Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

RECONSTRUCTING THE NATURAL ORDER 377guilt with the voice of Christ, and by applying themerits of Christ; Marriage set the blessing of Christupon the chief relation of civil life, and raised it atthe same time to be a type of His union with HisChurch and of the soul's union with God.Furthermore, in the great act of Christian worship,the culminating point of the Christian's life, these samedoctrines, the Kedemption, the Incarnation, and theTrinity in Unity, were daily set forth in action.There above all the Bishop or the Priest stood in thePerson of Christ, spoke the words of Christ, and bythe virtue of those words-an act of no less thancreative power-accomplished the Sacrifice. In theliturgy above all was enshrined the belief that one ofthe Divine Persons became incarnate and was crucified,and thereby redeemed the world. The belief thusembodied became a concrete fact, and all who hadattained the age of reason could make it their own.Thus by the joint action of personal teaching, ofthe hierarchy with its attendant sacraments, and ofthe Sacrifice, the Church exhibited the mysteries ofher faith, the great supernatural doctrines of theTrinity in Unity, the Incarnation, and the Redemption.And in doing so, as it were by a surplusage shebrought out, illuminated, and made concrete to everymind and heart the conception of God as distinct fromthe world, free to create or not to create, and caringfor His creatures with intensest love.But I must note further two points in this mode