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salvation of the entire man, spirit and soul and body. Moreover, and it is useless for us in our ethereal pride to try to deny it, man's moral nature is, practically speaking, the most easily reached through his bodily nature. cordingly, our Saviour, as we have seen, was wont to approach men body-wise; and we must follow his example. But our missionaries are less or more wholly occupied with preaching and teaching. Here, then, is a magnificent field for the exercise of lay ministries. As the number of heathen converts multiplies, and the care of the churches becomes too exhausting, our missionaries, answering somewhat to the primitive Twelve, are justified in saying to the multitude of the laity in America:

It is not proper that we should leave the word of God, and minister to tables. But, brethren, look ye out among yourselves men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom ye may appoint over this business. And we will give ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. Acts 6: 2-4.

It is an encouraging sign of our times that we are sending out so many Christian men and women to serve as physicians. And this is but a sample of the vast latent resources for the missionary field. Why should we not send forth missionary carpenters, engineers, shipbuilders, farmers; with the one hand offering to the natives the gospel of our King, and with the other hand teaching them how to build houses, bridges, ships, telegraphs; how to unfold undreamed capacities of soils; how to enshrine in type an uplifting Christian literature? Why should not the sons of light learn wisdom from the sons of this æon, and make the largest possible use of God's resources? Why should not the Church of the Cross, animated by a diviner

spirit than any military or commercial, emulate the enterprising example of Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Spain, Holland, France, Great Britain, colonizing heathendom in the interests of Christianity and Immanuel?

Canterbury's Missionary College. - Among the many objects of thrilling interest in Canterbury, England, is what remains of the renowned Abbey of St. Augustine, founded thirteen centuries ago. In the year 1848, a wealthy and intelligent layman bought the ruins, and on the site of them erected a college for the training of the missionaries sent out by the Church of England. As the author wandered about the venerable precincts, he observed with intense interest the comprehensive nature of the training; including, not only theological instruction, but also teaching of the various handicrafts; so that when these young men should go forth to their distant and isolated stations, each one of them might know how to build his own house, make his own clothing, do his own tinkering, print his own books, prescribe his own medicines, etc. Let not young and enterprising America lag behind old and conservative England. Indeed, noble efforts have been inaugurated in this direction. Who knows that the first great foreign missionary did any more effective gospel service in heathen Corinth, when on the sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, than when on the week days he worked with Aquila and Priscilla at their trade of tentmaking?

CHAPTER X

MODERN PROBLEM OF CHURCH UNIFICATION

Unification of Christendom a Momentous Problem. — Another problem for the modern church to study is the problem of Ecclesiastical Unity. A complex, serious problem it is, well worthy the profound study of all sons of the Kingdom.

The Ideal Church a Unity.— On the one hand, the ideal church of God, God's one church of transfigured characters, is an ideal unity. St. Paul portrays this ideal unity under a sevenfold aspect, thus:

There is one body, and one Spirit, as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. — Ephesians 4: 4–6.

Observe that the great apostle uses the numeral "one" seven times. It is as though he had said:

"There is ONE Christian Church; ONE Holy Spirit; ONE heavenly vocation; ONE Lord Jesus Christ; ONE faith in this one Lord Jesus Christ; ONE baptism in the one Spirit by the one faith into the one church; ONE All-Father-God."

This churchly unity is also divinely symbolized in such figures as these: Many stones, one temple; many branches, one vine; many folds, one flock; many members, one body; many tribes, one Israel; etc. The ideal spiritual church of God is a divine unity.

The Actual Church a Disunity.-On the other hand, the

actual, organized church of Christendom is a painful disunity. Observe with grief and shame its divided condition. The church ecclesiastical is, literally speaking, a church militant on a war footing. Unfortunately, however, this war footing is an internecine strife. Instead of her wrestling against the dark principalities of the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenlies, she is wrestling against her own. flesh and blood, making schism in her own body, tearing asunder the limbs of her own personality. Survey her manifold and bitter divisions and subdivisions; her clashing sects, creeds, polities, rivalries; her shibboleth dins of "I am of Paul!" "I am of Apollos!" "I am of Cephas!" "I am of Christ!" Paradoxical as it sounds, the church militant will never become the church triumphant till she becomes the church pacific. Instead of her being one united Israel of Jehovah of hosts, she is rather a captive and dismembered Israel, her dislocated bones lying scattered in the great valley of this world's Babylonia. And were James the Just or Peter the Rock to return and indite another Epistle General to the church of God, I fear that he would have to address it somewhat as follows:

"To the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion, even to the elect sojourners scattered in the Pontus of Baptismalism, the Galatia of Episcopalianism, the Cappadocia of Presbyterianism, the Asia of Methodism, the Bithynia of Lutheranism, greeting."

Evils of Sectarianism. - Who of us does not feel that this is a most deplorable state of things? Consider for a moment some of the evils of sectarianism, I mean the spirit of sectarianism, not the mere fact that there are sects. Sectarianism, for instance, alienates the Christian Brotherhood, setting the one great family in Christ against each

other; it narrows our spiritual horizon; it inverts the Christian order by exalting ordinances above principles, ritual above character; it caricatures truth by magnifying its fractions and minifying its integer; it dissipates spiritual energies instead of concentrating them; it involves needless expense by rearing and maintaining several kinds of churches in a neighborhood where God would be better served were there but one church; it repels the onlooker, for he will not confess a divided, sectarian Christ; worse than all, sectarianism arrests moral growth. Listen to the master apostle as he expostulates with the sectaries of Corinth :

Brethren, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual, but as carnal as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, and not with solid food; for ye were not able yet to bear it; nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is yet among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal, and do ye not walk as men [not as Christians]? For whenever one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men [instead of being Christians] ?— 1 Corinthians 3: 1–4.

That is to say, catholicity is the output of maturity, the full costume of manhood; sectarianism is the stair-bar of infancy, the small-clothes of babyhood. Such are some of the many evils of the denominational spirit. Taking everything into account, I am inclined to think that sectarianism is the church's mightiest obstacle in her march to New Jerusalem. For every kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, but must come to desolation. If Messiah's forces are divided, how can his kingdom stand? But let us be fair, not overlooking the true church's real unity. For at all essential points Christ's church, — his church spiritual, whatever the land or age or sect, — is at