PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY AND ITS

CORRUPTIONS.

DEPARTMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.

DISCOURSE I.

CHRIST THE FOUNDER OF A DISTINCTIVE CHURCH.

"On this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."— Matt. xvi. 18.

"Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it; *** That he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." — Eph. v. 25, 27. "The Churches of Christ salute you." - Rom. xvi. 16.

In the first volume of the series constituting my complete work upon PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY AND ITS CORRUPTIONS I treated of the Theology taught by Jesus Christ and his early Apostles according to the New Testament Scriptures, as distinguishable from those misinterpretations and perversions of it which, soon after their day, came in to supplant or at least vitiate its most essential characteristics and seriously weaken its power of moral and spiritual

men.

enlightenment, uplifting, and redemption among In the second, I discharged a similar duty in respect to what I termed the Personal Righteousness of the original Christian Gospel; or, in other words, its ethical significance and claims, as far as regards those who profess to believe and practice it.

And now in the third and last one bearing the same general title I purpose to pursue the same course with reference to what I denominate the Ecclesiastical Polity of pure Christianity; by which, I mean, its teaching and requirement concerning the formation, administration, and executive functions of the so-called Church of Christ. And by the phrase, Church of Christ, I would be understood as indicating that company, assemblage, or body of persons, more or less closely affiliated and organized, who, in any place or time and under whatever name, acknowledge in some specific way a common faith in and allegiance to Christ as a moral and spiritual teacher, guide, and Saviour, and who are united to each other in the bonds of a recognized sympathy, fellowship, and brotherhood. In its larger sense, the phrase may include, at any period of human history, the entire hierarchy of Christendom-all those the wide world over, who, as disciples of Christ and in his name and by the promptings of his spirit of love to God and man, are seeking by organic methods and established institutions to illustrate the principles and precepts of his religion in their own characters and lives, and to extend as far and wide as possible their influence and power in the world.

And so, too, what I call the Ecclesiastical Polity of Christianity may be regarded as including in its more comprehensive significance and final purpose, not simply the regulation and orderly control of what are usually designated sacred interests and concerns but secular also,- all possible human interests and concerns in all the relations and circumstances of life. And this present series of discourses might be deemed, what in large measure I intend it shall be, an Exposition of Christian Sociology; or a treatise upon the obligation and duty of all who bear the Christian name and who are associated for Christian work, to make the spirit and principles of the religion they profess and glorify conduce, through the agency of the church and its instituted activities, not only to the renovation and perfection of individual character, but to the evolution and achievement of a divine order of human society. Christianity, as I view it, is not in any proper estimate of its merits, claims, and capabilities, a partial, fragmentary, one-sided religion, but all-sided, all-comprehensive, universal. And the church of Christ, true to its divine purpose and to the design of its founder, contemplates and involves, in the grand sweep of its inherent possibility and in its ultimate development, nothing less than the actualization of the ideal social statethe establishment as an accomplished fact of the kingdom of God on the earth. All this I hope to be able to show conclusively to the intelligent and candid reader on the pages of the present volume.

Before entering specifically upon the task thus indicated, however, and as a fitting introduction to it, I deem it desirable, if not necessary to a clear understanding of the matter under examination, to inquire whether or not Christ himself did in reality or virtually found a church,- whether or not, he to all practical intents and purposes, caused to be brought together in a common fellowship, union, or brotherhood, a company of men. and women believing in him, acknowledging his claims, and devoting themselves to the faith and life which he inculcated; who in their associated capacity were in any proper sense worthy to be considered a church, a distinctive body of disciples fitted and authorized to represent him and to carry forward his work in the world. The vast majority of his professed followers have never doubted this, but a few extreme Protestants and radical thinkers have not only doubted but denied it. Such have usually contended that there is one universal spirito-moral church, comprising all the Christlike or truly good on earth and in heaven; that Jesus recognized this mystical, unorganized company of saintly ones as his real church and neither instituted nor authorized others to institute any definite, specified body or community of disciples to be known by his name separate from general human society or the world at large. Some excellent people-reformers and moralists who revolt from ecclesiastical organizations on account of their imperfections and abuses, alleging that they are inherently mischievous and restrictive of personal liberty, and tend natu

rally to arbitrary and despotic rule, lean radically to that conclusion. But I cannot agree with them. I do not object to the idea of an inorganic, universal church, united by spiritual ties alone, in its proper sense and place. I rather believe in it. Nevertheless, I insist upon the fact of a distinctive association of Christian believers a community of disciples separated from the Jewish ecclesiasticism and from all classes of then existing people-founded by the Master; in the world but not of it. And I furthermore believe that such a body or community, properly called a church, was necessary to the permanent establishment of Christianity among men and its progress in subsequent ages and final triumph throughout the earth.

But in saying that Jesus of Nazareth was the founder of such a church, I do not intend to be understood as affirming that he formally organized it and devised a set of machinery for its management, after the prevailing modern fashion; drawing up a constitution and by-laws, securing signatures to the same, having officers elected for the discharge of certain specified duties and putting things in motion in an arbitrary, mechanical way; but rather that he declared the principles which underlie the church, awakened in human souls the spirit which brings them together in a true fellowship, set before men and women objects so worthy of their ambition and noblest effort as to impel them to stand by each other and work together for their own mutual growth in the divine life, for the extension of the Gospel far and wide as possible, and