FAITH
AND PRACTICE
FAITH
AND PRACTICE
by the Right Reverend
Frank E. Wilson, D.D., S.T.D.
Copyright © 1939, 1941 by Morehouse-Barlow Co.
Copyright © Renewed 1967 by Florence H. Gold
Revised Edition
Thirty-ninth printing, 2009
Morehouse Publishing, 4775 Linglestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 17112
Morehouse Publishing, 445 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Morehouse Publishing is an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, Frank E. (Frank Elmer), b. 1885.
Faith and practice / Frank E. Wilson.
p. cm.
Originally published: 1939
Includes index.
ISBN 10 : 0-8192-1082-X (paper)
ISBN 13 : 978-0-8192-1082-1 (paper)
1. Episcopal Church—Doctrines. 2. Anglican Communion—Doctrines. 3. Theology, Doctrinal—Popular works. I. Title.
BX 5930.W483 1992
| 230’.3—dc20 | 92-14903 |
PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD
Since its original publication in 1939, Bishop Wilson’s Faith and Practice has been recognized as a basic classic of the teaching, worship, and life of the Episcopal Church. It is safe to say that more than a quarter of a million readers have derived accurate information, inspiration, and enjoyment from its reading.
Now, on the occasion of renewal of the original copyright, the publisher has gone over it with care to revise it and bring it up to date. It is remarkable how little change has been required. The author was one of the most forward-looking Churchmen of his day, a leader in the movement to renew the Church and to encourage the social and ecumenical concerns that were then stirring. He anticipated many subsequent developments in these and other areas. Thus relatively little change has been necessary, and the book should continue to serve a new generation of Church people and inquirers as faithfully as in the past.
The original edition was affectionately dedicated by the author to the clergy of the diocese of Eau Claire, whose Bishop and Shepherd he was. The publisher ventures now to re-dedicate it to the memory of Frank E. Wilson, whose faithful witness continues long after his entrance into Eternal Life.
C.P.M.
CONTENTS
IX. RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION
XIX. CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
XXIII. JUDGMENT, HELL, AND HEAVEN
PREFACE
I listened one day to rather a dull speech in which the orator urged that we forget all this business of doctrine and theology, and go out to help our fellowmen. At the end of it, a college president approached me and said:
“The students walk across our campus delighting in the flowers and shrubs which beautify the grounds. Few of them ever realize how the gardeners toil day after day, digging and planting, and weeding and watering. But if the underground work were neglected, there would be no flowers to admire.”
True enough. The fruits of Christian living are beautiful to behold, but if the stability of the Faith were not maintained, the fruits would soon wither away.
This book presumes to do a little digging among the roots and to uncover some of the whys and wherefores of the Christian convictions which blossom more or less luxuriantly