THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND REUNION't PROFESSOR SANDAY occupies a unique
place in the "right centre" of the Church of England; and from this point of vantage he has long been accustomed to issue very candid • Fairy Tales. and °Our Stories by Han. Christian /adman. Revieed and in part newly Tzunelated by W. A. and K. K. Crahrie. London Humphrey Milford. [da. net.] :I: The Primitive Church and Reunion. By W. Sanday. Orford: at the Clarendon Item Oa. Od. net.] criticisms upon questions of Church policy, which sometimes, it must be admitted, have a peculiarly irritating effect on one or other extreme. His sympathy with historical research, the results of which, especially in Germany, he has been in the habit of laying before his countrymen at intervals, moved Mr. R. A. Knpx to declare, in his recent criticism of Founda- tions, that "we have to be reassured by a yearly statement from Dr. Sandy, comparable to the weather report, as to 'What we may still believe." On the other hand, Broad Churchmen have been heard to declare that whenever High Churchmen seem to he getting the worst of a controversy, nothing is so certain as the appearance on the scene of Dr. Sandy, like Juno in a cloud, to end the debate. This character of impartial critic,
"Desling to each his share With easy humour hard to bear,"
hard to bear, at least, by the partisans on either side, has given Dr. Sanday an influence which it would be difficult to exaggerate, among the central body of educated Churchmen ; who, although they are commonly sneered at for their apostolic virtue of "moderation," are still the most numerous body in the Church of England, and the most indispensable. The book before ue owes no small part of its value to Dr. Sanduy's impartial sympathy with tradition and with research, and it may confidently be recommended to all moderate Churchmen at the present moment, because it gives them materials for arriving at a judgment upon the issues raised by the Kikuyu Conference. Two chapters out of the four sketch the various movements towards reunion in the Christian world during the last quarter of a century, and two are devoted to explaining the Egress laid in the Lambeth "quadrilateral" as it is called, upon episcopacy as a mark of the primitive Church. The impulse towards reunion has come largely from the mission field, where, in face of the magnitude of the task lying before the Christian Church,the divisions of Christendom seem foolish, as well as mischievous. On three of the four points put forward by successive Lambeth Conferences as the necessary basis of reunion, the Holy Scriptures, the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and the two Sacraments, most Protestant Churches are agreed. The stumbling-block is episcopacy. Obviously, therefore, what has to be done is to make such a careful re-examination of the origin of episcopacy, and its bearing upon the validity of Orders and Sacraments, that Nonconformists may understand what the acceptance of episcopacy would mean for them. Yet obvious as such a course would seem to be, the authorities of the Church have taken no steps towards carrying it out Two Lambeth Conferences since 1::, when the " quadrilateral " was framed, have repeated the shibboleth of "episcopacy" without throwing any light on the meaning of the term, or appointing any Commission to investigate it. The main purpose of Dr. Sanday's chapters on the primitive Church is to introduce to Churchmen generally three studies of episcopacy which have recently appeared "in the regular course of disinterested his- torical inquiry," one by Professor Harnack, one by Mr. Cuthbert Turner, and one by Dr. Headlam. From the first two of these large extracts are given; but probably most people will be more interested at the moment in Dr. Medium's, which formulates results, and distinguishes true from false ,Fiews of Apostolic Succession. It is a great step towards reunion to have so scholarly a High Churchman as Dr. Heacilam laying it down that the notion that grace is transmitted from Bishop to Bishop is no part of the doctrine as known to the ancient Church, but is a recent development. If Dr. Headlam's view maintains itself, then, although episcopacy remains the primitive and apostolic form of Church government, its absence need not invalidate the ministry or Sacraments of any non-episcopal Church. "The great desideratum," says Dr. Sandy, "at the present moment is the vivifying and correcting of dogmatic formula by means of history "; and be warns us that historical investigations take time, and that it is our wisdom "to make haste slowly, with great emphasis an the slowly." No one could grudge the time necessary to make these investigations, if we bad any assurance that they were being seriously undertaken. Meanwhile such crises as that of Kikuyu are certain to arise, more or less frequently, in every part of the mission field, now that missionary zeal is once more alive among Christians of every denomination.
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