Freemasonry gives an idea of such a church, and a
brother is known and cared for in a strange land where no word of his can
be understood. The apostle of this church may be a deaf mute carrying a
cup of cold water to a thirsting fellow-creature. The cup of cold water
does not require to be translated for a foreigner to understand it. I am
afraid the only Broad Church possible is one that has its creed in the
heart, and not in the head,--that we shall know its members by their
fruits, and not by their words. If you say this communion of well-doers
is no church, I can only answer, that all organized bodies have their
limits of size, and that when we find a man a hundred feet high and
thirty feet broad across the shoulders, we will look out for an
organization that shall include all Christendom.
Some of us do practically recognize a Broad Church and a Narrow Church,
however. The Narrow Church may be seen in the ship's boats of humanity,
in the long boat, in the jolly boat, in the captain's gig, lying off the
poor old vessel, thanking God that they are safe, and reckoning how soon
the hulk containing the mass of their fellow-creatures will go down.
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