PERKINS LIBRARY 
 
 Duke University 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 
 in 2014 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/ministersmembers01mars 
 
_A_ SERMON 
 
 PKEACHED BEFOEE THE 
 
 FIFTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE DIOCESE OF 
 NORTH CAROLINA, IN ST. LUKE'S CHURCH, SALIS- 
 BURY, WEDNESDAY, MAY 29th, 1872. 
 
 MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF CHRIST— STEWARDS OF HIGH TRUSTS: 
 THEIR CONSEQUENT DUTIES OF THE DA Y. 
 
 " It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." — 1 Cor. iv. 2. 
 
 The mission of the Church is the conquest of the world:— The peace- 
 ful conquest of the whole world. Our Lord Christ, the great Head of 
 the Church, is " the Prince of Peace," " and the work of righteousness 
 shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance 
 for ever ? " (Isaiah xxxii. 17.) 
 
 The character and extent of this mighty mission of the Church ap- 
 pear on the very face of its charter. And how unmistakable the dec- 
 laration of the power and authority,— as was first necessary — from 
 which that commission emanated. " All power is given unto me in 
 heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and evangelize all nations." " Go 
 ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." " The 
 field is the world, ,f the whole world. "The kingdoms of this world 
 are (to) become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." The 
 Church is therefore distinctively and essentially aggressive: —"The 
 Church Militant." A faith that is not worth propagating is not the 
 faith of the Gospel of God. In the very act of becoming subjects of 
 this Kingdom of Christ, we enlist under his banner as soldiers — for 
 ^/what are soldiers, if not to fight ? Our very vow of allegiance is to 
 fight manfully against sin, the world and the devil, unto our life's end." 
 
 This conflict of the Church with the world is an inevitable and an 
 irrepressible one ; " for whnt fellowship hath righteousness with un- 
 righteousness ? and what communion bath light with darkness ? And 
 what concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that 
 believelh with an infidel? " " The carnal mind " and "the friendship 
 
6 
 
 of the world " are they not " enmity with God ? " " Because ye are 
 not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore 
 the world hateth you." 
 
 " Good and evil, set against the other's being, strive," — and neces- 
 sarily so. It is the Master's word : "Ye cannot' serve God and Mam- 
 mon." "He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gather- 
 eth not with me scattereth abroad." There can be here no neutral, 
 and no commori ground as well. I repeat, the issue is inevitable; the con- 
 flict irrepressible. " Is there not a warfare to man upon earth ? " (Job 
 vii. 1.) 
 
 This, then, is a first principle of the faith abundantly evident:— The 
 Church of God on earth is distinctively and essentially the Church 
 Militant. And equally clearly revealed in the Word of God is that 
 closely kindred truth, that this victory — ultimately under God full and 
 complete — this victory of the Church over the world is to be achieved 
 by the power of Faith. ' ' This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
 even our faith." » (St. John.) 
 
 And so it is, brethren, that these few, familiar words of St. Paul in 
 the text seem to me to embody truth whose various phases and appli- 
 cations will infallibly furnish remedies for the removal of whatever 
 may in any wise hinder the extension of the Kingdom of Heaven on 
 earth. To obviate or overcome all gSSsible difficulties — " It is (only) 
 required in stewards that a man be found faithful "—full of faith.* Not 
 less pointedly and plainly does this same Apostle put this truth in sev- 
 eral of his other Epistles. "Fight the good 'fight of Faith" is his 
 
 exhortation to his son in the Faith and in the ministry St. Timothy* 
 
 This daily walk of the Christian is necessarily — as we have seen — an 
 unceasing warfare. It is a fight. And it is, and will ever be for 
 
 * It has been questioned whether the use of this phrase • ' full of faith " for 
 " faithful " is authorized. To which I reply : First, It is so used on the au- 
 thority, and after the example of Archbishop Leighton and others. Secondly, 
 " Harrison on the English language " (Second American Edition, page 240) 
 says, " with respect to the signification of adjectives, one broad distinction is 
 to be found in words ending in ful, and those ending in less ; the former de- 
 noting possession of, the other absence of." " Faithful " is manifestly a com- 
 pound of " faith " and " full," and therefore means primarily and literally, "pos- 
 sessed of," or "full of faith." Its more common signification, "firm in adher- 
 ence to truth and duty," " of true fidelity," is secondary, and in this way easily 
 and naturally acquired, viz. : As a man believes, so he lives. This is true, 
 whatever men may profess to the contrary. Our duties and truth we live up 
 to, just in proportion as we really and truly believe in them. In other words, we 
 are faithful just in proportion as w r e are full of faith. Lastly, the orignal "iriffrSs" 
 has the force of the active participle ' * ttktt^vwv " and signifies " believing, " 
 " yielding belief and confidence " and still more specially and locally " believ- 
 ing in Jesus, " ' ' a believer, " ' ' Christian, " in numerous passages of the New 
 Testament. See particularlyJohn xx. 27 ; Gal. iii. 9 ; Acts x. 45, xvi. 1, 15 and 
 others. 
 
7 
 
 all time, and everywhere, here on earth, pre-eminently a fight of Faith. 
 And so in that other striking Scripture how beautifully and forcibly 
 are we taught the same truth! Soldiers ©f Christ, fighting under the 
 great " Captain of our Salvation," in his own Divinely Organized army 
 — his Church are exhorted to "take above all the shield of Faith, where- 
 with they shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. " 
 The proper place of this shield of Faith is " above all " — covering all — 
 the entire armor, the whole Christian man. The entire panoply of 
 God, beside, is wholly ineffectual for the successful waging of this war- 
 fare with the world without the overshadowing protection of this 
 ' ' shield of Faith. " How prone men are to go out of their way to make 
 difficulties here ! Because of the frequency, as it should be, with which 
 the necessity of Faith, in the economy of grace, is urged from the pul- 
 pit, they are apt to imagine that it is something very different from 
 what it is — that it is some more or less inextricably involved theological 
 dogma, some more or less vague and obscure religious tenet ; whereas, 
 as a matter of fact, the difficulty of its apprehension^ consists solely in 
 its very simplicity. Saving Faith is that which has its highest exem- 
 plification in the spirit of the humblest little child. It is simply 
 taking our Blessed Lord at His word, doing as dutiful children what he 
 commands, on the assurance of his Love. Surely "Thus saith the 
 Lord " is quite enough for men"D^earth to know. Now,exactly what this 
 Faith is, in its exercise and efficacy, seems to me to be the point mainly 
 brought out in the te$t. This Faith " that overcometh the world " is 
 "the evidence of things unseen." 
 
 It is " the-f acuity (not by which we conceive, but) by which we real- 
 ize these things, feel them to have a body and a substance. " To im- 
 agine the truths of Religion is not to believe them ; the believing them 
 is the having such a conviction of their reality, as to live under their 
 influence, and to be in some measure, at least, governed by them."* 
 It is not theoretical or speculative or historical only, but especially 
 practical. It is the ready assent to these " unseen " things of God, not 
 only of the mind — the intellect — but that of the will as well, and of the 
 heart and of the life. It is not enough that we have the power of be- 
 lieving, we must show that we exercise that power of realizing faith in 
 our daily lives. It is not enough that this trust is committed to us — 
 that we are stewards. "Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man 
 be found faithful." 
 
 The principle here laid down is one — as I am thoroughly persuaded 
 — that will meet all the difficulties in the way of the work given us of 
 God to do. 
 
 Ought we not to have first regard to it, in all our deliberations for 
 the extension of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth ? We come together, 
 elders and brethren, for a few days yearly, not to discuss theories of 
 little or no practical bearing, nor to revive issues — however important 
 
 L *Goulburn's "Pursuit of Holiness, " Chapter III., p. 21. 
 
8 
 
 once — now long settled. " Let the dead bury their dead." We are 
 here the rather, I take it, to take counsel how best to meet and over- 
 come or obviate the difficulties that make themselves known to us in 
 our daily work for Christ and His Church. And whatever may be the- 
 result of our deliberations to this end, still, all that we may do must- 
 bear the test of this teaching of the text. Whatever powers are com- 
 mitted to the Church for the evangelization of the world, they are ef- 
 ficacious only as they are used faithfully. This is the very obvious line 
 of thought here suggested. 
 
 To everyone on earth hath God given a work to do, u every man in 
 his own order," "to each according to his several ability." To be 
 sure, St. Paul is here speaking with primary reference to the Christian 
 
 ' Ministry, as is sufficiently evident from the immediate context. 
 
 A certain faction at Corinth endeavored to disparage that ministry 
 that the Apostle^ exercised among them. He writes to vindicate the 
 claims of his office, asserting its divine appointment, and its high, 
 two-fold functions. " Let a man so account of us as of the ministers 
 of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." And then immedi- 
 ately follows the text, in which the Apostle does not, you observe, 
 restrict what is said to the Christian ministry alone of which he was 
 just speaking; but rather gives expression to a well-known general 
 principle of universal applicability : *'It is required in stewards," in 
 general, as is well-known, "that a man be found faithful. " That all 
 men are after some sort stewards of God, is plainly taught us in two at 
 least of our Lord's parables, and in various exhortations of His Apos- 
 tles. " Unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of 
 the gift of Christ.'' "As every man hath received the gift, even so 
 minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold 
 grace of God." We all — clergy and laity — come fairly under the 
 terms of the text. 
 
 What, then, are those special trusts committed to our stewardship ? 
 and what, in consequence, that special faithfulness in the use of such 
 trusts that is " required '' of us ? I say special trusts and special faith- 
 fulness advisedly : for we are not now concerned to inquire into the 
 nature of that stewardship that we have of God in common with all 
 other men, as that of the exercise of our reason, and of the proper use 
 of the means and opportunities given us of ascertaining " what is 
 "truth," and of doing our duty in general "in that state of life unto 
 which it hath pleased God to call us." But as Churchmen of this day 
 and generation, and in this land, what special measures of trust and of 
 repousibility are those committed to us of God ? A very little reflec- 
 tion will suffice to show that they are of peculiar and vast weight and 
 
 I responsibility. 
 
 Just a year ago were these words of warning given us by the chief 
 ; watchman upon the walls of our Zion : " Unbelief and immorality 
 I are becoming more and more prevalent, apparently, throughout the 
 
9 
 
 world — certainly in our own country — and if these gigantic evils are to 
 be effectually checked, it must be by the power of true religion. We 
 believe our Church is pre-eminently qualified, because divinely gifted 
 for this very work. "* 
 
 The powers and resources aud agencies of the Church are amply ad- 
 equate to the magnitude of the task, however great. To suppose 
 otherwise would be to cbarge God with folly. Is not God's work well 
 done? And just here is that essential mark of religious truth, that 
 men in this age seem esj^ecially prone to overlook, and the disregard 
 of which seems immediately to underlie modern unbelief. God's truth 
 is positive, objective revelation. ' ' The Faith was delivered to the Saints," 
 and once " for all. 
 
 When the canon of the Sacred Scriptures was closed, that work was 
 full and complete and perfect, wanting nothing. We may not add 
 thereto or take therefrom one jot or tittle, except at our peril (Rev. 
 xxii. : 19.) And, therefore, our whole duty is to ascertain "what 
 hath God said," and therein only to be "faithful." And so, as it has 
 been w r ell expressed, " The Church principle is adherence to antiquity, 
 because antiquity represents original revehition and consentient wit- 
 ness." And so also that oft-quoted maxim of St. Vincent which so 
 concisely embodies an essential mark of the Catholic Church : — "Quoct 
 semper, Quod ubique, Quod abkmnibus." Even Macaulay, whose reli- 
 gious faith was certainly not of the most dogmatic or positive kind, 
 even he declares : "It is plain that in divinity there cannot be a pro- 
 gress analogous to that which is constantly taking place in pharmacy, 
 geology and navigation. "A Christian of the fifth century, " he con- 
 tinues, " with a Bible, is neither better nor worse situated than a 
 Christian of the nineteenth with a Bible ; candor and natural acuteness 
 being, of course, supposed equal. It matters not at all that the com- 
 pass, printing, gunpowder, steam, gas, vaccination, and a thousand 
 other discoveries and inventions which were unknown in the fifth cen- 
 tury, are familiar to the nineteenth. None of these discoveries and in- 
 ventions has the smallest bearing on the question, whether man is jus- 
 tified by faith alone, or whether the invocation of saints is an orthodox 
 practice."! 
 
 Now it is exactly this characteristic of God's revealed will to man — 
 its fulness and completeness and finality, so to speak— It is exactly this 
 truth that it is the tendency of the teaching of modern science, false- 
 ly so called, to depreciate if not absolutely to deny. Its tendency is 
 to reverse the old theological maxim, and to teach that what is new 
 is true ; and what is old is therefore false. But let God be true and 
 every man a liar, " the old is better." Certain old-fashioned truths, 
 for many long ages wholly unquestioned, and such as lie at the very 
 
 * Bishop Atkinson's Convention Addrefss^HTl. 
 
 f From Lord Macaulay 's "Review of Ease's History of the Popes," quoted 
 in Sadler's "Church Doctrine Bible Truth," p. 371. (3d English Edition). 
 
10 
 
 foundation of the Faith are now considered behind the spirit of the 
 age ; suited perhaps — so they put it — to the blind credulity of the 
 dark ages, but entirely incompatible with modern progress. We live 
 in an age when self constituted teachers of the people do not scruple 
 to deny all positive truth. 
 
 Brethren of the clergy, upon us are the vows of God. We are the 
 chief custodians of the unalterable truths of a God, " the same yester- 
 day, to-day and forever." . We are the highest stewards of the highest 
 trusts. *^ 
 
 There is in our land a growing disregard of rightly constituted au- 
 thority. The times demand that we should distinctly assert the high 
 claims of our office. We have no right to claim for it less than what 
 God's word declares it to be. It is not an act of faithfulness to that 
 Master whose servants we are, to derogate in the least degree from the 
 dignity of our office. 
 
 It 'is not of men, but of God. Of course it is 1 1 the altar that sancti- 
 fies tfie gift ; " only the office and not the man for which these claims 
 are made. Who feels as we do that 4 ' this treasure is in earthern ves- 
 sels ? " If the great St. Paul, at the very moment of working a won- 
 drous miracle of cure, found it necessary to remind his hearers that 
 he was a " man of like passions with other men," how much more 
 have we of this day and generation such need. But for all that the 
 office is God-given, and of dicine functions and powers. We are not 
 likely to mistake the purport of such language as this : ft He that re- 
 ceiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me, receiveth him 
 that sent me." " Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
 God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye re- 
 conciled to God." "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be 
 bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be 
 losed in heaven," et al.freq. 
 
 Thus on the very face of our letter of instructions, does it appear 
 beyond all doubt, that these high functions pertain to our office. 
 They are in general — as distinctly stated in the immediate context — 
 twofold. We are first, " Ministers of Christ," and secondly, 
 "Stewards of the mysteries of God." Our duties in consequence, are 
 correspondingly twofold; that is, first, as " Ministers of Christ " to 
 "preach the word of reconciliation committed unto us," (II. Cor. v. : 
 19,) "Jesus Christ and him crucified," and secondly, as "Stewards 
 of the mysteries of God," to dispense to the fnmily of the Faithful, the 
 sacraments and ordinances of His Church. Herein are included all 
 that "is required " of us. It is only necessary that we be found faith- 
 ful. What this age especially demands of us is that unwavering 
 fidelity, that inflexible steadiness and stability and boldness in setting 
 forth the immutable truths of God committed to our stewardship^ 
 that was so conspicuous a characteristic of that great type and pre- 
 cursor of the Christian ministry, St. John Baptist. "What went ye 
 
11 
 
 out into the wilderness to see ? A reed shaken with the wind ? " 
 (St. Matt. xi. 7.) Let us go out into the wilderness of the world, if 
 we will, to see reeds shaken with the winds ; but let us hope never to 
 see so great an anomaly in the Church of the changeless God. Let 
 the Gospel trumpet above all things else, give the same old and that 
 no " uncertain sound ! " Let there be at least one spot on earth 
 where we may find an asylum and quiet seclusion from a jarring, 
 clamorous, boisterous world. Let "the city of our refuge " be our 
 zion, " the city of our God," wherev«= may we only hear again and 
 again the same old truths, walk in the same "old paths;" use the 
 same old prayers of our fathers, and have our souls filled with the 
 same old heavenly strains ! Let novelty and innovation and chance 
 and change characterize aught else beside ; but let them never come 
 near the Church, and her immutable principles and teachings ! Let 
 the broken reeds of Puritanism and fanaticism bend and cringe — as 
 they have ever done — to the sweeping currents of popular passion^ and 
 prejudice. But let the Church, in her uncompromising integrity and 
 rectitude, continue as ever of old, a sure refuge from and standing pro- 
 test against such utter abominations ! Let us never on any account, 
 suffer to be lowered in one jot or tittle the Church's high standard of 
 her sacred ministry — its God-given authority and commission and 
 province and prerogative! Let " a reed shaken with the wind " be 
 emblematic and typical of anything else rather than the ministry of 
 " the Church of the living God which is the pillar and ground of the 
 truth." But this general principle has certain applications in this our 
 day of special importance. 
 
 In the most solemn act of our lives, we have promised " to be ready, 
 with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Church 
 all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word." The 
 enemies of the Church of to-day are more from within than without. 
 The errors that are most to be dreaded are those taught in the name, 
 and under the guise of religious truth. In this age of free thought 
 and a liberal religion, men need to be often reminded that there is such 
 a thing as faith on the earth, and positive truth the object of faith. 
 And there is such a thing as positive error as well. We may not 
 mince matters of such moment. What more fruitful source of i rror 
 in the religious world than that very popular fallacy that it is of " no 
 consequence what a man believes, so that he does right." How rad- 
 ically wrong is such teaching so rife in our day ! It strikes at the very 
 root of the revelation of God — at the very foundation of the Faith, 
 and its tendency is the utter overthrow of all positive truth. This 
 " strange doctrine " is moreover — as I am thoroughly persuaded — 
 more than any other one thing, the cause of the countless and dis- 
 graceful divisions among "those who profess and call themselves 
 Christians," that harden men in their contempt of Christ and His 
 Church. It isn't that it is so difficult to ascertain " what is truth " — 
 
12 
 
 what those invariable marks are, by which the Catholic Church has 
 always been, and may always be, known. But men are taught — and 
 are ready enough to believe — that it is of little or no consequence to 
 search after, and endeavor to ascertain them. "It is evident unto all 
 men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the 
 Apostles' time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's 
 Church — bishops, priests and deacons," * * .* and that "no man 
 shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful bishop, priest, or deacon, ex. 
 cept he * * * hath Had Episcopal consecration or ordination" 
 (Prefaoe to the o r iginal .) &J^&^fO^) 
 
 The evidences are plain enough, but men are taught that it is of little 
 or no importance to investigate them. Nor is this all. Not only is 
 that infallible mark of the Church Catholic denied, but its very op- 
 posite is asserted. How often is it said that the different religious or- 
 ganizations, though holding opposing doctrines, are, nevertheless, for 
 the best interests of the cause of truth and of Christ, on the principle 
 that opposition, frequent agitation brings to the surface only the true 
 metal. Why, isn't it a notorious fact that he who directs the religious 
 thought of the largest congregation on the continent, or, at any rate, 
 he whose sermons and lectures are heard and read by more people than 
 those of any other man now living in our land — isn't it a well-known 
 fact that it is the teaching of the Plymouth pulpit that " there should 
 be five or six different religious denominations at the least ? " 
 
 But again, "let God be true, and every man a liar." "What God 
 hath cleansed, that we may not call common." I remember no stronger 
 expressions — and they are very numerous — in the Word of Truth, 
 than those in which our Lord and His Apostles rebuke divisions, and / ✓ 
 exhort to unity in the Church — His Body. Whom did St. Paul speak /rnJ^- 
 more sharply or pointedly than in this very Epistle of the text, where 
 he rebuked certain embryo schisms in the Corinthian Church ? 
 
 Take these passages as but a small part and fair specimens. " Now 
 I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; 
 but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the 
 same judgment. " And again, " Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them 
 which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have 
 learned, and avoid them" Is there not deep significance — not to cite other 
 passages — in the fact that the last prayer our Lord uttered before his 
 ; k Blessed Passion, was for the unity of the Church ; " That they all may be 
 ) ■ one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be 
 ' one in us: " and why ? " That the world may believe that Thou hast 
 , sent Me." The unity of the Church was to be a proof of its Divine 
 i;': origin and mission, and that which was to draw men to it. There is 
 more kb-ere-than appears on the surface of those words of St. Paul just 
 - quoted. " Mark them which cause divisions and offences, &c." Divis- 
 • ions in the Church are causes of offence to the world, whose effect is to 
 
13 
 
 keep men from Christ and His Church. And don't we see it so every- 
 day ? How often do sincere and earnest men — to say nothing of those 
 who are neither — say, " Whom are we to follow among such a multi- 
 tude of counselors, teaching doctrines directly contrary the one to the 
 other, with equal sincerity and equal confidence ? " In this lamenta- 
 ble state of things, we may be sure, is one of the chief hindrances 
 that the cause of Christ has to contend with in the world. 
 
 As God's Holy Word is true, there is such a thing as schism, and it 
 is a sin. And when just these truths are presented, though it be in 
 the very words of the Scriptures themselves, how almost invariably 
 are they met with the false teaching of Popes oft-quoted couplet: 
 
 " For modes of Faith let senseless bigots fight ; 
 He can't be wrong whose life is in the right, 'J 
 
 as sheer " ad captandum " cant as ever was penned. Who is to decide 
 when one's "life is in the right" in the absence of a positive and 
 definite Faith ? In the want of such a Faith, what seems very right to 
 one man, not may, merely, but actually does seem very wrong to another, 
 equally sincere. As has been well said, such talk "was the cant of a 
 Godless time, the most sickening of all cant, the cant of liberality. 
 What it comes from is just this utter heresy — a very deep and radical 
 one in New England — the belief that there is no such thing as religion, 
 as a revelation of objective fact, that it is simply the subjective state 
 of mind of the man toward God. Provided the man be inspired to de- 
 vout feeling and correct behavior, Christ as the human teacher only, 
 or Christ as the Divine Son. are matters of no moment. These are 
 only ideas by which religion is effected. Whichever idea makes most 
 religion is best. Truth is laid wholly out of the question."* But 
 surely the religion of Christ is not wholly or even mainly a matter of 
 emotion or opinion. It is a matter of principle and of revelation of 
 positive, objective truth. 
 
 The times and the prevailing forms of religious error imperatively 
 demand that men should be plainly taught that " Sincerity is no equiva- 
 lent for Truth." To say that it is, however common or popular, is 
 nevertheless "doctrine" plainly "contrary to God's Word." When 
 " Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark, when the oxen stumbled," 
 he doubtless thought — if he thought at all — that his good intentions, 
 the sincerity of his motives, would excuse this breach of God's law; 
 yet " the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote 
 him, because he put his hand to the ark ; and there he died before 
 God." — (I. Chron. xiii.) God's immutable truth and righteous laws 
 must be vindicated. How many awful instances are given us for warn- 
 ing, of such vindication ! "God is not a man, that He should lie ; 
 neither the son of man, that He should repent : hath He said, and shall 
 
 * "The (Hartford) Churchman" for Feb. 12th, 1870— Art. : 
 tian is. " 
 
 ' What a Chris- 
 
14 
 
 He not do it ? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good ? " 
 St. Paul declared that he was u not meet to be called an Apostle, be- 
 cause he persecuted the Church of God : " and yet at the time of that 
 persecution he " verily thought with himself that he ought to do 
 many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." Even he 
 that "knew not" his Lord's will — and consequently could plead a better 
 excuse than sincerity and good intentions — "and did it not," though 
 "beaten with few stripes," was nevertheless "beaten." 
 
 It is not true that it is of little moment what a man believes, or what 
 he understands the Church of Christ to be, provided he is only sincere 
 in that understanding and consistent. It is worse than absurd to say 
 that two creeds or systems of religion diametrically opposed the one to 
 the other, are both equally true and alike acceptable to God. Oppos- 
 ing principles beget opposing practices, and " a house divided against 
 itself, falleth." Truth is truth however honestly opposed : and error is 
 error however conscientiously maintained. The religion of Christ is a 
 positive, objective revelation of the will of God, and not a contradic- 
 tory system of tenets and principles varying with every caprice and 
 whim of ambitious, prejudiced aspiring leaders and teachers. Merely 
 human institutions have ever been thus characterized more or less : 
 But " the Church of the living God is not of men, and it is the pillar 
 and ground of the Truth." 
 
 But besides these obvious errors that the functions of our office, as 
 " Ministers of Christ," oblige us with all faithful diligence to endeavor 
 to banish from the Church, there are others suggested by our duties as 
 " stewards of the mysteries of God." There are enemies from without 
 as well as those from within. The nationalistic tendency of the age is 
 to deny the Faith in toto ; to teach that what is not clear to man's 
 puny reason is not to be " required " of any man to be believed. 
 
 There are ' ' mysteries of God." A mystery is that which we do not un- 
 derstand. St. Paul acknowledged that there were such even to him, 
 an inspired Apostle ; and not enly mysteries, but great mysteries ; and 
 that this was a truth so evident as to be beyond all doubt or controver- 
 sy. " Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness." (1 Tim. 
 iii. 16.) Shall we not expect them to be the same to us ? They are of 
 God, proposed to our Faith, not to our understanding. Let Rational- 
 ism know this first prinoiple of our Holy religion. If all were knowl- 
 edge where were Faith ? God is in heaven, we are upon earth. The 
 Church is " the kingdom of Heaven ; but it is the kingdom of Heaven 
 on earth. This 1 ' treasure is in earthen vessels. " We " walk," ' ' live ' ' 
 here " by Faith., not by sight. " "Now we can know but in part." 
 We must, grovelling here, " see through a glass darkly." Faith is not 
 opposed to reason, it is only above it. 
 
 " It is said that once in a company of literary gentlemen, Daniel 
 ' Webster was asked if he could comprehend how Jesus Christ could be 
 both God and man. " No, sir," he replied ; and added, " I should be 
 
15 
 
 ashamed to acknowledge Him as my Saviour if I could comprehend 
 Him; He could be do greater^than^myself. Such is my sense of sin and 
 consciousness of my inability to save myself, that I feel I need* super- 
 human Saviour, one so great and glorious that I cannot comprehend 
 him." That, brethren, is the philosophy of Faith. What is on our 
 level we may respect ; what is below us, we despise ; we can reverence 
 and adore and worship, as creatures should the Great Creator, only 
 that which is removed far above, out of our sight and understanding. 
 
 Mysteries of God? Certainly. Let this Apostolic phrase be answer 
 enough to all the foolish babblings of nationalistic infidelity. They 
 are the legitimate objects of Faith ; that Faith that " justineth " and 
 bringeth "the peace of God which passeth all understanding ; " that 
 Faith that cometh before Hope and Charity ; that Faith that " availeth 
 in Christ Jesus " above "circumcision or uncircumcision, " "that 
 worketh by love," and 
 
 * * * " Humble love 
 And not proud reason, keeps the door of heaven : 
 Love finds admission where proud science fails. ' ; — (Young.) 
 
 "Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers." Of 
 these "mysteries of God" are we " stewards." They are com- 
 mitted to our keeping and to our teaching. Especially are the " two 
 only sacraments as generally necessary to salvation" " mysteries " of 
 life-sustaining grace, " ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby 
 we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." These God 
 forbid that we should handle with irreverent touch. They are memo- 
 rials of God's gift of His dear Son, that mystery of mysteries. They 
 are channels of grace. They are ours as stewards to distribute to the 
 family of the Faithful ; and " it is required in stewards that a man be 
 found faithful." 
 
 Finally, Brethren, — and I fear you will think I am long in saying it, 
 we are stewards of the manifold gifts of God, both as ministers and 
 members of His Church; and " it is required in stewards that a man be 
 found faithful." 
 
 What a peculiar measure of responsibility rests upon Churchmen of 
 this day and generation, and especially in this land ! Surely it is but 
 the part of wisdom briefly to recall these very obvious signs of the 
 times, and the relations that our branch of the Church Catholic now 
 sustains to the Christian world. 
 
 The errors and corruptions and innovations of Rome have well-nigh r 
 to all human appearances, culminated in the blasphemous promulga- 
 tion of the dogma of the personal infallibility " of a man that shall die, 
 and of the son of man which shall be made as grass." (Isaiah li. 12.) 
 Her wisest and best sons are seeking to rid the Old Catholic Faith of 
 all that is false, and are looking about them for a basis on which " all 
 who profess and call themselves Christians'' may unite. In the lan- 
 guage of the Bishop of Illinois : "The hope of the world, as the re- 
 
16 
 
 fuge and rallying point for unity, and the adaptive to the unrest, crav- 
 ings and experiments of* our social state, is the Anglican Communion, 
 with its ancestral fidelity to the Divine Faith and appointments ; its 
 comprehensive liberty in opinion ; its Catholicity in spirit and practice ; 
 its protest against the arrogance of the Papacy and the insidiuous wrongs 
 of Eomanism, and its wise and gentle yearnings for the restoration of 
 unity. "* And certainly this is but a just expression of the truth as we 
 can but see and know it. 
 
 In the most enlightened portions of the Old World, and in our own 
 country, accessions to our communion from other bodies of professing 
 Christians were, perhaps, never so numerous as at present. 
 
 "Dr. Gutherie, one of the most prominent Presbyterians of Scot- 
 land, and well-known in this oountry by his printed sermons, lately 
 made the statement at a public meeting in Edinburgh, that there was 
 "on every side a growing inclination toward the Episcopalian 
 Church, and that he feared that the Presbyterian Church would soon 
 be supplanted by its more liberal rival." (The Hartford Churchman 
 ior April 27th, 1872. ) 
 
 The rate of increase of the Church in our own land — as ascertained 
 from actual statistics — is nearly fifty per cent, greater than that of any 
 other body of professing Christians^ We scarcely see a Church paper 
 
 * Bishop Whitehouse's Convention Address, 1870. 
 
 fThis is exactly the statement made in the sermon as preached. At the time 
 it was prepared, the statistics referred to were not at hand. 
 
 Writing from memory ouly and resolved to be on " the safe side" I stated 
 just half the truth. The fact is,\the rate of the Church's increase in this country for 
 the last fifteen years is just one hunred pee cent, greater than thatof any other body 
 of professing Christians, as'the subjoined statistics, compiled by the "New York 
 Observer," in one of its issues published in the early part of this year (1872), 
 will show, viz :— " The Protestaut Episcopal Church in the United Sates re- 
 ports an actual accession to its Communion, last year, of 24,124, being a 
 larger per centage, upon its whole number of members, (224,995) than any 
 other Church. The Methodist Episcopal Church reports an increase of 58,387, 
 and a total membership of 1,172,099. The Eeuuited Presbyterian Church re- 
 ported as received on examination, last year, 27.770, and a total of 455.378 
 members. The Congregationalists had 13,501 added by profession, and a total 
 membership of 306,518. The Presbyterian Church (South), reported (1870) a 
 total membership of 87,529, and additions on profession of 5,302. The regular 
 Baptists report a total membership of 1,410,403, and 77,795 added by baptism, 
 and 15,636 excluded, aud 2,271 erased." 
 
 Thus, as Dr. S. P. Parker, in his sermon preached before the Seventieth 
 Convention of the Diocese of New Hampshire, in St. Thomas' Church, Dover, 
 May 25, 1870, entitled "the Church's Law of Interpretation of Scripture," 
 page 26, says : "Of the two largest Christian bodies in the country, the Meth- 
 odists have increased 21 per cent, and a fraction, and the Baptists 21 per cent, 
 and a smaller fraction, throughout the couutry within fifteen years. The 
 Episcopal Church has increased 42 per cent, throughout the country in the 
 same time." That is just double. 
 
17 
 
 that does not record the accession to the ranks of our ministry of some 
 one or more tired of the disintegrating process, and multitudinous and 
 contradictory forms of faith, of Dissent. The recent General Conven- 
 tion at Baltimore gave evidence of a growth of the Church throughout 
 the entire borders of our land, and especially in the great and rapidly 
 growing Northwest and West, positively marvellous. So rapid indeed 
 as very naturally to suggest at least the possible fear that such won- 
 drous growth may be more nominal than real, or too rapid to be health- 
 ful. 
 
 What fair proportions, towers of strength, and mighty bulwarks of 
 our Zion did that great gathering of Bishops, Elders and Brethren 
 manifest to the world ! How confidently and generally in the public 
 press was it predicted that at least the initiators of a schism in the 
 Church would be taken at that meeting ! And how triumphantly, 
 thank God! did the action of that body disprove and dispel such 
 painful forebodings and confident predictions ! Earnest men, of well- 
 known ability and widely diverging views, by the "constraining love 
 of Christ," grounded their differences, and that great gathering of the 
 faithful, after a lengthy session, and harmonious under the circumstan- 
 ces to an extent that nothing but the overruling guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit could have brought about, dispersed to " preach the word " lit- 
 erally to the very ends of the earth ; refreshed and strengthened and 
 blessing God that His Church is stronger to-day than ever before in 
 our midst, aLd apparently^ also, throughout the world. 
 
 But do I go out of my way to speak of these things in a vain-glorious 
 spirit ? God forbid ! I see, rather, in these things only a more urgent 
 enforcement of this teaching of St. Paul before us. So mighty for 
 good are these trusts committed to us of God, there is only the more 
 need of increased faithfulness. Men everywhere are " searching for 
 the old paths to walk therein." There is nothing like the light of 
 faithfulness in our Christian profession to direct them thither. "Let 
 your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and 
 glorify your Father which is in heaven." "We must speak the truth 
 insincerity, but we must speak it also in love. If we contend that our 
 creed is more pure and our Church more Scriptural than those from 
 whom we differ, a double woe will be ours if the spirit in w T hich we 
 differ be not more heavenly, and the daily temper more chastened and 
 subdued." We may, nay must "reprove" and " reb uke " as well as 
 "exhort," but it must be "with all long suffering.'" 
 
 " The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places ; yea, we have a goodly 
 heritage." We have a primitive faith; a time-honored "form of 
 sound words " that has attracted the admiration of the world. It is 
 but the part of faithfulness to such a high trust to "hold it fast," nor 
 violate by excess or defect the spirit or letter of its least provision. 
 
 But however encouraging and pleasant the prospect that this out- 
 look from the walls of our Zion discovers, there is a less extended one 
 
18 
 
 that it the more concerns us timely and wisely to note, though it be 
 far less flattering or agreeable. Surely we fall very far short of that 
 faithfulness required in stewards of such trusts and opportunities for 
 good, when in a diocese numbering 3,500 communicants there is not 
 even one Church paper ; no permanent Episcopal fund ; an annual and 
 considerable deficit in the small assessments imposed in consequence 
 on the parishes for the support of the Episcopate, and a still greater 
 falling off in the small amounts promised and due our parochial and 
 missionary clergy. And what changes, and how prejudicial to the 
 •cause of Christ in our midst, does this sad state of things make every 
 year necessary ! Every year is the announcement made of the loss to 
 the diocese by removal, of one or more of her clergy ; compelled to leave 
 their charges to which they were strongly attached, and where they 
 had been in most cases, signally useful, and forced to seek homes out 
 of the State among strangers, and all for want of the bare necessities of 
 life for themselves and their families. And how many such parishes 
 thus left, are still vacant or only enjoy an occasional missionary 
 service ! Upon whom rests the responsibility for such spiritual desti- 
 tution ? I know very well how sadly things are changed with us at the 
 South, but that does not prevent our giving back to God a certain pro- 
 portion of the little left us. And I verily believe had we of our abun- 
 dance given more we should not now so generally have to lament the 
 loss of well nigh all. "He that hath little let him do his diligence 
 ■gladly to give of that little.'" This is the rule imposed by God. 
 
 Missionaries are now in this diocese preaching over an area of 100 
 miles or more, and endeavoring to live on miserable little pittances of 
 $300 or $400 a year, and even that amount too frequently reluctantly 
 doled out not as a debt due, but forsooth as a gratuity, a charitable of- 
 fering ! And these very men, from their natural ability, and scholarly 
 attainments and untiring labor, might easily, in any other profession or 
 occupation, command, if not wealth, at least a competency abundantly 
 sufficient for their comfort and that of their families. But because the 
 vows of God are upon them, and they devote all their labors to Him 
 and the good of their fellows, feeling that they are " separated for this 
 work," and unwilling to engage in secular pursuits incompatable with, 
 or that would necessarily hinder this holy work, they are harrassed and 
 worried by day and by night, — and their work for God is retarded — for 
 want of the bare necessities of life. My brethren of the laity, I am not 
 stating the case too strongly. I know these self-sacrificing servants of 
 God of whom I speak ; and I know that about them that you and the 
 world will never know, because they are the last men in the world to 
 parade their necessities before the public. But that faithfulness to 
 God-given trusts, which avails most in bringing men to acknowledge 
 "the truth as it is in Jesus," is the daily life of consistency in our 
 Christian profession. This is the one great argument that weighs 
 most with all men. " By their fruits ye shall know them," is the oft- 
 
19 
 
 repeated test of the Master. u If ye love Me keep My command- 
 ments.'" " Hereby ice do know that uce know Him, if we keep His Com- 
 mandments.'" Here surely may all be agreed as to that faithfulness 
 ' ' required in stewards. " 
 
 "See how these Christians love one another " was that which most 
 impressed the heathen of old. With all the many and peculiar advan- 
 tages of our heritage of faith as Churchmen, let us especially guard 
 against the prayer of the Pharisee : " God, I thank Thee that I am not 
 as other men are." May such words never be on our lips, nor the spirit 
 which prompted them ever in our hearts ! The prayer that fits us best 
 — and evels, here on earth, must it be so — is the rather that other : 
 " God be merciful to me a sinner." The sum and substance of all neces- 
 sary warning for us of the clergy — may we bear it ever in mind — is em- 
 bodied in that single, quaint, and comprehensive saying of Bishop 
 Hall: " The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin: v while for us all, min- 
 isters and members of Christ, aye, and those alas ! who are neither, 
 yet " st^^ds of the manifold grace of God," are those other words of 
 warnin^Bl this plain teaching of the text : " It is required i?i stewards 
 that a man be found faithful." 
 
 And when at the last Great Day, we shall be called upon — as we 
 surely shall, every one, priest and people alike — to "give an account 
 of our stewardship," may for each of us those words of the Master be 
 said: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast been 
 faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." God in mercy grant it ! Amen. 
 
4 
 
Date Due 
 
 AUG 8 "66 
 
 
 
 
 fcPR 3 0 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Demco 293-5