Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/179

 and vitally united; forming the true Catholic Church of to-day.

It was of this great Body, its aims and its principles that I chiefly desired to discourse to you; but I am afraid that we have delayed so long amongst rather secondary considerations, in the outworks and exterior walls of the Edifice as it were, that I shall be obliged to be some what brief in discussing our vital principles—the keep on which our flag floats boldly in the breeze. However, while we talked about the public press, the superiority of America, the study of history, literature, art, the drama, the future life, and other cognate topics, you must have gathered a good deal by the way, and perhaps the omission I have mentioned has been more formal than real.

But, briefly to return to first principles; you will, of course, understand that the Free Churches have one foundation—the Bible. There is no other foundation on which man can build than on the dear Old Book which for more than three hundred years has been the Englishman's greatest