Church Federation in Missouri

Abstract

1. A Divided Church. The 1906 Census Report on Religious Bodies gives the number of Protestant denominations in the United States as 164. We are so accustomed to this divided condition of Christendom, having no experience of any other condition, that we naturally look upon it as normal and fail to see an incongruity in the situation. Christianity has in it the elements of a great unifying force. Its teaching regarding the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God presents to us the ideal of all mankind in loving and harmonious relationship. The great motive which the teaching of Jesus sets forth as the mainspring of all action, love to man and love to God, would tend to operate against antimostiy, dissension and prejudice. The divisions now existing in Christendom are not an outgrowth of the Christian Religion as found in the New Testament but seem to be rather an outgrowth of man's pride. prejudice and intolerance which lead men to contend for the interpretation of position which they have accepted and to insist that others shall conform to their views and practices. The founder of the Christian religion recognized these conditions as existing in the world and foresaw what their consequences might be in the kingdom. He prayed that his disciples might all be one in order that the world might believe.[superscript 1] The efectiveness and[superscript 1].