prayed for his immediate disciples, then for all believers, in these words: "Neither pray I for these [twelve] alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 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" (verses 20, 21).

Such unity is a real standard. It will convince the world. The practical force of this last scripture can not be lessened by reference to those other words of Jesus, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another" (John 13: 35), for Jesus taught the inseparable nature of love and unity. Love, as an inward affection, produces deeds and results, and is measured thereby. Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14: 23). And just as love to God invariably produces union with God, so also true love to man will result in unity. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18). Carnal divisions can not exist where true love reigns.

For this visible unity Christ prayed—"That they all may be one,... that the world may believe." More than this, he died that unity might be effected. John 11:52 clearly shows that one purpose of Christ's death was that "he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." Therefore unity of believers is a sacred truth resting on the solid basis of the atonement. That this unity is more than that general union resulting from the personal attachment of separate individuals to Christ as a common center, is proved by the fact that it is designed to gather together in one the scattered children of God. Jesus himself said, "Other sheep I have [Gentiles], which are not of this [Jewish] fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and THERE SHALL BE ONE FOLD [flock] AND ONE SHEPHERD" (John 10:16).

Broadly speaking, there were at that time but two classified divisions of men—Jews and Gentiles. Jesus predicted that his sheep from both sections should be brought together into one flock. In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul tells us how this was accomplished. Although "in times past" the Gentiles were "strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world," in Christ they were "made nigh by the blood." "For he is our peace, who hath made both [Jews and Gentiles] ONE, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us ... that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross" (verses 12-16). Since this glorious reunion through Christ, the Gentiles "are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." They also "are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ... in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (verses 19-22).

On account of the high standard of unity set forth in his epistles, Paul has been branded an idealist. But what shall we say of Christ who prayed for such visible unity and died for it? An idealist is one who forms picturesque fancies, one given to romantic expectations impossible of accomplishment. The idealist usually has but few practical results. But Paul accomplished things. He broke away from his Jewish prejudices, which brought down upon his head the wrath of his fellows. He went into the synagogs of the Jews and brought out those who were willing to become disciples of Jesus. To build up the work of the Lord he labored night and day with tears; he laid broad and deep the very foundations of the Christian faith in heathen lands. Within a very few years he established Christian churches in four provinces of the Roman Empire—churches in which Jew and Gentile met together in common fellowship, in one body. If this is idealism, Lord, give us many more such idealists.

But the unity described by Paul in the epistles which he wrote late in life is not given as a mere ideal standard for the future toward which men should strive. It is given as the record of a historic fact, the accomplishment of which lay at the very foundation of Paul's call to the ministry.

In the second chapter of Ephesians, already quoted, Paul declares that both Jews and Gentiles were reconciled to God in one body by the cross. In the next chapter he shows his part in the accomplishment of that end. First, he was called of God as the apostle of the Gentiles; then by revelation was made known unto him "the mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men ... that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and OF THE SAME BODY, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3:4-6). The promise referred to was doubtless the "promise of the Father," the gift of the Holy Ghost. "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:14). "For this cause," says Paul, "I was made a minister ... that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery ... to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3: 1-10).

Paul was given a tremendous task—"TO MAKE ALL MEN SEE" that mystery. This task required from God "the effectual working of his power" (verse 7). And in another place he also shows that this power was not lacking: "For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God" (Rom. 15: 18, 19).

Paul, then, was divinely commissioned "to make all men see" the mystery of this union of all classes of men "in one body by the cross" (Eph. 2: 16), all in "the SAME body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3: 6). And when Paul's career was finished, the same mystery was given over to others that it might be "known BY THE CHURCH" (verse 10), "the church, which is his body" (Eph. 1: 22, 23). The ministry, then, should have held the ground already attained, the actual union of all the saved in one body, and have labored earnestly "to make all men see" that that body only is the church.

CHAPTER III

THE LOCAL CHURCH

The words of Christ, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16: 18), convey a deeper meaning than the simple preaching of the kingdom. As we have already shown, the one specific personal act by virtue of which Christ became the founder of the church was his atonement on Calvary, where the church was "purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20: 28). The church, then, as an institution, resulted from the atonement. Paul, describing the union of Jews and Gentiles in one body, the church, declares that it was effected "by the cross" (Eph. 2: 16).

There was power in redemption. It brought into the lives of believers forces that could not but unite them in social compact. It threw them together in living sympathy and united their hearts firmly in the strong bonds of brotherly love. Their outward organic union as a church was the natural and inevitable result of this inward life and love.