A code of laws duly promulgated and active involves two things.
1. There must be an authority to guard its integrity, administer it, explain it, enforce its observance; else it is a dead letter.
2. The wide prevalence of one code of laws tends to produce uniformity of action and unity of organization. Christianity proposes to us one God, one destination for all men, one set of truths, one law of conduct; naturally these objects should be sought for on one system. Further there are "diversities of ministries,'' good works to be done, sins and miseries to be grappled with, by a widely scattered multitude. Some centralization is necessary lest efforts clash, energies be frittered away, and disunion lead to the defeat of the cause of good. Multiplicity must be welded into unity. If God had not provided the machinery for this, men would certainly have tried to bring it about by themselves, led by the dictates of ordinary intelligence. But because God has provided for it, the Spirit of Evil in men has induced them very largely to ignore in religion the natural impulse to combination which guides them in every other social action. How blessed you are in being able to see this truth, and in belonging to that great union which is the accredited guardian of the Christian Law.
