The War and Unity: Being Lectures Delivered At The Local Lectures Summer Meeting Of The University Of Cambridge, 1918
Religion
The War and Unity: Being Lectures Delivered At The Local Lectures Summer Meeting Of The University Of Cambridge, 1918
Christian sociology; Christian union; Social change; World War, 1914-1918 -- Religious aspects
So far we have dealt largely with the past and with the various
movements in the direction of unity which have been set on foot. It now
remains to say something of the motives which inspire and the principles
which underlie them. First and foremost is the fact that it is the will
of our Lord that His people should be one. This does not mean surely any
mere uniformity of organization but unity of spirit, heart, and will. We
seek this chiefly because it is a right thing. Anything short of it is
evil. The Christian faith rests ultimately on the Fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of man, and these can only be made real when all
Christians accept them and make them the ground and basis of their
relations with one another. Here we need to appeal to the conscience of
the churches and challenge them to put the first things first and learn
in the love of the brethren the love and service of God and His Church.
Then we are bound to recognise in the next place that this unity is the
prime condition of successful work and witness. The tasks awaiting the
churches in the immediate future are gigantic and only as they stand
together and learn to speak and act as one have they any chance of
accomplishing them. They have to evangelize the world, and for this they
will need above all things a common faith, a common witness, and a
common sacrifice. They have to leaven society with the aims and
principles of Jesus Christ, to bring His spirit to bear on all social,
political, commercial, and industrial undertakings, and for this too
they will need the united weight of all their influence and the passion
of a great common crusade. The devil is a great master of strategy and
knows that if he can keep our forces divided there is nothing in them
that need be feared. We must therefore close up our ranks and present a
united front, not merely as a measure of self-preservation but in order
to do well the work that has been committed to us. This will involve
some real self-sacrifice on the part of us all, but it is the way the
Master went and His followers must not shrink from it. If we but keep
our eyes fixed on the great vision of the Kingdom which He opened before
us, we shall not faint but go forward steadfastly and together until the
kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of God and of His Christ.
UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS
IV. THE SCOTTISH PROBLEM
By the Very Rev. JAMES COOPER, D.D., Litt.D., D.C.L., V.D.
The very appearance of this subject on the programme of the CAMBRIDGE
SUMMER MEETING, and still more the fact that it has been entrusted to
ministers of different Christian denominations--one of them, too, from
across the Border--are signs of a remarkable change that has come
over--we may say--the _whole Christian people_ of Great Britain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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