The Unity of the Spirit
“*For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father,” — EpPH. ii. 18.
TANAND so there may be a union amidst the A 3 utmost difference of views. What difference of opinion could be so
great as that between Jew and Gentile; they were the poles of religious thought. Yet Paul says that in the sight of God these might be esteemed the worshippers in one common temple, ““we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” What is that one Spirit which in spite of diverse forms and features can make us in God’s eye one family still? It is the life of sacrifice, of self-forgetfulness, of brotherhood; that is the Spirit of our Father. Paul says that if we have that Spirit we are Christians though oceans of thought lie between us. I may call myself a follower of Cephas, and you may call yourself a follower of Apollos, but if we have taken up the cross of the great Burdenbearer there is in heaven’s sight no more sea; we stand hand in hand before the judgment seat of Christ; through Him we both have access to the heart of the Father.
Spirit of the cross, Spirit of the Son of man, let our rival sects and parties be united in Thee. We are postponing our union until we come into the unity of the faith; that is not Thy method. Thou callest us to the unity of love — love in spite of intellectual difference, love independent of contrary opinions. - My brother and I cannot agree about the name we should give to Thy light; may we not shake hands without such agreement? Is not Thy light beautiful called by any name, called by no name? We are agreed about Thy beauty and about the love of Thy beauty; unite us in that love. Unite us in the love for man as man, in the sympathy for those wants which are universal because they are human. Unite us in the sorrow for the sorrowful, in the heaviness for the burdened, in the perplexity for those that have lost their way. Unite us on the road to Galilee, on the mission to the valley of the shadow of death. Unite us in the pity for the poor, in the distress for the desolate, in the help for the homeless, in the succour for the sinful. Then can we afford to wait for the unity of the faith. Then can we postpone our differences about the name we shall give to Thy light, for Thine unnamed light shall itself be our guide, and the glory of its sacrificial flame shall lead us both into the presence of the Father.