Christ the light of all Scripture

Front matter

A Pagt i Ae, ety * ce

SEB Yet oe te ares ror eta eeereereles ae ts pia eS *

* wy

Preface

—

In the present volume I have adhered to the plan adopted by the Archbishop himself in ‘‘ The Gospel and the Age,” and, with the exception of ‘ Christ the Light of all Scripture,” have placed the sermons chronologically. I have done this not merely for the sake of uniformity or of reference, but for this _ further reason also, that they include some of the earliest as well as some of the latest sermons, and that he himself considered that the former did not fully represent his maturer thoughts and modes of expression. This very fact, however, seems to me to give them an interest of their own for those who would see the preacher in the sermon, and might wish, therefore, to trace this evolution of thought or maturity of expression.

I have also included the charge delivered at the primary visitation in the diocese of Peterborough, because in many respects it differs from an ordinary visitation address. In most cases a bishop’s charge deals, mainly at any rate, with matters of purely vl PREFACE.

local or diocesan interest, and as such appeals to few readers outside the diocese in which it was delivered, but a discourse lke the present one, given at the commencement of an episcopate, partakes much more of the nature of a confession of faith, in which the questions and controversies of the day are treated in no narrow or diocesan spirit. It is essentially theological, and (especially in the case of the Athanasian Creed) deals with questions which then were and may soon again become burning ones in the Church. Moreover, it is eminently characteristic — at once epigrammatic, dialectical, argumentative: and the very fact that the Athanasian Creed is dealt with in a primary charge illustrates that courage of his opinions which distinguished the Archbishop more perhaps than any other quality, for a bishop might well have been excused had he avoided a subject at the very outset of his work which was sure to provoke comment and hostility, but of which he himself said, ‘“* One thing would be worse than any amount of error in ' dealing with it, and that would be the cautious cowardice which refused to deal with it at all.”

O.8. ME

Contents

I. PAGE CHRIST THE LIGHT OF ALL SCRIPTURE : ‘ ; ] Preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, June 24th, 1860.

Ts MYSTERY AND FAITH . ; : . : ; : 29 Preached at Bath, 1854. i WF ORIGINAL SIN. ; ‘ ; ; 53

Preached in the Octagon Gilt Bath, 1854.