But criticism was only checked, not silenced. The “restorationists” organized the New Testament Tract Society to spread “sound doctrine.” The Board of Managers of the new United Society adopted an affirmation of allegiance to the “historic position” of the Disciples, including immersion, signed it themselves, and required all missionaries to sign it. The 1922 convention adopted the “Sweeney resolution,” which approved this action and put teeth into it. A “peace committee,” in 1924, failed to agree, and the _Christian Standard_ led in organizing the Christian Restoration Association and began to publish the _Restoration Herald_. The Oklahoma City convention of 1925 adopted a resolution by which it ordered the recall of any missionary who “has committed himself to belief in the reception of unimmersed persons into church membership,” and voted to send a commission to the Orient to find the facts. The commission reported that it found no open membership in China, and the Board of Managers officially interpreted the Oklahoma City resolution as “not intended to invade the right of private judgment, but only to apply to such an open agitation as would prove divisive.” The critics repudiated both the report and the interpretation and, when defeated in the 1926 Memphis convention, called the first “North American Christian Convention” for October, 1927. This convention, repeated annually, has continued to be the rallying place of the opponents of the United Society. While open membership has been thrust into the foreground in the controversy between the United Society and its critics, the society does not avow sympathy with that practice and refuses to admit that this is the real issue. But it cannot be doubted that there are two contrasting views as to the basis of the Christian unity which Disciples seek and the nature and scope of the restoration at which they aim. Under this difference lie two views of the Bible, and from it flow differences of emphasis upon baptism. The admission of the unimmersed is openly defended by relatively few, but quietly practiced by a good many. Still more are restrained from it, not by their own convictions, but by the feeling that at present it would promote division rather than unity. An Ecumenical Outlook All Protestantism has been seeking ways of cooperation and dreaming of unity during the past forty years. In these efforts the Disciples have had their full share, and their hope of unity has been more than a dream. The revived conception of an ecumenical church is congenial to their best tradition and has stirred them to reconsider the ways in which they may help in its realization.