Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-11-17
THE BISHOPS OF THE PROTESTANT
EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Extracts From Their Pastoral Let.
ter OF 1888.

DEAR BRETHREN OF THE CLERGY AND
| LAITY:-Our General Convention closes with
signal tokens of the favor of God. His
mercles have not been prevented by the
| manifold lnhrmitlesr of its members or any
waste of His grace. We go to our several
brotherhood in Christ have been confirmed
| the extent and power of our missions enlaro-
ed beyond precedent, and our hopes of a last
ing future unity in Christendom encouraged.
le call me Master and Lord, and We say
well, for SO am" The Lord knew. The
Master then is the Master still; the Lord OF
Israel Is the Lord of America; for He and the
| Fatner are One. Let His Ministers be not
AFRAID to proclaim the Incarnate God, or
hneelinS congregations be ashamed TO adore
Him.
Apart from the doctrine of the Divine Son
snip OF the Son of Man there is no tenabIe
uoctrlne OF the authority of the Scriptures
In the spiritual order, that first chapter of
81. John Is the beginning of the Bible, and
We read the Bible both wavs from that auorst
opening. An arrangement broadly chrono.
logical Is convenience; the one we have by
lhe Canonl Is sufficiently sanctioned: but the
real oD]ect OF fRevelation places us irst where
we learn that God manifest in the flesh was
IN ~ me DeslmnlnS with God and was God. AS
the llylng Word was in the beginning, so the
beginning OF the written Word is in the
sacred lessons of the Nativity. Bewilder-
ment and iatuity about inspiration are not in
the least surprising in minds that are be-
wNuereu ABOUT Him who is the Seed of the
woman, before all worlds. the Omega as well
Us the Alpha. They come to the whole mat
Ter from without. Vision and belief are Tor
those who come to it from within, and who
see. Us the church sees, that the several por-
tions OF the Wondrous book have both their
authority and their value in belonging to Orr
Whole. The oneness of that whole is in Him
for whom and of whom it was originally re-
cofued, whose nediatOrial person and minis
Try are Ut once the theme of Genesis and The
Apocalypse OF Prophets, Psalms and Chroni-
Ges;; cles; 1i Evangeilsts and Epistles, Gods
Shrlstiy providence having brought and
bound the several writings together ouI of
uistant centuries and countries, by their in
terror unity, just as He has made creation
one, and the church one, each Il kind of uni
verse m: IN itself, stamping the whole as one
nlole Dy making 1t, before and after, the
story oil the bridegroom and BRIDE In that
vast conception thousand trivial difficulties.
iterai L ana critical. are harmOuiZcd or vanish
w no linus 1t Il fault in Il Cathedral that there
Is a.Dlock or brace somewhere in it, of which
MS untaught eye does not see the relation TO
s, sne man arch or to the altar: Who carps and
sheers at nature because she hides in her
great chambers little things or strange things
"nereo1 Itself cannot divine the use or any
artist eXpOund the fitness or the beauty: Are
you AFRAID OF 1.-THE letter That killeth?' There
al! are Two ways OF dealing with that. One is to
Aiil thc letter or tear it out the way of the
savage. The other is TO seek the life within.
winch took the letter for its body-the wuy
OF the disciple. y reverent scrutiny of
documents and Il searching criticism of what
Is human i'll grammar. arithmetic or version,
are part of the church's proper business,
ana belong to her scholars. But it is now
seasonable time to mind the difference be-
tween using scholarship lawfully, and being
USED by those outlaw scholars who hunt afier
unnatural interpretations to support foregone
conclusions. Cut the old testament and new
apart II you will; it will be easy afterward to
cut the old or the new to pieces, and scatter
the pieces on the winds; but the new still lies
n ,a.eht IN the Old, and the old patent in the
oraces" Than we are likely to meet in our
thoroughfares long ago declared, neither