former it could not have continued in a healthy state for any appreciable period, or done any substantial enduring good for the human race. That is always and forever the same, partaking of the divine nature, steadfast, immutable, eternal. The latter are con-ventional, experimental, changeable; subject to modification by time, circumstance, and varying necessity. The church may exist with them or without them; with them under given conditions and without them under other conditions. Indeed, many, if not all of them, may be great helps at one time but great hindrances at another. Like the scaffolding to a building they may aid in the construction of a noble, perfect Christian character at one stage of advancement but be a hindrance at another obstacle in the way of further development and a disfigurement of what would be otherwise beautiful and glorious.

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What then it may be asked are some of the absolute essentials of the true Christian church—the ideal church of Christ? They may 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. Practically, and as a working basis for church activity as well as for the existence of a church, they are resolvable into truths to be believed and acknowledged, and duties to be performed and fulfilled in character and life. These truths and duties were plainly taught by Christ and enjoined upon his disciples as the basis of all their thought and conduct and as the foundation upon

which they were to build his church. They have come down to us in the New Testament records, and are to be interpreted upon a fair construction for use in our own day and time. As the early believers in Jesus employed them, so are we to do. They are as essential to true church affiliation and co-operation to the existence and appointed work of a true Christian church now as then. They are divine, they are immutable, they are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the acceptance of them, confessed faith in them, the acknowledged obligation to live according to them, constitute alike the ground-work of Christian character and the substructure of any Christian institution.

And in declaring for the truths and duties indicated, it will at once be seen that I am not declaring for any of the popular confessions or creeds of the now existing church in any of its differing schools, denominations, sects, under whatsoever partisan name they play their respective parts in the complex drama of the ecclesiastical world. On the other hand, I have no doubt that many, nay, most of these, are radically defective and need at thorough reconstruction in order to have them really Christian-in happy accord with the precepts and principles of the Master. My claim and my contention are for these and these alone as the great, primary, fundamental qualities and characteristics of the Christian church as Jesus formed it and breathed into it the breath of life.

3. In respect to its inmost, vital, animating spirit, the church, as Christ founded it, was divine,.

perfect, immutable. We must in the interest of intelligence and a clear understanding, distinguish between the spirit and the letter of the church. "The letter killeth, the Spirit giveth life." Dis-crimination must also be made between its intrinsic, central, vitalizing spirit and the more external, impulsive, evanescent temper or state of mind that at different times and under different circumstances actuates and characterizes its membership, clergy and laity alike. The latter is often sadly intermingled with, if not over-mastered by, selfish ambition, pride, jealousy, arrogance, and even cruelty and revenge, damaging alike to personal excellence and worth and to the character, standing, and usefulness of the church itself in its organic capacity. The former is pure, sweet, holy, compassionate, forgiving, merciful - the true Christlike spirit, born of the spirit of God and partaking of His essential nature in all its various impulses and manifestations. No doubt much of this spirit entered into the primitive Christian church when "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed were his own; but they had all things common." "And great grace was upon them all." And I think we may safely conclude that notwithstanding all the imperfections, errors, and abuses that during the passing centuries have crept into, corrupted, and disgraced the nominal church of Christ, it has never wholly lost it original character in this particular, has never been wholly abandoned by the true, the real spirit of

the Master and given over body and soul to the domination of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but has had dwelling somewhere within its fellowship, more or less active, this central divine element which some day will rise once more to supremacy and renew the heart and life of Christendom.

It is this central spirit which has always given. the church vitality and kept it alive to this day. Often cramped in its struggles for a freer expression, for a more abounding life, for a larger empire; often partially smothered by unworthy devotees and the arrogance of the outside world, it has yet maintained somewhat of its inherent energy, and found a congenial home in a small but constantly increasing number of those whose hearts have responded to its appeals and given it welcome, and whose lives, transformed and preserved from all evil by its regenerating power, have borne convincing testimony to the divinity whence it sprang and with which it was animated. It is this native, incorruptible, vitalizing force which, still abiding, shall yet slough off the rotten accretions of hypocrisy and deceit, the gross incumbrances of worldly display and material aggrandizement, the barnacles of false doctrine and intolerant assumption that are still over-burdening the nominal Christian church and hindering its progress, and give to it free course in its God-appointed and all-conquering way through the world in the years and ages ahead. Whoever dreams that the church is to die out, or be superseded by some new agency on a different basis and under a different inspiration, or that what

is called civilization, science, art, philosophy, is to elevate mankind and bring in the divine kingdom without its aid without its inmost quickening spirit, is dreaming in vain. Its influence in the future upon the progress and destiny of humanity will be greater than in the past, and the radiance of its hitherto twilight, dispelling the mists and shadows that have so long obscured its beams, will increase and brighten unto the perfect day. And chiefly because its all-animating spirit is divine and clothed with instrinsic power to overcome all obstacles, impart health and strength to the moral and spiritual capabilities of men, and evolve an order of life upon the earth conformed to the will of the infinite Father of all souls.

4. The church of Christ is divine again in its ideal of spiritual fellowship and of the relation of man to man in all the varied intercourse of life. This ideal of the church, prefiguring its ultimate design and attainment, is one thing; the actual is another, and, as has been, still is, and for a long time will be, quite a different thing. The ideal is what exists in the thought of God as the final result of what he ordains in any given case. In the matter of the church, the ideal is a group, associated body, or community of men and women. believing in and submissive to the great principles of truth and righteousness revealed in Jesus Christ and animated by the spirit of love to God and man, drawn to each other and bound together by the cords of a spiritual attraction, sympathy, and compatibility, and exemplifying a reign of holiness, love,