LIBRARY OF PRiNCtI 
 
 JUL 1 8 2005 , 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SCiVlJNAf; 
 
 BR139.L38 157 1885 
 
 Installation of the Rev 
 
 F. 
 
 Latimer, Ph. D. , D.D. , 
 
 Professor of 
 
 Ecclesiastical History 
 
 Polity on May 6, 
 
 . J. 
 
 and 
 
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, IN VIRGINIA. 
 
 INSTALLATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Rev.J.F.LATIKI!,Ph.D.,D.D., 
 
 AS 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTI^itL HISTORY AND POLITY, 
 
 Ok May (L 1885. 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 OJ 
 
 The Key. R, M. WHITE, D. D., 
 
 OF V,'INCHE3TKE, VA., 
 AND OF 
 
 The Ret. Prof. LATIMER. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE REV. J. J. BULLOCK, D. D., 
 
 OF WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF 1885. 
 
 Published by request of the Trustees. 
 
 RICHMOND : 
 
 WHITTET & SHEPPERSON, *»R1NTKRS, cor. IOTH AND Mahj^Sts.- 
 
 188S, 
 
(.i-^^ 
 
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, IN VIRGINIA. 
 INSTALLATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Key. J. F.LATIMER, Ph. D.,D.D., 
 
 AS 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AXD POLITY, 
 
 Ox Max 6, 1885. 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 OF 
 
 The Key. H. M. WHITE, D. D. 
 
 OF WINCHESTER, VA., 
 AND OF 
 
 The Key. Prof. LATIMER. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE RE\^ J. J. BULLOCK, D. D., 
 
 OF WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 TO THE GRADUATIXG CLASS OF 1885. 
 
 Published by request of the Trustees, f 
 
 SEP 14 1992 
 _jDGrca %^^^- 
 
 RICHMOND: 
 
 Whittet & Shepperson, Printers, cor. ioth and Main Sts. 
 1885. 
 
Introductory Note. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Trustees of Union Theological Semi- 
 nary, in Virginia, in May, 1884, the Eev. James F. Latbiee, Ph. D., D. 
 D., then a pastor in MemiJiis, Tenn., was imanimously elected the Pro- 
 fessor of Ecclesiastical History and Pohty. He accepted the j)osition. 
 
 In pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution of the Seminary 
 (Ai*t. II., § 5; Art. IV., § 2), Dr. Latuner was, on the 6th May, 1885, " m- 
 ducted into office." The Rev. Dr. J. J. Bullock, president of the cor- 
 poration, propomided to the Professor-elect the constitutional questions, 
 and the Eev. H. M. White, D. D., deUvered to him the charge; after 
 which the Professor "dehvered a discoiu'se appropriate to his inaugu- 
 ration, in the presence of the Trustees " and a large audience. On the 
 same day President Bullock deUvered to the Graduates the dij)lomas 
 awarded them by the Trustees, "o-ith a brief addi-ess. By unanimous 
 vote, copies of these several addi'esses were requested, and are fiu'nished 
 for pubhcation. 
 
CHANGE 
 
 OF THE KEY. DK. H. M. WHITE TO EEV. PKOFES- 
 SOR LATIMER. 
 
 WHEN Dr. Chalmers was called to the chair of Moral Phil- 
 osophy in the University of St. Andrews, a plain shoemaker 
 in his congregation is said to have remonstrated earnestly against 
 his going. It seemed to him out of all question for so great a 
 preacher to exchange a congregation of a thousand souls for a 
 class of boys in a University. The Doctor, having great respect 
 for the opinion of his humble friend, made ineffectual effort to 
 bring him to see the matter in a different light, until he put this 
 question to him : " Which does the most good, the man who makes 
 the salt or the man who salts the sheep ?" His f i-iend replied : 
 ■" The man who makes the salt." " Very well," said Dr. Chalmers, 
 ^' I have been salting you sheep in Glasgow for several years, 
 and now I go to St. Andrews to make salt to salt all the sheep in 
 Scotland." His friend seemed convinced by the argument. 
 
 Yon have done well, my brother, in leaving your large church 
 to accept a chair in this Seminary. Here you will teach the 
 preachers, who in turn will teach the parents, who in turn will 
 teach all the children in our Southern Church. Here you will 
 teach those who are to teach the Sabbath-school teachers, who will 
 teach all the children and youth in reach of our Southern Church. 
 Thus you will do a work that shall reach all the souls under the 
 influence of our Church, and extend from generation to generation 
 long after you have entered into rest. A comparison of the pro- 
 ductiveness of the labor of tlie theological professor and of the 
 minister of the gospel over a single church is largely in favor of 
 the former. The steam-engine that runs fifty looms produces 
 fifty times as much as a single loom. The fountain that sends 
 forth fifty rills irrigates fifty times as much as a single rill. 
 
6 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 It may be objected that, while this is true of him who teaches- 
 Tlieology proper, or of those wlio teach the interpretation of the 
 Old and New Testament Scriptures, yet it is not true of him who 
 teaches Ecclesiastical History; for our ministers make but little 
 use of their knowledge of this subject. This objection would be 
 formidable, if the teaching of Church History consisted in sim- 
 ply storing the mind with names, dates and events. This, while 
 important, is a small part of what you are called to do. A mind 
 full of facts, yet unaware of their importance, is a mere table of 
 contents, valuable only for reference. To know the charactere 
 that have ligured in history, and the principal events with which 
 their names are associated, may make men pedants, but not much 
 more. There is such a thing as tlie philosophy of history, or 
 history systematized and presented to the mind as a connected 
 whole. Events are the outcome of antecedent causes, and the 
 source of consequent results. To know how to trace the relation 
 between the event and its antecedents on the one hand, and its 
 consequents on the other — this is vital to the proper understandings 
 of history. To know when the Papacy arose, and where, and 
 who were the conspicuous agents in bringing it about; who was- 
 the first Pope, and who the first cardinals ; this is something of 
 which the Protestant minister should not be ignorant. But to be 
 able to trace full-blown Popery to its root, to untM'ine that root 
 from the secular institutions on which it has grown, and by which 
 it has been supj)orted, to ascertain when and where the seed wa& 
 first planted in the Church, and rightly to estimate the evils of 
 the system — this is knowledge inexpressibly valuable. To know 
 when Scholasticism arose in the Church, to give the names of the 
 first scholastics, and their writings, is important; but to be able to 
 trace Scholasticism to its rise and counterbahince its evil by its good 
 results, this is far more important. To know when the great Refor- 
 mation occurred, the countries which participated in it, and the 
 names of the principal reformers, should be on the fingers' ends 
 of every minister of the gospel. But to have the mind so trained 
 that we can follow up this great event to its fountain head, show 
 where it arose, what tributaries emptied into it, and how its volume 
 was increased until, overflowing its banks, it subverted the founda- 
 tions of the Church and society, and made for tlic gospel a new chan- 
 nel in the world; to connect this great event with all its antecedent 
 
Chakge of the Eev, Dr. White. T 
 
 causes, by which the under-current of human thought and feeling 
 was made so strong and influential ; to give the names of " the re- 
 formers before the Reformation," and show how Luther and Me- 
 lancthon, Zwingle and Beza only reaped where they had sown — 
 this is the task of the true historian, and this is wliat you are to 
 teach those w4io pass under your hand. To do this requires pa- 
 tience in study and perseverance in thought. The other method 
 of learning history is simply absorbing information like a sponge. 
 It neither requires much mind to do it, nor does it strengthen 
 the reasoning faculty in doing it. To know the fact, as Pascal 
 tells us, that, if tlie nose of Cleopatra had been a quar- 
 ter of an inch shorter, the face of the world would have been 
 changed, is interesting ; but to be able to show how this would 
 have resulted from disfiguring that fair queen were a task worthy 
 of the genius of Pascal himself. 
 
 Used in this way there is no other department of learning open 
 to man that so trains the mind to think, and at the same time 
 furnishes it with the materials of thouglit. The purpose of God 
 in his goverimient over this world for the good of the Church is 
 thus brought to light. Annals, correctly kept, are seen to be, not 
 a " chapter of accidents," but the growth of a great idea, the unfold- 
 ing of a grand scheme, all the parts of which are united in one 
 organic whole. " History is fulfilled prophecy " — the prophecy 
 of him who seeth the end from the beginning, and whose mighty 
 hand is bringing to pass all that is included in his all-comprehen- 
 sive decree. 
 
 Church history is valuable also for its apologetic force. You 
 must be familiar with the reply made by his chaplain to Frederick 
 the Great when a^ked for a short and conclusive argument in sup- 
 port of the divine origin of Christianity, viz : " The Jew, sire, the 
 Jew," to which the great Frederick bowed assent. This argument 
 is drawn of course from the history of the Jews, and was justly 
 considered satisfactory. The inspiration of the Jewish race is ac- 
 cepted by many even of those who doul)t or deny the inspiration 
 of the individuals of that race. The hand of God is so conspicu- 
 ous in their origin, their history, and their present condition, that 
 all see it who are not wilfully l;)lind. The same is true of Chris- 
 tianity. On the Island of St. Helena General Pertrand asked 
 Napoleon Bonaparte if it was possible that one of his great and 
 
8 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 independent mind could believe tliat tlie Jew — Jesus — was the son 
 of God, The great Napoleon replied afhrniatively, and supported 
 his belief by one of the most striking and powerful arguments in 
 the Christian evidences. This argument is drawn entirely from 
 the history of the kingdom of Christ. Besides these two large 
 departments — tlie history of Judaism and that of Christianity — 
 there are many separate chapters which carry immense force with 
 reflecting minds. Many have been brought from unbelief to faitli 
 by the narrative of the resurrection of Christ from- the dead. In- 
 deed, this is justly regarded the corner-stone of our faith. The 
 Chiirch of Christ is built upon a historical fact ; on this fact it 
 stands or falls. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus furnishes an- 
 other chapter in ecclesiastical history which is admirably adajDted 
 to convince the doubtful. The conmientator Bengel first saw the 
 light of Christian truth on the road to Damascus. No enquirer 
 after truth, who has a fair amount of honesty, can resist the force 
 of those facts about liis conversion which the great apostle related 
 so often and so effectively in his preaching, and which he has pre- 
 served in his writings. If the history of Judaism alone satisfied 
 the great Frederick, and that of Christianity alone satisfied the 
 great Napoleon, how much force would there be in an argument 
 drawn from these two large volumes ! The argument that will 
 probably convince the last skeptic on the earth will be an account of 
 the conversion of the Jewish race, and their re-engrafting into 
 the stock from which they have been so long broken oft'. I have 
 long thought a new chapter in apologetics might be opened liere ; 
 one well adapted to the popular mind, readily understood, remem- 
 bered without difficulty, and increasing in force from age to age. 
 I see from the press that the Rev. Dr. Storrs, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 has published a book whicli, from its title, I suppose to be a de- 
 velopment of this idea, but I have not yet had opportunity to ex- 
 amine it. 
 
 The light shed by ecclesiastical history on the aggressive work 
 of the Church is another great advantage derived from its study. 
 The Church is now in her prime. Never before, not even in the 
 post-apostolic age, was her internal spirit more pui-e or powerful, 
 nor her external development and extension more rapid and 
 marked. The age in which we live is signalized by nothing more 
 than the progress the Protestant Church is making in carrying 
 
Charge of the Rev. Dr. AVhite. 9 
 
 the gospel into foreign lands and winning converts to Christ. 
 Yet is there division in her counsels. The very elementary prin- 
 <3iples on which this great work is to be conducted are under de- 
 bate, and the workmen work in the dark. Our reviews contain 
 long and carefully written articles, and our Assemblies are agi- 
 tated by earnest discussions on the question of the relations be- 
 tween the foreign and the home Church, and tlie powers and 
 functions of the officers of each. Tiiis is surely strange, after an 
 experience of eighteen centuries. One would think we could 
 learn from the conversion of the Greeks and Romans, and the 
 great German nations, how to convert the heathen in China and 
 Africa. The Reformation ought to show us how to convert the 
 Roman Catholic countries of South America and Mexico. Includ- 
 ing the Acts of the Apostles in ecclesiastical history, there is a 
 sense in which it is true that " we Iiave but one lamp by which to 
 guide our feet, and that is the lamp of experience." And it is 
 the duty of the Professor of Church History to hold up this lamp 
 before the Church for the guidance of those who go far hence to 
 the Gentiles. 
 
 Here also we see why ecclesiastical history and polity are united 
 in your department. If the tree may surely be known by its 
 fruits, then we may learn from history which of the four forms of 
 polity in the visible Church exerts the liapjjiest influence on society 
 and the governments of earth, and which, therefore, must be more 
 nearly in accordance with the mind of God. Here we should find 
 the bitter fruits of Popery, the blunders of Prelacy, the feeble- 
 ness of Independency, and the conserving and uplifting power of 
 Presbytery. Here we should learn which Church has furnished 
 the martyrs and the literature to the world, and which has done 
 most to unfetter the human mind and give wings to thought. 
 
 In view of the importance of ecclesiastical history and polity 
 seen in the foregoing facts, and many others that might be given, 
 in the name of the Board of Directors who have called you to the 
 work of teaching our candidates for the gospel ministry, I charge 
 you to give yourself wholly to this woj'k. You have not been 
 called to a life of literary leisure, to spend your time luxuriating 
 in the writings of the best thinkers on those subjects which are 
 most congenial to your taste; nor to write books, nor review 
 articles, nor articles for the newspapers; not even to preach the 
 
10 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 gospel. The scraps of your time may be given to tliese things, 
 but the body of it must be sacredly devoted to the hard study of 
 the text-books and literature pertaining to your work. Learn to 
 say with the apostle, "This (me thing I do." Carry your work on 
 your mind all the day; take it to bed with you at night; awake 
 with it on your mind in the morning. Study church history and 
 polity always. Be an enthusiast in your department. This is a 
 much abused word — enthusiasm ; but the thing is indispensable to 
 success in any undertaking. We have all known men to succeed 
 in life without great intellect or extensive learnhig, and in spite 
 of many and serious hindrances, growing out of time, place and 
 circumstance; but no one was ever known to succeed at any- 
 thing without enthusiasm. It is especially necessary in your call- 
 ing, not only to stir your own mind up to diligence and perse- 
 verance, but also to diffuse its ardor into the minds of those whom 
 you teach. Without it your work will be a task and burden to 
 yourself, and but little profitable to those under your care. Study 
 the art of teaching. For teaching is an art — as much so as 
 sculpture or painting, music or architectnre. It is an art of tlie 
 finest kind. Other artists handle stone, or wood, or metal, hut 
 you are to handle mind. Their work must decay in time. But 
 the tracery which your mind in its working is to leave on the 
 minds of your pupils shall endure for ever. The force which you 
 are to impart to them is to live and move other minds for good or 
 evil for ever. If lie who carves a statue or paints a landscape 
 spends years in study, goes abroad and spends money without 
 stint, in order to perfect himself in his art, how much more should 
 you be regardless of the time and labor spent in learning yours ? 
 If the sculptor lays the edge of his chisel upon the rude marble 
 with' the utmost precision and painstaking care, how should you 
 tremble as you approach the minds of the uncultured youth whom 
 you are to fasliion into vessels of honor for the Master's use ! 
 The art of teaching is susceptible of the highest improvement. 
 Of this we have 'ample evidence in the progress made in the last 
 twenty-five years, both in this country and in Germany. Teach- 
 ing is not now a pounding of knowledge into the mind, but a 
 stimulating and guiding the mind to learn how to think and dis- 
 cover truth for itself. The art of tli inking is worth ten thousand 
 thoughts. And this is pleasant. There is, as another has said. 
 
Charge of the Rev. Dr. White. 11 
 
 *'an exquisite kind of laughter that comes from the exercise of 
 the reasoning faculties." The scliolars who have been going 
 through this exercise in the school-room come out with glowing- 
 countenances as from a gymnasium. There have been but few- 
 masters of the art of teaching, as there liave been of other arts. 
 Socrates was a master. Dr. Arcliibald Alexander is said to have 
 been a master. Yet excellence is certainly attainable by all who 
 have good capacity to acquire knowledge and some facility in im- 
 parting it to others. 
 
 I charge you to realize your dependence on the Holy Gliost, and 
 to seek his help daily in humble and importunate prayer. The 
 Paraclete walks by the side of every believer, to give him help in 
 every walk in life. This is his office-work. He aided Bezaleel 
 and Aholiab in all manner of work for the sanctuary in the wilder- 
 ness, by putting wisdom and understanding into their hearts. He 
 walks by the side of the humble minister of the gospel in his little 
 village church. How much more shall He put wisdom and under- 
 standing into your heart, to do the great work to which you are 
 called ! How the Holy Ghost does this work is a mystery as 
 great as the incarnation. We may never understand it in this life. 
 He certainly brings things to our remembrance, for we are ex- 
 pressly told so in at least one instance. If he may aid the repro- 
 ductive faculty of the mind, why may he not also aid the percep- 
 tive faculty ? and the creative faculty ? Why may he not guide 
 the judgment and quicken the intuitions? The whole economy of 
 the human mind may be, and doubtless is, under His control. 
 
 " Wherefore let your voice 
 Rise, like a fountain, night and day." 
 
 We preachers go from our knees to the pulpit, and you, professors, 
 should go from your knees to the class-room. " The meek will 
 he guide in judgment; the meek will he show His way." 
 
 I charge you to love your pupils. This may sound common- 
 place to some, and too sentimental to others. It may be thought 
 more appropriate in an address to a company of Sabbath-school 
 teachers. I hope you do not think so, my brother. You must 
 have learned by experience that the most common-place texts in 
 the Bible and the most common-place matters in life are the most 
 important, and cannot be neglected without the most serious con- 
 
12 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 sequences. Your catalogue states that you and your colleagues 
 are "the pastors of the students, and accessible on all proper occa- 
 sions, to give them counsel on their spiritual interests." A pastor, 
 as you well know, cannot get the ear of his flock unless he loves 
 them. A stranger will they not follow. These young men need 
 counsel. Satan's darts fly thick and fast among them. They who 
 are to be the leaders of the host draw his Are. Moreover, fervent 
 piety is the first great requisite for a minister of the gospel. 
 Therefore, by afi'ectionate counsel and example seek to promote it 
 in them. Nor will you succeed in teaching them without love as 
 with it. The parent is the best teacher, because he loves most. 
 Our Lord could teach the Pharisees nothing, because they had no 
 faith in his love. Words may be the vehicle in which ideas are 
 conveyed from mind to mind, but love is the luminous medium 
 through which it travels. 
 
 "Oh! 'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love, 
 That makes this world go round." 
 
 These simple rules, laid to heart, will fill your career, as professor 
 in this Seminary, with comfort for yourself, and make it a blessing 
 to the Church and to the world. 
 
PROFESSOR LATIMER^S ADDRESS. 
 
 Mk. Pkesident and Gentlemen of the Boakd of Trustees : 
 
 I AM duly sensible, I trust, of the importance of the task you 
 have to-day formally committed to my hands; gnd. no less 
 sensible am I of its difficulty. 
 
 He who reads history merely as a chronicle of events in their 
 outward relations may amuse his leisure hours as with a book of 
 stories, finding in the recital of the deeds of heroes, the growth, 
 the decline, and the fall of empires, an interest akin to that 
 awakened by the novel. But the true student of history knows 
 that the story of the past, read simply as the narrative of events, 
 is not history. The problem which presents itself to him is not 
 merely, What are the facts ? but. What are the inner relations of 
 the facts? He recognizes it as his task to trace effects to their 
 causes, and to read the character and importance of the causes in 
 their effects. He knows that not always that which is obtrusive 
 and on the surface, but often what is obscure and easily escapes 
 attention, because of its apparent insignificance, is the really ef- 
 ficient and determining factor. On the pages of the cotempo- 
 raneous chronicler, he must study a picture, which, from the 
 nature of the case, is more or less defective in perspective. He 
 finds there related, in minutest detail it may be, what was suited 
 to appeal to the imagination, or to the passions of the times, while 
 he is left, more often than otherwise, to discover in mere hints 
 and incidental statements the true explanation of the course of 
 events, and therefore the true history of the period which he in- 
 vestigates. Or if he commit himself to the guidance of those 
 who have made a critical study of the sources, and have left on 
 record the product of their labors, he finds them difi'ering often 
 in their interpretations, so that their books prove to be only im- 
 perfect and partial presentations of the subject, in the cross lights 
 of which he must seek to discover the truth hidden from the gaze 
 
14 Installation of Professor Latimek, 
 
 of each and all. It is for this reason that history, in all its de- 
 partments, presents one of the most diflficult subjects of human 
 investigation. But most difficult of all, as I conceive, is the his- 
 tory of the Church. For while, in secular history, there is this 
 obscure factor, often so controlling in its influence upon the move- 
 ment of events, it is still a natural element, and traceable to or- 
 dinary human motives; but in the history of the Church there is 
 another factor in addition, far more obscure and difficult to deal 
 with, inasmuch as it is due to a life superhuman in its origin, and 
 at the same time a life which resides, not in the entire visible 
 body, but in the bosoms of individuals known with certainty only 
 to God, constituting the invisible or true Church of God. From 
 the very nature of the case, this influence thus exerted cannot be 
 studied directly, but only indirectly. We can never know, be- 
 yond all question, that any particular actions of any given indi- 
 viduals are the fruit of the indwelling Spirit; but we are left to 
 detect in the cumulative results of many minor influences those 
 tendencies and movements which can be explained only by the 
 presence of this divine life. 
 
 It is for this reason that with hesitation I should undertake the 
 discussion of a topic connected with ecclesiastical history, were I 
 free to choose a subject of a different character. But your com- 
 mand that I shall deliver a discourse appropriate to my induction 
 into the office of Professor in this Institution, leaves me no 
 option. I have thought therefore that, imperfect as the presen- 
 tation must of necessity be, it would be both interesting and pro- 
 iitable to consider 
 
 The Influence of the Invisible upon the Visible Church in the 
 Development of her Creed in Dogmatic Form.. 
 
 The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are in them- 
 selves complete, and adeijuate to the end for which the revelation 
 they contain was given. They teach us fully and finally what we 
 are to believe concerning God, They give us all the information 
 we need for our highest interests concerning man's origin and his 
 first estate ; they explain his condition of sin and misery, and dis- 
 cover, in all their fulness and completeness, the means and methods 
 ■of his recovery, in its inception, progress and consummation. As 
 
Professor Latimer's Address. 15 
 
 nothing may be taken from them, so may nothing be added to 
 them. 
 
 But although the truth is thus revealed in the very words of 
 God, so that all the doctrines which relate to the salvation of the 
 soul are in the Scriptures in their entirety, and, as there given, 
 adapted to become the basis of a living faith, yet they are not set 
 forth in their scientific form and relations. 
 
 Xow, it was inevitable that the time would come when the pro- 
 cess must begin, of giving to the teachings of the Bible systematic 
 shape in explicit creeds. As man is, in every other sphere, a phil- 
 osopher, such must he become, sooner or later, in his interpreta- 
 tion of the oracles of God ; and as God's truth in nature is capable 
 of being so systematized as to satisfy that ruling passion, if I may 
 so speak, of the intellect for order and logical arrangement, so is 
 God's truth, as revealed in the Word. And to the Visible Church, 
 entrusted from the beginning with the oracles themselves, was the 
 important office committed of presiding over the formulation of 
 the truth in scientific statements. But the Church, neither as a 
 whole nor in any of her individual members, was inspired, as were 
 the holy men of old, wdio spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost. What safeguard was there, then, against the final adop- 
 tion of thof^e errors which were sure to be developed should the 
 spirit of speculation be left to its natural tendencies in the process 
 of dogmatic explication ? We shall find that safeguard, I believe, 
 in the witness of the Invisible Church. Every member of that 
 body, in all the ages, has been the subject of the Holy Spirit's 
 almighty working. The hearts of all have been renewed by his 
 agency, and their eyes opened to apprehend the truth as contained 
 in the Word of God. This truth has been so wrought into the 
 gracious experiences of this chosen people, who in the darkest days 
 have never entirely perished from the earth, as to make their col- 
 lective influence, sooner or later, an efiicient check upon those ten- 
 dencies of speculation. If we turn to the history of the Church 
 we shall find abundant evidence of the fact that, in all the centu- 
 ries, the experience of God's people has opposed its postulates to 
 dogmatic error, and has thus been a negative guide to the Church 
 in the formuktion of her creed. Although the conflict in which 
 they have earnestly contended for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints presents many different aspects, and their witness is some- 
 
16 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 times obscured and rendered uncertain by the form in which the 
 issue is presented, yet their voice has never been hushed ; and 
 although ages may have passed before the iinal result has been 
 reached, yet it has always been the same result — the triumph of 
 the truth. 
 
 You will recall the fact, that the first great problem which pre- 
 sented itself for solution in the early Church was that concerning 
 the Trinity. The form in which it challenged attention was in 
 the question. How shall the teachings of the Scriptures in respect 
 to the Unity of the Godhead and the Divinity of the Son be recon- 
 ciled with each other ? 
 
 "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God," is the decla- 
 ration alike of Him whose voice was heard above the thunders of 
 Sinai, and of the Son who came to reveal the Father. And yet, of 
 the Son himself it is said, "In the beginning was the Word, and 
 the Word was with God, and tlie Word was God." 
 
 Now, since philosophy knew no numerical identity of Essence 
 consistent -with plurality of Persons, she must either be dumb in 
 the presence of the prol)lem she had raised, or find some explana- 
 tion of the Divinity of the Son which would not imply a person- 
 ality distinct from that of the Father. 
 
 The first solution of the problem given was tliat the Son of God 
 is not a Divine Permn, but only a Divine Energu manifested in 
 and through the man, Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 But although such a solution might satisfy human philosophy, 
 it could not satisfy the Christian heart, for the simple reason that 
 the faith begotten of the Spirit in every child of God is no mere 
 assent to a formula, but it is trust in a Divine Person. From first 
 to last, it lays hold upon that Divine Person, as revealed in the 
 Word of God illumined by the Holy Spirit; and more, it is the 
 Divine Person who is at once the Son of God and the Son of Man — 
 he whose name was called Jesus because he should save his people 
 from their sins. Therefore, no statement which represented the 
 Divine in Jesus as a mere impersonal energy of God could harmo- 
 nize with the experience of God's people. That statement could, 
 in consequence, find no permanent place in their crGed, nor in that 
 of the Church which was the outward manifestation of theii" life. 
 Another formula must be found which should distinctly recognize 
 
Address of Professor Latimer. 17 
 
 the Divine Personality of the Son. Then philosophy proposed a 
 second solution, still maintaining, however, as a fundamental pos- 
 tulate, that, as there is one God, there can be only one Divine Per- 
 son. It was this: The Divine Person, acting in a certain capacity, 
 and under certain circumstances, is called the Father; acting in 
 another capacity, and under other circumstances, he is called the 
 So7i; so that the Son is only the Father manifesting himself in 
 another character and under another mode. 
 
 But the faith of the true Christian lays hold upon the Father 
 no less than upon the Son, and postulates his distinct personality 
 no less than that of the Son. In the light of the truth applied by 
 the Spirit, it recognizes him as reconciled in the Son ; as accepting 
 the believer through the Son ; as adopting him as his child and as 
 joint-heir with Jesus Christ, who is the Son. And, therefore, no 
 statement which denied to the Father a personality distinct from 
 that of the Son could meet the needs of the Christian heart. It 
 too must yield at length before the persistent practical protest of 
 the people of God, and was finally rejected as not only inadequate 
 but false. 
 
 It is not necessary that I should pursue this line of illustration 
 farther, through all that period of controversy, until at length spec- 
 ulation was compelled to adjust itself to the postulates of the ex- 
 perience of the faithful on every point, and the invisible Church 
 triumphed in the adoption, on the part of the visible Church, of 
 that doctrine of the Trinity which we profess to-day, that " in the 
 unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, 
 power, and eternity — God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
 Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor pro- 
 ceeding ; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father ; the Holy 
 Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son." 
 
 The history of tlie controversy concerning the person of Christ 
 — the relations of tlie divine and human in him — also reveals to 
 us this regulative influence of the Christian consciousness upon 
 speculation, and we find the invisible Church triumphing again, 
 albeit after a conflict and a series of protests extending over cen- 
 turies, in the incorporation in the creed of a statement harmonious 
 with the truth in all its aspects, to-wit : " That two whole, perfect, 
 and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were insep- 
 arably joined together in one person, without conversion, composi- 
 
18 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 tion, or confusion — which person is very God and very man, yet 
 one Christ, the only mediator between God and man." 
 
 As we pursue our investigation in search of evidence of the in- 
 fluence of the invisible Church in preventing the final adoption of 
 error in the fornuilated creed, we discover a fact no little perplex- 
 ing, namely, the sudden arrest of progress when the point is reached 
 at which we should-cxpect tlie full development of the doctrines of 
 grace. We find, it is true, a noble beginning made by Augustine, 
 who, in opposition to the errors of Pelagins, sets forth in its final 
 form the doctrine of man's inability, and the consequent absolute 
 necessity of divine grace in order to the inception and growth of 
 the new life in the soul — a doctrine whicli, from that day to this, 
 has found its ample justification in the experience of the saints. 
 But jnst licre the movement ceases. There are hints, it must be 
 admitted, in the wi-itings of Augustine, and in those of other fa- 
 thers, which look to the explicit statement of the doctrine of jus- 
 tification by faith, which alone explains the method by which the 
 soul is brought within the sphere of the gracious influences of the 
 Holj^ Spirit ; but there are hints and no more. Nor is this a 
 mere temporary pause in the process of scientific formulation. 
 For one thousand years the work stands arrested practically where 
 Augustine left it. 
 
 This phenomenon, so strange at first sight, loses its abnormal 
 aspect, however, as our study of the facts reveals to us the insidi- 
 ous growth of error, not in formulated dogma, but error no less 
 efiicient for evil, because operating only in practice at first, and, 
 for ages afterwards, so undefined and ambiguous in its character 
 as to elude the full force of the protest of the true saints of God 
 in the Clmrch. 
 
 As we look back from our standing point, we see what the real 
 nature of that error was, and in the light of that knowledge we 
 discover the cause of this sudden arrest of progress of the creed 
 to its completion. 
 
 It is a familiar fact tliat, long before the time of Augustine, the 
 original constitution of the Church had been perverted, and 
 changed from the Presbyterian to the Prelatical form ; and that, 
 connected with the elevation of some of tlie bishops above their 
 
Addeess of Pkufessok Latimer. 19 
 
 fellow bishops or presbyters, the entire body of the so-called 
 clergy had come to be regarded as a class distinct from, and su- 
 perior to, the people. It was no longer a ministry, the etilores- 
 ce:ice of tlie universal priesthood of believers; but became hence- 
 forth a proper priesthood, superseding that only God-ordained 
 priesthood upon the earth. From that time did this priesthood 
 of man's invention arrogate to itself more and more the right 
 to stand l)etween believers and God, and to constitute the only 
 channel through which grace could be communicated to them. 
 The sacraments which it administered were the only means of 
 salvation, since through them alone was grace given. Faith 
 no longer l>rought the soul into direct gelations with the Son of 
 God ; it brought men to the church, — that is, to the priest, — to 
 receive the sacraments. In baptism administered by those holy 
 hands, the habit of grace, or spiritual life, was infused ; confirma- 
 tion gave increase of that life; by the eucharist it was renewed 
 and strengthened ; and by penance recruited from the eifects of 
 sin. Thus by priestly manipulation was an inherent righteousness 
 so-called communicated, fostered, and developed ; and it was this 
 righteousness which was supposed to secure the favor of God. 
 Christ's righteousness was, it is true, the remote cause of the be- 
 liever's justification, but only as the merits of that righteousness 
 secured,the operation of the scheme by which tlie Church, through 
 her priesthood, rendered men inherently holy, and made the fruits 
 of the life conferred meritorious. It was the merit of this in- 
 herent righteousness whicli became, in each individual case, the 
 immediate ground — the formal cause — of justification. This is 
 the Komish scheme in its full development, but which, in all its 
 essential features, became operative two hundred years before the 
 time of Augustine, and the influence of which was more or less 
 felt in that early pei-iod of the Church. 
 
 Xeed I say that it was in effect a method of j astification ly 
 works ? It matters not that the new life supposed to be begotten 
 and nurtured in the soul was implanted and sustained by grace ; it 
 was still the meri^ of the fruits borne by that life which rendered 
 a man acceptable in the sight of God. Christ's righteousness, 
 and the merit of it, became, in no sense, the individual possession 
 of the soul. What place was there then foi- the doctrine of 
 justification by faith, which appropriates the righteousness of 
 
20 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 Christ and rests upon the merits of that alone for acceptance with 
 God ? There was none. It was exchided by the law of works. 
 
 Now, this subtile system of salvation by works, under the name 
 of salvation by grace, being thus built into the very structure of 
 the Church and of her worship, could not, from the nature of the 
 case, but prevent the formulation of the doctrine of justification 
 by faith as an article of her creed. What Augustine had taught 
 concerning the absolute need of grace might be harmonized with 
 the sacerdotal system of salvation; nay, might be, and was, re- 
 garded as demonstrating the urgent necessity of grace conferred 
 ex opere ojjerato, and therefore no hindrance lay in the way of its 
 incorporation with the ci:eed; but far otherwise was it with justi- 
 fication by faith. 
 
 It naturally suggests itself to us here to inquire, Why was the 
 doctrine of justification l)y works, thus shown to lie implicitly in 
 the theory and practice of the Church, not explicitly stated and 
 adopted as part of her creed ? 
 
 It is a most significant fact that it was not ; and the explanation 
 of it recalls us to the consideration of the efficiency of the invisible 
 Church within, and upon, the visible body. You will recollect that 
 we found that this influence was felt in the Trinitarian controversy, 
 not as a positive, but as a negative, influence; as a restraint upon 
 the final adoption of error in dogmatic form. There error pre- 
 sented in distinct statements appeared over and over again before 
 the tribunal of Christian consciousness, and as such was as often 
 condemned ; but in every instance the error lay largely in defect 
 and inadequacy of conception. Always there was truth em- 
 phasized, although exaggerated in some aspect of it so as to ex- 
 clude other truths. Now, it was these elements of truth, too ex- 
 clusively contemplated though they were, which in each case 
 gave such plausibility to the conception as to secure its being en- 
 tertained temporarily at least by those whose experience subse- 
 quently condemned it. Thus these conceptions were one after 
 another enunciated, though they were finally abandoned, before 
 the protest of the people of God, as inadequate. Not so, however, 
 with the postulates which underlay this sacerdotal method of justi- 
 fication and salvation which I have described. Those postulates 
 could not be expressed in dogmatic statement without revealing 
 fundamental error in the whole and in every part. But the true 
 
Address of Pkofessor Latimer. 21 
 
 Israel of God was still within this visible Church, and still clinging 
 to her with reverence and devotion as the Bride of the Lord; and 
 the presence of the members of this invisible communion of saints 
 constituted, under the providence of God, an efficient check upon 
 the Church's final and complete apostasy in the distinct enuncia- 
 tion and formal adoption of the error logically involved in her 
 practice and worship. Thus, while the energies of the invisible 
 Church were apparently paralyzed, they were really operative in 
 the exertion of a powerful restraining influence. 
 
 But we must not suppose that this divine life in the elect peo- 
 ple of God was without more positive manifestation of its exis- 
 tence and efficiency. For altliough the practical perversion of 
 the truth by the Church with which they still remained in com- 
 munion reacted upon those who were the subjects of divine grace, 
 and in turn hindered them from giving legitimate expression, in 
 explicit form, to the great doctrine of justification by faith, yet 
 there are abundant indications that they did not acquiesce in the 
 error, veiled and hidden though it was. 
 
 Allow me to point you, in the first place, to the dissatisfaction 
 manifested at so early a period, and growing greater so constantly 
 down to the Reformation itself, with the practical results, in the 
 lives of multitudes, of that scheme of so-called grace and salvation. 
 I need not pause here to prove to this audience the fact, nor to 
 explain it, that a system of work-righteousness always does, and 
 always must, bear the fruits of antinomianism and ungodliness. 
 So it was here. From the time that the Church began to dispense 
 her sacramental grace as the basis of an inherent righteousness, 
 did those who acquiesced in it begin to find encouragement to sin 
 that grace might abound. It was man's method of salvation by 
 grace which is no more grace, and it bore its appropriate fruit in 
 legitimating sin and making men tenfold more tlie children of the 
 devil than they were before. 
 
 Now those who had really experienced the grace of God in 
 their hearts, although they did not recognize the root of the evil, 
 knew that these fruits were not such as they ought to be; and 
 they lifted up the voice of protest, which was never hushed during 
 that dreary thousand years and more, — a persistent protest, which 
 gathered volume till it forced a hearing, against the tolerance of 
 ungodliness in the Church and by the Church. Being a protest 
 
22 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 against tlie fruits of a system of justification by works, it was in- 
 directly opposition to the unannounced doctrine which legitimated 
 it. 
 
 It is, as affording evidence of this deep-seated dissatisfaction on 
 the part of God's true people within the Church, that the Mon- 
 tanist, the Novatian and the Donatist schisms are of interest to us. 
 The wild extravagances of these sectaries should not blind us to 
 the fact that the movement, in each instance, began with, and 
 was based upon, the earnest conviction of the necessity for re- 
 form in the discipline of the Church. Nor must we suppose that 
 those alone who ran into such fanatical excesses, and have been 
 branded in tlie records of the times with the stigma of schism, 
 were concerned in that protest. He has read history to little 
 purpose who has not learned tliat when great principles lay strong 
 hold upon the feelings of large masses of men there will always 
 be those who carry those principles to extremes and run into 
 fanaticism and error; and that these extremists and their perver- 
 sion of the movement are likely to find place in the chronicles of 
 the period, wliile no record is left of the fact that thousands were 
 involved who yet refused to go beyond the bounds of moderation. 
 In these several movements,- then, we have evidence that the In- 
 visible Communion as a whole was deeply stirred in view of the 
 fact that the visil)le Clmrch was not an institute of holiness, but 
 the opposite. 
 
 Nor must we be misled as to the true nature of the issue in- 
 volved. It might appear to superficial observation tliat those who 
 made this protest against slackness of discipline were essentially 
 legalists, while the Church was contending for the principle that 
 persons whose lives were defective might still sustain a saving re- 
 lation to Christ: — that- man is not the judge, but God alone. Such 
 a view is, however, altogether misleading. What lay behind these 
 movements, and gave them vitality and vigor, was the conviction 
 on the part of true believers that such personal righteousness as 
 gives proof that its seat is in the heart is the alone evidence that 
 the soul is resting on Christ by faith, and that the Church was put- 
 ting Christ and his righteousness in the background, and thus pre- 
 venting access to the true fountain of grace. It was this which 
 sustained the cry in the centuries which followed for reform of 
 the Church in head and members, and ever added emphasis to it. 
 
Address of Professor Latimer. 23 
 
 Although it seemed to be the expression of the spirit of legalism, 
 it was really the utterance given to tlie witness of God's Spirit in 
 the experience of the elect against the system of justification by 
 works, which had made legitimate a righteousness of mere out- 
 ward forms and ceremonies, and had thus hushed conscience and 
 given free rein to "the Inst of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, 
 and the pride of life." 
 
 In the light of this truth alone can we understand the history 
 of all that dark period, and of the struggle which w^ent forward 
 through the century of reforming councils down to the Reforma- 
 tion itself. 
 
 But again, this practical perversion of the truth on the part of 
 the visible Church made it impossible that she should meet the 
 deepest spiritual needs of the invisible community of saints within 
 her. The dissatisfaction, due to this fact manifested itself in a 
 series of significant movements, which again constitute so many 
 practical protests against the fundamental error which she fostered. 
 
 You will call to mind the fact that essentially connected with 
 the system by which grace was supposed to be infused and the 
 existence of an inherent righteousness secured as the basis of ac- 
 ceptance with God was the elevation of the clergy into a priest- 
 hood, and the practical denial of the priesthood of all believei-s. 
 Tlius were the saints cut off from direct access to the Father 
 through the great highpriest of their profession, and communion 
 with the Church substituted for it. But such communion could 
 not satisfy the longing of the truly pious heart for fellowship 
 with God; and hence the disposition which manifested itself so 
 early, on the part of men of devout spirit, to get away from the 
 hindering influence of the priesthood of the Church, and to find 
 in solitary places, in caves of the earth, and in the trackless 
 forests, opportunity for uninterrupted connnunion with heaven. 
 Underneatli the extravagance and fanaticism of the stylites and 
 other hermits lay this urgent need of the renewed soul. And 
 here again the fanatical manifestation in tlie actions of a com- 
 parative few reveals what was working in the bosoms of thousands 
 besides, too sober in spirit for such excesses. Monasticisni itself, 
 historically connected as it is in its beginning with those ancho- 
 rites of the desert, is a witness, in its early history, to the exist- 
 
24 Installation of Pkofessor Latimer. 
 
 enee of the same desire to be free from all hindrance to direct 
 fellowship witli the Fatlier of spirits. And although, at a later 
 period, the Church, with the wisdom of the children of this world, 
 adopted that institution, and made it her minister and ally, we 
 must not forget that, even after all the chaiiges which ages had 
 wrought, it was not without a struggle that it acquiesced in its new 
 relations; and that, in the time which followed, the monasteries 
 were the refuge of many devout spirits, who sought within their 
 walls oppotunity for meditation and nearer approach to heaven. 
 And those who fled to these monasteries left behind them multi- 
 tudes burdened with the same consciousness of needs unmet, and 
 of aspirations unsatisfied. This was all, when understood aright, 
 a most touching and pathetic protest against the priestly incanta- 
 tion, the sacramental grace, and the plan of justification by works 
 which the Church had substituted for the direct approach of the 
 soul by faith to the fountain of Christ's blood, and to a Father 
 reconciled in him. 
 
 It was this same longing, for the satisfaction of which the 
 Church liad nothing to offer, which manifested itself in the con- 
 stantly recurring tendency to mysticism in the middle ages. If 
 God's own appointed way of approach to him was closed, the 
 soul would find some other method of knowing liim and drawing 
 near into his presence. While among these mystics there were 
 many wild and self-deceived fanatics, there were also many who 
 could, in all sincerity, adopt the cry of the psalmist as their own: 
 "As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living 
 God : when shall I come and appear before God ?" (Fs. xlii. 1, 2.) 
 " O God, thou art my God ; early will I seek thee ; my soul 
 thirsteth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is." 
 (Fs. Ixiii. 1.) "I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul 
 thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land." (Fs. cxliii. 6.) 
 
 As we peer out into the darkness, and hear these plaintive 
 voices echoing through the gloom, we may be tempted to ask: 
 " How long, O Lord, holy and true ?" Ah ! my soul, possess thy- 
 self in patience ! God's good time shall come. The protest shall 
 be heard, interpreted, and heeded. 
 
 Again, I call your attention to the significant demand, made 
 
Addeess of Professor Latimer. 25^ 
 
 over and over again, for the word of God in the vernacular; and 
 the persistent efforts, in different centuries and in widelj separated 
 countries, to place the Scriptures in the hands of the people. It 
 was only another form of the protest against the practical nulli- 
 fication on the part of the Church of the priesthood of believers, 
 and indirectly against her method of justification by inherent 
 righteousness and by works. 
 
 I shall not enter here upon the disputed question of the origin 
 of the Waldenses. It matters not, for the purpose in hand, 
 though it be admitted that the history of this devoted people can- 
 not be traced beyond the twelfth century. It is well known that 
 at that time, and ever afterwards, the burden of the demand they 
 made was for the Holy Scriptures in the hands of all, and in the 
 language understood by all. What did it mean but that the 
 Church's method of salvation had been tried and found wanting ? 
 What did it mean but that, when God's children asked for bread, 
 she gave them a stone ? It signified the presence of a determina- 
 tion which even blood could not drown to reassume the functions 
 of the priestliood of the saints, and, rejecting Eome's mediation, to 
 find Christ, the object of their faith, in the Scriptures which testi- 
 fied of him. It was for this that they contended in the face of 
 untold cruelties. For this did they die, those "slaughtered saints 
 of God .... whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine mountains 
 cold." 
 
 I need only mention Wyclif and his efforts to give the word of 
 God to the people in the fourteenth century, and the self-denying 
 labors of his followers, the slandered Lollards, to the same end, 
 up to the Reformation period in England ; nor need I do more than 
 call the names of John Hus and Jerome of Prague, who, in the 
 fifteenth century, sealed at the stake their devotion to the same 
 cause. These all were in effect giving voice to the one cry, " The 
 Church's system of grace is no grace. She hides from us Christ, 
 the only Saviour of sinners. Give us Christ in his word that our 
 faith may take hold of his righteousness. In that alone can we 
 find peace and reconciliation with God." 
 
 And by the Waldenses, and these reformers before the reforma- 
 tion, was united with that w^hich has just been described the other 
 form of protest also, which had been gathering force and weight 
 as the centuries came and went, against the fruits of ungodliness- 
 
26 Installation of Professor Latimer. 
 
 fostered by the Church's scheme of sacramental grace and work 
 righteousness. 
 
 It may be thought that all these protests of the Invisible Church 
 against error had been ineffectual in the past, but they were not. 
 It is the old story of half hidden forces working obscurely and 
 with tendencies misunderstood. At length the day of their mani- 
 festation was approaching. Rome felt that it was coming, and 
 that she could no longer be indifferent. And now she who had 
 so long since surrendered the sword of the Spirit, moved by the 
 instinct of self-preservation, seized the axe of persecution, and 
 sought to drown these protests in blood. It was her only resource. 
 In that process by which she had gradually been transformed 
 from the Church of God into the mystic Babylon, she had built 
 into her very structure justification by works. It had become 
 her life, and it was at this life that these reformers were really 
 striking. She knew that she must be rid of them or perish from 
 the earth. 
 
 But now, at last, the day was come when that protest, in all its 
 forms, was to be interpreted so that all could understand its true 
 character and significance ; and then the victory, which had been 
 hanging in the balance for ages, was won. The energies of the 
 Invisible Church, apparently paralyzed in the grasp of the 
 leviathan, awoke to new vigor, and the long arrested develop- 
 ment of the creed was resumed. 
 
 I need not recount to you the story of the protracted struggle of 
 the monk in his cell at Erfurt ; nor how there dawned upon him, as 
 the result, the true meaning .of that scripture, " The just shall live 
 by faith," and he found peace and joy in the consciousness that 
 the righteousness of Christ was his. Joy was it indeed to that 
 burdened heart, and joy — to the world ! Nor need I tell you, for 
 you know it well, how, out of a glad experience, he began to 
 publish that truth so old, and yet so new to him, so new to others; 
 nor need I dwell upon the circumstances which led to his bold 
 denunciation of the barter of indulgences for money, and the 
 startling discovery that that church which till then he had rever- 
 enced and loved, was fatally wedded to another gospel, which was 
 no gospel. 
 
 As we survey the wonderful results of the movement instituted 
 by this single man, they may well appear to be effects without an 
 
Addkess of Professor Latimer. 27 
 
 adequate cause, until we recognize the fact that Luther simply in- 
 terpreted the consciousness of God's people to themselves. He 
 gave distinct and intelligible enunciation to that truth which, 
 present implicitly in their experience, had inspired all those pro- 
 tests in the past. He showed them what the true nature of tliat 
 error was against which they had so long been contending; and 
 the Invisible Church arose in the might which a clear comprehen- 
 sion of the truth had given her, and gave voice to her witness for 
 that truth in tones of thunder, which shook Christendom from 
 centre to circumference. 
 
 And now was revealed clearly the fact that Rome was past re- 
 formation ; that she had no place for those who counted all other 
 righteousness as lilthy rags but " the righteousness of God which 
 is by faith of Jesus Christ ;" and the great body of the faithful 
 came ont of her, to constitute a new visible communion, a fitting 
 outward manifestation of the communion of saints. If any true 
 believers remained within her borders — and doubtless some un- 
 enlightened in the fulness of the gospel did remain — they were in 
 her as they were in the world, but not of her ; though called by 
 her name, they were not her cliildren. They were a remnant — 
 the captive Israel of God — sitting mournfully by the rivers of 
 Babylon, with harps hanged upon the willows, who might well 
 have answered those who mocked them with idle mummery and 
 required of them a song, " How shall we sing the Lord's song in 
 a strange land ?" (Psalm cxxxvii.) 
 
 If we turn now to the various branches of the true Church, 
 we witness an unexampled activity in the development of the creed 
 in respect to the doctrines of grace, so long obscured by the sacra- 
 mental system dispensed by Rome. As that so-called church, rid 
 at last of the restraining influence of the Invisible Church, had, in 
 the decrees of the Council of Trent, given explicit statement to 
 her errors, thus making complete and final her apostasy from the 
 truth, so was that truth, enunciated in counter statements by God's 
 people, henceforth a witness against the error. The Invisible 
 Church once more exerts her efliciency, and the creed proceeds to 
 its completion as an adequate statement of the doctrines revealed 
 in Scripture. 
 
 I know that there are facts wliicli show that all the people of 
 God do not, even yet, see eye to eye, after the lapse of the centu- 
 
28 Installation of Professok Latimer. 
 
 ries which have passed since the Reformation period. There are- 
 still differences which need to be adjusted, and more than one 
 branch of the true Church of God (which shows that it is such by 
 the fruits of the Spirit borne by those who are its devout adhe- 
 rents,) still acquiesces in formuhe wliich, properly understood, im- 
 ply semi-Pelagian error. 
 
 But although Calvinist and Arminian have not yet attained to 
 absolute agreement in the statement of all the doctrines of grace, 
 that fact only proves that there are difficult speculative problems 
 involved in those doctrines which both have not solved with equal 
 success. The Arminian has not yet risen to that point of vision 
 whence he may see that the Calvinist's statement of the doctrine 
 of inability does not exclude free agency, and thus make insincere- 
 and meaningless the gospel call which comes to every man alike. 
 He makes a protest against what he conceives to be the obscura- 
 tion of one of the most precious of the truths revealed in the Word, 
 of God. 
 
 Once the doctrine of inability, in all its relations, rightly appre- 
 hended, serai-Pelagianism shall be banished in word, as absent ever 
 in fact, from the true Church of God in all her members. And 
 with that exclusion nmst come the recognition of the truth of the- 
 doctrine of God's electing grace, logically involved in it. But 
 already is it true, as implied in what has just been said, that the- 
 diiference is rather in word than in reality. Need I cite the 
 familiar fact that Arminians and Calvinists are at one upon their- 
 knees? They offer petitions perfectly harmonious at the throne 
 of grace. They sing the same songs. The great distinctive doc- 
 trines which we preach find as hearty acceptance in Arminian 
 pulpits as in our own, when stripped of that terminology which 
 has been misunderstood. No ! there is no Pelagianism in any 
 genuine Christian experience. There is no Pelagianism in the In- 
 visible Church; and, blessed be God, the Invisible Church is not 
 known by the name of John Calvin, or of Martin Luther, or of 
 John Wesley, but by that name which is above every name — the 
 name of Jesus Christ. And because his Spirit is in that church,, 
 we shall all at length see eye to eye, and speak the same things, 
 and join at last, with perfectly harmonious voices, in that glad ac- 
 claim, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name- 
 give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake." (Ps, ex v. 1.) 
 
ADDEESS 
 
 OP 
 
 THE EEY DR. J. J. BULLOCK, of Washington, D. C, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Graduates of Union Theological Seminary in Ya., 
 6th May, 1885. 
 
 !]VIy Young Brethren: 
 
 IT is a high honor and a glorious pri\dlege for a sinner saved by 
 grace to be allowed to preach the gospel of Christ to a perish- 
 dng world. I trust you have been inwardly aided by the Holy 
 Ghost to seek the office of the Christian ministry. The diplomas 
 which you are about to receive certify that you have the requisite 
 education to enter upon this work. With the imprimatur of your 
 Professors and of the Board, of Directors of tliis Seminary, you 
 will go forth, so soon as you shall receive authority from your re- 
 spective Presbjteries, to preach the gospel to your dying fellow- 
 men. Before we separate, as the President of the Board of Di- 
 rectors, I would address you a few words of counsel and of en- 
 couragement. Next to the gift of his Son, the gift of his Spirit 
 and the gift of his Word, unquestionably the appointment of 
 the Christian ministry is the most important gift of God to his 
 blood-bought Church. It has pleased God "by the foolishness of 
 preaching to save them that believe." " Preach the gospel to the 
 whole world" — that is the command of our ascended Lord. 
 Preach the word; that is the great business of the Christian min- 
 ister; that is the great work which you are called to do. Preach 
 it with authority; preach it with earnestness and fervor, seasoned 
 with prayer ; preach it in all its purity and fulness ; preach all its 
 grand, glorious doctrines of grace, which stir the heart and the con- 
 science. These great doctrines, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, 
 are the divinely appointed means for calling into operation all 
 
30 Address of Kev. Dr. Bullock, 
 
 the mighty energies of the human soul, and of elevating, purify- 
 ing and saving it ; they are the great moral forces that operate 
 with tremendous power upon the hearts and lives of men. The 
 Holy Spirit is the all-powerful agent, and divine truth is the 
 grand instrumentality for the conversion and salvation of men. 
 The Word of God, especially the doctrine of Christ and him cru- 
 cified, is the instrument which the Holy Ghost employs to work 
 faith in the heart, and the growth of the soul in spiritual life is 
 nourished through the doctrines of the gospel. "The Word of 
 God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, 
 piercing even to the dividing assunder of the soul and the spirit, 
 and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart ;'' and the faith which justifies and saves is no 
 lifeless, inoperative thing, but a mighty power, " which works by 
 love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world." How sub- 
 limely simple, yet how gloriously effective, is the gospel scheme 
 for the redemption and salvation of men ! Our religion is no 
 cold, lifeless, heartless theory, no mere matter of outward form 
 and routine; no drivelling superstition, but a spiritual, sublime, 
 glorious system of truth and doctrine, worthy of its divine au- 
 thor, and suited to elevate, to sanctify and save all those who are 
 wise enough to receive it. It is not only a perfect system of 
 truth, but also a divine life in the soul, working mightily to bring 
 every faculty and emotion into subjection to the law of God, and 
 to bring men into the closest union and sympathy with Christ 
 and his cause. " The gospel is the power of God unto salvation 
 to every one that believeth." That is the testimony of the great 
 apostle who was inspired of God to give it, and who had experi- 
 mental knowledge of its saving power; and God's word has gone 
 forth respecting the final triumph of Clirist's kingdom: its 
 bounds are to be commensurate with the habitable globe. 
 
 Brethren, we are engaged in no doubtful contest. We fight 
 under a victorious leader. All power is put in his hands. Tlie 
 gospel wielded by the Divine Spirit has demonstrated its all-con- 
 quering power. It saved Saul of Tarsus, Mary Magdalene, the 
 great Augustine, John Newton, Jolm Bunyan, and you and me. 
 Hold fast, brethren, to God's plan of salvation. It is a perfect 
 plan. It is incapable of amendment. It is suited to our mental 
 and moral nature, and to all the exigencies of our sinful, fallen 
 
To THE Graduates of 1885. 31 
 
 state. God has declared it, — the world is to be subdued to Christ 
 by the power of the gospel. We are to " conquer by the word of 
 God, and the blood of the Lamb." We have unbounded confidence 
 and absolute faith in this divinely appointed plan. We need no 
 new truths to tell; no new weapons of offence; no new command- 
 ments to impose. What we need is constant baptisms of the Holy 
 Ghost, to give us a deeper conviction of eternal things, of the 
 stupendous realities of gospel truth, and a more absorbing love 
 for Christ and for souls. What is needed in the ministry is men 
 mighty in the Scriptures, educated, trained men, of deep humility 
 and devotion of spirit, of intense earnestness and instant in prayer, 
 of strong faith, of sterling intregity, of good common sense, and 
 full of the Holy Ghost; men like Paul and his fellow-apostles ; 
 like the early reformers; .like Whitfield and the Wesley s; like 
 Edwards and Davies, or like the living Spurgeon. Tlie great 
 secret of this man's wonderful power as a preacher is his deep 
 awful earnestness, his ardent love to Christ, with a j)assionate long- 
 ing for the salvation of souls, and uncompromising allegiance to 
 the great doctrines of grace. One word more before I close. 
 Illustrate in your own lives the power and excellence of the re- 
 ligion which you recommend to others. Follow after whatever 
 tilings are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of 
 good report. Be true to your God, be true to your covenant 
 vows, be true to yourselves, and God will bless you, and will make 
 you a great blessing to the Church and to the world, and when 
 you come to stand before the bar of final judgment, you will hear 
 the joyful plaudit from the lips of the great Judge, "Well done, 
 good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." 
 
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