The Message of the Disciples of Christ N giving the message of the Disciples, I hope that I shall not drop into the error of giving I the message of the men who lived a hundred years ago, or even of the men who lived in the last decade, for to be true to my Lord Jesus and my fellows, it must be borne in mind that our widening experiences change the horizon of our belief. Were I to be otherwise, I would dishonour the memory of my father and my grandfather, both of whom were ministers among the Disciples, the latter pleading for a united Church by a return to the Scriptures in association with the Haldanes in Scotland, the year that Campbell wrote his Declaration and Address. To be otherwise I would dishonour both the fundamental principles of the Disciples and the memory of Alexander Campbell himself, who said: "I have endeavoured to read the Scriptures as though no one had read them before me; and I am as much on my guard against reading them to-day, through the medium of my own views yesterday, or a week ago, as I am against being influenced by any foreign name, authority or systems whatsoever." This marked distinctly Campbell's conception both of the message and of the spirit of the movement of which he was the recognized leader for more than half a century, and likewise it is the position of all students who are seeking to know God better, irrespective of systems of theology or the interpretations of yesterday. Conditions change, human opinions change, interpretations change, only the Bible is the changeless book. I One of the greatest hindrances to-day to Christian union is that the various communions have stuck their stakes somewhere in the past, may be centuries ago, around the thoughts of their founders, as though those men, godly as they were, were as infallible as the writers of the New Testament, and the result is that every advance is made in the face of protests. I do not say that the Disciples are entirely free from this same spirit, for we are but men. Sometimes among us there is a disposition to quote what the fathers say as a rallying cry and a warning not to go beyond their thoughts and practices. But from whatever source it comes, it is an old story -old as the human race. Paul contended against it, as did Wyclif, Copernicus, Galileo, Luther, Calvin, Milton, Wesley and Campbell, and every soul that has dared to look out of its day into the morning of another has had to fight it. Whether done by the Disciples or any other communion, it is a violation of the principles of progress-the same progress that we see in the Scriptural dispensations, the same progress that we see in the laws of nature, the same progress that is manifest in human thought. These are not days for radical departures. Revolutions become necessary only when progress is impeded. They are abnormal conditions due to the arrest of progress. No revolution ever suddenly broke forth. Even the French Revolution, as sudden as it appeared to have been, had back of it years of tardy growth, and had as wise statesmanship controlled the affairs of France at that time as of England, for both countries were slaves to the feudal system, the disaster might have been averted. But the people's long pent up desire for another day broke forth, and the doors of the Bastile went down before the cry of a populace who simply wanted freedom, the atmosphere of which fanned their cheeks, while the bonds of serfdom held them fast. It was so in the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Had Hildebrand been pope or Leo X less extravagant and Tetzel less bold there would have been no violent break such as turned Europe into a field of martyrdom. So of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Had the various communions been less arrogant with their systems of theology and more loyal to Protestant principles |