"FRAGMENTARY" CHRISTIANITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 20, 13 September 1873, Page 13

" FRAGMENTARY " CHRISTIANITY.

(Philadelphia Standard.) Each sect that has left the Catholic Ohurch has carried away with it one or more truths. Th.6 Church alone teaches all truth.

In a bushel of chaff one occasionally comes across a grain of wheat there by accident. Bs "Witt Talmaoe is a ranter, but he accidentally stumbled on this fact. In a sermon lately, he said : — " I really think that it is the mission of each denomination more empatbically to preach some one doctrine. For instance, I think it is the'mission of the Calvinistic Church to present the complete sovereignty of G-od j of the Arminian Church to present man's free agency ; the Episcopal Church to show the importance of order and solemn ceremony ; of the Baptist Church to show the necessity of ordinances ; of the Congregational Church to show the individual responsibility of its members ; of the MethorHst Church to show what holy enthusiasm and good, hearty singing can accomplish." It is very likely these aects do present these things in a sense. But if one man has a briclr, another a tile, another a piece of wood, and another a piece of mortar, if one man is running about oh the sand holding a door, and another one walking down n lane with a shutter, where- is the " Hiuse that is founded on a Rock? where 'is the " City of the Great King ?" The Church teaches that God is Sovereign, that man is free, that ceremonies are useful, that individuals are responsible, and tlia'tj religious enthusiasm, when properly directed, can do greafc things. But it presents all tbese truths in their due orden 1 and connection. The doctrines of the Church are not a series of isolated facts. They form a consistent whole. For this reason they cannot be seea in all ' their beauty save as a whole. And those within her fold, can see them best. " All tiie glory of the king's dßughter is within in golden borders." The Church is regular in its proportions, symmetrical in its dimensions, for " The city is situate four square, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth . . . and the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal," — (Ap0c.16.) It' is " Urbs ecelestis, nrbs beata ' Supro petram collocata."— HeaTeuly city, blessed city, Set in order on the Bock,