Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

power. Yet it is this degenerate monachism that Protestant writers have set up as worthy of all honour. On account of a few differences with Rome, a peculiar nationality, an opposition to regular monachism, the ignorant and degenerate Culdees are held up by Presbyterian writers as models for imitation, and as the real parents of the present Kirk.

(To be continued.)

THE CHURCH AT HOME.

The Mission and Extension of the Church at Home, considered in Eight Lectures, preached before the University of Oxford, in the year 1861, at the Lecture founded by the late Rev. John Bampton, M.A., Canon of Salisbury. By JOHN SANDFORD, B.D., Archdeacon of Coventry. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. 1862.

Report of the Proceedings of the Church Congress, held in the Hall of King's College, Cambridge, November 27th, 28th, and 29th, 1861. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, and Co. London: Bell and Daldy. 1862.

THE Bampton Lectures of the last few years will occupy a prominent position in our theological literature. They have not only been valuable contributions to the Church's learning, but they will doubtless produce a beneficial influence by way of rivalry, on the industry of future Lecturers, for many a year to come. Archdeacon Sandford's Lectures differ widely from those of Mr. Mansel and Mr. Rawlinson; they are only alike in this, that each has done his best in his own line. The Archdeacon's Lectures are no intellectual treat to the student, but they will probably be of wider interest and be very generally read. Their subject is, "The Church at Home," and in them the Lecturer treats, in a thoroughly practical manner, the present deficiencies of the Church, and her capabilities of extension. The Archdeacon brings a long experience to bear upon his subject, and although he expresses some opinions from which we are compelled to differ, we cannot but admire the manliness of his tone throughout, the absence of all party bitterness, and the moderation with which he expresses those sentiments with which we are unable to agree.

Archdeacon Sandford's Bampton Lectures are, in the main, nothing else than a development of those principles, which the Ecclesiastic has always maintained, and we welcome them all the

more, because they come from one who has stood aloof from what is termed "The High Church Party." Before he enters on the capabilities of extension, which the Church possesses, he clearly explains that these capabilities are the result of her Divine origin, and that on this account she is able, not only to maintain her ground under every difficulty, but also to accommodate herself to all exigencies. The Church is "The Kingdom of GoD on earth;" her mission is "to incorporate men in one united and harmonious brotherhood, in and under CHRIST," and, "to make them collectively, and individually, partakers of the Divine nature." Her Bishops are the successors of the Apostles, and bear the same commission which was delivered by our LORD Himself to them. The Sacraments are the means by which the Church's work is to be accomplished, as is forcibly expressed in the following words :

66

Enough, assuredly for us, that the Sacraments impart and maintain union with CHRIST and with His people; that the one is the consummation of the work of which the other is the beginning; that they both secure the indwelling of the HOLY SPIRIT; that they cause the faithful recipient to grow and increase with the increase of GOD; and by the grace which they convey, qualify us at once for the duties of this life, and for the scenes of a better. What have we to do as believers in Revelation, but to accept what GOD bestows,-to wash that we may be clean, to eat that we may be satisfied!"-P. 29.

The Church is the keeper and expounder of Holy Scripture, which is God's revelation to man, and the very existence of the sacred volume is a proof of the fidelity with which the Church has discharged her trust. Formularies of devotion are a means with which the Church is supplied for preserving and propagating truth, and promoting Christian fellowship. In speaking of the ancient liturgies, the Archdeacon says:

[ocr errors]

They also establish by their variations in form, though not in substance, the separate independence of the Churches in which they generally prevailed. In all we find a substantial uniformity, a common order, an identity of ideas and expressions. In this way they may be viewed as constituting an important part of Christian evidence—as a sacred repository of the truth-they are the breathings of the Church's soul, the utterances of its innermost shrine. They convey to us in the fulness of confidence and love, and in forms concealed from others, her secret communings with Him to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid."-P. 31.

The necessary conditions of the Church are, "Divine appointment, grace in the Sacraments, succession in the ministry, visibility and permanence in the Body;" and "such," continues the Lecturer, "are consequently the credentials of the English Churchwhich it maintains to have belonged to it from the beginning, and

to have been re-asserted and fully recognized at the Reformation. It claims to be primitive in its type, scriptural in its teaching, and Catholic in its spirit."-P. 41.

Having established the position of the English Church as a true branch of the true vine, the Archdeacon goes on to the consideration of her present defects, and of the extension of her organization which is needful, to enable her to meet the wants of her people in the present day. And this is done in a dutiful and loyal spirit, without magnifying her deficiencies, as the manner of some is, but suggesting such reformations as are in strict harmony with her genius and spirit. Our mistake has been, that English Churchmen have considered the work of reformation accomplished once for all, when our forefathers threw off the Papal yoke, whereas the whole history of the Church teaches us, that reformation must be a continuous work, enabling the Church to meet the ever varying circumstances under which she may be placed. What else mean the Councils of the Church and their decrees, if reformation is not a continuous work? Already before the Apostles had departed from Jerusalem, an evil existed. The Grecian widows were neglected in the distribution of the alms. To remedy this evil, a scheme of Church extension was adopted in the ordination of the seven deacons, an act which seems to be rather the enlargement of an order already existing, than the establishment of a new one, for as early as the time when Ananias and Sapphira died, we read of certain verepo -and the word is specially distinguished from peσ BÚTEрo, the second order in the Christian ministry-who performed inferior acts of ministration, and who most probably stood in the same relation to the Hebrews, that the seven deacons subsequently did to the Greeks. The seven deacons were all Greeks themselves, as their names betoken, and that their ministrations were for their fellow countrymen, the reason for their appointment proves; and as we cannot suppose that such an order was less needed by the Hebrew converts, it is reasonable to suppose that other deacons had already been ordained from amongst the Hebrews. On any other supposition, it is difficult to account for the evidently Greek origin of the names of all the seven deacons.

An extension of the Episcopate finds its parallel in the addition of SS. Paul and Barnabas to the Apostolic College, when the will of GOD respecting the ingathering of the Gentiles was made known; and from these facts we may gather, that evils similar to the neglect of the Grecian widows were permitted to arise, that the Church might exercise her power of extension, and that the number of CHRIST'S ambassadors were to be increased when those who needed them were multiplied. If the Church had not been intended always to be exercising the function of extension, her Divine founder would Himself have appointed a sufficient number of ministers to serve at least for the Apostolic age.

The question must now be asked, Has the Church of England been faithful to her commission in exercising this function? The great increase of our population is somewhat analogous to the addition of the Gentiles to the Church, and yet, with one exception, -the creation of a see at Manchester,-the number of her Bishops remains the same as at the time of the Reformation. The spiritual destitution which prevails in our crowded cities is something like the murmuring of the Grecians that their widows were neglected, and yet no increase of the diaconate has as yet resulted. The Church of England especially professes to follow the example of the Apostles, but in the respect which we have mentioned, she has not as yet shown that her boast is true. Whatever may have been the case with regard to the Colonies, at home she has not proved herself an expansive Church. The attention of Churchmen has been called of late to this neglect, and the method of expansion only now remains to be decided.1

Perhaps the defect from which the Church of England suffers most has been her neglect in not enlarging the number of her Bishops in proportion to the increase of population. The state of the Colonial Church has proved that it is no mere theory that the life of the Church resides in her Bishops; and yet it remains a fact that the magnitude of our English Dioceses is a hindrance to the operation of the Episcopate. The Clergy in one Diocese are mostly too numerous even to be all individually known to their Bishop, and knowing how much the Bishop's time is occupied, they naturally shrink from resorting to him in all their difficulties. The rule ἄνευ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου μηδὲν πράσσετε is therefore in many instances impracticable. From this it is manifest that, not only should the number of inferior Clergy bear proportion to the population, but that the number of Bishops should also bear proportion to that of the Clergy. If parishes are too large and Clergy too few, many sheep must practically be without a shepherd; but if Dioceses are too extensive and Bishops too few, many shepherds must also of necessity be without the supervision of their chief Pastor; and the latter case is as contrary to the design of the Church as the former. Even at the Reformation, when the population was but one-third of its present amount, the evil was apparent, and an act was passed enabling the King to increase the number of Bishops and subdivide the Dioceses. A rough draft under the

1 The Bristol Church Union, founded fifteen years ago, was, we believe, the first Society which had for one of its prominent objects the increase of our home Episcopate. A very able report has just been issued by that Society, from which we are sorry to learn that, from removal and death, the members of the Society are so reduced in number that there is some doubt of the continuance of its existence. An appeal has been made to its members to use their influence in supplying the vacant places by enlisting fresh members, lest an organization which has proved so useful in trying times should be allowed to perish, and we hope that this appeal will be answered.

hand of Henry VIII. was found in the Cotton Library which contained a list of sees intended to be founded. These are twenty-one in number, of which three only were created. If so large an increase of the Episcopate was needed then, what must be the case now, when the population has so largely increased?

The attention of Churchmen has been lately called to the fact. At the Church Congress, held at Cambridge last year, the report of which is now lying before us, some valuable papers were read on the subject by Mr. Beresford Hope, Mr. Colin Lindsay, and Mr. Harold Browne. The former of these contained some useful suggestions, as, for instance, that it is desirable that a Diocese should first be created before a Bishopric be founded. In some places, as at Southwell, Chapters already exist. If therefore a Diocese of Southwell should be formed, extending over Nottinghamshire, the present Bishop of Lincoln would be Bishop of Lincoln and Southwell, and on the avoidance of the see, if sufficient funds for the endowment of a separate Bishopric should be collected by that time, two Bishops might be consecrated, one for Lincoln and the other for Southwell. This scheme would remove one difficulty, which stands in the way of the subdivision of Dioceses, viz., the invidiousness of desiring to be released from the control of an existing Diocesan. Another advantage seems to be that if the new Dioceses themselves moved in the matter, the boon would be better appreciated, than if a Bishop was appointed without any expression of their desire. Where no Chapter existed one might be formed, as for instance at S. Alban's, and this Chapter would be the Bishop's council for the ecclesiastical affairs of Hertfordshire. Thus the Bishop of Rochester, whilst he continued to hold the two sees, would, through his Chapter, be brought into more immediate connection with Hertfordshire.

The means for the endowment of the new Bishoprics is a question of secondary importance. The revival of the weekly offertory, which Archdeacon Sandford warmly advocates, would provide for all the needs of the Church. The alms collected in a parish formerly held by the Archdeacon, where this custom was observed, increased from £20 to an annual amount of £156, and this is not a solitary instance, for it is always found that when Churchmen have once acquired the habit of giving, they appreciate the blessing of laying up their store in that sure bank which will never fail. It is no longer a question of party, since men of all parties are agreed in recommending this as the true, liturgical and Scriptural mode of almsgiving.

The increase of the Episcopate Archdeacon Sandford strenuously advocates.

"Such an Episcopate," he says, "it might be confidently expected would be a source of great and manifold blessings to the National Church; would breathe fresh life into its system, unlock sympathies

« AnteriorContinuar »