The Church: Her Books and Her SacramentsHolmes, E. E. (Ernest Edward)
Religion
The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments
Holmes, E. E. (Ernest Edward)
Church of England; Sacraments -- Church of England
The Creeds call it "the _Catholic_ Church" and describe its doctrine as
"the _Catholic_ Religion," or the "_Catholic_ Faith". The Te Deum,
Litany, and Ember Collect explain this word "Catholic" to mean "the
holy Church _throughout all the {3} world_," "_an universal_ Church,"
"_thy holy_ Church universal"; and the Collect for the King in the
Liturgy defines it as "the _whole_ Church". The "Catholic Church,"
then, is "the whole Church," East and West, Latin, Greek, and English,
"throughout all the world ".[2] Its message is world-wide, according
to the terms of its original Commission, "Go ye into _all the world_".
Thus, wherever there are souls and bodies to be saved and sanctified,
there, sooner or later, will be the Catholic Church. And, as a matter
of history, this is just what we find. Are there souls to be saved and
sanctified in Italy?--there is the Church, with its local headquarters
at Rome. Are there souls to be saved and sanctified in Russia?--there
is the Church, once with its local {4} headquarters at Moscow. Are
there souls to be saved and sanctified in England?--there is the
Church, with its local headquarters at Canterbury. It is, and ever has
been, one and the same Church, "all one man's sons," and that man, the
Man Christ Jesus. The Catholic Church is like the ocean. There is the
Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean: and yet there are
not three oceans, but one ocean. The Atlantic Ocean is not the Indian
Ocean, nor is the Indian Ocean the Pacific Ocean: they are all together
the one universal ocean--"the ocean".
But, after all, is not this a somewhat vague and nebulous conception of
"The Church". If it is to go into all the world, how, from a business
point of view, is this world-wide mission, in all its grandeur, to be
accomplished? The answer is seen in our second name:--
(II) THE NATIONAL CHURCH.
For business and administrative purposes, the world is divided into
different nations. For business and practical purposes, the Church
follows the same method. The Catholic Church is the channel of "saving
health to all nations". As at Pentecost the Church, typically, reached
"every {5} nation under heaven," so, age after age, must every nation
receive the Church's message. The Universal Church must be planted in
each nation--not to denationalize that nation; not to plant another
National Church in the nation; but to establish itself as "the Catholic
Church" in that particular area, and to gather out of it some national
feature of universal life to present to the Universal Head. Thus, a
National Church is the local presentment of the Catholic Church in the
nation. As Dr. Newman puts it: "The Holy Church throughout all the
world is manifest and acts through what is called _in each country_,
the Church Visible".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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