90 CIIURCn UNITY 



organically connects all who possess it 

 into one vital body. But this organic 

 unity need not carry with it any particular 

 machinery of ecclesiastical organization. 

 External organization is a different, a much 

 coarser thing. For my part, I repudiate 

 utterly the notion that the unity which our 

 Lord prayed for on behalf of his Church 

 is primarily unity in external, visible 

 organization. Such unity is not the main 

 matter, not the most necessary, not the 

 most desirable attainment. What we need 

 first and most is unity of spirit in the bond 

 of peace. 



Church organization is important, in some 

 ages all-important. Every church polity 

 that ever existed, the papal system included, 

 has had, or still has, its relative justification. 

 It is with polities as with doctrinal state- 

 ments. All of them that have ever found 

 currency anywhere in the Church had in 

 their time and place some measure of truth, 

 some sort of propriety. They were the 

 natural and inevitable results springing 

 from the operation of Christian truth upon 

 men's minds so and so educated, developed, 

 and influenced. 



But Christian humanity, like all human- 1 



