In these days there is no end to the advocacy and organization of “unions” and “unions.” The very air is full of the sentiment, and every community is full of the agitators of the principle along the lines of religious, political, business, and social unions. In no particular direction is the agitation more pronounced than in that of religious and reform work. Union is relied upon for success, by the earnest workers in every cause, but especially is this true in a marked degree in the cause of religious and moral reforms.
The truth of the adage, “In union is strength,” can not be denied; neither can the scripture be broken which says that “a house divided against itself can not stand.” Therefore, in no cause are union of purpose and union of action more fitting, essential, and absolutely necessary than in that of religion. Christ prayed that His disciples—those who learn of Him to follow Him—might be “one.” If the conditions are complied with, this prayer is as sure of answer in the present as at any time in the past or future. If we are truly learners of Christ and not of men, if we indeed “follow on to know the Lord” for ourselves, and are not satisfied with simply learning of men what they have learned of Him, we shall receive the most blessed answer to it in our own hearts and experience.
But with this prayer ever before us, and the possibility of its fulfilment theoretically recognized by professed Christians of every name, a condition exists which is in strange contradiction to the spirit and letter of it. And why?—Because a false idea of union has taken the place of the true. A union of men with men, an association of men professing union with Christ, has come to be accepted as indeed union with Christ. Human wisdom in some form is made the center and bond of the union, rather than Christ and His wisdom.
There is nothing to which the enemies of Christ point with more exultation than to the divided condition of so-called Christianity. Is this because Christ is divided? Rather, is it not because some are “of Paul,” and some “of Apollos,” “ministers by whom ye believed”? In other words, has not this condition been produced wholly by making men the center, and accepting human instead of divine wisdom?
One man of ability and devotion, in studying Christ—the “Truth”—has seen charming beauties in His character and teachings. He has not seen all there is in Him; but those features which have particularly attracted him he has presented to those about him. This was his duty, but in doing so, he failed to successfully direct the individual to the personal study of Christ for other and new beauties. He and His views of Christ become the center to which his hearers are attracted rather than to Christ. They behold only the glory which he beholds and portrays to them. They rejoice in the experiences in which he rejoices. There is not that individuality of experience and growth which would result from a more independent personal acquaintance with Christ and with God through him.
As there comes a natural settling down with satisfaction upon these views, and no further advance study invited, a denomination is formed; and it, rather than the simple life of the Saviour as a man, and as our personal example and teacher, becomes the embodiment of the principles which make up the individual ideal standard of Christian living.
TRUE UNION IN CHRIST. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” John 12:32.
Others of equal ability and devotion in their study are attracted by other features of the “Truth.” The same process is carried out, and another and still another denomination is formed. Each of these has been organized upon the principle of union. It has, however, been a union of men in men, and not a union of which God and Christ alone are both center and circumference—the all and in all.
This popular sentiment of union is now embracing far more than the unifying of belief and practise within the denomination. The uniting of young people’s societies of the various denominations in the Christian Endeavor movement, the subject of “Church Federation,” which at the present is attracting so much attention, and other like moves, illustrate the more extensive application of the principle.
While this interest in and zeal for union result in something of a uniformity of sentiment and action upon particular points held in common by all, it is nevertheless only a union in name. It is at best only a flimsy covering to a mass of confusion and contradiction, both in doctrine and in life. It lacks the essential element of true union,—love for, and oneness in truth. It passes for union, because differences are suppressed in the interests of some measure upon which all are selfishly united, and to secure which they rely upon united human wisdom and strength rather than upon God alone.
And even tho such a union claims to be union in Christ, it must be wholly without Him so far as the element of union presented is concerned. Christ is the “Truth.” Anything, therefore, which knowingly suppresses or rejects any part of the truth for the sake of so-called union, to just that extent rejects Christ.
True union draws individual believers from diverse views and from different positions toward one center—the Truth. False union will form various centers about the true, each containing some point of truth, but more error, and then endeavor to unite these centers without the sacrifice of error. But this plan never works except by omitting the true center altogether. The true and false are presented in the accompanying illustrations.
The only “Christian union” which will endure, and that only which is worthy the name, is that in which each individual is in personal union with Christ, depending upon no one or nothing else for his “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Individual, independent dependence upon Christ is true union with Him as the source of all benefits, and with all true believers as recipients, together with us, of the same. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.”
FALSE “CHRISTIAN UNION” AND CHURCH FEDERATION.
“Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Isa. 8:12.
