A divided Christendom is proof positive that Christianity has been shifted from its true basis. No real unity is possible or desirable on any other than a Christian foundation. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid. The throne of God is against all efforts based on a creedal uniformity, an ecclesiastical polity, or a liturgical conformity. Not until we come back to the spiritual religion of the Son of man, and make the kingdom of God the supreme object of endeavor, will the hope of unity be other than an empty dream. The only unity worthy of the name is a unity of faith in one Lord, a unity of life in one Spirit, and of unity of endeavor in one kingdom. In one great sentence the Apostle gathers up the argument of his Epistle, and brings to a head its ethical import: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but a new creation." "And as many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." Not yet have we grown up to the tremendous and widereaching import of those words. All such things as forms, and rituals, and ordinances, and apostolic succession have an infinitesimal value, compared with the faith which worketh by love. The word of Paul for it, though a man be never so sound in doctrine, though he understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though he have all faith, so that he could remove mountains, and have not love, he is nothing. Without love all other things are vain and useless, the merest garnishings of the sepulcher. Where love is, there is peace and unity and every good work. "The man who says there is no church, speaks falsely," says Principal Fairbairn, "but not so falsely as the man who says, There is no church but mine."

But some one says: Men must have creeds, and confessions of faith; they cannot be left alone to their own uninstructed understanding; they will fall into all kinds of errors and vagaries. We are not so sure that this will

be the case; rather, we apprehend that an earnest devotion to Christ's ideal of life, a full opening of the life to the indwelling Spirit, and a supreme endeavor after the kingdom will be a sufficient bond of fellowship and a sufficient protection against vagary. Nor need we fear that such a Christianity will be a boneless, pulpy affair. To aspire after Christlikeness, to live in the Spirit, and to seek the kingdom of God means a virile, intense, safe, and Christian religion. It is only an unspiritual, intolerant, and timid faith which wants a confession that can be carried around in the pocket and shown to all inquirers. To the man who says that men cannot be trusted alone with the Holy Spirit, it is sufficient to ask, "Into what then were ye baptized? Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" Creeds and confessions may have their place and value as guides to inquirers; but they never should be elevated into tests of fellowship. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; and there is also the truest unity. Jesus Christ died to liberate men from the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Somehow the churches have be come entangled again in the yoke of bondage. To-day these handwritings must be taken out of the way, that men once more may be at peace who now are burdened, and may be reconciled who now are divided. With freedom did Christ make us free; let us see to it that we are not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. "Are ye so foolish; having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" The efforts of men to find the true church grow out of a total misapprehension of the nature of Christianity. The true church cannot be identified by such external and arbitrary signs as creeds, ordinances, and apostolic succession; all such things are but the old, dead issues of Gerizim or Jerusalem. They belong to the true church who in every age or land worship God in sincerity and in truth, who have no confidence in the flesh, and seek

the kingdom of God and its righteousness. That is an apostolic church which has the true apostolic faith, and zeal and love. Any other apostolic succession than this is a cheap and trifling thing. Not circumcision nor uncircumcision, not the Thirty-nine Articles, not the Westminster Confession, not the New Hampshire Confession, nor the Lambeth Proposals, can be the basis of the unity for which the Master prayed and the world waits, but the faith which works by love, and the life which is hid with Christ in God.

We conclude that unity can come only through a synthesis sufficiently broad to comprehend all modes of worship, whether ritualistic, extemporaneous, or quietistic; all types of doctrine, whether Pauline, Petrine, or Johannean; all forms of polity, whether Episcopal, Presbyterial, or Congregational. The mode, the type, the form, are secondary matters; they are not essential to the being of a Christian church; they should never be allowed to obtrude themselves into the front rank; they should never become the occasions of division between brethren in the Lord. The object of all endeavor is not an institution, but an ideal; a life, and not a formula; we seek a kingdom, and not a church. The one goal of all effort and prayer is the kingdom of God. Through every prayer and in every plan, through every sermon and in every hymn, there breathes the one great hope and longing, "Thy kingdom come." Men whose eyes are fixed upon this great goal look across and above every institution that now exists; they see things in their true relations and proportions; the barriers sink down, and they see eye to eye. That man who would behold the true Christian goal must rise above the barriers of sect; when once he has beheld that glorious and inspiring goal, the barriers of sect no longer constitute his horizon line.

For the present, therefore, instead of trying to devise

schemes of unity made up of concession and compromise, let those whose hearts respond to the Master's prayer for unity endeavor to exemplify most faithfully Christ's life, have most of his Spirit, set forth most plainly the real work of the church, and seek most devotedly the kingdom of God. Let the Pope of Rome, instead of trying to bring all men back into the fold, endeavor to purge that church from all harmful errors and traditions of men. Let the Episcopal bishops, instead of trying to frame a quadrilateral proposal, endeavor to purge that church from all worldliness and to bring it close to the throbbing heart of humanity. Let the Presbyterian Assembly, instead of appointing a committee on overtures, endeavor to humanize its creed and to honor the Spirit more fully. Let the Baptist brethren, instead of trying to bring all the world around to their mode of administering an ordinance, endeavor to bring all who claim the Baptist name to be fully obedient to all Christ's commands, and most faithful in the extension of his kingdom. When as churches we are seeking first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, all other things will be added-unity, peace, and fellowship. The very day the churches come back to the spiritual religion of Jesus Christ, and seek first his kingdom in the earth, that very day the way out of church disunion will disclose itself, and Christ's people will find that they are

one.

ARTICLE V.

THE SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF JESUS.

BY THE REV. LOREN FOSTER BERRY, D.D.

IN discussing this theme, one is confronted at once by the abundance and richness of the material provided. The problem is not where to look for what is desired, but how to select from the whole the little that can be used. The principal truths of our Lord's social teachings fall readily into four groups,-Fellowship, Wealth, the Family, and the State. An examination of the Gospels will show that Jesus had more to say about fellowship than about wealth, more to say of wealth than of the family, and more of the family than of the state; and this, not because of the relative importance of these several themes, so much, as because, in the circumstances in which he lived and taught, he could accomplish most for his kingdom by proportioning his teachings as suggested. Perhaps also for the reason that these truths projected themselves upon him in this relative order.

Fellowship, having so large a place, illustrates both man's fellowship with God and his proper relation to his brother. Here come in such large aggregations of truth as are found in the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Discourse as given by John, and in the Judgment of the Nations as recorded by Matthew. These all teach fellowship. Specific illustrations from the Sermon are found in the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes. "Our Father,"-that is an expression of fellowship both with God and with man. If he is "our" Father, then we must be his children; and if we are the