The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1907-05-17

possess it; for we are well able to over.
come it,
Thank God for the courage of Calet
of old, and for the later day courage
of a Kellar, in response to which we
stand to-day on the plain upon which
our fathers stood almost hundred
years ago.
| All this cry for organic union has
been in the face of the fact that such
a thing has never existed in the
church, except by coercion-not even
in the days OF Christ on the earth was
it found.
From the very beginning, the sacred
vine planted in the family Of A braham
by the hand Of God, has spread in
numerous twigs and boughs of infinite
beauty and invigorating variety.
In discussing the question of or
ganic union in the Homiletic Review
of November. 1906, the editor says
IF we were asked what might be
looked upon as the most natural, the
most convenient as well as the most
inevitable feature OF all great religi-
GUS movements and institutions, we
should say individualism, the personal
element that which develops the
group. the party, the sect, with its
predictions, its spontaneity, its life
and the spirit Of true liberty"
But the idealist asks, "Did not
Christ pray for the oneness of the
Church," Let US look at the Ian
Ouage of that prayer. "Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they
may be one as we are,'
Now here we have the language in
which Christ prayed for the unity of
the Church, and it is not hard to un-
derstand. He prayed that the unity
Of the Church might be like His own
unity with the Father-like the unity
Of the trinity the God-head.
But, are our ideallst friends ready
to say that the unity of the trinity is
Inconsistent with the individuality
and the separate personality Of each
of the three persons in the God-head?
Is not the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost each separate person?
III the unity of the God-head is not
destroyed by the separate personality
Of each OF the parties composing it,
pray tell me by what manner of logic
can any set Of men reach the conclu-
sion that the separate existence of two
or more Christian denominations de-
stroys the spiritual unity of the Church
of Christ?
Christ prayed that all who were be-
levers in Him, and all who should
ever become believers in Him, might
be admitted to the sacred circle Of
love and affection then formed by
and the Father.
Uniformity is purely human ideal, |
but it has never been any part of Gods
plan.
We find the story OF the original
Idealists In the book Of Genesis, which |
here ask your permission to read |
from Gen. 21:1-9. Here 1t is seen
that God destroyed their plans for
organic oneness.
About the close Of the fifteenth
century there was another near APP
oroach TO organic oneness, for Rome
'uled supreme and religious liberty
rad been greatly abridged to all, and
absolutely destroyed to the great
masses Of the common people
II was just then that there was
,orn, In peasant home In Germany,
red headed boy who, under God, |
rev to manhood and became Gods
hosen instrument for once more de-
troyiag mans plans and approaches
d organic oneness. Ii
Martin Luther broke the power OF
Rome, tore the organic oneness of the |
hurch into a thousand fragments,
nd restored to the people the right
0 worship God-the right long With
Ield from them under a pretense Of
arrying out divine command-ac- (
ording to the dictates Of their own
onsciences. lis
Under free governments. with re-
glous rights restored, men began the /
tudy Of the Bible anew. and to form J