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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18905-8.txt b/18905-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..822351a --- /dev/null +++ b/18905-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5167 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The War and Unity, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The War and Unity + Being Lectures Delivered At The Local Lectures Summer + Meeting Of The University Of Cambridge, 1918 + +Author: Various + +Editor: David Herbert Somerset Cranage + +Release Date: July 25, 2006 [EBook #18905] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND UNITY *** + + + + +Produced by Irma pehar, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +THE WAR AND UNITY + + +CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS + +C. F. CLAY, MANAGER + +LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4 + +NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +BOMBAY } +CALCUTTA } MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. +MADRAS } +TORONTO: J. M. DENT AND SONS, LTD. +TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + +THE WAR AND UNITY + +BEING LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE +LOCAL LECTURES SUMMER MEETING OF +THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 1918 + +EDITED BY THE REV. +D. H. S. CRANAGE, LITT.D. +KING'S COLLEGE + +CAMBRIDGE +AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS +1919 + + + + +PREFACE + + +For some time past the Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate have +arranged a Summer Meeting in Cambridge every other year in connexion +with the Local Lectures. The scheme of study has always included a +number of theological lectures, and at the last two meetings an attempt +has been made to deal with some of the religious and moral problems +suggested by the War. In 1916 a course of lectures was delivered, and +afterwards published by the University Press, on _The Elements of Pain +and Conflict in Human Life_. In 1918 the Syndicate decided to arrange a +course on Unity. It was at first suggested that the lectures should be +confined to the subject of Christian Reunion, but it was finally +arranged to deal not only with Unity between Christian Denominations, +but with Unity between Classes, Unity in the Empire, and Unity between +Nations. + +Many of those who attended expressed a strong wish that the lectures +should be published, and the Lecturers and the Syndicate have cordially +agreed to their request. The central idea of the course is undeniably +vital at the present time, and the book is now issued in the hope that +it may be of some help in the period of "reconstruction." + + D. H. S. CRANAGE, + Secretary of the Cambridge University + Local Lectures. +_November 1918._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + +I. A GENERAL VIEW PAGE 1 + +By the Reverend V. H. Stanton, D.D., +Fellow of Trinity College, Regius Professor +of Divinity. + +II. THE CHURCH IN THE FURNACE 25 + +By the Reverend Eric Milner-White, M.A., +D.S.O., Fellow and Dean of King's College, +late Chaplain to the Forces. + +III. THE PROBLEM OF THE ENGLISH FREE CHURCHES 51 + +By the Reverend W. B. Selbie, M.A. (Oxford +and Cambridge), Hon. D.D. (Glasgow), Principal +of Mansfield College, Oxford. + +IV. THE SCOTTISH PROBLEM 72 + +By the Very Reverend James Cooper, D.D. +(Aberdeen), Hon. Litt.D. (Dublin), Hon. +D.C.L. (Durham), V.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical +History in the University of Glasgow, +ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland. + + +UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES + +I. By the Right Reverend F. T. Woods, D.D., +Trinity College, Lord Bishop of Peterborough 89 + +II. By the Right Honourable J. R. Clynes, M.P., +Minister of Food 115 + + +UNITY IN THE EMPIRE + +By F. J. Chamberlain, C.B.E., Assistant +General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian +Association 137 + + +UNITY BETWEEN NATIONS + +By the Reverend J. H. B. Masterman, M.A., +St John's College, Rector of St Mary-le-Bow +Church, Canon of Coventry, late Professor of +History in the University of Birmingham 151 + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + + + + +I. A GENERAL VIEW + +By the Rev. V. H. STANTON, D.D. + + +The governing idea of this early morning course, which at the present as +at former Summer Meetings is devoted to a subject connected with +religious belief, is this year the power that Christianity has, or is +fitted to have, to unite Christian denominations with one another, and +also to unite races and nations, and different portions of that +commonwealth of nations which we call the British Empire, and different +classes within our own nation. A moment's reflection will shew that the +question of unity between denominations of Christians derives special +significance from being placed in connexion with all those other cases +in regard to which the promotion of unity is to be considered. If it +belongs to the genius of Christianity to be a uniting power, it is above +all in the sphere of professed and organised Christianity, where +Christians are grouped together _as_ Christians, that its influence in +producing union should be shewn. If it fails in this here, what hope, it +may well be asked, can there be that it should be effective, when its +principles and motives cannot be applied with the same directness and +force? In the very assumption, then, which underlies this whole course +of lectures, that Christianity can unite men, we have a special reason +for considering our relations to one another as members of Christian +bodies, with regard to this matter of unity. + +But we are also all of us aware that the divisions among Christians are +often severely commented on by those who refuse to make any definite +profession of the Christian Religion, and are given by them sometimes as +a ground of their own position of aloofness. It is true that strictures +passed on the Christian Religion and its professors for failures in +this, as well as in other respects, frequently shew little discernment, +and are more or less unjust. So far as they are made to reflect on +Christianity itself, allowance is not made for the nature of the human +material upon which and with which the Christian Faith and Divine Grace +have to work. And when Christians of the present day are treated as if +they were to blame for them, sufficient account is not taken of the long +and complex history, and the working of motives, partly good as well as +bad, through which Christendom has been brought to its present divided +condition. Still we cannot afford to disregard the hindrance to the +progress of the Christian Faith and Christian Life among men created by +the existing divisions among Christians. Harm is caused by them in +another way of which we may be, perhaps, less conscious. They bring loss +to ourselves individually within the denominations to which we severally +belong. We should gain incalculably from the strengthening of our faith +through a wider fellowship with those who share it, the greater volume +of evidence for the reality of spiritual things which would thus be +brought before us; and from the enrichment of our spiritual knowledge +and life through closer acquaintance with a variety of types of +Christian character and experience; and not least from that moral +training which is to be obtained through common action, in proportion to +the effort that has to be made in order to understand the point of view +of others, and the suppression of mere egoism that is involved. + +These are strong reasons for aiming at Christian unity. But further +there comes to all of us at this time a powerful incentive to reflection +on the subject, and to such endeavours to further it as we can make, in +the signs of a movement towards it, the greater prominence which the +subject has assumed in the thought of Christians, the evidence of more +fervent aspirations after it, the clearer recognition of the injury +caused by divisions. I remember that some 40 or more years ago, one of +the most eminent and justly esteemed preachers of the day defended the +existence of many denominations among Christians on the ground that +through their competition a larger amount of work for the advance of the +kingdom of God is accomplished. We are not so much in love with +competition and its effects in any sphere now. And it should always have +been perceived that, whatever its rightful place in the economic sphere +might be, it had none in the promotion of purely moral and spiritual +ends. The preacher to whom I have alluded did not stand alone in his +view, though perhaps it was not often so frankly expressed. But at least +acquiescence in the existence of separated bodies of Christians, as a +thing inevitable, was commoner than it is now. + +In the new attitude to this question of the duty of unity that has +appeared amongst us there lies an opportunity which we must beware of +neglecting. It is a movement of the Spirit to which it behoves us to +respond energetically, or it will subside. Shakespeare had no doubt a +different kind of human enterprises mainly in view when he wrote: + + + There is a tide in the affairs of men, + Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; + Omitted, all the voyage of their life + Is bound in shallows and in miseries. + + +But this observation is broadly true of all human progress. An advance +of some kind in the relations of men to one another, or the remedying of +some abuse, begins to be urged here and there, and for a time those who +urge it are but little listened to. Then almost suddenly (as it seems) +the minds of many, one hardly knows why, become occupied with it. If in +the generation when that happens desire leads to concentrated effort, +the good of which men have been granted the vision in their minds and +souls will be attained. Otherwise interest in it will pass away, and the +hope of securing it, at least for a long time, will be lost. + +Before we attempt to consider any of the problems presented by the +actual state of Christendom in connexion with the subject now before us, +let us go back in thought to the position of believers in Jesus Christ +of the first generation, when His own brief earthly life had ended. They +form a fellowship bound together by faith in their common Lord, by the +confident hopes with which that faith has inspired them, and the new +view of life and its duties which they have acquired. Soon indeed +instances occur in which the bonds between different members of the body +become strained, owing especially to differences of origin and character +in the elements of which it was composed. We have an example at a very +early point in the narrative of the book of _Acts_ in the +dissatisfaction felt by believers from among Hellenistic Jews, who were +visiting, or had again taken up their abode at, Jerusalem, because a +fair share of the alms was not assigned to their poor by the Palestinian +believers, who had the advantage of being more permanently established +in the city, and were probably the majority. But the chiefs among the +brethren, the Apostles, take wise measures to remove the grievance and +prevent a breach. + +A few years later a far more serious difference arises. Jewish believers +in Jesus had continued to observe the Mosaic Law. When converts from +among the Gentiles began to come in the question presented itself, "Is +observance of that Law to be required of them?" Only on condition that +it was would many among the Jewish believers associate with them. In +their eyes still all men who did not conform to the chief precepts of +this Law were unclean. It is possible that there were Jews of liberal +tendencies, men who had long lived among Gentiles, to whom this +difficulty may have seemed capable of settlement by some compromise. But +in the case of most Jews, not merely in Palestine, but probably also in +the Jewish settlements scattered through the Græco-Roman world, +religious scruples, ingrained through the instruction they had received +and the habits they had formed from child-hood, were deeply offended by +the very notion of joining in common meals with Gentiles, unless they +had fulfilled the same conditions as full proselytes to Judaism, the +so-called "proselytes of righteousness." On behalf, however, of Gentiles +who had adopted the Faith of Christ, it was felt that the demand for the +fulfilment of this condition of fellowship must be resisted at once and +to the uttermost. So St Paul held. To concede it would have caused +intolerable interference with Gentile liberty, and hindrance to the +progress of the preaching of the Gospel and its acceptance in the world. +And further--upon this consideration St Paul insisted above all--the +requirement that Gentiles should keep the Jewish Law might be taken to +imply, and would certainly encourage, an entirely mistaken view of what +was morally and spiritually of chief importance; it would put the +emphasis wrongly in regard to that which was essential in order that man +might be in a right relation to God and in the way of salvation. + +But the point in the history of this early controversy to which I desire +in connexion with our present subject to draw attention is the fact that +it is not suggested from any side that Jewish Christians and Gentile +Christians should form two separate bodies that would exist side by side +in the many cities where both classes were to be found, keeping to their +respective spheres, endeavouring to behave amicably to one another, +"agreeing to differ" as the saying is. This would have been the plan, we +may (I think) suppose, which would have seemed the best to that worldly +wisdom, which is so often seen to be folly when long and broad views of +history are taken. And we can imagine that not a few of the +ecclesiastical leaders of recent centuries might have proposed it, if +they had been there to do so. For never, perhaps, have there been more +natural reasons for separation than might have been found in those +national and racial differences, and in those incompatibilities due to +previous training and associations between Christians of Jewish and +Gentile origin. Yet it is assumed all through that they _must_ combine. +And St Paul is not only sure himself that to this end Jewish prejudices +must be overcome, but he is able to persuade the elder Apostles of this, +as also James who presided over the believers at Jerusalem, though they +had been slower than he to perceive what vital principles were at stake. +Believers of both classes must join in the Christian Agapæ, or +love-feasts, and must partake of the same Eucharist, because the many +are one loaf[1], one body. They must grasp, and give practical effect +to, the principle that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor +free, neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus[2]." + +For that society, or organism, into which Jewish and Gentile believers +were alike brought, a name was found; it was that of _Ecclesia,_ +translated _Church_. It will be worth our while to spend a few moments +on the use of this name and its significance. We find mention in the New +Testament of "the Church" and of "Churches." What is the relation +between the singular term and the plural historically, and what did the +distinction import? The sublime passages concerning the Church as the +Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ occur in the Epp. to the +Colossians and Ephesians[3], which are not among the early Pauline +Epistles. Nevertheless in comparatively early Epistles, the authorship +of which by St Paul himself is rarely disputed, there are expressions +which seem plainly to shew that he thought of the Church as a single +body to which all who had been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ +belonged. In the Epp. to the Galatians and 1 Corinthians[4] he refers +to the fact that he persecuted the "Church of God," and his persecution +was not confined to believers in Jerusalem or even in Judæa, but +extended to adjacent regions. He might have spoken of "the Churches of +Syria," as he does elsewhere (using the plural) of those of Judæa, +Galatia, Asia, Macedonia[5]. But he prefers to speak of the Church, and +he describes it as "the Church of God." The impiety of his action thus +appeared in its true light. He had not merely attacked certain local +associations, but that sacred body--"the Church of God." Again, it is +evident that he is thinking of a society embracing believers everywhere +when he writes to the Corinthians concerning different forms of +ministry, "God placed some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily +prophets" and so forth[6]. Again, when he bids the Corinthians, "Give no +occasion of stumbling, either to Jews or to Greeks, or to the Church of +God[7]," or asks them whether they "despise the Church of God[8]," +although it was their conduct to brethren among whom they lived that was +especially in question, it is evident that, as in the case of his own +action as a persecutor, the gravity of the fault can in his view only be +truly measured when it is realised that each individual Church is a +representative of the Church Universal. This representative character of +local Churches also appears in the expression common in his Epistles, +the "Church in" such and such a place. + +The usage of St Paul's Epistles does not, therefore, encourage the idea +that the application of the term _ecclesia_ to particular associations +preceded its application to the whole body, but the contrary, and +plainly it expressed for him from the first a most sublime conception. I +may add that there is no reason to suppose that the use of the term +originated with him. We find it in the Gospel according to St Matthew, +the Epistle of St James and the Apocalypse of St John, writings which +shew no trace of his influence. + +There is no passage of the New Testament from which it is possible to +infer clearly the idea which underlay its application to believers in +Jesus Christ. But when it is considered how full of the Old Testament +the minds of the first generation of Christians were, it must appear to +be in every way most probable that the word _ecclesia_ suggested itself +because it is the one most frequently employed in the Greek translation +of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) to render the Hebrew word +k[macron a]h[macron a]l, the chief term used for the assembly of Israel +in the presence of God, gathered together in such a manner and for such +purposes as forced them to realise their distinctive existence as a +people, and their peculiar relation to God. The believers in Jesus now +formed the _ecclesia_ of God, the true Israel, which in one sense was a +continuation of the old and yet had taken its place. This was the view +put forward by Dr Hort in his lectures on the Christian Ecclesia[9], and +it is at the present time widely, I believe I may say generally, held. I +may mention that the eminent German Church historians, A. Harnack[10] +and Sohm[11], give it without hesitation as the true one. + +Among the Jews the thought of the people in its relation to God was +associated with great assemblies in the courts and precincts of the +temple at Jerusalem, which altogether overshadowed any expression of +their covenant relation to God as a people which they could find in +their synagogue-worship, however greatly they valued the bonds with one +another which were strengthened, and the spiritual help which they +obtained, through their synagogues. But Christians had no single, +central meeting-place for their common worship at which their ideal +unity was embodied. It was, therefore, all the more natural that the +exalted name which described that unity should be transferred to the +communities in different places which shared the life, the privileges, +and the responsibilities of the whole, and in many ways stood to those +who composed them severally for the whole. The divisions between these +communities were local only. They arose from the limitations to +intercourse and common action which distance imposed. Or, in cases where +the Church in some Christian's house is referred to, they were due to +the necessity, or the great convenience, of meeting in small numbers, +owing to the want of buildings for Christian worship, or the hostility +of the surrounding population. Moreover these local bodies were not +suffered to forget the ties which bound them all together. Those in the +Greek-speaking world were required to send alms to the Churches in +Judæa. Again an individual Church was not free to disregard the judgment +of the rest. After St Paul has reasoned with the Corinthians on the +subject of a practice which he deemed inexpedient, he clinches the +matter by declaring, "we have no such custom neither the Churches of +God[12]." Lastly, the Apostles, and preeminently St Paul, through their +mission which, if not world-wide, at least extended over large +districts, and the care of the Churches which they exercised, and the +authority which they claimed in the name of Christ, and which was +conceded to them, were a unifying power. + +Thus the plural "the Churches" has in important respects a different +connotation in the New Testament from that which it has in modern times. +In the Apostolic Age the distinction between the Church and the Churches +is connected only with the different degrees to which a common life +could be realised according to geographical proximity. By a division of +this nature the idea of One Universal Church was not compromised. The +local body of Christians in point of fact rightly regarded itself as +representative of the whole body. The Christians in that place were the +Church so far as it extended there. + +The preservation of unity within the Church of each place where it was +imperilled by rivalries and jealousies and misunderstandings, such as +are too apt to shew themselves when men are in close contact with one +another, and of unity between the Churches of regions remote from one +another, in which case the sense of it is likely to be weak through want +of knowledge and consequently of sympathy--these appear as twin-aims +severally pursued in the manner that each required. Not indeed that it +is implied that everything is to be sacrificed to unity. But it is +demanded that the most strenuous endeavours shall be made to maintain +it, and it appears to be assumed that without any breach of it, loyalty +to every other great principle, room for the rightful exercise of every +individual gift, recognition of every aspect of Divine truth the +perception of which may be granted to one or other member of the body, +can be secured, if Christians cultivate right dispositions of mutual +affection and respect. + +There is one more point in regard to the idea of the Church in the New +Testament as to which we must not suffer ourselves to be misled, or +confused, by later conceptions and our modern habits of thought. We have +become accustomed to a distinction between the Church Visible and the +Church Invisible which makes of them two different entities. According +to this, one man who is a member of the Church Visible may at the same +time, if he is a truly spiritual person, even while here on earth belong +to the Church Invisible; but another who has a place in the Church +Visible has none and it may be never will have one in the Church +Invisible. This conception, though it had appeared here and there before +the 16th century, first obtained wide vogue then under the influence of +the Protestant Reformation. + +It arose through a very natural reaction from the mechanical view of +membership in the Church, its conditions and privileges, which had grown +up in the Middle Ages. But it does not correspond to the ideas of the +Apostolic Age. According to these there is but one Church, the same as +to its true being on earth as it is in heaven, one Body of Christ, +composed of believers in Him who had been taken to their rest and of +those still in this world. In the earlier part of the Apostolic Age the +great majority were in fact still in this world. The Body was chiefly a +Visible Body. It had many imperfections. Some of its members might even +have no true part in it at all and require removal. But Christ Himself +"sanctifies and cleanses it that He may present it"--that very same +Church--"to Himself a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any +such thing, but holy and without blemish[13]." + +Now while one can understand the point of view from which in later times +so deep a line of demarcation has been drawn between the Visible and the +Invisible Church as to make of them two entirely separate things, and +although to many it may still seem hard to do without this distinction, +or in the existing condition of the nominally Christian world to employ +that primitive conception of the Church even as, so to speak, a working +hypothesis, I would ask whether the primitive conception is not a nobler +and sounder one. Surely it places the ideal in its right relation to the +actual. The full realisation of the ideal no doubt belongs only to +another world; yet if we believe in it as an ideal we must seek to +actualise it here. There is something unwholesome in acknowledging any +ideal which we do not strive so far as we can to actualise. And plainly +participation in the same grace, and the spiritual ties arising +therefrom, ought to find expression in an outer life of fellowship, of +intercourse and common action, and such common organisation as for human +beings in this world these require. No doubt it is always too possible +that the outward may hinder the perception of the inward. But if we can +guard successfully against this danger, the inward and spiritual will +become all the more potent by having the external form through which to +work; while the outward, if it is too sharply dissevered in thought from +the inward, loses its value and even becomes injurious. + +Again, a view of the Church is more wholesome which does not encourage +us to classify its members in a manner only possible to the Allseeing +God; to draw a line between true believers and others, and to determine +(it may be) on which side of the line different ones are by their having +had spiritual experiences similar to our own, and having learned to use +the same religious language that we do; but which on the contrary leads +us to think of all as under the Heavenly Father's care, and subject to +the influences of the Holy Spirit, and placed in that Body of Christ +where, although the spiritual life in them is as yet of very various +degrees of strength, and their knowledge of things Divine in many cases +small, all may and are intended to advance to maturity in Christ. + +It is necessary that the relation of the idea of the Church upon which I +have been dwelling to her subsequent history for centuries should be +clearly apprehended. Its hold on the minds of Christians preceded the +very beginnings of organisation in the Christian communities, and it +would probably be no exaggeration to say that it governed the whole +evolution of that organisation for many centuries. Particular offices +were doubtless instituted and men appointed to them with specific +reference to needs which were making themselves felt. But all the while +that idea of the Church's unity and of her holiness was present in their +thoughts. And certainly as soon as it becomes necessary to insist upon +the duty of loyalty to those who had been duly appointed to office, and +directly or indirectly to defend the institutions themselves, appeal is +made to the idea, as notably by the two chief Christians in the +Sub-Apostolic Age, Clement of Rome and Ignatius. + +It is in itself evidence of a common spirit and common tendencies that +broadly speaking the same form of constitution in the local Christian +communities, though not introduced everywhere with quite equal rapidity, +was so nearly everywhere almost on the confines of the Apostolic Age, +and that soon it was everywhere. Ere long, with this form of government +as a basis, plans were adopted expressly for the purpose of uniting the +local Churches on terms of equality among themselves, especially in +combating error. And at length in the name still of the Church's unity +there came, however much we may regret it, the centralisation of Western +Christendom in the See of Rome. + +All these measures of organisation, from the earliest to the latest of +them, were means to an end; and we shall regard them differently. But we +ought not any of us to regard means, however they may commend themselves +to us, and however sacred and dear their associations may be, in the +same way as we do the end. There must always be the question, which will +present itself in a different light to different minds, whether +particular means, even though men may have been led by the Holy Spirit +to employ them, were intended for all time. Moreover there are points in +regard to the earliest history of Church organisation which remain +obscure, in spite of all the labour that has been expended in +investigating them: for instance the exact relation of different +ministries, of the functions of different officers, to one another, the +exact moment when the orders of ministers which proved to be permanent +appeared in this or that important Church, the part which any of the +immediate disciples of Christ had in their establishment, the ideas +which at first were held as to the dependence of the rites of the Church +for their validity upon being performed by a lawful ministry. Upon +these matters, or some of them, it is possible for honest and competent +inquirers to hold different opinions. But no such doubt hangs over that +End which was also the Beginning, of the Church's life, that conception +of what she is, or ought to be, as the society of those who confess the +Name of Jesus Christ, and who are His Body. I insist upon this because I +think that amid discussions on the origin of the Christian Ministry, the +significance of that more fundamental question, namely, the right +conception of the Christian Church, is apt to be too much lost sight of. +About this, though men still do not, they ought to be able to agree, and +it should be our common inspiration, both impelling us and guiding us in +seeking our goal. + +We need it to impel us. The obstacles to the reunion of Christendom at +the present day are such that a motive which can be found is required to +induce and sustain action in seeking it, whenever and wherever the +opportunity for doing so presents itself; such a motive is to be found +in a deep conviction of the sacredness of this object, so that our eyes +maybe kept fixed upon it even when there appears to be no opening +through which an advance toward it can be made, and there is nothing to +be done save to wait and watch and pray. But in order also that the +result of any efforts that are made may be satisfactory, it is necessary +that our minds should be under the guidance of a great and true idea, +and that we should not simply be animated with the desire of meeting +immediate needs. These are the reasons which I think justify me for +having detained you so long over the consideration of the fundamental +conception of the Church which is rooted in the Christian Faith itself +as it first appeared and spread in the world. + +I will now, however, before concluding make a few remarks on one part of +the complicated problem of reunion facing us to-day. The part of it on +which I desire to speak is the relations between the Church of England, +and the Churches in communion with her in various parts of the British +Empire and in the United States, on the one hand, and on the other +English Nonconformists, the Presbyterians of Scotland, and all +English-speaking Christians allied to or resembling these. It will, I +think, be generally felt that this is a part of the subject which for +more than one reason specially invites our attention. There are, indeed, +some, both clergy and laity, of the Church of England, though they are +but a very small number in comparison with its members as a whole, whose +interest in the subject of the reunion of Christendom is mainly shewn in +the desire to obtain recognition for the Church of England, as a portion +of the Church Catholic, from the great Church of the West. But in view +of the attitude maintained by that Church there appears to be no +prospect of this and nothing to be gained by attempts at negotiation. +Endeavours to establish intercommunion with the Churches of Eastern +Christendom may be made with more hope of success. Indeed there is +reason to think that in the years to come the Church of England may be +in a specially favourable position for getting into touch with these +Churches and assisting them to recover from the effects of the War, and +to make progress; and Englishmen generally would, I am sure, rejoice +that she should undertake such work. But the question of the duty to one +another of all those bodies of English Christians which I have +specified comes nearer home and should press upon our minds and hearts +more strongly. It is a practical one in every English town and every +country parish, and almost everywhere throughout the world where the +English language is spoken. Moreover, even the most loyal members of the +Church of England, in spite of the points of principle on which they are +divided from those other English Christians, resemble them more closely +in many respects in their modes of thought, even on religion, than they +do the members of other portions of the ancient Catholic Church from +which they have become separated. And in addition to the distinctly +religious reasons for considering the possibility of drawing more +closely together and even ultimately uniting in one communion these +different denominations of British Christians, there is a patriotic +motive for doing so. Fuller religious sympathy, more cooperation, +between the members of these different denominations could not fail to +strengthen greatly the bonds between different classes amongst us, and +to increase the coherency of the whole nation and empire. + +It would be unwise, if in proposing steps towards reunion, difficulties +and dangers connected with them were ignored; and I believe it to be my +duty frankly to refer to some which suggest themselves to one looking +from a Churchman's point of view. There are two chief barriers to the +union of members of the Church of England and English Nonconformists +that must be mentioned. + +(1) That which I will refer to first is the connexion of the Church of +England with the State. + +This connexion is not, I think, such a hindrance to religious sympathy +as it was, but it would be untrue to say that it is none. And there is +of course the danger that if disestablishment became a political +question, and especially if it involved the deflection of endowments +which have long been used, and on the whole well-used, for the +maintenance and furtherance of religion to secular objects, feeling +between the majority of Churchmen and those who in consequence of their +views in the matter became opposed to them might be seriously +embittered. Yet there is good ground for hoping that the question of the +relations of Church and State and all matters connected therewith will +in the years that are coming be faced in a calmer spirit, and with truer +insight into important principles, than too often they have been in the +past. It should certainly be easier for those who approach them from +different sides to understand one another. Particular grievances +connected with inequality of treatment by the State have been removed; +while a broad principle for which Nonconformists stand in common has +come to be more clearly asserted, through their attaching increasingly +less significance to the grounds on which different bodies amongst them +were formed, as indicated in the names by which they have been severally +known, and banding themselves together as the "Free Churches." But in +the Church of England also in recent years there has been a growing +sense of the need of freedom. It is better realised than at one time +that in no circumstances could the Church rightly be regarded as a mere +department of the State, or even as the most important aspect of the +life of the State. However complete the harmony between Church and State +might be, the Church ought to have a corporate life of her own. She +requires such independence as may enable her to be herself, to do her +own work, to act according to the laws of her own being. This is +necessary even that she may discharge adequately her own function in the +nation. + +It is not part of my duty now to inquire in what respects the Church of +England lacks this freedom, or whether such readjustments in her +connexion with the State can be expected as would secure it to her, +implying as the making of them would that, although she does not now +include among her members more than half the nation, she is still for an +indefinitely long time to continue to be the official representative of +religion in the nation. But I would urge that when these points are +discussed the question should also be considered whether, in a nation +the great majority in which profess to be Christian, the State ought not +to make profession of the Christian religion, which involves its +establishment in some form, and whether there are not substantial +benefits especially of an educative kind to be derived therefrom for the +nation at large; and if so how this can in existing circumstances be +suitably done. It should be remembered that in many cases the +forefathers of those who are now separated from the National Church did +not hold that a connexion between Church and State under any form was +wrong; but on the contrary their idea of a true and complete national +life included one. I think it is well to recall the view in this matter +of men of another time. It is desirable that we should make our +consideration of the whole subject of Church and State as broad as we +can, and that we should strive not to be carried away into accepting +some solution which at the moment seems the easiest, when with a little +patience some better and truer one might be found possible. + +(2) The other barrier to which I have referred is the claim of the +Church of England to a continuity of faith and life with the faith and +life of the Church Universal from the beginning, maintained in the first +place through a Ministry the members of which have in due succession +received their commission by means of the Historic Episcopate, and, +secondly, through the acknowledgment of certain early and widely +accepted creeds. This continuity was reasserted when the Church of +England started on her new career at the Reformation, though at the same +time the necessity was then strongly insisted on of testing the purity +and soundness of the Church's faith and forms of worship by Holy +Scripture. These guarantees and means of continuity are valued in very +different degrees by different sections of opinion in the Church of +England, and some who attach comparatively little importance to matters +of organisation would attach great importance to the formularies of +belief. But there can be no doubt that any steps which appeared +seriously to compromise the preservation of the great features of the +Church of England in either of these respects would cause deep +disturbance among her members. On the other hand, it will be readily +understood by all who can appreciate the changes that in our own and +recent generations have come in men's view of Nature and of Mind, and in +the interpretation of historical evidence, that definitions of belief +framed in the past may not in every point express accurately the beliefs +of all who nevertheless with full conviction own Jesus Christ as Lord. +It is obvious, I think, that, if the Christian Church is to endure, +there must be on the part of her members essential loyalty to the faith +out of which she sprang, and which has inspired her throughout the ages +to this day. But it is an anxious problem for the Church of England at +the present time--and it is likely to become so likewise, if it is not +yet, for all portions of the Church in which ancient standards of +belief, or those framed in the 16th century, or later, hold an +authoritative place--to decide wherein essential loyalty to "the faith +once delivered" consists. + +It may seem at first sight that when the Church of England has serious +questions to grapple with affecting her internal unity, and especially +affecting that unity in variety which to some considerable degree she +represents and which is the most valuable kind of unity, attempts to +join with other Christians outside her borders in considering a basis of +union with them are unwise at least at the moment, as tending to +increase the complexity and the difficulties of the position within, and +as therefore to be deprecated in the interests of unity itself. I do not +think so, but believe that assistance may thus be obtained in reaching a +satisfactory settlement even of internal difficulties. + +For, in the first place, there has of late been among members of the +Church of England a change of temper which should be a preparation for +considering her relations with those separated from her in a wiser and +more liberal spirit than has before been possible. Those Churchmen who +would insist most strongly on the necessity of preserving the Church's +ancient order do not usually maintain the attitude to dissent of the +Anglican High and Dry School, which was still common in the middle of +the 19th century. The work which Nonconformist bodies have done for the +spiritual and moral life of England, and the immense debt which we all +owe to them on that account, are thankfully admitted. No one indeed can +do otherwise than admit it thankfully who has eyes to see, and the sense +of justice and generosity of mind to acknowledge what he sees. And the +inference must be that, although the belief may be held as firmly as +ever that the Spirit of God inspired that Order which so early took +shape in the Church, and that He worked through it and continues to do +so, yet that also, when men have failed rightly to use the appointed +means, He has found other ways of working. This view, when it has had +its due influence upon thought, can hardly fail to affect profoundly the +measures proposed for healing the divisions which have arisen. + +Then, again, on the other side--the side of those separated from the +Church of England--there is more appreciation of the point of view of +Churchmen in respect to their links with the past and their idea of +Catholicity. This is due partly to a broader interest in the life of the +Church in former ages and the heroic and saintly characters which they +produced than since the Reformation has been common among those English +Christians, who are, in a special sense, children of the Reformation; +partly, perhaps, to a growing doubt, as views of Christian truth have +become larger, whether after all a single doctrine or opinion, or +reverence for the teaching of one man, can make a satisfactory basis for +the permanent grouping of Christians. At the same time in regard to +fundamental Christian belief, the meaning which the revelation of God in +Christ has for them, they are and are conscious of being at one with the +Church. + +Striking evidence of these new tendencies of thought on both sides is to +be seen in the movement originated by the Protestant Episcopal Church of +the United States for a World-Conference on Faith and Order, and in the +manner in which the proposal for such a Conference has been received in +England, and the steps already taken in preparation for it. A body of +representatives of the Church of England and of the Free Churches has +been appointed, and a Committee of this body has already published +suggestions for a basis of union. These have still, I understand, to +come before the general body of English representatives, and it is +intended (I believe) that the proposals of the Committee, after being +examined and possibly amended and supplemented by the larger body, +should, with any proposals that may be made from similar joint-bodies in +the United States and in the British Dominions, be considered by a body +of representatives from the whole of this vast area. Any conclusions +which are thus reached must then lie, so to speak, before all the +denominations concerned. Opportunity must be given for their being +widely studied and explained and reflected upon, and if need be +criticized. For the Church of Christ is, or ought to be, in a true sense +a democratic society, a society in which, subject to its governing +principles, the spiritual consciousness of all the faithful should make +itself felt. + +For the end of such a process as this we must wait a considerable time. +Meanwhile there are obvious ways in which the cause of unity may be +promoted; viz. through seeking for a larger amount of intercourse with +the members of other denominations than our own; for more joint study of +religious questions and frank interchange of views, and more cooperation +in various forms of moral and social endeavour. The way would thus be, +we may hope, prepared for fuller intercommunion, and it may be for +corporate reunion. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] 1 Cor. x. 17, R.V. mg. + +[2] Gal. iii. 28 + +[3] Col. i. 18, 24; Eph. i. 22, v. 23 ff. + +[4] Gal. i. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 9. + +[5] 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 19; 2 Cor. viii. 1; Gal. i. 2, 22. + +[6] 1 Cor. xii. 28. + +[7] 1 Cor. x. 32. + +[8] 1 Cor. xi. 22. + +[9] _The Christian Ecclesia_, pp. 3 ff. + +[10] _Die Mission u. Ausbreitung d. Christentums_, p. 292. + +[11] _Kirchenrecht_, 1. pp. 16 ff. + +[12] 1 Cor. xi. 16. + +[13] Ephes. v. 26, 27. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + + + + +II. THE CHURCH IN THE FURNACE + +By the Rev. E. MILNER-WHITE, M.A., D.S.O. + + +At last we have begun to see the absolute necessity of Unity in Christ, +of religious reunion, for the sake of both Christianity and the world. + +For several years devout Christians in England have been growing more +and more uneasy about their acquiescence in religious division. The +reading of the Gospels, and especially the eighteenth chapter of St +John, where He prays on the threshold of His agony that His disciples +may be one, even as He and the Father are one, has become nothing less +than a torment to those who have any real passion for the doing of God's +will, or who are humbled by the tremendous love of our Lord Jesus +Christ, for each and for all. Thus far have we gone from the clear mind +of Christ; thus far have we ruined His plans for the health and +happiness of the world; thus far have we failed to imitate or display +the love, the humility, the self-sacrifice, that walked to Calvary: He +bade us be _one_, and to _love_; we, the disciples, have chosen to hate +and be many. + +English Christianity alone is split into hundreds of denominations. The +fact is its own grim condemnation. We had lost even the sense that +division mattered. It is quite ridiculous to pretend that nothing is +wrong with the religious ideas or state of a race, which produces +hundreds of bodies, big and small, to worship Him who only asked that +His worshippers should be ONE. Denomination itself has become a word of +shame which we shall not be able to use much longer. It brings up at +once the thought of something partial, little, far less than the Body +for which Christ died; and a host of yet more horrid pictures of old +squabbles and present rivalries, of contempt and bitterness and +controversy. It does not suggest one _Christian_ idea at all. + +These uneasy thoughts even before the war were brought home by the +practical results of disunion as worked out inevitably in the colonies +and mission field. The language is not too strong that labels them +monstrous. Here was the flower of our Christian devotion going forth to +heathen wilds, meeting by God's grace with wide success; and +establishing our little local denominations firmly in the nations, +tribes, and islands of Asia, Africa, and Australasia; rendering it hard +for a native Christian who moves from his home to get elsewhere the +accustomed ministries and means of grace vital to his young faith; +planting seeds of future quarrel at the very birth of new tribes into +the Prince of Peace. In the Dominions, with their thin and widely +scattered populations, other phenomena, equally deplorable, are +manifest--five churches in places where one suffices, appalling waste of +effort and money, and even ugly competition for adherents. + +In England we hardly saw these things. The population was large enough +and indifferent enough to God to provide room for the activities of all. +The indifference indeed seemed to be growing. We did not stop to think +whether disgust at continuous controversy had not done much to cause +that indifference--how far our divisions simply manufactured scepticism +as to there being any religious truth--whether the obvious lovelessness +of such conditions was likely to recommend the religion of Love--whether +this disparate chaos was likely to be a field in which the Lord, who +designed and founded one brotherhood of believers, could work or give +His grace to the uttermost. No, the Christianity of our Christians has +tended to be a thin individual thing, with interests scarcely extended +beyond its own local congregation, which is bad enough; or still worse, +in our towns, content to wander from congregation to congregation, +owning no discipline or loyalty at all. + +And yet in the same breath as we say, "I believe in God," we also say, +most of us, "I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church." It is a +crowning mercy that we do say it; that we do bear witness so outright to +the state of sin in which we dwell; the clause does keep the mind of +Christ and our own duty before us, of establishing as the first, perhaps +the only hope of this sin-stained, war-stained earth, the brotherhood of +believers which shall be one. + +Then came the war, and in many ways the war, which has in every +direction cleared vision, and both deepened and simplified thought, has +brought home to every Christian both the disaster of disunion, and the +imperative need of attempting unity. + +You will expect me to give some account of the reaction of the chaplains +and the Church in France to this conviction. Perhaps I should make clear +my own position. Folk probably term me an "advanced High Churchman." I +should call myself "a Catholic"--an English Catholic, if you like--, at +any rate, one who cannot fairly be accused of ignorance of the details +and depths of our divisions; nor of underestimating their real +importance. + +The priests who went out as Chaplains to the Forces had an experience +somewhat similar to that of colonial or missionary priests--they +exercised their ministry under totally new conditions, and in a new +atmosphere. So did the Roman Catholics, Nonconformists, and +Presbyterians, but of course I do not speak for them in what follows. +But all the Church of England padres--high, low, broad--tell exactly the +same tale of their experience; between them there has been no division; +they have worked together in perfect harmony and keenness, largely +appropriating each other's methods. In a word, they have discovered how +false and artificial is the partisan atmosphere of home religion; and +when they return, will find it hard to tolerate any continuance of it. + +The Church of England is as a matter of fact divided roughly into three +sections, by no means corresponding to the "high, low, and broad," of +the church journals. Most Church of England men scarcely know what these +terms mean. No, it consists of a devoted inmost section, regular +churchgoers and communicants--and you will pardon me for thinking them +the best instructed, the freest, and the sturdiest Christians in the +world. They are of course in a minority, but they are actually numerous +enough to occupy the time and care of our whole ministry, which is far +below reasonable strength. Then comes a large fringe, who come to Church +occasionally, or even regularly, in the evening; who make little or no +use of the Sacraments, or of the more intimate devotions and +instructions provided: they are well disposed; but are not consciously +prepared to make _sacrifices_ for their faith; and indeed are somewhat +ignorant of its contents and demands. Then thirdly, there is a yet +vaster multitude, baptised, married, and buried, perhaps by the Church, +and therefore counting themselves Church of England, but who come but +rarely within the orbit of Church life and teaching; and who, not to +mince words, are semi-pagan. Only _semi_-pagan because the ethics, +morals and traditions of England are Christian; and these people, +knowing little of Jesus Christ, and understanding less, and not +consciously moved by Him, yet not infrequently rise to heights of love +and sacrifice which would adorn the life of a saint. + +The mass of our parishioners in France, then, was not made up of the +inner circle--we were lucky if we found three or four in a unit--but of +the ill-instructed fringe, and the totally ignorant multitudes. The +horror and boredom of war, the personal insecurity, the difficulty of +understanding the ways of God, made all friendly to the parson with whom +hitherto they had never come into contact; and caused large numbers to +think things out, and to hunger for an understanding of God. Religion +became a common topic of discussion. The padres found themselves in a +larger world, where old labels and divisions simply had no meaning; and +where the first necessity and work was to preach Christ and teach the +meaning of the Faith. They felt also, very quickly, that this interest +in ultimate things did not mean that men became friendly to organised +religion in any form. On the contrary, their hostility and distrust +toward all religious bodies were marked. The chaplains had that common +and dreadful experience of foreign missionaries, of feeling themselves +alone, closed round by thick dark walls of unsympathy and worse. They +longed for the help and support of any genuine friend of Christ, +whatever body he belonged to. I was called upon to preach the National +Mission in a peculiarly hostile and irresponsive camp of motor lorry +drivers, who much resented the use of "their" Y.M.C.A. hut for such +religious purposes. A Wesleyan minister had charge of it, and got far +more of their blunt language than I the visitor did; but he worked +undismayed and unreservedly for all he was worth, for the National +Mission and for me. The alliance was natural, real, inevitable. He and +I, and some five or six men of that camp, were clearly on one side, and +the rest of it on the other, of an exceeding broad gulf. With this as a +daily experience, a man's values changed rapidly; and it became quite +obvious that, even to begin to fight the battle of Christianity in the +modern world, Christians must be united. + +This assurance was reinforced by the quite extraordinary scandal that +the mere fact of religious disunion caused both to officers and men. It +was the big, obvious "damper" on the very threshold of +Christianity--"see how these Christians hate one another." Officers +would throw the taunt up again and again in the Mess, and the men lying +down to talk themselves to sleep in their comfortless barns would begin +to talk about religion with at heart a wistful longing to understand it +and know its help and power. At once, someone would bring up the picture +of squabbling denominations, and the wistfulness and hope would be slain +by scorn. Next day and every day, the glaring scandal would be laid +before the chaplain; who had little enough to answer. Of course, it is +quite false to suppose that the existence and continuance of division +are due to the clergy. Our English schisms have been caused at least as +much by over-eager laymen as by over-eager clergy; and I think if it +were left to the clergy alone the process of reuniting would be very +rapid. In our Division, for instance, the three Nonconformist Chaplains +to the Forces and I used to talk over the whole question; one was an +orthodox Wesleyan, another a Primitive, and the other a United +Methodist; and they did not hesitate to say that Methodist reunion had +taken place more than ten years ago if it had been left to the ministers +alone. But the average Englishman naturally blames the official +representatives of religion, their ministries, for the obvious and open +disgrace of division in the religion of love; he is ignorant of the +excuses that history, and the real importance of the matters in dispute, +afford; he only sees the evil fact; and it is quite enough by itself to +excuse his closer association with so harsh a contradiction of the first +principle of Christ and Christianity. + +Then again in France, one came up violently against the sheer nuisance +and waste of division. Imagine upon a Friday every C.O. and adjutant +(and adjutants are always over-worked) of every unit approached by three +Chaplains--Church of England, Roman Catholic, and Nonconformist; and +requested to make different arrangements at different times for +different fractions of his command to attend divine service on the +Sunday. This in the midst of modern war, where organisation for war +purposes is complex and laborious enough. The mere typing and +circulating of these arrangements at Brigade and Divisional H.Q. mean in +sum total a vast expenditure of paper and labour. The chaplains, who, I +hope, are at least gentlemen, feel considerable shame at being the +guiltless authors of these confusions. And the effect is so deplorable. +Just when the nation is one, just when each military unit seeks to +promote, for mere military efficiency, the _esprit de corps_ of its +oneness, the religion of the one Christ enters as a thing which almost +flaunts fissure. Or again, think of the mere waste of pastoral +efficiency involved in this fact. Each infantry brigade consists roughly +of four battalions, and three or four somewhat smaller units (R.A.M.C, +M.G.C., etc.). For these there are four chaplains, normally two Church +of England (who have 80 per cent. of the men under their care), one +Roman Catholic and one Presbyterian or Nonconformist. The two latter +have to do the best they can each to get round all these scattered units +to provide for small handfuls of men in each. Each of the Church of +England chaplains has to arrange for a whole half brigade. How much more +efficiently and thoroughly, with how much less needless labour, had the +work been done, if an one Church could have set one chaplain to live +each with one battalion, and be responsible as well for one smaller +unit. That had made it easy for a chaplain to know his flock intimately; +now it is next to impossible. + +But above and beyond these misfortunes, which after all are details, +must be ranked the big thoughts and truths which have swum into the +sight and experience of everybody. The first is this. Granted that the +Church like the world was surprised by the sudden outbreak of war, and +therefore could not stop it; yet that she should have no voice at all +even to denounce the unrighteousness and barbarities into which the +world plunges deeper every day does strike men as wrong. The Church +cannot speak because she is not one; even suppose all England be +actually one national Church, if it is only national, it will go the way +of the nation, and certainly cannot speak to other nations. For the +Church ever to acquire a world-voice in the cause of love and right +means that reunion and our desires for it must not stop short at home +reunion. Here the witness of Roman Catholicism to the necessity of +international Christianity is vital to the ideal of a reunited +Christendom. Men, far removed from his obedience, did look wistfully to +the Pope, conceding that he alone could speak such a word to the world +in the name of Christ; wide and deep has been the disappointment that it +was not spoken. Here again it is not the Pope, nor Roman Catholicism, +that is to blame, but the whole divided state of Christendom which +paralyses the action of each communion, even the strongest and most +widespread. + +I will mention only one other of these big truths--there are many of +them--that have come home to every man; where again Christian division +is the first and fatal obstacle in the way. This time it affects all the +looking forward to the end of the war, and the new world of peace. It is +unthinkable but that the new world must be one of brotherhood, not of +enmity; of love, not of hatred. Otherwise every drop of blood that has +been shed, every tear that has fallen, every death that has been died, +will be so much utter waste. That is the one most intolerably dark +thought in the days of darkness. There is a new policy open to the world +which it has never yet tried, to work toward _the Dominance of Love_. +Every conceivable form of selfishness has in turn dominated the affairs +of nations and men; never yet has love been seriously tried. But there +will be no chance of International Friendship, Brotherhood, Love, if the +Church, the fellowship of Christians, who are after all set in the world +by their own confession, to live by love, to be the exemplars and hot +centre of love, cannot conspicuously shew forth love. How can the +nations be friends before Christians be brothers? We have only to act +according to our creed; and our creed does not only believe in +brotherhood, but in the continual help of God Himself in our efforts to +realise it. The influence upon the world even of a persevering _attempt_ +to achieve a united Christendom would surely be decisive. Therefore the +reunion of Christendom becomes now the imperious vocation of every +Christian, the one preventive of our agony and loss going to waste, the +one hope of a loveless world, the clear next objective of the Church of +the living God. + +Before returning to the idea of the Dominance of Love, and a +consideration of first steps towards it, let us go back to France, and +watch the relations of the various communions there one to another after +four years of war. + +It is new and rather hard to describe. The first few months, when the +Chaplains to the Forces of the various denominations arrived with their +inherited home suspicions one of another, presented many difficulties +that might have increased ill-feeling. An army regulation which allows +the Church of England chaplain only to minister to Church of England +men, and the Roman Catholic to Roman Catholic men, etc., reduced the +chances of such conflict; and at the same time, the vastness and +urgency of the work the chaplains had to do swallowed up all other +thoughts. As a writer in _The Church in the Furnace_ said, "We have +heard with mingled irritation and amusement that good folk at home have +been exercised because an undue proportion of men of this party or that +have been sent out; the question out here is not 'To what party does he +belong?' but 'Is he capable by character and life of influencing men for +good, and winning them for God and His Church?'" Again, the extremely +free use of the Prayer Book and of any and every sort of devotion, at +any and every hour of day and night, has broken up all prejudiced +rigidity of use. Methods that did not help were dropped; methods that +helped men were welcome, from whatever source they came. + +So arose a great harmony, a harmony of energy and experiment; and +although in religious matters the Roman Catholics retained their +aloofness, the drawing together of other denominations, as represented +by their clergy, has been constant and perfectly natural and +unsuspicious. United services have not been common; each denomination +has confined itself loyally to its own men; what the statements in the +Lower House of Convocation meant to the effect that the amount of +intercommunion going on at the Front would shock members of that house, +no chaplain has any idea. But the new, fresh, and delightful thing is, +the absolute lack of feeling between, say, the Catholic Anglican and the +Congregationalist. There are numerous occasions on which they must or +can work together; on which they must or can do jobs for one another; +and it has been decisively proved that the existing demarcation and +rivalry in England is a false and needless thing; and that working +together can be a real, unselfconscious and wholly profitable matter. +Our English airs are poisoned by past history and old social cleavage: +in France, the past is forgotten, and social barriers do not exist. It +is a matter of atmosphere, and there it is clear and bracing. Nobody +sacrifices conviction or principle, but they love one another. + +I do not say there may not be individual misunderstandings and frictions +now and then, but they are miraculously few. The normal temper is shewn +by the numerous meetings for conference and devotion by the various +chaplains. These are more easy to effect at the bases than in the line; +but they take place everywhere. Typical is the conduct of a small base +on the sea, where the eight chaplains or so meet regularly for devotion, +and each is entrusted with a section of the proceedings each time. For +instance, the American Episcopalian takes the Thanksgiving, the +Presbyterian the Confession, the Wesleyan the Intercession, each of the +others has found from the same chapter of, say, St Mark's Gospel, some +"seed-thought" upon which he is allowed to dilate for four minutes. +There is no constraint or self-consciousness in this gathering. Each is +perfectly happy, and so is the whole. + +It is not surprising that out of such an atmosphere and among such +practices a powerful passion for unity has arisen, based on something +far stronger than sentiment, and having in it some of the fire of +revelation. It has not been sought; it has come; it has grown: nobody +expected it. It came, naturally and delightfully. The fifth year of war +will assuredly see some definite policy or action towards greater unity +proceeding from France. The quiet, unhasty, resolved manner in which +the Chaplains to the Forces in France are moving is in striking contrast +to the hasty proposals and hasty actions threatening on the less +prepared soil at home. Indeed in this last sentence I have touched upon +the two actual terrors which the Church in France feels. FIRST, that +hasty and purely _sectional_ action on unimaginative and traditional +lines by the home-clergy will give the old party-feeling a new bitter +lease of life, and by ruining unnecessarily the unity of the Church of +England will destroy the hopes that are so fair of yet wider reunion. +And SECOND, that the local outlook of the lay-folk--in our villages +especially perhaps--and local lines of cleavage, not having been +subjected to the experience and discipline of France, will have the +opposite effect, prevent things moving as fast as they ought, and throw +away the fairest chance of buying up opportunity that ever was given to +the Church of Christ. To these opposite dangers, I shall recur. + +The Dominance of Love in the world! Let us see and absorb that big +vision first, and its pathetic urgency: its summons to each body of +Christians, and to every individual member of Christ. Acknowledge its +NECESSITY for the world, and therefore its _immediate_ necessity for the +Church of the God of Love. + +And next, before considering practical steps, let us recall certain +postulates and axioms, which in any attempt to realise so magnificent a +vision must always be borne in mind, lest, in our human frailty and +selfwill, we head straight for new misunderstandings and disasters[14]. + +1. The importance of unity is so great, and division has been found so +calamitous, and the words of Christ are so definite on the subject, that +I think all would admit now that _Division is only to be prolonged for +causes that are backed by divine command_. The larger Christian bodies +are separated by convictions of great importance; but a severe and +honest self-examination will probably lessen the number of differences +which can justify the responsibility of so disastrous a thing as +separation, and then we can set afoot conferences to deal with what +remain. Human temperament, upbringing, tradition, human haste and pride +have much to do with the birth, stabilising and continuance of division. +A rare self-abnegation in our ecclesiastical history was the partial +suicide of the Non-juring schism, and it has never been repeated; there +were many great saints among the Nonjurors. If they could not take the +oath of allegiance to William III, and therefore could not remain in the +Church of England, the best of them recognised that their individual +difficulty would not excuse them if they perpetuated themselves as a +Church. In any junction of existing divisions, differing customs and +methods of worship and organisation can be and should be safeguarded. +That would only make the more for the health of the one Body. But, +division itself is only to be prolonged for causes that are, or seem to +be by conscience, backed by divine command, and the first step in all +work for reunion will be the isolating of these causes from lesser +things, and their careful and prayerful reconsideration. + +A grand example of such process, of course, has been the Conference of +the leaders of our English denominations, at the inspiration of the +American Committee of Faith and Order, which during 1917 faced the +question of Episcopacy. The findings of its "second interim report" are +nothing less than a landmark in Church History. You remember that +roughly it was this: that any corporate reunion can only come in the +acceptance of the historical Episcopate; but that the conception and use +of Episcopacy in the Church has been a limited one: there are many ways +of regarding and using bishops besides the monarchical or "prelatical" +way exemplified by the Church of England. This is a first proof that +when truths, keenly felt and seemingly rival, are discussed in +Conference spirit, the angularities that offend disappear; and wider, +bigger truth comes into the possession of all. It will be so more and +more. By faith we can already see that the labour of understanding unto +reunion is bound to be an immense _creative_ period in the Church of +God. + +2. Our second axiom sounds discouraging. Just this--that unity is, +humanly speaking, impossible. Reunion means great changes of heart in +great communions of men, and we all know how hard it is to effect change +of heart even in the individual. We must not think that no price will +have to be paid for so good a result, both by whole communions, and by +the members composing them; and that the whole force of inherited +prejudice, past history, and present wilfulness, ignorance, and sincere +conviction will not arise in opposition. The difficulty even of +approaching Rome illustrates vividly our task. The Unity of Christendom +is a meaningless expression without that vast international Church, +without her rich stores of devotion and experience, without her +unbending witness to the first things of faith, worship and +self-sacrifice. Here the "impossibility" is open and honest, but I do +not know that the difficulties will be greater than those, less obvious +as yet, between other denominations. Yet with God all things are +possible. This is only the MIRACLE which He has set the faith of modern +Christians to perform. + +3. Thirdly then, our rule must be, to hasten slowly. We are not dealing +with matters susceptible of mere arrangement, but with _convictions_, +which have deep roots in history, and cling passionately round the +individual. Convictions can only be modified or changed gradually, by +love and deeper spiritual learning. Bully or outrage a conviction, and +you double its strength. That is why argument seldom does aught but +harm. Argument is an attack upon another man's convictions, or +semi-convictions, and inevitably fails to do anything but stiffen them. +Inevitably therefore will hasty action by individuals or sections, for +instance in the Church of England, for which other sections are not +ready, throw these into suspicion and opposition. I speak of my own +Communion and say deliberately, that if at the moment, either an +individual, or a section--any section--of it goes galloping off, be its +zeal and hope never so pure and splendid, on private roads, the whole +desire for unity, and therefore the cause of unity, will be gravely +damaged. + +For the whole Church of England--I think that can be truly said--has now +an unutterable desire for the joy of Unity; it is, further, convinced +that action must be taken; but it is by no means convinced that certain +actions--to take a concrete example, free interchange of pulpits with +Nonconformists--are as yet either helpful or right. If one part adopt +such a policy, hostilely and sectionally, it will simply throw others +into convinced opposition and retard the whole desire for decades. +Questions of deepest implication cannot be settled in haste. Before +approaching at all, we must find the right methods of approach. Quite +rightly, the American "World Conference for the consideration of +questions touching Faith and Order," paid, from the start, the utmost, +an uniquely scientific, attention to right method; their patience has +been lightning-swift in result. It did not even go so far as to say, "We +will confer, that is the right method"; it said, "We will learn how to +confer." It was a new and by no means easy exercise, but it has been +learned, and the English Conference mentioned above, "the landmark," +arose by its inspiration and worked by its methods. + +A wrong method of approach is equally well illustrated by the gathering +of Evangelical clergy at Cheltenham[15] early in the Spring. They +discussed to some purpose, and at the end of a few days had drawn out a +series of some dozen articles of principle and action. Some were +unexceptionable, others went beyond what either the Bishops or other +sections of the Church are yet ready to do. Such sectional action simply +heads for disaster and vexation. And it is so foolish, so great and +difficult an end being in view. Why should any _sections_ of the Church +meet or deal at all on this matter, except to put their views humbly at +the disposal of their brethren in the Church? This matter concerns the +_whole_ Church; any action is futile which does not carry the whole +Church with it, and the whole Church is keen and anxious enough over the +problem to be able to agree upon methods and policies which combine +depth, wisdom, patience, and order. We have seen how titanic the labour +is; impatience will help nothing; here if anywhere is needed the love +that is patient, and ready for the travail of waiting and praying. + +The cry of generous souls of course is "Something must be _done_." Of +course it must; but let anybody consider what sheer miracles of changed +convictions on Unity have been "done" within ten, and even five years. +Better than any such immediate action which would certainly cause +division, is the enlarging of the scope and sphere of this miracle, so +that the friendly conditions of France are naturally reproduced in +England. + +With these precautions, then, let us see what can be done with universal +consent. + +(_a_) The first thing is to turn the intellectual opinion that Christian +division is wrong, and unity necessary, into a general passion. That is +to say, we want to develop among us the _motive of love_. We all talk +about love glibly, and about brotherhood and a new world, with very +little sense of what these terms involve in the individual life. I am +sure that we hardly know yet what love means nor what it exacts, nor +guess into how many provinces of ordinary life it can and ought to +operate; how many heritages of past history it must be allowed to wipe +out, how many preconceived notions it must dissipate; into how many +social, commercial, municipal, political relations it must begin to +permeate. It was for this reason that an article which I wrote when in +billets near Arras for the _Church Quarterly Review_ suggested a new +National Mission of Love in the Church of England. For the space of a +month or more the one subject dealt with by preachers and teachers +throughout the Communion would be Love, in all its bearings, and with +special reference to religious differences and their healing. I believe +that this would be a splendid way of making the passion for new love and +wider brotherhood general, an act of pure religion of highest importance +both to our Christianity and national life, and sure of blessing by God. +It would assure our Nonconformist brothers that we mean business, and +mean it deeply. Perhaps they would follow suit in their own +congregations. + +It is the more important, because there is a danger of the leaders and +clergy of communions rushing ahead of the rank and file. Naturally they +see the vast issues most clearly; the congregation sees more easily its +own needs and habits of worship, and inclines to shut out of mind the +needs and interests of the Church as a whole. A National Mission of +Love, dealing with all history, the larger duties of the present, and +future hopes, would help to correct this, and give a single mind to the +whole body. + +(_b_) Then, in order that the Church of England may go forward as one +whole, without the risk of sectional exasperation, it does seem to me an +urgent necessity that--I do hope it is not a presumptuous +suggestion--the Archbishops appoint a Council of Unity; to thrash out +the whole subject, and decide on definite steps of action, both within +and without the Church. + +My vision sees it thus. A small Council of, say, five Bishops, and a +dozen other members. These dozen to be nominated, not elected, and to +consist of the leading and trusted men of each "party" with at least +two of our greatest scholars. It must be small, so that it may truly +"confer"--not drop into controversy--and meet regularly. It should issue +definite advice and suggestion, all of which would be unanimous, upon +which the whole Church could act, and act immediately. I am sure that +the amount of unanimity would be surprising, and the advice bold. +Perhaps the Archbishops and Bishops in accepting and issuing such +reports would require them to be read in every pulpit in the land, so +that the whole Communion understand what is going on, and each +congregation be spurred to do its part in its own locality. + +The mere appointment of such a Council would be a notable step towards +unity and place the whole matter on, so to speak, a scientific footing. +The Church of England would then be wisely and consistently ordered to +the one end, and be thinking and acting as itself an unity; the danger +of sectional action would be reduced to a minimum, and the mutual +confidence of the sections be assured. Indeed it would be a hard blow to +the bad party licence too common hitherto amongst us. Further, the +Nonconformist communions would have a definite organ to approach on all +subjects making for friendliness, cooperation, and conference, and +sufficient certainty that the Church of England desired the peace of +Jerusalem very earnestly indeed. + +(_c_) There are a number of issues on which all communions could begin +at once to work together. There is a real chance of abolishing war, and +establishing a more or less universal peace. The idea of the League of +Nations gains ground. Bishop Gore is already summoning the support and +labour of the Church to it. Here serious united effort of all Christian +bodies, of Europe and America, is obviously fitting and might be +decisive. + +There are the hundred social problems confronting us. The very working +together upon these would be as valuable as the large amount of work +that so easily might be done. + +Education! Word of lamentable memories. The present Bill, which all +Christian bodies have urged on, left in despair the vital question of +religious teaching until the Churches can agree upon it among +themselves. With all the lessons of the war, both to the appalling need +of such teaching, and of the necessity of bigger thinking, can they not +do it now? Here is a critical field for cooperation and +self-suppression. Only let the younger men be put to the task. The elder +will be the first to admit that long controversy and deepening +opposition have unfitted them for sincere agreement. The younger men are +fresh, and start with an eagerness to find the way out. + +(_d_) Cooperation in these great matters will not only promote unity, +but display already the men of Christ as one before the world. But it is +not enough. How about cooperation in directly religious work and +worship? "The visible unity of the Body of Christ is not adequately +expressed in the cooperation for moral influence and social service, +though such cooperation might with advantage be carried much further +than it is at present; it could only be fully realised through community +of worship, faith and order, including common participation in the +Lord's Supper[16]." + +Here let us once more and finally insist that the all-important thing is +the development of the desire for Unity even in the most local, or +uneducated, or out-of-the-way congregations. Most of the clergy now are +revolutionaries for better, bigger things; but, frankly, we fear the lay +people who hate change, and desire things to remain as they are--in +church and out of it. That is why I should so like my imagined Council +to set going my imagined National Mission of Love. But much can be done +besides. Those who seek unity will be labouring fruitfully for it, if +they simply devote themselves to developing social and Christian +friendship between Churchmen and Nonconformists in town and village. +There might well be an enormous growth of meetings, both of clergy and +laity of different denominations, for conference, devotion, even +retreat. We want more than one "Swanwick." Can we not go further, and +draw together by experimenting with each other's devotions or +organisations of proved value? For instance, I wonder if it is +suggesting too much, to suggest that if Nonconformists appropriated with +vigour our Christian year, they would be sharers with us of a devotional +joy and help, which would certainly promote spiritual sympathy. In the +same way, the Church of England has been crying out for some method of +using the spiritual gifts of her laymen in church. Why not borrow +notions from those who know how to do it? + +These are but scrappy examples of ways by which right spirit can be +developed within the single communion, or between separated bodies. The +_right spirit_ won, the whole battle is won. + +Naturally there are many who desire already to go much further and +faster. Intercommunion, our goal, is of course impossible at this stage +owing to seriously differing convictions on faith and order; and the +plain fact that it would cause more cleavage than it healed. But how +about interchange of pulpits? The Evangelicals at Cheltenham demanded +this as a regular practice. The rest of the Church feels strongly that +the time for this has not arrived yet; that haphazard invitations by +individual vicars to ministers of convictions widely different are +undesirable. The time has come for conference, but not yet for any +facile overpassing of the facts and reasons for historical separations. +Nor do we want to run the risks of indiscipline and disorderliness +resulting from such individual action. The Church of England can only be +of help to the cause of unity where she acts as a whole. Matters such as +interchange of pulpits should be tackled by our suggested Council of +Unity. A suggestion in the _Challenge_ of July 19 might well be +favourably considered by it. There are Nonconformists of acknowledged +eminence, learning, and inspiration, from whose books the Church of +England already has received much. We should all be glad to receive +likewise from their lips. If a selected number were officially invited +by the Church to prophesy in our midst, an immense and religiously +fruitful step would have been taken, in perfect order. The plan might +well be reciprocal. + +The same leading article proposed that ministers of other denominations +should be asked by such congregations as wished, to come and explain to +them frankly their standpoints of doctrine and order. I am sure that all +communions might be, and now should be, more brave in explaining +themselves to each other. The gain in preventing misunderstanding and +destroying suspicion and unfriendliness would be great, and I can see no +loss anywhere about such a proceeding. + +Have you read the story of the Woolwich Crusade, published by the +S.P.C.K. (1_s._ 3_d._)? The Crusade movement and method is a new thing. +Its idea is not that of a mission--to increase or improve the membership +of a particular denomination, but to bring God and the meaning of Christ +into the life and problems of to-day. It is doing the same sort of work +which chaplains in France do, among the munitioners, artisans, and +labour world at home. Perhaps our Nonconformist brethren could join us +here. The difficulties would, I think, merely be those of organisation. + +Thanks to the College system, and to the Student Christian movement, +Churchmen and Nonconformists are as friendly in this University as they +are in France; and joint devotion is usual. We have a great +responsibility here amid the young and the enthusiastic, and good +feeling is both easier to achieve, and more widespread in result, at a +University than anywhere else. Well, we are awake to our chances, and +will do our best. + +(_e_) This leaves but one more subject to touch on: the old, hard, +question of Church order, and the orders of ministry. But all looks in +the best sense hopeful here, very hopeful, since the striking report +signed by the thirteen members of the sub-committee appointed by the +Archbishops' Committee, and by representatives of the English Free +Churches' Commissions. Let me quote it. + + + Looking as frankly and as widely as possible at the whole + situation, we desire with a due sense of responsibility to submit + for the serious consideration of all the parts of a divided + Christendom what seem to us the necessary conditions of any + possibility of reunion: That continuity with the historic + Episcopate should be effectively preserved. That, in order that the + rights and responsibilities of the whole Christian community in the + government of the Church may be adequately recognised, the + Episcopate should reassume a constitutional form both as regards + the method of the election of the Bishop as by clergy and people, + and the method of government after election.... The acceptance of + the fact of Episcopacy and not any theory as to its character + should be all that is asked for.... It would no doubt be necessary + before any arrangement for corporate reunion could be made to + discuss the exact functions which it may be agreed to recognise as + belonging to the Episcopate, but we think this can be left to the + future. + + The acceptance of Episcopacy on these terms should not involve any + Christian community in the necessity of disowning its past, but + should enable all to maintain the continuity of their witness and + influence as heirs and trustees of types of Christian thought, + life, and order, not only of value to themselves, but of value to + the Church as a whole.... + + +It would be difficult to imagine a wiser, braver, or happier statement +than this in the whole history of the Church. A landmark indeed! The +Chaplains to the Forces in France almost shouted for joy. At one stroke, +the first and greatest incompatibility of conviction has been cleared +out of the way. Perhaps that is too strong--or prophetic--a way of +putting it. Let us say rather, that at least the question of Episcopacy +and Church order has been raised to a new plane, where all can discuss +it, and think it out, not only peaceably, but with good hope of new +wealth of conception and polity pouring into the old, rigid, bitter, +rival views of church government. In France I corresponded with a +Wesleyan chaplain on the subject of orders and ordination. He wrote a +careful letter affirming the historic Nonconformist position about +ministry. But, he ended, it would all be changed, if re-ordination could +be presented and accepted as a great outward "Sacrament of Love" which +reunited us. That is more than the Church of England has ever asked, for +she regards ordination as a Sacrament of Order merely, not of Spiritual +Love. But let us gladly put the higher value upon it. And the day will +surely come, unless goodhearted Christians settle down to accept the +intolerable burden of permanent separation in communion and worship, +when this Sacrament of Love be celebrated, and the Church of England +ordains the Free Church ministry, and the Free Churches commission us, +to work each and all in the flocks that have been made one Fold. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] In the paragraphs which follow, I owe much to the Bishop of +Zanzibar's _The Fulness of Christ_, perhaps the deepest and ablest of +all the numerous Anglican books on Reunion. + +[15] It is fair to state that after this lecture was delivered, I +received a note from one who had been at Cheltenham, saying that my +references to it gave an inaccurate impression; and that the findings +were only "an expression of opinion." To those, however, who read the +published account of the meeting, whether in the _Record_ or _Guardian_, +much more seemed to be intended. + +[16] Quoted from the Second Interim Report of the Archbishops' Committee +and the representatives of the Free Church Commissions. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + + + + +III. THE PROBLEM OF THE ENGLISH FREE CHURCHES + +By the Rev. W. B. SELBIE, M.A., D.D. + + +While I think that what I say may be fairly taken to represent the +general mind of these churches it must be understood that I do not in +any way commit them but speak only for myself. I propose first to recall +the circumstances which gave rise to these churches and the conditions +which still operate in maintaining them as separate Christian bodies, +and then to give some account of the various movements towards reunion +in which they have taken part. The Baptists and Congregationalists you +will remember arose at a time when membership in the Anglican Church was +a formal and perfunctory thing. It was open to every parishioner and +meant very little in the way of Christian life or witness. The first +Nonconformists stood for the principle that membership in Christian +churches should be confined to genuinely Christian people, and in order +to secure this they formed separated churches, on the New Testament +model, of those who were able to give effective witness of their +Christian calling. That such churches should be self-governed followed +almost as a matter of course. Their meeting in the name of Christ +secured His presence among them and the guidance of His spirit in their +doings. But it is always important to remember that their essential +characteristic is not either democracy in church government or dissent +from the Establishment, but the positive witness to purity of membership +and to the sole headship of Jesus Christ just described. The Wesleyan +Church, the parent of the whole great Methodist movement, arose at the +end of the 18th century from somewhat similar reasons. There was never +anything schismatic in the spirit of John Wesley, but when he found that +the rigour and stiffness of Anglicanism made a free spiritual witness +almost impossible, he was driven, like the Nonconformists of the +Elizabethan times, to set up separate churches. While it is quite true +that the great principle for which English Nonconformity has stood is +now almost universally accepted, and that what may be called the +negative witness of the Free Churches is much less necessary than it +used to be, there is still room for their positive contribution to the +religious life of the country, for their witness to freedom, +spirituality, and the rights of the people in the Church. For a long +time, no doubt, they did rejoice in the dissidence of their dissent, and +they suffered, and still suffer, to some degree, from a Pharisaic +feeling of superiority to those whom they regard as bound by tradition +and State rule. The great majority among them, however, have long since +come to feel that they have more in common with one another and with +many in the Anglican Church than they have been hitherto prepared to +admit, and that existence in isolation from the rest of Christendom is +neither good for them nor helpful to the cause of Christ and His +Kingdom. This feeling first took definite shape about the year 1890 in +connexion with what are now known as the Grindelwald Conferences. For +three successive years informal parties of clergy and ministers were +arranged by Sir Henry Lunn, at Grindelwald and Lucerne, with the object +of getting representatives of the different churches together in order +to exchange views on the subject of union, and to create an atmosphere +of mutual knowledge, sympathy, and friendliness. Although no practical +steps directly followed them, these conferences undoubtedly did good by +removing misunderstandings and paving a way for further intercourse. To +many of the Free Churchmen who attended them they seem to have suggested +for the first time the evils of our unhappy divisions, and they +certainly created a desire for better relations. It became obvious that +one of the necessary first steps in this direction would be the setting +up of a closer cooperation among the Free Churches themselves, and of +breaking down the denominational isolation in which they too often +lived. Further conferences were held in England at Manchester, Bradford, +London and other centres, the ultimate issue of which was the foundation +of the National Federation of the Evangelical Free Churches under the +guidance of the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, Dr Berry of Wolverhampton, Dr +Mackennal of Bowdon, and Dr Munro Gibson of London, along with laymen +like Sir Percy Bunting and Mr George Cadbury. The aim of the Federation +was to bring all the evangelical Nonconformist churches into closer +association in order that they might in various localities take +concerted action on questions affecting their common faith and interests +and the social, moral, and religious welfare of the community. Since +that time the work of the Federation has gradually covered the whole +country through local councils working on a Free Church parish system, +and engaging in various forms of social and evangelistic effort. The +representative central council has become a powerful instrument for +furthering the cause of the Free Churches and for bringing their +influence to bear on social and political matters. It must be freely +admitted that this council has sometimes gone further in political +action than some of the churches have been altogether prepared for. From +the first, so representative a Nonconformist as the late Dr Dale of +Birmingham stood aloof from it, on the ground that it tended to divert +the energy of the churches from the proper channels and to involve them +too deeply in political controversy. In this action he was supported by +many of the more conservative elements in the churches themselves, +particularly as the circumstances of the time compelled the council to +engage in a good deal of political agitation. In spite of this, however, +there is no doubt that the Free Church Council movement as a whole has +had the effect its first promoters intended and desired, and has brought +all the Free Churches into much closer relations with one another, and +has established them in a position of mutual understanding and sympathy. +Its chief weakness has been that it has depended for support on +individual churches rather than on the denominations they represented. +It is the consciousness of this which has led the way to a later +movement in the direction of still closer federation. The lead has been +taken by the Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, who, as President of the Free +Church Council in 1916, propounded an elaborate scheme for the +federation of the Free Church denominations. In his first presidential +address under the title "The Free Churches at the Cross-roads" he put +forward an unanswerable case for the union of the whole of the Free +Churches of England. He pointed to the fact that for many years past +these churches have suffered a serious decline in the number of their +members and of their Sunday school scholars and teachers; and he found +one of the chief causes of this in their excessive denominationalism, +which led to over-lapping and rivalry. He pleaded that the old sectarian +distinctions had now ceased to represent vital issues, and to appeal to +the best elements both in the churches and in the nation outside; and he +urged that the maintenance of these distinctions now tended to destroy +the collective witness of the Free Churches and involved an immense +waste of men, money and energy. For the sake of efficiency, as well as +in order to maintain a proper Christian comity, he argued that it was +absolutely necessary to put an end to this condition of things. As long +as the Free Churches were thus divided, they could not expect either to +do their own work well or to exercise their proper influence in the life +of the nation. There is no doubt that this estimate of the situation +represented a growing feeling among those who were best acquainted with +the facts. But it is probable that Mr Shakespeare under-estimated the +strength of the conservative spirit in many of the Free Churches. And +there is no doubt that a considerable educational process will have to +be gone through before his proposals take practical shape. This process, +however, has already begun and has made considerable way. Mr +Shakespeare's challenge led almost immediately to the formation of a +large conference of representatives appointed by the Free Church +Council along with the Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive +Methodist, Independent Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, Wesleyan Reform, +United Methodist, Moravian, Countess of Huntingdon, and Disciples of +Christ Churches. This Conference first met at Mansfield College, Oxford, +in September, 1916, and later at the Leys School, Cambridge, in 1917, +and again in London in the early part of this year. It appointed +Committees on Faith, Constitution, Evangelization and the Ministry, all +of which have held many meetings in addition to those of the whole +Conference. The Committee on Faith was able to frame a declaratory +statement on doctrine which was afterwards unanimously adopted as +follows: + + + I + + There is One Living and True God, Who is revealed to us as Father, + Son and Holy Spirit; Him alone we worship and adore. + + + II + + We believe that God so loved the world as to give His Son to be the + Revealer of the Father and the Redeemer of mankind; that the Son of + God, for us men and for our salvation, became man in Jesus Christ, + Who, having lived on earth the perfect human life, died for our + sins, rose again from the dead, and now is exalted Lord over all; + and that the Holy Spirit, Who witnesses to us of Christ, makes the + salvation which is in Him to be effective in our hearts and lives. + + + III + + We acknowledge that all men are sinful, and unable to deliver + themselves from either the guilt or power of their sin; but we have + received and rejoice in the Gospel of the grace of the Holy God, + wherein all who truly turn from sin are freely forgiven through + faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and are called and enabled, through + the Spirit dwelling and working within them, to live in fellowship + with God and for His service; and in this new life, which is to be + nurtured by the right use of the means of grace, we are to grow, + daily dying unto sin and living unto Him Who in His mercy has + redeemed us. + + + IV + + We believe that the Catholic or Universal Church is the whole + company of the redeemed in heaven and on earth, and we recognise as + belonging to this holy fellowship all who are united to God through + faith in Christ. + + The Church on earth--which is One through the Apostolic Gospel and + through the living union of all its true members with its one Head, + even Christ, and which is Holy through the indwelling Holy Spirit + Who sanctifies the Body and its members--is ordained to be the + visible Body of Christ, to worship God through Him, to promote the + fellowship of His people and the ends of His Kingdom, and to go + into all the world and proclaim His Gospel for the salvation of men + and the brotherhood of all mankind. Of this visible Church, and + every branch thereof, the only Head is the Lord Jesus Christ; and + in its faith, order, discipline and duty, it must be free to obey + Him alone as it interprets His holy will. + + + V + + We receive, as given by the Lord to His Church on earth, the Holy + Scriptures, the Sacraments of the Gospel, and the Christian + Ministry. + + The Scriptures, delivered through men moved by the Holy Ghost, + record and interpret the revelation of redemption, and contain the + sure Word of God concerning our salvation and all things necessary + thereto. Of this we are convinced by the witness of the Holy Spirit + in the hearts of men to and with the Word; and this Spirit, thus + speaking from the Scriptures to believers and to the Church, is the + supreme Authority by which all opinions in religion are finally to + be judged. + + The Sacraments--Baptism and the Lord's Supper--are instituted by + Christ, Who is Himself certainly and really present in His own + ordinances (though not bodily in the elements thereof), and are + signs and seals of His Gospel not to be separated therefrom. They + confirm the promises and gifts of salvation, and, when rightly used + by believers with faith and prayer, are, through the operation of + the Holy Spirit, true means of grace. + + The Ministry is an office within the Church--not a sacerdotal + order--instituted for the preaching of the Word, the ministration + of the Sacraments and the care of souls. It is a vocation from God, + upon which therefore no one is qualified to enter save through the + call of the Holy Spirit in the heart; and this inward call is to be + authenticated by the call of the Church, which is followed by + ordination to the work of the Ministry in the name of the Church. + While thus maintaining the Ministry as an office, we do not limit + the ministries of the New Testament to those who are thus ordained, + but affirm the priesthood of all believers and the obligation + resting upon them to fulfil their vocation according to the gift + bestowed upon them by the Holy Spirit. + + + VI + + We affirm the sovereign authority of our Lord Jesus Christ over + every department of human life, and we hold that individuals and + peoples are responsible to Him in their several spheres and are + bound to render Him obedience and to seek always the furtherance of + His Kingdom upon earth, not, however, in any way constraining + belief, imposing religious disabilities, or denying the rights of + conscience. + + + VII + + In the assurance, given us in the Gospel, of the love of God our + Father to each of us and to all men, and in the faith that Jesus + Christ, Who died, overcame death and has passed into the heavens, + the first-fruits of them that sleep, we are made confident of the + hope of Immortality, and trust to God our souls and the souls of + the departed. We believe that the whole world must stand before the + final Judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, with glad and solemn + hearts, we look for the consummation and bliss of the life + everlasting, wherein the people of God, freed for ever from sorrow + and from sin, shall serve Him and see His face in the perfected + communion of all saints in the Church triumphant. + + +The Committee on Constitution recommended a definite union of the Free +Church denominations on the basis of a federation which should express +their essential unity, promote evangelization, maintain their liberties +and take action where authorised in all matters affecting the interests, +duties, rights, and privileges of the federating churches, and to enter +into communion and united action where possible with other branches of +the church of Christ throughout the world. It is proposed that the +federation shall work through a council consisting of about 200 +representatives of the denominations in order to carry out their will. +The Committee on Evangelization and the Ministry also suggested certain +practical measures necessary for cooperation in these important branches +of service. The scheme has been carefully thought out and elaborated, +but at the same time is not too cumbrous for action, and if it can be +carried out there is no doubt that it would secure the ends aimed at. In +many ways the doctrinal declaration is the most important part of it, +and shews a sufficient general agreement on essentials to ensure +harmonious working. The fate of it lies of course with the different +denominations concerned. By this time most of them have had an +opportunity of considering it and, generally speaking, it has met with a +favourable reception. The Baptists, Congregationalists, and United +Methodists have declared their willingness to proceed to closer union on +this basis. But the Presbyterians and Wesleyan Methodists have referred +it back for further consideration. Rightly and naturally both of these +denominations are more concerned for the moment with measures for union +within their own borders. The Presbyterians are looking to a reunion of +the Established and Free Churches in Scotland, while a great scheme for +the reunion of all the Methodist bodies is before the Wesleyan +Conference. If this can be carried out it should not prejudice but +rather be in favour of any scheme for wider Free Church Union. + +Nothing that has been done so far among the Free Churches is likely in +any way to hinder the fulfilment of the desire which is now widely felt +on all sides for better relations with the Anglican Church. It can +easily be understood from the difficulties that have already emerged in +the way of closer union among the Free Churches how much more difficult +is the prospect of union with Anglicanism. There is no doubt that +denominational feeling is still very strong among the rank and file of +the churches. In spite of the changes which have taken place in emphasis +and conditions in modern church thought, each denomination realises that +it stands for something positive and is anxious to give its positive +witness in the best possible way. It has therefore been an essential of +reunion that any scheme proposed shall not interfere with the autonomy +of any individual denomination and shall allow full scope for its +genius. It is equally necessary that this should be preserved in any +scheme contemplated for reunion with Anglicanism. The Free Churches are +not disposed to bate anything of their freedom or to sink their identity +in any national church. If, however, any scheme can be devised which +will preserve their individuality and give them scope for their special +witness and at the same time avoid the dissensions and divisions which +have so marred their relations with Anglicanism in the past it is likely +to meet with a very warm welcome. The war has brought home to all +thinking men in the churches the imperative need that there is for +closer union and for a more united testimony. And they are conscious +that if they are to face the increasing difficulties of the future all +the churches must be able to stand together, to cooperate in Christian +service, and to speak with one voice. + +It is therefore regarded by them as a welcome sign of the times that +there should be a world-wide desire for Christian reunion, and that this +should have begun to take practical shape just before the outbreak of +the war. The movement was initiated by the Protestant Episcopal Church +of America supported by practically all the churches in that country. It +first took shape in proposals for a world-wide conference on Faith and +Order with a view of promoting the visible unity of the body of Christ. +But for the war this conference would have been held already, but under +existing circumstances the work has had to be confined to preparations +for it on both sides of the Atlantic. In this country the work has been +mainly done by a joint Conference, consisting of representatives of the +Committee appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and of +commissions appointed by the various Free Churches, in order to promote +the Faith and Order movement. This Conference has held repeated meetings +in the historic Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster and elsewhere, and has +published two interim reports "Towards Christian Unity" which are of the +utmost importance. These reports represent the work of a sub-committee +but have received the general sanction of the whole Conference. The +first report contains the following statement of agreement on matters of +faith, which is "offered not as a creed for subscription, or as +committing in any way the churches thus represented, but as indicating a +large measure of substantial agreement and also as affording material +for further investigation and consideration": + + + A STATEMENT OF AGREEMENT ON MATTERS OF FAITH + + + We, who belong to different Christian Communions and are engaged in + the discussion of questions of Faith and Order, desire to affirm + our agreement upon certain foundation truths as the basis of a + spiritual and rational creed and life for all mankind. We express + them as follows: + + (1) As Christians we believe that, while there is some knowledge of + God to be found among all races of men and some measure of divine + grace and help is present to all, a unique, progressive and + redemptive revelation of Himself was given by God to the Hebrew + people through the agency of inspired prophets, "in many parts and + in many manners," and that this revelation reaches its culmination + and completeness in One Who is more than a prophet, Who is the + Incarnate Son of God, our Saviour and our Lord, Jesus Christ. + + (2) This distinctive revelation, accepted as the word of God, is + the basis of the life of the Christian Church and is intended to be + the formative influence upon the mind and character of the + individual believer. + + (3) This word of God is contained in the Old and New Testaments and + constitutes the permanent spiritual value of the Bible. + + (4) The root and centre of this revelation, as intellectually + interpreted, consists in a positive and highly distinctive doctrine + of God--His nature, character and will. From this doctrine of God + follows a certain sequence of doctrines concerning creation, human + nature and destiny, sin, individual and racial, redemption through + the incarnation of the Son of God and His atoning death and + resurrection, the mission and operation of the Holy Spirit, the + Holy Trinity, the Church, the last things, and Christian life and + duty, individual and social: all these cohere with and follow from + this doctrine of God. + + (5) Since Christianity offers an historical revelation of God, the + coherence and sequence of Christian doctrine involve a necessary + synthesis of idea and fact such as is presented to us in the New + Testament and in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds: and these Creeds + both in their statements of historical fact and in their statements + of doctrine affirm essential elements of the Christian faith as + contained in Scripture, which the Church could never abandon + without abandoning its basis in the word of God. + + (6) We hold that there is no contradiction between the acceptance + of the miracles recited in the Creeds and the acceptance of the + principle of order in nature as assumed in scientific enquiry, and + we hold equally that the acceptance of miracles is not forbidden by + the historical evidence candidly and impartially investigated by + critical methods. + + +This was followed by a statement of agreement on matters relating to +order as follows: + + + With thankfulness to the Head of the Church for the spirit of unity + He has shed abroad in our hearts we go on to express our common + conviction on the following matters: + + (1) That it is the purpose of our Lord that believers in Him should + be, as in the beginning they were, one visible society--His body + with many members--which in every age and place should maintain the + communion of saints in the unity of the Spirit and should be + capable of a common witness and a common activity. + + (2) That our Lord ordained, in addition to the preaching of His + Gospel, the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper, as not + only declaratory symbols, but also effective channels of His grace + and gifts for the salvation and sanctification of men, and that + these Sacraments being essentially social ordinances were intended + to affirm the obligation of corporate fellowship as well as + individual confession of Him. + + (3) That our Lord, in addition to the bestowal of the Holy Spirit + in a variety of gifts and graces upon the whole Church, also + conferred upon it by the self-same Spirit a Ministry of manifold + gifts and functions, to maintain the unity and continuity of its + witness and work. + + +In subsequent discussions a very considerable advance was made on the +positions here laid down. It was felt that if ever reunion was to become +a reality the question of order must be frankly faced, and the following +statements were put forth for the consideration of the churches +concerned, not as a final solution, but as the necessary basis for +discussion in framing a practical scheme: + + + 1. That continuity with the historic Episcopate should be + effectively preserved. + + 2. That in order that the rights and responsibilities of the whole + Christian community in the government of the Church may be + adequately recognised, the Episcopate should re-assume a + constitutional form, both as regards the method of the election of + the bishop as by clergy and people, and the method of government + after election. It is perhaps necessary that we should call to mind + that such was the primitive ideal and practice of Episcopacy and it + so remains in many Episcopal communions to-day. + + 3. That acceptance of the fact of Episcopacy and not any theory as + to its character should be all that is asked for. We think that + this may be the more easily taken for granted as the acceptance of + any such theory is not now required of ministers of the Church of + England. It would no doubt be necessary before any arrangement for + corporate reunion could be made to discuss the exact functions + which it may be agreed to recognise as belonging to the Episcopate, + but we think this can be left to the future. + + +The first point to note in regard to the work of this Conference is the +remarkable unanimity achieved in regard to Christian doctrine. While +there is no intention of binding any of the parties to the _ipsissima +verba_ of any doctrinal declaration, but rather every desire to allow +for varieties of expression, it is now perfectly clear that there is +among all the churches concerned a substantial agreement on the main and +essential matters of the Christian faith. This supplies the most real +and hopeful basis for the vital union of churches thus minded, and makes +their continued separation and antagonism intolerable. The more closely +this aspect of the situation is explored the more clearly does it lead +to the conclusion that those who are so largely one in aim, intention, +and desire should find some genuine and practical expression of their +unity. The question of church order is more difficult; but here again +much has happened of late to justify a reconsideration of the position +on both sides. On the one hand recent investigations into early church +history have shewn that no one form of church government can claim +exclusive scriptural or Apostolic authority. Under the guidance of the +Spirit of God the Church has in the past adapted herself and her +organization to the needs of the times in order the better to do the +work of the Kingdom. Men are coming now to see that the test of a true +Church is not conformity to type but effectiveness in fulfilling the +will of her Lord, and that therefore organization need not be of a +single uniform type. So we find denominations like the Baptists and +Congregationalists setting up superintendents (overseers, Bishops) over +their churches because the needs of the time demand such supervision. +And on the other hand we find Anglicans inclining to exchange prelacy +for a more modest and elective form of episcopacy. In this respect the +two extremes are drawing together to an extent which would have been +incredible twenty years ago, and, given good will, it should be possible +to find even here a real _modus vivendi_. + +The same may be said with regard to other movements which have been +recently set on foot in the direction of a better common understanding +between Anglicans and Free Churchmen. It is recognised that one of the +greatest obstacles is still the so-called religious education +controversy. Both sides are becoming a little ashamed of their attitude +to this question in the past. They realise that the true interests of +education have been gravely imperilled by making it a bone of contention +among the churches, and they are beginning to look at the whole matter +afresh from the point of view of the good of the child rather than from +that of their denominational interests. Some important conferences have +been held at Lambeth in the course of which the Bishop of Oxford has put +forth a scheme for relegating the conduct of religious teaching in the +elementary schools to interdenominational committees elected _ad hoc_. +This scheme is still under discussion and at the moment is not regarded +very favourably by extremists on either side, but it is all to the good +that the matter should have been raised in so friendly and conciliatory +a spirit and, whenever the time is ripe, it may be hoped that the way +to agreement will be more open than it has ever been yet. + +Further the rise and rapid growth of the Life and Liberty movement +within the Established Church is something like a portent and one that +Nonconformists cannot but regard with the deepest interest and sympathy. +They may perhaps be forgiven if they see in it an attempt to win from +within the Church just those privileges and liberties for the sake of +which their ancestors came out many years ago. With a great price they +bought this freedom and they rejoice in this new movement as a real +vindication of the cause for which they have so long contended and as +representing a body of opinion within the establishment the existence of +which, whatever may be its immediate result, is sure to make a common +understanding in the future more attainable. They may have serious +doubts whether the aims of the movement are ever to be obtained without +the Disestablishment of the Church, but for all that they wish it well +and rejoice in the spirit to which it points. + +One more sign of the times may be mentioned. During the last 18 months +yet another Conference has been set on foot, this time between +Nonconformists and Evangelical Anglicans, and has come very near to a +common understanding on such vital matters as intercommunion and +interchange of pulpits. It is recognised that there can be no real +Christian unity without such interchange, and the fact that a growing +number of Anglican clergy are prepared to discuss the question and that +there is no real difficulty on the Nonconformist side is again a ground +of hope. It should be understood however that on the Nonconformist side +there is no desire for universal and indiscriminate facilities in the +directions indicated. They do not want a kind of general post among the +pulpits of the land, nor do they ask that their people should desert +their own ordinances for those of the Established Church. Their people +indeed have no such desire. They love the simplicity and homeliness of +their own communion services and would not exchange them if they could. +But they do feel that to be debarred from communicating when there is no +church of their own order available is a real hardship, and they know +that nothing would make for comity among the churches so surely as an +occasional interchange of pulpits. They recognise that it would all have +to be carried out in due order and under conditions, and as long as the +conditions cast no reflexion on their orders, or on the Christian +standing of their members, they would loyally accept them. Under +exceptional circumstances and given due authorization on both sides, it +might be possible to do openly what is often now done in a more or less +clandestine way. There is a growing body of opinion on both sides which +would be favourable to such a course and it is certain that more will be +heard of it after the war. + +This leads up to another consideration which our ecclesiastical +authorities would do well to bear in mind. For a long time past younger +men and women in all the churches have been accustomed to meet together +in the various Fellowships and the Student movement. They have learnt to +work and pray together, to know one another's mind and to realise their +fundamental oneness of spirit and aim. It must be remembered that these +are the men and women in whose hands the future of the churches, humanly +speaking, lies, and they will not tolerate an indefinite prospect of +sectarian division and strife. While loyal to their own denominations +they have seen a wider and more glorious vision, and they are already +prepared for very definite steps in the direction of closer relations. +The new and better spirit which they represent is spreading rapidly +among the rank and file in the churches, and has been strongly +reinforced by experiences at the front. There, under the rude stress of +war, denominational exclusiveness has frankly broken down and attempts +to maintain it have excited universal resentment and disgust. There is +no doubt that after the war there will be a strong public opinion in +favour of better relations among the churches, and no church or section +of a church that clings to the old exclusiveness will be able to retain +any hold upon the people. In this case at least it may be assumed that +for once _vox populi_ is _vox dei_. + +There is indeed every reason to believe that opinion outside the +churches is more ripe for action than within them. On both sides there +is need for something like an educational campaign on the subject of +reunion and of the duty of Christians in regard to it. Difficulties have +to be faced of a very serious kind. On the Nonconformist side there are +still many who feel very keenly the burden of the disabilities from +which they have suffered, and to some extent still suffer. They know +that in some country districts Nonconformists are subjected to petty +social persecutions, and that their boys or girls who wish to become +elementary school teachers are handicapped from the outset. Many of them +have been brought up on bitter memories, and their inherited hostility +to the State establishment of religion does not incline them to any +_rapprochement_ with its representatives. It is well that these facts +should be faced, for they shew the need there is for the Free Churches +to educate their own people. + +To all this we have to add the _vis inertiae_ which operates in all the +churches alike. Many of them are entirely satisfied with things as they +are, and are only anxious that we should let well alone. There is too +among certain of the denominations a self-satisfaction amounting almost +to Pharisaism. They are very busy with their own work and devoted to +their denominational interests, and, so long as these can be maintained, +they do not see the use of agitations for reunion. They do not believe +that they have anything to gain from it and therefore they let it alone. + +The same spirit shews itself too on the Anglican side and there becomes +a serious obstacle to any advance. There are those who regard the Church +of England, as by law established, as the only possible Church for +England, and they cannot imagine why any people should want to change +its present position. Dissenters they say are outsiders and schismatics, +and must be left to go their own way. They should be thankful for the +toleration which has been extended to them and not abuse it by asking +for more. For all this kind of thing there is only one remedy, and that +is a wider vision, and for this all Christians of good will should +strenuously work and pray. It should surely be obvious that we can no +longer treat any church or denomination as an end in itself. All alike +exist for the great end of the Kingdom of God and are to be judged by +their efficiency in promoting that end among men. So no system of church +order can be regarded as of divine right in itself but only so far as +it becomes a channel of the Spirit of God and mediates His gifts to +men. All the churches as we know them to-day have grown up in +controversy and represent a long process of development and adaptation. +If we are to test them it should not be by the more or less artificial +standards of any one age in their history, but rather by the spirit, and +temper, and intentions of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ. When this +is done, the differences between them fall into their proper proportions +in view of the failure which is common to them all. On these terms too +will the old antagonisms become a generous rivalry in good works and +each church be ready to seek the welfare of others in the common +interests of the Kingdom which they all serve. + +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. + +Our island was, till not so long ago, emphatically a land of different, +and diverging "churches" and "denominations," unashamed of their +separation; nay, boasting their exclusiveness, or their dissidence, +commemorating with pride their secessions and disruptions. And even when +they began to see something of the evils such tempers and such acts had +brought in their train--the wastefulness of them, in regard alike to +money, to men's toil, and gifts given by God for the use of the whole +Church but confined in their exercise to some small section;--the injury +to character, the multiform self-righteousness engendered by our +schisms, the breaches of Christian justice and charity;--the treatment +of that whole Mediaeval Period to which we owe so much, as if it had +been one dark age of heathen blindness;--and, again, the hindrances to +Christian work at home and especially abroad,--when uneasiness over +these results began to shew itself, the recognition of the evil +expressed itself at first in ways hardly indicative of any depth of +penitence, or conducive to any practical measures for the healing of the +wrong. We had in one quarter "Evangelical Alliances," which put a new +stigma on huge portions of the Church of God, yet left those who took +part in their meetings contented in their own divisions. In other +quarters--probably in both the established Churches of our island--there +was a tendency (and more) to look down on Dissenters as such, to ignore +even their reasonable grievances, to ask more from them than either Holy +Scripture or early tradition could warrant, and to disparage unions that +were possible and urgent as likely to put new difficulties in the way of +that further and perfect union of all who believe in Christ which alone +He has promised, and for which alone He tells us that He prays. + +I should be the very last to deprecate either prayer or effort to +advance this perfect end. It ought to be the ultimate aim of all of us, +since it is Christ's. We must do nothing to hinder it: we must do all +that may be lawful for us to promote it. But it should be pointed out to +such as look exclusively towards the East and Rome, first, that a juster +view of those great Churches--great gain as it is--affords little excuse +for ignoring the Churches of the Reformation, and for leaving the large +numbers of devout Christians in the lesser sects without either the hope +or the means of supplying defects which are now, for the most part, +rather inherited than chosen; second, that the divisions and +"variations" among all who in East or West, in England or in Scotland, +in the 11th or the 16th century, felt themselves bound to repudiate the +Papal Supremacy, have supplied, and still supply, the Papacy with a +chief weapon against all of us alike, and in favour of those extreme +pretensions which have been a chief cause of, and remain a chief +obstacle to reunion; and third, that nothing is more likely to bring +about that kinder attitude toward the East and us which we desiderate on +the part of Rome than a large and generous measure here and in America +of "Home Reunion"--effected, of course (as it can only be effected), on +the basis of the Catholic Creeds, a worship in the beauty of holiness, +and the Apostolic Ministry. + +Anyhow, this is what we are finding in Scotland. Scotland, I know, is +but a little bit of the world: its largest churches small in comparison +with those of England and the United States, not to speak of the vast +communions of Rome and of the East. But the experience even of a small +part may intimate what may be looked for in much larger sections of what +after all is essentially the same body. For the Church, the Body of +Christ, in all lands and in all ages is one in spite of its divisions. +Christ is not divided. It is "subjective unity" not "objective" which in +the Church on earth is at present, through our sins, "suspended." Well, +in Scotland; where, let me remind you, the confession of Christ alike as +"King of the Nations" and "King in Zion," and of the visible Church as +His Kingdom on earth, was never laid aside, either in the National +Church or in the churches which separated from it (we laid aside much +that we should have done well to keep, but we stuck manfully to this); +we have had within recent times quite a number of incorporating unions; +including two of considerable note--the union in 1847 which brought +together in the "United Presbyterian Church" the two main sections of +our 18th century "Seceders," and the union of 1900 of the United +Presbyterians with the great mass of the "Free Church" of 1843--the +union that has given us the "United Free Church." I doubt if to either +of these unions the hope of a future Catholic Reunion contributed, at +the time, much or anything. I know there were some in the Church of +Scotland who fancied, and alleged, that the union of 1900 was +"engineered" with no friendly purpose towards us. But what has been the +outcome? Both of these unions:--partial in themselves--have tended, in +the result, very materially to de-Calvinize (if I may coin the word) the +general Presbyterianism of Scotland, and break down narrow prejudices, +to widen the outlook and enlarge the sympathies of those who took part +in them. The second, and greater of these unions, that of 1900 +(suspected then, as I have said), proved, within eight short years, to +be the very thing to pave the way for the opening, between the Church of +Scotland and the United Free Church, of those official negotiations for +an incorporating union which promise now to give us ere long a Church of +Scotland, not complete, indeed--not embracing even all the Presbyterians +of Scotland, and greatly needing the Scottish Episcopalians--but still a +Church which will include an immense preponderance of the Scottish +people; which will be able to cover the whole country with not +inadequate organizations; which will be freer also than it is at present +to enter into further unions; which will remain--what it has ever +been--both national and orthodox; and will continue, I believe, to go on +rapidly resuming many of those touching, reverent, and churchly usages +which in the heats of the 16th and 17th centuries it unwisely threw away +or, less excusably, gave up in the coldness of the 18th. We have still +some beautiful old usages, as well as enviable liberties and powers. And +even in the 18th century we kept the Faith against Arian and Socinian +heresy: even then, our sacramental teaching could be high: even then, +the doctrine and the practice alike of the Established Church and the +Seceders were clear and strong on the derivation of the Ministry from +Christ, and the Apostolical succession of our ministers, and yours, +through presbyters. + +For myself, I suggested in 1907, when it was proposed in our General +Assembly to open these negotiations, that we should attempt a larger +duty, and approach all the reformed Churches in Scotland. I was +over-ruled. It was held wiser "in the meantime" (they gave me this much) +to "confine our invitation" to the United Free Church. + +The Scottish Episcopal Church appeared to be of this mind also; and +those in her and among us who have long looked wistfully towards our +union with her and with the Church of England are already finding that +our present effort (limited as it is) is proving not an obstacle, as +some of us feared, but a powerful impetus towards the larger effort. The +union seems likely to clear away hindrances to an extent we never +dreamed of. It is opening up the wider prospect among an increasing +number not in the Church of Scotland only, but emphatically also in the +United Free Church. On all hands it is "recognised" in Scotland that the +official "limitation of the Union horizon is only temporary":--I quote +from the _Annual Report_ for this year of the Scottish Church Society: + + + No one is content to accept the contemplated union, should it be + accomplished, as exhaustive. We all wait for a fuller manifestation + of the Grace of God. At this season of Pentecost we dream our + dreams and see our visions of that great and notable day when all + who name the One Name shall be one. + + +The witness of the Scottish Church Society may seem to some one-sided: +here is a witness from the other side, of a date more recent than last +May; from a pamphlet just issued by the venerable Dr William Mair, the +first and most persevering of the advocates of our present enterprise. +His words impress me as very touching in their transparent honesty: + + + It is thirteen years (he writes) since I first spoke out in the + form of a pamphlet. No man stood with me. Hard things were said of + me. I believed it to be the will of the HEAD of the Church, the + LORD JESUS CHRIST, that there should be union of His Church in + Scotland, and primarily that its two great Churches should be one. + I have never for a single moment doubted that His will would be + fulfilled, or that it was the duty of these Churches to set + themselves, under His guidance, with resolute purpose to work out + its fulfilment. + + +Observe his "primarily": he quite recognises (I have his authority for +saying so) the further obligation. And no wonder: he is clear as to the +one great and supreme motive that should inspire all efforts for Church +Reunion--faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the obedience of faith +which the true confession of His Deity involves. + +The will of the Lord in regard to the visible unity of His whole Church +is plain: "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I +must lead; and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, +one Shepherd." No doubt there is a difference between a fold ([Greek: +anlê]) and a flock ([Greek: poimnê]), between the racial unity of the +Jewish Dispensation and the Catholic and international character +impressed from the beginning on the Christian Church. But a flock is as +visible as a fold is. We can see the one moving along the road under the +shepherd's guidance just as distinctly as we see the other gleaming +white on the hillside, or raising its turf-capped walls above the level +of the moor. We can see, of course, if the walls of a fold are broken +down; but we can see also whether a flock is united, whether it is +moving forward as one mass, or is broken up and scattered. Such +separations might be well enough if the different little companies were +all going quietly on in one way; though even then their breaking up +would argue on the one hand a portentous failure in that recognition of +the shepherd's voice and the obedience to him which is due to his loving +care, and on the other hand a strange lack of that gregariousness which +is an instinct in the healthy sheep. But what if the sheep are seen +running hither and thither in different directions: if they are found +labouring to explain the inadvisability--nay, the impossibility--of +their ever coming into line; if we see them instead crossing each +other's path, starting from each other, jostling and butting one +another, continually getting into situations provocative of fights and +injuries? + +Is this the kind of picture which the Lord Jesus has drawn of His Flock, +His Church as He wishes, and intends, that it should be: is this what He +promises that it shall be? + +Christ made His Church one at the beginning: the rulers He set over it +"were all with one accord in one place"; "the multitude of them that +believed were of one heart and of one soul." And when the Gentiles had +been brought in, what care did the Apostles take lest the new departure +should cause a separation along a line made obsolete by the Cross of +Christ; and with what adoring admiration does St Paul gaze at the +delightful spectacle of Jew and Gentile made one new man in Christ +Jesus--"where," he cries, "there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision +and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is +all, and in all." + +In matters of rank and race and colour all our denominations retain this +Apostolic Catholicity. How inconsistent to maintain it there, and +repudiate it when we come to such differences as mostly separate us! +These are differences far more of temper than of creed, or even of +worship or government. We say, sometimes, that we are "one in spirit": +not so; it is just in spirit that we have been divided. In creed and +organisation both, and in temper as well, the Church of Apostolic times +was visibly one. "See how these Christians love one another" was the +comment of the heathen onlooker. This state of things continued for a +long time. Gibbon enumerates the Church's "unity and discipline," which +go together, as among the "secondary causes" of that wonderful spread of +the Gospel in the first three centuries. + +The revived, broadened, and more candid study, alike of the New +Testament and of Church History throughout its entire course, is one of +the ways in which the Good Shepherd has been leading us to see alike the +disobedience of our divisions, and the small foundation there is for +many of the points over which we have been fighting. + +Happily too, we do not now need to argue in favour of visible and +organic unity. "The once popular apologies for separation which asserted +the sufficiency of 'spiritual' union, and the stimulating virtues of +rivalry and competition, have become obsolete." + +More happily still, we have learned practically to appreciate the +difference between our Saviour's gentle I must lead ([Greek: dei me +agagein]) and our forefathers' various attempts to produce "uniformity" +by driving. The reproach of that sinful blunder is one that none of our +greater Churches--Roman, Anglican, Presbyterian, or Puritan--can cast in +another's teeth. Each of us committed it in our day of triumph. "What +fruit had we then in those things whereof we are now ashamed?" The +memory--one-sided, and carefully cultivated--of what each suffered in +its turn of adversity has hitherto been a potent agency for keeping us +apart. To-day those memories are fading. I was much struck by a remark I +heard last spring from the Bishop of Southwark, that one reason why we +are more ready nowadays to contemplate reunion is just that we belong to +a generation to whom those miserable doings are far-off things outside +alike our experience and our expectation. + +In other ways also we discern leadings of Our Saviour to the same end. + +Through Whitefield and the Wesleys, and the Evangelical Revival, He +re-awakened the peoples of England and America to a keen sense of the +need for personal religion. Where these powerful agencies had the +defects of their qualities, in their failure to appreciate aright His +gracious ordinances of Church and Ministry and Sacrament, He rectified +the balance by giving us in due course the Oxford Movement, whose force +is not "spent," but diffused through all our "denominations." Let us be +just to the Oxford Movement: without it, humanly speaking, we should not +have been here to-day. If it had its own narrownesses, it revived the +very studies which, while they have revealed the inadequacy of certain +of its postulates, have also brought clear into the view of all of us +the Divine goal which now gleams glorious in front of us--the goal of +the great Apostle--"the building up of the Body of Christ: till we all +attain unto the unity of the Faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of +God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the +fulness of Christ." + +A Scotsman may be excused for referring to the debt which the leaders of +the Oxford Movement--Dr Pusey in particular was always ready to admit +it--owed to Sir Walter Scott, particularly in re-awakening a more +sympathetic interest in the Mediaeval Church. If Sir Walter's countrymen +were slower to follow him in this matter, they are doing so now in +unexpected quarters. We are full to-day of the American alliance: may I +remind you that Sir Walter Scott was the first British man of letters to +hail the early promise of American literature by his cordial welcome to +its representative, Washington Irving? Scott was a devoted subject of +the British Monarchy; but he saw, and he insisted on, the duty of Great +Britain to cultivate a warm friendship with the United States. + +In the same direction we have been led in days more recent by the large +development, in all our denominations, of two main branches of Christian +work. I refer to Missionary enterprise abroad and Social service at +home. Our ecclesiastical divisions are a serious handicap to both. In a +matter more vital still, that of the Religious--the Christian--Education +in our Schools and Colleges, our divisions have sometimes proved +well-nigh fatal. The one remedy is that we make up our differences and +come together. + +And now this War, so dreadful in itself, is helping powerfully, and in +many ways, to the same end. It is bringing us together at home, and +making us acquainted with, and appreciative of, each other in a thousand +forms of united service. It has spread before our eyes the magnificent +and inspiring spectacles of Colonial loyalty, of one military command +over the Allied Forces, of the cordial and enthusiastic support of a +fully-reconciled America. Shall "the children of this world be wiser +than the children of light"? Shall the Church neglect the lesson read to +her by the statesmen and the warriors? Then, again, the cause for which +we are in arms is--most happily--not denominational. The present War is +not in the least like those hateful, if necessary, struggles which +historians have entitled "The Wars of Religion": but it is, on the part +of the Entente, essentially and fundamentally Christian--more profoundly +so than the Crusades themselves. That is why it is bringing us so +markedly together. And, if this is its effect at home and in America, +much more is it producing the same result among our chaplains and our +Christian workers at the Front. They are finding, on the one hand, the +limitations, or faults, of every one of our stereotyped methods of work +and forms of worship; they are seeing on the other hand among each other +excellencies where they only saw defects. They are brought together in +admiring comradeship, which resents the shackles restrictive of its +play. Let me read to you a passage from a letter I received a fortnight +since from an eminent Anglican chaplain now serving with our troops in +France: + + + I see (he says) in this great war all the excrescences--the + non-essentials which up till now have masqueraded and misled so + many religious and non-religious men--drop off in the light of + great realities; and I have seen in the eyes of all true lovers of + our LORD, chaplains and laity, a wistful longing to unite, and + mobilize our spiritual forces now dissipated and ineffective + through disunion. What we look for more and more is a man, so + filled with the SPIRIT of GOD--so free from ambition, covetousness, + denominationalism, with a big heart and deep love, to make a plunge + and start. We may be able to start out here, if we have the + good-will of our leaders at home. + + +I think I may safely assure my correspondent that he has the good-will +of all the living leaders of all our denominations? May I write and tell +him so from this present meeting? [Yes....] I think I shall remind him +further of those words of the Angel of the Lord to Gideon when he +threshed his wheat in the wine-press with a vigour suggestive of his +wish to have the Midianites beneath his flail--"Go in this thy might, +and thou shalt save Israel" from their marauding hands. + +At home, then, as well as at the Front, the will is present with us; and +where there is "the will" there is pretty sure to be "the way." + +"The way" (I believe for my part) is substantially that laid down by the +Pan-Anglican Conference of 1866, in the "Lambeth Quadrilateral." Its +four points were: + +I. The Holy Scriptures. + +II. The Nicene Creed. + +III. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ministered with the +unfailing use of the Words of Institution. + +IV. The Historic Episcopate. + +It is fifty-two years since these terms were put forth. Have they ever +been formally brought before the "denominations" for whom presumably +they were intended? Were they even once commended to the nearest of +these Churches by a deputation urging their consideration? I doubt it. + +Yet the first three of these four conditions are already accepted by +nearly all the English Nonconformists; and certainly by all the +Presbyterian Churches, as fully as they are in the Church of England. +The Presbyterian Church of England has set the Nicene Creed on the +fore-front of its new Confession. Every word of the Nicene Creed (as the +late Principal Denney pointed out) is in the Confession of Faith of all +the Scottish Presbyterians. The Church of Scotland repeats it at its +solemn "Assembly Communion" in St Giles'. Its crucial term, the +Homoousion, is in the Articles now sent down to Presbyteries with the +view of their transmission next May to the United Free Church. + +In regard to the Sacramental services our _Directory_ is quite express +in ordering the use in Baptism and the Eucharist of the Words of +Institution. I never heard of a case in Scotland where they were not +used: we should condemn their omission should it anywhere occur. + +Undoubtedly the Fourth Article would have, till lately, presented +difficulties; but, then, those difficulties were in great measure +cleared away by the admission of the Lambeth Conference of 1908 that in +the case of proposals for union, say of the Church of Scotland with the +Anglican Church, reaching the stage of official action, an approach +might be made along the line of the "Precedents of 1610." I had a recent +opportunity of stating, in an Address[17] I gave at King's College, +London, what these Precedents of 1610 were; how they included the +unanimous vote of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in +favour of the restoration of diocesan bishops acting in conjunction with +her graduated series of Church Courts; how we thereupon received from +the Church of England an Episcopate which then, and ever since, she has +accounted valid, though neither the Scots bishops she then consecrated, +nor the clergy of Scotland as a body, were required to be re-ordained; +and how the combined system thus introduced among us gave us by far the +most brilliant and fruitful period in our ecclesiastical annals; and how +Learning, Piety, Art and Church extension flourished among us, as they +have never done since. The system would in all probability have endured +to the present day but for the arbitrary interferences--often with very +good intentions, and for ends in themselves desirable--of our Stuart +kings. A later restoration of Episcopal Church government under Charles +II lacked the ecclesiastical authority which that of 1610 possessed, and +was still more hopelessly discredited by its association with the +persecution of the Covenanting remnant; but even under these +disadvantages it was yielding not inconsiderable benefits to the +religious life of Scotland. Under it our Gaelic-speaking highlanders +first received the entire Bible in their native tongue; the Episcopate +was adorned by the piety of Leighton and the wisdom of Patrick Scougal; +while Henry Scougal in his _Life of God in the Soul of Man_ produced a +religious classic of enduring value. + +The reference by the Lambeth Conference of 1908 was meant as the opening +of a door, and I understand there was some soreness among its supporters +that more notice of it was not taken in Scotland. But it was never sent +to Scotland: it was never communicated to the General Assembly. Our +Scottish newspapers tell us very little of what goes on in England; and +it must be admitted that too often, on both sides of the Tweed, things +have appeared in the press not calculated to heal differences or make +for peace. Sarcasm may be very clever: it is sometimes useful: it is +rarely helpful to good feeling, or to the amendment either of him who +utters it or of him against whom it is directed. The putting forth of +the finger and speaking vanity are among the things which Isaiah +declares they must put away who desire to be called the restorers of the +breach, the repairers of paths to dwell in. + +Now you have taken in England a further step. The _Second Interim +Report_ of the Archbishops' Sub-Committee in "Connexion with the +proposed World Conference on Faith and Order" is not, I presume, a +document of the "official" character of a Resolution of a Lambeth +Conference. It is nevertheless a paper of enormous significance and +hopefulness, not alone as attested by the signatures it bears, but also +on account of the exposition which it gives of the fourth point in the +Lambeth Quadrilateral--its own condition "that continuity with the +Historic Episcopate should be effectively preserved." + +This _Report_ is, however, exclusively for England; while my concern +to-day is with the kindred question of union between the Anglican Church +and the Scottish Presbyterian Churches. The day I trust is not far +distant when we shall see a similar document issued over signatures from +both sides of the Tweed. Need I say that when this comes to be drawn up, +we of the North (like Bailie Nicol Jarvie with his business +correspondents in London) "will hold no communications with you but on +a footing of absolute equality." In none of the branches into which it +is now divided--Presbyterian or Episcopalian--does the Church of +Scotland forget that it is an ancient national Church which never +admitted subjection to its greater sister of the South. We may have too +good "a conceit of ourselves," but we shall at least, like the worthy +bailie, be true and friendly. And indeed we--or some of us--were already +moving towards something of the kind. The _Second Interim Report_--it +bears the title "Towards Christian Unity"--is dated, I observe, March +1918. In Scotland, so early as the 29th of January, there was held at +Aberdeen (historically the most natural place for such a purpose, for it +was the city of the "Aberdeen Doctors" and their eirenic efforts) a +conference--modest, unofficial, tentative--yet truly representative of +the Church of Scotland, of the United Free Church, and of the Scottish +Episcopal Church, which drew up, and has issued, a _Memorandum_[18] +suggesting a basis for reunion in Scotland, very much on the lines of +the Precedents of 1610, but suggesting such arrangements during a period +of transition as shall secure that respect is paid to the conscientious +convictions to be found on both sides. We shall not repeat the blunders +of 1637 which ruined the happy settlement of 1610. + +We have in view a method which shall neither deprive Scottish Episcopal +congregations of the services they love, nor attempt to force a +Prayer-Book on Presbyterian congregations till they wish it for +themselves. We shall do nothing either to discredit or disparage our +existing Presbyterian orders; we shall be no less careful not to obtrude +on the Episcopal minority the services of a ministry they deem +defective; which shall arrange that in the course of a generation the +ministry of both communions shall be acceptable to all, while in the +meanwhile it will be possible for both to work together. Alike in +England and in Ireland this Memorandum, where it has been seen, has been +favourably received. In Scotland it--and doubtless other plans--will +probably be discussed in the coming winter by many a gathering similar +to that which drew it up; and thus we shall be ready, by the time our +union with the United Free Church is completed, to go on together to +this further task. + +By that time you in England will have made some progress towards the +healing of your divisions. The wider settlement of ours would be greatly +facilitated by an overt encouragement from you. England is "the +predominant partner" in our happily united Empire: it is the Church of +England that should take the initiative in a scheme for a United Church +for the United Empire. She should take that initiative in Scotland. + +Could there be a more appropriate occasion for proposing conference with +a view to it at Edinburgh, than the day which sees the happy +accomplishment of our present Scottish effort? Might not the Church of +England, the Church of Ireland, and the Scottish Episcopal Church (all +of which have given tokens of a sympathetic interest in our union +negotiations) unite to send deputations for the purpose to our first +reunited General Assembly? Such deputations would not go away empty. And +they would carry with them what would help not only the Cause of Christ +throughout the ever-widening Empire He has given to our hands, but the +fulfilment of His blessed will that all His people should be one. +Auspice Spiritu Sancto. Amen. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] This Address, along with another delivered in St Paul's, has been +published by Mr Robert Scott, of Paternoster Row, under the title +_Reunion, a Voice from Scotland_. + +[18] Printed in _Reunion, a Voice from Scotland_, pp. 101-107. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES + + + + +I + +By the Right Rev. F. T. WOODS, D.D. + + +INTRODUCTION + +He would be a dull man who did not respond to such a theme as the one +with which I have been entrusted. + +Before the war, in spite of much enlightenment of the social conscience, +unity between classes was still far to seek. Indeed, the contemplation +of the state of English society in those early months of 1914 was +perhaps more calculated to drive the social reformer into pessimism than +anything which has happened since. The rich were hunting for fresh +pleasures, the poor were hunting for better conditions. The tendencies +which were dragging these classes apart seemed stronger than those which +were bringing them together. Then came the war, and it has done much to +convert a forlorn hope into a bright prospect. This has happened not +merely, or even mainly, owing to the fact that men of all classes are +fighting side by side in the trenches, but rather owing to the fact that +the war has cleared our minds, has exposed the real dangers of +civilisation, and has placarded before the world, in terms which cannot +be mistaken, the things which are most worth living for. + +I propose to ask your attention to my subject under three heads. First I +shall say something of the basis of class distinction, then I shall put +before you some attempts which have been made at social unity, and in +closing I shall try to estimate the hope of the present situation. + + +I + +THE BASIS OF CLASS DISTINCTION + +Birth and Property have been during most of human history the chief +points on which class distinction has turned. Behind them both, I fear +it must be confessed, there is that which lies at the root of all +civilisation, namely force. I presume that the first class distinction +was between the group of people who could command and the group who had +to obey. The second group no doubt consisted in most cases of conquered +enemies who were turned into slaves. They were outsiders, the men of a +lower level. + +But the master group, if I may so call it, would have its descendants, +who by virtue of family relationships would seek to keep their position. +This, I conclude, is the fountain head of that stream of blue blood +which has played so large a part in class distinction. It is not +difficult to make out a strong case for it from the point of view of +human evolution. The processes of primitive warfare may have led to the +survival of the fittest or the selection of the best. At a time when the +sense of social responsibility was limited in the extreme, it may have +been a good thing that the management of men should have rested mainly +in the hands of those who by natural endowments and force of character +came to the top. It is unnecessary to dwell at length on the immense +influence both in our own country and elsewhere which this blood +distinction of class has exercised. It is writ large in the history of +the word "gentleman," both in the English word and its Latin ancestor. +The Latin word "generosus," always the equivalent of "gentleman" in +English-Latin documents, signifies a person of good family. It was used +no doubt in this sense by the Rev. John Ball, the strike leader, as we +should call him in modern terms, of the 14th century, in the lines which +formed a kind of battlecry of the rebels: + + + When Adam delved and Eve span, + Who was then the gentleman? + + +A writer of a century later, William Harrison, says: "Gentlemen be those +whom their race and blood or at least their virtues do make noble and +known." + +But the distinction is older than this. According to Professor Freeman +it goes back well nigh to the Conquest. Not indeed the distinction of +blood, for that is much older, but the formation of a separate class of +gentlemen. It has been maintained however by some writers that this is +rather antedating the process, and that the real distinction in English +life up to the 14th century was between the nobiles, the tenants in +chivalry, a very large class which included all between Earls and +Franklins; and the ignobiles, i.e. the villeins, the ordinary citizens +and burgesses. The widely prevalent notion that a gentleman was a person +who had a right to wear coat armour is apparently of recent growth, and +is possibly not unconnected with the not unnatural desire of the +herald's office to magnify its work. + +It is evident that noble blood in those days was no more a guarantee of +good character than it is in this, for, according to one of the writers +on the subject, the premier gentleman of England in the early days of +the 15th century was one who had served at Agincourt, but whose +subsequent exploits were not perhaps the best advertisement for gentle +birth. According to the public records he was charged at the +Staffordshire Assizes with house-breaking, wounding with intent to kill, +and procuring the murder of one Thomas Page, who was cut to pieces while +on his knees begging for his life[19]. + +The first gentleman, commemorated by that name on an existing monument, +is John Daundelion who died in 1445. + +In the 14th and 15th centuries the chief occupation of gentlemen was +fighting; but later on, when law and order were more firmly established, +the younger sons of good families began to enter industrial life as +apprentices in the towns, and there began to grow up a new aristocracy +of trade. To William Harrison, the writer to whom I have already +referred, merchants are still citizens, but he adds: "They often change +estate with gentlemen as gentlemen do with them by mutual conversion of +the one into the other." + +Since those days the name has very properly come to be connected less +with blue blood than--if I may coin the phrase--with blue behaviour. In +1714, Steele lays it down in the _Tatler_ that the appellation of +gentleman is never to be fixed to a man's circumstances but to his +behaviour in them. And in this connexion we may recall the old story of +the Monarch, said by some to be James II, who replied to a lady +petitioning him to make her son a gentleman: "I could make him a noble, +but God Almighty could not make him a gentleman." + +Before we leave the class distinctions based mainly on birth and blood, +it is well to remark that in England they have never counted for so much +as elsewhere. It is true of course that the nobility and gentry have +been a separate class, but they have been constantly recruited from +below. Distinction in war or capability in peace was the qualification +of scores of men upon whom the highest social rank was bestowed in reign +after reign in our English history. Moreover, birth distinction has +never been recognised in law, in spite of the fact that the manipulation +of laws has not always been free from bias. The well known words of +Macaulay are worth quoting in this connexion: + + + There was a strong hereditary aristocracy: but it was of all + hereditary aristocracies the least insolent and exclusive. It had + none of the invidious character of a caste. It was constantly + receiving members from the people, and constantly sending down + members to mingle with the people. Any gentleman might become a + peer, the younger son of a peer was but a gentleman. Grandsons of + peers yielded precedence to newly made knights. + + +The dignity of knighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could +by diligence and thrift realise a good estate, or who could attract +notice by his valour in battle. + + + ... Good blood was indeed held in high respect: but between good + blood and the privileges of peerage there was, most fortunately for + our country, no necessary connection.... There was therefore here + no line like that which in some other countries divides the + patrician from the plebeian. The yeoman was not inclined to murmur + at dignities to which his own children might rise. The grandee was + not inclined to insult a class into which his own children must + descend.... Thus our democracy was, from an early period, the most + aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic in the world; + a peculiarity which has lasted down to the present day, and which + has produced many important moral and political effects[20]. + + +If blood counted for much in distinctions of class, property counted for +more. The original distinction between the "haves" and the "have nots" +has persisted throughout history and is with us to-day. + +In the ancient village, no doubt, the distinction was of the simplest. +On the one hand was the man who by force or by his own energy became +possessed of more cattle and more sheep than his fellows; on the other +hand was the man who, in default of such property, was ready and willing +to give his services to the bigger man, whether for wages, or as a +condition of living in the village and sharing in the rights of the +village fields and pastures. Here presumably we have the origin of that +institution of Landlordism which still looms so large in our social +life. In the early days it was probably more a matter of cattle than of +land. The possessor of cattle in the village would hire out a certain +number of them to a poorer neighbour, who would have the right to feed +them on the common land. Thus, even in primitive times, a class +distinction based on property began to grow up. + +Early in history there was found in most villages a chief man who had +the largest share of the land. Below him there would be three or four +landowners of moderate importance and property. At the end of the scale +were the ordinary labourers and villagers, among whom the rest of the +village lands were divided as a rule on fairly equal terms. + +Closely allied to this of course was the organisation of the village +from the point of view of military service. Parallel to this more +peaceful organisation of society was the elaborate Feudal System, by +which, from the King downwards, lands were held in virtue of an +obligation on the part of each class to the one above it to produce men +for the wars in due proportion of numbers and equipment. + +From this point of view property in land meant also property in men, +labourers in peace and soldiers in war. + +As time went on the class distinctions of birth and property began more +and more to coincide. It was Dr Johnson who made the remark that "the +English merchant is a new species of gentleman." + +The form of property which was always held to be in closest connexion +with gentle blood was land. This has been so in a pre-eminent degree +since our English Revolution at the end of the 17th century. From that +time onwards the smaller landowners, yeomen and squires with small +holdings, begin to disappear and the landed gentry become practically +supreme. Political power in a large measure rested with them, and the +result was that numbers of men who had made money in trade were eager to +use it in the purchase of land, for this meant the purchase of social +and political influence. + +It was no doubt this craze for the possession of land which led to the +process of enclosing the common lands of the village, a process on which +no true Englishman can look back in these days without shame and sorrow. +It is no doubt arguable that from an economic point of view the +productive power of the land was increased, that agriculture was more +efficiently and scientifically managed by the comparatively few big men +than it would have been by the many small men who were displaced. None +the less the price was too high, for it meant a still further +accentuation of class distinction. It meant the further enrichment of +the big man, and the further impoverishment of the small man. And +between the two there grew up a class of farmers, separate from the +labourers, whose outlook on the whole did not make for those relations +of neighbourliness and even kinship which had been among the fine +characteristics of the ancient village. + +Nor is this the end of the story, for the distinction between the +"haves" and the "have nots" was still further accentuated, and the two +classes driven still further apart, by the far-reaching Industrial +Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century. + +The alienation between the farmer and the labourer was exactly +paralleled by the alienation which gradually crept in between the +manufacturer and the workers. The growth of the factory system was +indeed so rapid that only the keenest foresight could have provided +against these evils. The same may be said of the amazing development of +the towns, particularly in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, +which quickly gathered round the new hives of industry. Unfortunately +that foresight was lacking. On the one hand the science of town-planning +had hardly been born, on the other hand a lightning accumulation of +large fortunes turned the heads of the commercial magnates, dehumanised +industry, and broke up the fellowship which in older and simpler days +had obtained between the employer and his men. + +It is a charge which we frequently bring against the enemy in these +days, a charge only too well founded, that they are expert in everything +except understanding human nature. The same may be said of those who +were concerned in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. The +growing wealth of the country which should have united masters and men +in a truer comradeship, and a richer life, achieved results which were +precisely the opposite. It developed a greed of cash which we have not +yet shaken off, and money was accumulated in the pockets of men who had +had neither aptitude nor training in the art of spending it. The workers +were reduced to a state not far removed from a salaried slavery, and the +difference between the "haves" and the "have nots" was perhaps more +acute than at any other time in our history. The causes of this were +many and complex. Not the least of them was the fact that the masters of +industry were captured by a false theory of economics according to which +the fund which was available for the remuneration of labour could not at +any given time be greater or less than it was. Human agency could not +increase its volume, it could only vary its distribution. And further, +as every man has the right to sell his labour for what he can obtain for +it, any interference between the recipients was held to be unjust. + +"That theory," as Mr Hammond has told us, "became supreme in economics, +and the whole movement for trade-union organisation had to fight its way +against this solid superstition[21]." + +The doctrine of free labour achieved a wonderful popularity; but then, +as the writer I have just quoted reminds us: "Free labour had not Adam +Smith's meaning: it meant the freedom of the employer to take what +labour he wanted, at the price he chose and under the conditions he +thought proper[22]." + +More and more therefore the employers and the workers drifted apart, and +the supreme misfortune was that the one power which might have drawn +them together was itself in a state of semi-paralysis in regard to the +corporate responsibility of the community. That power was religion. +There were times, as I shall endeavour to point out later, when +Christianity was able to produce an atmosphere of comradeship stronger +than the differences of class. But to the very great loss of both +country and Church this was not one of them. + +At the moment when the corporate message of the Church was needed, it +was looking the other way, and concentrating its thought on the +individual. The Reformation was in large measure a revolt from the +imperial to the personal conception of religion. I do not deny that this +revolt was necessary and beneficial. But the reaction from the corporate +aspect of Christianity went too far. When this reaction was further +reinforced by the Puritan movement, which with all its strength and its +fine austerity fastened its attention on the minutiae of personal +conduct, and left the community as such almost out of sight, it is not +surprising to find that religion at the end of the 18th, and through a +large part of the 19th century, failed to produce just that sense of +brotherhood which would have mitigated the whole situation and prevented +much of the practical paganism which I have described. + +Even the great revival connected with the name of John Wesley brought +all its fire to bear on the conversion of the _man_, when the social +unit which was most in need of that conversion was the community. The +result of all this was that, partly owing to ignorance, partly owing to +prejudice, partly owing to the misreading of the New Testament, the +messengers of religion had no message of corporate responsibility for +nation or class. There was no one to lift aloft the torch of human +brotherhood over the dark and gloomy landscape of English life. So far +from that, the people who figured large in religion were convinced quite +honestly that the division of classes was a heaven sent order, with +which it would be impious to interfere, and further that the main +message of religion to the people at large was an authoritative +injunction to good behaviour, and patient resignation to the +circumstances in which Providence had placed them. The notion that the +organisation of Society, particularly on its industrial side, was wholly +inconsistent with the ideals of the New Testament never so much as +entered their heads, and any suggestion to this effect would have been +regarded not merely as revolutionary but sacrilegious. + +I have ventured on this very rough description of class distinctions, +before our modern days, because it is through the study of our +forefathers' mistakes and a truer understanding of our forefathers' +inspirations that we may hope to create a better world in the days that +are coming. + + +II + +ATTEMPTS AT SOCIAL UNITY + +Let me ask your attention now to a few of the attempts which have been +made to create a deeper social unity. + +Some of these were naturally and inevitably developed in primitive days +by the simple fact that "birds of a feather flock together." + +Men engaged in pastoral pursuits gathered themselves into the tribe with +its strong blood bond. The tillage of the fields led to the existence of +the clan, with its family system and its elaborate organisation of the +land. In the same way industrial activity produced the Guild, that is +the grouping of men by crafts, a grouping which might well be revived +and encouraged on a larger scale in the rearrangements of the future. + +I need not remind you how large a place was occupied by the Guilds in +English life. They were not Trade Unions in the modern sense, for they +included both masters and men in one organisation. Nor must we attribute +a modern meaning to those two phrases, masters and men, when we speak of +the ancient Guild. For in a large measure every man was his own +employer. He was a member of the league; he kept the rules; but he was +his own master. The master did not mean the manager of the workmen, but +the expert in the work. He was the master of the art in question, and +though his fellows might be journeymen or apprentices, they all belonged +to the same social class, and throughout the Guild there was a spirit of +comradeship which was consecrated by the sanctions of religion. + +For it was the Guilds which were the prime movers in organising those +Miracle Plays which were the delight of the Middle Ages, and which +formed the main outlet for that dramatic instinct which used to be so +strong in England, and which paved the way for Shakespeare and the +modern stage. + +The Guild was not concerned mainly with money but with work, and still +more with the skill and happiness of the worker, and its aim was to +resist inequality. It was, in the pointed words of Mr Chesterton, + + + to ensure, not only that bricklaying should survive and succeed, + but that every bricklayer should survive and succeed. It sought to + rebuild the ruins of any bricklayer, and to give any faded + whitewasher a new white coat. It was the whole aim of the Guilds to + cobble their cobblers like their shoes and clout their clothiers + with their clothes; to strengthen the weakest link, or go after the + hundredth sheep; in short to keep the row of little shops unbroken + like a line of battle[23]. + + +The Guild in fact aimed at keeping each man free and happy in the +possession of his little property, whereas the Trade Union aims at +assembling into one company a large number of men who have little or no +property at all, and who seek to redress the balance by collective +action. The mediaeval Guild therefore will certainly go down to history +as one of the most gallant attempts, and for the time being one of the +most successful, to create a true comradeship among all who work, and to +keep at a distance those mere class distinctions which, though their +foundations are often so flimsy, tend to grip men as in an iron vice. + +But I must not pass by another social organisation which looms very +large in the old days, and which approached social unity from a side +wholly different from those I have mentioned, namely from the military +side: I mean the Feudal System. Here there has been much +misunderstanding. Its very name seems to breathe class distinction. We +have come casually and rather carelessly to identify it with the tyranny +and oppression which exalted the few at the expense of the many. This +point of view is however a good deal less than just. It is quite true +that as worked by William the Norman and several of his successors the +system became only too often an instrument of gross injustice and crass +despotism; but at its best, and in its origin, it was based on the twin +foundations of protection on the one hand and duty on the other. I will +venture to quote a high authority in this connexion, namely Bishop +Stubbs. + + + The Feudal System, with all its tyranny and all its faults and + shortcomings, was based on the requirements of mutual help and + service, and was maintained by the obligations of honour and + fealty. Regular subordination, mutual obligation, social unity, + were the pillars of the fabric. The whole state was one: the king + represented the unity of the nation. The great barons held their + estates from him, the minor nobles of the great barons, the gentry + of these vassals, the poorer freemen of the gentry, the serfs + themselves were not without rights and protectors as well as duties + and service. Each gradation, and every man in each, owed service, + fixed definite service, to the next above him, and expected and + received protection and security in return. Each was bound by + fealty to his immediate superior, and the oath of the one implies + the pledged honour and troth of the other[24]. + + +This system indeed was very far from perfect, but it certainly was an +attempt to bind the nation together in one social unit, to provide a +measure of protection for all, and to demand duties from all. It sought +to lay equal stress on rights and duties. In this respect--and I am +still thinking of the system at its best--it was far ahead of modern +19th century Industrialism, a system which might be described with but +little exaggeration as laying sole emphasis on rights for one class and +duties for the other. + +But the supreme attempt which so far has been made to promote unity +between classes has approached the problem from a far loftier +standpoint; not industrial, nor military, but religious. And this +attempt has been on a larger scale and on firmer foundations than any of +the others, for it has sought to unite men in spite of their +differences. It has tried, that is, to get below the varieties of race +or family or occupation, and create a unity which, because it transcends +them all, may hope to last. As a fact this attempt has so far surpassed +all others, and has met with the greatest measure of success. And lest I +should be suspected of prejudice I will quote an outside witness: + + + A very pregnant saying of T. H. Green was that during the whole + development of man the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as + thyself" has never varied, what has varied is the answer to the + question--Who is my neighbour?... The influence upon the + development of civilisation of the wider conception of duty and + responsibility to one's fellow-men which was introduced into the + world with the spread of Christianity can hardly be overestimated. + The extended conception of the answer to the question Who is my + neighbour? which has resulted from the characteristic doctrines of + the Christian religion--a conception transcending all the claims of + family, group, state, nation, people or race and even all the + interests comprised in any existing order of society--has been the + most powerful evolutionary force which has ever acted on society. + It has tended gradually to break up the absolutisms inherited from + an older civilization and to bring into being an entirely new type + of social efficiency[25]. + + +Or to take another witness equally unprejudiced, who puts the same truth +more tersely still, the late Professor Lecky. "The brief record of those +three short years," referring to Christ's life, "has done more to soften +and regenerate mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and +exhortations of moralists." For a third witness we will call Mazzini. +"We owe to the Church," he declared, "the idea of the unity of the human +family and of the equality and emancipation of souls." That this is +amply borne out by the history of the Church in early days is not +difficult to prove. The unexceptionable evidence of a Pagan writer is +here very much to the point. Says Lucian of the Christians: + +"Their original lawgiver had taught them that they were all brethren, +one of another.... They become incredibly alert when anything ... +affects their common interests[26]." + +In the same way the ancient Christian writer Tertullian observes with +characteristic irony: "It is our care for the helpless, our practice of +lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. +Only look, they say, 'look how they love one another[27]!'" It is not +surprising that this was so when you look into the writings which form +the New Testament. Apart from the words and example of the Founder of +Christianity, few men have ever lived who were more alive to existing +social distinctions, and also to the splendour of that scheme which +transcends them all, than St Paul. In proof of this it is sufficient to +point to that immortal treatise on social unity which is commonly called +the Epistle to the Ephesians. In this the fundamental secret is seen to +consist, not in a rigid system but in a transforming spirit working +through a divine Society in which all worldly distinctions are of no +account. Slavery, for instance, was, in his view, and was actually in +process of time, to be abolished not by a stroke of the pen but by a +change of ideal. Nor is the witness lacking in writings subsequent to +the New Testament. To instance one of the earliest. In an official +letter sent by the Roman Church to the Christians in Corinth towards the +end of the first century, in a passage eulogising the latter community +this suggestive sentence occurs: "You did everything without respect of +persons." + +Needless to say however, this point of view, this new spirit, only +gradually permeated the Christian Church itself, let alone the great +world outside. We are not surprised to learn that it was a point of +criticism among the opponents of the religion that among its adherents +were still found masters and slaves. An ancient writer in reply to +critics who cry out "You too have masters and slaves. Where then is your +so-called equality?" thus makes answer: + + + Our sole reason for giving one another the name of brother is + because we believe we are equals. For since all human objects are + measured by us after the spirit and not after the body, although + there is a diversity of condition among human bodies, yet slaves + are not slaves to us; we deem and term them brothers after the + spirit, and fellow-servants in religion[28]. + + +Pointing in the same direction is the fact that the title "slave" never +occurs on a Christian tombstone. + +It is plain from this, and from similar quotations which might be +multiplied, that the policy of Christianity in face of the first social +problem of the day, namely slavery, was not violently to undo the +existing bonds by which Society was held together, in the hope that some +new machinery would at once be forthcoming--a plan which has since been +adopted with dire consequences in Russia--but to evacuate the old system +of the spirit which sustained it; and to replace it with a new spirit, a +new outlook on life, which would slowly but inevitably lead to an entire +reconstruction of the social framework. + +Already too, within the Church this sense of brotherhood was making +itself felt on the industrial side as well as where more directly +spiritual duties were concerned. It seems to have been recognised in +the Christian Society that every brother could claim the right of being +maintained if he were unable to work. Equally it was emphasised that the +duty of work was paramount on all who were capable of it. "For those +able to work, provide work; to those incapable of work be charitable." +This aspect of the matter finds a singular emphasis in a second century +document known as "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," in which this +sense of industrial brotherhood finds very significant expression. +Speaking of visitors from other Churches it is directed that "if any +brother has a trade let him follow that trade and earn the bread he +eats. If he has no trade, exercise your discretion in arranging for him +to live among you as a Christian, but not in idleness. If he will not do +this, that is to say, to undertake the work which you provide for him, +he is trafficking with Christ. Beware of men like that." + +On this side of its life therefore, the Church came very near to being a +vast Guild where with the highest sanction rights and duties were +intermingled in due proportion, and that true social unity established, +which while it refuses privileges bestows protection. On these +foundations the organisation was reared, which like some great Cathedral +dominated that stretch of centuries usually known as the Middle Ages. We +could all of us hold forth on its drawbacks and evils, yet its benefits +were tremendous. For one thing it created an aristocracy wholly +independent of any distinction of blood or property. Anyone might become +an Archbishop if only he had the necessary gifts. Still more anyone +might become a Saint. The charmed circle of the Church's nobility was +constantly recruited from every class, and was therefore a standing and +effectual protest against the flimsier measurements of Society and the +more ephemeral gradations of rank. Obviously this process found as great +a scope in England as elsewhere. It was the Church which was the most +potent instrument in bringing together Norman and Saxon as well as +master and slave. For, as Macaulay has said with perfect truth, it + + + creates an aristocracy altogether independent of race, inverts the + relation between the oppressor and the oppressed, and compels the + hereditary master to kneel before the spiritual tribunal of the + hereditary bondman.... So successfully had the Church used her + formidable machinery that, before the Reformation came, she had + enfranchised almost all the bondmen in the kingdom except her own, + who, to do her justice, seem to have been very tenderly + treated[29]. + + +This makes it particularly deplorable that in consequence of the great +reaction in religion from the corporate to the personal, to which I have +alluded, the Church's power, as far as Britain was concerned, though so +splendidly exercised in the preceding centuries, should have been almost +non-existent just at the moment when it was most required, in the +Agricultural and Industrial Revolution of comparatively modern times. + + +III + +THE HOPE OF THE PRESENT SITUATION + +I fear that a large portion of this lecture has been taken up with the +past. But even so rough and brief a review as I have attempted is a +necessary prelude to a just estimate, both of our present position and +of our future prospects. It is often supposed, indeed, that the study of +history predisposes a man's mind to a conservative view. He studies the +slow development of institutions, or the gradual influence of movements, +and the trend of his thought works round to the very antipodes of +anything that is revolutionary or catastrophic. But there is another +side to the matter. The study of history may so expose the injustices of +the past and their intrenchments that the student reaches the conclusion +that nothing but an earthquake--an earthquake in men's ideas at the very +least--can avail to set things right; that the best thing that could +happen would be an explosion so terrible as to make it possible to break +completely with the past, and start anew on firmer principles and better +ways. After all, as a great Cambridge scholar once said, "History is the +best cordial for drooping spirits." For if on the one hand it exposes +the selfishnesses of men, on the other it displays an exhibition of +those Divine-human forces of justice and sacrifice and good will which +in the long run cannot be denied, and which encourage the brightest +hopes for the age which is upon us. + +The fact is, we are in the midst of precisely such an explosion as I +have indicated. The immeasurable privilege has been given to us of being +alive at a time when, most literally, an epoch is being made. +Contemporary observers of events are not always the best judges of their +significance, yet we shall hardly be mistaken if we assert that without +doubt we stand at one of the turning points of the world's long story, +that the phrase used of another epoch-making moment is true of this one, +"Old things are passing away, all things are becoming new." For history +is presenting us in these days with a clean slate, and to the men of +this generation is given the opportunity for making a fresh start such +as in the centuries gone by has often been sought, but seldom found. We +are called to the serious and strenuous task of freeing our minds from +old preconceptions--and the hold they have over us, even at a moment +like this when the world is being shaken, is amazing--the task of +reaching a new point of view from which to see our social problems, and +of not being disobedient to the heavenly vision wheresoever it may lead +us. + +That vision is Fellowship, and it is not new. Though the war is, in the +sense which I have suggested, a terrific explosion which in the midst of +ruin and chaos brings with it supreme opportunities, it is equally true +to say that it forms no more than a ghastly parenthesis in the process +of fellowship both between nations and classes which had already begun +to make great strides. + +"The sense of social responsibility has been so deepened in our +civilisation that it is almost impossible that one nation should attempt +to conquer and subdue another after the manner of the ancient world." + +These words sound rather ironical. They come from the last edition of +the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. They were written about seven years ago +in perfect good faith, as a sober estimate of the forces of fellowship +which could be then discerned. Save for the ideals and ambitions of the +central Empires of Europe they were perfectly true. What the war has +done in regard to this fellowship is to expose in their hideous +nakedness the dangers which threaten it, and to which in pre-war days we +were far too blind, but also to unveil that strong passion for +neighbourliness which lies deep in the hearts of men, and an almost +fierce determination to give it truer expression in the age which is +ahead. + +You will naturally ask what effect the war is likely to have on this +problem of class distinction. How far will it hinder or enhance the +social unity for which we seek? + +We must of course beware of being unduly optimistic. The fact that +millions of our men are seeing with their own eyes the results which can +be achieved by naked force will not be without its effect on their +attitude when they return to their homes. If force is so necessary and +so successful on the field of battle why not equally so in the +industrial field? If nations find it necessary to face each other with +daggers drawn, it may be that classes will have to do the same. + +Personally I doubt whether this argument is likely to carry much weight. +It is much more likely in my view that our men will be filled with so +deep a hatred of everything that even remotely savours of battle, that a +great tide of reaction against mere force will set in, and a great +impetus be given to those higher and more spiritual motor-powers which +during the war we have put out of court. + +On the other hand it is easy to cherish a rather shallow hope as to the +continuation in the future of that unity of classes which obtains in the +trenches. Surely, it is argued, men who have stood together at the +danger point and gone over the top together at the moment of assault +will never be other than brothers in the more peaceful pursuits which +will follow. Yet it is not easy to foretell what will happen when the +tremendous restraint of military service is withdrawn, when Britain no +longer has her back to the wall, and when the overwhelming loyalty which +leaps forth at the hour of crisis falls back into its normal quiescence, +like the New Zealand geyser when its momentary eruption is over. Any +hopefulness which we may cherish for the future must rest on firmer +foundations than these. + +Such a foundation, I believe, has come to light, and I must say a few +words about it as I close. + +Broadly speaking it is this. The war has taught us that it is possible +to live a national family life, in which private interests are +subordinated in the main to the service of the State; and further that +this new social organisation of the nation has called forth an +unprecedented capacity in tens of thousands both of men and women, not +merely for self-denying service, but for the utmost heights of heroism +even unto death. + +Men have vaguely cherished this ideal of national life before the war, +but now it has been translated into concrete fact, and the nation can +never forget the deep sense of corporate efficiency, even of corporate +joy, which has ensued from this obliteration of the old class +distinctions, this amalgamation of all and sundry in a common service. +The fact is that a new class distinction has in a measure taken the +place of the old, a distinction which has nothing to do with blood or +with money, but solely with service. The nation is graded, not in +degrees of social importance but in degrees of capacity for service. The +only superiority is one of sacrifice. And each grade takes its hat off +to the other on the equal standing ground of an all pervading +patriotism. The only social competition is not in getting but in giving. +National advantage takes the place of personal profit, and there is a +sense of neighbourliness such as Britain has not experienced for many a +long day, possibly for many a long century. + +The supreme problem before us, I take it, is how to conserve this +relationship and carry it over from the day of war to the day of peace. +To do it will call for just that same spirit of sacrifice and service +which is its own most predominant characteristic. + +For one thing we must be quite definitely prepared in every section of +society for a new way of life. From the economic point of view this will +mean that the rich will be less rich, and the poor will be enabled to +lead a larger life. Already the wealthy classes have been learning to +live a simple life, and to substitute the service of the country for +their own personal enjoyment. A serious call will come to them to +continue in that state of life when the war is over. In some degree at +least the pressure of the financial burden which the nation will have to +bear will compel them to do so. + +To the workers too in the same way the call will come to a new and more +worthy way of life. I am thinking now of the workers at home who have +been earning unprecedented wages, and thereby in many cases are already +assaying a larger life. They will be reluctant to give this up, but only +a gradual redistribution of wealth can make it permanent. It is not of +course merely or mainly a matter of wages. The only real enlargement of +life is spiritual. It is an affair of the mind and the soul. + +The more we bring a true education within reach of the workers the more +will there arise that sense of real kinship which only equality of +education can adequately guarantee. + +And speaking at Cambridge one cannot refrain from remarking that the +University itself will have to submit to a considerable re-adjustment of +its life if it is to be a pioneer in this intellectual comradeship of +which I speak. A University may be a nursery of class distinction. In +some measure it certainly has been so in the past. The opportunity is +now before it to lead the way in establishing the only kind of equality +which is really worth having. + +Then too there are obvious steps which can be taken without delay in a +new organisation of industry. + +I am not one of those who think that the industrial problem can be +solved in five minutes or even in five years. None the less it should +not be impossible in wise ways to give the workers a true share of +responsibility, particularly in matters which concern the conditions of +their work and the remuneration of their labour. + +If the sense of being driven by a taskmaster, whether it be the foreman +of the shop, or the manager of the works, could give place to a truer +co-operation in the management, and a larger measure of responsibility +for the worker, we should be well on the road to eliminating one of the +most persistent causes of just that kind of class distinction which we +want to abolish. The more men work together in a real comradeship, the +more mere social distinctions fade into the background. Is this not +written on every page of the chronicles of this war? + +But the supreme factor in the situation, without which no mere +adjustment of organisation will prevail, is that new outlook on life +which can only be described as a subordination of private advantage to +the service of the country. + +It is this alone which can really abolish the almost eternal class +distinctions which we have traced throughout our survey, the distinction +between the "haves" and the "have nots." For, as this spirit grows, the +"have nots" tend to disappear, and the "haves" look upon what they have +not as a selfish possession for their own enjoyment, but as a means of +service for the common weal. Property, that which is most proper to a +man, is seen to be precisely that contribution which he is capable of +making to the welfare of his fellows. + +The crux, the very core of the whole problem, is to find some means by +which this new outlook can be produced, and a new motive by which men +can be constrained to turn the vision into fact. + +Here will come in that power which, as I pointed out, has sometimes been +so potent and sometimes so impotent, but which, if it is allowed its +proper scope, can never fail. I mean of course religion. + +If men can be brought to see that this new outlook with its +corresponding re-adjustment of social life is not merely a project of +reformers but the plan of the Most High God, the deliberate intention of +the supreme Spirit-force of the universe, the Scheme that was taught by +the Prince of men, then indeed we may hope that the class distinction of +which He spoke will at last be adopted: "Whosoever will be great among +you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, +shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be +ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for +many[30]." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] _Encycl. Brit._ xi. 604. + +[20] Macaulay's _History of England_ (Longman's, 1885), pp. 38, 39, 40. + +[21] _The Town Labourer_, p. 205. + +[22] _Ibid._, p. 212. + +[23] G. K. Chesterton, _Short History of England_, p. 98. + +[24] Stubbs' _Lectures on Early English History_, pp. 18, 19. + +[25] Benjamin Kidd, _Encycl. Brit._ vol. xxv. p. 329. + +[26] Lucian quoted by Harnack, _Mission and expansion of Christianity_, +vol. I. p. 149. + +[27] _Ibid._ + +[28] Lactantius quoted by Harnack, _Ibid._ p. 168. + +[29] _History of England_ (Longman's, 1885), vol. I. p. 25. + +[30] St Mark x. 43-45. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES + + + + +II + +By the Right Hon. J. R. CLYNES, M.P. + + +I have not the advantage of knowing anything of the treatment of any +part of this subject by any preceding speaker. I myself intend to deal +with it from the industrial and social standpoint, for I think if we are +to seek unity amongst classes it is most important in the national +interest that unity should first be sought and secured in the industries +of the country. That there is disunity is suggested and admitted in the +terms of the subject. This disunity has grown out of conditions which +range over a few generations. I believe that these conditions grew +largely out of our ignoring the human side of industry and the general +life conditions of the masses of our workers. Our economic doctrine +ignored the human factor, and measured what was termed national progress +in terms merely of material wealth without due regard to who owned the +wealth, made mainly by the energy of the industrial population. +Religious doctrines and religious institutions were not the cause of +that unhappy situation, but they had suffered from it, until now we find +a very considerable number of the population engaged in a struggle for +life, in a struggle for the material means of existence, handicapped by +belief that their own unaided effort alone can assist them, that they +must not look for help to any other class, or to any other quarter. +Moral precepts have not the influence which they ought to have upon our +industrial relations. Workers are thrown back upon their own resources; +and in the use of those resources, during the past fifteen years +particularly, much has been revealed to us of what is now in the working +class mind. I am not suggesting that to seek a settlement of conditions +of disunity, or the trouble arising from those conditions, you must +coddle the working classes, praise them and pay them highly, and try to +keep them contented with conditions which in themselves cannot be +defended. I do not mean that at all. What I mean is that if unity +between classes in industrial and economic life is to be sought and +secured, it can be got only at a price, paid in a two-fold form; that of +giving a larger yield of the wealth of the nation to those who mainly by +their energies make that wealth, and of placing the producing classes +upon a level where they will receive a higher measure of respect, of +thanks, and regard than they previously have received from the nation as +a whole. I was asked among others some twelve months ago to share in the +investigations then made by representatives of the Government to +discover the immediate cause of the very serious unrest then displayed +in the country, and we went for a period of many weeks into the main +centres of the kingdom and brought a varied collection of witnesses +before us in order that the most reliable evidence should be obtained, +and one who favoured us with his views was the Rev. Canon Green, whom I +am going to quote because of his great experience among the working +class populations in various circumstances and over many years in +Manchester and elsewhere. This is what Canon Green writes: + + + They (the working classes) do not see why their hours should be so + long, and their wages so small, their lives so dull and colourless, + and their opportunities of reasonable rest and recreation so few. + Can we wonder that with growing education and intelligence the + workers of England are beginning to contrast their lot with that of + the rich and to ask whether so great inequalities are necessary? + + +There I believe you have put in the plainest and gentlest terms the +working of the working class mind as it is to-day. The country has given +them more opportunities of education. When they were less educated, or, +if I may say so, more ignorant than they are now, they were naturally +more submissive and content with conditions the cause of which they so +little understood. You cannot send the children of the poor to school, +and improve your State agencies for education, and increase the millions +annually which the country is ready to spend in teaching the masses of +the people more than they knew before, and expect those masses to remain +content with the economic and social conditions which even disturbed +their more ignorant fathers. In short, the more you educate and train +the working classes, the more naturally you bring them to the point of +revolt against conditions which are inhuman or unfair, or which cannot +be brought to square with the higher standard of education which they +may receive. I am sure when the community come to understand that it is +a natural and even a proper sense of revolt on the part of the masses of +the people they will not regret their education. Out of all this feeling +of discontent in the minds of the industrial population there has in the +last thirty odd years grown very strong organisation. The Trade Union +movement, which I mention first as a very great factor in all these +matters, is a most powerful and important factor, and the country will +have to pay greater regard to the steps which Trade Unionism may take +than the country has been disposed previously to do. The Trade Union +movement was stimulated and developed by the conditions which it was +brought into being to remedy. The Trade Union was not the growth of mere +agitation. The average Briton must be convinced that there is something +really wrong before he will try to remedy it at all, and you cannot by +lectures, and by telling the people that they have been and are being +oppressed, stir the people of this country to any resistance. +Particularly you cannot get them to pay a contribution for it. It was +because of the experience of the mass of the workers, their low wages +and long hours and the bad conditions of employment, that they organised +and used the might that comes from numbers, and paid contributions which +in the sum total now amount to many millions of pounds in the way of +reserve funds. No apology was needed for the working classes and no +defence is required for this step taken by the workers to unite +themselves in Trade Unions, and thereby secure by the unity of numbers +the power which, acting singly, it was impossible for them to exercise. +This Trade Union movement is quite alive to the division which exists +among our classes, and I am going to suggest that the movement might be +used, might be properly employed, in obtaining that unity of classes +which we are here to consider. + +Well, then, we may, whilst not overlooking other helpful activities of a +large number of people in this country, seek this unity among three main +divisions of our people, viz. (_a_) in industries, (_b_) in agriculture, +and (_c_) in businesses. Given unity of interest and oneness of purpose +and aim in those three broad divisions of the nation, the rest must be +attracted and brought into harmony by mere force of example, if nothing +else, with the unity which might be secured in the three broad divisions +to which I have referred. One of the hopeful things, the significant +things, recently uttered in other quarters from which I am going to +quote, is clearly seeking this tendency to unity instead of the +different interests and classes being driven by the waste and folly of +the disuniting lines upon which so far we have persisted. I observe that +only a few days ago Lord Selborne, who is one of our principal +mouthpieces on agricultural matters, presided at a new body called into +existence within the past few weeks and to be known as the National +Agricultural Council. Now, that is not a body which will consist of +landowners, or of farmers, or of farm workers; it is a body to consist +of all three. The landowners, the farmers, and the agricultural workers +have come to recognise that they all have something in common touching +agriculture, touching the trade or industry in which they are brought +into close touch day by day. I know as a matter of fact that only a very +few years ago the Farmers' Union would not tolerate the idea of the farm +workers having a union, and the land workers looked with real dread upon +the farmers having a union, and now all three have come to the stage +when they agree to join in one Council, and, though it was admitted that +the interests of those three classes were primarily in conflict, it was +recognised that by holding meetings, by the representatives of all these +quite distinct interests frequently coming together, much good might be +done. For what? As they say, for agriculture. So, though none of them +will forfeit any rightful interest anyone of them may have in the +pursuit of a special claim, they will all recognise a higher sense of +duty, and feel there is an obligation upon them to make agriculture in +this country a greater thing not only for themselves as the three +partners, but for the mass of the community at large. And if it is +necessary to do that in the farmers' interest or the landowners' +interest, it was at least as necessary to do it in the interest of the +agricultural worker, and I put his claim first, not because he is the +sole contributor to any yield that may come from the land, but because +he is the most numerous body, and numbers in this as in other respects +may well be the determining factor; and because if he withholds his +labour there will be none of the fruit of the soil for which we look +year after year. I follow up this statement by an authoritative one from +another quarter. Lord Lee, who as we know was the Director of the Food +Production Department at the Board of Agriculture, spoke some time ago +on this aspect of the case, and said: "Take the agricultural labourer +for example. Does anyone suppose, or suggest, that he should return from +the trenches--where he has distinguished himself in a way unsurpassed by +any other class in the community--to the old miserable conditions under +which, in most parts of the country, he was under-paid, wretchedly +housed, and denied almost any pleasure in life, except such as the +public house could offer him? Those conditions were a disgrace to the +country, and I shall never be content until they are swept away for +ever. I do not say this only in the interest of the man himself; it is +necessary these conditions should go, in the best interests not merely +of the labourer but of the farmer and of agriculture." So it may be that +unity and oneness of purpose and of action will be driven upon us as one +of the bye-products of war conditions. For your simple plain +agricultural worker will come back feeling that as he has fought for the +liberties of his country he will be entitled to enjoy a little more of +it than ever before, that if the land is to be freed from designs of the +tyrant abroad it must be freed also from any wrong at home, and that he +must have a larger share in the fruits of his labour than he has enjoyed +before. My own view is that you will not on that account make the farm +worker a less efficient harvestman, but you will make him a happier +father, you will be making him a more contented citizen, and may make +him a more profitable worker than he has ever been. + +Various remedies have been tried or thought of to give effect to what +are our common aspirations. One I have seen referred to frequently is +one I would like to see always avoided. It is the remedy of placing +before workmen as a necessity a greatly increased output from their +manual labour in the future; not that I am opposed to an increased +output, but I am not going to demand it as part of the bargain which +should itself be arranged and carried out, even if it did not +necessarily secure for us any greater sum total of wealth than we now +enjoy; for poor as we may have accounted ourselves we have seen in the +past few years how vastly we can spend and lend in support of any high +purpose to which the country may devote itself. Poverty can never again +be claimed by the nation as a whole whenever there is a proper and +reasonable demand for any social change or reform which may be +necessary and proper. Men are asking for a greater yield, for a greater +output, for building up our wealth higher than ever before, so as to +repair the ravages of the war, if for no other purpose. With all those +objects I agree, but we must not make them as terms to the worker in +exchange for those conditions of unity which we are asking our workers +to arrange with us. Greater output, increased efficiency, a bigger and +better return of wealth from industrial and agricultural energy, can +well come out of a better working system, a better rearrangement of +combined effort, a more extensive use of machinery, a more satisfactory +sub-division of labour, a wider employment of the personal experience +and technical skill of our industrial classes, a higher state of +administrative efficiency and management in the workshops, the creation +of a better and more humane atmosphere in the workshops. Out of all of +these things a greater yield of wealth could be produced, and it is +along those lines we must go in order not merely to convert but to +convince the workman that he is not being used as a mere tool for some +ulterior end for the benefit of some smaller class in the country. It +has been said by some that Trade Union restrictions and limitations must +go. I candidly admit there have been Trade Union regulations and +conditions which perhaps have stood in the way of some increased output, +but I am not here to apologise for Trade Union rules. Every class has +its regulations and rules. The more powerful and the more wealthy the +class the more rigid and stringent those rules have been. However, the +class which was most in need of regulations and rules, the working +class, was the first to set the example of setting them aside as a +general war measure when the country called upon the workers to take +action of that kind during 1915. We must, therefore, keep in mind the +fact that workmen are naturally suspicious. That suspicion is the growth +of the workshop system, into which I have not now the time to go, and we +must avoid causing the workman to suspect that our unity, the unity we +are seeking among classes, is a mere device for getting him to work +harder and produce greater wealth and perhaps labour even longer hours +than ever. + +The first great step towards this unity is to secure the good will of +the Trade Unions. Having secured that, the next thing is to proceed upon +lines which will bring at once home to the individual workman in the +workshop some sense of responsibility with regard to the response which +he must make to the appeal which we put before him. In short, better +relations must precede any first step that could effectively be taken to +secure this greater unity, and better relations are impossible in +industry until we have given the individual workman a greater sense of +responsibility of what he is in the workshop for. Let me briefly outline +how that might be secured. It was put, I think, quite eloquently if +simply in an address to the Trade Union Congress a short time ago by the +President of the Congress, who said that the workman wanted a voice in +the daily management of the employment in which he spends his working +life, in the atmosphere and in the conditions under which he has to +work, in the hours of beginning and ending work, in the conditions of +remuneration, and even in the manners and practices of the foremen with +whom he had to be in contact. "In all these matters," said the +President, "workmen have a right to a voice--even to an equal +voice--with the management itself." I know that is a big, and to some an +extravagant claim to make, but to set it aside or ignore it is to +provoke and invite further trouble. Industry can no longer be run for +the profit which it produces, or even because of the wealth which +collective energy can make. That, indeed, was the mistake out of which, +as I said at the beginning, this disunion, and this suspicion, and this +selfishness, have grown. We have had greatly to modify our doctrines of +political economy during the course of the war, and all the things which +many teachers told us never could be done have come as natural to us +under war conditions which we could not resist, and of which we were the +creatures. Where now is the law of supply and demand? Indeed, if the law +of supply and demand were operating at this moment, there are few +workmen in the country who would not be receiving many, many pounds more +a week than they are. The workman is not paid to-day according to the +demand for his labour. A very much higher obligation decides for him +what his remuneration is to be. I have in mind, of course, the fact that +a considerable number of workers, who are employed upon munition +services and so on, are enjoying very high wages, but that is not at all +true of the masses of the industrial population, and we ought not to be +deceived by these rare instances which are quoted of men coming out of +the workshop with _£_20 or _£_30. Speaking of the industrial population +in the main, what was the outstanding economic doctrine?--the doctrine +that the demand for labour and the volume for supplying that demand +determined the remuneration. That doctrine has had to go by the board +like so many other things that could not exist under war pressure. + +Then, how are we to give effect to this general workshop aspiration for +bringing the workman into closer unity with the conditions which +determine that part of his life which is the bread-winning part, for +which he has to turn out in the morning early and often return home late +in the evening? There was established some time ago what can be +described as a quite responsible committee to report upon how better +relations not only between employers and employed through their +associations, but in regard to employers and employed in the workshops, +might be established. That committee issued the report commonly known to +us now as the Whitley Report, of which I am quite sure more will be +heard in a few years. The men who had to frame that report were drawn +from the two extremes of the employers and trade unions. We had men with +very advanced views, like Mr Smillie, on the one hand, and we had quite +powerful employers of labour, like Sir Gilbert Claughton and Sir William +Carter, on the other. I had the privilege of sitting on that committee, +and for some months we laboured to frame some definite terms which might +be accepted by those who were concerned in our recommendations. I very +often hear the suggestion that people will have little of it because it +is not ideal, not grand or great enough, but we have to come down to the +earth upon these matters, and we have to recommend only what we feel is +likely to be accepted lest our labour should be wasted. We must avoid, +therefore, throwing our aims too high, and we must suggest only what +practical business men and workmen are likely seriously to consider. +Having decided to reach that conclusion, and feeling the sense of +responsibility which, opposed as so many of us were to each other, drove +us to reach a conclusion, we expressed ourselves in these terms: "We are +convinced that a permanent improvement in the relations between +employers and employed must be founded upon something other than a cash +basis. What is wanted is that the workpeople should have a greater +opportunity of participating in the discussion upon an adjustment of +those parts of industry by which they are most affected. For securing +improvement in the relations between employers and employed, it is +essential that any proposals put forward should offer to workpeople the +means of attaining improved conditions of employment and a higher +standard of comfort generally, and involve the enlistment of their +active and continuous co-operation in the promotion of industry." +Previously, the view was that the workman had nothing whatever to do +with this phase of the management of business, and that is a phrase +still very much used. We make no claim in this report that workmen +should have the right to interfere in the higher realms of business +management, in, say, finance, in the general higher details of +organisation, in the extension of works, in all those more important and +urgent matters which must come before the board of managers or the +manager himself. These are things which belong properly and exclusively +to those who have the responsibility of managing our great industries, +but in all the other things affecting the conditions of the workman, the +manner in which he is to be treated, hours, wages, conditions of +employment, relations between section and section, and working division +and working division, all those things which were regarded previously +as the private monopoly of the foreman or manager must in future become +the common concern of the workmen collectively, and they must have some +voice in how these things are to be settled. The country and its +industries, of course, may refuse to hear that voice, but really we have +to choose between reconciling workmen to a given system of industry or +finding workmen in perpetual revolt against their conditions. And it +will pay the country to concede a great deal, not only for peace in the +workshop but for a higher standard of peace generally in the whole +community. The appeal that must be made to the workman must be followed +up by asking him to receive it in a very different spirit from the +spirit sometimes shewn in certain workshops. I am not here by any means +to pour praise altogether upon the working classes, and I am conscious +of the mistakes and wrongs which have sometimes been done in their +names, and I am therefore anxious that the spirit of the workshop should +be so tempered and altered as to be fit to receive and make the best use +of the approaches which are to be made to it to participate in workshop +management upon the lines which I have indicated. + +So this appeal which has been made by the Whitley committee, and which +has been followed up by some other departments of government, is put as +an appeal to the common-sense and reason of the men in the workshop, and +does not rest upon any of the many agencies which have been employed +previously in the pursuit of definite trade union ends. This spirit can +be fostered only when the masses of workmen are reached by the +consciousness that they themselves are being called upon to share in +the undertakings of which they are so important a part. The importance +of workmen has been revealed in a most startling way during the period +of the war, and the war has shewn in many trades that recurring +differences between capital and labour can be adjusted without strikes +and without lock-outs if methods are provided in the workshop which are +acceptable to both sides, and are made to operate fairly and +satisfactorily between the different interests. Think how important the +workman has become because of the war. Consider how much the workman is +now pressed and drawn into all manner of services which previously he +could either remain in or leave at his will. The war has made such a +demand upon national industrial energy that there is no service now for +which there is not a demand. Indeed, you have seen the effect in that +services in the workshop include men who previously would have been +ashamed to have had it known that they had ever soiled their hands at +any toil at all, but who have been glad to get a place in the workshop +because it was work of national importance. War experience has shewn us +how high manual service stands in the grades of service which can be +rendered for community interest. This new spirit does not appeal to +force as a means of settling differences, nor to compulsory arbitration, +nor to the authority of the State, nor to the power of organisation on +either side. It is an appeal to reason, an approach to both sides to act +in association on lines which will give freedom, self-respect, and +security to both sides, whilst enabling each of them to submit to the +other what it feels is best for the joint advancement of the trade and +those engaged in it. In short, I would like to see inside the gates of +every workshop the cultivation of the same spirit in British industry +as has been hinted at already as the first essential for the future +development of agriculture in England. Those processes of calling in the +individual workman through committees, to which I will refer briefly in +a moment, are not intended to take the place of the great organisations. +They are to be supplementary to the Trade Unions, and are not intended +to supplant them. + +Trades Union leadership has changed hands to a great extent during the +past year or two, and the virtual leaders of the men are now men +themselves employed at the bench and in the mine. They are exercising +very great authority and influence over masses of their fellow workmen, +and often the authority, and decisions, and advice of executives and +leaders are set aside and the advice of the men employed in the +workshop, given to their fellow workmen as mates, is followed. So with +this change, due to conditions into which we have not time to go, there +must be recognised the need for applying new remedies in considering +this question of improving the relations between employer and employed. +It will not do now merely to have discussions between association and +association. We might improve upon that and supplement it as I have said +by having discussions direct in the workshop with the workmen +themselves, who would be brought into touch at once with persons who +were responsible for what action must be taken. So leadership having +been to some extent transferred from the Trade Union to the workshop, +the workman must be followed there and must be shewn how essential it is +to recruit his good will and his aid in improving workshop conditions, +not for the betterment of the management, but as much, if not more, for +his own betterment as a workman in the shop. This may not touch certain +industries in the country that are non-organised. Some of those trades, +much to our shame, in former years were known as sweated industries, but +even there it is found that the workers, men and women alike, are coming +gradually into the trades unions, and should they not be in the trades +unions to any great extent they are to be reached by other ways and +means which this committee has developed. It is intended to apply to +them, so as to establish the necessary machinery for better relations, +the personnel of the Trades Boards Acts, those boards which, in the +absence of trades unions, deal with the sweated conditions of thousands +of workers employed in those sweated trades. So I have no fear myself of +the non-organised trades being left altogether out of the range of the +spirit to which I have referred. In addition to the committees there is +to be in every district, it is proposed, a representative council, drawn +from the employers and employed of the particular industry, and some +scores of these councils are now being set up. In addition, there is to +be in relation to every principal industry a national council, and many +of us are now engaged in the creation of those several bodies. The +public may not hear much about them, but they are the foundation upon +which this structure of better relations is to rest, and, so far as we +can spare some small margin of our time for those duties, considerable +headway has been made in establishing these different organisations. + +But I attach most importance to the workshop committees, and so I want +to pursue this idea a little further. What are those committees to be? +They would have to be free representative bodies, chosen by the men +themselves. They could be empowered to meet the management, possessed of +a sense of responsibility, to discuss in their own homely way matters +which would have to be settled between them. Indeed, we know from +experience that many of the big trade disputes in this country have +grown out of trifles, out of small nothings comparatively, which could +well have been settled inside the workshop gates by bringing master and +man together, empowered to discuss matters which both understand as +matters of personal experience. The committees when created, in this +atmosphere and spirit to which I refer, would exist not in rebellion +against the trade unions or against the trade union system, or exist as +being in revolt against the management of the works, or the employer of +labour. The committees would be vested with responsibility for +negotiations. They would be able to use the personal knowledge derived +from contact with the questions arising day by day. They would develop a +sense of independence and a sense of just dealing, so that the doctrine +of "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work" should apply not only to +the wages but to the work to be done, a thing which sometimes does not +occur. These committees could check the driving methods of some persons +in authority, and, whilst getting the best from those who are above +them, they could give the best, as I am sure they would provided the +spirit is created, from the workmen in return for the fairer treatment +they would enjoy. These committees could deal not only with manual +service and ordinary work and wage questions; they could develop a +better use of industrial capacity and technical knowledge in matters of +workshop life. But the spirit is everything, and the best desires of +equitable workshop management could find expression through those +committees if they were created. The committees would give a chance to +the many workmen who now talk a great deal about democracy to express +that democracy through the persons of the workmen themselves. I fear +there are many of our friends in the labour movement, as we term it, who +are given freely to talking of democracy without clearly understanding +all that is covered in that term. It is a term which, it is a pleasure +to see, has recently found its way not merely into the phrases of +statesmen, but into the King's speech itself. We are now speaking +commonly of all the sacrifices that are being made, of all the blood and +treasure that is being spilt, in order to have a wholesome democratic +system of world government. Well, we must begin in the workshops, for +you cannot have peace on a large scale the country over, or between +nation and nation, unless you have peace in our places of employment. +They are the starting points and there it is that your contented +millions must first be found. If they are not happy and if they are not +at ease in connexion with their national service, you cannot expect any +of those larger results for which highminded statesmen are seeking the +world over. + +Upon two main lines, in my judgment, democracy will require the most +sane guidance and most sagacious advice which its leaders are capable of +giving to it. It will not do for leaders merely to say that the future +of the world must be decided, not by diplomats or thrones or Kaisers, +but by the will of peoples. The will of peoples can find enduring and +beneficial expression only when that will seeks social change by +reasonable and calculated instalments, and not by any violent act of +revolution. Peaceful voters on their way to the ballot boxes and +properly formulated principles will in the end go further than fire and +sword in the internal affairs of a nation. I say this because of the +loose talk we have heard from many labour platforms recently of +revolution and its benefits. Revolution may well be in any country the +beginning and not the end of internal troubles, often expressed in a +more painful and more violent form than ever. We need only look at our +former great partner, Russia, to find full confirmation of all I have +now implied. The red flag marches with the machine gun and the black cap +when a certain stage of physical revolt is reached. The theory of new +methods of life can only find rational application when democracy is +wisely guided in taking slow but sure steps peacefully to turn its +theories into an applied system, wherein the people of a nation and not +merely a section or a class shall find their proper place and security +for service, and find an assured existence under conditions of comfort +for themselves and advantage to the State. Democratic leaders must tell +these things to the people time after time if need be. They must repeat +them so that the masses may understand them, because the tendency in +labour has been to narrow the meaning of democracy. Democracy is not, +and ought not to be, limited to those who now constitute the industrial +population. Democracy is not a sect or a trade union club. Democracy is +wider than the confines of the manual worker. Democracy should strive to +reach the highest level of morality in doctrine and aspiration. It is +not a class formula. It is a great and elevating faith which may be +shared by all who believe in it. Democracy stands for the general +progress of mankind and means the uplifting of men, and the liberation +and unifying of nations. It does not mean the dominion of one class over +another, nor the violent wresting of position or authority by some +dramatic act of physical force, which if used would still leave a nation +in a state of unreconciled and contending factions. Democracy, again, is +a spirit whereby vast social and economic change may be effected through +a medium approaching common consent or at least by the application of +the political power of the people acting through representative +institutions and resting upon ideas which majorities accept and +understand. The spirit which has already accepted vast political changes +can be made to apply to vast economic and industrial changes. This +spirit must be cultivated by the leaders of democracy. They have now +opportunities as great as their responsibilities. The success of +parties, in the old sense of the term, is a trivial thing to the success +of the great ends to be secured. These ends will justify the use of any +constitutional means for dethroning that form of power upon which +privilege and the mere possession of wealth have rested. But democracy +must not be duped by phrases, nor be swayed by any influence which does +not lead to a lasting advance for the nation as a whole. Nor should its +leaders think that fundamental and enduring changes in our social system +can be reached by any short cut to which the great mass of the people +have not been converted. Progress will be faster in the future if +impatience and folly do not retard it. + +Having said a little with regard to the position of the poorer people, +let me before I close respectfully address a few words to the richer and +more favoured in the country. Should all rich folk in the country work? +That is a very plain and I dare say it will be regarded in some places +as quite an impudent question. But really, rich people who have never +had cause in any way to earn their living have always been a danger to +the State, just as they have been the greatest instance of wicked waste +to be found in any country. There is nothing more melancholy, and even +degrading, to a country than the sight of educated people who have +nothing to do. Wealth is the fruit of service and endeavour. Work is the +only medium by which the ravages of the war can be made good. Ignorance +and idleness present a most pitiable spectacle, but the most criminal of +all sights is education and idleness combined. Finally, let me say that +whilst I have addressed myself mainly in terms of appeal to the workers, +I am not unmindful at all of the difficulties of the great employers of +labour and those covered by the phrase "our Captains of Industry." I +know that many of them work very hard under the greatest and most trying +mental pressure, and have duties and trials unknown even to the workmen, +but with those duties and trials come reliefs again unknown to the +workmen--holidays, change, and rest, and the meeting of men of their own +class whose very company is an intellectual joy, so that the worst off +your employer of labour as a human being may be he is far better off +than the average workman. Think of the housing conditions of so many +thousands, hundreds of thousands, of workmen, and how intolerable it +would be for you to live under those conditions, how discontented you +would be, how discontented the rich would be were it their fate to drag +on an existence in some of those places which are commonly described by +the term "houses." Why, the very waiting room of the employer's ordinary +office is a much more cosy and pleasant place than the homes of many of +the most industrious workers of England. I plead that the elements of +the human order should begin to pervade the relations of the workshop, +that the workman should be less of a drudge and more of a human asset +than he has been, that he should be brought into partnership in the +undertaking and in the management; that incidentally he should have a +more secure remuneration and not have to bear the penalties and ordeals +of employment as he has had alone to bear them during times of trade +depression and unemployment in previous years. The human side of the +workshop has, therefore, to be built up, and you cannot hope to build it +up upon any foundation of drudgery such as the workmen in the main have +had to live under, and, as I have said, it will pay the country to +conciliate the men on these terms. It is a high ideal, but it is +attainable. I believe it is attainable because we have seen it in +another sphere of sacrifice where it has already been secured. The war +has brought all classes together. In the trenches, at sea, and in all +theatres of danger, men of all classes are now labouring shoulder to +shoulder. There you have had a sinking of individual interests. There +you have had a common sacrifice, a common endeavour for a common cause. +Surely, as all classes have been able to unite in their sacrifice and in +their resistance of the aggression of a foreign foe, it is, I hope, not +asking too much that when they come back and take their places in +peaceful pursuits again, and become masters, workmen, managers, and +foremen in our enterprises and businesses, when they return from danger +and come back to take their places amongst us,--surely it is not too +much to hope that those who are able to unite abroad will be able to +unite for the ends of peace and joy here at home. + + + + +UNITY IN THE EMPIRE + +By F. J. CHAMBERLAIN, C.B.E. + + +The word "unity" in relation to the Empire has a deeper meaning to-day +than it had five years ago. Then it was a watchword, a theme for +Imperial conferences and for speakers at demonstrations. The sanguine +were sure, the pessimists and that great body of Britishers of moderate +views and moderate faith regarded it as one of the things hoped for. + +With dramatic suddenness the event clarified the situation, England +awoke at war. There was no time for preliminary councils. The supreme +test of the Empire had been reached. It is no exaggeration to say that +the whole world watched with eagerness for the result. It was in that +moment that the great discovery was made. The British Empire stood fast. +From that day until now, from end to end of the world has been seen an +object lesson of unity that has justified the sanguine, and been an +inspiration to the Allies. That revelation has been more inspiring +because the world is aware that it is in spite of the most sinister and +subtle campaign against it, planned and brilliantly executed by an enemy +under the cloak of friendship. I do not forget the tragic circumstances +of one small nation within the Empire. But Ireland has given more +evidence of her faithfulness to Empire on the fields of France and +Flanders than of her treachery at home, and to-day we have more reason +to count her ours than has the enemy. Examine the position in cold +blood, if you can, and you are still aware of a substantial, solid, and +effective unity running round the Empire, binding it in one as with a +girdle of scarlet and gold. + +The war is not responsible for the unity; it has only discovered or +uncovered it. The storm does not establish foundations; it may reveal +them. A century of building has created the structure that the storm has +failed to destroy. + +The British Empire is a successful experiment on the lines of the +longed-for League of Nations. The race contains no more diverse elements +than are found within its borders; one-third of the land surface of the +world, and one-fifth of the inhabitants, have been held together in a +living federation and have been kept until this day. Upon our generation +rests the awful and splendid responsibility of proving to a questioning +world that this unity can be made permanent, and of illustrating how a +still larger unity may be achieved. + +You will forgive one or two homely pictures of our unity that cannot +fail to strike the imagination. It has been our privilege to meet +thousands of men from the Overseas Dominions. How many times have boys, +whose forefathers emigrated from England or Scotland, who were +themselves born in Australia, or on the Western plains of Canada, said, +"I have been wanting to come _home_ all my life"? These islands are the +"home" of the Empire, and there is no more wonderful word in the +language. + +Or think of Botha and Smuts, within the memory almost of the youngest of +us, fighting with all their heart and mind against the Empire, and, +to-day, dominant personalities proclaiming their loyalty, and proving it +in unrivalled service. + +Or picture, if you can, young India, pouring out her life-blood with +pride and ready sacrifice, in France, in Egypt, and in Mesopotamia, for +the "British Raj." The most moving scene in the history of the British +Commons was on that evening in 1915, when the princes of India stood +amidst the representatives of the people of the homelands and paid their +homage. + +How much such things mean will depend on the vision of those who hear +them; but they have in them the stuff that holds the future. + +This ghastly war, not of our choosing, has transferred the seats of +learning for young Britain from their peaceful sites to the battlefield. +If the object of education is the cultivation of the power of thought +and observation, the kindling of imagination, and the extension of +knowledge; then "over there" is a University set in full array, with +ghostly as well as human tutors, a curriculum without precedent, and +such a body of undergraduates as Cambridge or Oxford might covet. + +It is not for nothing, as regards the Empire, that your sons, the +children of the East End, and the boys of Canada, Australasia, and South +Africa, are meeting and mingling with Gurkha and Sikh, and with each +other. They are sharing a common discipline, a common adventure, making +sacrifice together. They are seeing each other with eyes from which the +scales are falling, and knowledge and understanding are growing out of +their contact. The farthest reaches of Empire have been brought nearer +to the Empire's heart by this brotherhood in arms, and the barriers +between classes have been lowered until a man can step across them +without climbing. The distance between East and West has been +immeasurably shortened, whether we are thinking in terms of London, or +of the Empire. + +In our consideration of this whole subject we are to take the Christian +standpoint. To us, the words "Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in +Heaven," on Divine lips were more than a pious wish. They were a great +intention, the expression of age-long purpose. We believe that the gains +of the centuries--the harvest of the past which is worth +conserving--have been secured by moral and spiritual conquest, rather +than by military or political achievement. There may be elements in our +present forms of unity which we may well allow to go by the board. The +things that make for permanence will abide not only with an enlightened +statesmanship, but with a growing understanding, an ever broadening +interpretation of Christian teaching about + + + The Kingdom of God on earth, + The Universal Fatherhood of God, and + The brotherhood of man, + + +leading the nation to see that the knowledge of God and of His Christ is +the rightful inheritance of every son of the Empire. + +As these great ideals of social life have been interpreted in the life +of either sovereign peoples or subject peoples, so, we believe, and only +so, have bonds been forged that can be trusted to stand the strain which +time and changing condition and circumstances impose. + +Unity, even the Empire itself ultimately, depends, as we believe, on a +broad-based statesmanship, carrying up the main principles of our +Government to their highest power in action, and, constantly throughout +the Empire, mediating those doctrines to the peoples concerned as they +are able to bear them, with ever-extending inspiration and encouragement +to growth and development. + +Our Imperial aims are neither antagonistic to nor inconsistent with our +Christian programme. That should constitute a challenge to the Christian +Churches, and is in itself a matter for high and solemn pride. The war +has cleared the air. As stated during this period, the ideal of a +federation of nations, free, independent, and at the same time +interdependent, each working out its national destiny, each +contributing, in terms of opportunity, to the well-being of the whole, +bringing to bear on Imperial matters the heart, brain, will of the +whole, gives us a picture of a Commonwealth in advance of any +contemporary political programme, with the one conspicuous exception of +that of the United States of America, between whom and ourselves is +being established a Unity which may well be more valuable to the world +at large and to ourselves than any formal Union. + +Here, as we see it, is our opportunity. The Christian forces of the +Empire have the onus of maintaining the national outlook at this high +level. Our faith, our audacity, our leadership will be needed if lesser +counsels are to have no chance of prevailing. There must be no swing of +the pendulum back to smaller views. + +With the coming of Peace, the temptation to the Nation to take off its +armour, to come down from the pedestal, to revert to pre-war conditions, +to re-act in self-indulgence from the strain of war, or to let +materialism defeat idealism, will be well-nigh overwhelming. To give +way to that temptation will be to rob victory of any permanent values. +It will be a poor thing to have taught Germany her lesson, if we fail to +learn our own. + +We see no hope of successful resistance of that temptation apart from +the mobilisation of the Christian forces within the Empire into an army +committed to the sacred task of making the conscience of the Nation +effectively Christian, leading the way in bringing about a closer +approximation between the politics of the State and the programme of the +Kingdom of God, and proclaiming that Kingdom at hand. + +If we are agreed so far it behoves us to look for the practical +implications of the position. These islands are still the heart and home +of the Empire. This was the rock whence its younger peoples were hewn. +Our nation has produced the men and the machinery that govern our +commonwealth. The lonely places, farthest removed from us, will be +peopled largely by and through the work of children of the Old Country. +There, wherever her children go, is England. + +England is a treasure house, where the very stones are eloquent. Her +history, her buildings, her national and civic life, her denominations +and movements are all of them of vital interest to her children. It is a +place of pilgrimage and remembrance. It is more. They find here the +mature growths from which their institutions have sprung. They love our +historic places, they love our crowded cities, they love our seashores +and our quiet country-side, for everywhere they go they find not only +the story of our past, but that of their own. This is their spiritual +home. Our art, our literature, our movements are parts of a common +inheritance, and it is the pride of the Motherland that her children +have never outgrown their love of the old home, their veneration for its +sanctions and restraints, and that on their own homesteads they have +reproduced in new settings and often in fresh forms so much that is +native here. + +One would like to see a larger share in this priceless inheritance +offered to our peoples oversea. Think for one moment of our great +Cathedrals, unique and wonderful. They can never be reproduced. They +might be copied; but Canterbury and Westminster, Lincoln and Durham, +York and the rest would still remain all that they are to us and to +them. You cannot transplant history. In the homeland we are but trustees +of these treasures, and we ought to make them the home and centre of our +Imperial Christianity. In every one of them the priests of the Church in +the Overseas lands should not only be seen but heard. Is there no room +in Cathedral Chapters for Overseas representatives, so that in our daily +services in a new and living way we may be linked together in sacrament, +praise and prayer, and in the proclamation of Christian truth? One +Canonry for each historic building would mean more to Unity than many +resolutions at Congress. Perhaps that is as far as one ought to go in +suggestion, but there are other splendid possibilities that one would +love to discuss. No one thinking of Unity in the Empire can fail to +rejoice in the growing desire manifest among Christian Denominations for +Unity. I will not trench on another's subject beyond saying that the way +to Union is Unity, and that it would be tragic if in these momentous +days any stone was left unturned that would lead to better knowledge, +deeper understanding and sympathy between those who name the Name that +is above every name. And our people overseas have much to teach us in +this matter. Over great areas of social opportunity and service the +Catholic Church may act unitedly and must do so, if she is to enter on +offensive warfare and not stand for another generation on the defensive. +The war has made a difference here. Men, who in the conventional days of +peace rarely met, have joined hands in service. Catholic and Protestant, +Churchman and Free Churchman, have found joy in fellowship. That does +not mean that differences have disappeared, it means that, recognising +and estimating their differences, it has been possible to establish a +basis of co-operation, in knowledge, understanding, and sympathy, and to +recognise in one another the hall-mark of Christian faith and character. +Is this to be a war measure only? or is it to be one of the great gains +to be carried over into the days ahead? + +One other question clamours for treatment: the problem of the +evangelisation of the Empire. Christianity must be given its chance in +every corner of the Empire. There may be divergent opinions as to the +methods to be used, but if Christianity contains in its gospel the pearl +of great price, there can be no two opinions as to the obligation that +rests on us to bring to the nations federated with us this supreme gift. +Nothing can release us from that responsibility. To postpone the +presentation of the Christian gospel for any of the time-honoured +excuses: + +(1) our pre-occupation in matters of more urgent importance elsewhere, + +(2) any fear of the effects of Christianity on our political or +commercial interests, + +(3) the desire to live down prejudice and establish confidence, + +(4) the preparation of a people's mind by education before introducing a +new religion, + +--any one of these is treachery to the All-Father and to the family of +man, and a vital _praeparatio evangelica_ is being made. Let me +illustrate. + +It happened in a great marquee in France. On a summer evening in 1916 +the place was crowded with Indians. There was a group playing Indian +card games, there was a crowd round a gramophone with Indian records, at +the writing tables with great torment of spirit men were writing to +their homes. At the counter foods they loved were being provided. +Against one of the poles of the marquee stood a stately Indian of some +rank. He had been seen there often before. He rarely spoke but seemed +intensely interested. On this particular night the time arrived for the +closing of the tent. The little groups gradually disappeared and the +tent curtains were being replaced when the leader of the work found +himself addressed by the Indian: + + + Why do you serve us in this way? You are not here by Government + orders. You come when you like and you go when you like. There is + only one religion on earth that would lead its servants to serve in + this way, Christianity. I have been watching you men, and I have + come to the conclusion that Christianity will fit the East as it + can never fit the West. When the war is over I want you to send one + of your men to my village. We are all Hindus, but my people will do + what I tell them. + + +One of the ghastly tragedies of the war is that two great nations +nominally Christian are at each other's throats. In the world's eyes +Christian civilisation has broken down. We know better, but our +explanations will not carry far enough to correct the impression. Our +defence must be an offensive. + +It is certainly within the truth to say that we have not yet seen what +Christianity can do for a community or a nation where, as I put it +before, "it is given a chance." May it not be that in the Providence of +God the first great revelation of what Christianity can do for a nation +will be seen in one of the lands that have come under the Flag, and +among a people living under less complex conditions than ourselves? If +that is a possibility we ought to see that wherever the Flag flies, +there comes, with the unfurling of the Flag, the Gospel of Christ. + +This is directly in the interest of unity, and many problems that have +so far remained insoluble to our statesmen might discover the solution +in Christian leadership. + +I shall be pardoned I know for suggesting that the highest purposes of +unity may be served by the extension and development throughout the +Empire of such international organisations as the Student Christian +Movement, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., and, used at its highest values, +the Boy Scout Movement. There are others, but these are typical. They +are established movements built up on definite principles capable of +universal application, and yet each of them able to develop its +organisation on lines that recognise national psychology and character. +Each of them may become and aims at becoming indigenous everywhere, +giving freedom of method and action and free play to the moral and +intellectual activities of the people concerned, while they have certain +essential elements that are universally characteristic of them. In +addition, they give large numbers of Christian people an opportunity of +expressing their unity in service of the right kind. + +What was said about the Cathedrals is equally true of our two ancient +Universities. Mr Fisher's Education Bill may well mean more for Imperial +unity than almost any other single factor. It will mean an ever +increasing number of men to whom "Cambridge" and "Oxford" will be magic +words. If our view of culture is broad enough we shall see to it that +these two Universities become increasingly places where the children of +the Empire who are fit to graduate in them shall not lack the +opportunity of doing so. Because these ancient foundations link with the +past, because of all they may mean to the present and to the future, the +way to them should be made broad enough to admit the living stream of +Greater Britain's children, who by dint of gifts and industry have +proved their fitness to meet their peers in these delectable cities, +where the very air breathes the romance of British culture. Their right +of entry ought not to be won by the benefactions of private citizens, +though all who love knowledge are grateful enough for these, but should +be theirs by their citizenship in the Empire and their own tested +fitness. + +Nothing again is more hopeful in the present situation than the manifest +desire, widely felt and expressed, that the old class-antagonisms should +never be revived. Surely this is _the_ strategic moment in which we may +make the War once more contribute to a better state of things. Our +politicians are awake to the need and are inventing every kind of +machinery for bringing Capital and Labour together in Council Chambers +as co-partners in the Commerce of the Empire. But there are sinister +forces also at work, and this machinery can only run if it is +controlled by men of resolute good will. + +The War has been a great bridge-builder linking up in the fellowship of +discipline and sacrifice people between whom chasms yawned before. There +are knowledge and understanding and sympathy to-day amongst us. Yet many +of us are convinced that no purely political machinery can be made +effective in achieving so great a task as the making permanent of this +new and better condition. We need a new and abiding spirit of +conciliation, a deeper determination than political action can produce, +that things shall not relapse, that the forces of re-action shall not +triumph. The one hope of carrying over into permanence this new +understanding and appreciation lies in the nation becoming impregnated +with those spacious spiritual ideals that the Churches together +represent. Nothing is impossible to faith, and faith in God and man will +be kept astretch in the discipline that will be demanded of us all, in +the breaking down of false barriers that have grown up through the years +and the destruction of long-lived prejudices that will die hard. + +The Empire itself is a unity. It is not easy for English people to +realise all that is implied here. My great name-sake urged us in this +country to "think Imperially." Another voice asks us "What do they know +of England who only England know?" but it is hard for us to think except +in terms of England. For example, I have referred to this country as the +great treasure house of the Empire's history, and to the care and +devotion shewn by our kinsmen from Overseas in their study of our +country and its institutions. All of us realise how right that is, but +ought we not to reciprocate their devotion and regard, by much more +intense interest and study of their life and the developments of their +institutions? + +Our unity demands this wider culture, this reciprocity. The Motherland +must not only teach, she must be prepared to learn. She may lead, but +she must be prepared to follow. We have much to contribute, but in +Religion, in political and social ideals, and in commerce there is much +we need to receive. + +If our land is the great treasure house, are not these other lands great +laboratories where we might see, if we would only look, how some of our +accepted ideas, and notions, and watchwords are tested in a larger +arena? + +Are we so sure of ourselves that we are prepared to hold on to our own +experience as the final test of the truth and value of our theories? Or +are we big enough in the light of Imperial experience to revise our +judgment, to sift our theories, and to go forward carrying those which +stand the test of the wider arena, and being prepared to surrender those +which only seemed right and proper in the conventional setting of these +small islands? + +In conclusion, the Empire has come to power and unity on certain great +principles. Our Imperial ideals have been evolved out of experience all +over the world, and with all kinds of people, under the guidance of +distinguished leaders of many-sided gifts. In an Empire so diverse in +its constituent parts, including peoples at varied stages of +development, it is impossible that those ideals should be everywhere +expressed at their highest power. In many places our methods of +government must be tentative, but everywhere they must be progressive, +placing upon subject peoples the burden of government as rapidly as +they are able to bear it, providing every inspiration that can call them +upwards and onwards. Our tentative methods must never be allowed to +become permanent. We may be tutors, we must never become tyrants. We may +lead, direct, even control, but we may never be content until our people +are free, self-governing, rejoicing in the liberty that enables them to +choose whole-heartedly to remain in that Commonwealth of free peoples we +call the Empire. Along this path lie permanence and closer unity. In our +Imperial destiny it is the part of those who would be the greatest to +become the servants of all. + +Thank God for all who have laboured in this spirit to build our goodly +heritage. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN NATIONS + +By the Rev. J. H. B. MASTERMAN, M.A. + + +In the previous lectures of this course you have been considering the +problem of home reunion. My task to-day is to remind you of the fact +that beyond the reunion of the Churches at home there lies the larger +problem of the realisation of the Christian ideal of a universal +brotherhood. How can this ideal be realised in a world divided into +nations? I am going to treat the subject historically; firstly because I +find myself incapable of treating it in any other way, and secondly +because you can only build securely if you build on the foundation of +the historic past. The State may ignore the lessons of the past, the +Church can never do so. + +How can we deal with the apparent antagonism between the centrifugal +force of nationality and the centripetal force of the Catholic ideal? +There are two possible answers that we cannot accept. It is possible for +religion to set itself against the development of national life, and +claim that a world-religion must find expression in a world-state. That +is the mediaeval answer. + +Or it is possible for religion to become subordinate to nationality at +the cost of losing the note of Catholicity, so that the consecration of +national life may seem a nobler task than the gathering of humanity into +conscious fellowship in one great society. This is the modern answer. + +With neither of these solutions can we be satisfied. The existence of +nations as units of political self-consciousness within the larger life +of humanity does, we believe, minister to the fulfilment of the purpose +of God. Whatever may be the case hereafter, the establishment of a +world-state, at the present stage in the evolution of human +institutions, would mean the impoverishment of the life of humanity. Yet +a Church that is merely national or imperial has missed the true +significance of its mission. + +At the beginning of the Christian era, the greatest attempt ever made to +gather all peoples into a universal society was actually in progress. +The Roman Empire was founded on the basis of a common administrative +system, and a common law--the _jus gentium_. It needed a common +religion. The effort to supply this passes through three stages. The +earliest of these is the stage of universal toleration which was made +possible by polytheism. A second stage soon follows. The various +religions of the Empire overflow one another's frontier-lines and a +synthesis begins, leading to the Stoic idea of the universal truth +expressed in many forms. But the popular mind was unable to rise to this +high conception, and the third stage begins towards the end of the first +century in the formal adoption of the worship of the Emperor as the +religious expression of the unity of the Empire. It was the opposition +of the Christian Church that did most to bring to naught this effort to +give a religious foundation to the unity of the Empire, and the attempt +of Constantine and Theodosius to make Christianity an Imperial religion +came too late to save the Empire from disintegration. + +For the unity of the Christian Church had been undermined. When +Christianity shook itself free from the shackles of Jewish nationalism, +it came under the influence of Greek thought. The theology and language +of the early Church were Greek. Even in Rome the Church was for at least +two centuries "a Greek colony." Hence the growth of Christianity was +slow in those western parts of the Empire that had not come under the +influence of Greek culture--Gaul, Britain, Spain, North Africa. Latin +Christianity found its centre in North Africa, where Roman culture had +imposed itself on the hard, cruel Carthaginian world. It is Carthage, +not Athens, that gives to Tertullian his harsh intolerance and to St +Augustine his stern determinism. So the way was prepared for what I +regard as the supreme tragedy of history--the falling apart of Eastern +and Western Christianity. Then, in the West, the unity of the Church is +broken by the conversion of the Teutonic peoples to Arianism, so that +the contest between the dying Empire in the West and the tribes pressing +on its frontiers is embittered by religious antagonism. The sword of +Clovis secured the victory of orthodoxy, but at what a cost! + +When the storm subsides, there emerges the august conception of the Holy +Roman Empire. For the noblest expression of the ideal of a universal +Christian Empire, read Dante's _De Monarchia_. The history of the Holy +Roman Empire is too large a subject to enter upon. It is important to +remember that the struggles between the Popes and the Emperors that fill +so large a space of mediaeval history were not struggles between Church +and State. Western Europe was conceived of as one Christian Society--an +attempt to realise the City of God of St Augustine's great treatise--and +the question at issue was whether the Pope or the Emperor was to be +regarded as the supreme head of this great society. + +The unity of Western Christendom found a crude, but real, expression in +the Crusades, and it is significant that the decline of the crusading +impulse coincides in time with the rise of national feeling in the two +western states, England and France. What was to be the attitude of the +Catholic Church towards this new national instinct? In the 14th and 15th +centuries the question becomes increasingly urgent, and the Council of +Constance may be regarded as the last sincere effort to find an answer. +The answer suggested there, to which the English Church still adheres, +was the recognition of a General Council of the Church as the supreme +spiritual authority. Such a General Council might gather the glory and +honour of the nations into the City of God, and might even, it was +hoped, restore the broken unity between East and West. How the Council +failed, how Constantinople was left to its fate, how a Papacy growing +more and more Italian in its interests brought to a head the +long-simmering revolt of the nations--all this you know. The Reformation +was, in part, a struggle of the nations to give religious expression to +their national life. The threefold bond that had held together the +Church of the West--the bond of common language, law and ceremonial--was +broken. + +At the threshold of the new order stand the figures of Luther and +Machiavelli, as champions of the supremacy of the State. True, Luther +thinks of the State as a Christian society, while Machiavelli is the +father of the modern German doctrine of the non-moral character of state +action. But the Augsburg compromise, _cujus regio_, _ejus religio_, was +a frank subordination of the Church to secular authority. The Tudor +sovereigns adopted the doctrine with alacrity, and imposed on the Church +of England a subjection to secular authority from which it has not yet +been able to disentangle itself. + +While Lutheranism tended to treat religion as a department of the State, +Calvinism claimed for the Church an authority that threatened the very +existence of the State. Calvinism represents the second attempt to give +practical expression to St Augustine's _Civitas Dei_, as the Holy Roman +Empire was the first. It failed, in part, because it lost its catholic +character, and became (as, for example, in Scotland) intensely national. +The disintegration of the Catholic Church in the West was helped by two +influences. The first was the return to the standards and ideals of the +Old Testament. The appeal of the reformers to Holy Scripture involved +the elevation of the Old Testament to the same level of authority as the +New. The crude nationalism of Judaism obscured the Christian idea of a +universal brotherhood--St Paul's secret hidden from the foundation of +the world, to be revealed in the fulness of time in the Christian +gospel. Even now we hardly realise how largely our ideas of religion are +derived from the imperfect moral standards of the Old Testament. The +other influence was the identification of the Papacy with the Antichrist +of the Book of Revelation--the Protestant answer to the Roman +excommunication of heretics. The idea of a common Christianity deeper +than all national antagonisms hardly existed in the Europe of the later +half of the 16th century. + +Nearly a century of wars of religion was followed by seventy years of +war in which the national idea played the leading part. The +internationalism of the 18th century was a reaction against both +religion and nationality. The Napoleonic struggle, and the Romantic +revival, with its appeal to the past, re-awakened the national instinct. +In France, Spain, Russia, Prussia, and Eastern Europe, national +self-consciousness was stirred into life. In Russia and Spain, and among +the Balkan peoples, this national awakening took a definitely religious +character. But it was Italy that produced the one thinker to whom the +real significance of nationality was revealed. Mazzini recognised, more +clearly than any other political teacher of the time, how Nationalism +founded on religion might lead to the brotherhood of nations in a world +"made safe for democracy." The last century has been an epoch of +exaggerated national self-consciousness. Against the aggressive +tendencies of the greater nations, the smaller nations strove to protect +themselves. Italy, Poland, Bohemia, Serbia, Greece, strove with varying +degrees of success to achieve national self-expression. Nation strove +with nation in a series of contests, of which the present war is the +culmination. + +The influence of Christianity was impotent to prevent war; though it was +able to do something to restrain its worst excesses. Where the +centrifugal force of nationality comes into opposition to the +centripetal force of the Christian ideal, it is generally the former +that wins. How is this impotence to be accounted for? Four reasons at +least maybe noted. (1) The "inwardness" of Lutheranism, combined with +the cynicism of the Machiavellian doctrine of the non-moral character of +public policy led, especially in Germany, to an entire disregard of the +principles of Christianity in the public policy of the State. Nations +did not even profess to be guided by Christian principles in their +dealings with each other. The noble declaration of Alexander I remained +a piece of "sublime nonsense" to statesmen like Metternich and +Castlereagh, and their successors. (2) The internal life of the nations +was, and is, only partially Christianised. Nations cannot regulate their +external policy on Christian principles unless those principles are +accepted as authoritative in their internal affairs. (3) The influence +of Christianity has been hindered, to a degree difficult to exaggerate, +by the unhappy divisions that, especially in England and in the United +States, have made it impossible for the Church to speak with a united +voice. (4) The idea of the Sovereignty of the State and its supreme +claim on the life of the individual, with which Dr Figgis has dealt with +illuminating insight in his _Churches in the Modern State_, has +prevented the idea of the Churches as local expressions of a universal +society from exercising the corrective influence that it ought to +exercise on the over-emphasis of State independence. + +The State is only one of the various forms in which national life +expresses itself. It is the nation organised for self-protection. And +wherever self-protection becomes the supreme need, the State, like +Aaron's rod, swallows all the rest. But in many directions, the world +has become, or is becoming, international. Science and philosophy, and, +to a lesser degree, theology and art, have become the common possession +of all civilised nations. The effort to make commerce the expression of +international fellowship, with which the name of Cobden is associated, +failed, largely as the result of the German policy of high tariffs, but +its defeat is only temporary, and the commercial interdependence of +nations will reassert its influence when the present phase of +international strife is over. The function of the Church is to express +the common life and interests of nations, as the State expresses the +distinctive character of each. So the Church holds to the four universal +things--the authority of Holy Scripture; the Creeds; the two Sacraments, +and the historic episcopate. We believe that the retention of the +historic Episcopate is essential to the maintenance of the Catholic +ideal of the Church. For the bishop is the link between the local and +the universal Church; the representative and guardian of the Catholic +ideal in the life of the local community; and the representative of the +local community in the counsels of the Catholic Church. I have often +wished that at least one bishop from some other Church than our own +could be associated with the consecration of all bishops of the Anglican +Church. For by such association we should bring into clearer prominence +the fact that the historic episcopate is more than a national +institution. + +So we reach the final question: What can the Churches do to promote the +unity of the nations? + +An invitation was recently issued by the Archbishop of Upsala for a +conference of representatives of the Christian Churches, to reassert, +even in this day of disunion, the essential unity of the Body of Christ. +For various reasons, such a conference at the present juncture seems +impracticable, but the time may come when, side by side with a Congress +of the nations, a gathering of representatives of the Churches may be +called together to reinforce, by its witness, the idea of international +fellowship. + +For a League of Churches might well prepare the way for a League of +Nations. Such a League of Churches would naturally find expression in a +permanent Advisory Council--a kind of ecclesiastical Hague tribunal. +Historical antagonisms seem to preclude the selection of Rome or +Constantinople as the place of meeting of this Council. Surely there is +no other place so suited for the purpose as Jerusalem. Here the +appointed representatives of all the Churches, living in constant +intercourse with one another, might draw together the severed parts of +the One Body, till the glory and honour of the nations find, even in the +earthly Jerusalem, their natural centre and home. Thus, and thus only, +can the spiritual foundation for a League of Nations be well and truly +laid. + +Two things are involved in any such scheme for a League of Churches. No +one Church must claim a paramount position or demand submission as the +price of fellowship; and all excommunications of one Church by another +must be swept away. + +Christ did not come to destroy the local loyalties that lift human life +out of selfish isolation. These loyalties only become anti-Christian +when they become exclusive. The early loyalty of primitive man to his +family or clan was deemed to involve a normal condition of antagonism to +neighbouring families or clans. Turn a page of history, and tribal +loyalty has become civic loyalty. But civic loyalty, as in the cities of +Greece or Italy or Flanders, involves intermittent hostility with +neighbouring cities. Then civic loyalty passes into national loyalty, +and again patriotism expresses itself in distrust and antipathy to other +nations. And this will also be so till we see that all these local +loyalties rest on the foundation of a deeper loyalty to the Divine +ideal of universal fellowship that found its supreme expression in the +Incarnation and its justification in the truth that God so loved the +world. + +To the Christian man national life can never be an end in itself but +always a means to an end beyond itself. A nation exists to serve the +cause of humanity; by what it gives, not by what it gets, will its worth +be estimated at the judgment-bar of God. + +"Whoso loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" must +have seemed a hard saying to those to whom it was first spoken; and +"whoso loveth city or fatherland more than me is not worthy of me" may +seem a hard saying to us to-day; yet nothing less than this is involved +in our pledge of loyalty to Christ. Christian patriotism never found +more passionate expression than in St Paul's wish that he might be +anathema for the sake of his nation; yet passionately as he loved his +own people, he loved with a deeper passion the Catholic Church within +which there was neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor +free. It is because the idea of the Catholic Church has become to the +majority of Christian people a matter of intellectual assent rather than +of passionate conviction that the Church seems impotent in international +affairs. + +The last four centuries of European history have had as their special +characteristic the development of nations. It may be that after this war +we shall pass into a new era. The special feature of the period now +closing has been the insecurity of national life. Menaced with constant +danger, every nation has tended to develop an exaggerated +self-consciousness that was liable to become inflamed and +over-sensitive. If adequate security can be provided, by a League of +Nations, or in some other way, for the free development of the national +life of every nation, the senseless over-emphasis of nationality from +which the past has suffered will no longer hinder the growth of a true +Internationalism. I believe that the real alternative lies not between +Nationality and Internationalism but between an Internationalism +founded, like that of the 18th century, on non-Christian culture and +materialism, and an Internationalism founded on the consecration of all +the local loyalties that bind a man to family, city and nation, lifting +him through local spheres of service to the service of the whole human +race for whom Christ died. The tree whose leaves are for the healing of +the nations grows only in the City of God. The Christian forces in the +world are impotent to guide the future, because they are entangled in +the present. Yet it is in the Holy Catholic Church that the one hope for +humanity lies. It may be that that hope will never be realised; that the +Holy Catholic Church is destined to remain to the end an unachieved +ideal. But it is by unachieved ideals that men and nations live; and +what matters most for every Christian man is that he should keep the +Catholic mind and heart that reach out through home and city and country +to all mankind, and rejoice that every man has an equal place in the +impartial love of God. + + +CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY +J. B. PEACE, M.A., +AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The War and Unity, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND UNITY *** + +***** This file should be named 18905-8.txt or 18905-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/0/18905/ + +Produced by Irma pehar, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The War and Unity + Being Lectures Delivered At The Local Lectures Summer + Meeting Of The University Of Cambridge, 1918 + +Author: Various + +Editor: David Herbert Somerset Cranage + +Release Date: July 25, 2006 [EBook #18905] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND UNITY *** + + + + +Produced by Irma pehar, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> +<h1>THE WAR AND UNITY</h1> + +<p class='tbrk'> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p> +<h3>CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS<br /> +C. F. CLAY, <span class="smcap">Manager</span><br /> +LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4</h3> + +<h4>NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +BOMBAY } <br /> +CALCUTTA } MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.<br /> +MADRAS } <br /> +TORONTO: J. M. DENT AND SONS, LTD.<br /> +TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA</h4> + +<h4>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</h4> + +<p class='tbrk'> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> +<h1>THE WAR AND UNITY</h1> + +<h3>BEING LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE<br /> +LOCAL LECTURES SUMMER MEETING OF<br /> +THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 1918</h3> + +<p class='tbrk'> </p> + +<h3>EDITED BY THE REV.<br /> +D. H. S. CRANAGE, <span class="smcap">Litt.D.</span><br /> +KING'S COLLEGE</h3> + +<p class='tbrk'> </p> + +<h3>CAMBRIDGE<br /> +AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS<br /> +1919</h3> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>For some time past the Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate have +arranged a Summer Meeting in Cambridge every other year in connexion +with the Local Lectures. The scheme of study has always included a +number of theological lectures, and at the last two meetings an attempt +has been made to deal with some of the religious and moral problems +suggested by the War. In 1916 a course of lectures was delivered, and +afterwards published by the University Press, on <i>The Elements of Pain +and Conflict in Human Life</i>. In 1918 the Syndicate decided to arrange a +course on Unity. It was at first suggested that the lectures should be +confined to the subject of Christian Reunion, but it was finally +arranged to deal not only with Unity between Christian Denominations, +but with Unity between Classes, Unity in the Empire, and Unity between +Nations.</p> + +<p>Many of those who attended expressed a strong wish that the lectures +should be published, and the Lecturers and the Syndicate have cordially +agreed to their request. The central idea of the course is undeniably +vital at the present time, and the book is now issued in the hope that +it may be of some help in the period of "reconstruction."</p> + +<p class='right'>D. H. S. <span class="smcap">Cranage</span>, <br /> +Secretary of the Cambridge University<br /> +Local Lectures. </p> + +<p><i>November 1918.</i></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<h3><a href="#UNITY_BETWEEN_CHRISTIAN_DENOMINATIONS">UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS</a></h3> + +<div class="index"> +<ul> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#I_A_GENERAL_VIEW">I.</a></span> <span class="smcap">A General View</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> </span> By the Reverend V. H. Stanton, D.D., +Fellow of Trinity College, Regius Professor +of Divinity.</li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#II_THE_CHURCH_IN_THE_FURNACE">II.</a></span> <span class="smcap">The Church in the Furnace</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> </span> By the Reverend Eric Milner-White, M.A., +D.S.O., Fellow and Dean of King's College, +late Chaplain to the Forces.</li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#III_THE_PROBLEM_OF_THE_ENGLISH_FREE_CHURCHES">III.</a></span> <span class="smcap">The Problem of the English Free Churches</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> </span> By the Reverend W. B. Selbie, M.A. (Oxford +and Cambridge), Hon. D.D. (Glasgow), Principal +of Mansfield College, Oxford.</li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#IV_THE_SCOTTISH_PROBLEM">IV.</a></span> <span class="smcap">The Scottish Problem</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> </span> By the Very Reverend James Cooper, D.D. +(Aberdeen), Hon. Litt.D. (Dublin), Hon. +D.C.L. (Durham), V.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical +History in the University of Glasgow, +ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland.</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#UNITY_BETWEEN_CLASSES">UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES</a></h3> + +<div class="index"> +<ul> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#AI">I.</a></span> By the Right Reverend F. T. Woods, D.D., +Trinity College, Lord Bishop of Peterborough.</li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#AII">II.</a></span> By the Right Honourable J. R. Clynes, M.P., Minister of Food.</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> +<h3><a href="#UNITY_IN_THE_EMPIRE">UNITY IN THE EMPIRE</a></h3> + +<p class='center'>By F. J. Chamberlain, C.B.E., Assistant General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association.</p> + +<h3><a href="#UNITY_BETWEEN_NATIONS">UNITY BETWEEN NATIONS</a></h3> + +<p class='center'>By the Reverend J. H. B. Masterman, M.A., St John's College, Rector of St Mary-le-Bow +Church, Canon of Coventry, late Professor of History in the University of Birmingham.</p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="UNITY_BETWEEN_CHRISTIAN_DENOMINATIONS" id="UNITY_BETWEEN_CHRISTIAN_DENOMINATIONS"></a>UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS</h2> + +<h2><a name="I_A_GENERAL_VIEW" id="I_A_GENERAL_VIEW"></a>I. A GENERAL VIEW</h2> + +<h3>By the Rev. V. H. <span class="smcap">Stanton</span>, D.D.</h3> + +<p>The governing idea of this early morning course, which at the present as +at former Summer Meetings is devoted to a subject connected with +religious belief, is this year the power that Christianity has, or is +fitted to have, to unite Christian denominations with one another, and +also to unite races and nations, and different portions of that +commonwealth of nations which we call the British Empire, and different +classes within our own nation. A moment's reflection will shew that the +question of unity between denominations of Christians derives special +significance from being placed in connexion with all those other cases +in regard to which the promotion of unity is to be considered. If it +belongs to the genius of Christianity to be a uniting power, it is above +all in the sphere of professed and organised Christianity, where +Christians are grouped together <i>as</i> Christians, that its influence in +producing union should be shewn. If it fails in this here, what hope, it +may well be asked, can there be that it should be effective, when its +principles and motives cannot be applied with the same directness and +force? In the very assumption, then, which underlies this whole course +of lectures, that Christianity can unite men, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> have a special reason +for considering our relations to one another as members of Christian +bodies, with regard to this matter of unity.</p> + +<p>But we are also all of us aware that the divisions among Christians are +often severely commented on by those who refuse to make any definite +profession of the Christian Religion, and are given by them sometimes as +a ground of their own position of aloofness. It is true that strictures +passed on the Christian Religion and its professors for failures in +this, as well as in other respects, frequently shew little discernment, +and are more or less unjust. So far as they are made to reflect on +Christianity itself, allowance is not made for the nature of the human +material upon which and with which the Christian Faith and Divine Grace +have to work. And when Christians of the present day are treated as if +they were to blame for them, sufficient account is not taken of the long +and complex history, and the working of motives, partly good as well as +bad, through which Christendom has been brought to its present divided +condition. Still we cannot afford to disregard the hindrance to the +progress of the Christian Faith and Christian Life among men created by +the existing divisions among Christians. Harm is caused by them in +another way of which we may be, perhaps, less conscious. They bring loss +to ourselves individually within the denominations to which we severally +belong. We should gain incalculably from the strengthening of our faith +through a wider fellowship with those who share it, the greater volume +of evidence for the reality of spiritual things which would thus be +brought before us; and from the enrichment of our spiritual knowledge +and life through closer acquaintance with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> variety of types of +Christian character and experience; and not least from that moral +training which is to be obtained through common action, in proportion to +the effort that has to be made in order to understand the point of view +of others, and the suppression of mere egoism that is involved.</p> + +<p>These are strong reasons for aiming at Christian unity. But further +there comes to all of us at this time a powerful incentive to reflection +on the subject, and to such endeavours to further it as we can make, in +the signs of a movement towards it, the greater prominence which the +subject has assumed in the thought of Christians, the evidence of more +fervent aspirations after it, the clearer recognition of the injury +caused by divisions. I remember that some 40 or more years ago, one of +the most eminent and justly esteemed preachers of the day defended the +existence of many denominations among Christians on the ground that +through their competition a larger amount of work for the advance of the +kingdom of God is accomplished. We are not so much in love with +competition and its effects in any sphere now. And it should always have +been perceived that, whatever its rightful place in the economic sphere +might be, it had none in the promotion of purely moral and spiritual +ends. The preacher to whom I have alluded did not stand alone in his +view, though perhaps it was not often so frankly expressed. But at least +acquiescence in the existence of separated bodies of Christians, as a +thing inevitable, was commoner than it is now.</p> + +<p>In the new attitude to this question of the duty of unity that has +appeared amongst us there lies an opportunity which we must beware of +neglecting. It is a move<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>ment of the Spirit to which it behoves us to +respond energetically, or it will subside. Shakespeare had no doubt a +different kind of human enterprises mainly in view when he wrote:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>There is a tide in the affairs of men,</div> +<div>Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;</div> +<div>Omitted, all the voyage of their life</div> +<div>Is bound in shallows and in miseries.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>But this observation is broadly true of all human progress. An advance +of some kind in the relations of men to one another, or the remedying of +some abuse, begins to be urged here and there, and for a time those who +urge it are but little listened to. Then almost suddenly (as it seems) +the minds of many, one hardly knows why, become occupied with it. If in +the generation when that happens desire leads to concentrated effort, +the good of which men have been granted the vision in their minds and +souls will be attained. Otherwise interest in it will pass away, and the +hope of securing it, at least for a long time, will be lost.</p> + +<p>Before we attempt to consider any of the problems presented by the +actual state of Christendom in connexion with the subject now before us, +let us go back in thought to the position of believers in Jesus Christ +of the first generation, when His own brief earthly life had ended. They +form a fellowship bound together by faith in their common Lord, by the +confident hopes with which that faith has inspired them, and the new +view of life and its duties which they have acquired. Soon indeed +instances occur in which the bonds between different members of the body +become strained, owing especially to differences of origin and character +in the elements of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> which it was composed. We have an example at a very +early point in the narrative of the book of <i>Acts</i> in the +dissatisfaction felt by believers from among Hellenistic Jews, who were +visiting, or had again taken up their abode at, Jerusalem, because a +fair share of the alms was not assigned to their poor by the Palestinian +believers, who had the advantage of being more permanently established +in the city, and were probably the majority. But the chiefs among the +brethren, the Apostles, take wise measures to remove the grievance and +prevent a breach.</p> + +<p>A few years later a far more serious difference arises. Jewish believers +in Jesus had continued to observe the Mosaic Law. When converts from +among the Gentiles began to come in the question presented itself, "Is +observance of that Law to be required of them?" Only on condition that +it was would many among the Jewish believers associate with them. In +their eyes still all men who did not conform to the chief precepts of +this Law were unclean. It is possible that there were Jews of liberal +tendencies, men who had long lived among Gentiles, to whom this +difficulty may have seemed capable of settlement by some compromise. But +in the case of most Jews, not merely in Palestine, but probably also in +the Jewish settlements scattered through the Græco-Roman world, +religious scruples, ingrained through the instruction they had received +and the habits they had formed from child-hood, were deeply offended by +the very notion of joining in common meals with Gentiles, unless they +had fulfilled the same conditions as full proselytes to Judaism, the +so-called "proselytes of righteousness." On behalf, however, of Gentiles +who had adopted the Faith of Christ, it was felt that the demand for the +fulfilment of this condition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> of fellowship must be resisted at once and +to the uttermost. So St Paul held. To concede it would have caused +intolerable interference with Gentile liberty, and hindrance to the +progress of the preaching of the Gospel and its acceptance in the world. +And further—upon this consideration St Paul insisted above all—the +requirement that Gentiles should keep the Jewish Law might be taken to +imply, and would certainly encourage, an entirely mistaken view of what +was morally and spiritually of chief importance; it would put the +emphasis wrongly in regard to that which was essential in order that man +might be in a right relation to God and in the way of salvation.</p> + +<p>But the point in the history of this early controversy to which I desire +in connexion with our present subject to draw attention is the fact that +it is not suggested from any side that Jewish Christians and Gentile +Christians should form two separate bodies that would exist side by side +in the many cities where both classes were to be found, keeping to their +respective spheres, endeavouring to behave amicably to one another, +"agreeing to differ" as the saying is. This would have been the plan, we +may (I think) suppose, which would have seemed the best to that worldly +wisdom, which is so often seen to be folly when long and broad views of +history are taken. And we can imagine that not a few of the +ecclesiastical leaders of recent centuries might have proposed it, if +they had been there to do so. For never, perhaps, have there been more +natural reasons for separation than might have been found in those +national and racial differences, and in those incompatibilities due to +previous training and associations between Christians of Jewish and +Gentile origin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> Yet it is assumed all through that they <i>must</i> combine. +And St Paul is not only sure himself that to this end Jewish prejudices +must be overcome, but he is able to persuade the elder Apostles of this, +as also James who presided over the believers at Jerusalem, though they +had been slower than he to perceive what vital principles were at stake. +Believers of both classes must join in the Christian Agapæ, or +love-feasts, and must partake of the same Eucharist, because the many +are one loaf<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>, one body. They must grasp, and give practical effect +to, the principle that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor +free, neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>."</p> + +<p>For that society, or organism, into which Jewish and Gentile believers +were alike brought, a name was found; it was that of <i>Ecclesia,</i> +translated <i>Church</i>. It will be worth our while to spend a few moments +on the use of this name and its significance. We find mention in the New +Testament of "the Church" and of "Churches." What is the relation +between the singular term and the plural historically, and what did the +distinction import? The sublime passages concerning the Church as the +Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ occur in the Epp. to the +Colossians and Ephesians<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>, which are not among the early Pauline +Epistles. Nevertheless in comparatively early Epistles, the authorship +of which by St Paul himself is rarely disputed, there are expressions +which seem plainly to shew that he thought of the Church as a single +body to which all who had been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ +belonged. In the Epp. to the Galatians and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> 1 Corinthians<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> he refers +to the fact that he persecuted the "Church of God," and his persecution +was not confined to believers in Jerusalem or even in Judæa, but +extended to adjacent regions. He might have spoken of "the Churches of +Syria," as he does elsewhere (using the plural) of those of Judæa, +Galatia, Asia, Macedonia<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>. But he prefers to speak of the Church, and +he describes it as "the Church of God." The impiety of his action thus +appeared in its true light. He had not merely attacked certain local +associations, but that sacred body—"the Church of God." Again, it is +evident that he is thinking of a society embracing believers everywhere +when he writes to the Corinthians concerning different forms of +ministry, "God placed some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily +prophets" and so forth<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>. Again, when he bids the Corinthians, "Give no +occasion of stumbling, either to Jews or to Greeks, or to the Church of +God<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>," or asks them whether they "despise the Church of God<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>," +although it was their conduct to brethren among whom they lived that was +especially in question, it is evident that, as in the case of his own +action as a persecutor, the gravity of the fault can in his view only be +truly measured when it is realised that each individual Church is a +representative of the Church Universal. This representative character of +local Churches also appears in the expression common in his Epistles, +the "Church in" such and such a place.</p> + +<p>The usage of St Paul's Epistles does not, therefore, encourage the idea +that the application of the term <i>ecclesia</i> to particular associations +preceded its application<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> to the whole body, but the contrary, and +plainly it expressed for him from the first a most sublime conception. I +may add that there is no reason to suppose that the use of the term +originated with him. We find it in the Gospel according to St Matthew, +the Epistle of St James and the Apocalypse of St John, writings which +shew no trace of his influence.</p> + +<p>There is no passage of the New Testament from which it is possible to +infer clearly the idea which underlay its application to believers in +Jesus Christ. But when it is considered how full of the Old Testament +the minds of the first generation of Christians were, it must appear to +be in every way most probable that the word <i>ecclesia</i> suggested itself +because it is the one most frequently employed in the Greek translation +of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) to render the Hebrew word +kāhāl, the chief term used for the assembly of Israel in the +presence of God, gathered together in such a manner and for such +purposes as forced them to realise their distinctive existence as a +people, and their peculiar relation to God. The believers in Jesus now +formed the <i>ecclesia</i> of God, the true Israel, which in one sense was a +continuation of the old and yet had taken its place. This was the view +put forward by Dr Hort in his lectures on the Christian Ecclesia<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>, and +it is at the present time widely, I believe I may say generally, held. I +may mention that the eminent German Church historians, A. Harnack<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +and Sohm<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>, give it without hesitation as the true one.</p> + +<p>Among the Jews the thought of the people in its rela<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>tion to God was +associated with great assemblies in the courts and precincts of the +temple at Jerusalem, which altogether overshadowed any expression of +their covenant relation to God as a people which they could find in +their synagogue-worship, however greatly they valued the bonds with one +another which were strengthened, and the spiritual help which they +obtained, through their synagogues. But Christians had no single, +central meeting-place for their common worship at which their ideal +unity was embodied. It was, therefore, all the more natural that the +exalted name which described that unity should be transferred to the +communities in different places which shared the life, the privileges, +and the responsibilities of the whole, and in many ways stood to those +who composed them severally for the whole. The divisions between these +communities were local only. They arose from the limitations to +intercourse and common action which distance imposed. Or, in cases where +the Church in some Christian's house is referred to, they were due to +the necessity, or the great convenience, of meeting in small numbers, +owing to the want of buildings for Christian worship, or the hostility +of the surrounding population. Moreover these local bodies were not +suffered to forget the ties which bound them all together. Those in the +Greek-speaking world were required to send alms to the Churches in +Judæa. Again an individual Church was not free to disregard the judgment +of the rest. After St Paul has reasoned with the Corinthians on the +subject of a practice which he deemed inexpedient, he clinches the +matter by declaring, "we have no such custom neither the Churches of +God<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>." Lastly, the Apostles, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> preeminently St Paul, through their +mission which, if not world-wide, at least extended over large +districts, and the care of the Churches which they exercised, and the +authority which they claimed in the name of Christ, and which was +conceded to them, were a unifying power.</p> + +<p>Thus the plural "the Churches" has in important respects a different +connotation in the New Testament from that which it has in modern times. +In the Apostolic Age the distinction between the Church and the Churches +is connected only with the different degrees to which a common life +could be realised according to geographical proximity. By a division of +this nature the idea of One Universal Church was not compromised. The +local body of Christians in point of fact rightly regarded itself as +representative of the whole body. The Christians in that place were the +Church so far as it extended there.</p> + +<p>The preservation of unity within the Church of each place where it was +imperilled by rivalries and jealousies and misunderstandings, such as +are too apt to shew themselves when men are in close contact with one +another, and of unity between the Churches of regions remote from one +another, in which case the sense of it is likely to be weak through want +of knowledge and consequently of sympathy—these appear as twin-aims +severally pursued in the manner that each required. Not indeed that it +is implied that everything is to be sacrificed to unity. But it is +demanded that the most strenuous endeavours shall be made to maintain +it, and it appears to be assumed that without any breach of it, loyalty +to every other great principle, room for the rightful exercise of every +individual gift, recognition of every aspect of Divine truth the +perception of which may be granted to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> one or other member of the body, +can be secured, if Christians cultivate right dispositions of mutual +affection and respect.</p> + +<p>There is one more point in regard to the idea of the Church in the New +Testament as to which we must not suffer ourselves to be misled, or +confused, by later conceptions and our modern habits of thought. We have +become accustomed to a distinction between the Church Visible and the +Church Invisible which makes of them two different entities. According +to this, one man who is a member of the Church Visible may at the same +time, if he is a truly spiritual person, even while here on earth belong +to the Church Invisible; but another who has a place in the Church +Visible has none and it may be never will have one in the Church +Invisible. This conception, though it had appeared here and there before +the 16th century, first obtained wide vogue then under the influence of +the Protestant Reformation.</p> + +<p>It arose through a very natural reaction from the mechanical view of +membership in the Church, its conditions and privileges, which had grown +up in the Middle Ages. But it does not correspond to the ideas of the +Apostolic Age. According to these there is but one Church, the same as +to its true being on earth as it is in heaven, one Body of Christ, +composed of believers in Him who had been taken to their rest and of +those still in this world. In the earlier part of the Apostolic Age the +great majority were in fact still in this world. The Body was chiefly a +Visible Body. It had many imperfections. Some of its members might even +have no true part in it at all and require removal. But Christ Himself +"sanctifies and cleanses it that He may present it"—that very same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +Church—"to Himself a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any +such thing, but holy and without blemish<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>."</p> + +<p>Now while one can understand the point of view from which in later times +so deep a line of demarcation has been drawn between the Visible and the +Invisible Church as to make of them two entirely separate things, and +although to many it may still seem hard to do without this distinction, +or in the existing condition of the nominally Christian world to employ +that primitive conception of the Church even as, so to speak, a working +hypothesis, I would ask whether the primitive conception is not a nobler +and sounder one. Surely it places the ideal in its right relation to the +actual. The full realisation of the ideal no doubt belongs only to +another world; yet if we believe in it as an ideal we must seek to +actualise it here. There is something unwholesome in acknowledging any +ideal which we do not strive so far as we can to actualise. And plainly +participation in the same grace, and the spiritual ties arising +therefrom, ought to find expression in an outer life of fellowship, of +intercourse and common action, and such common organisation as for human +beings in this world these require. No doubt it is always too possible +that the outward may hinder the perception of the inward. But if we can +guard successfully against this danger, the inward and spiritual will +become all the more potent by having the external form through which to +work; while the outward, if it is too sharply dissevered in thought from +the inward, loses its value and even becomes injurious.</p> + +<p>Again, a view of the Church is more wholesome which does not encourage +us to classify its members in a manner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> only possible to the Allseeing +God; to draw a line between true believers and others, and to determine +(it may be) on which side of the line different ones are by their having +had spiritual experiences similar to our own, and having learned to use +the same religious language that we do; but which on the contrary leads +us to think of all as under the Heavenly Father's care, and subject to +the influences of the Holy Spirit, and placed in that Body of Christ +where, although the spiritual life in them is as yet of very various +degrees of strength, and their knowledge of things Divine in many cases +small, all may and are intended to advance to maturity in Christ.</p> + +<p>It is necessary that the relation of the idea of the Church upon which I +have been dwelling to her subsequent history for centuries should be +clearly apprehended. Its hold on the minds of Christians preceded the +very beginnings of organisation in the Christian communities, and it +would probably be no exaggeration to say that it governed the whole +evolution of that organisation for many centuries. Particular offices +were doubtless instituted and men appointed to them with specific +reference to needs which were making themselves felt. But all the while +that idea of the Church's unity and of her holiness was present in their +thoughts. And certainly as soon as it becomes necessary to insist upon +the duty of loyalty to those who had been duly appointed to office, and +directly or indirectly to defend the institutions themselves, appeal is +made to the idea, as notably by the two chief Christians in the +Sub-Apostolic Age, Clement of Rome and Ignatius.</p> + +<p>It is in itself evidence of a common spirit and common tendencies that +broadly speaking the same form of con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>stitution in the local Christian +communities, though not introduced everywhere with quite equal rapidity, +was so nearly everywhere almost on the confines of the Apostolic Age, +and that soon it was everywhere. Ere long, with this form of government +as a basis, plans were adopted expressly for the purpose of uniting the +local Churches on terms of equality among themselves, especially in +combating error. And at length in the name still of the Church's unity +there came, however much we may regret it, the centralisation of Western +Christendom in the See of Rome.</p> + +<p>All these measures of organisation, from the earliest to the latest of +them, were means to an end; and we shall regard them differently. But we +ought not any of us to regard means, however they may commend themselves +to us, and however sacred and dear their associations may be, in the +same way as we do the end. There must always be the question, which will +present itself in a different light to different minds, whether +particular means, even though men may have been led by the Holy Spirit +to employ them, were intended for all time. Moreover there are points in +regard to the earliest history of Church organisation which remain +obscure, in spite of all the labour that has been expended in +investigating them: for instance the exact relation of different +ministries, of the functions of different officers, to one another, the +exact moment when the orders of ministers which proved to be permanent +appeared in this or that important Church, the part which any of the +immediate disciples of Christ had in their establishment, the ideas +which at first were held as to the dependence of the rites of the Church +for their validity upon being performed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> by a lawful ministry. Upon +these matters, or some of them, it is possible for honest and competent +inquirers to hold different opinions. But no such doubt hangs over that +End which was also the Beginning, of the Church's life, that conception +of what she is, or ought to be, as the society of those who confess the +Name of Jesus Christ, and who are His Body. I insist upon this because I +think that amid discussions on the origin of the Christian Ministry, the +significance of that more fundamental question, namely, the right +conception of the Christian Church, is apt to be too much lost sight of. +About this, though men still do not, they ought to be able to agree, and +it should be our common inspiration, both impelling us and guiding us in +seeking our goal.</p> + +<p>We need it to impel us. The obstacles to the reunion of Christendom at +the present day are such that a motive which can be found is required to +induce and sustain action in seeking it, whenever and wherever the +opportunity for doing so presents itself; such a motive is to be found +in a deep conviction of the sacredness of this object, so that our eyes +maybe kept fixed upon it even when there appears to be no opening +through which an advance toward it can be made, and there is nothing to +be done save to wait and watch and pray. But in order also that the +result of any efforts that are made may be satisfactory, it is necessary +that our minds should be under the guidance of a great and true idea, +and that we should not simply be animated with the desire of meeting +immediate needs. These are the reasons which I think justify me for +having detained you so long over the consideration of the fundamental +conception of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> Church which is rooted in the Christian Faith itself +as it first appeared and spread in the world.</p> + +<p>I will now, however, before concluding make a few remarks on one part of +the complicated problem of reunion facing us to-day. The part of it on +which I desire to speak is the relations between the Church of England, +and the Churches in communion with her in various parts of the British +Empire and in the United States, on the one hand, and on the other +English Nonconformists, the Presbyterians of Scotland, and all +English-speaking Christians allied to or resembling these. It will, I +think, be generally felt that this is a part of the subject which for +more than one reason specially invites our attention. There are, indeed, +some, both clergy and laity, of the Church of England, though they are +but a very small number in comparison with its members as a whole, whose +interest in the subject of the reunion of Christendom is mainly shewn in +the desire to obtain recognition for the Church of England, as a portion +of the Church Catholic, from the great Church of the West. But in view +of the attitude maintained by that Church there appears to be no +prospect of this and nothing to be gained by attempts at negotiation. +Endeavours to establish intercommunion with the Churches of Eastern +Christendom may be made with more hope of success. Indeed there is +reason to think that in the years to come the Church of England may be +in a specially favourable position for getting into touch with these +Churches and assisting them to recover from the effects of the War, and +to make progress; and Englishmen generally would, I am sure, rejoice +that she should undertake such work. But the question of the duty to one +another of all those bodies of English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Christians which I have +specified comes nearer home and should press upon our minds and hearts +more strongly. It is a practical one in every English town and every +country parish, and almost everywhere throughout the world where the +English language is spoken. Moreover, even the most loyal members of the +Church of England, in spite of the points of principle on which they are +divided from those other English Christians, resemble them more closely +in many respects in their modes of thought, even on religion, than they +do the members of other portions of the ancient Catholic Church from +which they have become separated. And in addition to the distinctly +religious reasons for considering the possibility of drawing more +closely together and even ultimately uniting in one communion these +different denominations of British Christians, there is a patriotic +motive for doing so. Fuller religious sympathy, more cooperation, +between the members of these different denominations could not fail to +strengthen greatly the bonds between different classes amongst us, and +to increase the coherency of the whole nation and empire.</p> + +<p>It would be unwise, if in proposing steps towards reunion, difficulties +and dangers connected with them were ignored; and I believe it to be my +duty frankly to refer to some which suggest themselves to one looking +from a Churchman's point of view. There are two chief barriers to the +union of members of the Church of England and English Nonconformists +that must be mentioned.</p> + +<p>(1) That which I will refer to first is the connexion of the Church of +England with the State.</p> + +<p>This connexion is not, I think, such a hindrance to religious sympathy +as it was, but it would be untrue to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> say that it is none. And there is +of course the danger that if disestablishment became a political +question, and especially if it involved the deflection of endowments +which have long been used, and on the whole well-used, for the +maintenance and furtherance of religion to secular objects, feeling +between the majority of Churchmen and those who in consequence of their +views in the matter became opposed to them might be seriously +embittered. Yet there is good ground for hoping that the question of the +relations of Church and State and all matters connected therewith will +in the years that are coming be faced in a calmer spirit, and with truer +insight into important principles, than too often they have been in the +past. It should certainly be easier for those who approach them from +different sides to understand one another. Particular grievances +connected with inequality of treatment by the State have been removed; +while a broad principle for which Nonconformists stand in common has +come to be more clearly asserted, through their attaching increasingly +less significance to the grounds on which different bodies amongst them +were formed, as indicated in the names by which they have been severally +known, and banding themselves together as the "Free Churches." But in +the Church of England also in recent years there has been a growing +sense of the need of freedom. It is better realised than at one time +that in no circumstances could the Church rightly be regarded as a mere +department of the State, or even as the most important aspect of the +life of the State. However complete the harmony between Church and State +might be, the Church ought to have a corporate life of her own. She +requires such independence as may enable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> her to be herself, to do her +own work, to act according to the laws of her own being. This is +necessary even that she may discharge adequately her own function in the +nation.</p> + +<p>It is not part of my duty now to inquire in what respects the Church of +England lacks this freedom, or whether such readjustments in her +connexion with the State can be expected as would secure it to her, +implying as the making of them would that, although she does not now +include among her members more than half the nation, she is still for an +indefinitely long time to continue to be the official representative of +religion in the nation. But I would urge that when these points are +discussed the question should also be considered whether, in a nation +the great majority in which profess to be Christian, the State ought not +to make profession of the Christian religion, which involves its +establishment in some form, and whether there are not substantial +benefits especially of an educative kind to be derived therefrom for the +nation at large; and if so how this can in existing circumstances be +suitably done. It should be remembered that in many cases the +forefathers of those who are now separated from the National Church did +not hold that a connexion between Church and State under any form was +wrong; but on the contrary their idea of a true and complete national +life included one. I think it is well to recall the view in this matter +of men of another time. It is desirable that we should make our +consideration of the whole subject of Church and State as broad as we +can, and that we should strive not to be carried away into accepting +some solution which at the moment seems the easiest, when with a little +patience some better and truer one might be found possible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>(2) The other barrier to which I have referred is the claim of the +Church of England to a continuity of faith and life with the faith and +life of the Church Universal from the beginning, maintained in the first +place through a Ministry the members of which have in due succession +received their commission by means of the Historic Episcopate, and, +secondly, through the acknowledgment of certain early and widely +accepted creeds. This continuity was reasserted when the Church of +England started on her new career at the Reformation, though at the same +time the necessity was then strongly insisted on of testing the purity +and soundness of the Church's faith and forms of worship by Holy +Scripture. These guarantees and means of continuity are valued in very +different degrees by different sections of opinion in the Church of +England, and some who attach comparatively little importance to matters +of organisation would attach great importance to the formularies of +belief. But there can be no doubt that any steps which appeared +seriously to compromise the preservation of the great features of the +Church of England in either of these respects would cause deep +disturbance among her members. On the other hand, it will be readily +understood by all who can appreciate the changes that in our own and +recent generations have come in men's view of Nature and of Mind, and in +the interpretation of historical evidence, that definitions of belief +framed in the past may not in every point express accurately the beliefs +of all who nevertheless with full conviction own Jesus Christ as Lord. +It is obvious, I think, that, if the Christian Church is to endure, +there must be on the part of her members essential loyalty to the faith +out of which she sprang, and which has inspired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> her throughout the ages +to this day. But it is an anxious problem for the Church of England at +the present time—and it is likely to become so likewise, if it is not +yet, for all portions of the Church in which ancient standards of +belief, or those framed in the 16th century, or later, hold an +authoritative place—to decide wherein essential loyalty to "the faith +once delivered" consists.</p> + +<p>It may seem at first sight that when the Church of England has serious +questions to grapple with affecting her internal unity, and especially +affecting that unity in variety which to some considerable degree she +represents and which is the most valuable kind of unity, attempts to +join with other Christians outside her borders in considering a basis of +union with them are unwise at least at the moment, as tending to +increase the complexity and the difficulties of the position within, and +as therefore to be deprecated in the interests of unity itself. I do not +think so, but believe that assistance may thus be obtained in reaching a +satisfactory settlement even of internal difficulties.</p> + +<p>For, in the first place, there has of late been among members of the +Church of England a change of temper which should be a preparation for +considering her relations with those separated from her in a wiser and +more liberal spirit than has before been possible. Those Churchmen who +would insist most strongly on the necessity of preserving the Church's +ancient order do not usually maintain the attitude to dissent of the +Anglican High and Dry School, which was still common in the middle of +the 19th century. The work which Nonconformist bodies have done for the +spiritual and moral life of England, and the immense debt which we all +owe to them on that account, are thankfully admitted. No one indeed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> can +do otherwise than admit it thankfully who has eyes to see, and the sense +of justice and generosity of mind to acknowledge what he sees. And the +inference must be that, although the belief may be held as firmly as +ever that the Spirit of God inspired that Order which so early took +shape in the Church, and that He worked through it and continues to do +so, yet that also, when men have failed rightly to use the appointed +means, He has found other ways of working. This view, when it has had +its due influence upon thought, can hardly fail to affect profoundly the +measures proposed for healing the divisions which have arisen.</p> + +<p>Then, again, on the other side—the side of those separated from the +Church of England—there is more appreciation of the point of view of +Churchmen in respect to their links with the past and their idea of +Catholicity. This is due partly to a broader interest in the life of the +Church in former ages and the heroic and saintly characters which they +produced than since the Reformation has been common among those English +Christians, who are, in a special sense, children of the Reformation; +partly, perhaps, to a growing doubt, as views of Christian truth have +become larger, whether after all a single doctrine or opinion, or +reverence for the teaching of one man, can make a satisfactory basis for +the permanent grouping of Christians. At the same time in regard to +fundamental Christian belief, the meaning which the revelation of God in +Christ has for them, they are and are conscious of being at one with the +Church.</p> + +<p>Striking evidence of these new tendencies of thought on both sides is to +be seen in the movement originated by the Protestant Episcopal Church of +the United States for a World-Conference on Faith and Order, and in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +manner in which the proposal for such a Conference has been received in +England, and the steps already taken in preparation for it. A body of +representatives of the Church of England and of the Free Churches has +been appointed, and a Committee of this body has already published +suggestions for a basis of union. These have still, I understand, to +come before the general body of English representatives, and it is +intended (I believe) that the proposals of the Committee, after being +examined and possibly amended and supplemented by the larger body, +should, with any proposals that may be made from similar joint-bodies in +the United States and in the British Dominions, be considered by a body +of representatives from the whole of this vast area. Any conclusions +which are thus reached must then lie, so to speak, before all the +denominations concerned. Opportunity must be given for their being +widely studied and explained and reflected upon, and if need be +criticized. For the Church of Christ is, or ought to be, in a true sense +a democratic society, a society in which, subject to its governing +principles, the spiritual consciousness of all the faithful should make +itself felt.</p> + +<p>For the end of such a process as this we must wait a considerable time. +Meanwhile there are obvious ways in which the cause of unity may be +promoted; viz. through seeking for a larger amount of intercourse with +the members of other denominations than our own; for more joint study of +religious questions and frank interchange of views, and more cooperation +in various forms of moral and social endeavour. The way would thus be, +we may hope, prepared for fuller intercommunion, and it may be for +corporate reunion.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> 1 Cor. x. 17, R.V. mg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Gal. iii. 28</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Col. i. 18, 24; Eph. i. 22, v. 23 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Gal. i. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 19; 2 Cor. viii. 1; Gal. i. 2, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> 1 Cor. xii. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> 1 Cor. x. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> 1 Cor. xi. 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>The Christian Ecclesia</i>, pp. 3 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Die Mission u. Ausbreitung d. Christentums</i>, p. 292.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Kirchenrecht</i>, 1. pp. 16 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> 1 Cor. xi. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Ephes. v. 26, 27.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> +<h2>UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS</h2> + +<h2><a name="II_THE_CHURCH_IN_THE_FURNACE" id="II_THE_CHURCH_IN_THE_FURNACE"></a>II. THE CHURCH IN THE FURNACE</h2> + +<h3>By the Rev. E. <span class="smcap">Milner-White</span>, M.A., D.S.O.</h3> + +<p>At last we have begun to see the absolute necessity of Unity in Christ, +of religious reunion, for the sake of both Christianity and the world.</p> + +<p>For several years devout Christians in England have been growing more +and more uneasy about their acquiescence in religious division. The +reading of the Gospels, and especially the eighteenth chapter of St +John, where He prays on the threshold of His agony that His disciples +may be one, even as He and the Father are one, has become nothing less +than a torment to those who have any real passion for the doing of God's +will, or who are humbled by the tremendous love of our Lord Jesus +Christ, for each and for all. Thus far have we gone from the clear mind +of Christ; thus far have we ruined His plans for the health and +happiness of the world; thus far have we failed to imitate or display +the love, the humility, the self-sacrifice, that walked to Calvary: He +bade us be <i>one</i>, and to <i>love</i>; we, the disciples, have chosen to hate +and be many.</p> + +<p>English Christianity alone is split into hundreds of denominations. The +fact is its own grim condemnation. We had lost even the sense that +division mattered. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> quite ridiculous to pretend that nothing is +wrong with the religious ideas or state of a race, which produces +hundreds of bodies, big and small, to worship Him who only asked that +His worshippers should be ONE. Denomination itself has become a word of +shame which we shall not be able to use much longer. It brings up at +once the thought of something partial, little, far less than the Body +for which Christ died; and a host of yet more horrid pictures of old +squabbles and present rivalries, of contempt and bitterness and +controversy. It does not suggest one <i>Christian</i> idea at all.</p> + +<p>These uneasy thoughts even before the war were brought home by the +practical results of disunion as worked out inevitably in the colonies +and mission field. The language is not too strong that labels them +monstrous. Here was the flower of our Christian devotion going forth to +heathen wilds, meeting by God's grace with wide success; and +establishing our little local denominations firmly in the nations, +tribes, and islands of Asia, Africa, and Australasia; rendering it hard +for a native Christian who moves from his home to get elsewhere the +accustomed ministries and means of grace vital to his young faith; +planting seeds of future quarrel at the very birth of new tribes into +the Prince of Peace. In the Dominions, with their thin and widely +scattered populations, other phenomena, equally deplorable, are +manifest—five churches in places where one suffices, appalling waste of +effort and money, and even ugly competition for adherents.</p> + +<p>In England we hardly saw these things. The population was large enough +and indifferent enough to God to provide room for the activities of all. +The indifference indeed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> seemed to be growing. We did not stop to think +whether disgust at continuous controversy had not done much to cause +that indifference—how far our divisions simply manufactured scepticism +as to there being any religious truth—whether the obvious lovelessness +of such conditions was likely to recommend the religion of Love—whether +this disparate chaos was likely to be a field in which the Lord, who +designed and founded one brotherhood of believers, could work or give +His grace to the uttermost. No, the Christianity of our Christians has +tended to be a thin individual thing, with interests scarcely extended +beyond its own local congregation, which is bad enough; or still worse, +in our towns, content to wander from congregation to congregation, +owning no discipline or loyalty at all.</p> + +<p>And yet in the same breath as we say, "I believe in God," we also say, +most of us, "I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church." It is a +crowning mercy that we do say it; that we do bear witness so outright to +the state of sin in which we dwell; the clause does keep the mind of +Christ and our own duty before us, of establishing as the first, perhaps +the only hope of this sin-stained, war-stained earth, the brotherhood of +believers which shall be one.</p> + +<p>Then came the war, and in many ways the war, which has in every +direction cleared vision, and both deepened and simplified thought, has +brought home to every Christian both the disaster of disunion, and the +imperative need of attempting unity.</p> + +<p>You will expect me to give some account of the reaction of the chaplains +and the Church in France to this conviction. Perhaps I should make clear +my own position.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> Folk probably term me an "advanced High Churchman." I +should call myself "a Catholic"—an English Catholic, if you like—, at +any rate, one who cannot fairly be accused of ignorance of the details +and depths of our divisions; nor of underestimating their real +importance.</p> + +<p>The priests who went out as Chaplains to the Forces had an experience +somewhat similar to that of colonial or missionary priests—they +exercised their ministry under totally new conditions, and in a new +atmosphere. So did the Roman Catholics, Nonconformists, and +Presbyterians, but of course I do not speak for them in what follows. +But all the Church of England padres—high, low, broad—tell exactly the +same tale of their experience; between them there has been no division; +they have worked together in perfect harmony and keenness, largely +appropriating each other's methods. In a word, they have discovered how +false and artificial is the partisan atmosphere of home religion; and +when they return, will find it hard to tolerate any continuance of it.</p> + +<p>The Church of England is as a matter of fact divided roughly into three +sections, by no means corresponding to the "high, low, and broad," of +the church journals. Most Church of England men scarcely know what these +terms mean. No, it consists of a devoted inmost section, regular +churchgoers and communicants—and you will pardon me for thinking them +the best instructed, the freest, and the sturdiest Christians in the +world. They are of course in a minority, but they are actually numerous +enough to occupy the time and care of our whole ministry, which is far +below reasonable strength. Then comes a large fringe, who come to Church +occasionally,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> or even regularly, in the evening; who make little or no +use of the Sacraments, or of the more intimate devotions and +instructions provided: they are well disposed; but are not consciously +prepared to make <i>sacrifices</i> for their faith; and indeed are somewhat +ignorant of its contents and demands. Then thirdly, there is a yet +vaster multitude, baptised, married, and buried, perhaps by the Church, +and therefore counting themselves Church of England, but who come but +rarely within the orbit of Church life and teaching; and who, not to +mince words, are semi-pagan. Only <i>semi</i>-pagan because the ethics, +morals and traditions of England are Christian; and these people, +knowing little of Jesus Christ, and understanding less, and not +consciously moved by Him, yet not infrequently rise to heights of love +and sacrifice which would adorn the life of a saint.</p> + +<p>The mass of our parishioners in France, then, was not made up of the +inner circle—we were lucky if we found three or four in a unit—but of +the ill-instructed fringe, and the totally ignorant multitudes. The +horror and boredom of war, the personal insecurity, the difficulty of +understanding the ways of God, made all friendly to the parson with whom +hitherto they had never come into contact; and caused large numbers to +think things out, and to hunger for an understanding of God. Religion +became a common topic of discussion. The padres found themselves in a +larger world, where old labels and divisions simply had no meaning; and +where the first necessity and work was to preach Christ and teach the +meaning of the Faith. They felt also, very quickly, that this interest +in ultimate things did not mean that men became friendly to organised +religion in any form. On the contrary, their hostility<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> and distrust +toward all religious bodies were marked. The chaplains had that common +and dreadful experience of foreign missionaries, of feeling themselves +alone, closed round by thick dark walls of unsympathy and worse. They +longed for the help and support of any genuine friend of Christ, +whatever body he belonged to. I was called upon to preach the National +Mission in a peculiarly hostile and irresponsive camp of motor lorry +drivers, who much resented the use of "their" Y.M.C.A. hut for such +religious purposes. A Wesleyan minister had charge of it, and got far +more of their blunt language than I the visitor did; but he worked +undismayed and unreservedly for all he was worth, for the National +Mission and for me. The alliance was natural, real, inevitable. He and +I, and some five or six men of that camp, were clearly on one side, and +the rest of it on the other, of an exceeding broad gulf. With this as a +daily experience, a man's values changed rapidly; and it became quite +obvious that, even to begin to fight the battle of Christianity in the +modern world, Christians must be united.</p> + +<p>This assurance was reinforced by the quite extraordinary scandal that +the mere fact of religious disunion caused both to officers and men. It +was the big, obvious "damper" on the very threshold of +Christianity—"see how these Christians hate one another." Officers +would throw the taunt up again and again in the Mess, and the men lying +down to talk themselves to sleep in their comfortless barns would begin +to talk about religion with at heart a wistful longing to understand it +and know its help and power. At once, someone would bring up the picture +of squabbling denominations, and the wistfulness and hope would be slain +by scorn. Next day and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> every day, the glaring scandal would be laid +before the chaplain; who had little enough to answer. Of course, it is +quite false to suppose that the existence and continuance of division +are due to the clergy. Our English schisms have been caused at least as +much by over-eager laymen as by over-eager clergy; and I think if it +were left to the clergy alone the process of reuniting would be very +rapid. In our Division, for instance, the three Nonconformist Chaplains +to the Forces and I used to talk over the whole question; one was an +orthodox Wesleyan, another a Primitive, and the other a United +Methodist; and they did not hesitate to say that Methodist reunion had +taken place more than ten years ago if it had been left to the ministers +alone. But the average Englishman naturally blames the official +representatives of religion, their ministries, for the obvious and open +disgrace of division in the religion of love; he is ignorant of the +excuses that history, and the real importance of the matters in dispute, +afford; he only sees the evil fact; and it is quite enough by itself to +excuse his closer association with so harsh a contradiction of the first +principle of Christ and Christianity.</p> + +<p>Then again in France, one came up violently against the sheer nuisance +and waste of division. Imagine upon a Friday every C.O. and adjutant +(and adjutants are always over-worked) of every unit approached by three +Chaplains—Church of England, Roman Catholic, and Nonconformist; and +requested to make different arrangements at different times for +different fractions of his command to attend divine service on the +Sunday. This in the midst of modern war, where organisation for war +purposes is complex and laborious enough. The mere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> typing and +circulating of these arrangements at Brigade and Divisional H.Q. mean in +sum total a vast expenditure of paper and labour. The chaplains, who, I +hope, are at least gentlemen, feel considerable shame at being the +guiltless authors of these confusions. And the effect is so deplorable. +Just when the nation is one, just when each military unit seeks to +promote, for mere military efficiency, the <i>esprit de corps</i> of its +oneness, the religion of the one Christ enters as a thing which almost +flaunts fissure. Or again, think of the mere waste of pastoral +efficiency involved in this fact. Each infantry brigade consists roughly +of four battalions, and three or four somewhat smaller units (R.A.M.C, +M.G.C., etc.). For these there are four chaplains, normally two Church +of England (who have 80 per cent. of the men under their care), one +Roman Catholic and one Presbyterian or Nonconformist. The two latter +have to do the best they can each to get round all these scattered units +to provide for small handfuls of men in each. Each of the Church of +England chaplains has to arrange for a whole half brigade. How much more +efficiently and thoroughly, with how much less needless labour, had the +work been done, if an one Church could have set one chaplain to live +each with one battalion, and be responsible as well for one smaller +unit. That had made it easy for a chaplain to know his flock intimately; +now it is next to impossible.</p> + +<p>But above and beyond these misfortunes, which after all are details, +must be ranked the big thoughts and truths which have swum into the +sight and experience of everybody. The first is this. Granted that the +Church like the world was surprised by the sudden outbreak of war, and +therefore could not stop it; yet that she should have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> no voice at all +even to denounce the unrighteousness and barbarities into which the +world plunges deeper every day does strike men as wrong. The Church +cannot speak because she is not one; even suppose all England be +actually one national Church, if it is only national, it will go the way +of the nation, and certainly cannot speak to other nations. For the +Church ever to acquire a world-voice in the cause of love and right +means that reunion and our desires for it must not stop short at home +reunion. Here the witness of Roman Catholicism to the necessity of +international Christianity is vital to the ideal of a reunited +Christendom. Men, far removed from his obedience, did look wistfully to +the Pope, conceding that he alone could speak such a word to the world +in the name of Christ; wide and deep has been the disappointment that it +was not spoken. Here again it is not the Pope, nor Roman Catholicism, +that is to blame, but the whole divided state of Christendom which +paralyses the action of each communion, even the strongest and most +widespread.</p> + +<p>I will mention only one other of these big truths—there are many of +them—that have come home to every man; where again Christian division +is the first and fatal obstacle in the way. This time it affects all the +looking forward to the end of the war, and the new world of peace. It is +unthinkable but that the new world must be one of brotherhood, not of +enmity; of love, not of hatred. Otherwise every drop of blood that has +been shed, every tear that has fallen, every death that has been died, +will be so much utter waste. That is the one most intolerably dark +thought in the days of darkness. There is a new policy open to the world +which it has never yet tried, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> work toward <i>the Dominance of Love</i>. +Every conceivable form of selfishness has in turn dominated the affairs +of nations and men; never yet has love been seriously tried. But there +will be no chance of International Friendship, Brotherhood, Love, if the +Church, the fellowship of Christians, who are after all set in the world +by their own confession, to live by love, to be the exemplars and hot +centre of love, cannot conspicuously shew forth love. How can the +nations be friends before Christians be brothers? We have only to act +according to our creed; and our creed does not only believe in +brotherhood, but in the continual help of God Himself in our efforts to +realise it. The influence upon the world even of a persevering <i>attempt</i> +to achieve a united Christendom would surely be decisive. Therefore the +reunion of Christendom becomes now the imperious vocation of every +Christian, the one preventive of our agony and loss going to waste, the +one hope of a loveless world, the clear next objective of the Church of +the living God.</p> + +<p>Before returning to the idea of the Dominance of Love, and a +consideration of first steps towards it, let us go back to France, and +watch the relations of the various communions there one to another after +four years of war.</p> + +<p>It is new and rather hard to describe. The first few months, when the +Chaplains to the Forces of the various denominations arrived with their +inherited home suspicions one of another, presented many difficulties +that might have increased ill-feeling. An army regulation which allows +the Church of England chaplain only to minister to Church of England +men, and the Roman Catholic to Roman Catholic men, etc., reduced the +chances of such conflict; and at the same time, the vast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>ness and +urgency of the work the chaplains had to do swallowed up all other +thoughts. As a writer in <i>The Church in the Furnace</i> said, "We have +heard with mingled irritation and amusement that good folk at home have +been exercised because an undue proportion of men of this party or that +have been sent out; the question out here is not 'To what party does he +belong?' but 'Is he capable by character and life of influencing men for +good, and winning them for God and His Church?'" Again, the extremely +free use of the Prayer Book and of any and every sort of devotion, at +any and every hour of day and night, has broken up all prejudiced +rigidity of use. Methods that did not help were dropped; methods that +helped men were welcome, from whatever source they came.</p> + +<p>So arose a great harmony, a harmony of energy and experiment; and +although in religious matters the Roman Catholics retained their +aloofness, the drawing together of other denominations, as represented +by their clergy, has been constant and perfectly natural and +unsuspicious. United services have not been common; each denomination +has confined itself loyally to its own men; what the statements in the +Lower House of Convocation meant to the effect that the amount of +intercommunion going on at the Front would shock members of that house, +no chaplain has any idea. But the new, fresh, and delightful thing is, +the absolute lack of feeling between, say, the Catholic Anglican and the +Congregationalist. There are numerous occasions on which they must or +can work together; on which they must or can do jobs for one another; +and it has been decisively proved that the existing demarcation and +rivalry in England is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> false and needless thing; and that working +together can be a real, unselfconscious and wholly profitable matter. +Our English airs are poisoned by past history and old social cleavage: +in France, the past is forgotten, and social barriers do not exist. It +is a matter of atmosphere, and there it is clear and bracing. Nobody +sacrifices conviction or principle, but they love one another.</p> + +<p>I do not say there may not be individual misunderstandings and frictions +now and then, but they are miraculously few. The normal temper is shewn +by the numerous meetings for conference and devotion by the various +chaplains. These are more easy to effect at the bases than in the line; +but they take place everywhere. Typical is the conduct of a small base +on the sea, where the eight chaplains or so meet regularly for devotion, +and each is entrusted with a section of the proceedings each time. For +instance, the American Episcopalian takes the Thanksgiving, the +Presbyterian the Confession, the Wesleyan the Intercession, each of the +others has found from the same chapter of, say, St Mark's Gospel, some +"seed-thought" upon which he is allowed to dilate for four minutes. +There is no constraint or self-consciousness in this gathering. Each is +perfectly happy, and so is the whole.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that out of such an atmosphere and among such +practices a powerful passion for unity has arisen, based on something +far stronger than sentiment, and having in it some of the fire of +revelation. It has not been sought; it has come; it has grown: nobody +expected it. It came, naturally and delightfully. The fifth year of war +will assuredly see some definite policy or action towards greater unity +proceeding from France. The quiet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> unhasty, resolved manner in which +the Chaplains to the Forces in France are moving is in striking contrast +to the hasty proposals and hasty actions threatening on the less +prepared soil at home. Indeed in this last sentence I have touched upon +the two actual terrors which the Church in France feels. <span class="smcap">First</span>, that +hasty and purely <i>sectional</i> action on unimaginative and traditional +lines by the home-clergy will give the old party-feeling a new bitter +lease of life, and by ruining unnecessarily the unity of the Church of +England will destroy the hopes that are so fair of yet wider reunion. +And <span class="smcap">second</span>, that the local outlook of the lay-folk—in our villages +especially perhaps—and local lines of cleavage, not having been +subjected to the experience and discipline of France, will have the +opposite effect, prevent things moving as fast as they ought, and throw +away the fairest chance of buying up opportunity that ever was given to +the Church of Christ. To these opposite dangers, I shall recur.</p> + +<p>The Dominance of Love in the world! Let us see and absorb that big +vision first, and its pathetic urgency: its summons to each body of +Christians, and to every individual member of Christ. Acknowledge its +<span class="smcap">necessity</span> for the world, and therefore its <i>immediate</i> necessity for the +Church of the God of Love.</p> + +<p>And next, before considering practical steps, let us recall certain +postulates and axioms, which in any attempt to realise so magnificent a +vision must always be borne in mind, lest, in our human frailty and +selfwill, we head straight for new misunderstandings and disasters<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>1. The importance of unity is so great, and division has been found so +calamitous, and the words of Christ are so definite on the subject, that +I think all would admit now that <i>Division is only to be prolonged for +causes that are backed by divine command</i>. The larger Christian bodies +are separated by convictions of great importance; but a severe and +honest self-examination will probably lessen the number of differences +which can justify the responsibility of so disastrous a thing as +separation, and then we can set afoot conferences to deal with what +remain. Human temperament, upbringing, tradition, human haste and pride +have much to do with the birth, stabilising and continuance of division. +A rare self-abnegation in our ecclesiastical history was the partial +suicide of the Non-juring schism, and it has never been repeated; there +were many great saints among the Nonjurors. If they could not take the +oath of allegiance to William III, and therefore could not remain in the +Church of England, the best of them recognised that their individual +difficulty would not excuse them if they perpetuated themselves as a +Church. In any junction of existing divisions, differing customs and +methods of worship and organisation can be and should be safeguarded. +That would only make the more for the health of the one Body. But, +division itself is only to be prolonged for causes that are, or seem to +be by conscience, backed by divine command, and the first step in all +work for reunion will be the isolating of these causes from lesser +things, and their careful and prayerful reconsideration.</p> + +<p>A grand example of such process, of course, has been the Conference of +the leaders of our English denominations, at the inspiration of the +American Committee of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> Faith and Order, which during 1917 faced the +question of Episcopacy. The findings of its "second interim report" are +nothing less than a landmark in Church History. You remember that +roughly it was this: that any corporate reunion can only come in the +acceptance of the historical Episcopate; but that the conception and use +of Episcopacy in the Church has been a limited one: there are many ways +of regarding and using bishops besides the monarchical or "prelatical" +way exemplified by the Church of England. This is a first proof that +when truths, keenly felt and seemingly rival, are discussed in +Conference spirit, the angularities that offend disappear; and wider, +bigger truth comes into the possession of all. It will be so more and +more. By faith we can already see that the labour of understanding unto +reunion is bound to be an immense <i>creative</i> period in the Church of +God.</p> + +<p>2. Our second axiom sounds discouraging. Just this—that unity is, +humanly speaking, impossible. Reunion means great changes of heart in +great communions of men, and we all know how hard it is to effect change +of heart even in the individual. We must not think that no price will +have to be paid for so good a result, both by whole communions, and by +the members composing them; and that the whole force of inherited +prejudice, past history, and present wilfulness, ignorance, and sincere +conviction will not arise in opposition. The difficulty even of +approaching Rome illustrates vividly our task. The Unity of Christendom +is a meaningless expression without that vast international Church, +without her rich stores of devotion and experience, without her +unbending witness to the first things of faith, worship and +self-sacrifice. Here the "impossibility" is open and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> honest, but I do +not know that the difficulties will be greater than those, less obvious +as yet, between other denominations. Yet with God all things are +possible. This is only the <span class="smcap">miracle</span> which He has set the faith of modern +Christians to perform.</p> + +<p>3. Thirdly then, our rule must be, to hasten slowly. We are not dealing +with matters susceptible of mere arrangement, but with <i>convictions</i>, +which have deep roots in history, and cling passionately round the +individual. Convictions can only be modified or changed gradually, by +love and deeper spiritual learning. Bully or outrage a conviction, and +you double its strength. That is why argument seldom does aught but +harm. Argument is an attack upon another man's convictions, or +semi-convictions, and inevitably fails to do anything but stiffen them. +Inevitably therefore will hasty action by individuals or sections, for +instance in the Church of England, for which other sections are not +ready, throw these into suspicion and opposition. I speak of my own +Communion and say deliberately, that if at the moment, either an +individual, or a section—any section—of it goes galloping off, be its +zeal and hope never so pure and splendid, on private roads, the whole +desire for unity, and therefore the cause of unity, will be gravely +damaged.</p> + +<p>For the whole Church of England—I think that can be truly said—has now +an unutterable desire for the joy of Unity; it is, further, convinced +that action must be taken; but it is by no means convinced that certain +actions—to take a concrete example, free interchange of pulpits with +Nonconformists—are as yet either helpful or right. If one part adopt +such a policy, hostilely and sectionally, it will simply throw others +into convinced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> opposition and retard the whole desire for decades. +Questions of deepest implication cannot be settled in haste. Before +approaching at all, we must find the right methods of approach. Quite +rightly, the American "World Conference for the consideration of +questions touching Faith and Order," paid, from the start, the utmost, +an uniquely scientific, attention to right method; their patience has +been lightning-swift in result. It did not even go so far as to say, "We +will confer, that is the right method"; it said, "We will learn how to +confer." It was a new and by no means easy exercise, but it has been +learned, and the English Conference mentioned above, "the landmark," +arose by its inspiration and worked by its methods.</p> + +<p>A wrong method of approach is equally well illustrated by the gathering +of Evangelical clergy at Cheltenham<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> early in the Spring. They +discussed to some purpose, and at the end of a few days had drawn out a +series of some dozen articles of principle and action. Some were +unexceptionable, others went beyond what either the Bishops or other +sections of the Church are yet ready to do. Such sectional action simply +heads for disaster and vexation. And it is so foolish, so great and +difficult an end being in view. Why should any <i>sections</i> of the Church +meet or deal at all on this matter, except to put their views humbly at +the disposal of their brethren in the Church? This matter concerns the +<i>whole</i> Church; any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> action is futile which does not carry the whole +Church with it, and the whole Church is keen and anxious enough over the +problem to be able to agree upon methods and policies which combine +depth, wisdom, patience, and order. We have seen how titanic the labour +is; impatience will help nothing; here if anywhere is needed the love +that is patient, and ready for the travail of waiting and praying.</p> + +<p>The cry of generous souls of course is "Something must be <i>done</i>." Of +course it must; but let anybody consider what sheer miracles of changed +convictions on Unity have been "done" within ten, and even five years. +Better than any such immediate action which would certainly cause +division, is the enlarging of the scope and sphere of this miracle, so +that the friendly conditions of France are naturally reproduced in +England.</p> + +<p>With these precautions, then, let us see what can be done with universal +consent.</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) The first thing is to turn the intellectual opinion that Christian +division is wrong, and unity necessary, into a general passion. That is +to say, we want to develop among us the <i>motive of love</i>. We all talk +about love glibly, and about brotherhood and a new world, with very +little sense of what these terms involve in the individual life. I am +sure that we hardly know yet what love means nor what it exacts, nor +guess into how many provinces of ordinary life it can and ought to +operate; how many heritages of past history it must be allowed to wipe +out, how many preconceived notions it must dissipate; into how many +social, commercial, municipal, political relations it must begin to +permeate. It was for this reason that an article which I wrote when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> in +billets near Arras for the <i>Church Quarterly Review</i> suggested a new +National Mission of Love in the Church of England. For the space of a +month or more the one subject dealt with by preachers and teachers +throughout the Communion would be Love, in all its bearings, and with +special reference to religious differences and their healing. I believe +that this would be a splendid way of making the passion for new love and +wider brotherhood general, an act of pure religion of highest importance +both to our Christianity and national life, and sure of blessing by God. +It would assure our Nonconformist brothers that we mean business, and +mean it deeply. Perhaps they would follow suit in their own +congregations.</p> + +<p>It is the more important, because there is a danger of the leaders and +clergy of communions rushing ahead of the rank and file. Naturally they +see the vast issues most clearly; the congregation sees more easily its +own needs and habits of worship, and inclines to shut out of mind the +needs and interests of the Church as a whole. A National Mission of +Love, dealing with all history, the larger duties of the present, and +future hopes, would help to correct this, and give a single mind to the +whole body.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Then, in order that the Church of England may go forward as one +whole, without the risk of sectional exasperation, it does seem to me an +urgent necessity that—I do hope it is not a presumptuous +suggestion—the Archbishops appoint a Council of Unity; to thrash out +the whole subject, and decide on definite steps of action, both within +and without the Church.</p> + +<p>My vision sees it thus. A small Council of, say, five Bishops, and a +dozen other members. These dozen to be nominated, not elected, and to +consist of the leading and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> trusted men of each "party" with at least +two of our greatest scholars. It must be small, so that it may truly +"confer"—not drop into controversy—and meet regularly. It should issue +definite advice and suggestion, all of which would be unanimous, upon +which the whole Church could act, and act immediately. I am sure that +the amount of unanimity would be surprising, and the advice bold. +Perhaps the Archbishops and Bishops in accepting and issuing such +reports would require them to be read in every pulpit in the land, so +that the whole Communion understand what is going on, and each +congregation be spurred to do its part in its own locality.</p> + +<p>The mere appointment of such a Council would be a notable step towards +unity and place the whole matter on, so to speak, a scientific footing. +The Church of England would then be wisely and consistently ordered to +the one end, and be thinking and acting as itself an unity; the danger +of sectional action would be reduced to a minimum, and the mutual +confidence of the sections be assured. Indeed it would be a hard blow to +the bad party licence too common hitherto amongst us. Further, the +Nonconformist communions would have a definite organ to approach on all +subjects making for friendliness, cooperation, and conference, and +sufficient certainty that the Church of England desired the peace of +Jerusalem very earnestly indeed.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) There are a number of issues on which all communions could begin +at once to work together. There is a real chance of abolishing war, and +establishing a more or less universal peace. The idea of the League of +Nations gains ground. Bishop Gore is already summoning the support and +labour of the Church to it. Here serious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> united effort of all Christian +bodies, of Europe and America, is obviously fitting and might be +decisive.</p> + +<p>There are the hundred social problems confronting us. The very working +together upon these would be as valuable as the large amount of work +that so easily might be done.</p> + +<p>Education! Word of lamentable memories. The present Bill, which all +Christian bodies have urged on, left in despair the vital question of +religious teaching until the Churches can agree upon it among +themselves. With all the lessons of the war, both to the appalling need +of such teaching, and of the necessity of bigger thinking, can they not +do it now? Here is a critical field for cooperation and +self-suppression. Only let the younger men be put to the task. The elder +will be the first to admit that long controversy and deepening +opposition have unfitted them for sincere agreement. The younger men are +fresh, and start with an eagerness to find the way out.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Cooperation in these great matters will not only promote unity, +but display already the men of Christ as one before the world. But it is +not enough. How about cooperation in directly religious work and +worship? "The visible unity of the Body of Christ is not adequately +expressed in the cooperation for moral influence and social service, +though such cooperation might with advantage be carried much further +than it is at present; it could only be fully realised through community +of worship, faith and order, including common participation in the +Lord's Supper<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>Here let us once more and finally insist that the all-important thing is +the development of the desire for Unity even in the most local, or +uneducated, or out-of-the-way congregations. Most of the clergy now are +revolutionaries for better, bigger things; but, frankly, we fear the lay +people who hate change, and desire things to remain as they are—in +church and out of it. That is why I should so like my imagined Council +to set going my imagined National Mission of Love. But much can be done +besides. Those who seek unity will be labouring fruitfully for it, if +they simply devote themselves to developing social and Christian +friendship between Churchmen and Nonconformists in town and village. +There might well be an enormous growth of meetings, both of clergy and +laity of different denominations, for conference, devotion, even +retreat. We want more than one "Swanwick." Can we not go further, and +draw together by experimenting with each other's devotions or +organisations of proved value? For instance, I wonder if it is +suggesting too much, to suggest that if Nonconformists appropriated with +vigour our Christian year, they would be sharers with us of a devotional +joy and help, which would certainly promote spiritual sympathy. In the +same way, the Church of England has been crying out for some method of +using the spiritual gifts of her laymen in church. Why not borrow +notions from those who know how to do it?</p> + +<p>These are but scrappy examples of ways by which right spirit can be +developed within the single communion, or between separated bodies. The +<i>right spirit</i> won, the whole battle is won.</p> + +<p>Naturally there are many who desire already to go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> much further and +faster. Intercommunion, our goal, is of course impossible at this stage +owing to seriously differing convictions on faith and order; and the +plain fact that it would cause more cleavage than it healed. But how +about interchange of pulpits? The Evangelicals at Cheltenham demanded +this as a regular practice. The rest of the Church feels strongly that +the time for this has not arrived yet; that haphazard invitations by +individual vicars to ministers of convictions widely different are +undesirable. The time has come for conference, but not yet for any +facile overpassing of the facts and reasons for historical separations. +Nor do we want to run the risks of indiscipline and disorderliness +resulting from such individual action. The Church of England can only be +of help to the cause of unity where she acts as a whole. Matters such as +interchange of pulpits should be tackled by our suggested Council of +Unity. A suggestion in the <i>Challenge</i> of July 19 might well be +favourably considered by it. There are Nonconformists of acknowledged +eminence, learning, and inspiration, from whose books the Church of +England already has received much. We should all be glad to receive +likewise from their lips. If a selected number were officially invited +by the Church to prophesy in our midst, an immense and religiously +fruitful step would have been taken, in perfect order. The plan might +well be reciprocal.</p> + +<p>The same leading article proposed that ministers of other denominations +should be asked by such congregations as wished, to come and explain to +them frankly their standpoints of doctrine and order. I am sure that all +communions might be, and now should be, more brave in explaining +themselves to each other. The gain in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> preventing misunderstanding and +destroying suspicion and unfriendliness would be great, and I can see no +loss anywhere about such a proceeding.</p> + +<p>Have you read the story of the Woolwich Crusade, published by the +S.P.C.K. (1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i>)? The Crusade movement and method is a new thing. +Its idea is not that of a mission—to increase or improve the membership +of a particular denomination, but to bring God and the meaning of Christ +into the life and problems of to-day. It is doing the same sort of work +which chaplains in France do, among the munitioners, artisans, and +labour world at home. Perhaps our Nonconformist brethren could join us +here. The difficulties would, I think, merely be those of organisation.</p> + +<p>Thanks to the College system, and to the Student Christian movement, +Churchmen and Nonconformists are as friendly in this University as they +are in France; and joint devotion is usual. We have a great +responsibility here amid the young and the enthusiastic, and good +feeling is both easier to achieve, and more widespread in result, at a +University than anywhere else. Well, we are awake to our chances, and +will do our best.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) This leaves but one more subject to touch on: the old, hard, +question of Church order, and the orders of ministry. But all looks in +the best sense hopeful here, very hopeful, since the striking report +signed by the thirteen members of the sub-committee appointed by the +Archbishops' Committee, and by representatives of the English Free +Churches' Commissions. Let me quote it.</p> + +<blockquote><p>Looking as frankly and as widely as possible at the whole +situation, we desire with a due sense of responsibility to submit +for the serious consideration of all the parts of a divided +Christen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>dom what seem to us the necessary conditions of any +possibility of reunion: That continuity with the historic +Episcopate should be effectively preserved. That, in order that the +rights and responsibilities of the whole Christian community in the +government of the Church may be adequately recognised, the +Episcopate should reassume a constitutional form both as regards +the method of the election of the Bishop as by clergy and people, +and the method of government after election.... The acceptance of +the fact of Episcopacy and not any theory as to its character +should be all that is asked for.... It would no doubt be necessary +before any arrangement for corporate reunion could be made to +discuss the exact functions which it may be agreed to recognise as +belonging to the Episcopate, but we think this can be left to the +future.</p> + +<p>The acceptance of Episcopacy on these terms should not involve any +Christian community in the necessity of disowning its past, but +should enable all to maintain the continuity of their witness and +influence as heirs and trustees of types of Christian thought, +life, and order, not only of value to themselves, but of value to +the Church as a whole....</p></blockquote> + +<p>It would be difficult to imagine a wiser, braver, or happier statement +than this in the whole history of the Church. A landmark indeed! The +Chaplains to the Forces in France almost shouted for joy. At one stroke, +the first and greatest incompatibility of conviction has been cleared +out of the way. Perhaps that is too strong—or prophetic—a way of +putting it. Let us say rather, that at least the question of Episcopacy +and Church order has been raised to a new plane, where all can discuss +it, and think it out, not only peaceably, but with good hope of new +wealth of conception and polity pouring into the old, rigid, bitter, +rival views of church government. In France I corresponded with a +Wesleyan chaplain on the subject of orders and ordination. He wrote a +careful letter affirming the historic Nonconformist position about +ministry. But, he ended, it would all be changed, if re-ordination could +be presented and accepted as a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> outward "Sacrament of Love" which +reunited us. That is more than the Church of England has ever asked, for +she regards ordination as a Sacrament of Order merely, not of Spiritual +Love. But let us gladly put the higher value upon it. And the day will +surely come, unless goodhearted Christians settle down to accept the +intolerable burden of permanent separation in communion and worship, +when this Sacrament of Love be celebrated, and the Church of England +ordains the Free Church ministry, and the Free Churches commission us, +to work each and all in the flocks that have been made one Fold.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> In the paragraphs which follow, I owe much to the Bishop +of Zanzibar's <i>The Fulness of Christ</i>, perhaps the deepest and ablest of +all the numerous Anglican books on Reunion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> It is fair to state that after this lecture was delivered, +I received a note from one who had been at Cheltenham, saying that my +references to it gave an inaccurate impression; and that the findings +were only "an expression of opinion." To those, however, who read the +published account of the meeting, whether in the <i>Record</i> or <i>Guardian</i>, +much more seemed to be intended.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Quoted from the Second Interim Report of the Archbishops' +Committee and the representatives of the Free Church Commissions.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> +<h2>UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS</h2> + +<h2><a name="III_THE_PROBLEM_OF_THE_ENGLISH_FREE_CHURCHES" id="III_THE_PROBLEM_OF_THE_ENGLISH_FREE_CHURCHES"></a>III. THE PROBLEM OF THE ENGLISH FREE CHURCHES</h2> + +<h3>By the Rev. W. B. <span class="smcap">Selbie</span>, M.A., D.D.</h3> + +<p>While I think that what I say may be fairly taken to represent the +general mind of these churches it must be understood that I do not in +any way commit them but speak only for myself. I propose first to recall +the circumstances which gave rise to these churches and the conditions +which still operate in maintaining them as separate Christian bodies, +and then to give some account of the various movements towards reunion +in which they have taken part. The Baptists and Congregationalists you +will remember arose at a time when membership in the Anglican Church was +a formal and perfunctory thing. It was open to every parishioner and +meant very little in the way of Christian life or witness. The first +Nonconformists stood for the principle that membership in Christian +churches should be confined to genuinely Christian people, and in order +to secure this they formed separated churches, on the New Testament +model, of those who were able to give effective witness of their +Christian calling. That such churches should be self-governed followed +almost as a matter of course. Their meeting in the name of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> Christ +secured His presence among them and the guidance of His spirit in their +doings. But it is always important to remember that their essential +characteristic is not either democracy in church government or dissent +from the Establishment, but the positive witness to purity of membership +and to the sole headship of Jesus Christ just described. The Wesleyan +Church, the parent of the whole great Methodist movement, arose at the +end of the 18th century from somewhat similar reasons. There was never +anything schismatic in the spirit of John Wesley, but when he found that +the rigour and stiffness of Anglicanism made a free spiritual witness +almost impossible, he was driven, like the Nonconformists of the +Elizabethan times, to set up separate churches. While it is quite true +that the great principle for which English Nonconformity has stood is +now almost universally accepted, and that what may be called the +negative witness of the Free Churches is much less necessary than it +used to be, there is still room for their positive contribution to the +religious life of the country, for their witness to freedom, +spirituality, and the rights of the people in the Church. For a long +time, no doubt, they did rejoice in the dissidence of their dissent, and +they suffered, and still suffer, to some degree, from a Pharisaic +feeling of superiority to those whom they regard as bound by tradition +and State rule. The great majority among them, however, have long since +come to feel that they have more in common with one another and with +many in the Anglican Church than they have been hitherto prepared to +admit, and that existence in isolation from the rest of Christendom is +neither good for them nor helpful to the cause of Christ and His +Kingdom. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> feeling first took definite shape about the year 1890 in +connexion with what are now known as the Grindelwald Conferences. For +three successive years informal parties of clergy and ministers were +arranged by Sir Henry Lunn, at Grindelwald and Lucerne, with the object +of getting representatives of the different churches together in order +to exchange views on the subject of union, and to create an atmosphere +of mutual knowledge, sympathy, and friendliness. Although no practical +steps directly followed them, these conferences undoubtedly did good by +removing misunderstandings and paving a way for further intercourse. To +many of the Free Churchmen who attended them they seem to have suggested +for the first time the evils of our unhappy divisions, and they +certainly created a desire for better relations. It became obvious that +one of the necessary first steps in this direction would be the setting +up of a closer cooperation among the Free Churches themselves, and of +breaking down the denominational isolation in which they too often +lived. Further conferences were held in England at Manchester, Bradford, +London and other centres, the ultimate issue of which was the foundation +of the National Federation of the Evangelical Free Churches under the +guidance of the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, Dr Berry of Wolverhampton, Dr +Mackennal of Bowdon, and Dr Munro Gibson of London, along with laymen +like Sir Percy Bunting and Mr George Cadbury. The aim of the Federation +was to bring all the evangelical Nonconformist churches into closer +association in order that they might in various localities take +concerted action on questions affecting their common faith and interests +and the social, moral, and religious welfare of the community.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> Since +that time the work of the Federation has gradually covered the whole +country through local councils working on a Free Church parish system, +and engaging in various forms of social and evangelistic effort. The +representative central council has become a powerful instrument for +furthering the cause of the Free Churches and for bringing their +influence to bear on social and political matters. It must be freely +admitted that this council has sometimes gone further in political +action than some of the churches have been altogether prepared for. From +the first, so representative a Nonconformist as the late Dr Dale of +Birmingham stood aloof from it, on the ground that it tended to divert +the energy of the churches from the proper channels and to involve them +too deeply in political controversy. In this action he was supported by +many of the more conservative elements in the churches themselves, +particularly as the circumstances of the time compelled the council to +engage in a good deal of political agitation. In spite of this, however, +there is no doubt that the Free Church Council movement as a whole has +had the effect its first promoters intended and desired, and has brought +all the Free Churches into much closer relations with one another, and +has established them in a position of mutual understanding and sympathy. +Its chief weakness has been that it has depended for support on +individual churches rather than on the denominations they represented. +It is the consciousness of this which has led the way to a later +movement in the direction of still closer federation. The lead has been +taken by the Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, who, as President of the Free +Church Council in 1916, propounded an elaborate scheme for the +federation of the Free Church denominations. In his first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> presidential +address under the title "The Free Churches at the Cross-roads" he put +forward an unanswerable case for the union of the whole of the Free +Churches of England. He pointed to the fact that for many years past +these churches have suffered a serious decline in the number of their +members and of their Sunday school scholars and teachers; and he found +one of the chief causes of this in their excessive denominationalism, +which led to over-lapping and rivalry. He pleaded that the old sectarian +distinctions had now ceased to represent vital issues, and to appeal to +the best elements both in the churches and in the nation outside; and he +urged that the maintenance of these distinctions now tended to destroy +the collective witness of the Free Churches and involved an immense +waste of men, money and energy. For the sake of efficiency, as well as +in order to maintain a proper Christian comity, he argued that it was +absolutely necessary to put an end to this condition of things. As long +as the Free Churches were thus divided, they could not expect either to +do their own work well or to exercise their proper influence in the life +of the nation. There is no doubt that this estimate of the situation +represented a growing feeling among those who were best acquainted with +the facts. But it is probable that Mr Shakespeare under-estimated the +strength of the conservative spirit in many of the Free Churches. And +there is no doubt that a considerable educational process will have to +be gone through before his proposals take practical shape. This process, +however, has already begun and has made considerable way. Mr +Shakespeare's challenge led almost immediately to the formation of a +large conference of representatives appointed by the Free Church +Council<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> along with the Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive +Methodist, Independent Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, Wesleyan Reform, +United Methodist, Moravian, Countess of Huntingdon, and Disciples of +Christ Churches. This Conference first met at Mansfield College, Oxford, +in September, 1916, and later at the Leys School, Cambridge, in 1917, +and again in London in the early part of this year. It appointed +Committees on Faith, Constitution, Evangelization and the Ministry, all +of which have held many meetings in addition to those of the whole +Conference. The Committee on Faith was able to frame a declaratory +statement on doctrine which was afterwards unanimously adopted as +follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p class='center'>I</p> + +<p>There is One Living and True God, Who is revealed to us as Father, +Son and Holy Spirit; Him alone we worship and adore.</p> + +<p class='center'>II</p> + +<p>We believe that God so loved the world as to give His Son to be the +Revealer of the Father and the Redeemer of mankind; that the Son of +God, for us men and for our salvation, became man in Jesus Christ, +Who, having lived on earth the perfect human life, died for our +sins, rose again from the dead, and now is exalted Lord over all; +and that the Holy Spirit, Who witnesses to us of Christ, makes the +salvation which is in Him to be effective in our hearts and lives.</p> + +<p class='center'>III</p> + +<p>We acknowledge that all men are sinful, and unable to deliver +themselves from either the guilt or power of their sin; but we have +received and rejoice in the Gospel of the grace of the Holy God, +wherein all who truly turn from sin are freely forgiven through +faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and are called and enabled, through +the Spirit dwelling and working within them, to live in fellowship +with God and for His service; and in this new life, which is to be +nurtured by the right use of the means of grace, we are to grow, +daily dying unto sin and living unto Him Who in His mercy has +redeemed us.</p> + +<p class='center'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>IV</p> + +<p>We believe that the Catholic or Universal Church is the whole +company of the redeemed in heaven and on earth, and we recognise as +belonging to this holy fellowship all who are united to God through +faith in Christ.</p> + +<p>The Church on earth—which is One through the Apostolic Gospel and +through the living union of all its true members with its one Head, +even Christ, and which is Holy through the indwelling Holy Spirit +Who sanctifies the Body and its members—is ordained to be the +visible Body of Christ, to worship God through Him, to promote the +fellowship of His people and the ends of His Kingdom, and to go +into all the world and proclaim His Gospel for the salvation of men +and the brotherhood of all mankind. Of this visible Church, and +every branch thereof, the only Head is the Lord Jesus Christ; and +in its faith, order, discipline and duty, it must be free to obey +Him alone as it interprets His holy will.</p> + +<p class='center'>V</p> + +<p>We receive, as given by the Lord to His Church on earth, the Holy +Scriptures, the Sacraments of the Gospel, and the Christian +Ministry.</p> + +<p>The Scriptures, delivered through men moved by the Holy Ghost, +record and interpret the revelation of redemption, and contain the +sure Word of God concerning our salvation and all things necessary +thereto. Of this we are convinced by the witness of the Holy Spirit +in the hearts of men to and with the Word; and this Spirit, thus +speaking from the Scriptures to believers and to the Church, is the +supreme Authority by which all opinions in religion are finally to +be judged.</p> + +<p>The Sacraments—Baptism and the Lord's Supper—are instituted by +Christ, Who is Himself certainly and really present in His own +ordinances (though not bodily in the elements thereof), and are +signs and seals of His Gospel not to be separated therefrom. They +confirm the promises and gifts of salvation, and, when rightly used +by believers with faith and prayer, are, through the operation of +the Holy Spirit, true means of grace.</p> + +<p>The Ministry is an office within the Church—not a sacerdotal +order—instituted for the preaching of the Word, the ministration +of the Sacraments and the care of souls. It is a vocation from God, +upon which therefore no one is qualified to enter save through the +call of the Holy Spirit in the heart; and this inward call is to be +authenticated by the call of the Church, which is followed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +ordination to the work of the Ministry in the name of the Church. +While thus maintaining the Ministry as an office, we do not limit +the ministries of the New Testament to those who are thus ordained, +but affirm the priesthood of all believers and the obligation +resting upon them to fulfil their vocation according to the gift +bestowed upon them by the Holy Spirit.</p> + +<p class='center'>VI</p> + +<p>We affirm the sovereign authority of our Lord Jesus Christ over +every department of human life, and we hold that individuals and +peoples are responsible to Him in their several spheres and are +bound to render Him obedience and to seek always the furtherance of +His Kingdom upon earth, not, however, in any way constraining +belief, imposing religious disabilities, or denying the rights of +conscience.</p> + +<p class='center'>VII</p> + +<p>In the assurance, given us in the Gospel, of the love of God our +Father to each of us and to all men, and in the faith that Jesus +Christ, Who died, overcame death and has passed into the heavens, +the first-fruits of them that sleep, we are made confident of the +hope of Immortality, and trust to God our souls and the souls of +the departed. We believe that the whole world must stand before the +final Judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, with glad and solemn +hearts, we look for the consummation and bliss of the life +everlasting, wherein the people of God, freed for ever from sorrow +and from sin, shall serve Him and see His face in the perfected +communion of all saints in the Church triumphant.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The Committee on Constitution recommended a definite union of the Free +Church denominations on the basis of a federation which should express +their essential unity, promote evangelization, maintain their liberties +and take action where authorised in all matters affecting the interests, +duties, rights, and privileges of the federating churches, and to enter +into communion and united action where possible with other branches of +the church of Christ throughout the world. It is proposed that the +federation shall work through a council consisting of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> about 200 +representatives of the denominations in order to carry out their will. +The Committee on Evangelization and the Ministry also suggested certain +practical measures necessary for cooperation in these important branches +of service. The scheme has been carefully thought out and elaborated, +but at the same time is not too cumbrous for action, and if it can be +carried out there is no doubt that it would secure the ends aimed at. In +many ways the doctrinal declaration is the most important part of it, +and shews a sufficient general agreement on essentials to ensure +harmonious working. The fate of it lies of course with the different +denominations concerned. By this time most of them have had an +opportunity of considering it and, generally speaking, it has met with a +favourable reception. The Baptists, Congregationalists, and United +Methodists have declared their willingness to proceed to closer union on +this basis. But the Presbyterians and Wesleyan Methodists have referred +it back for further consideration. Rightly and naturally both of these +denominations are more concerned for the moment with measures for union +within their own borders. The Presbyterians are looking to a reunion of +the Established and Free Churches in Scotland, while a great scheme for +the reunion of all the Methodist bodies is before the Wesleyan +Conference. If this can be carried out it should not prejudice but +rather be in favour of any scheme for wider Free Church Union.</p> + +<p>Nothing that has been done so far among the Free Churches is likely in +any way to hinder the fulfilment of the desire which is now widely felt +on all sides for better relations with the Anglican Church. It can +easily be understood from the difficulties that have already emerged in +the way of closer union among the Free Churches how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> much more difficult +is the prospect of union with Anglicanism. There is no doubt that +denominational feeling is still very strong among the rank and file of +the churches. In spite of the changes which have taken place in emphasis +and conditions in modern church thought, each denomination realises that +it stands for something positive and is anxious to give its positive +witness in the best possible way. It has therefore been an essential of +reunion that any scheme proposed shall not interfere with the autonomy +of any individual denomination and shall allow full scope for its +genius. It is equally necessary that this should be preserved in any +scheme contemplated for reunion with Anglicanism. The Free Churches are +not disposed to bate anything of their freedom or to sink their identity +in any national church. If, however, any scheme can be devised which +will preserve their individuality and give them scope for their special +witness and at the same time avoid the dissensions and divisions which +have so marred their relations with Anglicanism in the past it is likely +to meet with a very warm welcome. The war has brought home to all +thinking men in the churches the imperative need that there is for +closer union and for a more united testimony. And they are conscious +that if they are to face the increasing difficulties of the future all +the churches must be able to stand together, to cooperate in Christian +service, and to speak with one voice.</p> + +<p>It is therefore regarded by them as a welcome sign of the times that +there should be a world-wide desire for Christian reunion, and that this +should have begun to take practical shape just before the outbreak of +the war. The movement was initiated by the Protestant Episcopal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> Church +of America supported by practically all the churches in that country. It +first took shape in proposals for a world-wide conference on Faith and +Order with a view of promoting the visible unity of the body of Christ. +But for the war this conference would have been held already, but under +existing circumstances the work has had to be confined to preparations +for it on both sides of the Atlantic. In this country the work has been +mainly done by a joint Conference, consisting of representatives of the +Committee appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and of +commissions appointed by the various Free Churches, in order to promote +the Faith and Order movement. This Conference has held repeated meetings +in the historic Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster and elsewhere, and has +published two interim reports "Towards Christian Unity" which are of the +utmost importance. These reports represent the work of a sub-committee +but have received the general sanction of the whole Conference. The +first report contains the following statement of agreement on matters of +faith, which is "offered not as a creed for subscription, or as +committing in any way the churches thus represented, but as indicating a +large measure of substantial agreement and also as affording material +for further investigation and consideration":</p> + +<blockquote><p class='center'><span class="smcap">A Statement of Agreement on Matters of Faith</span></p> + +<p>We, who belong to different Christian Communions and are engaged in +the discussion of questions of Faith and Order, desire to affirm +our agreement upon certain foundation truths as the basis of a +spiritual and rational creed and life for all mankind. We express +them as follows:</p> + +<p>(1) As Christians we believe that, while there is some knowledge of +God to be found among all races of men and some measure of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> divine +grace and help is present to all, a unique, progressive and +redemptive revelation of Himself was given by God to the Hebrew +people through the agency of inspired prophets, "in many parts and +in many manners," and that this revelation reaches its culmination +and completeness in One Who is more than a prophet, Who is the +Incarnate Son of God, our Saviour and our Lord, Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>(2) This distinctive revelation, accepted as the word of God, is +the basis of the life of the Christian Church and is intended to be +the formative influence upon the mind and character of the +individual believer.</p> + +<p>(3) This word of God is contained in the Old and New Testaments and +constitutes the permanent spiritual value of the Bible.</p> + +<p>(4) The root and centre of this revelation, as intellectually +interpreted, consists in a positive and highly distinctive doctrine +of God—His nature, character and will. From this doctrine of God +follows a certain sequence of doctrines concerning creation, human +nature and destiny, sin, individual and racial, redemption through +the incarnation of the Son of God and His atoning death and +resurrection, the mission and operation of the Holy Spirit, the +Holy Trinity, the Church, the last things, and Christian life and +duty, individual and social: all these cohere with and follow from +this doctrine of God.</p> + +<p>(5) Since Christianity offers an historical revelation of God, the +coherence and sequence of Christian doctrine involve a necessary +synthesis of idea and fact such as is presented to us in the New +Testament and in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds: and these Creeds +both in their statements of historical fact and in their statements +of doctrine affirm essential elements of the Christian faith as +contained in Scripture, which the Church could never abandon +without abandoning its basis in the word of God.</p> + +<p>(6) We hold that there is no contradiction between the acceptance +of the miracles recited in the Creeds and the acceptance of the +principle of order in nature as assumed in scientific enquiry, and +we hold equally that the acceptance of miracles is not forbidden by +the historical evidence candidly and impartially investigated by +critical methods.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This was followed by a statement of agreement on matters relating to +order as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>With thankfulness to the Head of the Church for the spirit of unity +He has shed abroad in our hearts we go on to express our common +conviction on the following matters:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>(1) That it is the purpose of our Lord that believers in Him should +be, as in the beginning they were, one visible society—His body +with many members—which in every age and place should maintain the +communion of saints in the unity of the Spirit and should be +capable of a common witness and a common activity.</p> + +<p>(2) That our Lord ordained, in addition to the preaching of His +Gospel, the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper, as not +only declaratory symbols, but also effective channels of His grace +and gifts for the salvation and sanctification of men, and that +these Sacraments being essentially social ordinances were intended +to affirm the obligation of corporate fellowship as well as +individual confession of Him.</p> + +<p>(3) That our Lord, in addition to the bestowal of the Holy Spirit +in a variety of gifts and graces upon the whole Church, also +conferred upon it by the self-same Spirit a Ministry of manifold +gifts and functions, to maintain the unity and continuity of its +witness and work.</p></blockquote> + +<p>In subsequent discussions a very considerable advance was made on the +positions here laid down. It was felt that if ever reunion was to become +a reality the question of order must be frankly faced, and the following +statements were put forth for the consideration of the churches +concerned, not as a final solution, but as the necessary basis for +discussion in framing a practical scheme:</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. That continuity with the historic Episcopate should be +effectively preserved.</p> + +<p>2. That in order that the rights and responsibilities of the whole +Christian community in the government of the Church may be +adequately recognised, the Episcopate should re-assume a +constitutional form, both as regards the method of the election of +the bishop as by clergy and people, and the method of government +after election. It is perhaps necessary that we should call to mind +that such was the primitive ideal and practice of Episcopacy and it +so remains in many Episcopal communions to-day.</p> + +<p>3. That acceptance of the fact of Episcopacy and not any theory as +to its character should be all that is asked for. We think that +this may be the more easily taken for granted as the acceptance of +any such theory is not now required of ministers of the Church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> of +England. It would no doubt be necessary before any arrangement for +corporate reunion could be made to discuss the exact functions +which it may be agreed to recognise as belonging to the Episcopate, +but we think this can be left to the future.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The first point to note in regard to the work of this Conference is the +remarkable unanimity achieved in regard to Christian doctrine. While +there is no intention of binding any of the parties to the <i>ipsissima +verba</i> of any doctrinal declaration, but rather every desire to allow +for varieties of expression, it is now perfectly clear that there is +among all the churches concerned a substantial agreement on the main and +essential matters of the Christian faith. This supplies the most real +and hopeful basis for the vital union of churches thus minded, and makes +their continued separation and antagonism intolerable. The more closely +this aspect of the situation is explored the more clearly does it lead +to the conclusion that those who are so largely one in aim, intention, +and desire should find some genuine and practical expression of their +unity. The question of church order is more difficult; but here again +much has happened of late to justify a reconsideration of the position +on both sides. On the one hand recent investigations into early church +history have shewn that no one form of church government can claim +exclusive scriptural or Apostolic authority. Under the guidance of the +Spirit of God the Church has in the past adapted herself and her +organization to the needs of the times in order the better to do the +work of the Kingdom. Men are coming now to see that the test of a true +Church is not conformity to type but effectiveness in fulfilling the +will of her Lord, and that therefore organization need not be of a +single uniform type. So<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> we find denominations like the Baptists and +Congregationalists setting up superintendents (overseers, Bishops) over +their churches because the needs of the time demand such supervision. +And on the other hand we find Anglicans inclining to exchange prelacy +for a more modest and elective form of episcopacy. In this respect the +two extremes are drawing together to an extent which would have been +incredible twenty years ago, and, given good will, it should be possible +to find even here a real <i>modus vivendi</i>.</p> + +<p>The same may be said with regard to other movements which have been +recently set on foot in the direction of a better common understanding +between Anglicans and Free Churchmen. It is recognised that one of the +greatest obstacles is still the so-called religious education +controversy. Both sides are becoming a little ashamed of their attitude +to this question in the past. They realise that the true interests of +education have been gravely imperilled by making it a bone of contention +among the churches, and they are beginning to look at the whole matter +afresh from the point of view of the good of the child rather than from +that of their denominational interests. Some important conferences have +been held at Lambeth in the course of which the Bishop of Oxford has put +forth a scheme for relegating the conduct of religious teaching in the +elementary schools to interdenominational committees elected <i>ad hoc</i>. +This scheme is still under discussion and at the moment is not regarded +very favourably by extremists on either side, but it is all to the good +that the matter should have been raised in so friendly and conciliatory +a spirit and, whenever the time is ripe, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> may be hoped that the way +to agreement will be more open than it has ever been yet.</p> + +<p>Further the rise and rapid growth of the Life and Liberty movement +within the Established Church is something like a portent and one that +Nonconformists cannot but regard with the deepest interest and sympathy. +They may perhaps be forgiven if they see in it an attempt to win from +within the Church just those privileges and liberties for the sake of +which their ancestors came out many years ago. With a great price they +bought this freedom and they rejoice in this new movement as a real +vindication of the cause for which they have so long contended and as +representing a body of opinion within the establishment the existence of +which, whatever may be its immediate result, is sure to make a common +understanding in the future more attainable. They may have serious +doubts whether the aims of the movement are ever to be obtained without +the Disestablishment of the Church, but for all that they wish it well +and rejoice in the spirit to which it points.</p> + +<p>One more sign of the times may be mentioned. During the last 18 months +yet another Conference has been set on foot, this time between +Nonconformists and Evangelical Anglicans, and has come very near to a +common understanding on such vital matters as intercommunion and +interchange of pulpits. It is recognised that there can be no real +Christian unity without such interchange, and the fact that a growing +number of Anglican clergy are prepared to discuss the question and that +there is no real difficulty on the Nonconformist side is again a ground +of hope. It should be understood however that on the Nonconformist side +there is no desire for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> universal and indiscriminate facilities in the +directions indicated. They do not want a kind of general post among the +pulpits of the land, nor do they ask that their people should desert +their own ordinances for those of the Established Church. Their people +indeed have no such desire. They love the simplicity and homeliness of +their own communion services and would not exchange them if they could. +But they do feel that to be debarred from communicating when there is no +church of their own order available is a real hardship, and they know +that nothing would make for comity among the churches so surely as an +occasional interchange of pulpits. They recognise that it would all have +to be carried out in due order and under conditions, and as long as the +conditions cast no reflexion on their orders, or on the Christian +standing of their members, they would loyally accept them. Under +exceptional circumstances and given due authorization on both sides, it +might be possible to do openly what is often now done in a more or less +clandestine way. There is a growing body of opinion on both sides which +would be favourable to such a course and it is certain that more will be +heard of it after the war.</p> + +<p>This leads up to another consideration which our ecclesiastical +authorities would do well to bear in mind. For a long time past younger +men and women in all the churches have been accustomed to meet together +in the various Fellowships and the Student movement. They have learnt to +work and pray together, to know one another's mind and to realise their +fundamental oneness of spirit and aim. It must be remembered that these +are the men and women in whose hands the future of the churches, humanly +speaking, lies, and they will not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> tolerate an indefinite prospect of +sectarian division and strife. While loyal to their own denominations +they have seen a wider and more glorious vision, and they are already +prepared for very definite steps in the direction of closer relations. +The new and better spirit which they represent is spreading rapidly +among the rank and file in the churches, and has been strongly +reinforced by experiences at the front. There, under the rude stress of +war, denominational exclusiveness has frankly broken down and attempts +to maintain it have excited universal resentment and disgust. There is +no doubt that after the war there will be a strong public opinion in +favour of better relations among the churches, and no church or section +of a church that clings to the old exclusiveness will be able to retain +any hold upon the people. In this case at least it may be assumed that +for once <i>vox populi</i> is <i>vox dei</i>.</p> + +<p>There is indeed every reason to believe that opinion outside the +churches is more ripe for action than within them. On both sides there +is need for something like an educational campaign on the subject of +reunion and of the duty of Christians in regard to it. Difficulties have +to be faced of a very serious kind. On the Nonconformist side there are +still many who feel very keenly the burden of the disabilities from +which they have suffered, and to some extent still suffer. They know +that in some country districts Nonconformists are subjected to petty +social persecutions, and that their boys or girls who wish to become +elementary school teachers are handicapped from the outset. Many of them +have been brought up on bitter memories, and their inherited hostility +to the State establishment of religion does not incline them to any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +<i>rapprochement</i> with its representatives. It is well that these facts +should be faced, for they shew the need there is for the Free Churches +to educate their own people.</p> + +<p>To all this we have to add the <i>vis inertiae</i> which operates in all the +churches alike. Many of them are entirely satisfied with things as they +are, and are only anxious that we should let well alone. There is too +among certain of the denominations a self-satisfaction amounting almost +to Pharisaism. They are very busy with their own work and devoted to +their denominational interests, and, so long as these can be maintained, +they do not see the use of agitations for reunion. They do not believe +that they have anything to gain from it and therefore they let it alone.</p> + +<p>The same spirit shews itself too on the Anglican side and there becomes +a serious obstacle to any advance. There are those who regard the Church +of England, as by law established, as the only possible Church for +England, and they cannot imagine why any people should want to change +its present position. Dissenters they say are outsiders and schismatics, +and must be left to go their own way. They should be thankful for the +toleration which has been extended to them and not abuse it by asking +for more. For all this kind of thing there is only one remedy, and that +is a wider vision, and for this all Christians of good will should +strenuously work and pray. It should surely be obvious that we can no +longer treat any church or denomination as an end in itself. All alike +exist for the great end of the Kingdom of God and are to be judged by +their efficiency in promoting that end among men. So no system of church +order can be regarded as of divine right in itself but only so far as +it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> becomes a channel of the Spirit of God and mediates His gifts to +men. All the churches as we know them to-day have grown up in +controversy and represent a long process of development and adaptation. +If we are to test them it should not be by the more or less artificial +standards of any one age in their history, but rather by the spirit, and +temper, and intentions of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ. When this +is done, the differences between them fall into their proper proportions +in view of the failure which is common to them all. On these terms too +will the old antagonisms become a generous rivalry in good works and +each church be ready to seek the welfare of others in the common +interests of the Kingdom which they all serve.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<h2>UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS</h2> + +<h2><a name="IV_THE_SCOTTISH_PROBLEM" id="IV_THE_SCOTTISH_PROBLEM"></a>IV. THE SCOTTISH PROBLEM</h2> + +<h3>By the Very Rev. <span class="smcap">James Cooper</span>, D.D., Litt.D., D.C.L., V.D.</h3> + +<p>The very appearance of this subject on the programme of the <span class="smcap">Cambridge +Summer Meeting</span>, 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 <i>whole Christian people</i> of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>Our island was, till not so long ago, emphatically a land of different, +and diverging "churches" and "denominations," unashamed of their +separation; nay, boasting their exclusiveness, or their dissidence, +commemorating with pride their secessions and disruptions. And even when +they began to see something of the evils such tempers and such acts had +brought in their train—the wastefulness of them, in regard alike to +money, to men's toil, and gifts given by God for the use of the whole +Church but confined in their exercise to some small section;—the injury +to character, the multiform self-righteousness engendered by our +schisms, the breaches of Christian justice and charity;—the treatment +of that whole Mediaeval Period to which we owe so much, as if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> it had +been one dark age of heathen blindness;—and, again, the hindrances to +Christian work at home and especially abroad,—when uneasiness over +these results began to shew itself, the recognition of the evil +expressed itself at first in ways hardly indicative of any depth of +penitence, or conducive to any practical measures for the healing of the +wrong. We had in one quarter "Evangelical Alliances," which put a new +stigma on huge portions of the Church of God, yet left those who took +part in their meetings contented in their own divisions. In other +quarters—probably in both the established Churches of our island—there +was a tendency (and more) to look down on Dissenters as such, to ignore +even their reasonable grievances, to ask more from them than either Holy +Scripture or early tradition could warrant, and to disparage unions that +were possible and urgent as likely to put new difficulties in the way of +that further and perfect union of all who believe in Christ which alone +He has promised, and for which alone He tells us that He prays.</p> + +<p>I should be the very last to deprecate either prayer or effort to +advance this perfect end. It ought to be the ultimate aim of all of us, +since it is Christ's. We must do nothing to hinder it: we must do all +that may be lawful for us to promote it. But it should be pointed out to +such as look exclusively towards the East and Rome, first, that a juster +view of those great Churches—great gain as it is—affords little excuse +for ignoring the Churches of the Reformation, and for leaving the large +numbers of devout Christians in the lesser sects without either the hope +or the means of supplying defects which are now, for the most part, +rather inherited than chosen; second, that the divisions and +"variations" among all who in East<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> or West, in England or in Scotland, +in the 11th or the 16th century, felt themselves bound to repudiate the +Papal Supremacy, have supplied, and still supply, the Papacy with a +chief weapon against all of us alike, and in favour of those extreme +pretensions which have been a chief cause of, and remain a chief +obstacle to reunion; and third, that nothing is more likely to bring +about that kinder attitude toward the East and us which we desiderate on +the part of Rome than a large and generous measure here and in America +of "Home Reunion"—effected, of course (as it can only be effected), on +the basis of the Catholic Creeds, a worship in the beauty of holiness, +and the Apostolic Ministry.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, this is what we are finding in Scotland. Scotland, I know, is +but a little bit of the world: its largest churches small in comparison +with those of England and the United States, not to speak of the vast +communions of Rome and of the East. But the experience even of a small +part may intimate what may be looked for in much larger sections of what +after all is essentially the same body. For the Church, the Body of +Christ, in all lands and in all ages is one in spite of its divisions. +Christ is not divided. It is "subjective unity" not "objective" which in +the Church on earth is at present, through our sins, "suspended." Well, +in Scotland; where, let me remind you, the confession of Christ alike as +"King of the Nations" and "King in Zion," and of the visible Church as +His Kingdom on earth, was never laid aside, either in the National +Church or in the churches which separated from it (we laid aside much +that we should have done well to keep, but we stuck manfully to this); +we have had within recent times quite a number of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> incorporating unions; +including two of considerable note—the union in 1847 which brought +together in the "United Presbyterian Church" the two main sections of +our 18th century "Seceders," and the union of 1900 of the United +Presbyterians with the great mass of the "Free Church" of 1843—the +union that has given us the "United Free Church." I doubt if to either +of these unions the hope of a future Catholic Reunion contributed, at +the time, much or anything. I know there were some in the Church of +Scotland who fancied, and alleged, that the union of 1900 was +"engineered" with no friendly purpose towards us. But what has been the +outcome? Both of these unions:—partial in themselves—have tended, in +the result, very materially to de-Calvinize (if I may coin the word) the +general Presbyterianism of Scotland, and break down narrow prejudices, +to widen the outlook and enlarge the sympathies of those who took part +in them. The second, and greater of these unions, that of 1900 +(suspected then, as I have said), proved, within eight short years, to +be the very thing to pave the way for the opening, between the Church of +Scotland and the United Free Church, of those official negotiations for +an incorporating union which promise now to give us ere long a Church of +Scotland, not complete, indeed—not embracing even all the Presbyterians +of Scotland, and greatly needing the Scottish Episcopalians—but still a +Church which will include an immense preponderance of the Scottish +people; which will be able to cover the whole country with not +inadequate organizations; which will be freer also than it is at present +to enter into further unions; which will remain—what it has ever +been—both national and orthodox; and will continue, I believe, to go on +rapidly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> resuming many of those touching, reverent, and churchly usages +which in the heats of the 16th and 17th centuries it unwisely threw away +or, less excusably, gave up in the coldness of the 18th. We have still +some beautiful old usages, as well as enviable liberties and powers. And +even in the 18th century we kept the Faith against Arian and Socinian +heresy: even then, our sacramental teaching could be high: even then, +the doctrine and the practice alike of the Established Church and the +Seceders were clear and strong on the derivation of the Ministry from +Christ, and the Apostolical succession of our ministers, and yours, +through presbyters.</p> + +<p>For myself, I suggested in 1907, when it was proposed in our General +Assembly to open these negotiations, that we should attempt a larger +duty, and approach all the reformed Churches in Scotland. I was +over-ruled. It was held wiser "in the meantime" (they gave me this much) +to "confine our invitation" to the United Free Church.</p> + +<p>The Scottish Episcopal Church appeared to be of this mind also; and +those in her and among us who have long looked wistfully towards our +union with her and with the Church of England are already finding that +our present effort (limited as it is) is proving not an obstacle, as +some of us feared, but a powerful impetus towards the larger effort. The +union seems likely to clear away hindrances to an extent we never +dreamed of. It is opening up the wider prospect among an increasing +number not in the Church of Scotland only, but emphatically also in the +United Free Church. On all hands it is "recognised" in Scotland that the +official "limitation of the Union horizon is only temporary":—I quote +from the <i>Annual Report</i> for this year of the Scottish Church Society:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>No one is content to accept the contemplated union, should it be +accomplished, as exhaustive. We all wait for a fuller manifestation +of the Grace of God. At this season of Pentecost we dream our +dreams and see our visions of that great and notable day when all +who name the One Name shall be one.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The witness of the Scottish Church Society may seem to some one-sided: +here is a witness from the other side, of a date more recent than last +May; from a pamphlet just issued by the venerable Dr William Mair, the +first and most persevering of the advocates of our present enterprise. +His words impress me as very touching in their transparent honesty:</p> + +<blockquote><p>It is thirteen years (he writes) since I first spoke out in the +form of a pamphlet. No man stood with me. Hard things were said of +me. I believed it to be the will of the <span class="smcap">Head</span> of the Church, the +<span class="smcap">Lord Jesus Christ</span>, that there should be union of His Church in +Scotland, and primarily that its two great Churches should be one. +I have never for a single moment doubted that His will would be +fulfilled, or that it was the duty of these Churches to set +themselves, under His guidance, with resolute purpose to work out +its fulfilment.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Observe his "primarily": he quite recognises (I have his authority for +saying so) the further obligation. And no wonder: he is clear as to the +one great and supreme motive that should inspire all efforts for Church +Reunion—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the obedience of faith +which the true confession of His Deity involves.</p> + +<p>The will of the Lord in regard to the visible unity of His whole Church +is plain: "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I +must lead; and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, +one Shepherd." No doubt there is a difference between a fold (αὑλἡ) +and a flock (ποἱμνη), between the racial unity of the +Jewish Dispensation and the Catholic and international character +impressed from the beginning on the Christian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> Church. But a flock is as +visible as a fold is. We can see the one moving along the road under the +shepherd's guidance just as distinctly as we see the other gleaming +white on the hillside, or raising its turf-capped walls above the level +of the moor. We can see, of course, if the walls of a fold are broken +down; but we can see also whether a flock is united, whether it is +moving forward as one mass, or is broken up and scattered. Such +separations might be well enough if the different little companies were +all going quietly on in one way; though even then their breaking up +would argue on the one hand a portentous failure in that recognition of +the shepherd's voice and the obedience to him which is due to his loving +care, and on the other hand a strange lack of that gregariousness which +is an instinct in the healthy sheep. But what if the sheep are seen +running hither and thither in different directions: if they are found +labouring to explain the inadvisability—nay, the impossibility—of +their ever coming into line; if we see them instead crossing each +other's path, starting from each other, jostling and butting one +another, continually getting into situations provocative of fights and +injuries?</p> + +<p>Is this the kind of picture which the Lord Jesus has drawn of His Flock, +His Church as He wishes, and intends, that it should be: is this what He +promises that it shall be?</p> + +<p>Christ made His Church one at the beginning: the rulers He set over it +"were all with one accord in one place"; "the multitude of them that +believed were of one heart and of one soul." And when the Gentiles had +been brought in, what care did the Apostles take lest the new departure +should cause a separation along a line made obsolete by the Cross of +Christ; and with what adoring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> admiration does St Paul gaze at the +delightful spectacle of Jew and Gentile made one new man in Christ +Jesus—"where," he cries, "there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision +and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is +all, and in all."</p> + +<p>In matters of rank and race and colour all our denominations retain this +Apostolic Catholicity. How inconsistent to maintain it there, and +repudiate it when we come to such differences as mostly separate us! +These are differences far more of temper than of creed, or even of +worship or government. We say, sometimes, that we are "one in spirit": +not so; it is just in spirit that we have been divided. In creed and +organisation both, and in temper as well, the Church of Apostolic times +was visibly one. "See how these Christians love one another" was the +comment of the heathen onlooker. This state of things continued for a +long time. Gibbon enumerates the Church's "unity and discipline," which +go together, as among the "secondary causes" of that wonderful spread of +the Gospel in the first three centuries.</p> + +<p>The revived, broadened, and more candid study, alike of the New +Testament and of Church History throughout its entire course, is one of +the ways in which the Good Shepherd has been leading us to see alike the +disobedience of our divisions, and the small foundation there is for +many of the points over which we have been fighting.</p> + +<p>Happily too, we do not now need to argue in favour of visible and +organic unity. "The once popular apologies for separation which asserted +the sufficiency of 'spiritual' union, and the stimulating virtues of +rivalry and competition, have become obsolete."</p> + +<p>More happily still, we have learned practically to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> appreciate the +difference between our Saviour's gentle I must lead (δεἱ με ἁγαγεἱν) +and our forefathers' various attempts to produce "uniformity" +by driving. The reproach of that sinful blunder is one that none of our +greater Churches—Roman, Anglican, Presbyterian, or Puritan—can cast in +another's teeth. Each of us committed it in our day of triumph. "What +fruit had we then in those things whereof we are now ashamed?" The +memory—one-sided, and carefully cultivated—of what each suffered in +its turn of adversity has hitherto been a potent agency for keeping us +apart. To-day those memories are fading. I was much struck by a remark I +heard last spring from the Bishop of Southwark, that one reason why we +are more ready nowadays to contemplate reunion is just that we belong to +a generation to whom those miserable doings are far-off things outside +alike our experience and our expectation.</p> + +<p>In other ways also we discern leadings of Our Saviour to the same end.</p> + +<p>Through Whitefield and the Wesleys, and the Evangelical Revival, He +re-awakened the peoples of England and America to a keen sense of the +need for personal religion. Where these powerful agencies had the +defects of their qualities, in their failure to appreciate aright His +gracious ordinances of Church and Ministry and Sacrament, He rectified +the balance by giving us in due course the Oxford Movement, whose force +is not "spent," but diffused through all our "denominations." Let us be +just to the Oxford Movement: without it, humanly speaking, we should not +have been here to-day. If it had its own narrownesses, it revived the +very studies which, while they have revealed the inadequacy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> certain +of its postulates, have also brought clear into the view of all of us +the Divine goal which now gleams glorious in front of us—the goal of +the great Apostle—"the building up of the Body of Christ: till we all +attain unto the unity of the Faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of +God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the +fulness of Christ."</p> + +<p>A Scotsman may be excused for referring to the debt which the leaders of +the Oxford Movement—Dr Pusey in particular was always ready to admit +it—owed to Sir Walter Scott, particularly in re-awakening a more +sympathetic interest in the Mediaeval Church. If Sir Walter's countrymen +were slower to follow him in this matter, they are doing so now in +unexpected quarters. We are full to-day of the American alliance: may I +remind you that Sir Walter Scott was the first British man of letters to +hail the early promise of American literature by his cordial welcome to +its representative, Washington Irving? Scott was a devoted subject of +the British Monarchy; but he saw, and he insisted on, the duty of Great +Britain to cultivate a warm friendship with the United States.</p> + +<p>In the same direction we have been led in days more recent by the large +development, in all our denominations, of two main branches of Christian +work. I refer to Missionary enterprise abroad and Social service at +home. Our ecclesiastical divisions are a serious handicap to both. In a +matter more vital still, that of the Religious—the Christian—Education +in our Schools and Colleges, our divisions have sometimes proved +well-nigh fatal. The one remedy is that we make up our differences and +come together.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>And now this War, so dreadful in itself, is helping powerfully, and in +many ways, to the same end. It is bringing us together at home, and +making us acquainted with, and appreciative of, each other in a thousand +forms of united service. It has spread before our eyes the magnificent +and inspiring spectacles of Colonial loyalty, of one military command +over the Allied Forces, of the cordial and enthusiastic support of a +fully-reconciled America. Shall "the children of this world be wiser +than the children of light"? Shall the Church neglect the lesson read to +her by the statesmen and the warriors? Then, again, the cause for which +we are in arms is—most happily—not denominational. The present War is +not in the least like those hateful, if necessary, struggles which +historians have entitled "The Wars of Religion": but it is, on the part +of the Entente, essentially and fundamentally Christian—more profoundly +so than the Crusades themselves. That is why it is bringing us so +markedly together. And, if this is its effect at home and in America, +much more is it producing the same result among our chaplains and our +Christian workers at the Front. They are finding, on the one hand, the +limitations, or faults, of every one of our stereotyped methods of work +and forms of worship; they are seeing on the other hand among each other +excellencies where they only saw defects. They are brought together in +admiring comradeship, which resents the shackles restrictive of its +play. Let me read to you a passage from a letter I received a fortnight +since from an eminent Anglican chaplain now serving with our troops in +France:</p> + +<blockquote><p>I see (he says) in this great war all the excrescences—the +non-essentials which up till now have masqueraded and misled so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +many religious and non-religious men—drop off in the light of +great realities; and I have seen in the eyes of all true lovers of +our <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, chaplains and laity, a wistful longing to unite, and +mobilize our spiritual forces now dissipated and ineffective +through disunion. What we look for more and more is a man, so +filled with the <span class="smcap">Spirit</span> of <span class="smcap">God</span>—so free from ambition, covetousness, +denominationalism, with a big heart and deep love, to make a plunge +and start. We may be able to start out here, if we have the +good-will of our leaders at home.</p></blockquote> + +<p>I think I may safely assure my correspondent that he has the good-will +of all the living leaders of all our denominations? May I write and tell +him so from this present meeting? [Yes....] I think I shall remind him +further of those words of the Angel of the Lord to Gideon when he +threshed his wheat in the wine-press with a vigour suggestive of his +wish to have the Midianites beneath his flail—"Go in this thy might, +and thou shalt save Israel" from their marauding hands.</p> + +<p>At home, then, as well as at the Front, the will is present with us; and +where there is "the will" there is pretty sure to be "the way."</p> + +<p>"The way" (I believe for my part) is substantially that laid down by the +Pan-Anglican Conference of 1866, in the "Lambeth Quadrilateral." Its +four points were:</p> + +<p>I. The Holy Scriptures.</p> + +<p>II. The Nicene Creed.</p> + +<p>III. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ministered with the +unfailing use of the Words of Institution.</p> + +<p>IV. The Historic Episcopate.</p> + +<p>It is fifty-two years since these terms were put forth. Have they ever +been formally brought before the "denominations" for whom presumably +they were intended? Were they even once commended to the nearest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> of +these Churches by a deputation urging their consideration? I doubt it.</p> + +<p>Yet the first three of these four conditions are already accepted by +nearly all the English Nonconformists; and certainly by all the +Presbyterian Churches, as fully as they are in the Church of England. +The Presbyterian Church of England has set the Nicene Creed on the +fore-front of its new Confession. Every word of the Nicene Creed (as the +late Principal Denney pointed out) is in the Confession of Faith of all +the Scottish Presbyterians. The Church of Scotland repeats it at its +solemn "Assembly Communion" in St Giles'. Its crucial term, the +Homoousion, is in the Articles now sent down to Presbyteries with the +view of their transmission next May to the United Free Church.</p> + +<p>In regard to the Sacramental services our <i>Directory</i> is quite express +in ordering the use in Baptism and the Eucharist of the Words of +Institution. I never heard of a case in Scotland where they were not +used: we should condemn their omission should it anywhere occur.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly the Fourth Article would have, till lately, presented +difficulties; but, then, those difficulties were in great measure +cleared away by the admission of the Lambeth Conference of 1908 that in +the case of proposals for union, say of the Church of Scotland with the +Anglican Church, reaching the stage of official action, an approach +might be made along the line of the "Precedents of 1610." I had a recent +opportunity of stating, in an Address<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> I gave at King's College, +London, what these Precedents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> of 1610 were; how they included the +unanimous vote of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in +favour of the restoration of diocesan bishops acting in conjunction with +her graduated series of Church Courts; how we thereupon received from +the Church of England an Episcopate which then, and ever since, she has +accounted valid, though neither the Scots bishops she then consecrated, +nor the clergy of Scotland as a body, were required to be re-ordained; +and how the combined system thus introduced among us gave us by far the +most brilliant and fruitful period in our ecclesiastical annals; and how +Learning, Piety, Art and Church extension flourished among us, as they +have never done since. The system would in all probability have endured +to the present day but for the arbitrary interferences—often with very +good intentions, and for ends in themselves desirable—of our Stuart +kings. A later restoration of Episcopal Church government under Charles +II lacked the ecclesiastical authority which that of 1610 possessed, and +was still more hopelessly discredited by its association with the +persecution of the Covenanting remnant; but even under these +disadvantages it was yielding not inconsiderable benefits to the +religious life of Scotland. Under it our Gaelic-speaking highlanders +first received the entire Bible in their native tongue; the Episcopate +was adorned by the piety of Leighton and the wisdom of Patrick Scougal; +while Henry Scougal in his <i>Life of God in the Soul of Man</i> produced a +religious classic of enduring value.</p> + +<p>The reference by the Lambeth Conference of 1908 was meant as the opening +of a door, and I understand there was some soreness among its supporters +that more notice of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> it was not taken in Scotland. But it was never sent +to Scotland: it was never communicated to the General Assembly. Our +Scottish newspapers tell us very little of what goes on in England; and +it must be admitted that too often, on both sides of the Tweed, things +have appeared in the press not calculated to heal differences or make +for peace. Sarcasm may be very clever: it is sometimes useful: it is +rarely helpful to good feeling, or to the amendment either of him who +utters it or of him against whom it is directed. The putting forth of +the finger and speaking vanity are among the things which Isaiah +declares they must put away who desire to be called the restorers of the +breach, the repairers of paths to dwell in.</p> + +<p>Now you have taken in England a further step. The <i>Second Interim +Report</i> of the Archbishops' Sub-Committee in "Connexion with the +proposed World Conference on Faith and Order" is not, I presume, a +document of the "official" character of a Resolution of a Lambeth +Conference. It is nevertheless a paper of enormous significance and +hopefulness, not alone as attested by the signatures it bears, but also +on account of the exposition which it gives of the fourth point in the +Lambeth Quadrilateral—its own condition "that continuity with the +Historic Episcopate should be effectively preserved."</p> + +<p>This <i>Report</i> is, however, exclusively for England; while my concern +to-day is with the kindred question of union between the Anglican Church +and the Scottish Presbyterian Churches. The day I trust is not far +distant when we shall see a similar document issued over signatures from +both sides of the Tweed. Need I say that when this comes to be drawn up, +we of the North (like Bailie Nicol Jarvie with his business +correspondents in London)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> "will hold no communications with you but on +a footing of absolute equality." In none of the branches into which it +is now divided—Presbyterian or Episcopalian—does the Church of +Scotland forget that it is an ancient national Church which never +admitted subjection to its greater sister of the South. We may have too +good "a conceit of ourselves," but we shall at least, like the worthy +bailie, be true and friendly. And indeed we—or some of us—were already +moving towards something of the kind. The <i>Second Interim Report</i>—it +bears the title "Towards Christian Unity"—is dated, I observe, March +1918. In Scotland, so early as the 29th of January, there was held at +Aberdeen (historically the most natural place for such a purpose, for it +was the city of the "Aberdeen Doctors" and their eirenic efforts) a +conference—modest, unofficial, tentative—yet truly representative of +the Church of Scotland, of the United Free Church, and of the Scottish +Episcopal Church, which drew up, and has issued, a <i>Memorandum</i><a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> +suggesting a basis for reunion in Scotland, very much on the lines of +the Precedents of 1610, but suggesting such arrangements during a period +of transition as shall secure that respect is paid to the conscientious +convictions to be found on both sides. We shall not repeat the blunders +of 1637 which ruined the happy settlement of 1610.</p> + +<p>We have in view a method which shall neither deprive Scottish Episcopal +congregations of the services they love, nor attempt to force a +Prayer-Book on Presbyterian congregations till they wish it for +themselves. We shall do nothing either to discredit or disparage our +existing Presbyterian orders; we shall be no less careful not to obtrude +on the Episcopal minority the services of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> ministry they deem +defective; which shall arrange that in the course of a generation the +ministry of both communions shall be acceptable to all, while in the +meanwhile it will be possible for both to work together. Alike in +England and in Ireland this Memorandum, where it has been seen, has been +favourably received. In Scotland it—and doubtless other plans—will +probably be discussed in the coming winter by many a gathering similar +to that which drew it up; and thus we shall be ready, by the time our +union with the United Free Church is completed, to go on together to +this further task.</p> + +<p>By that time you in England will have made some progress towards the +healing of your divisions. The wider settlement of ours would be greatly +facilitated by an overt encouragement from you. England is "the +predominant partner" in our happily united Empire: it is the Church of +England that should take the initiative in a scheme for a United Church +for the United Empire. She should take that initiative in Scotland.</p> + +<p>Could there be a more appropriate occasion for proposing conference with +a view to it at Edinburgh, than the day which sees the happy +accomplishment of our present Scottish effort? Might not the Church of +England, the Church of Ireland, and the Scottish Episcopal Church (all +of which have given tokens of a sympathetic interest in our union +negotiations) unite to send deputations for the purpose to our first +reunited General Assembly? Such deputations would not go away empty. And +they would carry with them what would help not only the Cause of Christ +throughout the ever-widening Empire He has given to our hands, but the +fulfilment of His blessed will that all His people should be one. +Auspice Spiritu Sancto. Amen.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> This Address, along with another delivered in St Paul's, +has been published by Mr Robert Scott, of Paternoster Row, under the +title <i>Reunion, a Voice from Scotland</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Printed in <i>Reunion, a Voice from Scotland</i>, pp. 101-107.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="UNITY_BETWEEN_CLASSES" id="UNITY_BETWEEN_CLASSES"></a>UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES</h2> + +<h2><a name="AI" id="AI"></a>I</h2> + +<h3>By the Right Rev. F. T. <span class="smcap">Woods</span>, D.D.</h3> + +<h4>INTRODUCTION</h4> + +<p>He would be a dull man who did not respond to such a theme as the one +with which I have been entrusted.</p> + +<p>Before the war, in spite of much enlightenment of the social conscience, +unity between classes was still far to seek. Indeed, the contemplation +of the state of English society in those early months of 1914 was +perhaps more calculated to drive the social reformer into pessimism than +anything which has happened since. The rich were hunting for fresh +pleasures, the poor were hunting for better conditions. The tendencies +which were dragging these classes apart seemed stronger than those which +were bringing them together. Then came the war, and it has done much to +convert a forlorn hope into a bright prospect. This has happened not +merely, or even mainly, owing to the fact that men of all classes are +fighting side by side in the trenches, but rather owing to the fact that +the war has cleared our minds, has exposed the real dangers of +civilisation, and has placarded before the world, in terms which cannot +be mistaken, the things which are most worth living for.</p> + +<p>I propose to ask your attention to my subject under three heads. First I +shall say something of the basis of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> class distinction, then I shall put +before you some attempts which have been made at social unity, and in +closing I shall try to estimate the hope of the present situation.</p> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<h4>THE BASIS OF CLASS DISTINCTION</h4> + +<p>Birth and Property have been during most of human history the chief +points on which class distinction has turned. Behind them both, I fear +it must be confessed, there is that which lies at the root of all +civilisation, namely force. I presume that the first class distinction +was between the group of people who could command and the group who had +to obey. The second group no doubt consisted in most cases of conquered +enemies who were turned into slaves. They were outsiders, the men of a +lower level.</p> + +<p>But the master group, if I may so call it, would have its descendants, +who by virtue of family relationships would seek to keep their position. +This, I conclude, is the fountain head of that stream of blue blood +which has played so large a part in class distinction. It is not +difficult to make out a strong case for it from the point of view of +human evolution. The processes of primitive warfare may have led to the +survival of the fittest or the selection of the best. At a time when the +sense of social responsibility was limited in the extreme, it may have +been a good thing that the management of men should have rested mainly +in the hands of those who by natural endowments and force of character +came to the top. It is unnecessary to dwell at length on the immense +influence both in our own country and elsewhere which this blood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +distinction of class has exercised. It is writ large in the history of +the word "gentleman," both in the English word and its Latin ancestor. +The Latin word "generosus," always the equivalent of "gentleman" in +English-Latin documents, signifies a person of good family. It was used +no doubt in this sense by the Rev. John Ball, the strike leader, as we +should call him in modern terms, of the 14th century, in the lines which +formed a kind of battlecry of the rebels:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>When Adam delved and Eve span,</div> +<div>Who was then the gentleman?</div> +</div></div> + +<p>A writer of a century later, William Harrison, says: "Gentlemen be those +whom their race and blood or at least their virtues do make noble and +known."</p> + +<p>But the distinction is older than this. According to Professor Freeman +it goes back well nigh to the Conquest. Not indeed the distinction of +blood, for that is much older, but the formation of a separate class of +gentlemen. It has been maintained however by some writers that this is +rather antedating the process, and that the real distinction in English +life up to the 14th century was between the nobiles, the tenants in +chivalry, a very large class which included all between Earls and +Franklins; and the ignobiles, i.e. the villeins, the ordinary citizens +and burgesses. The widely prevalent notion that a gentleman was a person +who had a right to wear coat armour is apparently of recent growth, and +is possibly not unconnected with the not unnatural desire of the +herald's office to magnify its work.</p> + +<p>It is evident that noble blood in those days was no more a guarantee of +good character than it is in this, for, according to one of the writers +on the subject, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> premier gentleman of England in the early days of +the 15th century was one who had served at Agincourt, but whose +subsequent exploits were not perhaps the best advertisement for gentle +birth. According to the public records he was charged at the +Staffordshire Assizes with house-breaking, wounding with intent to kill, +and procuring the murder of one Thomas Page, who was cut to pieces while +on his knees begging for his life<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>.</p> + +<p>The first gentleman, commemorated by that name on an existing monument, +is John Daundelion who died in 1445.</p> + +<p>In the 14th and 15th centuries the chief occupation of gentlemen was +fighting; but later on, when law and order were more firmly established, +the younger sons of good families began to enter industrial life as +apprentices in the towns, and there began to grow up a new aristocracy +of trade. To William Harrison, the writer to whom I have already +referred, merchants are still citizens, but he adds: "They often change +estate with gentlemen as gentlemen do with them by mutual conversion of +the one into the other."</p> + +<p>Since those days the name has very properly come to be connected less +with blue blood than—if I may coin the phrase—with blue behaviour. In +1714, Steele lays it down in the <i>Tatler</i> that the appellation of +gentleman is never to be fixed to a man's circumstances but to his +behaviour in them. And in this connexion we may recall the old story of +the Monarch, said by some to be James II, who replied to a lady +petitioning him to make her son a gentleman: "I could make him a noble, +but God Almighty could not make him a gentleman."</p> + +<p>Before we leave the class distinctions based mainly on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> birth and blood, +it is well to remark that in England they have never counted for so much +as elsewhere. It is true of course that the nobility and gentry have +been a separate class, but they have been constantly recruited from +below. Distinction in war or capability in peace was the qualification +of scores of men upon whom the highest social rank was bestowed in reign +after reign in our English history. Moreover, birth distinction has +never been recognised in law, in spite of the fact that the manipulation +of laws has not always been free from bias. The well known words of +Macaulay are worth quoting in this connexion:</p> + +<blockquote><p>There was a strong hereditary aristocracy: but it was of all +hereditary aristocracies the least insolent and exclusive. It had +none of the invidious character of a caste. It was constantly +receiving members from the people, and constantly sending down +members to mingle with the people. Any gentleman might become a +peer, the younger son of a peer was but a gentleman. Grandsons of +peers yielded precedence to newly made knights.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The dignity of knighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could +by diligence and thrift realise a good estate, or who could attract +notice by his valour in battle.</p> + +<blockquote><p>... Good blood was indeed held in high respect: but between good +blood and the privileges of peerage there was, most fortunately for +our country, no necessary connection.... There was therefore here +no line like that which in some other countries divides the +patrician from the plebeian. The yeoman was not inclined to murmur +at dignities to which his own children might rise. The grandee was +not inclined to insult a class into which his own children must +descend.... Thus our democracy was, from an early period, the most +aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic in the world; +a peculiarity which has lasted down to the present day, and which +has produced many important moral and political effects<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>.</p></blockquote> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>If blood counted for much in distinctions of class, property counted for +more. The original distinction between the "haves" and the "have nots" +has persisted throughout history and is with us to-day.</p> + +<p>In the ancient village, no doubt, the distinction was of the simplest. +On the one hand was the man who by force or by his own energy became +possessed of more cattle and more sheep than his fellows; on the other +hand was the man who, in default of such property, was ready and willing +to give his services to the bigger man, whether for wages, or as a +condition of living in the village and sharing in the rights of the +village fields and pastures. Here presumably we have the origin of that +institution of Landlordism which still looms so large in our social +life. In the early days it was probably more a matter of cattle than of +land. The possessor of cattle in the village would hire out a certain +number of them to a poorer neighbour, who would have the right to feed +them on the common land. Thus, even in primitive times, a class +distinction based on property began to grow up.</p> + +<p>Early in history there was found in most villages a chief man who had +the largest share of the land. Below him there would be three or four +landowners of moderate importance and property. At the end of the scale +were the ordinary labourers and villagers, among whom the rest of the +village lands were divided as a rule on fairly equal terms.</p> + +<p>Closely allied to this of course was the organisation of the village +from the point of view of military service. Parallel to this more +peaceful organisation of society was the elaborate Feudal System, by +which, from the King downwards, lands were held in virtue of an +obliga<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>tion on the part of each class to the one above it to produce men +for the wars in due proportion of numbers and equipment.</p> + +<p>From this point of view property in land meant also property in men, +labourers in peace and soldiers in war.</p> + +<p>As time went on the class distinctions of birth and property began more +and more to coincide. It was Dr Johnson who made the remark that "the +English merchant is a new species of gentleman."</p> + +<p>The form of property which was always held to be in closest connexion +with gentle blood was land. This has been so in a pre-eminent degree +since our English Revolution at the end of the 17th century. From that +time onwards the smaller landowners, yeomen and squires with small +holdings, begin to disappear and the landed gentry become practically +supreme. Political power in a large measure rested with them, and the +result was that numbers of men who had made money in trade were eager to +use it in the purchase of land, for this meant the purchase of social +and political influence.</p> + +<p>It was no doubt this craze for the possession of land which led to the +process of enclosing the common lands of the village, a process on which +no true Englishman can look back in these days without shame and sorrow. +It is no doubt arguable that from an economic point of view the +productive power of the land was increased, that agriculture was more +efficiently and scientifically managed by the comparatively few big men +than it would have been by the many small men who were displaced. None +the less the price was too high, for it meant a still further +accentuation of class distinction. It meant the further enrichment of +the big man, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> further impoverishment of the small man. And +between the two there grew up a class of farmers, separate from the +labourers, whose outlook on the whole did not make for those relations +of neighbourliness and even kinship which had been among the fine +characteristics of the ancient village.</p> + +<p>Nor is this the end of the story, for the distinction between the +"haves" and the "have nots" was still further accentuated, and the two +classes driven still further apart, by the far-reaching Industrial +Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century.</p> + +<p>The alienation between the farmer and the labourer was exactly +paralleled by the alienation which gradually crept in between the +manufacturer and the workers. The growth of the factory system was +indeed so rapid that only the keenest foresight could have provided +against these evils. The same may be said of the amazing development of +the towns, particularly in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, +which quickly gathered round the new hives of industry. Unfortunately +that foresight was lacking. On the one hand the science of town-planning +had hardly been born, on the other hand a lightning accumulation of +large fortunes turned the heads of the commercial magnates, dehumanised +industry, and broke up the fellowship which in older and simpler days +had obtained between the employer and his men.</p> + +<p>It is a charge which we frequently bring against the enemy in these +days, a charge only too well founded, that they are expert in everything +except understanding human nature. The same may be said of those who +were concerned in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. The +growing wealth of the country which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> should have united masters and men +in a truer comradeship, and a richer life, achieved results which were +precisely the opposite. It developed a greed of cash which we have not +yet shaken off, and money was accumulated in the pockets of men who had +had neither aptitude nor training in the art of spending it. The workers +were reduced to a state not far removed from a salaried slavery, and the +difference between the "haves" and the "have nots" was perhaps more +acute than at any other time in our history. The causes of this were +many and complex. Not the least of them was the fact that the masters of +industry were captured by a false theory of economics according to which +the fund which was available for the remuneration of labour could not at +any given time be greater or less than it was. Human agency could not +increase its volume, it could only vary its distribution. And further, +as every man has the right to sell his labour for what he can obtain for +it, any interference between the recipients was held to be unjust.</p> + +<p>"That theory," as Mr Hammond has told us, "became supreme in economics, +and the whole movement for trade-union organisation had to fight its way +against this solid superstition<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>."</p> + +<p>The doctrine of free labour achieved a wonderful popularity; but then, +as the writer I have just quoted reminds us: "Free labour had not Adam +Smith's meaning: it meant the freedom of the employer to take what +labour he wanted, at the price he chose and under the conditions he +thought proper<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>."</p> + +<p>More and more therefore the employers and the workers drifted apart, and +the supreme misfortune was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> that the one power which might have drawn +them together was itself in a state of semi-paralysis in regard to the +corporate responsibility of the community. That power was religion. +There were times, as I shall endeavour to point out later, when +Christianity was able to produce an atmosphere of comradeship stronger +than the differences of class. But to the very great loss of both +country and Church this was not one of them.</p> + +<p>At the moment when the corporate message of the Church was needed, it +was looking the other way, and concentrating its thought on the +individual. The Reformation was in large measure a revolt from the +imperial to the personal conception of religion. I do not deny that this +revolt was necessary and beneficial. But the reaction from the corporate +aspect of Christianity went too far. When this reaction was further +reinforced by the Puritan movement, which with all its strength and its +fine austerity fastened its attention on the minutiae of personal +conduct, and left the community as such almost out of sight, it is not +surprising to find that religion at the end of the 18th, and through a +large part of the 19th century, failed to produce just that sense of +brotherhood which would have mitigated the whole situation and prevented +much of the practical paganism which I have described.</p> + +<p>Even the great revival connected with the name of John Wesley brought +all its fire to bear on the conversion of the <i>man</i>, when the social +unit which was most in need of that conversion was the community. The +result of all this was that, partly owing to ignorance, partly owing to +prejudice, partly owing to the misreading of the New Testament, the +messengers of religion had no message of corporate responsibility for +nation or class.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> There was no one to lift aloft the torch of human +brotherhood over the dark and gloomy landscape of English life. So far +from that, the people who figured large in religion were convinced quite +honestly that the division of classes was a heaven sent order, with +which it would be impious to interfere, and further that the main +message of religion to the people at large was an authoritative +injunction to good behaviour, and patient resignation to the +circumstances in which Providence had placed them. The notion that the +organisation of Society, particularly on its industrial side, was wholly +inconsistent with the ideals of the New Testament never so much as +entered their heads, and any suggestion to this effect would have been +regarded not merely as revolutionary but sacrilegious.</p> + +<p>I have ventured on this very rough description of class distinctions, +before our modern days, because it is through the study of our +forefathers' mistakes and a truer understanding of our forefathers' +inspirations that we may hope to create a better world in the days that +are coming.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<h4>ATTEMPTS AT SOCIAL UNITY</h4> + +<p>Let me ask your attention now to a few of the attempts which have been +made to create a deeper social unity.</p> + +<p>Some of these were naturally and inevitably developed in primitive days +by the simple fact that "birds of a feather flock together."</p> + +<p>Men engaged in pastoral pursuits gathered themselves into the tribe with +its strong blood bond. The tillage of the fields led to the existence of +the clan, with its family<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> system and its elaborate organisation of the +land. In the same way industrial activity produced the Guild, that is +the grouping of men by crafts, a grouping which might well be revived +and encouraged on a larger scale in the rearrangements of the future.</p> + +<p>I need not remind you how large a place was occupied by the Guilds in +English life. They were not Trade Unions in the modern sense, for they +included both masters and men in one organisation. Nor must we attribute +a modern meaning to those two phrases, masters and men, when we speak of +the ancient Guild. For in a large measure every man was his own +employer. He was a member of the league; he kept the rules; but he was +his own master. The master did not mean the manager of the workmen, but +the expert in the work. He was the master of the art in question, and +though his fellows might be journeymen or apprentices, they all belonged +to the same social class, and throughout the Guild there was a spirit of +comradeship which was consecrated by the sanctions of religion.</p> + +<p>For it was the Guilds which were the prime movers in organising those +Miracle Plays which were the delight of the Middle Ages, and which +formed the main outlet for that dramatic instinct which used to be so +strong in England, and which paved the way for Shakespeare and the +modern stage.</p> + +<p>The Guild was not concerned mainly with money but with work, and still +more with the skill and happiness of the worker, and its aim was to +resist inequality. It was, in the pointed words of Mr Chesterton,</p> + +<blockquote><p>to ensure, not only that bricklaying should survive and succeed, +but that every bricklayer should survive and succeed. It sought to +rebuild the ruins of any bricklayer, and to give any faded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +whitewasher a new white coat. It was the whole aim of the Guilds to +cobble their cobblers like their shoes and clout their clothiers +with their clothes; to strengthen the weakest link, or go after the +hundredth sheep; in short to keep the row of little shops unbroken +like a line of battle<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The Guild in fact aimed at keeping each man free and happy in the +possession of his little property, whereas the Trade Union aims at +assembling into one company a large number of men who have little or no +property at all, and who seek to redress the balance by collective +action. The mediaeval Guild therefore will certainly go down to history +as one of the most gallant attempts, and for the time being one of the +most successful, to create a true comradeship among all who work, and to +keep at a distance those mere class distinctions which, though their +foundations are often so flimsy, tend to grip men as in an iron vice.</p> + +<p>But I must not pass by another social organisation which looms very +large in the old days, and which approached social unity from a side +wholly different from those I have mentioned, namely from the military +side: I mean the Feudal System. Here there has been much +misunderstanding. Its very name seems to breathe class distinction. We +have come casually and rather carelessly to identify it with the tyranny +and oppression which exalted the few at the expense of the many. This +point of view is however a good deal less than just. It is quite true +that as worked by William the Norman and several of his successors the +system became only too often an instrument of gross injustice and crass +despotism; but at its best, and in its origin, it was based on the twin +foundations of protection on the one hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> and duty on the other. I will +venture to quote a high authority in this connexion, namely Bishop +Stubbs.</p> + +<blockquote><p>The Feudal System, with all its tyranny and all its faults and +shortcomings, was based on the requirements of mutual help and +service, and was maintained by the obligations of honour and +fealty. Regular subordination, mutual obligation, social unity, +were the pillars of the fabric. The whole state was one: the king +represented the unity of the nation. The great barons held their +estates from him, the minor nobles of the great barons, the gentry +of these vassals, the poorer freemen of the gentry, the serfs +themselves were not without rights and protectors as well as duties +and service. Each gradation, and every man in each, owed service, +fixed definite service, to the next above him, and expected and +received protection and security in return. Each was bound by +fealty to his immediate superior, and the oath of the one implies +the pledged honour and troth of the other<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This system indeed was very far from perfect, but it certainly was an +attempt to bind the nation together in one social unit, to provide a +measure of protection for all, and to demand duties from all. It sought +to lay equal stress on rights and duties. In this respect—and I am +still thinking of the system at its best—it was far ahead of modern +19th century Industrialism, a system which might be described with but +little exaggeration as laying sole emphasis on rights for one class and +duties for the other.</p> + +<p>But the supreme attempt which so far has been made to promote unity +between classes has approached the problem from a far loftier +standpoint; not industrial, nor military, but religious. And this +attempt has been on a larger scale and on firmer foundations than any of +the others, for it has sought to unite men in spite of their +differences. It has tried, that is, to get below the varieties<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> of race +or family or occupation, and create a unity which, because it transcends +them all, may hope to last. As a fact this attempt has so far surpassed +all others, and has met with the greatest measure of success. And lest I +should be suspected of prejudice I will quote an outside witness:</p> + +<blockquote><p>A very pregnant saying of T. H. Green was that during the whole +development of man the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as +thyself" has never varied, what has varied is the answer to the +question—Who is my neighbour?... The influence upon the +development of civilisation of the wider conception of duty and +responsibility to one's fellow-men which was introduced into the +world with the spread of Christianity can hardly be overestimated. +The extended conception of the answer to the question Who is my +neighbour? which has resulted from the characteristic doctrines of +the Christian religion—a conception transcending all the claims of +family, group, state, nation, people or race and even all the +interests comprised in any existing order of society—has been the +most powerful evolutionary force which has ever acted on society. +It has tended gradually to break up the absolutisms inherited from +an older civilization and to bring into being an entirely new type +of social efficiency<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Or to take another witness equally unprejudiced, who puts the same truth +more tersely still, the late Professor Lecky. "The brief record of those +three short years," referring to Christ's life, "has done more to soften +and regenerate mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and +exhortations of moralists." For a third witness we will call Mazzini. +"We owe to the Church," he declared, "the idea of the unity of the human +family and of the equality and emancipation of souls." That this is +amply borne out by the history of the Church in early days is not +difficult to prove. The unexceptionable evidence of a Pagan writer is +here very much to the point. Says Lucian of the Christians:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>"Their original lawgiver had taught them that they were all brethren, +one of another.... They become incredibly alert when anything ... +affects their common interests<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a>."</p> + +<p>In the same way the ancient Christian writer Tertullian observes with +characteristic irony: "It is our care for the helpless, our practice of +lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. +Only look, they say, 'look how they love one another<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>!'" It is not +surprising that this was so when you look into the writings which form +the New Testament. Apart from the words and example of the Founder of +Christianity, few men have ever lived who were more alive to existing +social distinctions, and also to the splendour of that scheme which +transcends them all, than St Paul. In proof of this it is sufficient to +point to that immortal treatise on social unity which is commonly called +the Epistle to the Ephesians. In this the fundamental secret is seen to +consist, not in a rigid system but in a transforming spirit working +through a divine Society in which all worldly distinctions are of no +account. Slavery, for instance, was, in his view, and was actually in +process of time, to be abolished not by a stroke of the pen but by a +change of ideal. Nor is the witness lacking in writings subsequent to +the New Testament. To instance one of the earliest. In an official +letter sent by the Roman Church to the Christians in Corinth towards the +end of the first century, in a passage eulogising the latter community +this suggestive sentence occurs: "You did everything without respect of +persons."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>Needless to say however, this point of view, this new spirit, only +gradually permeated the Christian Church itself, let alone the great +world outside. We are not surprised to learn that it was a point of +criticism among the opponents of the religion that among its adherents +were still found masters and slaves. An ancient writer in reply to +critics who cry out "You too have masters and slaves. Where then is your +so-called equality?" thus makes answer:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Our sole reason for giving one another the name of brother is +because we believe we are equals. For since all human objects are +measured by us after the spirit and not after the body, although +there is a diversity of condition among human bodies, yet slaves +are not slaves to us; we deem and term them brothers after the +spirit, and fellow-servants in religion<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Pointing in the same direction is the fact that the title "slave" never +occurs on a Christian tombstone.</p> + +<p>It is plain from this, and from similar quotations which might be +multiplied, that the policy of Christianity in face of the first social +problem of the day, namely slavery, was not violently to undo the +existing bonds by which Society was held together, in the hope that some +new machinery would at once be forthcoming—a plan which has since been +adopted with dire consequences in Russia—but to evacuate the old system +of the spirit which sustained it; and to replace it with a new spirit, a +new outlook on life, which would slowly but inevitably lead to an entire +reconstruction of the social framework.</p> + +<p>Already too, within the Church this sense of brotherhood was making +itself felt on the industrial side as well as where more directly +spiritual duties were concerned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> It seems to have been recognised in +the Christian Society that every brother could claim the right of being +maintained if he were unable to work. Equally it was emphasised that the +duty of work was paramount on all who were capable of it. "For those +able to work, provide work; to those incapable of work be charitable." +This aspect of the matter finds a singular emphasis in a second century +document known as "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," in which this +sense of industrial brotherhood finds very significant expression. +Speaking of visitors from other Churches it is directed that "if any +brother has a trade let him follow that trade and earn the bread he +eats. If he has no trade, exercise your discretion in arranging for him +to live among you as a Christian, but not in idleness. If he will not do +this, that is to say, to undertake the work which you provide for him, +he is trafficking with Christ. Beware of men like that."</p> + +<p>On this side of its life therefore, the Church came very near to being a +vast Guild where with the highest sanction rights and duties were +intermingled in due proportion, and that true social unity established, +which while it refuses privileges bestows protection. On these +foundations the organisation was reared, which like some great Cathedral +dominated that stretch of centuries usually known as the Middle Ages. We +could all of us hold forth on its drawbacks and evils, yet its benefits +were tremendous. For one thing it created an aristocracy wholly +independent of any distinction of blood or property. Anyone might become +an Archbishop if only he had the necessary gifts. Still more anyone +might become a Saint. The charmed circle of the Church's nobility was +constantly recruited from every class, and was therefore a standing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> and +effectual protest against the flimsier measurements of Society and the +more ephemeral gradations of rank. Obviously this process found as great +a scope in England as elsewhere. It was the Church which was the most +potent instrument in bringing together Norman and Saxon as well as +master and slave. For, as Macaulay has said with perfect truth, it</p> + +<blockquote><p>creates an aristocracy altogether independent of race, inverts the +relation between the oppressor and the oppressed, and compels the +hereditary master to kneel before the spiritual tribunal of the +hereditary bondman.... So successfully had the Church used her +formidable machinery that, before the Reformation came, she had +enfranchised almost all the bondmen in the kingdom except her own, +who, to do her justice, seem to have been very tenderly +treated<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This makes it particularly deplorable that in consequence of the great +reaction in religion from the corporate to the personal, to which I have +alluded, the Church's power, as far as Britain was concerned, though so +splendidly exercised in the preceding centuries, should have been almost +non-existent just at the moment when it was most required, in the +Agricultural and Industrial Revolution of comparatively modern times.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<h4>THE HOPE OF THE PRESENT SITUATION</h4> + +<p>I fear that a large portion of this lecture has been taken up with the +past. But even so rough and brief a review as I have attempted is a +necessary prelude to a just estimate, both of our present position and +of our future prospects. It is often supposed, indeed, that the study of +history predisposes a man's mind to a conserva<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>tive view. He studies the +slow development of institutions, or the gradual influence of movements, +and the trend of his thought works round to the very antipodes of +anything that is revolutionary or catastrophic. But there is another +side to the matter. The study of history may so expose the injustices of +the past and their intrenchments that the student reaches the conclusion +that nothing but an earthquake—an earthquake in men's ideas at the very +least—can avail to set things right; that the best thing that could +happen would be an explosion so terrible as to make it possible to break +completely with the past, and start anew on firmer principles and better +ways. After all, as a great Cambridge scholar once said, "History is the +best cordial for drooping spirits." For if on the one hand it exposes +the selfishnesses of men, on the other it displays an exhibition of +those Divine-human forces of justice and sacrifice and good will which +in the long run cannot be denied, and which encourage the brightest +hopes for the age which is upon us.</p> + +<p>The fact is, we are in the midst of precisely such an explosion as I +have indicated. The immeasurable privilege has been given to us of being +alive at a time when, most literally, an epoch is being made. +Contemporary observers of events are not always the best judges of their +significance, yet we shall hardly be mistaken if we assert that without +doubt we stand at one of the turning points of the world's long story, +that the phrase used of another epoch-making moment is true of this one, +"Old things are passing away, all things are becoming new." For history +is presenting us in these days with a clean slate, and to the men of +this generation is given the opportunity for making a fresh start such +as in the centuries gone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> by has often been sought, but seldom found. We +are called to the serious and strenuous task of freeing our minds from +old preconceptions—and the hold they have over us, even at a moment +like this when the world is being shaken, is amazing—the task of +reaching a new point of view from which to see our social problems, and +of not being disobedient to the heavenly vision wheresoever it may lead +us.</p> + +<p>That vision is Fellowship, and it is not new. Though the war is, in the +sense which I have suggested, a terrific explosion which in the midst of +ruin and chaos brings with it supreme opportunities, it is equally true +to say that it forms no more than a ghastly parenthesis in the process +of fellowship both between nations and classes which had already begun +to make great strides.</p> + +<p>"The sense of social responsibility has been so deepened in our +civilisation that it is almost impossible that one nation should attempt +to conquer and subdue another after the manner of the ancient world."</p> + +<p>These words sound rather ironical. They come from the last edition of +the <i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i>. They were written about seven years ago +in perfect good faith, as a sober estimate of the forces of fellowship +which could be then discerned. Save for the ideals and ambitions of the +central Empires of Europe they were perfectly true. What the war has +done in regard to this fellowship is to expose in their hideous +nakedness the dangers which threaten it, and to which in pre-war days we +were far too blind, but also to unveil that strong passion for +neighbourliness which lies deep in the hearts of men, and an almost +fierce determination to give it truer expression in the age which is +ahead.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>You will naturally ask what effect the war is likely to have on this +problem of class distinction. How far will it hinder or enhance the +social unity for which we seek?</p> + +<p>We must of course beware of being unduly optimistic. The fact that +millions of our men are seeing with their own eyes the results which can +be achieved by naked force will not be without its effect on their +attitude when they return to their homes. If force is so necessary and +so successful on the field of battle why not equally so in the +industrial field? If nations find it necessary to face each other with +daggers drawn, it may be that classes will have to do the same.</p> + +<p>Personally I doubt whether this argument is likely to carry much weight. +It is much more likely in my view that our men will be filled with so +deep a hatred of everything that even remotely savours of battle, that a +great tide of reaction against mere force will set in, and a great +impetus be given to those higher and more spiritual motor-powers which +during the war we have put out of court.</p> + +<p>On the other hand it is easy to cherish a rather shallow hope as to the +continuation in the future of that unity of classes which obtains in the +trenches. Surely, it is argued, men who have stood together at the +danger point and gone over the top together at the moment of assault +will never be other than brothers in the more peaceful pursuits which +will follow. Yet it is not easy to foretell what will happen when the +tremendous restraint of military service is withdrawn, when Britain no +longer has her back to the wall, and when the overwhelming loyalty which +leaps forth at the hour of crisis falls back into its normal quiescence, +like the New Zealand geyser when its momen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>tary eruption is over. Any +hopefulness which we may cherish for the future must rest on firmer +foundations than these.</p> + +<p>Such a foundation, I believe, has come to light, and I must say a few +words about it as I close.</p> + +<p>Broadly speaking it is this. The war has taught us that it is possible +to live a national family life, in which private interests are +subordinated in the main to the service of the State; and further that +this new social organisation of the nation has called forth an +unprecedented capacity in tens of thousands both of men and women, not +merely for self-denying service, but for the utmost heights of heroism +even unto death.</p> + +<p>Men have vaguely cherished this ideal of national life before the war, +but now it has been translated into concrete fact, and the nation can +never forget the deep sense of corporate efficiency, even of corporate +joy, which has ensued from this obliteration of the old class +distinctions, this amalgamation of all and sundry in a common service. +The fact is that a new class distinction has in a measure taken the +place of the old, a distinction which has nothing to do with blood or +with money, but solely with service. The nation is graded, not in +degrees of social importance but in degrees of capacity for service. The +only superiority is one of sacrifice. And each grade takes its hat off +to the other on the equal standing ground of an all pervading +patriotism. The only social competition is not in getting but in giving. +National advantage takes the place of personal profit, and there is a +sense of neighbourliness such as Britain has not experienced for many a +long day, possibly for many a long century.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>The supreme problem before us, I take it, is how to conserve this +relationship and carry it over from the day of war to the day of peace. +To do it will call for just that same spirit of sacrifice and service +which is its own most predominant characteristic.</p> + +<p>For one thing we must be quite definitely prepared in every section of +society for a new way of life. From the economic point of view this will +mean that the rich will be less rich, and the poor will be enabled to +lead a larger life. Already the wealthy classes have been learning to +live a simple life, and to substitute the service of the country for +their own personal enjoyment. A serious call will come to them to +continue in that state of life when the war is over. In some degree at +least the pressure of the financial burden which the nation will have to +bear will compel them to do so.</p> + +<p>To the workers too in the same way the call will come to a new and more +worthy way of life. I am thinking now of the workers at home who have +been earning unprecedented wages, and thereby in many cases are already +assaying a larger life. They will be reluctant to give this up, but only +a gradual redistribution of wealth can make it permanent. It is not of +course merely or mainly a matter of wages. The only real enlargement of +life is spiritual. It is an affair of the mind and the soul.</p> + +<p>The more we bring a true education within reach of the workers the more +will there arise that sense of real kinship which only equality of +education can adequately guarantee.</p> + +<p>And speaking at Cambridge one cannot refrain from remarking that the +University itself will have to submit to a considerable re-adjustment of +its life if it is to be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> pioneer in this intellectual comradeship of +which I speak. A University may be a nursery of class distinction. In +some measure it certainly has been so in the past. The opportunity is +now before it to lead the way in establishing the only kind of equality +which is really worth having.</p> + +<p>Then too there are obvious steps which can be taken without delay in a +new organisation of industry.</p> + +<p>I am not one of those who think that the industrial problem can be +solved in five minutes or even in five years. None the less it should +not be impossible in wise ways to give the workers a true share of +responsibility, particularly in matters which concern the conditions of +their work and the remuneration of their labour.</p> + +<p>If the sense of being driven by a taskmaster, whether it be the foreman +of the shop, or the manager of the works, could give place to a truer +co-operation in the management, and a larger measure of responsibility +for the worker, we should be well on the road to eliminating one of the +most persistent causes of just that kind of class distinction which we +want to abolish. The more men work together in a real comradeship, the +more mere social distinctions fade into the background. Is this not +written on every page of the chronicles of this war?</p> + +<p>But the supreme factor in the situation, without which no mere +adjustment of organisation will prevail, is that new outlook on life +which can only be described as a subordination of private advantage to +the service of the country.</p> + +<p>It is this alone which can really abolish the almost eternal class +distinctions which we have traced throughout our survey, the distinction +between the "haves" and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> "have nots." For, as this spirit grows, the +"have nots" tend to disappear, and the "haves" look upon what they have +not as a selfish possession for their own enjoyment, but as a means of +service for the common weal. Property, that which is most proper to a +man, is seen to be precisely that contribution which he is capable of +making to the welfare of his fellows.</p> + +<p>The crux, the very core of the whole problem, is to find some means by +which this new outlook can be produced, and a new motive by which men +can be constrained to turn the vision into fact.</p> + +<p>Here will come in that power which, as I pointed out, has sometimes been +so potent and sometimes so impotent, but which, if it is allowed its +proper scope, can never fail. I mean of course religion.</p> + +<p>If men can be brought to see that this new outlook with its +corresponding re-adjustment of social life is not merely a project of +reformers but the plan of the Most High God, the deliberate intention of +the supreme Spirit-force of the universe, the Scheme that was taught by +the Prince of men, then indeed we may hope that the class distinction of +which He spoke will at last be adopted: "Whosoever will be great among +you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, +shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be +ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for +many<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Encycl. Brit.</i> xi. 604.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Macaulay's <i>History of England</i> (Longman's, 1885), pp. 38, +39, 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>The Town Labourer</i>, p. 205.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 212.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> G. K. Chesterton, <i>Short History of England</i>, p. 98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Stubbs' <i>Lectures on Early English History</i>, pp. 18, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Benjamin Kidd, <i>Encycl. Brit.</i> vol. xxv. p. 329.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Lucian quoted by Harnack, <i>Mission and expansion of +Christianity</i>, vol. I. p. 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Lactantius quoted by Harnack, <i>Ibid.</i> p. 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>History of England</i> (Longman's, 1885), vol. I. p. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> St Mark x. 43-45.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<h2>UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES</h2> + +<h2><a name="AII" id="AII"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>By the Right Hon. J. R. <span class="smcap">Clynes</span>, M.P.</h3> + +<p>I have not the advantage of knowing anything of the treatment of any +part of this subject by any preceding speaker. I myself intend to deal +with it from the industrial and social standpoint, for I think if we are +to seek unity amongst classes it is most important in the national +interest that unity should first be sought and secured in the industries +of the country. That there is disunity is suggested and admitted in the +terms of the subject. This disunity has grown out of conditions which +range over a few generations. I believe that these conditions grew +largely out of our ignoring the human side of industry and the general +life conditions of the masses of our workers. Our economic doctrine +ignored the human factor, and measured what was termed national progress +in terms merely of material wealth without due regard to who owned the +wealth, made mainly by the energy of the industrial population. +Religious doctrines and religious institutions were not the cause of +that unhappy situation, but they had suffered from it, until now we find +a very considerable number of the population engaged in a struggle for +life, in a struggle for the material means of existence, handicapped by +belief that their own unaided effort alone can assist them, that they +must not look for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> help to any other class, or to any other quarter. +Moral precepts have not the influence which they ought to have upon our +industrial relations. Workers are thrown back upon their own resources; +and in the use of those resources, during the past fifteen years +particularly, much has been revealed to us of what is now in the working +class mind. I am not suggesting that to seek a settlement of conditions +of disunity, or the trouble arising from those conditions, you must +coddle the working classes, praise them and pay them highly, and try to +keep them contented with conditions which in themselves cannot be +defended. I do not mean that at all. What I mean is that if unity +between classes in industrial and economic life is to be sought and +secured, it can be got only at a price, paid in a two-fold form; that of +giving a larger yield of the wealth of the nation to those who mainly by +their energies make that wealth, and of placing the producing classes +upon a level where they will receive a higher measure of respect, of +thanks, and regard than they previously have received from the nation as +a whole. I was asked among others some twelve months ago to share in the +investigations then made by representatives of the Government to +discover the immediate cause of the very serious unrest then displayed +in the country, and we went for a period of many weeks into the main +centres of the kingdom and brought a varied collection of witnesses +before us in order that the most reliable evidence should be obtained, +and one who favoured us with his views was the Rev. Canon Green, whom I +am going to quote because of his great experience among the working +class populations in various circumstances and over many years in +Manchester and elsewhere. This is what Canon Green writes:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>They (the working classes) do not see why their hours should be so +long, and their wages so small, their lives so dull and colourless, +and their opportunities of reasonable rest and recreation so few. +Can we wonder that with growing education and intelligence the +workers of England are beginning to contrast their lot with that of +the rich and to ask whether so great inequalities are necessary?</p></blockquote> + +<p>There I believe you have put in the plainest and gentlest terms the +working of the working class mind as it is to-day. The country has given +them more opportunities of education. When they were less educated, or, +if I may say so, more ignorant than they are now, they were naturally +more submissive and content with conditions the cause of which they so +little understood. You cannot send the children of the poor to school, +and improve your State agencies for education, and increase the millions +annually which the country is ready to spend in teaching the masses of +the people more than they knew before, and expect those masses to remain +content with the economic and social conditions which even disturbed +their more ignorant fathers. In short, the more you educate and train +the working classes, the more naturally you bring them to the point of +revolt against conditions which are inhuman or unfair, or which cannot +be brought to square with the higher standard of education which they +may receive. I am sure when the community come to understand that it is +a natural and even a proper sense of revolt on the part of the masses of +the people they will not regret their education. Out of all this feeling +of discontent in the minds of the industrial population there has in the +last thirty odd years grown very strong organisation. The Trade Union +movement, which I mention first as a very great factor in all these +matters,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> is a most powerful and important factor, and the country will +have to pay greater regard to the steps which Trade Unionism may take +than the country has been disposed previously to do. The Trade Union +movement was stimulated and developed by the conditions which it was +brought into being to remedy. The Trade Union was not the growth of mere +agitation. The average Briton must be convinced that there is something +really wrong before he will try to remedy it at all, and you cannot by +lectures, and by telling the people that they have been and are being +oppressed, stir the people of this country to any resistance. +Particularly you cannot get them to pay a contribution for it. It was +because of the experience of the mass of the workers, their low wages +and long hours and the bad conditions of employment, that they organised +and used the might that comes from numbers, and paid contributions which +in the sum total now amount to many millions of pounds in the way of +reserve funds. No apology was needed for the working classes and no +defence is required for this step taken by the workers to unite +themselves in Trade Unions, and thereby secure by the unity of numbers +the power which, acting singly, it was impossible for them to exercise. +This Trade Union movement is quite alive to the division which exists +among our classes, and I am going to suggest that the movement might be +used, might be properly employed, in obtaining that unity of classes +which we are here to consider.</p> + +<p>Well, then, we may, whilst not overlooking other helpful activities of a +large number of people in this country, seek this unity among three main +divisions of our people, viz. (<i>a</i>) in industries, (<i>b</i>) in agriculture, +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> (<i>c</i>) in businesses. Given unity of interest and oneness of purpose +and aim in those three broad divisions of the nation, the rest must be +attracted and brought into harmony by mere force of example, if nothing +else, with the unity which might be secured in the three broad divisions +to which I have referred. One of the hopeful things, the significant +things, recently uttered in other quarters from which I am going to +quote, is clearly seeking this tendency to unity instead of the +different interests and classes being driven by the waste and folly of +the disuniting lines upon which so far we have persisted. I observe that +only a few days ago Lord Selborne, who is one of our principal +mouthpieces on agricultural matters, presided at a new body called into +existence within the past few weeks and to be known as the National +Agricultural Council. Now, that is not a body which will consist of +landowners, or of farmers, or of farm workers; it is a body to consist +of all three. The landowners, the farmers, and the agricultural workers +have come to recognise that they all have something in common touching +agriculture, touching the trade or industry in which they are brought +into close touch day by day. I know as a matter of fact that only a very +few years ago the Farmers' Union would not tolerate the idea of the farm +workers having a union, and the land workers looked with real dread upon +the farmers having a union, and now all three have come to the stage +when they agree to join in one Council, and, though it was admitted that +the interests of those three classes were primarily in conflict, it was +recognised that by holding meetings, by the representatives of all these +quite distinct interests frequently coming together, much good might be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +done. For what? As they say, for agriculture. So, though none of them +will forfeit any rightful interest anyone of them may have in the +pursuit of a special claim, they will all recognise a higher sense of +duty, and feel there is an obligation upon them to make agriculture in +this country a greater thing not only for themselves as the three +partners, but for the mass of the community at large. And if it is +necessary to do that in the farmers' interest or the landowners' +interest, it was at least as necessary to do it in the interest of the +agricultural worker, and I put his claim first, not because he is the +sole contributor to any yield that may come from the land, but because +he is the most numerous body, and numbers in this as in other respects +may well be the determining factor; and because if he withholds his +labour there will be none of the fruit of the soil for which we look +year after year. I follow up this statement by an authoritative one from +another quarter. Lord Lee, who as we know was the Director of the Food +Production Department at the Board of Agriculture, spoke some time ago +on this aspect of the case, and said: "Take the agricultural labourer +for example. Does anyone suppose, or suggest, that he should return from +the trenches—where he has distinguished himself in a way unsurpassed by +any other class in the community—to the old miserable conditions under +which, in most parts of the country, he was under-paid, wretchedly +housed, and denied almost any pleasure in life, except such as the +public house could offer him? Those conditions were a disgrace to the +country, and I shall never be content until they are swept away for +ever. I do not say this only in the interest of the man himself; it is +necessary these conditions should go, in the best<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> interests not merely +of the labourer but of the farmer and of agriculture." So it may be that +unity and oneness of purpose and of action will be driven upon us as one +of the bye-products of war conditions. For your simple plain +agricultural worker will come back feeling that as he has fought for the +liberties of his country he will be entitled to enjoy a little more of +it than ever before, that if the land is to be freed from designs of the +tyrant abroad it must be freed also from any wrong at home, and that he +must have a larger share in the fruits of his labour than he has enjoyed +before. My own view is that you will not on that account make the farm +worker a less efficient harvestman, but you will make him a happier +father, you will be making him a more contented citizen, and may make +him a more profitable worker than he has ever been.</p> + +<p>Various remedies have been tried or thought of to give effect to what +are our common aspirations. One I have seen referred to frequently is +one I would like to see always avoided. It is the remedy of placing +before workmen as a necessity a greatly increased output from their +manual labour in the future; not that I am opposed to an increased +output, but I am not going to demand it as part of the bargain which +should itself be arranged and carried out, even if it did not +necessarily secure for us any greater sum total of wealth than we now +enjoy; for poor as we may have accounted ourselves we have seen in the +past few years how vastly we can spend and lend in support of any high +purpose to which the country may devote itself. Poverty can never again +be claimed by the nation as a whole whenever there is a proper and +reasonable demand for any social change or reform which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> may be +necessary and proper. Men are asking for a greater yield, for a greater +output, for building up our wealth higher than ever before, so as to +repair the ravages of the war, if for no other purpose. With all those +objects I agree, but we must not make them as terms to the worker in +exchange for those conditions of unity which we are asking our workers +to arrange with us. Greater output, increased efficiency, a bigger and +better return of wealth from industrial and agricultural energy, can +well come out of a better working system, a better rearrangement of +combined effort, a more extensive use of machinery, a more satisfactory +sub-division of labour, a wider employment of the personal experience +and technical skill of our industrial classes, a higher state of +administrative efficiency and management in the workshops, the creation +of a better and more humane atmosphere in the workshops. Out of all of +these things a greater yield of wealth could be produced, and it is +along those lines we must go in order not merely to convert but to +convince the workman that he is not being used as a mere tool for some +ulterior end for the benefit of some smaller class in the country. It +has been said by some that Trade Union restrictions and limitations must +go. I candidly admit there have been Trade Union regulations and +conditions which perhaps have stood in the way of some increased output, +but I am not here to apologise for Trade Union rules. Every class has +its regulations and rules. The more powerful and the more wealthy the +class the more rigid and stringent those rules have been. However, the +class which was most in need of regulations and rules, the working +class, was the first to set the example of setting them aside as a +general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> war measure when the country called upon the workers to take +action of that kind during 1915. We must, therefore, keep in mind the +fact that workmen are naturally suspicious. That suspicion is the growth +of the workshop system, into which I have not now the time to go, and we +must avoid causing the workman to suspect that our unity, the unity we +are seeking among classes, is a mere device for getting him to work +harder and produce greater wealth and perhaps labour even longer hours +than ever.</p> + +<p>The first great step towards this unity is to secure the good will of +the Trade Unions. Having secured that, the next thing is to proceed upon +lines which will bring at once home to the individual workman in the +workshop some sense of responsibility with regard to the response which +he must make to the appeal which we put before him. In short, better +relations must precede any first step that could effectively be taken to +secure this greater unity, and better relations are impossible in +industry until we have given the individual workman a greater sense of +responsibility of what he is in the workshop for. Let me briefly outline +how that might be secured. It was put, I think, quite eloquently if +simply in an address to the Trade Union Congress a short time ago by the +President of the Congress, who said that the workman wanted a voice in +the daily management of the employment in which he spends his working +life, in the atmosphere and in the conditions under which he has to +work, in the hours of beginning and ending work, in the conditions of +remuneration, and even in the manners and practices of the foremen with +whom he had to be in contact. "In all these matters," said the +President, "workmen have a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> right to a voice—even to an equal +voice—with the management itself." I know that is a big, and to some an +extravagant claim to make, but to set it aside or ignore it is to +provoke and invite further trouble. Industry can no longer be run for +the profit which it produces, or even because of the wealth which +collective energy can make. That, indeed, was the mistake out of which, +as I said at the beginning, this disunion, and this suspicion, and this +selfishness, have grown. We have had greatly to modify our doctrines of +political economy during the course of the war, and all the things which +many teachers told us never could be done have come as natural to us +under war conditions which we could not resist, and of which we were the +creatures. Where now is the law of supply and demand? Indeed, if the law +of supply and demand were operating at this moment, there are few +workmen in the country who would not be receiving many, many pounds more +a week than they are. The workman is not paid to-day according to the +demand for his labour. A very much higher obligation decides for him +what his remuneration is to be. I have in mind, of course, the fact that +a considerable number of workers, who are employed upon munition +services and so on, are enjoying very high wages, but that is not at all +true of the masses of the industrial population, and we ought not to be +deceived by these rare instances which are quoted of men coming out of +the workshop with <i>£</i>20 or <i>£</i>30. Speaking of the industrial population +in the main, what was the outstanding economic doctrine?—the doctrine +that the demand for labour and the volume for supplying that demand +determined the remuneration. That doctrine has had to go by the board +like so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> many other things that could not exist under war pressure.</p> + +<p>Then, how are we to give effect to this general workshop aspiration for +bringing the workman into closer unity with the conditions which +determine that part of his life which is the bread-winning part, for +which he has to turn out in the morning early and often return home late +in the evening? There was established some time ago what can be +described as a quite responsible committee to report upon how better +relations not only between employers and employed through their +associations, but in regard to employers and employed in the workshops, +might be established. That committee issued the report commonly known to +us now as the Whitley Report, of which I am quite sure more will be +heard in a few years. The men who had to frame that report were drawn +from the two extremes of the employers and trade unions. We had men with +very advanced views, like Mr Smillie, on the one hand, and we had quite +powerful employers of labour, like Sir Gilbert Claughton and Sir William +Carter, on the other. I had the privilege of sitting on that committee, +and for some months we laboured to frame some definite terms which might +be accepted by those who were concerned in our recommendations. I very +often hear the suggestion that people will have little of it because it +is not ideal, not grand or great enough, but we have to come down to the +earth upon these matters, and we have to recommend only what we feel is +likely to be accepted lest our labour should be wasted. We must avoid, +therefore, throwing our aims too high, and we must suggest only what +practical business men and workmen are likely seriously to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> consider. +Having decided to reach that conclusion, and feeling the sense of +responsibility which, opposed as so many of us were to each other, drove +us to reach a conclusion, we expressed ourselves in these terms: "We are +convinced that a permanent improvement in the relations between +employers and employed must be founded upon something other than a cash +basis. What is wanted is that the workpeople should have a greater +opportunity of participating in the discussion upon an adjustment of +those parts of industry by which they are most affected. For securing +improvement in the relations between employers and employed, it is +essential that any proposals put forward should offer to workpeople the +means of attaining improved conditions of employment and a higher +standard of comfort generally, and involve the enlistment of their +active and continuous co-operation in the promotion of industry." +Previously, the view was that the workman had nothing whatever to do +with this phase of the management of business, and that is a phrase +still very much used. We make no claim in this report that workmen +should have the right to interfere in the higher realms of business +management, in, say, finance, in the general higher details of +organisation, in the extension of works, in all those more important and +urgent matters which must come before the board of managers or the +manager himself. These are things which belong properly and exclusively +to those who have the responsibility of managing our great industries, +but in all the other things affecting the conditions of the workman, the +manner in which he is to be treated, hours, wages, conditions of +employment, relations between section and section, and working division +and working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> division, all those things which were regarded previously +as the private monopoly of the foreman or manager must in future become +the common concern of the workmen collectively, and they must have some +voice in how these things are to be settled. The country and its +industries, of course, may refuse to hear that voice, but really we have +to choose between reconciling workmen to a given system of industry or +finding workmen in perpetual revolt against their conditions. And it +will pay the country to concede a great deal, not only for peace in the +workshop but for a higher standard of peace generally in the whole +community. The appeal that must be made to the workman must be followed +up by asking him to receive it in a very different spirit from the +spirit sometimes shewn in certain workshops. I am not here by any means +to pour praise altogether upon the working classes, and I am conscious +of the mistakes and wrongs which have sometimes been done in their +names, and I am therefore anxious that the spirit of the workshop should +be so tempered and altered as to be fit to receive and make the best use +of the approaches which are to be made to it to participate in workshop +management upon the lines which I have indicated.</p> + +<p>So this appeal which has been made by the Whitley committee, and which +has been followed up by some other departments of government, is put as +an appeal to the common-sense and reason of the men in the workshop, and +does not rest upon any of the many agencies which have been employed +previously in the pursuit of definite trade union ends. This spirit can +be fostered only when the masses of workmen are reached by the +consciousness that they themselves are being called upon to share in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +the undertakings of which they are so important a part. The importance +of workmen has been revealed in a most startling way during the period +of the war, and the war has shewn in many trades that recurring +differences between capital and labour can be adjusted without strikes +and without lock-outs if methods are provided in the workshop which are +acceptable to both sides, and are made to operate fairly and +satisfactorily between the different interests. Think how important the +workman has become because of the war. Consider how much the workman is +now pressed and drawn into all manner of services which previously he +could either remain in or leave at his will. The war has made such a +demand upon national industrial energy that there is no service now for +which there is not a demand. Indeed, you have seen the effect in that +services in the workshop include men who previously would have been +ashamed to have had it known that they had ever soiled their hands at +any toil at all, but who have been glad to get a place in the workshop +because it was work of national importance. War experience has shewn us +how high manual service stands in the grades of service which can be +rendered for community interest. This new spirit does not appeal to +force as a means of settling differences, nor to compulsory arbitration, +nor to the authority of the State, nor to the power of organisation on +either side. It is an appeal to reason, an approach to both sides to act +in association on lines which will give freedom, self-respect, and +security to both sides, whilst enabling each of them to submit to the +other what it feels is best for the joint advancement of the trade and +those engaged in it. In short, I would like to see inside the gates of +every work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>shop the cultivation of the same spirit in British industry +as has been hinted at already as the first essential for the future +development of agriculture in England. Those processes of calling in the +individual workman through committees, to which I will refer briefly in +a moment, are not intended to take the place of the great organisations. +They are to be supplementary to the Trade Unions, and are not intended +to supplant them.</p> + +<p>Trades Union leadership has changed hands to a great extent during the +past year or two, and the virtual leaders of the men are now men +themselves employed at the bench and in the mine. They are exercising +very great authority and influence over masses of their fellow workmen, +and often the authority, and decisions, and advice of executives and +leaders are set aside and the advice of the men employed in the +workshop, given to their fellow workmen as mates, is followed. So with +this change, due to conditions into which we have not time to go, there +must be recognised the need for applying new remedies in considering +this question of improving the relations between employer and employed. +It will not do now merely to have discussions between association and +association. We might improve upon that and supplement it as I have said +by having discussions direct in the workshop with the workmen +themselves, who would be brought into touch at once with persons who +were responsible for what action must be taken. So leadership having +been to some extent transferred from the Trade Union to the workshop, +the workman must be followed there and must be shewn how essential it is +to recruit his good will and his aid in improving workshop conditions, +not for the betterment of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> the management, but as much, if not more, for +his own betterment as a workman in the shop. This may not touch certain +industries in the country that are non-organised. Some of those trades, +much to our shame, in former years were known as sweated industries, but +even there it is found that the workers, men and women alike, are coming +gradually into the trades unions, and should they not be in the trades +unions to any great extent they are to be reached by other ways and +means which this committee has developed. It is intended to apply to +them, so as to establish the necessary machinery for better relations, +the personnel of the Trades Boards Acts, those boards which, in the +absence of trades unions, deal with the sweated conditions of thousands +of workers employed in those sweated trades. So I have no fear myself of +the non-organised trades being left altogether out of the range of the +spirit to which I have referred. In addition to the committees there is +to be in every district, it is proposed, a representative council, drawn +from the employers and employed of the particular industry, and some +scores of these councils are now being set up. In addition, there is to +be in relation to every principal industry a national council, and many +of us are now engaged in the creation of those several bodies. The +public may not hear much about them, but they are the foundation upon +which this structure of better relations is to rest, and, so far as we +can spare some small margin of our time for those duties, considerable +headway has been made in establishing these different organisations.</p> + +<p>But I attach most importance to the workshop committees, and so I want +to pursue this idea a little further. What are those committees to be? +They would have to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> be free representative bodies, chosen by the men +themselves. They could be empowered to meet the management, possessed of +a sense of responsibility, to discuss in their own homely way matters +which would have to be settled between them. Indeed, we know from +experience that many of the big trade disputes in this country have +grown out of trifles, out of small nothings comparatively, which could +well have been settled inside the workshop gates by bringing master and +man together, empowered to discuss matters which both understand as +matters of personal experience. The committees when created, in this +atmosphere and spirit to which I refer, would exist not in rebellion +against the trade unions or against the trade union system, or exist as +being in revolt against the management of the works, or the employer of +labour. The committees would be vested with responsibility for +negotiations. They would be able to use the personal knowledge derived +from contact with the questions arising day by day. They would develop a +sense of independence and a sense of just dealing, so that the doctrine +of "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work" should apply not only to +the wages but to the work to be done, a thing which sometimes does not +occur. These committees could check the driving methods of some persons +in authority, and, whilst getting the best from those who are above +them, they could give the best, as I am sure they would provided the +spirit is created, from the workmen in return for the fairer treatment +they would enjoy. These committees could deal not only with manual +service and ordinary work and wage questions; they could develop a +better use of industrial capacity and technical knowledge in matters of +workshop life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> But the spirit is everything, and the best desires of +equitable workshop management could find expression through those +committees if they were created. The committees would give a chance to +the many workmen who now talk a great deal about democracy to express +that democracy through the persons of the workmen themselves. I fear +there are many of our friends in the labour movement, as we term it, who +are given freely to talking of democracy without clearly understanding +all that is covered in that term. It is a term which, it is a pleasure +to see, has recently found its way not merely into the phrases of +statesmen, but into the King's speech itself. We are now speaking +commonly of all the sacrifices that are being made, of all the blood and +treasure that is being spilt, in order to have a wholesome democratic +system of world government. Well, we must begin in the workshops, for +you cannot have peace on a large scale the country over, or between +nation and nation, unless you have peace in our places of employment. +They are the starting points and there it is that your contented +millions must first be found. If they are not happy and if they are not +at ease in connexion with their national service, you cannot expect any +of those larger results for which highminded statesmen are seeking the +world over.</p> + +<p>Upon two main lines, in my judgment, democracy will require the most +sane guidance and most sagacious advice which its leaders are capable of +giving to it. It will not do for leaders merely to say that the future +of the world must be decided, not by diplomats or thrones or Kaisers, +but by the will of peoples. The will of peoples can find enduring and +beneficial expression only when that will seeks social change by +reasonable and calculated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> instalments, and not by any violent act of +revolution. Peaceful voters on their way to the ballot boxes and +properly formulated principles will in the end go further than fire and +sword in the internal affairs of a nation. I say this because of the +loose talk we have heard from many labour platforms recently of +revolution and its benefits. Revolution may well be in any country the +beginning and not the end of internal troubles, often expressed in a +more painful and more violent form than ever. We need only look at our +former great partner, Russia, to find full confirmation of all I have +now implied. The red flag marches with the machine gun and the black cap +when a certain stage of physical revolt is reached. The theory of new +methods of life can only find rational application when democracy is +wisely guided in taking slow but sure steps peacefully to turn its +theories into an applied system, wherein the people of a nation and not +merely a section or a class shall find their proper place and security +for service, and find an assured existence under conditions of comfort +for themselves and advantage to the State. Democratic leaders must tell +these things to the people time after time if need be. They must repeat +them so that the masses may understand them, because the tendency in +labour has been to narrow the meaning of democracy. Democracy is not, +and ought not to be, limited to those who now constitute the industrial +population. Democracy is not a sect or a trade union club. Democracy is +wider than the confines of the manual worker. Democracy should strive to +reach the highest level of morality in doctrine and aspiration. It is +not a class formula. It is a great and elevating faith which may be +shared by all who believe in it. Democracy stands for the general +progress of mankind and means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> the uplifting of men, and the liberation +and unifying of nations. It does not mean the dominion of one class over +another, nor the violent wresting of position or authority by some +dramatic act of physical force, which if used would still leave a nation +in a state of unreconciled and contending factions. Democracy, again, is +a spirit whereby vast social and economic change may be effected through +a medium approaching common consent or at least by the application of +the political power of the people acting through representative +institutions and resting upon ideas which majorities accept and +understand. The spirit which has already accepted vast political changes +can be made to apply to vast economic and industrial changes. This +spirit must be cultivated by the leaders of democracy. They have now +opportunities as great as their responsibilities. The success of +parties, in the old sense of the term, is a trivial thing to the success +of the great ends to be secured. These ends will justify the use of any +constitutional means for dethroning that form of power upon which +privilege and the mere possession of wealth have rested. But democracy +must not be duped by phrases, nor be swayed by any influence which does +not lead to a lasting advance for the nation as a whole. Nor should its +leaders think that fundamental and enduring changes in our social system +can be reached by any short cut to which the great mass of the people +have not been converted. Progress will be faster in the future if +impatience and folly do not retard it.</p> + +<p>Having said a little with regard to the position of the poorer people, +let me before I close respectfully address a few words to the richer and +more favoured in the country. Should all rich folk in the country work? +That is a very plain and I dare say it will be regarded in some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> places +as quite an impudent question. But really, rich people who have never +had cause in any way to earn their living have always been a danger to +the State, just as they have been the greatest instance of wicked waste +to be found in any country. There is nothing more melancholy, and even +degrading, to a country than the sight of educated people who have +nothing to do. Wealth is the fruit of service and endeavour. Work is the +only medium by which the ravages of the war can be made good. Ignorance +and idleness present a most pitiable spectacle, but the most criminal of +all sights is education and idleness combined. Finally, let me say that +whilst I have addressed myself mainly in terms of appeal to the workers, +I am not unmindful at all of the difficulties of the great employers of +labour and those covered by the phrase "our Captains of Industry." I +know that many of them work very hard under the greatest and most trying +mental pressure, and have duties and trials unknown even to the workmen, +but with those duties and trials come reliefs again unknown to the +workmen—holidays, change, and rest, and the meeting of men of their own +class whose very company is an intellectual joy, so that the worst off +your employer of labour as a human being may be he is far better off +than the average workman. Think of the housing conditions of so many +thousands, hundreds of thousands, of workmen, and how intolerable it +would be for you to live under those conditions, how discontented you +would be, how discontented the rich would be were it their fate to drag +on an existence in some of those places which are commonly described by +the term "houses." Why, the very waiting room of the employer's ordinary +office is a much more cosy and pleasant place than the homes of many of +the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> industrious workers of England. I plead that the elements of +the human order should begin to pervade the relations of the workshop, +that the workman should be less of a drudge and more of a human asset +than he has been, that he should be brought into partnership in the +undertaking and in the management; that incidentally he should have a +more secure remuneration and not have to bear the penalties and ordeals +of employment as he has had alone to bear them during times of trade +depression and unemployment in previous years. The human side of the +workshop has, therefore, to be built up, and you cannot hope to build it +up upon any foundation of drudgery such as the workmen in the main have +had to live under, and, as I have said, it will pay the country to +conciliate the men on these terms. It is a high ideal, but it is +attainable. I believe it is attainable because we have seen it in +another sphere of sacrifice where it has already been secured. The war +has brought all classes together. In the trenches, at sea, and in all +theatres of danger, men of all classes are now labouring shoulder to +shoulder. There you have had a sinking of individual interests. There +you have had a common sacrifice, a common endeavour for a common cause. +Surely, as all classes have been able to unite in their sacrifice and in +their resistance of the aggression of a foreign foe, it is, I hope, not +asking too much that when they come back and take their places in +peaceful pursuits again, and become masters, workmen, managers, and +foremen in our enterprises and businesses, when they return from danger +and come back to take their places amongst us,—surely it is not too +much to hope that those who are able to unite abroad will be able to +unite for the ends of peace and joy here at home.</p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="UNITY_IN_THE_EMPIRE" id="UNITY_IN_THE_EMPIRE"></a>UNITY IN THE EMPIRE</h2> + +<h3>By F. J. <span class="smcap">Chamberlain</span>, C.B.E.</h3> + +<p>The word "unity" in relation to the Empire has a deeper meaning to-day +than it had five years ago. Then it was a watchword, a theme for +Imperial conferences and for speakers at demonstrations. The sanguine +were sure, the pessimists and that great body of Britishers of moderate +views and moderate faith regarded it as one of the things hoped for.</p> + +<p>With dramatic suddenness the event clarified the situation, England +awoke at war. There was no time for preliminary councils. The supreme +test of the Empire had been reached. It is no exaggeration to say that +the whole world watched with eagerness for the result. It was in that +moment that the great discovery was made. The British Empire stood fast. +From that day until now, from end to end of the world has been seen an +object lesson of unity that has justified the sanguine, and been an +inspiration to the Allies. That revelation has been more inspiring +because the world is aware that it is in spite of the most sinister and +subtle campaign against it, planned and brilliantly executed by an enemy +under the cloak of friendship. I do not forget the tragic circumstances +of one small nation within the Empire. But Ireland has given more +evidence of her faithfulness to Empire on the fields of France and +Flanders than of her treachery at home, and to-day we have more reason +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> count her ours than has the enemy. Examine the position in cold +blood, if you can, and you are still aware of a substantial, solid, and +effective unity running round the Empire, binding it in one as with a +girdle of scarlet and gold.</p> + +<p>The war is not responsible for the unity; it has only discovered or +uncovered it. The storm does not establish foundations; it may reveal +them. A century of building has created the structure that the storm has +failed to destroy.</p> + +<p>The British Empire is a successful experiment on the lines of the +longed-for League of Nations. The race contains no more diverse elements +than are found within its borders; one-third of the land surface of the +world, and one-fifth of the inhabitants, have been held together in a +living federation and have been kept until this day. Upon our generation +rests the awful and splendid responsibility of proving to a questioning +world that this unity can be made permanent, and of illustrating how a +still larger unity may be achieved.</p> + +<p>You will forgive one or two homely pictures of our unity that cannot +fail to strike the imagination. It has been our privilege to meet +thousands of men from the Overseas Dominions. How many times have boys, +whose forefathers emigrated from England or Scotland, who were +themselves born in Australia, or on the Western plains of Canada, said, +"I have been wanting to come <i>home</i> all my life"? These islands are the +"home" of the Empire, and there is no more wonderful word in the +language.</p> + +<p>Or think of Botha and Smuts, within the memory almost of the youngest of +us, fighting with all their heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> and mind against the Empire, and, +to-day, dominant personalities proclaiming their loyalty, and proving it +in unrivalled service.</p> + +<p>Or picture, if you can, young India, pouring out her life-blood with +pride and ready sacrifice, in France, in Egypt, and in Mesopotamia, for +the "British Raj." The most moving scene in the history of the British +Commons was on that evening in 1915, when the princes of India stood +amidst the representatives of the people of the homelands and paid their +homage.</p> + +<p>How much such things mean will depend on the vision of those who hear +them; but they have in them the stuff that holds the future.</p> + +<p>This ghastly war, not of our choosing, has transferred the seats of +learning for young Britain from their peaceful sites to the battlefield. +If the object of education is the cultivation of the power of thought +and observation, the kindling of imagination, and the extension of +knowledge; then "over there" is a University set in full array, with +ghostly as well as human tutors, a curriculum without precedent, and +such a body of undergraduates as Cambridge or Oxford might covet.</p> + +<p>It is not for nothing, as regards the Empire, that your sons, the +children of the East End, and the boys of Canada, Australasia, and South +Africa, are meeting and mingling with Gurkha and Sikh, and with each +other. They are sharing a common discipline, a common adventure, making +sacrifice together. They are seeing each other with eyes from which the +scales are falling, and knowledge and understanding are growing out of +their contact. The farthest reaches of Empire have been brought nearer +to the Empire's heart by this brotherhood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> in arms, and the barriers +between classes have been lowered until a man can step across them +without climbing. The distance between East and West has been +immeasurably shortened, whether we are thinking in terms of London, or +of the Empire.</p> + +<p>In our consideration of this whole subject we are to take the Christian +standpoint. To us, the words "Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in +Heaven," on Divine lips were more than a pious wish. They were a great +intention, the expression of age-long purpose. We believe that the gains +of the centuries—the harvest of the past which is worth +conserving—have been secured by moral and spiritual conquest, rather +than by military or political achievement. There may be elements in our +present forms of unity which we may well allow to go by the board. The +things that make for permanence will abide not only with an enlightened +statesmanship, but with a growing understanding, an ever broadening +interpretation of Christian teaching about</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>The Kingdom of God on earth,</div> +<div>The Universal Fatherhood of God, and</div> +<div>The brotherhood of man,</div> +</div></div> + +<p>leading the nation to see that the knowledge of God and of His Christ is +the rightful inheritance of every son of the Empire.</p> + +<p>As these great ideals of social life have been interpreted in the life +of either sovereign peoples or subject peoples, so, we believe, and only +so, have bonds been forged that can be trusted to stand the strain which +time and changing condition and circumstances impose.</p> + +<p>Unity, even the Empire itself ultimately, depends, as we believe, on a +broad-based statesmanship, carrying up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> the main principles of our +Government to their highest power in action, and, constantly throughout +the Empire, mediating those doctrines to the peoples concerned as they +are able to bear them, with ever-extending inspiration and encouragement +to growth and development.</p> + +<p>Our Imperial aims are neither antagonistic to nor inconsistent with our +Christian programme. That should constitute a challenge to the Christian +Churches, and is in itself a matter for high and solemn pride. The war +has cleared the air. As stated during this period, the ideal of a +federation of nations, free, independent, and at the same time +interdependent, each working out its national destiny, each +contributing, in terms of opportunity, to the well-being of the whole, +bringing to bear on Imperial matters the heart, brain, will of the +whole, gives us a picture of a Commonwealth in advance of any +contemporary political programme, with the one conspicuous exception of +that of the United States of America, between whom and ourselves is +being established a Unity which may well be more valuable to the world +at large and to ourselves than any formal Union.</p> + +<p>Here, as we see it, is our opportunity. The Christian forces of the +Empire have the onus of maintaining the national outlook at this high +level. Our faith, our audacity, our leadership will be needed if lesser +counsels are to have no chance of prevailing. There must be no swing of +the pendulum back to smaller views.</p> + +<p>With the coming of Peace, the temptation to the Nation to take off its +armour, to come down from the pedestal, to revert to pre-war conditions, +to re-act in self-indulgence from the strain of war, or to let +materialism defeat idealism, will be well-nigh overwhelming. To give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +way to that temptation will be to rob victory of any permanent values. +It will be a poor thing to have taught Germany her lesson, if we fail to +learn our own.</p> + +<p>We see no hope of successful resistance of that temptation apart from +the mobilisation of the Christian forces within the Empire into an army +committed to the sacred task of making the conscience of the Nation +effectively Christian, leading the way in bringing about a closer +approximation between the politics of the State and the programme of the +Kingdom of God, and proclaiming that Kingdom at hand.</p> + +<p>If we are agreed so far it behoves us to look for the practical +implications of the position. These islands are still the heart and home +of the Empire. This was the rock whence its younger peoples were hewn. +Our nation has produced the men and the machinery that govern our +commonwealth. The lonely places, farthest removed from us, will be +peopled largely by and through the work of children of the Old Country. +There, wherever her children go, is England.</p> + +<p>England is a treasure house, where the very stones are eloquent. Her +history, her buildings, her national and civic life, her denominations +and movements are all of them of vital interest to her children. It is a +place of pilgrimage and remembrance. It is more. They find here the +mature growths from which their institutions have sprung. They love our +historic places, they love our crowded cities, they love our seashores +and our quiet country-side, for everywhere they go they find not only +the story of our past, but that of their own. This is their spiritual +home. Our art, our literature, our movements are parts of a common +inheritance, and it is the pride of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> the Motherland that her children +have never outgrown their love of the old home, their veneration for its +sanctions and restraints, and that on their own homesteads they have +reproduced in new settings and often in fresh forms so much that is +native here.</p> + +<p>One would like to see a larger share in this priceless inheritance +offered to our peoples oversea. Think for one moment of our great +Cathedrals, unique and wonderful. They can never be reproduced. They +might be copied; but Canterbury and Westminster, Lincoln and Durham, +York and the rest would still remain all that they are to us and to +them. You cannot transplant history. In the homeland we are but trustees +of these treasures, and we ought to make them the home and centre of our +Imperial Christianity. In every one of them the priests of the Church in +the Overseas lands should not only be seen but heard. Is there no room +in Cathedral Chapters for Overseas representatives, so that in our daily +services in a new and living way we may be linked together in sacrament, +praise and prayer, and in the proclamation of Christian truth? One +Canonry for each historic building would mean more to Unity than many +resolutions at Congress. Perhaps that is as far as one ought to go in +suggestion, but there are other splendid possibilities that one would +love to discuss. No one thinking of Unity in the Empire can fail to +rejoice in the growing desire manifest among Christian Denominations for +Unity. I will not trench on another's subject beyond saying that the way +to Union is Unity, and that it would be tragic if in these momentous +days any stone was left unturned that would lead to better knowledge, +deeper understanding and sympathy between those who name the Name that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +is above every name. And our people overseas have much to teach us in +this matter. Over great areas of social opportunity and service the +Catholic Church may act unitedly and must do so, if she is to enter on +offensive warfare and not stand for another generation on the defensive. +The war has made a difference here. Men, who in the conventional days of +peace rarely met, have joined hands in service. Catholic and Protestant, +Churchman and Free Churchman, have found joy in fellowship. That does +not mean that differences have disappeared, it means that, recognising +and estimating their differences, it has been possible to establish a +basis of co-operation, in knowledge, understanding, and sympathy, and to +recognise in one another the hall-mark of Christian faith and character. +Is this to be a war measure only? or is it to be one of the great gains +to be carried over into the days ahead?</p> + +<p>One other question clamours for treatment: the problem of the +evangelisation of the Empire. Christianity must be given its chance in +every corner of the Empire. There may be divergent opinions as to the +methods to be used, but if Christianity contains in its gospel the pearl +of great price, there can be no two opinions as to the obligation that +rests on us to bring to the nations federated with us this supreme gift. +Nothing can release us from that responsibility. To postpone the +presentation of the Christian gospel for any of the time-honoured +excuses:</p> + +<p>(1) our pre-occupation in matters of more urgent importance elsewhere,</p> + +<p>(2) any fear of the effects of Christianity on our political or +commercial interests,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p> + +<p>(3) the desire to live down prejudice and establish confidence,</p> + +<p>(4) the preparation of a people's mind by education before introducing a +new religion,</p> + +<p>—any one of these is treachery to the All-Father and to the family of +man, and a vital <i>praeparatio evangelica</i> is being made. Let me +illustrate.</p> + +<p>It happened in a great marquee in France. On a summer evening in 1916 +the place was crowded with Indians. There was a group playing Indian +card games, there was a crowd round a gramophone with Indian records, at +the writing tables with great torment of spirit men were writing to +their homes. At the counter foods they loved were being provided. +Against one of the poles of the marquee stood a stately Indian of some +rank. He had been seen there often before. He rarely spoke but seemed +intensely interested. On this particular night the time arrived for the +closing of the tent. The little groups gradually disappeared and the +tent curtains were being replaced when the leader of the work found +himself addressed by the Indian:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Why do you serve us in this way? You are not here by Government +orders. You come when you like and you go when you like. There is +only one religion on earth that would lead its servants to serve in +this way, Christianity. I have been watching you men, and I have +come to the conclusion that Christianity will fit the East as it +can never fit the West. When the war is over I want you to send one +of your men to my village. We are all Hindus, but my people will do +what I tell them.</p></blockquote> + +<p>One of the ghastly tragedies of the war is that two great nations +nominally Christian are at each other's throats. In the world's eyes +Christian civilisation has broken down. We know better, but our +explanations will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> not carry far enough to correct the impression. Our +defence must be an offensive.</p> + +<p>It is certainly within the truth to say that we have not yet seen what +Christianity can do for a community or a nation where, as I put it +before, "it is given a chance." May it not be that in the Providence of +God the first great revelation of what Christianity can do for a nation +will be seen in one of the lands that have come under the Flag, and +among a people living under less complex conditions than ourselves? If +that is a possibility we ought to see that wherever the Flag flies, +there comes, with the unfurling of the Flag, the Gospel of Christ.</p> + +<p>This is directly in the interest of unity, and many problems that have +so far remained insoluble to our statesmen might discover the solution +in Christian leadership.</p> + +<p>I shall be pardoned I know for suggesting that the highest purposes of +unity may be served by the extension and development throughout the +Empire of such international organisations as the Student Christian +Movement, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., and, used at its highest values, +the Boy Scout Movement. There are others, but these are typical. They +are established movements built up on definite principles capable of +universal application, and yet each of them able to develop its +organisation on lines that recognise national psychology and character. +Each of them may become and aims at becoming indigenous everywhere, +giving freedom of method and action and free play to the moral and +intellectual activities of the people concerned, while they have certain +essential elements that are universally characteristic of them. In +addition, they give large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> numbers of Christian people an opportunity of +expressing their unity in service of the right kind.</p> + +<p>What was said about the Cathedrals is equally true of our two ancient +Universities. Mr Fisher's Education Bill may well mean more for Imperial +unity than almost any other single factor. It will mean an ever +increasing number of men to whom "Cambridge" and "Oxford" will be magic +words. If our view of culture is broad enough we shall see to it that +these two Universities become increasingly places where the children of +the Empire who are fit to graduate in them shall not lack the +opportunity of doing so. Because these ancient foundations link with the +past, because of all they may mean to the present and to the future, the +way to them should be made broad enough to admit the living stream of +Greater Britain's children, who by dint of gifts and industry have +proved their fitness to meet their peers in these delectable cities, +where the very air breathes the romance of British culture. Their right +of entry ought not to be won by the benefactions of private citizens, +though all who love knowledge are grateful enough for these, but should +be theirs by their citizenship in the Empire and their own tested +fitness.</p> + +<p>Nothing again is more hopeful in the present situation than the manifest +desire, widely felt and expressed, that the old class-antagonisms should +never be revived. Surely this is <i>the</i> strategic moment in which we may +make the War once more contribute to a better state of things. Our +politicians are awake to the need and are inventing every kind of +machinery for bringing Capital and Labour together in Council Chambers +as co-partners in the Commerce of the Empire. But there are sinister +forces also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> at work, and this machinery can only run if it is +controlled by men of resolute good will.</p> + +<p>The War has been a great bridge-builder linking up in the fellowship of +discipline and sacrifice people between whom chasms yawned before. There +are knowledge and understanding and sympathy to-day amongst us. Yet many +of us are convinced that no purely political machinery can be made +effective in achieving so great a task as the making permanent of this +new and better condition. We need a new and abiding spirit of +conciliation, a deeper determination than political action can produce, +that things shall not relapse, that the forces of re-action shall not +triumph. The one hope of carrying over into permanence this new +understanding and appreciation lies in the nation becoming impregnated +with those spacious spiritual ideals that the Churches together +represent. Nothing is impossible to faith, and faith in God and man will +be kept astretch in the discipline that will be demanded of us all, in +the breaking down of false barriers that have grown up through the years +and the destruction of long-lived prejudices that will die hard.</p> + +<p>The Empire itself is a unity. It is not easy for English people to +realise all that is implied here. My great name-sake urged us in this +country to "think Imperially." Another voice asks us "What do they know +of England who only England know?" but it is hard for us to think except +in terms of England. For example, I have referred to this country as the +great treasure house of the Empire's history, and to the care and +devotion shewn by our kinsmen from Overseas in their study of our +country and its institutions. All of us realise how right that is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> but +ought we not to reciprocate their devotion and regard, by much more +intense interest and study of their life and the developments of their +institutions?</p> + +<p>Our unity demands this wider culture, this reciprocity. The Motherland +must not only teach, she must be prepared to learn. She may lead, but +she must be prepared to follow. We have much to contribute, but in +Religion, in political and social ideals, and in commerce there is much +we need to receive.</p> + +<p>If our land is the great treasure house, are not these other lands great +laboratories where we might see, if we would only look, how some of our +accepted ideas, and notions, and watchwords are tested in a larger +arena?</p> + +<p>Are we so sure of ourselves that we are prepared to hold on to our own +experience as the final test of the truth and value of our theories? Or +are we big enough in the light of Imperial experience to revise our +judgment, to sift our theories, and to go forward carrying those which +stand the test of the wider arena, and being prepared to surrender those +which only seemed right and proper in the conventional setting of these +small islands?</p> + +<p>In conclusion, the Empire has come to power and unity on certain great +principles. Our Imperial ideals have been evolved out of experience all +over the world, and with all kinds of people, under the guidance of +distinguished leaders of many-sided gifts. In an Empire so diverse in +its constituent parts, including peoples at varied stages of +development, it is impossible that those ideals should be everywhere +expressed at their highest power. In many places our methods of +government must be tentative, but everywhere they must be progressive, +placing upon subject peoples the burden of government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> as rapidly as +they are able to bear it, providing every inspiration that can call them +upwards and onwards. Our tentative methods must never be allowed to +become permanent. We may be tutors, we must never become tyrants. We may +lead, direct, even control, but we may never be content until our people +are free, self-governing, rejoicing in the liberty that enables them to +choose whole-heartedly to remain in that Commonwealth of free peoples we +call the Empire. Along this path lie permanence and closer unity. In our +Imperial destiny it is the part of those who would be the greatest to +become the servants of all.</p> + +<p>Thank God for all who have laboured in this spirit to build our goodly +heritage.</p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="UNITY_BETWEEN_NATIONS" id="UNITY_BETWEEN_NATIONS"></a>UNITY BETWEEN NATIONS</h2> + +<h3>By the Rev. J. H. B. <span class="smcap">Masterman</span>, M.A.</h3> + +<p>In the previous lectures of this course you have been considering the +problem of home reunion. My task to-day is to remind you of the fact +that beyond the reunion of the Churches at home there lies the larger +problem of the realisation of the Christian ideal of a universal +brotherhood. How can this ideal be realised in a world divided into +nations? I am going to treat the subject historically; firstly because I +find myself incapable of treating it in any other way, and secondly +because you can only build securely if you build on the foundation of +the historic past. The State may ignore the lessons of the past, the +Church can never do so.</p> + +<p>How can we deal with the apparent antagonism between the centrifugal +force of nationality and the centripetal force of the Catholic ideal? +There are two possible answers that we cannot accept. It is possible for +religion to set itself against the development of national life, and +claim that a world-religion must find expression in a world-state. That +is the mediaeval answer.</p> + +<p>Or it is possible for religion to become subordinate to nationality at +the cost of losing the note of Catholicity, so that the consecration of +national life may seem a nobler task than the gathering of humanity into +conscious fellowship in one great society. This is the modern answer.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>With neither of these solutions can we be satisfied. The existence of +nations as units of political self-consciousness within the larger life +of humanity does, we believe, minister to the fulfilment of the purpose +of God. Whatever may be the case hereafter, the establishment of a +world-state, at the present stage in the evolution of human +institutions, would mean the impoverishment of the life of humanity. Yet +a Church that is merely national or imperial has missed the true +significance of its mission.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the Christian era, the greatest attempt ever made to +gather all peoples into a universal society was actually in progress. +The Roman Empire was founded on the basis of a common administrative +system, and a common law—the <i>jus gentium</i>. It needed a common +religion. The effort to supply this passes through three stages. The +earliest of these is the stage of universal toleration which was made +possible by polytheism. A second stage soon follows. The various +religions of the Empire overflow one another's frontier-lines and a +synthesis begins, leading to the Stoic idea of the universal truth +expressed in many forms. But the popular mind was unable to rise to this +high conception, and the third stage begins towards the end of the first +century in the formal adoption of the worship of the Emperor as the +religious expression of the unity of the Empire. It was the opposition +of the Christian Church that did most to bring to naught this effort to +give a religious foundation to the unity of the Empire, and the attempt +of Constantine and Theodosius to make Christianity an Imperial religion +came too late to save the Empire from disintegration.</p> + +<p>For the unity of the Christian Church had been under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>mined. When +Christianity shook itself free from the shackles of Jewish nationalism, +it came under the influence of Greek thought. The theology and language +of the early Church were Greek. Even in Rome the Church was for at least +two centuries "a Greek colony." Hence the growth of Christianity was +slow in those western parts of the Empire that had not come under the +influence of Greek culture—Gaul, Britain, Spain, North Africa. Latin +Christianity found its centre in North Africa, where Roman culture had +imposed itself on the hard, cruel Carthaginian world. It is Carthage, +not Athens, that gives to Tertullian his harsh intolerance and to St +Augustine his stern determinism. So the way was prepared for what I +regard as the supreme tragedy of history—the falling apart of Eastern +and Western Christianity. Then, in the West, the unity of the Church is +broken by the conversion of the Teutonic peoples to Arianism, so that +the contest between the dying Empire in the West and the tribes pressing +on its frontiers is embittered by religious antagonism. The sword of +Clovis secured the victory of orthodoxy, but at what a cost!</p> + +<p>When the storm subsides, there emerges the august conception of the Holy +Roman Empire. For the noblest expression of the ideal of a universal +Christian Empire, read Dante's <i>De Monarchia</i>. The history of the Holy +Roman Empire is too large a subject to enter upon. It is important to +remember that the struggles between the Popes and the Emperors that fill +so large a space of mediaeval history were not struggles between Church +and State. Western Europe was conceived of as one Christian Society—an +attempt to realise the City of God of St Augustine's great treatise—and +the question at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> issue was whether the Pope or the Emperor was to be +regarded as the supreme head of this great society.</p> + +<p>The unity of Western Christendom found a crude, but real, expression in +the Crusades, and it is significant that the decline of the crusading +impulse coincides in time with the rise of national feeling in the two +western states, England and France. What was to be the attitude of the +Catholic Church towards this new national instinct? In the 14th and 15th +centuries the question becomes increasingly urgent, and the Council of +Constance may be regarded as the last sincere effort to find an answer. +The answer suggested there, to which the English Church still adheres, +was the recognition of a General Council of the Church as the supreme +spiritual authority. Such a General Council might gather the glory and +honour of the nations into the City of God, and might even, it was +hoped, restore the broken unity between East and West. How the Council +failed, how Constantinople was left to its fate, how a Papacy growing +more and more Italian in its interests brought to a head the +long-simmering revolt of the nations—all this you know. The Reformation +was, in part, a struggle of the nations to give religious expression to +their national life. The threefold bond that had held together the +Church of the West—the bond of common language, law and ceremonial—was +broken.</p> + +<p>At the threshold of the new order stand the figures of Luther and +Machiavelli, as champions of the supremacy of the State. True, Luther +thinks of the State as a Christian society, while Machiavelli is the +father of the modern German doctrine of the non-moral character of state +action. But the Augsburg compromise, <i>cujus regio</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> <i>ejus religio</i>, was +a frank subordination of the Church to secular authority. The Tudor +sovereigns adopted the doctrine with alacrity, and imposed on the Church +of England a subjection to secular authority from which it has not yet +been able to disentangle itself.</p> + +<p>While Lutheranism tended to treat religion as a department of the State, +Calvinism claimed for the Church an authority that threatened the very +existence of the State. Calvinism represents the second attempt to give +practical expression to St Augustine's <i>Civitas Dei</i>, as the Holy Roman +Empire was the first. It failed, in part, because it lost its catholic +character, and became (as, for example, in Scotland) intensely national. +The disintegration of the Catholic Church in the West was helped by two +influences. The first was the return to the standards and ideals of the +Old Testament. The appeal of the reformers to Holy Scripture involved +the elevation of the Old Testament to the same level of authority as the +New. The crude nationalism of Judaism obscured the Christian idea of a +universal brotherhood—St Paul's secret hidden from the foundation of +the world, to be revealed in the fulness of time in the Christian +gospel. Even now we hardly realise how largely our ideas of religion are +derived from the imperfect moral standards of the Old Testament. The +other influence was the identification of the Papacy with the Antichrist +of the Book of Revelation—the Protestant answer to the Roman +excommunication of heretics. The idea of a common Christianity deeper +than all national antagonisms hardly existed in the Europe of the later +half of the 16th century.</p> + +<p>Nearly a century of wars of religion was followed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> seventy years of +war in which the national idea played the leading part. The +internationalism of the 18th century was a reaction against both +religion and nationality. The Napoleonic struggle, and the Romantic +revival, with its appeal to the past, re-awakened the national instinct. +In France, Spain, Russia, Prussia, and Eastern Europe, national +self-consciousness was stirred into life. In Russia and Spain, and among +the Balkan peoples, this national awakening took a definitely religious +character. But it was Italy that produced the one thinker to whom the +real significance of nationality was revealed. Mazzini recognised, more +clearly than any other political teacher of the time, how Nationalism +founded on religion might lead to the brotherhood of nations in a world +"made safe for democracy." The last century has been an epoch of +exaggerated national self-consciousness. Against the aggressive +tendencies of the greater nations, the smaller nations strove to protect +themselves. Italy, Poland, Bohemia, Serbia, Greece, strove with varying +degrees of success to achieve national self-expression. Nation strove +with nation in a series of contests, of which the present war is the +culmination.</p> + +<p>The influence of Christianity was impotent to prevent war; though it was +able to do something to restrain its worst excesses. Where the +centrifugal force of nationality comes into opposition to the +centripetal force of the Christian ideal, it is generally the former +that wins. How is this impotence to be accounted for? Four reasons at +least maybe noted. (1) The "inwardness" of Lutheranism, combined with +the cynicism of the Machiavellian doctrine of the non-moral character of +public policy led, especially in Germany, to an entire disregard of the +principles of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> Christianity in the public policy of the State. Nations +did not even profess to be guided by Christian principles in their +dealings with each other. The noble declaration of Alexander I remained +a piece of "sublime nonsense" to statesmen like Metternich and +Castlereagh, and their successors. (2) The internal life of the nations +was, and is, only partially Christianised. Nations cannot regulate their +external policy on Christian principles unless those principles are +accepted as authoritative in their internal affairs. (3) The influence +of Christianity has been hindered, to a degree difficult to exaggerate, +by the unhappy divisions that, especially in England and in the United +States, have made it impossible for the Church to speak with a united +voice. (4) The idea of the Sovereignty of the State and its supreme +claim on the life of the individual, with which Dr Figgis has dealt with +illuminating insight in his <i>Churches in the Modern State</i>, has +prevented the idea of the Churches as local expressions of a universal +society from exercising the corrective influence that it ought to +exercise on the over-emphasis of State independence.</p> + +<p>The State is only one of the various forms in which national life +expresses itself. It is the nation organised for self-protection. And +wherever self-protection becomes the supreme need, the State, like +Aaron's rod, swallows all the rest. But in many directions, the world +has become, or is becoming, international. Science and philosophy, and, +to a lesser degree, theology and art, have become the common possession +of all civilised nations. The effort to make commerce the expression of +international fellowship, with which the name of Cobden is associated, +failed, largely as the result of the German<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> policy of high tariffs, but +its defeat is only temporary, and the commercial interdependence of +nations will reassert its influence when the present phase of +international strife is over. The function of the Church is to express +the common life and interests of nations, as the State expresses the +distinctive character of each. So the Church holds to the four universal +things—the authority of Holy Scripture; the Creeds; the two Sacraments, +and the historic episcopate. We believe that the retention of the +historic Episcopate is essential to the maintenance of the Catholic +ideal of the Church. For the bishop is the link between the local and +the universal Church; the representative and guardian of the Catholic +ideal in the life of the local community; and the representative of the +local community in the counsels of the Catholic Church. I have often +wished that at least one bishop from some other Church than our own +could be associated with the consecration of all bishops of the Anglican +Church. For by such association we should bring into clearer prominence +the fact that the historic episcopate is more than a national +institution.</p> + +<p>So we reach the final question: What can the Churches do to promote the +unity of the nations?</p> + +<p>An invitation was recently issued by the Archbishop of Upsala for a +conference of representatives of the Christian Churches, to reassert, +even in this day of disunion, the essential unity of the Body of Christ. +For various reasons, such a conference at the present juncture seems +impracticable, but the time may come when, side by side with a Congress +of the nations, a gathering of representatives of the Churches may be +called together to reinforce, by its witness, the idea of international +fellowship.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>For a League of Churches might well prepare the way for a League of +Nations. Such a League of Churches would naturally find expression in a +permanent Advisory Council—a kind of ecclesiastical Hague tribunal. +Historical antagonisms seem to preclude the selection of Rome or +Constantinople as the place of meeting of this Council. Surely there is +no other place so suited for the purpose as Jerusalem. Here the +appointed representatives of all the Churches, living in constant +intercourse with one another, might draw together the severed parts of +the One Body, till the glory and honour of the nations find, even in the +earthly Jerusalem, their natural centre and home. Thus, and thus only, +can the spiritual foundation for a League of Nations be well and truly +laid.</p> + +<p>Two things are involved in any such scheme for a League of Churches. No +one Church must claim a paramount position or demand submission as the +price of fellowship; and all excommunications of one Church by another +must be swept away.</p> + +<p>Christ did not come to destroy the local loyalties that lift human life +out of selfish isolation. These loyalties only become anti-Christian +when they become exclusive. The early loyalty of primitive man to his +family or clan was deemed to involve a normal condition of antagonism to +neighbouring families or clans. Turn a page of history, and tribal +loyalty has become civic loyalty. But civic loyalty, as in the cities of +Greece or Italy or Flanders, involves intermittent hostility with +neighbouring cities. Then civic loyalty passes into national loyalty, +and again patriotism expresses itself in distrust and antipathy to other +nations. And this will also be so till we see that all these local +loyalties rest on the foundation of a deeper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> loyalty to the Divine +ideal of universal fellowship that found its supreme expression in the +Incarnation and its justification in the truth that God so loved the +world.</p> + +<p>To the Christian man national life can never be an end in itself but +always a means to an end beyond itself. A nation exists to serve the +cause of humanity; by what it gives, not by what it gets, will its worth +be estimated at the judgment-bar of God.</p> + +<p>"Whoso loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" must +have seemed a hard saying to those to whom it was first spoken; and +"whoso loveth city or fatherland more than me is not worthy of me" may +seem a hard saying to us to-day; yet nothing less than this is involved +in our pledge of loyalty to Christ. Christian patriotism never found +more passionate expression than in St Paul's wish that he might be +anathema for the sake of his nation; yet passionately as he loved his +own people, he loved with a deeper passion the Catholic Church within +which there was neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor +free. It is because the idea of the Catholic Church has become to the +majority of Christian people a matter of intellectual assent rather than +of passionate conviction that the Church seems impotent in international +affairs.</p> + +<p>The last four centuries of European history have had as their special +characteristic the development of nations. It may be that after this war +we shall pass into a new era. The special feature of the period now +closing has been the insecurity of national life. Menaced with constant +danger, every nation has tended to develop an exaggerated +self-consciousness that was liable to become inflamed and +over-sensitive. If adequate security can be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> provided, by a League of +Nations, or in some other way, for the free development of the national +life of every nation, the senseless over-emphasis of nationality from +which the past has suffered will no longer hinder the growth of a true +Internationalism. I believe that the real alternative lies not between +Nationality and Internationalism but between an Internationalism +founded, like that of the 18th century, on non-Christian culture and +materialism, and an Internationalism founded on the consecration of all +the local loyalties that bind a man to family, city and nation, lifting +him through local spheres of service to the service of the whole human +race for whom Christ died. The tree whose leaves are for the healing of +the nations grows only in the City of God. The Christian forces in the +world are impotent to guide the future, because they are entangled in +the present. Yet it is in the Holy Catholic Church that the one hope for +humanity lies. It may be that that hope will never be realised; that the +Holy Catholic Church is destined to remain to the end an unachieved +ideal. But it is by unachieved ideals that men and nations live; and +what matters most for every Christian man is that he should keep the +Catholic mind and heart that reach out through home and city and country +to all mankind, and rejoice that every man has an equal place in the +impartial love of God.</p> + +<hr/> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<h4>CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY<br />J. B. PEACE, M.A.,<br />AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS</h4> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The War and Unity, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND UNITY *** + +***** This file should be named 18905-h.htm or 18905-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/0/18905/ + +Produced by Irma pehar, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The War and Unity + Being Lectures Delivered At The Local Lectures Summer + Meeting Of The University Of Cambridge, 1918 + +Author: Various + +Editor: David Herbert Somerset Cranage + +Release Date: July 25, 2006 [EBook #18905] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND UNITY *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +THE WAR AND UNITY + + +CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS + +C. F. CLAY, MANAGER + +LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4 + +NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +BOMBAY } +CALCUTTA } MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. +MADRAS } +TORONTO: J. M. DENT AND SONS, LTD. +TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + +THE WAR AND UNITY + +BEING LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE +LOCAL LECTURES SUMMER MEETING OF +THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 1918 + +EDITED BY THE REV. +D. H. S. CRANAGE, LITT.D. +KING'S COLLEGE + +CAMBRIDGE +AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS +1919 + + + + +PREFACE + + +For some time past the Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate have +arranged a Summer Meeting in Cambridge every other year in connexion +with the Local Lectures. The scheme of study has always included a +number of theological lectures, and at the last two meetings an attempt +has been made to deal with some of the religious and moral problems +suggested by the War. In 1916 a course of lectures was delivered, and +afterwards published by the University Press, on _The Elements of Pain +and Conflict in Human Life_. In 1918 the Syndicate decided to arrange a +course on Unity. It was at first suggested that the lectures should be +confined to the subject of Christian Reunion, but it was finally +arranged to deal not only with Unity between Christian Denominations, +but with Unity between Classes, Unity in the Empire, and Unity between +Nations. + +Many of those who attended expressed a strong wish that the lectures +should be published, and the Lecturers and the Syndicate have cordially +agreed to their request. The central idea of the course is undeniably +vital at the present time, and the book is now issued in the hope that +it may be of some help in the period of "reconstruction." + + D. H. S. CRANAGE, + Secretary of the Cambridge University + Local Lectures. +_November 1918._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + +I. A GENERAL VIEW PAGE 1 + +By the Reverend V. H. Stanton, D.D., +Fellow of Trinity College, Regius Professor +of Divinity. + +II. THE CHURCH IN THE FURNACE 25 + +By the Reverend Eric Milner-White, M.A., +D.S.O., Fellow and Dean of King's College, +late Chaplain to the Forces. + +III. THE PROBLEM OF THE ENGLISH FREE CHURCHES 51 + +By the Reverend W. B. Selbie, M.A. (Oxford +and Cambridge), Hon. D.D. (Glasgow), Principal +of Mansfield College, Oxford. + +IV. THE SCOTTISH PROBLEM 72 + +By the Very Reverend James Cooper, D.D. +(Aberdeen), Hon. Litt.D. (Dublin), Hon. +D.C.L. (Durham), V.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical +History in the University of Glasgow, +ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland. + + +UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES + +I. By the Right Reverend F. T. Woods, D.D., +Trinity College, Lord Bishop of Peterborough 89 + +II. By the Right Honourable J. R. Clynes, M.P., +Minister of Food 115 + + +UNITY IN THE EMPIRE + +By F. J. Chamberlain, C.B.E., Assistant +General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian +Association 137 + + +UNITY BETWEEN NATIONS + +By the Reverend J. H. B. Masterman, M.A., +St John's College, Rector of St Mary-le-Bow +Church, Canon of Coventry, late Professor of +History in the University of Birmingham 151 + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + + + + +I. A GENERAL VIEW + +By the Rev. V. H. STANTON, D.D. + + +The governing idea of this early morning course, which at the present as +at former Summer Meetings is devoted to a subject connected with +religious belief, is this year the power that Christianity has, or is +fitted to have, to unite Christian denominations with one another, and +also to unite races and nations, and different portions of that +commonwealth of nations which we call the British Empire, and different +classes within our own nation. A moment's reflection will shew that the +question of unity between denominations of Christians derives special +significance from being placed in connexion with all those other cases +in regard to which the promotion of unity is to be considered. If it +belongs to the genius of Christianity to be a uniting power, it is above +all in the sphere of professed and organised Christianity, where +Christians are grouped together _as_ Christians, that its influence in +producing union should be shewn. If it fails in this here, what hope, it +may well be asked, can there be that it should be effective, when its +principles and motives cannot be applied with the same directness and +force? In the very assumption, then, which underlies this whole course +of lectures, that Christianity can unite men, we have a special reason +for considering our relations to one another as members of Christian +bodies, with regard to this matter of unity. + +But we are also all of us aware that the divisions among Christians are +often severely commented on by those who refuse to make any definite +profession of the Christian Religion, and are given by them sometimes as +a ground of their own position of aloofness. It is true that strictures +passed on the Christian Religion and its professors for failures in +this, as well as in other respects, frequently shew little discernment, +and are more or less unjust. So far as they are made to reflect on +Christianity itself, allowance is not made for the nature of the human +material upon which and with which the Christian Faith and Divine Grace +have to work. And when Christians of the present day are treated as if +they were to blame for them, sufficient account is not taken of the long +and complex history, and the working of motives, partly good as well as +bad, through which Christendom has been brought to its present divided +condition. Still we cannot afford to disregard the hindrance to the +progress of the Christian Faith and Christian Life among men created by +the existing divisions among Christians. Harm is caused by them in +another way of which we may be, perhaps, less conscious. They bring loss +to ourselves individually within the denominations to which we severally +belong. We should gain incalculably from the strengthening of our faith +through a wider fellowship with those who share it, the greater volume +of evidence for the reality of spiritual things which would thus be +brought before us; and from the enrichment of our spiritual knowledge +and life through closer acquaintance with a variety of types of +Christian character and experience; and not least from that moral +training which is to be obtained through common action, in proportion to +the effort that has to be made in order to understand the point of view +of others, and the suppression of mere egoism that is involved. + +These are strong reasons for aiming at Christian unity. But further +there comes to all of us at this time a powerful incentive to reflection +on the subject, and to such endeavours to further it as we can make, in +the signs of a movement towards it, the greater prominence which the +subject has assumed in the thought of Christians, the evidence of more +fervent aspirations after it, the clearer recognition of the injury +caused by divisions. I remember that some 40 or more years ago, one of +the most eminent and justly esteemed preachers of the day defended the +existence of many denominations among Christians on the ground that +through their competition a larger amount of work for the advance of the +kingdom of God is accomplished. We are not so much in love with +competition and its effects in any sphere now. And it should always have +been perceived that, whatever its rightful place in the economic sphere +might be, it had none in the promotion of purely moral and spiritual +ends. The preacher to whom I have alluded did not stand alone in his +view, though perhaps it was not often so frankly expressed. But at least +acquiescence in the existence of separated bodies of Christians, as a +thing inevitable, was commoner than it is now. + +In the new attitude to this question of the duty of unity that has +appeared amongst us there lies an opportunity which we must beware of +neglecting. It is a movement of the Spirit to which it behoves us to +respond energetically, or it will subside. Shakespeare had no doubt a +different kind of human enterprises mainly in view when he wrote: + + + There is a tide in the affairs of men, + Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; + Omitted, all the voyage of their life + Is bound in shallows and in miseries. + + +But this observation is broadly true of all human progress. An advance +of some kind in the relations of men to one another, or the remedying of +some abuse, begins to be urged here and there, and for a time those who +urge it are but little listened to. Then almost suddenly (as it seems) +the minds of many, one hardly knows why, become occupied with it. If in +the generation when that happens desire leads to concentrated effort, +the good of which men have been granted the vision in their minds and +souls will be attained. Otherwise interest in it will pass away, and the +hope of securing it, at least for a long time, will be lost. + +Before we attempt to consider any of the problems presented by the +actual state of Christendom in connexion with the subject now before us, +let us go back in thought to the position of believers in Jesus Christ +of the first generation, when His own brief earthly life had ended. They +form a fellowship bound together by faith in their common Lord, by the +confident hopes with which that faith has inspired them, and the new +view of life and its duties which they have acquired. Soon indeed +instances occur in which the bonds between different members of the body +become strained, owing especially to differences of origin and character +in the elements of which it was composed. We have an example at a very +early point in the narrative of the book of _Acts_ in the +dissatisfaction felt by believers from among Hellenistic Jews, who were +visiting, or had again taken up their abode at, Jerusalem, because a +fair share of the alms was not assigned to their poor by the Palestinian +believers, who had the advantage of being more permanently established +in the city, and were probably the majority. But the chiefs among the +brethren, the Apostles, take wise measures to remove the grievance and +prevent a breach. + +A few years later a far more serious difference arises. Jewish believers +in Jesus had continued to observe the Mosaic Law. When converts from +among the Gentiles began to come in the question presented itself, "Is +observance of that Law to be required of them?" Only on condition that +it was would many among the Jewish believers associate with them. In +their eyes still all men who did not conform to the chief precepts of +this Law were unclean. It is possible that there were Jews of liberal +tendencies, men who had long lived among Gentiles, to whom this +difficulty may have seemed capable of settlement by some compromise. But +in the case of most Jews, not merely in Palestine, but probably also in +the Jewish settlements scattered through the Graeco-Roman world, +religious scruples, ingrained through the instruction they had received +and the habits they had formed from child-hood, were deeply offended by +the very notion of joining in common meals with Gentiles, unless they +had fulfilled the same conditions as full proselytes to Judaism, the +so-called "proselytes of righteousness." On behalf, however, of Gentiles +who had adopted the Faith of Christ, it was felt that the demand for the +fulfilment of this condition of fellowship must be resisted at once and +to the uttermost. So St Paul held. To concede it would have caused +intolerable interference with Gentile liberty, and hindrance to the +progress of the preaching of the Gospel and its acceptance in the world. +And further--upon this consideration St Paul insisted above all--the +requirement that Gentiles should keep the Jewish Law might be taken to +imply, and would certainly encourage, an entirely mistaken view of what +was morally and spiritually of chief importance; it would put the +emphasis wrongly in regard to that which was essential in order that man +might be in a right relation to God and in the way of salvation. + +But the point in the history of this early controversy to which I desire +in connexion with our present subject to draw attention is the fact that +it is not suggested from any side that Jewish Christians and Gentile +Christians should form two separate bodies that would exist side by side +in the many cities where both classes were to be found, keeping to their +respective spheres, endeavouring to behave amicably to one another, +"agreeing to differ" as the saying is. This would have been the plan, we +may (I think) suppose, which would have seemed the best to that worldly +wisdom, which is so often seen to be folly when long and broad views of +history are taken. And we can imagine that not a few of the +ecclesiastical leaders of recent centuries might have proposed it, if +they had been there to do so. For never, perhaps, have there been more +natural reasons for separation than might have been found in those +national and racial differences, and in those incompatibilities due to +previous training and associations between Christians of Jewish and +Gentile origin. Yet it is assumed all through that they _must_ combine. +And St Paul is not only sure himself that to this end Jewish prejudices +must be overcome, but he is able to persuade the elder Apostles of this, +as also James who presided over the believers at Jerusalem, though they +had been slower than he to perceive what vital principles were at stake. +Believers of both classes must join in the Christian Agapae, or +love-feasts, and must partake of the same Eucharist, because the many +are one loaf[1], one body. They must grasp, and give practical effect +to, the principle that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor +free, neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus[2]." + +For that society, or organism, into which Jewish and Gentile believers +were alike brought, a name was found; it was that of _Ecclesia,_ +translated _Church_. It will be worth our while to spend a few moments +on the use of this name and its significance. We find mention in the New +Testament of "the Church" and of "Churches." What is the relation +between the singular term and the plural historically, and what did the +distinction import? The sublime passages concerning the Church as the +Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ occur in the Epp. to the +Colossians and Ephesians[3], which are not among the early Pauline +Epistles. Nevertheless in comparatively early Epistles, the authorship +of which by St Paul himself is rarely disputed, there are expressions +which seem plainly to shew that he thought of the Church as a single +body to which all who had been baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ +belonged. In the Epp. to the Galatians and 1 Corinthians[4] he refers +to the fact that he persecuted the "Church of God," and his persecution +was not confined to believers in Jerusalem or even in Judaea, but +extended to adjacent regions. He might have spoken of "the Churches of +Syria," as he does elsewhere (using the plural) of those of Judaea, +Galatia, Asia, Macedonia[5]. But he prefers to speak of the Church, and +he describes it as "the Church of God." The impiety of his action thus +appeared in its true light. He had not merely attacked certain local +associations, but that sacred body--"the Church of God." Again, it is +evident that he is thinking of a society embracing believers everywhere +when he writes to the Corinthians concerning different forms of +ministry, "God placed some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily +prophets" and so forth[6]. Again, when he bids the Corinthians, "Give no +occasion of stumbling, either to Jews or to Greeks, or to the Church of +God[7]," or asks them whether they "despise the Church of God[8]," +although it was their conduct to brethren among whom they lived that was +especially in question, it is evident that, as in the case of his own +action as a persecutor, the gravity of the fault can in his view only be +truly measured when it is realised that each individual Church is a +representative of the Church Universal. This representative character of +local Churches also appears in the expression common in his Epistles, +the "Church in" such and such a place. + +The usage of St Paul's Epistles does not, therefore, encourage the idea +that the application of the term _ecclesia_ to particular associations +preceded its application to the whole body, but the contrary, and +plainly it expressed for him from the first a most sublime conception. I +may add that there is no reason to suppose that the use of the term +originated with him. We find it in the Gospel according to St Matthew, +the Epistle of St James and the Apocalypse of St John, writings which +shew no trace of his influence. + +There is no passage of the New Testament from which it is possible to +infer clearly the idea which underlay its application to believers in +Jesus Christ. But when it is considered how full of the Old Testament +the minds of the first generation of Christians were, it must appear to +be in every way most probable that the word _ecclesia_ suggested itself +because it is the one most frequently employed in the Greek translation +of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) to render the Hebrew word +k[macron a]h[macron a]l, the chief term used for the assembly of Israel +in the presence of God, gathered together in such a manner and for such +purposes as forced them to realise their distinctive existence as a +people, and their peculiar relation to God. The believers in Jesus now +formed the _ecclesia_ of God, the true Israel, which in one sense was a +continuation of the old and yet had taken its place. This was the view +put forward by Dr Hort in his lectures on the Christian Ecclesia[9], and +it is at the present time widely, I believe I may say generally, held. I +may mention that the eminent German Church historians, A. Harnack[10] +and Sohm[11], give it without hesitation as the true one. + +Among the Jews the thought of the people in its relation to God was +associated with great assemblies in the courts and precincts of the +temple at Jerusalem, which altogether overshadowed any expression of +their covenant relation to God as a people which they could find in +their synagogue-worship, however greatly they valued the bonds with one +another which were strengthened, and the spiritual help which they +obtained, through their synagogues. But Christians had no single, +central meeting-place for their common worship at which their ideal +unity was embodied. It was, therefore, all the more natural that the +exalted name which described that unity should be transferred to the +communities in different places which shared the life, the privileges, +and the responsibilities of the whole, and in many ways stood to those +who composed them severally for the whole. The divisions between these +communities were local only. They arose from the limitations to +intercourse and common action which distance imposed. Or, in cases where +the Church in some Christian's house is referred to, they were due to +the necessity, or the great convenience, of meeting in small numbers, +owing to the want of buildings for Christian worship, or the hostility +of the surrounding population. Moreover these local bodies were not +suffered to forget the ties which bound them all together. Those in the +Greek-speaking world were required to send alms to the Churches in +Judaea. Again an individual Church was not free to disregard the judgment +of the rest. After St Paul has reasoned with the Corinthians on the +subject of a practice which he deemed inexpedient, he clinches the +matter by declaring, "we have no such custom neither the Churches of +God[12]." Lastly, the Apostles, and preeminently St Paul, through their +mission which, if not world-wide, at least extended over large +districts, and the care of the Churches which they exercised, and the +authority which they claimed in the name of Christ, and which was +conceded to them, were a unifying power. + +Thus the plural "the Churches" has in important respects a different +connotation in the New Testament from that which it has in modern times. +In the Apostolic Age the distinction between the Church and the Churches +is connected only with the different degrees to which a common life +could be realised according to geographical proximity. By a division of +this nature the idea of One Universal Church was not compromised. The +local body of Christians in point of fact rightly regarded itself as +representative of the whole body. The Christians in that place were the +Church so far as it extended there. + +The preservation of unity within the Church of each place where it was +imperilled by rivalries and jealousies and misunderstandings, such as +are too apt to shew themselves when men are in close contact with one +another, and of unity between the Churches of regions remote from one +another, in which case the sense of it is likely to be weak through want +of knowledge and consequently of sympathy--these appear as twin-aims +severally pursued in the manner that each required. Not indeed that it +is implied that everything is to be sacrificed to unity. But it is +demanded that the most strenuous endeavours shall be made to maintain +it, and it appears to be assumed that without any breach of it, loyalty +to every other great principle, room for the rightful exercise of every +individual gift, recognition of every aspect of Divine truth the +perception of which may be granted to one or other member of the body, +can be secured, if Christians cultivate right dispositions of mutual +affection and respect. + +There is one more point in regard to the idea of the Church in the New +Testament as to which we must not suffer ourselves to be misled, or +confused, by later conceptions and our modern habits of thought. We have +become accustomed to a distinction between the Church Visible and the +Church Invisible which makes of them two different entities. According +to this, one man who is a member of the Church Visible may at the same +time, if he is a truly spiritual person, even while here on earth belong +to the Church Invisible; but another who has a place in the Church +Visible has none and it may be never will have one in the Church +Invisible. This conception, though it had appeared here and there before +the 16th century, first obtained wide vogue then under the influence of +the Protestant Reformation. + +It arose through a very natural reaction from the mechanical view of +membership in the Church, its conditions and privileges, which had grown +up in the Middle Ages. But it does not correspond to the ideas of the +Apostolic Age. According to these there is but one Church, the same as +to its true being on earth as it is in heaven, one Body of Christ, +composed of believers in Him who had been taken to their rest and of +those still in this world. In the earlier part of the Apostolic Age the +great majority were in fact still in this world. The Body was chiefly a +Visible Body. It had many imperfections. Some of its members might even +have no true part in it at all and require removal. But Christ Himself +"sanctifies and cleanses it that He may present it"--that very same +Church--"to Himself a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any +such thing, but holy and without blemish[13]." + +Now while one can understand the point of view from which in later times +so deep a line of demarcation has been drawn between the Visible and the +Invisible Church as to make of them two entirely separate things, and +although to many it may still seem hard to do without this distinction, +or in the existing condition of the nominally Christian world to employ +that primitive conception of the Church even as, so to speak, a working +hypothesis, I would ask whether the primitive conception is not a nobler +and sounder one. Surely it places the ideal in its right relation to the +actual. The full realisation of the ideal no doubt belongs only to +another world; yet if we believe in it as an ideal we must seek to +actualise it here. There is something unwholesome in acknowledging any +ideal which we do not strive so far as we can to actualise. And plainly +participation in the same grace, and the spiritual ties arising +therefrom, ought to find expression in an outer life of fellowship, of +intercourse and common action, and such common organisation as for human +beings in this world these require. No doubt it is always too possible +that the outward may hinder the perception of the inward. But if we can +guard successfully against this danger, the inward and spiritual will +become all the more potent by having the external form through which to +work; while the outward, if it is too sharply dissevered in thought from +the inward, loses its value and even becomes injurious. + +Again, a view of the Church is more wholesome which does not encourage +us to classify its members in a manner only possible to the Allseeing +God; to draw a line between true believers and others, and to determine +(it may be) on which side of the line different ones are by their having +had spiritual experiences similar to our own, and having learned to use +the same religious language that we do; but which on the contrary leads +us to think of all as under the Heavenly Father's care, and subject to +the influences of the Holy Spirit, and placed in that Body of Christ +where, although the spiritual life in them is as yet of very various +degrees of strength, and their knowledge of things Divine in many cases +small, all may and are intended to advance to maturity in Christ. + +It is necessary that the relation of the idea of the Church upon which I +have been dwelling to her subsequent history for centuries should be +clearly apprehended. Its hold on the minds of Christians preceded the +very beginnings of organisation in the Christian communities, and it +would probably be no exaggeration to say that it governed the whole +evolution of that organisation for many centuries. Particular offices +were doubtless instituted and men appointed to them with specific +reference to needs which were making themselves felt. But all the while +that idea of the Church's unity and of her holiness was present in their +thoughts. And certainly as soon as it becomes necessary to insist upon +the duty of loyalty to those who had been duly appointed to office, and +directly or indirectly to defend the institutions themselves, appeal is +made to the idea, as notably by the two chief Christians in the +Sub-Apostolic Age, Clement of Rome and Ignatius. + +It is in itself evidence of a common spirit and common tendencies that +broadly speaking the same form of constitution in the local Christian +communities, though not introduced everywhere with quite equal rapidity, +was so nearly everywhere almost on the confines of the Apostolic Age, +and that soon it was everywhere. Ere long, with this form of government +as a basis, plans were adopted expressly for the purpose of uniting the +local Churches on terms of equality among themselves, especially in +combating error. And at length in the name still of the Church's unity +there came, however much we may regret it, the centralisation of Western +Christendom in the See of Rome. + +All these measures of organisation, from the earliest to the latest of +them, were means to an end; and we shall regard them differently. But we +ought not any of us to regard means, however they may commend themselves +to us, and however sacred and dear their associations may be, in the +same way as we do the end. There must always be the question, which will +present itself in a different light to different minds, whether +particular means, even though men may have been led by the Holy Spirit +to employ them, were intended for all time. Moreover there are points in +regard to the earliest history of Church organisation which remain +obscure, in spite of all the labour that has been expended in +investigating them: for instance the exact relation of different +ministries, of the functions of different officers, to one another, the +exact moment when the orders of ministers which proved to be permanent +appeared in this or that important Church, the part which any of the +immediate disciples of Christ had in their establishment, the ideas +which at first were held as to the dependence of the rites of the Church +for their validity upon being performed by a lawful ministry. Upon +these matters, or some of them, it is possible for honest and competent +inquirers to hold different opinions. But no such doubt hangs over that +End which was also the Beginning, of the Church's life, that conception +of what she is, or ought to be, as the society of those who confess the +Name of Jesus Christ, and who are His Body. I insist upon this because I +think that amid discussions on the origin of the Christian Ministry, the +significance of that more fundamental question, namely, the right +conception of the Christian Church, is apt to be too much lost sight of. +About this, though men still do not, they ought to be able to agree, and +it should be our common inspiration, both impelling us and guiding us in +seeking our goal. + +We need it to impel us. The obstacles to the reunion of Christendom at +the present day are such that a motive which can be found is required to +induce and sustain action in seeking it, whenever and wherever the +opportunity for doing so presents itself; such a motive is to be found +in a deep conviction of the sacredness of this object, so that our eyes +maybe kept fixed upon it even when there appears to be no opening +through which an advance toward it can be made, and there is nothing to +be done save to wait and watch and pray. But in order also that the +result of any efforts that are made may be satisfactory, it is necessary +that our minds should be under the guidance of a great and true idea, +and that we should not simply be animated with the desire of meeting +immediate needs. These are the reasons which I think justify me for +having detained you so long over the consideration of the fundamental +conception of the Church which is rooted in the Christian Faith itself +as it first appeared and spread in the world. + +I will now, however, before concluding make a few remarks on one part of +the complicated problem of reunion facing us to-day. The part of it on +which I desire to speak is the relations between the Church of England, +and the Churches in communion with her in various parts of the British +Empire and in the United States, on the one hand, and on the other +English Nonconformists, the Presbyterians of Scotland, and all +English-speaking Christians allied to or resembling these. It will, I +think, be generally felt that this is a part of the subject which for +more than one reason specially invites our attention. There are, indeed, +some, both clergy and laity, of the Church of England, though they are +but a very small number in comparison with its members as a whole, whose +interest in the subject of the reunion of Christendom is mainly shewn in +the desire to obtain recognition for the Church of England, as a portion +of the Church Catholic, from the great Church of the West. But in view +of the attitude maintained by that Church there appears to be no +prospect of this and nothing to be gained by attempts at negotiation. +Endeavours to establish intercommunion with the Churches of Eastern +Christendom may be made with more hope of success. Indeed there is +reason to think that in the years to come the Church of England may be +in a specially favourable position for getting into touch with these +Churches and assisting them to recover from the effects of the War, and +to make progress; and Englishmen generally would, I am sure, rejoice +that she should undertake such work. But the question of the duty to one +another of all those bodies of English Christians which I have +specified comes nearer home and should press upon our minds and hearts +more strongly. It is a practical one in every English town and every +country parish, and almost everywhere throughout the world where the +English language is spoken. Moreover, even the most loyal members of the +Church of England, in spite of the points of principle on which they are +divided from those other English Christians, resemble them more closely +in many respects in their modes of thought, even on religion, than they +do the members of other portions of the ancient Catholic Church from +which they have become separated. And in addition to the distinctly +religious reasons for considering the possibility of drawing more +closely together and even ultimately uniting in one communion these +different denominations of British Christians, there is a patriotic +motive for doing so. Fuller religious sympathy, more cooperation, +between the members of these different denominations could not fail to +strengthen greatly the bonds between different classes amongst us, and +to increase the coherency of the whole nation and empire. + +It would be unwise, if in proposing steps towards reunion, difficulties +and dangers connected with them were ignored; and I believe it to be my +duty frankly to refer to some which suggest themselves to one looking +from a Churchman's point of view. There are two chief barriers to the +union of members of the Church of England and English Nonconformists +that must be mentioned. + +(1) That which I will refer to first is the connexion of the Church of +England with the State. + +This connexion is not, I think, such a hindrance to religious sympathy +as it was, but it would be untrue to say that it is none. And there is +of course the danger that if disestablishment became a political +question, and especially if it involved the deflection of endowments +which have long been used, and on the whole well-used, for the +maintenance and furtherance of religion to secular objects, feeling +between the majority of Churchmen and those who in consequence of their +views in the matter became opposed to them might be seriously +embittered. Yet there is good ground for hoping that the question of the +relations of Church and State and all matters connected therewith will +in the years that are coming be faced in a calmer spirit, and with truer +insight into important principles, than too often they have been in the +past. It should certainly be easier for those who approach them from +different sides to understand one another. Particular grievances +connected with inequality of treatment by the State have been removed; +while a broad principle for which Nonconformists stand in common has +come to be more clearly asserted, through their attaching increasingly +less significance to the grounds on which different bodies amongst them +were formed, as indicated in the names by which they have been severally +known, and banding themselves together as the "Free Churches." But in +the Church of England also in recent years there has been a growing +sense of the need of freedom. It is better realised than at one time +that in no circumstances could the Church rightly be regarded as a mere +department of the State, or even as the most important aspect of the +life of the State. However complete the harmony between Church and State +might be, the Church ought to have a corporate life of her own. She +requires such independence as may enable her to be herself, to do her +own work, to act according to the laws of her own being. This is +necessary even that she may discharge adequately her own function in the +nation. + +It is not part of my duty now to inquire in what respects the Church of +England lacks this freedom, or whether such readjustments in her +connexion with the State can be expected as would secure it to her, +implying as the making of them would that, although she does not now +include among her members more than half the nation, she is still for an +indefinitely long time to continue to be the official representative of +religion in the nation. But I would urge that when these points are +discussed the question should also be considered whether, in a nation +the great majority in which profess to be Christian, the State ought not +to make profession of the Christian religion, which involves its +establishment in some form, and whether there are not substantial +benefits especially of an educative kind to be derived therefrom for the +nation at large; and if so how this can in existing circumstances be +suitably done. It should be remembered that in many cases the +forefathers of those who are now separated from the National Church did +not hold that a connexion between Church and State under any form was +wrong; but on the contrary their idea of a true and complete national +life included one. I think it is well to recall the view in this matter +of men of another time. It is desirable that we should make our +consideration of the whole subject of Church and State as broad as we +can, and that we should strive not to be carried away into accepting +some solution which at the moment seems the easiest, when with a little +patience some better and truer one might be found possible. + +(2) The other barrier to which I have referred is the claim of the +Church of England to a continuity of faith and life with the faith and +life of the Church Universal from the beginning, maintained in the first +place through a Ministry the members of which have in due succession +received their commission by means of the Historic Episcopate, and, +secondly, through the acknowledgment of certain early and widely +accepted creeds. This continuity was reasserted when the Church of +England started on her new career at the Reformation, though at the same +time the necessity was then strongly insisted on of testing the purity +and soundness of the Church's faith and forms of worship by Holy +Scripture. These guarantees and means of continuity are valued in very +different degrees by different sections of opinion in the Church of +England, and some who attach comparatively little importance to matters +of organisation would attach great importance to the formularies of +belief. But there can be no doubt that any steps which appeared +seriously to compromise the preservation of the great features of the +Church of England in either of these respects would cause deep +disturbance among her members. On the other hand, it will be readily +understood by all who can appreciate the changes that in our own and +recent generations have come in men's view of Nature and of Mind, and in +the interpretation of historical evidence, that definitions of belief +framed in the past may not in every point express accurately the beliefs +of all who nevertheless with full conviction own Jesus Christ as Lord. +It is obvious, I think, that, if the Christian Church is to endure, +there must be on the part of her members essential loyalty to the faith +out of which she sprang, and which has inspired her throughout the ages +to this day. But it is an anxious problem for the Church of England at +the present time--and it is likely to become so likewise, if it is not +yet, for all portions of the Church in which ancient standards of +belief, or those framed in the 16th century, or later, hold an +authoritative place--to decide wherein essential loyalty to "the faith +once delivered" consists. + +It may seem at first sight that when the Church of England has serious +questions to grapple with affecting her internal unity, and especially +affecting that unity in variety which to some considerable degree she +represents and which is the most valuable kind of unity, attempts to +join with other Christians outside her borders in considering a basis of +union with them are unwise at least at the moment, as tending to +increase the complexity and the difficulties of the position within, and +as therefore to be deprecated in the interests of unity itself. I do not +think so, but believe that assistance may thus be obtained in reaching a +satisfactory settlement even of internal difficulties. + +For, in the first place, there has of late been among members of the +Church of England a change of temper which should be a preparation for +considering her relations with those separated from her in a wiser and +more liberal spirit than has before been possible. Those Churchmen who +would insist most strongly on the necessity of preserving the Church's +ancient order do not usually maintain the attitude to dissent of the +Anglican High and Dry School, which was still common in the middle of +the 19th century. The work which Nonconformist bodies have done for the +spiritual and moral life of England, and the immense debt which we all +owe to them on that account, are thankfully admitted. No one indeed can +do otherwise than admit it thankfully who has eyes to see, and the sense +of justice and generosity of mind to acknowledge what he sees. And the +inference must be that, although the belief may be held as firmly as +ever that the Spirit of God inspired that Order which so early took +shape in the Church, and that He worked through it and continues to do +so, yet that also, when men have failed rightly to use the appointed +means, He has found other ways of working. This view, when it has had +its due influence upon thought, can hardly fail to affect profoundly the +measures proposed for healing the divisions which have arisen. + +Then, again, on the other side--the side of those separated from the +Church of England--there is more appreciation of the point of view of +Churchmen in respect to their links with the past and their idea of +Catholicity. This is due partly to a broader interest in the life of the +Church in former ages and the heroic and saintly characters which they +produced than since the Reformation has been common among those English +Christians, who are, in a special sense, children of the Reformation; +partly, perhaps, to a growing doubt, as views of Christian truth have +become larger, whether after all a single doctrine or opinion, or +reverence for the teaching of one man, can make a satisfactory basis for +the permanent grouping of Christians. At the same time in regard to +fundamental Christian belief, the meaning which the revelation of God in +Christ has for them, they are and are conscious of being at one with the +Church. + +Striking evidence of these new tendencies of thought on both sides is to +be seen in the movement originated by the Protestant Episcopal Church of +the United States for a World-Conference on Faith and Order, and in the +manner in which the proposal for such a Conference has been received in +England, and the steps already taken in preparation for it. A body of +representatives of the Church of England and of the Free Churches has +been appointed, and a Committee of this body has already published +suggestions for a basis of union. These have still, I understand, to +come before the general body of English representatives, and it is +intended (I believe) that the proposals of the Committee, after being +examined and possibly amended and supplemented by the larger body, +should, with any proposals that may be made from similar joint-bodies in +the United States and in the British Dominions, be considered by a body +of representatives from the whole of this vast area. Any conclusions +which are thus reached must then lie, so to speak, before all the +denominations concerned. Opportunity must be given for their being +widely studied and explained and reflected upon, and if need be +criticized. For the Church of Christ is, or ought to be, in a true sense +a democratic society, a society in which, subject to its governing +principles, the spiritual consciousness of all the faithful should make +itself felt. + +For the end of such a process as this we must wait a considerable time. +Meanwhile there are obvious ways in which the cause of unity may be +promoted; viz. through seeking for a larger amount of intercourse with +the members of other denominations than our own; for more joint study of +religious questions and frank interchange of views, and more cooperation +in various forms of moral and social endeavour. The way would thus be, +we may hope, prepared for fuller intercommunion, and it may be for +corporate reunion. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] 1 Cor. x. 17, R.V. mg. + +[2] Gal. iii. 28 + +[3] Col. i. 18, 24; Eph. i. 22, v. 23 ff. + +[4] Gal. i. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 9. + +[5] 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 19; 2 Cor. viii. 1; Gal. i. 2, 22. + +[6] 1 Cor. xii. 28. + +[7] 1 Cor. x. 32. + +[8] 1 Cor. xi. 22. + +[9] _The Christian Ecclesia_, pp. 3 ff. + +[10] _Die Mission u. Ausbreitung d. Christentums_, p. 292. + +[11] _Kirchenrecht_, 1. pp. 16 ff. + +[12] 1 Cor. xi. 16. + +[13] Ephes. v. 26, 27. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + + + + +II. THE CHURCH IN THE FURNACE + +By the Rev. E. MILNER-WHITE, M.A., D.S.O. + + +At last we have begun to see the absolute necessity of Unity in Christ, +of religious reunion, for the sake of both Christianity and the world. + +For several years devout Christians in England have been growing more +and more uneasy about their acquiescence in religious division. The +reading of the Gospels, and especially the eighteenth chapter of St +John, where He prays on the threshold of His agony that His disciples +may be one, even as He and the Father are one, has become nothing less +than a torment to those who have any real passion for the doing of God's +will, or who are humbled by the tremendous love of our Lord Jesus +Christ, for each and for all. Thus far have we gone from the clear mind +of Christ; thus far have we ruined His plans for the health and +happiness of the world; thus far have we failed to imitate or display +the love, the humility, the self-sacrifice, that walked to Calvary: He +bade us be _one_, and to _love_; we, the disciples, have chosen to hate +and be many. + +English Christianity alone is split into hundreds of denominations. The +fact is its own grim condemnation. We had lost even the sense that +division mattered. It is quite ridiculous to pretend that nothing is +wrong with the religious ideas or state of a race, which produces +hundreds of bodies, big and small, to worship Him who only asked that +His worshippers should be ONE. Denomination itself has become a word of +shame which we shall not be able to use much longer. It brings up at +once the thought of something partial, little, far less than the Body +for which Christ died; and a host of yet more horrid pictures of old +squabbles and present rivalries, of contempt and bitterness and +controversy. It does not suggest one _Christian_ idea at all. + +These uneasy thoughts even before the war were brought home by the +practical results of disunion as worked out inevitably in the colonies +and mission field. The language is not too strong that labels them +monstrous. Here was the flower of our Christian devotion going forth to +heathen wilds, meeting by God's grace with wide success; and +establishing our little local denominations firmly in the nations, +tribes, and islands of Asia, Africa, and Australasia; rendering it hard +for a native Christian who moves from his home to get elsewhere the +accustomed ministries and means of grace vital to his young faith; +planting seeds of future quarrel at the very birth of new tribes into +the Prince of Peace. In the Dominions, with their thin and widely +scattered populations, other phenomena, equally deplorable, are +manifest--five churches in places where one suffices, appalling waste of +effort and money, and even ugly competition for adherents. + +In England we hardly saw these things. The population was large enough +and indifferent enough to God to provide room for the activities of all. +The indifference indeed seemed to be growing. We did not stop to think +whether disgust at continuous controversy had not done much to cause +that indifference--how far our divisions simply manufactured scepticism +as to there being any religious truth--whether the obvious lovelessness +of such conditions was likely to recommend the religion of Love--whether +this disparate chaos was likely to be a field in which the Lord, who +designed and founded one brotherhood of believers, could work or give +His grace to the uttermost. No, the Christianity of our Christians has +tended to be a thin individual thing, with interests scarcely extended +beyond its own local congregation, which is bad enough; or still worse, +in our towns, content to wander from congregation to congregation, +owning no discipline or loyalty at all. + +And yet in the same breath as we say, "I believe in God," we also say, +most of us, "I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church." It is a +crowning mercy that we do say it; that we do bear witness so outright to +the state of sin in which we dwell; the clause does keep the mind of +Christ and our own duty before us, of establishing as the first, perhaps +the only hope of this sin-stained, war-stained earth, the brotherhood of +believers which shall be one. + +Then came the war, and in many ways the war, which has in every +direction cleared vision, and both deepened and simplified thought, has +brought home to every Christian both the disaster of disunion, and the +imperative need of attempting unity. + +You will expect me to give some account of the reaction of the chaplains +and the Church in France to this conviction. Perhaps I should make clear +my own position. Folk probably term me an "advanced High Churchman." I +should call myself "a Catholic"--an English Catholic, if you like--, at +any rate, one who cannot fairly be accused of ignorance of the details +and depths of our divisions; nor of underestimating their real +importance. + +The priests who went out as Chaplains to the Forces had an experience +somewhat similar to that of colonial or missionary priests--they +exercised their ministry under totally new conditions, and in a new +atmosphere. So did the Roman Catholics, Nonconformists, and +Presbyterians, but of course I do not speak for them in what follows. +But all the Church of England padres--high, low, broad--tell exactly the +same tale of their experience; between them there has been no division; +they have worked together in perfect harmony and keenness, largely +appropriating each other's methods. In a word, they have discovered how +false and artificial is the partisan atmosphere of home religion; and +when they return, will find it hard to tolerate any continuance of it. + +The Church of England is as a matter of fact divided roughly into three +sections, by no means corresponding to the "high, low, and broad," of +the church journals. Most Church of England men scarcely know what these +terms mean. No, it consists of a devoted inmost section, regular +churchgoers and communicants--and you will pardon me for thinking them +the best instructed, the freest, and the sturdiest Christians in the +world. They are of course in a minority, but they are actually numerous +enough to occupy the time and care of our whole ministry, which is far +below reasonable strength. Then comes a large fringe, who come to Church +occasionally, or even regularly, in the evening; who make little or no +use of the Sacraments, or of the more intimate devotions and +instructions provided: they are well disposed; but are not consciously +prepared to make _sacrifices_ for their faith; and indeed are somewhat +ignorant of its contents and demands. Then thirdly, there is a yet +vaster multitude, baptised, married, and buried, perhaps by the Church, +and therefore counting themselves Church of England, but who come but +rarely within the orbit of Church life and teaching; and who, not to +mince words, are semi-pagan. Only _semi_-pagan because the ethics, +morals and traditions of England are Christian; and these people, +knowing little of Jesus Christ, and understanding less, and not +consciously moved by Him, yet not infrequently rise to heights of love +and sacrifice which would adorn the life of a saint. + +The mass of our parishioners in France, then, was not made up of the +inner circle--we were lucky if we found three or four in a unit--but of +the ill-instructed fringe, and the totally ignorant multitudes. The +horror and boredom of war, the personal insecurity, the difficulty of +understanding the ways of God, made all friendly to the parson with whom +hitherto they had never come into contact; and caused large numbers to +think things out, and to hunger for an understanding of God. Religion +became a common topic of discussion. The padres found themselves in a +larger world, where old labels and divisions simply had no meaning; and +where the first necessity and work was to preach Christ and teach the +meaning of the Faith. They felt also, very quickly, that this interest +in ultimate things did not mean that men became friendly to organised +religion in any form. On the contrary, their hostility and distrust +toward all religious bodies were marked. The chaplains had that common +and dreadful experience of foreign missionaries, of feeling themselves +alone, closed round by thick dark walls of unsympathy and worse. They +longed for the help and support of any genuine friend of Christ, +whatever body he belonged to. I was called upon to preach the National +Mission in a peculiarly hostile and irresponsive camp of motor lorry +drivers, who much resented the use of "their" Y.M.C.A. hut for such +religious purposes. A Wesleyan minister had charge of it, and got far +more of their blunt language than I the visitor did; but he worked +undismayed and unreservedly for all he was worth, for the National +Mission and for me. The alliance was natural, real, inevitable. He and +I, and some five or six men of that camp, were clearly on one side, and +the rest of it on the other, of an exceeding broad gulf. With this as a +daily experience, a man's values changed rapidly; and it became quite +obvious that, even to begin to fight the battle of Christianity in the +modern world, Christians must be united. + +This assurance was reinforced by the quite extraordinary scandal that +the mere fact of religious disunion caused both to officers and men. It +was the big, obvious "damper" on the very threshold of +Christianity--"see how these Christians hate one another." Officers +would throw the taunt up again and again in the Mess, and the men lying +down to talk themselves to sleep in their comfortless barns would begin +to talk about religion with at heart a wistful longing to understand it +and know its help and power. At once, someone would bring up the picture +of squabbling denominations, and the wistfulness and hope would be slain +by scorn. Next day and every day, the glaring scandal would be laid +before the chaplain; who had little enough to answer. Of course, it is +quite false to suppose that the existence and continuance of division +are due to the clergy. Our English schisms have been caused at least as +much by over-eager laymen as by over-eager clergy; and I think if it +were left to the clergy alone the process of reuniting would be very +rapid. In our Division, for instance, the three Nonconformist Chaplains +to the Forces and I used to talk over the whole question; one was an +orthodox Wesleyan, another a Primitive, and the other a United +Methodist; and they did not hesitate to say that Methodist reunion had +taken place more than ten years ago if it had been left to the ministers +alone. But the average Englishman naturally blames the official +representatives of religion, their ministries, for the obvious and open +disgrace of division in the religion of love; he is ignorant of the +excuses that history, and the real importance of the matters in dispute, +afford; he only sees the evil fact; and it is quite enough by itself to +excuse his closer association with so harsh a contradiction of the first +principle of Christ and Christianity. + +Then again in France, one came up violently against the sheer nuisance +and waste of division. Imagine upon a Friday every C.O. and adjutant +(and adjutants are always over-worked) of every unit approached by three +Chaplains--Church of England, Roman Catholic, and Nonconformist; and +requested to make different arrangements at different times for +different fractions of his command to attend divine service on the +Sunday. This in the midst of modern war, where organisation for war +purposes is complex and laborious enough. The mere typing and +circulating of these arrangements at Brigade and Divisional H.Q. mean in +sum total a vast expenditure of paper and labour. The chaplains, who, I +hope, are at least gentlemen, feel considerable shame at being the +guiltless authors of these confusions. And the effect is so deplorable. +Just when the nation is one, just when each military unit seeks to +promote, for mere military efficiency, the _esprit de corps_ of its +oneness, the religion of the one Christ enters as a thing which almost +flaunts fissure. Or again, think of the mere waste of pastoral +efficiency involved in this fact. Each infantry brigade consists roughly +of four battalions, and three or four somewhat smaller units (R.A.M.C, +M.G.C., etc.). For these there are four chaplains, normally two Church +of England (who have 80 per cent. of the men under their care), one +Roman Catholic and one Presbyterian or Nonconformist. The two latter +have to do the best they can each to get round all these scattered units +to provide for small handfuls of men in each. Each of the Church of +England chaplains has to arrange for a whole half brigade. How much more +efficiently and thoroughly, with how much less needless labour, had the +work been done, if an one Church could have set one chaplain to live +each with one battalion, and be responsible as well for one smaller +unit. That had made it easy for a chaplain to know his flock intimately; +now it is next to impossible. + +But above and beyond these misfortunes, which after all are details, +must be ranked the big thoughts and truths which have swum into the +sight and experience of everybody. The first is this. Granted that the +Church like the world was surprised by the sudden outbreak of war, and +therefore could not stop it; yet that she should have no voice at all +even to denounce the unrighteousness and barbarities into which the +world plunges deeper every day does strike men as wrong. The Church +cannot speak because she is not one; even suppose all England be +actually one national Church, if it is only national, it will go the way +of the nation, and certainly cannot speak to other nations. For the +Church ever to acquire a world-voice in the cause of love and right +means that reunion and our desires for it must not stop short at home +reunion. Here the witness of Roman Catholicism to the necessity of +international Christianity is vital to the ideal of a reunited +Christendom. Men, far removed from his obedience, did look wistfully to +the Pope, conceding that he alone could speak such a word to the world +in the name of Christ; wide and deep has been the disappointment that it +was not spoken. Here again it is not the Pope, nor Roman Catholicism, +that is to blame, but the whole divided state of Christendom which +paralyses the action of each communion, even the strongest and most +widespread. + +I will mention only one other of these big truths--there are many of +them--that have come home to every man; where again Christian division +is the first and fatal obstacle in the way. This time it affects all the +looking forward to the end of the war, and the new world of peace. It is +unthinkable but that the new world must be one of brotherhood, not of +enmity; of love, not of hatred. Otherwise every drop of blood that has +been shed, every tear that has fallen, every death that has been died, +will be so much utter waste. That is the one most intolerably dark +thought in the days of darkness. There is a new policy open to the world +which it has never yet tried, to work toward _the Dominance of Love_. +Every conceivable form of selfishness has in turn dominated the affairs +of nations and men; never yet has love been seriously tried. But there +will be no chance of International Friendship, Brotherhood, Love, if the +Church, the fellowship of Christians, who are after all set in the world +by their own confession, to live by love, to be the exemplars and hot +centre of love, cannot conspicuously shew forth love. How can the +nations be friends before Christians be brothers? We have only to act +according to our creed; and our creed does not only believe in +brotherhood, but in the continual help of God Himself in our efforts to +realise it. The influence upon the world even of a persevering _attempt_ +to achieve a united Christendom would surely be decisive. Therefore the +reunion of Christendom becomes now the imperious vocation of every +Christian, the one preventive of our agony and loss going to waste, the +one hope of a loveless world, the clear next objective of the Church of +the living God. + +Before returning to the idea of the Dominance of Love, and a +consideration of first steps towards it, let us go back to France, and +watch the relations of the various communions there one to another after +four years of war. + +It is new and rather hard to describe. The first few months, when the +Chaplains to the Forces of the various denominations arrived with their +inherited home suspicions one of another, presented many difficulties +that might have increased ill-feeling. An army regulation which allows +the Church of England chaplain only to minister to Church of England +men, and the Roman Catholic to Roman Catholic men, etc., reduced the +chances of such conflict; and at the same time, the vastness and +urgency of the work the chaplains had to do swallowed up all other +thoughts. As a writer in _The Church in the Furnace_ said, "We have +heard with mingled irritation and amusement that good folk at home have +been exercised because an undue proportion of men of this party or that +have been sent out; the question out here is not 'To what party does he +belong?' but 'Is he capable by character and life of influencing men for +good, and winning them for God and His Church?'" Again, the extremely +free use of the Prayer Book and of any and every sort of devotion, at +any and every hour of day and night, has broken up all prejudiced +rigidity of use. Methods that did not help were dropped; methods that +helped men were welcome, from whatever source they came. + +So arose a great harmony, a harmony of energy and experiment; and +although in religious matters the Roman Catholics retained their +aloofness, the drawing together of other denominations, as represented +by their clergy, has been constant and perfectly natural and +unsuspicious. United services have not been common; each denomination +has confined itself loyally to its own men; what the statements in the +Lower House of Convocation meant to the effect that the amount of +intercommunion going on at the Front would shock members of that house, +no chaplain has any idea. But the new, fresh, and delightful thing is, +the absolute lack of feeling between, say, the Catholic Anglican and the +Congregationalist. There are numerous occasions on which they must or +can work together; on which they must or can do jobs for one another; +and it has been decisively proved that the existing demarcation and +rivalry in England is a false and needless thing; and that working +together can be a real, unselfconscious and wholly profitable matter. +Our English airs are poisoned by past history and old social cleavage: +in France, the past is forgotten, and social barriers do not exist. It +is a matter of atmosphere, and there it is clear and bracing. Nobody +sacrifices conviction or principle, but they love one another. + +I do not say there may not be individual misunderstandings and frictions +now and then, but they are miraculously few. The normal temper is shewn +by the numerous meetings for conference and devotion by the various +chaplains. These are more easy to effect at the bases than in the line; +but they take place everywhere. Typical is the conduct of a small base +on the sea, where the eight chaplains or so meet regularly for devotion, +and each is entrusted with a section of the proceedings each time. For +instance, the American Episcopalian takes the Thanksgiving, the +Presbyterian the Confession, the Wesleyan the Intercession, each of the +others has found from the same chapter of, say, St Mark's Gospel, some +"seed-thought" upon which he is allowed to dilate for four minutes. +There is no constraint or self-consciousness in this gathering. Each is +perfectly happy, and so is the whole. + +It is not surprising that out of such an atmosphere and among such +practices a powerful passion for unity has arisen, based on something +far stronger than sentiment, and having in it some of the fire of +revelation. It has not been sought; it has come; it has grown: nobody +expected it. It came, naturally and delightfully. The fifth year of war +will assuredly see some definite policy or action towards greater unity +proceeding from France. The quiet, unhasty, resolved manner in which +the Chaplains to the Forces in France are moving is in striking contrast +to the hasty proposals and hasty actions threatening on the less +prepared soil at home. Indeed in this last sentence I have touched upon +the two actual terrors which the Church in France feels. FIRST, that +hasty and purely _sectional_ action on unimaginative and traditional +lines by the home-clergy will give the old party-feeling a new bitter +lease of life, and by ruining unnecessarily the unity of the Church of +England will destroy the hopes that are so fair of yet wider reunion. +And SECOND, that the local outlook of the lay-folk--in our villages +especially perhaps--and local lines of cleavage, not having been +subjected to the experience and discipline of France, will have the +opposite effect, prevent things moving as fast as they ought, and throw +away the fairest chance of buying up opportunity that ever was given to +the Church of Christ. To these opposite dangers, I shall recur. + +The Dominance of Love in the world! Let us see and absorb that big +vision first, and its pathetic urgency: its summons to each body of +Christians, and to every individual member of Christ. Acknowledge its +NECESSITY for the world, and therefore its _immediate_ necessity for the +Church of the God of Love. + +And next, before considering practical steps, let us recall certain +postulates and axioms, which in any attempt to realise so magnificent a +vision must always be borne in mind, lest, in our human frailty and +selfwill, we head straight for new misunderstandings and disasters[14]. + +1. The importance of unity is so great, and division has been found so +calamitous, and the words of Christ are so definite on the subject, that +I think all would admit now that _Division is only to be prolonged for +causes that are backed by divine command_. The larger Christian bodies +are separated by convictions of great importance; but a severe and +honest self-examination will probably lessen the number of differences +which can justify the responsibility of so disastrous a thing as +separation, and then we can set afoot conferences to deal with what +remain. Human temperament, upbringing, tradition, human haste and pride +have much to do with the birth, stabilising and continuance of division. +A rare self-abnegation in our ecclesiastical history was the partial +suicide of the Non-juring schism, and it has never been repeated; there +were many great saints among the Nonjurors. If they could not take the +oath of allegiance to William III, and therefore could not remain in the +Church of England, the best of them recognised that their individual +difficulty would not excuse them if they perpetuated themselves as a +Church. In any junction of existing divisions, differing customs and +methods of worship and organisation can be and should be safeguarded. +That would only make the more for the health of the one Body. But, +division itself is only to be prolonged for causes that are, or seem to +be by conscience, backed by divine command, and the first step in all +work for reunion will be the isolating of these causes from lesser +things, and their careful and prayerful reconsideration. + +A grand example of such process, of course, has been the Conference of +the leaders of our English denominations, at the inspiration of the +American Committee of Faith and Order, which during 1917 faced the +question of Episcopacy. The findings of its "second interim report" are +nothing less than a landmark in Church History. You remember that +roughly it was this: that any corporate reunion can only come in the +acceptance of the historical Episcopate; but that the conception and use +of Episcopacy in the Church has been a limited one: there are many ways +of regarding and using bishops besides the monarchical or "prelatical" +way exemplified by the Church of England. This is a first proof that +when truths, keenly felt and seemingly rival, are discussed in +Conference spirit, the angularities that offend disappear; and wider, +bigger truth comes into the possession of all. It will be so more and +more. By faith we can already see that the labour of understanding unto +reunion is bound to be an immense _creative_ period in the Church of +God. + +2. Our second axiom sounds discouraging. Just this--that unity is, +humanly speaking, impossible. Reunion means great changes of heart in +great communions of men, and we all know how hard it is to effect change +of heart even in the individual. We must not think that no price will +have to be paid for so good a result, both by whole communions, and by +the members composing them; and that the whole force of inherited +prejudice, past history, and present wilfulness, ignorance, and sincere +conviction will not arise in opposition. The difficulty even of +approaching Rome illustrates vividly our task. The Unity of Christendom +is a meaningless expression without that vast international Church, +without her rich stores of devotion and experience, without her +unbending witness to the first things of faith, worship and +self-sacrifice. Here the "impossibility" is open and honest, but I do +not know that the difficulties will be greater than those, less obvious +as yet, between other denominations. Yet with God all things are +possible. This is only the MIRACLE which He has set the faith of modern +Christians to perform. + +3. Thirdly then, our rule must be, to hasten slowly. We are not dealing +with matters susceptible of mere arrangement, but with _convictions_, +which have deep roots in history, and cling passionately round the +individual. Convictions can only be modified or changed gradually, by +love and deeper spiritual learning. Bully or outrage a conviction, and +you double its strength. That is why argument seldom does aught but +harm. Argument is an attack upon another man's convictions, or +semi-convictions, and inevitably fails to do anything but stiffen them. +Inevitably therefore will hasty action by individuals or sections, for +instance in the Church of England, for which other sections are not +ready, throw these into suspicion and opposition. I speak of my own +Communion and say deliberately, that if at the moment, either an +individual, or a section--any section--of it goes galloping off, be its +zeal and hope never so pure and splendid, on private roads, the whole +desire for unity, and therefore the cause of unity, will be gravely +damaged. + +For the whole Church of England--I think that can be truly said--has now +an unutterable desire for the joy of Unity; it is, further, convinced +that action must be taken; but it is by no means convinced that certain +actions--to take a concrete example, free interchange of pulpits with +Nonconformists--are as yet either helpful or right. If one part adopt +such a policy, hostilely and sectionally, it will simply throw others +into convinced opposition and retard the whole desire for decades. +Questions of deepest implication cannot be settled in haste. Before +approaching at all, we must find the right methods of approach. Quite +rightly, the American "World Conference for the consideration of +questions touching Faith and Order," paid, from the start, the utmost, +an uniquely scientific, attention to right method; their patience has +been lightning-swift in result. It did not even go so far as to say, "We +will confer, that is the right method"; it said, "We will learn how to +confer." It was a new and by no means easy exercise, but it has been +learned, and the English Conference mentioned above, "the landmark," +arose by its inspiration and worked by its methods. + +A wrong method of approach is equally well illustrated by the gathering +of Evangelical clergy at Cheltenham[15] early in the Spring. They +discussed to some purpose, and at the end of a few days had drawn out a +series of some dozen articles of principle and action. Some were +unexceptionable, others went beyond what either the Bishops or other +sections of the Church are yet ready to do. Such sectional action simply +heads for disaster and vexation. And it is so foolish, so great and +difficult an end being in view. Why should any _sections_ of the Church +meet or deal at all on this matter, except to put their views humbly at +the disposal of their brethren in the Church? This matter concerns the +_whole_ Church; any action is futile which does not carry the whole +Church with it, and the whole Church is keen and anxious enough over the +problem to be able to agree upon methods and policies which combine +depth, wisdom, patience, and order. We have seen how titanic the labour +is; impatience will help nothing; here if anywhere is needed the love +that is patient, and ready for the travail of waiting and praying. + +The cry of generous souls of course is "Something must be _done_." Of +course it must; but let anybody consider what sheer miracles of changed +convictions on Unity have been "done" within ten, and even five years. +Better than any such immediate action which would certainly cause +division, is the enlarging of the scope and sphere of this miracle, so +that the friendly conditions of France are naturally reproduced in +England. + +With these precautions, then, let us see what can be done with universal +consent. + +(_a_) The first thing is to turn the intellectual opinion that Christian +division is wrong, and unity necessary, into a general passion. That is +to say, we want to develop among us the _motive of love_. We all talk +about love glibly, and about brotherhood and a new world, with very +little sense of what these terms involve in the individual life. I am +sure that we hardly know yet what love means nor what it exacts, nor +guess into how many provinces of ordinary life it can and ought to +operate; how many heritages of past history it must be allowed to wipe +out, how many preconceived notions it must dissipate; into how many +social, commercial, municipal, political relations it must begin to +permeate. It was for this reason that an article which I wrote when in +billets near Arras for the _Church Quarterly Review_ suggested a new +National Mission of Love in the Church of England. For the space of a +month or more the one subject dealt with by preachers and teachers +throughout the Communion would be Love, in all its bearings, and with +special reference to religious differences and their healing. I believe +that this would be a splendid way of making the passion for new love and +wider brotherhood general, an act of pure religion of highest importance +both to our Christianity and national life, and sure of blessing by God. +It would assure our Nonconformist brothers that we mean business, and +mean it deeply. Perhaps they would follow suit in their own +congregations. + +It is the more important, because there is a danger of the leaders and +clergy of communions rushing ahead of the rank and file. Naturally they +see the vast issues most clearly; the congregation sees more easily its +own needs and habits of worship, and inclines to shut out of mind the +needs and interests of the Church as a whole. A National Mission of +Love, dealing with all history, the larger duties of the present, and +future hopes, would help to correct this, and give a single mind to the +whole body. + +(_b_) Then, in order that the Church of England may go forward as one +whole, without the risk of sectional exasperation, it does seem to me an +urgent necessity that--I do hope it is not a presumptuous +suggestion--the Archbishops appoint a Council of Unity; to thrash out +the whole subject, and decide on definite steps of action, both within +and without the Church. + +My vision sees it thus. A small Council of, say, five Bishops, and a +dozen other members. These dozen to be nominated, not elected, and to +consist of the leading and trusted men of each "party" with at least +two of our greatest scholars. It must be small, so that it may truly +"confer"--not drop into controversy--and meet regularly. It should issue +definite advice and suggestion, all of which would be unanimous, upon +which the whole Church could act, and act immediately. I am sure that +the amount of unanimity would be surprising, and the advice bold. +Perhaps the Archbishops and Bishops in accepting and issuing such +reports would require them to be read in every pulpit in the land, so +that the whole Communion understand what is going on, and each +congregation be spurred to do its part in its own locality. + +The mere appointment of such a Council would be a notable step towards +unity and place the whole matter on, so to speak, a scientific footing. +The Church of England would then be wisely and consistently ordered to +the one end, and be thinking and acting as itself an unity; the danger +of sectional action would be reduced to a minimum, and the mutual +confidence of the sections be assured. Indeed it would be a hard blow to +the bad party licence too common hitherto amongst us. Further, the +Nonconformist communions would have a definite organ to approach on all +subjects making for friendliness, cooperation, and conference, and +sufficient certainty that the Church of England desired the peace of +Jerusalem very earnestly indeed. + +(_c_) There are a number of issues on which all communions could begin +at once to work together. There is a real chance of abolishing war, and +establishing a more or less universal peace. The idea of the League of +Nations gains ground. Bishop Gore is already summoning the support and +labour of the Church to it. Here serious united effort of all Christian +bodies, of Europe and America, is obviously fitting and might be +decisive. + +There are the hundred social problems confronting us. The very working +together upon these would be as valuable as the large amount of work +that so easily might be done. + +Education! Word of lamentable memories. The present Bill, which all +Christian bodies have urged on, left in despair the vital question of +religious teaching until the Churches can agree upon it among +themselves. With all the lessons of the war, both to the appalling need +of such teaching, and of the necessity of bigger thinking, can they not +do it now? Here is a critical field for cooperation and +self-suppression. Only let the younger men be put to the task. The elder +will be the first to admit that long controversy and deepening +opposition have unfitted them for sincere agreement. The younger men are +fresh, and start with an eagerness to find the way out. + +(_d_) Cooperation in these great matters will not only promote unity, +but display already the men of Christ as one before the world. But it is +not enough. How about cooperation in directly religious work and +worship? "The visible unity of the Body of Christ is not adequately +expressed in the cooperation for moral influence and social service, +though such cooperation might with advantage be carried much further +than it is at present; it could only be fully realised through community +of worship, faith and order, including common participation in the +Lord's Supper[16]." + +Here let us once more and finally insist that the all-important thing is +the development of the desire for Unity even in the most local, or +uneducated, or out-of-the-way congregations. Most of the clergy now are +revolutionaries for better, bigger things; but, frankly, we fear the lay +people who hate change, and desire things to remain as they are--in +church and out of it. That is why I should so like my imagined Council +to set going my imagined National Mission of Love. But much can be done +besides. Those who seek unity will be labouring fruitfully for it, if +they simply devote themselves to developing social and Christian +friendship between Churchmen and Nonconformists in town and village. +There might well be an enormous growth of meetings, both of clergy and +laity of different denominations, for conference, devotion, even +retreat. We want more than one "Swanwick." Can we not go further, and +draw together by experimenting with each other's devotions or +organisations of proved value? For instance, I wonder if it is +suggesting too much, to suggest that if Nonconformists appropriated with +vigour our Christian year, they would be sharers with us of a devotional +joy and help, which would certainly promote spiritual sympathy. In the +same way, the Church of England has been crying out for some method of +using the spiritual gifts of her laymen in church. Why not borrow +notions from those who know how to do it? + +These are but scrappy examples of ways by which right spirit can be +developed within the single communion, or between separated bodies. The +_right spirit_ won, the whole battle is won. + +Naturally there are many who desire already to go much further and +faster. Intercommunion, our goal, is of course impossible at this stage +owing to seriously differing convictions on faith and order; and the +plain fact that it would cause more cleavage than it healed. But how +about interchange of pulpits? The Evangelicals at Cheltenham demanded +this as a regular practice. The rest of the Church feels strongly that +the time for this has not arrived yet; that haphazard invitations by +individual vicars to ministers of convictions widely different are +undesirable. The time has come for conference, but not yet for any +facile overpassing of the facts and reasons for historical separations. +Nor do we want to run the risks of indiscipline and disorderliness +resulting from such individual action. The Church of England can only be +of help to the cause of unity where she acts as a whole. Matters such as +interchange of pulpits should be tackled by our suggested Council of +Unity. A suggestion in the _Challenge_ of July 19 might well be +favourably considered by it. There are Nonconformists of acknowledged +eminence, learning, and inspiration, from whose books the Church of +England already has received much. We should all be glad to receive +likewise from their lips. If a selected number were officially invited +by the Church to prophesy in our midst, an immense and religiously +fruitful step would have been taken, in perfect order. The plan might +well be reciprocal. + +The same leading article proposed that ministers of other denominations +should be asked by such congregations as wished, to come and explain to +them frankly their standpoints of doctrine and order. I am sure that all +communions might be, and now should be, more brave in explaining +themselves to each other. The gain in preventing misunderstanding and +destroying suspicion and unfriendliness would be great, and I can see no +loss anywhere about such a proceeding. + +Have you read the story of the Woolwich Crusade, published by the +S.P.C.K. (1_s._ 3_d._)? The Crusade movement and method is a new thing. +Its idea is not that of a mission--to increase or improve the membership +of a particular denomination, but to bring God and the meaning of Christ +into the life and problems of to-day. It is doing the same sort of work +which chaplains in France do, among the munitioners, artisans, and +labour world at home. Perhaps our Nonconformist brethren could join us +here. The difficulties would, I think, merely be those of organisation. + +Thanks to the College system, and to the Student Christian movement, +Churchmen and Nonconformists are as friendly in this University as they +are in France; and joint devotion is usual. We have a great +responsibility here amid the young and the enthusiastic, and good +feeling is both easier to achieve, and more widespread in result, at a +University than anywhere else. Well, we are awake to our chances, and +will do our best. + +(_e_) This leaves but one more subject to touch on: the old, hard, +question of Church order, and the orders of ministry. But all looks in +the best sense hopeful here, very hopeful, since the striking report +signed by the thirteen members of the sub-committee appointed by the +Archbishops' Committee, and by representatives of the English Free +Churches' Commissions. Let me quote it. + + + Looking as frankly and as widely as possible at the whole + situation, we desire with a due sense of responsibility to submit + for the serious consideration of all the parts of a divided + Christendom what seem to us the necessary conditions of any + possibility of reunion: That continuity with the historic + Episcopate should be effectively preserved. That, in order that the + rights and responsibilities of the whole Christian community in the + government of the Church may be adequately recognised, the + Episcopate should reassume a constitutional form both as regards + the method of the election of the Bishop as by clergy and people, + and the method of government after election.... The acceptance of + the fact of Episcopacy and not any theory as to its character + should be all that is asked for.... It would no doubt be necessary + before any arrangement for corporate reunion could be made to + discuss the exact functions which it may be agreed to recognise as + belonging to the Episcopate, but we think this can be left to the + future. + + The acceptance of Episcopacy on these terms should not involve any + Christian community in the necessity of disowning its past, but + should enable all to maintain the continuity of their witness and + influence as heirs and trustees of types of Christian thought, + life, and order, not only of value to themselves, but of value to + the Church as a whole.... + + +It would be difficult to imagine a wiser, braver, or happier statement +than this in the whole history of the Church. A landmark indeed! The +Chaplains to the Forces in France almost shouted for joy. At one stroke, +the first and greatest incompatibility of conviction has been cleared +out of the way. Perhaps that is too strong--or prophetic--a way of +putting it. Let us say rather, that at least the question of Episcopacy +and Church order has been raised to a new plane, where all can discuss +it, and think it out, not only peaceably, but with good hope of new +wealth of conception and polity pouring into the old, rigid, bitter, +rival views of church government. In France I corresponded with a +Wesleyan chaplain on the subject of orders and ordination. He wrote a +careful letter affirming the historic Nonconformist position about +ministry. But, he ended, it would all be changed, if re-ordination could +be presented and accepted as a great outward "Sacrament of Love" which +reunited us. That is more than the Church of England has ever asked, for +she regards ordination as a Sacrament of Order merely, not of Spiritual +Love. But let us gladly put the higher value upon it. And the day will +surely come, unless goodhearted Christians settle down to accept the +intolerable burden of permanent separation in communion and worship, +when this Sacrament of Love be celebrated, and the Church of England +ordains the Free Church ministry, and the Free Churches commission us, +to work each and all in the flocks that have been made one Fold. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] In the paragraphs which follow, I owe much to the Bishop of +Zanzibar's _The Fulness of Christ_, perhaps the deepest and ablest of +all the numerous Anglican books on Reunion. + +[15] It is fair to state that after this lecture was delivered, I +received a note from one who had been at Cheltenham, saying that my +references to it gave an inaccurate impression; and that the findings +were only "an expression of opinion." To those, however, who read the +published account of the meeting, whether in the _Record_ or _Guardian_, +much more seemed to be intended. + +[16] Quoted from the Second Interim Report of the Archbishops' Committee +and the representatives of the Free Church Commissions. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS + + + + +III. THE PROBLEM OF THE ENGLISH FREE CHURCHES + +By the Rev. W. B. SELBIE, M.A., D.D. + + +While I think that what I say may be fairly taken to represent the +general mind of these churches it must be understood that I do not in +any way commit them but speak only for myself. I propose first to recall +the circumstances which gave rise to these churches and the conditions +which still operate in maintaining them as separate Christian bodies, +and then to give some account of the various movements towards reunion +in which they have taken part. The Baptists and Congregationalists you +will remember arose at a time when membership in the Anglican Church was +a formal and perfunctory thing. It was open to every parishioner and +meant very little in the way of Christian life or witness. The first +Nonconformists stood for the principle that membership in Christian +churches should be confined to genuinely Christian people, and in order +to secure this they formed separated churches, on the New Testament +model, of those who were able to give effective witness of their +Christian calling. That such churches should be self-governed followed +almost as a matter of course. Their meeting in the name of Christ +secured His presence among them and the guidance of His spirit in their +doings. But it is always important to remember that their essential +characteristic is not either democracy in church government or dissent +from the Establishment, but the positive witness to purity of membership +and to the sole headship of Jesus Christ just described. The Wesleyan +Church, the parent of the whole great Methodist movement, arose at the +end of the 18th century from somewhat similar reasons. There was never +anything schismatic in the spirit of John Wesley, but when he found that +the rigour and stiffness of Anglicanism made a free spiritual witness +almost impossible, he was driven, like the Nonconformists of the +Elizabethan times, to set up separate churches. While it is quite true +that the great principle for which English Nonconformity has stood is +now almost universally accepted, and that what may be called the +negative witness of the Free Churches is much less necessary than it +used to be, there is still room for their positive contribution to the +religious life of the country, for their witness to freedom, +spirituality, and the rights of the people in the Church. For a long +time, no doubt, they did rejoice in the dissidence of their dissent, and +they suffered, and still suffer, to some degree, from a Pharisaic +feeling of superiority to those whom they regard as bound by tradition +and State rule. The great majority among them, however, have long since +come to feel that they have more in common with one another and with +many in the Anglican Church than they have been hitherto prepared to +admit, and that existence in isolation from the rest of Christendom is +neither good for them nor helpful to the cause of Christ and His +Kingdom. This feeling first took definite shape about the year 1890 in +connexion with what are now known as the Grindelwald Conferences. For +three successive years informal parties of clergy and ministers were +arranged by Sir Henry Lunn, at Grindelwald and Lucerne, with the object +of getting representatives of the different churches together in order +to exchange views on the subject of union, and to create an atmosphere +of mutual knowledge, sympathy, and friendliness. Although no practical +steps directly followed them, these conferences undoubtedly did good by +removing misunderstandings and paving a way for further intercourse. To +many of the Free Churchmen who attended them they seem to have suggested +for the first time the evils of our unhappy divisions, and they +certainly created a desire for better relations. It became obvious that +one of the necessary first steps in this direction would be the setting +up of a closer cooperation among the Free Churches themselves, and of +breaking down the denominational isolation in which they too often +lived. Further conferences were held in England at Manchester, Bradford, +London and other centres, the ultimate issue of which was the foundation +of the National Federation of the Evangelical Free Churches under the +guidance of the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, Dr Berry of Wolverhampton, Dr +Mackennal of Bowdon, and Dr Munro Gibson of London, along with laymen +like Sir Percy Bunting and Mr George Cadbury. The aim of the Federation +was to bring all the evangelical Nonconformist churches into closer +association in order that they might in various localities take +concerted action on questions affecting their common faith and interests +and the social, moral, and religious welfare of the community. Since +that time the work of the Federation has gradually covered the whole +country through local councils working on a Free Church parish system, +and engaging in various forms of social and evangelistic effort. The +representative central council has become a powerful instrument for +furthering the cause of the Free Churches and for bringing their +influence to bear on social and political matters. It must be freely +admitted that this council has sometimes gone further in political +action than some of the churches have been altogether prepared for. From +the first, so representative a Nonconformist as the late Dr Dale of +Birmingham stood aloof from it, on the ground that it tended to divert +the energy of the churches from the proper channels and to involve them +too deeply in political controversy. In this action he was supported by +many of the more conservative elements in the churches themselves, +particularly as the circumstances of the time compelled the council to +engage in a good deal of political agitation. In spite of this, however, +there is no doubt that the Free Church Council movement as a whole has +had the effect its first promoters intended and desired, and has brought +all the Free Churches into much closer relations with one another, and +has established them in a position of mutual understanding and sympathy. +Its chief weakness has been that it has depended for support on +individual churches rather than on the denominations they represented. +It is the consciousness of this which has led the way to a later +movement in the direction of still closer federation. The lead has been +taken by the Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, who, as President of the Free +Church Council in 1916, propounded an elaborate scheme for the +federation of the Free Church denominations. In his first presidential +address under the title "The Free Churches at the Cross-roads" he put +forward an unanswerable case for the union of the whole of the Free +Churches of England. He pointed to the fact that for many years past +these churches have suffered a serious decline in the number of their +members and of their Sunday school scholars and teachers; and he found +one of the chief causes of this in their excessive denominationalism, +which led to over-lapping and rivalry. He pleaded that the old sectarian +distinctions had now ceased to represent vital issues, and to appeal to +the best elements both in the churches and in the nation outside; and he +urged that the maintenance of these distinctions now tended to destroy +the collective witness of the Free Churches and involved an immense +waste of men, money and energy. For the sake of efficiency, as well as +in order to maintain a proper Christian comity, he argued that it was +absolutely necessary to put an end to this condition of things. As long +as the Free Churches were thus divided, they could not expect either to +do their own work well or to exercise their proper influence in the life +of the nation. There is no doubt that this estimate of the situation +represented a growing feeling among those who were best acquainted with +the facts. But it is probable that Mr Shakespeare under-estimated the +strength of the conservative spirit in many of the Free Churches. And +there is no doubt that a considerable educational process will have to +be gone through before his proposals take practical shape. This process, +however, has already begun and has made considerable way. Mr +Shakespeare's challenge led almost immediately to the formation of a +large conference of representatives appointed by the Free Church +Council along with the Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive +Methodist, Independent Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, Wesleyan Reform, +United Methodist, Moravian, Countess of Huntingdon, and Disciples of +Christ Churches. This Conference first met at Mansfield College, Oxford, +in September, 1916, and later at the Leys School, Cambridge, in 1917, +and again in London in the early part of this year. It appointed +Committees on Faith, Constitution, Evangelization and the Ministry, all +of which have held many meetings in addition to those of the whole +Conference. The Committee on Faith was able to frame a declaratory +statement on doctrine which was afterwards unanimously adopted as +follows: + + + I + + There is One Living and True God, Who is revealed to us as Father, + Son and Holy Spirit; Him alone we worship and adore. + + + II + + We believe that God so loved the world as to give His Son to be the + Revealer of the Father and the Redeemer of mankind; that the Son of + God, for us men and for our salvation, became man in Jesus Christ, + Who, having lived on earth the perfect human life, died for our + sins, rose again from the dead, and now is exalted Lord over all; + and that the Holy Spirit, Who witnesses to us of Christ, makes the + salvation which is in Him to be effective in our hearts and lives. + + + III + + We acknowledge that all men are sinful, and unable to deliver + themselves from either the guilt or power of their sin; but we have + received and rejoice in the Gospel of the grace of the Holy God, + wherein all who truly turn from sin are freely forgiven through + faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and are called and enabled, through + the Spirit dwelling and working within them, to live in fellowship + with God and for His service; and in this new life, which is to be + nurtured by the right use of the means of grace, we are to grow, + daily dying unto sin and living unto Him Who in His mercy has + redeemed us. + + + IV + + We believe that the Catholic or Universal Church is the whole + company of the redeemed in heaven and on earth, and we recognise as + belonging to this holy fellowship all who are united to God through + faith in Christ. + + The Church on earth--which is One through the Apostolic Gospel and + through the living union of all its true members with its one Head, + even Christ, and which is Holy through the indwelling Holy Spirit + Who sanctifies the Body and its members--is ordained to be the + visible Body of Christ, to worship God through Him, to promote the + fellowship of His people and the ends of His Kingdom, and to go + into all the world and proclaim His Gospel for the salvation of men + and the brotherhood of all mankind. Of this visible Church, and + every branch thereof, the only Head is the Lord Jesus Christ; and + in its faith, order, discipline and duty, it must be free to obey + Him alone as it interprets His holy will. + + + V + + We receive, as given by the Lord to His Church on earth, the Holy + Scriptures, the Sacraments of the Gospel, and the Christian + Ministry. + + The Scriptures, delivered through men moved by the Holy Ghost, + record and interpret the revelation of redemption, and contain the + sure Word of God concerning our salvation and all things necessary + thereto. Of this we are convinced by the witness of the Holy Spirit + in the hearts of men to and with the Word; and this Spirit, thus + speaking from the Scriptures to believers and to the Church, is the + supreme Authority by which all opinions in religion are finally to + be judged. + + The Sacraments--Baptism and the Lord's Supper--are instituted by + Christ, Who is Himself certainly and really present in His own + ordinances (though not bodily in the elements thereof), and are + signs and seals of His Gospel not to be separated therefrom. They + confirm the promises and gifts of salvation, and, when rightly used + by believers with faith and prayer, are, through the operation of + the Holy Spirit, true means of grace. + + The Ministry is an office within the Church--not a sacerdotal + order--instituted for the preaching of the Word, the ministration + of the Sacraments and the care of souls. It is a vocation from God, + upon which therefore no one is qualified to enter save through the + call of the Holy Spirit in the heart; and this inward call is to be + authenticated by the call of the Church, which is followed by + ordination to the work of the Ministry in the name of the Church. + While thus maintaining the Ministry as an office, we do not limit + the ministries of the New Testament to those who are thus ordained, + but affirm the priesthood of all believers and the obligation + resting upon them to fulfil their vocation according to the gift + bestowed upon them by the Holy Spirit. + + + VI + + We affirm the sovereign authority of our Lord Jesus Christ over + every department of human life, and we hold that individuals and + peoples are responsible to Him in their several spheres and are + bound to render Him obedience and to seek always the furtherance of + His Kingdom upon earth, not, however, in any way constraining + belief, imposing religious disabilities, or denying the rights of + conscience. + + + VII + + In the assurance, given us in the Gospel, of the love of God our + Father to each of us and to all men, and in the faith that Jesus + Christ, Who died, overcame death and has passed into the heavens, + the first-fruits of them that sleep, we are made confident of the + hope of Immortality, and trust to God our souls and the souls of + the departed. We believe that the whole world must stand before the + final Judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, with glad and solemn + hearts, we look for the consummation and bliss of the life + everlasting, wherein the people of God, freed for ever from sorrow + and from sin, shall serve Him and see His face in the perfected + communion of all saints in the Church triumphant. + + +The Committee on Constitution recommended a definite union of the Free +Church denominations on the basis of a federation which should express +their essential unity, promote evangelization, maintain their liberties +and take action where authorised in all matters affecting the interests, +duties, rights, and privileges of the federating churches, and to enter +into communion and united action where possible with other branches of +the church of Christ throughout the world. It is proposed that the +federation shall work through a council consisting of about 200 +representatives of the denominations in order to carry out their will. +The Committee on Evangelization and the Ministry also suggested certain +practical measures necessary for cooperation in these important branches +of service. The scheme has been carefully thought out and elaborated, +but at the same time is not too cumbrous for action, and if it can be +carried out there is no doubt that it would secure the ends aimed at. In +many ways the doctrinal declaration is the most important part of it, +and shews a sufficient general agreement on essentials to ensure +harmonious working. The fate of it lies of course with the different +denominations concerned. By this time most of them have had an +opportunity of considering it and, generally speaking, it has met with a +favourable reception. The Baptists, Congregationalists, and United +Methodists have declared their willingness to proceed to closer union on +this basis. But the Presbyterians and Wesleyan Methodists have referred +it back for further consideration. Rightly and naturally both of these +denominations are more concerned for the moment with measures for union +within their own borders. The Presbyterians are looking to a reunion of +the Established and Free Churches in Scotland, while a great scheme for +the reunion of all the Methodist bodies is before the Wesleyan +Conference. If this can be carried out it should not prejudice but +rather be in favour of any scheme for wider Free Church Union. + +Nothing that has been done so far among the Free Churches is likely in +any way to hinder the fulfilment of the desire which is now widely felt +on all sides for better relations with the Anglican Church. It can +easily be understood from the difficulties that have already emerged in +the way of closer union among the Free Churches how much more difficult +is the prospect of union with Anglicanism. There is no doubt that +denominational feeling is still very strong among the rank and file of +the churches. In spite of the changes which have taken place in emphasis +and conditions in modern church thought, each denomination realises that +it stands for something positive and is anxious to give its positive +witness in the best possible way. It has therefore been an essential of +reunion that any scheme proposed shall not interfere with the autonomy +of any individual denomination and shall allow full scope for its +genius. It is equally necessary that this should be preserved in any +scheme contemplated for reunion with Anglicanism. The Free Churches are +not disposed to bate anything of their freedom or to sink their identity +in any national church. If, however, any scheme can be devised which +will preserve their individuality and give them scope for their special +witness and at the same time avoid the dissensions and divisions which +have so marred their relations with Anglicanism in the past it is likely +to meet with a very warm welcome. The war has brought home to all +thinking men in the churches the imperative need that there is for +closer union and for a more united testimony. And they are conscious +that if they are to face the increasing difficulties of the future all +the churches must be able to stand together, to cooperate in Christian +service, and to speak with one voice. + +It is therefore regarded by them as a welcome sign of the times that +there should be a world-wide desire for Christian reunion, and that this +should have begun to take practical shape just before the outbreak of +the war. The movement was initiated by the Protestant Episcopal Church +of America supported by practically all the churches in that country. It +first took shape in proposals for a world-wide conference on Faith and +Order with a view of promoting the visible unity of the body of Christ. +But for the war this conference would have been held already, but under +existing circumstances the work has had to be confined to preparations +for it on both sides of the Atlantic. In this country the work has been +mainly done by a joint Conference, consisting of representatives of the +Committee appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and of +commissions appointed by the various Free Churches, in order to promote +the Faith and Order movement. This Conference has held repeated meetings +in the historic Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster and elsewhere, and has +published two interim reports "Towards Christian Unity" which are of the +utmost importance. These reports represent the work of a sub-committee +but have received the general sanction of the whole Conference. The +first report contains the following statement of agreement on matters of +faith, which is "offered not as a creed for subscription, or as +committing in any way the churches thus represented, but as indicating a +large measure of substantial agreement and also as affording material +for further investigation and consideration": + + + A STATEMENT OF AGREEMENT ON MATTERS OF FAITH + + + We, who belong to different Christian Communions and are engaged in + the discussion of questions of Faith and Order, desire to affirm + our agreement upon certain foundation truths as the basis of a + spiritual and rational creed and life for all mankind. We express + them as follows: + + (1) As Christians we believe that, while there is some knowledge of + God to be found among all races of men and some measure of divine + grace and help is present to all, a unique, progressive and + redemptive revelation of Himself was given by God to the Hebrew + people through the agency of inspired prophets, "in many parts and + in many manners," and that this revelation reaches its culmination + and completeness in One Who is more than a prophet, Who is the + Incarnate Son of God, our Saviour and our Lord, Jesus Christ. + + (2) This distinctive revelation, accepted as the word of God, is + the basis of the life of the Christian Church and is intended to be + the formative influence upon the mind and character of the + individual believer. + + (3) This word of God is contained in the Old and New Testaments and + constitutes the permanent spiritual value of the Bible. + + (4) The root and centre of this revelation, as intellectually + interpreted, consists in a positive and highly distinctive doctrine + of God--His nature, character and will. From this doctrine of God + follows a certain sequence of doctrines concerning creation, human + nature and destiny, sin, individual and racial, redemption through + the incarnation of the Son of God and His atoning death and + resurrection, the mission and operation of the Holy Spirit, the + Holy Trinity, the Church, the last things, and Christian life and + duty, individual and social: all these cohere with and follow from + this doctrine of God. + + (5) Since Christianity offers an historical revelation of God, the + coherence and sequence of Christian doctrine involve a necessary + synthesis of idea and fact such as is presented to us in the New + Testament and in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds: and these Creeds + both in their statements of historical fact and in their statements + of doctrine affirm essential elements of the Christian faith as + contained in Scripture, which the Church could never abandon + without abandoning its basis in the word of God. + + (6) We hold that there is no contradiction between the acceptance + of the miracles recited in the Creeds and the acceptance of the + principle of order in nature as assumed in scientific enquiry, and + we hold equally that the acceptance of miracles is not forbidden by + the historical evidence candidly and impartially investigated by + critical methods. + + +This was followed by a statement of agreement on matters relating to +order as follows: + + + With thankfulness to the Head of the Church for the spirit of unity + He has shed abroad in our hearts we go on to express our common + conviction on the following matters: + + (1) That it is the purpose of our Lord that believers in Him should + be, as in the beginning they were, one visible society--His body + with many members--which in every age and place should maintain the + communion of saints in the unity of the Spirit and should be + capable of a common witness and a common activity. + + (2) That our Lord ordained, in addition to the preaching of His + Gospel, the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper, as not + only declaratory symbols, but also effective channels of His grace + and gifts for the salvation and sanctification of men, and that + these Sacraments being essentially social ordinances were intended + to affirm the obligation of corporate fellowship as well as + individual confession of Him. + + (3) That our Lord, in addition to the bestowal of the Holy Spirit + in a variety of gifts and graces upon the whole Church, also + conferred upon it by the self-same Spirit a Ministry of manifold + gifts and functions, to maintain the unity and continuity of its + witness and work. + + +In subsequent discussions a very considerable advance was made on the +positions here laid down. It was felt that if ever reunion was to become +a reality the question of order must be frankly faced, and the following +statements were put forth for the consideration of the churches +concerned, not as a final solution, but as the necessary basis for +discussion in framing a practical scheme: + + + 1. That continuity with the historic Episcopate should be + effectively preserved. + + 2. That in order that the rights and responsibilities of the whole + Christian community in the government of the Church may be + adequately recognised, the Episcopate should re-assume a + constitutional form, both as regards the method of the election of + the bishop as by clergy and people, and the method of government + after election. It is perhaps necessary that we should call to mind + that such was the primitive ideal and practice of Episcopacy and it + so remains in many Episcopal communions to-day. + + 3. That acceptance of the fact of Episcopacy and not any theory as + to its character should be all that is asked for. We think that + this may be the more easily taken for granted as the acceptance of + any such theory is not now required of ministers of the Church of + England. It would no doubt be necessary before any arrangement for + corporate reunion could be made to discuss the exact functions + which it may be agreed to recognise as belonging to the Episcopate, + but we think this can be left to the future. + + +The first point to note in regard to the work of this Conference is the +remarkable unanimity achieved in regard to Christian doctrine. While +there is no intention of binding any of the parties to the _ipsissima +verba_ of any doctrinal declaration, but rather every desire to allow +for varieties of expression, it is now perfectly clear that there is +among all the churches concerned a substantial agreement on the main and +essential matters of the Christian faith. This supplies the most real +and hopeful basis for the vital union of churches thus minded, and makes +their continued separation and antagonism intolerable. The more closely +this aspect of the situation is explored the more clearly does it lead +to the conclusion that those who are so largely one in aim, intention, +and desire should find some genuine and practical expression of their +unity. The question of church order is more difficult; but here again +much has happened of late to justify a reconsideration of the position +on both sides. On the one hand recent investigations into early church +history have shewn that no one form of church government can claim +exclusive scriptural or Apostolic authority. Under the guidance of the +Spirit of God the Church has in the past adapted herself and her +organization to the needs of the times in order the better to do the +work of the Kingdom. Men are coming now to see that the test of a true +Church is not conformity to type but effectiveness in fulfilling the +will of her Lord, and that therefore organization need not be of a +single uniform type. So we find denominations like the Baptists and +Congregationalists setting up superintendents (overseers, Bishops) over +their churches because the needs of the time demand such supervision. +And on the other hand we find Anglicans inclining to exchange prelacy +for a more modest and elective form of episcopacy. In this respect the +two extremes are drawing together to an extent which would have been +incredible twenty years ago, and, given good will, it should be possible +to find even here a real _modus vivendi_. + +The same may be said with regard to other movements which have been +recently set on foot in the direction of a better common understanding +between Anglicans and Free Churchmen. It is recognised that one of the +greatest obstacles is still the so-called religious education +controversy. Both sides are becoming a little ashamed of their attitude +to this question in the past. They realise that the true interests of +education have been gravely imperilled by making it a bone of contention +among the churches, and they are beginning to look at the whole matter +afresh from the point of view of the good of the child rather than from +that of their denominational interests. Some important conferences have +been held at Lambeth in the course of which the Bishop of Oxford has put +forth a scheme for relegating the conduct of religious teaching in the +elementary schools to interdenominational committees elected _ad hoc_. +This scheme is still under discussion and at the moment is not regarded +very favourably by extremists on either side, but it is all to the good +that the matter should have been raised in so friendly and conciliatory +a spirit and, whenever the time is ripe, it may be hoped that the way +to agreement will be more open than it has ever been yet. + +Further the rise and rapid growth of the Life and Liberty movement +within the Established Church is something like a portent and one that +Nonconformists cannot but regard with the deepest interest and sympathy. +They may perhaps be forgiven if they see in it an attempt to win from +within the Church just those privileges and liberties for the sake of +which their ancestors came out many years ago. With a great price they +bought this freedom and they rejoice in this new movement as a real +vindication of the cause for which they have so long contended and as +representing a body of opinion within the establishment the existence of +which, whatever may be its immediate result, is sure to make a common +understanding in the future more attainable. They may have serious +doubts whether the aims of the movement are ever to be obtained without +the Disestablishment of the Church, but for all that they wish it well +and rejoice in the spirit to which it points. + +One more sign of the times may be mentioned. During the last 18 months +yet another Conference has been set on foot, this time between +Nonconformists and Evangelical Anglicans, and has come very near to a +common understanding on such vital matters as intercommunion and +interchange of pulpits. It is recognised that there can be no real +Christian unity without such interchange, and the fact that a growing +number of Anglican clergy are prepared to discuss the question and that +there is no real difficulty on the Nonconformist side is again a ground +of hope. It should be understood however that on the Nonconformist side +there is no desire for universal and indiscriminate facilities in the +directions indicated. They do not want a kind of general post among the +pulpits of the land, nor do they ask that their people should desert +their own ordinances for those of the Established Church. Their people +indeed have no such desire. They love the simplicity and homeliness of +their own communion services and would not exchange them if they could. +But they do feel that to be debarred from communicating when there is no +church of their own order available is a real hardship, and they know +that nothing would make for comity among the churches so surely as an +occasional interchange of pulpits. They recognise that it would all have +to be carried out in due order and under conditions, and as long as the +conditions cast no reflexion on their orders, or on the Christian +standing of their members, they would loyally accept them. Under +exceptional circumstances and given due authorization on both sides, it +might be possible to do openly what is often now done in a more or less +clandestine way. There is a growing body of opinion on both sides which +would be favourable to such a course and it is certain that more will be +heard of it after the war. + +This leads up to another consideration which our ecclesiastical +authorities would do well to bear in mind. For a long time past younger +men and women in all the churches have been accustomed to meet together +in the various Fellowships and the Student movement. They have learnt to +work and pray together, to know one another's mind and to realise their +fundamental oneness of spirit and aim. It must be remembered that these +are the men and women in whose hands the future of the churches, humanly +speaking, lies, and they will not tolerate an indefinite prospect of +sectarian division and strife. While loyal to their own denominations +they have seen a wider and more glorious vision, and they are already +prepared for very definite steps in the direction of closer relations. +The new and better spirit which they represent is spreading rapidly +among the rank and file in the churches, and has been strongly +reinforced by experiences at the front. There, under the rude stress of +war, denominational exclusiveness has frankly broken down and attempts +to maintain it have excited universal resentment and disgust. There is +no doubt that after the war there will be a strong public opinion in +favour of better relations among the churches, and no church or section +of a church that clings to the old exclusiveness will be able to retain +any hold upon the people. In this case at least it may be assumed that +for once _vox populi_ is _vox dei_. + +There is indeed every reason to believe that opinion outside the +churches is more ripe for action than within them. On both sides there +is need for something like an educational campaign on the subject of +reunion and of the duty of Christians in regard to it. Difficulties have +to be faced of a very serious kind. On the Nonconformist side there are +still many who feel very keenly the burden of the disabilities from +which they have suffered, and to some extent still suffer. They know +that in some country districts Nonconformists are subjected to petty +social persecutions, and that their boys or girls who wish to become +elementary school teachers are handicapped from the outset. Many of them +have been brought up on bitter memories, and their inherited hostility +to the State establishment of religion does not incline them to any +_rapprochement_ with its representatives. It is well that these facts +should be faced, for they shew the need there is for the Free Churches +to educate their own people. + +To all this we have to add the _vis inertiae_ which operates in all the +churches alike. Many of them are entirely satisfied with things as they +are, and are only anxious that we should let well alone. There is too +among certain of the denominations a self-satisfaction amounting almost +to Pharisaism. They are very busy with their own work and devoted to +their denominational interests, and, so long as these can be maintained, +they do not see the use of agitations for reunion. They do not believe +that they have anything to gain from it and therefore they let it alone. + +The same spirit shews itself too on the Anglican side and there becomes +a serious obstacle to any advance. There are those who regard the Church +of England, as by law established, as the only possible Church for +England, and they cannot imagine why any people should want to change +its present position. Dissenters they say are outsiders and schismatics, +and must be left to go their own way. They should be thankful for the +toleration which has been extended to them and not abuse it by asking +for more. For all this kind of thing there is only one remedy, and that +is a wider vision, and for this all Christians of good will should +strenuously work and pray. It should surely be obvious that we can no +longer treat any church or denomination as an end in itself. All alike +exist for the great end of the Kingdom of God and are to be judged by +their efficiency in promoting that end among men. So no system of church +order can be regarded as of divine right in itself but only so far as +it becomes a channel of the Spirit of God and mediates His gifts to +men. All the churches as we know them to-day have grown up in +controversy and represent a long process of development and adaptation. +If we are to test them it should not be by the more or less artificial +standards of any one age in their history, but rather by the spirit, and +temper, and intentions of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ. When this +is done, the differences between them fall into their proper proportions +in view of the failure which is common to them all. On these terms too +will the old antagonisms become a generous rivalry in good works and +each church be ready to seek the welfare of others in the common +interests of the Kingdom which they all serve. + +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. + +Our island was, till not so long ago, emphatically a land of different, +and diverging "churches" and "denominations," unashamed of their +separation; nay, boasting their exclusiveness, or their dissidence, +commemorating with pride their secessions and disruptions. And even when +they began to see something of the evils such tempers and such acts had +brought in their train--the wastefulness of them, in regard alike to +money, to men's toil, and gifts given by God for the use of the whole +Church but confined in their exercise to some small section;--the injury +to character, the multiform self-righteousness engendered by our +schisms, the breaches of Christian justice and charity;--the treatment +of that whole Mediaeval Period to which we owe so much, as if it had +been one dark age of heathen blindness;--and, again, the hindrances to +Christian work at home and especially abroad,--when uneasiness over +these results began to shew itself, the recognition of the evil +expressed itself at first in ways hardly indicative of any depth of +penitence, or conducive to any practical measures for the healing of the +wrong. We had in one quarter "Evangelical Alliances," which put a new +stigma on huge portions of the Church of God, yet left those who took +part in their meetings contented in their own divisions. In other +quarters--probably in both the established Churches of our island--there +was a tendency (and more) to look down on Dissenters as such, to ignore +even their reasonable grievances, to ask more from them than either Holy +Scripture or early tradition could warrant, and to disparage unions that +were possible and urgent as likely to put new difficulties in the way of +that further and perfect union of all who believe in Christ which alone +He has promised, and for which alone He tells us that He prays. + +I should be the very last to deprecate either prayer or effort to +advance this perfect end. It ought to be the ultimate aim of all of us, +since it is Christ's. We must do nothing to hinder it: we must do all +that may be lawful for us to promote it. But it should be pointed out to +such as look exclusively towards the East and Rome, first, that a juster +view of those great Churches--great gain as it is--affords little excuse +for ignoring the Churches of the Reformation, and for leaving the large +numbers of devout Christians in the lesser sects without either the hope +or the means of supplying defects which are now, for the most part, +rather inherited than chosen; second, that the divisions and +"variations" among all who in East or West, in England or in Scotland, +in the 11th or the 16th century, felt themselves bound to repudiate the +Papal Supremacy, have supplied, and still supply, the Papacy with a +chief weapon against all of us alike, and in favour of those extreme +pretensions which have been a chief cause of, and remain a chief +obstacle to reunion; and third, that nothing is more likely to bring +about that kinder attitude toward the East and us which we desiderate on +the part of Rome than a large and generous measure here and in America +of "Home Reunion"--effected, of course (as it can only be effected), on +the basis of the Catholic Creeds, a worship in the beauty of holiness, +and the Apostolic Ministry. + +Anyhow, this is what we are finding in Scotland. Scotland, I know, is +but a little bit of the world: its largest churches small in comparison +with those of England and the United States, not to speak of the vast +communions of Rome and of the East. But the experience even of a small +part may intimate what may be looked for in much larger sections of what +after all is essentially the same body. For the Church, the Body of +Christ, in all lands and in all ages is one in spite of its divisions. +Christ is not divided. It is "subjective unity" not "objective" which in +the Church on earth is at present, through our sins, "suspended." Well, +in Scotland; where, let me remind you, the confession of Christ alike as +"King of the Nations" and "King in Zion," and of the visible Church as +His Kingdom on earth, was never laid aside, either in the National +Church or in the churches which separated from it (we laid aside much +that we should have done well to keep, but we stuck manfully to this); +we have had within recent times quite a number of incorporating unions; +including two of considerable note--the union in 1847 which brought +together in the "United Presbyterian Church" the two main sections of +our 18th century "Seceders," and the union of 1900 of the United +Presbyterians with the great mass of the "Free Church" of 1843--the +union that has given us the "United Free Church." I doubt if to either +of these unions the hope of a future Catholic Reunion contributed, at +the time, much or anything. I know there were some in the Church of +Scotland who fancied, and alleged, that the union of 1900 was +"engineered" with no friendly purpose towards us. But what has been the +outcome? Both of these unions:--partial in themselves--have tended, in +the result, very materially to de-Calvinize (if I may coin the word) the +general Presbyterianism of Scotland, and break down narrow prejudices, +to widen the outlook and enlarge the sympathies of those who took part +in them. The second, and greater of these unions, that of 1900 +(suspected then, as I have said), proved, within eight short years, to +be the very thing to pave the way for the opening, between the Church of +Scotland and the United Free Church, of those official negotiations for +an incorporating union which promise now to give us ere long a Church of +Scotland, not complete, indeed--not embracing even all the Presbyterians +of Scotland, and greatly needing the Scottish Episcopalians--but still a +Church which will include an immense preponderance of the Scottish +people; which will be able to cover the whole country with not +inadequate organizations; which will be freer also than it is at present +to enter into further unions; which will remain--what it has ever +been--both national and orthodox; and will continue, I believe, to go on +rapidly resuming many of those touching, reverent, and churchly usages +which in the heats of the 16th and 17th centuries it unwisely threw away +or, less excusably, gave up in the coldness of the 18th. We have still +some beautiful old usages, as well as enviable liberties and powers. And +even in the 18th century we kept the Faith against Arian and Socinian +heresy: even then, our sacramental teaching could be high: even then, +the doctrine and the practice alike of the Established Church and the +Seceders were clear and strong on the derivation of the Ministry from +Christ, and the Apostolical succession of our ministers, and yours, +through presbyters. + +For myself, I suggested in 1907, when it was proposed in our General +Assembly to open these negotiations, that we should attempt a larger +duty, and approach all the reformed Churches in Scotland. I was +over-ruled. It was held wiser "in the meantime" (they gave me this much) +to "confine our invitation" to the United Free Church. + +The Scottish Episcopal Church appeared to be of this mind also; and +those in her and among us who have long looked wistfully towards our +union with her and with the Church of England are already finding that +our present effort (limited as it is) is proving not an obstacle, as +some of us feared, but a powerful impetus towards the larger effort. The +union seems likely to clear away hindrances to an extent we never +dreamed of. It is opening up the wider prospect among an increasing +number not in the Church of Scotland only, but emphatically also in the +United Free Church. On all hands it is "recognised" in Scotland that the +official "limitation of the Union horizon is only temporary":--I quote +from the _Annual Report_ for this year of the Scottish Church Society: + + + No one is content to accept the contemplated union, should it be + accomplished, as exhaustive. We all wait for a fuller manifestation + of the Grace of God. At this season of Pentecost we dream our + dreams and see our visions of that great and notable day when all + who name the One Name shall be one. + + +The witness of the Scottish Church Society may seem to some one-sided: +here is a witness from the other side, of a date more recent than last +May; from a pamphlet just issued by the venerable Dr William Mair, the +first and most persevering of the advocates of our present enterprise. +His words impress me as very touching in their transparent honesty: + + + It is thirteen years (he writes) since I first spoke out in the + form of a pamphlet. No man stood with me. Hard things were said of + me. I believed it to be the will of the HEAD of the Church, the + LORD JESUS CHRIST, that there should be union of His Church in + Scotland, and primarily that its two great Churches should be one. + I have never for a single moment doubted that His will would be + fulfilled, or that it was the duty of these Churches to set + themselves, under His guidance, with resolute purpose to work out + its fulfilment. + + +Observe his "primarily": he quite recognises (I have his authority for +saying so) the further obligation. And no wonder: he is clear as to the +one great and supreme motive that should inspire all efforts for Church +Reunion--faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the obedience of faith +which the true confession of His Deity involves. + +The will of the Lord in regard to the visible unity of His whole Church +is plain: "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I +must lead; and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, +one Shepherd." No doubt there is a difference between a fold ([Greek: +anle]) and a flock ([Greek: poimne]), between the racial unity of the +Jewish Dispensation and the Catholic and international character +impressed from the beginning on the Christian Church. But a flock is as +visible as a fold is. We can see the one moving along the road under the +shepherd's guidance just as distinctly as we see the other gleaming +white on the hillside, or raising its turf-capped walls above the level +of the moor. We can see, of course, if the walls of a fold are broken +down; but we can see also whether a flock is united, whether it is +moving forward as one mass, or is broken up and scattered. Such +separations might be well enough if the different little companies were +all going quietly on in one way; though even then their breaking up +would argue on the one hand a portentous failure in that recognition of +the shepherd's voice and the obedience to him which is due to his loving +care, and on the other hand a strange lack of that gregariousness which +is an instinct in the healthy sheep. But what if the sheep are seen +running hither and thither in different directions: if they are found +labouring to explain the inadvisability--nay, the impossibility--of +their ever coming into line; if we see them instead crossing each +other's path, starting from each other, jostling and butting one +another, continually getting into situations provocative of fights and +injuries? + +Is this the kind of picture which the Lord Jesus has drawn of His Flock, +His Church as He wishes, and intends, that it should be: is this what He +promises that it shall be? + +Christ made His Church one at the beginning: the rulers He set over it +"were all with one accord in one place"; "the multitude of them that +believed were of one heart and of one soul." And when the Gentiles had +been brought in, what care did the Apostles take lest the new departure +should cause a separation along a line made obsolete by the Cross of +Christ; and with what adoring admiration does St Paul gaze at the +delightful spectacle of Jew and Gentile made one new man in Christ +Jesus--"where," he cries, "there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision +and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is +all, and in all." + +In matters of rank and race and colour all our denominations retain this +Apostolic Catholicity. How inconsistent to maintain it there, and +repudiate it when we come to such differences as mostly separate us! +These are differences far more of temper than of creed, or even of +worship or government. We say, sometimes, that we are "one in spirit": +not so; it is just in spirit that we have been divided. In creed and +organisation both, and in temper as well, the Church of Apostolic times +was visibly one. "See how these Christians love one another" was the +comment of the heathen onlooker. This state of things continued for a +long time. Gibbon enumerates the Church's "unity and discipline," which +go together, as among the "secondary causes" of that wonderful spread of +the Gospel in the first three centuries. + +The revived, broadened, and more candid study, alike of the New +Testament and of Church History throughout its entire course, is one of +the ways in which the Good Shepherd has been leading us to see alike the +disobedience of our divisions, and the small foundation there is for +many of the points over which we have been fighting. + +Happily too, we do not now need to argue in favour of visible and +organic unity. "The once popular apologies for separation which asserted +the sufficiency of 'spiritual' union, and the stimulating virtues of +rivalry and competition, have become obsolete." + +More happily still, we have learned practically to appreciate the +difference between our Saviour's gentle I must lead ([Greek: dei me +agagein]) and our forefathers' various attempts to produce "uniformity" +by driving. The reproach of that sinful blunder is one that none of our +greater Churches--Roman, Anglican, Presbyterian, or Puritan--can cast in +another's teeth. Each of us committed it in our day of triumph. "What +fruit had we then in those things whereof we are now ashamed?" The +memory--one-sided, and carefully cultivated--of what each suffered in +its turn of adversity has hitherto been a potent agency for keeping us +apart. To-day those memories are fading. I was much struck by a remark I +heard last spring from the Bishop of Southwark, that one reason why we +are more ready nowadays to contemplate reunion is just that we belong to +a generation to whom those miserable doings are far-off things outside +alike our experience and our expectation. + +In other ways also we discern leadings of Our Saviour to the same end. + +Through Whitefield and the Wesleys, and the Evangelical Revival, He +re-awakened the peoples of England and America to a keen sense of the +need for personal religion. Where these powerful agencies had the +defects of their qualities, in their failure to appreciate aright His +gracious ordinances of Church and Ministry and Sacrament, He rectified +the balance by giving us in due course the Oxford Movement, whose force +is not "spent," but diffused through all our "denominations." Let us be +just to the Oxford Movement: without it, humanly speaking, we should not +have been here to-day. If it had its own narrownesses, it revived the +very studies which, while they have revealed the inadequacy of certain +of its postulates, have also brought clear into the view of all of us +the Divine goal which now gleams glorious in front of us--the goal of +the great Apostle--"the building up of the Body of Christ: till we all +attain unto the unity of the Faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of +God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the +fulness of Christ." + +A Scotsman may be excused for referring to the debt which the leaders of +the Oxford Movement--Dr Pusey in particular was always ready to admit +it--owed to Sir Walter Scott, particularly in re-awakening a more +sympathetic interest in the Mediaeval Church. If Sir Walter's countrymen +were slower to follow him in this matter, they are doing so now in +unexpected quarters. We are full to-day of the American alliance: may I +remind you that Sir Walter Scott was the first British man of letters to +hail the early promise of American literature by his cordial welcome to +its representative, Washington Irving? Scott was a devoted subject of +the British Monarchy; but he saw, and he insisted on, the duty of Great +Britain to cultivate a warm friendship with the United States. + +In the same direction we have been led in days more recent by the large +development, in all our denominations, of two main branches of Christian +work. I refer to Missionary enterprise abroad and Social service at +home. Our ecclesiastical divisions are a serious handicap to both. In a +matter more vital still, that of the Religious--the Christian--Education +in our Schools and Colleges, our divisions have sometimes proved +well-nigh fatal. The one remedy is that we make up our differences and +come together. + +And now this War, so dreadful in itself, is helping powerfully, and in +many ways, to the same end. It is bringing us together at home, and +making us acquainted with, and appreciative of, each other in a thousand +forms of united service. It has spread before our eyes the magnificent +and inspiring spectacles of Colonial loyalty, of one military command +over the Allied Forces, of the cordial and enthusiastic support of a +fully-reconciled America. Shall "the children of this world be wiser +than the children of light"? Shall the Church neglect the lesson read to +her by the statesmen and the warriors? Then, again, the cause for which +we are in arms is--most happily--not denominational. The present War is +not in the least like those hateful, if necessary, struggles which +historians have entitled "The Wars of Religion": but it is, on the part +of the Entente, essentially and fundamentally Christian--more profoundly +so than the Crusades themselves. That is why it is bringing us so +markedly together. And, if this is its effect at home and in America, +much more is it producing the same result among our chaplains and our +Christian workers at the Front. They are finding, on the one hand, the +limitations, or faults, of every one of our stereotyped methods of work +and forms of worship; they are seeing on the other hand among each other +excellencies where they only saw defects. They are brought together in +admiring comradeship, which resents the shackles restrictive of its +play. Let me read to you a passage from a letter I received a fortnight +since from an eminent Anglican chaplain now serving with our troops in +France: + + + I see (he says) in this great war all the excrescences--the + non-essentials which up till now have masqueraded and misled so + many religious and non-religious men--drop off in the light of + great realities; and I have seen in the eyes of all true lovers of + our LORD, chaplains and laity, a wistful longing to unite, and + mobilize our spiritual forces now dissipated and ineffective + through disunion. What we look for more and more is a man, so + filled with the SPIRIT of GOD--so free from ambition, covetousness, + denominationalism, with a big heart and deep love, to make a plunge + and start. We may be able to start out here, if we have the + good-will of our leaders at home. + + +I think I may safely assure my correspondent that he has the good-will +of all the living leaders of all our denominations? May I write and tell +him so from this present meeting? [Yes....] I think I shall remind him +further of those words of the Angel of the Lord to Gideon when he +threshed his wheat in the wine-press with a vigour suggestive of his +wish to have the Midianites beneath his flail--"Go in this thy might, +and thou shalt save Israel" from their marauding hands. + +At home, then, as well as at the Front, the will is present with us; and +where there is "the will" there is pretty sure to be "the way." + +"The way" (I believe for my part) is substantially that laid down by the +Pan-Anglican Conference of 1866, in the "Lambeth Quadrilateral." Its +four points were: + +I. The Holy Scriptures. + +II. The Nicene Creed. + +III. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ministered with the +unfailing use of the Words of Institution. + +IV. The Historic Episcopate. + +It is fifty-two years since these terms were put forth. Have they ever +been formally brought before the "denominations" for whom presumably +they were intended? Were they even once commended to the nearest of +these Churches by a deputation urging their consideration? I doubt it. + +Yet the first three of these four conditions are already accepted by +nearly all the English Nonconformists; and certainly by all the +Presbyterian Churches, as fully as they are in the Church of England. +The Presbyterian Church of England has set the Nicene Creed on the +fore-front of its new Confession. Every word of the Nicene Creed (as the +late Principal Denney pointed out) is in the Confession of Faith of all +the Scottish Presbyterians. The Church of Scotland repeats it at its +solemn "Assembly Communion" in St Giles'. Its crucial term, the +Homoousion, is in the Articles now sent down to Presbyteries with the +view of their transmission next May to the United Free Church. + +In regard to the Sacramental services our _Directory_ is quite express +in ordering the use in Baptism and the Eucharist of the Words of +Institution. I never heard of a case in Scotland where they were not +used: we should condemn their omission should it anywhere occur. + +Undoubtedly the Fourth Article would have, till lately, presented +difficulties; but, then, those difficulties were in great measure +cleared away by the admission of the Lambeth Conference of 1908 that in +the case of proposals for union, say of the Church of Scotland with the +Anglican Church, reaching the stage of official action, an approach +might be made along the line of the "Precedents of 1610." I had a recent +opportunity of stating, in an Address[17] I gave at King's College, +London, what these Precedents of 1610 were; how they included the +unanimous vote of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in +favour of the restoration of diocesan bishops acting in conjunction with +her graduated series of Church Courts; how we thereupon received from +the Church of England an Episcopate which then, and ever since, she has +accounted valid, though neither the Scots bishops she then consecrated, +nor the clergy of Scotland as a body, were required to be re-ordained; +and how the combined system thus introduced among us gave us by far the +most brilliant and fruitful period in our ecclesiastical annals; and how +Learning, Piety, Art and Church extension flourished among us, as they +have never done since. The system would in all probability have endured +to the present day but for the arbitrary interferences--often with very +good intentions, and for ends in themselves desirable--of our Stuart +kings. A later restoration of Episcopal Church government under Charles +II lacked the ecclesiastical authority which that of 1610 possessed, and +was still more hopelessly discredited by its association with the +persecution of the Covenanting remnant; but even under these +disadvantages it was yielding not inconsiderable benefits to the +religious life of Scotland. Under it our Gaelic-speaking highlanders +first received the entire Bible in their native tongue; the Episcopate +was adorned by the piety of Leighton and the wisdom of Patrick Scougal; +while Henry Scougal in his _Life of God in the Soul of Man_ produced a +religious classic of enduring value. + +The reference by the Lambeth Conference of 1908 was meant as the opening +of a door, and I understand there was some soreness among its supporters +that more notice of it was not taken in Scotland. But it was never sent +to Scotland: it was never communicated to the General Assembly. Our +Scottish newspapers tell us very little of what goes on in England; and +it must be admitted that too often, on both sides of the Tweed, things +have appeared in the press not calculated to heal differences or make +for peace. Sarcasm may be very clever: it is sometimes useful: it is +rarely helpful to good feeling, or to the amendment either of him who +utters it or of him against whom it is directed. The putting forth of +the finger and speaking vanity are among the things which Isaiah +declares they must put away who desire to be called the restorers of the +breach, the repairers of paths to dwell in. + +Now you have taken in England a further step. The _Second Interim +Report_ of the Archbishops' Sub-Committee in "Connexion with the +proposed World Conference on Faith and Order" is not, I presume, a +document of the "official" character of a Resolution of a Lambeth +Conference. It is nevertheless a paper of enormous significance and +hopefulness, not alone as attested by the signatures it bears, but also +on account of the exposition which it gives of the fourth point in the +Lambeth Quadrilateral--its own condition "that continuity with the +Historic Episcopate should be effectively preserved." + +This _Report_ is, however, exclusively for England; while my concern +to-day is with the kindred question of union between the Anglican Church +and the Scottish Presbyterian Churches. The day I trust is not far +distant when we shall see a similar document issued over signatures from +both sides of the Tweed. Need I say that when this comes to be drawn up, +we of the North (like Bailie Nicol Jarvie with his business +correspondents in London) "will hold no communications with you but on +a footing of absolute equality." In none of the branches into which it +is now divided--Presbyterian or Episcopalian--does the Church of +Scotland forget that it is an ancient national Church which never +admitted subjection to its greater sister of the South. We may have too +good "a conceit of ourselves," but we shall at least, like the worthy +bailie, be true and friendly. And indeed we--or some of us--were already +moving towards something of the kind. The _Second Interim Report_--it +bears the title "Towards Christian Unity"--is dated, I observe, March +1918. In Scotland, so early as the 29th of January, there was held at +Aberdeen (historically the most natural place for such a purpose, for it +was the city of the "Aberdeen Doctors" and their eirenic efforts) a +conference--modest, unofficial, tentative--yet truly representative of +the Church of Scotland, of the United Free Church, and of the Scottish +Episcopal Church, which drew up, and has issued, a _Memorandum_[18] +suggesting a basis for reunion in Scotland, very much on the lines of +the Precedents of 1610, but suggesting such arrangements during a period +of transition as shall secure that respect is paid to the conscientious +convictions to be found on both sides. We shall not repeat the blunders +of 1637 which ruined the happy settlement of 1610. + +We have in view a method which shall neither deprive Scottish Episcopal +congregations of the services they love, nor attempt to force a +Prayer-Book on Presbyterian congregations till they wish it for +themselves. We shall do nothing either to discredit or disparage our +existing Presbyterian orders; we shall be no less careful not to obtrude +on the Episcopal minority the services of a ministry they deem +defective; which shall arrange that in the course of a generation the +ministry of both communions shall be acceptable to all, while in the +meanwhile it will be possible for both to work together. Alike in +England and in Ireland this Memorandum, where it has been seen, has been +favourably received. In Scotland it--and doubtless other plans--will +probably be discussed in the coming winter by many a gathering similar +to that which drew it up; and thus we shall be ready, by the time our +union with the United Free Church is completed, to go on together to +this further task. + +By that time you in England will have made some progress towards the +healing of your divisions. The wider settlement of ours would be greatly +facilitated by an overt encouragement from you. England is "the +predominant partner" in our happily united Empire: it is the Church of +England that should take the initiative in a scheme for a United Church +for the United Empire. She should take that initiative in Scotland. + +Could there be a more appropriate occasion for proposing conference with +a view to it at Edinburgh, than the day which sees the happy +accomplishment of our present Scottish effort? Might not the Church of +England, the Church of Ireland, and the Scottish Episcopal Church (all +of which have given tokens of a sympathetic interest in our union +negotiations) unite to send deputations for the purpose to our first +reunited General Assembly? Such deputations would not go away empty. And +they would carry with them what would help not only the Cause of Christ +throughout the ever-widening Empire He has given to our hands, but the +fulfilment of His blessed will that all His people should be one. +Auspice Spiritu Sancto. Amen. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] This Address, along with another delivered in St Paul's, has been +published by Mr Robert Scott, of Paternoster Row, under the title +_Reunion, a Voice from Scotland_. + +[18] Printed in _Reunion, a Voice from Scotland_, pp. 101-107. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES + + + + +I + +By the Right Rev. F. T. WOODS, D.D. + + +INTRODUCTION + +He would be a dull man who did not respond to such a theme as the one +with which I have been entrusted. + +Before the war, in spite of much enlightenment of the social conscience, +unity between classes was still far to seek. Indeed, the contemplation +of the state of English society in those early months of 1914 was +perhaps more calculated to drive the social reformer into pessimism than +anything which has happened since. The rich were hunting for fresh +pleasures, the poor were hunting for better conditions. The tendencies +which were dragging these classes apart seemed stronger than those which +were bringing them together. Then came the war, and it has done much to +convert a forlorn hope into a bright prospect. This has happened not +merely, or even mainly, owing to the fact that men of all classes are +fighting side by side in the trenches, but rather owing to the fact that +the war has cleared our minds, has exposed the real dangers of +civilisation, and has placarded before the world, in terms which cannot +be mistaken, the things which are most worth living for. + +I propose to ask your attention to my subject under three heads. First I +shall say something of the basis of class distinction, then I shall put +before you some attempts which have been made at social unity, and in +closing I shall try to estimate the hope of the present situation. + + +I + +THE BASIS OF CLASS DISTINCTION + +Birth and Property have been during most of human history the chief +points on which class distinction has turned. Behind them both, I fear +it must be confessed, there is that which lies at the root of all +civilisation, namely force. I presume that the first class distinction +was between the group of people who could command and the group who had +to obey. The second group no doubt consisted in most cases of conquered +enemies who were turned into slaves. They were outsiders, the men of a +lower level. + +But the master group, if I may so call it, would have its descendants, +who by virtue of family relationships would seek to keep their position. +This, I conclude, is the fountain head of that stream of blue blood +which has played so large a part in class distinction. It is not +difficult to make out a strong case for it from the point of view of +human evolution. The processes of primitive warfare may have led to the +survival of the fittest or the selection of the best. At a time when the +sense of social responsibility was limited in the extreme, it may have +been a good thing that the management of men should have rested mainly +in the hands of those who by natural endowments and force of character +came to the top. It is unnecessary to dwell at length on the immense +influence both in our own country and elsewhere which this blood +distinction of class has exercised. It is writ large in the history of +the word "gentleman," both in the English word and its Latin ancestor. +The Latin word "generosus," always the equivalent of "gentleman" in +English-Latin documents, signifies a person of good family. It was used +no doubt in this sense by the Rev. John Ball, the strike leader, as we +should call him in modern terms, of the 14th century, in the lines which +formed a kind of battlecry of the rebels: + + + When Adam delved and Eve span, + Who was then the gentleman? + + +A writer of a century later, William Harrison, says: "Gentlemen be those +whom their race and blood or at least their virtues do make noble and +known." + +But the distinction is older than this. According to Professor Freeman +it goes back well nigh to the Conquest. Not indeed the distinction of +blood, for that is much older, but the formation of a separate class of +gentlemen. It has been maintained however by some writers that this is +rather antedating the process, and that the real distinction in English +life up to the 14th century was between the nobiles, the tenants in +chivalry, a very large class which included all between Earls and +Franklins; and the ignobiles, i.e. the villeins, the ordinary citizens +and burgesses. The widely prevalent notion that a gentleman was a person +who had a right to wear coat armour is apparently of recent growth, and +is possibly not unconnected with the not unnatural desire of the +herald's office to magnify its work. + +It is evident that noble blood in those days was no more a guarantee of +good character than it is in this, for, according to one of the writers +on the subject, the premier gentleman of England in the early days of +the 15th century was one who had served at Agincourt, but whose +subsequent exploits were not perhaps the best advertisement for gentle +birth. According to the public records he was charged at the +Staffordshire Assizes with house-breaking, wounding with intent to kill, +and procuring the murder of one Thomas Page, who was cut to pieces while +on his knees begging for his life[19]. + +The first gentleman, commemorated by that name on an existing monument, +is John Daundelion who died in 1445. + +In the 14th and 15th centuries the chief occupation of gentlemen was +fighting; but later on, when law and order were more firmly established, +the younger sons of good families began to enter industrial life as +apprentices in the towns, and there began to grow up a new aristocracy +of trade. To William Harrison, the writer to whom I have already +referred, merchants are still citizens, but he adds: "They often change +estate with gentlemen as gentlemen do with them by mutual conversion of +the one into the other." + +Since those days the name has very properly come to be connected less +with blue blood than--if I may coin the phrase--with blue behaviour. In +1714, Steele lays it down in the _Tatler_ that the appellation of +gentleman is never to be fixed to a man's circumstances but to his +behaviour in them. And in this connexion we may recall the old story of +the Monarch, said by some to be James II, who replied to a lady +petitioning him to make her son a gentleman: "I could make him a noble, +but God Almighty could not make him a gentleman." + +Before we leave the class distinctions based mainly on birth and blood, +it is well to remark that in England they have never counted for so much +as elsewhere. It is true of course that the nobility and gentry have +been a separate class, but they have been constantly recruited from +below. Distinction in war or capability in peace was the qualification +of scores of men upon whom the highest social rank was bestowed in reign +after reign in our English history. Moreover, birth distinction has +never been recognised in law, in spite of the fact that the manipulation +of laws has not always been free from bias. The well known words of +Macaulay are worth quoting in this connexion: + + + There was a strong hereditary aristocracy: but it was of all + hereditary aristocracies the least insolent and exclusive. It had + none of the invidious character of a caste. It was constantly + receiving members from the people, and constantly sending down + members to mingle with the people. Any gentleman might become a + peer, the younger son of a peer was but a gentleman. Grandsons of + peers yielded precedence to newly made knights. + + +The dignity of knighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could +by diligence and thrift realise a good estate, or who could attract +notice by his valour in battle. + + + ... Good blood was indeed held in high respect: but between good + blood and the privileges of peerage there was, most fortunately for + our country, no necessary connection.... There was therefore here + no line like that which in some other countries divides the + patrician from the plebeian. The yeoman was not inclined to murmur + at dignities to which his own children might rise. The grandee was + not inclined to insult a class into which his own children must + descend.... Thus our democracy was, from an early period, the most + aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic in the world; + a peculiarity which has lasted down to the present day, and which + has produced many important moral and political effects[20]. + + +If blood counted for much in distinctions of class, property counted for +more. The original distinction between the "haves" and the "have nots" +has persisted throughout history and is with us to-day. + +In the ancient village, no doubt, the distinction was of the simplest. +On the one hand was the man who by force or by his own energy became +possessed of more cattle and more sheep than his fellows; on the other +hand was the man who, in default of such property, was ready and willing +to give his services to the bigger man, whether for wages, or as a +condition of living in the village and sharing in the rights of the +village fields and pastures. Here presumably we have the origin of that +institution of Landlordism which still looms so large in our social +life. In the early days it was probably more a matter of cattle than of +land. The possessor of cattle in the village would hire out a certain +number of them to a poorer neighbour, who would have the right to feed +them on the common land. Thus, even in primitive times, a class +distinction based on property began to grow up. + +Early in history there was found in most villages a chief man who had +the largest share of the land. Below him there would be three or four +landowners of moderate importance and property. At the end of the scale +were the ordinary labourers and villagers, among whom the rest of the +village lands were divided as a rule on fairly equal terms. + +Closely allied to this of course was the organisation of the village +from the point of view of military service. Parallel to this more +peaceful organisation of society was the elaborate Feudal System, by +which, from the King downwards, lands were held in virtue of an +obligation on the part of each class to the one above it to produce men +for the wars in due proportion of numbers and equipment. + +From this point of view property in land meant also property in men, +labourers in peace and soldiers in war. + +As time went on the class distinctions of birth and property began more +and more to coincide. It was Dr Johnson who made the remark that "the +English merchant is a new species of gentleman." + +The form of property which was always held to be in closest connexion +with gentle blood was land. This has been so in a pre-eminent degree +since our English Revolution at the end of the 17th century. From that +time onwards the smaller landowners, yeomen and squires with small +holdings, begin to disappear and the landed gentry become practically +supreme. Political power in a large measure rested with them, and the +result was that numbers of men who had made money in trade were eager to +use it in the purchase of land, for this meant the purchase of social +and political influence. + +It was no doubt this craze for the possession of land which led to the +process of enclosing the common lands of the village, a process on which +no true Englishman can look back in these days without shame and sorrow. +It is no doubt arguable that from an economic point of view the +productive power of the land was increased, that agriculture was more +efficiently and scientifically managed by the comparatively few big men +than it would have been by the many small men who were displaced. None +the less the price was too high, for it meant a still further +accentuation of class distinction. It meant the further enrichment of +the big man, and the further impoverishment of the small man. And +between the two there grew up a class of farmers, separate from the +labourers, whose outlook on the whole did not make for those relations +of neighbourliness and even kinship which had been among the fine +characteristics of the ancient village. + +Nor is this the end of the story, for the distinction between the +"haves" and the "have nots" was still further accentuated, and the two +classes driven still further apart, by the far-reaching Industrial +Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century. + +The alienation between the farmer and the labourer was exactly +paralleled by the alienation which gradually crept in between the +manufacturer and the workers. The growth of the factory system was +indeed so rapid that only the keenest foresight could have provided +against these evils. The same may be said of the amazing development of +the towns, particularly in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, +which quickly gathered round the new hives of industry. Unfortunately +that foresight was lacking. On the one hand the science of town-planning +had hardly been born, on the other hand a lightning accumulation of +large fortunes turned the heads of the commercial magnates, dehumanised +industry, and broke up the fellowship which in older and simpler days +had obtained between the employer and his men. + +It is a charge which we frequently bring against the enemy in these +days, a charge only too well founded, that they are expert in everything +except understanding human nature. The same may be said of those who +were concerned in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. The +growing wealth of the country which should have united masters and men +in a truer comradeship, and a richer life, achieved results which were +precisely the opposite. It developed a greed of cash which we have not +yet shaken off, and money was accumulated in the pockets of men who had +had neither aptitude nor training in the art of spending it. The workers +were reduced to a state not far removed from a salaried slavery, and the +difference between the "haves" and the "have nots" was perhaps more +acute than at any other time in our history. The causes of this were +many and complex. Not the least of them was the fact that the masters of +industry were captured by a false theory of economics according to which +the fund which was available for the remuneration of labour could not at +any given time be greater or less than it was. Human agency could not +increase its volume, it could only vary its distribution. And further, +as every man has the right to sell his labour for what he can obtain for +it, any interference between the recipients was held to be unjust. + +"That theory," as Mr Hammond has told us, "became supreme in economics, +and the whole movement for trade-union organisation had to fight its way +against this solid superstition[21]." + +The doctrine of free labour achieved a wonderful popularity; but then, +as the writer I have just quoted reminds us: "Free labour had not Adam +Smith's meaning: it meant the freedom of the employer to take what +labour he wanted, at the price he chose and under the conditions he +thought proper[22]." + +More and more therefore the employers and the workers drifted apart, and +the supreme misfortune was that the one power which might have drawn +them together was itself in a state of semi-paralysis in regard to the +corporate responsibility of the community. That power was religion. +There were times, as I shall endeavour to point out later, when +Christianity was able to produce an atmosphere of comradeship stronger +than the differences of class. But to the very great loss of both +country and Church this was not one of them. + +At the moment when the corporate message of the Church was needed, it +was looking the other way, and concentrating its thought on the +individual. The Reformation was in large measure a revolt from the +imperial to the personal conception of religion. I do not deny that this +revolt was necessary and beneficial. But the reaction from the corporate +aspect of Christianity went too far. When this reaction was further +reinforced by the Puritan movement, which with all its strength and its +fine austerity fastened its attention on the minutiae of personal +conduct, and left the community as such almost out of sight, it is not +surprising to find that religion at the end of the 18th, and through a +large part of the 19th century, failed to produce just that sense of +brotherhood which would have mitigated the whole situation and prevented +much of the practical paganism which I have described. + +Even the great revival connected with the name of John Wesley brought +all its fire to bear on the conversion of the _man_, when the social +unit which was most in need of that conversion was the community. The +result of all this was that, partly owing to ignorance, partly owing to +prejudice, partly owing to the misreading of the New Testament, the +messengers of religion had no message of corporate responsibility for +nation or class. There was no one to lift aloft the torch of human +brotherhood over the dark and gloomy landscape of English life. So far +from that, the people who figured large in religion were convinced quite +honestly that the division of classes was a heaven sent order, with +which it would be impious to interfere, and further that the main +message of religion to the people at large was an authoritative +injunction to good behaviour, and patient resignation to the +circumstances in which Providence had placed them. The notion that the +organisation of Society, particularly on its industrial side, was wholly +inconsistent with the ideals of the New Testament never so much as +entered their heads, and any suggestion to this effect would have been +regarded not merely as revolutionary but sacrilegious. + +I have ventured on this very rough description of class distinctions, +before our modern days, because it is through the study of our +forefathers' mistakes and a truer understanding of our forefathers' +inspirations that we may hope to create a better world in the days that +are coming. + + +II + +ATTEMPTS AT SOCIAL UNITY + +Let me ask your attention now to a few of the attempts which have been +made to create a deeper social unity. + +Some of these were naturally and inevitably developed in primitive days +by the simple fact that "birds of a feather flock together." + +Men engaged in pastoral pursuits gathered themselves into the tribe with +its strong blood bond. The tillage of the fields led to the existence of +the clan, with its family system and its elaborate organisation of the +land. In the same way industrial activity produced the Guild, that is +the grouping of men by crafts, a grouping which might well be revived +and encouraged on a larger scale in the rearrangements of the future. + +I need not remind you how large a place was occupied by the Guilds in +English life. They were not Trade Unions in the modern sense, for they +included both masters and men in one organisation. Nor must we attribute +a modern meaning to those two phrases, masters and men, when we speak of +the ancient Guild. For in a large measure every man was his own +employer. He was a member of the league; he kept the rules; but he was +his own master. The master did not mean the manager of the workmen, but +the expert in the work. He was the master of the art in question, and +though his fellows might be journeymen or apprentices, they all belonged +to the same social class, and throughout the Guild there was a spirit of +comradeship which was consecrated by the sanctions of religion. + +For it was the Guilds which were the prime movers in organising those +Miracle Plays which were the delight of the Middle Ages, and which +formed the main outlet for that dramatic instinct which used to be so +strong in England, and which paved the way for Shakespeare and the +modern stage. + +The Guild was not concerned mainly with money but with work, and still +more with the skill and happiness of the worker, and its aim was to +resist inequality. It was, in the pointed words of Mr Chesterton, + + + to ensure, not only that bricklaying should survive and succeed, + but that every bricklayer should survive and succeed. It sought to + rebuild the ruins of any bricklayer, and to give any faded + whitewasher a new white coat. It was the whole aim of the Guilds to + cobble their cobblers like their shoes and clout their clothiers + with their clothes; to strengthen the weakest link, or go after the + hundredth sheep; in short to keep the row of little shops unbroken + like a line of battle[23]. + + +The Guild in fact aimed at keeping each man free and happy in the +possession of his little property, whereas the Trade Union aims at +assembling into one company a large number of men who have little or no +property at all, and who seek to redress the balance by collective +action. The mediaeval Guild therefore will certainly go down to history +as one of the most gallant attempts, and for the time being one of the +most successful, to create a true comradeship among all who work, and to +keep at a distance those mere class distinctions which, though their +foundations are often so flimsy, tend to grip men as in an iron vice. + +But I must not pass by another social organisation which looms very +large in the old days, and which approached social unity from a side +wholly different from those I have mentioned, namely from the military +side: I mean the Feudal System. Here there has been much +misunderstanding. Its very name seems to breathe class distinction. We +have come casually and rather carelessly to identify it with the tyranny +and oppression which exalted the few at the expense of the many. This +point of view is however a good deal less than just. It is quite true +that as worked by William the Norman and several of his successors the +system became only too often an instrument of gross injustice and crass +despotism; but at its best, and in its origin, it was based on the twin +foundations of protection on the one hand and duty on the other. I will +venture to quote a high authority in this connexion, namely Bishop +Stubbs. + + + The Feudal System, with all its tyranny and all its faults and + shortcomings, was based on the requirements of mutual help and + service, and was maintained by the obligations of honour and + fealty. Regular subordination, mutual obligation, social unity, + were the pillars of the fabric. The whole state was one: the king + represented the unity of the nation. The great barons held their + estates from him, the minor nobles of the great barons, the gentry + of these vassals, the poorer freemen of the gentry, the serfs + themselves were not without rights and protectors as well as duties + and service. Each gradation, and every man in each, owed service, + fixed definite service, to the next above him, and expected and + received protection and security in return. Each was bound by + fealty to his immediate superior, and the oath of the one implies + the pledged honour and troth of the other[24]. + + +This system indeed was very far from perfect, but it certainly was an +attempt to bind the nation together in one social unit, to provide a +measure of protection for all, and to demand duties from all. It sought +to lay equal stress on rights and duties. In this respect--and I am +still thinking of the system at its best--it was far ahead of modern +19th century Industrialism, a system which might be described with but +little exaggeration as laying sole emphasis on rights for one class and +duties for the other. + +But the supreme attempt which so far has been made to promote unity +between classes has approached the problem from a far loftier +standpoint; not industrial, nor military, but religious. And this +attempt has been on a larger scale and on firmer foundations than any of +the others, for it has sought to unite men in spite of their +differences. It has tried, that is, to get below the varieties of race +or family or occupation, and create a unity which, because it transcends +them all, may hope to last. As a fact this attempt has so far surpassed +all others, and has met with the greatest measure of success. And lest I +should be suspected of prejudice I will quote an outside witness: + + + A very pregnant saying of T. H. Green was that during the whole + development of man the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as + thyself" has never varied, what has varied is the answer to the + question--Who is my neighbour?... The influence upon the + development of civilisation of the wider conception of duty and + responsibility to one's fellow-men which was introduced into the + world with the spread of Christianity can hardly be overestimated. + The extended conception of the answer to the question Who is my + neighbour? which has resulted from the characteristic doctrines of + the Christian religion--a conception transcending all the claims of + family, group, state, nation, people or race and even all the + interests comprised in any existing order of society--has been the + most powerful evolutionary force which has ever acted on society. + It has tended gradually to break up the absolutisms inherited from + an older civilization and to bring into being an entirely new type + of social efficiency[25]. + + +Or to take another witness equally unprejudiced, who puts the same truth +more tersely still, the late Professor Lecky. "The brief record of those +three short years," referring to Christ's life, "has done more to soften +and regenerate mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and +exhortations of moralists." For a third witness we will call Mazzini. +"We owe to the Church," he declared, "the idea of the unity of the human +family and of the equality and emancipation of souls." That this is +amply borne out by the history of the Church in early days is not +difficult to prove. The unexceptionable evidence of a Pagan writer is +here very much to the point. Says Lucian of the Christians: + +"Their original lawgiver had taught them that they were all brethren, +one of another.... They become incredibly alert when anything ... +affects their common interests[26]." + +In the same way the ancient Christian writer Tertullian observes with +characteristic irony: "It is our care for the helpless, our practice of +lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. +Only look, they say, 'look how they love one another[27]!'" It is not +surprising that this was so when you look into the writings which form +the New Testament. Apart from the words and example of the Founder of +Christianity, few men have ever lived who were more alive to existing +social distinctions, and also to the splendour of that scheme which +transcends them all, than St Paul. In proof of this it is sufficient to +point to that immortal treatise on social unity which is commonly called +the Epistle to the Ephesians. In this the fundamental secret is seen to +consist, not in a rigid system but in a transforming spirit working +through a divine Society in which all worldly distinctions are of no +account. Slavery, for instance, was, in his view, and was actually in +process of time, to be abolished not by a stroke of the pen but by a +change of ideal. Nor is the witness lacking in writings subsequent to +the New Testament. To instance one of the earliest. In an official +letter sent by the Roman Church to the Christians in Corinth towards the +end of the first century, in a passage eulogising the latter community +this suggestive sentence occurs: "You did everything without respect of +persons." + +Needless to say however, this point of view, this new spirit, only +gradually permeated the Christian Church itself, let alone the great +world outside. We are not surprised to learn that it was a point of +criticism among the opponents of the religion that among its adherents +were still found masters and slaves. An ancient writer in reply to +critics who cry out "You too have masters and slaves. Where then is your +so-called equality?" thus makes answer: + + + Our sole reason for giving one another the name of brother is + because we believe we are equals. For since all human objects are + measured by us after the spirit and not after the body, although + there is a diversity of condition among human bodies, yet slaves + are not slaves to us; we deem and term them brothers after the + spirit, and fellow-servants in religion[28]. + + +Pointing in the same direction is the fact that the title "slave" never +occurs on a Christian tombstone. + +It is plain from this, and from similar quotations which might be +multiplied, that the policy of Christianity in face of the first social +problem of the day, namely slavery, was not violently to undo the +existing bonds by which Society was held together, in the hope that some +new machinery would at once be forthcoming--a plan which has since been +adopted with dire consequences in Russia--but to evacuate the old system +of the spirit which sustained it; and to replace it with a new spirit, a +new outlook on life, which would slowly but inevitably lead to an entire +reconstruction of the social framework. + +Already too, within the Church this sense of brotherhood was making +itself felt on the industrial side as well as where more directly +spiritual duties were concerned. It seems to have been recognised in +the Christian Society that every brother could claim the right of being +maintained if he were unable to work. Equally it was emphasised that the +duty of work was paramount on all who were capable of it. "For those +able to work, provide work; to those incapable of work be charitable." +This aspect of the matter finds a singular emphasis in a second century +document known as "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," in which this +sense of industrial brotherhood finds very significant expression. +Speaking of visitors from other Churches it is directed that "if any +brother has a trade let him follow that trade and earn the bread he +eats. If he has no trade, exercise your discretion in arranging for him +to live among you as a Christian, but not in idleness. If he will not do +this, that is to say, to undertake the work which you provide for him, +he is trafficking with Christ. Beware of men like that." + +On this side of its life therefore, the Church came very near to being a +vast Guild where with the highest sanction rights and duties were +intermingled in due proportion, and that true social unity established, +which while it refuses privileges bestows protection. On these +foundations the organisation was reared, which like some great Cathedral +dominated that stretch of centuries usually known as the Middle Ages. We +could all of us hold forth on its drawbacks and evils, yet its benefits +were tremendous. For one thing it created an aristocracy wholly +independent of any distinction of blood or property. Anyone might become +an Archbishop if only he had the necessary gifts. Still more anyone +might become a Saint. The charmed circle of the Church's nobility was +constantly recruited from every class, and was therefore a standing and +effectual protest against the flimsier measurements of Society and the +more ephemeral gradations of rank. Obviously this process found as great +a scope in England as elsewhere. It was the Church which was the most +potent instrument in bringing together Norman and Saxon as well as +master and slave. For, as Macaulay has said with perfect truth, it + + + creates an aristocracy altogether independent of race, inverts the + relation between the oppressor and the oppressed, and compels the + hereditary master to kneel before the spiritual tribunal of the + hereditary bondman.... So successfully had the Church used her + formidable machinery that, before the Reformation came, she had + enfranchised almost all the bondmen in the kingdom except her own, + who, to do her justice, seem to have been very tenderly + treated[29]. + + +This makes it particularly deplorable that in consequence of the great +reaction in religion from the corporate to the personal, to which I have +alluded, the Church's power, as far as Britain was concerned, though so +splendidly exercised in the preceding centuries, should have been almost +non-existent just at the moment when it was most required, in the +Agricultural and Industrial Revolution of comparatively modern times. + + +III + +THE HOPE OF THE PRESENT SITUATION + +I fear that a large portion of this lecture has been taken up with the +past. But even so rough and brief a review as I have attempted is a +necessary prelude to a just estimate, both of our present position and +of our future prospects. It is often supposed, indeed, that the study of +history predisposes a man's mind to a conservative view. He studies the +slow development of institutions, or the gradual influence of movements, +and the trend of his thought works round to the very antipodes of +anything that is revolutionary or catastrophic. But there is another +side to the matter. The study of history may so expose the injustices of +the past and their intrenchments that the student reaches the conclusion +that nothing but an earthquake--an earthquake in men's ideas at the very +least--can avail to set things right; that the best thing that could +happen would be an explosion so terrible as to make it possible to break +completely with the past, and start anew on firmer principles and better +ways. After all, as a great Cambridge scholar once said, "History is the +best cordial for drooping spirits." For if on the one hand it exposes +the selfishnesses of men, on the other it displays an exhibition of +those Divine-human forces of justice and sacrifice and good will which +in the long run cannot be denied, and which encourage the brightest +hopes for the age which is upon us. + +The fact is, we are in the midst of precisely such an explosion as I +have indicated. The immeasurable privilege has been given to us of being +alive at a time when, most literally, an epoch is being made. +Contemporary observers of events are not always the best judges of their +significance, yet we shall hardly be mistaken if we assert that without +doubt we stand at one of the turning points of the world's long story, +that the phrase used of another epoch-making moment is true of this one, +"Old things are passing away, all things are becoming new." For history +is presenting us in these days with a clean slate, and to the men of +this generation is given the opportunity for making a fresh start such +as in the centuries gone by has often been sought, but seldom found. We +are called to the serious and strenuous task of freeing our minds from +old preconceptions--and the hold they have over us, even at a moment +like this when the world is being shaken, is amazing--the task of +reaching a new point of view from which to see our social problems, and +of not being disobedient to the heavenly vision wheresoever it may lead +us. + +That vision is Fellowship, and it is not new. Though the war is, in the +sense which I have suggested, a terrific explosion which in the midst of +ruin and chaos brings with it supreme opportunities, it is equally true +to say that it forms no more than a ghastly parenthesis in the process +of fellowship both between nations and classes which had already begun +to make great strides. + +"The sense of social responsibility has been so deepened in our +civilisation that it is almost impossible that one nation should attempt +to conquer and subdue another after the manner of the ancient world." + +These words sound rather ironical. They come from the last edition of +the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. They were written about seven years ago +in perfect good faith, as a sober estimate of the forces of fellowship +which could be then discerned. Save for the ideals and ambitions of the +central Empires of Europe they were perfectly true. What the war has +done in regard to this fellowship is to expose in their hideous +nakedness the dangers which threaten it, and to which in pre-war days we +were far too blind, but also to unveil that strong passion for +neighbourliness which lies deep in the hearts of men, and an almost +fierce determination to give it truer expression in the age which is +ahead. + +You will naturally ask what effect the war is likely to have on this +problem of class distinction. How far will it hinder or enhance the +social unity for which we seek? + +We must of course beware of being unduly optimistic. The fact that +millions of our men are seeing with their own eyes the results which can +be achieved by naked force will not be without its effect on their +attitude when they return to their homes. If force is so necessary and +so successful on the field of battle why not equally so in the +industrial field? If nations find it necessary to face each other with +daggers drawn, it may be that classes will have to do the same. + +Personally I doubt whether this argument is likely to carry much weight. +It is much more likely in my view that our men will be filled with so +deep a hatred of everything that even remotely savours of battle, that a +great tide of reaction against mere force will set in, and a great +impetus be given to those higher and more spiritual motor-powers which +during the war we have put out of court. + +On the other hand it is easy to cherish a rather shallow hope as to the +continuation in the future of that unity of classes which obtains in the +trenches. Surely, it is argued, men who have stood together at the +danger point and gone over the top together at the moment of assault +will never be other than brothers in the more peaceful pursuits which +will follow. Yet it is not easy to foretell what will happen when the +tremendous restraint of military service is withdrawn, when Britain no +longer has her back to the wall, and when the overwhelming loyalty which +leaps forth at the hour of crisis falls back into its normal quiescence, +like the New Zealand geyser when its momentary eruption is over. Any +hopefulness which we may cherish for the future must rest on firmer +foundations than these. + +Such a foundation, I believe, has come to light, and I must say a few +words about it as I close. + +Broadly speaking it is this. The war has taught us that it is possible +to live a national family life, in which private interests are +subordinated in the main to the service of the State; and further that +this new social organisation of the nation has called forth an +unprecedented capacity in tens of thousands both of men and women, not +merely for self-denying service, but for the utmost heights of heroism +even unto death. + +Men have vaguely cherished this ideal of national life before the war, +but now it has been translated into concrete fact, and the nation can +never forget the deep sense of corporate efficiency, even of corporate +joy, which has ensued from this obliteration of the old class +distinctions, this amalgamation of all and sundry in a common service. +The fact is that a new class distinction has in a measure taken the +place of the old, a distinction which has nothing to do with blood or +with money, but solely with service. The nation is graded, not in +degrees of social importance but in degrees of capacity for service. The +only superiority is one of sacrifice. And each grade takes its hat off +to the other on the equal standing ground of an all pervading +patriotism. The only social competition is not in getting but in giving. +National advantage takes the place of personal profit, and there is a +sense of neighbourliness such as Britain has not experienced for many a +long day, possibly for many a long century. + +The supreme problem before us, I take it, is how to conserve this +relationship and carry it over from the day of war to the day of peace. +To do it will call for just that same spirit of sacrifice and service +which is its own most predominant characteristic. + +For one thing we must be quite definitely prepared in every section of +society for a new way of life. From the economic point of view this will +mean that the rich will be less rich, and the poor will be enabled to +lead a larger life. Already the wealthy classes have been learning to +live a simple life, and to substitute the service of the country for +their own personal enjoyment. A serious call will come to them to +continue in that state of life when the war is over. In some degree at +least the pressure of the financial burden which the nation will have to +bear will compel them to do so. + +To the workers too in the same way the call will come to a new and more +worthy way of life. I am thinking now of the workers at home who have +been earning unprecedented wages, and thereby in many cases are already +assaying a larger life. They will be reluctant to give this up, but only +a gradual redistribution of wealth can make it permanent. It is not of +course merely or mainly a matter of wages. The only real enlargement of +life is spiritual. It is an affair of the mind and the soul. + +The more we bring a true education within reach of the workers the more +will there arise that sense of real kinship which only equality of +education can adequately guarantee. + +And speaking at Cambridge one cannot refrain from remarking that the +University itself will have to submit to a considerable re-adjustment of +its life if it is to be a pioneer in this intellectual comradeship of +which I speak. A University may be a nursery of class distinction. In +some measure it certainly has been so in the past. The opportunity is +now before it to lead the way in establishing the only kind of equality +which is really worth having. + +Then too there are obvious steps which can be taken without delay in a +new organisation of industry. + +I am not one of those who think that the industrial problem can be +solved in five minutes or even in five years. None the less it should +not be impossible in wise ways to give the workers a true share of +responsibility, particularly in matters which concern the conditions of +their work and the remuneration of their labour. + +If the sense of being driven by a taskmaster, whether it be the foreman +of the shop, or the manager of the works, could give place to a truer +co-operation in the management, and a larger measure of responsibility +for the worker, we should be well on the road to eliminating one of the +most persistent causes of just that kind of class distinction which we +want to abolish. The more men work together in a real comradeship, the +more mere social distinctions fade into the background. Is this not +written on every page of the chronicles of this war? + +But the supreme factor in the situation, without which no mere +adjustment of organisation will prevail, is that new outlook on life +which can only be described as a subordination of private advantage to +the service of the country. + +It is this alone which can really abolish the almost eternal class +distinctions which we have traced throughout our survey, the distinction +between the "haves" and the "have nots." For, as this spirit grows, the +"have nots" tend to disappear, and the "haves" look upon what they have +not as a selfish possession for their own enjoyment, but as a means of +service for the common weal. Property, that which is most proper to a +man, is seen to be precisely that contribution which he is capable of +making to the welfare of his fellows. + +The crux, the very core of the whole problem, is to find some means by +which this new outlook can be produced, and a new motive by which men +can be constrained to turn the vision into fact. + +Here will come in that power which, as I pointed out, has sometimes been +so potent and sometimes so impotent, but which, if it is allowed its +proper scope, can never fail. I mean of course religion. + +If men can be brought to see that this new outlook with its +corresponding re-adjustment of social life is not merely a project of +reformers but the plan of the Most High God, the deliberate intention of +the supreme Spirit-force of the universe, the Scheme that was taught by +the Prince of men, then indeed we may hope that the class distinction of +which He spoke will at last be adopted: "Whosoever will be great among +you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, +shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be +ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for +many[30]." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] _Encycl. Brit._ xi. 604. + +[20] Macaulay's _History of England_ (Longman's, 1885), pp. 38, 39, 40. + +[21] _The Town Labourer_, p. 205. + +[22] _Ibid._, p. 212. + +[23] G. K. Chesterton, _Short History of England_, p. 98. + +[24] Stubbs' _Lectures on Early English History_, pp. 18, 19. + +[25] Benjamin Kidd, _Encycl. Brit._ vol. xxv. p. 329. + +[26] Lucian quoted by Harnack, _Mission and expansion of Christianity_, +vol. I. p. 149. + +[27] _Ibid._ + +[28] Lactantius quoted by Harnack, _Ibid._ p. 168. + +[29] _History of England_ (Longman's, 1885), vol. I. p. 25. + +[30] St Mark x. 43-45. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN CLASSES + + + + +II + +By the Right Hon. J. R. CLYNES, M.P. + + +I have not the advantage of knowing anything of the treatment of any +part of this subject by any preceding speaker. I myself intend to deal +with it from the industrial and social standpoint, for I think if we are +to seek unity amongst classes it is most important in the national +interest that unity should first be sought and secured in the industries +of the country. That there is disunity is suggested and admitted in the +terms of the subject. This disunity has grown out of conditions which +range over a few generations. I believe that these conditions grew +largely out of our ignoring the human side of industry and the general +life conditions of the masses of our workers. Our economic doctrine +ignored the human factor, and measured what was termed national progress +in terms merely of material wealth without due regard to who owned the +wealth, made mainly by the energy of the industrial population. +Religious doctrines and religious institutions were not the cause of +that unhappy situation, but they had suffered from it, until now we find +a very considerable number of the population engaged in a struggle for +life, in a struggle for the material means of existence, handicapped by +belief that their own unaided effort alone can assist them, that they +must not look for help to any other class, or to any other quarter. +Moral precepts have not the influence which they ought to have upon our +industrial relations. Workers are thrown back upon their own resources; +and in the use of those resources, during the past fifteen years +particularly, much has been revealed to us of what is now in the working +class mind. I am not suggesting that to seek a settlement of conditions +of disunity, or the trouble arising from those conditions, you must +coddle the working classes, praise them and pay them highly, and try to +keep them contented with conditions which in themselves cannot be +defended. I do not mean that at all. What I mean is that if unity +between classes in industrial and economic life is to be sought and +secured, it can be got only at a price, paid in a two-fold form; that of +giving a larger yield of the wealth of the nation to those who mainly by +their energies make that wealth, and of placing the producing classes +upon a level where they will receive a higher measure of respect, of +thanks, and regard than they previously have received from the nation as +a whole. I was asked among others some twelve months ago to share in the +investigations then made by representatives of the Government to +discover the immediate cause of the very serious unrest then displayed +in the country, and we went for a period of many weeks into the main +centres of the kingdom and brought a varied collection of witnesses +before us in order that the most reliable evidence should be obtained, +and one who favoured us with his views was the Rev. Canon Green, whom I +am going to quote because of his great experience among the working +class populations in various circumstances and over many years in +Manchester and elsewhere. This is what Canon Green writes: + + + They (the working classes) do not see why their hours should be so + long, and their wages so small, their lives so dull and colourless, + and their opportunities of reasonable rest and recreation so few. + Can we wonder that with growing education and intelligence the + workers of England are beginning to contrast their lot with that of + the rich and to ask whether so great inequalities are necessary? + + +There I believe you have put in the plainest and gentlest terms the +working of the working class mind as it is to-day. The country has given +them more opportunities of education. When they were less educated, or, +if I may say so, more ignorant than they are now, they were naturally +more submissive and content with conditions the cause of which they so +little understood. You cannot send the children of the poor to school, +and improve your State agencies for education, and increase the millions +annually which the country is ready to spend in teaching the masses of +the people more than they knew before, and expect those masses to remain +content with the economic and social conditions which even disturbed +their more ignorant fathers. In short, the more you educate and train +the working classes, the more naturally you bring them to the point of +revolt against conditions which are inhuman or unfair, or which cannot +be brought to square with the higher standard of education which they +may receive. I am sure when the community come to understand that it is +a natural and even a proper sense of revolt on the part of the masses of +the people they will not regret their education. Out of all this feeling +of discontent in the minds of the industrial population there has in the +last thirty odd years grown very strong organisation. The Trade Union +movement, which I mention first as a very great factor in all these +matters, is a most powerful and important factor, and the country will +have to pay greater regard to the steps which Trade Unionism may take +than the country has been disposed previously to do. The Trade Union +movement was stimulated and developed by the conditions which it was +brought into being to remedy. The Trade Union was not the growth of mere +agitation. The average Briton must be convinced that there is something +really wrong before he will try to remedy it at all, and you cannot by +lectures, and by telling the people that they have been and are being +oppressed, stir the people of this country to any resistance. +Particularly you cannot get them to pay a contribution for it. It was +because of the experience of the mass of the workers, their low wages +and long hours and the bad conditions of employment, that they organised +and used the might that comes from numbers, and paid contributions which +in the sum total now amount to many millions of pounds in the way of +reserve funds. No apology was needed for the working classes and no +defence is required for this step taken by the workers to unite +themselves in Trade Unions, and thereby secure by the unity of numbers +the power which, acting singly, it was impossible for them to exercise. +This Trade Union movement is quite alive to the division which exists +among our classes, and I am going to suggest that the movement might be +used, might be properly employed, in obtaining that unity of classes +which we are here to consider. + +Well, then, we may, whilst not overlooking other helpful activities of a +large number of people in this country, seek this unity among three main +divisions of our people, viz. (_a_) in industries, (_b_) in agriculture, +and (_c_) in businesses. Given unity of interest and oneness of purpose +and aim in those three broad divisions of the nation, the rest must be +attracted and brought into harmony by mere force of example, if nothing +else, with the unity which might be secured in the three broad divisions +to which I have referred. One of the hopeful things, the significant +things, recently uttered in other quarters from which I am going to +quote, is clearly seeking this tendency to unity instead of the +different interests and classes being driven by the waste and folly of +the disuniting lines upon which so far we have persisted. I observe that +only a few days ago Lord Selborne, who is one of our principal +mouthpieces on agricultural matters, presided at a new body called into +existence within the past few weeks and to be known as the National +Agricultural Council. Now, that is not a body which will consist of +landowners, or of farmers, or of farm workers; it is a body to consist +of all three. The landowners, the farmers, and the agricultural workers +have come to recognise that they all have something in common touching +agriculture, touching the trade or industry in which they are brought +into close touch day by day. I know as a matter of fact that only a very +few years ago the Farmers' Union would not tolerate the idea of the farm +workers having a union, and the land workers looked with real dread upon +the farmers having a union, and now all three have come to the stage +when they agree to join in one Council, and, though it was admitted that +the interests of those three classes were primarily in conflict, it was +recognised that by holding meetings, by the representatives of all these +quite distinct interests frequently coming together, much good might be +done. For what? As they say, for agriculture. So, though none of them +will forfeit any rightful interest anyone of them may have in the +pursuit of a special claim, they will all recognise a higher sense of +duty, and feel there is an obligation upon them to make agriculture in +this country a greater thing not only for themselves as the three +partners, but for the mass of the community at large. And if it is +necessary to do that in the farmers' interest or the landowners' +interest, it was at least as necessary to do it in the interest of the +agricultural worker, and I put his claim first, not because he is the +sole contributor to any yield that may come from the land, but because +he is the most numerous body, and numbers in this as in other respects +may well be the determining factor; and because if he withholds his +labour there will be none of the fruit of the soil for which we look +year after year. I follow up this statement by an authoritative one from +another quarter. Lord Lee, who as we know was the Director of the Food +Production Department at the Board of Agriculture, spoke some time ago +on this aspect of the case, and said: "Take the agricultural labourer +for example. Does anyone suppose, or suggest, that he should return from +the trenches--where he has distinguished himself in a way unsurpassed by +any other class in the community--to the old miserable conditions under +which, in most parts of the country, he was under-paid, wretchedly +housed, and denied almost any pleasure in life, except such as the +public house could offer him? Those conditions were a disgrace to the +country, and I shall never be content until they are swept away for +ever. I do not say this only in the interest of the man himself; it is +necessary these conditions should go, in the best interests not merely +of the labourer but of the farmer and of agriculture." So it may be that +unity and oneness of purpose and of action will be driven upon us as one +of the bye-products of war conditions. For your simple plain +agricultural worker will come back feeling that as he has fought for the +liberties of his country he will be entitled to enjoy a little more of +it than ever before, that if the land is to be freed from designs of the +tyrant abroad it must be freed also from any wrong at home, and that he +must have a larger share in the fruits of his labour than he has enjoyed +before. My own view is that you will not on that account make the farm +worker a less efficient harvestman, but you will make him a happier +father, you will be making him a more contented citizen, and may make +him a more profitable worker than he has ever been. + +Various remedies have been tried or thought of to give effect to what +are our common aspirations. One I have seen referred to frequently is +one I would like to see always avoided. It is the remedy of placing +before workmen as a necessity a greatly increased output from their +manual labour in the future; not that I am opposed to an increased +output, but I am not going to demand it as part of the bargain which +should itself be arranged and carried out, even if it did not +necessarily secure for us any greater sum total of wealth than we now +enjoy; for poor as we may have accounted ourselves we have seen in the +past few years how vastly we can spend and lend in support of any high +purpose to which the country may devote itself. Poverty can never again +be claimed by the nation as a whole whenever there is a proper and +reasonable demand for any social change or reform which may be +necessary and proper. Men are asking for a greater yield, for a greater +output, for building up our wealth higher than ever before, so as to +repair the ravages of the war, if for no other purpose. With all those +objects I agree, but we must not make them as terms to the worker in +exchange for those conditions of unity which we are asking our workers +to arrange with us. Greater output, increased efficiency, a bigger and +better return of wealth from industrial and agricultural energy, can +well come out of a better working system, a better rearrangement of +combined effort, a more extensive use of machinery, a more satisfactory +sub-division of labour, a wider employment of the personal experience +and technical skill of our industrial classes, a higher state of +administrative efficiency and management in the workshops, the creation +of a better and more humane atmosphere in the workshops. Out of all of +these things a greater yield of wealth could be produced, and it is +along those lines we must go in order not merely to convert but to +convince the workman that he is not being used as a mere tool for some +ulterior end for the benefit of some smaller class in the country. It +has been said by some that Trade Union restrictions and limitations must +go. I candidly admit there have been Trade Union regulations and +conditions which perhaps have stood in the way of some increased output, +but I am not here to apologise for Trade Union rules. Every class has +its regulations and rules. The more powerful and the more wealthy the +class the more rigid and stringent those rules have been. However, the +class which was most in need of regulations and rules, the working +class, was the first to set the example of setting them aside as a +general war measure when the country called upon the workers to take +action of that kind during 1915. We must, therefore, keep in mind the +fact that workmen are naturally suspicious. That suspicion is the growth +of the workshop system, into which I have not now the time to go, and we +must avoid causing the workman to suspect that our unity, the unity we +are seeking among classes, is a mere device for getting him to work +harder and produce greater wealth and perhaps labour even longer hours +than ever. + +The first great step towards this unity is to secure the good will of +the Trade Unions. Having secured that, the next thing is to proceed upon +lines which will bring at once home to the individual workman in the +workshop some sense of responsibility with regard to the response which +he must make to the appeal which we put before him. In short, better +relations must precede any first step that could effectively be taken to +secure this greater unity, and better relations are impossible in +industry until we have given the individual workman a greater sense of +responsibility of what he is in the workshop for. Let me briefly outline +how that might be secured. It was put, I think, quite eloquently if +simply in an address to the Trade Union Congress a short time ago by the +President of the Congress, who said that the workman wanted a voice in +the daily management of the employment in which he spends his working +life, in the atmosphere and in the conditions under which he has to +work, in the hours of beginning and ending work, in the conditions of +remuneration, and even in the manners and practices of the foremen with +whom he had to be in contact. "In all these matters," said the +President, "workmen have a right to a voice--even to an equal +voice--with the management itself." I know that is a big, and to some an +extravagant claim to make, but to set it aside or ignore it is to +provoke and invite further trouble. Industry can no longer be run for +the profit which it produces, or even because of the wealth which +collective energy can make. That, indeed, was the mistake out of which, +as I said at the beginning, this disunion, and this suspicion, and this +selfishness, have grown. We have had greatly to modify our doctrines of +political economy during the course of the war, and all the things which +many teachers told us never could be done have come as natural to us +under war conditions which we could not resist, and of which we were the +creatures. Where now is the law of supply and demand? Indeed, if the law +of supply and demand were operating at this moment, there are few +workmen in the country who would not be receiving many, many pounds more +a week than they are. The workman is not paid to-day according to the +demand for his labour. A very much higher obligation decides for him +what his remuneration is to be. I have in mind, of course, the fact that +a considerable number of workers, who are employed upon munition +services and so on, are enjoying very high wages, but that is not at all +true of the masses of the industrial population, and we ought not to be +deceived by these rare instances which are quoted of men coming out of +the workshop with _L_20 or _L_30. Speaking of the industrial population +in the main, what was the outstanding economic doctrine?--the doctrine +that the demand for labour and the volume for supplying that demand +determined the remuneration. That doctrine has had to go by the board +like so many other things that could not exist under war pressure. + +Then, how are we to give effect to this general workshop aspiration for +bringing the workman into closer unity with the conditions which +determine that part of his life which is the bread-winning part, for +which he has to turn out in the morning early and often return home late +in the evening? There was established some time ago what can be +described as a quite responsible committee to report upon how better +relations not only between employers and employed through their +associations, but in regard to employers and employed in the workshops, +might be established. That committee issued the report commonly known to +us now as the Whitley Report, of which I am quite sure more will be +heard in a few years. The men who had to frame that report were drawn +from the two extremes of the employers and trade unions. We had men with +very advanced views, like Mr Smillie, on the one hand, and we had quite +powerful employers of labour, like Sir Gilbert Claughton and Sir William +Carter, on the other. I had the privilege of sitting on that committee, +and for some months we laboured to frame some definite terms which might +be accepted by those who were concerned in our recommendations. I very +often hear the suggestion that people will have little of it because it +is not ideal, not grand or great enough, but we have to come down to the +earth upon these matters, and we have to recommend only what we feel is +likely to be accepted lest our labour should be wasted. We must avoid, +therefore, throwing our aims too high, and we must suggest only what +practical business men and workmen are likely seriously to consider. +Having decided to reach that conclusion, and feeling the sense of +responsibility which, opposed as so many of us were to each other, drove +us to reach a conclusion, we expressed ourselves in these terms: "We are +convinced that a permanent improvement in the relations between +employers and employed must be founded upon something other than a cash +basis. What is wanted is that the workpeople should have a greater +opportunity of participating in the discussion upon an adjustment of +those parts of industry by which they are most affected. For securing +improvement in the relations between employers and employed, it is +essential that any proposals put forward should offer to workpeople the +means of attaining improved conditions of employment and a higher +standard of comfort generally, and involve the enlistment of their +active and continuous co-operation in the promotion of industry." +Previously, the view was that the workman had nothing whatever to do +with this phase of the management of business, and that is a phrase +still very much used. We make no claim in this report that workmen +should have the right to interfere in the higher realms of business +management, in, say, finance, in the general higher details of +organisation, in the extension of works, in all those more important and +urgent matters which must come before the board of managers or the +manager himself. These are things which belong properly and exclusively +to those who have the responsibility of managing our great industries, +but in all the other things affecting the conditions of the workman, the +manner in which he is to be treated, hours, wages, conditions of +employment, relations between section and section, and working division +and working division, all those things which were regarded previously +as the private monopoly of the foreman or manager must in future become +the common concern of the workmen collectively, and they must have some +voice in how these things are to be settled. The country and its +industries, of course, may refuse to hear that voice, but really we have +to choose between reconciling workmen to a given system of industry or +finding workmen in perpetual revolt against their conditions. And it +will pay the country to concede a great deal, not only for peace in the +workshop but for a higher standard of peace generally in the whole +community. The appeal that must be made to the workman must be followed +up by asking him to receive it in a very different spirit from the +spirit sometimes shewn in certain workshops. I am not here by any means +to pour praise altogether upon the working classes, and I am conscious +of the mistakes and wrongs which have sometimes been done in their +names, and I am therefore anxious that the spirit of the workshop should +be so tempered and altered as to be fit to receive and make the best use +of the approaches which are to be made to it to participate in workshop +management upon the lines which I have indicated. + +So this appeal which has been made by the Whitley committee, and which +has been followed up by some other departments of government, is put as +an appeal to the common-sense and reason of the men in the workshop, and +does not rest upon any of the many agencies which have been employed +previously in the pursuit of definite trade union ends. This spirit can +be fostered only when the masses of workmen are reached by the +consciousness that they themselves are being called upon to share in +the undertakings of which they are so important a part. The importance +of workmen has been revealed in a most startling way during the period +of the war, and the war has shewn in many trades that recurring +differences between capital and labour can be adjusted without strikes +and without lock-outs if methods are provided in the workshop which are +acceptable to both sides, and are made to operate fairly and +satisfactorily between the different interests. Think how important the +workman has become because of the war. Consider how much the workman is +now pressed and drawn into all manner of services which previously he +could either remain in or leave at his will. The war has made such a +demand upon national industrial energy that there is no service now for +which there is not a demand. Indeed, you have seen the effect in that +services in the workshop include men who previously would have been +ashamed to have had it known that they had ever soiled their hands at +any toil at all, but who have been glad to get a place in the workshop +because it was work of national importance. War experience has shewn us +how high manual service stands in the grades of service which can be +rendered for community interest. This new spirit does not appeal to +force as a means of settling differences, nor to compulsory arbitration, +nor to the authority of the State, nor to the power of organisation on +either side. It is an appeal to reason, an approach to both sides to act +in association on lines which will give freedom, self-respect, and +security to both sides, whilst enabling each of them to submit to the +other what it feels is best for the joint advancement of the trade and +those engaged in it. In short, I would like to see inside the gates of +every workshop the cultivation of the same spirit in British industry +as has been hinted at already as the first essential for the future +development of agriculture in England. Those processes of calling in the +individual workman through committees, to which I will refer briefly in +a moment, are not intended to take the place of the great organisations. +They are to be supplementary to the Trade Unions, and are not intended +to supplant them. + +Trades Union leadership has changed hands to a great extent during the +past year or two, and the virtual leaders of the men are now men +themselves employed at the bench and in the mine. They are exercising +very great authority and influence over masses of their fellow workmen, +and often the authority, and decisions, and advice of executives and +leaders are set aside and the advice of the men employed in the +workshop, given to their fellow workmen as mates, is followed. So with +this change, due to conditions into which we have not time to go, there +must be recognised the need for applying new remedies in considering +this question of improving the relations between employer and employed. +It will not do now merely to have discussions between association and +association. We might improve upon that and supplement it as I have said +by having discussions direct in the workshop with the workmen +themselves, who would be brought into touch at once with persons who +were responsible for what action must be taken. So leadership having +been to some extent transferred from the Trade Union to the workshop, +the workman must be followed there and must be shewn how essential it is +to recruit his good will and his aid in improving workshop conditions, +not for the betterment of the management, but as much, if not more, for +his own betterment as a workman in the shop. This may not touch certain +industries in the country that are non-organised. Some of those trades, +much to our shame, in former years were known as sweated industries, but +even there it is found that the workers, men and women alike, are coming +gradually into the trades unions, and should they not be in the trades +unions to any great extent they are to be reached by other ways and +means which this committee has developed. It is intended to apply to +them, so as to establish the necessary machinery for better relations, +the personnel of the Trades Boards Acts, those boards which, in the +absence of trades unions, deal with the sweated conditions of thousands +of workers employed in those sweated trades. So I have no fear myself of +the non-organised trades being left altogether out of the range of the +spirit to which I have referred. In addition to the committees there is +to be in every district, it is proposed, a representative council, drawn +from the employers and employed of the particular industry, and some +scores of these councils are now being set up. In addition, there is to +be in relation to every principal industry a national council, and many +of us are now engaged in the creation of those several bodies. The +public may not hear much about them, but they are the foundation upon +which this structure of better relations is to rest, and, so far as we +can spare some small margin of our time for those duties, considerable +headway has been made in establishing these different organisations. + +But I attach most importance to the workshop committees, and so I want +to pursue this idea a little further. What are those committees to be? +They would have to be free representative bodies, chosen by the men +themselves. They could be empowered to meet the management, possessed of +a sense of responsibility, to discuss in their own homely way matters +which would have to be settled between them. Indeed, we know from +experience that many of the big trade disputes in this country have +grown out of trifles, out of small nothings comparatively, which could +well have been settled inside the workshop gates by bringing master and +man together, empowered to discuss matters which both understand as +matters of personal experience. The committees when created, in this +atmosphere and spirit to which I refer, would exist not in rebellion +against the trade unions or against the trade union system, or exist as +being in revolt against the management of the works, or the employer of +labour. The committees would be vested with responsibility for +negotiations. They would be able to use the personal knowledge derived +from contact with the questions arising day by day. They would develop a +sense of independence and a sense of just dealing, so that the doctrine +of "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work" should apply not only to +the wages but to the work to be done, a thing which sometimes does not +occur. These committees could check the driving methods of some persons +in authority, and, whilst getting the best from those who are above +them, they could give the best, as I am sure they would provided the +spirit is created, from the workmen in return for the fairer treatment +they would enjoy. These committees could deal not only with manual +service and ordinary work and wage questions; they could develop a +better use of industrial capacity and technical knowledge in matters of +workshop life. But the spirit is everything, and the best desires of +equitable workshop management could find expression through those +committees if they were created. The committees would give a chance to +the many workmen who now talk a great deal about democracy to express +that democracy through the persons of the workmen themselves. I fear +there are many of our friends in the labour movement, as we term it, who +are given freely to talking of democracy without clearly understanding +all that is covered in that term. It is a term which, it is a pleasure +to see, has recently found its way not merely into the phrases of +statesmen, but into the King's speech itself. We are now speaking +commonly of all the sacrifices that are being made, of all the blood and +treasure that is being spilt, in order to have a wholesome democratic +system of world government. Well, we must begin in the workshops, for +you cannot have peace on a large scale the country over, or between +nation and nation, unless you have peace in our places of employment. +They are the starting points and there it is that your contented +millions must first be found. If they are not happy and if they are not +at ease in connexion with their national service, you cannot expect any +of those larger results for which highminded statesmen are seeking the +world over. + +Upon two main lines, in my judgment, democracy will require the most +sane guidance and most sagacious advice which its leaders are capable of +giving to it. It will not do for leaders merely to say that the future +of the world must be decided, not by diplomats or thrones or Kaisers, +but by the will of peoples. The will of peoples can find enduring and +beneficial expression only when that will seeks social change by +reasonable and calculated instalments, and not by any violent act of +revolution. Peaceful voters on their way to the ballot boxes and +properly formulated principles will in the end go further than fire and +sword in the internal affairs of a nation. I say this because of the +loose talk we have heard from many labour platforms recently of +revolution and its benefits. Revolution may well be in any country the +beginning and not the end of internal troubles, often expressed in a +more painful and more violent form than ever. We need only look at our +former great partner, Russia, to find full confirmation of all I have +now implied. The red flag marches with the machine gun and the black cap +when a certain stage of physical revolt is reached. The theory of new +methods of life can only find rational application when democracy is +wisely guided in taking slow but sure steps peacefully to turn its +theories into an applied system, wherein the people of a nation and not +merely a section or a class shall find their proper place and security +for service, and find an assured existence under conditions of comfort +for themselves and advantage to the State. Democratic leaders must tell +these things to the people time after time if need be. They must repeat +them so that the masses may understand them, because the tendency in +labour has been to narrow the meaning of democracy. Democracy is not, +and ought not to be, limited to those who now constitute the industrial +population. Democracy is not a sect or a trade union club. Democracy is +wider than the confines of the manual worker. Democracy should strive to +reach the highest level of morality in doctrine and aspiration. It is +not a class formula. It is a great and elevating faith which may be +shared by all who believe in it. Democracy stands for the general +progress of mankind and means the uplifting of men, and the liberation +and unifying of nations. It does not mean the dominion of one class over +another, nor the violent wresting of position or authority by some +dramatic act of physical force, which if used would still leave a nation +in a state of unreconciled and contending factions. Democracy, again, is +a spirit whereby vast social and economic change may be effected through +a medium approaching common consent or at least by the application of +the political power of the people acting through representative +institutions and resting upon ideas which majorities accept and +understand. The spirit which has already accepted vast political changes +can be made to apply to vast economic and industrial changes. This +spirit must be cultivated by the leaders of democracy. They have now +opportunities as great as their responsibilities. The success of +parties, in the old sense of the term, is a trivial thing to the success +of the great ends to be secured. These ends will justify the use of any +constitutional means for dethroning that form of power upon which +privilege and the mere possession of wealth have rested. But democracy +must not be duped by phrases, nor be swayed by any influence which does +not lead to a lasting advance for the nation as a whole. Nor should its +leaders think that fundamental and enduring changes in our social system +can be reached by any short cut to which the great mass of the people +have not been converted. Progress will be faster in the future if +impatience and folly do not retard it. + +Having said a little with regard to the position of the poorer people, +let me before I close respectfully address a few words to the richer and +more favoured in the country. Should all rich folk in the country work? +That is a very plain and I dare say it will be regarded in some places +as quite an impudent question. But really, rich people who have never +had cause in any way to earn their living have always been a danger to +the State, just as they have been the greatest instance of wicked waste +to be found in any country. There is nothing more melancholy, and even +degrading, to a country than the sight of educated people who have +nothing to do. Wealth is the fruit of service and endeavour. Work is the +only medium by which the ravages of the war can be made good. Ignorance +and idleness present a most pitiable spectacle, but the most criminal of +all sights is education and idleness combined. Finally, let me say that +whilst I have addressed myself mainly in terms of appeal to the workers, +I am not unmindful at all of the difficulties of the great employers of +labour and those covered by the phrase "our Captains of Industry." I +know that many of them work very hard under the greatest and most trying +mental pressure, and have duties and trials unknown even to the workmen, +but with those duties and trials come reliefs again unknown to the +workmen--holidays, change, and rest, and the meeting of men of their own +class whose very company is an intellectual joy, so that the worst off +your employer of labour as a human being may be he is far better off +than the average workman. Think of the housing conditions of so many +thousands, hundreds of thousands, of workmen, and how intolerable it +would be for you to live under those conditions, how discontented you +would be, how discontented the rich would be were it their fate to drag +on an existence in some of those places which are commonly described by +the term "houses." Why, the very waiting room of the employer's ordinary +office is a much more cosy and pleasant place than the homes of many of +the most industrious workers of England. I plead that the elements of +the human order should begin to pervade the relations of the workshop, +that the workman should be less of a drudge and more of a human asset +than he has been, that he should be brought into partnership in the +undertaking and in the management; that incidentally he should have a +more secure remuneration and not have to bear the penalties and ordeals +of employment as he has had alone to bear them during times of trade +depression and unemployment in previous years. The human side of the +workshop has, therefore, to be built up, and you cannot hope to build it +up upon any foundation of drudgery such as the workmen in the main have +had to live under, and, as I have said, it will pay the country to +conciliate the men on these terms. It is a high ideal, but it is +attainable. I believe it is attainable because we have seen it in +another sphere of sacrifice where it has already been secured. The war +has brought all classes together. In the trenches, at sea, and in all +theatres of danger, men of all classes are now labouring shoulder to +shoulder. There you have had a sinking of individual interests. There +you have had a common sacrifice, a common endeavour for a common cause. +Surely, as all classes have been able to unite in their sacrifice and in +their resistance of the aggression of a foreign foe, it is, I hope, not +asking too much that when they come back and take their places in +peaceful pursuits again, and become masters, workmen, managers, and +foremen in our enterprises and businesses, when they return from danger +and come back to take their places amongst us,--surely it is not too +much to hope that those who are able to unite abroad will be able to +unite for the ends of peace and joy here at home. + + + + +UNITY IN THE EMPIRE + +By F. J. CHAMBERLAIN, C.B.E. + + +The word "unity" in relation to the Empire has a deeper meaning to-day +than it had five years ago. Then it was a watchword, a theme for +Imperial conferences and for speakers at demonstrations. The sanguine +were sure, the pessimists and that great body of Britishers of moderate +views and moderate faith regarded it as one of the things hoped for. + +With dramatic suddenness the event clarified the situation, England +awoke at war. There was no time for preliminary councils. The supreme +test of the Empire had been reached. It is no exaggeration to say that +the whole world watched with eagerness for the result. It was in that +moment that the great discovery was made. The British Empire stood fast. +From that day until now, from end to end of the world has been seen an +object lesson of unity that has justified the sanguine, and been an +inspiration to the Allies. That revelation has been more inspiring +because the world is aware that it is in spite of the most sinister and +subtle campaign against it, planned and brilliantly executed by an enemy +under the cloak of friendship. I do not forget the tragic circumstances +of one small nation within the Empire. But Ireland has given more +evidence of her faithfulness to Empire on the fields of France and +Flanders than of her treachery at home, and to-day we have more reason +to count her ours than has the enemy. Examine the position in cold +blood, if you can, and you are still aware of a substantial, solid, and +effective unity running round the Empire, binding it in one as with a +girdle of scarlet and gold. + +The war is not responsible for the unity; it has only discovered or +uncovered it. The storm does not establish foundations; it may reveal +them. A century of building has created the structure that the storm has +failed to destroy. + +The British Empire is a successful experiment on the lines of the +longed-for League of Nations. The race contains no more diverse elements +than are found within its borders; one-third of the land surface of the +world, and one-fifth of the inhabitants, have been held together in a +living federation and have been kept until this day. Upon our generation +rests the awful and splendid responsibility of proving to a questioning +world that this unity can be made permanent, and of illustrating how a +still larger unity may be achieved. + +You will forgive one or two homely pictures of our unity that cannot +fail to strike the imagination. It has been our privilege to meet +thousands of men from the Overseas Dominions. How many times have boys, +whose forefathers emigrated from England or Scotland, who were +themselves born in Australia, or on the Western plains of Canada, said, +"I have been wanting to come _home_ all my life"? These islands are the +"home" of the Empire, and there is no more wonderful word in the +language. + +Or think of Botha and Smuts, within the memory almost of the youngest of +us, fighting with all their heart and mind against the Empire, and, +to-day, dominant personalities proclaiming their loyalty, and proving it +in unrivalled service. + +Or picture, if you can, young India, pouring out her life-blood with +pride and ready sacrifice, in France, in Egypt, and in Mesopotamia, for +the "British Raj." The most moving scene in the history of the British +Commons was on that evening in 1915, when the princes of India stood +amidst the representatives of the people of the homelands and paid their +homage. + +How much such things mean will depend on the vision of those who hear +them; but they have in them the stuff that holds the future. + +This ghastly war, not of our choosing, has transferred the seats of +learning for young Britain from their peaceful sites to the battlefield. +If the object of education is the cultivation of the power of thought +and observation, the kindling of imagination, and the extension of +knowledge; then "over there" is a University set in full array, with +ghostly as well as human tutors, a curriculum without precedent, and +such a body of undergraduates as Cambridge or Oxford might covet. + +It is not for nothing, as regards the Empire, that your sons, the +children of the East End, and the boys of Canada, Australasia, and South +Africa, are meeting and mingling with Gurkha and Sikh, and with each +other. They are sharing a common discipline, a common adventure, making +sacrifice together. They are seeing each other with eyes from which the +scales are falling, and knowledge and understanding are growing out of +their contact. The farthest reaches of Empire have been brought nearer +to the Empire's heart by this brotherhood in arms, and the barriers +between classes have been lowered until a man can step across them +without climbing. The distance between East and West has been +immeasurably shortened, whether we are thinking in terms of London, or +of the Empire. + +In our consideration of this whole subject we are to take the Christian +standpoint. To us, the words "Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in +Heaven," on Divine lips were more than a pious wish. They were a great +intention, the expression of age-long purpose. We believe that the gains +of the centuries--the harvest of the past which is worth +conserving--have been secured by moral and spiritual conquest, rather +than by military or political achievement. There may be elements in our +present forms of unity which we may well allow to go by the board. The +things that make for permanence will abide not only with an enlightened +statesmanship, but with a growing understanding, an ever broadening +interpretation of Christian teaching about + + + The Kingdom of God on earth, + The Universal Fatherhood of God, and + The brotherhood of man, + + +leading the nation to see that the knowledge of God and of His Christ is +the rightful inheritance of every son of the Empire. + +As these great ideals of social life have been interpreted in the life +of either sovereign peoples or subject peoples, so, we believe, and only +so, have bonds been forged that can be trusted to stand the strain which +time and changing condition and circumstances impose. + +Unity, even the Empire itself ultimately, depends, as we believe, on a +broad-based statesmanship, carrying up the main principles of our +Government to their highest power in action, and, constantly throughout +the Empire, mediating those doctrines to the peoples concerned as they +are able to bear them, with ever-extending inspiration and encouragement +to growth and development. + +Our Imperial aims are neither antagonistic to nor inconsistent with our +Christian programme. That should constitute a challenge to the Christian +Churches, and is in itself a matter for high and solemn pride. The war +has cleared the air. As stated during this period, the ideal of a +federation of nations, free, independent, and at the same time +interdependent, each working out its national destiny, each +contributing, in terms of opportunity, to the well-being of the whole, +bringing to bear on Imperial matters the heart, brain, will of the +whole, gives us a picture of a Commonwealth in advance of any +contemporary political programme, with the one conspicuous exception of +that of the United States of America, between whom and ourselves is +being established a Unity which may well be more valuable to the world +at large and to ourselves than any formal Union. + +Here, as we see it, is our opportunity. The Christian forces of the +Empire have the onus of maintaining the national outlook at this high +level. Our faith, our audacity, our leadership will be needed if lesser +counsels are to have no chance of prevailing. There must be no swing of +the pendulum back to smaller views. + +With the coming of Peace, the temptation to the Nation to take off its +armour, to come down from the pedestal, to revert to pre-war conditions, +to re-act in self-indulgence from the strain of war, or to let +materialism defeat idealism, will be well-nigh overwhelming. To give +way to that temptation will be to rob victory of any permanent values. +It will be a poor thing to have taught Germany her lesson, if we fail to +learn our own. + +We see no hope of successful resistance of that temptation apart from +the mobilisation of the Christian forces within the Empire into an army +committed to the sacred task of making the conscience of the Nation +effectively Christian, leading the way in bringing about a closer +approximation between the politics of the State and the programme of the +Kingdom of God, and proclaiming that Kingdom at hand. + +If we are agreed so far it behoves us to look for the practical +implications of the position. These islands are still the heart and home +of the Empire. This was the rock whence its younger peoples were hewn. +Our nation has produced the men and the machinery that govern our +commonwealth. The lonely places, farthest removed from us, will be +peopled largely by and through the work of children of the Old Country. +There, wherever her children go, is England. + +England is a treasure house, where the very stones are eloquent. Her +history, her buildings, her national and civic life, her denominations +and movements are all of them of vital interest to her children. It is a +place of pilgrimage and remembrance. It is more. They find here the +mature growths from which their institutions have sprung. They love our +historic places, they love our crowded cities, they love our seashores +and our quiet country-side, for everywhere they go they find not only +the story of our past, but that of their own. This is their spiritual +home. Our art, our literature, our movements are parts of a common +inheritance, and it is the pride of the Motherland that her children +have never outgrown their love of the old home, their veneration for its +sanctions and restraints, and that on their own homesteads they have +reproduced in new settings and often in fresh forms so much that is +native here. + +One would like to see a larger share in this priceless inheritance +offered to our peoples oversea. Think for one moment of our great +Cathedrals, unique and wonderful. They can never be reproduced. They +might be copied; but Canterbury and Westminster, Lincoln and Durham, +York and the rest would still remain all that they are to us and to +them. You cannot transplant history. In the homeland we are but trustees +of these treasures, and we ought to make them the home and centre of our +Imperial Christianity. In every one of them the priests of the Church in +the Overseas lands should not only be seen but heard. Is there no room +in Cathedral Chapters for Overseas representatives, so that in our daily +services in a new and living way we may be linked together in sacrament, +praise and prayer, and in the proclamation of Christian truth? One +Canonry for each historic building would mean more to Unity than many +resolutions at Congress. Perhaps that is as far as one ought to go in +suggestion, but there are other splendid possibilities that one would +love to discuss. No one thinking of Unity in the Empire can fail to +rejoice in the growing desire manifest among Christian Denominations for +Unity. I will not trench on another's subject beyond saying that the way +to Union is Unity, and that it would be tragic if in these momentous +days any stone was left unturned that would lead to better knowledge, +deeper understanding and sympathy between those who name the Name that +is above every name. And our people overseas have much to teach us in +this matter. Over great areas of social opportunity and service the +Catholic Church may act unitedly and must do so, if she is to enter on +offensive warfare and not stand for another generation on the defensive. +The war has made a difference here. Men, who in the conventional days of +peace rarely met, have joined hands in service. Catholic and Protestant, +Churchman and Free Churchman, have found joy in fellowship. That does +not mean that differences have disappeared, it means that, recognising +and estimating their differences, it has been possible to establish a +basis of co-operation, in knowledge, understanding, and sympathy, and to +recognise in one another the hall-mark of Christian faith and character. +Is this to be a war measure only? or is it to be one of the great gains +to be carried over into the days ahead? + +One other question clamours for treatment: the problem of the +evangelisation of the Empire. Christianity must be given its chance in +every corner of the Empire. There may be divergent opinions as to the +methods to be used, but if Christianity contains in its gospel the pearl +of great price, there can be no two opinions as to the obligation that +rests on us to bring to the nations federated with us this supreme gift. +Nothing can release us from that responsibility. To postpone the +presentation of the Christian gospel for any of the time-honoured +excuses: + +(1) our pre-occupation in matters of more urgent importance elsewhere, + +(2) any fear of the effects of Christianity on our political or +commercial interests, + +(3) the desire to live down prejudice and establish confidence, + +(4) the preparation of a people's mind by education before introducing a +new religion, + +--any one of these is treachery to the All-Father and to the family of +man, and a vital _praeparatio evangelica_ is being made. Let me +illustrate. + +It happened in a great marquee in France. On a summer evening in 1916 +the place was crowded with Indians. There was a group playing Indian +card games, there was a crowd round a gramophone with Indian records, at +the writing tables with great torment of spirit men were writing to +their homes. At the counter foods they loved were being provided. +Against one of the poles of the marquee stood a stately Indian of some +rank. He had been seen there often before. He rarely spoke but seemed +intensely interested. On this particular night the time arrived for the +closing of the tent. The little groups gradually disappeared and the +tent curtains were being replaced when the leader of the work found +himself addressed by the Indian: + + + Why do you serve us in this way? You are not here by Government + orders. You come when you like and you go when you like. There is + only one religion on earth that would lead its servants to serve in + this way, Christianity. I have been watching you men, and I have + come to the conclusion that Christianity will fit the East as it + can never fit the West. When the war is over I want you to send one + of your men to my village. We are all Hindus, but my people will do + what I tell them. + + +One of the ghastly tragedies of the war is that two great nations +nominally Christian are at each other's throats. In the world's eyes +Christian civilisation has broken down. We know better, but our +explanations will not carry far enough to correct the impression. Our +defence must be an offensive. + +It is certainly within the truth to say that we have not yet seen what +Christianity can do for a community or a nation where, as I put it +before, "it is given a chance." May it not be that in the Providence of +God the first great revelation of what Christianity can do for a nation +will be seen in one of the lands that have come under the Flag, and +among a people living under less complex conditions than ourselves? If +that is a possibility we ought to see that wherever the Flag flies, +there comes, with the unfurling of the Flag, the Gospel of Christ. + +This is directly in the interest of unity, and many problems that have +so far remained insoluble to our statesmen might discover the solution +in Christian leadership. + +I shall be pardoned I know for suggesting that the highest purposes of +unity may be served by the extension and development throughout the +Empire of such international organisations as the Student Christian +Movement, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., and, used at its highest values, +the Boy Scout Movement. There are others, but these are typical. They +are established movements built up on definite principles capable of +universal application, and yet each of them able to develop its +organisation on lines that recognise national psychology and character. +Each of them may become and aims at becoming indigenous everywhere, +giving freedom of method and action and free play to the moral and +intellectual activities of the people concerned, while they have certain +essential elements that are universally characteristic of them. In +addition, they give large numbers of Christian people an opportunity of +expressing their unity in service of the right kind. + +What was said about the Cathedrals is equally true of our two ancient +Universities. Mr Fisher's Education Bill may well mean more for Imperial +unity than almost any other single factor. It will mean an ever +increasing number of men to whom "Cambridge" and "Oxford" will be magic +words. If our view of culture is broad enough we shall see to it that +these two Universities become increasingly places where the children of +the Empire who are fit to graduate in them shall not lack the +opportunity of doing so. Because these ancient foundations link with the +past, because of all they may mean to the present and to the future, the +way to them should be made broad enough to admit the living stream of +Greater Britain's children, who by dint of gifts and industry have +proved their fitness to meet their peers in these delectable cities, +where the very air breathes the romance of British culture. Their right +of entry ought not to be won by the benefactions of private citizens, +though all who love knowledge are grateful enough for these, but should +be theirs by their citizenship in the Empire and their own tested +fitness. + +Nothing again is more hopeful in the present situation than the manifest +desire, widely felt and expressed, that the old class-antagonisms should +never be revived. Surely this is _the_ strategic moment in which we may +make the War once more contribute to a better state of things. Our +politicians are awake to the need and are inventing every kind of +machinery for bringing Capital and Labour together in Council Chambers +as co-partners in the Commerce of the Empire. But there are sinister +forces also at work, and this machinery can only run if it is +controlled by men of resolute good will. + +The War has been a great bridge-builder linking up in the fellowship of +discipline and sacrifice people between whom chasms yawned before. There +are knowledge and understanding and sympathy to-day amongst us. Yet many +of us are convinced that no purely political machinery can be made +effective in achieving so great a task as the making permanent of this +new and better condition. We need a new and abiding spirit of +conciliation, a deeper determination than political action can produce, +that things shall not relapse, that the forces of re-action shall not +triumph. The one hope of carrying over into permanence this new +understanding and appreciation lies in the nation becoming impregnated +with those spacious spiritual ideals that the Churches together +represent. Nothing is impossible to faith, and faith in God and man will +be kept astretch in the discipline that will be demanded of us all, in +the breaking down of false barriers that have grown up through the years +and the destruction of long-lived prejudices that will die hard. + +The Empire itself is a unity. It is not easy for English people to +realise all that is implied here. My great name-sake urged us in this +country to "think Imperially." Another voice asks us "What do they know +of England who only England know?" but it is hard for us to think except +in terms of England. For example, I have referred to this country as the +great treasure house of the Empire's history, and to the care and +devotion shewn by our kinsmen from Overseas in their study of our +country and its institutions. All of us realise how right that is, but +ought we not to reciprocate their devotion and regard, by much more +intense interest and study of their life and the developments of their +institutions? + +Our unity demands this wider culture, this reciprocity. The Motherland +must not only teach, she must be prepared to learn. She may lead, but +she must be prepared to follow. We have much to contribute, but in +Religion, in political and social ideals, and in commerce there is much +we need to receive. + +If our land is the great treasure house, are not these other lands great +laboratories where we might see, if we would only look, how some of our +accepted ideas, and notions, and watchwords are tested in a larger +arena? + +Are we so sure of ourselves that we are prepared to hold on to our own +experience as the final test of the truth and value of our theories? Or +are we big enough in the light of Imperial experience to revise our +judgment, to sift our theories, and to go forward carrying those which +stand the test of the wider arena, and being prepared to surrender those +which only seemed right and proper in the conventional setting of these +small islands? + +In conclusion, the Empire has come to power and unity on certain great +principles. Our Imperial ideals have been evolved out of experience all +over the world, and with all kinds of people, under the guidance of +distinguished leaders of many-sided gifts. In an Empire so diverse in +its constituent parts, including peoples at varied stages of +development, it is impossible that those ideals should be everywhere +expressed at their highest power. In many places our methods of +government must be tentative, but everywhere they must be progressive, +placing upon subject peoples the burden of government as rapidly as +they are able to bear it, providing every inspiration that can call them +upwards and onwards. Our tentative methods must never be allowed to +become permanent. We may be tutors, we must never become tyrants. We may +lead, direct, even control, but we may never be content until our people +are free, self-governing, rejoicing in the liberty that enables them to +choose whole-heartedly to remain in that Commonwealth of free peoples we +call the Empire. Along this path lie permanence and closer unity. In our +Imperial destiny it is the part of those who would be the greatest to +become the servants of all. + +Thank God for all who have laboured in this spirit to build our goodly +heritage. + + + + +UNITY BETWEEN NATIONS + +By the Rev. J. H. B. MASTERMAN, M.A. + + +In the previous lectures of this course you have been considering the +problem of home reunion. My task to-day is to remind you of the fact +that beyond the reunion of the Churches at home there lies the larger +problem of the realisation of the Christian ideal of a universal +brotherhood. How can this ideal be realised in a world divided into +nations? I am going to treat the subject historically; firstly because I +find myself incapable of treating it in any other way, and secondly +because you can only build securely if you build on the foundation of +the historic past. The State may ignore the lessons of the past, the +Church can never do so. + +How can we deal with the apparent antagonism between the centrifugal +force of nationality and the centripetal force of the Catholic ideal? +There are two possible answers that we cannot accept. It is possible for +religion to set itself against the development of national life, and +claim that a world-religion must find expression in a world-state. That +is the mediaeval answer. + +Or it is possible for religion to become subordinate to nationality at +the cost of losing the note of Catholicity, so that the consecration of +national life may seem a nobler task than the gathering of humanity into +conscious fellowship in one great society. This is the modern answer. + +With neither of these solutions can we be satisfied. The existence of +nations as units of political self-consciousness within the larger life +of humanity does, we believe, minister to the fulfilment of the purpose +of God. Whatever may be the case hereafter, the establishment of a +world-state, at the present stage in the evolution of human +institutions, would mean the impoverishment of the life of humanity. Yet +a Church that is merely national or imperial has missed the true +significance of its mission. + +At the beginning of the Christian era, the greatest attempt ever made to +gather all peoples into a universal society was actually in progress. +The Roman Empire was founded on the basis of a common administrative +system, and a common law--the _jus gentium_. It needed a common +religion. The effort to supply this passes through three stages. The +earliest of these is the stage of universal toleration which was made +possible by polytheism. A second stage soon follows. The various +religions of the Empire overflow one another's frontier-lines and a +synthesis begins, leading to the Stoic idea of the universal truth +expressed in many forms. But the popular mind was unable to rise to this +high conception, and the third stage begins towards the end of the first +century in the formal adoption of the worship of the Emperor as the +religious expression of the unity of the Empire. It was the opposition +of the Christian Church that did most to bring to naught this effort to +give a religious foundation to the unity of the Empire, and the attempt +of Constantine and Theodosius to make Christianity an Imperial religion +came too late to save the Empire from disintegration. + +For the unity of the Christian Church had been undermined. When +Christianity shook itself free from the shackles of Jewish nationalism, +it came under the influence of Greek thought. The theology and language +of the early Church were Greek. Even in Rome the Church was for at least +two centuries "a Greek colony." Hence the growth of Christianity was +slow in those western parts of the Empire that had not come under the +influence of Greek culture--Gaul, Britain, Spain, North Africa. Latin +Christianity found its centre in North Africa, where Roman culture had +imposed itself on the hard, cruel Carthaginian world. It is Carthage, +not Athens, that gives to Tertullian his harsh intolerance and to St +Augustine his stern determinism. So the way was prepared for what I +regard as the supreme tragedy of history--the falling apart of Eastern +and Western Christianity. Then, in the West, the unity of the Church is +broken by the conversion of the Teutonic peoples to Arianism, so that +the contest between the dying Empire in the West and the tribes pressing +on its frontiers is embittered by religious antagonism. The sword of +Clovis secured the victory of orthodoxy, but at what a cost! + +When the storm subsides, there emerges the august conception of the Holy +Roman Empire. For the noblest expression of the ideal of a universal +Christian Empire, read Dante's _De Monarchia_. The history of the Holy +Roman Empire is too large a subject to enter upon. It is important to +remember that the struggles between the Popes and the Emperors that fill +so large a space of mediaeval history were not struggles between Church +and State. Western Europe was conceived of as one Christian Society--an +attempt to realise the City of God of St Augustine's great treatise--and +the question at issue was whether the Pope or the Emperor was to be +regarded as the supreme head of this great society. + +The unity of Western Christendom found a crude, but real, expression in +the Crusades, and it is significant that the decline of the crusading +impulse coincides in time with the rise of national feeling in the two +western states, England and France. What was to be the attitude of the +Catholic Church towards this new national instinct? In the 14th and 15th +centuries the question becomes increasingly urgent, and the Council of +Constance may be regarded as the last sincere effort to find an answer. +The answer suggested there, to which the English Church still adheres, +was the recognition of a General Council of the Church as the supreme +spiritual authority. Such a General Council might gather the glory and +honour of the nations into the City of God, and might even, it was +hoped, restore the broken unity between East and West. How the Council +failed, how Constantinople was left to its fate, how a Papacy growing +more and more Italian in its interests brought to a head the +long-simmering revolt of the nations--all this you know. The Reformation +was, in part, a struggle of the nations to give religious expression to +their national life. The threefold bond that had held together the +Church of the West--the bond of common language, law and ceremonial--was +broken. + +At the threshold of the new order stand the figures of Luther and +Machiavelli, as champions of the supremacy of the State. True, Luther +thinks of the State as a Christian society, while Machiavelli is the +father of the modern German doctrine of the non-moral character of state +action. But the Augsburg compromise, _cujus regio_, _ejus religio_, was +a frank subordination of the Church to secular authority. The Tudor +sovereigns adopted the doctrine with alacrity, and imposed on the Church +of England a subjection to secular authority from which it has not yet +been able to disentangle itself. + +While Lutheranism tended to treat religion as a department of the State, +Calvinism claimed for the Church an authority that threatened the very +existence of the State. Calvinism represents the second attempt to give +practical expression to St Augustine's _Civitas Dei_, as the Holy Roman +Empire was the first. It failed, in part, because it lost its catholic +character, and became (as, for example, in Scotland) intensely national. +The disintegration of the Catholic Church in the West was helped by two +influences. The first was the return to the standards and ideals of the +Old Testament. The appeal of the reformers to Holy Scripture involved +the elevation of the Old Testament to the same level of authority as the +New. The crude nationalism of Judaism obscured the Christian idea of a +universal brotherhood--St Paul's secret hidden from the foundation of +the world, to be revealed in the fulness of time in the Christian +gospel. Even now we hardly realise how largely our ideas of religion are +derived from the imperfect moral standards of the Old Testament. The +other influence was the identification of the Papacy with the Antichrist +of the Book of Revelation--the Protestant answer to the Roman +excommunication of heretics. The idea of a common Christianity deeper +than all national antagonisms hardly existed in the Europe of the later +half of the 16th century. + +Nearly a century of wars of religion was followed by seventy years of +war in which the national idea played the leading part. The +internationalism of the 18th century was a reaction against both +religion and nationality. The Napoleonic struggle, and the Romantic +revival, with its appeal to the past, re-awakened the national instinct. +In France, Spain, Russia, Prussia, and Eastern Europe, national +self-consciousness was stirred into life. In Russia and Spain, and among +the Balkan peoples, this national awakening took a definitely religious +character. But it was Italy that produced the one thinker to whom the +real significance of nationality was revealed. Mazzini recognised, more +clearly than any other political teacher of the time, how Nationalism +founded on religion might lead to the brotherhood of nations in a world +"made safe for democracy." The last century has been an epoch of +exaggerated national self-consciousness. Against the aggressive +tendencies of the greater nations, the smaller nations strove to protect +themselves. Italy, Poland, Bohemia, Serbia, Greece, strove with varying +degrees of success to achieve national self-expression. Nation strove +with nation in a series of contests, of which the present war is the +culmination. + +The influence of Christianity was impotent to prevent war; though it was +able to do something to restrain its worst excesses. Where the +centrifugal force of nationality comes into opposition to the +centripetal force of the Christian ideal, it is generally the former +that wins. How is this impotence to be accounted for? Four reasons at +least maybe noted. (1) The "inwardness" of Lutheranism, combined with +the cynicism of the Machiavellian doctrine of the non-moral character of +public policy led, especially in Germany, to an entire disregard of the +principles of Christianity in the public policy of the State. Nations +did not even profess to be guided by Christian principles in their +dealings with each other. The noble declaration of Alexander I remained +a piece of "sublime nonsense" to statesmen like Metternich and +Castlereagh, and their successors. (2) The internal life of the nations +was, and is, only partially Christianised. Nations cannot regulate their +external policy on Christian principles unless those principles are +accepted as authoritative in their internal affairs. (3) The influence +of Christianity has been hindered, to a degree difficult to exaggerate, +by the unhappy divisions that, especially in England and in the United +States, have made it impossible for the Church to speak with a united +voice. (4) The idea of the Sovereignty of the State and its supreme +claim on the life of the individual, with which Dr Figgis has dealt with +illuminating insight in his _Churches in the Modern State_, has +prevented the idea of the Churches as local expressions of a universal +society from exercising the corrective influence that it ought to +exercise on the over-emphasis of State independence. + +The State is only one of the various forms in which national life +expresses itself. It is the nation organised for self-protection. And +wherever self-protection becomes the supreme need, the State, like +Aaron's rod, swallows all the rest. But in many directions, the world +has become, or is becoming, international. Science and philosophy, and, +to a lesser degree, theology and art, have become the common possession +of all civilised nations. The effort to make commerce the expression of +international fellowship, with which the name of Cobden is associated, +failed, largely as the result of the German policy of high tariffs, but +its defeat is only temporary, and the commercial interdependence of +nations will reassert its influence when the present phase of +international strife is over. The function of the Church is to express +the common life and interests of nations, as the State expresses the +distinctive character of each. So the Church holds to the four universal +things--the authority of Holy Scripture; the Creeds; the two Sacraments, +and the historic episcopate. We believe that the retention of the +historic Episcopate is essential to the maintenance of the Catholic +ideal of the Church. For the bishop is the link between the local and +the universal Church; the representative and guardian of the Catholic +ideal in the life of the local community; and the representative of the +local community in the counsels of the Catholic Church. I have often +wished that at least one bishop from some other Church than our own +could be associated with the consecration of all bishops of the Anglican +Church. For by such association we should bring into clearer prominence +the fact that the historic episcopate is more than a national +institution. + +So we reach the final question: What can the Churches do to promote the +unity of the nations? + +An invitation was recently issued by the Archbishop of Upsala for a +conference of representatives of the Christian Churches, to reassert, +even in this day of disunion, the essential unity of the Body of Christ. +For various reasons, such a conference at the present juncture seems +impracticable, but the time may come when, side by side with a Congress +of the nations, a gathering of representatives of the Churches may be +called together to reinforce, by its witness, the idea of international +fellowship. + +For a League of Churches might well prepare the way for a League of +Nations. Such a League of Churches would naturally find expression in a +permanent Advisory Council--a kind of ecclesiastical Hague tribunal. +Historical antagonisms seem to preclude the selection of Rome or +Constantinople as the place of meeting of this Council. Surely there is +no other place so suited for the purpose as Jerusalem. Here the +appointed representatives of all the Churches, living in constant +intercourse with one another, might draw together the severed parts of +the One Body, till the glory and honour of the nations find, even in the +earthly Jerusalem, their natural centre and home. Thus, and thus only, +can the spiritual foundation for a League of Nations be well and truly +laid. + +Two things are involved in any such scheme for a League of Churches. No +one Church must claim a paramount position or demand submission as the +price of fellowship; and all excommunications of one Church by another +must be swept away. + +Christ did not come to destroy the local loyalties that lift human life +out of selfish isolation. These loyalties only become anti-Christian +when they become exclusive. The early loyalty of primitive man to his +family or clan was deemed to involve a normal condition of antagonism to +neighbouring families or clans. Turn a page of history, and tribal +loyalty has become civic loyalty. But civic loyalty, as in the cities of +Greece or Italy or Flanders, involves intermittent hostility with +neighbouring cities. Then civic loyalty passes into national loyalty, +and again patriotism expresses itself in distrust and antipathy to other +nations. And this will also be so till we see that all these local +loyalties rest on the foundation of a deeper loyalty to the Divine +ideal of universal fellowship that found its supreme expression in the +Incarnation and its justification in the truth that God so loved the +world. + +To the Christian man national life can never be an end in itself but +always a means to an end beyond itself. A nation exists to serve the +cause of humanity; by what it gives, not by what it gets, will its worth +be estimated at the judgment-bar of God. + +"Whoso loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" must +have seemed a hard saying to those to whom it was first spoken; and +"whoso loveth city or fatherland more than me is not worthy of me" may +seem a hard saying to us to-day; yet nothing less than this is involved +in our pledge of loyalty to Christ. Christian patriotism never found +more passionate expression than in St Paul's wish that he might be +anathema for the sake of his nation; yet passionately as he loved his +own people, he loved with a deeper passion the Catholic Church within +which there was neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor +free. It is because the idea of the Catholic Church has become to the +majority of Christian people a matter of intellectual assent rather than +of passionate conviction that the Church seems impotent in international +affairs. + +The last four centuries of European history have had as their special +characteristic the development of nations. It may be that after this war +we shall pass into a new era. The special feature of the period now +closing has been the insecurity of national life. Menaced with constant +danger, every nation has tended to develop an exaggerated +self-consciousness that was liable to become inflamed and +over-sensitive. If adequate security can be provided, by a League of +Nations, or in some other way, for the free development of the national +life of every nation, the senseless over-emphasis of nationality from +which the past has suffered will no longer hinder the growth of a true +Internationalism. I believe that the real alternative lies not between +Nationality and Internationalism but between an Internationalism +founded, like that of the 18th century, on non-Christian culture and +materialism, and an Internationalism founded on the consecration of all +the local loyalties that bind a man to family, city and nation, lifting +him through local spheres of service to the service of the whole human +race for whom Christ died. The tree whose leaves are for the healing of +the nations grows only in the City of God. The Christian forces in the +world are impotent to guide the future, because they are entangled in +the present. Yet it is in the Holy Catholic Church that the one hope for +humanity lies. It may be that that hope will never be realised; that the +Holy Catholic Church is destined to remain to the end an unachieved +ideal. But it is by unachieved ideals that men and nations live; and +what matters most for every Christian man is that he should keep the +Catholic mind and heart that reach out through home and city and country +to all mankind, and rejoice that every man has an equal place in the +impartial love of God. + + +CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY +J. B. PEACE, M.A., +AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The War and Unity, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR AND UNITY *** + +***** This file should be named 18905.txt or 18905.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/0/18905/ + +Produced by Irma Spehar, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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