By J.H. Garrison
OF ALL the problems which now confront the church of Jesus Christ, there is none more important and more vital to its success than how to restore its lost unity. Many theories and plans have been suggested and advocated, which I will not take the space here to even enumerate, for my purpose is to treat the question affirmatively rather than negatively. I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ is the solution, and the only solution, of the problem of Christian unity.
Christ is the only Foundation.--Commonplace as this statement may seem, and universally accepted as it would appear to be, it is a truth that would revolutionize Christendom if it were practically carried out in church life. We sing it, and we preach it, and do everything but practice it. It means that Jesus Christ is the creed of the church, and that it has no right to require of men any other confession of faith than the confession of Jesus Christ. The practical embodiment of this truth in our church life would create the same kind of revolution in the religious world that was created in the scientific world by the Copernican theory of astronomy, which made the sun instead of the earth the center of our solar system. This Christo-centric view of Christianity is essential to Christian unity, and it is this new place of Christ not only in modern theology, but in the life of the church, that is behind the present-day movement in the direction of unity in the church and the solidarity of society. No matter how far separated men may be in their feelings, purposes and policies, if they are moving toward a common object, they move along converging lines and it is only a question of time until their elbows touch, and they stand together in a solid phalanx. Never since the apostolic age has Christ had the ascendancy in the church which he has to-day. Never were the eyes of men turned to him so intently as they are today. It is this view of Christ that is giving the church a new vision of its mission in the world, and making it feel the necessity of unity in order to the carrying out of that mission.
Christ is the Builder o f his Church.--"On this rock I will build my church," said Jesus. This fact has been too much overlooked. Those who have built under him have not always recognized that he is the Supreme Builder. The actual organization of the church came after Christ's coronation; but it was effected under the direction of his apostles to whom he promised, and to whom he sent, the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth. Those who would disconnect the church from Christ's authority, overlook the mission of the Holy Spirit and the fact that he came to guide the apostles in the work of establishing the church and giving it the necessary instruction for its spiritual development and growth. We have in the New Testament a sufficiently clear outline of the early church to be able to understand what is the will of Christ in relation to his church so far as relates to its essential faith and its conditions of membership. Is it too much to say that the way for the church to regain its lost unity is to recognize Christ as the Supreme Builder of his church, and to return to the original constitution or organic law of the church as given by him and his apostles? This does not mean returning to the infantile condition of the church nor the imperfect and undeveloped views which may have been held by the church in its primitive condition, but only to that which is manifestly the will of Christ concerning the conditions by which men and women might become his disciples, and members of the church, which is his body. Firmly planted on these fundamental truths and organic laws of the kingdom of God, there is room for freedom in thought, and in methods of worship and of organization, for the advancement of that kingdom.
Christ's life in the lives of his followers, is an essential condition of unity.--In vain do we create platforms on which the divided church may get together. It is only as we are vitally related to Christ that we can be vitally related to each other. We can have no unity in the church without first having unity in Christ.
His prayer was that we might be one in him as he and the Father are one. Union is not to be promoted in the present stage of the church's development by the discussion of differences. What we need is to emphasize and to seek a closer conformity to the will of Christ, and a more vital union with him. When we come into the atmosphere of Christ, and under the dominance of his life and love, it will be an easy matter, comparatively, to sit down at his feet and so adjust our differences that we may live and work together as brethren under our common Lord and Master. All attempts to hasten unity by the compromise of honest convictions of truth, are efforts in the wrong direction. Any contribution which any religious body can make to the truth of Christianity and to the best methods of propagating that truth in Christian service, it is under obligation to make as a part of that full-orbed Christianity which the united church must possess.
There is now in progress in the church universal a silent and irresistible recasting of truth and a new distribution of emphasis coming from the wider vision, which is preparing the way for Christian unity and the triumph of the kingdom. This process is hastened only by the exaltation of Christ and by seeking a closer and more vital union with him, that we may see through his eyes, be animated by his spirit, and in the power of his might, come into that oneness by which the world may believe on him as the sent of God and the Savior of mankind.
