Two propositions are fundamental to a comprehensive outlook or an appropriate appeal. First, what is the ultimate purpose of God in his church, and are we in harmony with it? For, our mission as a people must be subordinate to and comprehended in the ultimate purposes of God in the world if we shall have a great future. Second, what did we set out to do and are we doing it? Our faithfulness to this double service determines the breadth of our outlook and the nature of the appeal.

      The mission of the Disciples of Christ is variously stated--has been, indeed, by the preceding speakers--but the significance of every statement has been virtually the same. There are three regnant notes in which all other elements are comprehended and absorbed.

      1. The authority of Christ. That embraces New Testament Christianity, the authority of the Bible, loyalty to the ordinances, etc.

      2. Individual liberty.

      3. Christian union. About these three notes plays every phase of our thought, as the different refrains of a great melody.

      What more regnant in Christian thought to-day than the sufficiency of Christ? His exaltation above party, creed, name and denomination is the chapter now being written in church history. Denominational glory is becoming less than his glory. When he stands, others kneel. When he speaks, others are silent. When his name is pronounced, others' names are forgotten. He is fast becoming the recognized light of the soul, the recognized authority in his church. No stars shine above him.

      The friendliness with which the church universal now receives the new

A. D. HARMON.

emphasis on the sufficiency of Christ, and the readiness with which the substance of the "Declaration and Address" is now conceded, is the indorsement of our fathers' wisdom. A tabulation of the factors that have produced the exaltation of Christ in his church is not the thing most consequential. The fact that Christ is beginning to come into his own is the fruition of the fathers' hope and ours. However, one familiar with the fact that every advance of truth in the church has been contested by the inch can but feel that the people who have made the primacy of Christ their especial business deserve a modest [447] measure of the credit. Though we may have to await the impartial pen of a coming historian to ascribe us that honor, nevertheless, in the consciousness of such service rendered, no man can rob us of our joy.

      The readiness with which the church universal now concedes the primacy of Christ may prove the snare of this people. He must occupy that place. We are now in the period of possible compromise by assuming the motive for the deed. Enthusiasm and sentiment have often conceded a principle to facilitate a nuptials; wrecked a life. An extenuation that substitutes Papal decrees for New Testament ordinances, the convenience of the individual for the authority and precepts of Christ, is a compromise that will require a subsequent prophet to call the children back to the fathers.

      The time when clear-voiced leadership, with the note of authority, is imperative, is when the multitudes begin to move. A Robespierre may incite a movement, but it takes the prophetic vision and the steel grip of a Napoleon to bring out of it an established order.

      The most significant year of our century is the one hundredth. It is for such a time as this that we have come. We do well to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the "Declaration and Address." We do best if, at the same time, we dedicate ourselves anew to the task of restoring Christ's undivided authority in his church. Never did the centuries offer to any so fair a crown as that which now awaits the thorn-pierced brow. Never did any people cherish so deep a joy in seeing their mission fulfilled in Jesus Christ, crowned Lord of all. The reason that we ever were as a people is the reason that we are. He that is faithful to the end shall receive the reward.

      But has anything been achieved in personal liberty? One and a third million Disciples claim the heritage--freeborn. All Christendom has restricted the power of ecclesiastical courts, and possesses a larger liberty.

      There is scarcely a religious council that either dares or desires to resolve itself into a court to try heretics. The spirit of Christ has robbed the church of police power and her courts have become missionary conferences. And, this, too, is the long-hoped-for day of our fathers.

      Yet, my appeal is, lest having ourselves opened the door we shut it in our own face, lest having broken shackles for others we forge them for ourselves.

      For one man to sit as arbiter over the individual conscience is Romanism. Multiply that one by fifty and we call it an episcopate; by a hundred and we call it a conference, a synod; by ten thousand, and let them attempt to judge any brother's liberty, and it is medieval ecclesiasticism, though it be called a national convention. If the mother tincture is wrong, the whole trituration is wrong, however much diluted.

      The New Testament seal of truth rests upon the Disciples of Christ in that they have never tried a heretic. The light of truth has been so plain that individual liberty could do no otherwise than walk in it, or immediately walk out of it. If ever the orthodoxy of this people is disturbed, our remedy is not in ballots, but in a call to our knees. If a heretic can disturb the liberty of any people, it is because they have lost the truth that conserves liberty. If he can undermine the foundation, it is because there is a more solid rock beneath it. The historic heretics have been necessary, and will be necessary, so long as the truth in the church is less than the truth in Christ.

      Should this body ever endeavor to exercise the prerogative that belongs alone to eternal truth in Christ, and attempt to decide who are the orthodox, then we become a spent force, a disappearing brotherhood. The reefs that have split all other religious bodies we have passed. There is but one explanation. We have followed the chart. Let us thank almighty God and descend from here with bowed heads, following the Captain of our salvation.

      But what about Christian union? Its realization was never so imminent. But why don't all bodies come to the New Testament basis as we see it and solve the problem? Two reasons. First, they don't see it as we see it. And, secondly, they have been busy developing some other things just as fundamental to the New Testament church. [448]

      This signifies that union is coming, but it is not all coming our way. We will have to move along together. While we teach them New Testament doctrine they will teach us some things in New Testament life and practice. If other churches do not join our church en masse, then do not count the plea a failure. To raise up a great individual people is not our primary mission. This is a mere incidental. To produce union is our work. This necessitates a labor with and among other Christians. Our numbers are essential to our mission only as they constitute a working force among others. What is the difference, anyway, whether union comes by all coming to us or all going on a little until we blend in vital oneness? What is the difference whether we be lost in the whole or the whole be lost in us, providing we all lose our identity in Christ? We must not denationalize our mission. This does not mean to lessen the emphasis on the elements of the New Testament church, but to declare them the more. The New Testament basis of a church is essential to union. This is our part of the task. Let us be faithful to the charge, and falter not in the performance of our duty.

      The supreme mission of the church is the redemption of the world. This must be our chief business. Whatever else we produce, however needful to the age, must be a by-product. That alone which can identify our life with the ages is, we must make God's infinite purpose our mission. His goal must be our terminals; viz.: the redemption of the last child of the race.

      Brethren, the people who link their hearts with God's to recover the lost sheep, will move around the world and will move the world around them. There could be no sadder picture in church history than a people who have only a position. But there can be no sublimer picture in church history than a people which offers to the world a New Testament position for Christian union in order that a vital program of redemption may be realized. Do you say this is our position? That is the way we word it, but the real program, is spelled out in the emphasis we give to missions as much as the emphasis we give to union. Our whole future is involved in our relation to the supreme business of the church.

      Our future is dependent neither upon our publications nor upon our missionary conventions, but the service of our publications, the ministry of our conventions and the plea itself are dependent upon their giving the gospel to the whole world. These arcs will find their place in the circle of truth, if we move on meridian lines with God. God will live in any effort, however small, that has the world for its outlook. He will desert any effort, however big or New Testament in its conception, that is less in its application than his ultimate purpose. While we take an outlook to-day, God is taking an inlook. If we shall reach God's terminals as a people, we must go with both the everlasting and the universal gospel.

[CCR 447-449]