BISHOP CROSSLEY'S SERMON.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1650, 17 January 1913, Page 6

BISHOP CROSSLEY'S SERMON.

THREE HISTORIC CONFERENCES. \ The Bishop of Auckland (Dr. Crossley), commenced his Synod 'sermon by> ( saj''ing~.that when , tho ~Primate laid ■■'upon' him the duty of ' preaching the opening sermon of, the, ninetoentli meeting of the General Synod of the Church of the Province of New Zealand, he selected one who was only just feeling his way amid new conditions, and.'whoso duty therefore seemed clear to him, that it'was not his to anticipate in this place the discussion of' sifch problems as may be laid' before tho Synod,'but rather ..to attempt a review of tho principles Which underlie Synodical action, ami to make some effort to, bring all- under the consideration and the guidance of the Spirit of God. . Tho B'ishop. went on to say:/1 would invite you to consider some dominant notes of three historic gatherings, call them council, synod, or conference, it matters, not.' They are: 1. Tho Council at .-.Jerusalem. 2. The Council at Nicaea.':'3, The Council at Lambeth. Each of theso gatherings acted in a direction and with a result all their own: Jerusalem, by expansion; Nicnea, by definition; and Lambeth, by comprehension. I think tho spirit of expansion so splendidly vindicated by tho. Council of Jerusalem, may bring with it tiro lessons to ourselves. ~ ' ■ ' ■ First, we must not think that channels of devotion or methods of loyalty, traditional with us, can necessarily fit in with a people not of our environment ,or history.,: Is. it, for instance, not rather 'of the' mind of the "Pharisees which bclieved" to tell tlio Hindoo or. Zulu or Melnncsian, that "we must charge them to keen tho law of the Book of Common Prayer 1 '?- ' , .Secondly, it has been said that tho judgment*of the Council went off on aido issues'and failed to establish the doctrinal basis of the Church. This surely is to misapprehend the whole point.' Tho question was not whether tho pagan could become a Christian (there was no doubt on that subject at all), but whether en becoming a Christian what ceremonies and obligations observed and jiraeti«d by the Founder and His Apostles wore they "likewise to observe and practise? What I would leurn is this: that

the judgment was guided by the Spirit of God to suit conditions and needs then prevalent. , That methods of expansion may be tentative and yet true, that adaptability, so surely a law of Nature, is also a law in the Church of God. The Council of Nicaea, You remember Carlyle's trenchant saying: "If Arinnism had won, Christianity would have dwindled into a legend." The I problem of tho. Nicene Council is the problem of to-day. Arianism is never dead; it was never so vigorous as in the century after the Nicene Council of 325, it found a home among the Spanish Goths well up in the oth cenluryj.it burst out afresh in the Reformation period; according to ])r. bright it .moulded the religious thought ot John Milton, and it is with us to-day. The two fundamental doctrines of Christianity are the -deity of Christ and tho unity of God; without the one it merges in philosophy or Unitarianism; without the other it sinks into polytheism. To co-ordinate these truths by definition'was the work of the Council. And'.the Council wns as daring as that of Jerusalem. While the Jerusalem Council went beyond the letter of tho law,' tho Nicene Council brought in a definition beyond tho words of Scripture by the use of the famous word which we translate by the phrase, "Being of one substance with the lather." From this memorable Council and its definition, I learn two great) principles which affect the modern life of the Church: V ■

First, things may be Scriptural which are not found in Scripture,, bo they definitions, or practices, or forms of devotion if only they reflect the Spirit of- the Scriptures; above all, if they are consonant with tho mind of Christ; As St. Augustine 6aid _80 years ofterwards: "Even if; a particular ' term were absent from Scripture, the thing intended by it might be found there," or as our own .Watcrland put it—the scjiso of Scripture is Scriptur*.

And the second thing to which modern thought' is deeply indebted to the Niceno Council is that it has given us the very conception of God which the mind of today demands; it gives us, if I may put it Crudely, both o reasonable and a social God. "Tho recognition of eternal dis-' tinetions in the Divine Nature establishes within that nature a social element before which despotism or slavery in earth or Heaven stands condemned. Tho way was prepared for, the slow recognition of oThigher ideal'than power, and our own fige is beginning to see better the pro-, found and far-reaching significance of the Niceno decision, not for religion only, but for political, scientific, ■ and social thought." As" Professor Gwatkin says; Tho Nicene Creed "is the only • serious theory of religion at present before the world which fully vindicates tho social clement in human v nature by firmly planting it insido the Divine."

Lambeth Conference. , I believe that in modern times the wide extension' of prayers'for unity takes its rise, or at all events received impetus from tho Lambeth Conference, which established the' desire for -comprehension. It was a courageous act, prompted, I bfnevo, first by a Canadian Bishop, chat the Archbishop of Canterbury should invite all Bishops of tho Anglican Com-' munion to a Conference. The Conference,has felt its way with somewhat uncertain steps. It has not perhaps been quite sure of itself,.or its powers, but it has been of'incalculable; value, and it is only on tho threshold of the work it can accomplish in tho world; Now, Christianity was born in a great empire of unity, tho most notable tho world has seen, and that common empire was of enormous value in the propagation of the faith. I am trustfully looKing to the day when the "Ecclesia Anglieano." (likewise seatod chiefly in a great empire of unity) will bo free; free from insular bondage, and welcome as equals all her daughters wherever placed, i. am sure comprehension must begin amtscst those of our own household, and that the .-Umpire! sense is going to give a foothold for this movement. But our. Anglican Communin is much larger than -Empire, Tho day is rapidly drawing.near'when such a; .great design as tho reform or enrichment;, 1 'of our Liturgy will notbo undertaken 1 by' little segments of n mighty whole, but by tho whole through full and-proper representation, and when the cruel'denial of our spiritual solidarity involved in a v Colonial Clergy Act will be remembsred with shame.'ln our Synod may tho Holy Spirit of God so inspire us as to present our Church ns one with a message for its people of to-day, a message that brings Qotl and man/nearer and nearer, with 1 aids and support, not of man's device, but conceived in tho mind of God, spoken through the lips of Jesus, and used continuously by tho Spirit of God. As a Church, too, that has something suro and certain to bring to" people that is worth bringing and which the Body of Christ, of.which sho is a part, alone can bring.