THK VERY -RKV. II. WAGE, D.D., ON AUTHOKITY. 233 



while that Church was His own creation as a divinely-constituted 

 society for leavening the outer society of the world at large ; that in 

 fact the hermeneutical tradition of the Church, purified and adapted 

 in the progress of the Christian age by learning and criticism under 

 the illumination of the Spirit, as human thought widened, was the 

 unbroken chain which carried us back to its Divine Founder, who 

 had placed the magiderimn of His Church on a higher plane than 

 that which the old Hebrew prophets occupied. Thus we come to 

 recognise the ultimate source of all authority in the Son of God 

 Himself, who had transmitted His authority through His chosen 

 witnesses, and had not centred it in any visible head on earth. 

 " Believe Me for the very work's sake," is His appeal to evidence. 

 " All authority is given unto Me," is His age-long claim. 



Colonel T. H. Hendley, CLE. — The Dean has spoken of the 

 loss of reverence for authority in Europe, but it is not confined to 

 this part of the world, for, except perhaps in the far East, rulers 

 and parents in Asia also grievously lament the universal want of 

 submission to, and respect for, experience and old age. The wisest 

 Indian parents feel it; Indian princes regret it, and both classes 

 attribute it to the modern systems of education, and especially to 

 European education, unaccompanied as it is by religious training, 

 which is given not unfrequently by men who are either indifferent 

 or even, it may be, who openly scoff at the old paths. He gave 

 'instances in proof of his contention, and referred to the opinions of 

 some of the manliest Rajputs, who attributed the decay of authority 

 to the facile pens and glib tongues which were encouraged in the 

 present day, whereas such men as they had little opportunity of 

 showing their loyalty. Turning to the Church, he quoted his own 

 experience, in which a young clergyman, on succeeding a venerable 

 and most successful man, had begun his pastorate by preaching 

 from the words, " But with me it is a very small thing that I should 

 be judged of you or any man's judgment," and had almost imme- 

 diately turned everything upside down in the church. He under- 

 stood that the only thing the Bishop could say was that no doubt 

 that the places of those who were dissatisfied would soon be filled up. 

 He asked what the laity could do when there was such a disregard 

 for continuity and for even their own authority, as they were as 

 much members of the Church as the clergy themselves. 



If he turned to the authority of the Scriptures he was reminded 



Q 2 



