ONENESS IN CHRIST.

THE keynote of our Saviour's prayer to His Father for those whom He had given Him, is, "that they may be one, as we are." And for those also who shall believe on Him through their word, He breathes the same desire" that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me."

In this wonderful prayer of our Lord there are five petitions that His disciples and other believers should be one, and twice the reason assigned is, that the world may believe that God has sent Him.

The love and unity which exist amongst the children of God are a constant testimony to a Heavenly Father's love and care over them. How can the world believe in this when they see a lack of unity and kindness amongst those who have accepted the same great salvation! What can be more binding than our Lord's words-" I in them"! To have the same life flowing through us all! to have the same love shed abroad in our hearts by His Holy Spirit! surely we should let this so manifest itself to those around us that the world might believe in a God of Love.

If there is one thing in Christendom which, more than anything else, is grieving the Holy Spirit of God, is it not the want of love and unity between His Churches? Does not this account for their state of

formality and lifelessness, for how can they rise to spiritual vigour when they are wanting the very essence of it, even the "dwelling in love," "the abounding in love one toward another" (1 Thess. iii. 12, 13) ? However varied our circumstances, or the way in which we have received the Light of Life, we are, notwithstanding, called to unity in Christ-not uniformity, but fellowship of Life in Christ. It cannot be gained through outward conformity, nor even by the reconciling of views and doctrines. No, it is deeper than all beliefs, for its source is in the living Spirit.

God's testimony to the Truth is not complete in any denomination, but may be seen as a part in each, Is not this a reason that we should so draw close together in the Life, that we may gather up "the broken lights," or fragments of Truth, and if we cannot unite them because they are so broken, we may in God's Light behold their beauty and purity?

By one Spirit we are all baptised into one body." If we yielded ourselves to be led of the Spirit, He would livingly unite our hearts in the bond which is stronger than all beliefs and dogmas,-even in Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The highest dignitary in the Church, and the lowliest peasant, alike tread the one Way, feed on the one Truth, and live the one Life-Christ!

Is it not sad to think, that although we meet at the same well of salvation we cannot draw water with joy, because some who have come for the same refreshment hold different views from ourselves? Oh, if we drank continually into one and the same Spirit, who leads into all truth, we should discover that these wars and divisions are from the enemy of our souls, who knows that they are a sure means of marring all our joy and peace in believing (1 Cor. i. 10).

The fact is we have need of one another-we need this fellowship in Christ to enlarge our hearts. Then

let all our differences be lost in the joy of our oneness, and so let us walk together in the Light of Life that we may be enabled to comprehend with all saints the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fulness of God.

There need be no descending in our spiritual life in order to preserve this unity with other believers; it proceeds from the highest level of experience— the being filled by the one Spirit-Christ in us the hope of glory. Nothing is more uniting to the Christian Church than to view itself as one family, bound together by spiritual affinities just as the earthly family is by natural affinities. The name, or power, or being, of this great family, is our Lord Jesus Christ! He draws us all under one common Fatherhood; He teaches us to say, "Our Father"! It is sweet to say it with Him! to come as children together to worship in deepest reverence and joy, our Father! Oh what is it that can cause separation in this Heavenly Household? Let our prayer be that the Holy Spirit should so empty our hearts of self, of its pride, jealousies and fear of man; and should so fill us with Christ, with His meekness and love, that we might draw close together in Him. As Pastor Stockmayer has beautifully said: "When the heart is empty then there is room for the Father and the Son; and when they have come in, there is room for the disciples also; not for some of the disciples only, those who sympathise with us, but for all; . . . and when there is room for all the disciples, there is room for the poor lost souls outside"!

How much more power from God we should have in His service; how much more of the joy of the Lord, if we breathed nothing but love towards our fellow-creatures. Then they would believe that God so loved them that He sent His Son to redeem them.

The Rev. A. M. Christophers, of Oxford, says :

"Nothing more is required for this heart-union between Christians than simple obedience to one of Christ's commandments- A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you' (John xiii. 34). . . . The Lord is able and willing to work at this time even a greater miracle of love than the cleansing of the lepers. He is able to cleanse millions of Christians from the leprosy of sectarian bitterness."

Another like-spirited and holy-minded clergyman who has now passed to his rest, the Rev. W. Pennefather, has written as follows:-"Surely we may be living as risen with Christ, whether connected with the Church of England or not. I love to take Christians of different denominations on the ground of brotherhood! Has not the one Father created us, and watched over us? Has not the Son redeemed us, bought us with His blood, called us His friends? Has not the one Spirit sanctified us and sealed us to the day of redemption? Do we not journey on the same road to the same home? Are we not limbs of the same body, branches of the same Vine, stones of the same building? Why then, when our Heavenly Father has brought us together to talk together of the things that have happened,' why waste the precious moments in fighting with one another, because not clothed in the same colour, on this our one path and journey? A sight of the Lord's children should always be a joy to our heart." And now he has reached that shore where no divisions can ever come, for Christ is all and in all.

When our Lord comes to receive His saints will they be ready for the pure white Bridal attire if stained with harsh sectarianism? Will they be ready for that Home of Love? Will they be ready to share it with those whom on earth they shunned, because differing in religious belief? They will find all one

there! One will, one purpose, one joy animating all -no doctrines and creeds and differences, but simply an intermingling of the pure Life. Would that they had begun while on earth to join together in that glad song "Unto Him who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, unto Him be glory," &c.

The occasion of the 133rd Psalm, that beautiful song of David on the loveliness of Christian unity, was when the tribes of Israel united with those of Judah in electing him king in Hebron (2 Sam. v. 1, 2; 1 Chron. xi. 1-3) and if all the denominations in Christendom would unite in electing the Lord Jesus as their King, and all their elders join in anointing Him King of all the earth ;-then the Holy Oil would run over us, and the world would be constrained to say, "The Lord, He is God."

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The Rev. W. H. Aitken, in his sermon on Christian Unity, says: Unity to be real must begin within. The unity of the Gospel is primarily a unity of the Spirit, and it is to such unity as this that the text calls our attention-Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' But what sort of unity? The bond of unity, the element which binds all together is like the precious ointment upon the head which ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, which went down to the skirts of his garments.' It is the unction of the Holy Spirit, which, resting first upon the Great Head of the Church, descends even to the very skirts of His garments, making all one by sanctifying all. The more we know in our own personal experience of that Divine unction, the more shall we be united together."

He also speaks of the wonderful reality of the comparison-"As the dew of Hermon that descended upon the mountains of Zion;" that only those who have seen the golden summit of Hermon towering