THE SIN OF SCHISM 75 



tant people are mutually friendly enough. 

 Most of us, when we as individuals pray 

 for the Holy Catholic Church, have before 

 our minds a most inclusive thought. We 

 take into our affections Catholic and Greek, 

 Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian, Bap- 

 tist, Methodist, Quaker, Plymouth Brother, 

 and Soldier of the Salvation Army; and 

 probably no one of us, in such a prayer, 

 ever entertains the idea that these fellow 

 Christians, to be blessed as we pray, must 

 adopt this or that ecclesiastical costume. 



But no way has yet been found to rea- 

 lize this splendid width of charity in church 

 practice. Our ecclesiastical machinery for- 

 bids. It is too stiff. Church officials almost 

 always manifest a sectarian consciousness. 

 In its administration, direction, and public 

 spirit, nearly every Protestant body is a 

 sect rather than a denomination. Many of 

 the laity themselves, however catholic in 

 their personal feelings and thinking, still 

 regard so sacred each his special mode of 

 church building, that they will plan to 

 defend and bolster it even when souls are 

 visibly perishing in consequence of such 

 narrowness. The Pope is not a whit stirrer 

 in this than thoughtless Protestants are. 



