THEIR CAUSES II 



truth which he seeks to apply. Determinate Christian 

 doctrines are now commonly identified in men's minds 

 with partisan shibboleths concerning the unknowable. 

 This attitude — an attitude which is really sceptical 

 and anti-Christian, although it is assumed by men who 

 sincerely profess Christianity — accounts for, and is 

 illustrated by, the demand which is now being made 

 that "the Churches" get together and bury their doc- 

 trinal differences in museums of antiquities. Of course, 

 if, as St. Paul says, Christ made His ministers stewards 

 of the mysteries of God which He revealed, we cannot 

 be faithful Christian ministers unless we share in the 

 sentiment which dictated the words, "Woe is me, if 

 I preach not the Gospel." However shameful the 

 divisions of Christendom may be, and however impera- 

 tive it is that we should display love towards all the 

 brethren for whom Christ died, to seek Church unity 

 at the cost of sacrificing the propagation of what Christ 

 committed to His Church to proclaim, is as if we should 

 seek to speak the truth in love by ceasing to speak it 

 altogether. It is also to acquiesce in an agnosticism 

 which must inevitably kill the Christianity of any 

 religious body that is permanently dominated by it. 



Unless Christ prayed in vain for unity. Christians 

 will certainly, in God's own time, get together. But 

 to suppose that this glorious event is possible apart 

 from the working out of the practical axiom — " Truth 

 is mighty and will prevail," is to adopt an unintelli- 

 gent supposition. And Christian apologists cannot 

 successfully meet the difficulties of our age, or of any 



