"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word. That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." (John 17: 20, 21.) In these words of our Lord we note His anxious solicitude, not only for His immediate followers, "but for them also, who should believe on Him through their Word."

What special blessing does our Lord implore so earnestly? Is it not the Oneness of His people. Let us, first of all, try to ascertain what that Oneness of His people is, for which the Lord Jesus prayed.

(1) It is a union of believers. "I pray for them which shall believe on Me." In other words, it is a union of regenerate men. It is a union of those who are at one with God. "That they may be one in us." Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of Christian unity; of every true believer it may be said, Christ liveth in him, he dwelleth in God. Now no man is a Christian till he is made One with God. If he by the regenerating power of the Spirit of God be made one with God, he is a Christian. The Church of the living God consists of men who have been redeemed by His grace, quickened by His Spirit, and reconciled by the death of His Son.

(2) Therefore the union for which our Lord prayed was a union of spiritual men, a union in the Lord, a holy unity, springing from Oneness with Himself. Union with Christ is an indispensable preliminary to union with the Church of Christ. A man must be joined to Christ before he can be a true member of the Church of Christ. It is a union as a result of which individual believers become more and more like Christ. "The glory which Thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One." (Verse 22.) The apostle Paul fittingly expresses this in 2 Cor. 3: 18, "We all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

When Christians become more Christlike they become more kindly affectioned one toward another, and will show such concern for their Master's honour that their dearest interests will be subordinated to His. The name of Jesus will be so dear to them that they will be glad to hear it from the lips of any child of God, and to find it working signs even though a stranger use it. Note the attitude of the disciples to the man they found casting out devils in the name of Christ, "And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him because he followeth not us."

Note by contrast the attitude of our Lord. But Jesus said, "Forbid him not, for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me, for he that is not against us is on our part. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name because of me, belongs to Christ; verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward, and whosoever shall offend one of the little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." (Mark 9: 38-42.)

(3) The Oneness of believers is seen in its most graphic sense on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 4: 31-33.) Here great grace and great power were the accompaniments of unity. Grace, power and unity all came together, and all came from the gracious manifestation of God's power seen in the descent of the Holy Spirit.

(4) Christian unity is the union of believers, and Christian unity, like every good and perfect gift, cometh down from the Father of Lights. It is given where the Holy Spirit is given, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is love, as well as liberty.

(5) The key to this blessing is prayer, effectual fervent prayer, prayer that God would pour upon us as individuals, and as a Church, His gracious Holy Spirit; but let us beware of grieving the Holy Spirit by carnal contention, or by the works of the flesh. Satan's work has ever been to sow divisions, to create dissensions, to kindle fires, to alienate men's hearts, to set every man's hand against his brother, and makes them everywhere hateful and hating each other; but the qualities enjoined by the apostle should characterise all Christians. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law."

Calvin's comment on this passage is interesting "That all may be one." (Verse 21.) He (our Lord) again lays down the end of our happiness as consisting in unity, and justly for the ruin of the human race is that, having been alienated from God, it is also broken and scattered in itself. The restoration of it, therefore, on the contrary consists in its being properly united in one body; as Paul declares, the perfection of the Church to consist in believers being joined together in one Spirit, and says that apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors were given, that they might edify and restore the body of Christ, till it come to the unity of faith; and, therefore, he exhorts believers to grow in Christ, who is the Head, from whom the whole body joined together, and connected by every bond of supply, according to the operation in the measure of every part maketh increase of it to edification. (Eph. 4: 3, 11, 16.) Wherefore, whenever Christ speaks about unity, let us remember how basely and shockingly, when separated from Him the world is scattered; and next, let us learn that the commencement of a blessed life is that we be all governed, and that we all live, by the Spirit of Christ alone.

"That the world may believe that thou hast sent me." There is no doubt that the impact of Christianity on the world is seen in the lives it creates, as it has been aptly said, "The Spirit of Christ, illuminating, transforming, and reigning in the hearts of the genuine disciples of Christ, drawing them to each other as members of one family, and prompting them to loving co-operation for the good of the world; this is what, when sufficiently glowing and extended, shall force conviction on the world that Christianity is divine."

May God give you grace to "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." (Phil. 2:15.)