We had in one quarter "Evangelical Alliances," which put a new
stigma on huge portions of the Church of God, yet left those who took
part in their meetings contented in their own divisions. In other
quarters--probably in both the established Churches of our island--there
was a tendency (and more) to look down on Dissenters as such, to ignore
even their reasonable grievances, to ask more from them than either Holy
Scripture or early tradition could warrant, and to disparage unions that
were possible and urgent as likely to put new difficulties in the way of
that further and perfect union of all who believe in Christ which alone
He has promised, and for which alone He tells us that He prays.
I should be the very last to deprecate either prayer or effort to
advance this perfect end. It ought to be the ultimate aim of all of us,
since it is Christ's. We must do nothing to hinder it: we must do all
that may be lawful for us to promote it. But it should be pointed out to
such as look exclusively towards the East and Rome, first, that a juster
view of those great Churches--great gain as it is--affords little excuse
for ignoring the Churches of the Reformation, and for leaving the large
numbers of devout Christians in the lesser sects without either the hope
or the means of supplying defects which are now, for the most part,
rather inherited than chosen; second, that the divisions and
"variations" among all who in East or West, in England or in Scotland,
in the 11th or the 16th century, felt themselves bound to repudiate the
Papal Supremacy, have supplied, and still supply, the Papacy with a
chief weapon against all of us alike, and in favour of those extreme
pretensions which have been a chief cause of, and remain a chief
obstacle to reunion; and third, that nothing is more likely to bring
about that kinder attitude toward the East and us which we desiderate on
the part of Rome than a large and generous measure here and in America
of "Home Reunion"--effected, of course (as it can only be effected), on
the basis of the Catholic Creeds, a worship in the beauty of holiness,
and the Apostolic Ministry.
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