<=, xfU rewJS ^wn/2^ \Sl8si SERMON Entering a New Place of Worship. PREACHED IN THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH, ENFIELD, COM., OCTOBER 6, 1878, Rev. S. J. ANDREWS. HARTFORD, COJSTN. : Press of The Case, Lockwoodt& Brainard Company, 1S78. 6 ALMIGHTY GOD, Who hast given unto Thy Church Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ: grant that all those whom Thou callest to these ministries may labor faithfully and effectually in the same, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Grant this, Heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Lord and Saviour. From the Apostles' Liturgy, SERMON. Psalm 96 : 7-9. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear be fore Him, all the earth. Our removal this day into this larger and more commodi ous place of worship, offers a fit occasion to say some things respecting the faith and ritual of those who worship here. Upon these points much misapprehension prevails; in part the result of prejudice which will not examine fairly, and in part of indifference which cares not to examine at all. A clear, though of necessity brief, statement of the truths believed by us as to doctrine, polity, and worship, and of our relations to our Christian brethren, will not, I trust, be without value in removing misapprehensions in all such as will put themselves in an attitude to hear with candor. The first point is that of Doctrine. The great truths re specting God, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection and Judgment, have found their clearest and most authoritative expression for the Church at large in the three creeds known as the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian. These have been in use as accredited formulas of doctrine in far the larger portions of the Church for many centuries. These Creeds we believe, and continually use in our worship. But it may be asked, are there not particular truths in volved in these general statements to which you give special emphasis ? I reply, yes, there are points of doctrine which are made prominent, though with care that every truth be held in its right relations to other truths. Thus, the Incar nation — the union of Godhead and humanity in the Person of the Son — is held to be of the highest importance, and at this time, when it is denied by some and undervalued by many, it needs to be held up very clearly before the eyes of all. In like manner, the work of the Incarnate Son on earth, His sinless life, His expiatory death in our nature, His bodily resurrection, and His ascension, are continually insisted on as facts, the reality of which cannot be denied without destroying the foundations of our salvation. We emphasize also, very strongly, the present work of the Risen Lord as the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost, and as our Great High Priest, and the priceless value of His inter cessions.' He is moreover the Head of the Church, its Liv ing Ruler, and the reality and dignity of this office is much insisted on. And we believe, also, that His coming again to judge and rule the earth in righteousness is the chief object of Christian hope; and that the resurrection of those who sleep in Him, and the change of the living saints into His likeness, is the consummation of redemption, and to be earnestly desired and prayed for by all who love Him. To the operations of the Holy Ghost much prominence is also given; not as though He were the Head of the Church, or in any sense a substitute for Christ, but as sent by Him to "reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment," and to regenerate and sanctify and endow with spiritual gifts those who believe. His special work in this dispensation is to build up the Church, the Body of Christ, that the Lord may find a people ready for Him at His com ing, and prepared to be His helpers in His future work — kings and priests unto Him in His kingdom. Our belief in the Saviour's atoning sacrifice involves our belief in the sinfulness of man for whom He died. In no part of the Christian Church is the fact of the corruption of human nature more firmly held, the moral helplessness of man without the grace of God in Christ, and the necessity of the cleansing and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Nor do we doubt that those to whom the word of salvation comes. and who deliberately and persistently reject it, and willfully abide in sin, will perish everlastingly. Such, in substance, is our doctrinal belief. In nothing do we depart from the Catholic faith as taught in the Scriptures and expressed in the Creeds. The second point is that of Church Polity. It is in regard to the ministries and ordinances of the Church that we find ourselves most widely separated from our Christian brethren. Let me, therefore, state simply as I can what our faith is. We believe that the Church, called by St. Paul the Body of Christ, is Divinely constituted, and cannot be changed without loss. It was not devised by men any more than the human body, but by God, who "set the members every one of them in it, as it pleased Him." Its constitution was framed in infinite wisdom, and for definite ends, and it can not be changed till those ends have been attained. These ends, apart from the worship of God, are, as we learn from the Scriptures, two-fold — first, to gather men into it by the preaching of the Gospel; second, to perfect those thus gathered through its ministries and ordinances. That the first may be accomplished, the work of Christ for our salvation must be made known to all men, and those believing be baptized, and thus brought into the Church. This is her aggressive work, which cannot cease till the Lord come; and it must have those specially set apart and fitted to this end. These are the Evangelists. That the second may be accomplished, those who believe the words of the , Evangelist and are baptized, must be further instructed, and be led into the fullness of the knowledge of God; must re ceive the blessing of other ordinances; must be surrounded with all holy influences, and so grow up into the measure of , Christ. And this spiritual culture is not the work of one ministry only, but of several; therefore God gave in addi tion to Evangelists, Apostles, Prophets, and Pastors, — all fulfilling ministries in the Church, and all working together for the perfecting of the saints. To the pastoral ministry is, indeed, given special charge of the separate congregations, but all must be held in unity and ordered by Apostles, and be illumined by Prophets. These two ends, the gathering of members and the per fecting of them when gathered, were both perfectly pro vided for by the constitution which God originally gave to the Church; and each is dependent on the other. If the Church cannot perfect her members, and make them strong in Christ, she can do little effectual aggressive work. Spirit ual babes can no more do the Lord's work than natural babes can do the work of men. But if the Church be full of grace and strength, then may we believe that multitudes will he gathered daily into her fold. The general belief of the Church has been, and still is, that a large part of the ministries set by God in the begin ning were only for a time. Apostles and Prophets, it is said, had a place and work in the first century, but their mission was special and temporary, and ceased, never to be revived. Evangelists, also, have disappeared as a separate ministry, and Pastors only have remained. By the pastoral ministry, whether in the Episcopal form in which it exists in Rome, Greece, and England, or in the pastoral form of most of the Protestant communions, is the Church, therefore, to be per fected and made ready for the Lord. In this belief have we all been educated. To question it, seems to not a few the height of fanaticism. It is the peculiarity of the Catholic Apostolic congrega tions that they hold fast to the primitive polity of the Church, as set forth in the Epistles of St. Paul and of the other Apostles. They believe that any departure from its original form necessarily brings with it spiritual loss. The full work of the Church, whether as regards its own mem bers or those without, cannot be done without all its minis tries. If any of these be lost, there cannot be the complete and highest forms of worship; the baptized cannot be per fected; the Gospel is not adequately preached. Nor does the New Testament intimate that any of the original minis tries were transient. The Head is Christ, the same yester day, to-day, and for ever, and He is Apostle, and Prophet, and Evangelist, and Pastor, and must have in His Church those who represent Him in all these offices, till He come again. No ministry that God set in the Body, has He taken away. We utterly deny and reject that prevalent distinction of ordinary and extraordinary ministries which serves as an opiate to make Christians content with their present imperfect condition. It is the offspring of unbelief, and so long as it is held, the Church can never fulfill the purpose of God. But a theoretical belief as to what the Church should be, however well founded, would not avail to deliver us from the evil position into which we have fallen. Our faith goes beyond this. We believe that God has actually restored the primitive ministries, and has given again Apostles and Prophets, Evangelists and Pastors. This is a question of fact. But this is not the time to bring forth the proof. We accept this restoration on grounds which are to us con vincing . and sure, and we earnestly desire our brethren to investigate the matter as one of fact. But it is just here that we meet the strongest obstacles. The instant any mention is made of a Divine interposition, almost all ears are closed. On every side we hear the cries, " The age of miracles is past." " The Holy Ghost speaks no more in tongues and prophesyings." " God sends no more messengers." "It is folly to talk of the restoration of the Church, for there is nothing to be restored." " "We have all that we need for our spiritual blessing." What can we do but be silent, and let God in His providence be His own witness ? Yet here and there one breaks free . from the bondage of these pre-judgments, and says, "God is not bound. I know not what He may do; He does not take counsel of me. If, indeed, He is doing a new work in His Church, I desire to have part in it." When we hear such a voice we rejoice, and we thank God that we are beginning to hear such voices around us more and more. Closely connected with the ministries are the ordinances of the Church. Their value lies in this, that in each of them some special grace of God is given. Not one of them is an empty form. Not one of them is superfluous. If, therefore, 6 any of these ordinances be wanting, its special grace is not given. He who rejects the ordinance of baptism cannot have the grace that is in it, except God be pleased to give it in some extraordinary way. So is it with the Lord's Sup per, and with the anointing of the sick. In all ordinances the Holy Ghost is present to work that spiritual work which they were designed by God to effect. If, then, through the loss of ministries there is a loss of ordinances, there cannot be the fullness of the operations of the Spirit; and there has been such loss. In the beginning "the gift of the Holy Ghost " was given by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles. [See Acts 8 and 19.] The min istry of Apostles ceasing, the ordinance ceased. No more are to be found the spiritual gifts in which the early Church rejoiced — prophecy, tongues, discerning of spirits, gifts, of healing, and the like. All agree that they have ceased; and most speak of them as extraordinary, meant only for the first age of the Church. We see why they have ceased. They cannot be given without the ordinance, and the ordi nance can be administered only by Apostles. An inferior ministry, as that of the Bishop, can confirm the grace given in baptism, but cannot impart the gift of the Holy Ghost; nor do Bishops or others assume to do so. The fullness of ministries and the fullness of ordinances go hand in hand. If all the former are in exercise, all the latter can be administered; and thus through both can the full operations of the Spirit be wrought, to the end that " in everything God's children may be enriched, in all utterance and in all knowledge, so that they come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Do not misapprehend me, my Christian friends, as if we believed that the mere existence of her full ministries and ordinances will of itself perfect the Church. Had it been so, the Church would have been perfected in the beginning. No, God gives grace, but we must in faith receive and use it aright. His gifts do not set aside our responsibility. His ordinances are not magical charms. We may reject them, may misuse them, may even pervert them to our destruc- tion. Only to those who receive in the spirit of faith, of love, and of obedience, can the restoration of the primitive ministries and ordinances be a blessing. Without them, we cannot, indeed, receive the full measure of God's grace; but even with them we may fail, through our neglect and unbelief, to be made ready for the Lord. Let not any one think that we who believe that all the primitive ministries of the Church are restored, assume to be better than our brethren. No man can judge himself ; the Lord is the judge of all. If we have received much, we are responsible for much. These means of grace are to make us ready for the Lord, that " we be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless." Who are thus made ready, it is for Him to decide. He speaks of those who shall be counted "worthy to attain the resurrection from the dead;" and He admonishes us to " watch and pray always, that we may be counted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." The position of us all is that of the Apostle, who did not " count himself to have already attained, either to be already per fect," but "pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The next point is that of Worship. The principle that rules us in the order of our worship is simply this, that God alone can appoint how He is to be worshiped. The order of His house is determined by Himself, not by us. Our opinions or judgments, much less our fancies or tastes, can not tell us how we may come aright into His holy presence. And from the beginning of human history He has given to men directions concerning His worship. Sacrifices of ani mals meet us immediately after the fall of our first parents, and re-appear with additional rites in all the Old Testament records ; and when He had chosen the Jews to be His own people, we know how minute were the directions given them respecting their services. There never was a time when the pious men of old presumed to say, " We will worship God as we please," nor were even the heathen guilty of such presumption, 8 But, as we know, there has been in New England a very general belief that since Christ ascended to Heaven and sent the Holy Ghost, the manner of worship has become a thing of mere individual feeling. The heart being right, all external rites and acts are matters of indifference. Many even now seem to think that simple and pure worship is incompatible with any forms ; that the more unstudied, spontaneous and familiar our services are, the more the Deity is honored; that forms are a bondage from which the Spirit has set us free. Happily this strange error is now passing away. Experience has taught us that God not hon ored outwardly, not worshiped with all those signs of external reverence that befit His Majesty, is soon not hon ored in our hearts. Irreverence of manner breeds irrever ence of spirit. There is seen an increasing desire in all parts of the Christian Church — and it is a most hopeful sign — to make its worship more worthy of the great God whose creatures we are, and into whose presence we may come only by His permission, and in His appointed ways. There are three principal ends aimed at in the services of worship— the honor of God, who is the object of our adoration, the blessings obtained for the world through the prayers, and the spiritual culture of the worshipers. The honor of God, against whom we have sinned and by whose compassion we have been redeemed, calls for lowly confession of our sins, that we may receive His absolution, for thanksgivings and praises in acknowledgment of His mercies, and for adoration of His Divine Holiness and Majesty. What lofty conceptions of worship had His people of old! " Let us come before His presence with thanksgiv ing, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms; for the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." . . . " Honor and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; bring an offering and come into His courts." Through the prayers of the Church, the world is blessed. 9 Were her intercessions to cease, there would be no barrier to the outpouring of God's judgments upon the ungodly. She is set to offer " supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, for all men." This is her high official duty. Not only is she to preach the gospel to all nations, but to pray without ceasing for them. And this duty is not to be discharged by some hasty and meagre extempore peti tions. It embraces the whole circle of human needs, and de mands the largest comprehension and the deepest sympathy, and yet the most exact and careful utterance. In nothing is the failure of large portions of the Church to enter into her priestly calling seen more plainly than in the honor given to the sermon, and the comparative neglect into which the public prayers have fallen. The spiritual culture of the worshiper is not the direct end of worship ; nevertheless worship has a most powerful influence on his religious development. It is, therefore, most important that it be so ordered as to call into exercise all his spiritual faculties, and to strengthen in him by right and full expression all those heavenly desires and feelings which the Holy Ghost has enkindled in his heart. It is in worship that we are lifted up into the highest communion with the Father and the Son. In prayers for others onr own sympa thies are enlarged, our affections are quickened, and by a reflex action we are moved to higher deeds of love and mercy. The Church that prays in the spirit of Christ, will also do the works of Christ. A true and rightly ordered service of worship is thus indispensable to the complete and harmonious unfolding of Christian character. A service defective, or disorderly, or superstitious, will leave its indelible impress on the wor shiper, and this just in proportion to the zeal with which he enters into it. We meet here, dear brethren, primarily to worship God. The forenoon of every Lord's Day is given to that chief act of worship in which we show forth the Lord's death till He come; and at the close of the day we gather again to offer to Him our praises and our prayers. 10 No service is without the reading of His word, and some form of instruction in its truths. But we may not confound preaching and worship. In the one, we listen to a message sent to us from God. In the other, we ourselves approach unto God as His children, accepted in Christ, to present unto Him our homage. Only as taught of God can we come into His holy Presence. But so coming, we stand before Him as a holy priesthood around the golden altar, before which is ministering our Great High Priest. This is the highest grace that God can bestow upon us, that we may appear in the Most Holy Place as joint intercessors with His Son. In our services we use prepared forms of prayer, because it is impossible that the extempore, and therefore necessarily variable and imperfect, utterances of any one man can reach the largeness of true Church prayer. Nor are the prayers those of the minister alone, but those of the worshipers also; and they should know what is to be uttered, that they may make them their own, and so respond intelligently and from the heart. We use creeds, not merely as a profession of our faith concerning God, but also as an act of worship. We clothe our ministers in vestments, because such has been the nearly universal practice of the Church, as it was also expressly commanded by God to the Jewish priests; and because it is the natural instinct of men that we should not minister before Him in the garments of every-day life. We use symbols, not as essential to worship, but as useful accessories, and helpful to the perfect expression of the feelings of the worshipers. It is sometimes said by way of reproach that our worship has many points of likeness to that of the Church of Rome, particularly in the use of symbols. We do not deny this. But nothing is adopted merely because the Chuch of Rome re ceives it, but on the ground that it is conformable to God's will as revealed in the prefigurative types of the law. And noth ing is rejected merely because the Church of Rome receives it, but because of its intrinsic unfitness. The narrowness that would reject all the usages of the Church of Rome can 11 have no place in a catholic work of restoration, where every good and precious rite and usage in every part of the Church is to be sought out and restored to its true place. There is still another point on which I would say a few words — our relations to our Christian brethren. Some speak of us as if we assumed to be " The Catholic Apostolic Church." This is a great error. We simply affirm our selves to be members of that Church. The visible Church of God is very large; it is made up of all the baptized. When we say in the Creed, " I believe One, Holy, Catho lic, and Apostolic Church," we mean not the Roman Com munion alone, nor the Greek, nor any one of the Protestant bodies, but the Church of which all who have been baptized into Christ are members, Protestant, Greek, and Roman. We dare not narrow the grace of God. To whomsoever He has permitted His holy ordinance to be administered — and no baptism is an accident — in him we recognize a brother in Christ. How worse than absurd is it, then, to speak of us as arrogating a title to which no section of the Church, not even the largest, can have any claim. Our relation to all the baptized is that of brethren to brethren. If others cast us out, this does not destroy the relation. It was established by God, and by God only can it be set aside; "for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." Nor is this relation of brotherhood affected by the fact that we believe in the restored ministries of God, and are under them. Were the Jews who received John the Baptist thereby separated from their brethren, and cut off from all the blessing^ of the covenant ? Those who fol low God in a new stage of His work, cannot be guilty of schism, however they may be regarded by their brethren whom they leave behind. In our gathering here we take no position of hostility to any. We rejoice in every proof of God's grace to His children in every part of His Church. We deny the bless ings of His inheritance to none. We rejoice that He will so order events in the reaping of His great harvest, that not 12 a single soul that trusts in Him will be lost. We would act according to Christ's injunction, and " strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." To build up, not to pull down, is the work of Apostles in our day. It is in this feeling of love to all the baptized that we begin our services of worship in this house. But we will not dishonor our Lord by saying that it is of no consequence how people worship. He has given us, as we believe, forms according to His own mind, and tfrom them we dare not depart. The worship is not our own, — it is that of the Lord, the Head, worshiping the Father in and by His Body the Church. Therefore we ask our brethren to examine and see if our worship is not in the true sense Catholic; if our prayers do not express in their measure what is in the heart of the Lord, and are not such as all Christians can make their own; if the Scriptures are not honored, and their truths diligently enforced ; if the sacraments are not administered in a reverential manner ; in a word, if our services are not full and comprehensive, may I not truly say, beyond any. thing to be found elsewhere. In this house in days past has the Gospel been faithfully preached. New England has never been without strong men in her pulpits; men zealous for the honor of God, and not fearing to declare His word. If they failed to bring forth some aspects of truth, especially those relating to the Church, if they unduly exalted the pulpit, and made the sermon to overshadow the worship, they may well be par doned, for who does not feel the power of ancestral usages, and is not influenced by the spirit Of his time? We are the children of the Puritans, and we honor their memory. God forbid that we should ever speak disparagingly of those whose blood runs in our veins — men who may be called narrow, and rigid, and austere, and yet were of the true heroic type, who made their homes in the wilderness, and in its pathless wilds laid the foundation of these Christian states. But we do them no dishonor when we say that they were men of their age, and that there were revealed truths which they did not lay hold of in their full meaning, per- 18 haps hardly laid hold of at all. The Old Testament, rather than the New, was their favorite study. The spirit of the Law was the spirit of their pulpits. Not wholly from necessity, in part at least from principle, were their church edifices so bare and cheerless; and their services were rather those of the captive Jews in Babylon, than of the rejoicing multitude, making the temple courts to resound with the noise of psalteries and harps and psalms and triumphant hallelujahs. In saying that this house is a house of worship, we do in no way undervalue the preaching of the word. None can honor it more than we, but it must be put in its right place and relations. Its first function is to call men to repentance and to bring them to Christ; when brought to Him and made members of His Church, then are they to be instructed in the higher principles of the faith. It now becomes pas toral teaching — a most important duty of the pastoral min istry. Preaching is for those without; teaching is for those within. But the end of this teaching is to purify and en lighten, that men may worship aright. Till men believe and are baptized, they are only hearers of the word; from the day of baptism onward, they become worshipers also. We invite all to come and hear the word as it is preached, that hearing, they may become worshipers. But it is not right for any to be habitually mere spectators of worship. Unhappily there are many in our New England congrega tions, baptized persons, who regularly attend Divine service, and yet never regard themselves as more than spectators: They do not come to the Lord's table, do not join in the prayers, do not acknowledge, perhaps do not understand. their position as in the covenant of God. Let all such re member that familiarity with holy things, if there be no spirit of worship, must have a hardening and defiling effect on the conscience. You will understand that I do not now speak of those who may come of good motives to inform themselves re specting our order of worship, but of those who habitually present themselves in God's house, and yet take no part in 14 its sacred rites — to whom it is a spectacle and nothing more. Let such, if they be unbaptized; repent and be baptized. If they be baptized, let them know their standing in Christ and accept it, and confessing their past neglect, come to His table and live henceforth lives of holy obedience and faith. Our Lord reproved those who made His Father's house a house of merchandise, nor may we make merchandise of His house. It is open to all who come in His fear, its bless ings are for all. Are men poor and suffering, infirm in body and heavy of heart? for these^ above all, is God's house a place of refuge. Here they come to meet Christ, the great Healer of soul and body, and in the warm atmosphere of. His love to find comfort and consolation. Who shall shut them out? Brethren, let us not make merchandise of holy things. Our tithes, be we rich or poor, we pay to God as His due, and we give offerings gladly as He enables us; but we have no individual property in His house. The tithe is paid not to men but to God ; and He alone knows whether we fulfill our obligation. The offering is to God and not to men. We would not know the amount of any man's offer ings. It is a matter between himself and God. But be they large as they may, it gives the offerer no claim to, assert ownership in the house of God, or to assume authority in the Church. And all that we bring unto the Lord, both tithes and offerings, are consecrated to Him in solemn prayer, before they may be used. It is not for God to ask gifts from men, nor may men be importuned or flattered or enticed into giving. If any one be moved in his spirit to make an offering, it is not ours to investigate motives; but we accept what is given, and pre sent it before God for His acceptance. But every one should remember that what God seeks is the offering of the man himself. When he has given himself to God, then do his gifts become acceptable, for they are the offerings of love. We do not enter this building to-day with any service of consecration, nor can it be consecrated till all debt is removed from it. When given to God it must be wholly 15 His. And our services here are of necessity infrequent. We hope the day may come, when in this house may be heard, every morning and every evening, the voice of prayer and of praise, asking His blessing as the day begins, and thanking Him for His goodness as it draws to its close. But about the future we are not careful. It may be that the time is at hand when the Lord's present work comes to its end, and the worship of the Kingdom begins. Many signs within and without indicate this. If it be so, we will rejoice and be glad, for to see Him and be like Him is the fruition of all Christian hope. But so long as He tarries, it is ours to be instant in prayer, and diligent in every good word and work. Setting the Lord always before our face, we shall never be moved. And you, my Christian brethren, members of Christ, partakers of the Holy Ghost, who do not yet discern the hand of God in His present work, remember that it is easy to recognize a work of God when it is done, and His seal is set upon it; but to recognize it while He is doing it, while it is yet imperfect, this it is that proves our discernment and our faith. God's work in redemption is an ever -progressive one; and it is not enough that we were His helpers yester day. If God sends His Apostles to-day to prepare the way of His Son, our faith in His past works will not suffice for us. Each successive stage in His work demands a new act of trust and obedience. The faith of to-day must do the work of to-day. If you discern God's work only when it is ended, what an unspeakable loss to you! If we know the day of our visitation, and are workers together with God, blessed are we; if we know it not, and set ourselves against Him, no repentance can bring back the lost oppor tunity. Not to the heathen, but to the Jewish Church, were the words spoken, " To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."