The Church and the Churches: A Course of Epiphany Sermons

THE great topic of the Epiphany season is that of the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour of Men. During His life on earth that manifestation was made in wonderful, miraculous manner. A strange star guided wise men from the East to the manger bed at Bethlehem, there to find and worship the King of kings. A glorious transfiguration gave assurance of His Divine dignity to the inner circle of His. Apostles. In all His ministry, from Cana to Bethany, were constantly recurring miracles which proclaimed Him Son of God. These miracles, with their revelation of His Divine glory and deep human sympathy, are favourite topics in the Epiphany season. It cannot, I think, be foreign to the spirit of this season, that we should ask ourselves the question: After what manner has Christ been manifested to men during the more than eighteen centuries that have gone by since His ascension into heaven? The answer is, of course: Not now by such miracles as were wrought during His life on earth, for these seem to have ceased with the Apostolic age, but through the agencies operated by His holy Church. The Church of Christ, then, and her manifestations of her Lord and Saviour, will furnish us with topics eminently befitting this season of the Christian year. And what and where is the Church of Christ? Laying aside all controversy as to the true notes of the Church, I use the term in that wide, charitable sense in which our Prayer Book uses it when it defines the “Holy Church Universal” as “all who profess and call themselves Christians.” And, without determining anything as to the rival claims of different Christian bodies, I shall imitate the charity and courtesy of the Preface to our Prayer Book in speaking of their organizations as “churches.” I do not thereby affirm anything as to the lawfulness of their government, or the general correctness of their doctrines; but use toward them the same courtesy which I would fain find them use when they speak of my own church. When we speak of the Church of C