The message of the Disciples for the union of the church, including their origin and history

Front matter

Ainslie, Peter, 1867-1934.

The message of the Disciples for the union of the

The Message of the Disciples for the Union of the Church

Foreword

ON the decision to publish these lectures in book form, the lecturer asked a committee of well-known Disciples of Christ, representing the East, Middle West and Southwest of the United States, to pass on the correctness of the interpretation of the message, origin and history of the Disciples herein given in order that it may not rest upon the bare words of the lecturer. This committee consisted of F. D. Kershner, president Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas ; F. W. Burnham, minister First Christian Church, Springfield, 111., and E. B. Bagby, minister Twenty-Fifth Street Christian Church, Baltimore, Md.. and they are of one accord in their approval. It only remains for the lecturer to acknowledge his indebtedness to these gentlemen for their courtesy and many valuable suggestions.

Peter Ainslie.

Baltimore, Md.

Contents

Lecture Page

I. The Message of the Disciples of

Christ ii

II

In sympathy with this program and passion of Jesus the Disciples humbly present to Christendom the results of their research as far as they have gone in their study for a Scriptural and reasonable way to the peace of Zion :

1. That division in the Church of God uncon-

sciously hinders the spiritual growth of all believers and directly defeats Christ's program for the conquest of the world, therefore the union of Christendom holds priority over all other issues at this time.

2. That since the Sonship and Messiahship of

Jesus furnish the basis of Christianity, acknowledgment to those facts out of a living faith in Him and obedience to Him is the all-sufficient basis for the union of the divided Church,

3. That since no one on earth is infallible, we

should abandon all systems of theology as tests of fellowship, making them schools of thought, and go directly back to the Scriptures, reading them as though they were first published to-day, frankly asking. Who is the speaker? When is he speaking ? What does he say ? And how would he bring one to Christ ?

4. That since there are two covenants — the

Old and New Testaments — and the first being " done away in Christ," the second, or New Testament, is the only book of authority in the Christian life, with due reverence and study of the Old Testament, which was God's covenant with the Jews.

5. That, in the plan of salvation, the order in

the New Testament appears to be, hearing the Gospel, believing it, repenting of sin, confessing Jesus as the Christ and being baptized in obedience to Him, as man's part.

6. That from the New Testament, baptism ap-

pears to be a spiritual, symbolic ordinance, performed by immersion of the penitent believer into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

7. That Scriptural names for believers express

more definitely the believer's relationship to Christ and are less conducive to division than any others.

8. That the remembrance of the death and

resurrection of Jesus by the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper appears from the New Testament to have been the practice of the early Church, and its weekly observance is most salutary in its effects upon the lives of believers.

9. That the interpretation of these facts, and

others generally accepted by the Church, are matters of private opinion, as is the order of worship and likewise the organization, which beyond elders and deacons in each Church, and even that organization is not essential, appears to be left to conditions as they arise, only that the spirit of Christian democracy be maintained.

These conclusions were the result of a most careful research for a union basis by a scholarship and piety that found them just as Kepler found his laws of planetary motion. They sought for facts, irrespective of consequences, and committed themselves without reservation to conclusions that were irresistible, and we regard their discoveries as simple and free from sectarianism according to their presentation and practice. There was a time when hardly any one of these conclusions was accepted by any of the Protestant communions. To-day there is no one of them but is accepted by some of the communions, so that it can no longer be said that any of them is the distinctive position of the Disciples.

The only distinctive peculiarity of the Disciples now remaining is that the Disciples is the only communion that persistently seeks for unity by comprehension of them all, and we hope as the years go by that even this last remaining distinctive peculiarity may be taken away, for we desire far more to be like all Christians than to have anything that differentiates us from the least of the communions of Christendom. And in addition to this, the Disciples present eighty years of history with the practical working of these results, which has been attended by phenomenal growth.

The message of the Disciples aims to deal with facts rather than with interpretations. But some may ask. Do you allow all Christians to observe with you the Lord's Supper ? Certainly, for we are all brethren together. And do you require of those whom you baptize to join your Church ? No, frequently it is best that they should not.

for they can perhaps do more good in their own communions. There are already thousands of people in the various communions giving substantially the same message as the Disciples, in both pulpit and pew, and we rejoice at it, for it makes less sectarian our message, and the same cause thereby is being advanced from other quarters.

Plain as these results look to us, we do not think less of other Christians, who do not accept them, and no Christian should be offended at us for presenting them, our action being purely out of a desire for the peace of the Church, and we conscientiously believe that it is the most practical contribution that has been made to the solution of this grave problem ; neither are we disappointed because the whole Church has not accepted them. Scriptural and reasonable as they appear to us, for we recognize sincere piety and unquestioned scholarship among those Christians who do not think as we do. It takes time for souls of even the same piety and scholarship to find the same view-point, and how much longer must it necessarily take for the masses of Christians with their varied degrees of piety and scholarship ? The best of minds differ, and in patience and courtesy we must wait our time and be no less faithful to our task.

If what we are doing in this common cause is not recognized by our brethren of other communions, that is of small concern. The conference of Thorn was made possible by the influence of George Calixtus, the apostle of Christian union, yet his own communion denied him a seat in its councils. It was three hundred years after Grotius wrote his " Rights of War and Peace " before the international court was established at the Hague. We desire the love and confidence of all Christians, but at the same time we love the freedom of Scriptural research and we believe that we serve our brethren of other communions best in presenting some definite contribution for the peace of the Church, even though at the first presentation it raises a storm. This is natural, for it undermines long established traditions, as any other definite result would do.

In the meantime, there must be frankness, confidence and courtesy. Personally I believe in the pre-millennial coming of our Lord. I never understood my Bible until I got that view-point, and it has been a blessing in my life. To me it is as fundamental as His birth in Bethlehem, His death on the Cross, or His resurrection from the tomb, and there is more said about it in the Scriptures than on all these subjects combined. Few of the Disciples, however, agree with me, although it is solemnly said : " Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation," but do I think them any less Christian because they do not agree with me on the second advent of Christ ? Certainly not. I believe that baptism of a penitent believer by immersion into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit was the only apostolic practice of baptism according to the New Testament. I believe that every believer ought to be so baptized, for it is frankly said : " We are buried with Him by baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." However, many of my pedo-baptist brethren honestly differ with me on this, but do I think them any less Christian ? Certainly not, for if they saw it as I do, they would do it too and even more, for it may be as truly said of them as Paul said of the Roman Christians that their " faith is spoken of throughout the whole world."

But as a union basis, and it is that with which this message is concerned, the immersionists have the better position from the single fact that their baptism is universally accepted by pedo-baptists, while the baptism of the pedo-baptists is accepted mainly by their own household. At the same time, the pedo-baptists are in a better position to lessen the friction on baptism than the immersionists. A few immersionist Churches here and there receive the unimmersed and the number will increase, but not nearly so difficult is the case with pedo-baptist Churches, for believing as they do that immersion, pouring and sprinkling are all valid modes of baptism, they will become as fair to immersion as they are to affusion and will put both baptisteries as well as fonts in their Churches. This will not be surrendering any conviction, such as theimmersionist Churches would have to do to receive the unimmersed, but it will be keeping faith with the credal statements of pedo-baptists and with their common declaration that all three modes of baptism are valid. It would not only lessen the hostility of pedo-baptists against immersion, but would lessen the immersionists' hostility against pedo-baptist communions and, best of all, it would prevent the annual exodus from pedo-baptist communions for this sole purpose to those communions that practice baptism by immersion only, which is a condition that, think as you please, has contributed tremendously to sectarianism. The Moody Church in Chicago and Christ Church in London, both great Churches of the Congregational communion, and others have done this and use freely both the baptisteries and fonts, according as those desiring baptism understand it, and, from personal investigation, I am able to say that this broad policy has absolutely removed baptism from controversy in those Churches, but I would not have you to understand that the acceptance of baptism by immersion alone would bring Christian union, for those bodies that practice immersion are no closer together than other communions, neither have they been able by the common practice of immersion to hold their own communions united.

No, baptism is not the crux of Christian union, but it is a Scriptural and delicate subject in the realm of formal Christianity that must be handled frankly and courteously, for the practice of the Greek Church is on one side and the Roman Catholics on the other, while the Protestants are divided over it, and to say the least a common baptism would certainly reduce friction at that point.

Neither must it be understood that a common name alone would unite the Church. It would greatly help, and especially if that name were Scriptural rather than denominational, but history has shown that divisions have been precipitated in spite of common names. As divinely tender and expressive as are the names Christian or Disciple of Christ, neither can be defined out of conformity to some doctrinal formulae. Like the roots of these, each stands for a life, and their definition is found only in the lives of those whose love and catholicity lead them to give themselves to others, to suffer with another, to be a crutch to the stumbling and all for the sake of Christ, whose friendship is offered to every living soul.

Nor would a short credal statement alone accomplish it, however short the statement, even though it be as brief as Peter's confession or as beautiful as the so-called Apostles' Creed, for divisions have flourished under the rule of all creeds, short and long, written and unwritten. All of these will help, but no one will do it, and those who think that Christian union hinges alone upon any one of these outward ordinances or formulae have not sounded the depths of this divine and universal problem. Neither will the combining of immersion of penitent believers, a Scriptural name for believers and a Scriptural statement of faith lead to the conquest of the world.

Truth alone will not fulfill the program of Christ, but truth and union combined form a link with the Cross and the broken tomb that becomes an irresistible force before which a pagan and unbelieving world will be convicted " in respect of sin and of righteousness and of judgment." Neither union alone nor truth alone is sufficient ; but combined, the Holy Spirit's grief will be assuaged and the power of God will become omnipotent in the lives of a ruined race, lifting it out of the sloughs of unfaith into the widening vision of a universal triumph.

To the Disciples, no other task holds priority. A united Church by the way of Christ is the only pathway that flings its lines of absolute victory among all tongues and peoples. To answer that this one or that of the nine conclusions named in this lecture is of secondary importance does not satisfy the conditions, for in the eyes of the whole Christian world, each of these is of so great importance that where one dissents he is slow to yield his traditional practice to a well recognized Scriptural position, as for instance in the names of believers. Christians, Disciples of Christ, Friends and Brethren are far superior designations than the multiplicity of denominational names, some of which are still as belittling as the " Button Party " or the " Hook and Eye Party " in the early history of the Anabaptists.

Converts in pagan lands are making such loud protests against the transplanting into their countries of these divisions with their divisive names that they have gone beyond the missionaries and have affirmed that there is no place in their countries for the divisions of European and American Christianity, and so Japan has written over and above every denominational name the " United Church of Christ," as has India and other lands. There is no escape from the abolition of everything, be it little or great, that has hindered the unity of believers. Christ must triumph in His Church before He triumphs over the world.

The results of the Disciples' research is largely an attempt to disentangle the plan of salvation, around which has been so much controversy, that all men might see its simplicity and find pardon and peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Alexander Campbell's great contribution to Christendom was disentangling the facts regarding salvation from theology, although not necessarily severing them. It is only the beginning, for the heights are beyond. You may take faith, repentance and baptism, in their Scriptural order as they appear to us, but if you linger there, you will become legalists, just as emphasizing above everything else the moral teachings of Jesus would lead you into an ethical cult, or emphasizing above everything else the worship of Jesus, beautiful and stainless as it was, would lead into the coldness of formalism.

All these have their places, but they are only streamlets from the fountain. The fact that the heart pants for something beyond these is an unanswerable argument that religion is more than any one of these, more than all of these combined. These are only helps to religion ; and, if we make them doctrines instead of living faith and genuine piety, we misuse them and our misuse will quickly gather about it the flavour of sectarianism.

Christian union is a vaster problem than doctrines stated even in Scriptural language. Our discoveries are but the portals through which we pass in order to attain the heights. Great obstacles lie in our way towards its consummation — traditions that are rooted in the centuries and that are as old as Christian schism and have around them the reverence and affection of generations, when there was nothing else to lean upon because the Bible was either taken away or covered by human creeds. These traditions were the staffs upon which leaned a stumbling race, but the essential thing lies beyond traditions and formulae. We are in a world of pathos and tragedy and God charges us to live in the sphere of brotherhood, for there is a spirituality in the divine program beyond what we have now. It cannot be produced in strife and separation. The conscious presence of God is the nortnal height of the soufs attainment, and Christian union is the pathway by which we will attain unto that abiding communion with the Unseen, for which we long and without which we shall never be satisfied.

Jesus came to blaze the way to the holiness of His inner sanctuary. There must be harmony or the music cannot be at its best. The discords of Christendom have drowned the finest strains of music in the human soul and the Disciples have attempted to clear the dust from the pages of the Scriptures that the chords of the human heart may again vibrate in perfect harmony with the heart of Christ, who is the only solution to discord in His divided house. If we have failed in this stupendous task, and God knows that many of us have, charge it not to our discoveries, for they are Scriptural and must remain, but charge it to our human weakness of broken vision and stumbling faith.

III

Holding to the results of our research, to us there appear three necessary advances among all Christians that have priority over everything else and without which we are incompetent to even discuss the basis for the union of the Church of Christ. These are : (i) a larger fellowship,

(2) a sincere defense of each other's cause, and

(3) side by side prayer to each other's God for equal blessings upon the whole family of faith. Then the Bible will open its yet hidden secrets ; no one of us will conquer the other ; but the Holy Spirit will conquer us all and His ministry will be made glorious by our genuine penitence and deepened consecration to Jesus Christ our Lord.

First : The days of polemics have passed. Excommunications on hair-splitting interpretations belong by the side of witch burnings. It would be a poor world if every man interpreted everything exactly like the rest of men. Poetry, music, painting, flowers, trees, landscapes — all would be gone. Individuality would be lost and the wreck of the world would be greater than the Fall in Eden. Our task is to maintain fellowship with all Christians, as far as they will let us, irrespective of their differences. Burke's conception of society was that it is a partnership in all science, in all art, in every virtue and in all perfection. Said he : '* As the end of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead and those who are to be born." If this is the high ideal of society in the conception of that brilliant Englishman, how can it be attained without the leadership of the Church and that Church a united flock ? Therefore, the first step towards the union of Christendom is to find the social basis.

We quote the words of Francis of Assisi, Bernard, Savonarola, Richard Baxter, Jeremy Taylor, John Wesley and other saints, and yet if any of these were to appear, some in their mendicant robes and all of different communions, how many Protestant pulpits would be open to them and at how many communion tables could they sit with freedom ? Thank God, they are dead, but the fellowship that we have with their great souls is an impulsive force moving us into a larger fellowship with the living saints of the earth and the unborn multitudes that shall give unstinted praise to our Lord. The call of Christ is to think in the sphere of the universal. To be as catholic as His Gospel and to carry a concern for others as wide as the love of God to men.

Truth has nothing to fear in mingling with unbeUevers, much less with believers. It is the divine method of its transmission and it mingles better in human flesh than books. Jesus went Himself among the people and left no commentaries, but left His life, and the spirit of a message is seen in the conduct of its adherents far more than in its theological statements. Universal fellowship with the saints is the model of God, while exclusiveness is the den of provincialism and sectarianism. It cannot be true that associating with other communions destroys the truth of another. It may destroy its narrowness and shame its sectarianism, but to its truth it gives vision and vitality. He who has convictions can mingle with all Christians and retain those convictions as certainly as, mingling with the thousands on the streets, he keeps his individual name. The scourge of a message — that of the Disciples or any others that has in it the call of God — is giving to it a contracted horizon and making it provincial. It is the violation of a divine principle, for the atmosphere of provincialism is as repulsive as the musty smell of an ill-ventilated room.

Superior to its theology is the social power of the Church. The first pagan persecutions against Christians were not waged against theological tenets. What did Roman Caesars care whether the Holy Spirit came from the Father or from the Son? What mattered to them whether men were baptized for the remission of sins or whether the Lord's Supper was the real presence or a spiritual memorial ? That which filled them with alarm was the social bond of Christians, their secret meetings and their oneness of life.

The divided Church destroyed this and society to-day is organizing itself on a non-religious basis because the Church refuses to take the lead and give a fellowship to the broken race like that for which it craves. Christian theolog}'^ is merely incidental as compared with this greater demand. Farrar said : *' If you do not love your brother, however tremendous the truths which you utter with your lips, your Christianity is heathendom, and the kingdom of God is not within you ... a religion which thinks to please God either by orthodox formulae or ceremonial observances without charity is no better than blasphemy. The throne of Christ can only be set up in the heart of man, not in his actions ; in the life of man, not upon his lips." Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, said : " As touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another " — not merely those of one communion loving among themselves, but those of one communion loving those of another communion.

Sin deadened the sense of love and Christ came to revive it, but sin divided the Church that love might be hindered from rising to her divine service in fulfilling the program of God, but Christ will nevertheless get the throne of universal affection and "reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet." His victory must come by the way of the universal fellowship of the saints. Discord hinders now, and one who believes in the real presence in the communion cannot worship with one who believes it to be only a spiritual memorial, one who believes in extemporaneous prayers cannot worship with one who reads his prayers, one who wears one denominational name cannot worship with one who wears another denominational name. Forgive me if you care to, but I tell you now, I tell you plainly it is all the dry-rot of sectarianism. I speak not out of theory, for I have sat with Christians of all communions and experienced the peace of God, but more, I have knelt at the altar with nearly all communions in partaking of the Lord's Supper, and I felt the sweetness and the power of its observance as much as when ministering at the altar in my own Church.

Second : The defense of another's cause antedates Christianity and is a necessary part in the consummation of the good. I do not mean to defend denominationalism — not one word in its defense, nor any subterfuge to seek to atone for divisions by pointing to the good that each denomination has done, for all the good done by the divided Church was in spite of its divisions. A united Church would have lifted the race to greater heights and made wider conquests.

Neither do I mean to defend any doctrine or practice that another believes is unscriptural. No, not for a moment ; but we have tried polemics, we have maintained suspicious attitudes, we have stamped one communion and another as not in our fellowship because of practices that appear to us as unscriptural, we have pointed out the weakness of other communions, we have put our finger on their dark spots and we are still divided.

Now let us try the rule of Christ. I think that I may say here with Lessing : " Christianity has been tried for eighteen centuries, while the religion of Christ has yet to be tried." He had confidence in men, although they killed Him and tried to keep Him from rising from the dead, still He had confidence in them, and that has made for Him conquest of millions. The same rule is here to-day. Paul put it in the concrete : " Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." It is very simple. Do not look all the time on what your communion is doing. Look on what other communions are doing. Be interested in their progress as you are interested in the progress of your own.

One may not endorse all the practices of a member in his own communion, but if that member is attacked or misrepresented, see how kindly he looks upon what that member has done and see how quickly he goes to his defense. He offers himself as a fortress. The same spirit must be exercised by Christians towards persons of every communion, for there is none of these communions but that holds to such vital principles and that has done such sacrificing service for Christ, that any Christian who cares at all for the common good can find enough to cause him to throw himself as a defense against any attacks or misrepresentations as though it were his own communion. In this way denominational friendships are formed and progress marked beyond any other plan, for it is the rule of Christ and weakens denominationalism, while to do otherwise is sectarianism and hardens the walls of separation. This does not close friendly controversy ; but, on the other hand, it disarms bitterness and opens the way to friendly comparison of differences, by which peace is far more likely to be attained than by any other course. It gives a new meaning to the ninth commandment, which has been so constantly and inexcusably abused by Christians in their bearing false witness against other communions and attempting to justify their own.

I sometimes wonder whether the harm done by our denominational literature is not far in excess of the good that it accomplishes. I doubt if there is any other one thing that is so great a hindrance to the union of Christendom. If not bigoted and selfish, it is, to say the least, necessarily so unfair. It narrows the horizon of believers and leads those of that communion to think that theirs is the only religion in the world, and sometimes it may be as appropriately said to them as Constantine said to Acesius to go and find a ladder and go to heaven by himself.

Take the denominational journals, and I include the Disciples as well as others, and in this respect we are perhaps sinners above many.

The denominational journals, with very rare exceptions, are provincial, pathetically so if not sacrilegiously so. One who reads the literature of no other communion than his own would think that the chief religious work being done in the world was that of his communion, that the leading religious forces in New York, London or Tokio were confined to the activities of that communion. It is a false view of Christianity and the service for which it stands. The day is dawning when denominational journals and denominational colleges shall be relegated to museums by the side of fossils of bygone ages, and God hasten the coming of that day ! Fifteen centuries ago Jerome said: "Christ is^notsopoor as. to have only a Church in Sardinia." No.