our Lord's original conception of "one fold and one Shepherd" was immensely bolder: for, in the case of professed Christians, there is presumable such an extent of a regenerative process, and such a degree of faith, as to render them accessible to whatever reconciling and unifying influences the religion of Jesus may furnish; and to say that they are proof against all such divine influnces is to condemn them as incorrigi ble hypocrites. But our Lord looked out on an utterly unregenerate world-such as is described in Rom. i. 21-32, iii. 9 18—and dared to entertain the purpose of making out of such material a holy, loving, harmonious brotherhood, that should be, in this world of strife and hate, a living Temple of Love, built up of living stones from the quarries of all nations! If we had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, we would not doubt the possibility of removing the little sectarian hills that rear their heads all too proudly, and casting them into the sea, when the rugged Alpine heights of Jewish and Gentile hate bowed before the majesty of God in Christ, and crumbled at His word. "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." Think of the sects among the Jewsof the bitter hate and strife between Jew and Samaritan-of the endless variances, rivalries, hostilities of the Gentile nations-of the intense scorn of all those for Jewish exclusiveness, repaid by the Jews in overflowing measure: was it "Utopian" to attempt the reconciliation of all these in one body by the cross? It was not only attempted, but was grandly successful, in so much that among the wonders of the world there has been nothing so wonderful as that primitive church of God-the holy, catholic, apostolic church-unsus

tained by the patronage of the wise or the great, unprotected by civil governments, largely destitute of learning, eloquence and wealth, yet moving on in its gentle mission of reconciliation, teaching the lessons of heavenly wisdom, drawing hearts together by attractions all divine, and planting societies in which Jew, Samaritan and Gentile met as brethren. Master and slave gave each other the hand of fellowship as equal before God; and the humbled rich and the exalted poor stood on a common level; the prince and the beggar clasped hands as partners; and all stood pledged to the high purposes of love-even to the extent of laying down their lives for each other. There was neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision; Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ was all, and in all. In all parts of the world, this new institution took root, until a new brotherhood, numbered by millions, and remarkable for unity and catholicity, presented to the startled gaze of the world a phase of human nature that had all the novelty and splendor of a miracle. The first two centuries of the Christian era, when this unparalleled moral and spiritual revolution was grandly triumphant, found but few pens to furnish even a worthy sketch of the history of the church; but as, in delving among the ruins of ancient cities and empires, we form our ideas, from the might and grandeur of the wrecks, of what the original might and grandeur must have been; so here, from the very ruins of primitive Christianity-from the fragments of its original purity and charity and catholicity which even apostate forms of this religion in later ages can not hide, we are enabled to reason to fair conclusions as to the unity, philanthropy, piety, and rapid and exten

sive triumphs of the primitive church. The little stone, cut out of the mountain without hands, did smite the proud image which blended in its gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and clay, the false religions and false governments of the world, and broke it to pieces, and gave fair promise of grinding it to powder, and of moving on in its accumulative might until it should become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. The fact of one church, made up in its membership of all nations and classes, possessed of many diversities, yet characterized by a definite unity, and achieving triumphs unmatched in history, stands as an eternal refutation of all the fine-spun theories of modern times as to the absolute necessity of sects.

But still the question returns: How was this accomplished? What bond of fellowship was strong enough to hold these heterogeneous masses in loving brotherhood, and yet elastic enough to yield to the pressure of their manifold diversities without breaking? Men of diverse races and religions had been held together under imperial authority, as belonging to one vast empire; but they were held by the power of the sword, or by the sway of carnal and selfish interests. But Jesus expressly disavowed the exercise of such power. "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence" (John xviii. 36). Vast multitudes have been held in submission to spiritual despotism-the slaves of ignorance and superstition. It can not be called unity. It is a mere negation. If there is the absence of protest and strife, the empire of death can boast of the same.

It

is indeed the silence of death-the death of the soul. But Christianity proposes no such despotism. Its direct aim is to enlighten and emancipate. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Its unity is a unity of faith, of knowledge, and of spirit -the union of free souls in an intelligent fellowship, in which the rights of conscience are scrupulously respected.

Sometimes, under the powerful pressure of a common interest, or a common danger, masses otherwise heterogeneous may be forced for a time into one party, or one common movement; but it will only hold while this interest is supreme, and disintegration will ensue the moment that the pressure is withdrawn. But Christianity is not charged with transient interests, nor does it propose a transient fellowship to meet a special emergency. Its unity is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. No system ever gave such defiance to the external pressure of fleeting interests, or so cordially repudiated considerations and pleas of policy.

By what divine potency, then, did it lead men into such a fellowship? by what divine charm did it hold them? We must delay for the answer to these questions. Meanwhile it will do the readers good to meditate on the words of Paul: "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

BOND OF FELLOWSHIP.

The bond of fellowship in this new community was faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who put their trust in him as Saviour and Lord, and were willing to repose in him for salvation and trust in him for guidance, were, on this simple faith, admitted at once, through baptism upon His name, into Christian fellowship; and those who, being thus baptized, held fast this faith and walked in his commandments, were held in fellowship. Beyond this, nothing was required of them. Whatever their differences of race, of social condition, of opinion or prejudice touching anything and everything else but Christ, or whatever their peculiarities of taste and of habit, of manners and of customs, of education and of training, of language and of civil government, if they were "one in Christ Jesus," those differences were not allowed to interfere with the claims of Christian brotherhood. Upon a common faith, through a common baptism, as those who stood upon a common level of sin and need, they were brought into one common relation as children of God and subjects of the Lord Jesus, and made partakers of a common salvation. Their unity was unity of faith and of spirit-a faith resting on the Christ as its object, a spirit of love and devotion and holiness derived through their faith in him; and their union was most emphatically union "in Christ."