At the instant of the fall of man a voice spoke out the promise of salvation for all the earth. That promise was enforced in law, announced in psalm, proclaimed in prophecy and taught in gospel. History is the effort of Providence to fulfill the promise. The Bible is a partial record of that work. And at the end of time the Lamb's book of life will tell the complete story of man's redemption. The church was organized to carry this simple, yet sublime, truth to the ends of the earth. We are here to save the world from sin and establish it in righteousness by preaching the gospel to every creature. This is the task to which God has called us and for which alone he has adequately equipped us. The great commission of our Lord demands all the time, talent and energy of all God's people. It overshadows all problems, subordinates all interests and shows the unworthiness and extreme [195] littleness of prejudice and party strife and makes Christian unity an imperative necessity. The spirit of unity breathes in its every fiber and animates its every word. And its twofold purpose is to unify the church of God and Christianize the world. As the great world powers, steam and electricity, are

W. E. ELLIS.

breaking down the partition walls that separate nations, making this old world a whispering gallery, so are the dynamics of the great commission, incarnate in the Disciples of Christ, tearing down the walls of prejudice and party spirit that have too long divided God's people, and are massing all forces for the final conflict with the powers of darkness.

      This great Restoration movement, whose one-hundredth anniversary we celebrate to-day, was born in answer to the Saviour's prayer that his people might be one, that the world might believe, and came upon the stage of action to accomplish its twofold mission, made imperative by the divided state of Christendom and the lost condition of the world. This is the work God has called us to do, and the only work. We are here to persuade the people of God to be reconciled to each other, and to persuade the world to be reconciled to God. We stand in the attitude of ambassadors for Christ, beseeching Christian people to lay down their weapons of warfare against each other, and pleading with the world to lay down its weapons of warfare against God. Our message is a message if reconciliation. We must be the incarnation of fellowship, fraternity and friendliness to other Christians, the embodiment of compassion and sympathy and love to the world. This is our peculiar business. And if we fail in this, we fail completely.

      The purpose of the Declaration and Address, whose one-hundredth anniversary we celebrate to-day, is to promote the unity for which Jesus prayed. This was the burning purpose in the heart of Thomas Campbell, and the spirit of brotherliness breathes in every word of this wonderful document, and his life and teachings are the embodiment of the same fraternal spirit. If this is not the purpose of the Declaration and Address, then we have failed to catch the meaning of his words. The author did not seek to wage warfare on any religious body. He was not a fighter, but a minister of mercy bearing a peace message. He never dreamed of battling his way to victory by demanding union at the point of the bayonet. It was not warfare against other Christians, but loving appeal to all Christians to lay aside all partyism and exclusiveness and present a united front against the powers of darkness. Whether the Disciples have been understood or misunderstood, this is their mission, and their influence has made its impression on the Christian world. For the tremendous strides that have been made toward Christian unity, and the trend in that direction to-day, are due in large measure to the hundred years of effort and sacrifice that the Disciples have made. The long-neglected prayer of our Saviour for the unity of the church, emphasized and made prominent by the Disciples through a century of glorious history, is forcing Christian people to terms among themselves. The dynamics of this divine ideal, incarnate in this great religious body, is forcing our comities and compromises out of the reckoning, and breaking down the walls of partyism that have so long divided the Christian world. It may seem little to accomplish in a hundred years. But this is not for us to count. God takes care of consequences. The race of denominationalism for the ascendency is at last giving way to the amassing of all forces for the evangelization of the world. This was the dream of our fathers. They labored to this end, and we are on the verge of entering into the glorious realization of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all," as more and more we become one by a common obedience to our Lord's last commission. It is too late now for retreat and compromise. [196] This is forever impossible. So are sectarianism and discourtesy to one who has caught the meaning of our mission. It is too late now to be discussing the plan of Christian unity. It is high time for us to be the very embodiment of it in every fiber of our being, in every thought and heart-throb. Neither is this the time for theological disputations about Christian unity, for the world believes it and desires it. It is time for us to advance with open arms and tender appeal and holy love, the very embodiment of the Master's spirit when he prayed "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." Almost in sight of the cross, and with the burden of the lost world upon his heart, he made this prayer. It is the same spirit that he breathed in Gethsemane and on Calvary, where he poured out his blood for the redemption of the world. And the message that will unify the church of God and Christianize the world is the message of the cross. Its message is the gospel of sacrifice for others. That is the secret of its power. The life that found its culmination on the cross was a life for others. The heart that was breaking there was breaking beneath the weight of others' woes. And if the Disciples believe in the divine origin of their mission, they must be the incarnation of this holy message. For the divided state of Christendom is the monster sin of the age. It is an insult to the majesty of heaven. It is a crime in the sight of God. It blocks the way to progress in saving the world and puts the Son of God to an open shame. It is a condition for which there is absolutely no excuse. And it is a condition that will ultimately result in death. If the churches have not sense enough and piety enough to get together, they have not vital power enough to live. Then, woe unto the church if it heed not the Saviour's prayer, "that they all may be one," for it is a question of life or death. And God has called us and given us a distinctive mission, the restoration of that unity to the universal church. We have a mission to and message for our brethren around whom have been woven the web of sectarianism, a message that will free them from their environment and bring them into the full-orbed liberty of manhood in Christ Jesus, leaving ecclesiastical traditions for the simplicity of gospel truth.

      This is the message of the Declaration and Address. It was not the desire of Thomas Campbell to conquer other Christians, but to persuade all Christians to be conquered by Jesus our Lord. Then is unity possible, and only then. The problem may seem difficult to us, and yet how simple and easy if we but let the Lord solve it for us. When we love the Lord with a passionate devotion, we shall find in the love which he has for each one of us the law of Christian fraternity. We need to make this a personal matter, we need to begin with self, and whatever others may demand as tests, let us determine not to know anything save Jesus Christ and him crucified, so that when God shall look upon our completed record he shall see but one name, the name that is above every name, the name of him whose glory crowns this blessed day with radiant splendor, the name of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords.

      This is as definitely defined as is our mission to the church. Our prayer to God for the unity of his people is being answered by the converging march of Christian forces in the track of the world's evangelization. These go hand in hand. To the extent that we are willing to give ourselves for others will our prayer for unity be answered. World evangelization as a means to Christian unity is a fact confirmed by the drawing together of Christian forces into closer and closer fellowship as we are rounding out this hundred years of glorious history. While this is true, it is also true that Christian unity is necessary to make the evangelization of the world possible. To see the heathen world dying without the gospel while God's people in Christian America are spending their energies in building up party lines, is a sight to make angels weep. A divided church is a stumbling-block to heathen faith. A united church is the condition of a Christianized [197] world. Each is a part of the twofold mission of the church of God. This is our sacred trust, our God-ordained mission, to unite God's people and evangelize the world. God help us to bring our forces to bear upon this holy mission with all powers and passions of our being.

      And when all who bear the name of Jesus recognize his word as the imperial edict from which there is no appeal, and are willing to be the embodiment of personal devotion to the personal Christ, leaving dogma and ritual and ecclesiasticism out of the reckoning, then not only will this old world yield to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that beautiful exotic, "Christian unity," will ripen and blossom into the perfect oneness of faith and life and service of all God's redeemed children. And when this unity comes it will be the tidal-wave of Christian love rising above denominational lines in a spirit of absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ.

[CCR 195-198]