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true followers of Jesus, of all faithful, consistent believers in his religion. But such resistance must be made in a rightful way and by righteous means. Opposition to wrong-doing must not be manifested or carried on by wrong-doing. Satan cannot cast out Satan. We are not to meet falsehood with falsehood, selfishness with selfishness, cruelty with cruelty, violence with violence, wrath with wrath, injury with injury, bloodshed with bloodshed. No form of inquity can be vanquished by its corresponding iniquity but by its opposite. The antidote for lying is truth; for selfishness is generosity; for cruelty, kindness, and so on. Evil must be resisted and can be overcome only with good. No wickedness must be wrought under pretence of promoting the general welfare; no injustice committed in order to secure beneficent results; no deceit practiced to help a good cause; no immorality perpetrated for righteousness' sake. The end does not sanctify the means nor is it justifiable under the Christian law of life to do evil that good may (For a full exposition of this sublime doctrine, Christian Non-Resistance, see Vol. II, Discourse XIII)

come.

8. "The designed and required social unity and harmony of all Christlike souls."

This article not only enjoins unity and harmony among the disciples of Christ in their ecclesiastical relations, cordial and friendly intercourse and co-operation on the strictly religious plane, but it anticipates and provides for corresponding unity, harmony, friendliness, and co-operation in all the concerns of

life. It contemplates an order of human society, represented in and by the church, which is to transcend and exclude the manifold antagonisms of person, property, and selfish interest which exist in the world as now organized and governed, and which are the source of incalculable degradation, suffering, and misery to multitudes of the children of men. It contemplates an order of human society in which the spirit and principles of the religion of the New Testament shall prevail and be manifest in every department of existence and in all possible human affairs; an order of society which shall in some good degree epitomize the long-prophesied and long-desired kingdom of heaven on the earth. That this state of unity and harmony is included in the divine design and required by the revealed will and purpose of God in Jesus Christ is clearly indicated in the prophetic utterances recorded in both the Old and New Testaments; in the aspirations and prayers of all holy souls; in the progressive nature and unmeasured possibilities of mankind; in the diffusive, uplifting, regenerating, ennobling, harmonizing power of Christian truth and love; and in the growing tendency seen on every hand in these later times towards that blessed result. Selfish, carnal minds cannot appreciate, even if they can entertain, so grand a thought, so sublime a conception of unity, harmony, brotherhood, peace, as the article of faith we are considering forecasts and demands at the hands of the reconstructed church; much less are they qualified to make that thought or conception a glorious reality, to be the archi

tects of the divine society of the future to which it points and for which it prepares the way. Only highly spiritualized souls, those who have entered most fully into the mind and spirit of Christ, those who are most thoroughly consecrated to his serviceonly such can or will engage in the sacred work of laying sure and strong the foundations and rearing the superstructure of that social order which is the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse coming down from God out of heaven. To that work the church which will some day be founded, whose advent I would fain do something to hasten, is summoned, and charged with the duty of performing it in the article before us. Let it not be unmindful of the high commission, or neglectful of the sacred, allimportant obligation.

DISCOURSE XV.

ORGANIZATION OF THE TRUE CHURCH.

*

"He (Christ) is the head of the body, the church: * * that in all things he might have the pre-eminence." - Col. i. 18. "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” — Eph. iv. 11, 12.

"There are differences of administrations but the same Lord." I Cor. xii. 5.

I have now reached the fifth section of the Statement of Faith proposed by me as the platform or foundation of a properly organized Christian church. It consists of six articles which I will proceed to expound, illustrate, and apply in their heretofore tabulated order.

I. "There should be some definitely prescribed and clearly understood conditions of membership.'

The true church is not a promiscuous collection of people interested in things pertaining to the religious life, coming together on occasions as convenience or necessity, pleasure or duty may prompt; nor should it ever be regarded in that light; and its convocations are not simply mass meetings designed to serve merely temporary uses. It is a compact association or body of persons solemnly

avowing an adherence to certain distinctive principles of faith and practice, in which they are substantially agreed, banded together for the specific purpose of promoting the growth of the Christlike life in those immediately concerned, and the extension of the realm of truth, righteousness, love, peace, and joy on the earth. It must, therefore, conform to the general modes of organization and administration which experience in other important interests of life has proved to be essential to success, if it would be a power for good in the world, exercising it functions and prerogatives from generation to generation through successive periods of human history. It must have a definitely enrolled list of recognized, responsible members, who, in their associated capacity, are to be considered as constituting the church, and as in sacred duty bound to maintain its integrity, honor, acknowledged faith, its working activities, its high character and unsullied reputation, and its permanent usefulness as an institution of human society. Such a membership can be established only by having some fixed rules or conditions of admission to it and by scrupulously insisting in every instance upon conforming to them. Otherwise there will be after a little time only a conglomerate medley of incompatibles and irresponsibles with no strong bond of union holding them together, and the church will be composed only of individual fragments, shorn of that power which combined energy and voluntary, whole-hearted co-operation only can evolve. Under such a lax, imbecile policy the

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