Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/222

206 knowledge of the Faith and keeping Churchmen au fait with the doings of their own parish. It is a source of great good. Not only in providing reading in otherwise idle moments, but in carrying a stray word to the heart of some idle or irreligious man. No doubt in hundreds of cases the magazine has led men to live purer, holier, and more Christ-like lives.

And now I have brought this Course of Lectures to a close. You who have followed them to the end know how much ground we have travelled over. You have seen the Church pass through many vicissitudes. You have seen it force its way through the attacks of the Romanists on the one hand and of the Puritans and their followers on the other hand. You have learnt this lesson: that the Church of England was not a new created thing of the Reformation, that it was not born of the will of bluff King Henry and his followers. But you have heard that it descended from Apostolic times.

The Church has always held that it was Apostolic and that its doctrines are the doctrines of the Apostles and the early Christians. In covering so much ground there may have been mistakes due to oversight. If you have discovered any I should be glad to know them. To-day the Church of England is stronger than ever it was before. It is more in touch than in days gone by with all classes of society. The clergy penetrate everywhere to homes of every class. It is the object of the Church now to leave no house destitute of the knowledge of the Gospel. The clergy taken as a whole were never more devoted than they are to-day. They were never more self-sacrificing. And taking the clergy as a whole they were never as well educated as they are to-day.