THE BROAD CHURCH.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2560, 21 March 1877, Page 3

THE BROAD CHURCH.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib,-—The following extract from a sermon entitled -V Salvation out of the visible Church "by the late Rev F. W. Kobertson of Brighton, accords so well with the riew taken by Max Mailer in "The ancient religions of the world," that I hope you will find room for its insertion.—Yours, &c,

Opes Question:

'..".'There, are men whose tendernes3 of heart we cannot doubt, who have come to the conclusion that without doubt the heathen shall perish everlastingly. A horrible conclusion ; and if it were true no smile should ever again pass across the face of him who believes it. No moment can, with any possible excuse, be given to any other enterprise than their evangelization, if, it be true that eternity shall echo with the myriad groans and agonies of those who are dropping into it by thousands in an hour. Such men, however, save their character for heart, at the expense of their consistency. They smile and enjoy the food and light just as gaily as others do. They are too affectionate for their creed ; their system only binds their views, it cannot convert their hearts to its gloomy horror. . . . Moreover, let ,us recollect that the Bible contains only a record of the divine dealings with a single nation ;.-,His proceedings withthe minds of other proples are not recorded. That other large world—no jess Gdd's world than Israel was, though, in- theii'bigotry the Jews thought Jehovah was ,''j their . own , exclusive property — scarcely/is, freely could be named in tl&.pag<£ of scripture, except m its external relation to Israel. But at times, figures,: as: .'...'it'..were,;? cross the rim of Judaism, when brought into contact with it,, and passing for a moment as dim shadows, do yet tell us hints of a communication and a revelation going on unsuspected. We are told for example of Job^-nofJew, but an Arabian Emir—who beneath the tents of Uz contrived to solve the question to his heart, .which still perplexes us through life—the 'co-existence of evil and divine benevolence; we find K"aamah,'the Syrian,and Nebuchadnezzar, the: Babylonian, under the providential and loving; discipline of God; Eahab, the Gen]tile, is saved by faith; the gyroPhoinician woman, by her sick-daughter's bedside recognises,, without human assistance, the consoling ;truth of a universal Fatl^r's love in: the midst of apparent partiality; ..The " Light that lighteth er.ery man-that cometh into the world" had not left them in darkness;

We are constrained to the conviction that there is a church on earth larger than the limits of the church visible; larger than Jew, or Christain, or apostle dreamed of;- larger than- our narrow hearts dare to hope even now* They whose soarings to the First Good, First Perfect, and Firs t Fair, entranced, us in our boyhood, and whose healthier aspirations are acknowledged yet in our riper manhood—will our hearts allow us rto believe that they have perished? Nay! "Many shall come from.the east and the west, and shall . sit down' with: Abraham/ and Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven." The North American Indian who worshipped the Great Spirit, and was thereby sustained in a life more dignified than the more animalised men amongst his countrymen ; the Hindoo who believed in the Best of God, and in his imperfect way tried to " enter into rest," not forgetting benevolence and justice. These shall come while " the children of the. kingdom"— men who, with .greater light, only did as much as they_r-" shall be cast out." These, with an .innumerable multitude out of every kingdom, and tongue, and people, with Rahab .and the :Syro-Phcenician woman, have : entered into that Church which has passed through the centuries, absorbing silently into itself all that the world ever had of great* good, and noble. They were those who fought the battle of good against evil in their dayj penetrated into the invisible from the thick shadows of darkness which environed them, and saw the open vision which is manifested to all in every nation,; who fear God and w©rk righteousness."' .