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io. PRESENT CONDITION. 439
imperfect, or noble and strenuous, or, as is usually the case,
a mixture of both. It should try to make its own work
supply the defects on one side, and co-operate with the
triumphs of goodness on the other.
Such an ideal might have seemed a mere picturesque
dream a few years since. But increased means of locomo
tion and intercourse, and an increased sense of the brother
hood of mankind and of the dangers of a divided Christen
dom in the face of common enemies, have made it the
natural longing of millions of our fellow-Christians. Both
in the British Isles and in Sweden we must escape from our
provincialism. Mere Anglicanism, mere Presbyterianism,
mere Lutheranism are provincial and out of date.
The Church of Sweden both already possesses the
general conception, and has gone far along the process of
realizing it.
Much was done by the Lund movement to give form
to this higher conception of the Church. All that is
needed seems to be to drop from it the coercive and nega
tive features, which encumbered it, and to enlarge it in
three directions. The idea of the Church must surely be
that of a divine society inspiring all its members, clergy
and laity, men and women, old and young, with a desire
to participate in (i) home missions; (2) foreign missions;
(3) the spirit and work of the universal Church a Church
having both the beauty of holiness and the voice of the
Lord s living authority.
What means are needed, besides those already in use,
to realize this broader conception?
In looking at the evidence before me of the feeling at
present existing in Sweden on this subject, I am much
struck by Bishop Ullman s remark that it needs a new
priesthood as well as new priests. We in England are
trying to obtain such a general elevation of the priesthood
by arranging for our clergy both university training and
special training. The latter hardly exists in Sweden,
although something is done by the
"
Studentenhem "
at
the universities to give more of religious family life to
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