The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

purely held by our Church, by so much does the non-Lutheran Christian
fall short of the full life of faith of the Lutheran Christian. It is in the "unity
of the faith" that we are to "come to the fulness of the stature of perfect
men in Christ Jesus." But the question still seems so easy of solution, that
we apprehend another point may be: Can a man be a Christian, who does
not receive what, on our supposition, as a Lutheran, is the New Testament
orthodoxy in regard to the Sacrament? If this be the point, we
unhesitatingly reply, that a man may here be in unconscious error, and be
a Christian. A man, who sees that the New Testament teaches a doctrine,
and yet rejects it, is not a Christian. The man who never has thoroughly
examined the New Testament evidence on the subject, and this is the
position of many, is so far lacking in honesty. The man who grossly
misrepresents the doctrine, and coarsely vilifies it, is guilty of a great crime.
Here the decision involves no difficulty, and yet it is one of the hardest
practical questions to determine, what amount of inconsistency with the
demands of Christianity is necessary to prove a man to be no Christian;
and this difficult question pertains not alone to the faith of the Christian,
but to his life; it is both doctrinal and practical. Certainly, there are many
points of a self-consistent New Testament morality, in which men come
fearfully short, whom we yet think we are bound to consider as Christians-
-weak, inconsistent, and in great peril, yet still Christians. It is hazardous,
indeed, to provide for any degree of aberration in Christian morals or in
Christian faith. Our Church is a liberal Church, in the true sense; she is
liberal with what belongs to her, but- not liberal in giving away her
Master's goods, contrary to His order. The truth, in its minutest part, she
does not trifle with. For herself and her children, she must hold it with
uncompromising fidelity. But she heartily believes, that, even where some
portion of the truth is lost or obscured, God may, through what is left,
perpetuate a Christian life.
Christians in the Church of Rome.
She believes that God has His own blessed ones, kept through His
almighty grace, through all Christendom. She believes, that, in the Romish
Church, Pascal and Fenelon, and many of the obscure and unknown, were