T^Tn.-- 
 
 SERMON 
 
 Da s 3 
 
 PREACHED BY THE 
 
 RIGHT REV. G. F. POPHAM BLYTH, D.D. 
 
 Bishop of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem 
 ON THE OCCASION OF THE 
 
 ©onsecrntton of tfjt (Collegiate (Cfnircl) of 
 S>t. ffieorgc tfjr jtlnrtpr 
 
 ON ST. LUKE’S DAY 1898 
 
 |lrinte& bp 
 
 SPOTTISW OODE & CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE, LONDON 
 
 1898 
 
SERMON. 
 
 “ That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in .Ve, awl I in 
 Thee, that they also may he one in Us : that the world may believe that 
 Thou hast sent Me." — S. John xvii. 21. 
 
 HE prominent thought which this day is upon the 
 minds of those who have been concerned in the 
 building and equipment of this church, is that of 
 thankfulness to Almighty God, Who has granted to our work 
 the issue of success. 
 
 When we remember that He Himself ordered and arranged 
 the solemnities which inaugurated the erection of the Taber- 
 nacle and of the first Temple of God in this city, we can 
 scarcely miss the lesson that “ except the Lord build the 
 house, their labour is but lost that build it.” We could 
 scarcely have presumed, without appeal to Him and without 
 trust in His sanction, to build a house for the worship of God 
 upon this holy ground. We cannot but feel that He who 
 was the First Missionary in these “ Holy Fields,” and Who 
 remains so still, is conscious of and interested in the foun- 
 dation of such an edifice. It was prophesied as the crowning 
 distinction of Zerubbabel’s temple that the presence of the 
 Messiah should hallow it. And it has interested me greatly 
 to note that such a thought as that of the consciousness of 
 Christ of this building has been on the mind of some of those 
 who have made offerings towards it, one and another of whom 
 have said, “ I have thought that perhaps His feet may one 
 day stand within its walls at His coming again.” His 
 presence we know is here ; it is with us “ to the end of the 
 ages.” But such a thought as I have mentioned may be no 
 
4 
 
 mere sentiment, as it regards a building erected here, in days 
 which seem to the Eastern mind a turning-point of the ages. 
 As we have been permitted to build this House, on such 
 ground, in the holy cause of witness to that primitive faith of 
 the Gospel which our Church holds sacred, and in that of 
 the destined reunion of the branches of Christ’s Holy Catholic 
 Church, it cannot be without His cognisance, Who from this 
 Holy City first gave His faith and witness to the world, 
 where also He prayed for and willed the unity of Christendom. 
 Here in Jerusalem is the natural centre of the accomplish- 
 ment of His will : here we must return with childlike punty, 
 as to the cradle of the primitive faith. And with such pro- 
 fessed aim are the representative Bishops of the Communions 
 and national Churches of Christendom gathered at this mother 
 city of our religion. And their presence here is without 
 prejudice to the rights of the throne of St. James, as were 
 our Apostolic founders at home in this city for the main- 
 tenance of the faith, without trespass on the jurisdiction of 
 St. James, the first Bishop. Such is the true theory of the 
 gathering of the Bishops of the Catholic Church in the Holy 
 City ; and 1 have heard it acknowledged by the representatives 
 of every Church which is so personated amongst us. Alas ! 
 for the unworthy differences and assumptions which for the 
 present bar us from joint action. 
 
 And now let me state to you one or two of the causes 
 which have led to the building of this church. There have 
 been indeed many coincidences which have, to my mind, 
 sufficiently indicated that the church is one which has our 
 Lord’s sanction, and that it has a certain future in His 
 service. But I will speak of causes, not of impressions. When 
 I first came to this city, I saw at once that should there be 
 any increase of success in the Missions, and consequent 
 settlement of resident members of the congregation around 
 the churches, or any influx of English Churchmen, whether 
 temporary as visitors, or permanent as residents, there must 
 be a considerable increase of church accommodation. My 
 first thought was to make the most of existing circumstances, 
 
and I proposed myself to raise tlie sum of £5,000 for such 
 enlargement of one of the churches as would meet one or both 
 of these contingencies. Plans were drawn up by the Society’s 
 architect, and duly submitted to them. They admitted the 
 common-sense of the plan, but considered that it might lead 
 to some alteration in the distinctive style of their services ; 
 therefore they unconditionally refused it. Whether such 
 alteration as they foresaw might be desirable or not, the 
 intention had not entered my thoughts. I think that most 
 bishops feel (and it would be well if religious societies felt 
 also) that the authorised minister of the church is properly 
 responsible, within ecclesiastical order, for the character of 
 the services of his church. No patron of a church at home 
 may claim the right of interference with the vicar. This is 
 a point on w T hich I, as bishop, never interfere. But I did 
 take particular pains and pleasure in working out the details 
 of this plan, in friendly concert with the minister of the 
 church in question, who readily understood its real scope. 
 Events, however, are ordered and shaped for the best if the 
 right direction of them is sought. The plan I desired to carry 
 into effect, though entirely beneficial to the Society which 
 refused it, would certainly have retarded the development of 
 the reconstituted Bishopric, and its legitimate influence upon 
 the wonderful prospects which are now coming in view. 
 
 But shortly afterwards a somewhat similar idea came for- 
 ward from a different point of view. It was represented to 
 me by the late Patriarch of Jerusalem land he wrote his 
 proposal in detail to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to other 
 prominent English Churchmen of his acquaintance), that 
 if the Anglican Bishop would build a house, with a church 
 attached to it, after the usual Oriental custom, and w r ith 
 resident clergy not being under the control of any Society, 
 but of the Bishop alone ; and if he would place on evidence 
 before other Churches such services and ceremonial and 
 order as are fairly representative of and legal in the English 
 Church -without party bias (a matter which he understood 
 quite well), that this would, more than anything could, give 
 
6 
 
 to the Churches which are also represented here a clear con- 
 ception of what Anglican worship and doctrine profess, and of 
 our Catholic claim and position. He pointed out that this 
 might not be expected of missions tied down by restrictions 
 of language and by adaptations of services held desirable for 
 converts and inquirers, and by the direction of home com- 
 mittees. I felt that this was a reasonable proposal, and from 
 it I developed the present plan. This, you know, is a Bishopric 
 of representation, both of the Catholic claim and position, and 
 of the Apostolic order of the Anglican Church, and also of the 
 distinctive and primitive missionary spirit of our Communion. 
 And I have always endorsed that view wdiicli I have already 
 stated to you, that in the same way that the Bishops of all 
 other branches of the Catholic Church are represented here 
 (namely as their Apostolic founders had their common home 
 in the mother-city of the Faith, without detriment to the 
 rights of St. James), so are we also present here. Nowhere 
 in the world else is such a gathering possible. It is due from 
 us, therefore, that we should present with episcopal authority 
 what is legal and usual in the Church at home ; and that 
 we should give illustration (as may be legitimate in our posi- 
 tion here) of that missionary character which so prominently 
 distinguishes her amongst the Churches. No one can tell 
 the importance which may result from our fidelity to this 
 duty in days when the Churches of the Land shall turn their 
 attention to this vital point ; or more especially, when the 
 Church first planted in the world, which is the real Church 
 of the Land , shall revive according to Christ’s promise ; and 
 the Church of the Hebrews shall recover her lost place in the 
 sisterhood of Catholic Christianity. 
 
 There is another important cause, though secondary to 
 that which I have j ust stated, which led to the erection of 
 these buildings. It is certainly necessary that we should now 
 transfer our work from hired houses to permanent buildings 
 of our own. This Bishopric, which has been so heavily 
 weighted by the misgivings of Churchmen and by party 
 strife, is being better and better understood throughout the 
 
7 
 
 Church at home. The Anglican Bishopric in Jerusalem is 
 one of our oldest foreign Bishoprics (it is the twelfth amongst 
 ninety-eight) and alas ! one of the most backward. It is, how- 
 ever, thank God, no longer a “ Dead See.” The clergy have more 
 than doubled in number since its revival : they were 25, they 
 are now 56; and the Bishopric is ripe for sub-division, and we 
 face interests ample and interminable. This alone necessitates 
 permanent headquarters for our work, though I do state it 
 as the least important of a hundred reasons. And we are 
 thankful to have a holding of our own on the sacred soil of 
 the common Faith. The marvellous growth of buildings 
 connected with other Churches evidences not only the religious 
 but also the political interest of which Jerusalem is the centre. 
 I think I may fairly state that whilst the object of the Anglican 
 Church is absolutely without political intention (there being 
 no State support whatever behind us, since all that has been 
 spent here has been raised by private benevolence and gifts), 
 there is still a national interest in St. George’s Church, and 
 the Queen’s font in yonder baptistery is indeed a royal gift. 
 We English people are somewhat slow to entertain a new 
 idea, but tenacious of it when once it is accepted ; and I trust 
 that the growing intelligence of the mission of the Anglican 
 Church in the East, and especially with regard to the incoming 
 of the Jews, and their separate claim under our Lord’s com- 
 mission as to missionary enterprise, will give evidence in days 
 to come that our Communion desires to replace past neglect 
 of our trust by attentive obedience to the full terms of our 
 Lord’s missionary commission to the Church. 
 
 And it is thus that I would introduce the concluding 
 thought which I wish to connect distinctly with the foundation 
 and mission of this Collegiate Church. During the whole 
 time that these buildings have been in progress, I have been 
 engaged in laying before the Church, first through the Con- 
 vocations of the Provinces of Canterbury and York, and then 
 before the Conference of the Bishops of the Anglican Com- 
 munion last year at Lambeth, the necessity for a distinct 
 recognition of the claims of the Jewish Missions. Whilst our 
 
8 
 
 Lord delivered to the Church, as one integral side of His 
 missionary commission, the evangelisation of the Jews, as He 
 did separately also the evangelisation of the Gentiles, the 
 Church has not so observed the terms of Christ’s commission, 
 as you see His words recorded over the font in this Church. 
 The Apostles reverently and to the end obeyed it, but the 
 Church fell away from the command. She neglected those 
 colonies of the Jews, which Providence had planted in the 
 interests of the Gospel in all the leading cities in which 
 Christianity was first preached. There is no apology, though 
 there are many reasons for this neglect. The direct suc- 
 cession of Bishops of Jerusalem from St. James is given in 
 the Chronicle of Eusebius, later than the time of the building 
 of Constantine’s basilica, a.d. 826, part of which survives 
 in the present building of the Holy Sepulchre. The fall of 
 Jerusalem and the later desolations of the land affected indeed, 
 but did not destroy the Christian Church and Bishopric 
 of Jerusalem, whose forty-eighth Bishop may very pos- 
 sibly have been present at the consecration of Constantine’s 
 church. But it little suited the growing ambition of Rome, 
 or later of New Rome, that the claims of the mother-city 
 should be conserved. And the neglect which affected Jerusa- 
 lem, affected also, from a church point of view, all colonies 
 of Jews in the civilized world. The Saviour’s command 
 “ beginning at Jerusalem,” and the Apostolic motto “ to the 
 Jew first, and also to the Gentiles,” passed out of the practice 
 of the Church, as if that priority had been one of locality only, 
 and not the standing order of her commission. With this 
 disobedience died down the missionary zeal of the Church in 
 the Patriarchates of the East ; and from those very lands 
 named by prophecy as provinces of the kingdom of Christ 
 came forth the avenger, who subdued the Christianity of the 
 East, and of necessity the sole Patriarchate which remained 
 free dominated the religious world of the West. The balance 
 of Church power was broken. 
 
 The revival of national spirit amongst the Jews, their 
 growing power in the world, the awakening of their ambition 
 
n 
 
 towards their own land seem to herald days foretold by their 
 own prophets as by their rejected Messiah, when the spirit of 
 God’s mercy shall react upon them from the mercy shown to 
 the Gentiles on their fall. The ministration of this mercy is 
 the gracious return appointed to the Gentile Churches for 
 what we have received in their stead, that thus they may also 
 at length inherit the mercy of Christ with ourselves. Some 
 Communion must first raise the protest against the long- 
 maintained disobedience of the Church to the command of 
 Christ with reference to them, so touchingly emphasised after 
 His rejection, and on the eve of His Ascension. If we prefer 
 no political aim with regard to our presence in the Holy Land, 
 let us give the lead in showing to them this mercy. No 
 nation has, like England, accepted their national claims, and 
 recognised their equal rights of citizenship and of religious 
 freedom. Let the Anglican Communion be foremost, in these 
 later “ times of the Gentiles,” to recognise the rights of the 
 Jews, under the commission of Christ, to the common mercy 
 and privilege of the Gospel of Grace. In their response to this 
 call, and in their recovery of their lost position in the dispen- 
 sation of Christ’s mercy, may be the real key to the reunion 
 of Christendom, and the restoration of the balance of its 
 power. 
 
 May the fact that the great Conference of the Anglican 
 Bishops has now struck a note of unity which has been dumb 
 since Apostolic times, and that Convocation has echoed 
 the call to a perfect obedience to both sides of the Saviour’s 
 missionary commission, inaugurate a new era in the further- 
 ance of Jewish Missions. Such a declaration may, I think, 
 best be enunciated at this meeting-ground of the branches of 
 the Catholic Church. If we can do anything to promote 
 that great cause of unity, which was not only dear to the 
 Saviour’s mind, but which it is His will shall be one day 
 the glory of His Church : if we can advocate the revival of 
 that missionary enterprise, which is the very life of the 
 Church : if we can lead forward towards an obedient recogni- 
 tion of both integral sides of her missionary commission, then 
 
10 
 
 dawns the advent of the day when the earth shall be filled 
 with “ the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters 
 cover the sea.” 
 
 Let it be our ambition to show forth and to maintain our 
 own Apostolic and Catholic position, and our reverence for 
 the same gifts as are common to sister Churches, not by 
 standing apart and claiming to ourselves rights which are 
 as common to the sisterhood of the Churches as were our 
 Apostolic founders several but equal in their unity : wit- 
 nessing simply that the double missionary commission of 
 Christ to the Jew and to the Gentile is the broad banner of 
 life and unity in the faith of Christ. 
 
 And as to this building which we consecrate to-day, should 
 its walls cease to echo the plea for obedience to the double and 
 perfect aspect of the Saviour’s command, which the Apostolic 
 age first pleaded from this city, then must its proper mission 
 lapse, for in that perfect obedience will revive the unity of 
 the apostolic era. Hear the Saviour’s prayer for it : “ That 
 they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in 
 Thee, that they also may he one in Us : that the world may 
 believe that Thou hast sent Me.” 
 
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