All of you feel the need of a church, which may be the outward manifestation of your faith and religious feeling, the vigilant custodian now and here of Christian doctrine and tradition. It sustains and keeps alive religion and individual activity, in virtue of that strong power of suggestion, which collectively always exercises on the individual.
"Sir," exclaims Johnson, "it is a very dangerous thing for a man not to belong to any church!"
And this is true. How many of us would fall a thousand times were it not for this support!
From the various churches and religious denominations, into which you Christians are divided, there arises a new unifying element, a noble aspiration, restraining too great impulsiveness, leveling dividing barriers, and working for the realization of the holy church through all the children of redemption.
