Scripture: "There is one body, and one Spirit."—EPH. iv. 4.
Our own bodies teach us how essential for their health and strength it is that every member should take its full share in seeking the welfare of the whole. It is even so in the Body of Christ. There are, alas, too many who look upon salvation only in connection with their own happiness. There are those, again, who know that they live not unto themselves, and truly seek in prayer and work to bring others to share in their happiness; but they do not yet understand that in addition to their personal circle or Church, they have a calling to enlarge their hearts to take the whole Body of Christ Jesus into their love and their intercession.
Yet this is what the Spirit and the love of Christ will enable them to do. It is only when intercession for the whole Church, by the whole Church, ascends to God's throne, that the Spirit of unity and of power can have its full sway. The desire that has been awakened for closer union between the different branches of the Church of Christ is cause for thanksgiving. And yet the difficulties are so great and, in the case of different nationalities of the world, so apparently insuperable, that the thought of a united Church on earth appears beyond reach.
Let us bless God that there is a unity in Christ Jesus, deeper and stronger than any visible manifestation could make it; and that there is a way in which even now, midst all diversity of administrations, the unity can be practically exemplified and utilized as the means of an unthought-of accession of Divine strength and blessing in the work of the Kingdom. It is in the cultivation and increase of the spirit and in the exercise of intercession that the true unity can be realized. As believers are taught what is the meaning of their calling as a royal priesthood, they are led to see that God is not confined in His love or promises to their limited spheres of labour, but invites them to enlarge their hearts, and like Christ—we may say like Paul too—to pray for all who believe, or can yet be brought to believe, that this earth and the Church of Christ in it will by intercession be bound to the throne of heaven as it has never yet been.
Let Christians and ministers agree and bind themselves together for this world-wide intercession. It will strengthen the confidence that, prayer will be heard, and that their prayers too will become indispensable for the coming of the Kingdom.
