CHRISTIAN UNITY.
A COMMON PLATFORM.
One of the results spoken of by Christ in His prayer, and brought about
by sanctification, is Christian unity--"that they all may be one."
There is but one remedy for sectism and bigotry, and it is found in the
answer to Christ's petition. When Pentecost comes to us we are all
lifted upon one grand common platform and shake hands and shout and
weep and laugh and get so mixed up that a Presbyterian can not be
distinguished from a Methodist, nor a Friend from an Episcopalian
vestryman.
FALSE UNITY.
We have heard much about the organic union of churches. Many great and
good men have looked forward with sanguine hopes to the day when we
should do away with denominations. In a few cases two churches of
different sects have united and worshipped in one congregation. But the
causes of such unity are frequently far from gratifying. In D----the
Methodists and Primitive Methodists clasp hands and join forces because
they can thus make one preacher do the work which two formerly
performed. In K----the Baptists and Presbyterians unite because the
thirteen members of one church and the seven of the other feel lonely
in their great refrigerators and are inclined to make friends and
preserve life. The cold is most intense. In the far North the weather
is sometimes so severe that wild beasts, ordinarily hostile both toward
each other and man, crowd close together near the campfire of the
explorer.
With many churches it is "unite or die!" The mallet of the auctioneer
threatens the steeple-house, the young folks are off "golfing" or
"hiking," and the gray-beards, lonely and terror-stricken as they see
church extinction approaching, favor "a union of forces with some other
church." In the church magazines of the next month appear sundry
articles on "the broad and liberal spirit of the nineteenth century
church." "A large catholicity is taking the place of the old fogyism of
former days," scribbles the hack-writer.
THE "MILKSOP'S" THEORY.
In a few cases large congregations have united. When we behold it our
hopes rise, but they are doomed to early blight by a careful study of
the situation. The cause of denominationalism is the tenacious clinging
to faith and doctrines. Whether or no we ought to all believe precisely
alike about non-essentials, one thing is sure, the man who does not
cleave to some faith, heart and head and brain and blood, is worthless
in Christ's army. Milksops may be ornamental, they are certainly not
militant, and God wants soldiers. The man who does not know what he
believes, and the man who says "it does not matter what one believes if
one is only sincere," are more despicable than the Yankees who burned
witches in Salem. Better that a man be "narrow" than that he be so
"broad" as to take in "the devil and all his angels." Out upon our
folly when we barter away the truth of God for a flimsy, tissue-paper
bond of so-called "fellowship"!
CHRISTIAN ONENESS.
There is a unity, however, and to it Christ referred, which does not
consist in uniformity of creed but in oneness of heart. When we are
truly sanctified the non-baptizing Quaker, and the trine immersionist,
and the High Church Episcopalian, and the foot-washing Tunker, and the
Methodist, and the Baptist, and the Congregationalist all unite in one
far-reaching melodious chorus,
"HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD!"
DISTINCTIONS OBLITERATED.
Sanctification destroys sticklerism for non-essentials and the lust for
fine distinctions in dogmatics. It slays the doctrinaire and makes a
red-hot revivalist out of him. The purified soul takes the Bible for
his "credo" and loves God's children of whatever name with a generosity
that overtops every inadequate consideration. The sanctified are united
by a common cause and a common experience. Opinions may differ as to
ecclesiastical polity or the mode of baptism, but the white cord of
sanctification is "the bond of perfectness" which makes them one
bundle. Yale and Cornell are rivals with their "eights" and "shells" on
American Hudson, but men from both colleges join forces to beat the
Britishers at Henley. Holiness people of every church unite to "push
holiness."
THE SPOKES AND THE HUB.
When the glorious grace of full salvation is experienced, love for
Christ is increased and intensified. Everyone wants to magnify Him and
live close to Him: and as we get close to Him, the Hub, the distance
between us, the spokes, is lessened.
THE D.D. AND THE NEGRO.
A D.D. and a negro meet on a Mississippi River boat. They fall into
conversation. The doctor speaks of the Lord. The negro's eyes fill and
he says, "You know my Savior?" and they shake hands and weep and shout.
Why this community of feeling between men of such diverse stations in
life? Both possess the blessing of entire sanctification.
VARIOUS SECTS
The writer has had the privilege of preaching in churches of different
denominations in the work of special evangelism, but never has he known
the falling of Pentecostal fire to fail to burn up sectarianism. It is
no easy matter to find out from the preaching of our holiness preachers
under what denominational flag they sail. Full salvation obliterates
the fences which separate the people of God and makes them really "one
in Christ Jesus."