Morning journal and courier., 1894-02-05
THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL.

T AmerIca-R eIixion's Great OpPortu' nity, Yet She Spends Her Time In Divislon and Disse ensiOn-Possibility Of a Universal Alliance.
 Rev. Professor Charles Briggs ot the Union Theological seminary of New York preached in the United church yesterday morning to large congregation. He spoke in the main as follows:
 'I would ask your attention this morn ing to the fourth chapter of the Ephesians, the earlier verses. T, therefore, the pris- oner of the Lord. beseech you that if ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with lony-suffering, forbesrinz one anoth- CT in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, who is above all and through and in yoa all'
 "rhe Apostle Paul in this passage is ex- horting the Ephesians and the Christian church in all times to walk worthy of the calling in which they were called. He first commends us to lowliness and meek ness, then to long suffsring, forbearance, unity and diligence in keeping the peace. The unity of the spirit here is not the unity of the human spirit bat of the holy epirit-a spirit affected and concerned with the Spirit of God. It's bond is bond whose character and unity is peace. It Is not the peace that preserves unity. It Is the Holy Spirit. Such unity was re- ality which existed in the time of the Apostles, and which was to be kept eare- fully. But the Apostles saw that there was danger of losing 1t. So they laid stress on diligence in its preservation. The bond was liable to be broken in ex- pansion.
 "The unity of the Holy Spirit has been divine reality since the time 1t descended in eleven tongue of fire upon the heads of the annexed apostles to give life and i'm pstus to the church of that time. All that the church now is or will be Is due to it. This unity of Christian with Christian Is 8 much greater fact than is supposed at the present time. The bond of peace and unity of the church has now so long bsen lost that theologisns have become tkeptics in regard to it. Our Christian fathers have not kept the unity of the Spirit, and in cons. quence hostile seets have been en- gend-red The one holy Catholic church conceived of in the new testament no longer exists.
 1T will consider Paul's arrangement of the trinity of Christian beliefs in reverse | order. First, one God, one Father, over | all, in all and through all.' You may think that this doctrine and belief has been maintained by the Christian church. If | go, beg to differ with you. The doctrine of the unity of God has not been sui | fciently maintained, 80 that many of ouI l theologians have come near to bsins tri. l thsists.
 "rns sovereignty of God has been suf 6ciently emphasized in the past. The one God trantc sndent as sovereign involves the union of all under his reign. But he may govern different peoples in differen, ! manners.
 ESQ this idea of God as sovereign doe: not tend to unity. The doctrine of the imminenoe of God has, however, srestl advanced Christian unity. The Christian church broke the bond of peace when they let go the conception of the o loving, all. embracing God. They limited divine grace by divine sovereignty. They buried the father in the monarch. Gods grace it | full and rich and is in men as they are willing to receive Him. Ons Father is tn us all We are all brethren of one spirit ual blood. And it Is a shame to keep suct brethren apart by barriers of ecc!esiastiea dog%ss's%; s!%ss o5,ro, h.. un,,.., ,,. ,,.. :. | death. They forgot that he rose again t,
 reign at the right hand of God the Father
 and to be the living head of the church
 We do not worship the dead Christ Th
 idea of the reigning Christ is enhanced il
 the new theology. Christ once broke dow
 the barriers between Jew and Gentle, be
 tween Greek and bar bsriem, betWee,
 Roman and Seythian and established tn | reign of peace. How unchristian 1t hs
 been to again raise up these barriers tha
 Christ broke down.
 "There are not different kinds of faith
 There is only the one saving faith-a faitl
 that unites ths heart of man to the hear | of Christ by tie that cannot be broken
 It is the dogmatical contemplation of th | content of enc faith that has broken tn
 peacs of the world. To-day the world i
 torn by such dissensions that only the mos
 higly trained teachers in schools of theol | ogy can comprehend faith and they cauno
 comprehend it satisfactorily. Only tn highest dogmatical teachers can define
 certain faith. Aud they cannot do 1t so @ to satisfy Christian men and women. Fait
 has been built up, story upon story Babels of dogmatism pierce the skies o
 heaven and pry into the mysteries of God
 "Denomin ationaliem has become tn great sin of cur American Christianity. l
 exists nowhere else in the world in such
 terrible manner as here And if 1t wsr
 not true that this is an immensely wealth,
 country owing to it's i'm mense natural re
 sources, 1t would have been disastrous t.
 the Christian church in our country.
 "The next point is baptism. Baptism
 the one mode of entrance into the vltibl
 clutch. It is not essential to salvation
 In this all Christian denominations ar
 agreed, however they may differ in mode
 They differ also in regard to the admin!a
 tering of the Lords supper. Worship
 too, is essentially the same the world over
 The same Bible is read throughout th
 Christian world. If we could look dow
 from heaven on those assembled for wor
 ship we would see that it is essentially tn
 same thing The worship of Ne,
 York and Rome, New Haven an'
 Oxford, St. Petersburg and Vienna woul
 be seen to be essentially the same. It al
 as csnds to the same throne of grace.
 all exalts the sweet name of Jesus. Tn
 CD tristan church Is ever divided as tn
 waves and united as the sea. Beneath al
 ia quiet. As there is one body of Chris
 there can only be one church of Christ
 The greater part of the church of Christ 1 rying out the figure of the body tn church on earth is but the feet. But 6 the world grows older there may be 8 pos ability of an alliance between the differ
 ent denominations of the church and eve1 between the PrOte estsnts and tt 6 Church o
 Rome. The historical student will se
 that the greaest church disseneions hay
 been due to the struggle of men to see wt
 was highest in authority. Their mother and wives wanted for their son and bus
 bands the highest seats
 Hope is 8 consolidating element in tn Christian church. And we may still hope
 Thus we have tried to study together thi morning the unity of the church as se
 forth by the apostle, and to perceive th errors of our fathers. Faith ia not for th ecclesiast or dogmatist. He is concerne with his ecclesiastical authority or hi dogma It is for the Christian pee pie wh
 are little concerned with dogma
 "Never before has the Christian religio ) bsen confronted with all our religions 6 it Is to day. Now are we brought fac to face with the results of modern sc
 ence, philosophy and historical research Never before has it had the oI portunity to preach tie gospel [ all tie world. Great Is the ol
 portunity to serve the Master. It woul
 seem as though Christ was about to artf from his throne and summon his entil forcs into the fad. And we are wsitin our strength and energies in division an , dissensions. If only ali Christian peopl would unite under the one banner ( Christ, we would see our young men an ) l women arise as they never have before 3 l They would go forth on @ new crusade { eelf-sacrifce, and the kingdom of Chris would be spread over the entire world"