It is of the very last moment that the Christian reader should be thoroughly clear on this great Church-question. The enemy has sought, by every means in his power, to cast dust into the eyes of God’s dear people, in order that they might not see the truth in this matter. We have on the one side, the boasted unity of Roman Catholicism; and on the other hand, the deplorable divisions of Protestantism. Rome points, with an air of triumph, to the numerous sects of Protestants; and Protestants likewise point to the numerous errors, corruptions, and abuses of Romanism. Thus the earnest seeker after truth hardly knows where to turn or what to think; while, on the other hand, the careless, the indifferent, the self-indulgent, and the world-loving are only too ready to draw a plea, from all that they see around them, for flinging aside all serious thought and concern about divine things; and even if, like Pilate, they sometimes flippantly ask the question, “What is truth?” they, like him, turn on their heel without waiting for an answer. Now, we are firmly persuaded that the true secret of the whole matter—the grand solution of the difficulty—the real relief for the hearts of God’s beloved saints, will be found in the truth of the indivisible unity of the Church of God, the body of Christ, on the earth. This truth is not merely to be held as a doctrine, but to be confessed, maintained, and carried out, at all cost to ourselves. It is a great formative truth for the soul, and contains in it the only answer to Rome’s boasted unity on the one hand, and to Protestant divisions on the other. It will enable us to testify to Protestantism that we have found unity, and to Roman Catholicism that we have found the unity of the Spirit. It may, however, be argued, in reply, that it is the veriest Utopianism to seek to carry out such an idea in the present condition of things. Every thing is in such ruin and confusion that we are just like a number of children who have lost their way in a wood, and are trying to make the best of their way home, some in large parties, some in groups of two or three, and some all alone. Now this may seem very plausible; and we do not doubt in the least but that it would carry immense weight with a large number of the Lord’s people at the present moment; but in the judgment of faith, such a mode of putting the matter possesses no weight whatever. And for this simple reason, that the one all-important question for faith is this, namely, Is the unity of the Church a human theory or a divine reality? A divine reality most surely, as it is written, “There is one body, and one Spirit,” (Eph. iv. 4.) If we deny that there is “one body,” we may, with equal force, deny that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,” inasmuch as all lie side by side on the page of inspiration, and if we disturb one, we disturb all.