The unity of the body is so great a truth, and is connected collaterally with so many other truths of deep and vital moment, that we need not wonder (in a day of so much ignorance of Scripture, and worldliness, as at present) if the enemy should succeed in leading many to deny and pervert it. A holy unity in the Spirit, and such it is, can be denied in more ways than one. Readiness of separation may work in some the self-will of the flesh, which cannot understand either the holiness or the unity of the Church of God, or the Spirit’s presence with the body. Worldliness in others may appreciate union, for according to the world’s motto (and motto for the day), “Union is strength,” but the eagerness of its tolerance will, before God, amount to unholiness, and the presence of the Spirit it must surely, practically deny, for it sees Him not, neither knows Him. If Satan be more immediately at work, there will be a holiness according to the letter of Scripture, perhaps, admitted; but unity will be so put as to shut out grace, or truth, or the Holy Ghost.
A basket of good fruit, however precious, is not the emblem by which the Church’s unity could be illustrated, but the branch—a fruit-bearing—is rather the picture.
In vain will man essay to make that; God, and God alone, can do it.