rule in the Church. The application of a system of government, whether strong or weak, to ac- tual life in a Church is not easy: f..r there is a constant
arbitrary severity or to the entire relaxation of discipline ing to the temper - - . times and tin
influences that prevail. But it is believed :
I this system of government by canon law. It is stabL government. That system which is historical, having stood the test of the ages in the stress of human passion and the strife of opinion and interest, cannot but be strong and conservative. Canon law has ruled nearly all the Christian ages, adjust to each age and growii g greater
form in each. If. in the purification of the doctrines of the Church, wisdom dictates, not the destruction, but the cleansing and refom - stem, it
would seem to follow that the same wisdom : like course in relation to government. Purify it. take away its tyranny : in place of its arbitrary and unequal distribution of powers and functions, introduce the checks and balances of enlightened statesmanship, and you have in the Church a fair analogy to law in the .State, where the principles and forms of the Roman law are not arbitrarily thrown aside, but enlarged, purified, developed into that grand system that w rights of men under the Christian civilization of this S h is the work this Church has sought [I has purified and ada] canon law. not abandoned it. Thus it has uniti - . - -- and liberty in its scheme of government. - - - govt rnment by canon law
• re the church- es of an < - - rganization are independent, or only connected by certain rul> - having no other than moral force, then - ousy and I •• 2 • Kate in the \. eiation. because the tendency of opinion and the results innot crystallize into forms that bind under penalty. But this very fact is apt to had to -- of conviction and a light estimate of the rc- sponsibitity of a teacher. And when error is taught. the teacher cannot be ai r binding law, he cannot be hindered from s; reading it to the full exte. 3 talents a tem of canon lav. -
copal Church, such a result, with ordinary faithfulness
- - it, is im-
y is dereliction in •
life liable to strict discipline, but the persons by whom
and the processes in which sui ■ 3 to be ad-
L and the duty actualh u[M.n the administrator. It soundness of doctrine can be enforced and innocency of life secured in a Cbi
means to the end.
Church.— In common with the parent Church, the lie-
REFORMED EPLSC. CHURCH 1011 REFORMEI CHURCH
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view- as unscriptaral and imM&afkaL The ep ise ir regards as an tsfi&i tar her than a divine «rder. 1 opinion thai the 'bishop is an apostle in the scripccral wapmndiag to the threefold
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fountain of Church authority and Church fife, and
the pcesbyterate descads from the episcopate in virtue der civil law. and is.m that of this inherent power to create it and to constitute it laws of the z- i — ::::: r Zr. Z r->::^: \j z\r ?.Z — -•: Z - - pal Church. Looking; at the subject historically, it finds the precise opposite of this to be the true state- ment. In the earnest infancy of the Church, under
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bat of the general Church, both pastors and 1 This want was supplied by a gradual process, in w able and prominent presbyters were elevated to a g
of the churches. Thus they be- To the parka
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and necesstry rights and powers above the kgtsLKrre council eiwted by the
control of the Church, He cannot fall baefc upon es- feature of polity wia 1
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His office and its functions are. under God. wholly from
the Church, to which, therefore, he is. in the : j .- .-. ..il
like this. Yet the
deprived of the claim to inherent divine right. 1 hoagh he may he
bishops are overseers in the trae and w -
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regard. In ordination and confirmation they are the
ecanse the Church makes them so. Acuities in parishes their advice, or. in extreme ieh nil legislative and