MANY persons will share our grave dissatisfaction with the
result of the annual general meeting of the Society of Emmanuel,
which was held on Tuesday. This Society was formed eight years ago
for the revival in the Church of the ministry of healing, and
membership was limited to communicant Churchpeople. Of late, the
"moral monster" of Undenominationalism has invaded the Society,
and, by a resolution passed at Tuesday's meeting, it was decided to
throw open its doors to professing Christians, subject to the test
that they shall acknowledge our Lord's Deity and Incarnation. We
greatly regret that the Society has thus extended its borders. Its
object, as we said, was to help the revival in the Church of the
neglected ministry of healing, and, as we conceive, it ought to
have remained faithful to its first principles. As it is, we shall
expect to see the withdrawal or avoidance of its membership by
Churchpeople, and the Society captured for Undenominationalism.
This ministry of healing cannot be separated from the Sacraments of
the Church, but, if its members are henceforth to be drawn from a
variety of sects, some of which may even deny the need of
Sacraments at all, there is no knowing what extravagances and
eccentricities of teaching the Society may not ultimately be led to
adopt.