" IAN MACLAREN " ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Waiapu Church Times, Volume I, Issue 5, 1 November 1907, Page 18

" lAN MACLAREN " ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Dr. John Watson (lan Maclaren), preaching at Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, shortly before his death, spoke thus of the Church of England : — Her Spirit of Eeverence.— Mr Shorthouse had laid great stress on the note of quietness in the Church of England. It was a fitting tribute ; her attitude in public affairs was never loud, garish, or indecorous. When a man entered one of her ancient places of worship he passed into a home of quietness. Not only did the noises of the street die out of his ears, but in her worship the noise died out of his heart. The garish light fell softly through glass enriched with pictures of saints, and many a Christian of our shallow and unbelieving age was melted in this solemn shadow. In a Church of England, from the font where infancy was received, through the Gothic interior symbolising the mysteries of the Faith, to the altar where he received the sacred symbols of the communion, the worshipper had pourtrayed the beginning, the progress, and the triumph of Christian life. The prayers of the Church, handed down through prophets and apostles, saints and doctors, by their religious and thorough Catholic comprehension took us out of time and place, and placed us amid things eternal and unseen. There were minds which resented this chastening shadow, hearts which would not cease to question even before historic catholic creeds. But, notwithstanding immutability and antiquity, her worship to-day remained the standard of the most perfect Christian worship in this country, checking the wild vagaries of spiritual • enthusiasm, and unconsciously refining the spiritual attitude of her children. The second quality was— Her Learning.— No Church had since the Keformation, made such permanent and valuable contributions to theological science. Not only in the Universities and high places, but up and down the country, there was a large body of clergy who up to old age, and without hope of reward, were pursuing their studies in sacred and profane learning. It was an excellent thing that in so many obscure rural parishes in England there were men of the highest culture, and evidently also of most genuine piety, and they could appreciate the service which the church thus rendered to the country, if, having travelled in the East, they had seen the sort of clergy another great church had. A great debt of gratitude was due

to the Church of England for the character of her clergy, and they might, to mention but a few, thank God for men like Hooker, the sanest theologian who had written in the English tongue ; for Jeremy Taylor, the golden mouth of the English pulpit ; aricl for Butler, subtlest and most virile defender of the Faith ; and for Farrar, who had converted many a wavering mind ; Lightfoot, who had graced modern English theological scholarship on a level with that of Germany ; Gore, Liddon, Pusey, Illingworth, and many others of our _own day, whose books were on "their shelves, and whose inspiration was in their' hearts. The Church of England might truly say that strength, as well as beauty, was in her sanctuary. The third quality was Her Pastoral Instinct.— He confessed to a profound respect and admiration for the parochial system. A parish church was for all the people in the parish, religious or irreligious, poor or rich. If* a Stale kept order and administered justice, and made provision for the poor and sick, was it not a good thing t>iat there should be a general and frets provision for those who weie poor in things spiritual and sick of soul ? Any Christian minister would visit the sick. But would people send for him if they had no claim on him, and would he go unasked if he had no commission from them ? Was it not a national felicity that there was a house across whose threshold any person in the parish in time of trouble had not only the upportur.ity, but the right to pass ; that there should be in the parish one who had not only the opportunity, bat a call to cross every threshold with the comfort of the Gospel ? The last quality he would note in the Church of England was Her Comprehensiveness. — Many excellent persons in the Church of England did not believe in it ; tried to turn out those who on all points did not agree with themselves. But of tun those who stood outside could most judiciously estimate the qualities of a great institution. He had not the slightest hesitation in assertii.-g that one of the excellencies one of the strongest points of the Church of England, was her breadth. Beading her formularies and following her story, he was convinced that the Church of England was intended to . comprehend every school, of Christian thought, which, on the one hand, rejected the authority of the Eoman See, and on the other accepted the essential truths of . Christian Faith. If a man was; a .High Churchman he was welcomed by Andrcwes, Law, Keble, and Pusey ; if a Low

Churchman, by Hales, Chillingworth, John Smith, Maurice, Stanley, and Kingsley. His conviction was that High, Low, and Broad Schools had a right to be in the National Church, and that to attempt to eject a man because he adhered to any one of these schools was not only an outrage to him, but to the nation. Only when the church cast people out did she fail ; only when she received them again would she rise to her full power and glory. ' Those who attempted to narrow her sinned against her traditions, and cut down the religious heritage of the nation. Let them pray that she might grow not narrower, but broader ; that she might have room for Bishop Gore and Father Dolling, and for the lowest of Evangelicals ; that she might stretch oftt her hands to her departed children, whose heart must be ever warm to the church of their country. As a stream in its course sometimes divided into branches but to re-unite, so they might pray that the stream of Puritanism and Methodism, which had done so much for the faith of this land, might some day re-unite with the church from which it had sprung. He was no sentimentalist, no foolish optimist, and he could not yet think that the day of reunion was yet at hand, but as they hoped once more to see but one kirk in Scotland, so he cherished the hope and belief that there would again be but one Church in England.