There is no place in the world to be compared to Jerusalem, if you consider its romantic position, its historical interest, and its spiritual significance. What a relief it is to breathe its mountain air after the hot plains of Egypt! On what a glorious position it stands, more than two thousand feet above the sea, surrounded by hills even higher than the hill on which it stands itself! Truly, still "the hills stand about Jerusalem"—a true image of the way the Lord stands about His people.
But it is not the romantic position of Jerusalem which gives it its chief claim to fame, but, even more, its marvellous history. Really, to uncase Jerusalem, to dig down from one Jerusalem to another, to be able to explain the history which would attach to each layer of it, would be to unravel the history of the ancient world. Volumes have been written, and will continue to be written, on this entrancing theme; but suffice it to say that the man who stands, say, at the centre of the Temple site of Jerusalem is standing on one of the most historic spots in the world.
But, after all, when one is speaking in a Christian church at the consecration of a Christian Bishop, it is neither of these things which makes Jerusalem absolutely unique. The Seven Hills of Rome and its Forum might compete with Jerusalem from the point of view of geography or history. No! it is the supreme fact that here, and here alone, on the world's surface, in Judæa and Galilee, the feet of the Son of God actually trod the earth, which makes Jerusalem unique. Rightly has Palestine been called ever since the Holy Land. When the guardian of the traditional site of the Ascension points out to you the spot which the feet of the Lord last trod before He ascended behind the cloud, of course you know that such tradition is too detailed to be necessarily accurate with regard to the actual spot; but that His feet did tread the earth about that spot, that He did walk over the Mount of Olives, that He did agonise somewhere near those trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, that on one or other of those skull-shaped mounds He did die for the sins of the whole world, that either at the traditional site or somewhere near He did rise again from the dead—this it is that makes Jerusalem the joy of the whole earth. With ten times the depth of meaning with which even the ancient Jews could say it, the Christian will say: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth." "O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee."
I. The consecration, then, of a Bishop of the great Anglo-Catholic Church, who is to live in Jerusalem, is an event which concerns the whole of Christendom, and especially every branch of the Anglo-Catholic Church throughout the world; for it is clear that such a Bishop in Jerusalem has three great and important functions to discharge to the whole Christian world:
1. In the first place, he has to represent worthily, by personal conduct and by reverent and dignified ceremonial, the great branch of the Catholic Church to which he belongs. All branches of the Church meet at Jerusalem; several have their altars by the Holy Sepulchre. How can the other branches of the great Catholic Church learn what is the teaching and the practice of the Anglican branch except from the Bishop who represents her there, and from the cathedral over which he presides? If the Bishop himself has no dignity, no influence, no σεμνότης, among all those dignified and grey-bearded Patriarchs who represent other Churches, the Church of England will suffer in the opinion of the whole Christian Church. If the cathedral church is poor in worship, feeble in life, unspiritual in tone, the Church of England loses caste among the Churches of the world. If, on the other hand, the Bishop and his cathedral worthily maintain the best traditions of the ancient and apostolic Catholic Church of England, then will the representatives of other ancient Churches gladly acknowledge that "the Lord is with her of a truth."
2. But not only has the Bishop in Jerusalem to be a worthy witness to the doctrine of his Church, and in his cathedral to display a winning example of its ceremonial and worship, but he also has to respect and foster the spiritual life in the ancient Churches of the East. He is to be no proselytiser, seeking to take away members of other Churches to form his Church; he is rather the kindly brother, ever ready to lend a hand to fan the embers of spiritual life in other Churches, or to rejoice in the fervent glow on other altars besides his own. No Bishop would be a fit Bishop in Jerusalem who had not some knowledge of the history of the ancient Churches of Christendom, an interest in their varying liturgies, and a deep respect for their history and the special significance each has in the life of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, that Bishop would have a peculiar glory in his episcopate who most succeeded by brotherly sympathy and inspiring example in stimulating life in an ancient Church, where, perhaps, life was running low, or was able to send up the sap once again through the fibres of an apparently withered tree.
3. But his efforts must not stop there. The Bishop in Jerusalem must be a missionary. If from the first the Gospel was to spread throughout the world, "beginning at Jerusalem," Jerusalem must never cease to be a missionary centre. There must be no faithless despair as to the eventual conversion both of Jews and of Mohammedans; the great heathen tribes of the Shellooks and the Dinkas of the Upper Nile, up to which the diocese, with its centre at Jerusalem, at present extends, even though it must be exercised for the most part through the presence of an assistant Bishop in Khartoum, must feel the missionary zeal of the Bishop in Jerusalem. Every missionary agency within thousands of miles must be certain of his fatherly interest. I have visited myself nearly every mission station from El Obeid, five hundred miles beyond Khartoum, to Beyrout, and seen how greatly was appreciated the genuine interest of even a passing Bishop; but those mission stations must feel sure of the interest of the Bishop whose "sedes" is at Jerusalem, and above all, of course, those must feel sure of it whose missions are connected with our own Church. Few people can have visited the magnificent mission hospital of the London Jews' Society in Jerusalem, which is said to be the finest mission hospital in the world, or seen the devoted work of the representatives of the Church Missionary Society in Cairo, or watched the mission schools of the Hosanna League on the Lebanon, without being proud of the missionary zeal and spiritual efforts of our own Church.
II. But on a day like this we are at liberty to see visions and to dream dreams, and one can imagine missionary efforts which have their centre at Jerusalem on a far more extensive scale than any which have been possible as yet—missionary efforts which may include the revival of the ancient Churches of Asia Minor, the linking up with the work done by the Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Church, and a far more complete subjugation to Christ of the Lebanon district, to which Canon Parfit's and Canon Campbell's schools seem to point the way.
Such, then, seem to be the possibilities and prospects of a Bishop in Jerusalem, and we are encouraged to raise our hopes high to-day, first by the wonderful blessing which has been granted to the work of him who is laying down the pastoral staff, wielded with so much tact and love and winning influence by Bishop Blyth for a quarter of a century; and, secondly, by the experience and attainments and standing of him who this day takes up the pastoral staff which Bishop Blyth lays down.
1. And first with regard to Bishop Blyth himself. It was said to me in Jerusalem of the Bishop, by one who has long been the superintendent of the Church missionary work in Palestine: "He has laid a splendid foundation on which a success can be built." Few can realise, who have not been at Jerusalem, the dignity and beauty of St. George's Cathedral, which Bishop Blyth has built, and the charm of the daily services in it, morning and evening, at which the choir consists of the delightful Syrian boys and girls who form the schools. I have never seen boys more like English boys in their keenness for games (they were quite invincible at football) and their general manliness of tone, and under the gentle tutelage of English ladies the Syrian girls are being trained to be well-mannered, and capable teachers, whom I frequently found teaching either in Palestine, on the Lebanon, or in the schools of Egypt and the Soudan. But, in order to understand the influence accumulated by Bishop Blyth during these long years of residence in Jerusalem, you had to visit with him the Patriarchs of other branches of the Church; everywhere you found him trusted and loved; to come with his introduction was to be welcomed by all the ancient Churches of the East, and it is certain that, just as it was said of Livingstone that "he left the door open in Africa for all the white men who should come after," so it is certainly true that Bishop Blyth has left behind him, among all the representatives of the ancient Churches of the East, open hearts into which his successor can enter. And we are glad to think that we still have the Bishop resident with us here in London, to give us his counsel and advice.[17]