We do not expect, therefore, we do not seek, any common grounds of belief for Christian thinkers, other than are involved in the simple fact that we are Christians at all, in the common recognition of the revelation of God in Christ--of the Lordship of Christ. We confess Christ. For, "no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit." And "other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Now, in this common confession, it is here especially maintained, we are, as everywhere, "members one of another" and need one another; and the unity we seek, therefore, is not the unity of identical credal statement--which can only make us isolated atoms not necessary to one another--but the deeper and larger organic unity of the richly varying manifestations of the common life in Christ. We may come, through the witness of another, to an appreciation of Christ which is really our own, but to which we should not have come if the other had not spoken. Men do mutually influence one another for good, in their confessions of Christian faith. VI. THE CONSEQUENT IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH In this recognition of the vital and essential importance of mutual influence in the attainment of character, in the individual relation to God, and in creed, theology is brought to a new sense of the significance of the doctrine of the church. On the one hand, it cannot derive its importance from having to do with an unalterably fixed and infallibly organized external authority; and, on the other hand, it can be no longer an unimportant addendum concerned only with methods of organization and government, and with ecclesiastical ordinances and procedure. So far as the social consciousness has influence upon theology at this point, theology must see that the doctrine of the church is the doctrine of that priceless, living, personal fellowship, in which alone Christian character, Christian faith, and Christian confession can arise and can continue. The doctrine of the church becomes thus the doctrine of the very life and growth of Christianity in the world. It is the doctrine of the real kingdom of God, Christ's own great central theme. [78] Cf. above, pp. 35 ff. [79] _The Elements of Sociology_, pp. 119, 120, 121. [80] _The Ideal Life_, p. 149. [81] _The Place of Christ in Modern Theology_, p. 455. [82] James, _Psychology_, Vol. II, p. 579. [83] Cf. Hebrews 10:10. [84] _An Outline of Christian Theology_, p. 335. [85] _Op. cit._, p. 459. [86] Cf. Romans 8:26-39. [87] II Corinthians 5:19. [88] _The Theology of the New Testament_, Vol. II, p. 448. [89] _The Communion of the Christian with God_, p. 61; cf. p. 87. [90] Cf. above, p. 32. [91] _The Vitality of Christian Dogmas and their Power of Evolution._ CHAPTER XII _THE INFLUENCE OF THE DEEPENING SENSE OF THE VALUE AND SACREDNESS OF THE PERSON UPON THEOLOGY_