Day 23

 I do not need to tell you that our Lord came among us to re-establish true fellowship among men.  On of the great doctrines of the Church, not generally recognized as such, is the doctrine of the unity of mankind.  It is a sober statement, which is revealed in our missionary work, that no other factor in history has so contributed to the unity of mankind as has the Christian faith.

“The goal of history”, says one man, “is anticipated in the worldwide fellowship of the Church.  To a world destined to survive or expire as one world we bring a world Church.”  In the ancient Church, barriers and traditional spite fences fell; and Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, rich and poor, were knit together by God’s love into God’s family.  The destiny of this fervent fellowship was great; that all men should be brought into this fellowship and rise in it to their true selves.  Christ had come, died, and risen again for the sake of the world; and all men were to become one in Him.  Man separated from God and dominated by self-will had been set against his neighbor, and the “cries of race and clan” were bitter;  but the God who made us all came to join us all in Him.

And so it has marched down the centuries, sometimes forgetting it was a fellowship and falling into legal and authoritarian molds, but recovering and renewing itself.  Sometimes the divisions of the world, “the cries of race and clan” have intruded themselves into the Church’s life;  but again the Holy Spirit, Love, has warred against our self-will and renewed the Church.

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