I Believe … in the Holy Catholic Church

We have seen that the Holy Catholic Church is composed of all, of whatever church or sect, who are united with Christ by a living faith. They may never have been recognised as belonging to one of our many religious organizations on earth; like the dying thief, may never have entered into union with Christ till the article of death; or like George Fox may have repudiated all existing churches, because they could not agree with them in certain particulars; but they are bound by a living faith to the great Head of the Church; and such a faith uniting to Christ, necessarily unites the believer to all who are similarly connected with Him, although he never heard of their existence, or looked into their face.

(1) In John x. 16, our Lord spoke of those other (Gentile) souls which did not belong to the Jewish fold, and said, with a divine imperative, “them also I must bring, and they will listen to My voice. They shall become one flock under one Shepherd.” Notice that word flock. In A.V. the

Greek word was mistakenly rendered “‘ one fold.” 194

But the Greek word is not so, and the translators have done rightly in rendering it by flock. There may be many folds, but there is only one flock. Sheep may be contained in the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Episcopal Fold, and may be strongly tarred with the brush of sectarianism, but there is only one Flock, and the nearer you get to the Shepherd and to the upper lawns, you lose sight of the hurdles of the folds, and see the whole flock gathering around the Lamb, who as a shepherd leads them to living fountains of water, where they thirst no more, and God wipes away all tears. That one Flock is the Holy Catholic Church ; — holy, because separated from the goats; catholic, because the great multitude is composed of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues..

(2) Before our Master died, He returned to the same theme in His High Priestly prayer, in which He gives two infallible signs of those who belong to His Church. He speaks, first, of those whom the Father had given Him out of the world (John xvii. 6, 9, etc.). When we ask who those may be thus selected from the rest of mankind, we get our answer from another discourse, in which He said, “Every one whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me I will never on any account drive away” (vi. 37: Weymouth’s trans.).

All that the Father gives Him come to Him; all, therefore, who come to Him may be reckoned as having been given Him of the Father. They may come from the east and west, from the north or south, but if only they come they are included in the Divine Gift, they can never perish, they shall be His, in that day when He shall make up His jewels, and all these are included in the Holy Catholic Church.

But there is a second definition of the same persons, in that wonderful prayer, when the Master says, ‘‘ Nor is it for them alone that I make request: it is also for those who trust in Me, through their word, that they all may be one” (John xvii., 20,21: Weymouth). Here is comfort indeed! You may have been recognised by no Church, received by no minister, confirmed by no rite; your name may never have been enrolled in a list of communicants, or on a Church-roll, you may belong to the Roman, the Anglican, or the Eastern Church, or to no Church at all, you may be a Ritualist or a Salvationist, but if amid many failures and sins, you are believing in Jesus Christ, as your Divine Saviour, you are most certainly a member of the Holy Catholic Church, from which as Savonarola told the Pope’s Legate, no power can separate you.

(3) The Apostle Paul tells us that the hidden Secret of the Church had been revealed to Him, and entrusted to His stewardship, that He might unfold it to the minds of men (Eph. iii.6). He was led to understand that Gentiles had as much right to be members of the Church as Jews. ““The Gentiles,” he said, “‘ are joint heirs with us, and form one body with us, and have the same interest as we have in the promise, which has been made good to us.”

This thought is the special burden of the Epistle to the Ephesians, which may be described as the Epistle of High Churchmanship, so saturated is it with the conception of the oneness of all believers in the Holy Catholic Church.