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Samuel J. Baird (sometimes known as Mr. Polity) writes in his ecclesiastical catechism, The Church of Christ: Its Constitution and Order (1864):
§ 272. Is the Church actually organized upon the scriptural model?
The ignorance, blindness, and corruption which still infect the best and purest Churches, have caused errors and divisions which mar the symmetry and unity of the body of Christ. Nor will it be otherwise until the promised day when the Spirit shall be poured out, when all shall know the Lord, and the watchmen shall see eye to eye. 1 Cor. xi. 18, 19, — "heresies," — Original, "sects;" Isa. lii. 8.
§ 273. May the order of the Church be disregarded for the sake of Christian union?
Any neglect or violation of the order of God's house is a transgression of the law of Christ, by which that order is established, and a disregard of the authority of his Spirit, by whom it is attested in the Word. It cannot, therefore, inure to the unity of the Spirit, which is the only bond of peace, and without which no other union is of any value. It tends, not to edification, but to destruction.
1 Tim. iii. 15; 1 Cor. xi. 34; xiv. 40; Tit. i.5; Eph. iv. 3; Isa. lxiii. 10; Rom. xvi. 17.
§ 274. What then is the present duty of Christians with respect to union?
It is the duty of Christ's people, as much as in them is, to harmonize differences by the light of revelation; and whereunto they have already attained, to walk by the same rule and mind the same things; whilst they adhere, as closely as possible, to the revealed constitution of the Church; as well as to the Scriptural doctrines of grace.
1 Cor. i.10; iii. 3; Phil. iii. 16; 1 Tim. iii. 15; 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.
How Christians ought to strive for unity in the Spirit of God! A needful reminder among the ecclesiastical splits of the 19th century, and even more so in 21st century America.
