selves, the people generally being reluctant; others were suppressed by the Popes, who, in their eagerness to bring everything to the Roman standard, saw in liturgical variety a danger to catholicity, and above all to the recognition of the primacy of the holy See. This policy of destroying the national liturgies of the Churches in communion with Rome continued down to our times, when Pope Leo XIII. very wisely put a stop to it. Was it perhaps because nothing was left to destroy? or because he foresaw the coming rousing of the Churches all over the world?

The fact is that God will have no uniformity in the world. There are not in it two things which are perfectly alike. He hates uniformity. Not two men are like one another, not two leaves of the same tree, not two stars, not two atoms of matter. Variety is the great cosmic law; variety is the foundation of the universe and unity is partly a subjective product of our mind, which, being finite and limited, attributes its own limitation to the things it grasps; limitation, in this case, is unity. Partly, also, it is a characteristic of the universe, but rather as a result of activity, than as a thing in itself. There exists not one

Universe, but many different things, arranged with a wonderful order and mutual dependence. This order, this mutual dependence, this relation of cause and effect, we call unity. It is a quality of the universe rather than the universe itself. And this unity, it should be remembered, is not uniformity. The latter supposes or implies a perfect equality; the former requires only a certain mutual relation. This correlation does exist in the universe; but not uniformity. However, this mutual relation of things together is a sufficient ground for calling the universe one, not many. In like manner we call mankind one, although men are divided into many races, vastly different from one another in colour, different in psychological and physiological characters. We call a tree one, although there are not two things in it similar to one another. We call a monarchy one, and yet we call a republic also one, an oligarchy, a government like that of the United States, a tribal state, a patriarchal system, and so forth. They are all one, but how different! How unlike one another! Why, then, this madness of wishing to have all others like ourselves? Of hating people, because they

will not conform to our views? Of declaring them cut off from the grace and the love of Christ because they will not shape their thoughts, manners, actions, and customs according to our standard? If Christ had willed it so, well and good;

but He never dreamt of such uniformity in His Church. Christ has not founded the Roman more than the Alexandrian, the Antiochian, or the Ephesian Church. He is the Rock that supports them all, and He is broad enough to support them, just as they are. As God is the Father of all men, and all come from Him, although some are black, some red, others yellow, others brown, others white, so all the Churches are from Him, although they pray in different tongues, use different customs, practise different liturgies, have a more or less different form of government, and differ in things not essential, even in their belief. As the mania in a few despots of building up huge empires has brought on the world untold evils, so the mania of creating a Church one and uniform in everything has caused intolerance, inquisition, religious wars, hatred, persecutions, and every sort of outrage against the liberty of And all that, in the name of the Lord!

men.

CHAPTER VII

RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT IN THE CHURCH

ROMAN divines, especially since the

Reformation, are most stubbornly op

posed to the Protestant distinction between primary and secondary articles of faith: the former necessary and to be believed by all, the latter free and the object of human, not of divine, faith.

Yet, if you open a Roman Catholic Catechism, you will find forthwith the much-discussed distinction. "What are the principal mysteries of holy faith?" And the child is made to answer: "The Unity and the most blessed Trinity of God; the Incarnation, passion, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ." As a matter of fact, these three mysteries of Christianity-Unity, Trinity, and Incarnation -have been believed from the very beginning, and from these, as from a centre, all the other

lesser mysteries have radiated during the long course of centuries; and, if one carefully considers it, the formula of the Roman Catechism, embodying, even to this day, the principal mysteries of our faith, is nothing else but the development of Peter's confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

This formula was shaped into the Symbol, or the baptismal Creed, which, between the first and second centuries, in Rome, ran as follows: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, and in Christ Jesus, His Son, the only-begotten, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried; on the third day rose again, ascended into the heavens, sitteth at the right hand of the Father, whence He cometh to judge the living and dead. And in the Holy Ghost and the resurrection of the flesh."

As to the authoritative standard of belief, held in the East early in the third century, we may listen to Origen, who, about the year 220, thus writes in his De Principiis, lib. i.

'Leighton Pullan, Early Christian Doctrine, p. 35. London,

1901.