74 CHURCH UNITY 



affected immense advance in all these 

 respects ; still it is very easy, as it is very 

 usual, to underrate the evangelical excel- 

 lence of the church in which Luther had 

 his spiritual birth. 



Nor did the reformers export from that 

 old Church all the good it contained. Men 

 as holy as they preferred to remain in it ; 

 men as holy as they have been in the old 

 establishment ever since. I am strong 

 Protestant enough not to be afraid to admit 

 that there are at this moment multitudes 

 of true and faithful Christians in the 

 Romish communion. It is part of that 

 Holy Catholic Church in which we all 

 believe. I would speak and think respect- 

 fully even of the Pope. He is head pastor 

 of one of the oldest, noblest, and most use- 

 ful congregations on earth, the one to which 

 St. Paul directed the epistle reproduced in 

 our Bibles. We may duly abominate the 

 papal system and the papal claims without 

 calling the Pope Antichrist or unchurching 

 the hosts of Christians who see in his hands 

 the keys of St. Peter. 



Many Protestants commit the sin of 

 schism in the attitude they assume toward 

 one another. The great bodies of Protes- 



