Introduction
1. IT BEGAN IN SCOTLAND
   
2. THOMAS CAMPBELL WRITES HIS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
   
3. THE SPIRIT OF THE "DECLARATION AND ADDRESS"
   
4. PRINCIPLES OF THE DOCUMENT
   
5. HISTORIC NOTES ON OUR FIRST CHURCH
   
6. "LET CHRISTIAN UNITY BE OUR POLAR STAR"
   
7. THE NOBLEST ACT IN BARTON STONE'S LIFE
   
8. LEARNING FROM A BACKWOODS PREACHER
   
9. CHRISTIANS IN BABYLON
   
10. WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
    
11. THE ESSENCE OF THE CAMPBELL PLEA
    
12. THE DEATH OF A DREAM
    
13. THE SAND CREEK ADDRESS
    
14. A MUDDLED MOVEMENT
    
15. THE AUTHORITY TOTEM
    
16. THE PARTY SPIRIT
    
17. THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
    
18. OUR COSTLIEST SIN: EXCLUSIVISM
    
19. RESTORATION OR REFORMATION
    
20. A BOY LEARNS THE MEANING OF BROTHERHOOD
    
21. THE BUTTING BRETHREN
    
22. ANALYSIS OF LEGALISM
    
23. THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
    
24. THOUGHTS ON FELLOWSHIP
    
25. ON THE ROCKS
    
26. WITHDRAWING FROM THE DISORDERLY
    
27. CAUSING DIVISIONS
    
28. TWO GREAT ERRORS
    
29. UNION IN TRUTH
    
30. ONE BODY IN CHRIST
    
31. UNITY AND IDENTITY
    
32. UNITY IN DIVERSITY
    
33. IS DOCTRINE IMPORTANT?
    
34. THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS
    
35. MUST WE GIVE UP OUR OPINIONS?
    
36. WHAT DIFFERENCES DO DIFFERENCES MAKE?
    
37. THE "ONE BAPTISM" AND FELLOWSHIP
    
38. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE UNIMMERSED?
    
39. OUR FATHERS ON "WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?"
    
40. "OUR BROTHERS IN THE DENOMINATIONS"
    
41. WHAT IS "OUR FELLOWSHIP"?
    
42. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH?
    
43. I WOULD ABDICATE
    
44. A BASIC FALLACY TO OVERCOME
    
45. CAN WE BE UNITED AND NOT KNOW IT?
    
46. SEPARATED BUT NOT DIVIDED
    
47. THE ONE CHURCH INDIVISIBLE
    
48. UNITY WILL COME, BUT
    
49. IF NOT BROTHERHOOD, THEN CO-EXISTENCE
    
50. THIS IS OUR GLORY!
    
51. THE UNIFYING POWER OF THE CROSS
    

UNITY WILL COME, BUT...

I shall always remember my first and only visit to Westminster Abbey in London. Anyone would be impressed with its splendor and the fact that monarchs of yesteryear sleep there, but there was something else, wholly unexpected, that impressed me far more.

On one of the columns near the rear of the chapel was a sign that read Prayers for Christian Unity in this Chapel Each Tuesday at 3:00 P.M.

Anglicans praying for the unity of God's church! There was nothing incongruous about it especially, even though for some time in my life I supposed that God did not hear the prayers of Anglicans or Episcopalians. Nor of Presbyterians or Baptists for that matter. I was impressed that people in any church would go to the trouble to get together like that and pray for the unity of Christians. I was aware that I had never seen nor heard any such announcement among my own people. Nor had I ever arranged such a gathering myself, not for that purpose alone.

Moreover I never, or almost never, hear our people in assembly praying for the unity of Christians. One may conclude that the Church of Christ­Christian Church folk do not treat the scandal of a divided church with a sense of urgency. It seems to have no particular place in our thinking. I may of course be mistaken. If I should visit the Sixth and Izzard Church of Christ in Little Rock and see such an announcement in the foyer as I saw at Westminster Abbey, I would be surprised. But I would also be pleased, very pleased.

I would appreciate attending such a gathering. I would like to sit with our sisters and brothers from the Christian Church and from the several divisions of the Church of Christ, along with all other Christians who would like to pray for the unity of God's people on earth. No debating this time, not even any sermons or discussion. The prayers might be intermingled with songs of praise. We would come quietly and leave quietly. We would pray, just pray. This would of course include penitential and confessional prayers for our sins and the sins of our people for either creating or tolerating a divided church. Our conduct has been scandalous! It is imperative that we pray and ask God to forgive us for what we have done to His church.

I say all this in order to say that the first order of business should be to recognize that the unity of the Church of Christ on earth will one day be a fact. Unity will come, but ... We must believe that its coming can be hastened by our fervent prayers and dedicated effort.

My main reason for believing that unity will come is because our Lord prayed for it. Have you read the prayer in Phillips translation? "I am not praying only for these men but for all those who will believe in me through their message, that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, live in me and I live in you, I am asking that they may live in us, that the world may believe that you did send me."

Jesus was facing the cross when he prayed that prayer, a prayer that believers would be united, which is not necessarily a prayer for structural unity of churches. We don't know what might become of church structures, or how the Father might use them, but we can believe that Jesus' prayer will one day be answered, and that Christians will be united before a lost world. It will in fact be this that will win the world, when unbelievers see love and oneness in the lives of those that profess Christ.

We must agree with Peter Ainslee when he said: "The winning of this world to Christ is a big task...the biggest ever undertaken...It cannot be done by a divided church. There is no more idle talk than to talk of the divided church's winning this world."

Unity! So that the world will believe. That is the way Jesus put it. When he commissioned his apostles to bear the message to all creatures, he could not have possibly supposed that they could do it divided.

If we can hasten unity by our prayers and efforts, it is well that we be as practical as possible. Mere theorizing will not get us anywhere. I suggest that we all give consideration to the following:

1. Pray unity. Everyday we should join our Lord in praying for the unity of all believers. This will hone our hearts and minds to fulfill that prayer in our own lives each day.
2. Think and talk unity. We should do this in universal terms, for it defeats our purposes to dwell upon minutiae. All who love Jesus and seek to emulate his character have a great deal in common. Love, joy, peace should be our great themes. Don't think of a neighbor as a Baptist or a Roman Catholic, but as one with whom you have much in common in the Lord. Thinking this way helps to make it so. If you stress the things that divide, you will not hasten the answer to Jesus' prayer.
3. Think catholic-those universal truths that by their very nature unite, such as the grace of God.
4. Realize that you don't have to be judge, for each stands to his own master. This is the great truth that you have on your side, but one little utilized. Memorize Romans 14:4: "Who are you to judge another man's servant. It is before his own master that he stands or falls." I am to love and accept you, even when you are wrong, and leave the judging to the Lord. This will do more for the unity of the church than can be imagined.
5. Grow within yourself a conscience on the unity of the church. Don't allow yourself to be "at ease in Zion" on the subject. Be burdened. Look for ways in which you can be a "unity movement" in your own life. There is someone that you can reach out to that no one else may be able to reach, remembering that it is love that binds everything together in perfect harmony (Col. 3:14).
6. Think of the church as one, for it really is. Though it is not realized, unity is nonetheless real in that it is the very nature of the church to be one. That is the meaning of the greatest non­Biblical quotation in our heritage: The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one. Thomas Campbell was not saying it should be one or someday will be one, but is one. It cannot be the church without being one. But still it is wracked with schism, and since this is contrary to the nature of the Body of Christ we must do all we can to rid the church of the blight of partyism.
7. Be big­minded. Magnanimity is a Christian virtue. We must be too large­souled to allow trifles to keep us separated from each other. Think of the great soul of Jesus: he always had time for anybody, whether slaves, lepers, prostitutes, the dispossessed. He was slow to draw lines, whether race, religion, or sex. No one was reluctant to approach him. He did not come to judge but to liberate. Let's be like Jesus and be magnanimous rather than like the Pharisees who had to be right about everything. It is the big person that can allow someone else to be different from herself. We can do much for peace and unity by resolving to make ourselves over rather than the other person. Philip. 4;5 is one of the great unity passages: Let your moderation (gentleness) be known to all men.

Remember that we are not divided over doctrines and practices as much as over attitudes. Partyism is a disease of the heart.

(Restoration Review: Vol. 23, No. 8; Oct. 1981)