328 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



visible oneness of faith, thanksgiving and prayer. Wher 

 ever the fellowship of believers is able to lay hold of 

 the Gospel promise with common faith, to raise to God 

 the voice of common thanksgiving, to unite with one 

 mind in common confession and joint petitions ; there 

 the unity of all believers in Christ receives a fitting prac 

 tical utterance, and the whole Church is edified together. 



At first sight this appears a very simple thing, so 

 simple that it may seem impossible that it should fail to 

 be realised wherever there is true Christianity at all. 

 But a glance at the present divided state of Christendom 

 is enough to show that this is not so, and that the attain 

 ment of an object, apparently so easy, really requires 

 Christian wisdom and Christian knowledge of no ordinary 

 kind. However simple the elements of Christianity may 

 be, their simplicity is that of a living germ, not of a 

 mechanical complex, and they are, therefore, capable of 

 development into an endless variety of distinct types of 

 life and feeling. And because of the continued presence 

 of sin and imperfection in the Church, not one of these 

 types will be a pure type. All will err, both by unequal 

 development of certain Christian motives to the neglect 

 of others, and by the admixture of motives which are 

 not Christian at all. Nor does this divergence between 

 brethren in Christ end in the establishment of personal 

 types not perfectly sympathetic. Personal differences 

 become embodied in formulated opinions and definite 

 courses of action, and so the unity of all believers is con 

 fronted with the sharp antagonism of parties. 



On the sectarian theory, at which we have already 

 glanced, this state of things is accepted as inevitable. 

 No attempt is made to give practical expression to the 

 catholicity of the Church. The like-minded simply come 

 together, and remain together as long as they can. The 

 unlike-minded are suffered to depart, and, in the stricter 

 forms of sectarianism, are even supposed to have no 

 share in Christ. An opposite extreme characterises the 



