VISIBLE FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN CHRISTIANS. ITO THR EDITOR OP Till "
SPECTATOR:1 SID,—We have been invited by the Archbishops of the English Church, conjointly with the heads of other Christian bodies, to an " effort of prayer " at Whitsuntide.
They all "agree in believing profoundly that Our Lord Jesus Christ meant us to be one in visible fellowship," but as to " the ways by which we are to be drawn together," they impress on us that" what we need is that God should open our minds and hearts to receive without prejudice the gradual revelation of His will." They go on to say that " we all need open and candid minds to receive light, so that in ways we perhaps as yet can hardly imagine we may be led back towards unity." But the only practical step the co-signatories propose, the only "way by which we are to be drawn together," is that we should "prepare our congrega- tions for a united effort of prayer" on Whit-Sunday separately, in our several places of worship.
Now we all agree that it is of little or no avail to pray for any- thing that we do not diligently seek for, as is well expressed in the homely proverb, " God helps those who help themselves." I venture, therefore, to submit, with all respect, that the separate devotional exercises in church and chapel at Whitsuntide should be led up to, or followed up by, united conference and prayer. I have held such meetings now for nearly thirty years in my various parishes, and can bear Witness to their practical value in pro- moting the object in view. Nay, they not only promote visible fellowelhip, they actually are the thing itself ! While looking forward to being "led by ways that we perhaps as yet can hardly imagine," we surely must not neglect perfectly obvious ways always open to us. It is well to remember that the only "note of the true Church" which can claim the authority of the Divine Founder is defined by Him as follows : " By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples, if ye have love one to another." This can only mean that visible brotherliness and fellowship actually is for all time the distinguishing mark of the members of His Church, and that any who claim such membership and are without this distinctive mark are not owned as His members by the Head of the Church. When His Disciples wrangled about place, He simply denied their title to be members of, or even to have eyes to see, the Kingdom of God, until a change of mind and heart and spirit should come over them (aercirma). As to merely outward distinctions and ecclesiastical divisions, they are simply nihil ad rem. There is as much lack of brotherly love, and even of "visible fellowship," between parties and factions in the same Church as between members of different Churches.
Eccles Vicarage.
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