To My Younger Brethren: Chapters on Pastoral Life and WorkMoule, H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn)
Religion
To My Younger Brethren: Chapters on Pastoral Life and Work
Moule, H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn)
Pastoral theology
i. Observe its profound and searching _spirituality_. It is quite true
that in a certain sense the Book takes all who use it for granted; it
assumes them to be worshippers in spirit and in truth; it does not pray
for them, or lead them in public worship to pray for themselves, as for
those who do not know and love God, who have not come to Christ. But
then what form of public, common prayer can well do this? And meantime
the Book does, especially in the service of the Communion, and
particularly in that too often omitted part of it, the "longer
Exhortation," beginning _Dearly beloved in the Lord_, throw the
worshipper back upon himself for self-examination. This is just the
method of St Paul in his addresses to the Christian community. He
writes to all as "saints," "faithful," "elect," "sanctified." What does
he mean? Does he mean that those glorious terms are satisfied by the
fact that all have been baptized, or even that all are communicants at
the sacred Table? Not at all. He takes all for granted as being what
they profess to be, when he greets the community. [Rom. viii. 9; 1 Cor.
xvi. 22; 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Gal. v. 6.] But he says also, "If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His"; "If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema"; "Examine yourselves, whether ye
be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is
in you--except ye be [Greek: adokimoi], counterfeits?" "In Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love." Such sentences throw a flood of holy and
searching light on the sense in which St Paul "took them all for
granted." And the Prayer Book is in true harmony with both parts of the
Apostle's method.
WHAT IT TAKES FOR GRANTED IN THE WORSHIPPER.
And then, think what the Book _does_ thus searchingly and helpfully
"take for granted." It assumes a deep sense of sin, such a sense as is
indeed "grievous unto us." It takes for granted our deep desire both for
pardon and for spiritual victory. It assumes our desire to be "kept this
day without sin"; to "follow the only God with pure hearts and minds";
to "be continually given to all good works"; to "be enabled by the Lord
to live according to His will"; to have "all our doings ordered by His
governance"; to have "such love to Him poured into our hearts that we
may love Him above all things." It assumes our desire to "read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest all the Holy Scriptures." It assumes our
readiness to "suffer on earth for the testimony of the truth, looking up
steadfastly to heaven, and by faith beholding the glory that shall be
revealed." It assumes our adoring devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ, and
that we present "ourselves, our souls and bodies, a reasonable, holy,
and living sacrifice," to our God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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