the improvident. One elder excelled as an awakening preacher; another, as a sound expositor; and another, as a sagacious counsellor: whilst another still, who never ventured to address the congregation, and whose voice was seldom heard at the meetings of the eldership, could go to the house of mourning, or the chamber of disease, and there pour forth the fulness of his heart in most appropriate and impressive supplications. Every one was taught to appreciate the talents of his neighbour, and to feel that he was, to some extent, dependent on others for his own edification. The preaching elder could not say to the ruling elders, "I have no need of you;" neither could the elders say to the deacons, "We have no need of you." When the sweet singer was absent, every one admitted that the congregational music was less interesting; when the skilful penman removed to another district, the Church soon began to complain of a scarcity of copies of the sacred manuscripts; and even when the pious widow died in a good old age, the blank was visible, and the loss of a faithful servant of the Church was acknowledged and deplored. "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."*

* 1 Cor. xii. 12, 21, 26.

CHAPTER III.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.

THE Israelites were emphatically

a peculiar people." Though amounting, in the days of our Lord, to several millions of individuals, they were all the lineal descendants of Abraham; and though two thousand years had passed away since the time of their great progenitor, they had not meanwhile intermingled, to any considerable extent, with the rest of the human family. The bulk of the nation still occupied the land which had been granted by promise to the "father of the faithful;" the same farms had been held by the same families from age to age; and probably some of the proprietors could boast that their ancestors, fifteen hundred years before, had taken possession of the very fields which they now cultivated. They had all one form of worship, one high priest, and one place of sacrifice. At stated seasons every year all the males of a certain age were required to meet together at Jerusalem; and thus a full representation of the whole race was frequently collected in one great congregation.

The written law of Moses was the sacred bond which united so closely the Church of Israel. The ritual observances of the Hebrews, which had all a typical meaning, are described by the inspired lawgiver with singular minuteness; and any deviation from them was forbidden, not only because it involved an impeachment either of the authority or the wisdom of Jehovah, but also because it was calculated to mar their significance. Under the Mosaic economy the

posterity of Abraham were taught to regard each other as members of the same family, interested, as joint heirs, in the blessings promised to their distinguished ancestor. The Israelites were knit together by innumerable ties, as well secular as religious; and when they appeared in one multitudinous assemblage on occasions of peculiar solemnity,* they presented a specimen of ecclesiastical unity such as the world has never since contemplated.

Some, however, have contended that the Christian community was originally constructed upon very different principles. According to them the word churcht in the New Testament is always used in one of two senses—either as denoting a single worshipping society, or the whole commonwealth of the faithful; and from this they infer that, in primitive times, every Christian congregation was independent of every other. But such allegations, which are exceedingly improbable in themselves, are found, when carefully investigated, to be totally destitute of foundation. The Church of Jerusalem, with the tens of thousands of individuals belonging to it,§ must have consisted of several congregations; the Church of Antioch, to which so many prophets and teachers ministered, was probably in a similar position; and the Church of Palestine ** obviously com

*Such as we find described in Deut. xxxi. 10-12.

+ In Greek ekkλŋoía. The reference in the text is to its ecclesiastical use, for in the New Testament it sometimes signifies a mob. See Acts xix. 32.

Acts xi. 22, xv. 4.

§ Acts xxi. 20, Tóσαι μvpiádes—literally, "how many tens of thousands." One of these is mentioned Acts xii. 12.

Acts xiii. 1.

** Acts ix. 31. The true reading here is, "Then had the church (èkêλŋσía) rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria." This reading is supported by the most ancient manuscripts, including ABC; by the Vulgate, and nearly all the ancient versions, including the old Syriac, Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopian, Arabic of Erpenius, and Armenian; and by the most distinguished critics, such as Kuinoel, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles. It is likewise sustained by the authority of what is believed to be by far the most valuable cursive MS. in existence. See Scrivener's " Codex Augiensis," Introd. lxviii., and p. 425. Cambridge, 1859.

prehended a large number of associated churches. When our Saviour prayed that all His people "may be one,”* He evidently indicated that the unity of the Church, so strikingly exhibited in the nation of Israel, should still be studied and maintained; and when Paul describes the household of faith, he speaks of it, not as a loose mass of independent congregations, but as a "body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth."+ The apostle here refers to the vital union of believers by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; but he apparently alludes also to those "bands" of outward ordinances, and "joints" of visible confederation, by which their communion is upheld; for, were the Church split up into an indefinite number of insulated congregations, even the unity of the spirit could neither be distinctly ascertained nor properly cultivated. When oiled by the spirit of Divine love, the machinery of the Church moves with admirable harmony, and accomplishes the most astonishing results; but, when pervaded by another spirit, it is strained and dislocated, and in danger of dashing itself to pieces.

Those who hold that every congregation, however small, is a complete church in itself, are quite unable to explain why the system of ecclesiastical organization should be thus circumscribed. The New Testament inculcates the unity of all the faithful, as well as the unity of particular societies; and the same principle of Christian brotherhood which prompts a number of individuals to meet together for religious fellowship, should also lead a number of congregations in the same locality to fraternize. The twelve may be regarded as the representatives of the doctrine of ecclesiastical confederation; for though they were commanded to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature, yet, as long as circumstances permitted, they continued to co-operate. "When the apostles which were at Jerusalem + Eph. iv. 16.

* John xvii. 21.

See Col. ii. 19.

heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John ;"* and, at a subsequent period, they concurred in sending "forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch."+ These facts distinctly prove that they had a common interest in everything pertaining to the well-being of the whole Christian commonwealth; and that, like Paul, they were entrusted with "the care of all the churches." Nor did the early Christian congregations act independently. They believed that union is strength, and they were "knit together" in ecclesiastical relationship. Hence, we read of the brother who was "chosen of the churches" to travel with the Apostle Paul. It is now impossible to determine in what way this choice was madewhether at a general meeting of deputies from different congregations, or by a separate vote in each particular society-but, in whatever way the election was accomplished, the appointment of one representative for several churches was itself a recognition of their ecclesiastical unity.

We have seen that the worship of the Church was much the same as the worship of the synagogue, § and it would seem that its polity also was borrowed from the institutions of the chosen people. Every Jewish congregation was || governed by a bench of elders; and in every city there was a smaller sanhedrim, or presbytery, consisting of twentythree members, to which the neighbouring synagogues

Acts viii. 14.

+ Acts xi. 22. "No notion is more at variance with the spirit of apostolic Christianity than that of societies of Christians existing in the same neighbourhood, but not in communion with each other, and not under a common government."-Litton, p. 450. 2 Cor. viii. 19.

§ Period I. sec. iii. chap. i. p. 214.

"That the Church did really derive its polity from the synagogue is a fact upon the proof of which, in the present state of theological learning, it is needless to expend many words."-Litton's Church of Christ, p. 254.

See Selden, "De Synedriis," lib. ii. c. 5; Lightfoot's "Works," iii. 242, and xi. 179. Josephus says that Moses appointed only seven judges in every city. Antiq." book iv. c. 8, § 14. See also "Wars of the Jews," ii. c. 20, § 5.