The image is that of an extensive pile of buildings, such as the ancient temples commonly were, in process of construction at different points over a wide area. The builders work in concert, upon a common plan. The several parts of the work are adjusted to each other ; and the various operations in process are so har- monized that the entire construction preserves the unity of the architect's design. Such an edifice was the apostolic Church — one, but of many parts — in its diverse gifts and multiplied activi- ties animated by one Spirit and directed towards one Divine purpose.
St. Peter and St. Paul carried out their plans independently, only maintaining a general understanding with each other. The apostolic founders, inspired by one and the self-same Spirit, could labour at a distance, upon material and by methods extremely various, with entire confidence in each other and with an assur- ance of the unity of result which their teaching and administration
» N. H. Marshall.
78 SPIRITUAL ARCHITECTURE
would exhibit. The many buildings rested on the one foundation of the Apostles. " Whether it were I or they," says our Apostle, "so we preach, and so ye believed." Where there is the same Spirit and the same Lord, men do not need to be scrupulous about visible conformity. Elasticity and individual initiative admit of entire harmony of principle. The hand may do its work without irritating or obstructing the eye, and the foot run on its errands without mistrusting the ear.
^ As Hooker lay dying, he was observed to be held in an ecstasy of contemplation ; and on being asked what might be the subject of his thoughts, he replied, that he was admiring the wondrous order which prevails throughout all the distinctions and multitudes of the heavenly world. "Without which order," he added, "peace could not be in heaven." If on earth, which is " without the gate," we find so much regularity and order, what may we imagine to be the order and fitness of all things in the house of our Father's glory ? ^
^ Unity in itself, especially unity conditioned upon a common catechism, is not an object. Neither is it a thing to be compassed by any direct effort. It is an incident, not a principle, or a good by itself. It has its value in the valuable activities it unites, and the conjoining of beneficent powers. The more we seek it, the less we have it. Besides, most of what we call division in the Church of God is only distribution. The distribution of the Church, like that of human society, is one of the great problems of Divine wisdom; and the more we study it, observing how the personal tastes, wants, and capacities of men in all ages and climes are provided for, and how the parts are made to act as stimulants to each other, the less disposed shall we be to think that the work of distrilDution is done badly. It is not the same thing with Christian Unity, either to be huddled into a small inclosure, or to show the world how small a plat of ground we can all stand on. Unity is a grace broad as the universe, embracing in its ample bosom all right minds that live, and outreaching the narrow con- tents of all words and dogmas.^
^ Himself the staunchest champion of the existing union of Church and State, Stanley practised his own precept of making " the most of what there is of good in institutions, in opinions, in communities, in individuals." And this sympathy was neither a strategic union, nor an armed truce, nor the tolerance of
1 J. Pulsford, Christ and His Seed, 84.
* Horace Bwshnell, Preacher and Theologian, 62.
EPHESIANS 11. 20-22 79
indifference. It was the real fellow-feeling which springs from the power, and the habit, of descending into those deeper regions of thought and emotion where conflicting opinions find a point of union. To the Baptists he was grateful for the preserva- tion of "one singular and interesting relic of primitive and apostolic times " ; to the Quakers, for " dwelling, even with exaggerated force, on the insignificance of all forms, of all authority, as compared with the inward light of conscience " ; to the " Dissenting Churches " generally, for keeping alive " that peculiar force of devotion and warmth which is apt to die out in light of reason and in the breath of free inquiry," Eeligion, he told his American hearers, could ill afford to lose even " the Churches which we most dislike, and which in other respects have wrought most evil," ^
2, The design has holiness written upon it. — In what sense do we speak of the Church as " holy " ? The word as applied to the ancient Jewish Church, from which it was inherited by the Christian Church, meant " set apart for God's service," " conse- crated to Him." It implied the election of the nation by God for His purposes ; as it is said in Deuteronomy, " Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God : the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself." These covenant privi- leges the Apostles regarded as being carried on to the Christian Church, and accordingly St, Paul speaks habitually of the members of the Christian society as " holy," the word which our version renders " saints " ; and St, Peter similarly quotes and applies to the Church the declaration, " Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation " — holy because elect.