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THE HIGHER UNITY.

£" SEBMON

SAMUEL W. PUFFIELD.

' One God, one law, one element
And one far-off divine event,
To which the whole creation moves."

THE HIGHER UNITY.
A SERMON

DELIVERED IX THE

CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
AUBi^«e(asr, n. y.,
SUNDAY EVENING, JAN. 14, 1877,
BY SAMUEL W. DUFFIELD.

AUBURN:
WM. J. M08ES' PUBaaISHIaTO HOUSE.
1877.

THE HIGHER UNITY.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. — Eph. iv, 5.
We do not need to be reminded that this
age strives after concentration of power. We
clearly see that in all government there is cen
tralization. The lens of human life is drawing
whatever light passes through it into a focus.
It would be strange, indeed, if this were not
so, when the experience of the Babel builders,
so many long ages since, proves the existence
of this principle in ' human nature. Though
there be gods many and lords many, we are in
no doubt that there must be some higher ex;
pression of both God and Lord — a oneness
which reconciles all diversities.
It is this oneness of which we now speak.
The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is

henceforth to be better and better understood.
The way in which false religions bear testimony
to the true, and that equally strange way in
which lower forms of even a true faith tend
upward to a higher expression — this is a most
important force in the evangelization of the
world. Who can say, for instance, how vastly religion
would have advanced, if this higher unity had
been felt and understood a quarter of a century
since, as it is felt and understood to-day ? I
shall attempt so much of this inquiry as shall be
suggestive of the oneness of Christianity.
I. First, then, the Redeemer of ihe human race
must be one. The human being it is who is to
be saved — not the Caucasian or the African,
the Mongolian or the Indian. A redeemer from
this death- of the moral faculties must be a
redeemer whom each man can claim as his own
Saviour. A clear light must break forth from
this Christ of God, which shall shine upon any
and every darkened heart. It will not need
that heart to be anything except human for the
love to reach it. In his lowest form of degra
dation man must be susceptible to something
which is variously called "life," "light," or

"love." By means of this, he .is to see that
what he has supposed to be life is really death ;
what he considers light is. actually darkness ;
and what he has called hve is a selfish thing,
which produces and perpetuates hate among
human kind.
I believe I do not overstate this necessity.
It is, certainly, upon the basis of a belief that
any man, anywhere, can receive the Gospel,
that our missionary efforts are undertaken, our
churches built, our religious work organized.
If it be not true that Christ is such a redeemer,
then the system of faith which we profess is a
snare and a cheat — a fancy, flying into frag
ments at the single stroke of an obdurate fact.
¦ Humanity has no vote in the councils of
Heaven, except as it sends its representative
thither. It has no knowledge of the possibility
of such participation in the Divine action, unless
the information has come to it from above. , The
one who brings the message is the same who
goes back, having shared our nature, to repre
sent us. Paul's language is unmistakable in its
definite exactness as to Christ's mission. He
led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
He descended first and then ascended in order

to do this very thing. He left behind Him apos
tles, prophets, evangelists, who were to " fill up
what was behind " and to lead men after Him, by
the shining way which He tracked along the
sky to the very throne.
If there are other Christs than this one — if
men can in any way be taught what humanity
ought to be, except by what a perfect man has
been — if they can reach Heaven except by
participation in the Divine nature — if, in short,
the world to come is opened before the mind of
any soul, anywhere, except by the key of love
in its highest form, which is that of self-sacri
fice — I do not know .what the apostle can mean
in the text. To him there is only one Christ,
one single, universal Redeemer, one only Lord.
Look at the men who have shown the saving
qualities of greatness in any age. Whatever in
them has been for the amelioration of human
woe, the encouragement of human effort, the
upbuilding of human power and greatness, the
increase of human goodness, is a Christ-like
thing; it is a scintillation of that, single, undi
vided light. The calmness of Confucius, the
heroism of Buddha, the spirituality of Zoroas
ter, the zeal of Mohammed may rank them

among the noted characters of the world's relig
ious history, but the light is very broken, very
feeble, very inexpensive — not to say narrow— as
we find it in their lives and words. And yet
great sections of mankind worship these teach
ers to-day. A veil is upon the face of the
nations, only now by degrees broken through
and torn away by the progress of civilization.
The missionary, in the presence of heathen
dom, drops the petty distinctions of creed and
sect, and stands forth as a simple, humble
believer in this one Lord. The evangelist, in
the presence of the creeds and sects at home, per
ceives only the sad and suffering hearts of
unconverted men and, in the name of his one
Lord, he disregards everything except the essen
tials of Christianity. Man everywhere is sinful.
Christ everywhere is the Saviour from sin. The
one Lord draws to His side all who love Him in
, sincerity and in truth. He has led us past the
age of controversy and division. He is leading
us to an age of unity and of peace.
II. For I cannot but believe that one Lord
implies one faith — a simple, earnest, central
thought, which is to form the religion of men.
There are, undoubtedly, many differences of

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habit, of training and of mental power, but
"the faith" is one and indivisible.
Rome has sought to secure this with axe and
faggot, with thumbscrew and with malediction.
But you and I look for a unity which is not to
be so forced. We do not believe in the com
pelled assent to a statement that the sun goes
around the earth, when the soul has been told
by the stars that this is a lie — a fallacy which
overshadows the real fact. We cannot, theu,
expect dogmatism to accomplish a satisfactory
result unless its announcements strike answering
chords in our very nature.
Because we are, we believe the demands of
humanity will bring about a single faith. No
theologian can produce it ; no cry of heresy
can evade it ; no ecclesiastical help or hindrance
can do more than act as an attendant or an
opposer to the all prevailing truth. By the
truth, by the law of truth, we are to be set free
in the oneness of the faith. We are to come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
This means, unquestionably, that the perfection
of humanity is to be found in this one faith.

Look abroad on men as they strive through
various systems of reconciliation to bring order
out of confusion, and to settle what is amiss in
the world ! We shall soon cry with Coleridge :
" How seldom, friend, the good great man inherits
Honor and wealth, for all his care and pains ;
It Beems like tidings from the world of spirits,
When any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.1'
We see all about us the failure of the lower
forms of religious faith. Communisms sink
into a common chaos. Fanaticisms perish in
the fires of their own devotees. Dogmatisms
are questioned into nothingness. Creeds, sym
bols, forms, customs and usages of every sort
are put upon the defensive, or are utterly
denied and overthrown. Wild cries rise around
a thousand altars, and the Unknown God, whose
inscription is written on every consciousness,
is Avorshipped indiscriminately at a thousand
shrines. But out of the jargon and babble of all these
voices there falls one voice — a "little whisper,
silver clear " — " this is the work of God, that ye
believe on Him whom He hath sent." And
from lips beaten and buffeted by the coarse

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hands of a Roman centurion's guard comes the
same language : " He that liveth and believeth
on Me shall never die." And out of the dark
ness of a dungeon, at midnight, comes the same"
word still : "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved." And from the dis
tance we hear the echoing voice of John, the
beloved disciple, " Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God."
Hope, faith, love — clear stars in the sky of
any loving soul — how heavenly is the light
which drops from their angel-eyes in pity at our
sin ! Christ is the unity of them all. By Him
the world first found true hope with which to
meet the dark hereafter. By liim the degrad
ing superstitions and the depressing suspicions
of mankind were put to rest. By Him, and
Him alone, we have learned of the truest love.
And thus held up before the eyes of the world,
He draws all men unto Himself; and the unity
of the faith is no longer broken by denomina
tional lines, but the rising tide of a purer relig
ion sweeps above the crumbling walls of secta
rian strife.
Charity rejoiceth in the truth, and thus the
un-true, the temporary and the unpractical are

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being steadily eliminated from every religious
organization which follows that One, who is the
highest truth.
III. Yet once more the sentence stays us,
with its third assertion. There shall be, also,
one baptism. One Lord, one faith and one bap
tism shall give us back secure into the love of
one Heavenly Father.
It may seem strange that any stress should be
laid on so apparently trivial a point, as this of
confession of Christ. But the Lord, Himself,
rates it very high. Neither does He do any
thing in secret, nor does he encourage his fol
lowers in hiding from the gaze of, the world.
"Ye are a city, set on an hill," "Ye are the
light of the world," he tells them.
And what is baptism? Only a sign of an
inward and glorious truth. Less and less dare
any one say, " I have the baptism." Jesus bap
tized no one. Paul thanked God that he had
only baptized Crispus and Gaius, and said that
he felt himself sent not to baptize but to preach
the Gospel. Yet the introduction of any
believer into the ranks of the church militant is
by some ceremony analogous to the putting on
of the uniform. Paul bids us, himself, to put

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on the new man ; and, in his view, baptism is
that by which is symbolized the putting away
of the old and dead nature. A ceremony of
washing no more does this, actually, than Pilate's
washing of his hands before the multitude took
away the guilt of his crucifixion of Christ.
But it is very clear, that this use of an element
so absolutely necessary for our life reveals the
purpose that we shall be cleansed by the blood
of sprinkling. We are baptized into the death
of Christ, the sacrifice for sin, as the old Jew
was baptized with the red drops from the hys
sop branch dipped in the blood of the slain lamb.
Where shall we fail, among any nation, to find
the presence of this sense of purity produced
by washing ? Did we ask them to be washed,
they might think, indeed, that the water
cleansed them. But when we take the few
drops of water, as we take the bit of bread and
the sup of wine, we are consistent, and we
remove the possibility of perversion. The sac
rifice, made once for all, sprinkles us from an
evil conscience, and purges us from dead works
to serve the living God.
But no matter what may be the method of
administering this ordinance; it is the one bap-

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tism so long as its spiritual meaning is kept in
mind. It sets one apart for the Lord's service,
by a rite at once beautiful, natural, simple and
cosmopolitan. No other religion initiates its
followers like this. Some do it by committing
to memory parts of sacred books, like the
Koran, the Analects, the Dhammapayda or Path
of Virtue ; others do it by penance, or by pil
grimage. The simple, single and sure act of
our own religion calls upon us to have one Lord,
to possess one faith in Him, and to confess Him
in public before the world.
May I not appeal to your own observation to
prove that persecution for such a confession
grows rarer and rarer in every nation ? Even
Turkey is to-day asked, in no doubtful tone, to
admit the principle of religious toleration into
her government.
The best form of confession is the most sim
ple. It consequently lasts the longest and is
the easiest to employ. It is like the seal of
Almighty God upon the forehead of His own
children. And from thenceforth there is a new
name added to the list of that chosen genera
tion, that royal priesthood, that peculiar people,
who are washed and made white.

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But let us be careful not to restrict too far
this term baptism. Not the outward ordinance
only, but beyond all else the baptism of the
Holy Ghost is meant. " Ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost " was the assurance to the
disciples of a spiritual enlightenment which
would bring harmony of opinion, as well as
harmony of action. The words of Holy Writ
should flame no longer, like Sinai, through a
thunderous mist and dimness of unearthly dark
ness, but with the fire of Divine illumination.
And to-day this one baptism is falling on
God's people everywhere. There is great agree
ment in all religious, things, and in the attitude
of the church towards civilization and towards
barbarism. We are growing into a distinct con
viction that the church of Christ not only has
one Lord and believes on Him in one way, but
is inspired with one clear, broad, generous
desire to bless and assist mankind. The spirit
' of Christ — a spirit of loving and helpful char
ity — pervades the earth. By degrees, this
mingles gently with the spirit of humanity and
wins by love, instead of crushing by denuncia
tion. I herald only the dawn. There is yet the

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chill of the pallid light upon the world, which
lies beneath the heights. But he, who stands
high and far upon the mountain sides of truth
feels already the warm and cheering rays. The
"birds of God which sing the whole night
through " are already on the wing. And as the
light presses forward around the world, we real
ize that exquisite picture of the poet, for we,
the " flying fowl " of God, who nestle " beneath
the covert of his wings," know full well that
'"Tis always morning somewhere, and above
The awakening continents, from shore to shore,
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore."
Sing, then, and wake the morning, 0 happy
Christian heart ! Not long, not long will it be
ere the truth shall have its way, the lie shall go
to its place and we shall enjoy forever the fel.
lowship of God's dear Son !