GENERAL riUNCirLES 7 



came the age of the reformers, with the 

 problems of soteriology, and new dog- 

 matic definitions of the atonement, justi- 

 fication, and sanctification. At last we 

 have reached an age of irenic thought, 

 which must take up the problems of 

 ecclesiology and discuss the doctrines of 

 the Church, the ministry, and the sacra- 

 ments. In the settlement of such ques- 

 tions the unity of the Church, as based 

 upon a doctrinal consensus of the Christ- 

 ian ages, would appear as that last pro- 

 blem of problems, by the solution of 

 which the circle of Christian doctrine is 

 to be completed. 



According to another and more philo- 

 sophical view, the present impulse to church 

 unity is but a natural and healthy reaction 

 from former impulses to church division. 

 It illustrates that great historic law of re-/ 

 currences, by which whole generations: 

 after having been driven toward one ex-\ 

 treme will rebound toward the other, until 

 they settle down to a just medium. For 

 some centuries past the divisive impulse 

 has been working with frightful mo- 

 mentum. In the ninth century the West- 

 ern Church broke away from the Eastern 



