DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE by Bishop Huntington

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 18, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 24.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE.

By Bishop Huntington

THE common distinction between what is doctrinal and what is practical in the Christian religion exists rather in popular impressions than in the reality of things. Doctrine simply means what is taught; practice, what is done; and therefore any Christian truth may be said to appear first as doctrine, only that it may appear afterwards as practice. The entire body of Christianity, as we take it from Holy Scripture, is doctrine; but it is the most intensely practical doctrine conceivable, just because it most profoundly and

comprehensively concerns the vital welfare of men. Christian purity, as it shines upon the world in the sermon on the mount, is a doctrine; as it chastens the conversation of society, or cleanses character, it is a practice. Christian charity, as delivered to us in St. Paul's thirteenth chapter to the Corinthians, is a doctrine; as it enlarges souls, reconciles diversities of temper and culture, and sweetens human homes, it is a practice. In general, Christian practice is simply Christian doctrine gone into the life, institutions, and manners of mankind.—Bishop Huntington.