Article December 21, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Henry Van Dyke, Winston Churchill

[Henry Van Dyke in Continent.]

The kingdom of Christ is not helped, but hindered, by a multitude of hair-splitting creeds, exclusive claims, and ecclesiastical rivalries. Christians who hope to meet in heaven shut each other out from their communions and their pulpits on earth. They plant four or five poor little churches of various kinds in a town where a single good one of any kind would do better work. They count conversions and additions from each other as if they represented real gains from the world. The resources of Christianity are wasted, its modes of efficiency are hampered, its clarity and simplicity are obscured, its honor and power in the world are diminished, by "the unhappy divisions among Christians."

Where are we to look for relief from these harmful conditions? Certainly not backward to the false dream of absolute uniformity enforced by outward authority! Certainly not forward to the continuance of a policy of infinite subdivision based upon conscientious peculiarities of taste and opinion! What we want first is a closer fellowship, a freer and fuller cooperation in work and worship among the professed followers of Christ; and then a removal of the dividing walls, a coming together, first of those sister churches which are separated for reasons invisible to the naked eye; then of those kindred churches whose differences are more apparent but still of no vital importance compared with their agreements; and finally, if it may be, of the whole family of God, the visible church, consisting of "all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children."

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