I should tell you of another, the Bishop of Rupertsland, Dr. Macrae, the
only Bishop in Christendom who has a university made up of a Roman
Catholic college, a Presbyterian college, and a college of the Church of
England; so large-hearted that almost by one consent the people of
Manitoba have made him the president of their entire educational system.
If I turn to our own land, it would be to tell you that one hundred
years ago the Church was a feeble folk, scattered along the Atlantic
coast and known as a people that were everywhere spoken against. Thank
God, to-day her voice is heard in the miner's camp, in the schoolhouse
of the border, in the wigwam of the Indians, and sturdy heralds are in
the fore-front of that mighty movement which is peopling this land with
its millions of souls. Marvellous as is the progress of Christian
missions and the work which has been done in this century, it has
largely been committed to the English-speaking race. In the providence
of God races of men have been selected by Him to do His work. Two
hundred years ago the English-speaking people of Europe were less than
many of the nations of the Latin races. Spain outnumbered England two
to one. To-day there are one hundred and fifty millions of
English-speaking people in the world, one-tenth of the entire human
family. When we think of the future, that by the close of another century
more than five hundred millions will be speaking one language, it leads
us to ask, on bended knees, why has this commission been committed to
this English-speaking race, and what are the responsibilities that rest
upon our branch of the Church of God? I reverently believe that it is
because on its civil side it recognizes as no other race that government
is a delegated trust from God, who alone has the right to govern. It
represents constitutional government, and it has done so since Bishop
Stephen Langton, at the head of the nobles of England, wrung the _Magna
Charta_ from King John, and henceforth recognized the sacredness of the
citizen, who has been clothed with an individuality unlike any being who
lives or will live in all the ages of eternity. On its religious side
it recognizes the two truths which underlie the possibility of the
reunion of Christendom--the validity of all Christian Baptism in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that the condition of
fellowship in the Church of God is faith in the incarnate Son of God as
contained in the Old Catholic creeds. Surely we may hold up the olive
branch of God's peace over all strife and divisions among the disciples
of Christ, and say "Ye are brethren."
When we remember that in the providence of God the Greek tongue was
spoken throughout the civilized world to prepare a way for the coming of
His Son and the preaching of the blessed Gospel, we see in these facts
forerunning tokens of his preparation for the second coming of Jesus
Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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