Psalms 133:1
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell togethera in unity!
CHRISTIAN UNITY
‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.’
Some things are good, but not pleasant; others are pleasant, but not good; it is not easy to combine the two qualities; but in unity both converge; pleasantness and the highest good. This our Lord intended for His Church; this He prayed for (see St. John 17:21).
Christ did not come down from heaven simply to unfold a revelation of God’s love by His atoning death, and then return, leaving the Gospel leaven to work its own way in the world. He founded a visible kingdom, and called men out of the world to be its subjects. (Hence, Ecclesia, ‘called out,’ everywhere translated ‘Church.’) It was for this ‘Ecclesia,’ this universal body of His baptized people, that He prayed. Therefore it behoves all Christians ‘seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions.’
I. We must deplore the uncharitable spirit amongst ourselves.—United to our Lord, and through union with Him to one another, by baptism, confessing the Faith once delivered to the saints, and handed down in the creeds; ministered to by the same priesthood; worshipping in the common language of the Liturgy, kneeling side by side at the same altars, and receiving, ‘verily and indeed,’ the same Blessed Sacrament; we ought to be more lovingly united. ‘We be brethren,’ and the points of divergence are infinitesimal with the great body of truth which we hold in common.
II. As we look round we are startled and ashamed at the number of ‘sects’ into which our common Christianity is subdivided.—The most glaring fault of the nation’s religious life is the easy indifference with which men break away from unity and create new communities—between two hundred and three hundred different religious sects—and the number grows! Do Christians attach no meaning to our Lord’s Prayer? or do the indurating effects of habit deaden our sensibilities, and make us impervious to the taunt that England has one dish and a hundred sauces?
III. Taking a wider survey of Christendom, we find the Churches of the East and West have mutually excommunicated each other, and the Anglican Church stands apart from both. History of rupture of some ten centuries since cannot now be discussed, but the ‘Reformation’ made no break in the historical continuity of the Anglican Church. There was no destruction of an old and setting up of a new Church. Unable to obtain redress of doctrinal abuses, the English Church reformed herself. Our Church, when she recovered her independence, did not sever herself from Western Christendom; Rome caused the schism. The real obstacle still to reunion is the prevailing ambitious claim to lordship over God’s heritage by the Bishop of Rome.
IV. It is an awe-inspiring thought that the divisions of Christendom are delaying the return of the Church’s Head, and the fulfilment of the prediction: ‘The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.’
There can be no more God-like aim than to seek to restore the Church’s broken unity. Disunion is weakness. We can individually do little beyond praying that it may please God to give to His Church, ‘Unity, Peace, and Concord.’ But we may minimise our differences, magnify our points of agreement, eschew elements of bitterness; the obstacles seem insurmountable; but the things which are impossible with men are possible with God, and we may be sure our Lord’s Prayer cannot ultimately fall to the ground. The day will come when the reunion of divided Christendom will impart new life to missionary enterprise, and will be the signal for completing the conversion of the world.
Canon M. Woodward.
Illustration
‘The last of the Songs of Degrees, as well as of the second series which we have traced from Psalms 130. It presents three characteristic features of the position and occupation of “the servants of the Lord.” First of all, theirs is service in the night time; secondly, it is spiritual service, prayer, and praise; thirdly, it is expectant service, “looking for that blessed hope,” the Lord blessing His people out of Zion.’