2[tj? Stetmtatructiott of tl|c American OJljttrcij Halter SL iauaJjaUct K$P ••'""'v Class. Book Copightlf- COPYRIGHT DEPOSJTi THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH BY WALTER M. HAUSHALTER Author of ''Christ Lord of Battles" BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS Copyright, 1919, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved 7P OCT -4 1919 Made in the United States of America The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. ©CI. A 5 3 5 104 TO THE WOMAN WHO HAS MADE LIFE FRAGRANT WITH THE IDEALISM OF CHRIST INTRODUCTION "Js Thou didst send Me into the world even so send I them. I pray that they may all be one, even as Thou, Father, art in Ale and I in Thee, that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which thou hast given Ale I have given unto them, that they may be one even as We are one; I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that Thou didst send me. ,} Jesus, John 17:18-23. "Even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office; so we, who are many, are one body in Christ and severally members one of another ! } Paul, Ro- mans 12:4-5. INTRODUCTION THE two determining forces of society, the Radical and the Conservative, the Heretical and the Orthodox, the Progressive and the Reac- tionary, are engaged in a powerful tug-of-war to-day to plot the future orbit of the Church. To those happy and "divine-minded" ones who can attain sufficient elevation of soul to view without prejudice the issues of the conflict, it will become apparent that both Radical and Conserva- tive, both Heretical and Orthodox, both Progres- sive and Reactionary are required to make the future Church orbit safe. Both these determin- ing forces are as necessary to the Church as are the centrifugal and centripetal forces to the earth to hold it in its orbit about the sun. Were the Radical, Heretical, Progressive, centrifugal force to contribute its influence alone to the earth our planet would wander off into the void of the Universe, a flaming but soon burnt-out meteor. And were the Conservative, Orthodox, Reaction- 8 Introduction ary, centripetal influence alone to hold sway the earth's career would be direct to the heart of the sun, the central furnace of destruction. The Church needs both forces, and this realization should usher a new era of tolerance and "di- vine-mindedness" into the counsels and campaigns of the "Body of Christ." To all contending parties in the Church and out of it to-day there are not wanting signs to indicate a change in the future orbit of the Insti- tution of Christ. The War has shifted the foci and the orbit accordingly. This is a strategic time for the Church to revamp and revalue its ideals and its methods, to overhaul its machinery, and to give pragmatic denial to the cynical claim that we are "all dressed up and nowhere to go." The time for reconstruction is here and the Church must once and for all wrench itself loose from the deadly notion that it is working for its own sake rather than for the Kingdom of God. The time is strategic and bursting with the sense of a new and Pentecostal visitation of God. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Introduction Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat And we must take the current when it serves Or lose our ventures. The one mighty and conclusive conviction that throbs in the Church of Christ to-day is the im- perative and impressive necessity of a closer Unity. Words fail us to express the full and crying mandamus of this necessity, for words, as Alfred Noyes says, were not made for such times as these. All over Christendom the conscience is burning and struggling for articulate voice, pleading for Unity. The War has shown that the veto of the Almighty is on our divisions. Let those come forward and say who they are, who can defend or even tolerate the individualism and selfishness of our past and jerky denomina- tionalism. Only one threatening and negative word need be said, that is, if the Church does not attain to and function in unison, the prophecy of the cynical guest in Steven Graham's Priest of the Ideal may come true — "that the Church is here merely on sufferance." Lovers of Kipling will recall his Without Ben- efit of Clergy. It is a beautiful love story of io Introduction the marriage of an English captain and a lovely Mohammedan woman. These two souls, widely- separated in race and religion, were bound to- gether in deepest spiritual devotion. A child was born to them and they were happy with a happi- ness the angels would envy. The mother was all devotion, absorbed in the life of her child. They were both happy beyond measure with a happiness absolute and withdrawn from the world. But the mother feared the powers were jealous of their happiness and would steal the child away. So it was. The accounts were audited with a big red pencil that summer. The cholera came from all quarters of the compass. It struck a pilgrim gathering at a shrine and thousands died at the feet of their gods. The pestilence broke over the face of all India. People fleeing to the mountains died by the roadside. The Mohammedan calls to prayer were unceasing, but the gods seemed strangely inattentive in those days. The captain and his wife lost their child. The beautiful little spirit was shaken out of the body with fever. The mother was mad with anguish and grief. The captain went to the bedside of his Introduction 1 1 wife and looked down upon her with infinite com- passion. "Life of my life," said the woman, "breath of my soul! Yesterday we were three; to-day we are two; therefore there is the more reason that to-morrow we should be one." If the Great War with its infinite losses of the sons of the Church does not stir us to a new con- science on our "Oneness" then indeed the Church has lost its divine opportunity. But the con- science of Christendom is agitated, its voice is sounding in articulate measures for a new Unity. We were three yesterday, two to-day. Shall we be one to-morrow? The consensus of public thought has inclined overpoweringly to the conviction that a new day for Christianity finds dawn after the war. But why shorten the arm of the Almighty? Already a new hour has struck — an hour that declares the night far spent and the day at hand. Through the bewildering maze and over the chaos of de- nominational division the Spirit of God is brooding to-day and a new conscience is speaking for Chris- tian reorganization. Time and the war with mighty creative fingers have been at work upon the Church of Christ to soften and mellow the severities and 1 2 Introduction angularities of the sects. Bolivar, the great Wash- ington of South America, cried out in despair when all his attempt to unite his people proved fruitless. "Alas!' he said, "I have ploughed the sand and it has no consistency or unity." For some decades past narrow-visioned Churchmen have mouthed their denominational shibboleths — Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist, Congregationalist, Disciple of Christ — but to-day prophets of reconciliation and apostles of a more united Church are popular, and their ploughs shall find fertile ground. The call of Christ to bind up the wounds of war is so urgent and in- sistent that that Church which now wastes time to plead denominational issues stands anathema and convicted before her Lord of high treason and betrayal. Several years ago Bishop Boyd Carpenter and the Dean of Durham visited an American con- ference in behalf of Christian union and gave startling expression to the conviction that, unless the churches ceased preaching their divisive, sectarian issues, their baptisms and apostolic suc- cessions, and addressed themselves to the holy task of binding together the nations in the bond Introduction 13 of brotherhood, some great calamity would befall Europe and the world. And now that the pre- dicted "Pentecost of calamity" has fallen, surely the Church of Christ will not fail to learn to-day what it refused to learn then, namely, the shame and scandal and wickedness of presenting a divided front to the sin of the world. It is worse than wormwood and gall, it is heart-ache and heart-sob, to invoice the numberless hairsplittings, two-by fourisms, and dogcollarisms of our denominational Christianity. The world has a right to lay accusa- tion against the churches that for many years they have wasted strength on trivialities and found themselves helpless in great crises. But anxious hearts are beating to-day the mes- sage that a new hour has come for our troubled Israel. Surely now is the accepted time and now the effectual and open door of opporunity to throw upon this problem of Church reorganization all the tremendous weight of public opinion. Why should we not tear down the divisive fences through which we have been crawling like naughty boys these past decades? Why not, as Principal Selbie said, shake ourselves free from our evasions and shufflings and be manly and open, walking in 14 Introduction the daylight of Unity? Must the Church alone to- day defend division when all the other organiza- tions of the world move toward unity ! In the closing days of February, 1814, when Europe was under the shadow of defeat from Napoleon, the Allied Powers — England, Prussia, Austria, Russia — met in conference at Chaumont. Just before Chaumont, Austria, Prussia, and Rus- sia were sick to death of war and would gladly have patched up a craven peace with Napoleon. But at the Conference of Chaumont the Allied Powers found unity and they sacredly bound them- selves together to battle until France should be humbled and Napoleon unseated. Within two months the new unity of Chaumont was visible ; the Allies were in Paris and on April 6th, 1 8 14, Napo- leon abdicated. The Church of Christ has much to learn from military science and it cannot too soon take to its heart the urgency of Unity of effort in the warfare against principalities and powers and spiritual evil in high places. The war has profoundly solemnized the Church and an hour of insistence has struck like the Reformation hour of the 1 6th Century, an hour pregnant with destiny Introduction 15 like the Pentecostal hour of the 1st Century; it is an hour in which to close up the breaches in the ramparts of Christianity. A conviction now burns in many devout Chris- tians that the next twenty-five or fifty years will witness one of the greatest religious revivals in the history of Christendom. Romain Rolland has it that the war has already demonstrated two things, the power of Hell and the present weakness of the Christian Church. To think that during all these years of military preparation the Church never organized its conscience to combat it ! The war shall not have been totally in vain if the Church is shaken out of its lethergy and slumber and division. Like the daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound lo! these years, so the Church needs the healing touch. Forgive, O Lord, our severing ways, The separate altars that we raise, The varying tongues that speak thy praise. Suffice it now in time to be Shall one great Temple rise to Thee, Thy Church our broad Humanity! Thoughtful minds to-day are doubtful about the continuance of denominationalism but ever re- 1 6 Introduction newed confidence is forthcoming regarding the Church itself against which the gates of Hell can- not prevail. Denominational pleas are as dead as a dodo and ready for burial; shibboleths, points of bristling antagonism, the incubus of division must yield to the spirit of unity in the bond of peace. It has been remarked that we are living in one of those spiritual crises of history that constitutes a second coming of our Lord; that if a Hebrew prophet were alive he would describe the world situation in glowing apocalyptic lan- guage announcing the end of the age and the de- scent of the Lord on the clouds of Heaven. In this renewed spiritual appearance of our Lord one of the sweet tokens of it shall be a new spirit of cooperation in His Church. The Christian ship shall no longer be as one propelled by a few hand- kerchiefs held before the breeze but driven by the united sails raised to the wind of God's Pente- costal Spirit. The time rapidly approaches; the days are prophetic and the hours are racing and tripping over one another to greet the Divine consummation. Introduction 17 It will come! It will come! As the day comes When the night is done, And the silver streak on the ocean's cheek Grows into the mighty sun! Walter M. Haushalter. New York City, July, 1919. CONTENTS PAGE Part i Christian Unison 23 Part ii Christian Uniformity 47 Part hi Christian Unity 71 Part iv Christian Union 97 PART I CHRISTIAN UNISON "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministration, but the same Lord. For as the body is one and hath many members, so also is Christ. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand I am not of the body, it is not therefore not of the body. God set the members each one of them in the body as it pleased Him. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; or again the head to the feet, I have no need of thee. Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body. Now ye are the body of Christ! 9 Paul, I Cor. 12:4-27. "Be ye not called masters; One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren" Jesus, Matt. 23:10. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH CHRISTIAN UNISON AS one surveys the gamut of Christian Churches to-day, Scientist, Methodist, Quaker, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, one must confess an amazement at the general the- ological attitude upon the subject of the healing powers of the Church. If, outside a few chosen sects, one gives voice to his faith in the healing Christ of to-day, those with theological ramrods down their backs will hasten to convict such an one of fanaticism and apologize for him to the neighbors. Most orthodox churches have now as- sumed that those great legacies of healing miracles ceased when the Apostles fell asleep. And yet there is no other subject more clearly set forth in the teachings of Christ and the Apostles than the perpetuity of the healing power, the perpetuity 23 24 Reconstruction of the American Church of every ordering and furniture and gift of the New Testament days. Jesus Himself had a two- fold ministry to sinful souls and suffering bodies and He commissioned His followers to heal the sick; and when He departed His earthly ministry He gave a commission to His disciples to go into all the world. The signs to follow them that believed were healing of the sick and casting out of devils. Jesus did not separate the commission to preach from that to heal, nor did He confine it to the Twelve, nor did He place any time limit upon its power. With rugged exegesis the Church will do well to-day to accept all the great com- mission, and instead of limiting it with dates and provisos, give it a solemn Amen ! The Apostles themselves did not unbraid the twofold cord of promise but went out on a two- fold commission to preach and to heal, in the name of One Who promised that they would do greater things than He because He went unto the Father. Dr. Uhlhorn, who has thoroughly mastered the evidence on the case, proves con- clusively that these gifts of healing continued to operate into the second and third centuries. Jesus had made no provision to arrest the stream of Christian Unison 25 divine manifestations, and in the writings of the Church Fathers we find abundant testimonies to the performance of the same kind of miracles of healing known to Peter and John and Paul. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Irenius, are eloquent in their testimonies of the souls won through bodies healed. The weight of these and similar testimonies is increased by the fact that most of the great spiritual revivals of faith of the last nineteen centuries have had that accompaniment of the gifts of healing. Consider the Walden- sians, that faithful people who kept the fires of faith burning through the Papal darkness ; in their Church law they "hold it an article of faith to anoint with oil and heal the sick as declared by James, and any despiser of this ordinance is to be punished and corrected according to the rules of the Evangelical Law." Or consider Zinzendorf of the Moravians: "I owe this testimony to my beloved Church that Apostolic powers are there manifested in healing of maladies, cancers, con- sumptives by prayer." Or consider the "Scot Worthies," with their modern Acts of the Apos- tles, or the healing powers of the Huguenots. And what shall we say more for time would fail us to 26 Reconstruction of the American Church mention Bruce and George Fox and Alexander Campbell. When one considers that all these testimonies are recorded of the holiest men the Church of Christ has ever known, it ought to give food for reflection to those who contend that the gifts of healing have departed the present-day Church of Christ. Here surely is a mass of evidence few would wish to condemn as utterly false. All the mighty gifts of God are meant to be perpetual; justification, salification, redemption, as given by Jesus to the world, have not been abrogated or annuled. Why then the gift of healing? Chris- tian healing was not meant to be one of those African rivers growing narrower and narrower until lost in the desert, but a mighty stream broad- ening to the sea. John in Revelation describes the tree of Life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations and "it bears twelve manner of fruit, and yields its fruit every month." That tree has given out fresh shoots and leaves of piety and healing and fruit with every passing month through the centuries since John's vision. Now these words on the healing function of Christ's Church are^ given at this length in intro- Christian Unison 27 duction because the world today is agonizing for healing. The planet in this hour is torn by the wounds of war and where is there any power given under Heaven among men whereby it can be healed other than through Christianity! The wounds of war, the toxemia of sin, the blood poison of international bitterness, the soul-sickness of paganism, the ennui of world weariness "fair hidden yet full confessed," the cancer of militar- ism, the melancholia of materialism — all await and reach out for the healing touch of the Body of Christ. Will the Church to-day be equal to the challenge of a sick and wounded world and prove Physician ? Avowedly and confessedly ! Before the Church can effectively cure the ills of the world it must cure itself ! Physician, heal thyself. "Ye are the Body of Christ," says Paul, "and members one of another." "As the body is one and hath many members, so also is Christ. If the foot shall say, Because I am not of the body is it not there- fore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye I am not of the body, is it not therefore not of the body? But now hath 28 Reconstruction of the American Church God set the members each one of them in the body as it pleased Him. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee ; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of thee. Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary; and those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow the more abundant honor. God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it ; or one member is honored all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ and severally members thereof." "Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of administration but the same Lord. And there are diversities of working but the same God Who worketh in all things." Paul's analogy is more than a metaphor or simile ; it is meant to be literal transcript of fact. "Ye are the body of Christ!" That body of Christ cuddled by Mary in Nazareth, that body of Christ presented at the Temple for dedication, Christian Unison 29 that body of Christ torn and tempted and victori- ous in the wilderness, that body of Christ that touched and healed and "out of whom went vir- tue," that body of Christ broken for us on Calvary, that body of Christ glorified and risen — that body of Christ is the Church! The Church is not a mere organization; it is an organism! And if Christ's body had healing powers in its touch when He dwelt in the flesh "full of grace and truth," why should not His body, His reincarnation, His Church, possess the healing power to-day for the world's agonizing and pitiable sores? The answer to this is that the members of Christ's body do not have the coordination of movement, the unison of mind and heart and purpose, necessary to this healing task. Once the Church or Body of Christ acquires that unison of brain, heart, hand, foot, eye, — all — then the Great Physician shall be able to heal the Twentieth Century World ! A quarter of a century ago Phillips Brooks looked sadly out upon the divided condition of Christendom and declared its divisions reminded him of the various members of an orchestra tun- ing up. But to what are we tuning up ?, he asks. We are tuning up to the keynote of Christian 30 Reconstruction of the American Church service and love, the Social Gospel and the Social task of the Church. If the Churches were willing, thought Brooks, to lose their lives in social service they would gain them in Christian unison, the unison of the vast orchestra of God. The task of presenting the truth and music of Christ with melody to the world is quite too great a task for any one Church fellowship. Each member of the orchestra ought not to look only on its own things but on the things of others. Bishop An- derson of the Conference of 1908 ennunciated a fine principle when he declared that we must reach Christian reorganization not by excluding but by including all faiths and forms of Christianity. Bishop Anderson calls for a religion of maximums, not of minimums. "Let all the separated parts of Christendom pour out the treasures of their experiences ; and let them equally desire to receive from one another the gifts they do not already possess. So shall we have in the great Church of the future not an impoverished form of Christian- ity, but a Church which is enriched with all the wealth of the Christian ages." In the harmony of such a divine orchestra the Methodists shall not say to the Presbyterians, I have no need of thee ; Christian Unison 31 nor the Baptists to the Christian Scientists, I have no need of thee; nor the Quakers to the Catholics, I have no need of thee. And such a unison can be produced only through the Great Orchestra Leader, Jesus Christ, who for this long time has endured the contradiction of sinners. To effect this longed-for unison or orchestration or harmony of the Church of Christ three steps are discernible and possible : — municipal federa- tion, national federation, international federation. The proposal of municipal federation ap- proaches most immediately to the heart of the problem, which in Carlyle's phrase is a "hungry problem." Why should not all the Churches of Christ of a city (or, where the city be large, of a portion of a city) officially delegate Elders or Deacons or Bishops to a general Board of Di- rectors? Let these officers of local churches so delegated be empowered to act in matters of com- mon interest to all the Churches. Let every local church claiming to follow and propagate Christ be given representation on a pro rata basis of membership. Such a general Board of Bishops or Elders or Deacons of the municipal Church of Christ would accomplish untold good for the cause 32 Reconstruction of the American Church of religion. In an overchurched quarter, union of local units could be effected with tremendous econ- omy of money and effort. In one Western city of one thousand population three churches, Bap- tist, Congregational, and Presbyterian, united re- cently to worship as one congregation in one build- ing and under one spiritual leader. The three Churches are kept intact and a pro rata division of missionary funds made. It is Church Unison. Such a General Board of Elders of the Municipal Church of Christ could also plan unison of em- phasis and appeal on civic matters. Movements for prohibition, relief of social evils, missionary propaganda, educational and spiritual ideals could, through such a centralized municipal Bishopric, find unity and coherence and consequent power. The appointment of such a municipal Bishopric would demand a great deal of Christian love and tolerance. Much history would have to be for- gotten. But brotherhood, in Roosevelt's phrase, is a u weasel-word" that has the power to suck life blood. Brotherhood must prevail and the spirit of Anti-Christ sectarianism scourged out of the conference room. Perhaps this tide of brother- hood would rise so high as to give inter-denomina- Christian Unison 33 tional assent to the membership of all professed believers in the body of Christ and a free and unhampered exchange of membership in local con- gregations. Perhaps this tide of brotherhood and spiritual fellowship would rise so high as to give inter-denominational assent to the Holy Spirit's ordination of all the Ministry. Such a municipal Bishopric or Eldership could foster such a divine unison of the body of Christ as to heal the city of its ills, and make the Kingdom of God more than a haphazard, random movement, aye! make it a concerted, progressive revelation until each city becomes a New Jerusalem. Another step toward unison will be the National Federation of Churches, a National Bishopric of delegated representatives of all communions of the Body of Christ, such delegated representatives being vested with power to act upon matters of common concern to all. As Frank Mason North, President of the Church Federal Council, has aptly pointed out, "Federation arrived a good while ago in the realm of the State. There are signs that it is likely to remain. 'United States' desig- nates a government; it does more — it discloses and describes a fundamental principle of the social 34 Reconstruction of the American Church and political order. That principle is the coor- dination of organized group units, that is, democ- racies, under representative control and by mutual agreement, the acceptance of a common pro- gramme and the working toward common objec- tives. The soundness of the principle was tested by honest men fifty years ago in a fierce conflict of arms, and a half century of extraordinary na- tional development, both in ideals and practice, has justified the verdict. Progress tends that way. Every new national agitation lifts tides of demo- cratic purpose higher. Educate Mexico, and Mexico will become the United States of Mexico. A half dozen republics of Central America are feeling, not for one another's throats, but for one another's hearts, under the lure of a possible United States of Central America." * The majestic sweep of this idea is now coming into the horizon of national Church affairs. A suggestion of such federation occured in Japan in 1 9 1 1 , a federation comprising twenty-four com- munions the purpose of which was declared to be "to secure a united action in the spread of the Gospel." A similar federation of the Churches of India grew out of a conference in Jubbulpore Christian Unison 35 in April, 1909. Its interdenominational constitu- tion provides that "the federating churches agree to recognize each others' discipline and to wel- come members of other federating churches into Christian fellowship and communion." In China, Africa, Madagascar, Korea, such federations are duplicated. One of the finest fruits of this move- ment of unison and one of the clearest indications of the labour of the Holy Spirit is to be seen in the expedient of a division of territory in order to minimize the evils of denominationalism. The adjustment in the Philippine Islands affords one of the earliest examples of the plan. After the American occupation in 1898 the islands were thrown open to American evangelization. The missionary societies saw the danger of duplication and overlapping, the danger of quartering their strength by duplicating the number of organiza- tions. Many of the missionary boards conferred and distinct fields were assigned to Baptists, Con- gregationalists, Methodists, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterians. The same regimen was adopted in China after the Boxer rebellion, and in Mexico, and in South America after the Panama Con- ference. Such expedients are more than a truck- 26 Reconstruction of the American Church ling peace; they are steps toward a larger goal. Such unison is not a tower of Babel erected to the skies to end in confusion. It is rather the co- operation of the wheels of a watch to go in differ- ent directions, yet fulfilling the function of giving time. That the time is now ripe in America for an enlargment of the ideals and powers and functions of the Federated Council of Churches, is a con- viction that daily grows with enormous expansion. What surpassing good could be accomplished by the entire body of Christ of America functioning with all its power and unity upon questions of war and peace, of child labour and social evils, of capital and labour, of intemperence and crime, of national betterment and spirit! It is high noon time for all communions to throw their technical- ities and false courtesies to the winds and leap to the need of the hour — the need of a national Bishopric of the Churches of Christ, empowered to act for the millions of followers of our Lord. Let such federation be not only in terms of senti- ment but of delegated power. The One Hundred and Thirtieth General Assembly of the Presbyter- ian Church, convened at Columbus, Ohio, in June, Christian Unison 37 191 8, has issued one of the latest and freshest chal- lenges to the plea : "We recommend the following action: "That we, the commissioners to the One Hun- dred and Thirtieth General Assembly now in ses- sion at Columbus, Ohio, do declare and place on record our profound conviction that the time has come for organic Church union of the evangelical Churches of America. "That this Assembly hereby overtures the na- tional bodies of the evangelical communions of America to meet with our representatives for the purpose of formulating a plan of organic union. "That the Assembly's committee on cooperation and union be authorized and directed to designate the time and place, not later than January 1 , 1 9 1 9, for the above named convention; to prepare a suitable invitation; to fix the ratio of representa- tion and appoint the delegates of our body; to prepare a tentative plan of organic union for presentation, and to attend to all necessary ar- rangements. "That as a beginning the moderator and stated clerk be directed to wire the four national Church bodies now in session, asking them whether they 38 Reconstruction of the American Church will appoint delegates to such a convention on organic union between the evangelical bodies, ex- plaining that we have voted in favor of it." Even at this moment the fruits of National Federation are being prepared by the planting of fertile seed. Conferences and surveys and pro- grammes are under way for a United Missionary appeal to the nation for hundreds of millions of dollars for the evangelization of the country and of the world. It seems too good to be believed. The precedent of Liberty Loans and War chests gives the united ChurcK faith to go on to the chal- lenge of its own claims in Christ. Little wonder that the Bishop of London quotes Mr. Myers glorious lines in "St. Paul" : Dreamer of dreams? We take the taunt with gladness, Knowing that God, beyond the years we see, Has wrought the dreams that count with you for madness Into the texture of the world to be. The world incredulously is still gazing at the achievements of the United War Work Campaign. That was Christian Unison with heart, mind, and will. Every humanitarian in America owed it to his own soul to understand the great movement and to have his share in it. It had the approval Christian Unison 39 of President Wilson and the War Department and the enthusiasm of the American public. Seven War Relief Organizations were included in the appeal, and everyone was made to know their splendid services at home and abroad in mobiliz- ing the spiritual resources of our nation and in bringing effective victory to our cause. Of the $170,000,000 asked for, the Young Men's Chris- tian Association was to receive 58 per cent; the Young Woman's Association 8 per cent; the Knights of Columbus 17 per cent; the Jewish Welfare Board, the War Camp Community Service, the Library Association, and the Salva- tion Army about equal shares of the remainder. When it was proposed to use one pledge card to unify the appeal for these diverse causes, it did not imply or faintly suggest the surrender by any one of them of its distinctive character or au- tonomy. Each organization had its traditions, background, equipment, morale, principles, which, if properly prized and which, if preserved, would make for the strongest possible service. The men who headed that United War Work Cam- paign were level-headed and sure-footed men who had a vision of Christian Unison. 40 Reconstruction of the American Church The United War Work Compaign then went to its task. When it had its funds it went with the soldier to the camps, accompanied him to the transport, met him at debarkation, shared with him the dangers of the front. President Wilson's remark is significant: "It is evident that the seven societies should unite their appeals in order that the spirit of American mercy may be expressed without distinction of race or religious opinion." The United War Work Campaign has made a road over which the Federated Council of Churches of Christ is about to travel again. Most of the great missionary societies of America are about to appeal in unison for a Mission Chest for the evangel of America and the world. An unac- customed honesty is come upon us; we are shed- ding our shams and sophisms and petty differences ! Our hearts are beating in Christian Unison, praise God! One further objective of unison lies before the Church of Christ, namely, an International Bish- opric of all Churches of Christ of the World to foster ideals of peace and humanity and to bring the kingdoms of this world into the King- dom of our Lord and Christ. Prophets are speak- Christian Unison 41 ing to-day for a League of Nations to enforce the peace of the world. Why not also a League of all the Churches of Christ of the world to preach against militarism and materialism and national bitterness, and to usher in the reign of spiritual friendship and democracy? If the Christian con- science of the world be organized into unison, if the entire body of Christ throughout the world be focused into coodinated action, there is no great ideal it could not achieve. Suffice it now in time to be Shall one great Temple rise to Thee, Thy Church our broad humanity. White flowers of love its walls shall climb, Sweet bells of peace shall ring its chime, Its days shall all be holy time. The hymn, long sought, shall then be heard, The music of the world's accord, Confessing Christ, the inward word! That song shall swell from shore to shore, One faith, one love, one hope restore, The seamless garb that Jesus wore! The world war, with a Calvary passion and compassion, is vocal with agony and pain for the 42 Reconstruction of the American Church consummation of this event. May God pour out His Spirit in these last days upon all flesh and give us the vision without which we perish. "O God of Peace, Thou art a witness to the division in Thy house which we have made by our constant quarrels, and we acknowledge our transgression. Give us the hope of the morning by a genuine desire for fellowship with Thy whole Church, for we are brothers, feeling our way towards Thee and towards each other. Only in Thy light can we find the way. Without Thy shield we are incompetent to render Thee service in the day of battle and danger. Thou hast created us in Thine image, redeemed us by Thy blood, made our bodies sanctuaries for Thy Holy Spirit, and we desire that oneness among our- selves for which Thou didst plan in the ages past, even as Thou didst plan for the gift of Thine only begotten Son. In the spirit of humility and faith we supplicate Thee for patience, courtesy and brotherliness. Then we shall love in spite of our failures and we shall reach the summit as our brothers of other communions climb to the heights. To Thee be all the praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." Christian Unison 43 In Charles R. Kennedy's delightful drama, The Servant In The House, is a description of the Church Universal. The Bishop of Benares, from all accounts had had much experience in church building in India. "I am afraid," said Manson, "you will not think my Church an alto- gether substantial concern. You must see it in a peculiar light and some people never see it at all. It is no dead pile of stone and timber but a living temple. When you enter it you hear a sound as of ten thousand organs and the music of a great hymn chanted. If you have ears to hear you will understand it to be the beating of human hearts and the nameless music of men's souls. If you have eyes to see you will understand that the pillars of it are the bodies of men and the frescoes the flesh of women and children. And the faces of little babes laugh out from every cor- ner. It is yet building and being built upon. Some- times the work goes on in deep darkness, some- times in blinding light; sometimes beneath the burden of anguish, sometimes to the tune of great laughter. And sometimes — sometimes — in the silence of the night one may hear the tiny ham- merings of the comrades in the dome, the com- 44 Reconstruction of the American Church rades who have gone before." Robert, the ob- ject of redemption, the drunkard, stands by en- tranced at Manson's description of the Church. "Is they any hands needed for the drains in that Church?" "Aye," said Manson, "drains are a very important element in that Church — at pres- ent." The war will have accomplished a sweet benediction to the Church of Christ of the world if it drain away its sectarianism and give it the divine spirit and proportions of the Church pro- jected and idealized by her Lord Christ. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Eng- land there were curious phenomena of the healing of a disease known as the "King's Evil." The touch of the hand of the sovereign was thought to have therapeutic power, especially in the cases of epilepsy and scrofula. So far as historians are able to trace the practice, its history began with Edward the Confessor in England and with St. Louis in France. Charles the Second is said to have touched ninety-two thousand people during his reign. Whenever the King was to travel through the realm the clergy were solemnly noti- fied and great numbers of the parish sufferers turned out for miracles of healing. The ceremony Christian Unison 45 conducted with great pomp is described by Ma- caulay. When the King appeared the clergy in fresh canonicals stood round the canopy of state and read, "They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover." Then His Majesty the King touched the ulcers and hung a gold coin about the patient's neck. Prayers and benediction followed and the procession moved on. The be- lief in the efficacy of the King's touch was prac- tically universal, and the historian Lecky says its genuineness was attested by the Church, the uni- versities, and the general consent of the people. The belief in this miracle of healing persisted through the English Revolution and down to the time of the French Revolution. Shakespeare has a fine passage in Macbeth on the Royal Touch — "Comes the King forth to-day, I pray you?" "Aye, sir! There are a crew of wretched souls That stay his cure — and at his touch, Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, They presently amend!" "A most miraculous work in this good King Which often since my stay in England I have seen him do ! How he solicits Heaven Heaven itself best knows. But the people ulcerous, piti- ful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures." 46 Reconstruction of the American Church This gift of the King's Touch was practiced by both Catholic and Protestant Kings and Queens. King James the First wanted to discard it as an outworn superstition, but his councellors urged him not to abate such a prerogative of the crown. All this is the story of the King's Touch of old. The world is weary and weeping in this hour for the healing touch of King Christ. When Christ walked in Palestine the multitudes brought unto Him their sick and He touched them and they were healed. But the Christ and His body and His King's Touch have not departed the world. Christ is reincarnated in His Church. "Ye are the body of Christ and members one of another." "And these shall be the signs that follow them that believe, they shall heal the sick, and if they touch any deadly thing it shall not harm them." The world now awaits the healing touch of the Body of Christ the Great Physician, to cure it of its war and materialism and sin. Is it possible that the curative powers of the Church of Christ to-day await an answer to the challenge — "Physician, heal thyself!" PART II CHRISTIAN UNIFORMITY "// there be any exhortation in Christ, any con- solation of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any tender mercies and compassions, he of one accord, having the same mind. Do nothing through fac- tion or vainglory, hut in lowliness of mind let each count other better than himself. Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, exist- ing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" Paul, Philippians, 2:1-7. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? We who are many are one bread, one body; for we all partake of the One Bread." Paul, I Cor. 10:16-17. CHRISTIAN UNIFORMITY RALPH WALDO EMERSON, in one of his most charming essays, entered a plea for individualism and free diversity. "Nature," said Emerson, "abhors complaisances which threaten to melt the world into a lump, and hastens to break up such maudlin agglutinations. For nature wishes everything to remain itself; and, whilst every individual strives to grow and exclude, and to exclude and grow, to the extremities of the universe, and to impose the law of its being on every other creature, nature steadily aims to pro- tect each against every other. Each is self-de- fended. Nothing is more marked than the power by which individuals are guarded from individuals in a world where every benefactor becomes so easily a malefactor." Protestantism in many quarters to-day is anx- iously inquiring if this Emersonian individualism may be expected always to obtain. Or shall we begin to map out programmes of uniformity — uni- 49 50 Reconstruction of the American Church fortuity of creed, uniformity of ritual, uniformity of Church government? Or, on the other hand, would uniformity at best be only a wonderful "one-horse shay built in a logical way," destined again to break up or to break down into diver- sity? A survey of the field reveals many ambitious proposals to-day among the denominations of Christendom for a closer uniformity of Church government and life, but most of these ambitious proposals have the fault of Caesar's ambition, of "overvaulting" and ending in defeat. One might, to begin with, mention the Roman Catholic uni- formity suggested in the kindly and venerable let- ter of Bishop Bonomelli to the Edinburgh Mis- sionary Conference of 1910. "We Catholics can- not suffer to come into question what we have declared to be the truth. But you, my ever dear brothers, especially you English . . . come over the gulf to us. 'We will throw our arms about your neck. We shall all be sons of the same mother Church and the same Father who is in Heaven. " Here in Romanism we could find a uniformity of teaching, a uniformity of member- ship, a uniformity of ministry of the sacraments, Christian Uniformity 5 1 which the whole Christian world enjoyed or other- wise for a thousand years. Our thanks are to Bishop Bonomelli ! Another proposal for Christian uniformity comes from the Episcopal brethren. The Lam- bert Conference of Episcopal Churches in 1888 propounded to the world what by this time is known as the Episcopalian Quadrilateral. It placed uniformity upon four essential points. First, the Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, as the revealed Word of God. Sec- ond, the Nicene Creed as sufficient statement of Christian doctrine. Third, the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, always to be ad- ministered with the words and elements used by Christ. Fourth, the historic Episcopate, locally adapted to the people called into uniformity with Christ's Body. This Quadrilateral was followed up in 1 9 10 by a prayer from the House of Bishops that all Christian communions throughout the world, which confess our Lord Christ as Saviour, unite in a fraternal conference on Christian faith and order. A good commentary on this proposal or Quadrilateral comes in the words of an Epis- copal Bishop of Saskatchewan: ''Reunion within 52 Reconstruction of the American Church and between the churches is indeed a thing we may pray for. But we shall never get it so long as we exalt the scaffolding above the building, the shell above the kernel, the Church discipline above the inward and spiritual verities of the Gospel." It is of challenging and critical interest to note the amount of conscience burning at this move- ment for the rapproachment of the Protestant Episcopal and the Nonconformist Churches. It is a conscience that burns beyond the barriers of uniformity and passes into the field of pragmatic union. The war has given tremendous impulse to the movement. A committee made up of An- glican and Free Church leaders, Bishop Gore and J. H. Jewett and J. H. Shakespeare have already opened the preliminary engagements. Now like a trumpet blast comes the book of Rev. Mr. Shake- speare, The Church At The Crossroads. Scath- ing and caustic criticisms have been heaped upon Mr. Shakespeare's acceptance of Episcopacy. But the volume of discussion, talked and written, upon the overtures for uniformity betrays a burning conscience in the English people to have the con- fusion cleared up. Christian Uniformity 53 "The question of reordination will inevitably arise," says Mr. Shakespeare. A way must be found at a later stage and in a calm and gentle atmosphere. It must be considered simply as involving regularity within the Church of England, and not validity. In the most emphatic language, every sug- gestion that Free Church ministers are to cast any doubt! or suspicion upon their own ordination to the ministry must be expressly excluded. On the other hand, there must be no readiness to press formal difficulties or to fail to see that if in the united Church the essential elements of Congregationalism and Presbyterianism are included, it is not unreasonable to crown the edifice with that prin- ciple of government which is so dear to the Episcopal Church. There are several ways in which a solution might be found, but if the reconciliation is to have its proper fruitfulness it is certain that there must be a striking historic act in which visible unity is achieved. The criticism upon Mr. Shakespeare's proposal is clearly set forth by Sir William Robertson Nicoll: For a Free Church minister to submit to reordination by a Bishop because the minister considers the act to be a harmless form, whereas the Bishop himself holds it to be a most solemn and vital necessity, must appear to plain men as shockingly insincere. Mr. Shakespeare would accept prelacy because the spirit of the age demands reunion. But if democracy means anything it means that authority is conferred by the people and not imposed upon the people. It has no 54 Reconstruction of the A merits* Church --- _r . r ._ :..r_ v.;,: .7 ..>..:> AT.- ^::>::~: ~_>: 15.5 -*::-.;■ :: : : z~--z l :z :-::_;- "r:~ ziz H S: : : rJl ■•:_;.-- salts to work out His holy witt. Wc are told that cM- ::: ~ l: :r_> ~_5: .f-zrr. :: irrri :: :::.•; i~.i i~f vizir :: : . r. ; :: -::~ :: _: : ~ r? : -". ~:.:: z : f-5 irrerrr. r~.: involve? We look hum aid with eager hearts to a League of Nations and to a League of Churches; but what kind of a League? Brotherhood ImAwuji England and Amer- . : 2 2 :-rf z:~. rt : __ r t : ; 2 : _-::..: ;:.;i: «■ 1 ; _ 2 : r : : z. r 2 :::_:.: :: 11:: it _ ~. zt: _:i:ri . ; ~.:_-2 i::rr: ~:~- :::_- :_:;. 1 :-;:tz :z :z ritz?: *:if — :z_i :e p> tesque and insulting. It would he lrsratrd as keenly as r rz*f _zzzzzzzfz :t:t _ t ": ~ r : r : 5 1_ 112: :;. : _* ziz2_5?fr5 : to he reordained by 1 7ze i:::z- z-:.:-s :: S.r V."..H.i.t. N.::_i i: .-.:: irpei: :: :e enrirel- rr:_r.__ess i: :r.e ^s :: z:t: ir.~_-; :::~ :..-.e :::::: irreiri-zr ::' :ze B.sirr :: l-:r.i:i .- K_-rs— 27 Hili L:r.i:r.. 7:; ::.: ^7i.: 5. 52:: :: 27-72: 2: 2 VTesievir: r:-:7:72:t .5 2 :;:"::::.: ierirrzrc :::rr. prec- edent to be sure. But for Dr. Ingram to re- pudiate the policy of federation and to assure his iieirers ::.i: ihere nv_s: :e r.: -.izz.ztzlr.z ~':zz :z.t ::::; 2t5 e-risei '-. izt z. is::: : ireeis rives as his latitude and longtitade on the question at stake. The Bishop goes on: Christian Uniformity 55 My suggestion is this, that after a certain date — we will call it, so as to show that we are not too dilatory, but it can not be by that date, January 1, 1920 — all or- dinations should be carried out in both churches as to satisfy the members of both churches. You see the point is this — to arrive at a point after which schism shall cease. If you can get, first of all, a date after which all ordina- tions will be considered valid by both bodies, however long it takes, you have arrived at a point at which eventu- ally, automatically, the division between the two bodies will cease. And almost contemporaneous with this comes on unofficial but valid sanction of overtures of marriage by Episcopalians and Congregationalists. We agree to acknowledge that the recognized position of the Episcopate in the greater part of Christendom as the normal nucleus of the Church's ministry and as the organ of the unity and continuity of the Church is such that the members of the Episcopal Churches ought not to be expected to abandon it in assenting to any basis of re- union. We also agree to acknowledge that Christian churches not accepting the Episcopal order have been used by the Holy Spirit in His work of enlightening the world, con- verting sinners and perfecting saints. They came into being through reactions from grave abuses in the Church at the time of their origin, and were led in response to fresh apprehensions of divine truth to give expression to certain necessary and permanent types of Christian ex- perience, aspiration and fellowship, and to secure rights of Christian people which had been neglected or denied. No Christian community is involved in the necessity of $6 Reconstruction of the American Church disowning its past; but it should bring its own distinctive contribution not only to the common life of the Church, but also to its methods of organization. Many customs and institutions which have been developed in separate communities may be preserved within the larger unity. What we desire to see is not grudging concession, but a willing acceptance of the treasures of each for the com- mon enrichment of the united Church. All this is struggle and suffering and writhing and wheedling and cajoling for a solution of the problem of Reconstruction through the avenue of Uniformity. The three most outstanding efforts for Uniformity to-day are to be found in the claims of the Catholic, Episcopalian, and Baptist or Dis- ciple of Christ communions. The latter com- munion or the latter two communions make their protest against a variegated Christendom on the basis of New Testament Church polity. The as- sumption of the claim is that Jesus Christ and His Apostles meant First Century polity and ordi- nances and creeds and observances to be binding upon all future generations. Christendom, be it soberly and solemnly said, has been busy for some years now testing whether the assumption of a Divine Uniformity is true or false. And when Christendom announces the results of its findings Christian Uniformity 57 we need not be surprised to find Uniformity in the discard! Of such quantity and kind are these proposals for a uniformity of Church polity and Christian faith and order that one is led to wonder if the Church wants or needs uniformity, and if so, then how much? But far back of the question of uni- formity of Church life and antecedent to it is the question of the final authority in our Christian religion. Most Protestant communions have placed the final authority for faith and order in the Bible, preferring in some mystical way the authority of the New Testament over the Old Testament. The Catholic Brethren have allowed the Church the final authority, at least making room for new promptings of the Spirit as, "time makes ancient good uncouth." Most Protestant churches deny their own freedom, handicap them- selves with anachronisms, and by making a Book the final authority assume that the spirit of inspira- tion and leadership died when the Fathers fell asleep. The Roman Catholic theory, if not its practice, has graciously assumed that the same Spirit which inspired the Bible still works in the hearts of men, or at least in a few men, Cardinals 58 Reconstruction of the American Church and Popes. Protestantism is, however, awaken- ing to the fact that it has relinquished a great deal in rejecting the Holy Spirit as the ultimate source of authority. Jesus declared it expedient for His disciples that He should go away, for if the visible Jesus did not depart the Holy Spirit would not come, but upon the advent of the Holy Spirit He would lead them into all truth. Why should Protestantism hold to some external au- thority in Church Government when a progressive revelation is given us by the living Christ? Why could not representatives of all Christendom meet to-day in a new Pentecost and have that Holy Spirit poured out upon them to "lead them unto all truth" concerning Christian reorganization of faith and order? Is it because we do not believe in the living God, or the indwelling Holy Spirit, or is it what Hutton calls the "spiritual fatigue of the world?" In our democratic government of America the Constitution and laws of the land are authoritative, but not the final authority. Rather is it the Supreme Court, which has power to interpret our Constitution or nullify our laws, which is final authority. And to place the Holy Spirit as the ultimate of authority in faith and Christian Uniformity 59 order does not dethrone the authority of the Bible; it only enforces and interprets and modifies the authority of the Bible. When in the first Century the followers of Christ did not submit to the authority of a Book but to the authority of a Living Christ in His Holy Spirit, when the Dis- ciples in Jerusalem decided the Gentile question by the leadership not of a Book but of the Holy Spirit, why should Christ's Church to-day be held and bound by some canonical Church Order, and why should it not have that same gracious leading of that Holy Spirit? u Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord." The question is not content but must reach still further ! Did Jesus Christ and His Apostles set up a conception of religion that made man's rela- tion to God dependent on any particular rite or observance or form of organization ? Is any man justified in declaring any outward custom, sign, ritual, as the identification of the true Church? Is Heaven concerned so much about these matters? Take for instance some of the Baptist bodies who, as indicated in Mr. Rockefeller's recent article, are feeling how narrow-cornered and ill-grounded has been their isolation. The thoroughgoing fol- 60 Reconstruction of the American Church lower of Christ must reject these mummified de- nominational differences and cling to the priest- hood of all believers, the unity of all branches of the Christian vine. The whole drift of things through this war will leave these claims of exclu- sion and enforced uniformity stranded high and dry. The new world after the war will have little energy to spare for ritualistic differences. Prin- cipal Ritchie has an admirable remark on the situation: "It makes men hesitate to affirm that the New Testament prescribes any form of Church government. Certainly Episcopacy can- not so affirm, its own scholarship being witness. There are very grave doubts about Presbyterian- ism also. Even Congregationalism can no longer be unhesitatingly dogmatic here. It can only af- firm that at the beginning New Testament Churches were autonomous spiritual societies. It is now seen that Church government is largely a divine expediency. Anglican scholars, like Light- foot, Hatch, Gwatkin, and Rashdall, have under- mined Anglo-Catholicism and left tottering to their fall dogmas like Apostolic Succession and the His- toric Episcopate. On the mission field the Spirit of Christian Uniformity 61 God works mightily by what may be described as an Episcopal-Methodist-Congregationalism. The broad result is that the ancient saying, ( Ubi Chris- tus ibi Ecclesia' ('Where Christ is there is the Church') is seen again to be the fundamental doc- trine of the Church. All else is commentary, and even sectarianism cannot long live healthily on that. The fellowship of holy men, women, and children, and not any specific ecclesiasticism, is the divine Society on earth. That, says Paul, is 'the Body of Christ.' " A beautiful incident is related about the good Queen Elizabeth of Austria who, in the early nine- ties, used to go to Cape Martin in France for her vacation. She stopped at the immense hotel that stands on the promontory surrounded by pines and fields of arbutus. There she had her apartments in simple English style and there she would in- dulge her peculiar habits. She would arise early in the mornings for long walks and was famous for her generosity through the countryside. When the Empress first came to Cape Martin she in- quired solicitously for a Church, for she had a deep religious persuasion. She was told that 6i Reconstruction of the American Church there was none in the immediate neighborhood. But Queen Elizabeth demanded that a chapel be improvised for her in the hotel and for that pur- pose she selected the billiard room. Then it was recalled that the laws of the Roman Catholic Church required that any room in which divine services were celebrated must first be consecrated by the archbishop of the diocese. It was found impossible to get the archbishop, and what was to be done? The difficulty was overcome in a curious and unexpected manner. It was recalled that an ancient law of the Church, one never rescinded, decreed that a member of the Order of Malta could render sacred any room in which he dropped his mantle. General von Berzer who was present was of the Order of Malta and he went through the form of dropping his mantle in the billiard room and it was accounted consecrated for a chapel. Thenceforth on every Sunday morn- ing the Queen's footmen would set up a portable altar before the chimney, and the mantle of the Order of Malta would be dropped, and that spot became the Church ! It is very fine and symbolic but its theology does not go far enough for to-day ! Christian Uniformity 63 What is the Church? The Church is man When his awed soul goes out In reverence to the mysteries that swathe him all about; When any living man in awe gropes Godward in his search Then, in that hour, that living man becomes the living Church. When communions can learn to drop the man- tle of chanty then the Church of interdenomina- tional fellowship begins. Very frankly, the proposal of Church uniform- ity is futile. There should always be diversities of form and varieties of administration. Nothing said in this plea for unison should be construed as a desire for uniformity. Church unity, or unanim- ity, the unity of the vine as Jesus pictured it, or the unity of the body as Paul described it, is now an accomplished fact. Unity is an organic thing in a tree or in a Church. Church union and feder- ation are more and more forthcoming as a result of our unity. But union is a mental, psycho- logical, social creation. And then Church unison is an achievement like the blend and harmony of a musical orchestra; it is a spiritual achievement. But Church uniformity would be mechanical and frankly undesirable. Some additional Church uni- 64 Reconstruction of the American Church formity is doubtless needed, and will work itself out in due season. But it cannot be emphasized too much that an interpretation of Church unity or union or unison in terms of Church uniformity will be a fatal approach to the problem. Insist- ence upon a set form for baptisms and com- munions, insistence upon one form of creed to the exclusion of others, insistence upon uniformity of doctrine, ritual, Church government, would prove fatally contrary to the whole freedom-loving spirit of the religion of Christ. For where the Lord is, there is liberty; "there is one Spirit and many manifestations." There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea, There is mercy in His justice which is more than liberty. For the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind. To insist upon uniformity is to fall into the old error of setting bounds and habitations to the Spirit of God which Jesus says "Bloweth where it listeth. You know not the comings or goings thereof." Any denomination that limits the place where God's spirit may blow, that holds out for Christian Uniformity 6$ a uniformity of all others to its own individualism, is on bad ground. A few years ago the International Committee that was formed to celebrate the one hundred years of peace between Great Britain and America offered to the British Government as a permanent memorial of friendship and amity a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The offer was accepted by the British Government and a fine site was arranged for Lincoln near Westminister i\bbey on Parlia- ment Square. There the great emancipator will stand in bronze near the court of St. James. But this offer of peace turned out to be an apple of discord, and American was plunged into a storm of art controversy concerning the best statue of Lincoln. There is Borglum's statue of Lincoln, a sad presentation of the melancholy rail-splitter. There is Ball's statue of Lincoln in Boston, and St. Gauden's statue of Lincoln in Chicago. The art object that brought the most controvery was Barnard's statue of Lincoln in Cincinnati. Pro- tests were entered against some of these statues as defamatory to Lincoln. The art critics may disagree about the physical details of Lincoln but the world agrees upon Lincoln's spirit and person- 66 Reconstruction of the American Church ality. So the details of the Church visible may precipitate differences of conviction that render uniformity in that realm impossible. But the Church finds its unity and union and unison in the reality and personality of One whom, having not seen, we love. A forced uniformity of creed or ritual is a fatal approach to the eager problem of Church Recon- struction. "There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit. And there are diversities of minis- tration but the same Lord. For as the body is one and hath many members, so also is Christ." No biologist asks for uniformity in the organic body. The eye and ear and hand and foot have an organic unity of function. But they do not possess uniformity. The instruments of an or- chestra, the piano, the violin, the brass horns, do not possess uniformity; they would make a bad band if they did. But they possess unison; or if they do not they are no orchestra. So also is the Church of Christ. The Methodists, and Pres- byterians, and Baptists, and Episcopalians, and all the other brethren, possess a sacred unity. God does not demand a tiresome uniformity. But the world-mission of Christ demands a blending of our Christian Uniformity 67 denominational individualisms into union and unison. Kipling saw the possibility of the individual communion to attain its larger self in the social marriage of the Over soul, the union and unison of the Body of Christ: When earth's last picture is painted And the tubes are twisted and dried, And the oldest colours are faded And the youngest critic has died; We shall rest, and faith we shall need it, Lie down for an aeon or two Till the Master of all good workmen Shall set us to work anew. And only the Master shall praise us And only the Master shall blame, And none shall work for money And none shall work for fame. But each for the joy of the labour And each in his separate star Shall draw the thing as he sees it For the God of things as they are. PART III CHRISTIAN UNITY "Give diligence to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even 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. He gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Paul, Ephesians, 4:3-13' "I am the Good Shepherd — Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall be- come one flock, one shepherd" Jesus, John 10: 14-16. CHRISTIAN UNITY A FEW years before the outbreak of the European War an incisive article was pub- lished by Dr. Henry Van Dyke in "The Con- tinent," voicing the anguish of our divided Prot- estantism. The article deserves to be quoted at length. "What trials and delays must be en- dured, what obstacles and difficulties overcome, what long and perilous journeys accomplished, be- fore the United Church is reached, God only knows. It may be that the conflict with evil must grow sharper and more bitter before Christians learn that division means defeat. It may be that the shame of forsaken temples and a vanishing Sabbath . . . must grow deeper to make men see the consequence of rivalry. It may be that disaster and humiliation and weakness must be- fall the Christian forces, that they must be driven to some dreadful battlefield of Armageddon to make them stand together against the united powers of darkness and unbelief. Or it may be, 71 72 Reconstruction of the American Church and God grant it, that the lesson will be learned in brighter paths and slowly spelled out in syllables of hope." It is now painfully clear that the prophesied Armageddon was at hand and it forces the overwhelming conviction that the world must behold the oneness of the Christian power, the unity of our spirit in the bond of peace, if Christ is to prevail. Church Unison, Church Uniformity, Church Unity, Church Union, are phrases that body forth a problem and also a solution. Experimental psy- chologists declare it possible to unveil a picture inch by inch, each successive square inch being covered up as the next is unveiled, so that the eye beholds the entire picture, but the mind receives no generalized impression of the total effect. Some- what of this deceptive illusion seems to have dominated and prejudiced the popular mind in its effort to understand the unity and union of the Church of Christ. The problem of Church unity and union is philosophically to most denominations so much a problem of confusion and entanglement, and it is a problem upon which we have had so much more heat than light, that a volume or Christian Unity 73 monograph attempting a clarifying philosophy of Christian unity, uniformity, union, and unison may not, in the economy of the day's literature, be distinctly out of place. If the problem were merely one of sentimental good will it were not so difficult. All can agree sentimentally with the Psalmist that it is "beautiful for brethren to dwell together in unity." But when it comes to the neglect or overthrow of age-long dogmas and traditions, when it comes to the incorporation of of the sentimental and theoretical desire for co- operation into pragmatic action, then the fun be- gins! "A strange world, my masters!" The clarifying and constructive programme seems re- luctant to come forth from its hiding place. The whole hazy and nubulous problem at present of a League of Nations or a League of Churches is tantalizingly like the psychology of awakening in the morning; we have a dim sense of thereness, but not as yet of this and that. A proper modesty should forbid the presump- tion of a complete and universal "whitherward" of Church Unity and reconstruction (to use an ex- pression of Carlyle). But it will be helpful to 74 Reconstruction of the American Church realize a tentative pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night leading us toward the prom- ised land. The confusion attendant upon this problem of Reconstructing the unity of the American Church introduces the necessity of a clean and clear