olden time. The light of heaven shines now as then, yet in purer radiance and with farther-extended beams. The world at large is in better condition today than formerly to receive and profit by the word of the Lord. The means and methods of imparting and diffusing divine knowledge are more abundant. Good men and women are more earnest in seeking the better way for themselves and for all mankind. The church itself was never more awake to its responsibilities, in this behalf. Let it put on the beautiful garments of Christ; let it arise in its strength; let it gird itself for its God-given work. Then will God prosper it and grant it at length the victory.

Ho! ye who bear the Christian name,
Come, build the church anew;

Its sacred embers re-inflame

On altars pure and true.

Long since its sad decay began,
Its shield became defaced;
Long since its pristine light grew wan,
Its name was sore disgraced.
Corruption stained its holy walls,
Gross error marred its creed,
And baptized Pagans thronged its halls
Though Pagans still in deed.

Its simple faith at first sublime,
Thus mythed with heathen lore,
Gave way to worldliness and crime,
And bitter fruits they bore.

But its foundations still endure,
As ointed eyes can see;
And still its corner-stone is sure
For ages yet to be.

Then let us join with willing hands
This temple to restore;

And make it glorious through all lands
Henceforth, forevermore.

With all our powers of heart and mind
With all our strength of will,

Let us rebuild the church, designed
God's purpose to fulfill.

And shame on him who rests content
With all things as they are;

Whose earth-bound soul, on self intent, Would human progress bar.

Not so those Christlike ones, who sigh
To hail the end of sin;

To see the promised age draw nigh,
God's blessed reign come in.

DISCOURSE VII.

ESSENTIALS OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord."- Ephs. ii. 19-21.

In the second discourse of the present volume I stated that the absolute essentials of the true Christian church "might be tabulated under the several heads of Cardinal Objects, Theological Faith, Personal Righteousness, Principles of Social Progress and Order, Established Methods of Organization and Administration." I now enter upon the detailed and thorough consideration of these several designated topics, both in general and in particular.

What then do I mean by absolute essentials in this connection? I mean acknowledged principles of truth and duty indispensably necessary to the unperverted, healthy condition of the church. That body has been from its very beginning in a healthy, unperverted state-a strictly normal condition, or in an abnormal, unhealthy, perverted one, as it always will be. In order to be in a normal, healthy condition I maintain that certain great

underlying and interpenetrating principles of a moral and spiritual character are absolutely and unqualifiedly necessary, and that therefore it is of primary importance to the existence and true prosperity of the church that these principles should be understood, acknowledged, inculcated, and applied by those concerned in the support and management of the church as a permanent institution of the religious world. I propose now to state those principles in my own language according to the dictates. of my own best judgment, allowing that other persons might put them into other forms of speech at their discretion without changing their primary character or significance.

I. THE CARDINAL OBJECTS OF THE TRUE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

I. To train its members and dependents, with all who voluntarily place themselves under its guardianship and tutelage, by wisely chosen and. applied instruction and discipline, to habitual, permanent Christlikeness of faith, hope, and love; of spirit, conduct, and character.

2. To propagate the true, primitive religion of Christ by all reasonably available means as far and wide as possible, convert the wayward and sinful from darkness to light and from iniquity to righteousness, ever seeking as its ultimate aim the regeneration, holiness, and happiness of the entire human race.

3. To insure to all its orderly members, dependents, and attached probationers, the comforts and necessaries of life, physical, intellectual, moral, social, and religious, without slavish and humiliating dependence on the part of any one upon the outside world.

4. To exemplify within the pale of its own affiliated membership a form of personal and social life in advance of existing civilization, as a type and harbinger of the divine order of human society that is to be, when men under the reign of Christ shall dwell together in brotherhood and peace.

5. To demonstrate by practical righteousness in all human relations and affairs the transcendent excellence of pure Christianity over all other religions, philosophies, and moral systems known to men, and thus continually approximate the perfect realization of the Master's prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

II. THEOLOGICAL FAITH OF

I.

CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

THE TRUE

The divine moral order of the world. (1.) There is one and but one God, who is selfexistent, infinite, all-perfect; an omnipresent Spirit, not a corporeal, localized organism; permeating boundless space and duration and manifestable to finite intelligences at His own pleasure as to time, place, manner, and extent.