utward communion or fellowship with one another. And in our
own country the professed members of Christ are divided into many
bodies, not only independent of one another, but oftentimes opposing,
rather than helping forward, the extension and well-being of the
Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And the result has been
that we have learned by sad experience the reason of the foreboding
tone of our Lord's last prayer, "That they all may be one; ... that the
world may believe that Thou hast sent Me" (S. John xvii. 21). The
multitudes of men, practically heathen, in the midst of this
professedly Christian land, and the still greater multitudes of men in
other lands whom the good news of the Kingdom has not reached, are
proofs of the weakness of the Church of Christ. Christians are not
"one;" and consequently "the world" does not "believe" in Him whom the
Father of His great love sent to be its Saviour.

During the first few centuries the Church spread rapidly, not only
throughout the more civilised parts of the Roman Empire, but also
amongst the rough Celts of Britain and the fierce Teutons of Germany.
We may well ask, why did it cease to spread, and why are so many lands
still lying in darkness? Since Christ came to be the Saviour of the
world, how is it that there are so many millions of Buddhists and
Hindoos in Asia, that to this day it is said that not one-third of the
inhabitants of the world are; Christians? The answer is, alas! clear.
The unity of the One Universal Church of Christ has not been
maintained in the full and perfect manner described in our Lord's
Prayer, "That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I
in Thee, that they also may be one in Us" (S. John xvii. 21).
Christians have lost the sense of brotherhood, which should bind them
all together in Christ, of whatsoever nation or language they may be.
The Church has ceased to move with the irresistible power of one
mighty army, acting with one mind for the glory of God.

All thoughtful subjects of "The Kingdom of Heaven" must lament this
state of disunion and weakness. And men are striving in different, and
in some cases opposite ways, to bring about re-union. But when we
begin to ask, What is the remedy? we find that we are facing a mighty
problem. God's loving purpose for the salvation of the world has been
marred by man's wilfulness. His Kingdom, which might have been
irresistible and have won the whole world for Christ, has bee