The herald., 1895-09-30
THE CHURCHES YESTERDAY
An Increasing Attendance a
Notable Feature
SERVICE AT THE CATHEDRAL
A Philosophical Talk or the Evolution
OF the Soul
Harvest Home at St. Paul's-B. F. Couiter's
Farewell to His Congregation-The
Y. w. c. A. Gospel neeting
SERVICE AT THE CATHEDRAL

The services yesterday morning at the
catneural were very impressive the music
being of very high order and exqus-
itely rendered Bishop Montgomery
chose for his text Ephesians: iv, 1-6, and
from it preached the sermon which fol-
lows:
'Be careful to keep the unity OF the
sp5 in the bond of peace On. One ",d body
faith H'o one baptism, one God s and i Father her
of all.
If there is in holy scripture one clear
and explicit dogmatic statement. it can
be said OF these words OF the apostle and
the necessity of unity of faith. By
faith" we may mean the body of doc
trine to be believed or the act by which
we believe, and then we call 1t an act of
faith; or We may mean simply the virtue
of faith. When we speak of "unity of
! faith we employ the word faith" in
the first sense and mean the whole body
of divinely re ,ealed truth. And III this
sense we saw that by unity" is meant
that the mem befs of the church Christ
established must be united in the belief
Of the same doctrines of revelation and
i'll the acknowledging of the spiritual
authority of the same pastors. This is
| fundamental to the Christian religion
upon the supposition that it is super
natural and revealed creed. And If st.
Paul does not teach this fact, then it is
Impossible to understand the plainest
statement of revealed truth. The ordi
nary way that men come to know revealed
| truth is by means of teacher. The very
commission given to the apostles was
that OF teacning; put of teaching that
manded you" And st. Paul says else
| where How shall they hear unless they
have teacher?' And again he declares
that neither he nor an angel from heaven
dare teach doctrine different from the
one already taught. Therefore it must
that is believed. In other words, the
same faith, the same revealed Truths,
must be taught everywhere and at all
times wherever and whenever taught at
| all. This stands to reason, as faith is in
| tended for the salvation of all men.
1t Is evident, then, that the unity of
faith can be had only by means of lv-
ing teacher whom God will guard from
error; otherwise changes of teaching
| would necessarily creep into the creed.
and by believers accepting that creed
without such teacher error would creep
into their view of the creed itself, and so
| would they wander farther and farther
from the truth.
From this 1t is evident as an effect
from cause. that Chrlst's religion, or
| IoNSdlcu tTulD, CduuOb SudD0 lJS6lI lHuO
the form of state churches. or churches
and congregations Limited by geographic
| cal lines, unless they have necessary
and well defined relation with the teach
| ing center;such Limitation is unworthy
OF the Savior of men and misrepresents
him.
Any other view of a divinely revealed
faith as supernatural religion for the
salvation of all men, is sim ply self-contra,
| dictory and makes it out a merely human
invention at the very ment that it is
| claimed to be supernatural and divine.
| In the whole of our Saviors teaching
| there are these two points that stand out
| before all else namely that His church
is living, teaching body. teaching with
His authority, and reserved by Him from
teaching falsely; and that the result is
unity of faith.
The hgures He uses in His church al
ways imply these two things, kingdom,
sheepfold, vine, bride, even the hui
man body.
Among all the people of the earth this
| should present the least difficulty TO our
fellow citizens if they understand the
genius of our own government.
Our motto is e Pluribus Unam-Out of
many, one.
| From several states, with all the diver.
stiles OF interest possible composed of
| people as different in all respects as the
earth itself can produce, there is formed
one harmonious people. under one head,
| one government. exhibiting a unity,
| political, it is true, but admirable for its
purpose.
Whence comes this unitys Whence has
| it been possible?
On the very plan by which unity of
| faith is possible.
There is cosntitution that takes the
place of revealed truth. and there are
legislative bodies and courts of law to
| develop and guard it. That constitution
is, in sense. the oragnic law of the land.
| But there is provided for its preserva-
| tion court to construe laws made for
the political welfare of the people, and to
| see that they always be in accordance
| with the constitution.
| The laws enacted by the legitimate rep
resentative bodies are simply the develop
ment of the constitution, and tue court
sees to it that they are confined to such.
And the various inhabitants through
out the great country accept these defni-
! tons OF the court as politically infallible
and whenever they deny their practical
infallibility they are in state of revoiu-
ton. if not of rebellion.
The analogy is not perfect OF course,
but it is striking. The church does not
| make doctrine, she declares the doctrine
taught by Christ, as tho courts do not
| make law but construe the sense of law.
Again. 1t is a little difficult not to be-
lieve that our forefathers had before their
| minds the actual state of the Roman
| NaLnOl1C CnurCn Wnen IN q manner so
similar to the Estate of the church and
their purpose. these great statesmen cut
| out O small territory that should be part
of no state and there estaf lshed the seat
OF the general government 50 that no
state in the union, how remote soeyer it
might be from the seat of government,
could justly suspect that the general gov
ernment which is for the general good,
| was unduly influenced by the state in
which it must otherwise have been To-
| Gated.
Hence do I say that of all people in the
world the American people should have
the least difficulty in seeing this necessi-
| ty of unity of faith, and the means nee
essary TO attain it, as they have the OBJ
Ject lesson of orr government before their
eyes.
If they would go step farther and see
that in the church as in the republic,
there IS no aristocracy of birth, merit
alone being the qualification for promo
ton, and in it as in the republic as
very fact. the humblest individuals fire.
quently reach the highest offices they
should at least admire if they could not
accept it.