One hundred years ago today the representatives of the Church in the
different States met to adopt a constitution. There had been tentative
efforts to effect an organization and adopt a Book of Common Prayer, all
of which were overruled by the good providence of God. Many not of our
fold desired a liturgy. Benjamin Franklin published at his own expense
a revised copy of the English liturgy. The House of Bishops was
composed of Bishop Seabury and Bishop White. Bishop Provost was absent.
In the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies were the Rev. Abraham Jarvis,
the Rev. Robert Smith, and the Rev. Samuel Parker, who became bishops.
They met to show the world that the charter of the Church is perpetual,
and that the Church has the power to adapt herself to all the conditions
of human society. They met to consolidate the scattered fragments of
the Church in the thirteen colonies into a national Church, and secure
for themselves and children Catholic faith and worship in the Book of
Common Prayer. They builded wiser than they knew. They secured for the
Church self-government, free from all secular control. They preserved
the traditions of the past, and yet every feature of executive,
legislative, and judicial administration was in harmony with the
Constitution of the Republic. They gave the laity a voice in the
council of the Church; they provided that bishops and clergy should be
tried by their peers, and that the clergy and laity of each diocese
should elect their own bishop subject to the approval of the whole
Church. There was the most delightful fraternal intercourse between the
two bishops. In the words of our Presiding Bishop, "The blessed results
of that convention were due, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to
the steadfast gentleness of Bishop White and the gentle steadfast--of
Bishop Seabury." A century has passed. The Church which was then
everywhere spoken against is everywhere known and respected; the mantle
of Seabury, White, Hobart, Ravenscroft, Eliot, De Lancey, and Kemper has
fallen on others, and her sons are in the forefront of that mighty
movement which will people this land with millions of souls. While we
say with grateful hearts, "What hath God wrought!" we also say, "Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Nave give the praise."
Surely, an awful responsibility rests upon a Church whose history is so
full of the mercy of God. We are living in the great missionary age of
the Church. There is no nation on the earth to whom we may not carry
the Gospel. More than eight hundred millions of souls for whom Christ
died have not heard that there is a Saviour. One of the hinderances to
the speedy evangelization of the world is the division among
Christians,--alas! both within and without the Church. Our Saviour said:
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love
one to another." Christians have been separated in hostile camps, and
often divisions have ripened into hatred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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