McG-1-LETTER I.

LETTER I.

Dear Sir:--Though we are strangers to each other in the flesh, I feel inclined to regard you with great respect, from seeing your name at the head of a movement in favor of the union of Christians. I learn from one of the Cincinnati daily papers that you presided over a meeting of nearly all the clergy of that city, which was called "for the promotion of the union of churches." An Association was there formed, to be styled the "Christian Union Association of Cincinnati;" the avowed object of which is "to make more manifest the already existing spiritual unity, to remove the sin and manifold evils incident to divisions, and to promote a closer and more effective co-operation in evangelizing the world." Of this Association you are the honored President, while its subordinate officers and Board of Directors embrace sixteen of the Cincinnati clergy, representing twelve distinct denominations. It is a matter for sincere congratulation that, contrary to the sentiment which so generally prevails among the clergy of the Episcopal Church, you have had the magnanimity to take a prominent part in a movement such as this. The good wishes of all who love the Lord Jesus will be with you, and they will pray the Lord to grant you success even above your anticipation.

I am myself a member of an Association of Christians, drawn together from all the different denominations, whose object is almost identical with yours. It may, indeed, be expressed in your own words: "To remove the sin and manifold evils incident to divisions, and to promote a closer and more effective co-operation in evangelizing the world." We have already succeeded in bringing into this co-operation several hundred thousand persons, chiefly in the Mississippi Valley, and we find that the effects of the union are exceedingly gratifying. We find our individual happiness greatly promoted, and our efforts at evangelizing the world rendered successful above all precedent since the days of the apostles. We have had an experience of nearly half a century in the good work which you and your associates are just inaugurating, and you will not therefore consider it presumption that we consider ourselves capable of making you some valuable suggestions. We are then more bold to do this, from ardent love which we cherish for the cause of union, and from the large amount of reading, reflection, and counsel which we have devoted to the subject. In the preamble to the constitution of your Association you make one assumption, which is also a fundamental one in our own movement. It is the assumption that "sin and manifold evils are incident to divisions." Unless this were true, your Association would be aimless and useless. We are happy to welcome you as joint witnesses with us to the reality of this sin and these evils. Your testimony affords as the greater comfort from the fact, that we have been very generally contradicted by your brethren in the ministry, when we have borne the same testimony. They have denied that the existing divisions are sinful, and have persuaded the people, that, in place of the "manifold evils" to which you testify, there are manifold blessings arising from the present diversity of religious parties. We praise you for rising above the prevailing sentiment, and taking a position on this question beside the Apostle Paul. When the single church at Corinth was disturbed by factions, which had not yet gone so far as to form separate organizations, he rebuked them in these words: "Since envy and strife and divisions are among you, are you not carnal, and do you not walk as men?" How much severer would have been his rebuke if they had separated into half a dozen distinct organizations, erected many different houses of worship, and adopted by-laws to perpetuate their division? But such is the sin of modern times; except that it spreads from city to city, and nation to nation, and multiplies its evils as it spreads abroad. I pray you, Bishop, and all your associates, as you love the Lord, never cease to cry out against this terrible sin.

Another important point in which your movement coincides with our own is this: while you admit the existence of "spiritual unity" among the twelve denominations which you represent, you do not consider this sufficient; but you locate the sin, and the manifold evils of which you speak, in divisions which exist notwithstanding this spiritual unity. You declare, in words already quoted, that the object of your organization is "to make more manifest the existing spiritual unity, to remove the sin and manifold evils of divisions, and to promote a closer and more effective co-operation in evangelizing the world." The sin of which you speak certainly cannot be in the "existing spiritual unity;" it must then be in divisions which exist in despite of this unity. In this assumption, also, you are in advance of the great mass of your ministerial brethren; for we can testify, by a long and varied experience with them, that they almost uniformly declare the "spiritual unity" to be all that the Word of God requires. It is to be hoped that the influence of your Association will spread among them, far and wide, a better understanding of this subject. The second article of your constitution requires you to hold "public meetings," and "ministerial meeting," on the subject, "to provide for the distribution of tracts and books, and to take such other measures as shall increase and make more manifest our brotherly love, and lead to the more perfect unity of the church and the conversion or the world." The Lord grant you abundant success in this work, and enable you soon to convince all of your brethren that it is a great sin to oppose it. With this much in the general aspect of your proceedings to give us pleasure, we regret to observe one thing to give us pain. It is stated by the newspaper reporter, that while the speakers at the meeting, including yourself, T. J. Melish, of the Baptist Church, Dr. Reid, of the Methodist Church, and Dr. Thompson, of the Presbyterian Church, "agreed fully as to the importance of union," you "differed considerably as to the practicability of it." This is unfortunate. If men undertake an enterprise, doubting its practicability, they can work for it with only half a heart. And why should union be thought impracticable by men who admit the sin of divisions, who are already spiritually united, and who are, in your own words, "all renewed by the same Holy Spirit?" The only obstacle to the union of the Corinthians was their carnality. Paul could not speak to them "as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." But you are not carnal, if so be that the Holy Spirit has renewed you all, and there is already "spiritual unity" among you. Surely there is no room for any among you to doubt the practicability of union, unless he doubts the spirituality of "evangelical Christians," and thinks they are carnal. If this is the ground of doubt, I would suggest to you the propriety of inquiring into the fact of the case; for if they are carnal, and not spiritual, there is a mistake about the supposed "spiritual unity" which you assume to exist, and you will never succeed in your enterprise until this carnality is removed. I confess to you, Bishop, that I have some doubt on this point myself. As sure as your Association fails of its object, it will be on account of carnality of its members, or of the churches which they represent; and if they prove to be thus carnal, people will not easily believe that there exists among them much of even that spiritual unity of which they boast. But I will take the liberty to address you again on this interesting theme, and will detain you no longer at present. I will cause a copy of the paper containing this letter to be mailed to you, and to each of the officers of your Association, as a proof of my desire to co-operate with you in a good work.

Yours for the union of Christians,

J. W. MCGARVEY.