Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

GOD with all your heart and with all your soul." These words are conclusive evidence that there is at least one thing which no miracles ought to make men accept as the truth-and that is, idolatry.

But we may safely expand these words of the great lawgiver, and applying them to Antichristian times, we may say that no possible display of miracles and wonders and prodigies ought ever to make us change any of the plain doctrines of the Christian Faith, or to receive anything which is contrary to the Creeds. And with this agree perfectly the words of S. Paul, "Though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."1

But this is the very crowning impiety of Antichrist, which we believe he will practise, and support by the weight of his miracles. He will set himself against the unalterable, inviolable Articles of the Christian Faith. And we feel very much inclined to be of opinion that he will especially seek to undermine and overthrow the very foundation of all, the One, great, mighty central Fact in the Universe of GOD: the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed TRINITY-the Only-Begotten Son of GOD. And as the Incarnation may be called, xar' oxy, "The Truth," so may Antichrist's denial of it, or his opposition to it, be "The Lie." Thus we feel that there is yet to be one chief, final application of S. John's words, "Every spirit that confesseth not that JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh, is not of GOD: and this is that spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”2 This has had its measure of fulfilment in each succeeding age, but as yet a partial fulfilment only, and never supported by miracles. But S. John seems to point to the final fulfilment, when he says, "Who is the Liar, (ó Veúστns) ψεύστης) but he that denieth that JESUS is the CHRIST? He is the Antichrist (o 'AvTixpotos,) that denieth the FATHER and the SoN."

This central lie, and the falsehoods flowing from it, and as it were revolving around it, would seem to be the διδασκαλίαι δαιμοviwy of S. Paul, and the aipéσes anwλeías of S. Peter.

By what particular means in the way of counter-teaching and opposing doctrines Antichrist will endeavour to shake the CornerStone on which the Church must rest, none can say. Only we are sure of this. It will be by ways and means peculiarly wonderful for their depth of iniquity and extreme of subtilty. They will be the very τὰ βάθη τοῦ Σατανᾶ. (Rev. ii. 24.)

It may be, perchance, by blasphemies against the ever-blessed, Ever-Virgin Mother. It may be, by assigning to others that prerogative of hers which she shares with none: her spotless Parthenogenesis.3

1 Gal. i. 8.

21 S. John iv. 2, 3.

3 The reader is referred to some very able articles which appeared recently in the

God keep us watchful and prayerful, with loins girt and lamps burning, and we ourselves, like unto men that wait for their LORD, knowing, indeed, that He will not come until "The Apostasy" has taken place, and that Man of Sin been revealed whom He will slay with the Breath of His Mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His Presence.

PRACTICAL VIEW OF UNITY.

1. ΩΡΟΛΟΓΙΟΝ ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ.

2. ΕΥΧΟΛΟΓΙΟΝ ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ.

3. Private Devotions as enjoined by the Holy Eastern Church for the Use of her Members. Translated from the Original. London: Masters.

4. Prayers and Thanksgivings for the Holy Communion. Translated from Coptic, Armenian, and other Eastern Rituals. By the Rev. S. C. MALAN, M.A., Vicar of Broadwindsor. London: Masters.

THERE is no greater proof of the increasing vitality of the Church in England than the rapid awakening of that desire for unity which must ever be the special characteristic of the true-hearted member of CHRIST. Many souls, we are well assured, not in this country only, but in all parts of Christendom, are daily echoing that prayer first uttered in such solemn hour "that they all may be one;" and though even yet the longing is feeble compared with the glory and blessedness of the object to be attained, it may be taken as a sure token that God has already turned to behold and visit this vine.

The desire, such as it is, is the growth of the last quarter-century. In the age from which we have escaped even the most earnestminded men, with some rare exceptions, were content to seek the salvation of their own souls and those of their immediate neighbours without having ever so realized the living framework of His Body as to desire with the ardent aspirations of earlier times the fulfilment of that fair vision which shows the spiritual Jerusalem the joy of the whole earth, opening wide her gates, and all the nations of the world entering in thereat.

With the renewal of life, however, as we have said, the Church in this land has turned her face once more to her first love, and she

Literary Churchman,-being Reviews of a work upon the different religions of India, in which it is shown, that what most Christians had fondly thought was a privelege which none had dared to claim but JESUS, is by his votaries falsely and blasphemously ascribed to the Hindoo deity Buddha.

now looks with earnest longing for the coming of that peaceable kingdom when there shall be one Fold under one Shepherd.

It is well to hope and wish for it, and the more this desire is kindled like living fire from soul to soul the better for ourselves and the Church at large. But this is not enough; we know that we must labour for spiritual food as well as pray for it, and as it appears to us that the newly-wakened wish for unity in our communion has not yet been directed into the channels most favourable to its operation for good, we propose to devote a few pages to the consideration of the subject in a practical point of view. In so doing we do not intend to inquire into the means which might be used by the corporate body of Churchmen in this or other countries for the promotion of unity, but rather into the course which it is the wisdom and duty of individuals to follow as regards their own efforts and feelings.

There are three points in which we think persons for the most part fail of a right understanding of this subject, three elements wanting to their desire, without which it is little likely to fructify into any substantial increase of intercommunion. The first of these is the lack of warmth and earnestness in that looking for and hastening to the coming of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, which is the completion and final concentration of all good, and which must therefore be preceded by any such return of peace as it may please GOD to have in store for His Church on earth.

The second is the want of a sufficiently large-hearted and comprehensive view of the unity to be desired, uninfluenced by local position or prejudices.

The third is the absence of any consciousness that individual training and personal holiness are not only effectual means, but absolute essentials to the promotion of unity.

And now as to the first of these three points. It is an undoubted fact that even amongst the most Catholic-minded Christians, either in England or elsewhere, there is little of that ardent longing for the Second Advent which characterized those earlier ages of the Churches, when the Love of His appearing was the very key-note to all Christian aspirations and desires. The present lukewarmness on this subject may in part be attributed doubtless to the reaction from the groundless theories of Millennarians which obtained so largely in the last century, but this is no sufficient cause for a state of feeling which deprives the Church of that which has ever been counted one of her most significant attributes-the longing of the Bride for the Bridegroom's coming. There are now, as there have ever been, voices crying out from time to time that He is near, even at the doors; but there is no indication of that universal and ardent aspiration for the swift appearance of the Desire of all nations which ought surely to be the master-feeling in the hearts of all whose Love and Life He is.

Now we do consider it most essential for the well-being of Christendom under every point of view that this desire should be cultivated as one of the first-we do not say of Christian duties, the word is too cold and narrow, but of Christian principles, without which our allegiance is imperfect and our devotion incomplete. We know that His Presence is vouchsafed to us according to our love; and surely that love, even of a human being, would be very meagre and shallow which could lightly bear the prolonged absence of the one beloved. For the crowning of our own hearts' joy we ought to seek His appearing with passionate longing, and still more for the sake of our brethren of the human race who all, according to their several necessities, so sorely need the life-giving Presence which alone can heal the world's deadly wounds. The nations yet bowing down in dark idolatry to devils or their semblances, the millions who have never heard the Name of JESUS, and the multitudes who, under the name of Christians, live in the most debasing heathenism;-for these and for ourselves we well may weary heaven with prayers for His swift coming. But for the return of unity to His Church, we must seek it with the no less fervency,-for may we not believe that if this glorious consummation is ever to crown our hopes before the time when He shall come to reign in Righteousness, it can only be when the sunshine of His approaching Presence begins to penetrate the thick darkness that surrounds us, diffusing light and peace, and drawing all who love that light together, ere the final bursting of the Sun of Righteousness upon the unveiled sight shall destroy the sin and darkness, which now beset the Church, for evermore.

Let all, then, who would seek the peace of Jerusalem in love and faithfulness gather all their aspirations into this one Prayer, "Come, LORD JESUS." Come, King of Saints, Head of the Church, and give us Thine own bequest, our heritage of peace!

The second drawback to our individual progress towards unity is, as we have said, the narrow limits which in this country we place to our desire. This is a very serious evil, though doubtless but the natural consequence of the events of past ages. Our by-gone history, our local position, our unconscious submission to welldirected and powerful influences, all combine to make one mighty communion loom out so largely on the foreground of the Church's horizon, that we forget to embrace in our so-called universal desire all the wide field that lies beyond it, purchased though it be, like that of the potter, with the price of precious Blood. Let many of those who most ardently desire unity say truly what is the real limit of their wish, and they will answer, "Union with Rome." Yes, with Rome alone, as if she were indeed that which she claims to be, the only true Church. There is no place in their love and longing for that venerable Church of the sacred East which has never fallen from its true faith and fervent worship since first it

was planted by Apostolic hands on the shores which had nourished the dim philosophy of souls that knew no GOD. What though it remains an open question whether the Eastern Church be not that original stem whence the Western branch separated herself,-men have in this country allowed themselves to be so overborne by the exclusive assumption of that power, the voice of whose dominion over England still echoes down through these long ages on our ears, that, in their desire for unity, they are content well-nigh to ignore the existence of the Oriental Church.

?

But have they any right to the name of Catholics who do so? are they in this true followers of Him to Whom all flesh shall come Do they suppose that He has forgotten His millions of Eastern children who, from the wide-spreading realms of the Russian Empire from the shores of classic Greece, and from the mountain fastnesses of Syria, with one heart and voice announce their faith σTEú siç μίαν ̓Αγίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ̓Αποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, and utter their petual prayer ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου ?

per

He has not forgotten them, and He will not forget. Let not the countless worshippers fear who bow before the holy doors in the old Byzantine churches to receive His Sacramental Blessing; let them not fear that if ever on this earth He gives His Church the blessing of peace they shall reap the reward of their true-hearted stedfastness to the faith once delivered to their own Saints of old, and find their place in that One Fold from which in love they have never wandered. It is no mean token of the Presence of their LORD amongst them now, as He has ever been, that the two first books with which we have headed our pages are their standard formularies of public and private devotion. Little are they known, little understood in England, even as that ancient communion herself is practically ignored, yet there may be found in them all those treasures of doctrine, of ritual, and of discipline which were in the very earliest ages sent out to shape the Temple of the HOLY GHOST in fair proportion. Can it be well, can it be even safe, for men to overlook this vast domain of Christian souls in their aspirations after unity? Nominally they may affirm they do not do so. Virtually they do. Their hearts' desire and prayer is for union with the West alone, and if any one speaks of that venerable communion as a most important part of His One Body,-they treat of it with contempt or compassion as a branch so withered and dead that it can claim no place in the future hopes of Christendom. It is not so; the candlestick of the Oriental Church has not yet been removed, and it burns with a steady flame which has never been blown about with every blast of doctrine as in the distracted West. Her Priesthood, singularly faithful to the dogmas of her earliest teaching; her perpetual offering of the One Great Sacrifice; her continual voice of praise, speaking no words less ancient than those of S. James and S. Basil; all testify to the Presence of that LORD within

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »