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II.

THE "CHURCH REVIEW" SYMPOSIUM ON CHRISTIAN REUNION.

BY REV. WILLIAM FREDERICK FABER.

THE basis for Christian Reunion, proposed by the Lambeth Conference of 1888 is as follows:

"I. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as 'containing all things necessary to salvation,' and as being the rule and ultimate standard of Faith.

"II. The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith.

"III. The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself,-Baptism and the Supper of the Lord,-ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution, and of the elements. ordained by Him.

“IV. The historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of His Church."

When this Basis-substantially the same as declared by the American House of Bishops in 1886-was published, it at once received widespread attention, and since then much has been said and written on the subject. But up to the present there has been no more important discussion of it in this country than that in the pages of the Church Review, which in April of last year published articles and communications from twenty representative men of non-Episcopal churches, and in October concluded the Symposium with twelve papers by leading Episcopalians, among them four of the American Bishops. Bear

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ing in mind that the Church Review, while it stands head of the many publications of the Protestant Epis Church, is an accredited organ of High Church views, we be gratified to see such a symposium in its pages at all not disappointed if from the second part of the debate we such names as those of Phillips Brooks, Heber Newton and Rainsford. In the symposium itself there is much to gra

On the non-Episcopal side there is, with but one ex tion, the best of temper; learning and piety are coupled that courtesy which does not so uniformly grace their poss ors. However little hope is left that the terms of the Angli Church will be accepted by the other Protestant Churches, th is no mistaking the fact that these representative men on non-Episcopal side are looking at the question in a vastly o ferent way from their fathers, and however slight the prosp may be that the Church Review writers will consent to rega as non-essential their jure divino theory of the origin of Episcopate, with them, too, there is no mistaking the fact th history and the Spirit of Christ have compelled a conside able change of attitude from that of by-gone days.

Upon the first proposition there is little discussion. Its state ment is strong and positive, while at the same time it leave open the minor questions which concern the theories of Inspir ation. Those questions, which in our day afford occasion fo so much heated controversy, are after all secondary to the grea fact which is not in question, and which transcends the debata ble ground of theories; the fact, to wit, that the "Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain all things necessary to salvation, and are the rule and ultimate standard of Faith." We cannot but admire the wisdom of the Lambeth Conference in framing this first proposition just as they did. The Baptist Dr. McArthur, indeed, would like to recast it. It should not be simply "the rule and ultimate standard of Faith." It should be "the Word of God," "the only rule of Faith and Practice." What with such a principle would become of the Baptist Church,-to say nothing now of any of our other

The "Church Review" Symposium on Christian Reunion. 157

urches,-Dr. McArthur has evidently not stopped to reflect. is well to honor the Scripture; but it is well, also, to respect e Scripture enough to ascertain its own claims on its behalf, d not to put it into a place its writers, and the Spirit who oved them, never meant it to occupy. We cannot forget that the Gospel according to St. John, it is written how Christ swered the Jews, "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think at in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which ar witness of Me; and ye will not come to Me, that ye may ve life." In a word, it may easily happen that an exaggered view of Scripture will shut out the Supreme Object of ristian faith. More than that, Protestantism should rememr that it has happened.

While the first proposition meets, on the whole, sufficient apoval, the second is subjected to criticism, particularly as rerds the claim that "the Nicene Creed is the sufficient stateent of the Christian Faith."

That we may the better understand the matter, let us bring fore the reader the full text of that symbol in the form in ich the Anglican Bishops hold it.

"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heavand earth, and of all things visible and invisible. "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of od, Begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, ght of Light, Very God of very God, Begotten, not made, eing of one substance with the Father, By whom all things ere made: Who for us men, and for our salvation came down om heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the VirMary, And was made man, And was crucified also for us der Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third y He rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended to heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And e shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the ad: Whose kingdom shall have no end.

“And I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord and Giver of e, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with

the Father and the Son together is worshipped and gl Who spake by the Prophets. And I believe one Catho Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the sion of sins, and I look for the Resurrection of the dead the life of the world to come. Amen."

To this Creed the objection is made by one of the W that "it enters into philosophical speculation, when it s have been content with the Scripture statement that the is God;" by others, that as it now appears, the Nicene contains clauses not originally in it, hence not deserving of reverence which we should bestow on primitive purity of t ing; and there is instanced the famous filioque, "the proces of the Spirit from the Father and the Son," an addition ma a late date by the West, and to this day protested against the East; but above and beyond all these and similar objecti it is held by a number of the writers that the Nicene Cree any form cannot be a sufficient statement of the Christian Fa It is maintained with great plausibility that to leave the Chu with this for a sufficient doctrinal standard, would be to give Christendom to a new Babel of tongues, so that the ensui confusion of teaching would be worse than the present secta anism. It is asserted that to remand to the region of nonsentials our great confessional symbols of later times would t disloyalty to our history, to truth, to God.

Now it is indeed true that the developments, the acquisition the achievements of successive centuries of Christian histor are not to be counted as vain and nothing worth, or to be, s far as possible, undone. Such an attempt would be both im pious and futile. But, as we take it, to posit Christianity as attainable by agreement on the Nicene Creed, contemplates no abolishing of Augsburg, Heidelberg or Westminster beliefs. For Augsburg, Heidelberg and Westminster became possible only because there was, long centuries before, a Nicea. In other words, the later theological thought accredits itself as legitimate Christian thought only by reconfessing at the outset the primitive Christian Faith, and by acknowledging that all

The "Church Review" Symposium on Christian Reunion. 159 ich it is now doing is simply in explication and application that Faith. If different types of thought lay undeveloped in e infant Church, and in no wise hindered Catholic Unity en, and if for doctrinal standard the simple form of sound ords in which all could agree then, sufficed, what is there in any stem legitimately growing out of primitive Faith and thought hinder fellowship with any brother Christian now? and why a form of sound words which embodies the root of the whole atter, not a sufficient statement of the Christian Faith now? The fact is, our anomalous sectarian position prevents our eing some things because of their very simplicity. In the st place, there is the great subscription bug-bear. Having long been accustomed to think that compelling a man to bscribe a Confession will make him believe it and stick to that elief, we are afraid that by relinquishing this form of obligaon, the Confession will no longer be believed. The truth is, Le Confession will compel belief according to the degree in hich it commends itself to the Christian reason as in harmony th the central Revelation in the Christ and the testimony of postles and Prophets; in other words, so far as it is proundly true, and truly Christian. Subscription compels no ore. Let me be persuaded that the true spiritual successors of t. Peter, St. Paul and St. John are the Puritan leaders and the estminster divines, and no subscription bond can strengthen. y adherence to the Presbyterian system of thought. On the her hand, weaken my conviction that only these men and this hool are par excellence the successors, the inheritors of the aints to whom once for all the Faith was delivered, and, while ou will not make me disloyal to the Lord's work in a Presbyerian field, you do make me care less for every form of Presyterian-ism as such, and relatively more for the common Faith nd the Catholic Churchmanship which I here may share with ou yonder.

The Faith stands behind the confessional standards: the aith once for all delivered to the Saints. The Faith is one : he confessions divergent. The Faith is primary, absolutely

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