Life and Letters of Edward Bickersteth, Bishop of South Tokyo (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1899. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... chapter xi intellectual standpoint 'A few have fallen away from us, whom may God restore but on the other hand many who had before accepted their religious opinions on the authority of their teachers have been led to apprehend with more explicit an certain conviction how entirely the Catholic Creed rests on the Incarnation of the Son of God, and how all religious systems alike, which deny this verity, arc antitheses of the Gospel as understood and taught by the Church since apostolic days. They have learnt too--and the lesson is worth laying to heart--that the Gospel of the Incarnation and the Cross is not to be defended as an abstract system of doctrine but in vital connection with the Sacraments and means of grace through which its blessings are brought home to believing souls; in other words, that the Person and acts of the Lord, not primarily His words, are the substance of the Gospel, and that in consequence to be a Christian is not merely to believe in His teaching, but to believe in Himself and to be united with Him in the sacred society of which He is the Life and Head. Those who have been able to occupy this standpoint are on a vantage ground for the defence of their faith.'--Address of Bishop Edward Bickersteth to Fourth Biennial Synod of the Nippon Sei Kokwai, November 29, 1893. the early love of reading which marked Edward Bickersteth's boyhood grew with his growth and ensured that he would become richer in knowledge and riper in judgment as the years ran on. The theological bent of his mind made it no hard thing for him, even before his ordination, 'to apply himself wholly to this one thing, and to draw all his cares and studies this way.' The veriest fragments of time he would turn to account, not only while waiting for a train, but even while bei...