The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-11-20
PASTORAL LETTER.
Prom the Bishops of the American
(EPiscOPaD Church.-A. ID. 1874.

The passion of the age in which we live
is Freedom. Its favorite watchword is
Liberty. Noble words are these if we use
them in their true significance. We
purpose in this Pastoral to admOnish you
of the Glorious Liberty which We have as
covenanted children of God, and to exhOrt
YOU that We hold it fast. If the Son hath
made you free, then are We free indeed;
free to believe all that is true and moth
ing that is false, free to love all that IS
lovely and nothing that is evil; free to do
all that is right and nothing that is wrong;
free to covet all that is noble and naught
that Is vile. Such is Christian Liberty, a
freedom with limitations indeed but
limited in those respects only wherein the
absence of restraint would be but an
other name for vassalage and cruel bond
age. We desire to illustrate the true
meaning of the Christian Liberty whereof
we speak in three several instan ces: sss--ss
1. The Faith you profess.
2. The Obedience you render, and
3. The Love which should animate your
service.
l. The Liberty Of Christian Faith
Have faith in God is the first precept Of
our holy religion. Confde in Him per
sonaIly, the wise and gracious One, as
implicitly as a child believes in his
Father. Believe His every spoken word
His instruction, His warning, and His
promise: for without such faith it is i'm
possible to please Him. But belief is
neither blind creduGty nor enforced as
sent. God has His witnesses in nature
and in providence, and by the mouth of
these many witnesses IL is proven that
the Lord is loving unto unto every man,
and His mercy is over all His works In
a higher sense, faith comes by hearing
md relies upon that manifestation of the
truth which commends itself to reason
and to conscience. The, sanCtltied intel
beet delights to explore every department
of knowledge, to declpher the strange le-
gend impressed upon the once fluid rock,
to unrOll the papyrus TO nnalyze the mys-
terious processes of human thought and
consciousness. But none the less are we
free to recognize eternal truths, and, I'M
applied by mysteries or seeming contra
dictions, to affirm the verify of the Chris
tan story, which it is unreasonable to
deny.
But who knows not the presence OF an
arrogant sceptiCism which, in view OF
our glorious liberty of believing that God
as love aud that His Son hath died, points
at us the finger of derisiOn as submitted
TO an intellectual bondage which dares
not turn towards the light?
The Church seeks not TO put out the eyes
Of scholars and Investigators. She gladly
welcomes all their contributions TO human
knowledge and to the wealth OF human
thought. But she warns her children, IN
the presence of these little systems
which shave their day and cease to be,
that they must not ensave themselves to
the tyranny of transient theories, and
forego their right to hold fast that which
is the same yesterday, to-day and for ev-
er. Remember, Brethren, that the rehg-
ion which we profess is religion OF tact.
The Greed YOU recite is a recital of events
that have happened in the Olden days,
and of hopes surely founded the5eou.
Our religion rests upon historical basis
as impregnable as when St Paul at Thes-
salonica tor three Sabbath-days reason
ed out of the Scriptures, opening and al
leging that this Jesus whom preach unto
you Is Christ. The mere history OF the
successive philosophers which h8Ye held
sway in the intellectual world, Is OF itself
a laborious study, and the discovery OF
revolutionary facts is constantly demand
ing the REIMBURSEMENT of hypothesis and
theory. 1t is because the faith il sure
and certain that its utterances cannot be
always made TO harm0nIze with the half
known and the variable.
1t is Freedom, not serYItude, to hold
fast the faith once delivered to the Saints.
The Church has no quarrel with
science. Far from it. She ever vel
comes science rs her ally and her friend. !
Her quarrel is not with science, but with
science falsely 90 called.
We warn you against the pretentlous |
dOgmatism, and especially against the |
Etheistic materialIsm, which under the |
name of science presents, not its dIscoy- |
e.. hut lr.Yla fhaprIaE mud /
tentative spccuatiUns. The long eXplod- |
ed errors OF the past are thus, like ghosts, |
rising from their graves, and seeking to |
resume their empire over human thought |
and human conduct, tempting men to re-
Yive species OF PagaTIsm, aud mIscall |
ut the Advance Of Science.
2. The Liberty Of Christian Discipline.
Almighty God has been pleased TO give
us, not only Faith, but discipline as
well. Ye are free, and yet the Lord
freedmen. Admitted to the General As
sembly and Church of the first born, ye
are set in authority and under authority,
set to rule over those whom God has con
ilded to you, and admonished in turn to
obey them that are over you IN the Lord
and to submit yourselves TO their just au-
thority.
And this appointed discipline is Liber-
~, not Bondage 1t Is Liberty to be the
members of great army, instead of lone
" Adventures soldiers with a claim for
guidance protection aud sympathy, with
n right to demand your place beneath the
shade aud beside the wells of every Film
where the army finds its camp; 1t Is Lib
erty to have over you IN the Lord men
who have not dominion over your faith,
but are helpers of your joy, who preach !
Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves
T. J. |
rejoicing if they be offered up upon the
sacrifice and service Of your faith.
The Divine Master is considerable Of
our self-reSpcct. He calls us, not ser
wants, but friends. lie, and Ills Church
following His directions, have no secrets
20 hide from obedient and humble minds;
no arbitrary rules. no minute prescrip-
tons to bind upon the faithful.
What shall we say to these thIngS2 |
Shall we, because we are friends, cease to
be dutiiul? Shall we, because We are IN
der grace rather than law, Scant our 0he-
dience, and betray the Master honor
that is conhded to US? As the very bold
ness with which we may come to the
throne of grace obGges us to proiounder
reverence, so the large freedom we enjoy
in all the details of life and duty furnish
es the highest argument for CircumSpec-
ton and selEcontrol.
Our clergy have large liberty: shall they
abuse the gentleness of Christ and the pa
thence of their mother, by pressing their
own fancies and seIfconceIts to the ut
most verge Of cauonical endurance Shall
they usurp the functions OF the body that
commissions them, and seek to make that
Church more Evangelical or more Catho-
Ire than her own formularies and Ritual
affect to be? When men asked John
Baptist Who art thou? ne answered, an
affect that he was nobody, voice IN the
wilderness, the mere breath of a divine
utterancc. How glorious is the Liberty,
how high the privilege, Of the clergy, to
refrain from all sel-asscrtiou, 10 utter
that only which God and His Church put
unto their mouths, aud 10 afford the most
signal example Of that obedience Of faith
which obeys law because 1t is the law.
1t is part Of tie Liberty whcrewith
Christ has made MS free to lift up all our
domestic lie into the pure atmosphere Of
spiritual thceght and feeling Marriage