92 CHURCIl UNITY 



as any party of Christians says, — " We 

 practise so and so, and are therefore pre- 

 eminently the Church ; we are the Chnrch 

 and you are not," — scorning or patronizing 

 others who produce all the fruits of the 

 spirit ; — so long must the reunion of Chris- 

 tendom wait. Even were it known that 

 the episcopate would prove the church uni- 

 fying force which so many hope, churchmen 

 would not on that account be justified in 

 calling themselves the Church par excel- 

 lence* Speaking generally, no denomina- 

 tions are at this moment to be reprehended 

 for existing apart. If a few are to-day in 

 fault for this, very few, certainly, were to 

 blame for coming into existence in the first 

 place. Nearly every rent in the Church 

 has occurred for good conscience' sake, a 

 new party forming because the old body 

 was too arrogant. Any thought about the 

 reunion of Christendom which expects it 

 to occur by come-outers' retracing their 

 steps is wholly fatuous. We shall never 

 arrive at unity by arbitrarily suppressing 

 the peculiarities of this or that denomina- 

 tion. If Catholicity is ever to return to 

 the Church, it will have to be vastly larger 

 and more comprehensive than ever existed 



