8 CHURCII UNITY 



Church. In the sixteenth century the re- 

 formed Churches broke away from the 

 Roman church; and for three centuries 

 since then they have gone on reforming 

 the Reformation, protesting against Pro- 

 testantism, purifying Puritanism, dissent- 

 ing from dissent, dividing, redivicling and 

 sub-dividing down to the inorganic dust 

 of individuality itself. The absurd result 

 has been reached that every Christian man 

 may do without the Church, or any chance 

 meeting of Christian men may manufac- 

 ture the Church anew, in ignorance of all 

 the Christian centuries before them and 

 in contempt of all Christendom around 

 them. At length, however, from these 

 wild extremes the inevitable reaction has 

 set in during the present century, at first 

 faint and feeble but gathering strength 

 and volume in its course. The general 

 recoil of modern towards primitive Chris- 

 tianity has been followed by that of Pro- 

 testantism toward Catholicity, Puritanism 

 towards Ecclesiasticism, dissent towards 

 consent. American Christianity, hitherto 

 so unhistoric, is beginning to see that 

 something is due to the wisdom of the 

 Christian a^es and the consent of Chris- 



