The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-06-07
THE MISSION OF AUGUSTINE
SERMON BY DIR. M'LANE ON THE
FIRST MISSIONARY 10 ENGLAND.

Thirteen Hundredth Anniversary of Ill
landing England as Heathen Country
Mature of Their Primitive Religion
Effect of the Gospel Prenohing-Present
State of Canterbury.
At the Plymouth church yesterday
morning Rev. Dr. McLane preached an
exceedingly interesting sermon on 1.-THE
Thirteen Hundredth Anniversary of the
Preaching of Augustine, the Monk and
Missionary in England" This ami
versary was appropriately celebrated
at Canterbury, England, the past
week.
He spoke from the text found in
Isaiah xxi, /, Look unto the rock
whence We are hewn, and to the hole Of
the pit whence We are digged."
This eXhortation of the prophet to
the Jewish captives in Babylon bidding
them remember Abraham, their father,
and recall their past history, that they
might have hope for their future and
faith to follow the guidance of the God
of their fathers, is an exhortation
which should be needed by Christian
people Of all ages. That which God has
done for men in the past Is a pledge Of
what He will do in the future, and his
tory becomes the basis and the root Of
prophecy.
During this past week (June 2, 1870
churchmen from all over the world
have assembled at Canterbury to cele-
ta
sary of the preaching of the gospel in
England by the monk and missionary
Augustine { different man from St.
Augustine, the theologian of Africa.)
Such a significant event deserves to be
noticed outside the pale of the estab-
lished church and beyond the bounds
of England. Augustine was not the
first to preach the gospel in Great Brit
ain.
A half century before the birth of
Jesus some Roman vessels bearing Ro-
man soldiers and commanded by Julius
Caesar landed on the shores of Britain.
To the soldiers from the sunny south
Britain, with it's clouds and showers,
and cool, moist air, seemed an inhos-
pitable region, and the inhabitants,
with their painted bodies, and garments
made of skins, and smoky huts, SEEM
ed, as doubtless they were race of
barbarians. The Romans, however
having conquered possession in the is
land, showed their genius for law and
government and civilization by estab-
fishing order, opening markets for the
grain produced on farms, developing
lead mines in Northumberland, iron
mines in the forests of Devon and tin
mines in Cornwall by founding -four
ishing cities and by building good
roads. For centuries Roman civiliza-
ton prevailed.
So early as the second century of the
Christian era the gospel was preached
in Britain. Some would fain ascribe its
introduction to st. Paul, and some to
certain of the twelve apostles. This,
however, is improbable. 1t seems more
likely as D'Aubigne has said "That in
the second century of the Christian era
vessels were frequently sailing to the
savage shores of Britain from the ports
of Asia Minor Greece, Alexandria or
the Greek colonies in Gaul Among the
merchants busted in calculating the
profits they could make upon the pro-
duce of the east would be found few
pious men conversing of the BIRTH life,
death and resurrection of Jesus of Naz-
areth.
1T would appear also that British
prisoners Of war, having learned to
know Christ during their captivity,
bore also to their fellow countrymen
the knowledge Of the Saviour"
1t may be also that Christian soldiers
and Christian sailors, such as those to
whom Paul preached, carried the glad
tidings to those distant shores. Ger
tain 1t is that in the mountains, forests
and western islands which the Druids
had filled with their mysteries and
their sacrifices the gospel of the Son
of God was preached and the law of
His life was learned, for when the pa
gans saw the holiness of these men of
God they abandoned their sacred oaks,
their mysterious caverns and their
blood-stained affairs, and obeyed the
gentle voice of the gospel. Christiani-
ty, with them, existed in primitive SIM
plicity. One alone was their head.
namely, Jesus Christ Bishops and
and presbyters were equal Preachers
were permitted to marry. The Holy
Scriptures were the rule of faith. And
religion consisted in purity of heart
rather than in outward observances.
BY this I do not mean that the people
were perfect, but that their Christian
ity tended to make them so. Helena,
the mother of st. Augustine; st. ALBION,
the martyr, and Pelagious, the hereto,
were all Britons.
After four hundred years of occupa-
ton of Britain the Roman government,
weakened by internal disorders and
threatened with invasion's arm in
Rome, withdrew its troops and its pro-
lection from the natives of Britain, and
left them to the management of their
own affairs The Britons became in
yolved in wars with their northern
neighbors, the Picts, of what is now
eastern Scotland Across a narrow sea
eastward and southwark of Britain lay
Jutland. the home of the Jutes and An
glia. now Schleswig- Holstein, and Sax
ony, all peopled by Teutonic or German
tribes These, led by the invitation of
the British to help them, and probably
impelled by a desire for adventure,
crossed the narrow sea and entered
Britain. Enamoured of the soil and
the climate, they conquered it. Their
conquest, so far as Britain was con-