over again acknowledged and proclaimed this great and happy truth, when we said we were by baptism made members of Christ," and gave thanks, each one of us in our own individual self, that he hath sanctified me and all the elect people of God." 66 So long, then, as we keep to the teaching of the Church," the witness and keeper of Holy Writ," the guide to, and the pillar and ground of the truth, so long are we in the right way. She is the light set on a hill which cannot be hid. She is the body of which not only is Christ the head, but which is indwelt by the Holy Ghost. So long as we keep close to the teachings of the Church, so long shall we be close to Christ, so long shall we be secure from the temptations of false Christs and false systems of religion, or rationalism, or infidelity, or dissent (1), or heresy, or schism (!).* All these are works of the false Christ, the man of sin, the son of Perdition, who shall be revealed on that day, before which there shall first " come a falling away." Not only does the Church perpetually thrust doctrine to the fore on Sundays in the Church service, but also in the wide-spread publications of Tract Societies do we find the same blindness to Christ's teachings displayed. I have before me a collection of forty-three texts for public display, published by the Dublin Tract Repository, which will serve as a good sample of this kind of publication. Out of the whole forty-three texts I do not find more than three which, by any device, can be construed into having any practical bearing upon every-day life in the sense in which the most valuable truths of Christ and his Apostles were uttered. Every one knows the favourite texts of these Tract Societies. We see them hung up in railway stations, and thrust upon us in various forms by well-meaning fanatics. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” "The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin." "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." * Where is there more schism than in the Church of England or than amongst modern Christians generally? If schism is a sign of diabolical agency, modern Christians are far indeed from the kingdom of heaven. "What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "All that believe are justified from all things." "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The foregoing are a few specimens culled from the collection before me, and sufficiently illustrate what I have said, that those who profess to be so anxious to publish abroad the glorious teachings of Christ are either culpably ignorant of what salvation through Christ really means, or they are determined to delude themselves and others into the belief that a good life and pure thoughts are not of so much consequence as doctrinal creeds. Where do we find exhibited such texts as the following, and why is it that we never see them used by the Church? Can it be that, by reducing Christianity to a system of moral teaching, the Church fears people will get to heaven without ecclesiastical assistance? "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." "The kingdom of God is within you." "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Р So also Psalm 15 (quoted on p. 194), every line of which would form a valuable text. Were it desirable, I could fill volumes with specimens of the noxious trash which Tract Societies and others send forth in the name of Christianity. At the depôt where the foregoing texts were on sale a small pamphlet was handed to me, which professes to have had a circulation of 35,000 copies, and is entitled the "BLOOD OF THE LAMB," and truly a more sanguinary production it would be difficult to find. It is scarcely conceivable that anyone conversant with the spirit of Christ's teachings could deliberately sit down and write such a pernicious perversion of the truth as this and similar publications contain. This is how the writer begins, and the same strain is maintained throughout: "I have no foundation of hope but in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour.' "There is nothing precious but the precious blood of Christ. I am standing on his blood. There is no foundation but the Rock of Ages.' "The sure foundation of my hope is in my Saviour's blood.' "These are three out of numberless testimonies of departing saints as to the ground of their confidence in the immediate prospect of standing in the presence of the infinitely holy God. In all ages there has been but this one resting-place for the sinner -the blood. "Salvation in Jesus only, and by his atoning blood, is the one theme of Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation it runs like a scarlet thread through the whole, and every page tells out the grand, sublime, and soul-saving truth, that without shedding of blood is no remission.' "Christ crucified is the entire burden of the word of God," &c. This precious production concludes with the following characteristic verses:— "The blood of Christ alone can cleanse, Indelibly remain. "The blood of Christ alone can pay The fallen sinner's debt; He has atoned for all man's sin, * These italics are not mine. "The blood of Christ alone can save On him then let your trust be stayed, "The blood of Christ alone can turn "Then let us praise and magnify Of him who by his death has made "THE ATONING BLOOD. "IT is the blood, it is the blood, "It was the blood, the mark of blood, And when that mark by God was seen, "I see the blood, I see the blood,' The soul that owns this token true, J. E. H." A. M. HULL.” It is needless to make any more comments upon this melancholy picture of modern Christianity than to ask the reader to compare it with the words of him whom these writers blindly imagine they are serving. The Church's Hymns are likewise open to considerable criticism in the light of Christ's teachings. I append a few extracts from the Church Hymns, published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which are extensively used in our churches. It will be seen that in the hymns, as in the sermons, is there the same mistaken preference for the doctrinal teachings of the Apostles rather than Christ's own words, which I have elsewhere commented on. The Resurrection. No. 247, verse 6.-"Earth to earth and dust to dust;' Calmly now the words we say; No. 522, verse I.— Leaving him to sleep in trust They whose course on earth is o'er, Everlasting Punishment and Election. No. 355, verse 15.-" With Thy favoured sheep, oh place me, But to Thy right hand upraise me. 16 "While the wicked are confounded, The Atonement. No. 527, verse 4.-"By Thy dying we were brought, Ransomed from the world and sin." No. 544, verse 4.-" And His the Blood that can for all atone, No. 547, verse 2.-"Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, No. 558, verse 4. Save in the death of Christ my God! "Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done Can for a single sin atone; To Calvary alone I flee; O God be merciful to me! No. 577, verse 3.-"He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good; That we might go at last to heaven, * A comparison of this and the following verse illustrates curiously the Church's ignorance of the conditions of the future life. In one, our departed friends are represented as "sleeping in trust," whilst in the other they are represented as already before the throne of God! |