332 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



tion, by which every gain of insight into the ideal to 

 which the Church has to attain is duly applied in 

 government, discipline, and worship, so that the new 

 insight, which is in truth nothing more than the explicit 

 development of something involved in all true faith, 

 may now be consciously presented to the whole com 

 munity, and find an answer in the hearts of all. 



To recapitulate : The functions of the Church as the 

 society of public worship are imperfect, unless discharged 

 in a way corresponding to the ideal unity of the fellowship 

 of the Redeemed. Thus all Church worship must aim at 

 catholicity, and genuine catholicity is the principle that 

 must guide the whole government and administration of 

 the Church. But catholicity does not mean toleration 

 and compromise. It means the gathering up of all aspects 

 of truly Christian converse with God into a unity of 

 devotional expression in which every believer can join. 

 This is an ideal remote from the present state of the 

 Churches. But it is an ideal that must at length be 

 realised. For it is certain that a normal expression of 

 Christian faith has the power of appealing to every 

 believer, and of doing so, not in virtue of any abstractness 

 and hazy generality, but just in proportion to the fulness 

 with which it takes up everything that lies in the whole 

 compass of Christian truth. Such a normal statement of 

 Christian faith, rich in all Christian knowledge, but freed 

 from everything of human idiosyncrasy, is what every 

 communion that claims to be a branch of the Church 

 Catholic must seek to attain by theological research, and 

 to apply to the constant improvement of the practical 

 administration of Church functions. A Church which 

 ceases to theologise ceases in the same moment to grow, 

 while conversely, from the constant action and reaction 

 that connect knowledge and practice in all moral 

 organisms, a Church whose life grows dull will also cease 

 to theologise aright. 



And now let me, in conclusion, draw some practical 



