DISCOURSE II.

THE DISTINCTIVE NATURE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH.

"Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.”—John xv. 16.

"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 unto a holy temple in the Lord." -Ephs. ii. 19, 20, 21.

Having in the preceding discourse established the fact, as I think, that Christ was himself the virtual founder of the church bearing his name, the next inquiry that naturally suggests itself to the truthseeking mind relates to the distinctive, inherent nature of that church, as he formed and fashioned it, and started it out on its beneficent and saving mission in the world. Accepting the general lines of reasoning and the conclusion deducible therefrom referred to, we may confidently assume at the outset that he could not have given existence and character to an institution or association in any wise inconsistent with or unworthy of his own office, principles, spirit, and supreme object in life; in any degree beneath the lofty plane of personal

and social righteousness enjoined by his own precepts and illustrated by his own example; — an institution or association not pre-eminently superior in instrinsic moral excellence and religiously uplifting power to the Jewish church in which he and his immediate followers had been sedulously trained, and to the existing social and political order into which they had been born. It must have been a transcendently-designed and anomalous church, characterized by several differentiating features.

I. It was both a divine and a human church; that is, a church in which both divine and human elements were blended in evenly balanced and harmonious proportions. In respect to its origin, its essential qualities, its vital spirit, its ultimate ideal, it was divine, perfect, immutable. But in respect to its membership, its external expression or organic form, its administration, its actual moral and spiritual attainment, it was human, imperfect, changeable.

II. Its proper, God-designed plane or sphere of being and action was morally above, separate from, and independent of all human associations whatsoever; yet hostile to no truth or good in any of them and contending against their follies, errors, evils by no other than beneficent and uninjurious agencies, without wrong or harm to any human being. In regard to worldly, sword-sustained governments, claiming authority and exercising arrogated power over its members, peaceable submission was enjoined upon all concerned, even to the extent of personal suffering and martyrdom, regarding such governments as in some rightful sense ordained of God

for the general good of communities, states, and nations; and, in their aggregate, of all mankind.

III. It was a purely voluntary association under the leadership of Christ. Its members came together originally of their own free will, and could remain or withdraw as they might choose. In the exercise of the same liberty were new members received and discharged. At the same time. the body was empowered to extend its fellowship to those wishing to enter it or to withdraw or withhold it for reasons deemed sufficient. Questions of duty or policy were determined by general voice or consent obtained without compulsion or restraint, and no dernier resort to violence or death-dealing force was allowable.

IV. It was a self-providing, self-subsisting, selfgoverning, self-protecting body in respect to all the real necessities of its own members and their legiti mate dependents; none of these being left to the providence, charity, or humanity of the outside world or of any of its eleemosynary institutions for the supply of anything essential to the welfare of body, mind, or spirit, individually or associatively,— absolute impossibilities alone excepted.

V. It demanded the heartfelt allegiance, devotion, and fidelity of its adherents, first to Christ himself as their great head, and then to each other as fellow-members of his body; and also their separate and united endeavor to preserve, sustain, promote, and honor itself by all righteous means and at all hazards of personal cost and sacrifice, in preference to any other association, institution, rela

tionship, or interest of human device and appoint

ment.

Having thus stated the five distinguishing peculiarities of the primitive church of Christ I now propose to amplify and illustrate them in their order respectively. I will devote the remainder of the present Discourse to the first one mentioned, whose consideration I commend to the candid attention of my hearers.

I. "It was both a divine and a human church; that is, a church in which both divine and human elements met and were blended in just and harmonious proportions. In respect to its origin, essential qualities, vital spirit, and ultimate ideal, it was divine, perfect, immutable. But in respect to its membership, its external expression or organic form, its administration and actual moral and spiritual character in the aggregate, it was human and therefore imperfect, changeable, and open to criticism and rebuke."

There is a broad distinction between what was divine and what was human in the constitutional nature of the first allied group or company of the Master's followers. I call that divine which is immediately of or from God, inhering in His eternal plan, or proceeding from that unimpeachable order of the universe which He has ordained and set in motion; and that human which is immediately of and from man, the product of his ingenuity, skill, and handiwork. The former is absolutely good and therefore incapable of improvement or alteration for the better; the latter imper

fect, defective, pervertible, and convertible, capable of progress towards perfection.

In what respects, then, we may ask, was the primitive Christian church divine?

I. In respect to its origin. God, the Father, in some certain way raised up Christ and empowered him to do a given work in the world. In the prosecution of that work, the church, I repeat, was a necessity and the product of that spirit of wisdom and love which was given him without measure. Moreover, it was an outgrowth and a demand of man's inherent social nature, which is itself marked with the sign-manual of divinity, and which in its inherent instincts and promptings urges on to divine results. It was not, therefore, originally of man's invention or devising, but of that infinite and immutable Presence which, both in and through Christ, and in and through man's intrinsic nature and necessity, conspired and operated to establish and perpetuate it. And as man of himself did not originate the church neither can he or any finite agency destroy it. It is rooted and grounded in God and must endure for the accomplishment of those vast designs for which He gave it a place in the world, and in the divine order of human progress towards infinity.

2. In respect to its absolutely essential qualities and characteristics. We must discriminate between what is essential in the church and what is incidental between what is inherent and vital to its existence and usefulness, and mere forms, expedients, conveniences, and policies. Without the