_UNION IN HARMONY_
"_Be ye all of one mind._"
--1 PETER iii. 8-17.
But this is not unison: it is harmony. When an orchestra produces some
great musical masterpiece, the instruments are all of one mind, but each
makes its own individual contribution. There is variety with concordance:
each one serves every other, and the result is glorious harmony. "By love
serve one another." It is love that converts membership into fraternity:
it is love that binds sons and daughters into a family.
Look at a field of wild-flowers. What a harmony of colour! And yet what a
variety of colours! Nothing out of place, but no sameness! All drawing
resource from the same soil, and breathing the vitalizing substance from
the same air!
"And ye, being rooted and grounded in love," will grow up, a holy family
in the Lord. If love be the common ground the varieties in God's family
may be infinite!
And so the unity which the apostle seeks is a unity of mood and
disposition. It is not a unity which repeats the exact syllables of a
common creed, but a unity which is built of common trust, and love, and
hope. It is not sameness upon the outer lips, but fellowship in the secret
place.