_THE UNITING OF SUNDERED PEOPLES_
"_On the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost._"
--ACTS x. 34-48.
And this is ever the issue of a true outpouring of the Spirit: sundered
peoples become one. At "low tide" there are multitudes of separated pools
along the shore: at "high tide" they flow together, and the little
distinctions are lost in a splendid union.
It is so racially. "Jew and Gentile!" Peter and Cornelius lose their
prejudices in the emancipating ministry of the Spirit. And so shall it be
with English and Irish, with French and German, with Asiatic and European:
they shall be "all one" in Christ.
It is so socially. "Bond and free!" The master and the servant shall
discover a glorious intimacy and union. And so shall rich and poor, the
learned and the illiterate, the many-talented and the obscure. The pools
shall flow together.
It is so ecclesiastically. Our sectarianisms are always most frowning and
obtrusive when spiritually we are at "low tide." When the tide rises, it
is amazing how the ramparts are submerged. It is not round-table
conferences that we need, but seasons of communion when together we shall
await the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.