16 CHURCH UNITY 



"schisms," however fitly the terms may be 

 applied to some Christian bodies of later 

 date. In law and courtesy they are en- 

 titled " churches,' ' as in the preface of the 

 Prayer-book ; and we shall never get before 

 us all the data of the Church unity problem 

 until we have studied afresh the organic 

 connection of the Evangelical Lutheran 

 Church, the Reformed Dutch and German 

 Church, the Protestant Episcopal Church, 

 and the Presbyterian Church, with the 

 whole visible Catholic Church of Clnist 

 and his apostles. 



OEGANIC UXITY ATTAINABLE 



In the fourth place, such organic unity is 

 the only kind of Church unity which is prac- 

 ticable or directly attainable by our efforts. 

 The invisible Church unity, of winch we 

 have spoken, is a divinely constituted rela- 

 tionship of believers in Christ, which we 

 can neither create nor destroy, but only 

 express and maintain. Seen by the eye of 

 God alone, but for the visible Church such 

 unity would be to us invisible indeed. In 

 this world, at least, there could be no com- 

 munion of saints without ecclesiastical 

 organization. The unity of the spirit 



