formity in the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church. This is evidently so, as to the definition of offenses for which a minister may be tried and punished. The canons in reference to standing committees in the dioceses furnish a limitation or qualification of episcopal authority and supervision, by associating with the bishop as an advisory council, a body elected by each diocesan convention, and thus representing both the clergy and laity, and usually composed of an equal number of both; and which body, in case of a vacancy in the Episcopate, is to be, for the time being, the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese. If "uniformity in discipline" has any meaning, it would seem to justify a canon that thus asserts the distinctive feature of the American Church, to-wit, the recognition of the rights of both clergy and laity in her administration, in accordance with the usage of the Primitive Church. The duties of these standing committees furnish the best evidence of their value, as a part of the machinery of church government, and their history attests the wisdom of the General Convention in providing for them. They serve especially to connect the laity with the Episcopate, and the whole administration of the affairs of the dioceses. So far as the canon requiring the induction of ministers is concerned, it was evidently designed to give stability of official tenure, and thus to counteract a fearful evil which has become well nigh intolerable in all Protestant churches, to wit, the tendency to make of ministers of the Gospel, mere hirelings, by the year, or the month, or the day. But important as was the object

CHAP. 2.

CHAP. 2.

in view, the General Convention of 1808, in order to avoid the possibility of interfering with the constitutional rights of dioceses, provided that "the institution shall not be necessary where it interferes with the laws or usages of a Church in a particular dio

There is apparently nothing in the canons thus referred to or their history, that is in conflict with the fair treatment of the dioceses, and a due regard for their strict constitutional rights.

It would be strange if no mistakes were to be made by the General Convention in this matter of jurisdiction, considering the hurried character of its sessions, and the impossibility of giving to every subject presented, a thorough consideration; but, in looking over the canons, we do not discover any serious infringement of the rights of dioceses by that body.*

In order to insure a more careful consideration of difficult and important questions, it has been suggested that the General Convention shall revert to its original practice of appointing a standing committee to sit during the recess, between its sessions, which committee was dispensed with on the organization of standing committees of the respective dioceses. The suggestion is worthy of consideration.

CHAP. 3.

CHAPTER III.

THE Constitution as published in the journal of the General Convention of 1880, and also the Constitutions of 1786 and 1789, will be found in Appendix F.

Name

Church.

The name given to the new organization, to wit, The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of the of America, is significant of its character. It is Church, in the United States, Protestant in its principles, Episcopal in its government.

The first question suggested by the name is, See AppenWhat is to be understood by the term church, as thus dix D. used? The definition given by Hooker, and cited with

approval by Bishop Hopkins, declares "them which

call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," or as its signifiexpressed by Bishop Hopkins, "all who profess to cance. acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ," to be his Church. The creeds of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, answer, in all respects, the requirements of this, or any satisfactory definition of a Christian church. They rest upon what the Church believes to be facts; the manifestation of the Divine in human life; and not upon the opinions or speculations of men; and therein lies all our hope of ultimate Christian unity.

Secondly, It is a church in the United States; one church among many. Believing that episcopacy furnishes the best system of church government, this

CHAP. 3.

See Appendix D and E.

Church does not regard it as the only system. The religious bodies about us, that accept the facts set forth in the Apostles creed, are Christian churches. They are recognized as such in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer, which uses this language: 'But when in the course of Divine Providence, "these American States became independent with re"spect to civil government, their ecclesiastical inde

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pendence was necessarily included; and the different religious denominations of Christians in these states, "were left at full and equal liberty to model and or"ganize their respective churches, and forms of worship, and discipline, in such manner as they might "judge most convenient for their future prosperity, "consistently with the constitution and laws of their 'country."

Bishop Hopkins considers it clear, "that the 'want of episcopal government is a defect, and a se"rious defect; but that the churches which have it "not, may, nevertheless, be true churches, so far as "regards the essentials of a church."

It is in this sense that, in both our morning and evening daily service, "we pray for thy holy Church "universal; that it may be so guided and governed "by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call "themselves Christians, may be led into the way of "truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the "bond of peace, and in righteousness of life."

Thirdly, It is a Protestant Episcopal Church. When the English coronation oath was framed in 1688, after the expulsion of James II from the throne, the king was made to swear, among other things, to sup

It

port the Protestant religion established by law. The term Protestant had a very intelligible meaning. meant freedom of mind and conscience, from all tyranny, political or ecclesiastical; and its value was measured by what it had cost the British nation to secure it. The 5th article of the act of union of Great Britain and Ireland (40 George III, C. 38,) is as follows: "That it be the 5th article of the union, "that the churches of England and Ireland, as now "by law established, be united in one Protestant "Episcopal Church, to be called the United Church "of England and Ireland, and that the doctrines, "worship, discipline, and government of the said

United Church shall be and shall remain in full "force forever, as the same are now by law estab"lished for the Church of England, and that the con"tinuance and preservation of said United Church,

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as the established Church of England and Ireland I shall be deemed and taken to be an essential and "fundamental part of the union."

In 1789, the memory of the struggles of the Reformation had not entirely died out, and hence, this word Protestant is placed in the forefront of the Constitution. Since that day, the peculiar dangers of Protestantism, and especially its tendency to disintegration and individualism, have been more clearly developed, while its history has to some extent been lost sight of; and the reverence that was once felt for the name, has in a measure disappeared. But the term Protestant has still all the meaning and value that it had in 1789, or in 1688, and, however it may be with other branches of the Church, for us, its dangers

C. L.-5.

CHAP. 3.