripture as our guide, we can never truly say. or teach that the unconfirmed,, solely because they lack tho laying-on of hands, are beyond the bounds o? the Christian Church, or should be denied any even the most j sacred, Christian privileges. And as with baptism, so with belief, j That also in the primitive Church was absolutely grand, both in its comprehensiveness and simplicity. Such traces of creeds as we find in. the New Testament are conspicuous for their brevity, their immensity, , and their affectionateness. Belief in God as the compassionate Father of all men; in Jesus Christ as the self-sacrificing Redeemer of the lost; in the Holy; Ghost as tho fire of hatred for all things evjlj and the inspiring breath of devotion to all things pare and good. Thin is the fundamental and only necessary creod ofXew Testament Churchmanship. Such a creed is rather a personal consecration of heart and will than an assent to any

proposition, or scries of propositions, accepted by the intelligent. \n truth, the knowledge which save* is nowhere represented in the Bible as intellectual knowledge. Saving knowledge is of the kind which the shepherd has of the sheep. It is personal intimacy, personal care, personal service, personal love. This is life eternal, to know , the Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom "He has sent; with the I knowledge that friend has of friend, ! child of parent, wife of husband, i Every one that Joveth knoweth God. I He that loveth not knoweth not God. i for God is Love. The true importance of the question. "What think ye of Christ?" lies not so much on itK in- | tollectual side—though this cannot be j rightly under-rated—as on its affec- | tionate side. In religion, indeed, opin-1 ions of any kind are valuable, unless they lead to emotion, and from emotion j on to adoration and service. The Xew Testament creeds, then, were personal passions, iearle&s enthusiasms. They were not dead opinions about the nature of God, but dynamic convictions of His personal power, righteousness, mercy, love. They were not dead opinions about .Testis Christ: but tremendous realisations that in Him men hail seen the character and express image of the All-Father, the Deathbringer to sin. the Life-bringer to righteousness, the future final Judge of both quick and dead. They were notdead opinions about the Holy Ghost; but the profound and blessed experience that in Him alone, yet from Him assuredly, will come to individuals and mankind all loftiest aspirations and noblest ideals, all goodness and righteousness and truth. The difference between this primitive, creed, this New Testament, symbol of rliscipleship or two terms are practically synonymous!—and later creeds and modern symbols is immeasurable; immeasurably not only in degree, hut t also in kind. Tho farther we move from the age of Christ and His Apostles, the farther also we move from the mi re simplicity and comprehensive affection of tho Christian faith. The earlier the creed, the shorter and more catholic it is; the later the creed, tho longer is it and the more exclusive. The earliest creeds were the expression of historic fact, of personal relationship, of personal affection; tho latest aro largely tho subtle reticulations of schoolmen, and sometimes also the fierce? embodiment of ecclesiatical narrowness The dominant notes of the first creeds are inclusion and love; of the last, exclusion and anathema. Instead of being a bond of union between Christians, the more modern the creed the more prolific is it as a cause of division, a source of faction, a fount of bitterness. It is possible, nay, probable,' that in their day some of these later creeds may have served good ends. Against the reticulations of heresy it may have been wise to oppose the reticulations of orthodoxy. In times of war. or in a state of siege, the normal conditions of life are temporarily suspended. Martial law is proclaimed, and reigns supreme. But to mako martial law permanent in times of peace is the ruin of peace and the suro incitement to rebellion; while a perennial stage of siege is a perenniat state of danger, misery, and want. It seems, therefore, certain that in so far as creeds aro complex «nd belligerent, they are dissimilar from the enrliost creeds, and that until we return to the simplicity, and affectionatoness of tho New Testament creeds, wo have no reason to hope for, no right to claim, the promise of the Saviour that He will draw all men unto Him. For it is He, and Hβ alone, when lifted up, Who attracts unto Himself with the irresistible power of a divine personal affection, universal humanity. The more complex the creed, tho more it obscures tho Christ. Tho simpler the creed and the more clearly it displays tho Christ the swifter and grander will be its conquest of mankind. It was the enthusiasm of simple devotion and personal love which wrought such wonders in the Apostolic ago. It is the substitution or metaphysical subtleties for adoring affection which has been ono principal causo of the absence of those -wonders in subsequent ages. In simplicity and love lies the secret of .Catholic Churchmanship; in complexity and exclusiveness lies schism. Again, the morals of tho Gospel are simple morals ar.pealing-to the universal conscience of man. Their foundation is tho bed-rock of love. To love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, all our strength and our fellow-men, of every race and decree, as ourselves— this is tho sum and substance, the royal law, of Christian morals. Mercy, justice, truth; these are the touchstones of all genuine Christian integrity. Eccelesiastical morals aro often of a quite different type, of an altogether different mould, from these. Sometimes they are of no more worth than the washing of cups and platters, the external whitenings of sepulchres. Sometimes, indeed, they are worse than worthless; as. for instance, when they run right contrary to such fundamental teachings of our Lord as that which declares that what goes into the belly of a man is far less defiling than what proceeds from his heart and' mouth. I nave nothing to say against the practice of Fasting Communion for those who find in fasting a disciplinary preparation, a physical means of spiritual mvigoration; but to elevate fasting to the sphere of morals, to say that a communion received with a true penitent heart, a lively faith, a thankful spirit, cannot be as valid, as blessed, after a meal as before, nt midday or evening as in the early breakfastless morn, is to belittle, materialise, and de-spiritualise the Grand and Blessed Supper of Hie Lord. It is to make the gold of the altar greater than the altar which eanctifieth the gold. Ono intemperate word spoken after communion is far worse than any temperate meal before it. To prove the antiquity of the fastiug custom is not to prove either its moral necessity or spiritual usefulness, but merely to prove how sadly soon monastic and pagan notions successfully invaded the inmost shrines of the Christian Church. Two things, at least, are certain in this matter; first, that the Holy Communion was the only service of His own institution in which our Lord Himself took part, that He instituted it in the evening and after supper ; and. secondly, that the Churchmanship of the Church of England is in no way committed exclusively to either early communion or fasting communion. Fasting communion is not alluded to in the Book of Common Prayer. In the invitation to those about to partake of the Blessed Feast, several indispensable conditions of worthy communicating are recited: earnest repentance, brotherly love, thankfulness, charity, and amendment of life; but no mention whatever is made of fasting. This does not mean that fasting is inadmissible, or that early communions are anti-Scriptural, for. according to tbe Scripture, the flesh profiteth nothing either way, and spiritual grace is spiritually received without reference to days or times of day. But it does mean that to exclude evening communions from true communions is anti-Scriptural, and that to connect vitally the feast of Sacramental love with fasting from physical food is both anti-Scriptural and antrCatholic. seeing that largo communities of the Church of Christ, and these among the purest and best, the most evidently brooded over by the Holy Ghost, neither require prevenient fasting before sacramentaily commemorating the Death and Return of the Lord, nor even encourage it. All these ecclesiastical moralities—if 1 may so use tho terra—are pare of the vicious process which has been euphemistically described as ''the development of doctrine;" but which, in plain words, has for centuries meant little less than the obsuration of the Christ and the destruction of the Catholicity of the Catholic Church. In a living, progressive Church there must, of course, always be going forward the process of development both in the elucidation of doctrine i»u<i it» application to morals. But it is a condition of all such development, if It is to be true.tbat it should bo in harmony with the laws of its

Founder and the teachings of His j Authorised Apostle*. Otherwise it is a perversion, not a development. Notably is this the case with Christian inoral>. morals, as we find ttK-rn enunicated in the Now Testament, are a« sublime in their grandeur as they are magnificent in tiieir simplicity. There is nothing little or narrow ! aliout them, nothing rabbinical, nothing I eerlosiastical. They need no casuistry i to expound or defend them. Their \ appeal is to the largest, noblest consi'ienro of mankind. So universal is their appeal that, parts of the august evangelical code ot morals are to be fouH'i embedded in the purest strata ot all the great world-religions. And there ran never be a Catholic Church, in any honest sense of the term, until we got bark to the bed-rock of evangelical morals, which is human love.built upon the foundation of love divine and resolutely bent on copying it; and until we yet rid of the rabbinical niceties and ecclesiastical subtleties and priestly inventions which have so long usurped the throne properly belonging, and belonging only, to the evangelical morals, whose code was enunciated in the Sermon on the Mount, confirmed in other teachings of the Lord and His Apostles, ratified on the Cross, illuminated at the Resurrection, and made possible to all humanity by the descent at Pentecost. True Churehinanship makes no requirements cither in. morals or discipline beyond those set forth in the New Testament; lv.it these requirements it demands with a fierce energy. Whosoever does not strive to keep the New Testament Commandments in all their tenderness and power, and does not constantly pray in the Holy Ghost for help &o to do, the truth is not in him. He is both a false Christian and a false Churchman. This brings mo to the last of the notes of true Churehmanship which I have time to lay before you this morning. That note is diversity. The Church of Christ is truly ii divine Society. But it is more. It is a divine Body also. Its one Head is in heaven ; its one Heart is the Holy Ghost. It has no supreme head upon earth. It would be a deformed, not a divine body, had it two heads. Its only Supreme Head. I say, is in heaven. Its various members are partly in Paradise, partly now on earth, partly still unborn. But by all these members alike, whether within the veil or now in their mortal condition, or still in the womb of the future, one characteristic is shared in common. That characteristic is their diversity. Through their one Head the members are all one iji purpose, will, and power; through their one Heart they all are one in ideal, inspiration, affection, struggle for the right, resistance to the wrong. They are all one also in their interdependence and mutual service. No member can live apart from the Head or apart from the Heart or apart from the, other members. The health and strength of each several member, however different it be in form and function from the rest, depends on the health and strength of all the other members. If one member suffers, all the other members suffer with it; if one bo strong, the others share in its strength and rejoice with it. Tho health and happiness of all depend on the health and happiness of each. Each ministers to all. and all receive either good or ill from each. This is tho truo fellowship, tho true unity of the Christian Church. It is not the identity of inorganic nature, not the uniformity of brick with brick or stone with stone, not the lifeless monotony of drop and drop, shell and shell, but tho inward unity of a wonderful and ! complex organism, a majestic body of j diverse members all severally contributing to tho vitality and power of the I whole. Tho human body, as fashioned by tho Creator, is not one organ, but many; and among its grand characteristics is the marvellous diversity of its organs, their several differences of function, and thoir co-oporant ministry to each other; while all the while their life-blood is flowing from the one Heart and their directing will from the one Head. So also, brethern. is tho Church of Christ. A uniform Church would h« not only a monotonous, but a dead Church. Diversity is essential to the highest life and the richest growth of the Church. The Catholic Church ; of Christ is not a rihtsliell, but*a' star; yea, a constellation of stars, differing one from another in glory, hut all illnmjnated by one sun. nnd .«]! shedding their rays of trembling light on the upward path of human orogress. And what shall wo soy of the applicai ; ''}.\ of. these few and brief comments on the grand, cardinal characteristics of tho Church of Christ, that Church which, when it returns from its wanderings in far and foreign realms, and from feeding on the husks of ceremonialism and metaphysics, to the Father's home and the Father's feast of simples Sacraments, simple faith and simple words, will find itself tho most potent force the ages have ever known lor the regeneration and exaltation of humanity, the resistless centre of attraction round which the gathering of all the peoples shall be? I can only allude, and that quite summarily, to two of these practical applications now. First, grand hopes of the reunion of the Christian Church happily fill tho air. j Reunion is a right noble aim; a holy ! consummation devoutly to be wished. Brethren, let us strenuously work and earnestly pray for it. But, first of all. as an indispensable preliminary, let us try to understand with something like [ precision what we mean by it. Do we mean thnt the Greek Church shall adopt the filique clause in order to be united with the Italian Chnroh, or that the Italian Church shall abandon /the clause for the sake of reunion with the ! Greek Church? Do we mean that the Italian Curia shall abandon its pontifical assumption of world-wide ecclesiastical despotism, which it set up even ! before the days of Hildebrand. for sake of reunion with the reformed Churches; or that the reformed Churches shall accept the Tridentino and Vatican decrees for the sake of union with Rome? Do we mean that all Presbyterians and J other non-Episcopal Communities shall accept Episcopacy, not only as a form of government, bub as a covenanted channel of ministerial grace; or that Episcopalians—some of whom set a j kind of sacramental store by Episcopacy, and all of whom value it as a priceless historic witness and chain of the continuity of the Church—shall content themselves w|h tho Presbyteral form of government and ministry? Do we mean in the matchless I'aulino phrase that the whole body shall be a foot, or a hand, or an ear, or an eye, or a nose? It is, I repeat, of supreme moment, brethren, on the threshold of this great movement, that we should pause and consider what we clearly and definitely mean by it. For myself I should bo more than content, yea, unspeakably thankful, that we should proceed slowly; that, as a first step, all Methodists should be united in one body, all Presbyterians in one body, all reformed Episcopalians in one body— that the Roman Church should set about the vigorous emancipation of itself from corruption and error, and the Greek Church from the hidebound fetters of deadening tradition and spiritual immobility—and that there Bhquld be more frequent interchange of religious and social intercourse between the members of all the several Christian communities; not as yet an interchange of pulpits, but united meetings for conversation, discussion, prayer, and praise. Whether or not in tho long procession of the suns the possibility of corporate reunion will ever lift itself above the horizon of dream-mjsts into the clear firmament of practical affairs I cannot even surmise. But ono thing I know, the time has come, unless the world is to bo lost to Christ, that Christians of all denominations should tear out from their hearts overy root of bitterness and hostility to each other, and should confess openly and sincerely that,' whatever be a man's denomination, if ho names the name of Christ and departs from iniquity and does righteous service for his fellows, that man is a true Catholic Churchman, a member of the great body of which Christ is the Head and the Holy Ghost tho Life. Lastly, tho realisation of the true

character of the Christian Church has a direct and immediate bearing on the Question of Disestablishment. Establishment is not- ot tiie essence of a Church. The Churches of the New Testament were, none of them Established Churches. The great majority ot the Churches of Christendom to-day are not Established Churches. There are many things to be said on both sides of this question of Establishment which may be said both wisely and worthily ir said without bitterness and in honest search of truth. There is only one of these, many things which at present I have timp to say. It is this: you cannot have a national Church unless that Church be established. The Church of a nation, if it is to assume a nationul character, must. 1 think, be in clear and close relationship with the nation, and must exercise national functions. It must be the religious embodiment of the nation's life, tho evidence of it* belief in God. the mouthpiece and standard of its progress, and without respect of persons its bond of religious brotherhood. You can have religious brotherhoods, spiritual societies, within a nation without the establshment of any ; but 1 do not think you can have any single Church, including and representing the whole religious life and action of a nation, unless some integral relationship be established between that Church and that nation.

There are many, I know, who object to the very idea of national Churches. The papacy objects to them both on ecclesiastical and governmental grounds, except as provincial departments of its own imperial system. Many Christians object to them because they think a nation is a secular, and a Church a spiritual, entity. They object to the interposition of Parliament, composed ns- it now is, in the direction and administration of ecclesiastical affairs. I acknowledge these objections, and appreciate them : and yet I cling to tho grand conception of a national Church, a national recognition of God, a national allegiance to Christ, a nation's inspiration by the Holy Ghost. I have no love for the distinction, amounting to a practical severance, if not an an'.igonism, between things secular and sacred, ecclesiastical and civil, mundane and religious. T believe that this distinction lies at the root of much rottenness both in the affairs of the State nnd the conduct of the Churches at the present day. I believe that if the State were really more religions, and tbe Church hallowed all things secular, there would in a , few generations be such progress in tho justice and jovousness, the beauty and sweetness, the goodness and asrent of human life, as the world as yet has never seen. If a man considers his body merely as a secular and material thing, and his soul only an sacred and godlike, that man's religion, from the standpoint of the Gospel, is vain. It is only when every part of him, body, soul, and spirit, is combined in one harmony of consecration to God and service to his fellows, that nnv man's religion is worth* , of the title Christian. Similarly with State and Church. Tf the State jviys no homago to relirrion. and religion has neither national influence nor national voice in State affairs, then for mc, at least, neither relisrion nor State has that fulness and richness of ideal and elevating power which is their Christian birthright and proper duo. I believe God cares for. States as well as Churches; that He is n.s willing to inspire and direct Parliaments or County Councils as Convocations .or Conferences, or Synods or General Assemblies. I believe that Christ died to save nations as well as Churches; that our spciilar things, like our bodies, havo a spiritual value, and ought to be hallowed ; that in every nation there ought to be a national Church, as the expression and representation of that nation's allegiance and devotion to God.

And what are tho main biidranros to the oxistenoo and firm establishment of national Clnirnhos throughout tho world? Limiting myself in a few concluding words to our own, Church of F.ncland. nnd especially to that branch of it in the bountiful and historic principality 'of Wales, why should this branch bo disestablished, denationalised ? Every true Welshm.an is proud of the long history of the Church, in Wales: its lineage as old as, if not older than, that of any other branch of tho Anglican Church, its splendid role of saints and spiritual heroes, its devotion to the Btdle (from Wales spring tho Bible Societies), its glorious company of Evangelical teachers and preachers. The vivid Celtic imagination, the -warm glow of Welsh loyalty and Welsh patriotism, of Welsh piety and religious fervour, must burn with exceeding brightness, as it dwells on the ancient, splendid connection of the Welsh people and the Welsh Church. And why should that connection bo now dissolved? There have, doubtless, been periods during which tho Church in Wales deserved to bo disestablished: times of miserable dereliction of duty, of arrogant class prejudice, of spiritual deadness—times to be -j mourned and went over by all true Christians. But those times are not now. The Episcopal Church in Wales to-day is acknowledged on all hands to be a living, loving, selfsacrificing Church, using its endowments to the highest advantage, devoted to education, caring for the poor, ministering to tho sick, faithfully preaching the Gospel of redemption and immortabty. Why should Nonconforming Christians desire to disestablish such a Church at such a time? Why rather should they not draw nearer to it in Christian fellowship and brotherly love? The differences belween the Episcopal Church and the Nonconfonning Churches are not great either in Creed or Sacrament, in moral code or spiritual aspiration. Tho t greatest difference between them lies in their modes of worship and the value they severally attach to Episcopacy. The former of theso differences is by no means insurmountable, because in every national Church thero must always be a large diversity of forms of worship to meet the tastes and suit the temperaments of all: and the latter of these difference will, I am persuaded, grow less with the growth of knowledge and the snread of spiritual enlightenment; for it" is impossible that the much vexed question of Episcopacy can long remain in its present unsettled and injurious state.

Meanwhile, in place of the cry for disestablishment, may wo not substitute the ideal of a real national Church, with Gospel Creeds. Gospel Sacraments. Gospel morals, Gospel brotherhood? Instead of political meetings for misrepresenting and attacking each other, might we not have gatherings for learning to understand and trust each other? Let Churchmen and Nonconformists alike daily pray against bitterness in others, and chiefly in themselves. Above all, let them pray earnestly lest they should do anything contrary to the brotherhood of men or the glory of God. If this be done by all men. everywhere, and at all times, then sliall it come to pass in the last days, if not in ours, that the true Universal Church of Christ shall be established on the ton of all partial Churches, and shall be exalted above all sects and all denominations: and every national Church shall flow unto it. <; Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all the ages', world without end. Amen." 602