28 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



organs that have eacli a particular purpose to serve. So 

 with society. In its primitive condition each man per- 

 forms for himself all the arts of life. But in proportion 

 as society advances, in the same proportion does 

 specialization of social functions advance, until in the 

 perfectly organized society each man has his own busi- 

 ness to carry on, and his own contribution to make to 

 the well-being of the whole. So, too, in the Church, 

 specialization of function, differentiation, is the law of 

 development. Each Church knows in part, and prophe- 

 sies in part ; turns the ray of heavenly light into its own 

 characteristic hue. And it needs that all the Churches 

 should be gathered together by that charity which is the 

 bond of perfectness, supreme love to God, and fervent 

 love to one another, in order that the one perfect 

 Church of Christ should be formed. It needs that all 

 the hues should be combined to make the one pure 

 white beam of truth. Not in their separate state, but 

 " with all saints," can the different Churches go on to 

 comprehend what is the length and breadth and height 

 and depth of the love that passeth knowledge, and to be 

 filled with all the fulness of God. While Christ has 

 many folds in which He is educating His people in dif- 

 ferent circumstances, by variations of character and cul- 

 ture, He has only one flock who are led in the same 

 way to the everlasting fold. The Saviour's intercessory 

 prayer that all the dispersed of Israel may be gathered 

 into one, that all the disciples of every name may be 

 one, as God and Christ are one, is being fulfilled more 

 and more in proportion as men of all Christian creeds 



