Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. The Church in the last century (1811—1910 A.D.)
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
6. THE LUND MOVEMENT. 391
by the Lord Himself, introduced into the world through
the outpouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and con
tinuing the same through all centuries. Its traditions are
of great importance, and no change in them can be wel
comed which cannot show that it is an organic development
of some of the already existing fruits of Church life ; and,
further, no Christian life can be wholesome which does not
keep in close touch with the life of devotion which exists
in its full strength within the community.
The second great principle is contained in the answer
to the question: "What is the Church?" All Swedish
Churchmen would answer with the seventh article of the
Augsburg Confession:
"
The Church is the congregation
of the saints in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the
sacraments are rightly administered." But the question
is, Which of the two limbs of this definition stands first
in the conception? In answering this question I may
remark that the editors, or at any rate the author of this
article in the Church Times, seems to have passed uncon
sciously from the definition
"
congregatio sanctorum
"
to
that of the next article of the confession "congregatio
sanctorum et vere credentium," and to have, in accordance
with Swedish practice, laid more stress on the "vere
credentium
"
than the
"
sanctorum." The question as it
presented itself to them was : "Which is first, right faith or
the means of grace?" They answered: "The means of
grace, as being the Lord s own institution and the source
of faith. Not only the functions discharged by the
ministry, but the ministry itself is an office instituted by the
Lord. Whoever does not receive his office in an orderly
way has no right to minister the means of grace ;
if he does
so he not only breaks a human but a divine ordinance."
As to the difference between this teaching and that which
contemporaneously prevailed at Upsala, and was expressed
in the Theological Journal (Teologisk Tidskrift), Dr. J. E.
Berggren puts it
concisely and epigrammatically in his
memorial of Archbishop Sundberg (p. 8) :
18
"The Lund
18
Read at the Prest-mote at Upsala, 5th August, 1902.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
