ST. MATTHIAS.
[r0 THE EDITOR OF THE '.SPEOTATOR:]
Sta,—Will you permit me to call your attention to the following passages from a sermon on St. Matthias, published by the Rev. Henry Whitehead in his "Sermons on the Saints' Days "? They seem to me to express so admirably all that can well be said upon the questions lately raised by your correspondents on this subject, that I offer no apology for introducing them to your and their
"The recourse to the lot, when the final decision was to be made, denotes the reverent conviction of the brethren that, no matter what arrangements they might make, the future of the Church was in God's hands. Nor is it at all necessary to our belief in the reality of such divine superintendence, to assume that the fall of the lot was regulated by any special interposition of Providence. To this day the lot falls by divine appointment ; and perhaps nothing more clearly than what is called the science of chances' demonstrates the fixedness of the divine laws which regulate the course of events. In all such matters as the filling-up by men of vacancies in the chief or other offices of the Church there must be much of what we men call chance. Nor is it until we arc able to look back upon a long succession of such appointments that we can see the visible traces of God's superintending providence. Just as it requires the casting of many lots to demonstrate the law according to which they fall, so it requires the appointment of many officers to prove and explain the purposes of God. Ills then only that we perceive how His designs have been fulfilled, no matter whether in each case the expectations of the electors were fulfilled or not. The casting of the lot at the election of St. Matthias was a practical recog- nition of this truth. Of course electors now as then must take the utmost pains, in weighing over the qualifications of different persons, to set apart for the final decision such only as fulfil certain approved conditions. But in whatever way the final decision be made, it must involve an element of what, for want of a better name, is called chance ; and, considering the various contingencies which precede and attend such elections at the present day, it might even now be advisable, of course after all duo precaution, to have recourse to the let. The qualifications laid down by St. Paul as necessary for even the higher offices of the Church are such as many men might be Sound to possess. Those qualifications taken collectively are very im- portant. The man who possesses them is sure to have groat weight and influence in all matters of practical conduct. He is certain to be a very pillar of the Church in everything that goes to make up the idea of out- ward completeness. A better man for all purposes of discipline, order, regularity, rebuke, practical advice, personal example, it would be impos- sible to imagine. None so unlikely as such a man to abuse the outward authority committed to his hands. None so likely to use it with sagacity and prudence, to the discouragement and prevention of scandal, and to the general well-being of the society over which he presides. And yet none of these qualifications, taken singly, are special or in any way remarkable. They are such as in any Christian church many men ought to possess. True, the very mention of St. Paul's name suggests the reflection that there are other qualifications, the pos- session of which renders an apostle peculiarly fitted to bring about some of the wonderful changes which are designed by God's providence. But then these are qualifications which electors are often slow to discern, and indeed are sometimes prone to regard as disqualifications. God alone can bring forward men thus qualified and constitute them apostle. Accordingly, Ho very early showed that there were two ways of arriving at apostleship. He selected the most unlikely man, according to human notions, that could be found, and by a series of most signal manifestations of divine power conducted him to the point at which the brethren were able to recognize and ratify his apostleship. Such men, when God has once revealed them, however little their fellow-men may understand them, are perceived to have some great special work to do, something which no body of men could have elected them to do, which no body of men could have prevented their doing. They are found to be the proclaimers of principles which bodies of men may accept and perpetuate, but which they are not God's instruments for revealing. The lot has no place here. It is idle to contrast these two ways of arriving at apostleship, as if they wore essentially opposed to each other. They are each from God. It is better to recognize them both, and not to be giving in our adhesion to the one or the other principle, as though it alone were divine. We are ready enough to say, because we find it in the Bible, that both St. Matthias and St. Paul were apostles of the gospel of Christ. It is only when we gaze upon contemporary events that we are heard exclaiming, 'I am of Matthias,' or 'I am of Paul.' Either we have no faith in any man who cannot claim the sanction of what is, from our own point of view, an authoritative succession, or we go to the opposite extreme, and, in our unbounded sympathy for the man who seems to us the teacher directly sent from heaven, despise the orderly arrangements and successions which, whether we know it or not, are, nevertheless, founded upon laws of God's own appointment. It may not be the destiny of a Matthias to exercise a marked and striking influence upon the history of the Church. The lot which determines his apostleship may fall quietly upon his head. No light brighter than the sun at mid-day may announce to his amazed companions that a new and mighty apostle has arisen in a quarter whence it could have been least expected. His name may be unknown to future gene- rations except from the fact of his having been appointed to a distin- guished office. Yet if his character and experience have marked him for the post, if on his accession to it his own faithful earnest prayers have commingled with those of his fellow-men who have summoned him from his obscurity, if in discharging the duties of his position he is faithful to the best convictions which God has given him, lot them be as few and as simple as they may, his is a blessedness, and, it may one day be discovered, a usefulness, by virtue of which he is 'not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.' But whilst it is impossible in one sense to overrate the importance of a long series of judicious appointments worthy of the venerable traditions of the visible Church, it is also well to bear in mind that the men whom God raises up as His chief agents in moulding tho religious convictions of their own day, and even of future generations, do not derive their spiritual power from the fact of their being appointed to any office by their follow-mon. They may, or may not hold, office. But such men, whether or not they have the authority which men can confer, we all, when we come to know and recognize their power, instinctively call apostles. Of such men as these there is a succession. But in providing for it the Holy Ghost dispenses with human selection."
Previous page
