The Church Universal

Editor

The growing disposition among Christian believers, to forget the petty particulars that have separated them, and join hands in a united effort for a common cause, is but one of many encouraging things which may be traced to the passing of the theory of verbal inspiration, for it is apparent that as attention is more and more centered upon the spiritual significance of the Scriptures, the dogmas and beliefs which have found their beginnings in an over-emphasis of literal statement, and which have led to so much of denominational cleavage and dissension, must be relegated to the realm of the unimportant.

At an interdenominational meeting of clergy recently held in New York, the spirit of practical affiliation was unusually pronounced, as is seen from the following excerpts taken from a newspaper report.

Said Dr. McConnell, "I can see no reason why there should be Presbyterian and Episcopal and Baptist and Methodist churches in this city of New York, and I look forward to the day when men of power in the community will have effected a union of the churches with that wonderful skill of combination which to-day is so apparent everywhere but in church life."

Commenting on this, another said, "The pith and marrow of the speaker's address centered in a story that he told apropos of the little Scotch town in which he was born. In that town, a Scotch Covenanter community, there lived one Jamie Stewart, who was a stumbling-block to the churches, 'not because he was a sinner, but because he was a man of transparent goodness and yet outside the church.'

"If Jamie Stewart is a true man," said he, "then there is no escaping the conclusion that he is a Christian. And the world is full of Jamie Stewarts—men of sterling manhood, of irreproachable character, of unquestionable uprightness of daily life, of remarkable ethical perfection.

"The poet Wordsworth was one day asked if he were a 'Christian.' 'Yes.' was the poet's reply, 'when I am good.' Goodness is Christianity. Christ was good. Not 'goody,' but good—straight with the moral law, plumb with the old eternal sanctities of things.

"If Christ should meet Jamie Stewart he would grasp his hand and say: 'Jamie, thou art my true yokefellow. The unco good have not recognized thee, but I recognize thee, and for the rest let not thy heart be troubled.'

"Truth, love, honesty, purity—can you give them any particular denominational label?

"Christ did not come to upbuild sectarianism, but to uplift humanity; and all who are willing to work with him should be recognized."

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