th me. Hard things were said of
me. I believed it to be the will of the HEAD of the Church, the
LORD JESUS CHRIST, that there should be union of His Church in
Scotland, and primarily that its two great Churches should be one.
I have never for a single moment doubted that His will would be
fulfilled, or that it was the duty of these Churches to set
themselves, under His guidance, with resolute purpose to work out
its fulfilment.

Observe his "primarily": he quite recognises (I have his authority for
saying so) the further obligation. And no wonder: he is clear as to the
one great and supreme motive that should inspire all efforts for Church
Reunion--faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the obedience of faith
which the true confession of His Deity involves.

The will of the Lord in regard to the visible unity of His whole Church
is plain: "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I
must lead; and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock,
one Shepherd." No doubt there is a difference between a fold ([Greek:
anle]) and a flock ([Greek: poimne]), between the racial unity of the
Jewish Dispensation and the Catholic and international character
impressed from the beginning on the Christian Church. But a flock is as
visible as a fold is. We can see the one moving along the road under the
shepherd's guidance just as distinctly as we see the other gleaming
white on the hillside, or raising its turf-capped walls above the level
of the moor. We can see, of course, if the walls of a fold are broken
down; but we can see also whether a flock is united, whether it is
moving forward as one mass, or is broken up and scattered. Such
separations might be well enough if the different little companies were
all going quietly on in one way; though even then their breaking up
would argue on the one hand a portentous failure in that recognition of
the shepherd's voice and the obedience to him which is due to his loving
care, and on the other hand a strange lack of that gregariousness which
is an instinct in the healthy sheep. But what if the sheep are seen
running hither and thither in different directions: if they are found
labouring to explain the inadvisability--nay, the impossibility--of
their ever coming into line; if we see them instead crossing each
other's path, starting from each other, jostling and butting one
another, continually getting into situations provocative of f