reunion may be made; that is to say, these articles represent the fundamental elements of the Church's organic life. They contain the Catholic minima, without any one of which the full conception of the organic life of the Catholic Church can, under no circumstances, be adequately realized. They embody the germinal positions from which the other parts of Catholic faith, discipline, and practice have in all ages been nurtured and developed; and from which, therefore, when loyally and intelligently apprehended in this fundamental relationship, the numerous other important matters which corporate reunion would necessarily involve may, by God's blessing, be hopefully approached and considered. If, in the case of any religious body, the full, intelligent acceptance of any one of these positions be lacking, that religious body is not yet, in our judgment, prepared hopefully to "approach the subject of Corporate Unity" from the standpoint of historic Christianity. Hence such a body necessarily lacks the intellectual and spiritual environment required for the consideration of the further questions involved, with any hope of a successful result. In other words, the Anglican Bishops have striven to act as skilful physi cians of souls in this matter. In all loving and single-hearted directness they have endeavored to concentrate the devout consideration of Christians of every name upon those fundamental posi

tions in a defective apprehension of which the root and source of our present evils is ultimately to be found. Passing by for the time the multiform symptoms of the disease which in their external and shifting characteristics are obvious to every careful observer, they have concentrated attention upon the vital organs of the organic body of the Church's life, hidden in some one or more of which the central seat of so grave a disease must necessarily be sought. We shall do well, therefore, beloved, in this course of Lectures, to consider attentively these several fundamental articles, and, so far as we may, lovingly to in vite all other Christian people to do the same, in the devout and reasonable expectation that we may all thus obtain a fuller and more living conception of the fundamental position of each in the development of the Church's corporate life; and so may, by God's blessing, perceive and correct the diseased conditions which our partial and misdirected apprehension of such fundamental matters must inevitably cause. For beyond all doubt the present divided state of our English-speaking Christianity (to go no further afield in our enquiry) does represent a diseased condition of things, and one entirely inconsistent with the ideally healthy life of the Christian Church. It is therefore the plain duty of all to track up and investigate the cause of such an unhealthy condition, so far as it

exists within their own bounds. Thus used, the Chicago-Lambeth Articles may indeed prepare the way for the great blessing of visible unity which we are seeking from the hand of the Lord, from Whose hand alone it can finally come. Viewed in any other light; not as initially fruitful and fundamental positions, from which when attained we and our brethren may together seek the guidance of the Blessed Spirit in the further consideration of whatever matters may yet remain, but as hard, mechanical conditions of reunion, which when once accepted would leave nothing further to be considered; these Articles, so far from helping on unity, may indeed be turned into a fresh barrier in the way of its speedy accomplishment.

Again and again, in conferences which have been held on this matter, it has been quite rightly urged, and that not chiefly by representatives of our own Communion, that the Church can never afford to overlook the teachings of the past Christian centuries. Certainly, no large body of Catholic Bishops, like that assembled at Lambeth in 1888, could for one moment have entertained the idea of neglecting the lessons of the well-nigh sixteen Christian centuries which intervene between us and the first promulgation of the Nicene Creed. The Chicago-Lambeth Declaration certainly means nothing of the kind. Not even from the Nicene standpoint could the Declaration be

considered approximately complete, nor was it intended so to be. To say nothing of the other Sacramental Rites of the Church, which are complementary to and issue from the two great central Sacraments of the Gospel, we need recall only the great outlines which underlie all Eucharistic Offices wheresoever found-East and West and North and South-under every possible outward divergency of form and ritual, to see how momentous are the matters which lie outside the terms of the Bishops' Declaration. Looked at from the position. which they themselves avow, that they are now putting forth only such matters as "supply a basis upon which approach may be, by God's blessing, hopefully made" towards full corporate unity, all is clear and plain. Complete unification presupposes a process of organic growth like that which Dr. Shields has so well portrayed in his recent most timely and valuable contribution to the subject, entitled The United Church of the United States. Viewed from any other standpoint than that which the Bishops themselves avow, it is hard to conceive how such a declaration could have been issued by any body of Catholic Bishops. To sum up then concisely the position for which I am contending. The loving counsel of the Bishops to all who seek for the full accomplishment of our dear Lord's purpose in the visible reunion of Christians (whether belonging to their own Commun

ion or not) is this: In order hopefully to approach the subject, we must each and all be content to let our present positions pass, for the time being, out of sight. We must look back down the stream of Christian history till at last we find ourselves in the actual presence of the Church's still undivided organic life. Thus only can we impartially learn and consider the Divine provision by which in a sinful separatist world that unity was so long conserved and protected. This Divine provision

will be found to centre in four fundamental

and germinal factors. To these factors, we should give, in the first place, our fullest and undivided attention. As soon as by God's mercy we have reached a vital unity of apprehension in regard to these four fundamental factors, we may then each and all press forward with a good hope to examine from the position thus gained whatever matters may still remain-the further questions as to which there are difficulties to be solved, differences to be harmonized, deficiencies to be made good, or still richer spiritual possessions to be acquired for the doing of Christ's work in the world.

It is then from the position thus outlined that the lecturer invites your attention to-day to his allotted subject-the relation of the Holy Scriptures to the restoration of visible Church unity. We are to consider how we can best use the great fact that,