18 CHURCIl UNITY 



Speaking now simply to the point, I 

 have little faith in any occasional schemes 

 or forms of Christian union which do not 

 both aim and tend to become organic, ec- 

 clesiastical, historic, apostolical, and scrip- 

 tural. Nor do I find myself turned from 

 this view by the popular objections which 

 we hear on all sides : " Denominational- 

 ism is itself a great blessing ; " " Chris- 

 tians will have to become much better 

 than they are now ; " " Church unity is 

 a thing of the millennium." On the con- 

 trary, as I have tried to show on former 

 occasions, all that is good in denomina- 

 tionalism would be consistent with a true 

 church unity, and without it simply tends 

 to sectarianism. With all their faults, the 

 Christians of our day, as Christians go in 

 this evil world, are no worse than those 

 who have gone before us or are likely to 

 come after us. Nor have we a right to 

 devolve our duty upon an unknown pos- 

 terity in the millennium, whenever that 

 may come. The true chasers of the rain- 

 bow are those strict denominationalists 

 who would paint upon the dark cloud of 

 our unhappy divisions the "iridescent 

 dream" of some ideal church of the fu- 



