Page:Three introductory lectures on the study of ecclesiastical history.djvu/36

28, no ecclesiastical history since the Reformation can be so instructive as that of our own Church of England. To see how, out of that wide shipwreck, the fragments of our vessel were again pieced together—how far it has realized the essential condition of the ark on the stormy waters—how far it has contained within itself the necessary though heterogeneous elements of our national faith and character—how far it may still hope to do so—what is its connection with the past, what its hold upon the future—this is the last and most important task of the English ecclesiastical historian. The peculiar constitution of our State has borne the brunt and survived the shock of the French Revolution: it is the hope of the peculiar constitution of our Church, that it should in like manner meet, overcome, and absorb the shock of the new thoughts and feelings to which, directly or indirectly, that last of European movements has given birth.

I have been induced thus, at the outset, to dwell on this broad extent of prospect, first, because it is only by a just appreciation of the whole that any part can be properly understood; and secondly, because I wish to impress on my hearers the many points of contact which Ecclesiastical History presents to the various studies of this place. If at times it is impossible not to be oppressed with the load which has to be taken from the stores of the Pilgrim's Palace, it is a satisfaction to remember that there are many travellers passing along the