234 THE VERY EEV. H. WACE^ D.D., ON AUTHORITY. 



of a still more recent experience, when the previous week he had 

 attended at a conference of school managers. A speaker on that 

 occasion said he preferred Biblical teaching in schools to theological 

 training, whereupon a clergyman asked what Bible he wished to 

 teach. It was quite clear that the audience, which appeared to be 

 earnest and religiously-minded, sympathised with the astonished 

 speaker and not with the priest. 



If then, the rank and file of the clergy cannot be relied upon to 

 l^reserve authority and continuity of ritual and the like, and if the 

 ordinary Bible is not authority, to whom is the unfortunate layman 

 to turn for guidance'? The Bishops sometimes tell us that the 

 clergy will not obey, though they ask the laity to help them. 

 Perhaps they might take a lesson from another church. 



A few years ago an old friend who lived in Venice, whom he 

 accompanied in his gondola across the Lagoon, had pointed out a 

 certain island where there was a small convent. He said that it 

 was said that sometimes the Patriarch called there with a young 

 j^riest who had proved a little difficult, and left him with the head 

 of the establishment until he called again. The call might be soon 

 or might be late, but it was generally long enough to be effectual. 

 Even if this story of the present Pope is too good to be true, might 

 it not be a useful hint to some of our religious leaders who are 

 anxious to preserve authority and respect for the Church 1 



The Rev. H. J. R. Marston said : They were probably all of one 

 mind as to the need for and the beneficence of the results of authority. 

 When they engaged in questions as to the sanction of authority in the 

 Church their concern was rather with the practical continuance of 

 the succession than with any speculative continuity. Undoubtedly 

 there existed a real and tangible stream of Christian authority, not 

 always flowing through councils or even through episcopal channels, 

 but none the less real and persistent. 



The question, What is the ultimate authority 1 was one that 

 every age had claimed to answer, and every church, not always in the 

 same way. Looking to their Holy Scriptures, they were entitled to 

 say that the Greek Testament had, to a large degree, its own authority, 

 down to the succeeding ages. They need not claim for it an 

 authority, scientific and philosophic, as many had done. All the 

 evidence clothed the New Testament with a real authority which 

 had existed from the beginning of Christianity. The belief in 



