treasure bringeth forth good things"; Rom. 10: 9, 10"if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"; James 1: 18-"Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that he should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures"— we are saved, not for ourselves only, but as parts and beginnings of an organic kingdom of God; believers are called “first-fruits," because from them the blessing shall spread, until the whole world shall be pervaded with the new life; Pentecost, as the feast of first-fruits, was but the beginning of a stream that shall continue to flow until the whole race of man is gathered in.

R. S. Storrs: "When any truth becomes central and vital, there comes the desire to utter it "— and we may add, not only in words, but in organization. So beliefs crystallize into institutions. But Christian faith is something more vital than the common beliefs of the world. Linking the soul to Christ, it brings Christians into living fellowship with one another before any bonds of outward organization exist; outward organization, indeed, only expresses and symbolizes this inward union of spirit to Christ and to one another.

(c) The individual church may be defined as that smaller company of regenerate persons, who, in any given community, unite themselves voluntarily together, in accordance with Christ's laws, for the purpose of securing the complete establishment of his kingdom in themselves and in the world. Mat. 18: 17" And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican"; Acts 14: 23-"appointed for them elders in every church"; Rom. 16: 5 -"salute the church that is in their house"; 1 Cor. 1: 2-"the church of God which is at Corinth "; 4: 17-"even as I teach everywhere in every church "; 1 Thess. 2: 14-"the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus." We do not define the church as a body of "baptized believers," because baptism is but one of "Christ's laws," in accordance with which believers unite themselves. Since these laws are the laws of church-organization contained in the New Testament, no Temperance Society or Young Men's Christian Association is properly a church.

We may summarize these laws as follows: (1) the sufficiency and sole authority of Scripture as the rule both of doctrine and polity; (2) credible evidence of regeneration and conversion as prerequisite to church-membership; (3) immersion only, as answering to Christ's command of baptisın, and to the symbolic meaning of the ordinance : (4) the order of the ordinances, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, as of divine appointment, as well as the ordinances themselves; (5) the right of each member of the church to a voice in its government and discipline; (6) each church, while holding fellowship with other churches, solely responsible to Christ; (7) the freedom of the individual conscience, and the total independence of church and state.

These are the essential principles of Baptist churches, although other bodies of Christians have come to recognize a portion of them. Bodies of Christians which refuse to accept these principles we may, in a somewhat loose and modified sense, call churches; but we cannot regard them as churches organized in all respects according to Christ's laws, or as completely answering to the New Testament model of church organization. As Luther, having found the doctrine of justification by faith, could not recognize that doctrine as Christian which taught justification by works, but denounced the church which held it as Antichrist, saying, "Here I stand: I cannot do otherwise, God help me," so we, in matters not indifferent, as feet-washing, but vitally affecting the existence of the church, as regenerate church-membership, must stand by the New Testament, and refuse to call any other body of Christians a regular church, that is not organized according to Christ's laws. The English word 'church,' like the Scotch 'kirk' and the German ‘Kirche,' is derived from the Greek κupiaký, and means 'belonging to the Lord.' The term itself should teach us to regard only Christ's laws as our rule of organization.

(d) Besides these two significations of the term 'church,' there are properly in the New Testament no others. The word ékkλŋoía is indeed used in Acts 7:38; 19: 32, 39; Heb. 2: 12, to designate a popular assembly; but since this is a secular use of the term, it does not here concern us. In certain passages, as for example Acts 9: 31 (έkkλnoía, sing., NABC), 1 Cor. 12: 28, Phil. 3: 6, and 1 Tim. 3: 15, ¿ккλŋσía appears to be used either as a generic

or as a collective term, to denote simply the body of independent local churches existing in a given region or at a given epoch. But since there is no evidence that these churches were bound together in any outward organization, this use of the term έkкλŋoía cannot be regarded as adding any new sense to those of 'the universal church' and 'the local church' already mentioned.

Acts 7:38"the church [marg. 'congregation'] in the wilderness" the whole body of the people of Israel; 19: 32-"the assembly was in confusion "- the tumultuous mob in the theatre at Ephesus; 39-"the regular assembly"; 9: 31-"So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified"; 1 Cor. 12: 28-"and God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers"; Phil. 3: 6-"as touching zeal, persecuting the church "; 1 Tim. 3: 15-"that thou mayest know how man ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

In the original use of the word ékkλŋσía, as a popular assembly, there was doubtless an allusion to the derivation from èx and kaλéw, to call out, by herald. Some have held that the N. T. term contains an allusion to the fact that the members of Christ's church are called, chosen, elected by God. This, however, is more than doubtful. In common use, the term had lost its etymological meaning, and signified merely an assembly, however gathered or summoned. The church was never so large that it could not assemble. The church of Jerusalem gathered for the choice of deacons (Acts 6: 2, 5), and the church of Antioch gathered to hear Paul's account of his missionary journey (Acts 14:27).

It is only by a common figure of rhetoric that many churches are spoken of together in the singular number, in such passages as Acts 9:31. We speak generically of 'man,' meaning the whole race of men; and of the horse,' meaning all horses. Gibbon, speaking of the successive tribes that swept down upon the Roman Empire, uses a noun in the singular number, and describes them as "the several detachments of that immense army of northern barbarians"-yet he does not mean to intimate that these tribes had any common government. So we may speak of "the American college" or "the American theological seminary," but we do not thereby mean that the colleges or the seminaries are bound together by any tie of outward organization.

So Paul says that God has set in the church apostles, prophets, and teachers (1 Cor. 12: 28), but the word 'church' is only a collective term for the many independent churches. In this same sense, we may speak of "the Baptist church" of New York, or of America; but it must be remembered that we use the term without any such implication of common government as is involved in the phrases 'the Presbyterian church,' or 'the Protestant Episcopal church,' or 'the Roman Catholic church'; with us, in this connection, the term 'church' means simply 'churches.'

On the meaning of èkkλŋσía, see Cremer, Lex. N. T., 329; Trench, Syn. N. T., 1: 18; Girdlestone, Syn. O. T., 367; Curtis, Progress of Baptist Principles, 301; Dexter, Congregationalism, 25; Dagg, Church Order, 100-120; Robinson, N. T. Lex., sub voce.

The prevailing usage of the N. T. gives to the term EKKλnoia the second of these two significations. It is this local church only which has definite and temporal existence, and of this alone we henceforth treat. Our definition of the individual church implies the two following particulars :

A. The church, like the family and the state, is an institution of divine appointment. This is plain: (a) from its relation to the church universal, as its concrete embodiment; (b) from the fact that its necessity is grounded in the social and religious nature of man; (c) from the Scripture, as for example, Christ's command in Mat. 18:17, and the designation church of God,' applied to individual churches (1 Cor. 1:2). President Wayland: "The universal church comes before the particular church. The society which Christ has established is the foundation of every particular association calling itself a church of Christ." Andrews, in Bib. Sac., Jan., 1883: 35-58, on the conception KKλŋσía in the N. T., says that "the 'church' is the prius of all local 'churches.' Ekkλŋoía in Acts 9: 31 = the church, so far as represented in those provinces. It is ecumenical-local, as in 1 Cor. 10: 33. The local church is a microcosm, a specialized

localization of the universal body. p, in the O. T. and in the Targums, means the whole congregation of Israel, and then secondarily those local bodies which were parts and representations of the whole. Christ, using Aramaic, probably used in Mat. 18:17. He took his idea of the church from it, not from the heathen use of the word ékkaŋgia, which expresses the notion of locality and state much more than . The larger sense of KKAŋσia is the primary. Local churches are points of consciousness and activity for the great all-inclusive unit, and they are not themselves the units for an ecclesiastical aggregate. They are faces, not parts of the one church."

B. The church, unlike the family and the state, is a voluntary society. (a) This results from the fact that the local church is the outward expression of that rational and free life in Christ which characterizes the church as a whole. In this it differs from those other organizations of divine appointment, entrance into which is not optional. Membership in the church is not hereditary or compulsory. (b) The doctrine of the church, as thus defined, is a necessary outgrowth of the doctrine of regeneration. As this fundamental spiritual change is mediated not by outward appliances, but by inward and conscious reception of Christ and his truth, union with the church logically follows, not precedes, the soul's spiritual union with Christ.

Dorner includes under his doctrine of the Church: (1) the genesis of the church, through the new-birth of the Spirit, or Regeneration; (2) the growth and persistence of the church through the continuous operation of the Spirit in the means of grace, or Ecclesiology proper, as others call it; (3) the completion of the church, or Eschatology. While this scheme seems designed to favor a theory of baptismal regeneration, we must commend its recognition of the fact that the doctrine of the church grows out of the doctrine of regeneration and is determined in its nature by it. If regeneration has always conversion for its obverse side, and if conversion always includes faith in Christ, it is vain to speak of regeneration without faith. And if union with the church is but the outward expression of a preceding union with Christ which involves regeneration and conversion, then involuntary church-membership is an absurdity, and a misrepresentation of the whole method of salvation.

The value of compulsory religion may be illustrated from David Hume's experience. A godly matron of the Canongate, so runs the story, when Hume sank in the mud in her vicinity, and on account of his obesity could not get out, compelled the sceptic to say the Lord's Prayer before she would help him. Amos Kendall, on the other hand, concluded in his old age that he had not been acting on Christ's plan for saving the world, and so, of his own accord, connected himself with the church.

II. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH.

1. The fact of organization.

Organization may exist without lists of members or formal choice of officers. These last are the proofs, reminders, and helps of organization, but they are not essential to it. It is however not merely informal, but formal, organization in the church, to which the New Testament bears wit

ness.

That there was such organization is abundantly shown from (a) its stated meetings, (b) elections, and (c) officers; (d) from the designations of its ministers, together with (e) the recognized authority of the minister and of the church; (ƒ) from its discipline, (g) contributions, (h) letters of commendation, (i) registers of widows, (j) uniform customs, and (k) ordi

nances; () from the order enjoined and observed, (m) the qualifications for membership, and (n) the common work of the whole body.

(a) Acts 20:7-"upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them"; Heb. 10: 25-"not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another."

(b) Acts 1:23-26- the election of Matthias; 6: 5, 6-the election of deacons.

(c) Phil. 1:1-"the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." (d) Acts 20:17, 28-"the elders of the church ..... the flock in the which the Holy Ghost hath made [marg. overseers']."

you bishops

(e) Mat. 18:17-"And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican"; 1 Pet. 5: 2-"Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God."

(f) 1 Cor. 5: 4, 5, 13-"in the name of the Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ... Put away the wicked man from among yourselves."

(g) Rom. 15: 26-"For it hath been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints that are at Jerusalem"; 1 Cor. 16: 1, 2-"Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I gave order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye. Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collection be made when I come."

(h) Acts 18:27-"And when he was minded to pass over into Achaia, the brethren encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him"; 2 Cor. 3: 1-"Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?"

(i) 1 Tim. 5: 9-"Let none be enrolled as a widow under three score years old"; cf. Acts 6: 1-"there arose a murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration." (j) 1 Cor. 11: 16" But if any man seemeth to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God."

(k) Acts 2: 41-"Then they that received his word were baptized"; 1 Cor. 11: 23-26" For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you "— the institution of the Lord's Supper.

(2) 1 Cor. 14:40-"Let all things be done decently and in order"; Col. 2: 5-"For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ." (m) Mat. 28: 19-"Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost"; Acts 2: 47-"And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved.'

(n) Phil. 2: 30-"because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me."

As indicative of a developed organization in the N. T. church, of which only the germ existed before Christ's death, it is important to notice the progress in names from the gospels to the epistles. In the gospels, the word " disciples" is the common designation of Christ's followers, but it is not once found in the epistles. In the epistles, there are only "saints," "brethren," 'churches." A consideration of the facts here referred to is sufficient to evince the unscriptural nature of two modern theories of the church:

A. The theory that the church is an exclusively spiritual body, destitute of all formal organization, and bound together only by the mutual relation of each believer to his indwelling Lord.

The church, upon this view, so far as outward bonds are concerned, is only an aggregation of isolated units. Those believers who chance to gather at a particular place, or to live at a particular time, constitute the church of that place or time. This view is held by the Friends and by the Plymouth Brethren. It ignores the tendencies to organization inherent in human nature; confounds the visible with the invisible church; and is directly opposed to the Scripture representations of the visible church as comprehending some who are not true believers.

Acts 5:1-11- Ananias and Sapphira show that the visible church comprehended some

who were not true believers; 1 Cor. 14: 23- "If therefore the whole church be assembled together, and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad?" — here, if the church had been an unorganized assembly, the unlearned visitors who came in would have formed a part of it; Phil. 3: 18-"For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ."

Some years ago a book was placed upon the Index, at Rome, entitled: "The Priesthood a Chronic Disorder of the Human Race." The Plymouth Brethren dislike church organizations, for fear they will become machines; they dislike ordained ministers, for fear they will become bishops. They object to praying for the Holy Ghost, because he was given on Pentecost, ignoring the fact that the church after Pentecost so prayed: see Acts 4: 31-"And when they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." What we call a giving or descent of the Holy Spirit is, since the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, only a manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit, and this certainly may be prayed for; see Luke 11: 13 "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

The Plymouth brethren would "unite Christendom by its dismemberment, and do away with all sects by the creation of a new sect, more narrow and bitter in its hostility to existing sects than any other." Yet the tendency to organize is so strong in human nature, that even Plymouth brethren, when they meet regularly together, fall into an informal, if not a formal, organization; certain teachers and leaders are tacitly recognized as officers of the body; committees and rules are unconsciously used for facilitating business. Even one of their own writers, C. H. M., speaks of the “natural tendency to association without God-as in the Shinar Association or Babel Confederacy of Gen. 11, which aimed at building up a name upon the earth. The Christian church is God's appointed association to take the place of all these. Hence God confounds the tongues in Gen. 11 (judgment); gives tongues in Acts 2 (grace); but only one tongue is spoken in Rev. 7 (glory)."

Dr. Wm. Reid, Plymouth Brethrenism Unveiled, 79-143, attributes to the sect the following Church-principles: (1) the church did not exist before Pentecost; (2) the visible and the invisible church identical; (3) the one assembly of God; (3) the presidency of the Holy Spirit; (5) rejection of a one-man and man-made ministry; (6) the church is without government. Also the following heresies: (1) Christ's heavenly humanity; (2) denial of Christ's righteousness, as being obedience to law; (3) denial that Christ's righteousness is imputed; (4) justification in the risen Christ; (5) Christ's non-atoning sufferings; (6) denial of moral law as rule of life; (7) the Lord's day is not the Sabbath; (8) perfectionism; (9) secret rapture of the saints -caught up to be with Christ. To these we may add: (10) premillenial advent of

Christ.

On the Plymouth Brethren and their doctrine, see British Quar., Oct. 1873: 202; Princeton Rev., 1872: 48-77; H. M. King, in Baptist Review, 1881: 438-465; Fish, Ecclesiology, 314-316; Dagg, Church Order, 80-83; R. H. Carson, The Brethren, 8-14; J. C. L. Carson, The Heresies of the Plymouth Brethren; Croskery, Plymouth Brethrenism; Teulon, Hist. and Teachings of Plymouth Brethren.

B. The theory that the form of church organization is not definitely prescribed in the New Testament, but is a matter of expediency, each body of believers being permitted to adopt that method of organization which best suits its circumstances and condition.

The view under consideration seems in some respects to be favored by Neander, and is often regarded as incidental to his larger conception of church history as a progressive development. But a proper theory of development does not exclude the idea of a church organization already complete in all essential particulars before the close of the inspired canon, so that the record of it may constitute a providential example of binding authority upon all subsequent ages. The view mentioned exaggerates the differences of practice between the N. T. churches; underestimates the need of divine direction as to methods of church union; and admits a principle