THE SIN OF SCHISM 87 



ever passes the limit of health or leads to 

 division. Even when the tension is ex- 

 treme and one section or "another secedes, 

 the seceders hardly ever presume to origi- 

 nate a new sect. The separation leads 

 neither side to unchurch the other. If 

 they were Lutherans before, both are 

 Lutherans still ; if Disciples, Disciples ; 

 if Baptists, Baptists ; and so on. What 

 reason is there, I ask, but the pride and 

 folly of good men, why this fraternal shad- 

 ing and grouping of Christian bodies 

 should not extend throughout Christen- 

 dom ? We easily generalize it in thought ; 

 why may it not be made general in fact ? 



To see in another way that this is a 

 distinct possibility one need only recur to 

 the time in the old Catholic Church be- 

 fore the papacy acquired its supremacy, 

 say in the days of Cyprian. Then the 

 sense of church, of catholicity, was as 

 high as it has ever been, wdiile every bish- 

 opric claimed the right to act and grow 

 in its own way, subject only to the author- 

 ity of general councils. Let us suppose 

 that this order of things had continued 

 and developed, and that councils had al- 

 ways declined to assume authority save 



