Christian Unanimity

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.” — Philippians iv. 2.

St. Paul does not ask that these women should be of the same mind, but that they should be of the same mind “in the Lord.” In the things of earth unanimity of opinion is not attainable. Euodias and Syntyche need not be of the same mind in the gallery of physical beauty. One may prefer Raphael, the other Angelo. One may adore the gentle, the other the sublime. One may be riveted to the vale; the other may have the eye fixed upon the mountain’s brow. But in the moral gallery there is one figure which brooks no diversity of judgment; it is Christ, He is the absolute beauty — the union of all beauties. Raphael and Angelo meet there. The tender and the sublime meet there. The valley and the mount meet there. There rest in unity what we hold in contrast. Peter’s fire and John’s gentleness, Mary’s mysticism and Martha’s practicalness, Paul’s depth and Nathaniel’s guilelessness — they all rest there. There meet the lordly tree and the simple flower; there blend the river and the stream; there unite the man and the child; there repose the lion and the lamb. We can all gather there.

Unite our hearts, O Lord, to praise Thy name! None else can unite us. I must go up to heaven if I want to be made one with earth. All things below divide me from my brother — my home and its interests, my wealth and its requirements, my Church and its governments. The earth shows many suns — a sun in the river, a sun in the pool, a sun in the brook, a sun in the sea, a sun on the garden wall. But when I raise my eyes to heaven these many suns are all one and the same. Men are quarrelling below about which is the best sun. Some hold by that in the river, some swear by that in the pool, some walk by that on the garden wall. They would all be at one if they looked up to Thee.

Thy light is the union of the many lights — the river, the pool, the brook, the sea, the garden wall. Unite our little systems, O Lord! Let them cease to he — not by annihilation but by absorption! Let them fade, not into darkness, but into united light! Take away the separating rim from each of them! Reveal the delusion of the many suns! Tell the diverse worshippers that they have all been unconsciously seeking Thee! Tell them that the sun in the river, and the sun in the pool, and the sun in the sea, and the sun on the garden wall are all fragments of one light — Thy light — the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever! We shall all be of one mind when we look at the sky.