FIVE SERMONS

BY THE RT. REV. H. B. WHIPPLE, D. D. , LL. D. BISHOP OF MINNESOTA

1890

PREFACE

My only excuse for printing these sermons is the request of friends whocould not secure copies of them. They are printed as delivered, and therepetition of incidents was a part of the historical statement. TheThird and Fifth Sermons were preached without notes and reported by astenographer. H. B. W. 

CONTENTS

I. SERMON AT THE OPENING SERVICES OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION, OCTOBER 1889II. SERMON AT THE FARIBAULT CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENNIAL OF THE INAUGURATION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1789-1889III. SERMON AT THE SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MISSIONARY COUNCIL IN WASHINGTON, D. C. , NOVEMBER 1888IV. ADDRESS IN LAMBETH CHAPEL, AT THE FIRST SESSION OF THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE, JULY 3, 1888V. SERMON AT THE FOURTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF ST. ANDREW, IN CLEVELAND, OHIO, SEPT. 29, 1889

I. SERMON AT THE OPENING SERVICES OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION, OCTOBER 2, 1889. 

"We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, whatwork Thou didst their days, in the times of old. "--PSALM xliv. I. 

Brethren: I shall take it for granted that there is a visible Church;that it was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, and has His promise thatthe gates of hell shall never prevail against it. We believe that oursis a pure branch of the apostolic Church; that it has a threefoldministry; that its two sacraments--Baptism and the Supper of the Lord--areof perpetual obligation, and are divine channels of grace; that thefaith once delivered to the saints is contained in the Catholic creeds, and has the warrant of Holy Scripture which was written by inspirationof God. On this centennial day I shall speak of the history and missionof this branch of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It was a singular providence that this continent, laden with the bountyof God, was unoccupied by civilization for thousands of years. Americawas discovered by a devout son of the Latin Church, whose name--Christopher, Christ-bearer, and Columbus, the dove--ought to have beenthe prophecy that he would bear the Gospel to the New World. It was ata time when Savonarola, with the zeal of a prophet of God and theeloquence of a Chrysostom, was laboring to awaken the Church to a newlife. No nation ever had a nobler mission than Spain. That mission wasforfeited by unholy greed and untold cruelty. It was lost forever. Other nations claimed the continent for their own. In the providence ofGod; this last of the nations was founded by the English-speaking race. I reverently believe that it was because they recognize as no otherpeople the two truths which underlie the possibility of constitutionalgovernment, i. E. , the inalienable rights of the individual citizen, andloyalty to government as a delegated trust from God, who alone has theright to govern. These lessons are intertwined with two thousand yearsof history. They reach back to the days when the savage Briton came incontact with Roman civilization and Roman law, and have been deepened bycenturies of Christian influences which have changed our savage fathersinto truth-speaking, liberty-loving Christian men. 

More marvellous are the providences intertwined with the history of theChurch. It was planted by apostolic men, and numbered heroes like St. Patrick and St. Alban before the missionary Augustine came toCanterbury. Through all of its history it has been the Church of theEnglish-speaking race. The liturgy contains the purest English of anybook, except the English Bible, which was translated by her sons. Theritual which Augustine found in England came from the East; and theliturgy which he introduced was, by the advice of Gregory, taken frommany national Churches. The Venerable Hooker said: "Our liturgy wasmust be acknowledged as the singular work of the providence of God. " Inits services it represents the Church of the English-speaking race. Theexhortation to pray for the child to be baptized, the direction to putpure water into the font at each baptism, the sign of the cross, thewords of the reception of the baptized, the joining of hands in holymatrimony, the "dust to dust" of the burial, --are peculiar to the officesof the English-speaking people. In the Holy Communion, the rubric foundin all western Churches, commanding the priest, after consecration, tokneel and worship the elements, never found a place in any service-bookof the Church of England. The Book of Common Prayer has preserved forus Catholic faith and Catholic worship. 

The first English missionary priest in America of whose services we haverecord was Master Wolfall, who celebrated the Holy Communion in 1578 forthe crews of Martin Forbisher on the shores of Hudson Bay, amid whosesolitudes Bishop Horden has won whole heathen tribes to Jesus Christ. At about the same time the Rev. Martin Fletcher, the chaplain of SirFrancis Drake, celebrated the Holy Communion in the bay of SanFrancisco, a prophecy that these distant shores should become ourinheritance. A few years later (1583), divine service was held in thebay of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and when hisill-fated ship foundered at sea, the last words of the hero-admiralwere, "We are as near heaven by sea as by land. " The mantle of Gilbertfell on Sir Walter Raleigh, who was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth tobear the evangel of God's love to the New World. The faith behind theadventures of these men is seen in a woodcut of Raleigh's vessels atanchor; a pinnace, with a man at the mast-head bearing a cross, approaching the shore with the message of the Gospel. To some of uswhose hearts have been touched with pity for the red men, its is abeautiful incident that the first baptism on these shores was that of anIndian chief, Mateo, on the banks of the Roanoke. In May, 1607, thefirst services on the shore of New England were held by the Rev. RichardSeymour. Missionary services in the wilderness were not unlike those ofour pioneer bishops. "We did hang an awning to the trees to shield usfrom the sun, our walls were rails of wood, our seats unhewed trees, ourpulpit a bar of wood--this was our 'church. '" It was in this church thatthe Rev. Robert Hunt celebrated the first communion in Virginia, June21, 1607. The missionary spirit of the times is seen when Lord De laWarr and his companions went in procession to the Temple Church inLondon to receive the Holy Communion. The Rev. Richard Crashaw said inhis sermon: "Go forward in the strength of the Lord, look not forwealth, look only for the things of the kingdom of God--you go to win theheathen to the Gospel. Practise it yourselves. Make the name of Christhonorable. What blessings any nation has had by Christ must be given toall the nations of the earth. " The first act of Governor De la Warr, onlanding in Virginia, was to kneel in silent prayer, and then, with thewhole people, they went to church, where the services were conducted bythe Rev. Richard Burke. In 1611 the saintly Alexander Whittakerbaptized Pocahontas. Disease and death often blighted the colonies, andyet the old battle cry rang out--"God will found the State and build theChurch. " The work was marred by immoral adventurers, and it was notuntil these were repressed with a strong hand by Sir Thomas Dale that anew life dawned in Virginia. 

The first elective assembly of the New World met in 1619. It was openedby prayer. Its first enactment was to protect the Indians fromoppression. Its next was to found a university. In the firstlegislative assembly which met in the choir of the Church in Jamestown, more than one year before the Mayflower left the shores of England, wasthe foundation of popular government in America. Time would fail me totell the story inwrought in the lives of men like Rev. William Claytonof Philadelphia, the Rev. Atkin Williamson of South Carolina, and theRev. John Wesley and the Rev. George Whitefield, also sons of the Churchin Georgia. 

The Church of England had no rights in the English colony ofMassachusetts. The Rev. William Blaxton, the Rev. Richard Gibson, andthe Rev. Robert Jordan endured privation and suffering, and were accused"as addicted to the hierarchy of the Church of England, " "guilty ofoffence against the Commonwealth by baptizing children on the Lord'sDay, " and "the more heinous sin of provoking the people to revolt byquestioning the divine right of the New England theocracy. " An new lifedawned on the Church in America when, in 1701, there was organized inEngland "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in ForeignParts. " It awakened a new missionary spirit. Princess Anne, afterwardQueen of England, became its lifelong patron. The blessed work amongthe Mohawks was largely due to her, and when these Indians were removedto Canada and left sheperdless, their chief, Joseph Brant, officiated aslay reader for twenty years. The men sent out by the society--the Rev. Samuel Thomas, the Rev. George Keith, the Rev. Patrick Gordon, the Rev. John Talbot, and others--were Christian heroes. No fact in the historyof the colonial Church had so marked influence as the conversion ofTimothy Cutler, James Wetmore, Samuel Johnson, and Daniel Brown to theChurch. Puritans mourned that the "gold had become dim. " Churchmenrejoiced that some of the foremost scholars in Connecticut had returnedto the Church. I pass over the trials of the Church in the eighteenthcentury, to the meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774. It wasproposed to open Congress with prayer. Objections were made on accountof the religious differences of the delegates. Old Samuel Adams arose, with his white hair streaming on his shoulders, --the same earnest Puritanwho, in 1768, had written to England: "We hope in God that no suchestablishment as the Protestant episcopate shall ever take place inAmerica, "--and said: "Gentlemen, shall it be said that it is possiblethat there can be any religious differences which will prevent men fromcrying to that God who alone can save them? I move that the Rev. Dr. Duche`, minister of Christ Church in this city, be asked to open thisCongress with prayer. " John Adams, writing to his wife, said: "Nevercan I forget that scene. There were twenty Quakers standing by my side, and we were all bathed in tears. " When the Psalms for the day wereread, it seemed as if Heaven was pleading for the oppressed: "O Lord, fight thou against them that fight against me. " "Lord, who is like Theeto defend the poor and the needy?" "Avenge thou my cause, my Lord, myGod. " On the 4th of July 1776, Congress published to the world thatthese colonies were, and of right ought to be, free. We believe that amajority of those who signed this declaration were sons of the Church. The American colonists were not rebels; they were loyal, God-fearingmen. The first appeal that Congress made to the colonies was "for thewhole people to keep one and the same day as a day of fasting and prayerfor the restoration of the invaded rights of America, and reconciliationwith the parent State. " They stood for their inalienable rights, guaranteed to them by the Magna Charta, which nobles, headed by BishopStephen Langton, had wrung from King John. The English clergy had atordination taken an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. Many whosympathized with their oppressed country felt bound to pray for KingGeorge until another government was permanently established. Others, like Dr. Provost, retired to private life. For two hundred years anEpiscopal Church had no resident Bishop. No child of the Churchreceived confirmation. No one could take orders without crossing theAtlantic, where one man in five lost his life by disease or shipwreck. At one time the Rev. William White was the only clergyman of the Churchin Pennsylvania. Even after we had received the episcopate, theoutlook was so hopeless that one of her bishops said, "I am willing todo all I can for the rest of my days, but there will be no such Churchwhen I am gone. " When William Meade told Chief Justice Marshall that hewas to take orders in the Episcopal Church, the Chief Justice said, "Ithought that this Church had perished in the Revolution. " Of the lessthan two hundred clergy, many had returned to England or retired toprivate life. In some of the colonies the endowments of the Church hadbeen confiscated. There was no discipline for clergy or laity, and itdid seem as if the vine of the Lord's planting was to perish out of theland. 

On the Feast of the Annunciation, 1783, ten of the clergy of Connecticutmet in the glebe house at Woodbury to elect a bishop. They metprivately, for the Church was under the ban of civil authority, and theyfeared the revival of bitter opposition to an American episcopate whichmight alarm the English bishops and defeat their efforts. They did notcome to make a creed, or frame a liturgy, or found a Church. They metto secure that which was lacking for the complete organization of theChurch, and thus perpetuate for their country that ministry whosecontinuity was witnessed through all the ages in a living body, which isthe body of Christ. I know of no greater heroism than that which sentSamuel Seabury to ask of the bishops of the Church of England theepiscopate for the scattered flock of Christ. You remember the fourteenmonths' weary waiting, and when his prayer was refused in England, Godled him to the persecuted Church of Scotland. Now go with me toAberdeen; it is an upper room, a congregation of clergy and laity arepresent. The bishops and Robert Kilgour, Bishop of Aberdeen, ArthurPetrie, Bishop of Moray, and John Skinner, Coadjutor Bishop of Aberdeen, who preached the sermon. The prayers were ended; Samuel Seabury, akingly man, kneels for the imposition of apostolic hands, and, accordingto the godly usage of the Catholic Church, is consecrated bishop, andmade the first apostle for the New World. None can tell what, underGod, we owe to those venerable men. They signed a concordat bindingthemselves and successors to use the Prayer of Invocation in theScottish Communion Office, which sets forth that truth which isinwrought in all the teachings of our blessed Lord and His apostles, that the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is limited to theworthy receiver of this blessed sacrament. The consecration of Seaburytouched the heart of the English Church. 

In 1783 the Church of England did not have one bishop beyond its shores. There are to-day fifteen bishops in Africa, six in China and Japan, andtwenty-three in Australia and the Pacific Islands, ten in India, sevenin the West Indies, and eighty-five in British North America and theUnited States. Every colony of the British Empire and every State andTerritory of the United States has its own bishop, except the Territoryof Alaska. 

On February 4th, 1787, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Provost, D. D. , wereconsecrated bishops in Lambeth Chapel, by John Moore, Archbishop ofCanterbury, William Markham, Archbishop of York, Charles Moss, Bishop ofBath and Wells, and John Hinchcliffe, Bishop of Peterborough. Thesermon was preached by the chaplain of the primate. Our minister toEngland, Hon. John Adams, urged the application of Drs. Provost andWhite, and in after years wrote: "There is no part of my life I lookback with more satisfaction than the part I took--daring and hazardous asit was to myself and mine--in the introduction of episcopacy to America. "Samuel Provost was a devoted patriot and one of the ripest scholars ofAmerica. In the convention which elected him Bishop of New York wereJohn Jay, Washington's chief justice, Marinus Willet, one ofWashington's favorite generals, James Duane, John Alsop, R. R. Livingston, and William Duer, members of the Continental Congress, andDavid Brooks, commissary-general of the Revolution, and personal friendof Washington. If less prominent in his episcopal administration, Bishop Provost's name as a patriot was a tower of strength to the infantChurch. 

Of Bishop White we can say, as John Adams said of Roger Sherman, "He waspure as an angel and firm as Mount Atlas. " He was beloved andreverenced by all Christian people. When Congress declared the coloniesindependent States in 1776, he at once took the oath of allegiance tothe new government. When a friend warned him that he had put his neckin a halter, he replied: "I know the danger; the cause is just; I haveput my faith in God. " In 1777 he was elected chaplain of Congress, andheld the office (except when Congress met in New York) until the capitalwas removed to Washington. Francis Hopkinson, a distinguished signer ofthe Declaration of Independence, and other loyal sons of the country, were among those who elected him Bishop of Pennsylvania. 

One hundred years ago today the representatives of the Church in thedifferent States met to adopt a constitution. There had been tentativeefforts to effect an organization and adopt a Book of Common Prayer, allof which were overruled by the good providence of God. Many not of ourfold desired a liturgy. Benjamin Franklin published at his own expensea revised copy of the English liturgy. The House of Bishops wascomposed of Bishop Seabury and Bishop White. Bishop Provost was absent. In the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies were the Rev. Abraham Jarvis, the Rev. Robert Smith, and the Rev. Samuel Parker, who became bishops. They met to show the world that the charter of the Church is perpetual, and that the Church has the power to adapt herself to all the conditionsof human society. They met to consolidate the scattered fragments ofthe Church in the thirteen colonies into a national Church, and securefor themselves and children Catholic faith and worship in the Book ofCommon Prayer. They builded wiser than they knew. They secured for theChurch self-government, free from all secular control. They preservedthe traditions of the past, and yet every feature of executive, legislative, and judicial administration was in harmony with theConstitution of the Republic. They gave the laity a voice in thecouncil of the Church; they provided that bishops and clergy should betried by their peers, and that the clergy and laity of each dioceseshould elect their own bishop subject to the approval of the wholeChurch. There was the most delightful fraternal intercourse between thetwo bishops. In the words of our Presiding Bishop, "The blessed resultsof that convention were due, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, tothe steadfast gentleness of Bishop White and the gentle steadfast--ofBishop Seabury. " A century has passed. The Church which was theneverywhere spoken against is everywhere known and respected; the mantleof Seabury, White, Hobart, Ravenscroft, Eliot, De Lancey, and Kemper hasfallen on others, and her sons are in the forefront of that mightymovement which will people this land with millions of souls. While wesay with grateful hearts, "What hath God wrought!" we also say, "Notunto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Nave give the praise. "Surely, an awful responsibility rests upon a Church whose history is sofull of the mercy of God. We are living in the great missionary age ofthe Church. There is no nation on the earth to whom we may not carrythe Gospel. More than eight hundred millions of souls for whom Christdied have not heard that there is a Saviour. One of the hinderances tothe speedy evangelization of the world is the division amongChristians, --alas! both within and without the Church. Our Saviour said:"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have loveone to another. " Christians have been separated in hostile camps, andoften divisions have ripened into hatred. The saddest of all is thatthe things which separate us are not necessary for salvation. Thetruths in which we agree are part of the Catholic faith. In the wordsof Dr. Dollinger, "we can say each to the other as baptized, we are oneither side, brothers and sisters in Christ. In the great garden of theLord, let us shake hands over these confessional hedges, and let usbreak them down, so as to be able to embrace one another altogether. These hedges are doctrinal divisions about which either we or you are inerror. If you are in the wrong, we do not hold you morally culpable;for your education, surroundings, knowledge, and training made theadherence to these doctrines excusable and even right. Let us examine, compare, and investigate the matter together, and we shall discover theprecious pearl of peace and unity; and then let us join hands togetherin cultivating and cleansing the garden of the Lord, which is overgrownwith weeds. " There are blessed signs that the Holy Spirit is deepeningthe spiritual life of widely separated brothers. Historical Churchesare feeling the pulsation of a new life from the Incarnate God. AllChristian folk see that the Holy Spirit has passed over these humanbarriers and set His seal to the labors of separated brethren in Christ. The ever-blessed Comforter is quickening in Christian hearts the divinespirit of charity. Christians are learning more and more the theologywhich centres in the person of Jesus Christ. It is this which worldwideis creating a holy enthusiasm to stay the flood of intemperance, impurity, and sin at home, and gather lost heathen folk into the fold ofChrist. In our age every branch of the Church can call over the roll ofits confessors and martyr, and so link its history to the purest ages ofthe Church. We would not rob them of one sheaf they have gathered intothe garner of the Lord. We share in every victory and we rejoice inevery triumph. There is not one of that great company who have washedtheir robes white in the blood of the Lamb, who is not our kinsman inChrist. Brothers in Christ of every name, shall we not pray for thehealing of the wounds of the body of Christ, that the world may believein him?

We are perplexed by the unbelief and sin of our time. The Christianfaith is assailed not only with scoffs of old as Celsus and Julian, butalso with the keenest intellectual criticism of Divine revelation, theopposition of alleged scientific facts, and a Corinthian worldlinesswhose motto is "Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. " In many placesChristian homes are dying out. Crime and impurity are coming in as aflood, and anarchy raises its hated form in a land where all men areequal before the law. The lines between the Church and the world aredim. Never did greater problems confront a council of the Church. AnApostolic Church has a graver work than discussion about its name or theamending of its canons and rubrics. I fear that some of this unbeliefis a revolt from a caricature of God. These mechanical ideas about theuniverse are the outcome of a mechanical theology which has lost sightof the Fatherhood of God. There is much honest unbelief. In theseyearnings of humanity, in its clubs, brotherhoods, and orders, in theirreadiness to share all things with their brothers, I see unconsciousprophecies of the brotherhood of all men as the children of one God andFather. Denunciation will not silence unbelief. The name infidel haslost its terrors. There in only one remedy. It is in the spirit, thepower, and the love of Jesus Christ. Philosophy cannot touch the want. It offers no hand to grasp, no Saviour to trust, no God to save. Whenmen see in us the hand, the heart, and the love of Christ, they willbelieve in the brotherhood of men and the Fatherhood of God. 

There was nothing which impressed your bishops in the late visit toEngland more than the service in the cathedral at Durham. The church, with its thousand years of history was thronged. The chants were sungby two thousand choristers in surplices. The sermon was preached by theBishop of Western New York. This grand service was to set apart someBible readers and lay-preachers to go into the collieries to tell thesetoilers of the love of Jesus Christ. The same awful problems stare usin the face, --the centralization of swarms of souls in the cities; thewealth of the nation in fewer hands; competition making a life-and-deathstruggle for bread; the poorest sinking into hopeless despair; and therichest often forgetting that Lazarus at his gate is a child of the sameGod and Father. We, too, must send our best men and women whereverthere is sin, sorrow, and death, to work and suffer, and, if need be, die for Christ. 

We are living in the eventide of the world, when all things point towardthe second coming of our King. God has placed the English-speakingpeople in the fore-part of the nations. They number one-tenth of thehuman family, and I believe God calls them to do the work of the lasttime. The wealth of the world is largely in Christian hands. Therenever have been such opportunities for Christian work. Never such aharvest awaited the husbandman. 

You may tell me of difficulties and dangers. We have only one answer. Sin, sorrow, and death are not the inventions of a Christian priest. "There is only one Name under heaven whereby any man can be saved. " Wehave nothing to do with results. It is ours to work and pray, and prayand work and die. So falls the seed into the earth, and so God givesthe harvest. When the Church sends out embassies commensurate with thedignity of our King, it will be time to talk of failure. Is the kingdomof Christ the only kingdom which has not the right to lay tribute on itscitizens? The only failure is the failure to do God's work. Was itfailure when Dr. Hill of blessed memory laid the foundation for thatChristian school which the wisest statesmen say is the chief factor inthe regeneration of Greece? Was it failure when James Lloyd Breck, ourapostle of the wilderness, carried the Gospel to the Indians? DidWilliams, Selwyn, and Patteson fail in Polynesia? Was it failure whenHoffman and Auer died for Christ in Africa? Have your great-heartedsons failed who have followed in the footsteps of the saintly Kemper, and laid with tears and prayers foundations for Christian schools whichare the glory of the West? Has the Gospel failed in Japan, where anation is awakening into the life of Christian civilization? Never hasGod given His Church more blessed rewards. The century which has passedis only our school of preparation. The voice of God's Providence says:"Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward. " We have someproblems peculiar to ourselves. Twenty-five years ago four millions ofslaves received American citizenship. The nation owes them a debt ofgratitude. During all the horrors of our civil war they were theprotectors of Southern women and children. Knowing the failure of theirmasters would be the guarantee of the freedom, there was not one actthat master or slave might wish to blot. We ought not to forget it, andGod will not. To-day there are eight millions. They are here to stay. They will not be disfranchised. Through them Africa can be redeemed. They ought to be our fellow-citizens in the kingdom of God. In a greatcrisis of missions the Holy Ghost sent Philip on a long journey topreach Christ to one man of Ethiopia. The same blessed Spirit of Godcalls us in the love of Christ to carry the Gospel in the Church to themillions of colored citizens of the United States. 

Brethren, the time is short. Since our last council nine of our noblestbishops have died. Since I was consecrated, fifty-four bishops haveentered into the rest if the people of God. It is eventide. A littlemore work, a few more toils and prayers, and we who have lived and lovedand worked together shall have a harvest in heaven. 

II. SERMON AT THE FARIBAULT CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENNIAL OF THEINAUGURATION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1789-1889. 

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and calledthe name of it Ebeneser, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. "--1 SAMUEL vii. 12. 

No words are more fitting on this Centennial day. One hundred years agoGeorge Washington was inaugurated the first President of the UnitedStates. Words are powerless to express the grateful thoughts whichswell patriot hearts. Save that people whom God led out of Egypt withHis pillar of fire and His pillar of cloud, I know of no nation whosehistory is so full of the bounty of God. This country was settled byEnglishmen. They were bound by ties of affection to the mother country. They were not rebels, they were loyal, God-fearing men. The Englishcrown had violated rights which were guaranteed to them by the MagnaCharta, which brave barons, headed by Bishop Stephen Langton, had wrungfrom King John and which under God has made English-speaking people therepresentatives of constitutional government throughout the world. Itwas not until every plea for justice had been spurned, their sacredrights trampled upon, and the warnings of the wisest English statesmenunheeded, that the American colonies resolved to be independent andfree. On the 5th of September, 1774, fifty-five delegates, from elevencolonies, met in Smith's tavern, Philadelphia, and at the invitation ofthe carpenters of that city adjourned to their hall. Questions arose asto the numerical influence of the colonies. Patrick Henry voiced thesentiment of Congress, "I am not a Virginian, I am an American. " JohnJay, who represented the conservative element said, "We have not come tomake a constitution; the measure of arbitrary power is not full, it mustrun over before we undertake to frame a government. " It was proposed toopen Congress with prayer. Objections were made on account of thereligious differences of the delegates. Old Samuel Adams rose, with hislong white hair streaming on his shoulders (the same earnest Puritan whoin 1768 had written to England, "We hope in God that no suchestablishment as the Protestant Episcopate shall ever take place inAmerica, ") and said, "Gentlemen, shall it be said that it is possiblethat there can be any religious difference which will prevent men fromcrying to that God who alone can save them? Puritan as I am, I movethat the Rev. Dr. Duche`, minister of Christ Church in the city, beasked to open this Congress with prayer. " John Adams, writhing to hiswife, said, "Never can I forget that scene. There were twenty Quakersstanding by my side and we were all bathed in tears. When Psalms forthe day were read, it seemed as if Heaven itself was pleading for theoppressed: 'O Lord, fight thou against them that fight against me. Lord, who is like unto Thee to defend the poor and needy. Avenge Thoumy cause, my Lord and my God. '" Although filled with indignation at theblood which had been shed in Boston, Congress nevertheless issued anappeal to the people of England: "You have been told that we areimpatient of government and desire independency. These are calumnies. Permit us to be free as you are, and our union with you will be ourgreatest glory. But if your ministers sport with human rights, ifneither the voice of justice, the principles of the constitution, norhumanity will restrain them from shedding human blood in an impiouscause, 'we will never submit. ' We ask peace, liberty and safety, andfor this we have laid our prayer at the feet of the king as a lovingfather. " The battles at Lexington, Concord and Ticonderoga preceded thesecond meeting of Congress in May, 1775. Their plea for justice hadbeen spurned. The outlook was dark as midnight. These brave menrepresented no government, they had no power to make laws, they had noofficers to execute them, they could not impose customs, they had noarmy, they did not own a foot of land, they owed the use of their hallto the courtesy of the artisans of Philadelphia. On the 12th of JuneCongress made its first appeal to the people of twelve colonies, (Georgia was not represented). It was a solemn call for the whole peopleto observe one and the same day as a day of fasting and prayer "for therestoration of the invaded rights of America and reconciliation with theparent state. " They who sought the protection of God knew that underGod they must protect themselves. All hearts turned to GeorgeWashington, a delegate from Virginia, and he was unanimously chosen tobe commander-in-chief. When Congress met in July, 1776, the people hadbeen branded as traitors; the slaves of Virginia had been incited toinsurrection, the torch and tomahawk of the savage had been let loose onfrontier settlements, an army of foreign mercenaries had landed on theirshores, their ports were blockaded, an the army under Washington fortheir defence only numbered 6, 749 men. On the second day of July, 1776, without one dissenting colony, the representatives of the thirteencolonies resolved that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought tobe, free and independent States; that they are absolved from allallegiance to the British crown, and that all political connectionbetween them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totallydissolved. " Two days later Benjamin Harrison, the great-grandfather ofour present president, the chairman of the committee of the whole, reported to Congress the form in which that resolution was to bepublished to the world, and the reasons by which it was to be justified. It was the work of Thomas Jefferson, then aged thirty-three, and neverdid graver responsibility rest on a young man than the preparation ofthat immortal paper, and never was the duty more nobly fulfilled. Inthe original draft of the declaration there was the allegation that theking "had prostituted his negative by suppressing every legislativeattempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce in humanbeings. " This was struck out, as Mr. Jefferson tells us, in"complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, not without tenderness toNorthern Brethren who held slaves. " Time forbids my calling over theroll of these noble patriots who signed their names to our Magna Charta. There is John Adams, of whom Jefferson said, "He was our Colossus onthat floor, and spoke with such power as to move us from our seats. "Benjamin Franklin, printer philosopher and statesman. Roger Sherman, ofwhom John Adams said, "He is honest as an angel and firm as MountAtlas. " Charles Carroll, who, when a member said, "Oh, Carroll, youwill get off, there are so many Carrolls, " stepped back to the desk andwrote after his name, "of Carrollton. " John Hancock, who, when electedspeaker, Benjamin Harrison had playfully seated in the speaker's chairand said, "We will show Mother Britain how little we care for her, bymaking a Massachusetts man our president, whom she has by proclamationexcluded from pardon. " A friend said to John Hancock, "You have signedyour name large. " "Yes, " he replied, "I wish John Bull to read itwithout spectacles. " Robert Morris, the financier and treasurer of theRevolution. Elbridge Gerry, the youngest member, the friend of Gen. Warren, to whom Warren had said the night before the battle of BunkerHill, "It is sweet to die for our country. " What a roll of names! thesilver-tongued Rutledge, brave Stockton, wise Rush, Lee--fifty-five noblenames, not one of whom who did not know that, as one member said, "If wedo not hang together, we shall hang separately. " It was not timiditywhich made any of the delegates hesitate to take the irrevocable step. All the associations of their lives, all the traditions and memories ofthe past bound them by ties of kindred and affection to the mothercountry. They were venturing on an unknown sea; there were no charts toguide them, no precedents to follow. The truth was, as Jefferson sotersely said, "The people wait for us to lead the way. The question isnot whether by a declaration of independence we shall make ourselveswhat we are not, but whether we shall declare a fact which exists. " Soalso John Adams said, "The Revolution was effected before the warcommenced. "

I cannot tell the story of the seven year's war. The articles ofconfederation were sent to the States in 1778, but the last of thethirteen States, Maryland, did not adopt them until March, 1781. Congress under he confederacy dealt with the States and did not have theconfidence or the love of the people. It required nine States to passany measure of importance. During the war the confederacy was apitiable failure. It issued bills which no one would take, itscertificates of indebtedness and promises to pay were so worthless thatit gave rise to the proverb, "Not worth a continental. " Robert Morris, the financier, pleaded hopelessly for help. Alexander Hamiltondenounced the confederation as "neither fit for war nor peace. " EvenWashington, always hopeful, wrote in 1781: "Our troops are fastapproaching nakedness; our hospitals are without medicine; our sick arewithout meat; our public works are at a standstill; in a word, we are atthe end of our tether, and now or never deliverance must come. " At lastvictory came--thanks to the generous assistance of France, to the heroismof leaders like Lafayette, Baron Steuben, and hosts of others, who gaveus their fortunes and hazarded their lives for America, the war wasended by the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. Victor Hugo said, "Napoleonwas not defeated at Waterloo by the allied forces. It was God whoconquered him. " Who that remembers Trenton, Valley Forge, Saratoga andYorktown, will not say God fought for our Washington? In 1777 a Quakerhad occasion to pass through the woods near the headquarters of thearmy; hearing a voice, he approached the spot, and saw Washington inprayer. Returning home, he said to his wife: "All's well! All's well!Washington will prevail. I have thought that no man can be a soldierand a Christian. George Washington has convinced me of my mistake. "Peace was declared in 1783. I have a water-color of the building usedas the Department of State, in which the treaty of peace was signed--itwas a building 12 feet by 30. 

In May, 1787, delegates from all the States, except Rhode Island, met inthe state house in Philadelphia, with George Washington as president, todraft a constitution for these United States. All the delegates wereconvinced of the utter failure of the articles of confederation, allwere convinced of the need of a stronger government. Two partieshonestly differed and were determined to fight it out to the bitter end. At one time it looked as if the convention must disband withouteffecting its object. Franklin arose and said: "Mr. President, thesmall progress we have made after five weeks is a melancholy proof ofthe imperfection of human understanding--we have gone back to ancienthistory for models of government--we have viewed modern states--we findnone of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances--we are gropingin the dark to find political truth, and are scarcely able todistinguish it when presented to us. How has it happened, sir, that wehave not once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights toillumine our understandings? In the beginning of the contest withBritain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in thisroom for Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they weregraciously answered. All of us have observed frequent instances of asuperintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owethis happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means to establishour nation. Have we forgotten our powerful Friend? Do we imagine thatwe no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, andthe longer I live the more convinced I am that God governs in theaffairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without Hisnotice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We aretold, sir in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. ' I firmly believe this, and I alsobelieve that without His aid we shall succeed in our political buildingno better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by ourlittle, partial, local interests, our projects will be confounded, andwe ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword to future ages. Itherefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring theassistance of Heaven an its blessing on our deliberations be held inthis assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that oneor more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate. " When theConstitution was adopted, Franklin rose, and pointing to the speaker'schair, on which was carved a sun half-hid by the horizon, said:"Gentlemen, I have long watched that sun and wondered whether it was arising or a setting sun--God has heard our prayers, it is a rising sun. "This convention adopted the famous ordinance of 1787, which guaranteedthat slavery should never enter the north-west territory, and this, under God, saved the nation in the hour of trial. The Constitution wasratified by eleven of the States in 1788, and the first Wednesday inJanuary, 1789, electors were chosen in all the ratifying States, exceptNew York, where a conflict between the senate and assembly prevented achoice. In Rhode Island and North Carolina no election was held. Theperson receiving the highest number of votes was to be president, theman receiving the next highest number was to be vice-president. 

Washington received the whole number of votes, 69; John Adams received34. They were elected the first president and vice-president of theUnited States. 

The world has only one Washington. At sixteen he was county surveyor, the support of his widowed mother; at nineteen he was militaryinspector, with the rank of major; at twenty the governor of Virginiasent him six hundred miles to ask the commander of the French forces "bywhat authority he had invaded the king's dominions"; at twenty-two hewas colonel in command of a regiment under General Braddock, and in theabsence of a chaplain he read prayers daily himself. He saved theremnant of that ill-fated army from annihilation, and fifteen yearsafter an aged Indian chief came to see the man at whom he had fired manytimes and who was protected by the Great Spirit. At his entrance as amember of the legislature of Virginia, the speaker greeted him withthanks for his military services. Washington arose to reply and blushedand stammered. The speaker said, "Mr. Washington, your modesty onlyequals your valor. " He was a member of the first Continental Congressof whom Patrick Henry said, "Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is thegreat orator, but for solid information and sound judgement Col. Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor. " When withone voice Congress chose him to be the commander-in-chief, he said, "Ibeg it may be remembered by every gentleman in this room, that I thisday declare with the utmost sincerity that I do not think myself equalto the command I am honored with. No pecuniary consideration wouldtempt me to accept this position. I will keep an exact account of myexpenses, those I doubt not you will discharge. I ask no more. " Thenation applauded the prudence, the wisdom, the bravery and patriotism ofWashington. Frederick the Great said, "His achievements are the mostbrilliant in military annals. " Napoleon directed that the standard ofthe French army should be hung with crape at his death. Fox said of himin the British Parliament, "Illustrious man, it has been reserved forhim to run the race of glory without the smallest interruption to hiscourse. " But the noblest eulogy ever uttered were the words of Gen. Henry Lee: "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of hiscountrymen. " He had hoped to retire to private life, and wrote toLafayette, "I am a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, underthe shadow of my own vine and fig tree. I have retired from all publicemployment and tread the walks of private life with heartfeltsatisfaction. " The country would not permit it. He had refused to be acandidate for the office of president and accepted the nation'sunanimous call with a heavy heart. His last act before leaving for NewYork was to visit his aged mother, then eighty-two, and in the last yearof her life. We can picture that tender farewell to one to whom he owedunder God that beautiful faith which shed glory on his life. Thejourney to New York was one continued ovation. His Virginia neighborsand friend gave him a God-speed and benediction. Baltimore outdiditself in generous hospitality. Philadelphia crowned him with laurel, the bells rang out their joyous peals, cannons thundered and the peoplewith one voice shouted "Long live the President. " Marvellous as was theenthusiasm of other cities, the people of Trenton, who remembered thecruelties of the Hessian in 1776 and their deliverance by Washington, outdid them all. On a triumphal arch was written "Dec. 26, 1776. Thehero who defended the mothers will defend the daughters. " At Elizabetha committee of Congress met him, and Caesar never had so beautiful aflotilla as that of the sea captains and pilots who bore him to New Yorkon the 23d of April. A week was spent in festivity. It is the 30th ofApril. In all the churches of New York there have been prayers for thenew government and its chosen head. The streets swarm with people asthe hour of noon approaches. Every house-top and porch and window nearto Federal Hall is packed with a dense mass. The president has beenpresented to the two houses of Congress. The procession is formed. Washington follows the senators and representatives to the balcony. Around and behind him are his staff and distinguished patriots of theRevolution. Every eye is fixed on the stately, majestic man. A littleover six feet high, his form perfect in outline and figure, a floridcomplexion, dark blue eyes deeply set, his rich brown hair now tingedwith gray, firm jaws and broad nostrils, lighted by a benignantexpression. Such was the Father of his Country. The brave soldiertrembles with emotion as the chancellor of the State of New York readsthe oath; the hand of Washington is on the open Bible. Was it aprovidence that they rested on the words, "His hands were made strong bythe mighty God of Israel?" The secretary would have raised the sacredbook to the president's lips. Washington said solemnly, "I swear, sohelp me God, " and then bowed reverently kissed the book. He went to thesenate chamber, and with stammering words, for his heart was almost toofull for utterance, he delivered his inaugural address, and then turningto his friends said, "We will go to St. Paul's Church for prayers. " Ithad been the habit of his life. His pastor, Rev. Lee Massey, said, "Nocompany ever withheld him from church. "' His secretary, Harrison, said, "Whenever the general could be spared from the camp on the Sabbath, henever failed to ride to some neighboring church to join in the worshipof God. " He claimed no praise for his matchless victories, butreverently gave all the glory to the blessing and protection of God. Heknew, in the words of my friend Robert C. Winthrop, that "There can beno independence of God. " The poet will sing and the orator describeeloquently the pageant of that day, but no incident will so touch theChristian's heart as the first act of the president of the UnitedStates, kneeling reverently with his fellow-citizens in the publicworship of God. The service which had been set forth and was this dayused in St. Paul's Church by Bishop Provost, also a patriot of theRevolution, and one who had suffered for his country's sake, wassubstantially the same used by us to-day. Washington assumed office inthe midst of dangers. Edmund Randolph, one of the foremost members ofthe constitutional convention, wrote to Washington, "The Constitutionwould never have been adopted but for the knowledge that you sanctionedit, and the expectation that you would execute it. It is in state ofprobation. You alone can give it stability. " There was a stormy seabefore the new ship of state. The bitter hatreds between Federalist andanti-Federalist were not healed. Two states had not ratified theConstitution--there were tokens in more than one direction of rebellion. Without on dollar in the treasury, we were eighty millions in debt. Thepirates of Morocco had destroyed our commerce in the Mediterranean, Spain threatened the valley of the Mississippi. Our relations withEngland were full of bitter memories; a country larger than Europe wasto be protected, and we had a standing army of only 600 men. Washingtoncalled around him as advisers Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of ForeignAffairs; Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Knox, Secretary of War; Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General, and John Jay, ChiefJustice, and by these men, under God, the crumbling confederacy wascemented into one nation. Time forbids my reading you the words ofwisdom, "apples of gold in pictures of silver, " of Washington'sinaugural and farewell addresses. I wish I had time to tell how, with aprophet's eye, he saw the future of the West, and again and again urgedthe opening of lines of commerce to bind East and West together. Aftereight years of wise rule, such as befitted "the Father of our Country, "he retired to the shades of Mt. Vernon, to be, as he had been throughlife, the helper of the helpless, the friend of the needy and thealmoner of God. On the 12th of December, 1799, he was exposed to astorm of sleet and rain, the severest form of quinsy set in; two dayslater, the 14th of December, he died. As friends stood weeping aroundhis death-bed, he said with a smile, "O don't, don't; I am dying, butthank God I am not afraid to die. " As the hour of his death drew nearhe asked to be left alone. They all went out and left him with God. There are lessons for our hearts to-day. Government is a delegatedtrust from God, who alone has the right to govern. He gives to everynation the right to say in what form this trust shall be clothed. Noman has the right to be his brother's master. Take away the truth thatgovernment is a trust which comes from God, and you have left nothingbetween man and man but cunning and brute force. Burke said, "thissacred trust of government does not arise from our conventions andcompacts, " but it gives our conventions and compacts all the force andsanction which they have. I shall be told that the name of God is notfound in the Constitution of the United States; it did not need to bewhen it was written on the people's hearts. 

While we commemorate the noble deeds of our fathers, which under Godwere this day crowned with success, we gratefully remember that ourfathers' God has guided us through all dangers. What other nation hascome out of the horrors of civil war with victors and vanquished vieingwith each other in love for one common country? Where has the hand ofthe assassin bowed the whole people by the leader's grave? This is noday for boasting or to call over the roll of our great dead. 

We have sinned deeply, and deeply have we paid the penalty. No hand butGod's could have over-ruled our mistakes and given us our favoredposition to-day. We must not forget that no nation has ever survivedthe loss of its religion. The year which saw Washington inauguratedpresident, saw in the fair land of Lafayette the beginnings of thatholocaust of murder which turned France into a hell. "The fear of theLord is the beginning of wisdom. " No high-sounding words about freedom, no Godless philosophy, no infidel creed, which robs men of homes hereand heaven hereafter, can save this nation. "Not unto us, but unto Thyname be the praise, " must be our song, as it was the song of ourfathers. 

There are clouds and darkness on the horizon for the future. I see itin the impatience of law, in the jealousies between class and class, inthe selfishness of the rich, and in the misery of the poor, in briberyand corruption in high places, and in the turbulence of mobs. I see itin the foul monster of intemperance and impurity which stalk unabashedthrough the land. But I see the greatest danger in that insidiousteaching which robs humanity of an eternal standard of right, whichmakes morality prudence or imprudence, which limits man's horizon by thegrave, and takes from hearts and homes God and Christ and heaven. Yet, I reverently believe that God has set us in the forefront of the nationsto be, as our text says, "a beacon on the mountain-top, " to lead on inHis work in the last time. It may be that for our sins we shall walkagain into the furnace, as we have walked and come out of it purifiedand fitted for the Master's use. I sometimes lose faith in men, but Iwill not lose faith in God. It is ours to work and bide our time; sodid our fathers, and so will God give the harvest. I should wrong myheart and yours to-day, if I forgot the daughters of the Revolution. Wemight have had no Washington but for the lessons he learned at thatmother's knee, that his duty to God was to believe in Him, to fear Himand to love Him with all his heart, with all his mind, with all his souland with all his strength, to worship Him, to give Him thanks, to puthis whole trust in Him, to call on Him, to honor His holy name and Hisword and to love Him truly all the days of his life; that his dutytowards his neighbor--was to love him as himself, and to do to all men ashe would have them do unto him, to love, honor and succor his father andmother, to honor and obey the civil authority, to hurt nobody by word ordeed, to be true and just in all his dealings, to bear no malice orhatred in his heart, to keep his hands from picking and stealing, andhis tongue from evil speaking, lying and slandering, to keep his body intemperance, soberness and chastity. Not to covet or desire other men'sgoods, but to learn and labor truly to get his own living and to do hisduty in that state of life unto which it should please God to call him. We know this was the rule of his life. The Father of his Country foundhis solace, inspiration and help, as many of us have found it, in thelove of a Christian wife. There are no fairer names in our country'shistory than Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Elizabeth SchuylerHamilton, Sally Foster Otis, Alice DeLancy Izard, Jane Ketelas Beekman, and many more, who made up the republican court of Washington; and we donot forget humble names like Mollie Stark, whose lives were consecratedto their country. Wives, mothers, daughters! none have places ofgreater influence in shaping and moulding our country than you. Yourpower is the power of a Christian mother, a Christian wife, a Christiandaughter. In the darkest hour look to God, believe that your mission isa nobler one than to be a slave of fashion or the leader of a party. Plant your feet on the rock of eternal truth--never speak with uncertainvoice of the verities of the Christian faith. For you St. Paul said:"How knowest thou, O Woman, but thou mayest save thy husband and thychild, " and saving them a nation is saved. 

III. /SERMON AT THE SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MISSIONARY COUNCILIN WASHINGTON, D. C. , NOV. 13, 1888/. 

"/The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and ofHis Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever/. "--REVELATION xi. 15. 

THESE words are God's surety that the prayers, the trials and the laborsof His Church shall be crowned with success. 

We are living in the great missionary age of the Church. Impenetrablebarriers have been broken down. Fast-closed doors have been opened. There is no country where we may not carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Divine Providence has been fusing the nations of the earth into onecommon brotherhood. Man has created nothing. The lightening would runits circuit in the Garden of Eden as well as when Morse made it man'smessenger. In the fullness of time God has lifted the veil from humaneyes to see the mysteries of His bounty, and so prepare a highway forthe coming of our King. 

I have no argument about the obligation of missions. It is eighteenhundred years too late for this. 

I speak to you to-day of the progress of the Kingdom of Christ. Prayfor me that the story may lead us to the foot of the Cross to consecrateall that we have to His blessed service. 

At the close of the last century a thoughtful young Englishman asked thegovernor of the East India Company to go to India to preach the Gospel. The answer was: "The man that would go to India upon that errand is asmad as a man who would put a torch to a powder magazine. "

A few years ago Chunder Sen, the great scholar of India, died. On hisdeath-bed a friend asked him what he thought were the prospects ofChristianity in India. He answered: "Jesus Christ has conquered theheart of India. " Not that great battles are not yet to be fought, muchweary work to be done, but with more than half a million of Christiansin India, which have been won in this century, we are certain that thenation will be won to Christ. 

I turn to that dark continent which has had more of human sorrow boundup in its history than any place on earth. Forty years ago in a cottagein the highlands of Scotland an aged man said to his son: "David, youwill have family prayer to-day, for when we part we shall never meetagain until we meet before the great white throne. " David Livingstoneread the thirty-fourth Psalm, the key-note of that wonderful life, andthen poured out his heart to God in prayer, threw his arms around hisfather's neck and kissed him; they parted never to meet again in thisworld, and so he went to Africa. He did a wonderful work in theBechuana country. He was a carpenter, blacksmith, teacher, laborer, physician and minister to these poor souls, but the man's heart was inthe interior of Africa. One day, with about as much preparation as Itake when I go to the north woods of Minnesota, he left for the interiorof Africa. His route was along the path of slave traders, and every fewdays he came to some place where a poor woman had fainted in the chain-gang and had been strapped to a tree with her babe at her breast andleft to be stung to death by insects. No wonder that he wrote in hisJournal, and blotted it with tears: "Oh, God, when will the great soreof the world be healed?"

When you remember that the followers of the false prophet are the onlypeople engaged in this traffic in human flesh, and that to the poorAfrican it means slavery or death, you have the answer to the stories ofthe progress of Mohammedanism in Africa. 

I cannot tell the story of his life. One day he was found dead on hisknees in prayer in an African hut. That life had so impressed itselfupon the heathen folk that they did what will always be a marvel ofhistory. They wrapped the body in leaves. They covered it with pitch. They carried it nine months on their shoulders. They fought hostiletribes. They swam swollen rivers. They cut their way throughimpenetrable thickets, and at last stood at the door of a mission housein Zanzibar, and said, "We have brought the man of God to be buried withhis people. " And so David Livingstone sleeps in Westminster Abbey. 

Our Stanley took up Livingstone's work, and he laid Africa open to thegaze of the world. He travelled nine hundred and ninety-nine days, andthe thousandth day reached the sea-coast. In all that journey he didnot meet a single, solitary soul who had heard that Jesus Christ hadcome into the world. Stanley tells the reason why he went back toAfrica. He said:

"When I found Livingstone I cared no more for missions than the veriestatheist in England. I had been a press reporter, and my business was tofollow armies and to describe battles; to attend conventions and reportspeeches, but my heart had not been touched with sympathy for missions. When I found this grand old man I asked: 'What is he here for? Is hecrazy? Is he cracked? I sat at his feet four months and I saw that apower above his will had taken possession of his life, and given him ahunger to lead poor heathen folk out of their darkness. 

"I have heard the same voice speaking to my heart, 'Follow me, ' and I goback to Africa to finish Livingstone's work. "

This was a few years ago. To-day there are fifteen Christian Bishops ofour communion in Africa. Eight were present at the Lambeth Conference. One of them, Bishop Crowther, was captured when a boy ten years of ageon a slave ship, placed in a mission school, transferred to a highschool, then to the university, graduated with honors, and went back toAfrica as a Bishop. As I looked in the face of that black man andthought of his wonderful history, I remembered another man from Africathat carried the cross of my blessed Master up the hill to Calvary, andthat this aged servant of Christ was following in his blessed footsteps. 

Another of these Bishops was one of the manliest men that I ever lookedupon; Bishop Smythies, the picture of manly beauty, honored by hisuniversity, beloved by friends, a face gentle and loving as that of St. John. When I thought of this man going on foot in the interior ofAfrica, perhaps to die for Christ, I could not keep back the tears, andI went to him and said, "My good brother, I cannot tell you how my heartgoes out to you in loving sympathy. " He smiled and said, "Bishop, whenthe Church in Jerusalem had more work than it knew how to do, the HolyGhost sent one of its ministers upon a long journey to convert oneAfrican. Surely it is not much for the Christians of Christian Englandto send a Christian Bishop to millions who never heard there is aSavior. "

And now I turn to the opposite quarter of the globe--Australasia, NewZealand, and Polynesia. When I was a boy there was but one Englishsettlement, and that was known throughout the world as Botany Bay, theabode of the most abandoned criminals of English civilization. Thereare to-day twenty-one Bishops in those islands. I wish I could tell thestory inwrought in the lives of Selwyn, Patteson, Williams, and a hostof others, some of whom have laid down their lives for Christ. 

To-day cannibalism is a thing of the past. Human sacrifices, thank God, are to be found nowhere on the earth. There is not one of those islandswithout its Christian church, and in some of them the last vestige ofheathenism has passed away. They have thousands of Christian men andwomen under their native pastors. Surely this is no time to talk aboutthe failure of Christian missions. 

Now I turn to Japan. Less than forty year ago one of our brave Americansailors, Commodore Perry, cast anchor on Sunday morning in the harbor ofYeddo. He called his officers and crew together for public worship, andthey sang that old hymn of our fathers, "Old Hundred"; and the firstsound that this hermit nation heard from her younger sister of the Westwas that grand old hymn. 

Next year Japan will have a constitutional government. It has alreadyadopted the Christian calendar. There are more that a million ofchildren in their public schools. Many of these schools are under thecharge of Christian men and women, and it is only a question of a fewyears when Japan will take her place beside other Christian nations. This is more wonderful when we remember that until recently there was astatute in Japan that, "if any Christian shall set his foot on theIsland of Japan, or if the Christian's God, Jesus, shall come, he shallbe beheaded. "

I turn to China. I wonder that its doors are open to Christian missionswhen I remember that Christian nations at the mouth of the cannon haveforced upon that people that deadly drug which drags body and soul todeath, that their names have been by-words and hissing in Christianlands. The secret is that God sent to China a young Englishman whoselife was hid with Christ in God. Chinese Gordon saved the nation ofChina, and his name will be a household word forever. Surely a peoplewhere the poorest laborer can become the first prince of the realm if hebecomes the first scholar, and if his son is a vagabond sinks to theplace from which his father came, surely such a people have the elementsto receive the Gospel of Christ. 

Time would fail me to tell the story of missions in North America; Ishould begin at Hudson's Bay, where Bishop John Horden has lived thirty-five years amid its solitudes and won every one of its Indian tribes toChristianity. I should tell you of the Bishop of Athabasca, whose homeis within the Arctic circle, who could not attend the Lambeth Conferencebecause he could not go and return the same year. I should tell of myyoung friend, the Bishop of Mackenzie River, when I knew that he spentnine months each year travelling upon snowshoes and three months in abirch-bark canoe; that the only way that he could carry to them theGospel was to follow them in the chase, hunt with them, fish with them, lie down in their wigwams in his blanket and always have waiting uponhis lips the sweet story of the love of God, our Father. I told him Iwished he would give me his post-office address and I would send himbooks and papers; he said: "Bishop, I am a thousand miles from a post-office and only get one mail a year. "

I should tell you of another, the Bishop of Rupertsland, Dr. Macrae, theonly Bishop in Christendom who has a university made up of a RomanCatholic college, a Presbyterian college, and a college of the Church ofEngland; so large-hearted that almost by one consent the people ofManitoba have made him the president of their entire educational system. 

If I turn to our own land, it would be to tell you that one hundredyears ago the Church was a feeble folk, scattered along the Atlanticcoast and known as a people that were everywhere spoken against. ThankGod, to-day her voice is heard in the miner's camp, in the schoolhouseof the border, in the wigwam of the Indians, and sturdy heralds are inthe fore-front of that mighty movement which is peopling this land withits millions of souls. Marvellous as is the progress of Christianmissions and the work which has been done in this century, it haslargely been committed to the English-speaking race. In the providenceof God races of men have been selected by Him to do His work. Twohundred years ago the English-speaking people of Europe were less thanmany of the nations of the Latin races. Spain outnumbered England twoto one. To-day there are one hundred and fifty millions of English-speaking people in the world, one-tenth of the entire human family. When we think of the future, that by the close of another century morethan five hundred millions will be speaking one language, it leads us toask, on bended knees, why has this commission been committed to thisEnglish-speaking race, and what are the responsibilities that rest uponour branch of the Church of God? I reverently believe that it isbecause on its civil side it recognizes as no other race that governmentis a delegated trust from God, who alone has the right to govern. Itrepresents constitutional government, and it has done so since BishopStephen Langton, at the head of the nobles of England, wrung the /MagnaCharta/ from King John, and henceforth recognized the sacredness of thecitizen, who has been clothed with an individuality unlike any being wholives or will live in all the ages of eternity. On its religious sideit recognizes the two truths which underlie the possibility of thereunion of Christendom--the validity of all Christian Baptism in the nameof the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that the condition offellowship in the Church of God is faith in the incarnate Son of God ascontained in the Old Catholic creeds. Surely we may hold up the olivebranch of God's peace over all strife and divisions among the disciplesof Christ, and say "Ye are brethren. "

When we remember that in the providence of God the Greek tongue wasspoken throughout the civilized world to prepare a way for the coming ofHis Son and the preaching of the blessed Gospel, we see in these factsforerunning tokens of his preparation for the second coming of JesusChrist. 

If I had time to-day, I would love to tell you the story that isinwrought in the history of our noble Missionary Bishops; men who havehazarded their lives for the Lord Jesus. I wish I could tell you oftheir ventures of faith, foundations for Christian schools which theyhave laid with prayers and watered with tears, and with a prophet's eyelooked forward to a future when the land will swarm with millions ofsouls, that so by Christian nurture and Christian training the Churchmay fulfil the Master's words, "Feed my lambs. " I wish I could tell youof the work, dear to every Bishop's heart, of the daughters of theCross; yes, and I would like to bring to this Council some of thetempest-tossed and weary souls who have been led out of their darknessto the rest and peace and gladness of Christian faith. I wish I couldbring here some from the northern forests and the prairies of the West, the men of the trembling eye and the wandering foot, that they mightthank you for having led them out of their heritage of anguish andsorrow into the light of the children of God. 

I may not close without a word of tribute to those who have fallenasleep. Since our last General Convention nine Bishops have crossed theriver and are waiting for us on the other shore. Unbidden tears come asI remember the loving Elliot, our St. John; Welles, another holyHerbert; Brown, with his Catholic heart that had room enough to take inall the poor and the sorrowful of his diocese; Harris, every whit agreat leader in our Israel; Dunlop, the soldier on the outpost, oftendebarred brotherly sympathy, who in loneliness and weariness bravely didhis work. Others who were patriarchs of the Church of God--Green, Lee, Potter and Stevens--all men who were great leaders in the Church of God, who bravely did their work, whose faces are upon every heart, and whohave entered into rest. 

Since I entered the House of Bishops, fifty-three Bishops have laid downtheir shepherd's staves and entered into rest. 

A word, and I have done. Surely in such a day as this it is no time todiscuss shibboleths. Its is a time for brotherly sympathy and great-hearted work. With such responsibilities around us there must be nodivisions among those who love the same Saviour and look for the sameheavenly home. I remember that at a critical period in our missionarywork the venerable Doctor Dyer said to me with tears in his eyes, "Strife is an awful price to pay for the best results, but strife amongthe kinsmen of Christ in the presence of those for whom He died, andwhen wandering souls are going down to death, is almost an unpardonablesin. " May I not ask you to-day, dear brothers and sisters, what have wedone to help on in the great work which is to be done in the eventide ofthe world? What lonely missionary have we remembered in prayer duringthe past week? What wanderer have we tried with love to lead to theSaviour? Have we given the cost of the trimmings of a dress? Have wemade any sacrifices for Him who gave Himself for us? May I not ask youto-day here beside God's altar to consecrate all you have and are to Hisservice?

With some of us the eventide draws on. A little while, such a littlewhile, just time enough to do His work, and then the end shall come. And when we reach that other home, next to seeing the Saviour, next tohaving the old ties re-united, will be the comfort and the blessednessof meeting some one whom we helped heavenward and home. 

IV. /ADDRESS IN LAMBETH CHAPEL, AT THE FIRST SESSION OF THE LAMBETHCONFERENCE, JULY 3, 1888/. 

Most reverend and right reverend brethren: No assembly is fraught withsuch awful responsibility to God, as a council of the Bishops of HisChurch. Since the Holy Spirit presided in the first council ofJerusalem, faithful souls have looked with deep interest to thedeliberations of those whom Christ has made the shepherds of His flock, and to whom he gave His promise, "Lo, I am with you always to the end ofthe world. " The responsibility is greater when division has marred thebeauty of the Lamb's Bride. Our words and acts will surely hasten or(which God forbid) retard the reunion of Christendom. Feeling the graveresponsibility which is imposed on me to-day, my heart cries out as didthe prophet's, "I am a child and cannot speak. " Pray for me, venerablebrethren, that God may help me to obey His word--"Whatsoever I command, that shalt thou speak. " I would kneel with you at our Master's feet andpray that "the Holy Spirit may guide us into all truth. " We meet as therepresentatives of national Churches; each with its own peculiarresponsibility to God for the souls intrusted to its care; each with allthe rights of a national Church, to adapt itself to the varyingconditions of human society; and each bound to preserve the order, thefaith, the sacraments, and the worship of the Catholic Church, for whichit is a trustee. As we kneel by the table of our common Lord weremember separated brothers. Division has multiplied division untilinfidelity sneers at Christianity as an effete superstition, and themodern Sadducee, more bold than his Jewish brother, denies the existenceof God. Millions for whom Christ died have not so much as heard thatthere is a Saviour. It will heal no divisions to say, Who is at fault?The sin of schism does not lie at one door. If one has sinned by self-will, the other has sinned as deeply by lack of charity and love. Theway to reunion looks difficult. To man it is impossible. No human/eirenicon/ can bridge the gulf of separation. There are unkind words tobe taken back, alienations to be healed, and heartburnings to beforgiven. Where we are blind, God can make a way. When "the God ofPeace" rules in all Christian hearts, our Lord's prayer will beanswered--"That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I inThee, that they all may be one in Us, that the world may believe thatThou hast sent Me. " No one branch of the Church is absolutely by itselfalone the Catholic Church; all branches need reunion in order to thecompleteness of the Church. There are blessed signs that the HolySpirit is quickening Christian hearts to seek for unity. We all knowthat this divided Christianity cannot conquer the world. At a time whenevery form of error and sin is banded together to oppose the kingdom ofChrist, the world needs the witness of a united Church. Men must hearagain the voice which peals through the lapse of centuries bearingwitness to the "faith once delivered to the saints, " or else for manysouls there will be only rationalism and unbelief--while this sad, wearyworld, so full of sin and sorrow, is pleading for help, it is a wrong toChrist and to the souls for whom He died that His children should beseparated in rival folds. As baptised into Christ we are brothers. Notwithstanding the hedges of human opinions which men have builded inthe garden of the Lord, all who look for salvation alone through faithin Jesus Christ do hold the great verities of Divine faith. Theopinions which separate us are not necessary to be believed in order tosalvation. The truths in which we agree are parts of the Catholicfaith. The Holy Spirit has passed over these human barriers, and sethis seal to the labors of separated brethren in Christ, and rewardedthem in the salvation of many precious souls. The grace of the LordJesus Christ and the renewing and sanctifying influences of the HolyGhost are the same in the peasant in the cottage, and in the emperor onthe throne. They share with us in the long line of confessors andmartyrs for Christ. We would not rob them of one sheaf which they havegathered in the garner of the Lord. We rejoice that Churches with alike historic lineage with us are seeking reunion. Churches whose faithhas been dimmed by coldness or clouded by error are being quickened intonew life from the Incarnate Son of God. 

Our hearts go out in loving sympathy to the Old Catholics of Europe andAmerica, whose names always will be linked with Selwyn, Wilberforce, andWordsworth, Whittingham, Kerfoot, and Brown, in defence of the faith. It is with deep sorrow that we remember that the Church of Rome hasseparated herself from the teaching of the primitive Church by additionsto the faith once delivered to the saints, and by claiming for itsBishop prerogatives which belong only to the Divine Head of the ChurchWhile we honor the devotion and zeal of her missionary heroes, andrejoice at the good works of multitudes of her children, we lament thatlack of charity which anathematizes disciples of Christ who have carriedthe Gospel to the ends of the earth. 

We bless God's Holy Name for the fraternal work which has been carriedon under the guidance of the see of Canterbury, and which we trust willlead ancient Churches to a deeper personal faith in Jesus Christ. 

We are sad that some of our kinsmen in Christ, children of one mother, have forsaken her ways. God can over-rule even this sorrow, so that itshall fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel. They must take withthem precious memories of the love and the faith of the mother whom theyhave forsaken, and of the liberty wherewith the truth in Christ has madeher children free--under God these may be a link in the chain of Hisprovidence to the restoration of unity. It is a singular providencethat at this period of the world's history, when marvellous discoverieshave united the people of divers tongues in common interests, He hasplaced the Anglo-Saxon race in the forefront of the nations. They arecarrying civilization to the ends of the earth. They are bringingliberty to the oppressed, elevating the down-trodden, and are giving toall these divers tongues and kindreds their customs, traditions, andlaws. I reverently believe that the Anglo-Saxon Church has beenpreserved by God's Providence (if her children will accept this Mission)to heal the divisions of Christendom, and lead on in His work to be donein the eventide of the world. She holds the truths which underlie thepossibility of reunion, the validity of all Christian baptism in theName of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. She ministers the twosacraments of Christ as of perpetual obligation, and makes faith inJesus Christ, as contained in the Catholic Creeds, a condition ofChristian fellowship. The Anglo-Saxon Church does not perplex men withtheories and shibboleths which many a poor Ephraimite cannot speak--shebelieves in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and inJesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, three Persons and oneGod, but she does not weaken faith in the Triune God by humanspeculations about the Trinity in Unity. She believes that the sacredScriptures were written by inspiration of God, but she has no theoryabout inspiration. She holds up the Atonement of Christ as the onlyhope of a lost world; but she has no philosophy about the Atonement. She teaches that it is through the Holy Ghost that men are united toChrist. She ministers the sacraments appointed by Christ as Hischannels of grace; but she has no theory to explain the manner ofChrist's presence to penitent believing souls. She does not explainwhat God has explained, but celebrates these Divine mysteries, as theywere held and celebrated for one thousand years after our Lord ascendedinto heaven, before there was any East or West arrayed against eachother in the Church of God. Surely we may and ought to be first to holdup the olive branch of peace over strife, and say, "Sirs, ye arebrethren. "

In so grave a matter as the restoration of organic unity, we may notsurrender anything which is of Divine authority, or accept terms ofcommunion which are contrary to God's Word. We cannot recognize anyusurpation of the rights and prerogatives of national Churches whichhave a common ancestry, lest we heal "the hurt of the daughter of mypeople slightly, " and say "peace, where there is no peace;" but we dosay that all which is temporary and of human choice or preference wewill forego, from our love to our own kinsmen in Christ. 

The Church of the Reconciliation will be an historical and CatholicChurch in its ministry, its faith, and its sacraments. It will inheritthe promises of its Divine Lord. It will preserve all which is catholicand Divine. It will adopt and use all instrumentalities of any existingorganization which will aid it in doing the Lord's work. It will putaway all which is individual, narrow, and sectarian. It will concede toall who hold the faith all the liberty wherewith Christ hath made Hischildren free. 

/Missions/. --In the presence of brethren who bear in their bodies themarks of the Lord Jesus, I hardly know how to clothe in words mythoughts as I speak of Missions. The providence of God has broken downimpenetrable barriers--the doors of hermit nations have been opened;commerce has bound men in common interests, and so prepared "a highwayfor our God"--Japan, India, China, Africa, Polynesia, amid the solitudesof icy north, and in the lands of tropic suns, world-wide there aresigns of the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The veil which hasso long blinded the eyes of the ancient people, our Lord's kinsmenaccording to the flesh, is being taken away. We bless God for the goodexample of martyrs like Patteson, Mackenzie, Parker, Hannington, andothers, who have laid down their lives for the Lord Jesus. We rejoicethat our branch of the Church has been counted worthy to add to thenames of those who "came out of great tribulation, and have washed theirrobes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. " "A great andeffectual door is opened. " There is no country on the earth where wemay not carry the Gospel. The wealth of the world is largely inChristian hands. The Church only needs faith to grasp the opportunityto do the work. 

In the presence of fields so white for the harvest, we must ask, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

1. There must be unceasing, prevailing intercessory prayer for thosewhom we send out to heathen lands. The hearts of all Christian nationswere turned with anxious solicitude to that brave servant of God and Hiscountry in Khartoum. Shall we feel less for the servants of Christ whohave given up home and country to suffer and it may be to die for Him?Some of us remember that when Missions were destroyed, when clouds wereall around us, and the very ground drifting from under our feet, that wewere made brave to work and wait for the salvation of God by the prayerswhich went up to God for us. When "prayers were made without ceasing ofthe Church unto God, " the fast-closed doors of the prison were openedfor the Apostles. It will be so again. 

2. There must be the entire consecration of all unto Christ. The wisdomof Paul and the eloquence of Apollos may plant, but "God alone giveththe increase. " If success comes, if "the rod of the priesthood bud andblossom and bear fruit, " it must be "laid up in the ark of God. " Hewill not give His glory to another. The work is Christ's. "We areambassadors for Him. " "I have chosen you and ordained you that yeshould go and bring forth fruit. "

3. They who would win souls must have a ripe knowledge of the sacredScriptures. "They were written by inspiration of God. . . . That theman of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. "Our orders may be unquestioned, our doctrine perfect in every line andfeature, but we shall not reach the hearts of men unless we preachChrist out of an experimental knowledge of the truths of DivineRevelation. There is but one Book which can bring light to homes ofsorrow, one light to scatter clouds and darkness, one message to leadwandering folk unto God. This blessed Book will be to every soldier andlonely missionary what it was to Livingstone dying alone in Africa, orto Captain Gardiner dead on the desolate shores of Patagonia, whosefinger pointed to the words, "The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth fromall sin. "

4. We must love all whom Christ loves. We may have the gift ofteaching, we may understand all mysteries, we may have all knowledge, wemay bestow all our goods to the poor, we may even give our bodies to beburned, but without that love which comes alone from Christ, we shall be"as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. " With St. Paul we must say, "Whereinsoever Christ is preached I do rejoice, and will rejoice. "

5. Above all gifts we need the baptism of the Holy Ghost. When thisconsecration comes there will be no cry of an empty treasury. We shallno longer be weary with the bleating of lost sheep, to whom we have tosay, I have no means and no shepherd to send you. 

/Christian Work/--We rejoice at every sign that Christians realize thatwealth is a sacred trust, for which they shall give an account. Werejoice more that they are giving that personal service which is a lawof His kingdom. Men and women of culture and gentle birth are goinginto the abodes of sickness and sorrow to comfort stricken homes andlead sinful folk to the Saviour. Brotherhoods, Sisterhoods, anddeaconesses are multiplying. Never was there greater need for theirholy work. Many of our own baptized children have drifted away from allfaith. To thousands God is a name, the Bible a tradition, faith anopinion, and heaven and hell fables. But that which gives us thedeepest sadness and makes all Christian work more difficult is that somany of those to whom the people look for example have given up theBible, the Lord's Day, the house of God, and Christian faith. Alas!they are telling these weary toilers whose lives are clouded by anxietyand sorrow that there is no hereafter. "They know not what they do. "They are sowing to the wind and will reap the whirlwind. May God showthem the danger before if is too late! The loss of faith is the loss ofeverything; without it morality becomes prudence or imprudence. Whenthe tie which binds man to God is broken all other ties snap asunder. No nation has survived the loss of its religion. We are appalled at themad cry of anarchy which tramples all which we hold dear for time andeternity under its feet. We cannot look into its face without seeingthe lineaments of that man of sin who "opposeth and exalteth himselfabove all that is called God and worshipped. " Antichrist is he whousurps the place of Christ. "He is antichrist who denieth the Fatherand the Son. " Our hearts go out in pity for those whose mechanicalideas of the universe may be a revolt from a mechanical theology whichhas lost sight of the Fatherhood of God. We stand where two ways meet. We shall take care of the people or the people will take care of us. The people are the rulers; the power of the future is in their hands. Limit their horizon to this life, let penury, sickness, and sorrowchange the man to a wolf, let him know no God and Father Who hears hiscry, no Saviour to help, no brother to bind up his wounds, let there beon the one side wealth and luxury and wanton waste, and on the otherside poverty, misery, and despair, and there will be, as there has been, a cry for blood. We wonder why men pass by the Church to found clubsand brotherhoods and orders. They will have them, and they ought tohave them, until the Church is in its Divine love what its Founderdesigned it to be--the brotherhood in Christ of the children of our Godand Father. What the world needs to-day is not alms, not hospitals, nothomes of mercy alone. It needs the spirit and the power of the love ofChrist. It needs the voice, the ear, the hand, and the heart of Christseen in and working in His children. No powers of government, no/prestige/ of social position, no prerogatives of Churchly authority canmeet the issues of this hour; we have waited already too long. Brotherhood men will have, and it will be the brotherhood of thecommune, or brotherhood in Christ as the children of our God and Father. Infidelity answers no questions, heals no wounds, fulfils no hopes. TheGospel will do, is doing, to-day what it has done through all the ages:leading men out of sin and darkness and despair to the liberty of sonsof God. 

In a day of division and unrest there will be many questions whichperplex earnest souls. Some will dwell on the subjective side of thefaith, others will think most of its manifestations in the life. Thesequestions will affect organization for Christian work, public worship, and find expression in the ritual of the Church. There is no room fordifferences if Christ be first, Christ be last, and Christ ineverything. The ritual of the Church must be the expression of herlife. It must symbolize her faith; it must be subject to her authority. As the years go by worship will be more beautiful. The "garments of theking's daughter may be of wrought gold, " and she "clothed in raiment ofneedlework, " but "she will have a name that she liveth and is dead, "unless her "fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. " Lastly, tonone is this council so dear as to those whose lives are spent in thedarkness of heathenism, or who have gone out to new lands to layfoundations for the work of the Church of God. In loneliness, withdeferred hope, neglected by brethren, your only refuge to cry as a childto God, it is a joy for you to feel the beating of a brother's heart, and hear the music of a brother's voice, and kneel with brothers at thedear old trysting-place, the table of our Lord. Let us consecrate allwe have and are to Him, let us remember loved ones far away, let usgather all the work we have so long garnered in our hearts and lay it athis feet. We shall not have met in vain if out of the love learned ofHim we give each to the other, and to all fellow-laborers for Him, abrother's love, a brother's sympathy, and a brother's prayers. I do notknow how to clothe in words the thronging memories which cluster aroundus in this holy place, what searchings of heart, what cries to God, whatcommunions with Christ, what consolations of the Holy Spirit have beenwitnessed in this sacred place. I cannot call over the long roll ofsaints, confessors, and martyrs, whose "name are written in the Lamb'sBook of Life. " Two names will be remembered to-day by us all. One, that gentle Archbishop Longley, who in the greatness of his love sawwith a prophet's eye the Mission of the Church and planned theseconferences that our hearts might beat as one in the battle of the lasttime. The other, the wisest of counsellors and the most loving ofbrethren, the great-hearted Archbishop Tait, whose dying legacy to hisbrethren was "love one another. " They have finished their course andentered into rest. A little more work, a few more trials, and we, too, shall finish our course. We are not two companies, the militant andtriumphant are one. We are the advance and rear of one host travellingto the Canaan of God's rest. God grant that we, too, may so followChrist that we may have an abundant entrance to His eternal kingdom. 

V. /SERMON AT THE FOURTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE BROTHERHOOD OFST. ANDREW IN CLEVELAND, OHIO, SEPT. 29, 1889/. 

"/God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, thatwhosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlastinglife/. "--ST. JOHN, iii. 16. 

SIN, sorrow and death have not been invented by Christian priests. Theyare world facts, they belong to every home, and are hid in every man'sheart. There can be no design without a designer, no law without alawgiver, no creation without a creator. So I say, with the leadingscientist of England, "God is a necessity of human thought. " Is thisGod an inexorable ruler, whose right is His infinite might? or is He aneternal Father, whose might is His infinite right? And so the questioncomes home to the heart: Does God care for us? The body is cared for. Every invention of man ministers to the life that is between the cradleand the grave. Man has created nothing. The lightning would run itscircuit in the Garden of Eden as well as when Morse made it man'smessenger. The veil has been lifted so that man can look into God'sstorehouse and read laws as old as creation. But the body is not theman. You ask me how do I know I have a soul? I know it as I know Ihave a body--by self-consciousness. There is no place in this worldwhere men are not compelled by absolute necessity to recognize the actand the will of a soul within, which directs the act. I ask again, doesGod care for me? I say it reverently, brother, you cannot conceive of aGod who could create a world like this, if He can feel one throb of pityfor His children, unless you believe He has provided a remedy for sin, sorrow, and death. The coming of God into the family of man is anabsolute necessity of the very being of God. The incarnation is theoutcome of the possibility that God can love. I turn then to thisrecord and I ask, is this Jesus the friend that the world has waited forand looked for? No one that has walked this earth could use the wordswhich every day rested upon His lips: "I and the God you worship areone. " "I am the bread that is come down from heaven, and the bread Ishall give you is My flesh, and I give it for the life of the world. ""I am the resurrection and the life; if any man shall believe in Me, ifhe were dead he shall live"--unless he were God incarnate. The miraclesof Jesus were not violations of the laws of nature; they were the divineproofs that that God whose hand is behind every law of nature had comeinto the world to help those who needed help. When He multiplied breadin His hands, He did of His own will that which God does when Hemultiplies the wheat in the harvest. When He created the wine of Cana, He did that of His own will which He does when He distills the dewdropin the clusters of the vine. But that which unseals my heart, is thedivine compassion, is the tender pity, is the love that never turns fromthe weary. If man had invented this Gospel, the story of Mary Magdalenewould never have been in the record. It is not in the wrecks strewnalong the path of life that men would find those they would lift to thebosom of God. It is the Divine eye that pities, it is the Divine handthat is reached out to save. I follow Him to the cross, I follow Him tothe grave, where we are going, where our loved ones are sleeping. Thethird day He came back from the darkness; He showed men, by the marks ofthe nails in His hands and by the print of the spear in His side, thatHe was the very Jesus they parted with at the foot of the cross; and Heascended to heaven to be the friend of any aching heart that needs afriend at the right hand of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not aphilosophy, it is not a dogma; it is the story of a Person, a real handto grasp, a real Saviour to love, a real God to save. Marvelous as isthis story that never can grow old and will be the burden of the songsof the redeemed, more wonderful is the Christ of history. Men ask forproof. You do not ask for proof of a sun when the world is bending lowwith golden harvests The other day there was a gathering of great men, scholars, philosophers. It so happened that one man who had lost hisfaith, congratulated his fellows that superstition was dying out, thatthe day was at hand when Christianity would be an effete thing of thepast. James Russell Lowell rose, the blood rushing to his cheeks, andquietly said: "Show me twelve miles square in the world in which I livewhere childhood is cared for, where womanhood is reverenced, where oldage is protected, where life and property are absolutely safe, where itis possible for a decent man to live decently--where the Gospel of JesusChrist has not gone before and made that life possible; and then I willlisten to your revilings of my Master. " Can I go nearer your heart?There is a wide difference between men, but there is one side of humannature that is the same; it is that we call the heart--that which loves, that which fears, that which suffers, that which is the same in thepoorest laborer that ever handled the spade as in the greatest scholarthat ever graced a university. If we can get the rubbish from theheart, the good news of God sounds the same to all. 

When Sir Walter Scott was dying, in suffering and agony he turned toLockhart and said, "Read to me; I am in such agony. " He said, "Whatbook, Sir Walter?" "What book? There is but one book for a dying man;it is the story of the One that passed this way before me, of Jesus theSaviour. " I stood the other day by the death-bed of one who, when Ifirst met him was a savage warrior. He looked up in my face and said, "The Great Spirit has called me. I am going on the last journey. I amnot afraid, for Jesus is going with me and I shan't be lonesome on theroad. " Brothers, it is to tell this story that you have bandedyourselves together in the service of Him who redeemed you with Hisprecious blood. Your motto must be the words of that sainted apostlewhose honored name you bear: "We have found Christ. " For it is onlywhen we have reached out our hand to grasp the hand of Jesus, that, because we cannot help it, we reach out the other hand to help some oneelse. We cannot from the heart say, "Our Father, " and not rememberwandering brothers whom we may lead to the Lamb of God that taketh awaythe sins of the world. The story is not for wage-workers alone, not forthe poor in the attic and the cellar alone; it is for the man who livesin the marble house, it is for the trafficker in the market, it is forevery one away from home and heaven and God. We must find the way tospeak as one tempted man has the right to speak to a brother that isbattling with temptation. It is not done by assailing sinners as youwould besiege a city. We have tried hard words and the have answered uswith a curse. It does no good to tell the poor wretch in the ditch, "Itis your fault. " We have led men to Mount Sinai, and their hearts wouldbreak if we led them to Mount Calvary. It is this that makes the lifeof an earnest minister of Christ the happiest life that God ever gave toman. I am not here to-day to tell you what to do, but to tell you yourMaster's secret, "If you give Him the will, He will find for you theway. " Although you might be the veriest stammerer, if Christ speaks outin all your life, you will be the best talker in the world. We mustbelieve in our work; we cannot make others believe until we firstbelieve ourselves. Our feet must be upon the rock; there is no questionof success or failure there. It may be Athanasius against the world, but the Athanasius and the faith of Christ will conquer. 

And lastly, brothers, never since man has lived on the earth has therebeen an hour when a Christian man might be so thankful to God that hecan live and that he can work. In all the ages of this world's historythere never have been such marvels before man's eyes as we see to-day. I speak not only of the wondrous secrets of God's storehouse, that, forsome end in the councils of eternity, have been reserved for the lastdays. You are living at a time when impenetrable barriers have beenbroken down; when God is fusing the nations of the earth into a commonbrotherhood; when there is not a place in the wide world, where, if youwill, you may not carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nay, more; you arepart of a race that God in His Providence seems to have placed in theforefront of the nations of the earth. I am not speaking of Anglo-Saxons, but I am speaking of the race that God has been fusing out ofevery tongue, and tie, and kin of the earth; and they having onelanguage, are, I believe, to do God's work in the last days. Onehundred years ago English speaking people numbered less than many of theLatin races of Europe; to-day there are one hundred and fifty millions. And when I remember how God ordered that the Greek tongue should becomethe tongue of the whole civilized world to prepare for the firstpreaching of the Gospel; and when I think of all that God's Providencehas done for us, I can believe He calls us to lead on in the work of thelast time. In the days when Rome had overrun the world, if some oneregiment was to be placed in the jaws of death, and perhaps upon thatlegion rested the fate of an empire, they came out in front of theassembled host, and kneeling down on one knee they raised their hands toheaven and took an oath to die for Rome; and that was called thesacramental oath. And our Saxon forefathers, when they came to theLord's trysting-place of love, thought it was a place for taking theoath anew. 

After our Civil War, George Peabody, one of our noblest Americans, gavehis fortune for schools in the desolated south. He visited the WhiteSulphur Springs. No king ever received so heart-felt a welcome. Thesouth laid the homage of grateful hearts at his feet. An aged bishop, now in Paradise--Bishop Wilmer, of Louisiana, came to see him, and said:"Mr. Peabody, I am a southern man, and my heart goes out in love for theman who has been our benefactor. But, Mr. Peabody, if you are saved, itwill not be because you gave your fortune to the needy. You will besaved, as the poorest laborer, for your faith in Jesus Christ. " Mr. Peabody said, "I know that. I do believe in Him; I do pray to Him. ""But, " said Bishop Wilmer, "Mr. Peabody, the night before the Saviourdied for you, He instituted the sacrament of the Holy Communion, and Heleft a request for you to come and receive it. He has a gift for you. Have you ever come to His table?" Mr. Peabody said, "I never knew that. No one ever told me. I knew about the Holy Communion, but I thought itwas for saints--men who felt sure they were going to heaven. I neverknew it was a place to come and receive a gift the Saviour had for me. "That day Mr. Peabody left the White Sulphur Springs. He knew that theHoly Communion was to be celebrated in his mother's church, at Danvers, the next Sunday. He reached Danvers Saturday, and at once called on thepastor and said, "I am coming to the Holy Communion tomorrow. I did notknow it was my duty till a few days ago. " And he did come. That wasroyal faith. Not faith in water, not faith in bread and wine, not faithin priestly hands, but faith in Christ. Such faith as little childrenhave who take the words just as they read and for all they mean, andthen are safe in the everlasting arms. 

So let us to-day consecrate every thought and all we have to Him, andgiving Him the will go out to do His work. And He will do the rest. Wemay fall in battle; we may sow the seed and die; but it will fall intothe ground and God will give the harvest. When we reach the other home--not a place of bodiless shades; not a confused throng of namelessspirits, but a home of brothers in our Father's house--next to seeing theSaviour, next to having the old times re-united, will be the comfort ofmeeting some one that we have helped home. 

And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be allmight, majesty, dominion and power, world without end. Amen.