1. A common life binds together the members of a family. A common life is the basis of the unity of a nation. Yet these can but illustrate the far more complete and searching unity of those, who, having the common life — the sublime, spiritual, eternal life in Christ — come together into the fellowship of the Christian Church. They are one in bonds that are eternal ; one by no mere accident of natural birth, or social place ; one in ways that cannot pass with the changing fashions of the world. They are one as being born again of the Spirit ; as being created anew in Christ Jesus ; as being quickened from the death of trespasses and sins ; as being bought, not with corruptible things as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Their common life in Christ breathes one common atmosphere, and feeds on one common food, and finds expression in one common want. They breathe in the smile of Christ's acceptance, and the knowledge of Christ's will. They feed on Christ's provision of grace. They want, above all things, Christ's honour. So they are one in the unity of their common life.
PSALM cxxxiTi. I 129
^ We can form mechanical unions. We can bind wood and iron and gold and silver together. Each object that enters the combination retains all the qualities peculiar to it. Theje is union is such combinations but not unity. Gold is the same in all parts of the universe. It is the same in all ages and in all worlds. The same is true of all Christians. They are begotten of God ; they are possessed of His nature ; they are one in mind and in heart. They are one in spite of the flight of time. Christians of the first century and of the last and of all inter- vening centuries form one community. They are one in spite of space. Christians in all parts of the world, those that speak different tongues and have different manners and customs, are one flock, even as they are all tended by one Shepherd. They are one in spite of a_ll_ differences, physical, mental, social, and spiritual. They are children^~of brie Father, and they constitute the one household of the faith.^
2. There is unity in diversity. You cast your eye over a landscape, and your heart rejoices in the harmony unfolded from the scene before you, yet_there is everywhere a difference in manifestation. In the beauty and grace of the forms which you see, in the spirit which insensibly reveals itself to you from wood and stream, lake, meadow, and mountain-side, you feel the sense of oneness. One Mind has evidently planned all this. One Hand, through whatever channels of physical force, has mani- festly moulded all this. Yet, when group by group and item by item, you turn your eye and thought upon the objects of this landscape, you note how wide the difference is between the one and the other. May it not be thus also with the Church of the living God ? May not the blessing of Divine grace rest, and the sweetness of brotherly unity abide, equally upon the hills of God's universal Zion, whether they tower from the north in the peaks of Hermon or roll away southward to the mountains round about Jerusalem ?
^ As no two blades of grass are exactly alike, so no two minds are capable of looking at any truth in precisely the same light. Queen Elizabeth could not get her ministers to agree among themselves as to a certain policy. She took half a dozen watches and started them all at the same time. After a while some lagged behind, others shot forward ; no two kept together.
^ A. M'Lean, Where the Book Speaks, 231. PS. CXIX.-SONG OF SOL. — 9
I30 UNITY
'' Ah ! " said she, " I may well give up trying to make my ministers agree, when I cannot get half a dozen watches to keep time together." But nature has unity in the most varied diversity. No two atoms in the countless number that make up our globe are exactly alike, yet they make up an entire world. No two drops in the sea are probably alike in weight and form, yet they all unite to make up one sea. No two sands are identical, still they all unite to make up one shore. Behold here is unity in diversity. Taking a broad view —
The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord: She is His new creation
By water and the word.
The foundation is one ; the stones built on the foundation are as varied as can possibly be ; but they all unite to make one building. Much, then, as we may vary in things non-essential, is there not a common basis on which all Christians can unite on things essential ? ^
3. Unity does not obliterate individuality but gives room for its free development. A living organism, such as the body of man or any other animal, is not merely a unity of parts, each of which fulfils a function necessary to the rest, so that the brain, heart, lungs, the various members and organs, have absolutely no separate or separable existence or life, so that each lives in and by the rest, their life its life, its life not its own but theirs ; but, more than that, it is a unity which, unlike that of the machine, the parts themselves feel, so that each suffers in the injury or suffering, is happy with the happiness and well-being, of the rest. The closer and more integral oneness is not attained at the cost, but rather by the more intense development, of individual dis- tinctiveness. Each member and organ is itself, attains to the richest development of its individual nature, gains itself, so to speak, only where it surrenders itself, its whole being and activity, to the unity in which it is comprehended. If it begins to act for itself, to seclude itself, to display any independent phenomena, any slightest movement that is not conditioned by the organism to which it belongs, the isolation is fatal. And if it is entirely separated from the rest, if it ceases to be permeated by a life