| Show CHRISTIAN DISUNION THE man subject of sectarianism or the 41 division vIsion of christendom into a multitude of contending sects is being dis dig curbed in many wany quarters the evil of it is ie being better appreciated than has baa been common in the past efforts to establish christian unity are numerous but any practical cannot at t be chronicled in the view for march bishop A cleve land coxe of the episcopal church uan tm an article on this question from which watch we make the annexed extracts what is christianity doing with its immense resources and gigantic energies to stay this plague of national decline alasi alas christianity itself is paralyzed by sectarian divisions and by the spirit that cheriL cherishes hes i them hem repugnant as it is to the precepts of its divine author christ never authorized a divided household nor the dissolution of what he gave us joined together and compacted by that which every joint sup 1 where is any promise of triumph over the world save only to the church in its unity and integrity yet these divisions te 08 kept up not only where cardinal principles are involved they are supported by wasteful expenditure and abid even bv olau sible argument among those who proclaim that they differ only in non essentials if a BO 0 why differ at ai all at the sacrifice of that essential unity which is a primary precept of the goa gospel el can a thoughtful christian delight in a popular christianity which shape has lone distinguishable in member joint or compared with the church in its ages we are all as an dead men our sanitation is a valley of dry bones bone come from froin the four winds 0 spirit and breath upon these slain 1 I hold bold that the first thing is the spirit to deplore and hate sectarian division and further fun her I 1 hold that when this spirit turns into general prayer and supplication the holy spirit is ig able to do the let feet and to realize the mediators will that they all may be one essentially one be it observed not sentimentally no ao but but practically vitally e essentially issen tally after t the he highest pattern in the universe the th essential unity of the holy and undivided trinity mere compromises fall short of the mark and effect nothing thing but failure and consequent discouragement of this one may find lan n example and a warning in the well meant effort of frederick william III to establish a united protestantism in prussia it was entirely based on compromise and has satisfied nobody the unity of mere compromise aims to settle everything by al allian liane e and to draw up schemes for ratification ba b proto protocol coland and treaty they must always prove abortive not such is the way of god convinced of this profoundly convinced that there must be root principles to oranio ganio unity out of which it if grows and is wt mot gt strained rained the bishops ot our anglican communion have set forth for the ibe consideration of their fellow christians pt their own views of the root plop but the views of the ancient church catholic of christ such were the principles chedic cherished lied by all when the church was indeed at unity with itself and which were never forfeited till the roman pontiff proscribed prescribed another and a novel criterion by force of which the gatins F j soon boon severed themselves from the grand root and trunk of christendom the maternal churches of the fact the churches amid which the last of the apostles tin lin vexed red till they had all received the jo joints ints a bands banda or of unity and a universal polity luy which provided that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same dame carer one lor r another this thia to is vastly dif different forent from that sort of argument which apologizes for disunion and goes so far as to maintain that it is a bent benefit fit instead of an evil the remedy for this division can only come from those root principles from which sprang the primitive christian church and can only be effective among those who sincerely desire the truth in preference to private views view and sand pers personal oual interests and while men however learned and however pious seek for those root principles in the mold of earthly systems they will fail to grasp what they need the ancient church of christ having long since disappeared it la Is only by a restoration of it in its original form and spirit that a basis for true christianity can be laid that restoration must come from a divine instead of a human source but SO aa long as the ministers and members of the modern chur churches cheo refuse to believe in present revelation end and will reject anything that claims to have come from god in the nineteenth century the evils complained of will continue and increase and modern christen jom will remain a modern babel |
