highest meditations or creations of genius which edify or instruct
only our own solitary soul.

II. The spiritual unity of the Church--"the same Spirit."

Men have formed to themselves two ideas of unity: the first is a
sameness of form--of expression; the second an identity of spirit.
Some of the best of mankind have fondly hoped to realize an unity for
the Church of Christ which should be manifested by uniform expressions
in everything: their imaginations have loved to paint, as the ideal of
a Christian Church, a state in which the same liturgy should be used
throughout the world, the same ecclesiastical government, even the
same vestments, the same canonical hours, the same form of
architecture. They could conceive nothing more entirely one than a
Church so constituted that the same prayers, in the very same
expressions, at the very same moment, should be ascending to the
Eternal Ear.

There are others who have thrown aside entirely this idea as
chimerical; who have not only ceased to hope it, but even to wish it;
who if it could be realized, would consider it a matter of regret; who
feel that the minds of men are various--their modes and habits of
thought, their original capacities and acquired associations,
infinitely diverse; and who, perceiving that the law of the universal
system is manifoldness in unity, have ceased to expect any other
oneness for the Church of Christ than that of a sameness of spirit,
showing itself through diversities of gifts. Among these last was the
Apostle Paul: his large and glorious mind rejoiced in the
contemplation of the countless manifestations of spiritual nature
beneath which he detected one and the same pervading Mind. Now let us
look at this matter somewhat more closely.

1. All real unity is manifold. Feelings in themselves identical find
countless forms of expression: for instance, sorrow is the same
feeling throughout the human race; but the Oriental prostrates himself
upon the ground, throws dust upon his head, tears his garments, is not
ashamed to break out into the most violent lamentations. In the north,
we rule our grief in public; suffer not even a quiver to be seen upon
the lip or brow, and consider calmness as the appropriate expression
of manly grief. Nay, two sisters of different temperament will show
their grief diversely; one will love to dwell upon the theme of the
qualities of the departed, the other feels it a sacred