The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-09-15
THE GOOD SIDE OF Scots.

pronounced IL mOTlDunQ. I0ey see IN
the multiplication Of its sects nothing
but elements of weakness and decay.
The church is divided and subdivided
and quartered and bisected again I'M
til the number of the sects has become
so vast that no man pretends to know
how many there are. Even if one
knew to-day, his informant on might
not serve him long, for new sect
might be formed tonight and to-mor
rows paper announce another schism.
1t has become almost as easy to make
sect as to erect a church. Any item of
dissent will do for a pretext, aquestion
of ritual or of administration, as well
as a difference in doctrine, or the most
serious matter OF policy; any of these
are deemed sufficient grounds for di-
vorce from the body of the church and
the maintenance of separate ecclesi-
astical establishment. A body of the
adherents of certain sect think that
it ought to be reformed. They fail to
carry this reform inside their organiza-
ton, and so withdraw and found an
other. And when they have main
tanned themselves thus for while, it
occurs to some one else that this last
ought to be reformed. Whereupon an
other secession occurs, another ere
form church" is set up, and the work
of splitting the church into sects goes
bravely on. 1t would seem sometimes
as if the motto Of Professionalism would
some day be every man his own sect"
But this is only the superficial ap-
pearance of Professionalism, such as a
casual observer might take; and like
most casual views, it does grave injus-
tice to the spirit of Protestant Chris
tianity. The Christian world is not 50
distracted in its faith as the multitude
Of its sects would seem to imply. 1t is
very possible to have substantial agree
ment in spirit along with great divers
ity in method. The founder Of Chris
tianity himself seemed to anticipate
just the state of the church which ex-
lists to-day. Suppose YOU" he said,
''that Jesus came to send peace on
earth2 l tell you nay, but rather divis-
ion." 1t was in the order of its nat
ural development that Christianity
should separate men into groups. The
rise Of varying views Of Christ's person
and work; the differing opinions Of
policy; the conflicting statements of
faith; these are not only no offense to
Christianity, they are part of its nor
NAL growth. One of our Saviour's
comparisons Of his kingdom was to
leaven working in the meal. Why
then should we be surprised that
leaven, true to its nature, makes a
ferment in the lump. What else is
leaven for? The mental activity be-
gotten by dissent; the natural criti-
cisms of differing believers; the recur-
ring controversies and the conflicts of
struggling faith have been the health
Of the church. They have saved her
from the stagnant uniformity of a faith
that never advances. They have saved
her from creed that crushed dissent
and labeled honest doubt a sin. They
have made the various parties in the
church serve one another, and supple
ment one another's labors. They have
served to bring out those central truths
which remain the same in all differ
ences, and have indicated the limits
beyond which inquiry becomes specula-
ton, and loses itself in fog of mega
tions.
But these things are no reproach to
the church. They are far from being
evidences of weakness. They could
only seem thus to minds which con-
ceive Of Christianity as uniform and
stationary system. To those who re-
gard our religion as body of truth to
which nothing may be added, from
which nothing can be taken away, with
no new applications and no fresh trans
lations into life; to those who believe
that the Holy spirit ceased its work of
revelation when the last Of the Apos-
ties died; to those who hold that Chris
tianity calls for no mental exercise
save that of memory; to such as these
the dissonant voices of the church will
seem the signs of rupture and decay.
But whoever regards Christianity as a
spirit rather than as a formula, who
ever looks for more life in the future
than the past has ever shown; whoever
believes in the Holy Spirits constant
activity among men, he will see in the
sectarian tendency of Professionalism
only the natural development of relig-
ion which is allied to progress and to
truth.
Our Saviour made another COMPARE
son, likening the kingdom of God to a
seed, growing to tree. And the fig
ure is almost an argument in support
of the naturalness of the multiplication
of sects under a substantial unity in
the spirit. The first thing a seed does
when it has unfolded into shoot, is to
put forth branches. The small boughs
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