etc., seem, no doubt, to have been small. Nevertheless, there were differences. There was a liberty. In earlier times the diversities were in all probability, or indeed certainly, much wider.

The "Use of Sarum" was adopted in Glasgow by Bishop Herbert about the middle of the twelfth century.

For some interesting observations on the above subject see Laing's "Preface to the Aberdeen Breviary.”

XXI.

CHRISTIAN UNITY.

EPHESIANS iv. 13-"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

It is a great pity that our translators have not put

into the text the translation of one of the words in this passage which they have consigned to the margin. The margin reads, "Till we all come"not "in," but "into the unity of the faith." And there is no doubt whatever that this is the correct rendering. It is in the original the same preposition that is repeated throughout the verse at the beginning of each clause-the preposition that means in English, not "in," but "into," or "unto," and which is so given in all the clauses except the first, in which, for some reason, our translators have made a change, not only uncalled for and inconsistent, but which injures the meaning of the passage. verse should run-" Till we all come into (or unto)

The

the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

Now this is not a barren observation. It is by no means a mere critical punctilio. It opens up a different view of the meaning of the verse, and leads to interesting reflections, as well as in some respects to grave questions. The Apostle is speaking of the different gifts bestowed on different individuals in the church, and he is telling us what the result is, to which, under God's blessing, the use of these different gifts may be expected to lead. One part of that result he states to be that we shall come at length into the unity of the faith. As his words stand in the English version, they would seem to mean that we were to begin with the unity of the faith, and, in that unity, to pass on unto the perfect man. But such is not the meaning really. It was not at the beginning, but at the end, of the church's history, that the Apostle looked for the unity in question; not in the meantime; not in our present imperfect state; but along with the perfect man, or as a thing to be realised only when we shall come unto the perfect man; a thing to be hoped for only as a final consequence of the stirring up, by the various members of Christ's body, of the

grace given them. It was, in brief, as an end of the dispensation of which he was a minister that he anticipated this unity; not in the course of it, but as one of its results. He pleaded, indeed, for a unity of the Spirit which might be maintained amid all differences of opinion, and which we should ever most anxiously seek to preserve. He exhorts us in the third verse of this very chapter to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." But the unity of the faith comprehends more than the unity of the Spirit; and, in the Apostle's expectation, it was only to be looked for as a result of free inquiry and honest difference; a final blessing, to come at length out of the diversities and discussions of many previous ages; an ultimate good, not to be attained save as the end and fruit of thought and progress. Unity of the Spirit in the meantime-a unity, that is, of honest purpose and exalted aim-a unity of mutual kindness and love to one another,-unity of the Spirit in the meantime, this the Apostle counselled. But unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God he looked for only in the end.

An absolute unity of the faith seems, for obvious reasons, unattainable in our present condition. We differ from one another so much in constitution and

education, are exposed to the influence of such different circumstances, are so incapable of looking at all sides of any large question, and see what we do see so incorrectly and through such a haze of prejudice and passion, that, however honestly we may try to discover and to hold the truth, we are sure to form ideas as to what the truth is, which shall vary to a certain extent, in the case not only of different races and nations, and not only of different ages of the world, but indeed of every individual man. It is possible to imagine the unity of a dead submission to external authority. But it is not possible, so long as we continue in our present weak and sinful state, that there can be such a thing as an absolute and unbroken unity of living thought. Throughout all nature, where there is life there is diversity. You may cut a thousand stones or pieces of wood into the same shape. But the living trees of the forest are all different. And so with living thought. When the minds of men are really occupied with any subject -are really anxious about it—are really desirous to discover the truth concerning it, it is certain that they will arrive at judgments which will not be identical, which will not even be conformed to one type, but which will differ from one another in a