ay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye
abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things
strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye
shall do well. Fare ye well" (Acts xv. 1-29). From which it is clear
that all the believers in the several Churches of Jerusalem and
Antioch and Cilicia were brethren together, and fellow-subjects of one
Kingdom, bound to the observance of common laws framed by common
consent for the general good government of the whole body. And it is
equally clear that the ties which held together these various
communities of Christians were the Apostles themselves, who had
founded them. The various Churches were one, because their founders
were fellow-workers, who acted in concert, taking counsel together.
But what bond of union held the founders themselves together?

The answer to this question shows the ground on which the essential
Oneness of the Church is based. And it is clearly this. The Apostles
and Bishops who founded the various Churches were all commissioned
officers of one King--the King of "The Kingdom of Heaven"--and they
were commissioned, not to found Churches bearing their own, names,
independent one of another, but to extend the King's dominion. And
their authority and power to act were wholly dependent upon their
acting in the King's Name, and with His concurrence. For when the
commission was given to the Apostles to "go into all the world and
make disciples of all nations," these words were added by the King,
"And lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (S.
Matt. xxviii. 20). From which we see also that the continuance of the
Unity was secured, in the same way, through the Apostles' successors,
after they themselves should be called to rest. And whilst the
Apostles and Bishops were thus appointed as the agents to extend "The
Kingdom of Heaven," the King Himself was the actual bond of union,
securing the essential unity of the Church, wherever subjects were
brought in. One King over all held all together.

As time passed and various branches of the One Church were formed,
there were also other ties which were felt to bind Christians one with
another as one body. The Church was a spiritual Kingdom; and by one
and the same Holy Spirit all had been moved to accept the King, and
all had been new-born as the children of God. And as all had received
the same Holy Spirit, so all looked forward to the sa