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UNION MOVEMENTS AMONG METHODISTS IN CHINA 405endanger an adequate conception of the fundamental spiritual nature of the Church. Ecclesiastical policies, forms ofgovernment, and methods of administration are doubtlessnecessary in this physical world to carry the message ofChrist to those who are without, but we fear that theseexternalities are frequently so much in evidence as toseriously impede the strength of the message, and it comesto pass that the voice of the Hpirit is drowned amid thenoise of the machinery.As convenience of travel increases in the nation thenecessity for a common Church in order to the spiritualupbuilding of its membership will become more and moreimpressive. The fundamental unity of Chinese life, customs,and habits favours a common organism for the unfoldingand development of a well-defined Christian ideal. Phisbeing the aim of all our toil and sacrifice, may we not hopethat in the near future we shall have in China a Methodismthat shall be one in policy, in purpose, in ideal, and inadministration.Federation with Other Evangelical Churchesbasis of federation with the otherUnit in Varietyevangelical churches in educational and philanthropic work must rest upon the acknowledged convictionthat the churches so united acknowledge each the other ashaving equal integrity as an ecclesiastical organism and thateach is equal to the other in living credentials and authorityfrom the Great Head of the Church to promulgate thegospel of Jesus Christ on earth. Divergent systems, politiesand interpretations have characterized the Church foreighteen hundred years and are doubtless rooted in the verynature of the human mind. The law of life in Jesus Christas in nature expresses itself in such manner as to producevariety. It would be hard to conceive how it could beotherwise if life has for its ultimate object the evolution andenlargement of personality. The beauty and utility of theforest with all of its variety of family, genus, species, andthose endless differentiations of fibre and leaf in each individual are illustrative of the universal tendency of theheterogeneous expression of physical life. Democracies pure