(2) that it was established to be the ordained and ordinary channel
through which God saves and sanctifies fallen man; (3) that, in order
to accomplish this, and for business and administrative purposes, the
Church Catholic establishes itself in national centres; (4) that one
such national centre is England; and (5) that this Pentecostal Church
established in England is the Church which "Christ loved," the Sponsa
Christi, the "Bride of Christ":--

_Elect from every nation,_
_Yet one all o'er the Earth._

[1] Eph. v. 25.

[2] The primary meaning of the word Catholic seems to refer to
world-wide extension. St. Augustine teaches that it means "Universal"
as opposed to particular, and says that "The Church is called Catholic
because it is spread throughout the whole world". St. Cyril of
Jerusalem says: "The Church is called Catholic because it extends
throughout the whole world, from one end of the Earth to the other,"
and he adds, "because it teaches universally all the doctrines which
men ought to know" ("Catechetical Lectures," xviii. 23).

[3] "Foul fall the day," writes Mr. Gladstone, "when the persons of
this world shall, on whatever pretext, take into their uncommissioned
hands the manipulation of the religion of our Lord and Saviour."

[4] Service for "The Ordering of Priests".

[5] There was, of course, an ancient British Church long before the
sixth century, and there is evidence that it existed in the middle of
the second century. It sent bishops to the Council of Arles in 314,
and there is a church at Canterbury in which Queen Bertha's chaplain
celebrated some twenty-five years before the coming of Augustine. But
its origin is shrouded in mystery, and it had been practically
extinguished by Jutes, Saxons, and Angles before Augustine arrived.
"Of the ancient British Church," writes Bishop Stubbs, in an
unpublished letter, "we must be content to admit that history tells us
next to nothing, and that what glimmerings of truth we think we can
discover in legend grow fainter and fainter the more closely they are
examined. Authentic records there are none." Some ascribe the first
preaching of the Gospel in Britain to St. Peter, others to St. Paul, or
St. James, or St. Simon Zelotes, and the monks of Glastonbury ascribe
it to their founder, Joseph of Arimathea, who was, they say, sent to
Britain by St. Philip with eleven others in A.D. 63. Cf. letter of Dr.
Bright to "The Guardian," 14 March, 18