76 CHURCII UNITY 



Forgetting that under any one's theory 

 church polity is naught but a means, good 

 people in effect make it an end. That is 

 the sectary's fallacy. 



Very strong denominational feeling al- 

 ways tends to become sectarian. While, as 

 has been said, the laymen of the Christian 

 world are usually not so, church officials 

 are very commonly sectarian in thought 

 and speech. Nearly all our Protestant re- 

 ligious newspapers speak as the organs of 

 sects rather than of denominations. Each 

 claims for its party in some sense the power 

 of the keys. I am acquainted with minis- 

 ters whose glee would be keener at wel- 

 coming into their churches Christians of 

 other names than if they were permitted 

 to baptise so many heathen. Communities 

 are not rare in this land where competi- 

 tion is far sharper between the different 

 denominations than between Christ's king- 

 dom and Satan's. 



Of course, so long and so far as this 

 spirit prevails, denominations have no 

 chance to come by any better understand- 

 ing of one another's grounds for their 

 peculiar contentions than they now have ; 

 no opportunity, should any of these grounds 



