cean. There is the
Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean: and yet there are
not three oceans, but one ocean. The Atlantic Ocean is not the Indian
Ocean, nor is the Indian Ocean the Pacific Ocean: they are all together
the one universal ocean--"the ocean".

But, after all, is not this a somewhat vague and nebulous conception of
"The Church". If it is to go into all the world, how, from a business
point of view, is this world-wide mission, in all its grandeur, to be
accomplished? The answer is seen in our second name:--

(II) THE NATIONAL CHURCH.

For business and administrative purposes, the world is divided into
different nations. For business and practical purposes, the Church
follows the same method. The Catholic Church is the channel of "saving
health to all nations". As at Pentecost the Church, typically, reached
"every {5} nation under heaven," so, age after age, must every nation
receive the Church's message. The Universal Church must be planted in
each nation--not to denationalize that nation; not to plant another
National Church in the nation; but to establish itself as "the Catholic
Church" in that particular area, and to gather out of it some national
feature of universal life to present to the Universal Head. Thus, a
National Church is the local presentment of the Catholic Church in the
nation. As Dr. Newman puts it: "The Holy Church throughout all the
world is manifest and acts through what is called _in each country_,
the Church Visible".

As such, the duty of a National Church is two-fold. It must teach the
nation; it must feed the nation. First: it is the function of the
National Church to teach the nation. What is its subject? Religion.
It is to teach the nation religion--not to be taught religion by the
nation. It is no more the State's function to teach religion to the
authorities of the National Church[3] than it is the {6} function of
the nation to teach art to the authorities of the National Gallery.
Nor, again, is it the function of a National Church to teach the nation
a _national_ religion; it is the office of the Church to teach the
nation the _Catholic_ religion--to say, in common with the rest of
Christendom, "the Catholic religion is this," and none other. Thus,
the faith of a National Church is not the changing faith of a passing
majority; it is the unchanging faith of a permanent Body, the Catholic
Church. Different ages may explain the faith in differ