THE PROBLEM
OF CHRISTIAN UNITY

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THE PROBLEM
OF CHRISTIAN UNITY

BY
VARIOUS WRITERS

i^eto gotfe
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1921
An rights reserved

A COURSE OF SEVEN ADDRESSES
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
CHRISTIAN UNITY FOUNDATION

COPTBIGHT, 1921,
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Published, January, 1921

INTRODUCTION
The interest in Christian Unity has greatly in
creased during the last ten years. This is due to
several causes, the chief one being the conscious
ness of the Churches that a divided Christendom
does not witness to the unity that is in Christ and
that a divided Church cannot accomplish the tasks
that are everywhere challenging it. As a result
of this conviction efforts are everywhere being
made to remove those barriers that have for ages
separated the many communions of the one
Church and to find some basis for reunion on
which all may achieve that oneness for which our
Lord prayed.
It would be interesting to survey these efforts,
and this has been done to some extent in the fol
lowing chapters. They have found expression in
two directions. There have been the various fed
erations of churches in England, Switzerland,
France and America, where the several denomina
tions — in our own land over thirty — have
united for the common achievement of common
tasks. These federations have done much to pre
pare the way, for they have greatly increased the

vi INTRODUCTION
acquaintance of the denominations with one an
other, increased mutual respect, and revealed that
the things held in common vastly outweigh the
things that divide.
But it is with the organic unity of the Church
that the world is more and more concerning it
self. During the last ten years there have been
more conferences on unity than in the previous
fifty years. The various communions in America
have established commissions on unity or on faith
and order, and these commissions have been meet
ing frequently for conference. Representatives
of the Anglican Church and the Free Churches
have held frequent meetings in Great Britain.
Out of these meetings in America and Great Brit
ain has come the important World Conference on
Faith and Order which met in Geneva during Aug
ust, 1920. The Christian Unity Foundation of
America has been holding frequent conferences
between representatives of the Protestant Epis
copal Church and representatives of other com
munions. Out of these various movements in
America have come interesting suggestions for
practical steps toward reunion, such as the famous
Concordat proposed by certain Episcopalians and
Congregationahsts. The results of the discus
sions in England are seen in the remarkable steps
forward taken In " An Appeal to all Christian
People," issued by the recent Lambeth Confer-

INTRODUCTION vii
ence. In America we have the " American Coun
cil on Organic Union," which is the outcome of
the various movements in our country.
It is with this problem of organic reunion that
this volume deals. Several of the most eminent
leaders of the Churches have been persuaded to
speak their minds frankly on the whole subject.
Here one finds historic survey of the movement,
the causes of disunion, the obstacles that lie in the
way of unity, outstanding instances of reunion,
especially as found in the mission fields, a survey
of endeavors now being made, and suggestions for
immediate steps. It is a remarkably suggestive
and stimulating series of papers and perhaps the
most comprehensive treatment of the whole sub
ject of reunion that has yet appeared in America.
Frederick Lynch.
New York,
December 6, 1920.

CONTENTS
PAGE
Can A Divided Church Meet the Challenge
OF the Present World Crisis ? . . . . i
Reverend S. Parkes Cadman, D.D., LL.D.
Steps Toward Organic Unity . . . . • . ii
Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Garland, D.D., D.C.L.
Causes Leading Up to Disunity  29
Reverend Arthur Cushman McGiffert,
D.D., LL.D.
Obstacles in the Way  48
Bishop William Fraser McDowell," D.D.
Unity in the Mission Field  62
Mr. Robert E. Speer, D.D.
The Mind of the Master  84
Reverend Henry Sloane Coffin, D.D.
The Next Step  105
Rt. Rev. Ethelbert Talbot, D.D.

THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN
UNITY
CAN A DIVIDED CHURCH MEET THE
CHALLENGE OF THE PRESENT
WORLD CRISIS?
By the Reverend S. Parkes Cadman,
D.D., LL.D.
We all agree that the Church must become in
wardly and outwardly, what her glorified Head
intends her to be: that under no consideration
should any of her children seek to modify the
ideal which the New Testament presents concern
ing the authority and the mission of the Church
as the guardian of the Gospel she is commissioned
to proclaim to all nations. We further agree that
the Church should be in every age a sufficient vehi
cle for the communication of God's saving grace
to mankind, and that no views we hold concern
ing the loftiness and the vital necessity of her
work, can exceed the realities therein involved.
It is upon the common basis of these mutual
agreements that I speak to the question, " Can a
divided Church meet the challenge of the present

2 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
world crisis?". Speaking personally, I conceive
of the Church in the words of St. Augustine, who
averred that " If God was his Father, the Church
was his Mother." According to the develop
ments of doctrine in the Apostolic writings, she is
the present Body and the future Bride of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the dwelling place in her spirit
ual unity of the Paraclete of God, the pillar and
ground of the truth which St. Paul defines as
saving truth, the one eternal institution in Time,
which will survive all other institutions of Time.
I see no reason why we should not cultivate the
consciousness of her dignity and power which has
its warrant in the teachings of Holy Scripture.
Our ascription of ultimate holiness and catholicity
to the Church, is the statement in language fa
miliar to Christian men and women, of Professor
Huxley's prediction that the only rational goal for
the continuous progress of the race is an ultimate
perfectibility. Surely we know, if we know any
thing at all, that Christian history and Christian
experience point to the triumph of the Church as
consisting in this perfectibility. There is, how
ever, a lamentable indefiniteness in our interpre
tation of the essential nature and meaning of the
Church which will have to be removed if the unity
of which the Bishop has so ably spoken is to ob
tain. I need not remind you that both Prot
estantism and Catholicism are on trial, and if

THE PRESENT WORLD CRISIS 3
they are to emerge purified and strengthened from
the tests imposed upon them, all faithful lovers of
the Master will have to discern in the Church the
entire congregation of souls re-born, gathered out
of every nation, fused into spiritual homogeneity,
animated by the indwelling life of the Spirit,
broadly and securely founded upon the Person,
the Work, the Priesthood and the Reign of Jesus
Christ. That is the real catholicity which sees in
the past, the present, and the future of the Eccle-
sia the outworking of one Divine Design, slowly
appearing from beneath the wear and waste of
human agencies. Such a catholicity esteems the
Church capable of universal service, sacrifice, loy
alty, and holds that she will grow up into her
Living Head in all things, fulfilling every religious
obligation and responding to every just social
demand. The breach between these conceptions
and our actual conditions is indeed wide, but can
we not span it with our faith, hope and charity?
There will be a day when the various flocks will
be gathered into one fold, under one Shepherd.
Hence, we should be chary about establishing our
own altars and covenants, and be more intent upon
making the Church the alter ego of her Lord than
upon the sectional interests which have too often
monopolized our thought and energy. She is the
priestess of the world, offering for the world the
homage it frequently forgets to offer for itself,

4 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
pledged to its service, and to sacrifice In Its behalf.
No one who understands denominationalism
will speak harshly of its past. Its respective
forms and organizations have endeared them
selves to the servants of God because of their im
memorial associations In righteous causes and their
notable contributions to the evangelization of
mankind. The quiet devotion of the Friend, the
intellectual integrity of the Calvlnlstic churches,
the liberty loving propensities of the Puritan
churches, the Apostolic zeal of the spiritual
children of the Evangelical Movement of the
eighteenth century, the educational processes of
Lutheranism, and the reverent and worshipful
characteristics of Anglicanism have alike enriched
and hallowed the praise of the sanctuary, and
fostered the growth and the benefits of our com
mon Faith. Yet until recently, separative factors
have had a period of unrestrained eulogy in which
historical accuracy and judicial fairness have oc
casionally suffered. At the summit of their sway,
those factors did not capture the world to which
they were so sedulously presented. Nationalism
has proved sufficiently strong to crush an artifi
cial over-balance of destructive imperialism.
Nevertheless, far-visloned statesmen are not con
vinced that nationalism is the final goal of Chris
tian civilization. In like, manner. Protestantism
has redressed ancient wrongs in the Church,

THE PRESENT WORLD CRISIS 5
colonized States, kept faith with Biblical teach
ing, restored preaching to Its Apostolic honor,
and been the companion and the conscience of
much civil and religious liberty. But the passion
for doctrinal systems and exclusive creeds which
raged with uncontrollable force for the past four
hundred years has divided the empire of Protes
tantism. Her doctors seemed to agree on little
except that there could be no such thing as an
open question among Christian men. The quar
rels of these dogmatists, which absorbed their
minds, are short-lived and unimportant when
viewed in the light of the eternal cosmos which
is being built up by every Christ-like interest
of mankind. Their historic separatisms have
cease'd to charm. Enlightened spirits, weary of
arid controversies, feel that the matters about
which those controversies centered are as dust in
the balances when compared with the glorious
truths upon which all Protestants are agreed. In
the meantime the relationships of nations in liter
ature, in art, in science, in commerce, in things
conducive to their welfare, and also, things con
ducive to their disaster, have become more inti
mate, responsive, and complicated. This evolu
tion of human life begets in those who mark its
unfoldlngs the virtue of tolerance ; the knowledge
of it cultivates the historic perspectives which
shape the Informed Christian's verdict, without

6 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
which he magnifies the trivial, slights the impor
tant, and may inflame the antagonistic elements
of society. We are confronted in our sectarian
affinities with the gigantic problem of running
order through chaos, discipline through freedom,
unity through multiphcity. This problem has al
ways been, and perhaps always will be, the test
of the Divine Society; the moral, not alone of
Religion, but of every undertaking and economy
of life. Multitudes of earnest and seeking indi
viduals are inquiring why it Is that Protestantism,
the great architect of free and moralized com
munities, cannot find a solvent for the standing
riddle of freedom with obedience, and place
against the overweening claims of political states
the claims of the Moral Sovereign of the Uni
verse. Evidently sectarianism has seen Its meri
dian, and If It be true that nations must agree or
perish. It is almost more true that denominations
must do likewise or meet the same end. Such af
firmations are of course conditioned by the unde
termined values of twentieth century thought,
but a forecast for the Church compels the con
clusion that her growing desire for unity must
be nourished by prayer, by discourse, by a sub
mission of our deepest wishes to the guidance ai
the Eternal will. Should the Church refuse to
deal candidly with this laudable Instinct for one
ness, which I believe is the fruit of the Spirit, the

THE PRESENT WORLD CRISIS 7
Lord of all ages may again assert His supremacy
as He did In the sixteenth century, or in even
more surprising ways than those experienced In
that great upheaval. The fate that hasi doomed
States which nursed disruptions will not spare
churches that set the part above the whole, heed
less of the signs of the times. The world re
fuses to be either Romanized or Protestantized.
It demands that Christian organizations forsake
a hollow and transient truce, and arrive at an
equitable and a settled peace. We cannot for
ever be disputing the exact origins of the streams
at which men quench their spiritual thirst. It Is
our chief duty to replenish them in order that
they may irrigate larger areas. Union would give
us a working basis from which to attack the in
iquities that have agreed while churchmen have
wrangled. It would neutralize the sharpness of
the controversial spirit by the forbearance of the
fraternal spirit. It would call a halt upon the
hosts of non-church-going nominal Protestants
who in their manner of living are sometimes act
ual pagans, who acknowledge no religious control,
and resent the preacher's attempt to regulate
life by the austere standards of the New Testa
ment. I need say nothing about the waste of
means and men, the overlapping and the mutual
weakenings, which sectarianism has Involved.
These losses are before us all, and their bearing

8 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
upon the efficiency of the ministry in the near fu
ture weighs heavily upon hearts of those who
love the Kingdom of God supremely. They
recognize that the function of the Gospel and of
the ministry is not sectarian, nor national, nor
even International, but supernatlonal, as every
advocate of Christ in non-Christian lands can
testify. Of course the pulpit has a premier place in
Protestantism, but the Intellectual vigor which
should have been consecrated to its great office
has not been available in the last decades. Nor
is it a harsh criticism to say that it was not in
tended for the life of the Church to find its only
outlet In sermons. No single method of trans
mission, however venerable and blessed, exhausts
the possibilities of the Evangel. Unity will not
be well begun in preaching any more than in the
ology. But it is already existent in worship, in
the symbolism and the hymnology that express
the spiritual aspirations of the worshipers.
The mystical blending of things seen and unseen
in the Christian system instructs us that the Awful
Being raised above the sphere of sense is not
beyond the reach of sensory perceptions. The
Incarnation pierced the vail, and caused St. John
to rejoice over what the eyes of the first disciples
had seen, and their hands had handled, even the
Word of Life. The state is lavish in symbol-

THE PRESENT WORLD CRISIS 9
ism. It garlands its streets, and greets its heroes,
and utilizes every available appeal which im
presses the public imagination with the majesty
of the nation. What have we done in our hole-
and-corner sectarianism to exalt the Eternal Con
queror returning from the battle with sin and death
in solitary triumph? I admire the Salvation
Army for displaying its banners and uniforms on
the streets, for its decisive efforts to make our
Faith known to the casual passer-by. Denomina
tions, creeds, theologies, sermons, propaganda,
exist for the Church, not the Church for them;
and churches exist, not solely for the edification
of believers, still less for the display of erudition
or of eloquence, but that the Hfe of God in Christ
Jesus shall be quickened and developed In them;
diffused abroad through them by every method
Christ has sanctioned, and every avenue of spirit
ual approach and influence Christian history has
approved. We do not expect the unification of
Protestantism to mature In a brief period. It is
wiser to let so noble a cause develop In the way,
such causes usually take. It may require half
a millennium to repair the breaches in the walls of
the City of God. But it is our inestimable priv
ilege to plead for Its benefits, and to observe its
genesis. The undertaking will entail a more res
olute faith, a rarer devotion, a diviner love, than
we possess. That these are already leavening the

lo THE PRO"BLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
churches I humbly believe, and I foresee the
Church of the future as a corporate whole, elastic
enough to accommodate difference in non
essentials, with a simple but catholic doctrine, a
common worship, a mission which has no boun
daries in a world which the Lord of all has Re
deemed.

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY:
THE PRESENT SITUATION
By THE Right Rev. Thomas J. Garland
D.D., D.C.L.
The great schism between the East and West
may be dated from 867 A. d. when it began, or
1054 when it was practically completed. During
the following centuries many attempts at reunion
were made, but the fall of Constantinople in 1452
brought all negotiations to an end. In England,
the Reformation made great changes: definite
schism there may be placed about 1574 when the
Roman Catholics were ordered to withdraw from
the communion of the Church. With the politi
cal disorder and intellectual renaissance of the
Middle Ages, we are not surprised that in the un
restricted use of the right of an ecclesiastical self-
determination, disorder manifested itself by sepa
ration Into many religious bodies. The unity of
the Church was broken; new standards of faith,
new conceptions of the Ministry of the sacra
ments, and of the government of the Church were
promulgated. It is true that thoughtful men In
all churches realized the danger of such a trend,
II

12 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
and after the rise of the Puritans, many attempts
at reunion were made in England as well as on
the continent. In the latter many prominent
Protestants and Roman Catholics took part (e.g.,
Grotius, who first attempted to get a union of all
Protestant bodies and later considered reunion
with Rome), also the philosopher, Leibnitz. On
the Roman side were such men as Bishop Bossuet
and Bishop Splnola. An interesting article on
Bossuet's correspondence with Leibnitz was pub
lished in the Constructive Quarterly of last De
cember. Many references have been made to the effort
to restore the Episcopate to Scotland in 1610, but
it should be added that in 1661 an appeal was
made to England for the reestabllshment of the
Episcopal Succession.
During the i8th century. Reunion was little
thought of — in fact, in England there was wit
nessed the largest and most needless separation. In
the case of the Methodists, — who In a spiritually
unsympathetic age, were practically driven out of
the Church of England.
About the middle of the 19th century. Re
union was for the first time officially brought to
the attention of the Episcopal Church in the
United States in a memorial to the General Con
vention of 1853. Finally in 1886, the Quadrilat
eral was adopted. As slightly altered at the

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 13
Lambeth Conference, the articles were as follows :
a. The Holy Scripture of the Old and New
Testaments as " containing all things necessary to
salvation" and as being the true and ultimate
standard of Faith.
b. The Apostles' Creed as the Baptismal Sym
bol; and the Nicene Creed as the sufficient state
ment of the Christian Faith.
c. The two sacraments ordained by Christ him
self — Baptism and the Supper of the Lord —
ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of
institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.
d. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in
the methods of its administration to the varying
needs of the nations and people called of God
into the unity of His Church.
This may be largely regarded as the beginning
of the modern movement. One has only to men
tion the Evangelical AUIance, the Bonn Confer
ences, the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, the
Commission on Faith and Order, the Free
Church AUiance, etc., to Illustrate the fact that
in recent years. Reunion has been one of the chief
topics in the Christian world. This movement
has crystallized into conferences between repre
sentatives of various churches In Russia, in China,
in Japan, in Australia, in Africa, in England, in
Canada, as well as in the United States.
The fact is that every intelligent man, what-

14 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
ever his opinion may be, must concede that he
cannot defend division. In the last few years,
since the beginning of the World War, there has
been a growing demand for democracy — for the
manifestation of human brotherhood. A divided
Church cannot lead this movement, yet the Church
must lead it or Socialism will. If, as we believe,
Christ is the center of unity, then those who be
lieve in Him must make His Church the inspira
tion, the leader and the center of human brother
hood. The missionary awakening of the Church and
the union of democratic nations in the War, the
ministrations of chaplains to men of every reli
gious communion, receiving them Into the mem
bership of their respective churches, have done
much to break down barriers and to promote the
" will of unity."
To refer again briefly to the history of the past,
it might be said that In the early Church, schism
and heresy had reference chiefly to doctrine and
not order.
In the middle ages, the main objections of the
Puritans and others In England and Scotland
were to the State Constitution of the Church and
not primarily to Episcopacy or Doctrine. A clear
statement of this fact may be found in the words
of the late Moderator of the Presbyterian Church
of Scotland, the Very Rev. Dr. Cooper, who

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 15
writes: "When Episcopacy was discarded in
Scotland it was due to the intrusion of the civil
power rather than any strong difference of prin
ciple " ; " Episcopacy had become hopelessly
Erastian." In these modern days, the objections are chiefly
centered In differences as to government and
order. During the last ten years, the leaders of the
Church, like Gaul, have been divided into three
parts :
The first believed that we should seek Reunion
with those who are our kith and kin — the Pro
testant churches which dominate Anglo-Saxon
Christendom. The second, though wiUing to confer with all,
thought that no real effort toward Reunion should
be made until the Roman and Eastern Churches
were ready to agree on terms.
The third took no interest in the matter.
The second party is now negligible. The War
has changed some of its adherents into earnest
advocates for Reunion with Protestant bodies.
The third party is also growing numerically
smaller and on all sides there seems to be a desire
for Organic Union, though there are still some
who believe that an alliance or federation is all
that Is possible or desirable.
Five important conferences should be consid-

i6 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
ered in this paper — in Canada, Australia, South
Africa, England and in the United States.
Canada
From 1899 to 1903 preliminary conferences
were held looking toward organic union of
the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational
Churches. These crystallized in 1909 and 19 10,
and a definite attempt was made to seek the ap
proval of the governing bodies and the members
of the respective churches on a proposed Basis of
Union for the United Church of Canada. About
sixty-five per cent, of the members of the Presby
terian Church voted in favor of th.e project.
In the Methodist and Congregational Churches,
over eighty per cent, were favorable. The lat
ter bodies were in favor of proceeding but the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
decided that It was unwise to consummate the
union with such a large minority unconvinced, and
hoped that further conference and discussion
might bring unanimous action.
In December, 19 14, representatives of the three
Churches agreed upon an amended basis of union
which included twenty articles of doctrine. The
statement issued by the Presbyterian contains the
following summary of reasons for the union.
a. the conditions of our newer West.

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 17
b. the weakened state of rural churches in
older Canada.
c. the social disorders of city slums.
d. the problem of the foreigner.
e. the needs of the heathen world.
As far back as 1906 the Archbishops and
Bishops of the Church of England in Canada,
were requested to appoint a Committee to par
ticipate In the discussions, but, though the reply
was cordial and a special committee was ap
pointed, the Committee on Church Union of the
General Synod did not appoint a Commlttep to
confer with them. It is probable that they felt
that the time had not yet come to sufficiently ex
tend the proposed Basis of Union to meet the
views of the Church of England in Canada.
In Australia
The movement towards unity in Australia,
though Inaugurated after that of Canada, is of
greater importance as it afforded a more tangible
basis for Organic Union, and was the first definite
effort to bring to the attention of the Christian
world a possible plan for its consummation on
the basis of the Quadrilateral. Though full of
difficulties, it was approached by Anglicans and
Presbyterians with an honest and prayerful de
sire to recognize all essentials, and to reconcile, as

i8 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
far as possible, all differences and non-essentials.
After several years' consideration. In 1906-7 reso
lutions were agreed upon practically adopting the
Quadrilateral with some modifications of No. 4,
and containing, among others, the following state
ments :
9. We recognize that up to the period of the
Reformation there was one common succession of
Orders, and that, since that time, the practice of
Ordination has been continued, and the Act of
Ordination has been performed (a) In the Ang
lican Church by a Bishop and Presbyters, (b) In
the Presbyterian Church by a Presbytery presided
over by a Moderator.
10. That a union of the Church of England in
Australia and Tasmania and the Presbyterian
Church of Australia be effected and consummated
by a joint Solemn Act under the Authority and
sanction of both Churches, In which each Church
shal] confer upon the Presbyters of the other all
the rights and privileges necessary for the exercise
of their office in the United Church, so that from
the moment of such Union, all the Presbyters of
each Church shall have equal status in the United
Church. These resolutions were approved by the Com
mittees of Conferences of the Church of England
in Australia and Tasmania, and the General As
sembly of the Presbyterian Church in Australia,

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 19
and also by the Methodist Church, excepting ar
ticle ten, providing for the reciprocal conferring
of authority and sanction.
There is no use, however, in minimizing the
fact that though not confessedly insuperable, the
negotiations did not evolve a solution of the
problem of a satisfactory recognition of orders in
all churches.
The influence of these conferences, however,
was specially noticeable In our own country. In
March, 19 13, at a conference of the Christian
Unity Foundation, representatives of the Episco
pal Church and of the Disciples of Christ, ex
pressed sympathy with the general purpose of the
movement. Two months later, similar resolu
tions were passed at a conference held by the
Christian Unity Foundation, with representatives
of the Presbyterian, Congregational and Baptist
Churches. To briefly review up to this point, we have seen
that though the modern movement was formally
launched in America through the adoption of the
Quadrilateral, It was In Canada, Australia and
Africa that the most definite and concrete at
tempts were made to solve the problem of our
differences. So again, during the stress of war,
it was from England that we received the most
noticeable contribution of progress.
As a result of the preliminary conference of

20 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
representatives of the Anglican and Free Church
Commissions on Faith and Order, a sub-commit
tee was appointed which unanimously agreed on
two reports. I want to refer specially to the
second interim report which aroused great inter
est, and which has been widely discussed on both
sides of the Atlantic.
The report is based on two convictions; first,
that unity Is essential to the purpose of Christ
for His Church, and for its effective witness and
work in the world. Second, that the abstract dis
cussion of the origin of Episcopacy historically,
and Its authority doctrinally, should be discussed
at the conference in an atmosphere congenial, not
to controversy, but to agreement. The report
then states some conditions of any possibility of
Reunion, from which I briefly quote :
I. That continuity with the Historic Episcopate
should be effectively preserved.
2. That in order that the rights and responsi
bilities of the whole Christian community in the
government of the Church may be adequately
recognized, the Episcopate should re-assume a
constitutional form, both as regards the method
of the election of the bishops as by clergy and
people, and the method of government after elec
tion. It is perhaps necessary that we should call
to mind that such was the primitive ideal and
practice of Episcopacy, and it so remains in many

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 21
Episcopal Communions to-day, (e. g., in the
United States ) .
3. That acceptance of the fact of Episcopacy
and not any theory as to its character should be all
that is asked for. We think that this may be the
more easily taken for granted as the acceptance
of any such theory is not now required of minis
ters of the Church of England. It would no
doubt be necessary, before any arrangements for
corporate reunion could be made, to discuss the
exact functions which it may be agreed to recog
nize as belonging to the Episcopate ; but we think
this can be left to the future.
It is significant that, though many denounced
the report, the leaders welcomed it. The Mod
erator of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland,
preaching in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral,
endorsed it warmly, and said: "I take it for
granted that we shall accept the fact of Episco
pacy," and " effectively preserve the continuity of
the historical Episcopate." (Dr. Cooper.)
For the most recent development the pendulum
has again swung, and in America, we have two
movements to record. First in importance, the
action of the Presbyterian Church in the adoption
in 19 1 8 of the overture of Organic Union. The
first meeting of the committee was held in Phila
delphia in December of the same year, and was
attended by representatives of seventeen leading

22 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
Protestant Churches. It was unanimously de
cided that the time had come when definite steps
should be taken. An ad interim committee was
appointed to carry forward the movement to
wards Organic Union, and to prepare a suggested
plan. This committee held many meetings and
discussed several plans, some of which provided
for organic union, and others for a federation
under a central governing body with special au
thority In matters of education, and of missionary
interests. The final draft of the report was sub
mitted in Philadelphia about ten days ago, and
may be called a Plan for Federal Union. The
committee emphasized the following features in
presenting its report :
(a) That It Is in the nature of a federal union
in that the constituent churches cooperate in the
furtherance of Christ's redemptive work in the
world through an independent body by which
their various joint activities are mediated.
(b) That It is an organic union in that it has
the vital principle of growth and development;
that the Council had definite functions and duties,
and that these functions and duties may from time
to time be developed in like manner as the func
tions of our federal government in the United
States of America may, from time to time, by Con
stitutional Amendment, be modified or enlarged.
There were about one hundred and fifty dele-

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 23
gates present at this conference, and all were of
one mind in desiring that some definite step should
be taken, though many expressed the opinion that
the plan submitted did not provide for a real or
ganic union. The Committee, however, evidently
considered it as a first step, as it stated in its re
port: " After It shall have been In operation for
a term of years, the Importance of divisive names
and creeds and methods will pass more and more
into the dim background of the past, and acquire,
even In the particular denomination itself, a merely
historical value, and that the churches then will be
ready for, and will demand, a more complete un
ion; so that what was the United Churches of
Christ In America, can become the United Church
of Christian America, a real ecclesiastical entity,
with ecclesiastical powers, holding and administer
ing ecclesiastical property and funds of such
united church."
I will conclude my historical references with
the mention of the proposal for an approach
towards unity between the Episcopal and Congre
gational Churches, generally spoken of as the
Concordat. The object of this Is to give Epsico-
pal ordination to Congregational Ministers as a
practical approach to visible unity. It was sym
pathetically considered In General Convention,
and an official commission was appointed to con
tinue conferences with Congregationahsts and re-

24 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
port to the next convention, expressing the hope
that action would then be initiated to provide for
the proper canonical changes to put into effect the
recommendations of the commission.
Looking back on the fruits of the modern
movements, we may mention as some of its re
sults :
That Union of the Congregational and Dutch
Reformed Churches in South India ; of the Presby
terian Churches in Scotland; of eleven of the
Lutheran bodies in the United States; and the
agreement ma^e last month between the Metho
dist Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal Church
South. We may also mention the establishment
of colleges of divinity representing all the leading
churches in Australia and in Canada. I will not
attempt to refer to the Oxford Conferences of the
past few years, or to the Kingsway Conference, or
to show how much the cause of unity has been pro
moted by our leading church papers and maga
zines. I think, however, a special tribute should
be paid to the Christian Union Quarterly and the
Constructive Quarterly.
After this historical review, may I be permit
ted to add a few personal thoughts? The aim of
the last Oxford Conference was expressed as " not
merely to promote but to secure Reunion! "
That, it seems to me, should be our motto. In

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 25
the Oxford Conference of last year, there are two
significant statements which I quote:
" We are in entire accord in our mutual Recog
nition of the Communions to which we belong as
Christian Churches, Members of the One body of
Christ; and we record our judgment that this
recognition is fundamental for any approach to
wards the realization of that Reunited Church,
for which we long and labor and pray."
" We recognize, with the Sub-Committee of
Faith and Order, in its Second Interim Report,
the place which a reformed Episcopacy must hold
in the ultimate Constitution of the Re-united
Church — and we do not doubt that the Spirit
of God will lead the Churches of Christ, if re
solved on Re-union, to such a Constitution as will
also fully conserve the essential value of the other
historical types of Church Polity, Presbyterian,
Congregational and Methodist."
I believe that all the divisions since the Refor
mation have been a struggle for some principle
that separatists conscientiously felt was being
ignored. But the reasons for such divisions no
longer exist.
Every person receiving baptism is made a mem
ber of Christ's Church which is His body. As all
baptized are equally members of the body, there
is no need for Reunion in this sense.

26 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
The fourth article of the Quadrilateral has
been generally considered the crux of the problem.
May I suggest that Instead of approaching this
article as a desire to claim exclusive authority, we
should look at it from the other standpoint.
There are many who believe that Episcopacy Is
a safeguard for catholicity and for the required
transmission of the historic ministry, but they do
not claim this as their exclusive right, but as hold
ing It In trust for all who equally with them belong
to the Body of Christ, and whom they recognize
as members of Christ's Church. The desire is
not absorption, but to give to all ministers the
same unquestioned rights and privileges in the
Church of Christ. It Is manifest that in our
country, if there was an organic union between
any of the large Protestant bodies, say the Presby
terian and the Episcopal, when one Ministry was
equally recognized by all, the former Episco
palians would be In a hopeless minority.
Therefore, I maintain that In considering this
article, we should not interpret it as a special claim
for power and authority, but as a special privilege
and trust held by members of the Church, not
for themselves, but to be communicated to the
whole body for the benefit of all.
The most vital question before the Christian
Church is that of Organic Union. For years we
have thought, prayed, and talked about it; now it

STEPS TOWARD ORGANIC UNITY 27
is forced home upon our hearts and consciences
for solution. Nations have united in a struggle
for democracy and humanity, and without such
union victory could not have been won. As
Christians we believe in one Lord, one Faith, one
Baptism, one God and Father of all; we sing " we
are not divided, all one body we," yet we are di
vided and know in our hearts that until united we
cannot win the victory over the forces of evil.
Will the compulsive power of our common faith
and common purpose bring a union of Christian
forces ?
I believe the time is ripe for action. The evils
caused by unnecessary competition, the economic
waste of men and money, the failure of a divided
Christendom to Impress or convert the world;
the desire to answer the Master's prayer " That
they all may be one " — all demand immediate ac
tion. In this age of reconstruction. It is my pro
found conviction that God is calling us to follow
the guidance of the Spirit to unity, that He may
make the new world wherein dwelleth Righteous
ness. The hour has struck: if we fail to hear
God's call, it will be another case of the rejection
of the Olive Tree. The call comes specially to
us In America. We have not Inherited the preju
dices of the past, or the connection between
Church and State — our Church governments are
representative and democratic, and we have in

28 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
our country representatives of all the Churches
in Christendom.
Therefore, let us prepare to take the next step
— believing that If we agree on the essentials of
the Faith, the details that must follow may be
safely left to the guidance qf the Spirit of God,
manifested in the council of a united Church.
The steps taken In the past fifteen years have
clearly manifested an unsuspected agreement in
the essentials of the faith, — the historical in
vestigation of our differences have shown that
there is no valid reason to-day for our continued
separation ; in all our Churches there is a growing
" will to unity." The present situation In the
world's crises demands that we nail our colors to
the mast, arouse the members of our respective
churches, and resolve " not merely to promote, but
to secure reunion."

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY
By the Rt. Rev. Arthur Cushma.n McGif
fert, D.D., LL.D.
I have been asked to speak to-day upon a
purely historical theme — the Causes that have
led to Disunity. I shall try to be as objective
as possible and shall refrain altogether, if I can,
from passing judgment upon the right or the
wrong of the Issues involved.
The divisions that have distracted Christen
dom are legion. The causes leading up to them
are almost as numerous and various. Of course
it is quite out of the question, in the brief time at
my disposal, to attempt to deal with all the divi
sions or with any large proportion of them. I
shall therefore select only a few of the more Im
portant and significant in the hope that in study
ing them we may discover at least the principal
causes that have brought about disunity in Chris
tendom. The first great division in the Christian Church
arose in the second century as a result of the
Gnostic controversy. That division was but
temporary; it lasted only a few centuries. But
it was one of the most significant the Church has
29

so THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
seen. Principles emerged at the time which have
been dominant in the Catholic Church, both East
and West, from that day to this.
I cannot stop, of course, to discuss Gnosticism
in detail. I simply remind you that the Gnostics
were Christian philosophers whose philosophy
was dualistic in Its fundamental aspects. They
found warrant for the behef that they could legit
imately teach their philosophy within the Chris-
tlon Church In Paul's dualism between ffesh and
spirit and in his doctrine of redemption from the
flesh. But their dualism was much more radical
and thoroughgoing than Paul's and it led them to
positions, many of which he could not have ap
proved. For Instance, it led them to deny that
this world was created by God and is under his
governance. This denial resulted In the rejection
of divine providence, which Jesus made so much
of and which has been so dear to the Christian
heart of all generations. If this world is not
God's world, divine providence is not operative
within it. Rejecting divine creation and provi
dence the Gnostics were obliged also to reject the
Old Testament which teaches them both. But
the Old Testament was the only Bible of the
Christians of that day and from it they were in
the habit of drawing their strongest arguments
for the divine origin of Christianity and the
divine mission of Jesus Christ. Again, it was

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 31
impossible for the Gnostics to believe that Jesus
Christ, a divine spirit, had become incarnate in
human flesh and was thus intimately bound up
with this evil humanity of ours, and so they denied
altogether the reality of Christ's earthly life.
They repudiated also the resurrection of the flesh ;
salvation meant to them as to Paul, escape from
the flesh, not the salvation of the flesh. But to
most Christians the resurrection of the flesh was
the only guarantee of the reality of a future life.
Immortality is impossible, so they felt, unless this
body of ours Is raised again. Finally Marclon,
who was closely connected with the Gnostics and
was commonly identified with them, rejected alto
gether the belief in divine judgment. According
to him the supreme God, the father of Christ, is
a God of pure love and mercy and never judges
or passes condemnation upon any one. But the
future judgment, with its rewards and punish
ments to follow, was the chief reason in the minds
of most Christians of that day for living right
eously. It is evident that the Christian faith was se
riously threatened by the teaching of these men,
and could not long survive in the form in which
it had been handed down from the first century if
their views were to prevail. As a consequence
Christian theologians of the second century en
tered into controversy with them endeavoring to

32 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
prove them wrong. The Gnostics, however,
were the ablest Christian thinkers of the day and
it was not easy to bring the controversy to a suc
cessful issue.
In the beginning Christians had trusted the
living Spirit to bring them to a knowledge of the
truth, but their early confidence now gave way to
fear and the leaders of the Church felt them
selves Impelled to hark back to the original de
posit of the faith and to insist that all the truth
God has to reveal to men was given through the
Apostles, the messengers of Jesus Christ. If you,
wish therefore to know the truth unto salvation,
you must go back to them. But as a matter of
fact, the Gnostics could trace and did trace cer
tain of their views to the Apostle Paul, and some
of them claimed oral traditions handed down
from others of the Apostles as authority for their
teachings. Their opponents were consequently
compelled to delimit the teaching of the Apostles
more carefully and we soon find Irenaus, Bishop
of Lyons, claiming that the Apostles had set forth
saving truth in certain books which together con
stituted an apostolic canon, our canon of the New
Testament. This too in one or another form the
Gnostics were quite willing to accept. They were
adepts in the art of allegorical Interpretation and
they had no dlflUculty in reading their doctrines
into the New Testament. It therefore became

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 33
necessary to find a still more definite standard, and
this Irenaeus found in a form of words which he
claimed had come down from the Apostles and
which constitutes the original of our so-called
Apostles' Creed. If then you would know what
the Apostles taught you must turn first of all to
the creed. But again the Gnostics retorted that
the apostolic origin of the creed was doubtful, and
in any case the creed Itself could be read If neces
sary in such a way as not to exclude their views.
As a consequence a third step was taken of the
very greatest significance. It was claimed that
the teachings of the Apostles had been handed
down by their successors, the bishops, and that; if
you wish to know what the teaching of the Apos
tles is, if you wish to know what the true Interpre
tation of the Scriptures is. If you wish to know
what the creed is, you must interrogate these apos
tohc bishops. Let me quote a passage or two by
way of illustration. "When they are refuted
from the Scriptures, they accuse these same Scrip
tures as if they were not correct or authoritative
and declare that they are ambiguous and that it is
impossible for those who are ignorant of tradition
to learn the truth from them. For they main
tain that the truth was handed down not in writ
ing but by word of mouth. . . . But again when
we recall them to that tradition which come from
the Apostles and is preserved in the churches by

34 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
the succession of elders, they turn against tradi
tion saying that they themselves are wiser not only
than the presbyters but also than the Apostles and
have found the feal truth. ... It comes there
fore to this that they now consent neither to the
Scriptures nor to tradition. It is with such per
sons, my friend, that we have to contend, persons
who endeavor to escape like slippery serpents any
where they can. We must therefore oppose them
in every way that If possible we may confound
some of them and bring them to a knowledge of
the truth. For though it is not easy for a soul
steeped in error to repent, nevertheless It Is not
wholly impossible to escape error when the truth
is set in contrast with it. Thus It is within the
power of all In every Church who may wish to
know the truth, to discover the tradition of the
Apostles manifested In all the world; and we are
able to enumerate those who by the Apostles were
appointed bishops in the churches and to trace
their succession down to our own time. They
neither taught nor knew any such things as these
persons rave about." (Irensus, Adversus Her-
eses, III, 2 f.) "Wherefore we must obey
the elders who are In the Church, those as we
have shown who are the successors of the Apostles
and who, together with the succession of the epis
copate have received the sure gift of truth accord-

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 35
ing to the pleasure of the Father." {Ibid IV.
26, 2.)
This was quite conclusive. With a living au
thority It is possible to determine beyond all cavil
what Christian truth really is. Ecclesiastical
councils in which the collective episcopate speaks,
and thus the scandal of divergent infalliblUties is
overcome, followed as a matter of course.
In the meantime there arose almost simultane
ously a controversy over the question of forgive
ness. There were those In the earliest days who
thought that no person who had sinned after bap
tism and been excluded from the communion of
the faithful, should be received again into the
Church. He must be left on the contrary to the
uncovenanted mercies of God. But as time
passed opinion grew increasingly lenient upon the
matter, and particularly under the stress of the
Montanistic controversy the leaders of the Church
were driven to a more moderate position which
found voice first in the decree of Bishop Callixtus
of Rome in the early part of the third century.
The significant thing about the degree is that
Callixtus claimed he had the right as successor
of the Apostles to forgive and readmit to com
munion those who had sinned after baptism and
had been excluded from the Church. The belief,
thus expressed, together with the other belief in

36 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
episcopal infallibility, was formulated by the
great Cyprian in the middle of the third century
as a part of the Catholic theory of the Church.
According to that theory no one can be saved
unless he agrees with the apostohc bishop in mat
ters of faith : the heretic will be lost. According
to that theory also no one can be saved unless he
is in communion with the apostolic bishops, who
have grace not only to interpret truth but also to
forgive sin, and consequently the schismatic too
will be lost. The theory was some time in build
ing, but in its essential features it is as old as the
second century, and it has remained the theory of
the Catholic Church down to the present day.
Of course where this twofold theory prevails, it
is a relatively simple matter to keep the faith
pure and the Church intact. Here and there may
be a man or group of men who will break away,
but as long as the theory Is maintained unbroken
the Church as a whole is bound indlssolubly to
gether. Upon the basis of the theory judgment
was passed now and again upon this and that
heretic or rebel, and he was excluded from the
Catholic Church, the sole ark of salvation. But
though the seamless robe of Christ was repeatedly
rent as Arlans, ApoUInarlans, Donatists, Pela
gians and the like were condemned and excom
municated, they passed away one after another,
and the great Catholic Church lived on secure with

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 37
its infallible Interpreter of truth and its sole medi
ator of saving grace, the apostohc episcopate,
chief fruit of the Gnostic controversy.
Another division to which I wish to refer was
due to altogether different causes. I mean the
division between East and West which culminated
in the year 1054. Both East and West alike
stood upon the Catholic principle that was formu
lated as a result of the Gnostic controversy.
They both believed heresy and schism to be fatal
and they both applied the same criteria in deter
mining heresy and schism. But political differ
ences led to a separation between them and split
the Church Into two halves. The division of the
empire In Diocletian's time, the building of Con
stantinople as the second capital by Constantlne,
the growing self-consciousness of the eastern part
of the empire, the growing rivalry of the Roman
and Constantlnopolltan patriarchs, the diverse po
litical and economic interests of East and West all
led to increasing estrangement between the eastern
world with its capital at Constantinople and the
western world with its capital at Rome. And
not only such differences as these but also the claim
of the Roman Bishop that he was Primate of the
world and supreme head of the Church in East as
well as West promoted the estrangement. Had
the Bishop of Rome been content to remain the
patriarch of the West, as all acknowledged him to

38 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
be, the division might have been avoided. But
instead it grew apace and In the eleventh century
became permanent. In order then to justify the
division on Cathohc principles, in order. In other
words, to give It a doctrinal basis and enable each
Church to claim that it was alone the true apos
tolic Church of Christ, appeal was made to a
wholly unimportant difference in the text of the
common creed — the so-called Nicene creed —
as used respectively in East and West. In the
West there had been added more or less Inadvert
ently the phrase filioque, so that the Holy Spirit
was said to have proceeded from the Father and
the Son Instead of from the Father alone as in
the original text. This addition was made the
dogmatic basis for the pronouncement on the part
of the Eastern Church that the westerners were
heretics. But it would be a grave mistake to
suppose that the difference in the form of the
creed was the cause of the schism or that certain
liturgical differences were the cause as is often
said. It would have been easy to compose all
such differences had It not been for the pohtical
issues that lay back of them. The dogmatic and
liturgical differences in fact were insisted on only
as a justification of a division already complete
on other grounds.
The schism between East and West reminds us
of other and more recent schisms in which political

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 39
interests have been controlling. For instance we
have churches In this country that are divided one
from another simply because they ha^i^e come from
different countries across the sea, as the Presby
terians from Scotland and the Reformed from
Holland. Similarly, as a result of the Civil War,
there are churches in the North still divided from
churches in the South with which they were for
merly one, the original reason for the division be
ing purely political.
The third great division to which I wish to call
attention Is that between Catholics and Protes
tants. The causes of the Protestant Reforma
tion were extraordinarily complex and were dif
ferent in different countries, and different with
different groups of men. With Luther himself
the controUing interest was without question re
ligious. His gospel of the forgiving love of
God in Christ, precious to him as a result of years
of experience, led him to interpret salvation as a
free ^ft of God and as a present and not merely
a future reality. He might have beheved thus
and yet not have broken with the Roman Church.
But from the behef he drew consequences touch
ing the Church and the hierarchy and the life
of the Christian which proved offensive and in
tolerable to the Cathohc authorities. The sig
nificant thing is that when as a consequence he
was excommunicated, he did not remain a lone

40 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
heretic but took with him Into a new church or
group of churches large multitudes of Christians
of the Western world. They were moved by
all sorts of interests; some of them by religious
interests as he was; others by economic, political
or cultural interests. Not a few humanists went
with him because they thought that in the new
system learning would be advanced, though they
soon discovered their mistake; the peasants
thought their economic situation would be im
proved, though they too were deceived ; and many
princes joined the movement for the sake of polit
ical advantages.
Whatever their controlling interests, the break
was made possible only because Luther succeeded
in convincing multitudes of his fellow Christians
that they might be saved apart from the Catholic
Church and its hierarchy. The moment they
were convinced of this, many of them, eager for a
long time to abandon the old system on one or
another ground, went with him and Protestantism
became an established fact. In leaving the Cath
olic Church Luther repudiated the twofold prin
ciple dominant In Catholicism ever since the third
century, both East and West, — the infallible au
thority of the Catholic Church, speaking through
its bishops, and the Impossibility of salvation apart
from them.
For a time he was content to do without any

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 41
definite authority beyond his doctrine of the for
giving love of God in Christ. That seemed to
him adequate for every emergency. But grad
ually, under the pressure of the radicals on the
one side and of the conservatives on the other,
he was led to identify his gospel of the forgiving
love of God In Christ, which he had always called
the word of God, with the Scriptures, and to find
in them the ultimate authority for Christian truth.
In other words he selected one of the three au
thorities appealed to originally against the Gnos
tics, centering attention upon it and making it
final. The Catholics, of course, had never ques
tioned the authority of the Scriptures but had
only supplemented it by the authority of an In
fallible Church or episcopate. In rejecting the
infallible Church and episcopate while retaining
an infallible Bible Protestantism broke In part,
but only in part, with the old Cathohc system.
As a consequence of the break not only was
western Christendom divided into two hostile
camps, Roman Cathohc and Protestant, but the
Protestants themselves were speedily split up into
many warring sects. The belief that truth with
out which men cannot be saved has been infallibly
revealed, — that belief, if there be an infallible
interpreter, may not lead to disunity. On the
contrary, it may lead to the closest kind of union.
But when faith in the infallibihty of the inter-

42 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
preter vanishes and every man is left to interpret
the truth for hlmjself as best he can, divisions are
bound to multiply, and it Is no accident that Pro
testantism broke almost immediately into various
groups each claiming to be in sole possession of
the truth. It Is evident that the cause of these
divisions was the belief In infallible truth, which
must be known for salvation, with the checks upon
that belief removed. If a man must have this
truth in order to be saved, and if he can get it
only from the Scriptures, he is bound to think
some Scripture truth essential which others do not
and to set that up as the basis of a new sect. As
long as there was an infallible interpreter trusted
by all, division was unnecessary. And even when
the infallibility of the interpreter was less than
certain, as long as salvation was to be had only
within a particular institution, it was a serious
thing to break with it, too serious a thing for most
Christians to venture. When both these checks
were removed and Christians began to believe
that the Catholic Church was neither Infallible nor
the sole ark of salvation, the break followed
as a matter of course. And the multitudinous
divisions within Protestantism was Inevitable.
Everywhere an infallible revelation was assumed,
the acceptance of which was necessary to salva
tion, and everywhere there was disagreement as
to just what that revelation contained. While

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 43
the Roman Catholic Church was in sole possession,
heresy with its resulting condemnation and ex
communication was too dangerous to be lightly
faced, but in the new situation to pass from one
church to another or to start a new church of
one's own was the easiest thing in the world.
It Is often said that the Protestant Reforma
tion promoted liberty but it did so not because of
any sympathy with liberty, for Protestantism was
quite as intolerant as Catholicism, but because in
the conflict of the sects respect for authority and
the power of control were more and more under
mined. Such religious liberty as we enjoy In
modern times is due, not wholly to be sure but in
no small part, to the fact that Christendom is
divided into countless sects.
A break even more radical and far reaching in
its consequences than that which took place at the
Reformation followed less than a century later
with the rise of Socinianlsm. The Protestant Re
formation was in many respects a mediseval move
ment. If one is to draw a distinction at all be
tween the Middle Ages and the modern age, the
Reformation belongs on the other side of the llne^
Though it broke, as has been seen, with certain
elements of the Catholic system, it retained among
other things the traditional behef In the depravity
and helplessness of the natural man, a belief upon
which the whole Catholic system rests, for it

44 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
makes absolutely necessary a supernatural, God-
given salvation and a supernatural God-given
revelation. The Reformers retained the belief in
man's depravity and helplessness, and with it much
of the old system founded upon it. The recogni
tion of the ability, and worth, and independence
of the natural man which became Increasingly com
mon in the fifteenth century and whose growing
prevalence has been taken by many to mark the
principal contrast between the modern and the
Middle Ages, was not shared by the Reformers.
In this matter they are genuine medlaevallsts and
even outdid their Catholic contemporaries in their
medlaevallsm. But there were certain of those who came under
the Influence of the Protestant Reformation who
felt the control of the newer estimate of men.
Many of them were Humanists before they were
Protestants. To them the ability and worth and
independence of the natural man was a principle
of profound Importance and because of that prin
ciple they rejected not only the old Catholic sys
tem but a considerable part of the Protestant
system as well. They were represented in the
early seventeenth century by the Soclnlans, later
by the so-called rationalists, and in modern times
particularly by the Unitarians. What they chiefly
revolted against was not the doctrine of the Trin
ity or a particular interpretation of the person of

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 45
Christ, but the estimate of man and his needs
traditional in Christianity since the first century.
Both Soclnlans and Unitarians were at first
devout believers In the authority of the Bible and
appealed to It in support of their positions, but
their interpretation of man was such as in the
end to make infallible authority In religion as un
necessary as supernatural grace, and thus their
break with the past became far more complete
than the break produced by Protestant Reforma
tion. By them, as by multitudes In modern times
in all our Protestant communions, the old Cath
olic and Protestant belief in Infallible truth the
acceptance of which Is necessary to salvation, has
been abandoned, whether for better or for worse,
and In abandoning it they have removed one of
the principal obstacles to Christian unity.
In conclusion I wish to make three remarks
suggested by this historical sketch. First, it
should be noticed that the causes leading to dis
unity are by no means identical with the causes
that keep churches divided. The former mjght
be wholly removed and yet reunion not be accom
phshed. After division has taken place all sorts
of new situations emerge. Men become attached
to the body within which they were born and to
which they belong. Habits of mind, family affec
tions, traditional loyalties, love of accustomed
ways — many influences keep churches apart

46 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
which had nothing to do with parting them.
Next week I see the subject Is to be " Obstacles tp
Unity" and then the practical question will be
¦discussed: What are the grounds of continuing
disunity? Often they are quite other than the
original grounds of schism.
Another remark I should like to make is this.
As a rule the reason for disunion given by the
churches themselves are far from accurate.
Commonly in the creeds and other official docu
ments of the various bodies concerned the situa
tion is described In a way quite foreign to the real
facts. Take for Instance the Illustration that I
gave of the justification of the schism between
East and West by an appeal to a verbal difference
in their respective creeds. No one could get at
the real cause of that schism by studying the offi
cial ecclesiastical documents. Similarly with the
creeds produced as a result of the Reformation —
the Augsburg Confession, the Canons and Decrees
of the Council of Trent, the Westminster Con
fession, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the like.
None of them reveals the secret of the break ex
cept in part. They contain statements of the
faith of the particular body which they represent
and In that faith there Is much, and it Is well that
there Is, In which they all agree both old and new.
And where their statements disagree, often there
is least real difference. In fact almost the last

CAUSES LEADING UP TO DISUNITY 47
place to go for the reasons that have led to the
divisions of Christendom is the confessions of
faith of the various sects.
One more and final remark. Of all the causes
that have led to disunity the behef in Infallible
truth, which one must know in order to be saved,
has been the most potent. Whether it be a sound
belief or a salutary belief it is not my place to
discuss here. But I may be permitted to call at
tention to the fact that It has been without ques
tion the one most fruitful cause of division. If,
as I have already said, the belief in Infallible truth
be conjoined to the belief in an infallible inter
preter, it may not cause division. It may on the
contrary bind men more closely together; but
divorced therefrom it has proved the most prolific
of all the causes of disunity. If the Church as
a whole should ever abandon that belief, unity
would be possible even with the widest diversity
of opinion, or if the Church while retaining the
belief could in some way secure universal agree
ment as to what the truth Is, unity might equally
be maintained. But so long as the belief persists
without universal recognition of an infalhble in
terpreter competent to enforce agreement, dis
union I suppose may be expected in the future as
in the past.

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY
By Bishop William Eraser McDowell, D.D.
I wish to say as a preliminary statement that
this particular subject in the list is assigned to me
and not exactly chosen by me. I do not say that
to Indicate that I would have preferred some other
subject but only to indicate how it chances that I
am discussing this particular one.
I cheerfully accept the subject with all of its
limitations, though I speak under the limitation
of not having heard any other addresses and prob
ably not being able to hear any of those that shall
follow. I ought to say also I think that the subject It
self, Obstacles in the Way, does not lend itself to
a large warmth of speech. I can understand that
placing the obstacles for an obstacle race, such
as athletic meets sometimes have, might be inter
esting. I can easily understand that running a
race and overcoming the obstacles would be per
fectly thrilling, but making a card catalogue of
obstacles would seem to me rather dull. Card
cataloguing obstacles Is pretty nearly what I am
asked to do, for, you will observe, that I am not
asked to discuss their removal or the way to over-

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 49
come them. I would like to say also in a pre
liminary way that one speaking upon obstacles is
always liable to be understood either as being In
favor of them, or having created them or as ap
proving them. And If with any degree of vivid
ness one describes the diflicultles in the way of
Christian approach he Is quite hkely to be under
stood as having given assent to these diflUculties
and as having regarded them as very good things
upon the whole.
Of course you will not understand any such
thing as that. You will understand that I did
not create these difliculties and I hope you will
understand that I do not approve them. And you
will also understand that any list, however full
and careful, that any one person might make in
half an hour's conversation upon this subject can
be easily matched by another list just as long,
just as important, and perhaps more important
than the list he mjentlons. It Is enough for what
we have before us this afternoon if those things
which I shall try to mention are really entitled to
our consideration as standing in any genuine
measure In the way of the desires of our hearts.
Now with these preliminary statements may I
say first, that In my judgment there is the obstacle
due to the lack of definition as to what we actually
mean when we speak these magic and heart-warm
ing words.

50 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
What is really aimed at? The people of the
Churches hold their membership in the Christian
Church in a form of church life. Christian Unity
is an idea which has not yet taken an organic, vis
ible, definite form. You cannot point any group
of thoughtful people to the thing and say: " That
is It." Just by way of Illustration, let me read
you these words from my very dear friend. Bishop
Brent :
" If there is any one thing for which I have a
passion, it is for the Unity of the Church in ac
cordance with the mind of Christ. Just what out
ward form this Unity will take I do not know."
Now this absence of the definition Is one of the
obstacles in the way of the thing itself. Take
practically any town of five thousand people and
under a perfect scheme of Christian Unity, what
would be the practical outcome In the organized
personal Christian life of that community? You
understand that I do not mention this difficulty
with approval. I mention it because it consti
tutes a real difficulty and an obstacle of a real sort
in the minds of very thoughtful people.
What would be the practical form of Church
life in such a town? What would be the form of
the organized Church life? Under a perfect ex
pression of Christian Unity in the given town,
what would be the form of Christian belief in
such a town? What would be the form of the

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 51
Christian worship in such a town? What would
be the practical program of a united Church in
such a town? Its program locally, its program
in the large world?
Now what we have, we know reasonably well.
We are usually pretty conscious of the faults of
these particular organizations to which we be
long. We are a little bit prone to imagine that
our friends in other Churches have not the diffi
culties that we have. It is just as well that our
difficulties appear to ourselves and do not appear
so clearly to our neighbors, and that their diffi
culties appear to them and do not appear so
clearly to us.
Take a concrete example of what I am trying to
say as to this obstacle that lies In the absence of
definition. For three years and a Jialf, with
forty-nine other men, I have been working upon
the problem of making a form of union, actual
organic union of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, to
which I belong. These Churches separated in
1844, about the slavery question in one of the
phases of that question that brought it into the
General Conference of that year.
Now in these three years that we have been
working together, earnestly, conscientiously,
prayerfully, with an eager desire to unite these
two kindred bodies that arc supposed to have a

52 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
common historical origin, that have very similar
forms of government, virtually the same articles
of rehgion, and would be presumed to have as
many points in common as it would be possible to
find between any two churches, when we come to
the final result of our deliberations, we find our
selves not nearly as zealous, for the definition that
we have had to make, as we are for the end that
we seek to reach.
Their Church, we know, — our Church, we
know. In either of them many of us could be
happy. In the Southern Church they are happy.
In our Church we are as happy as we have a right
to be. We are not too happy, but we are as
happy as we have a right to be. But we are not
at all sure in our minds that either of us would
be happy in the new achievement, In the new ad
justment which we have made or which we are
trying to make.
Of course, the net result of that Is that if this
absence of a definite and clear understanding as
to what Christian Unity actually means, Is In any
way tending to keep Christian Unity from com
ing, then by some process, we must arrive at some
definition of it as will Immediately commend It,
as will fully commend it to all this Immense vari
ety of people whom we seek to make one, not In
any flat formal way one, but virtually one in our
Lord, Jesus Christ.

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 53
I would say that a second obstacle Is due just to
ecclesiastical inertia, to satisfaction with, to com
placency in, the existing order. We do not like to
disturb ourselves. We do not like to break up
the order we are perfectly familiar with. We
prefer to go on as we and our fathers have been
accustomed to go. And we do not like to dis
credit what exists even for some ideal that may be
reached. It is easy for us to make flings at the order that
now exists. The literature of the day and the
public speech of the day are full of merry gibes at
the infinite multitude of Christian bodies. And
there is particular pathos expended upon the be
wildered heathen who are obliged to distinguish
between all the varieties of Christianity, and who
cannot understand why there should be any varie
ties. That does not seem to me to help. We do not
arrive at the goal when we discredit the Chris
tianity, the Churches, that are in order to arrive
at something that we hope to see. The fate of
Christianity is in the Churches of to-day. The
achievements of Christianity are largely through
the Churches of to-day and there ought to be a
better way of overcoming this inertia and destroy
ing this complacency in the interest of the better
things that we really desire.
Then these criticisms have the tendency to make

54 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
people think meanly and unworthily of the only
bodies that are now organized to represent Chris
tianity. I would say that a third obstacle is due to our
real doubt, whether expressed or formed defi
nitely, or lying unconsciously or sub-consciously
underneath our whole thought of the matter,
about the advantage of one great ecclesiastical
Union. This runs back to the first obstacle.
We are not quite sure though that this would be
desirable if possible. We are not quite sure but
that perhaps parties would arise within such a
body that would be just as bad as the denomina
tions that now exist in the Church as a whole ; and
we are not at all sure that Jesus' prayer was a
prayer for one common ecclesiastical body. He
was the least ecclesiastical of persons. But this
lies here as a real obstacle in the way. This Is
a widespread doubt, not perhaps a widespread
conviction, but a widespread doubt.
There are feelings as a corollary to this that
unless we can come together on the basis of abso
lute like-mindedness, that we would better not
come together at all, but let each work out its
own part of Christ's work in the world In Its own
fashion. In the fourth place, there Is the obstacle due to
the lack of a large motive. I do not say that
the large motive does not exist, but the large

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 55
motive does not always prevail in the discussion.
There is a difference between good motives and
large ones. The alphabet of the matter of mo
tives is that motives must be pure. Probably the
motives for Christian Unity are clear and pure
and transparent.
I cannot personally see that any one who is
sincerely desiring to promote this great end Is
desiring to promote it for any unworthy motive.
If any unworthy motive should be discovered any
where, of course that would promptly destroy all
possibihty of cooperation and fellowship. But
while it is true that the very beginning of the
matter of motives is the Item of purity, in matters
like this, the essential quality of a motive is the
quahty of size.
And you cannot float a great enterprise like this
any more than you can float any other great enter
prise in the world upon a small motive, no matter
how pure that motive may be. I suppose the
dewdrop would be probably as pure as the ocean
but the dewdrop Is a pretty small matter as com
pared with the ocean.
It takes an ocean to float the world's navies.
You remember some years ago when Mr. Twain
was discussing the need of a new American Navy,
he said: "All we need for the new American
Navy is the proper number of the right kind of
ships and the proper number of the right kind of

56 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
men to man them," and then he added dryly:
" We have the water."
Now Christian Unity will not float simply upon
the desire to reduce expenses, for It would be a
means of grace to many Christians or to many
Church members whom I know not to have the
expenses reduced in their behalf but to have them
Increased. The motive of simply cutting down
certain overlapping Items is not quite a sufficient
motive to carry a great enterprise like this.
The motive for the unity of the Christian
Churches must have size enough to carry It, size
enough to carry It over obstacles that are In the
way, size enough to carry It in the long years in
which the Christian Church will serve Its Master
and Lord.
Ask yourselves these questions : Can a united
Church find Its mind and the mind of Christ better
than a divided Church? And the answer is not
in doubt.
Can a united Church find Its voice and utter the
voice of Christ better than a broken and dis
membered Church? And the answer is not in
doubt. Can one Church, one in its passion, one In Its
spirit, one In Its devotion, one In Its opposition
to all evil, one In its consecration to all good, be
used by Christ, the head of the Church, in the
world's movements more effectually than can

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 57
the broken and dismembered portions of such
Church? The answer Is not in doubt.
The motive therefore that Is small constitutes
an obstacle to the result which Is large and by
some process the motive must be enlarged as well
as purified.
There is a fifth obstacle due to the lack of a
satisfactory plan or method, which is a purely
practical matter. I was very much interested in
what Dr. Merrill, my very dear friend, said.
There are those who have a perfectly easy ad
justment for all these things. They quote with
immense approval certain historic sentences and
certain striking illustrations.
They repeat : " The way to resurne is to re
sume," as if that covered it. Why the process of
resumption was one of the most dlflicult, compli
cated, detailed and practical processes that the
Republic ever had to deal with in Its management
of its finances. " The way to be one is to be one.
Surely ! And the way to be one Is a matter that
involves all the good sense, all the patience, all
the wisdom and all the fine talking back and forth,
what men In a worthy way would call " ironing
out the difficulties."
It involves all of that and until you find a way
through all of these dlfliculties, you have not In
vented a satisfactory method. Now just to show
you what I have in my mind on this point I am

58 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
going to read you a word. One way to find the
obstacles is to examine any plan that has been sub
mitted for the outcome that we seek.
Here is the Appendix to the Lambeth Quadri
lateral, and then the first Interim statement touch
ing this matter made by the Joint Committee of
the Anglicans and Non-Conformists.
First, there Is a fine statement of agreement of
matters of faith. It is a beautiful statement,
and then there is a beautiful statement of agree
ment on matters relating to order.
Then this, solemnly signed by half a dozen of
the leading names of Great Britain: " a statement
of the differences in relation to matters of order
which require further study and discussion."
" Fidelity to our convictions and sincerity in
their expression compel us to recognize that there
still remain differences In respect of these matters.
" ( I ) As regards the nature of this visible so
ciety, how far It Involves uniformity or allows
variety in polity, creed, and worship.
" (2) As regards the Sacrament — the condi
tions, objective and subjective. In their ministra
tion and reception and on which their validity
depends. "(3) As regards the ministry — whether it
derives Its authority through an Episcopal or
Presbyterian succession or through the unity of
believers or by a combination of those."

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 59
Now you see at a glance that this purely practi
cal question runs into the creed, polity, orders,
sacraments and ministry. It is a question that
just cannot be dismissed and waved aside. Nor
let me say do we gain anything by regarding these
matters and the emphasis upon them, as trifling
and unimportant.
These convictions upon which the Churches
have been built are convictions that have not been
lightly arrived at. They are convictions that
have not been adopted in any trifling spirit.
When a great body looks upon a special feature
of its practice as commanded and enjoined by the
New Testament and by the example of Jesus
Christ himself, no matter how far we may be
from agreement with them in this conviction,
every true man and woman will respect their con
viction as a conviction and not ask them lightly
to wave It aside.
And the same thing is true with reference to
other matters. I am trying to say that there is a
real obstacle that lies here, that lies In every prac
tical plan for Christian Unity that has ever been
proposed. The hopeful thing Is that In spite of these
recognized difficulties and obstacles earnest men
meet together with Increasing regard for one an
other, with an increasing confidence in one an
other and with an increasing desire for closer fel-

6o THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
lowship, with increasingly hving approach to one
another for the sake of the common end.
Now, finally, I name a sixth obstacle, knowing
that there can be other six just as striking as
these. This obstacle is due to the difliculty of
reversing a historical process. It Is not easy to
reverse a historical process. I say again, using
the illustration that I used earlier, that a part of
the difficulty that we are finding in the effort to
reach Unity between the two large branches of
Methodism In this country. Is due to the difliculty
of reversing the historical processes. And when
great bodies look back over their history and see
how they came to be, when the Presbyterians con
sider how Presbyterianism made its mighty decla
ration in England, for example, and when other
bodies consider how they happened to be histori
cally, and start to reverse even Ignore the histori
cal processes that have led up to this hour, they
find obstacles that are not easy to overcome. All
that is serious. No part of it is quite so serious
I think as the spectacle of a body that had a
noble motive in its historical origin that is con
tinuing to live upon a motive out of which the
life has passed.
Now may I say this final word. I have named
these half dozen obstacles. I have not named
them at all as though In my judgment they could
not be overcome. It does not quite constitute a

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY 6i
part of the discussion that I have accepted with
its limitations for to-day, for me to add this word,
but I could not quite leave the matter in this fash
ion as though for one instant I regarded it as im
possible for Christ's Churches to be Christ's
Church, possibly, visibly as well as really.
We shall find a better way. We shall find the
way, the better method. We shall find the ade
quate motive. Increasingly we will put into
Christ's hands the kind of Body he can use in
the dismembered and broken world. For the
only body as it seems to me that can bring peace
and unity to a distracted and broken and dis
membered world Is that Body through which
Christ utters himself in the world, that Body
through which Christ works by the Holy Spirit in
the world, that Body that is set to proclaim his
message, that Body that has his redemptive pas
sion and purpose, that Body which If It continue to
be distracted and fevered and broken will
be powerless in a distracted and fevered and
broken world.
It is because of the passion of Christ for a Body
that he can use that the subject is of such impor
tance. It is because Christ is In his Church and
in his Churches that the obstacles to Christ's pur
pose can be overcome.

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD
By Mr. Robert E. Speer, D.D.
INTRODUCTION
Any words of introduction that should attempt
to touch upon the important and significant theme
to which we are going to listen this afternoon,
could only, I am sure, by their weakness, have the
advantage of contrast to the words to which we
shall listen. It Is, of course, a commonplace utter
ance to those who are informed that foreign mis
sions have not been an expense to the Church but
by their reactions and their compensations they
have brought back to the churches at home far
more than has been expended upon them. This
is true undoubtedly In the realm of cooperation,
federation and unity. Indeed, I think it does
not go beyond the truth to say that in a large
measure, the work of cooperation and federation
and unity at home Is, in a large measure, a con
tribution to us from the foreign mission fields,
wherein such earnestness and seriousness had be
gun before our churches at home had taken it
seriously and earnestly. The speaker who speaks
to us this afternoon has not only been, during the
period of the War, the Chairman of the General
62

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 63
Wartime Commission of the Churches, Instituted
by the Federal Council of Churches, but he had
an opportunity which he fulfilled in such a large
measure, of leading everywhere our whole move
ment for federation and cooperation, so that at
the present time we stand on a vantage ground
which we did not have before the War, largely due
to the effectiveenss and wisdom of his leadership.
I take great pleasure In presenting Dr. Speer,
who will speak to us on the subject of " Unity in
the Mission Field," this afternoon.
Nowhere In the whole field of Christian fellow
ship and service have there been larger attain
ments of the spirit of cooperation and unity or
larger embodiments of that spirit in actual en
deavor than in the field of foreign missions.
There are obvious considerations why this should
be so. In the first place the magnitude and the
urgency of the foreign mission task have de
manded such use of our forces and our resources
as would contribute most to the accomplishment
of that undertaking. The evangelization of a
thousand million men and women, that is, the
communication of spiritual truth, the most diffi
cult of all truth to communicate, to two-thirds of
the human race, and not the communication of
that truth alone; but the persuasion of men to
bring their characters under its obedience, and the

64 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
pervasion of the whole life of mankind by the
spirit and principles of the Christian faith, to do
this not under one uniform set of conditions but in
many climates, trying and difficult, in many lan
guages, some of which contain no words in which
these truths can be expressed, in which the vocab
ulary of the Gospel has to be created, — a task as
great and difficult as this is no task to justify waste
or duplication. As the late Bishop of London,
said to my friend. Canon Gairdner, this undertak
ing Is too colossal for any one branch of Christ's
Church to think of undertaking alone. And even
if many generations might wait for one branch of
the Church to attain this task, the task will not
wait for those many generations. These people
are here now and they are entitled to know this
truth and to be offered the faith and knowledge
of the Lord. Great forces moreover, are moving
all over the world to-day that will not delay for
their die and stamp. The urgency of this task
combined with the difficulty of it enjoin the co
operation and unity of all the forces engaged In it.
In the second place the elementary needs of the
non-Christian people call for what is fundamental
and essential and primary in our Christian Gospel.
The great evils of the world are impurity and
inequality and hopelessness. Men do not know
the character of God and therefore they do not
know the Christian ideal of purity. Men do not

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 65
know the love of God and therefore they have not
entered Into the Christian experience of Brother
hood. Men do not know the life of God and
therefore they are hopeless regarding the present
and the future alike. And these three needs, the
hfe and the love and the truth of God, these are
not the points on which we differ among ourselves.
These great fundamental things of the Christian
world are things on which we speak a common
message. In the third place the simplicity of the mission
ary aim itself makes possible and enjoins unity.
The aim of the missionary enterprise Is the nat
uralization of Christianity, In the national life of
all the peoples to whom we go. It is not the ex"
tension to any of these peoples of something that
has not itself commanded the full national life of
our peoples of the West. I am a member of the
Presbyterian Church but I have not the slightest
zeal to have the Presbyterian Church extended
throughout the length and breadth of the world.
It seems to me of far more Importance that the
Christians of Japan, instead of allying themselves,
some of them with the Presbyterian and some of
them with the Methodist Church of America,
rather should bind themselves together in one
Christian Church of Japan. It may very well be
that when these Christian Churches have once
been set up they will divide. Nobody can guar-

66 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
antee their perpetual unity, but if they divide they
will divide on Issues of reality. They will not be
perpetuating in these far off lands, the memory of
divisions which have no rootage in their past
history or in their national temper and character.
In the fourth place the very occidental charac
ter of our divisions makes it necessary to transport
them to other lands. Our separations here have
their history and their traditions, that are very
dear to us and we do well, perhaps, to cherish
them and to let them go slowly. But it is better,
sooner or later, to let them go In the Interest of
something far richer and greater than they.
Even so they belong to Western life. They do
not belong to the life of the people of Africa or
the people of Asia. I remember reading some
time ago in a Methodist magazine published in
China in the city of Shanghai, of a lament of some
Methodist missionary that there was not a single
volume of Methodist theology published in the
Chinese language which was not deeply tinctured
with Calvinism. When I read that, I was pleased
and I hoped that there was no volume of Presby
terian theology which was not tinctured also with
Armlnlanism. These are not Oriental names.
John Calvin and Arminlus and John Crosby and
the rest have their place in the history of Chris
tianity. Whatever has been learned from the
past ought to be handed down to the Churches

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 67
that we are fostering in other lands but It ought
not to divide them.
In the fifth place, one knows that the great
body of our fundamental agreements furnishes a
basis on which we can unite In the enterprise of
the evangelization of the world. What we call
the Apostles' Creed is the common possession of
us all. We all believe In the Father Almighty,
the Maker of Heaven and Earth. We all believe
in Jesus Christ, the only Son, our Lord. We
all believe in the Holy Spirit, In the one Bible, the
one baptism, in one faith and In one salvation.
We stand here on ground that represents the great
central body of our Christian conviction adequate
surely on which to build unitedly in these great
areas of the non-Christian world.
I might add to these five considerations of which
I have been speaking, all of which justify the
greatest possible measure of cooperation and
unity in our undertaking to evangelize the non-
Christian world. But a second question hes
just beyond this. What is the degree and meas
ure and kind of Christian Cooperation and Unity
for which these considerations call? They call,
obviously, in the first place for that measure of
cooperation and unity which will render Impossible
all rivalry and waste. Because all rivalry is dis
loyalty to Christ and all waste Is disloyalty to the
world. Rivalry and friction are disloyalty to

68 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY.
Christ because they argue a different spirit, infe
rior to his spirit of brotherhood and trust and
love. And all waste is disloyalty to the world
because It diminishes the extent to which the
gospel could be spread, if It were not for waste
and duplication and over-lapping. Obviously
that measure of unity and cooperation is de
manded which will prevent all waste and friction
in this task.
In the second place, something more than that
is demanded. That kind of Unity is called for
which will not only prevent waste and friction but
which will secure, in addition, cooperation and
united action. It is not enough to say one to
another : " Hands off." We need to say one to
another, " Hands together." It is not enough
for us to agree to differ. That kind of agree
ment does not fulfill all that the Christian spirit
requires. We must agree not only to differ but
to cooperate and to bend our energies unitedly to
a great task too big for all of us, vastly too big
for any one of us to try to undertake alone.
And not only must our Unity be these two
things — a Unity that prevents all waste and fric
tion, a Unity that secures cooperation efliciently,
but It must be a Unity that will express funda
mentally those spiritual values that we are trying
to carry to the world. I believe myself in the
kind of Unity for which our Lord prayed, as the

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 69
kind of Christian Unity needed In our approach
to the non-Christian world. Our Lord prayed:
" That they may be one as Thou and I art One."
I hear sometimes that what we need is Unity and
agreement that binds brothers together in a fam
ily. That would be a great attainment but our
Lord prayed for something far better than that.
He did not pray that we might be one as two
brothers are one; he did not pray that we might
be united in fraternal agreement and cooperation
but prayed that we might be One as " Thou and I
art One," " That they also may be One in Us."
The Unity of the God-head was his ideal.
And I believe in this not only because that kind
of Unity was the one for which our Lord prayed
but because it is a condition of our adequate ap
peal to the non-Christian world. On no divisions
of the Christian world or the Christian Church
shall we convince the world of the truth of our
message. Our Lord made his prayer for Unity
in order that the world might believe that the
Father had sent him, and that there was salva
tion In him for all mankind. And until we have a
Oneness like that, our gospel will never have the
fullness of that divine power which our Lord Him
self said it would have only when at last His
people had arrived at a Unity perfected into One
as He and His Father were one.
I have spoken first of the considerations that

70 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
make it necessary that we should achieve Coopera
tion and Unity on the foreign mission field. I
have spoken secondly of the kind of Coopera
tion and Unity for which it seems to me these con
siderations call.
I wish to speak of the measure In which Co
operation and Unity have been already achieved In
the foreign missionary field, for there, more than
in any other field of Christian endeavor and fel
lowship, have we made progress toward these
goals. In the first place we have dispensed with
the names that help to keep us asunder in the
West. God be praised many of these names are
incapable of translation into the languages of the
non-Christian world. You cannot translate Pres
byterian or Methodist or Protestant-Episcopal
Into Chinese. There are very few languages in
the world In which you can find any terms that by
any stretch of the imagination can be made the
equivalent of these. Missionaries accordingly
have devised terms and names that fit one body of
Christians just as well as they fit any other body
of Christians. And we have not only taken the
names off our denominational organizations there
but we have taken them off many forms of our
effort. We have established schools and colleges
and most of them bear no denominational name.
They may bear the name of some Christian char
acter but they very seldom bear any denomina-

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 71
tional name. We are doing our work In the great
non-Christian field under the Christian name
alone. There are fields like the Philippines where
almost all of the Christian Churches came to
gether and where they agreed on one single name
by which they would call all of their organizations,
the Church of Christ, perhaps, and then paren
thetically at the end they would put In Presby
terian or Methodist. But the parenthesis has
been happily dropping out here and there and only
the Christian name stands out to view. We have
carried the gospel of Christ and the Church of
Christ out Into the non-Christian world and a
great many of those names we have left behind and
having left the names behind, it has been easier
to leave some of the things which the names con
note behind and by which we are held apart.
In the second place. In the foreign mission field
they have adopted the policy of wise distribution
of the forces that were available for the mission
ary work. Men have seen the absurdity and
wrong of crowding little groups of Christian
workers into one single section while great areas
went absolutely uncared for. And wise and sen
sible men, in whom the Christian spirit worked,
have begun to apportion this task among them
selves. The underlying principle was expressed
in one of the deliverances of the Church of Eng
land, not long ago, in the Lambeth Conference of

72 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
1887: "That in the foreign mission field of the
Church's work where signal spiritual blessings
have attended the labor of Christian missionaries
not connected with the Anglican community a
special obhgation has arisen to avoid, as far as
possible without compromise of principle, what
ever tends to prevent the due growth and mani
festation of that ' Unity of the Spirit,' which
should ever mark the Church of Christ." And
there are very few missionaries now, who are not
of the same mind with Alexander Duff, who said
that he would as soon leap into the Ganges as
take one step to entice a Christian believer away
from another Christian body or to do work that
fell in the natural sphere and was the duty of
any other Christian organization.
Here in this city long years ago, the principle
was laid down on the occasion of Alexander
Duff's visit, long since forgotten, but living in the
memory for generations of those who heard him.
I have talked with old men, long since dead, who
attended that meeting held on the occasion of
Alexander Duff's visit and who voted for the
resolutions that were adopted then:
" Resolved, That considering the vast extent
of the yet unevangehzed world of heathenism,
and the limited means of evangelization at the
disposal of the existing evangelical churches or
societies. It would be very desirable that with the

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 73
exception of great centers, such as the capitals of
powerful kingdoms, an efficient pre-occupancy of
any particular portion of the heathen field by any
evangelical church or society, should be respected
by others and left in their undisturbed possession."
It was in accordance with these principles that
the Mexico missionaries some years ago after the
revolution decided not to go back to their old
methods but that they would see that the whole
country was apportioned so that great areas were
no longer neglected as they had been by the con
gesting of forces in certain areas and leaving
others untouched. And now a map of Mexico
may be presented showing that whole country
portioned out, not with the Idea of exclusion but
on the principle of taking care of the whole task
that must be done, and with the exception of two
Christian bodies, which retain still their claim of
right to leap over all these boundaries and go
anywhere, all the rest of the Christian organiza
tions are now doing their best to see that the
whole of Mexico Is properly taken care of. That
is the second great achievement in the foreign mis
sion field.
In the third place, the foreign mission work has
led all other Christian activities in the way it has
developed confidence and cooperation among all
the forces engaged in it. Here In New York
City, we began thirty years ago an annual confer-

74 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
ence of all the foreign missionary boards of the
United States and Canada. It has been held
annually ever since, and it has enabled the mis
sionary agencies In the United States and Canada
to approach their task with a common body of
principles and with an almost common body of
resources. In almost every mission field now
agencies of the same kind have been developed,
agencies of cooperation and confidence. In India
the Anglican Church has been foremost in the
great movement that has correlated the forces of
India. And all of these bodies, except the Roman
communion, are correlating their purposes and lay
ing out their plans not In Isolation but In common
conference and brotherly accord.
In the fourth place, there has been in the mis
sion field for a hundred years now such a volume
of united prayer ascending from men and women
as has arisen from no other section of the Chris
tian Church. What we call the Week of Prayer,
long since diverted to other purposes, sprang out
of the missions in India, and was designed by
these missions to rally the whole Christian Church
to pray for the evangelization of the non-Chris
tian world. To-day I will venture to assert there
are more foreign missionaries united In their
prayer than any other class of Christians in the
world. In the fifth place, there have been achievements

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 75
in actual Unity which have far transcended any
thing that we have won as yet In any other areas
of the Church's service. We see It in the united
institutions. I could name scores of union col
leges and theological seminaries and hospitals and
institutions of every kind. The day has gone by
when any separate communion undertakes any
longer to build up alone a great educational in
stitution of higher learning on the mission field.
We have realized that there is nothing In truth
that can be sectarian, that the great body of truth
is common truth and that we should unite in
undertaking higher educational work. In build
ing a missionary university from two to ten dif
ferent organizations will often unite. Further
all the medical missionaries In China have gath
ered in one medical association, and all the
missionaries in educational work gathered in one
educational association. And we have gone
far beyond this. One hears the question
raised now and then as to whether our de
nominational personalities are ever to be merged
with others. It is being done all over the world
to-day. There is scarcely a mission field where
there is not an example of this. Denominations
separate in the West are united in the East. In
the East, in Japan, all the Episcopal Churches
have united, hkewise the Methodist, and more
than thirty years ago, all the Presbyterian and

76 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
Reformed bodies, seven of them, still apart in
the United States, united Into one body. In
China to-day the Presbyterian and the Reformed
Churches are one, and the Congregationahsts are
uniting with them, no matter what nation they
came from. All over the world we are witness
ing the actual melting together of denominations.
The missionaries are not afraid to put their ideals
into words. Here is the resolution of the great
Missionary Conference of Japan in 1900, adopted
by the missionaries of all denominations gathered
there. " This Conference of Missionaries, as
sembled in the City of Tokyo, proclaims its belief
that all those who are one with Christ by faith
are one body; and It calls upon all those who love
the Lord Jesus and His Church in sincerity and
truth, to pray and to labor for the full realization
of such a corporate oneness as the Master Him
self prayed for on that night In which He was
betrayed." Here is the finding of the Centenary
Conference in Shanghai. " That this Conference
unanimously holds the Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments as the supreme standard of
faith and practice and holds firmly the primitive
apostolic faith. Further', while acknowledging
the Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene Creed as sub
stantially expressing the fundamental doctrines of
the Christian faith, the Conference does not adopt
any creed as a basis of Church Unity, and leaves

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 77
confessional questions for further consideration;
yet, in view of our knowledge of each other's doc
trinal symbols, history, work, and character, we
gladly recognize ourselves as already one body in
Christ, teaching one way of eternal life, and call
ing men into one holy fellowship ; and as one in
regard to the great body of doctrine of the Chris
tian faith; one in our teaching as to the love of
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost; in our testimony as to sin and salvation,
and our homage to the Divine and Holy Re
deemer of men; one in our call to the purity of
the Christian life, and in our witness to the splen
dors of the Christian hope.
" We frankly recognize that we differ as to
methods of administration and church govern
ment. But we unite in holding that these differ
ences do not invalidate the assertion of our real
Unity in our common witness to the Gospel of the
grace of God.
"That in planting the Church of Christ on
Chinese soil, we desire only to plant one church
under the sole control of the Lord Jesus Christ,
governed by the Word of the hving God and led
by His guiding Spirit. While freely communi
cating to this church the knowledge o-f truth, and
the rich historical experience to which older
churches have attained, we fully recognize the
liberty in Christ of the churches in China planted

78 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
by means of the missions and churches which we
represent, in so far as these churches are, by
maturity of Christian character and experience,
fitted to exercise it ; and we desire to commit them
in faith and hope to the continued safe keeping of
their Lord, when the time shall arrive, which we
eagerly anticipate, when they shall pass beyond
our guidance and controL"
I have now dealt with five regards in which the
foreign mission work has gone in advance of us
and has achieved already what we pray and long
for here at home. And experience in the foreign
mission field has taught us certain great and
urgent lessons.
For one thing it has shown us the possibility of
Cooperation and Unity. We ask whether this
thing can be done. It has been done far and
wide throughout the mission field to-day. When
we ask whether certain problems can be solved
our answer is they have been solved and they have
been solved under greater difficulties than we
encounter here. Here in America we have the
Presbyterian Church split into two, over Issues
that burst forth In the Civil War. We have not
been able to re-unite those two sections of the
Presbyterian Church. There is not a single non-
Christian land where we are at work together
where they are not united. I do not see why if
Northern and Southern Presbyterians can unite

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 79
in the atmosphere of Heathenism they can't unite
In a Christian land. Not only have we been
shown the possibility, we have been shown the
duty. If it is our duty to draw together in the
face of these problems that confront us in the
foreign mission field, is there any less duty before
the, problems that confront us here In America ?
For where are the problems of the Christian
Church more urgent than here In our own land?
Every consideration that argues for Unity In India
or China argues for Unity here In America. We
have no small portion of the foreign mission prob
lem to solve right here on this island, and if Unity
Is essential to Its solution ten thousand miles away
Unity is essential to Its solution here.
And not only do foreign missions show us the
possibility and duty of Unity but they remind us
of the method. They show us for one thing, the
solidarity of a common task and a great danger.
We used to think that the common task had a
great cementing power. We realize now that
there is nothing like a common danger to combine
men together. We have got our common task
still just as great as we had it four or five years
ago. Only the shadow of Germany has gone by.
And it Is perfectly obvious that a common convic
tion cannot do what a common peril can. But we
have still a comjnon task and a common duty and
a common peril. An idolatrous world is not

8o THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
nearly so great a peril as a world that has thrown
its idols away and believes in no God at all. We
are facing a vastly more perilous world than the
old world of one hundred years ago, a pagan
world with its old evils and sicknesses, all Its own
economic problems of poverty and neglect, with
our economic problems flung in upon them. Let
any one go out and listen to the whir of the
spindles to-night in Osaka, let him go up and down
those long rows of mills in Shanghai and hear the
thunder of the great looms; and go in and look
at the lives being fed into those spindles and
woven into those looms, and he will realize that
the world has far more perils and burdens to-day
than it had In the old days gone by. The case
that Mr. Lowes Dickinson made out for the an
cient Chinese civilization is a case that cannot be
laughed away. There is too much that is sad and
tragic about it. We have got all that problem
in front of us. We cannot divide In the face of
a task like that or In the face of a peril so great.
And not only have we been shown how a great
task and peril can unite, but our experience has
revealed the power of fellowship in serving, to
unite men in spite of their intellectual disagree
ment and their divergent temperaments. After
all, one wonders whether we have diagnosed cor
rectly the real causes of our continued separation.
One wonders whether it is doctrine or faith that

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 81
divides, or whether, after all, a great deal more of
division does not spring from property and tem
perament, and that if only we could deal with
property and temperament we could not take care
of the questions of polity and creed. Human
friendliness is a great unifier. Bishop Boone used
to take all the newcomers in Shanghai into his
home. There were times when many denomina
tions of missionary slept together under his roof.
And foreign missions also have shown the
method of Unity which is to be found not in de
tailed comparison but on the principle of tran
scendence, a larger principle than any that con
trols us now, that will enable us to see things in a
conspective In which we can not see them now.
And not only are we to-day learning from for
eign missions the methods by which Unity can be
achieved but we ought to learn and practice these
lessons now. Shall not the horrors of the discord
and the alienation and the disunity, out of which
we have not emerged, make us ashamed of our
divergence? The one great need of the world
to-day Is Unity. The central principle of Chris
tianity is Unity. The fundamental element of all
life is Unity. How can we, in the Christian
Church, obscure or qualify that principle by our
divisions? We have learned the peril of con
scientiousness. No man Is justified in any course
of action merely because he can conscientiously

82 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
take it. Germany was just as conscientious as we.
" The day will come," said our Lord, " when
those who will kill you will think that they do
service unto God." Does conscientious murder
make a man Innocent? We have hidden behind
our conscientiousness too long. We must beware
of letting conscientiousness harden us to the risk
of missing truth.
And to-day as never before Unity is of such
Importance as to demand any necessary sacrifice,
such sacrifices as men have never been willing to
make before. And I set foremost among those
sacrifices our false loyalty to the past. What
is loyalty to the past? Loyalty to the past does
not consist In trying to stay within It. Loyalty to
the past consists In trying to rise above it. The
past that did not prepare for a better future is an
unfulfilled past. Truth that is truth opens the
gates to larger truth. And those men are faithful
to what lies behind them, who say to the past, " I
see thy meaning. Thy meaning was that greater
things were to be made possible by thee and I am
loyal to thee only when I heed thy voice and go
on to those greater and richer things." True
loyalty does not consist In holding fast to an un
changed and unchangeable order that has been.
It consists In standing faithfully upon the founda
tions that have been laid and opening ourselves to
all the new light and truth and guidance which

UNITY IN THE MISSION FIELD 83
God is waiting to give to the Church, if, like the
path of the just, the Church is not a stagnant sta
tion but a golden way that grows brighter and
brighter to the fullness of the day that has not
yet been, but that may yet be.

THE MIND OF THE MASTER
By the Reverend Henry Sloane Coffin, D.D.
introduction
You will share my regret that the Bishop of the
Diocese was hindered from having the privilege
accorded him this afternoon by a severe cold. I
regret it all the more for his sake and for yours
because he shares with you the understanding of
the supreme Importance of the matter that brings
you together. No doubt the most significant and
useful means for helping God's people to keep
away from further sin Is that the matter of Chris
tian Unity might be talked about, that people
realize the horrible loss that comes to humanity
through the discord of the Body of Christ.
Public opinion must be formed by people who
can discriminate and who pray to God. The
pubhc opinion of the Church must be at one, in
accord, so that or before all men can understand
why these divisions In the family of our Father in
Heaven are only expressions of our self-will.
Nor will men be able to find a means by which
their evil may be overcome, until it is a matter of
common interest among God's people.
84

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 85
Therefore, I can think of nothing more valu
able for the community at large than such a
gathering as this and it Is specially timely on
account of the conditions in which we are living.
Why is It that no one in our public life or in
economic matters seems to have any convictions
any more ? Why is it that self-interest and self-
seeking have suddenly come to have the appear
ance of being the only driving powers In human
relations? Is it not because our children have
been left without any other help than their
teacher's Influence to have Implanted in them the
living principles upon which human liberty must
depend for its survival ? Christianity, the knowl
edge and fear of God, must go back again among
the little children and grow with them in their life,
compelling their thought, before we can have a
generation who like our fathers rested all they
had in the Institutions that they builded because
they knew these were pleasing to God.
For our nation's sake, it is well for such a meet
ing as this to be held that right public opinion may
be estabhshed among us. It is a special pleasure
to me that I should have been called to represent
the Bishop of the Diocese on the day when the
supreme view of the whole matter is to be dis
cussed — The Mind of the Master. The speaker
you need not have introduced to you. You will
follow him in his thought and when we separate it

86 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
will be with renewed and more clean-cut convic
tions that if the Mind of the Master can drive us,
our problem will be quickly solved. I have the
pleasure of introducing to you to-day Dr. Henry
Sloane Coffin who will speak on the Mind of the
Master. Bishop, Ladies and Gentlemen: It Is a great
pleasure to speak with such a chairm;an on such
a theme because I think if I sat down with the
Bishop and listened to his view of the Church he
and I would be of one communion within fifteen
minutes. The theme assigned to me to-day is
" The Mind of the Master." It suggests first
the thought concerning his Church held by the
Jesus of history and when one discusses that his
toric question there are two things that always
must be borne in mind. One is our Lord's rela
tion to the Jewish Church. Here was a great
historic institution in which he was born. In whose
heritage his own faith had its origin, by whose
worship that faith was developed and through
whose synagogues he found the readiest outlet
for the message he had to tell. There does not
seem to be any indication that Jesus contemplated
breaking with the Jewish Church and setting up
a separate institution. He gathered about him a
group of men who shaped his faith and his pur
pose and to whom he opened his heart and mind

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 87
and whom he bound himself with ties of peculiar
loyalty. A group consciousness naturally arose
so that they spoke of persons " of us " and " not
of us." And to that little group on the eve of
his Crucifixion our Lord gave the symbolic rite,
a symbol of their fellowship, fighting fellowship,
a nourishing fellowship with Him and with one
another In Him.
But even after his ascension that group did not
feel that they had been set apart as a separate in
stitution. They worshiped In the Jewish tem
ple, kept the Jewish feasts, lived as Jews with the
hope of winning the Jewish Church to the cause of
Jesus. The second consideration that must always be
borne in mind is Jesus' outlook upon the future
and here of course one speaks with dlflidence in
view of differences of opinion amongst scholars.
But it seems fairly plain that In the earhest narra
tives the near end of the age was anticipated.
The Son of Man was to return In power and to
gather in a day upon the earth. And with that
on the horizon, it was not natural that our Lord
should think very much about an institution which
was to carry on his work, but the centuries have
rolled by and the catastrophe which the early
Church looked for, the catastrophic ending of the
world, has not come to pass. What our Lord
did was not to found an institurion but to gather

88 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
this group together, to fill them with His mind,
to breathe upon them His Spirit, the Spirit of His
Father, the living God, and to leave them bound
in the Unity of the Spirit in loyalty to Him
self. In the narrative of the history of the early
Church In the Book of the Acts, you recall that
it is said that the group of Christians, not yet
called Christians, group of disciples of Jesus, con
tinued steadfastly In the Apostles' teaching and In,
not as our version renders it " In fellowship " be
cause the best text In the Greek has a definite
article, " the fellowship " and possibly we may
say that the earliest name given to the Christian
Church was " The Fellowship," and all that it re
corded concerning the life in Jerusalem seems de
signed to accentuate and inspire and increase that
sense of fellowship. Common prayer, common
effort, even a common sharing of goods so that
brotherhood was embodied economically as well
as along other lines and then in the symbolic
rite of the breaking of the bread. So that the
four evangels seem to be natural in the line that
the Master, as we get It from the Synoptists and
in the Book of the Acts, prays on the eve of his
departure: "The glory which Thou hast given
Me, I have given them." What was the glory
which God has given Him ? The glory of service.

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 89
devotion to others. " The glory Thou hast given
Me, I have given them, that they may be One as
we are One." Fellowship, the main idea of the
Church, " The Fellowship." And when one turns
to the Epistles of St. Paul and studies the
Apostle's thought, that idea of fellowship seems
to be uppermost In his mind. You recall how he
protested against those that took party names
saying: " I am of Paul," " I am of ApoUos," as
that tended to break up the sense of corporate
Oneness, dividing the fellowship. The sins which
he spoke of most were the anti-social sins, envy,
wrath, malice, and the like, the whole ideal being
the ideal of fellowship. And he went further.
There was always a danger of the Jewish section
of the Church holding Itself aloof from the Gen
tile section of the Church and the Apostle was
quick to see how some practical demonstration of
brotherhood would tend to bridge that chasm and
so when poverty overtook the behevers in Jeru
salem, he took that great contribution from the
Gentile people and sent It to the others. And
this idea of fellowship was prominent in the
teaching which he gave concerning the Lord's
Supper. " The cup which we bless is It not a fel
lowship of the blood of Christ," parricipation in
Christ and a fellowship with one another, parrici
pation in the redemprive blood of Christ shed at
Calvary? " The bread which we break is it not a
fellowship of the body of Christ? " And one of

90 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
the most emphatic commands that we should en
deavor to k^ep Is the Unity of the spirit In the
bond of peace. And He of whom we are speak
ing was one who did not hesitate to say and He
certainly would not have hesitated to say it in this
connection: " We have the mind of Christ."
This Is a glimpse Into the past but a glimpse
into the past with a view to the present institution
to-day. The fortunate thing about the title
which has been assigned me to-day Is that It is not
a theme which belongs only to the past. Jesus
did not give his disciples a set of doctrines. He
gave them a Spirit. And the mind of Christ is
not a mind of one who lived and died centuries
ago but the mind of our great contemporary.
He who promised to be with his people always
even unto the end of the world so that In each
generation we look back only to get guidance of
the historic mind and apply it to the situation In
which we are found in our own generation.
There are four factors which it seems to me
throw a good deal of light upon the actual situa
tion of the hour. The first we may call scientific
or historic. We are well aware that now, for half
a century and more, earnest scholars have investi
gated the Bible, with the result that the Church
of to-day which Is at all abreast of the times
looks upon the Scriptures with a different view
from that entertained by our forefathers fifty or

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 91
one hundred years ago. Not that we prize the
Scriptures less, not that we hear less authorita
tively the voice of the Lord our God speaking
from it, not that we find less readily the provi
sions of His grace for our souls in the Bible, but
that we look upon the written word from a dif
ferent angle. It used to be assumed that the
Bible contained the law, that in that law, by taking
a brief text here and there, one might construct
the creed which was to be binding upon believers'
thought for all time; that by a similar investiga
tion of the polity of the Church of the first cen
tury, it was possible to construct the Constitution
which the Spirit of God had laid down for the
Church for all successive generations. To-day
the Bible is to us a narrative of man's life with
God. The inspiration Is in the hfe rather than
in the record of the hfe. God is to be found in
the hfe that his people had one with another and
with Him rather than in a certain set of texts
pieced together. As a matter of fact scholars
point out that there were diversities of doctrine in
the early Church. To be sure all looked up to
God as their Father, all bowed with adoring
trust to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,
and all beheved in the indwelhng Spirit of God
as their Sanctifier, all looked upon the cross of
Christ as the great event in the past which me
diated their redemption with the Lord their God.

92 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
All looked forward confidently to the triumph of
Christ's kingdom and to their own endless hfe in
the City of God. There Is a great body of truth
in the New Testament but certainly there were
diversities of expression and no attempt was made
to fasten upon the Church a uniform creed.
Again with regard to the polity a scholar like
Long points out that a number of the forms of or
ganization of the day seemed to influence the
forms of organization that we find In their organ
ization. The village elder, the relationship of a
Roman patron and his clients, the fraternlries or
guilds of the Roman world, the custom of the suc
cession of the next of kin In the oriental family all
suggest why James, the brother of our Lord, at
tained the posirion of eminence given him in
the Church of Jerusalem. These and other
forms seem to have influenced the Church of
that day in the organization of their groups.
The scholars are also pointing out to us, and
this is of primary importance, that it is nowhere
said in the New Testament that a parricular
form adopted by the behevers In Phihppi or by
the behevers In Jerusalem, was adopted by them
with a view of having it continually practiced
in precisely the form they used for successive
generarions. That was not in their minds. And
there is no statement in the New Testament
which binds us to-day to some particular form

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 93
which was congruous to the thought and customs
of that day. So that historical research does a
great deal to clear the ground. It points out the
continuity of life that we share with the past. It
emphasizes the fact that the Church has always
been an organism rather than an organization, a
growing body and therefore fixed forms, be they
forms of doctrine or be they forms of polity,
are not to be expected. A distinguished British
thinker has said that the one Immutable factor in
our institutions is their mutability and that is true
of the Church of Christ. So that our historical
investigation clears the ground. It is not the
question that Presbyterians and Episcopalians
used to debate among themselves but the fact that
the grounds upon which those controversies were
conducted have been taken from under our feet.
These questions are no longer relative in view of
our scientific attitude as historians toward the
Biblical Scriptures. And that is a significant fac
tor to be borne in mind when one seeks the Mind
of the Master for our day.
The second factor is social. The Protestants
emphasized the individual's relation to God.
That we do not like to surrender. But so long as
religion was viewed mainly as an individual affair
with his God, a small number of fellow believers
was all that was necessary to enlarge a Christian's
life and to stimulate him to love and good works.

94 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
He did not feel himself crippled and impoverished
because he belonged to a diminutive sect.
To-day with the development of our social con
sciousness, that thing is impossible. To begin
with we recognize that whatever religious life we
possess to-day is not dropped upon us as a bolt
from the blue. It is something which we owe to
the generations before us and so we emphasize
continuity with the past as our fathers did not.
We feel ourselves in a true sense, no matter what
label may be attached to us to-day, we feel our
selves heirs of the whole Church of all the yester
days reaching back across the centuries to our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And we emphasize
that fact. We owe our faith to that succession
of believing men and women who have passed
down the spirit of God to us.
Again we feel our need of the whole Church of
Jesus Christ to-day, if we are to embody In our
selves a rich, full, religious experience. We do
not wish to cut off from the Spirit of God any
body of believers. We want them one with us
and ourselves one with them with a sense of cor
porate solidarity, so that we may give to them
whatever good comes to us and take from them
whatever good God has bestowed upon them.
We feel that we need the whole Church to-day
for our life with God and we feel that they too
need us.

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 95
And, further, a diminutive sect will not accom
plish the purposes that we have In mind. So long
as Christians view the main purpose of life as a
pilgrimage from the city of destruction to the
Celestial City, a small number of comrades is
enough. But, when he looks out upon the world
and believes that God has laid upon his soul the
duty of Christianizing a New York, a China, a
world, then this task is obviously impossible for
any small group. It would be out of the question
to Presbyterfanize New York or to Eplscopa-
lianize China. We simply need the entire force
of Jesus Christ linked together for the achieve
ment of the Kingdom of God, which Is our aim
to-day and that realization demands a fellowship,
with an insistency that men of an earlier day did
not feel.
The third factor we may call experimental.
For a number of years, we In our Protestant com
munions have had very close fellowship in vari
ous inter-denominational agencies in the common
planning of our missionary enterprises and in just
such meetings as we are engaged in this afternoon.
We know each other as we did not know each
other before. The result is that our feehngs
have undergone a profound change. Further
more the war, with the pressure it exerted upon
us, compelled closer unity. We have had experi
mentally to live together and we have discovered

96 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
that we are not as different as we thought each
other. I have just come from a week of special
services in an Episcopal Church. I think this
is the fourth or fifth time I have spent with that
Congregation, worshiping with them day after
day. I have not discovered one thing that was
the least bit different from the method to which
I am accustomed. There were slight differences
in form. I preach in a black robe and they
preach in a white robe and other things trivial
but all the other fundamental things, all the other
fundamental aspirations, all the great work of the
Church, was identical. We must recognize that
identity to-day underlying our superficial and ap
parent differences. Further when you come to
study the different communions, you will discover
that under different labels you have the same
thing. Go into a Church which emphasizes independ
ence as our Baptist brothers do and you discover
some man exercising the same authority exercised
by a diocesan bishop. He may not have the
name but the fact is there. We have men exer
cising quite extensive powers in Churches like the
Presbyterian. That fact is not the important
thing. The fact is that that function is filled by
a certain individual who has been raised up by
the Spirit of God under certain circumstances for
that task.

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 97
Or take two communions as far apart as the
Roman Cathohc and the Friends. In the former,
you have a non-participating congregation, sit
ting by in silence while a dramatic act is being
performed before them. In the Friends you have
a congregation sitting equally silent, with no ap
parent participation and although the dramatic
action is not performed before their eyes, in the
quiet the most momentous spiritual transactions
are perceived by the eye of the soul so that those
coming forth from the mass and those coming
forth from the Friends' meeting will have experi
enced very similar forms of fellowship with the
living God to the nourishment and refreshment
and inspiration of their souls. So that experi
mentally, as we live together and work together,
we discover under divers labels that this religious
life of ours Is so alike that it must take to itself a
body of its own, which shall resemble that body
as It expresses itself In some other communion.
And the fourth reason we may label practical.
As a matter of fact to-day we know perfectly well,
those of us who are the leaders in our Churches,
that when we come before an audience and plead
for something, that the denominational appeal is
no longer persuasive, to plead for a thing from
the point of view of denominational loyalty is no
longer the convincing appeal that it was twenty-
five or fifty years ago. We have always to say to

98 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
our people : " This is a part of the great com
mon task before us," before they rise to It with
any enthusiasm.
Further pracrically we discover that in our
present isolation we are not able to achieve the
ethical Ideals which as Christians we wish to
achieve. To be specific take the question of mar
riage and divorce. Of what use Is It for one
communion to set up a particular standard and
strive to live up to It If other communions In the
same locality are not attempting to make that
standard authoritative for them ? A couple come
to you and you refuse to marry them because they
do not come up to the particular requirements that
your communion has laid down. They go around
the corner and another clergyman marries them.
So that the Church to-day cannot hold up authori
tatively before the community this ethical ideal of
the home. I am not discussing whether one or
the other ideal should be adopted. I am merely
pointing out the fact that in our present condition,
you cannot make any one of these ideals recog
nized In the community, because certain parts of
the Church snap their fingers at the Ideal set up
by some other part of the Church. And when we
come to discuss a big Issue of the day, when we
come to discuss International agreement, when we
come to discuss economic morality, we should be
able to hold our Ideals in common with the great

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 99
body of Christians and say : " By these ideals we
are prepared to hve and If need be, die."
I think. Bishop Lloyd, you remember that great
council In Edinburgh In 19 10. I happened to
have been a member of that conference called to
discuss the foreign missionary problem throughout
the world. And In the dark days of the war, I
used to think: " Would that the so-called heathen
for whom that conference was held could rise up
and bid us come together again and with the same
prayer, the same consecration, settle among our
selves what was Christian and what was un
christian in the relationship of a more advanced
nation to a weaker people; what was Christian
and what was non-Christian In matters of national
defense, armaments and the like ; what was Chris
tian and what was non-Christian in regard to the
control of commerce, markets, operations and so
forth. These are the questions that plunged the
world Into war. We are realizing to-day that no
merely national grouping of Christians is suffi
cient. The Protestant Reformation did a great
many marvelous things for which we are lastingly
thankful but it was guilty of one gross error when
it broke up the international, or if I may use the
word supernatlonal, organization of the Christian
Church. Little groups of Internationally minded
socialists tried to get together during the War to
act as centers of peace and reconciliation. Th.e

lOo THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
Church of Jesus Christ to which had been given
the message of reconciliation was paralyzed.
OurRoman brethren, while they sacrificed much,
kept at least In name, the supernatlonal organiza
tion and though they did not succeed In doing very
much for the record of the Papacy during the war,
still there was a meeting place, where representa
tives of the belligerents could see each other,
where the Pope could intervene as he Is said to
have intervened by Cardinal Mercler on behalf
of the people of Belgium and certainly to-day we
feel that if the world is to be held together, the
Christian Church must be grouped supernation-
ally, our fellowship must be realized in some tan
gible form. Take those four factors, historical — ¦
clearing the ground; social — increasing the need;
experimental — removing the terrors due to mis
understanding and practically forcing the neces
sity of some organization of the fellowship for
constructive service upon us; and are not these
factors in the mind of the Master for our own
day? It is said by some that it would be an unwise
thing to unite the Protestant communions because
that would leave aside the Roman, the Eastern
and non-Evangelical Churches. Let us look at
these three things for a moment. I think we all
beheve that we cannot regard our union of the
Christian Church as satisfactory if we do not

THE MIND OF THE MASTER loi
include the Church of Rome. But shall we be
further from Rome or Rome further from us, if
we in the Protestant communions manage to group
ourselves in some functioning Unity? I do not
think we shall. With regard to the Eastern
Churches, who knows what the condition of the
Church is in Russia and how that Church will
emerge from these cataclysmical days. We see
already signs of change, of awakening in the East
ern Church, the Balkans, out through Syria, in the
near East, and surely we shall not be further re
moved from our Eastern brethren if we take down
the endless divisions whch exist among ourselves
and present a well-united front than we now do to
the real foe — selfishness, injustice, wrong in the
world. And with regard to our non-Evangelical breth
ren, while we admire their genuine Christianity,
at the present time, it does not seem to be a feasi
ble thing to bind them into a practical Unity with
ourselves without sacrificing larger sections of the
Evangehcal Christians to-day so that for the time
being no doubt we shall have to go on without
them and our Union will not remove us further
from them nor them further from us.
So that there seems to be no reason why we
should hold ourselves back. With regard to the
present situarion, let us be thankful for move
ments already on foot. Let us be thankful for

102 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
the work done by the Federal Council of the
Churches, let us be grateful for this movement at
present underway, the Inter-Church Movement
that is trying to bind us together as partners in a
common task. Let us welcome with cordiality
what seems to me far more reaching a movement,
that resulting in the conference recently held with
representatives of most of our Protestant com
munions in our country, which has suggested the
name The United Church of America, and a coun
cil over these communions which will have certain
duties laid upon it to unify the aggressive work of
the churches and where possible to bring about
economy and cooperation where there has been
needless overlapping.
But all these together hardly satisfy the aspira
tions of our souls. Our aspirations as we look
back upon the mind of Jesus Christ cannot be for
anything less than fellowship, fellowship in teach
ing, fellowship in action, fellowship in the break
ing of bread and in prayers. And until we can
have that further fellowship, we cannot hope to
realize, as we wish to realize, the corporate solid
arity as the body of Jesus Christ.
It would be presumptuous for me even to sug
gest steps In the right direction. I am glad tha^
the speaker next week has for his subject: " The
Next Step." But certainly, if one interprets the
mind of Christ at all correctly, the next step is

THE MIND OF THE MASTER 103
not something to be deferred till some remote to
morrow, but a step which ought to be taken now.
Historical investigation — clearing the way,
the social conscience comes in with its demand
for fellowship, experience with one another has
broken down suspicion, misunderstanding, made it
easy for us to work together, soul with soul, and
practical — the task before us, the urgent necessi
ties of the world cry out for this Unity.
Let me leave you with a single picture. It is
not a great work of art. It hangs up here on
the wall of our Metropolitan Museum, represent
ing the crusaders in sight of the Holy City.
Down in the corner of the canvas the artist has
sketched the domes and flat roofs of Jerusalem.
Up above the sky line the figure of Jesus Christ,
not seated In kingly majesty and in majestic and
commanding repose, but Jesus Christ sitting eager,
with the print of the nails In his hands and feet
inviting his people to go with him, and in the cen
ter of the canvas a great host of horsemen and
footmen marching to make that City, now in the
hands of the infidel, the City of the Living God.
It cannot be done by a part of the host. It can
scarcely be done by the whole host together.
And is that not the picture that concerns me
to-day? The cities of men to be made the cities
of God, binding us together In devotion, bidding us
to go on that the body of Christ may be made

104 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
triumphant on the earth and we here feeling our
selves One, really One, longing for some practical
outward manifestation of that Oneness that shall
make us one effective host to take these cities and
make Jesus Christ their King.

THE NEXT STEP
By the Rt. Rev. Ethelbert Talbot, D.D.
As it was not my privilege to hear the several
addresses which have preceded this, I hope I may
be pardoned if inadvertently I shall touch upon
some of the same ground as that traversed by
others.
It is at least suggestive that the title of this last
address of the series assigned to me is the " Next
Step," for that would seem to imply that we
realize that the great objective for which we are
all striving can only be reached by taking a step
at a time.
In our consideration of the subject of Church
Unity, in all of its phases, we have abundant rea
son for encouragement in the fact that never be
fore, since division began, has there been such a
deep and widespread and intelligent and above
all, prayerful interest in it as now.
While nothing Is gained by passing judgment
upon those who were called to lead the Church
in days gone by, and still less in stirring up the
old controversies and fanning into flame the dying
embers of post-reformation debates about forms
and ceremonies, which now seem to us so trivial,

io6 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
we must all in fairness admit that our Forefathers
in our several Churches behaved In such a manner
that they simply made division inevitable. In
other words, the temper then was inflammatory,
dangerous and angry. One can hardly be sur
prised that Episcopacy, for instance, was thor
oughly despised by Non-conformists at that
stormy period when It allowed Itself to be Identi
fied with Royalty and especially when the crown
of Royalty was worn by such a representative as
King James. That Hampton Court Conference
was a deplorable example of a lost opportunity.
It was on that occasion that James exclaimed,
" If you aim at a Scotch Presbytery, it agreeth
as well with Monarchy as God and the Devil.
Then Jack and Tom and Dick will meet and cen
sure me and my council." The King's last words
as he left the room, were Ill-omened. " I will
make them conform or I will harry them out of
the land or else do worse." The King was speak
ing for the Bishops. The Episcopal Church in this
country to-day still labors under the prejudice in
herited from those stormy and unfortunate days
when Bishops allowed themselves to be associated
in the public mind with aristocracy and pride, with
bigotry, intolerance and persecution. A similar
spirit of angry and relentless disputation animated
all the Churches at that time. None of us can
claim immunity from it. It was in the air and

THE NEXT STEP 107
everywhere in evidence. Let us thank God that
to-day all is different. As some one has said, the
war has flung us all into a new world. Through
what we love to think and believe has been the
Divine leading, we l^ave now been vouchsafed an
atmosphere congenial, not to controversy, but to
agreement. Church Unity can never come until the spirit of
Christian Unity has become so strong as to be
irresistible. By Christian Unity we mean that
strong bond of union between disciples of our
Lord that enables us to recognize His claim upon
our allegiance as absolutely preeminent. The
very core of the heart of Christianity is love for
Jesus Christ. In the past it has often been too
true that we have been adherents of a system,
lovers of an institution, devotees of our particular
Church or Theological School of thought, mem
bers of a party, or believers In a religion primarily
when we ought to be first of all, and perhaps in
some ways last of all, lovers of a Person. That
is, we have been wont to lay stress upon the things
which divide, which we do not share with all Chris
tians. Hence have followed disunion, strike, and
all the unlovely sides of rehgion. Among the first
disciples of Christ this was the one thing of which
there was no doubt, namely the love for Christ.
They, like ourselves, were people of entirely differ
ent temperaments and gifts, but they were all

io8 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
alike in this: each one could say from his soul,
" Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest
that I love Thee." More and more, I seem to
see among Christians of to-day an emergence of
that spirit. Devout men in increasing numbers
are becoming weary of the futihty of conflict, and
are looking for some hope of a better understand
ing; they are sick of the party cries and shibbo
leths and longing for that wider fellowship which
must ultimately unify the Church of Christ and
make it effective in the discharge of its mission
in the world. The love of Jesus Christ has ac
complished this. It is a rediscovery of the great
fundamental which is destined to be the breath of
life to a divided Church and make brother grasp
the hand of brother with a grip of good fellow
ship and mutual trust, and when that personal
love for Christ has been perfected the pass-word
for the regenerated Church which alone will be
worthy of her will be, " Peace to all those who
love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."
In addressing myself to the question of Church
Unity, for whose favorable consideration such a
congenial atmosphere has been, by the leading of
the Holy Spirit created, will you permit me to say
that in my humble judgment the " Next Step " is
to endeavor to unite, so far as is possible, our vari
ous Evangelical Churches into which so much of

THE NEXT STEP 109
our American Christianity is divided, so as to
form a visible Organic Union.
Towards the accomplishment of this object,
two important beginnings have been made. I
refer in the first place to the plan of union adopted
early in February last, by the American Council
of Churches, on the initiative of the General As
sembly of the Presbyterian Church. And sec
ondly, to an " Approach towards Unity " now
known as the Concordat, created by a joint con
ference between a group of distinguished Congre
gational brethren, and a siriiilar group of members
of the Episcopal Church. They are both con
fessedly simply steps in the direction of such an
ideal Unity as that contemplated in the prayer of
our Divine Lord. But they are both significant
and full of promise If carried out and made ef
fectual. Let us consider briefly the claims of each of
these movements.
At the Annual Meeting oi the General Assem
bly of the Presbyterian Church held in Columbus
in May, 19 18, a resolurion was passed with great
enthusiasm that a commission on Organic Union
of the Evangehcal Churches of America be at
once appointed and Instructed to hold as soon as
practicable a conference to consider a plan or
plans for such union, to which conference the vari-

no THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
ous Evangelical Churches should be cordially in
vited to send delegates. Such a conference was
held in Philadelphia on the first week In De
cember, 19 1 8. Representatives of seventeen
Churches responded to the Invitation and were
present at the conference. The spirit that pre
vailed was admirable. It was evident that a
heartfelt longing for Unity moved all who took
part in the proceedings.
It was unanimously agreed among us that the
great world crisis through which we had passed
had laid upon the Christian Church new obliga
tions and duties which we may not disregard.
The common ideals and dangers which have come
to the front In the great War have developed
many latent forces which we must be quick to con
serve. Moreover It was thought that the unanim
ity with which our American people In the face
of their many differing traditions of creed and
practice were able to fuse themselves into one
body for the common weal of the nation and the
world may be regarded as a prophecy full of hope
of what the Church might accomplish by coming
into a like Unity In the interests of that great
Kingdom so dear to the heart of our Master and
His loyal disciples.
The mere fact that such a conference was called
with such an object In view Is profoundly signifi
cant of a decided change of attitude towards the

THE NEXT STEP m
subject of Organic Union. The wide and cordial
response to the call was likewise suggestive of
progress towards the desired goal. Such a meet
ing with such response could not have been held
even ten years ago.
It is even more worthy of note that the Con
ference also expressed Its conviction that our
Divine Master is now challenging His disciples
to conquer the divisive elements which segregate
us into various and sometimes conflicting bodies,
and under the guidance of His spirit to bring the
manifold treasures which have been gathered In
our several histories and experiences to a common
altar and there devote them to our Lord and His
cause. This Philadelphia Conference representing
seventeen churches, which number has since been
greatly Increased, emphatically declared that It
was plainly in accordance with the divine purpose
and in harmony with the will of Christ that His
Church should be one visible Body in order to bear
witness to Him among men. It reminded us that
in His last prayer the Savior asks that His disci
ples may all be One as He and His Father are
One, that the world may believe that He was sent
of God.
At our last meeting held only a few weeks ago,
early in February, a plan of Union was adopted to
be presented to the supreme governing bodies of

112 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
the several communions when they shall respect.-
ively meet. The following preamble and plan
were agreed upon.
" Whereas, we desire to share, as a common
heritage, the faith of the Christian Church, which
has, from time to time, found expression in great
historic statements ; and,
" Whereas, we all share belief in God our
Father; In Jesus Christ; His only Son, our Savior;
in the Holy Spirit, our Guide and Comforter; in
the Holy Catholic Church, through which God's
eternal purpose of salvation is to be proclaimed
and the Kingdom of God is to be realized on
earth; in the Scriptures of the Old and the New
Testaments, as containing God's revealed will, and
in the life eternal; and,
" Whereas, having the same spirit and owning
the same Lord, we none the less recognize divers
ity of gifts and ministrations for whose exercise
due freedom must always be afforded in forms of
worship and in modes of operation."
Plan: '
Now we, the Churches, hereto assenting, do
hereby agree to associate ourselves in a visibld
body to be known as the United Churches of
America, for the furtherance of the redemptive
work of Christ in the world.
" In the interest of the freedom of each and of
the cooperation of all, each constituent Church

THE NEXT STEP 113
reserves the right to retain its credal statements,
its fqrm of government In the conduct of its own
affairs, and Its particular mode of worship.
" In taking this step, we look forward with
confident hope to that complete Unity toward
which we beheve the Spirit of God is leading us.
Once we shall have cooperated whole-heartedly
in such visible body, in the holy activiries of the
work of the Church, we are persuaded that our
differences will be minimized and our Union be
come more vital and effective.
" The United Churches of Christ in America
shall act through a Council and through such ex
ecutive and judicial commissions or administrative
boards, working ad interim as such Council may
from time to time appoint and ordain."
You will note that this organization does not
claim to be the ideal plan of Organic Union which
its constituent members have in view. It is only
a " First Step " whose aim is to create an atmos
phere of mutual understanding In which alone the
visible Organic Unity aimed at can ever be real
ized. This movement, as will be readily seen,
differs from the Federal Council, the Inter-Church
World Movement, and all other similar organ
izations in that it has for its goal the visible
Organic Unity of the several Churches into one
body. It goes very much further in its object
than mere federation. At the same time, it recog-

114 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
nizes the great advantage of federation in help
ing to generate the atmosphere of mutual under
standing In which the final objective can alone
be realized. Its aim will be to cultivate the most
cordial relations with all movements making for
a closer cooperation among Christian people in
the redemptive work of Christ.
As one very Important result of this movement,
it Is confidently hoped and believed that a number
of Churches of like polity and forms of worship
will gradually be merged into one communion, thus
greatly lessening the number of separate Churches,
and giving great relief from the economic waste
and rivalry resulting from division in many towns
and villages overburdened with far too many
Churches. A number of these mergers as you
know are now in the process of being formed.
We come now to consider what Is known as the
Concordat. Whether this proposed approach to
Unity will work, whether it Is practicable, whether
it will be helpful or harmful in its practical effects,
there Is room Indeed for wide differences of opin
ion among representatives of both Churches who
are equally wise, equally good and equally loyal.
The Concordat provides that in case a Coi^rega-
tlonalist or any other non-episcopal minister ap
phes to a bishop for episcopal ordination he shall
sarisfy the bishop that he holds the historic faith
of the Church as contained In the Apostles' Creed

THE NEXT STEP 115
and the Nicene Creed, that he shall be confirmed,
that he shall be ordained deacon and priest, that
he shall thereafter use a prescribed form of words
in celebrating the Holy Communion, and invaria
bly use the elements of bread and wine in that
Sacrament, and that he shall continue permanently
in relation with the bishop and under his guidance
and direction while at the same time remaining
as pastor, at the request of his congregation, over
his own people just as heretofore.
We cannot but regard It as very remarkable
that the eminent and Christian brethren whose
names are signed to this proposal are ready to
assent to these conditions. Do we fully realize
what it means? Never before have a group of
representative Protestant ministers purely for the
sake of the great cause of Unity been willing to go
so far as this. Surely the step for them is a revo
lutionary one. It requires much grace and true
religion for such men to be willing to take such
a step. The question on the part of the Episco
pal Church is, have we a right to ask more than
this of those men, as a condition of Unity? That
is the question which those who have been en
gaged in this Important matter have had to ask
themselves In the sight of God. Some of our
people have objected to the proposal on the
ground that although the minister thus applying
will have been confirmed and ordained to the

ii6 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
priesthood, the people of his congregation will not
have been required to be confirmed. While this
might be regarded as unfortunate it Is surely not
an insuperable objection. Indeed as a matter of
fact for one hundred years no one In the Episcopal
Church, in this country, was confirmed because
we had no bishops and yet the Church, though it
suffered through this neglect, still survived.
This was a case of emergency. So likewise the
situation created by these proposals for the heal
ing of the wounds in the Body of Christ may well
be considered an emergency. No one claims that
confirmation is a prerequisite to salvation. Con
firmation will take care of itself, it is thought. In
all probability when the plan becomes an accom
plished fact and begins to function. At best both
sides realize that it is only a temporary arrange
ment — an approach towards the full reahzation
of Unity. The Congregationahsts feel this quite
as strongly as we do. Think what the situation
will be. The minister will have been confirmed
and ordained priest. His people will have for
mally assented to this. They and their minister
will be in regular and stated relation with the
bishop of the diocese. Unquestionably if the
matter of confirmation be left to adjust itself
many will desire naturally to receive that blessing.
It seems to me that if men are deeply and
earnestly desirous of Unity, the principle of give

THE NEXT STEP n7
and take wherever no conviction is sacrificed on
either side should prevail.
The meaning of the Concordat is not that either
side expects to make Congregationahsts or Meth
odists or Presbyterians into Episcopalians.
Surely that is not what we mean by Unity.
Rather we desire to see them, yes and to see our
selves also, lifted up and out of our present di
visions and sectarianisms into the full life and fel
lowship of the Catholic Church of Scripture and
history. Therefore the Congregationahsts who
accept this arrangement will not be technically in
what is now known as the Episcopal Church.
They will not be subject to the canon law of the
Episcopal Church. They will have entire liberty
as to the use of the Prayer Book, vestments, and
ceremonies, and will probably not use the Prayer
Book any more than they do at present; at any
rate that will be entirely their own affair. But
they will be without question in the full Commun
ion and fellowship of the Holy Catholic Church
of history and of the Creeds. They will hold the
historic faith as therein set forth, they will accept
the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as
the Word of God, they will have the priesthood
and the sacraments, and they will be in commun
ion with a Catholic bishop and under his guidance
and direction. In short, if carried out, this cou
rageous step on the part of these congregations

ii8 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
may be an epoch-making one. It may prove to
be the greatest practical step in the direction of
Unity since disunity began.
The plan was presented at our late General
Convention and initial action was taken In regard
to it. The General Convention also provided a
Joint Commission to which was referred the
whole subject. Our Congregational brethren, on
their part at their National Council, took corre
sponding action by appointing a commission to
continue the conferences with our own commis
sion. In a recent issue the " Congregatlonalist,"
published In Boston, referring to the action taken
by our Convention said: "Our Council in re
sponse has appointed a similar commission. The
joint commission has a right to ask for suspense of
hasty criticism, for patient waiting, and for
prayerful consideration and help. We should
have the final conclusions of the commission be
fore us before we make up our minds In regard to
the price which evidently must be paid by both
parties to such an agreement for manifest gains of
brotherly cooperation and united witness."
Unquestionably there is abundant evidence that
through the operation of the Holy Ghost the out
come of each of these important movements may
prove to be most helpful. But just because there
Is such eager desire for some kind of Unity there
is great danger that the Churches may commit the

THE NEXT STEP 119
fatal mistake of adopting some form of mere
federation instead of securing a genuine and Or
ganic Union. To be satisfied with any Concordat
or system of working together while retaining the
autonomy of existing independent Churches as a
final objective, would be to delude ourselves with a
superficial and temporary expedient. It would
be a Unity like that of a rope of sand. No kind
of Unity short of the ideal for which our blessed
Lord prayed Is worthy of our serious thought or
effort. That Unity must come as a spiritual
change and must be preceded by many gracious
quickenings and Impulses If it is to have any per
manent value. It is not mechanical but vital.
It cannot be through the Prussian method of con
quest and submission. " The flower appears
after the gentle rain and summer warmth have
awakened the seed." It must be a Unity built
upon the foundation of the Apostles and Pro
phets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.
It must be rooted and grounded In our love for
Him. It may be a Unity of the spirit In the
bond of peace. It can never be adequately ex
pressed simply in the cooperation of the Chris
tian Churches for moral influence and social ser
vice, though such cooperation is altogether desir
able and might well be carried much further than
it is at present. But It cannot be too clearly un
derstood that Organic Union can only be fully re-

120 THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
alized through community of worship, faith and
order. Including above all other requirements com
mon participation in the Lord's Supper. There
must be some standardization of the Christian
Ministry that inter-Communion may be fully real
ized. This by no means implies a dead uniform
ity, but would be quite compatible with a rich di
versity in life and practice as to non-essentials.
Encouraged by such irenic spirit between the
Churches as we now have, and having reached the
point when we regard the visible Unity of the
Body of Christ as the precious pearl of great
price for which we are willing to sell all that Is
purely our own, and not a trust committed to our
keeping by God, and thus purchase Unity at what
ever cost or sacrifice of pride or prejudice, are we
not now approaching the time when we shall be
ready to seek the best way out of the tangle of
the centuries? As Christian men shall we not
soon be ready and prepared to face frankly aijd
fearlessly the real issues and to solve the prob
lem which in God's providence he has so plainly
placed before us?
What is it now that divides the Churches?
Largely it is a question not of faith but of order
or church government. Thank God, that in the
realm of faith there Is little that need give us
serious concern or longer keep us apart. On all
the great fundamental verities of our holy reli-

THE NEXT STEP 121
gion, at least among the evangelical bodies into
which American Christianity is divided there is
substantial agreement.
Unity cannot be brought about by way of any
compromise which is at the cost or sacrifice of
conscientious convictions or by the surrender of
any cherished principle. Nor can it be achieved
by asking any communion to repudiate or disown
its past but only by adopting some plan whereby
each Church may have the privilege of contribut
ing of the wealth distinctive of each to the com
mon enrichment of the United Church, and this
not by way of grudging concessions but of hearty
and grateful acceptance of some well tried basis
upon which Christian liberty can be reconciled by
law. It goes without saying that in such a re
united Church the principle of democracy should
be all pervasive ; that kind of democracy which is
animated not by a determination to possess every
right which another has; but rather by a desire
to Insist that the other shall have whatever right
we may possess. This spirit can only be vouch
safed us in answer to prayer that the great Head
of the Church, our Divine Savior, will accom
plish in, and through his humble servants, the ful
fillment of His Holy Will.

THE END
PBINTED IN THE UNITED STATES Or AMBBIOA

APPENDIX

Officers of the Christian Unity
Foundation
Acting President
Rt. Rev. Edwin S. Lines, D.D.
Vice-Presidents
Rt. Rev. Edvfard M. Parker, D.D., D.C.L.
Rt. Rev. Philip M. Rhinelander, D.D., LL.D.
Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Garland, D.D., D.C.L.
Rt. Rev. Boyd Vincent, D.D.
R. Fulton Cutting, Esq.
Secretary
Rev. William Chauncey Emhardt
Newtown, Bucks Co., Pa.
Treasurer
Origen S. Seymour, Esq.
52 William St., N. Y. City
Trustees
Rt. Rev. Edwin S. Lines, D.D.
Rt. Rev. Boyd Vincent, D.D.
Rt. Rev. Edward M. Parker, D.D., D.C.L.
Rt. Rev. Phu-ip M. Rhinelander, D.D., LL.D.
Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Garland, D.D., D.C.L.
Rev. Peter Ainslie, D.D.
Rev. Charles L. Slattery, D.D.
Rev. George W. Douglas, D.D.
Rev. Anson P. Atterbury, D.D.
Rev. Reese F. Alsop, D.D.
Rev. St. Clair Hester, D.D.
Rev. William Pierson Merrill, D.D.
Rev. Robert E. Jones, D.D.
Rev. Rockland Tyng Homans
Rev. Frederick Lynch, D.D.
Rev. William Chauncey Emhardt
Hon. Morris Seymour
Origen S. Seymour, Esq.
R. Fulton Cutting, Esq.
David B. Ogden, Esq.
William Fellowes Morgan, Esq.
William Jay Shieffelin, Esq.
Samuel F. Houston, Esq.
I2S

Study Number Five
CHRISTIAN UNITY FOUNDATION SERIES
The Christian Unity Foundation is a purely vol
untary and unofficial organization. Its purpose is to pro
mote Christian Unity by the method of Education,
Research and Conference.
Ages in the past have emphasized the power of compe
tition but to-day cooperation is the great ideal towards
which all departments of human activity are tending.
A growing sense of the evils involved in disunion is now
apparent. Men and women of every religious name are
reahzing the wickedness and folly of the divisions and
sub-divisions among those who call themselves Christians.
The Christian Unity Foundation is a pioneer in
the great field for affecting the union of the discordant
churches of Christendom. Established in the early part
of the year 1910 and incorporated under the State of New
York July i8th of the same year, the Foundation has
endeavored to do its work of reconciliation among Chris
tians chiefly through " Education, Research and Confer
ence." By such means proper explanations have been
given of many misinterpretations and misunderstandings
which have been the accidental causes of disunion, and are
still hindrances in the way for all Christians to be one.
The Foundation believes in the " Grace of the Agree
ing Mind " and in the second clause of its Articles of
Incorporation thus states its purpose: "To promote
126

APPENDIX 127
Christian Unity at home and throughout the world. To
this end to gather and disseminate accurate information
relative to the faith and works of all Christian bodies.
To devise and suggest practical methods of cooperation
substituting comity for rivalry in the propagation of the
common faith. To bring together all who are laboring
in the same field and this in the belief that full knowledge
of one another will emphasize our actual membership in
the one body of Christ and our common agreement in the
essentials of faith."
In the fulfilment of such S. purpose, the Foundation has
successfully, with the help of its many friends in the
great cause of Christian Unity, and with the kindly co
operation of the Reverend Doctor Merrill, pastor of the
Brick Presbyterian Church, been enabled to present a
course of lectures of great value. In order to reach " the
greater public," these lectures are printed in book form
under " Study Number Five."
Christian Unity is indeed " The Problem " of the
Twentieth Century. What is needed to-day is education,
information, inspiration upon the meaning of Church
Unity. We earnestly invite the reader to study and ex
amine the following pages in the interest of the great task
that is before all of us. It is for the people of the Church
to work for unity, under the enlightenment of the Holy
Spirit. Unity must come from the people to the leaders,
from the lower to the higher, so that the Body itself may
be made ready for the Master's use.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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