The Roman Gathering [pp. 191-200]

The Roman Gathering.
accumulated spiritual force will constantly weaken the barriers that divide her from the sympathies of a
large part of Christendom, until at
length she will be acknowledged by
all as the only living and true church
of Christ.
"The restoration of the unity of
the church" has been the subject of
many thoughts, of many words, of
earnest and devout prayer, of much
and noble effort, and, when understood as referring to the reconciliation of those who have left the Catholic Church, or who are now out of it
because their fathers left it, the phrase
may pass without objection; but the
phrase is greatly objectionable, even
to the extent of expressing an untruth,
when it is used to convey the idea
that the unity of the church has ever
been broken. This has not been, and
could not be. The church, intended
to be one, and to endure until the
end of time, could not, in its organic
structure, be really broken at any
period of its history, without destroying its title as the one church of
Christ. Individuals, communities,
even nations, as such, have been broken off from it; but the essential
church herself has remained one and
unbroken through all vicissitudes.
The theory that the Church of Rome,
the Greek Church, and the Church
of England are equal and co-ordinatebranches of the one church of Christ
has no foundation as an historical
fact, and is as destructive of all true
ideas of the unity of the church as
the wildest vagaries of Protestantism.
Is there on earth an institution which
schism, heresy, and political ambition
have tried to destroy and have tried
in vain? There is; it is the Catholic
Church. Is there an institution on
earth which, leaving out of regard all
its claims, has had the quality of historical continuity for eighteen cen
turies? There is; it is the Catholic
Church.
The charge, if not of bigotry, yet
of most unreasonable arrogance, has
been more or less directly made
against the Catholic Church, because
she has not received overtures of
reconciliation from enthusiastic and
earnest individuals claiming to represent national churches, as cordially
as was expected. But how can she
accept, or even consider, any such
overtures, proceeding as they do from
the assumption of equal position and
authority, without disowning herself,
without denying even those claims
and prerogatives, the existence of
which alone makes union with her
desirable? If there is no institution
on earth which has a valid title to be
the continuous church of Christ, all
efforts will be vain to supply the gap
of centuries by an establishment now.
A union of churches will not satisfy
the design or promise of our Lord,
when he founded the unity of his
church. If the Christian church has
really been broken into pieces, it
will be in vain to gather up the fragments; for, on that supposition, the
divine principle has long since departed, and the gates of hell have
prevailed. Those men of strong
Catholic predilections, who, nevertheless, have clung to the theory
that the church of Christ has been
really broken, and must be repaired
by management, will yet thank God
from their inmost souls for the immovable firmness with which that
theory has been denied at Rome.
The Catholic Church has never
condemned a heresy more false or
destructive than the proposition that
she is herself but one of the divisions
of the Christian church, having no authority to speak or to rule in the name
of her Lord. To deny that the one
church of Christ is now existing, and
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