THE UNITY OF THE SPIJiJT 211 



entreaty will ever ebb. T confess I think it 



is time that this subject was faced. Is not 

 the Christian Church being constantly and 

 persistently invaded by agents in the inter- 

 ests of so-called charities to the peril both of 

 the Church and individual souls ? The plea 

 for humanity was never more urgent, but is 

 there not baneful and wicked extravagance 

 in the way benevolences and missions are 

 administered ? Have we a right to go to 

 our people and urge sacrifice in giving when 

 those sacrifices are not in behalf of the 

 kingdom of God, but that senseless and 

 wicked divisions in the Church may be 

 continued? With co-operation the mis- 

 sionary service of the world might be ad- 

 ministered by a much smaller number of 

 executive officers at vastly diminished ex- 

 pense. In order that those who are in dark- 

 ness may be told of Christ every Christian 

 will gladly deny himself ; but if the effort 

 is to supplant one denomination by another 

 we may well inquire if extravagance and 

 injustice have not already been carried too 

 far. 



These facts, then, meet us as we study 

 the field occupied by the foreign missionary 

 societies: the work is altogether out of 



