THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9137, 22 June 1895, Page 10

THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

to the Knrroa or the prxss. b*ra,—The utterance of Prior Vaughan that " the Church of Rome would not abandon her majestic and time honoured throne," and the letter of your Protestant member of the Church of Eogiaud, which states that "the Romish Church ia the great apostacy spoken of in the Scriptures," exhibit the extreme views of religionists on thia question, and give but slender hopes of anything practical resulting from this discussion. In you actinia you suggest itdara* I AS ent. for LEVER BROS

tion, but that is not sc close a connection as lis meant by union. Federation leaves the ; individual or joining states free to manage ; their subsidiary or local a_airs. Diverse j creeds and ritual are not, I presume, conj ternplated in the term Church union. Tern porary coalition of religions sects for a ; common object is no new thing. But union lof the religious, sects is more like the i marriage of individuals, and unless this is i likely to conduce to barmony and peace j we all know that it is better not to wed.

If, then, Church uuion must be abandoned as a morning dream, should we regret it? Are these different sects an evil ? In plant life we hive infinite variety of beauty, and yet there is harmony. Dare we say that any flower fails to fulfil the design of its creator? With all their difference, there is a unity of purpose in their life. Is it not so in the varying religions? The Protestant Churchman worships hi? God through his mediator, Christ ; the Catholic, through bis mediator, the Virgin Mary, and so on, to the savage who makes use of his il curved image for the same purpose; atm it" we carefully reflect we will find that, even in the case of the Quaker who uses no outward help, the mental attitude of one and all is the same, namely, the ignoring of the worshipper in the attempt to approach the unseen.

If this .union already exists of a certainty why regret the variety of expression ? In human beings, as elsewhere in nature, there is variety in mental conformation. The law of sympathy draws people together in worship, aud divergent tastes and feelings express themselves in the formation of sects, but the object of worship remains the same. If then the foicing of people to worship in the same building, and under the same rules or dogmas, is unattainable let us accept the present state of things as the natural one—the survival of method after centuries of trial.

But let us at the same time urgently claim that this variety of sect does not mean hostility of thought or action. If an acknowledgment is given that all are one in their aims—that there is none truer than another—we can very well leave the union of the churches to the advent Gf the millennium. If spiritual pride is lessened, if a kinder and more charitable feeling between the sects has in any way been brought about by this discussion, I am sure, sir, you will not regret the space that has been allotted to it.

Before I conclude I should like to draw the attention of your Proteataut churchman to a coalition of different sects for a common object, when at the battle of Blenheim Catholic, Protestant, Lutheran and Calvinist fought on the same side. This is recited in Macauley's usual happy style in his essay on Gladstone's " Church and State," pa«e 391. And I would further refer him to an article in the February number of the "Nineteenth Century" entitled "The Making of a Shrine,'' by Mrs Wolffsohn. Briefly it may be described as ths recital of how a kind and philanthropic man named Don Bartolo Longo—a second General Booth— raised an ignorant peasantry to a higher plane of intelligence and religion by the making and worship of a shrine. I have not the slightest doubt that the effect on the " Protestant Churchman's " mind will be the same aa it waa on mine—namely, that we should condemn no religion that betters its devotees. True, he may say it i 3 superstition, but what ia that ? It is the acceptance of the truth of statements without calm and rigid investigation, and that is precisely the definition of faith. Would he weaken any faith that resulted in good actions?— Yours, &c, Verax. June 16th.