THE SERMON

BY THE

RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal."1 Cor. xii. 7.

OUTSIDE her established and ordinary councils, and independently of them, the Church has resorted in these days of free discussion to Church Congresses, wherein her members, lay and clerical, may interchange the sentiments and opinions to which, on all subjects connected with the organisation and life of the body, this free discussion hath given birth.

Often as it has been said, "They are too frequent, they encourage strife and contention rather than compose it; they would serve the same purpose better at longer intervals of time; they occur sometimes at critical periods, when silence were safer than debate; fit places cannot be found where they may be held with advantage; some of our Bishops are opposed to them, as interfering with the ordinary work of the ministry; it were better that our pastors were in their own parsonages, giving themselves to the ministry of the Word and to prayer "—often, I say, as these things have been thought and said, there has been an unbroken succession of annual Congresses from the year when they were first conceived to the present time.

Every one of these objections has found its solution in the conviction felt at the close of each Congress, that opinions are rife which must have this as their natural and proper expression, under the control of a wisely-exercised authority; that in every part of the country there are places which may be benefitted by such expression of opinion within the hearing of the dwellers in those parts; that the work will not be done until a

Congress has been held in each great centre, whether commercial, agricultural, or, as here, where thousands are employed in manufacture-or in our seats of learning, or even in our places of resort for health and refreshment-until men meeting face to face with those who widely differ from them even on essential points shall have learnt from mutual experience, that though there are diversities of gifts, and operations, and ministrations, yet in all these one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every man severally as He will.

This is the principle which ought to underlie all we think, or do, or say. The gift of the Spirit, or, as it is here said, "the manifestation of the Spirit," is given to every man to profit withal-not for himself, but with a view to the profit of the whole body. To boast in any wise as though we had not received our gift from Him who divideth to every man severally as He will, to be puffed up for one against another, as though the manifestation in any one were of the nature of an achievement by himself, so as to lead him to glory in it even while he knows his own insufficiency, this, as we all know, is evil, and nothing but evil can come of it. And if these great assemblies promoted this, instead of (as I humbly believe and trust they do) correcting it, it were far better they should be discontinued.

If we are to come away from them with the feeling in our mind or the word on our lips, "Such a one-or such a partyhad the best of it," as a matter of rivalry or competition-then, indeed, should we come together not for the better but for the worse. But if our hearts' desire is to sift the questions which concern the Church's welfare in the days in which we live, and to gather from the experience of others guidance for ourselves which may help us, on our return to our several spheres of work, to set forth our Master's glory by new vigour, new wisdom, revived faith, increased knowledge-then we may humbly hope that our assembling together is not in vain. Brethren, I think I may say for this assembly-indeed, I think I may say it for any assembly of believers held in these times that the one desire of their hearts, the feeling uppermost in their minds when they kneel down to pray for God's blessing on their undertaking, on whatever they shall think, or speak, or do, is that He would pour into their own hearts and the hearts of all His most blessed gift of charity-that He would inspire them with the holy

feeling which the Royal Psalmist expressed in those words"Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." May we never once in all our deliberations give utterance to one single sentiment opposed to that spirit. It is a great thing to ask and hope; but faith may ask and shall prevail also. May we have it impressed on all our hearts that we are the Body of Christ, and members in particular; that none can say to another, I have no need of you.

The revival of religion in our time is remarkable, not only in the direction of a higher faith and devotion, but in that of regarding the Church as an organisation, as the Body of Christ. Men walk about Zion, and go round about her, and tell her towers, and mark her bulwarks. There is a longing for unity; men are conscious to themselves that the army of the Lord ought, as any other army, to be led against the Lord's enemies either under one, or under thoroughly agreed commanders; that there should not be this distraction of various opinions, conflicting views. Witness the Vatican Council, the Pan-Anglican Synod, the Bonn Conference, the Evangelical Alliance. What do these various movements indicate but a deep desire for unity? Each sets forth its own remedy for the deep-seated grievance of which all are conscious. From the Latins and old imperial Rome comes the unconditional demand for subjection to an infallible Imperator" of the Church. And they say that the spirit which refuses to accept the demand is the spirit of the world and of Antichrist. We know and feel in all our hearts that the assertion cannot be admitted. From the Protestant communities which reject the idea of one visible Body of Christ comes the suggestion, which is really as untenable, though not so offensive, as the former, that we should agree to differ in faith, be united only in love, which is directly in opposition to the words of St Paul and St John, and to the clear testimony of the primitive Church.

Hearken again. Another voice breaks the silence which ensues while we pause and say to ourselves," Perhaps, after all, this may be the solution, when every other solution of our difficulties is found hopeless." And this voice, seeming to fall in with the idea last developed, proves at once how dangerous it is to meddle with the foundation of all true and living and lasting unity. The voice is the voice of all the latitudinarians and philosophers, who say, "Abolish all creeds (and what is that

but abolishing Christianity itself?) and the world will be at peace."

And have we no support on which to lean when men say that, except upon this condition or that unity is unattainable, either by absolute submission, or sinking of all points of difference, or abolishing the creeds? Oh yes, brethren, we say that "Salvation hath God appointed for walls and bulwarks;”—that in our Bible, and in our Prayer-book, and in the holy teaching of our Church, thousands, millions-millions that now rest in the Lord-have found the peace which they longed for. We say that loyalty to these is sufficient help for the soul; that these are a sufficient rule for the Church; that if we are disloyal to our own Church and its teaching, and, in one word, its law (for loyalty means obedience to the law), we cannot expect the support we need, either inwardly, or against the dangers that beset us from without; for who will trust those that have no law but their own will?

Brethren, on whatever points we may be divided, on this at least I hope we are perfectly at one-that unity can never be attained by every man following his own ways and ideas; that, until haply in the course of time, let me say in God's own good time, a wider union on the true basis of faith and order can be brought about, we who are met together are bound-the clergy by the formularies which they have subscribed with their hands, the laity by their allegiance to her, who is, in this land of their inheritance, a true and Apostolic branch of the Catholic Church: yes, are bound together in one as the Body of Christ and members in particular, even that body, to which their Lord's promise was given, " He will guide you into all truth." Yes, He will guide you. Be assured of that. The way is dark and slippery: even when a great door and effectual seems to be opening before us, there are many adversaries; many who hate the truth; many whose love and knowledge being but partial, are opposed to it in its fulness; many whom the god of this world hath blinded; many who are wise in their own conceits. But be sure that the heavenly hand will guide you on and on, till you shall both love, and know, and see with your eyes. There was one, an eager controversialist and disputer in his day, yet who sought the Lord and held fast by the promise-it was Richard Baxter-who said at the close of his life that he looked back with sorrow on everything he had done of a party kind,

and could only feel any comfort in thinking of what he had been able to do for peace and unity.

The great question to which I have referred, and others affecting the welfare of the Church more nearly and deeply, questions which concern the very foundations on which the Church is built, the whole validity of her dispensations, her power to bind and loose, her unity with other Churches, her relation to the civil Government, and yet her true spiritual independence, and whether recent legislation has or has not in the least affected that independence-all that is included, or can be included, under that saying, "Render unto Cæsar Cæsar's dues, but to God His own "-questions of this kind are necessarily excluded from our deliberations, lest perchance, through incautious words spoken or party excitement, any should be offended or made weak. Our concern is rather with the superstructure than with the foundation, with what concerns the individual man in his power of usefulness, in his self-restraint, in his daily relations to his fellow-men, in the discharge of the duties committed to him, both for his own welfare and for that of the body.

Because we believe implicitly that gifts were given for the full accomplishment of all that God would have to be done by His Church, that such power as we see put forth from time to time for the repression of some dreadful malady that has eaten into the very heart of the body is all of Him who has set in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, and after these, powers of various kinds, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues and the interpretation thereof, and hath bidden us to covet earnestly the best of these, and to use them unto edifying, each in its true proportion; and withal has shown unto us a more excellent way-the way of charity-without which none of these gifts were of any real avail to carry out, His gracious purpose-because we believe these things, we are assembled together this day to help and encourage one another; to learn from one another; to hear what each in his own sphere of work, using his own gift, hath found to be most helpful to remedy the evil which sin hath spread so wide. Oh! baleful power of sin, felt in every heart, and from heart to heart like a contagious disease diffusing thyself, with thee we wage our warfare; hopeful, because it is written, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."