THE A. P. U. C.
"In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.-Amen.
"We speak to you on this occasion of a wise and charitable work which was set on foot in the metropolis of Great. Britain some years ago to bring about a corporate Re-union between those separate churches, which, taken together, make up what is commonly regarded as the Christendom of the present day. It is a work of love, in which the only work done is the powerful labor of daily prayer and intercession. The orison which is used is taken from the Sacred Mass, added to which a Paternoster is said daily. The founders of this excellent Association-an Association which breathes in its very address the messages of good-will and of peace in one well-blended sentiment,-have displayed great wisdom by wisely resolving to pledge those who joined themselves in the work to the policy of carefully avoiding needless disputes and argumentative frivolities with regard to doctrinal differences. With them these are not discussed; they are not called upon to dwell either on the cause or the fact of division, but on its abundant and increasing evils. They are not solicited to attach themselves to this political section or to the other, to this ecclesiastical school or to that, nor are they expected to accept ecclesiastical opinions as of dogmatic force; but they are asked, and they voluntarily oblige themselves so to do when they join the society, to pray simply that, when Providence may think well to restore the peace and unity of past generations, unjust prejudices and misrepresentations on their part may be unknown. We are informed under his own hand, by a Right Reverend Brother of the mother country, who is himself a member of the Association, of the many important objects which the Re-unionists are enabled to bring to pass, of which evidence is afforded. And it is pointed out to us by others who are accurately informed, that the blessing of the ALMIGHTY appears to rest on their charitable labors.
Now surely we may hope, when we see such excellent intentions so well set forth to the Christian public, that great good may be produced by what we must all admit to be at least a very remarkable movement in the Established Church of Great Britain. Our separated Brethren, if we understand them rightly, appear to desire what they call a "corporate re-union " with the mother Church, with the mother and mistress of all Churches, the Holy Catholic and Roman Church,. And from the nature of their publications which we have examined, there is little difficulty in understanding in what manner they would wish to see their desires carried into operation. They speak with respectful and affectionate regard of the British saints, of the great and holy Saint Thomas, of the Sacrifice of the Mass, of the blessed Mother of our Lord; while their publications are filled with commendable defenses of the Catholic religion, ably planned and judiciously carried out, such as would do no discredit to any Catholic theologian.
" What, then, should be the attitude of Catholics with regard to all this? I have little hesitation in publicly declaring that our attitude should be one of deep thankfulness to the Almighty Source of all mercies for a fresh and apparently large outpouring of His Spirit. Those who were called to curse have blessed us again and again. Those who were aliens in fact as well as in spirit have proved themselves-or, at least, are far on the way to prove themselves-children of Holy Church and followers of our Savior Jesus Christ. Deo gratias! the Lord be praised! Added to this, therefore, we should take heed that no unkind words nor any unnecessary fault-finding be made use of to those who are thus laboring for so blessed an object, and are proving themselves to be what both they and we should wish them in deed and in truth to become. We should further remember that for Great Britain the miseries of division and heresy were brought about by those who denied their Lord, and by others who left Him and fled away. The schism of the sixteenth century was, if it may be allowed us to call it so, a corporate act. The people effected it because they were prepared for it, and willed it so to be. Kings and ministers would have been impotent for evil had priests and prelates of a previous generation been watchful to sound an alarm. Still less could such evils have been brought in, if the practices of religious duties had not given place to a mere formal profession of faith. And deep as was the mischief, and wide spread, yet may we be thankful that the unbelief of Geneva and the rationalism of Germany have little hold over the British people.
"Therefore, in bringing these remarks on this interesting subject to a close, I would counsel a kindly watchfulness, an earnest sympathy, a charitable bearing, and that many thanksgivings should be made. Prayer is the center of the Association's
With but prayer it would be but the bare scaffolding of some well-designed fabric, as yet unbuilt; but having prayer for its great means, and " the restoration of intercommunion and peace " for its aim, it thus possesses, of its own very nature, a divine property, of which none shall be able to rob it, and by this means acquires a power of working which, in God's way and time, may enable its promoters-whom we bless with a divine benediction-to reverse by degrees the evils of past separation, and to restore in the end the Visible Reunion they desire. P. 307-311. " A."
Further remarks:-1. The work is dedicated (in Latin) to Pius, by divine providence Pope, Bishop of the Apostolic Chair; and to Sophronius, Archbishop of Constantinople (both of whom are blessed and most holy); but also to Charles Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England (he is most honored and most reverend)-in hope of the future union of the flock of Christ. (This pious breathing is added): "Alas how long internally divided, and in the expectation of the universal diffusion of the Catholic faith throughout the whole world, which may the Lord God Almighty grant.-Amen."
The Association is seven years old (p 9 of preface); contains about seven thousand names.
" The Association was originated in the year 1857. On the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, certain Roman Catholics, Greeks, and Anglicans met in the parish of S. Clement Danes, Strand, in the city of Westminster,-having that -morning previously, at their respective altars, asked Almighty God's blessing upon their contemplated plans,-and after duly arranging its organization, and drawing up the well-known paper of the Association, thirty-four persons formally enrolled themselves members. A dignitary of the "Scottish Episcopal Church" was in the chair. The following resolution was moved by a distinguished Roman Catholic layman, seconded by a well-known clergyman of the Church of England, supported by members of the Greek Church and others, and was unanimously adopted:-
" ' That a society, to be called the Association for the Promoting the Unity of Christendom, be now formed for united prayer that Visible Unity may be restored to Christendom; and that the Paper now before this meeting be sanctioned, printed, and circulated, as the basis upon which this Society desires to act.'
"Since that day the Association has steadily increased, as will be seen from the following statement
" On September 8, 1858, a year after its formation, there had
enrolled themselves members. 675
" On Sept. 8, 1859 (in addition) 833
1860 1,060
1861 1,007,
1862 1,393
1863 1;202
1864 929*
_____
Thus making a total of 7,099
"Of these the great majority are members of the Church of
(* "The record for the present year is incomplete, many of the local secretaries not having made any returns.)
England; but there are nearly a thousand belonging to the Latin communion, and about three hundred members of the Eastern Church. The paper of the Association has been circulated far and wide; about thirty-nine thousand copies in English have been already distributed. It has been translated into Latin, French, Greek, and Italian, and sent abroad in various ways and by different channels. Local secretaries, both at home and in foreign countries, are being increased, and many correspondents are laboring energetically, and with considerable success, in the cause. The Association has been approved in the highest ecclesiastical quarters, both among Latins, Anglicans, and Greeks. The Holy Father gave his blessing to the scheme when first started, and repeated that blessing with a direct and kindly commendation to one of the English secretaries, who was more recently granted the honor of a special interview.. The Er-Patriarch of Constantinople and other Eastern Prelates have approved of the Association, and so likewise have several Bishops, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, in England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as on the Continent and in America. And no wonder; for the work proposed is simply to pray for the restoration of Visible Unity to Christendom, and to ask continually for the blessings of peace." (Preface, p. 10.- 13.)
Sermon I. (Our Lord's Continued Presence a Pledge of Future Unity, signed H. H.) begins with the Emperor Constantine's appeal to the Synod assembled at Tire, A.D. 335, commanding the prelates to hasten to Jerusalem.
The decree was obeyed, and the representatives of the Macedonians, Pannonians, Moesians, Persians, Bithynians,
Thracians, Cilicians, Cappadocians, Syrians, Mesopotamians, Phoenicians, Arabians, Egyptians, Libyans, &c.,
completed the reverend chorus; such was " the multitude which flocked to the consecration of the Church round which the sympathies of the greatest number of Christian men center, and in which they converge-that sacred building which embraces within its precincts the spot where the Savior of the world suffered death, and also the tomb from which He rose victorious over death. (Page 2.)
" On this spot we may see, as it were in a glass, the fortunes of Christendom reflected. Here, during the long depression of the Church under the powers of the world, the greatest pains had been taken to efface those memorials, so precious in the eyes of Christians; first, by heaping upon the spot piles of earth and rubbish, and ultimately by building upon the mound a temple for the impure worship of Venus. Here then, on that central spot of Christendom, was a vivid representation of what was going on throughout the entire Christian Church. At Rome, the metropolis, the Church was worshipping underground, in the darkness of the catacombs; whilst above, all the impurities and impieties of heathenism were celebrated in open day, and with the additional zest derived from its opposition, now open and declared, to the spreading religion of Christ our Savior.
at length passed that phase of its existence. The Emperor Licinius was subdued by his Christian coadjutor, A.D. 323. In three years from that time, it was revealed to the piety of S. Helena where she was to find the memorials of our Blessed Lord, which from henceforth were designed to exercise so abiding an influence over Christendom. Having served her generation, the pious empress was summoned to her rest; her work remained to testify to her piety, and now, seven years after her death, the spots to which she had directed the workmen having been in the meantime enclosed in a noble building-worthy of God, writes the historian, and of royal magnificence,-all that man could do was completed, and the imperial summons collected for its consecration the august assemblage described by Eusebius." (P. 3-4).
Then come (p. 4) the strange admissions: " Athanasius was under the ban of that very Council And though we know that all who took part in the proceedings were not heretical, yet the Council at which they had most of them been assisting was so. Arianism was for the time triumphant, and where but at the sepulcher of Christ should it show that it was so? Piety caused the Church to be built, but heresy must needs consecrate it to His service, whom it denied to be truly God! (P. 4).
" He, too, Who suffered so many of the heretical opinions to be represented on the day of the consecration, yet confided to the hands of His true servant Macarius, the actual dedication of that Church which was to last as long as the world itself, and long after that special error which then prevailed was laid asleep. On that day, then, 13th of September, 335, He came down, in answer to the prayers addressed to Him, again to resume possession of that house which was His, and had been occupied, in token of His right, for forty hours, three hundred years before. He accepted the sacrifice of commemoration offered for the first time on the newly raised altar, and He appeared, notwithstanding the shocking divisions of the time, which may even make ours appear tolerable, as the future cementer of all schism, in the. Sacrament of Unity.
"No longer now was the tomb empty. It could not he said, as on the morn of the Resurrection, " He is not here," for the whole house was filled with His glory. No longer was the Cross concealed underground, but was reared in the face of all men, to proclaim the triumph of Him Who, having vanquished death,
had raised to new life the world formerly lying dead in sin. All things there were full of His Presence, and people from the furthest regions of the known world acknowledged that the Lord had taken, up His abode.** in His holy temple, by flocking to worship on the spot consecrated by the memorials of what had there been done for the sins of men, and to assist at the Sacraments, the evidence of His abiding Presence." (P. 6-8). Pass on to p. 15.
"The multiplication of heathen systems led of necessity to hopeless disorganization; but all separatists from the true Church, who have carried with them a Priesthood and a Sacrifice, have really in possession that which not only enkindles love, but on each repetition also increases and supports it." (P. 15).
Turn now to pages 16 and 17.
Is Christ, then, still in His holy temple at Jerusalem? Undoubtedly He is. He Who in watchful care preserved the true Cross under the ruins of Jerusalem,-He Who sealed up the tomb wherein He lay for three days, until, three hundred, years after, by special revelation He pointed out its site to the mother of the first Christian emperor,-He Who, meantime, tolerated upon that spot the impure worship of the heathen goddess, whose name was a by-word of heinous immorality,-He Who with such fore-knowledge guarded the spot rendered sacred in the eyes of all Christendom, and which exercises, and will continue to do so, the most extensive influence upon Christian souls,-He, be sure, has not given over the temple, which He first condescended to bless fifteen hundred years ago, to the spoiler. Never has proceeded from the high altar in that Church the Voice which did proceed from the holiest place of the temple hard by, "Let us depart hence." Though the powers of hell have done their worst, and intruded themselves into the Very Divine Presence, and have there successfully sown the crop that has sprung up, hatred and variance, emulation and strife, seditions and heresies, yet. have they not prevailed. If they could not succeed in defiling that spot by the impure worship thereon celebrated for two hundred years, and if God has, throughout its history down to the present time, still preserved the precious memorials there enshrined from fire, robbery, Mahometan spoliation, and the intestine jealousy of Christians themselves, shall we deny that He still fills that Church with His Presence, and dispenses to those who seek Him in it aright the Sacraments which are to begin and continue the Union between Himself and the members of His Body." (P. 16-17).
In a foot-note a little lower down on page 17, we are told that the dome is now unsafe, that repairs are to be undertaken on the responsibilities of Russia and France.
"East and West in this case are working in common."
It is hard to read such a bare-faced falsification of -facts laid as the basis for idolatrous worship with the thought that the writer is an honest man.
Next I open, page 19.
" But if, despite these unseemly separations, which all confess to be indefensible and most profess to deplore, God still continues to reside in His Holy Temple at Jerusalem, and has attracted to Him the hearts of all people; we need not fear that He continues to reside with those who elsewhere carry out the several rites the diversity of which does not absolutely repel Him there." (P. 19.)
Sermon 2. (Work for Reunion, signed D. C.). 1. " Prayer: it is not powerless Christ has said
that prayer made in His name will be heard; and S. Philip Neri has not hesitated to assert that it is all
but omnipotent " (pages 29 and 30). 2. Self-denial
(p. 30).
" As regards the form it is to assume, I may say that the Baptist's camel's-hair and Anthony's solitude are too severe the penances of the saints are not likely to be practiced. But though the form need not be such as that which pleased S. Rose of Lima, and Blessed Leonard of Port Maurice, yet self-denial can be exercised without long vigils and exhausting fasts. Even divested of every mark of severity; and hidden from the searching eye of daily companions, self-sacrifice may do its work, and that too effectually. It is difficult, however, to state exactly what mortifications may be used as a test of the sincerity of prayer for the great and holy object of union; but it is easy enough to hint at them. For instance, a prayer for those who have wronged us; a glass of water left untouched when pressed by thirst to take it; an alms to the poor, an offering to a church, a visit to a lonely invalid,-when frequently and systematically practiced, and offered along with our prayers for the union of Christendom, cannot but test their sincerity." (P. 31).
What a corrupting of both self-denial and of prayer! And Sister Emmerich learned in a vision, " Let thy sufferings teach thee a lesson, and offer them to God for all who are separated." (P. 33).
Sermon III. (The Joy of Unity, signed G. A.), " We may well hope that it (the Holy Eucharist) may propitiate the Father, and by His blessing kindle anew in her (the Church) her first love, and restore the visible unity which was once her chiefest glory." (P. 44).
" Ere long the half-extinguished spark of ancient heresies burst out into a flame, and the internal corruptions of the Church inspired such men as Wickliffe and Luther and Calvin to form the parricidal idea of setting up a new religion, and making war against their Mother." (P. 47).
The human mind, away from God and under the pressure of Satan, has felt the need of something to lean upon; it has thought upon unseen things and their connection with things seen; and false gods have been the result. But these men, the library of God in their hands, have been a-thinking, and have confounded God's earthly witness in Jerusalem with His Heavenly Witness; flesh and man's standing in the first Adam they have substituted for the Spirit and the standing of the Saint in the last Adam, and a worldly sanctuary in place of a heavenly one. The stupid senselessness which must result when man trifles with the word of God-to mold and interpret it according to his own notions! Piety, without faith in God's word as the word of God, and without the guidance of the Holy Ghost, has led them into an imaginary world of their own creation, as unreal so far as God's word is the test, as their notions are contrary to the faith of God's elect.
In Sermon 4. (The Church's Unity; signed H. C.) we have more of rationalistic than of pious error. New foundations are introduced. P. 52, " Man must be considered as one whole, each individual being but a part of this whole.... Mankind feels drawn together, for they are the same flesh and -blood. They are necessary to each other's well-being; to separate them is an act of rude violence, since they are all part of one Adam," and p. 56, " For this purpose God sent His Son into the world, that, taking human nature to Himself, He might make it the medium of regeneration for the rest of the human family. He, as, man, was to be the head of the renewed human nature, and an inexhaustible fountain of regeneration to all mankind. ' P. 57, " The Church, then, is the mustard-seed of' the gospel." "The Church not only received His (Christ's) mantle, and a double portion of His spirit, but became the extension of Himself.... Her life is His life, her wisdom His wisdom, her love His love." P. 64, " The Church offers men also a treasury where each may place in common their merits, their prayers, their offerings, their sacrifices." P. 71, " Power, influence, and Wealth are poured into her (the Church's) hands, because she does not seek these things."
In Sermon 5. (Unity a Motive of Action and a Pledge of Grace; signed H. N. 0.), p. 75, we read of " the nine-fold choir of the angel hierarchy;" p. 86, " God has been pleased to accord to His children's prayers, a power over His own divine will, and made them, so to say, the law of His providence, the measure of His compassion' the illimitable limit of His love."
Sermon 6. (The Blessing of Unity; signed R. F. L.), p. 104, " She (the Church of England) is pledged to no quarrel with the East; no impassable gulf divides her from the West. Still the Catholic Creeds resound in her temples; still the three-fold hierarchy ministers at her altars, still the one bread is broken, the one Sacrifice presented."
Sermon 7. (Reunion our Need and our Desires; has no signature). Sermon 8. (Visihlr. Reunion a special Necessity), p. 131, " We make the Bible, the written Word of God, the standard of our whole system; not indeed as understood by you or me, this person or that, each one for himself, but as interpreted by the records of the early Church, when the remembrance of the New Testament writers was, so to speak; fresh in men's minds, and the traditions they had imparted were held fast in their original purity." P. 132, " We have only one rule given us to walk by, one manual of faith, devotion, and practice, to which we are all alike bound to conform-our Book of Common Prayer." P. 138, speaking of the blessings possessed by the Church of England,-" The full Catholic faith, Apostolic order, an edifying ritual, the heavenly nourishment of Christ's body and blood, the ministry of the Holy Ghost in confirmation, the graces of the lesser Sacraments, the due observance of holy times, communion with the saints living AND DEPARTED."
I will not weary my readers by more citations. My object is not to warty-them against the errors of the book: Those for whom I write are not of the night.;
I have referred to it as showing another proof of the state in which the so-called Church of Eng1and now is. What could it do against the writers of the- "- Essays and Reviews"? What has it done as to Colenso?. What can it do as the mother of such an association (or confederacy) as this? It is constrained to be the harbor of refuge and protection to all of these. Being an integral part of the world itself, it cannot purge itself from the works of the flesh or of the mind. A stronger than man rules in it.
The tenth Sermon, " Shall not the Church of England. be heard " (signed N.) is, to do her justice, a most wicked libel upon the establishment as set up and as a-subject of history.
P. 329, " N.B.-The names of members will be kept strictly private."
There is in the volume one witness who signs himself + D. His paper (though written under shelter of a false view of prophetic truth,-namely, that a millennium of blessing is to set in for the Church down here, after an eventide of persecution and trouble), has some pointed and true words in it. The zeal may be as that of Jehu, but it has a fervor about it which savors of natural honesty, which is more than can be said of the other productions.
John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31): " Now shall the prince of this world be cast out,' says our Lord. Here is the evil spirit of heathenism.. ejected from the civilized world, But his rejection is not final. ' With seven 'other spirits more wicked than himself,' he ultimately regains possession of his once deserted habitation, and ‘-the -latter end ' of his victim is worse than the first.' Heathenism dies into Christianity, but is revived in a more intensified and blasphemous and diabolical form in. anti-christianity "(p. 283). Confusion between 'kingdom' and "Church," and ignorance of the difference between house ' and ' body ' are here 'apparent. But the words-" Heathenism dies into Christianity, but is revived in a more intensified and blasphemous and diabolical form—in ANTI-CHRISTIANITY," are-remarkable words, and so are these-" Many seem to think that, if only visible intercommunion in Christendom can be re-established, on whatever terms, all will be well. The world will meekly bow her neck to the yoke of the Cross, and a bright millennial period will be peacefully inaugurated.
Ah! they forget that the evening precedes the morning, that life only comes through death, the Cross prepares the Crown, the Church suffers with Christ before she reigns with Him" (p. 287). So again, " Many seem to imagine that visible unity, at any price, is a great boon. But no I A restored intercommunion based on anything, either short of, or more than, the One Old Faith,' once for all delivered, would be no blessing, but a curse to the Church, a perpetuation of weakness, a deadly enervation and enfeeblement of her real powers" (p. 288).
What God may permit, it is not for us to guess. Certainly, a new central Church, such as the A. P. U. C. proposes, would be " the WHORE" in unclouded simplicity. But' that is not my point now; nor are the many signs of the day which seem to point the same direction. What is the hierarchical establishment, and what is it about, when such things are proposed in it, and are being actively sought after by its members? What is the body corporate which could not deal with the writers of the Essays?-which could not deal with Colenso?-which cannot deal with this new form of evil?
*** The italics are often mine as Editor.
What have I to do down here? To learn to know God better and to serve Him, Entire surrender of all one is is what I covet,-surrender to God and to His work, To be an imitator of God as a dear child,-Christ Himself my ensample; that is my calling. I have divine life; I would walk in it, and offer up, all that I am and all that I have, to God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. He claims me; and to meet His claim is my bounden duty and my highest present privilege.