UNKNOWN. AUTHOR
Published: 2015-06-12
Total Pages: 524
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Excerpt from The Magazine of Christian Literature, Vol. 5: October, 1891 By what system of organic union can it be made out that the various Christians shall be in each other as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father? The result prayed for is that the world may be convinced of the presence of Christ in the Church, and thereby be satisfied that Christ was sent of the father. Formal unity in the shape of organic consolidation would, however, prove precisely the reverse of that which is here suggested. Dead uniformity is not the mark of the work of the Divine Hand. God's plan is external variety with a presence of essential unity. All plants have a similar life, but species differ from species. One species is no more a plant because of its specific peculiarities, nor less a plant because of its specific distinctions. Neither animals nor men are made alike by the Divine Hand. For reasons that arc not apparent large numbers of individual birds and beasts will separate themselves from the other members of their own species into their own favorite flocks; and this separation into herds is not to the injury of either the particular drove or the general mass. In some cases these gregarious selections among men have an explanation, but in other cases they are due to inexplicable matters of taste. These denominational differences in the preferences of individual Christians may in some cases have no good reason; in other cases they may greatly tend to Christian growth, personal comfort and spiritual sanctification. Men often say that the division of the Church into denominations is a great hindrance to outsiders in their attention to religion. Hundreds of outsiders make these divisions the plausible excuse for their neglect. But it is to bo noted that no Scripture, either of instruction or example, any more than human experience, gives good ground to believe that this is a fact. The very people who make these differences between the denominations excuses for the neglect of the whole subject would find some other excuse if this was taken away. God, on His own authority, made distinctions for the better organization of His people, when there was no object for it but their good. Even in the wilderness the Israelites were organized into tribes : and when settled in Canaan this division was kept up. Surely no one will say that Benjamin and Judah and the rest should all have been consolidated into one tribe for every purpose. There were twelve apostles; and Paul's objection to the divisions in Corinth was that the attempt was made to make Paul and Cephas and Apollos substitutes for Christ. The Old Testament synagogues were adopted as the model of the New Testament churches; and even in the same cities there were numerous synagogues, as in all the history of the New Testament churches there have been numerous congregations in the same neighborhood. The evils which are proposed to be remedied by this union of denominations are far more serious as among individual churches than among denominations; and if to remedy these it is important to consolidate denominations, it will be still more important to consolidate congregations. The competition with one another for the favor and patronage of individual persons and families is much more active between individual churches than between the denominations. It is duo largely to lack of good sense on the part of the individuals, and their stock of common sense would not be increased by putting them into the same denomination. Nine tenths of the evils of this competition, as it is generally described, exists only in the imagination of the enthusiastic orator, as he describes how other people would work if their souls were no larger than his own. As a fact interdenominational disputes, heated controversies, and angry debates do not exist. They never did exist to the extent to which they have been described. They exist to-day as earnestly in the jealousy and competitio...