witness to the "faith once delivered to the saints," or else for many
souls there will be only rationalism and unbelief--while this sad, weary
world, so full of sin and sorrow, is pleading for help, it is a wrong to
Christ and to the souls for whom He died that His children should be
separated in rival folds. As baptised into Christ we are brothers.
Notwithstanding the hedges of human opinions which men have builded in
the garden of the Lord, all who look for salvation alone through faith
in Jesus Christ do hold the great verities of Divine faith. The
opinions which separate us are not necessary to be believed in order to
salvation. The truths in which we agree are parts of the Catholic
faith. The Holy Spirit has passed over these human barriers, and set
his seal to the labors of separated brethren in Christ, and rewarded
them in the salvation of many precious souls. The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Holy
Ghost are the same in the peasant in the cottage, and in the emperor on
the throne. They share with us in the long line of confessors and
martyrs for Christ. We would not rob them of one sheaf which they have
gathered in the garner of the Lord. We rejoice that Churches with a
like historic lineage with us are seeking reunion. Churches whose faith
has been dimmed by coldness or clouded by error are being quickened into
new life from the Incarnate Son of God.
Our hearts go out in loving sympathy to the Old Catholics of Europe and
America, whose names always will be linked with Selwyn, Wilberforce, and
Wordsworth, Whittingham, Kerfoot, and Brown, in defence of the faith.
It is with deep sorrow that we remember that the Church of Rome has
separated herself from the teaching of the primitive Church by additions
to the faith once delivered to the saints, and by claiming for its
Bishop prerogatives which belong only to the Divine Head of the Church
While we honor the devotion and zeal of her missionary heroes, and
rejoice at the good works of multitudes of her children, we lament that
lack of charity which anathematizes disciples of Christ who have carried
the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
We bless God's Holy Name for the fraternal work which has been carried
on under the guidance of the see of Canterbury, and which we trust will
lead ancient Churches to a deeper personal faith in Jesus Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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