Sermon by The Rev’d Dr. William Harman Van Allen, Rector of The Church of the Advent, Boston, Massachusetts, at the Consecration of St. John’s Church, Passaic, New Jersey on St. George’s Day, April 23, 1914

St. Augustine spoke well when he said: "In the New Testament the Old is revealed; in the Old Testament the New lies concealed." And only as we put the two together do we rightly understand our Bibles, laying hold on the well grounded hope of everlasting life through God’s Word. But surely, no Old Testament history is more evangelical, more illuminated with the light of the Eternal Purpose, than that which tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt’s bondage towards Canaan’s freedom. For in the deliverance of the Chosen People from slavery to Pharaoh we see the type of salvation from the servitude of sin; and the long record of the Forty Years’ Wanderings in the desert, with its educative forces, its chastisements, its solemn warnings and joyous promises, shows us the course of our earthly journey, from the New Birth of Baptism, as from the Red Sea shore, to the fair vision of the Land of Promise and the stream we must traverse to enter into our heritage. Not an event set down by Moses but has its mystic meaning; not a detail of the gorgeous Tabernacle ceremonial but foreshadows some spiritual gift the Christian pilgrim may receive. The bitter waters made sweet by the wood of a certain Tree, the stream that flowed from the smitten Rock, the Angels’ Food, fresh gathered every morning, the brazen serpent raised on high, all the Sacramental mysteries, typifying nobler graces bestowed in the New Covenant of the Gospel. It is the story of the Catholic Church that we read therein, once our eyes are unsealed; and in that we find each the record of his own pilgrimage—pray God it may be the prophecy of his own final deliverance!

So the Saints of God have loved to dwell upon every sentence, reading not the literal sense only, but unraveling the deeper meanings hidden from careless glances; and generation after generation has added to our comprehension of the wealth we possess in the history of God’s ancient Church, the revelation of God’s unchanging good-will as shown forth by His dealings with his elect people of the seed of Abraham.

Let us take a single episode therefrom to be our theme on this glad day of Consecration when the desire of many hearts is fulfilled, and old friends gather with new to praise God for the accomplishment of their hope, in this fair and lovely sanctuary now to be hallowed forever by apostolic power. Ah, brethren beloved, we need such messages; never more than on a day of rejoicing like this, full of exaltation over an accomplished work. For Mother Church is wise when she bids us pray, not only "In all time of our tribulation," but as fervently, "In all time of our prosperity, Good Lord, deliver us." By God’s help, you have builded a Temple worthy the great traditions of your spiritual ancestors: the pious aspirations of five-and-forty years have been fulfilled. Twenty years ago, this church was finished, perfumed with holy vows, setting forth the vision of a great architect and the zeal of a splendid priest and a loyal people. And now, under the leadership of another wise and self-sacrificing Rector, you have accomplished the full dedication of this place for the Lord God; and your Apostle comes to bless it with the benediction that shall abide. Surely, those of the generations long gone before, the first founders of St. John’s, must join with you this day in reverent exultation. You hold them in grateful memory, those whose faces are no more seen here on earth, but whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life: men whose hearts and minds were illumined with the light of the Father once for all delivered; honourable women not a few, true mothers in Israel; boys and girls encircled with the flower-like graces of Christian youth; -- and now "all gone into the world of light." Surely, in the oneness of the Body of Christ, the take knowledge of our joyful solemnities, and with us praise the King of Saints for the glory of His grace.

Nor can the fair beauty of this new church obscure the tender memories of the elder sanctuary. Lowly it was, yet the multitudes who were brought to the Sacraments of the Gospel under that humble roof perceived it to be none other than the House of God, the very Gate of Heaven. There was little of outward splendour: but a Catholic church is, after all, only a shelter round an altar. And there, as here, God vouchsafed the Sacramental Presence, outpoured absolution, smote the Rock for the baptismal waters to stream forth, gave peace that passed understanding. Praise God for it, and for all elect souls who worshipped there, whether still on earth, or, in the true Land of the Living, numbered with God’s Saints in glory everlasting.

But now to our theme. Israel had sinned, priests and people together, in the worship of the Golden Calf. Punishment had fallen, swift and severe, on the three thousand most grievous offenders; and Moses, interceding for pardon, had with splendid magnanimity identified himself with his people, even in their transgression: "Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin, --and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou has written." Pardon was granted; but a great deprivation threatened: "I will send an angel before thee; but I will not go up in the midst of thee."

Still, brave in his mediatorial office, Moses was not content. He yearned for all his brethren, that God might show himself very nigh: So, in the Tabernacle of the Meeting, guarded by the Pillar of Cloud which testified to the Divine Presence locally vouchsafed, he besought once more: "Show me now Thy way. If Thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence."" And God heard and made gracious response: "My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. For thou has found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name." O the blessed reassurance of that promise! Perils of darkness and of blazing noonday were naught; enemies lurking round the camp could inspire no alarm: the burthen of weary years’ wandering grew lighter whenever it was recalled. No uncertainty of hopeless ignorance: "My Presence shall go with thee." No disheartening in the midst of labours: "I will give thee rest." No despairing anxiety: "Thou has found grace in My sight." And dearest, tenderest, sweetest comfort of all, "I know thee by name." Surely, when our Blessed Lord told of "The Good Shepherd Who knoweth His own sheep, and calleth them all by name," He must have had in mind that personal note of fatherly recognition which sounds here.

But the promise was to have a visible sign, manifest to all the congregation. The shadow of the cloud by day, the flaming splendour of the fire by night, were set openly against the sky for the strengthening of the faith of the Israelites, and for warning to their adversaries. God’s condescension granted that favour, so that the Perpetual Presence might be made known unto men, and that, seeing, they might believe. And the favour was continued: for, when Solomon raised the Temple of God upon the Mountain of the House, the glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord on the consecration day, and the dread Shekinah dwelt thenceforward between the cherubim. Only when national apostasy had dimmed the fine gold, and the very priests of the Lord burnt incense before the abominations of the secret chambers of imagery, did that august Presence withdraw, when the Voice summoned the Destroyers to draw near.

Now all this happened unto them for an ensample, and is written for our learning. How shall we read the record aright, getting a lesson from the undeceivable oracles for our inspiration to-day?

First: the message sent down to the Universal Church from this page of the Pentateuch is, that trust in God is the Church’s sole deliverance. To lean on anything else is only to seek some disappointment at the last. No wealth nor earthly power nor human knowledge can avail in place of that absolute loyalty to God’s guidance which is unshaken by calamity, and burns all the brighter in the storms of temporal overthrow. When Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, secured the appointment of the Bishop of London as Lord High Treasurer of England, he said, "I can do no more for the Church than this. Surely, now, she can stand her ground." But the great Archbishop was wrong; and the rebellion that gave him a crown of martyrdom attested the futility of statecraft as a shield to the Church. It was in the persecution following that God’s guidance was seen, leading men to fidelity and unfaltering loyalty to their Apostolic Mother, when the secular arm had failed. The pathetic blindness, the judicial blindness, of the Papacy, yearning after its lost temporal power, and forgetting that St. Peter was a loyal subject of even a heathen emperor, shows the same lamentable miscomprehension. Nor do magnificence of endowment and glory of architecture avail. A great Saint of our own age, contemplating disestablishment as a possibility in England, said, "If our parish churches and cathedrals should be taken from us and secularized or sold, I fear that would be the end of the Church of England; for to the minds of most people her being is inseparably connected with those historic fabrics." But surely, here was no apprehension of the spiritual truth set forth in this passage of Exodus. The Tabernacle, after all, was only a tent, pitched often for a single night; but the last Temple, splendid with chryselephantine decoration, adorned with Idumean spoils and enriched by far-brought tributes, was infinitely poorer. The Tabernacle had the hallowing Presence of the Lord God Almighty; but the last Temple had only emptiness in the Most Holy Place.

Here in this land, the temptation comes rather to trust in numbers, or in a vaunted modernity, or in politic adaptation to the prejudices of the people. So men deal much with figures, and tell of percentages of growth and relative rank, forgetting God’s wrath against census-taking David, and that "The Lord can save by many or by few." If He is with us, "one shall chase a thousand." And the Word of the Lord came to Zerubbabel the Prince, in a day when feebleness of numbers seemed cause for fear saying: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." Nay, numbers may be a very delusion. There were ten tribes that followed Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin; and only two were faithful.

And of learning: scientific theories come and go; but the Word of our God endureth forever. The wisdom of this world, apart from God, is foolishness with God: and the Church’s heavenly wisdom can not hope to triumph by an unequal alliance with it. In Galileo’s day, part of the Church pinned its faith to a scientific theory, and acted accordingly: and because it accepted the consensus of all other scientists except Galileo, and condemned him on the warrant of the Ptolemaic philosophy, men of science for two centuries past have faulted the Church for dreading such acceptance, ever since she learned its peril. Let the tide of theories and hypotheses ebb and flow: the foundation of our Faith standeth sure even in that perpetual flux; and through misbelief in varied forms may foam round it, "liberalism," "agnosticism," "positivism," "indifferentism," the Rock is unshaken because God is our Rock and we dwell in Him.

And as truly we condemn that subtle and ingeniously calculating policy which would compromise the Faith for the sake of allaying popular prejudice and making apparent temporary gain. It is the inspiration of the Bible, or miracle, or the possibility of eternal misery for those who rebel eternally, or Christ’s Birth of the Ever-Virgin Mary, or the Resurrection of the Flesh, that the multitude dislikes? Overboard with it; please the people, for "the voice of the people is the voice of God." Out on such time-serving betrayal! No truce with Amalek; no Balaam to bless and curse at the bidding of a heathen king. We do not revise our Creed every ten years (as lately proposed); we hold fast the Faith once for all delivered to the Saints. God has marked out the way for His Church, and we will walk therein, through whatever dangers and difficulties He may permit to hinder us. For such obstructions have educative value: it was by warfare with savage foes that God forged a holy nation out of a horde of runaway slaves. And the Church on earth has always had pains to endure, perils to encounter, open adversaries without and secret enemies within to overcome. But, going forth in the strength of the Lord of Hosts, and making mention of His righteousness only, she need not fear. "Without Me ye can do nothing," Christ warns her; and she answers with sublime confidence: "I can do all things through Christ Who strengtheneth me!" The pilgrim Church must be a fighting Church. And here all her children are wayfarers, having their faces turned towards the true Canaan, the Country of the Eternal Promise, the Fatherland. Only there shall fighting cease and weary travel end, in Patria.

And the Divine Presence gives us a certain hope of attainment to be bliss of being, not wayfarers any more, but comprehenders. Remembering it, we will not fear what man doeth unto us, for we have found grace in God’s sight, and we know Him Whom we have believed. But our knowledge of the way, and how to travel it, rests upon God’s indwelling Presence in His Church, not upon any vague and undefined ideas of a Divine Immanence, hardly to be distinguished from Pantheism.

God is truly everywhere present in His universe. Yet, in accommodation to our needs and limitations, that Omnipresence condescends to manifest itself locally. The Jews, fleeing from Egypt into unknown desert regions, needed some specially intimate reassurance; and God gave it: "My presence shall go with thee." The Pillar of Cloud and Fire before the Tabernacle was the ever-visible pledge of His fulfillment of that promise. So, to the Father of their race, God had shown at Bethel the angelic ladder that led to Him; and Jacob could say with true perception: "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven." And, centuries afterward, Solomon could pray with confidence, "That Thine eyes may be open towards this house night and day, even towards the place of which Thou hast said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ that Thou mayest harken unto the prayer which Thy servant shall make towards this place," because he and all the people had seen how, on the Consecration Day, "when the priests were come out of the holy place, the glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord."

But God is not less gracious towards us, in a later era. Now, in this church and in every sanctuary hallowed by the Eucharistic Offering, God says, as of old, "In this place will I give peace." Every Catholic church is a Shrine of God’s Presence, not merely a place for meeting and edification. It is hallowed, as offered solely for holy uses; hallowed yet more truly by those uses to which it is devoted. So we do well to reverence God’s Sanctuary, to keep our foot when we go to the House of God, to be glad when they say unto us, "We will go unto the House of the Lord," for we know that though God is everywhere, we meet Him especially here before His altar: and we say with deep devotion, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy House, and the Place where Thine honour dwelleth." If we forsake the assembling of ourselves together here, we lose the promise of His guiding, we can not find the Way He shows.

But more: God’s Presence is visibly manifest, so that even our dull faculties may own the Deity nigh.

There is Accommodation, in the nature of the case. "No man shall see Me and live," God answered Moses. Yet God was present at the Tabernacle of the Congregation, though His glory was veiled in the garment of cloud; and the chosen four saw somewhat of His glory, "Moses, Aaron, Nahab and Abihu. When they ate and drank and saw God also."

So the High-Priest beheld, on the Day of Atonement, the Shekinah over the Mercy-Seat, shining through the thick incense-cloud, and knew that God was there as He was nowhere else.

Nay, when Mary’s Son lay pillowed on her maiden breast, her loving eyes looked upon the Face of God Almighty. He humbled Himself to dwell Incarnate in Bethlehem, the House of Bread; even as, long before, He had spoken by His prophet, saying of Himself, "I was rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. "Ah, Beloved, with what fullness of grateful recognition can we sing, "Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men," as we assemble here for the great Eucharistic Oblation, wherein Christ fulfills His promise to be with His Church unto the end of the world! For there, in the ineffable mystery of Divine Compassion, we have God’s Presence with us, we have a foretaste of heaven’s rest! The altar is holy; but here in the Christian Church, it is the Gift That sanctifieth the Altar. For in that Gift all blessed sacrificial types of the ancient order find their transcendent Antitype. Sin-offering, Thank-offering, Whole Burnt-sacrifice, Peace-offering, have all passed away: no longer needs the priest to slay anew every day the lambs of the daily sacrifice. But here, instead, we have the very Presence of the Lamb of God, shown forth under the Sacramental Veils. Here the true Melchizedek, King of Peace, brings forth Bread and Wine, the Corn of the Mighty and the Wine that blossoms forth into Virgins. Here the Lord prepareth a Table before us against those spirits of evil that trouble us. Here the King of Heaven and Earth vouchsafes once more to dwell in the House of Bread and to receive, as in Bethlehem of old, the homage and adoration of His creatures. Here is that very Presence, promise long ago to Moses, and granted ever more and more abundantly in the progressive Revelation of the Divine Nature, until now it is the pledge that we have found grace in God’s sight, nay, the very channel by which that grace is imparted, so that, as the Apostle saith, we become partakers of the Divine Nature. Men may scoff: "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Doubt may sadly question, "How can these things be?" But "where the word of a King is, there is power": and with God all things are possible. Daily throughout all lands those marvelous words of our King are uttered by those He hath appointed unto the Ministry: "This is My Body, This is my Blood;" and there never fails the confirming Power which, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, makes those words true. "Where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church," Saint Ignatius of Antioch defined; and in the last days, when new Christs arise, and men talk vainly of strange Gospels, we can be safe only as we seek out that place where Jesus is as He is nowhere else; only, as in loving, reverent self-surrender, we submit ourselves to His guiding and offer all that we have, all that we are, to be a reasonable, holy and living Sacrifice, united with that all inclusive, all-atoning Sacrifice, of the Saving Victim, slain for man.

For such oblations this palace of the Most High is set up. Grateful for the mercies of two generations, poured out on your parish, let is be your part to bring forth yet more abundant fruit, to the glory and praise of God. In the strength of that Food you may go all the way to the Mount of God, with unfailing vigour. And as you look round about and see how great things God done for your souls, let the utterance of your hearts be that of God’s ancient Saint, yearning for meet acknowledgment:

"What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits He hath done unto me? I will receive the Chalice of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord."