Page:The Power of the Spirit.djvu/110

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
105

which have almost succeeded, and the fruit of which is not lost. At this moment it is with the organization of the world that we are all concerned—intensely concerned, and not unhopefully, to achieve what has hitherto-been considered impossible; and it may be that the Spirit of Christ will order the world in the ways of peace and co-operation, before it achieves the ordering of the Church universal. But in any case, whether it be through Christendom or through a union of the Churches of Christendom, the Holy Ghost will work through fellowship, for he is the Love of God the Father, and he is the Spirit of Liberty, and men are inspired corporately as well as individually. We have seen men go mad in crowds: we shall also see men go wise in crowds. For there is such a thing and this was the supreme truth which Protestantism missed—as corporate inspiration. Christianity is indeed intensely individualistic; every man is infinitely precious, and every body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. But it is not less intensely social: the Spirit was promised to the church, given to the church on her birthday at Pentecost, working through the church, and dividing to every man severally as he will.

The conviction of the Church in every age has been that it is inspired: as soon as Christianity is content to save the individual, it fails, because it ceases, so far, to be Christian; and the individual is the first to suffer. 'I believe in the Church' follows the