V •:• /•■ / tttC. join V thb'ol"ogig*V BV 601 .K455 1865 Kelly, William, 1821-1906. Six lectures on fundamental truths connected with the L A, SIX LECTURES FUNDAMENTAL TKUTHS CONNECTED WITH THE CHURCH OF GOD. W. KELLY. LONDON : W. H. BROOM, 34, PATERNOSTER ROW; G. MORRISH, 24, WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW; E. CROCKER, 28, PENTON STREET, N. 18G5. ■ PHIITC3T0IT 7H2QL0GIC1L SYNOPSIS, LECTURE I. ONE BODY. Difference of God's dealings with His people in the past and present dis- pensations ; Adam ; Abraham; Israel as a nation; death and resurrection of Christ introduce a new thing ; the body composed of Jew and Gentile ; the cross, showing the complete ruin of man, removes the barrier to God's free action; God's thoughts set upon the glory of His Son; first shadow of the Church's union with Christ precedes the entrance of sin; Ephes. i. is then adduced to show that God develops His counsels of grace before mentioning man's sin ; the cross not merely meets the desperate need of man, but unites in one body Jew and Gentile ; a new man thus created ; a habitation in which God could dwell; Christ, God's true temple while on earth ; the truth of the one body claims the attention of all Christians ; human and divine relationships ; Satan's grand object to hinder the present operation of God in the saints ; and succeeds at man's weak point in that man likes to be something ; and so easily falls a prey to the working of the enemy ; the glory of Christ's Per- son as maintained by the Holy Ghost, the mainspring of the life and con- versation of a Christian man ; difficulties met with in reasoning about the Church on Old Testament analogy ; Christ Head of His body in resurrection ; consequently the body is heavenly as in the Head ; " Christian " means more than " Saint ;" bearing of the Gospels and Epistles on the one body ; servants and children ; a Jew could never have put the Old and New Testaments to- gether ; the cross the foundation of a new revelation ; what is the unity of the Spirit ? Christians act on this unity only when gathered to the name of IV SYNOPSIS. Christ; God's grace in reviving this truth in view of the Lord's speedy coming; exhortation to younger brethren and sisters; the word of God the only standard ; "the world," and " within and without;" my place as a Christian; separation; conclusion. LECTURE II. ONE SPIRIT. Personality of the Holy Ghost ; work of the Holy Ghost in former dispen- sations ; Jewish and Gentile view of Christ ; disappointment of Jewish hopes; Holy Ghost sent down from heaven is, next to Christ, the central truth of the New Testament ; disciples prepared for the doctrine of the Spirit ; Holy Ghost not merely a power, a Person ; why He cannot be known by the world; the Holy Ghost sent by the Father in Christ's name, and sent by Christ from the Father ; God glorified in exalting the Man Christ Jesus ; the righteousness of God ; Peter's boldness by reason of a purged conscience ; in the Trinity, subordination of Persons unscriptural ; the double relation of the Holy Ghost— to the world and to the saints ; communication of risen life by the Holy Ghost ; Holy Ghost on earth in the absence of Christ ; miracu- lous tokens of the Spirit's presence at the outset ; grieving the Spirit ; the testimony of the Acts to the working of the Holy Ghost ; the teaching of the Epistles as to His presence both in the individual and in the Church ; the opening of 1st Corinthians shows the perpetuity of the Holy Ghost's action in the Church so long as it is here below ; reason for the discontinu- ance of miracles ; God's wisdom in withholding them now ; the Spirit the pledge of God's delight in the work of His Son: Christ's twofold reception of the Holy Ghost ; practical importance of these truths ; how the Holy Ghost works in the assembly ; duty of a Christian to be where the Holy Ghost is owned ; why the Church is so weak ; owning the Holy Ghost does not hinder individual ministry ; true reason of meeting is to please the Lord Jesus ; charge of bigotry weighed ; why ask people to come with me, while I do not go with them ? search the word of God for "yourself ; conclusion. ipsis. v LECTURE III. THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. Assembly and ministry alike flow from the accomplished work of Christ; "Assembly," rather than " Church ;" the Rock upon which it is built ; Christ the Son of the living God ; building of the assembly future in Matt, xvi; the baptism of the Spirit; consideration of the term " invisible Church;" no church till the death of Christ; the congregation of Jehovah; position of " such as should be saved;" critical remarks upon Acts ix, 31 ; authority for the same ; the case of the trespassing brother ; grace in action instead of law ; a mistake often made about what love is ; the ordering of the assembly by the Holy Ghost ; tests— not as to who are Christians, but what is of the Holy Ghost ; two things maintained by the Holy Ghost— the glory of Christ as to His Person, and the Lordship of Christ as to His place ; assembly not dependent upon age or country ; the infant Church at Corinth ; their new-born exuberance ; how to use a gift ; the meaning of the term "prophesying;" all to be done to edifying ; a revelation not possible now; the canon of Scripture closed ; the presence of the Holy Ghost in the assembly ; a member of the Church of God a member everywhere ; difference between a Church and the Church ; letters of commendation ; our duty not to form a new Church, but to cleave to the old ; Jesus in the midst ; where were you last Lord's Day ? how God can bless even Roman Catholics ; what the faith- ful are to do who meet on God's principles ; unintelligence of those who have never felt the cost of separation from the ruin around ; duty of a Chris- tian in the event of an assembly departing from the word of God ; action to be taken slowly, and with much waiting on the Lord ; Ministry ; the Lord calls, sends, and controls, not the assembly; preachers sent by men an usurpation of the Lord's prerogative ; the case of Philip ; Paul and Apollos ; difference of judgment recorded without censure ; case of Barnabas and Saul ; co-operation in ministry allowed so long as there is no bondage ; subjection to chief men ; review of the two lines of truth sketched ; fluctuation in the Church, none in Christ ; conclusion. VI SYNOPSIS. LECTURE IV. WORSHIP, BREAKING OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. What is worship? state of soul needed for worship; sin and shame of man's interference with the worship of God; our privilege to say " We know;" man, unless horn of God, incapable of worshipping Him; the great principle of wor- ship shown in the word to the Samaritan woman ; under the law God hid Him- self; under grace He revealed Himself ; three things necessary to worship; where ought men to worship? God's title of Father not made known to Israel ; God the Father in quest of worshippers; the Jewish lamp replaced by the brightness of the Father's glory ; do not forget that our Father is also our God ; what am I to do if asked to join in worship ? fleshly worship suits a fleshly state ; what happens when Christian worship is unknown or forgotten; preaching the Gospel not to be confounded with worship; worship founded on Christ (dead, risen, and ascended), and carried on by the power of the Holy Ghost ; position of the unbelievers pre- sent where the assembly is gathered; who can sing, and say Amen; how many may take active part in the assembly; on giving out hymns ; criticism ; breaking bread; the Lord's Supper ; characteristics of the first day of the week; prime object of the Sapper is to remember the Lord's death ; when should the bread be broken? strangeness of pi-ocedure to those habituated to rigid forms; thoughts sometimes expressed by those who have broken bread ; what happened among the Corinthians through not duly apprehending the character of the Lord's Sup- per ; the practice of appointing particular officials considered; the character of the Supper impugned if any official be appointed by man to administer it ; the Supper leaves no room for human display ; what is the meaning of 1 Cor. xi, 29 ? the Lord's Supper a sweet privilege as well as a solemn duty for all His own ; Prayer— Scripture does not speak of a " gift of prayer;" the apostle lays down as a rule, that men pray everywhere ; conclusion. LEGTUEE V. GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. Dryness of subject unless connection seen with Christ; gifts are for the glory of Christ, not the aggrandisement of men ; indifference to this a deep dishonour done to Him ; "gifts of the Lord," not "gifts of the Spirit;" gifts consequent upon the ascension of Christ ; contraband ministry ; " He descended first ;" " He ascended SYNOPSIS. VI I that He might fill all things ;" the world can admire Christ and Christianity if altered to suit the age's taste ; Christ, only as risen, the Church's Head ; gifts in Ephesians and Corinthians compared ; gifts in Corinthians became a snare, those in Ephesians are for perfecting ; " apostles and prophets ;" not prophets and apos- tles; character of ministry in the Church quite distinct from that which obtained while the Lord was on earth ; the mission of the twelve to Israel ; earthly glory of Messiah fades and is eclipsed by heavenly glory ; who laid hands on the apos- tles? Saul's call when going, not to, but from Jerusalem ; Paul a sample of one whom the Lord calls to be a minister ; how God has made the great apostle the witness of non-succession; the service of tables; as far as the New Testament speaks, no one was ever ordained by man to preach the gospel ; Acts xiii ; Arch- bishop Potter on Church Government ; the separation of Barnabas and Saul by the Holy Ghost for special work ; if Paul and Barnabas were ordained in the current sense, then the lesser ordained the greater ; what this laying on of hands signified ; the silence of Scripture respecting the laying of hands on presbyters ; the abso- lute necessity of having a real commission from the Lord, in order to appoint to office ; Christendom while fighting for its own order has missed God's ; qualifica- tion for eldership ; an unruly house a disqualification for eldership ; the word of God nowhere hints at the continuance of an ordaining power ; the case of Titus ; man's ordination puts one off the ground of faith in, and deference to, the word of God ; foolishness of making a bad imitation of what was written exclusively to Timothy or Titus ; elders never mentioned as giving gifts ; deprecation of the thought that the Holy Ghost can be conveyed by ordination ; how to judge of the possession of a gift ; gifts to be proved by their power, according to the word of God ; gifts sooner or later, sure to be recognised ; difficulties of one who has used a gift for a livelihood ; dissent is religious radicalism ; the value of the word of God for guidance as to ministry and Church office ; persons having qualification for eldership may still be found ; but no power to ordain them as such ; Scripture has provided for this defective condition of the Church ; exhortation to esteem those who labour ; elders not mentioned in the Corinthian and Thessalonian assemblies ; but those who possessed spiritual power in guiding and directing, found in both ; no new invention needed to meet the difficulties of the day ; fulness of blessing in Christ for the Church now as in Pentecostal times ; plenty of room in an assembly for numerous gifts ; gifts always sure, because Christ is the Head and source of supply ; conclusion. Note on Acts xiv, 23. Vlll SYNOPSIS. LECTURE VI. THE RESOURCE OF THE FAITHFUL IN THE RUINS OF CHRISTENDOM. Solemnity of the subject ; Christ's words of light require no tapers of man to make them more distinct ; dishonour to the name of Jesus in Christendom ; differ- ence between owning the ruin and endeavouring to reinstate the Church ; the Church of God the greatest work, next to the cross, that God has ever wrought on the earth ; to slight it is worse than any evil of former days; the days of Noah followed by the flood, and the days of Lot followed by the destruction of Sodom , types of the day when the Son of Man shall be revealed; Christendom's danger seen in Rom. xi ; its non-continuance in God's goodness; its excision; its apos- tacy apparent from the first ; the man of sin, and the man of righteousness ; Antichrist; Cain, Balaam, Core; he who defends Christendom, gives the Lord the lie ; deprecation of the apology, that the Lord will set all right ; unsparing judg- ment His action when He comes ; the Lord's provision for the faithful in the dark day ; the Lord's own weight of authority attached to "two or three " gathered to His name ; no wonder men shrink from Church discipline, seeing how it has been abused ; the duty of a believer, to renounce every tie not connected with Christ ; which is best, your rules or God's word? how is it that the doctrines of men have taken the place of the word of God ? electing a minister, wholly at variance with Scripture ; evils resulting from the dissenting and parochial systems ; advice to saints taking their place with the "two or three," how to detect and exclude what is not of God; the great house, and who to separate from; "He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey ;" "The Christian World," or evil with the name of Christ attached to it; trusting the Lord for eternal life, and denying Him for a bit of bread ; what to flee and what to follow (2 Tim. ii.) ; Christ addresses Him- self to hearts, grieved at the dishonour done to His grace and truth ; illustration of a rightly and wrongly constituted assembly ; Christ the centre and rallying point ; no ground for fear, if the Lord be the helper ; conclusion. "ONE BODY." Eph. iv. LECTURE I. The subject on which I propose, with the Lord's help, to enter to-night, is the one body, the body of Christ ; and this, too, not only as a great doc- trine which the Holy Grhost has laid down with the utmost clearness, and throughout a considerable part of the New Testament, but also, as far as I am able in a short space, deducing some of its practical consequences, and showing its bearing upon the communion and the conduct of every member of it, that is, of every Christian. Now, in order to develop the special characteristics of Christ's body, it will be necessary to explain how it differed from that which God revealed, or set up, in past dispensations ; for there are distinctions, and even contrasts, between the past dealings of Grod and that which He is now accomplishing to the honour of His beloved Son. While there was, of B Z ONE BODY. course, always the only true Grod; while He had in times past those He loved upon earth ; while He ever wrought by His Spirit ; while there was neces- sarily faith at work in order to the blessing of souls ; yet for all that, there are essential and deeply impor- tant differences, which none can overlook without loss to himself, without sure weakening of his testi- mony to others, and, above all, without coming short of the just perception of what God Himself has nearest to His own heart — His own glory in Christ. Now, it is perfectly plain, if we take up the Old Testament, that when man fell into sin, Grod gave certain revelations of blessing, all of which find their centre in the Lord Jesus. We see this from the very beginning of Genesis. When sin entered, not only righteous government, but grace instantly followed. Grod was there ; and in the presence of the guilty pair, and in defiance of the serpent, the mercy of Grod spoke of that same blessed One, of whom we are about to hear further and deeper glories. In due time Grod brought out, in a distinct and personal manner, blessings in connexion with Abraham and his seed. There we have the domain of promise — not only revelation and mercy, but distinct promise to a given person, and to his seed. This had not been the case in the garden of Eden. Man fell there ; and it is evident that fallen man could not possibly be the object of the promise of God. There are pro- mises for such : there could not be a promise to such. When Abraham received the promise, he was not a ONE BODY. 6 fallen man merely, bnt a believing man. It was as one elect, called, and faithful, that God made him the depository of promise. But it was when Adam fell, before there was anything of the operation of divine grace in him ; it was when he and Eve had com- pletely separated themselves from Grod, that mercy, entirely irrespective of their condition or desert, held out a revelation of grace in the person of Christ. The woman's seed was presented more particularly as the destroyer of him that had wrought this deep and, as far as it went, irreparable mischief — irrepar- able to the creature, but only furnishing the oppor- tunity for God to bring out His own grace to the glory of Him who, bruised Himself, was to bruise the serpent's head. The effect of the promise to Abraham was that a family was set apart unto Grod, and, in due time, a nation. Next, we find that, as this nation was full of confidence in its own powers, Grod was pleased, in the wisdom of His ways, to try them by the law, as we all know, given at Sinai. I need not enter into the details, but just state the general outline of the divine dealings, for the purpose of clearing my sub- ject. But the issue of that trial, however long Grod might delay, was not doubtful for a moment ; for at the very mountain where Grod spoke, the children of Israel set at nought the authority and the glory of Grod, and bowed down to the work of their own hands : that is, the law, as a moral question between God and man, was overthrown from its very foundations at the outset. God lingered — long lingered — in patience, b 2 4 ONE BODY. and meanwhile brought out His ways in every pos- sible variety. The crowning experiment of all was the presence of Christ, the seed of the woman, and the seed of promise, too ; for now came the Person who answered to all the revelations and promises, the ways, and types, and prophecies of God. He came, in whose Person was found all that was worthy of God, and that was suited to man. But the coming of Christ brought out the awful truth, not only that man is himself corrupt, depraved, and loves his own will, but that he hates goodness — yea, divine goodness — in a man. He is the enemy of God when manifest- ing Himself in the most blessed manner — in His own Son ; when manifesting Himself, not only in power — for we can understand a guilty creature alarmed at holy power — but in perfect love, coming down in humilia- tion, putting Himself at the foot of man, beseeching man ; for this is in truth not a figure or exaggeration of man's mind, but God's own word. Hear His description of it : " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us" &c. This love beseeching sinnors was the attribute of divine grace in the person of Christ. What was the result? That man proved there was no possibility of extricating himself by any means that God put at his disposal : that if it were a question of man's delivering himself, no matter what might be the mercy or the blessing, no matter how deep and full ONE BODY. the grace displayed in a living person, man was too far gone — nay, so truly dead in sin, that, so far from being won by God's love, he only took advantage of it, and when Jesus put Himself at the foot of man, he lifted up his heel and trod on Him, the Son of God. But if man thus, under Satan's malicious guidance, cast out and crucified Christ, Grod in the cross not only demonstrated His love (herein is love, indeed!), but wrought out redemption, a work suited even for those that crucified Jesus, capable of blotting out the foulest sin man was ever guilty of. God has triumphed even where man did his worst against Him. But this is not all. In the previous dealings of God, when He had given His law, God had separated the nation that was called out of Egypt — had marked them off in the most distinct and positive manner from all others. It was needful. Men might have complained that there had been no fair trial ; the corrupt examples of others might have led them astray. God set Israel apart by their institutions, rites, ordinances, services, and His law ; and by that law, and by those rites, He severed them from all others; so that it would have been sin against God for a Jew to have communion with a Gentile, no matter how godly and disposed to respect the law of God. No doubt there might be such a thing as being brought out of Gentilism, at any rate to a certain extent ; but still, all through the system of God's dealings by His law with the Jewish people, there was the express and total severance of His people from all others. I do not speak of the abuse 6 ONE BODY. of it, working upon the corrupt heart of man against others — the pride of men's heart, who despised others because of their divinely isolated position ; but apart from the evil use that Israel made of their separation, faithfulness to God then required it, and His will was in the thing itself. God was proving before the whole world the painful and humbling truth, that let a nation have ever such mercies, ever such privileges, ever such wisdom directing their movements, outward and inward, nay, everything pertaining to them, the issue of all is increasing enmity against God Himself. The death and resurrection of Christ introduced a new thing in every sense. Now, Christians admit this in general, as to the work of Christ in its appli- cation to the need of the soul. There is no person, of ever so little spiritual intelligence, who does not confess, with more or less clearness and thankfulness of heart, the all-importance of the cross of Christ for his need before God. There may be a scanty perception of the extent of the deliverance ; there may be feeble enjoyment of the perfect peace that has been made by the blood of Christ's cross; but there is no believer who does not in some measure hold it, and enjoy it, and thank God for it. But there' is more than the sinner's need met in the cross; and I direct your attention to what the Holy Ghost gives us in Eph. ii., as showing the place of the cross in the ways of God — not merely in the salvation of the soul. At the 13th verse it is written, " Ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by ONE BODY, the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace ; and that He might reconcile both unto (rod in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Now, it is evident from this Scripture, that not only is the cross the basis of peace for the soul, but it is the foundation also on which rests the " one body " that God is now making of Jew and Gentile before Him- self. And we see this most plainly if we only look back to our Lord's own presence upon earth. He forbids His disciples going into the way of the Gentiles — forbids their entering any city of the Samaritans. Need it be said that it was from no lack of love ? It was not that His heart did not yearn over the most reprobate of Samaritans ; it was not that He did not appreciate the faith of a Gentile — He had not seen "such faith, no, not in Israel." Notwithstanding, they were to go only to the lost sheep of Israel, because to such only He was sent, and so were they too. Now, here we find at once, that while there was this perfectness of grace in Christ, there was the full maintenance of the holy order of God. There was a state of things essentially different from what we have described in Eph. ii. There was a positive bar- rier even during His lifetime, the very thing being formally prohibited, which, after He died and rose, was not merely a duty, but the delight of love, the 8 ONE BODY. only adequate answer in the saints to that death and resurrection. (See Matt, xxviii. 19.) How comes this to pass ? On what is so mighty a change founded ? Upon the cross. It brings out the worthlessness of man, and most of all, the worthless- ness of favoured, privileged, religious man — of man under God's law. For if man under God's law failed, what other law could avail ? The law of (rod was the wisest, the best, the holiest, and the justest dealing that it was possible to bring to bear upon man's natural state. And here was the total failure of man : not as if God did not know it from the first, for He took care that in the earliest book of Scripture, and all through, embedded in the very law itself, there should be plain words as well as shadows, showing that man would sin, and that only Christ, by His blood-shedding, by His death, could avail. The very first revelation of the garden of Eden is a witness of both. Faith had no other expectation. But nevertheless there was a full, patient, long-suffering trial whether it was possible to get any good out of man, in the dealings of the only wise God with man. And now it was demon- strated in the cross that all was ruined in man, and that the highest advantages, short of the cross of Christ, brought out the ruin most distinctly. Now there was room for God to work ; and, beloved friends, it is upon this that it is my joy to speak a little to- night. We have come down the stream ; we have seen what man was when it was a question of his work- ONE BODY. 9 ing for God : we shall now look briefly at God when He puts forth His glorious power to work, not merely for man, but for His Son ; for oh ! we never get the full blessing until we see this great and glorious truth, that God has at heart His Son — that God is thinking, not merely of a blessing for you, for me, for any of those that love Him — yea, and in sovereign grace, for those who love Him not, if they repent and believe the Gospel — but that He has His eye upon Him who did all and suffered all for His glory, and has bound up that glory of God with the fullest, richest, everlasting blessing of all who believe in His name. And now, then, as the fruit of the cross of Christ (where we have the weakness of God, where nevertheless we have the triumph of God — God Himself coming clown lower and lower still in love, not merely, so to speak, beseeching man, but laying all the weight and burden of sin upon the Lord Jesus, thereby meeting the desperate need of sinners by His Son suffering for them), what do we find? That in the cross He has given the death-blow to sin ; He has " put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," as we are told. But, besides, by it all the distinctions of Jew and Gentile pass away, and God brings out that to which He had always looked onward — that which was in His counsels not only from the founda- tion of the world, but before it, and which conse- quently He had shown before there was a question of law, and before there was a question of sin. For it is remarkable, that the magnificent type which the apostle applies in Eph. v. to the mystery of 10 ONE BODY. Christ and the Church, was brought in before sin entered (Gen ii.)» In truth, it was a counsel that flowed out of what God was and is. It was God in His own love ; it was God working from what was in Himself. No doubt, the entrance of sin has given occasion for Grod to bring out His grace in blessed ways ; but, for all that, we must ever remember that there were thoughts and counsels of grace in Grod Himself. There was that which He ever had in His own mind, for the revelation of which, no doubt, sin might furnish the fit occasion. But sin was in no wise the suggestive spring any more than the measure. On the contrary, it was Grod indulging, so to speak, in the activity of His own perfect love ; at any rate, it was God thinking of, filled with, working for, His own Son. And I think it is of deep interest to observe the fact just referred to — the shadow of the Church's union with Christ preceding the entrance of sin and the provisions of grace in view of sin. And observe further, that as we see in the types of Genesis, so it is in the epistle to the Ephe- sians. Where is it that you have the counsels of God traced out ? Is it after man's sin has been portrayed in chapter ii. ? No ; but in the earliest verses of chapter i., where God gives the richest de- velopment of the counsels of His grace, entirely passing over and ignoring in the first instance all question of man's sin and of man's need. This we have afterwards and in the profoundest way. There is, perhaps, no part of the word of God which shows ONE BODY. 11 lis the depth of human evil more than Ephesians ii. ; but this is not at all the first thought. Hence we find in the first chapter, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." And then it is only just by the way that the apostle alludes to the fact of their sins, and in a single verse (the 7th), where we read, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." "With the exception of that incidental notice of the fact of our needing redemption, the remission of sins, you would not know from the first chapter of the epistle that the saints of God, these blest ones, had a single evil, or a particle of sin connected with them. That is, it is God perfectly acting from Himself, in and for His own Son; delighting in Him, putting honour upon Him, giving Him what was suited to Him out of His own resources of love, and hence boundlessly to the saints, the body of Christ, as the end of chapter i. describes them. It is thus that the Holy Ghost is pleased to introduce these astonishing counsels of grace. Then, in the second chapter, we have man's state looked at most thoroughly. We see him weighed and found wanting as in no other part of Scripture. We have him here, not as an active being, alive in sin, but as a lost being dead in sin — " dead 12 ONE BODY. in trespasses and sins." He is, therefore, hopelessly lost and utterly powerless in sins. The whole case is closed against him ; and it is to this condition of manifest moral death and subjection to Satan, that the grace of God applies itself, in His quickening, raising, heavenly power in Christ Jesus. But, again, we find that in the latter part of Ephe- sians ii. the cross of Christ is taken up, not merely in connexion with God's counsels, as in chapter i., nor even in view of their desperate need who are the objects of His counsels, as in the begin- ning of chapter ii., but in contrast to the previous ways of Grod upon the earth. He is addressing Gentiles. Was it not a suitable occasion for Grod to unfold to them the one new man, the mystery of Christ and the Church, the body of Christ ? They were hitherto ignored, evidently outside all that God had been doing of old. God had taken up a separated people and had tried them. The Gentiles were as non-existent, so to speak, before God. Not, of course, that the secret providence of God did not watch and work — not that the grace of God did not act as to individuals ; but, regarded as Gentiles, they were outside. But now these are the very objects of heavenly grace ; toward Gentiles the call goes out loud and large. Not that they alone were brought into the Church, for it consists of Jews also ; but it was Gentiles whom it seemed meet to God to bring into relief, in contrast to the condition in which they were once, so as to make more manifest the blessing which His grace now confers on both, in Christ the ONE BODY. 13 Lord. " "WTierefore remember, tliat ye being in time past Grentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircum- cision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands ; that at that time ye were with- out Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Grod in the world : but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one." There we have another fact, not only that they are made nigh to Grod, but both made one — Jew and Grentile that now believe made one body, as is explained more fully afterwards, the middle wall of partition broken down, the enmity abolished in His flesh, " even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself of twain one new man." It is not merely a new life, but Christ and the Church form one new man, a condition of things that had never before existed — " one new man, so making peace ; and that He might reconcile both unto Grod in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby : and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." Thus the Grentiles had been dispensationally afar off, the Jews were comparatively nigh ; but now they were taken completely out of their old condition. It is not, you will observe, that the Gentiles who believe are raised up merely to the privileges which the Jews used to possess, but that there is now " one new man," wherein is neither Jew nor Grentile. Both, 14 ONE BODY. consequently, quit their previous states for a new and most blessed position of oneness in Christ, which had never existed before, save in the counsels of God. Here, then, is the Church, the body of Christ ; this is what God is working out. He is not only saving souls, He is gathering ; not only is He gather- ing into one, but He makes the believing Jew and Gentile, while they are on earth, though previously by His own command the most separate, now to be one new man in Christ, even His one body. There is another truth connected with the Church, revealed at the end of the chapter, which I merely notice by the way. Not only is there a body formed — one body in Christ, but there is a building upon earth, in which God dwells. Although it is not my business to-night to take up the subject of the dwelling or habitation of God, yet I cannot deny myself the joy of saying a few passing words on this wonderful place which God has given to His Church. And first of all, it is to be noticed, in the Old Testament there was no such thing as a building or dwelling of God, until there was a type of redemp- tion. No matter what might be His mercy or condescension to those He loved, He could not dwell with man until there was a basis of blood-shedding, by which He could righteously abide with him. Hence, all through the book of Genesis, for instance, God does not dwell with men ; nay, He never speaks of it, or promises it. But the moment the blood of the passover is shed, and you have Israel jmssing through the Eed Sea — the combined types of redemp- ONE BODY. 15 tion (one answering to the blood of Christ, the other to the death and resurrection of Christ, in which a complete redemption is set forth in figure) — immedi- ately you hear of God having a habitation : God could now dwell in the midst of His people. It is not because the people were better : who could imagine that ? Look at Israel at the Bed Sea ; what were they to be compared with Abraham or Isaac, or even Jacob? Yet He who only visited the fathers can now dwell among the children, and put this word into their lips, " I will prepare Him a habitation." How comes this ? Ah, beloved friends, how little any of us estimate the mighty change and the wondrous effect of redemption? It is not a question of comparing men, or their faith, or their faithfulness. God's estimate of redemption is the point ; and He shows that if there be only a type of redemption, He can come down typically, He can then dwell in the midst of His people. I admit this was only a preparatory thing. There was a visible token of it, suited, of course, to an earthly people ; but still there was the great distinct fact in Israel's history, as the very centre of their blessing, that God Himself deigned then to dwell in their midst. The same thing is found here far more blessedly for the Church on earth. On earth — and mark, not before the cross, but since — God is pleased to make His people to be His habitation. He came down in the Person of Christ, but Christ abode alone as far as the dwelling-place of God was concerned. " De- 16 ONE BODY. stroy this temple ;" He was the only true temple. But when He died and rose, what then ? Eedemp- tion was accomplished ; and now God could descend holily, righteously, suitably to His own character, and could dwell in His people. It is not because the New Testament saints are more worthy in them- selves than those of old. He that knows himself and redemption, knows that such an idea is a fallacy and a falsehood ; knows that human nature is good for nothing as before Grod ; knows that, in His pre- sence, there is no question of flesh, or what flesh can glory in, " but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." But this is not all; not only is there a Lord to glory in, but now we have actual redemption in Christ through His blood. What does God think of the precious blood of His Son ? "What does He feel about those on whom that blood is put by faith — those who are washed in it ? Does He not as it were say, " I can come now and take My place in their midst ?" This is, indeed, one of the precious charac- teristics of the Church. It especially is, even now, the habitation of Grod. In virtue of this it is that the Church is called the " house of Grod," and His " temple " in different parts of Scripture. But I must not dwell longer on this, because my subject is " the body." We find, then, in Eph. iv., that the Spirit of God presses this exhortation, " Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Next, He explains, "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, ONE BODY. 17 one faith, one baptism ; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Will it be imagined that this grand truth of the " one body " does not affect the judgment and conduct of the Christian as well as his affections ? We have been brought, I will suppose, to the knowledge of Christ ; we have found in Him the Son of God, the Saviour ; we rest upon Him as our peace before God ; we call on Him as our Lord. But have I no relation- ship with others on earth ? Am I left here simply and solitarily to look up to God ? Have I to thread my way through the mazes of this world, only usiug the word of God with prayer ? I repeat, What are my relationships ? Am I only a child of God with other children of His here and there ? What am I to feel, as I look round upon those that name the excellent name — that call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, both mine and theirs ? The Oxe Body is the answer. God has formed it ; He has formed it for Christ, it is His body. " We are members, " as it is said, " of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." It is not for you, it is not for me, to define, even in our natural relationships, our brothers and our sisters. Thank God, we are not asked : God does it; He gives what suits Him, even if it be only in the domain of earth and flesh. He does not give us what we might choose. We know our folly in this respect. He assigns each man a place — puts the high and the low according to His own wisdom. And in that which He is doing for His beloved Son, has He less to do or less to teach us ? Is God's will of less moment there, than c 18 ONE BODY. in the mere outward world? Nay, my brethren, nay : even moral men dispute not the will of God as to natural relationships. "We know what human lust may do — how it may break through every line of demarcation ; but still, after all, poor man finds even for himself, without thinking of (rod, the need and the value of owning the relationships which have been established in nature here below. Now, is it not a most solemn thought, and is it not a fact which ought to shame every Christian heart, that in that Church which is so near to God, in that which is the fruit of His own perfect love, in that which He is creating for the everlasting glory of His beloved Son, what God orders, what God wills, what pleases God, is regarded as of infinitely less account to Christians than even their natural relationships to each other ? Is it or is it not the fact ? Is it or is it not a grievous sin ? How do you account for this ? Whence the ter- rible triumph of the enemy ? WTiy is it that there is such darkness over the whole subject of the " one body " now ? Is it because God has not revealed His mind? What can be plainer in Scripture? Only a portion of the proofs has been produced from a small portion of God's word ; but what can be clearer than that, founded upon the cross of Christ, a new condi- tion has been introduced and established of God ; that He is now calling out the Jews and Gentiles who believe, and forming them into " one body ? " — that, as He owns no other body than Christ's, so this is His will about us, and our obligation to Him, even as it is the evident and only meaning of His word that ONE BODY. 19 speaks of His Church ? How is it, then, that such a truth escapes the thoughts of man — that you may search in vain to find it in writings new or old — that we have, some of us, long lived as Christians, and many of us once churchmen and dissenters so called, yet all utterly ignorant of its character? But if so patent, and with such a fulness of truth about it in God's word, how comes it to have been a forgotten thing? It is not because, there has not been sincerity — " godly sincerity " if you will- — among Christians. But whatever is near to God, whatever is the present operation of God, is always that against which Satan sets himself with all his might and subtlety. And this, because it is bound up with Christ, because it is the special actual will of Cod for His people. There- fore Satan seeks to thwart and mar. He does not now try so much to darken other truths, but he takes up that which most nearly concerns the glory of Christ as now displayed; whatever that may be at any given time, there is the battle-field, there the arena, where no means is untried to blind and hinder God's children from understanding and doing the will of their God and Father. When God is gathering out His Church, then is the enemy's season of active, unceasing effort, to oppose, confound, and obscure all the truths connected with it. Besides, there is another question. How comes it that Satan finds it possible to succeed in the face of such evidence as the New Testament affords? Alas ! the reason of this, too — the moral reason — is c 2 20 ONE BODY. evident. The children of God may be the more readily deceived, because the doctrine of the Church, the body of Christ, brings God too close to us — sets His grace too richly before our souls — makes us feel (if our souls believe, bow, and enter into it), the vanity of all things here. Alas ! our hearts shrink from the feeling. "We naturally love ease ; we like position in this world ; we are fond of a little reputation, it may not be, perhaps, in the vulgar world, but in the so-called Church — something, at any rata, for self, something outside the portion of Christ and the cross. The body is only for the Head, for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. Man in nature disappears ; his glory wanes and vanishes ; his will is judged as sin. "We do not like a doctrine and practice so peremptory, and withal so heavenly. Men like to do something, and be somebody. Man has in himself, wherever this is allowed, that which exposes him to the power of sin, to the malice and wiles of Satan ; and hence it is, that this great truth was no sooner revealed, than it began to fade. There is no testimony to it whatever in the early fathers, and of course a position more and more distant and antagonistic as you descend. Take up any writings you please : — Papists and Protestants, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminians — all ignore it. It is not that you will not find enough truth asserted and preached for souls to be saved by ; but the bare salvation of souls is not the whole truth, nor that part of the truth which reveals the Church of God. "Were not souls saved before Christ ? Was ONE BODY. 21 not salvation of the Jews ? Were there not faithful souls before God had a people upon earth ? Was it not so from the very beginning, before the flood and after it ? Most clearly and certainly. But there comes in another thing which was not true before, which God had not revealed or esta- blished till the rejection of the Messiah, and for which He had reserved the sending of the Holy Ghost from Heaven. Now, in the cross of Christ, God has laid a foundation for this new work, and is gathering together out of Jews and Gentiles His assembly, made in Christ one new man. Man likes to be of importance to himself, and in this world. Just in proportion as he allows this, he falls a prey to the working of the enemy ; and the more easily does he deceive himself, because up to the cross of Christ there was room left for man more or less. His total ruin, his enmity to God, his hatred of grace in the revealed person of the Son, were never brought out in their fulness until then. Till that, God was not, could not be, known as He now is. But the only- begotten Son declared Him, and this in respect both of sin and of His righteousness — a new kind of righteousness, which, by all means and on every side, clears and blesses the guiltiest who now believes in Jesus. Now, if there is to be a heart growing up into the revelation which God has made of Himself in Christ according to His grace towards the Church, the one body of Christ, there must be the judgment of nature, root and branch — the judgment of the world in which 22 ONE BODY. man arrogates some place to himself. The Church of Grod is based on the proved ruin of man, and is for the glory of Grod in His Son, as maintained by the Holy Grhost. Now, this will show the immensely important place of this truth as a matter for the soul, both in communion and in conduct. Away with, what does not touch, upon practice and the soul's relationship to Grod ! But the fact is, that so far from the truth of the Church leaving out heart and conscience, intercourse with Grod, worship and service, there is nothing which brings them out so much, and binds them so fast together, save only the truth of Christ's own Person; there is nothing more com- manding, comprehensive, and penetrating for the life and conversation of a Christian man. Take, for instance, all the difficulties men gather from the Old Testament : on what are they founded ? I speak now of the legitimate difficulties — at any rate what seem to be legitimate and authoritative to the mind of an uninstructed believer. "What, after all, is their gist ? Eeasoning founded upon Old Testa- ment precept or practice. But is the analogy just ? How can we reason in an absolute way, if there be this " one new man"? — if the Church is a novel, special thing which did not even exist then ? It is evident that conduct, for instance, found in a David, or a Solomon — in an Abraham, or an Isaac, or a Jacob, may not apply now, but, on the contrary, be out of harmony with the ways God looks for in His Church. I am not speaking of those moral landmarks which always condemn falsehood, corruption, or violence : ONE BODY. 23 no Christian is supposed to produce the sin of any of these men to justify his own evil. I speak of what was right and according to the will of Grod as then revealed. The moment the doctrine of the Church, the body of Christ, is seen, all such reasonings and difficulties have no more a place. Grod has now His Son in His presence as the risen man. There could not be such a thing as the body of Christ till Christ was there, not only as the Son, but as man, the Head of the body; Christ could not be there as man till the work of redemption was accomplished. Of old He had the title of the Son of Man given, looking onward to His assumption of humanity, when He who was Grod, and the Son of God, became a real man. But how could He take this place in Heaven ? He was born a man on earth. He was not a man until He was born into the world. How take this place in Heaven ? Christ was not Head, still less was there the body, the Church, till then. " The Church, which is His body," assumes that Christ had become man, and, more than this, that He is Head, as the risen and ascended man. It is only after He died, as we know by His own figure of the corn of wheat, that He pro- duced fruit (John xii.). But more than that. Not to stand upon figures only, but to take any Scripture that speaks in precise terms upon it, what do we find ? Eead the end of Ephes. i. : " What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us- ward who believe, accord- ing to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own rigid hand in the heavenly 24 ONE BODY. places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come : and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church." Thus He has been given to the Church Head over all things ; but it is after He was raised from the dead, and set at God's right hand. The risen man is Head there : even He never was Head till after redemption. He took His place there and thus. What is the consequence of that, beloved friends ? The body of Christ is heavenly, as the Head of the Church is. Man does not relish this — nay, many a Christian man finds it too high and hard. If he is a heavenly man, where is the room for the plans and designs and pursuits of literature, of science, of politics ? Where are all these things that fill the mind and the appetites and the desires of men ? Are they in heaven ? Are warlike schemes— are courtier dreams in heaven ? You have, no doubt, the battle against the devil, who is turned out of heaven, as the Lord wars by the angels of His power by-and-by. But I need not say there is no place in His body for the pride, ambition, or energy of man. What, then, is the great idea of the Church of God ? It is the body of Christ, after He has accom- plished redemption; and consequently, sin, as far as God's judging the believer, is completely gone, put away, in such sort as to glorify God and justify the believer. Founded upon this, those who believe are consequently not only regenerate of the Spirit, ONE BODY. 25 and justified from their sins by the blood of Christ, but united to Him, their blessed Head, at the right hand of God. The Church of God accordingly does not consist merely of the redeemed or saints. A " Christian " means more than a " saint " — much more ! I am aware there are many who think it means much less, and would count my doctrine strange; because they consider everybody in these ]ands a Christian, and but very few on earth a saint — per- haps none till they get to heaven. But it is to me most evident — nothing more certain — that a Chris- tian is a saint, and a good deal more ; and that good deal more is, that he is a saint after God effected redemption in the blood of Christ ; that he is a saint united to Christ at God's right hand; that he is a saint who has God dwelling in him, by the Spirit, for God now can dwell there. The atoning work is done : the blood has been shed and sprinkled. God can take up His abode there — does ! How do I know it ? Because God has told me so in His word. One may have poor enjoyment of it, of course — that is another thing; but the' enjoyment of the truth depends upon the measure in which our souls first rest upon it, believingly ; and then, unless we judge the flesh that hinders the realization of it, we cannot enjoy it either long or much if at all. God shows, then, in His word, that the Church is the union of believers — one with Christ, by the Holy Ghost, after He died, rose, and went to heaven. The consequence is, that we must consult what God enjoins on the members of that body, if we would 26 ONE BODY. know how we are to walk and worship ; how we are to act and feel towards the other members of Christ ; and how to behave in " the house of God." The New Testament occupies itself with these sub- jects, more particularly the epistles of St. Paul. It could not be formally or definitely in the Gospels, because they are devoted for the most part to a living Christ, closing with the facts of His death, resurrection, and ascension. You may find there preparations for the new work and testimony — not a few intimations of what was going to be done ; but all show that the building of the Church was not yet begun. In the epistles, on the other hand, we have revelations altogether founded upon the great fact that the building was going on, the body was being formed. And mark another thing, which I hope to develop on the next occasion I address you, namely, that along with the body of Christ goes the presence of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It is only just referred to here, to show the connexion: we shall find its importance afterwards. Those who have not examined fully the testimony of Scripture, will feel the weight and value of the instruction there furnished, when that point comes more at length before us. But this at least is plain, that though it is a new work, entirely distinct from all that God had wrought before, there are great moral principles, as already hinted, which always abide. In every part of Scripture, in that which speaks of the times before the law, or during the law, as well as now under the Gospel, God is the righteous, ONE BODY. 27 holy, almighty, faithful One, a God of longsufiering, goodness, truth : all this remains ; and as to it, the difference is, that all these attributes of Grod shine out more gloriously, and, in consequence, deepen the revelation of Grod, in addition to there being ways and workings of Grod which were not and could not be expressed before. What an accession of light when Christ, the true light, shone ! What an infinite display of God Himself in His Person ! And what shall we say of the cross, and death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus as the manifestation of Grod ! Hence, in this new man, all the moral glory of Grod, of course, abides ; but now, in presence of that infi- nitely fuller manifestation, and the accomplishment of eternal redemption, is there to be no answer in the thoughts, and hearts, and ways of His children to what the Grod and Father of Christ is doing ? If, for instance, God calls a person into the place of a servant, there are certain responsibilities that attach to a ser- vant. But suppose these servants turn out thoroughly unfaithful, and end in rebellion, and God says, "I will have no more of this ; I will create a family and adopt children to Myself ; I will bring people, accord- ing to My sovereign pleasure, out of the old condition into this new place." What then ? It is evident that to go back to what was true of the servants might be a most misleading guide when it became a question of the children ; and, in point of fact, it is and must be so. It is on this ground that Christians meddle with the world — occupy themselves with those things that please the flesh and give importance to man. 28 ONE BODY. In contrast with this, (rod has given us the glorious truth that He has, as it were, but one man (the first Adam being done with, and pronounced to be ruined, dead, buried in the grave of Christ). We, Christians, belong to the second Man, the Lord from Heaven (1 Cor. xv.). There is "one new man," not only in contrast with old distinctions, but as uniting all, Jewish or Grentile saints, in one body — His body ; for that is the way in which it is presented in Ephes. ii. The consequence is, that we need, and Grod gives us, a new revelation ; He furnishes fresh instructions which had no place before. Supposing you had the New Testament in Old Testament times, what would have been (I will not say the worth, but) the effect of it then ? Perplexing beyond measure ! A Jew would not have known what to do with it. He might have been struck with the wisdom, beauty, holiness, and love of it all ; but how to act upon it and reconcile it with the law given by Moses, it would not have been possible for him to know. He would have been commanded by the Old Testament to keep wholly apart from the Grentiles ; he would have been told by the New Testament that they formed one body, and that they were all one in Christ — that both had access by one Spirit unto the Father. He could not have put these things together ; and no wonder : they were not meant to be together. They belong to distinct times and to totally different states. The confusion of the two is one way in which Satan has triumphed in the professing Church. Alas! it ONE BODY. 29 was not otherwise under God's dealings with the Jews. While He was standing by His law, they were breaking it ; while He was holding up the unity of the Godhead, they were set upon idols and going after the gods of the nations. They were utterly unfaithful to their testimony ; but I am per- suaded that a Jew, dark as he was and little versed in the mind of God, would have perceived that the instructions of the New Testament were irreconcilable with his calling. But God never gave it thus. When the work of atonement was finished on the cross, God brought out these new revelations by degrees. Why ? Because there was a new state of things — "one new man" — that did not exist before. Consequently, there was a new word of God suited to bring out the due relationship of Christians to one another, and the working of God in the Church, the body of Christ. Let me notice, briefly, before I close, the practical effect — " endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ' ' What interest this has, if really applicable in the face of our divisions ! Consider for a moment the case of a Christian ; he is awakened, finds peace, but questions what he is to do. How truly it has been the fact that many of us have been perplexed in such circumstances. We may have known very little of the word of God ; but still we found difficulties in reconciling that word with what we saw around us — especially such a word as this, "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit. " But it is really a plain and humble path. I have 30 ONE BODY. nothing to do with making the unity ; I have not to set up something, or join what others make. What then ? I am to be diligent in keeping the unity of the Spirit. In other words, God the Holy Ghost has made a unity ; and the business of the believer is to observe that unity — to keep it. What an amazing relief for a humble soul, that feels his liability to mistake, in danger of being either too lax on the one hand, or too narrow on the other ! What is the unity of the Spirit ? Where does it begin and end ? What is its nature and character ? Scripture tells us that He has established a unity among men, yet apart from and above them. What is it ? The answer is, It is in the Church, which Grod has made the body of Christ. What a comfort it is for a believer that he has simply to judge by the word of Grod where the unity of the Spirit is ! But how ? I come to a place, and I am at a loss to know where to turn. Where shall I find the unity of the Spirit of God ? How do I know it ? God has left land- marks ; He has given clear, distinct light in His word. I search and see that He is gathering together the children of God into one ; He gathers them unto the name of Christ, assuring them that where they are thus, He is in their midst. I never get the key to any spiritual difficulty without Christ. Do I merely look for the unity of Christians ? It is a delusion and a danger without Christ. Christians — where shall I not find them ? In what pit of error may I not discover some stray child of God ? If I go in quest of the children of God, I may easily ONE BODY. 31 see them in this form of worldliness or in that; I may know them unattached here, close and bigotted there ; I may find them gathered together according to human rules, and for entirely minor objects ; I may hear them setting up the names of men, certain special doctrines, favourite views, as their centres of union. Is this the unity of the Spirit ? What, then, is His unity, and how is it to be kept ? It is that which He forms for the glory of Christ. Christians, of course, are those that compose the unity; yet keeping it consists not in the bare fact that they are Christians, but that they are gathered unto Christ — gathered not to His bodily presence, but unto His name, now that He is in heaven ; none the less, however, for that, but the more counting on His presence with them, though unseen, faithful to His own word. If I isolate myself where I may thus meet, I am indifferent to that which was an object of the death of Christ (John xi. 52), and I am setting at nought the unity of the Spirit ; if I value the one and am diligent to keep the other, I shall meet on that ground and on none other. Many members of Christ, no doubt, are elsewhere now, who ought to be there, as truly as any that are gathered to that name ; but am I to hold aloof, who know my Master's will, because others see it not, or are faithless if they see it ? Am I to say His will cannot be done ? Therein lies part of the ruin of Christendom ; there is the painful fact, that what Christ died for, Satan has set himself to oppose, and has succeeded in it. Wonder not ; for everything that Grod undertakes is 32 ONE BODY. first of all put into man's hand, who is responsible to use it for Him. Alas ! there is but one issue — the utter failure of man ; and there will be no reversal of the tale till Jesus comes again. Nay, even then will be another trial of man, to show whether he uses the coming and kingdom of Jesus for God's glory ; and the end of the millennium will prove that, as it was before, so it will be then. Nevertheless, faith overcomes at all times. See that you hold the truth fast. Let none cheat you out of the blessing which God has given, and calls you to enjoy. Founded on the cross, united to Christ, waiting for His return, the Church is the precious fruit of God's grace. After His people departed from its power, and even let slip the bare form of this great truth, He has brought it before them anew. I cannot doubt that its recovery, in any measure, is vouchsafed of Grod in view of the Lord's speedy coming : else how do you account for it that Grod has been pleased to recall the bride to put herself, as it were, in readiness for the Bridegroom, signally bringing out again that mass of heavenly testimony which had been despised, deserted, and forgotten ? Happy are they who not only bow and receive the grace of God in it, but keep the treasure faithfully ! " Behold, I come quickly ; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Be assured, brethren, that we are in the same danger as men ever were in, of letting slip that which God has given us ; and that every engine which Satan can devise to drag us away — taking advantage of carelessness, difficulties, ONE BODY. 33 trials, or anything that can tax us to the utmost — will all be put in force, because he hates, not only us, but Christ and His truth. But as the Lord has been pleased to raise up again a testimony to His person, work, and heavenly glory, so I pray and beseech you, especially the younger of my brethren and sisters, who are here — all who may not have felt its force and preciousness — more particularly you who have been trained from your earliest perceptions of truth, brought in, as it were, rather than out, at compara- tively little cost, and who have not known (as some others) the wrenching of many a tie, with a deep disciplinary work in the heart, realizing gradually the true condition of Christendom; — I call upon you all to beware lest Satan should, in any insidious way, lead you from the only solid divine rock, in the midst of the rising surges of apostasy. Fully do I admit, that all who are brought into this glorious place, the body of Christ, ought to walk and carry themselves in a way suitable to such a position. It is a deep shame where there is no devotedness beyond what existed before this further measure of truth dawned on our souls ; not only a shame to us, but a serious hindrance to the truth, and a reproach upon the grace of Grod that revealed it and brought our souls into it, that after all there should be such an unworthy manifestation of its power. But how are we to deal with this ? Are we therefore to slight or doubt the truth ? Are we, because of our unfaith- fulness, to put aside the plain word of God, that condemns us, for a lower ground on which we can c 34 ONE BODY, rest more consistently and comfortably P Are we to yield to that which the fleshly mind has often sought and fallen into — to set up other centres than Christ, other ministry than that of the Spirit ? Are we to abandon the only place and principle which the New Testament allows for the members of Christ's body, on the -unbelieving plea, that, as to walking according to this heavenly light, it is a thing impracticable in such a world as this ? There are, beyond ques- tion, difficulties and perils neither few nor small in maintaining it. There is constant need of self- denial, most surely, if it is to be walked in with God. But how are we to judge, if not by the word of God? Are we prepared to surrender His word as our only standard of judgment ? Now, while that word of course condemns deeply the shortcomings of those who are thus privileged of Gfod — not only brought into the unity of the Spirit, as all saints are, but brought into the conscious knowledge and faith of it ; while the failure of such is, in a certain sense, more inexcusable than that of any others, yet at least such are justifying God and His word and Spirit against themselves in a humbling way. Taking our stand upon this, that no one should glory save in the Lord, we shall find, and painfully too, that we are brought into this place to learn our faults as we never knew them — the shortcomings of others as we never suspected them. We may be astonished at the manifold failures, trials, hairbreadth escapes, and deep occasions of shame ; but how come these ONE BODY. 35 to be so seen and felt ? Because it is not the ground of the Church ? Nay ! but because it is. And one of the most comforting things to our faith, in that which naturally might perplex, is, that we learn the present, permanent value of the Scriptures as we never proved it before. Take all the ways of God in dis- cipline : they did not apply while we were mixed up with the world-church ; but how precious, profit- able, and indispensably needed when we endeavour to keep the Spirit's unity ! Take again all the warnings about the world : we hardly knew what it was. Is it not with Christians a constant question what the world is ; or is not the answer that they give us the proof of an unsuspected, blinding influence? They have something or other which they avoid doing, and this they call " the world." But the moment we see the body of Christ, the world acquires a plain meaning : if we realize what it is to be among those "within," those "without" are no longer a vague, uncertain thing. Let us not fear, then, to quit all for the honour of God in this world ; let us look to Him for grace that we may bear all rather than abandon it. There may be only two or three ; but yet if they contemplate the body of Christ, shutting out none save according to His will, not for any feelings of their own, it is the only thing that is, or ever was, divinely large in this selfish world, as far as men are concerned. I do not mean that any who blaspheme Christ, or who make light of blasphemers in their deeds, if not in their words, should be sanctioned. " my soul, come c 2 36 ONE BODY. not thou into their secret ; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united." It is vain to argue that the Spirit's unity can make so light of Christ and His glory. I say not that individually such may not be Christ's : we know what Satan may do even with one who really loves the Lord — how he may ensnare him into denying his Master, and denying Him with oaths, too ; but who would con- tend for justifying such sin, or having communion with the guilty, till it was put away ? I repeat, then, if there be only two or three, and they endeavour to " keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace/' with them is my place as a Christian. My heart should go out to every Christian, in what- ever circumstances, whether nationalist, dissenting, or, if there be such, in popery ; my heart should go out, spite of the error and evil — yea, the rather because of these things, in intercession. But then, am I to give up diligent observance of the Spirit's unity ? Am I to follow and join them in what I know to be unscriptural and sinful, because there is a Christian or many Christians there ? Surely not ! We ought to get them out, with and for the Lord. How is this to be done ? Not by plunging ourselves into the mud, but, on the contrary, by taking our stand resolutely on the rock outside of it; and there, seeking grace from Grod that, by the manifestation of the truth in every man's conscience, and by holding out the light of Christ in the word — pressing, too, the responsibility of Christ's body on His members, they may be turned from the error of their way. Never ONE BODY. 37 deny that they are members of the body of Christ ; remind them of that very fact and of its gravity — that they are members of His body: why should they value any other body? If members of that " one body," why not own it, and own it always, and nothing else ? If they belong to the unity of the Spirit, why not endeavour to keep it ? Grod is now raising a question, not about Popery and Protestantism, but about Christendom's denial of His Church, Christ's body. Our business is not to originate a Church of the present or future, but to cleave to the Church Grod has made, and consequently to confess the sin of all rivals — to repudiate them and come out from them. Let us put away every human invention in the things of Grod, and keep ourselves from idols. The word of Grod at all times calls upon His children to be subject to Himself and to His will. Are we so doing ? On the one hand, " If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them ;" on the other, " To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Surely, if there be one thing in which, more than another, human will is most evidently sin, it is in that place where Grod exalts the Lord Christ ; where He has sent down the Holy Grhost that He may be a spring of power in His people's obedience. Though this be merely an introductory lecture, and therefore I cannot be supposed to enter into all the proofs now — only laying down a kind of foundation, for the subjects which we hope to pursue ; yet I do 38 ONE BODY. trust that enough has been said to make plain, even to the least mature of those who hear me, the im- mense importance of their seeking from Grod to realize that they are not only saints, but Christians, resting upon redemption, united to Christ, and re- sponsible to act as members of His body, diligent in keeping the unity of the Spirit and none other in this world. This is a divine obligation, superior to any changes in the Church's state here below. It is no question of numbers, but a duty always binding, even though there were only two or three who saw the truth. "ONE SPIRIT." 1 Cor. xii. 1—13. LECTURE II. My task to-night is that which I am persuaded ought to be the business of every Christian man, not in word only, but in deed and in truth — to assert the rights of the Spirit of God in the Church of God. I say, to assert His rights, for I assume here the personality of the Holy Ghost. It is needless now to give any proofs of this any more than of His Deity. These truths can be taken for granted, not as if there were not abundant proofs in the word of God, but because they are at present uncalled for. But it is another thing, beloved friends, when we speak of the rights of the Holy Ghost — His proper sovereign action in the Church, flowing from His personal presence as sent down from heaven. On this subject many find difliculties and obscurities; and great ignorance exists even among the children of God, and those, too, who may have been greatly Z ONE SPIRIT. blessed ; in and by whom the Holy Ghost may have acted powerfully for the good of souls. Unless, however, we know this truth from God, unless we have it as a divine certainty in our souls, it is clear that, whatever grace may do in giving one practical subjection, yet there must be much lost, if we do not know the special ways in which it is the will of God that the Holy Ghost, present both in the individual and in the Church of God, should be honoured. On this theme — a large one for a single discourse — I propose now to enter. Here, too, as in treating of the " one body," I would show from God's word that which was always true of the Spirit, and which, therefore, has no special connexion with the present time, in order that we may the better discern in what God is now manifesting Himself, and how it is that Christians — for of them I speak — are apt to be mistaken as to this. A mistake here is so much the more serious a thing, as it is a question of duly recognizing a divine Person. If we maintain the title of the Holy Spirit to act as He will in the Church, no question is raised about His work in souls from the beginning. No person intelligently acquainted with the Scrip- tures doubts the fact or its importance ; neither is there the least thought, wish, or motive to do so. The Holy Spirit has always been the direct agent in whatever God Himself has undertaken. If we look at creation, the Spirit had His part there. If we look again at the elders who obtained a good report through faith, no believer questions for a moment ONE SPIRIT. 3 that it was only by the operation of the Holy Ghost that man believed then as now. He wrought in Abel, Enoch, Noah, and in all others whom the Scriptures testify as the line of saints. So, again, when God espoused His people Israel, if He wrought in any especial fashion suited to the display of His glory in their midst, it was the Spirit of God who was the energetic power behind and within. It was He that wrought, for instance, from a Moses down to a Bezaleel, from Samson up to David. When we come to the prophets, it need scarcely be said it was under the power of the Holy Ghost that holy men of God spoke ; the Spirit of Christ made them to be witnesses beforehand of His sufferings, and of His glories that were to follow, little as they might themselves understand His sufferings. Thus, there is no disposition whatever in those who stand for present privileges, to obscure, but on the contrary to give the fullest value to, all that the Holy Ghost has ever wrought ; for in truth there never was any- thing of God in which He did not work. But when we come to the New Testament, a new thing comes to view. A despised, crucified, depart- ing Son of man was a strange sound (John xii. 34). They looked for Christ to abide for ever, and to reign in glory and righteous blessing upon earth. But gradually, as man, and Israel especially, rejected Him, the truth — astonishing to the Jew — dawned more and more, that He, the Messiah and Son of God, was going to leave the earth. Gentiles, I am aware, think little of this; but do they, therefore, show a 2 4 ONE SPIRIT. superior wisdom ? To the Jew it was a most start- ling announcement, and at first sight irreconcileable with the law and prophets. They had looked for Him, the promised One, and their hearts delighted in His presence : it was what kings and prophets had desired most earnestly. God had put the desire into their souls ; but now that it was gratified in His coming, He is going to leave them, to sink down in sorrow and shame and death — the death of the cross — under man's, ay, and under God's, hand ; and not merely this, hut when He rose again (instead of maintaining His glory from the throne of His father David, and filling the earth with the blessedness that was foretold, and accomplishing, and more than accomplishing, all that their hearts had so fondly hoped was just about to dawn and for ever brighten this world), He was about to leave the world in its darkness ; at any rate, He was about to retire again to the heavens whence He came. But if He was about to go on high, it was not as He came down ; for as the Son of (rod, He had come down to become man — "the "Word was made flesh;" and now as man, risen from the dead, He was leaving the world to take His place at the right hand of God ; and during His absence on high, He would send down the Holy Ghost in a way never before known. The Old Testament prepares the heart for a present Messiah, and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost as the needed appropriate meed paid to the reign of the Messiah over the earth ; but the Messiah, on His death and resurrection, disappearing from the view of the world ONE SPIRIT. that had cast Him out, entering into a new and heavenly scene, and the Holy Ghost sent down personally in His absence to be here while He was there — all this was something wholly unexpected by the Jew. If Gentiles do not turn aside and wonder at the great sight, it is certainly not from excess of spiritual feeling or intelligence. We may find, of course, the wonder of stupidity ; but there is such a thing as no wonder, just because there is no real thought about it. I believe this is the reason why, if there be, on the one hand, the wonder of men who are surprised, there is a lack of wonder in others, because they are too engrossed in earthly things to be really concerned. Now this, next to Christ, is the central truth of the New Testament ; but so far from its being the solid ground on which Christians are now walking, in point of fact, all is reduced in their minds to a mere continuation of the influence which the Holy Ghost has always exerted. The consequence is, that all men who reject His special presence in Person on earth, as a consequence of redemption, are driven into the most painful expedients in order to evade the plainest Scriptures. I may just mention one case : it will perhaps startle some that such assertions should be made, and especially by a person of large reputa- tion for spiritual knowledge. It will show where want of faith, as to the great truth of the actual presence of the Holy Ghost in a way never experi- enced before, lands those who oppose it systematically. In order to escape the clear intimation of a new and 6 ONE SPIRIT. incomparable blessing in the shape of the Comforter, they allege that the Holy Ghost, who had always been given, departed from the earth when the Lord was here, in order that the Lord should give Him once more on His own ascension to heaven. Thns, the time of the Saviour's presence on earth would be, not a bright and happy feast, but dearth, as regarded the Spirit of God ! I just name the thought, in order that you may see the excessive violence, not to say folly, to which unbelief reduces even intelligent men of Grod. Need I say, on the contrary, that those who surrounded the Saviour, and were blessed by His teaching, had all the Old Testament saints ever enjoyed, and a great deal more ? The Holy Ghost had quickened their souls, like their predecessors, by giving them faith in Christ. Besides, the disciples had the Messiah's presence, and the manifestation of grace and truth in Him and all His words and ways. No doubt there was much they could not then bear, as the Lord Himself told them ; but still they were as truly believers as any had ever been before them. The fact is, such reasoning is the puny effort of man to escape from the solemn truth of God. The New Testament is most explicit. Our Lord first of all brings out the doctrine of the Spirit; and this, as fully meeting the need of man to be born of the Spirit and to have the Holy Ghost in order that he should be able to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But more than this, He prepares the disciples for the mighty work in spreading the truth and the grace of God. The Holy Ghost was necessary for this ; and ONE SPIRIT. accordingly we have it in chap. vii. — a Scripture which it is impossible to escape. The Lord had put it in a figurative way, that out of the belly of him who believed should flow rivers of living water. " This spake He of the Spirit," which should not only be given to a person in order to make him believe, but " which they that believe should receive ; for the Holy Grhost was not yet [given], because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Lengthy reasoning on such a Scripture would be a dishonour to the word of God. Where there is an obscurity, we may try to explain and illustrate ; but where the language employed is plainer than any that could be substituted in its stead, I feel that it is due to Scripture simply to press that plain meaning. In the later chapters of the same gospel, again, we have our Lord bringing out, not merely the fact that after the glorification of Jesus the Holy Grhost was to be given, as He had not been before; but, besides, we have His personal action, when sent and come, entered into fully and definitely. Hence in John xiv. He is spoken of as the Comforter. Mark the importance of this. We may reason about the Holy Grhost being given, as if it meant no more than a spiritual power, but we cannot thus attenuate the sent Comforter. Who is He but the Holy Grhost Himself? No one can say that " Comforter " means a miracle, or a tongue, or any operation you please. Doubtless He works in all these various ways ; but it is a real Person who replaces the Messiah when He leaves the earth. Just read a few verses of the 8 ONE SPIRIT. chapter, in order to make this still plainer : " I will pray the Father, and He shall give yon another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." There, again, we have what is most evident. Miracles have been ; tongues cease ; prophecies and knowledge pass away ; but here we have a divine Person, who abides with the saints for ever — " even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him : but ye know Him ; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The world was bound to receive Jesus, and after an outward manner it had Him there ; but here we find One who, not having become incarnate, could not in any way be brought before the eyes of the world. I admit, of course, the world does not really receive Jesus in a spiritual manner any more than the Holy Grhost ; but still there is a pointed reference to the manner of the Holy Ghost's presence here below, which excludes Him from all apprehension on the world's part, as an object either of sight or of knowledge. Again, in John xiv. 26, we read, " the Comforter, which is the Holy Grhost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, what- soever I have said unto you." It is not a gift or power or influence merely, but a Person sent, and a Person who teaches all things, and brings all the Lord's sayings to their remembrance. Then, in chap. xv. 26, " but when the Comforter is come," it is not merely in this case " sent " (because one ONE SPIRIT. 9 might argue, perhaps, about the sending of an in- fluence), but "come" "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth [in every way guarding this most weighty theme], which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me : and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the be- ginning." Assuredly we have the Holy Spirit's coming presented with solemnity and distinctness. In the former chapter the Father sends Him in Christ's name ; in this, Christ sends Him from the Father. In the one case, He is said to bring all things Christ had spoken to their remembrance ; in the other, He comes down from the Son, and bears witness of Him. They had been conversant with Him upon earth, and were to attest it as witnesses ; also the Spirit from Him in Heaven comes down, that there should be, as it were, these joint witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then in the sixteenth chapter of John we have the truth still further unfolded, and, if possible, with increasing energy, as it is indeed of the deepest interest and importance. In chapter xiv. the Lord had told them that they ought to rejoice, because He went to the Father. He was leaving a scene of humiliation and suffering to be in the home of the Father's love and glory. Had their love been simple, had they been thinking of Him, not of themselves, they would have rejoiced because He was going to the Father. But now, in chapter xvi. He puts it upon other ground : " It is expedient for you [and 10 ONE SPIRIT. not only, as it were, for me] that I go to the Father." What! expedient for those poor, weak, trembling disciples that He had watched over, in the face of all Israel who despised Him and wonld not be gathered to Him ? Surely under His wing He had gathered those little ones, and sheltered them ; yea, in the very hour of His own rejection He had turned His hand upon them. And now He must leave them. Yet it was expedient for them that He should go to the Father. How could this be ? There is but one answer ; and it is the answer that the Lord gives. It is what, in His mind, made it expedient. Blessed as it was to have the Messiah, His presence, just be- cause He was a man upon earth with a group of disciples around Him, was necessarily limited. He could not thus be, as man, everywhere throughout the earth. The Holy Ghost had not, like the Son, taken human nature into union with His Person. But more than that, when redemption was effected, He could, in the most intimate way, bring into the hearts of the disciples all the value that flowed from Christ and His work — Christ exalted to heaven and estimated of God the Father there. Thus, then, were the great foundations of truth laid. The Lord Jesus would not leave this world or go to the Father, until every question that God had with guilty man was settled for ever. When sin was put away by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, when righteousness was established in Christ risen from the dead and exalted on high, it was not merely all pure grace, as before, but now it be- ONE SPIRIT. 11 came a question of God's righteousness through the work of the Saviour. The efficacy of His blood turned the scale in favour of man ; for it was the man Christ Jesus who had thus glorified God about sin. No doubt, He was His own beloved Son, the inesti- mable gift of His own grace ; and man could boast nothing, for He was despised and rejected of man — hated without a cause. Still, there was the fact, that God had so looked down upon earth, more especially upon the cross, to find the man who suffered all, that Grod Himself might be glorified. This truth changed everything. Now, it became a question, so to speak, for Grod : what could He do for this blessed man ? If He was God's Son, was this a reason why He should love or exalt Him less ? He raises up from the grave the man Christ Jesus, and sets Him at His own right hand. That was not only a personal act in honour of Christ, but for believers it is the measure, in infinite grace, of acceptance which is now theirs in virtue of Him. All heaven was filled with wonder and praise at the sight of man, made a little lower than the angels, taken up in the Person of Christ, far above all principalities and powers, to sit on the throne of God. Yea, God Himself from that moment has made it His business and delight to show His value for the man who, in the face of sin, death, Satan, and divine judgment, retrieved all His cha- racter, and brought glory to His name in delivering, by suffering for, the guilty to the uttermost. Before that, man had been the constant public agent in dishonouring God. Never was God so slighted, in- 12 ONE SPIRIT. suited, provoked by any of His creatures as by man. Satan, when he left his first estate, once and for ever forfeited his place. There might still be a more terrible judgment awaiting him ; but there was no mercy — no beam of hope pierced through the dark- ness into which sin plunged a fallen angel. But now, after man had preferred darkness to light, after his manifold course of rebellion against God was run, the tide was turned in the death of Christ, and (rod was placed by His work under an obligation, so to say, to man to bless him through and in Christ the Lord. Hence that expression of which St. Paul is so full, " the righteousness of Grod." If man was more than ever proved to be lost, God now had a debt to pay. As a part of His discharge of it, He sets the Lord Jesus, as man, at His own right hand ; He justifies freely and fully every believer ; and He sends down the Holy Ghost, in order that He might be the divine link between that blessed Man in glory and those who believed in Him, even such as had trem- bled at the thought of His departure. What a change there is now ! It was not only that there was intelligence, but there was power. Peter, who had denied the Lord, could now stand boldly for- ward and say, " But ye denied the Holy One and the Just." They were all dumb. His denial was completely gone, and I might venture to say, more gloriously to the Lord, than if he had never uttered it. There was a positive strength and triumph in his soul ; there was a knowledge, not only of his own ONE SPIRIT. 13 weakness and worthlessness, but of God and His grace — a sense of what Christ was for him, that was beyond all he had ever known before. I do not say beyond grace, unless Peter had done what he did ; but surely there was immense force in his words. They knew well what he had done, publicly done, in the high priest's hall, and before people ready enough to see the faults of a disciple. Yet this repeated and recent denier of his Lord was so full of courage, through abundance of grace, as to stand forth and confront and tell them that it was they that "denied the Holy One and the Just." His conscience was purged ; he had no more conscience of sins (Heb. x.) ; all was blotted out that could be against him before Grod. Yea, he was justified from all things. This was merely one fruit, precious as it was ; and what did it grow out of ? Peter had been a believer before, and had already eternal life : what, then, was its spring ? It was part of the result of the great salvation made good in the power of the Spirit of Grod come down from heaven, and thus working in Peter. No doubt there was previous moral exer- cise, deep penitence for his sins, and the restoration of his soul ; but then there was more than all this, there was the positive power of the Spirit. It is here, though not here only, that the Church shows its weakness through unbelief. To the believer it is not a mere negative question now, but one of real present power; as was said of Timothy — who needed to be reminded of it — that it was not a Spirit of fear 14 ONE SPIRIT. he had received, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. But now we must return to the great fact : the Lord Jesus, in John xiv., xv., xvi., shows what was to replace His personal presence upon earth — a real divine Paraclete — He whom we call the third Person in the Trinity. I do not, however, admire the ex- pression " second " or "third" Person; and for this reason, that it tends to bring in a subordination in the Godhead where Scripture does not. You cannot have a secondary God. You may bring human reasonings into the subject, and talk about a son, and his subjection to his father ; but therein is the very thing which is so dangerous, and of which, to my mind, the devil has taken great advantage. The Scripture shows that the Father is Grod, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God ; that they are, one and all, equally Jehovah. Subordination in respect of Deity is only a means of undermining the proper Godhead of the Son and the Spirit. The notion of subordination is true only when we look at the place of manhood the Son deigned to take, or at the office the blessed Holy Ghost is now filling to the glory of the Son, just as the Son served and will yet reign to the glory of God the Father. To return, however. The Lord Jesus tells us it was expedient that He should go away — " For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they ONE SPIRIT. 15 believe not on me ; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more ; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." Any particular notice of this Scripture is not the point now, but rather the general truth. This was the twofold purpose of the Holy Grhost in coming here below. He proves that the world was under sin ; that there is no righteousness here, but only in the Just One with the Father ; and that as to the prince of this world, he is judged — the sentence not executed, but he judged. There was hope for the world with the Jew ; but now, from the point of view in which the Lord speaks of His own going and the Holy Ghost's coming, the world is evidently lost, and the Spirit here is but its reprover. Next, this same Holy Spirit should lead the disciples into the truth, taking of the things of Christ, and glorifying Him. There is thus a double relation of the Holy Grhost — to the world, as a system outside and condemned ; to the saints, whom He leads, telling them of things to come, yea, of all things pertaining to Christ and His glory. Such is the plain doctrine of the Apostle John as to the Spirit. Thence we come to the Acts of the Apostles : is there anything there that, as a matter of fact, an- swers to our Lord's promises ? There need not be a doubt. In chapter i. the disciples are with the Lord, entering but very feebly into that which had filled His heart before He goes away. They were still looking for the kingdom, and great things for the earth and for Israel. They were not, it is 16 ONE SPIRIT. true, sunk so low as the unbelieving thoughts of Gentile Christendom — i.e., a millennium without Christ ! the shame of those who boast so proudly in our day; but still they were not far raised above the ordinary thoughts of Jews. They did not yet enter into the precious Christian hope, and for this simple reason : the thoughts of the Christian are the thoughts of heaven. They are the communications of the Holy Ghost, that suit the Father, because centring in the Son and His heavenly glory. Into that communion we are* brought ; and truly it is not merely with the prophets and with their blessed visions of coming glory for the earth, but " with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." But as for the disciples in Acts i., the power of entrance was not yet there, for the Holy Ghost was not personally come ; and yet they had not only life at this time, but life in resurrection. The Lord had actually breathed upon them the very day He rose, and said, " Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost." Of course, this was not the gift of the Comforter, as such, the promised One that was to take the place of Christ upon earth ; but rather the communication, by the Holy Ghost, of His own risen life. Therefore, I believe, did He breathe upon them : a clear allusion to the Lord God breathing on Adam. Of old, it was the breath of natural life given to Adam. Here was One upon earth who was both Lord and God (as acknowledged by Thomas a little after), and also the risen man or last Adam, the quickening Spirit. Accordingly, He communicates this life, as life must always be com- ONE SPIRIT. 17 municated, by the Holy Ghost; and therefore it is said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." But for all that, we know from Acts i. that the Spirit, the Comforter, was not yet come. Indeed, we ought to gather it from the simple fact, that the Lord was not yet gone. " And if I go not away, the Comforter will not come." He was seen there ; and He com- mands them, when assembled together, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father. Whatever the blessing, then, they had received on the resurrection-day, it was not the accomplishment of the promise of the Father. The next chapter shows us the Holy Ghost act- ing on earth in the absence of Christ ; and this in various ways. It records that extraordinary display of divine grace in the gift of tongues, which, without removing, surmounted the confusion that man's sin and divine judgment had brought into the world in the various nations, and tribes, and tongues, which have subsisted since Babel to this day. Now the Spirit was going out with the news of God's wonder- ful works of grace to all, just as they were proving that where sin had abounded, grace much more abounded. At the same time let us not forget that new tongues, although the magnificent fruit of the Spirit's operation, are not the same thing as His presence ; they were an effect and characteristic sign of a crucified but now exalted Lord, the witness of gospel grace and its universal testimony, in contrast with the law, but not the same thing as the gift of the Holy Ghost Himself. This is exceedingly im- B 18 ONE SPIRIT. portant, because the unbelief of some has gone so far as to think and say, that if the tongues exist no more, the Holy Ghost is absent. What blindness to the Saviour's promise ! What a lowering of the Spirit's presence ! What denial of Christianity and the Church ! The truth is, that the tongues and the other powers in which the Spirit of God was pleased then to work, were but the miraculous tokens that befitted His presence, and inaugurated the gospel and the Church. It was all a new and unprecedented state of things. When the Son was on earth, miracles followed His steps and word, as it was only meet, and the accomplishment of prophecy. Another Divine Person being come, was it not suitable there should be proofs of it, more especially as He took no permanent form, as the Son of Grod had done, so as to be visible ? It was, therefore, the more needed that there should be palpable effects and tokens, arresting the mind, and causing the heart of man to weigh what God is and is doing, not only as displayed in the Son, but as witnessed by the Holy Grhost pre- sent upon earth. This is the cardinal truth upon which all hinges that we find in the great body of the New Testament. There was now before men a fact without precedent, altogether unknown to the world, if it did not sur- prise even those that had been taught by the Lord Himself to expect it — the wondrous fact that the Holy Ghost had come down in person, making His pre- sence known by a signature of gracious power, so as to be then known and read of all men. Accordingly, ONE SPIRIT. 19 throughout the Acts of the Apostles you have ever aud auou the testimony not only to His action and its results, hut to the glorious truth that He Himself was there. Look at the first outbreak of the world's religious rancour in chapter iv., and His answer to it in Verse 31. Take, again, the first public sin and scandal, where Ananias and Sapphira were charged on the spot with lying not to man but to God. But how was this proved ? They had lied to the Holy Ghost who was there. The standard of judgment was that dishonoured Person who was in their midst. This measure of sin, let me say, is as true individually, as it is in the Church. Hence, in Ephesians iv. 30, it is not merely that you should not violate this or that command, but " grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp- tion." Let us note it well. The more this is reflected upon, the more its immense moment will be felt by the children of God. Supposing you take the presence of one you most value and delight in, does not his or her coming affect all your ways and words, just in proportion as you realize and love their presence ? We might be ever so much at ease ; but still, if there be one staying with us, who draws out our honour and esteem, the influence is felt deeply and at once, except by a stone. Surely one does think of that which will give plea- sure, one does fear to wound; the heart is on the alert and active, and it is a joy to do that which will gratify those we love. And so, in virtue of redemp- tion, the Holy Ghost is here, because all is gone, as b 2 20 ONE SPIRIT. regards each believer, that was offensive to God ; and the saint stands in divine righteousness before God — made this in Christ. How indeed could the Holy Ghost be away ? He must have His part when that which was most precious to God and man was wrought. If the Father accomplished His thoughts in and by the Son, could the Holy Ghost be absent or inactive ? And now God had done His greatest work — the atoning work of Christ. Where, there- fore, the blood of the accepted sacrifice is, the Holy Ghost not only can work, but must dwell. If Christ, by His own blood, has entered in once for all into the holies, having found an everlasting redemption, the Holy Ghost is come to abide with us for ever. All hangs on and is measured by this. Accordingly, the book of the Acts is far more the acts of the Holy Ghost than of the apostles, important vessels of His power as they were, though not they only. We have seen, where it was a question of sin, He judges by His presence, and acts upon this ground. We have seen that, when they were in danger of being alarmed by the threats of man, the Spirit gave cheering evidence of His mighty presence. It was not merely Peter and John, or anybody else ; but the place was shaken where they were. Whose presence was this, or in whom particularly ? It was the presence of the Holy Ghost, not merely in this or in that individual, but in the assembly of God. More than that, the Spirit of God in chapter xiii. of the Acts takes an active place, and sends out Paul and Barnabas. " Separate me," He says, " Barnabas and Saul for the 0XE SPIRIT. 21 work whereimto I have called them." "So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed." I am now referring to the case, only to show that it is not a question of miracles, tongues, or powers, but of a real Divine Person, who was the chief agent as pre- sent in the Church of God ; and that this personal presence of the Spirit in man was a new thing, pre- viously unexampled in the word and ways of God. (Compare also Acts viii. 29, 39 ; xv. 28 ; xvi. 7 ; xx. 23; xxi. 11.) Now we come to the Epistles, passing by the Scriptures which attest the Holy Ghost's presence in the individual. All-important as this is, it is not my subject, but His presence in the Church. Hence we must omit the Epistle to the Romans, which takes up our individual relation towards God, and for this simple reason, that there you have the chil- dren. We are brought out of the place of wrath and sin, made children of God, and if children, then heirs : the Holy Ghost gives the spirit of adoption, and fills the heart with hopes of the inheritance which is to follow. But in the Epistles to the Corinthians you have not merely the state of man and the revelation of divine righteousness, with their consequences in sinners and saints, as in Romans, but the Church of God, in a grievous state of sin, shame, and disorder, but still the Church of God. Accordingly, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, as there dwelling, is shown as in its capital seat. The portion read (1 Cor. xii. 1 — 13) developes His action in the Church. What can be plainer ? Here we have the 22 ONE SPIRIT. Holy Ghost viewed as a real Person present and working, in gifts of outward sign, no doubt, as well as in ways of edification. But whatever might be the form of His action, the great truth was that He was there, and at work in the many members of (rod's assembly. The question is, was all this a temporary display, or was His presence for ever the substratum of it all ? Was that which we here read confined to a particular local assembly and a special epoch long past, or is there anything for us, for the Church of Grod at large, for this time and all times ? The answer cannot be doubtful, if we are subject to the word of Grod. Certainly our Lord had, in John xiv. , laid down, in contrast with His own temporary absence, that the Spirit of truth was to abide with His disciples for ever. But, next, the First Epistle to the Corinthians could not open without the Holy Grhost's giving it the most enlarged application. In the first verse of the first chapter we read — " Unto the Church of Grod which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." This is not said in the Second Epistle : indeed, I am not aware that there is any- thing exactly like it anywhere else in the New "Testament. Are we to suppose this was a mistake ? Let who will be guilty of such a speech or thought, I trust there is no soul here that would not denounce it as a sin against Grod. A mistake in the word of Grod ! Oh the contrary, it seems to me to be the ONE SPIRIT. 23 special wisdom and goodness of the Spirit, who fore- saw the unbelief of Christendom ; it was the Spirit of God who knew that this Epistle would be treated as if it were of private application, as if it belonged to a bygone time and place, and did not appertain to all that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ — "both theirs and ours." This He has guarded against at the very threshold, and made such an objection to be plain fighting against the word of God. ' Thus it ceases to be a question of opinion. , Grod has spoken, and has written, that we may believe Him ; and this epistle has a purposely enlarged scope, so that unbelief as to the perpetuity of the Holy Ghost's action in the Church, as long as the Church is here, should be treated as a sin, as a positive rejection of God's plain word. Is it not un- belief which makes nothing of the Holy Ghost's personal presence in the Church ? It is not at all contended that the Holy Ghost necessarily works in every way as of old, and still less in the same measure of power. In the latter part of the New Testament we do not read much about miracles — very little — less and less too as time passes on. We can understand that, in the opening of a new dealing of God, there should be, in His goodness, a won- derful working and display of these mighty powers to awaken the attention even of careless men. But,, as the truth of His presence was established, and the new communications of God were gradually written, and there was thus not merely the evidence of outward tokens, but positive Scripture committed 24 ONE SPIRIT. to human responsibility, we can easily see, that ex- ternal vouchers were no longer so requisite, and that the Spirit of God, grieved, as we know, by much found in those who professed the name of Christ, might gradually withdraw, not Himself, but the manifestation of mighty signs, and refuse to put out- ward ornaments upon that which dishonoured the Lord Jesus. It is certain and evident, at least, when we come to the churches of the Apocalypse, that we see or hear no more of the powers of the world to come. Not a doubt have I that there was the wisdom of (rod in thus ordering, in view of the state of things that was fast coming in. I think we can readily discern by spiritual considerations why it would not have been suitable to the glory of God to continue those mira- culous powers. Supposing, for instance, God were to work now in the way of miracle, is it not evident that in one of two ways it must be? Either He must work wherever the name of Christ is preached and known at all ; and what would be the conse- quence of this? Miracles in Rome, miracles in Canterbury, miracles among Presbyterians, Inde- pendents, Wesleyans, Baptists, Psedo-baptists, Cal- vinists, Arminians, Lutherans : Greek Church, and all sects and denominations in Christendom would have their miracles ! There may be those who would en- joy the sight, but I envy them not. Every one here, I trust, would feel deeply the anomaly of such an outward seal on such a mass of confusion. On the other hand, supposing God were pleased to say, He ONE SPIRIT. 25 could not give these tokens of His power and glory where the Church was thus in disorder and rebellion, but must single out — whom shall I say ? It could not be, it ought not to be : God forbid that ourselves should desire it, as things are. But let us, for the moment, imagine the Lord looking on the unworthy children of (rod here present, and saying, "I see where My people are subject to My word, and where I find two or three here and there gathered unto My name, there I will work miracles." What would be the consequence ? "We should not know how to behave ourselves : so weak are we, so foolish, so apt to be full of ourselves, even now in the face of con- tinual weakness, as well as hatred and contempt, that we should not be able to contain ourselves if we had these displays of divine power. Besides, what a slight to those we own to be as truly members of Christ, and as truly indwelt of the Spirit, as any of us! I am persuaded, then, there is perfect grace and wisdom as to this in the ways of Grod. He no longer works thus. But here is the truth on which I take my stand this night: the Holy Ghost was given, not merely as a display of power in the earth, but, if I may so say, as the sign and substance of the divine value for the cross. God the Father gave the Holy Ghost as the seal of that redemption which is always unchangeably perfect, and infinitely effica- cious. I dare to say it, and yet say it with all rever- ence, that if the Holy Ghost were now taken from the poorest, feeblest of His saints upon earth, it would not be a dishonour to Him so much as to the 26 ONE SPIRIT. Son of God and His atoning work. It would be virtually to say that the ruin of the Church has made the blood of Christ less precious ; but will God ever confirm a lie ? And here is the stronghold of faith, in this we can be confident, not only that the Lord Jesus has expressed the mind and intentions of Grod, but that we, through His grace, can and ought to enter, in measure, into its ground, reason, charac- ter, and aim, as well as meaning. All this we may by faith appreciate and enjoy, for He has explained it to us. Wherefore, indeed, is the word of God given, if it be not that we should understand His mind, feel His love, and be sure of. His truth, wisdom and goodness ? Hence we are sure that God, in sending the Spirit to abide always, whatever may be the sorrowful condition of believers individually and collectively, did not give a mere token of approving them, but rather the only ade- quate pledge of His delight in the personal work of His beloved Son. The Holy Ghost, we know, de- scended on Christ when He was upon earth without blood, because He was always sinless, as perfect here morally as He was and is in heaven, no less absolutely holy as man than as God. It is not, of course, that He was not made perfect in another sense, as becoming captain of salvation, and author of salvation, and consecrated as heavenly priest. It is clear that there was a work to be done, and an official place of glory to be taken ; but nothing ever did or could add to His moral perfectness. Hence, I repeat, He could and did receive the Holy Ghost ONE SPIRIT. 27 for Himself as man, without blood. But when Christ went up on high, He received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost. What amazing comfort, confidence, and rest should this give us ! Had the Holy Ghost 'been given directly to us, we might well think that, if we did not carry ourselves as we ought, there might be a revocation. We can understand a soul troubled with such a thought ; but, thanks be to God, the Father gave the Holy Ghost a second time to Christ. When He went on high, He received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, and shed forth that which was seen and heard at Pente- cost. Thus the gift is entirely in virtue of Christ, after He had blotted out our sins and received it as a consequence. There we have the firmest and surest ground on which the perpetuity of the pre- sence of the Holy Ghost in the saint and in the Church rests before God — His love to Christ, and His estimate of Christ's work for us, not to speak of His immutable word. And now for a few practical words on this before I have done. We shall have other applications and results of it in subsequent lectures, so that the less may be said now. If there be a Divine Person on earth who is now with each saint individually, and with all as the Church of God, I ask, can this be a secondary consideration ? Is this a truth that can be subordinated to circumstances ? Is it something that can be pushed aside for the sake of not disturb- ing oneself or others ? Can men who so think, and 28 ONE SPIRIT. speak, and act, believe in the reality of the Spirit's personal presence and present operation according to Scripture ? Do they believe that the Holy Ghost is really in the Church on earth ? I am not now, of course, alluding to His divine glory whereby He fills all things, because it is always true ; as true before Christ came as it has been since, and equally true of all the Persons in the Trinity. But as the Son came down from heaven, and was here a man for some thirty or more years upon the earth, and as He is gone, so now the Holy Ghost is come down personally to abide with and in us, in such sort as was unknown before, save only in Christ. The Holy Spirit, I say, has come now to be in us personally ; and just as Christ was God's only true temple, so now the Church is the temple of God ; for both these truths are taught in the word of God. But if this be believed, if it be received as God's truth, what can compare with it in importance as a present practical thing, as well as privilege, for the saint and for the Church? Accordingly the responsi- bility of Christians, if we apply it to their meeting, is that their assemblies should be governed by the truth that the Holy Ghost is there. But how does the Holy Ghost work when owned as there ? That we have answered, if it were only in the Scripture already read. He distributes, or divides, to every one severally as He will. Is His presence, then, not to be recognized ? Is His work- ing not to be respected ? What do we find, if we test present facts in Christendom by the word of ONE SPIRIT. 29 God ? It is far from my desire needlessly to trouble any one, nor is it my wish to provoke controversy ; but there are truths which manifestly admit of no compromise — indeed, all divine truth refuses such unworthy dealing. How, then, I would ask, is it with our souls in the feeling, in the faith, in the allegiance that we pay to this truth, so vital to the Church, so essential to the right honouring of the Holy Grhost, and of the Lord Himself? Do you doubt that the Church of Grod is hi disorder ? Where is the serious-minded Christian that does not own it, more or less ? Is there a spiritual man who would maintain that the present state of the Church answers to what we read in the New Testament ? Am I not to feel and to humble myself before Grod for my own sin in this grave matter ? Must I not seek to be where the Holy Ghost's presence is owned ? It matters not where I have been ignorantly; I have doubtless been where there was not even the show of owning His presence and action according to the Scriptures ; I may have joined others in praying Grod to pour out again the Holy Grhost, as if He were not come and in the Church of Grod. And do you call such prayer as this a Scriptural recognition of His presence ? What can be conceived a more decided or more evident ignoring of the truth that the Holy Grhost is there ? Were it prayed that- the Spirit of Grod might not be grieved, or that the saints might be filled with Him, it were Scriptural. What would it have been for a disciple, in the presence of Jesus, to have asked the Father to send His Son ? — to raise 30 ONE SPIRIT. up the Messiah when the Messiah was actually there ? Is it not the spirit of the world, which cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him? But we know Him, at least we ought to know Him. Well, if we do know that He is here, is it a light thing whether or not we are subject to His operation in the Church ? It is in vain to say, " I acknowledge the truth of His presence;" so much the worse, if I am not subject to the Scripture which leaves no doubt how He acts for Christ's glory. Mere words do not suffice : God looks for faithful- ness, for subjection to His word, for practical recog- nition of the presence of the Holy Ghost. "We come together, it may be ever so few : what do we count on ? We are weak and ignorant, but we have One in our midst who knows all things, and is the source of all power. Are we content with Him ? Can we confide in Him in the face of dangers and difficulties ? Why is it that the Church is weak ? Why is it that there is such want of power and joy and peace and comfort among the children of God ? Can it be wondered at ? What I wonder at is rather the mercy and astonishing patience of God, blessing, as He does, in spite of so much unbelief. Do you really suppose that it can be an indifferent thing to God? Does He not call for my unhesitating ad- hesion to His will, duly owning His Spirit's presence and free action ? What about your bowing down to the great present fact that, in virtue of redemption and in honour of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Ghost is here personally in the Church on earth ? This puts ONE SPIRIT. 31 the soul to the test ; indeed, it seems to me the great test for Christians. Christ, of course, is the practical touchstone for everything and every person ; but still if He is known and valued by my soul as the way, the truth, and the life, is it nothing to Him that my ways in the Church of God should be on the ground He has given me — faith in the pre- sence of the promised Holy Ghost? Is it not the truth God Himself presupposes as the very soul, so to speak, of the Church ? This does not in the slightest degree touch God's working by individuals. He sends out one to preach the gospel to the world, He raises up another to edify the children of God. This is another branch of truth ; and I refer to it now only to show that, when we contend for the Church's inalienable obliga- tion to own the presence of the Holy Ghost, this does not in the least interfere with the individual action of the Spirit in ministry. Granting this in all its integrity and importance, I would put the question to the conscience of each before me, Where is there an assembly of jjrod's saints coming together, and His Spirit left perfect liberty of action that He may employ whom He will as the vessels of His power ? Are there any Christians here present who never thus find themselves in the only assembly which God's word sanctions ? If there are, I can only say, Ponder that word with prayer, and ask your soul, how comes this ? You, a member of God's assembly, yet you never know that assembly gathered according to Scripture, or the action of the Spirit proper to it ! 32 ONE SPIRIT. You, a member of Christ's body, yet the Holy Ghost never allowed to use you, or other members of it, to the glory of Christ and the edification of your brethren ! If it be so, how eomes it ? Why should you go on thus ? Oh ! there are serious questions here, and many obstacles ; and I am sure we ought to pray much for those that are thus perplexed and encumbered. Let me not disguise from them what it costs in this world to be true to the Lord and the unerring word of God. It is not for any one (the Lord keep us far from it !) to look lightly or coldly on those who are in this grievous trial : we may have known some of its bitterness ourselves. What do we desire for God's children? Nothing less than their deliverance, yea, of every one. Do not all saints who rest upon the redemption of Christ belong to the body? Has not God set them, as it pleased Him, in His Church ? And what are we doing ? Are we gathering together to improve on the Spirit's action in the church of God ? God forbid : rather is it to honour the Lord in the assur- ance that He is in our midst. Our. only true reason, if we have a divine reason at all, for meeting together in the name of the Lord Jesus, is that it is His own will and way ; it is to please Him. And if it has been done at cost, God blesses this greatly, and blesses it too to the softening of the spirit quite as much as to the exercise of faith : if it is not so, there is something wrong with our souls. Am I, then, as the centre of my church-action, cleaving to the pre- sence of the Holy Ghost ? If I am not, I have not ONE SPIRIT. 33 got God's centre for mine, and am still under the dominion of tradition in some shape or another; carrying on either what my father did, or something else that suits my mind better : but where is God in all this? You may be taunted, as we all know, with bigotry and exclusiveness. Did these censors ever weigh what either means ? I call bigotry an unreasonable attach- ment, without solid divine warrant, to one's own particular doctrine or practice in defiance of all others. Allow me to ask, Is it bigotry to give up one's most cherished associations because nf God's word, in order to do His will ? Is it exclusive to abandon sects, one and all, in order to be always and only where I can meet all saints according to the word, and in dependence on the Holy Ghost, gathered unto Christ's name ? I am not assuming this for any one who does not own Scripture as the unchanging truth of God; but I ask you who do, are you to allow yourselves to depart from the known ground of God, no matter what may be the trial within, or the temptation without you ? There are often attachments of other kinds that create difficulty. Friends may ask you to go here or there, for once at any rate ; and it seems hard to refuse, especially as they understand not the force of a divine conviction, which they lack themselves. You invite them, perhaps, to come with you, and you decline going with them. Does it not look proud and unbrotherly ? Well, it may seem sin- gular to them, but it ought to be perfectly plain to 34 ONE SPIRIT. you ; it may be real humility, and love too, haughty and unkind as rash ignorance counts it. Let us con- ceive a godly churchman or dissenter to* put this plain question : " How is it that you, who are so free and hearty in receiving Christians in the name of Christ, will not come with me to my church or chapel ? " The answer is, " On your own principles, as a Protestant Christian, you can come here with a good conscience, where we are sure the one desire is to he subject to the Lord and His word, in the unity of His body, and in the liberty of His Spirit. You surely acknowledge it is no sin to meet, as we do, according to Scripture, and therefore you can meet with us. But I, for my part, am clear that it is unscriptural to desert the Scriptural ground for that of dissent or Anglicanism, and therefore it is not want of love, but fear of sin that keeps me from going with you, who do not pretend to be meeting on the ground of God's assembly." Surely he is a bigot, or worse, who would urge or expect me to join him, against my positive conviction that, in so doing, I should sin against Cod. Sin is a man doing his own will, or another's, which is not Cod's. If you ask me to depart from what I know to be the will of Cod, it would of course be sin in me to comply. It is not only a thing that is sinful in itself, but it would be most especially a sin in me, because I know, if you do not know, that it is infi- delity to the Spirit's operation in the Church. Be not moved, then, by reproaches, any more than by fair speeches. For there is no real love, save in ONE SPIRIT. 35 obeying God (1 John v. 2, 3). Never swerve from what you believe to be His will. You may have come in, at first little acquainted with the truth or with the solemn responsibilities it involves ; perhaps it was on that slender reason, that you were here converted : but how is it with you now ? Have you been searching the word of God, to ascertain His mind and will ? Do you see the presence and action of the Holy Ghost in the assembly to be the truth of God ? Is it not perfectly plain and sure that God has sent down His Spirit, and that this truth, has to be owned and acted upon by you and all Christians ? That truth you cannot deny : you know very well it is of God ; you may not value it as you ought (who does ?) but that is another thing. The Lord grant we may all value it more and increasingly. Search the Scriptures, examine the word of God for your own souls ; by this means we obtain true spiritual intelligence, but we get it in obedience, and do not want it otherwise. The intelligence that is gathered in disobedience seems to me perilous and untrustworthy ; to learn the truth, step by step acting it out, is a happier and holier path, and of simple faith too. At the same time that we value intelligence, we must remember that there is another thing yet more important — singled-eyed subjection to the will of God, even if we are not very intelligent about much. " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." That Scripture is not out of date ; and I believe such is the divine, and therefore the best, way as a beginning. There is blessedness in gradually 36 ONE SPIRIT. growing up into the truth of God, above all looking to this — that we walk in that which we know. For the present, I pray the Lord that the great truths of the "one body" and "one Spirit," which have been before us, may be brought home by His own power ; so that all of us who know them may be cheered and confirmed, and that those who are ignorant may be taught them of Himself. THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY, 1 Cor. xiv. LECTURE III. The two subjects which are now to come before us may seem, at first sight, to be rather widely separated ; but in truth, far as they appear to diverge, they equally flow from Christ. They are founded, both of them, upon His work, as an accomplished fact. They are derived from Him in His present place of exalta- tion at the right hand of Grod; they are esta- blished for the express object of magnifying the Lord Jesus, even as they are now called to subserve, in a very direct way, His Lordship. And this last point is one of immense practical importance. For whatever may be the power of the Spirit in ministry, whatever may be the privileges of the assembly, still the Lordship of Christ is a truth of the utmost account in the mind of Grod, and of A Z THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. exceeding moment for the practical working of the Spirit of God, both in individual members, who are His servants, and in the assembly — the body of which He is the Head. Hence we can at once see that, whatever may be the different lines that either the ministry or the assembly may take, yet they spring from a common source, and they are both intended of Grod to be subject to, and the means of exalting, the same Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it will be my business to-night to direct attention to the testimony we have in the word of God, as to both these sub- jects, in order to show, as far as limits permit, wherein they differ, wherein also a common principle binds them together; and, above all, their common end, as well as the Christian's consequent responsibility. First of all, as to the assembly, we may be the more brief, inasmuch as we have had already the " one body " before us, as well as the " one Spirit." But I may direct you to a few scriptures which prove what I have just advanced, that the assembly of God is founded upon the accomplished work of Christ, and His exaltation to heavenly glory. Let me premise that the Church has the same meaning with the assembly ; hence the word " assem- bly " is often used in order to avoid misunderstanding. There might be many questions raised as to the meaning of " church : " it is hardly possible to create difficulties as to the word " assembly." Now, the fact is, the Church is the assembly. Assembly is the proper English word, rather than " church," THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 6 which has become anglicized, no doubt, but it really conveys notions not only vague, but even opposite to different minds. Now, in the Acts of the Apostles, as compared with Matthew xvi., we find clear light. The Lord, at a very critical point in His dealings with the disciples, tells Peter, more particularly, but all His followers, in fact, that He was going to build His assembly. " Upon this rock," says He, " I will build My Church." The reason of this was that the unbelief of the Jewish people was complete, after He had given the fullest divine proof, both in miracles and signs, in accomplished prophecies, and, above all, in the moral power which ever hung around Him — a brighter crown of glory than anything in either miracle or prophecy. But when the Lord had, so to speak, exhausted all the means which even His good- ness and wisdom could suggest in acquiescence with the will of (rod the Father, and the result of His patient grace was, that the unbelief and scorn of the true Messiah became more and more decided, and the spirit of hostility more evidently deadly in its cha- racter, He brings all to issue, by asking who men said that He was. The answer showed the total uncertainty of Israel; nay, rather the only cer- tainty was that men, the best and wisest of them, humanly speaking, those that had seen most of Him, were completely wrong. He appeals, then, not to some great one, but to a heart that was true — to Simon the son of Jonas ; and from his lips falls that confession, for which the Lord Himself pronounced a 2 4 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. him blessed — blessed because* it was not of flesh and blood, with their mere weakness and opposition to God. It was the Father who was in heaven who had revealed to his soul the glorious truth, that under- neath that despised form — that outcast, the Naza- rene, was not only the Christ, but the Son of the living Grod. The Lord Jesus immediately lays hold of this confession, and with especial reference to the latter part of it — not merely His being the Messiah or Christ, but His being the Son of the living God, He says, " Upon this rock I will build My Church. " The Messiah, in shame and humiliation, was a stumbling-stone to Israel ; but the Son of the living God confessed was the rock upon which the Church is built. This was a fuller confession, and a deeper one — in all its fulness certainly new, and so treated of the Lord. Not but what, of course, Christ was the Son of the living God from all eternity ; but still for the first time He was so confessed by human lips, and by a heart taught of God the Father. The Lord Jesus, then, also for the first time, intimates that upon this confession His Church was to be built ; and immediately He forbids them to tell that He was the Christ, showing that it was no question now of being received and reigning as Messiah. He was to be rejected, and to suffer. Hence, on His rejection by the people, but the recognition of the higher glory of His Person by the remnant repre- sented by Peter, we have His sufferings and death at once announced. This it is which opened the door for that new work of God — the Church that was AND MINISTRY. 5 • to be built upon the confession of Jesus Christ, " the Son of the living Grod." Accordingly soon follows the Lord dying on the cross, and determined to be the Son of Grod with power by the resurrection from the dead then glorified, and in due time sending down the Holy Grhost from heaven. The second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which shows the presence of the Holy Ghost, gives us, for the first time, the assembly as an existing fact on earth. This is worthy of all note. The Lord, in Matt, xvi., had spoken of His assembly as a thing that had yet to be reared up: "Upon this rock I will build My Church." But now, in Acts ii., we find the Church is in process of being built ; as it is said in the end of the chapter, " the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved." This is a very important lesson, and full of weighty results. It proves that the Church does not mean merely people that are saved, or in process of being saved. Salvation was true before the assembly. The Lord took such as should be saved, and brought them into the Church. If there had been no assembly to bring them into, this would not have negatived the fact that they were " such as should be saved." What is the meaning of " such as should be saved ? " It means those in Israel destined to be saved — those Jews whom grace was looking upon and dealing with in their souls. In the approaching dissolution of the Jewish sj T stem Grod reserved to Himself a remnant according to the election of grace. There was always this remnant, which a time of de- 6 THE ASSEMBLY, ANP MINISTRY. • clension and ruin served but to define. Thus, during the Lord's lifetime the disciples were the remnant, or " such as should be saved." All those that were soon to confess Jesus as Messiah by the Holy Ghost were " such as should be saved ; " but there was no such thing yet as the Church to add them to. Now, at the time referred to in Acts ii., the assembly or Church was there to which they might be added. Coincident with the Holy Ghost's presence, we have the Church ; and this agrees with 1 T3or. xii. 13, where it is said that " by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body;" that is to say, the formation of the body depends upon the baptism of the Spirit. Acts i. shows that the baptism of the Spirit had not yet taken place; Acts ii. shows that it had; and im- mediately the fact is apparent that the Church was there as a thing actually found upon the earth, to which "such as should be saved" were being added by the Lord. That is, the Lord now had a house upon the earth. The stones were there before — living stones, but they were separate : there was no build- ing of God in this sense here below. Now the Lord acts upon His words, " Upon this rock I will build My Church." He. brings the living stones together ; He builds them into one and the same house — the house of God, and this not by faith merely, but by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. We know that, before they thus entered the Church, there were at least a hundred and twenty names who are expressly mentioned in Acts i. They, too, were " such as should be saved." And I do not THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 7 doubt that there were considerably more who really were brethren. Thus, in 1 Cor. xv. 6, we hear of " above five hundred brethren " who saw the Lord after His resurrection. Therefore, it is plain, there were pretty many believers in the land of Israel. The " hundred and twenty " were those who, at or after the cruci- fixion, lived in Jerusalem. But whatever might be the number of the brethren throughout the land, or of the names in Jerusalem, there was no such thing as "the Church," the assembly of God, until the Holy Ghost was sent down to give unity — to form them into one existing corporation, whether you regard it as the house of God, or as the body of Christ. There are very important differences con- nected with these views of the assembly ; but still it is the presence of the Holy Ghost which makes it either Christ's body or the temple of God. In 1 Co- rinthians it is spoken of as constituted by the Holy Ghost, present and operating in it ; there also it is called the body of Christ, as we see from the scripture just referred to : " By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." Obviously this is extremely important, because what people think and talk about as the " invisible Church " — though Scripture never uses the expression — was substantially in existence before " the Church; " and, in fact, this invisible state of things is what the Lord was putting an end to, when He formed the Church. In Old Testament times, we all know, there was a nation which God accounted and called His people, in the midst of whom there were isolated 8 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. believers, as no doubt there were other believers among the Gentiles. Thus, there was Job, for instance, in early days; and every now and then, throughout the Scriptures, we have one Gentile and another who evidently manifested divine life in them, and a looking for the Eedeemer, outside the limits of Israel. For all that, there was no such thing as "the Church" — no gathering together of the scat- tered believers into one, till the death of Christ. The children of God had been scattered abroad, but then they were gathered together. Henceforth disciples in Israel were not only destined to salvation, but they were gathered into one upon the earth. This is the Church. The assembly necessarily supposes a gathering of the saints into one body, separate from the rest of mankind. There was no such body before. Hence, to talk of " the Church " in Jewish times, or in earlier days, is altogether a mistake. The mixture of believers with their unbelieving countrymen {i.e., what is called "the invisible Church ") was the very thing which the Lord was concluding — not beginning — when He "added to the Church daily such as should be saved." The common error upon this subject is, that the aggregate of those that are to be saved composes the Church. But the contrary appears from this scrip- ture and many others. Up to this time " such as should be saved " were not in the Church. Now the Lord takes and adds them day by day together, making up one assembled body. Thus, it is quite evident that " the assembly " is one thing, and the THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 9 being saved is another. Of course, salvation is true of those that are in and of the Church. The Lord does not leave "such as should be saved" in their old associations, but gradually builds them together into the Church. But the two ideas are so totally dis- tinct, that, all through the Old Testament, there were " such as should be saved," and yet there was no " Church of God," in the sense we are now deducing from Scripture. The assembly of Israel no doubt there was, and it is called the " congregation of Jehovah " — the " assembly," if you will, of Jehovah ; but then, that was merely the nation, the entire mass of the Jewish people. It was out of this very nation that the first nucleus of " the Church " was taken ; and the Holy Ghost having just come down to dwell in those that were already there, the Lord takes the others that were converted at Pente- cost or afterwards, and adds them to the existing body — the Church now in course of formation. Evi- dently, therefore, the first covenant state, that was now ready to vanish away, answers to what people mean when they speak of "a visible and invisible Church." They would call the Jewish nation the visible Church, and " such as should be saved " in their midst, the invisible Church. Well, let them so speak, if they will ; but all I now affirm, and wish to impress upon every one who is subject to the word of God, is that, as applied to what the New Testament calls " the Church of God," this kind of thought and lan- guage is condemned by the clear and positive state- ments of God's word. I would not speak so strongly, 10 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. if Scripture left the smallest shadow of doubt upon the point. But if the word of God is express, it seems to me criminal for a believer to speak doubt- fully. Not only is he not doing all he should do, but he is really helping on the spirit of infidelity in the world. We owe it to our Grod to be firm where His word is plain ; we owe it to Him to be uncompromising as well as obedient. If the word of Grod be thus explicit, that now for the first time we have " the Church," formed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to believers, and that those who were destined to salvation, " such as should be saved," were taken out of Israel and added to that assembly, then I say that the Church, in the New Testament sense of the word, never did nor could exist before — that it began there and then — that it consists of saved people taken out of the Jews first, and then out of the Gentiles afterwards, as we know, but both brought into one existing body upon the earth. That body is, and is called " the Church," . or the assembly of Cod. In due time the Lord began to extend the work. Thus, in Acts viii., we find Samaria receiving the gospel, and the Holy Grhost subsequently given to the believers. We have afterwards the Ethiopian eunuch brought to the knowledge of Christ. Then the great apostle of the Gentiles is so converted as to be the fittest witness of grace, as well as of the Church — one with Christ in heaven ; as indeed in Col. i. he styles himself not only minister of the Gospel, but of the Church. Only he treats of it as the body of Christ. THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 11 By the way, in passing, I would remark that Acts ix. 31 has its force impaired, to say the least, in the common Greek text and English version. " Then had the churches rest," we read, " through- out all Judsoa, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." Now the best copies and most ancient versions give " the Church" not " the churches." I admit fully there were churches in all these districts ; but there is nothing peculiar in this. But that which, I am persuaded, the Spirit of God wrote here, was " the Church." Minds were perplexed very early indeed. The idea of the Church as a subsisting united society upon the earth, is easily lost sight of, particularly when we look at different districts and countries, such as Judsea, and Galilee, and Samaria. The true read- ing at once leads us back to the substantial unity that belonged to the Church, or assembly of God, here below. There might be ever so many assemblies throughout Judsea, and Samaria, and Galilee, but it was the Church. I admit that we often hear of the churches of Judsea, and of other countries, as Galatia for instance. No one questions the fact of many different assemblies in these different lands. But then there is another truth which has not been seen for a long while by the great mass of God's children — not only that God set up a body which did not exist before, but that wherever assemblies might be, it was all the assembly. Not only did He constitute this Church upon earth, susceptible of daily growth, 12 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. but while He extended the work, while He formed fresh assemblies in this or that district and country, it was nevertheless one and the same Church wherever it might be. This scripture, rightly read, furnishes a strong proof of it ; and I will now just add that the best authorities leave no doubt on my mind as to this. The word churches supplanted the Church at an early day ; and probably it is due to the fact that, very soon, the copyists, like other people, began to lose sight of the unity which Grod was establishing among His children upon the earth.* It is so much more natural to conceive merely of distinct churches, than to take in the precious truth of the Church wherever it is found upon the face of the earth. This may have led to assimilating the true phrase to another and * The external authority stands thus. The Alexandrian, the Vati- can, the Palimpsest of Paris, and the Sinai MSS. are documents of the highest value, which agree in reading "the Church," not "the churches." In this they are supported by the most important cursive extant, now in the British Museum, along with a fair number of others. Of the ancient versions, there is not one of first-rate authority which does not confirm the singular — the Peschito Syriac, Coptic, Sahidic, Vulgate, iEthiopic, Armenian, and the Erpenian Arabic. The most ancient Uncial which gives the plural form is that of Laud, in the Bodleian Library, of about the sixth or seventh century, sup- ported by two others of the ninth century, with the mass of cursives, the Philoxenian Syriac, and an Arabic version. But even here it is to be remarked that the weightiest, or Laudean copy, is unquestionably wrong in reading " all the churches ;" and the others may have been influenced by Acts xvi. 5. It is certainly easier to suppose that the less usual form might have been changed by scribes to a common type, than that the very old authorities joined in an error, which the crowd of juniors escaped. Ordinarily, the tendency runs in a direction exactly opposite. THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 13 more familiar one, especially when the sense of unity decayed and disappeared. From the historical account in the Acts of the Apostles, let us turn to the instruction which the rest of the New Testament affords as to the assembly. First, the Lord, in Mat. xviii., had laid down the spirit in personal matters that was to actuate the assembly, beginning with one of its members. He had shown there, that the legal spirit is quite out of place. He had pointed out in the most beautiful manner how He Himself was the Son of Man that came " to seek and to save that which was lost " — not merely that He was the Shepherd of Israel, gathering His own people, but that He was come in quest of the lost, in the pure and simple and full grace of (rod. Take a case which He knew might occur in the assembly He was going to build — the case of one brother trespassing against another : what was to guide ? Not law, nor nature, but grace. The righteousness of man would say : " The man that has done the wrong must come and humble himself." " No," says grace, " go you after him." " What ! after the man that did me this wrong?" " Yes, it is exactly what the Lord has done." That is, the Lord puts His own grace as the pattern, and spring, and power that is to govern the individual, and of course also to be the life-breath of the assembly. Consequently we find : "If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." He that was trespassed against, becomes in grace the active party. He 14 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. goes, and for what purpose? To tell his brother his fault. What a call for the painstaking and self-abnegation of love ! And if his brother hear him, he has " gained his brother." "What a requital, even now from the Lord! It would be indeed a sorrow to the heart that he should go farther astray. Thus it is, that love, divine love, reproduces itself in those that the Lord is not ashamed to call His brethren. He calls them to be the witnesses, not of the servant by whom the law was given, but of Himself, who was full of grace and truth. Accord- ingly, then, grace is the energetic influence that works ; but truth is not set aside for a moment. Still less can the Christian entertain that pride of heart and indifference that would say, " Well, he has acted wrongly ; I am above it, and will take no notice of it." There would be, in this, a spirit of hard forget- fulness of Christ and His grace, as well as the world's indifference about one's brother. There is no allow- ance of either in our Saviour's words. Again, the legal principle, right as it is in itself, of dealing with a man as he deserves, is entirely excluded. Divine grace, as seen in the person and mission of the Saviour of the lost, works in the soul if we follow His voice. We know well how easily it might be forgotten, and how the heart might reason : " Because he is my brother, he is the less excusable — he ought to know better." There is truth in this : no doubt, he ought to know it ; but if he does not, you may at least feel what is your place and privilege. " Gro and tell him," &c. Thus the Lord does not lay down a law THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 15 for the wrong-doer to find his way back, bnt calls the man that is in the right to go forth, not in the spirit of right, but of grace, to win him who is wrong ; and if the latter hears, the former has gained his brother. If the wrong-doer refuses to hear, the thing is to be laid before others. " If he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." There would be, as it were, a com- bined action of grace brought to bear upon the offender's soul, that he may hold out no longer. It was bad enough to refuse one : can he refuse one or two more? Well, but if he does neglect to hear them, what then? The whole Church hear and speak ; all the objects and witnesses of divine grace who are in the place are intent and occupied with the trespasser. Can he reject the Church? If he does, " let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. " Brethren, what sentence so terrible as the sentence of grace and truth rejected? And thereby is seen the sad mistake that is often made when men talk about love, but I am afraid with little appreciation of it. There must be a love in deed and in truth from Christ Himself, to begin and go on with such a work as this. But observe, the very same delight in and submission to Christ which can carry one after a per- sonal offender thus, not as a bare duty, but with fervent desire to win him back — the self-same spirit of faith regards him, if refractory, " as a heathen man and a publican." He may be really a converted man ; but 16 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. he who rejects the grace of Christ thus flowing out according to the truth, is no longer to be counted as a brother. No matter whether he is really a brother or not before Grod, he is rejecting the Lord, as it were, in those that represent Him on earth in His assembly. " Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." This, then, is the Lord's weighty and standing lesson before the assembly came into existence ; but we are not left only to these preliminary preparations of the Lord. In 1 Cor., and more particularly in the chapter that was read, is a very full account of the way in which the Lord orders the assembly. Before calling your attention to this, let me refer first of all to chapter xii., where the subject of spiritual mani- festations begins. There you find the Holy Grhost in active operation. He is at work in the various members of the assembly of Grod. For " there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit ; and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord ; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. But the mani- festation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal ; for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; to another, faith, by the same Spirit ; to another, the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit " — and so on. But if we have here spiritual acting in the assembly, observe that the subject opens by tests that decide between the spirits that were not of Grod, and the Holy Grhost. It is not a question of THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 17 settling who are Christians and who are not, but of discriminating what is of the Holy Spirit from the spirits that are opposed to Him — the spirits of the enemy. And what may these tests be ? " No one speaking by the Spirit of God, says Jesus [is] accursed (or anathema) ; and no one can say Lord Jesus but by the Holy Spirit." Thus the Holy Spirit of God would never treat Christ as in His own person, or relationship to God, under a curse. This is a very simple and solemn test, and ought to be weighed by us 1 — I think I may say, beloved brethren, by us especially. For in our own days a most audacious effort of the devil has been put forth. Have not men dared to assert that the Lord Jesus, in His own relationship to God, as a man upon the earth, was under the curse of the broken law? — that He was under the effects, as between His soul and God, of man's distance from God ? At once we discern what spirit this is. " No man speaking by the Holy Ghost calleth Jesus accursed." On the other hand, " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." When an evil spirit works, he may utter many fine things ; he may appear to exalt Christ and His servants, as we see in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles ; but he never owns Jesus as Lord. It is the sure mark of an evil spirit to lower Jesus by bringing Him, in some way or other, for Himself, under the curse. I am. not speaking of His taking that place upon the Cross by grace, but of His own place as man with God, apart B 18 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. from atonement. The pretence may be thereby to increase His sympathy toward us, or to enhance His triumph over the difficulty, and His extrication from it ; but no one speaking by the Holy Ghost says Jesus is accursed. Then you have the counter-test, that those who own the Lordship of Jesus, own Him in the power of the Holy Grhost. This is no question of souls being saved, but a means of detecting what manner of spirit is active in the Church. It is the scriptural touchstone for discovering those that are under the power of an evil spirit, and those that speak by the Holy Ghost. What is of the Holy Ghost really exalts Christ, and gives Him His due place as Lord. The spirit of error as surely seeks to debase His Person and frustrate His work. The Holy Spirit invariably maintains two things — the glory of Christ as to His Person, and the Lordship of Christ as to His place : the one fitting for, and the other flowing from, His work. Now this at once prepares the way for the important and practical truth, that the great object of the assembly of God is the recognition of Christ as Lord. "We are, therefore, at once cast upon the question, Has the Lord given regulations for His assembly, or has He left us to ourselves ? Have we no directing prin- ciple for the manner in which the assembly of God is to conduct itself in this world ? Is the Church wholly abandoned, as it were, to its spiritual instincts ? Is it to be moulded by the particular age or country in which the saints may be found ? I trust there is no person here who would endorse thoughts so evi- THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 19 dently of mere nature as these. What ! the Christian assembly dependent on age or country ! Can those who so speculate or act, really believe that the Church of God is a creature of the world after all ; that God has left it, like a foundling, to be one thing here and another thing there ? Institutions such as these might be good or bad churches of man, but certainly one is at a loss to conceive what pretensions they can set up to be the Church of Grod. It is of all consequence that, be it the simplest believer, his heart should understand and keep firm hold of this, so patent in Scripture, that if there be one thing that is precious to Grod upon the earth, it is His Church ; that if there be one thing Grod is above all jealous of maintaining therein, it is the glory of Christ ; and that it is not in the world yet, but in the children of Grod, that Grod Himself is now active by His Spirit, for the purpose of glorifying Christ. But, as usual in His ways, whatever is set up on the earth is always first tried here, and then it is put into Christ's hands, by whom the divine counsels are accomplished infallibly. To-day is the time of trial. When Jesus comes, there will be no further trial in this respect. The Church will then enter into the due place which is reserved for it in the purpose of God. The hour of our responsibility will be over. But now is the time when the children of God are being put to the test. Remark, moreover, that one object of the First Epistle to the Corinthians is to show that theirs was an infant Church, an assembly of persons not long b 2 20 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. gathered out of the world, and hence in much prac- tical ignorance. You see them assailed by evils that in these days would not be ordinarily a trial among the children of God. There was certainly a very low state of moral thought and feeling, and, in one case at least, such grossness of outward conduct as was not heard of even among the Gentiles. It would seem that the devil had used particular pains to take advantage of the happy liberty of these young Chris- tians. They forgot all about the flesh, being so occupied with the power of the Spirit. They do not seem to have reflected upon their dangers. They did not walk in self-judgment. You must remember that they had few of the New Testament Scriptures as yet, and that the apostle had not been long teaching them. Of course, afterwards, there was an amazing advantage gained, through their very fall, by the in- struction which the Holy Ghost gave from it to others, and, we may trust, to themselves. Yet the epistle clearly shows that the infant church at Corinth had the responsibility of the Church of God. It is the only one that is expressly thus addressed — " the Church of God." At that time no apostles were there, nor, it would seem, elders either ; but I shall have an opportunity of adverting to this more fully by-and-by. There was, however, no lack of gifted people ; yet remark, spiritual order is not produced by such manifestations of power, but by subjection to Christ as Lord. It is not enough to be enriched in all utterance and knowledge. Few churches had gifts more abundantly than the assembly in Corinth. THE ASSEMBLY, AXD MINISTRY. 21 It was, notwithstanding, a most disorderly spectacle ; and the reason was, that they were exercising those powers without reference to the Lord's will and glory, and so for their own ends. They were pleasing themselves — exalting themselves. In their new-born exuberance, they were giving the loose rein to all the spiritual energy that had been bestowed upon them, and the consequence was that there was the special need of bringing them back into the ways of Grod. Whatever may be the power of the Spirit by and in men on the earth, it should always be made sub- servient to Christ the Lord. The Corinthians did not understand this, and they are reminded of it from the very beginning of chapter i. — " Those that call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." So, all through the epistle, you will find great emphasis laid upon His being Lord. We have it here in reference to the bestowal and character of these gifts. So, again in chapter xiv., we have the exercise of these gifts regulated in the assembly. The Church comes together into one place ; there the saints meet as the assembly of Grod. Did they then speak in a tongue ? It was in vain to plead that the Spirit of Grod undoubtedly enabled them so to speak. Again, there is no question raised as to the quality of the unknown subject-matter : it might be all true, sound, and good; but the Lord proscribes what does not edify the assembly. As a general rule, in the absence of one who could interpret, the exercise of these tongues is forbidden in the assembly. 22 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. This is a most momentous matter for practice. No matter how truly a man has a power which comes from the Holy Ghost, he is not always to use it ; more than this, he is bound to use it in obedience to Christ. There are certain regulations laid clown to which he must submit himself. The apostle takes up prophesying particularly, because it was the highest form of acting on the conscience ; as in mentioning the various gifts, he (chap. xii. 28) put diversities of tongues in the lowest place. Thus he rebuked the vanity of the Corinthians ; for what they made more of than anything else, the apostle reduces to the last rank. " Grod hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, govern- ments, diversities of tongues." Then, after the most precious unfolding of love in chapter xiii., (how need- ful in these matters !) he comes to the due exercise of gift in the assembly in chapter xiv. " If therefore, the whole Church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad ? But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all ; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so, falling down on his face, he will worship Grod, and report that Grod is in you of a truth." Observe the weight of the principle which the apostle here insists upon. Grod has formed the Church, the assembly, as a testimony to Christ upon the earth — a testimony to THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 23 His Lordship. The consequence is, whatever would give a false, or even a vainglorious testimony, what- ever would prompt men to say, " Ye are mad," is forbidden, no matter how certainly the power, thus misused, itself might be of Grod. The gift of tongues, for instance, evidently was of the Holy Grhost and not of nature ; but its use is subjected to divine regulations, as we see here. And this has a wide scope : indeed, I hold it to be the grand criterion for every Christian man to apply, both for his own conduct and for judging that of others. But when we speak of judging what others do or say, need I add that it becomes us to weigh all humbly and in love, seeing well to it that we are not thinking of ourselves but of the glory of the Lord ? But I do say that we are always bound to think of the glory of the Lord ; and therefore, no matter under what circumstances, no matter where, we are responsible to judge in subjection to Him. Prophesying here, evidently, does not mean pre- dicting, as some might suppose ; nor, as others say, mere preaching. There is a great deal of preaching which is not prophesying. Indeed, it might well be affirmed that the preaching of the Grospel is never, rightly considered, prophesying ; for this last is that character of teaching which lays the conscience bare in the presence of Grod, and brings Grod and man thus close together, if I may venture so to put it. Therefore this is what the apostle contrasts with the exercise of a tongue. The tongue was forbidden, if there were no interpreter; and for the plain reason, that 24 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. otherwise it would not edify the Church. The object of all that is done there, must be " unto edifying." Whatever, therefore, does not edify, is not fit for the assembly of Grod, and ought not to be allowed there. It may be well meant ; it may be by the Holy Ghost, as regards power ; but whatever is not intelligible, and has not the character of building up the saints of Grod, is not fit for the assembly. These things might be very well out of the assembly ; nay, it was their proper place, as a testimony to unbelievers. But they had no business in the assembly, if then 1 exercise did not tend to the instruction, exhortation, or comfort of the assembly ; and edify the assembly they could not, unless there was one who had the gift of the interpretation of tongues, and could, there- fore, turn them to present account in the building up the saints of Grod, in the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. This, then, is the rule by which all is to be go- verned. " If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course ; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the Church ; and let him speak to himself, and to God." But suppose you are prophets ; suppose you can speak to edifica- tion in this powerful way, " let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge." Here the apostle takes the example of the prophets in con- tradistinction to the tongues ; for everything the prophet said was for the express purpose of edifying. While, therefore, he admits them to be in the first THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 25 rank of the gifts of edification, there is this other important guard asserted, that, precious and profit- able as prophesying may be, no more than two or three were to speak on the same occasion. Doubtless, they were to speak one after another ; they were to speak in order and by course ; mutually subject, but not more than two or three. "Why so ? Because it would not tend to the very edification which was the great object of prophesying ; it would be over- doing, being more than the saints could really profit by; and therefore there are these defined limits. Granted that prophets give the highest character of Christian instruction; but only two or three were to speak, and the others were to judge. " If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace." There might be then that which no longer exists, any more than speaking in a tongue ; that is, revelation. This must be care- fully remembered. The truth of Grod may be brought, in the most powerful manner, by the Holy Spirit, to bear upon the conscience, so that even now, as then, there may be the firmest conviction conveyed to an unbeliever who might come in, that Grod was there. I do not doubt that this is perfectly possible, and may be now at any time ; and I would to Grod it were always ! But this is a wholly distinct thing from a revelation. Grod may use Christian instruction of a powerful character from the written word as a testimony to His own presence among His children on earth. But revelation cannot, ought not, to be now looked for. The apostle was instructing these saints 26 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. before the canon of Scripture was closed. All the truth of God was not then written ; and therefore it seems to me to be the fact, that, according to the order of God, there might have been a positive reve- lation then given, while much of the word of God remained to be written. "Whereas, to pretend to revelation now would be clearly an impeachment of the perfeetness of Scripture, and I have no doubt would soon prove to be nothing but the fraud or folly of man, and a snare of the devil. Whatever might be the power of the Spirit of God at work now, it must be by means of truth already revealed — truth already in Scripture. It is not something added to that which God has given, but the mighty use, in the hand of the Spirit of God, of what is already furnished and permanently given for the Church's help in passing through this world. There may be a recovery of what has been hid by unbelief from the saints; but it is there. A new truth, revealed now for the first time, is incompatible with the Scrip- ture as the complete book of God. If we have certain things, even in this chapter, that clearly refer to what was then in existence and not now, the very fair question might be asked by a simple-minded person desirous of understanding the word of God — " Why do you maintain that such a chapter as this is meant to regulate the assembly now ? It is clear that you have not these tongues, and that there cannot be any revelation of a new truth. If there are such modifications, why do you contend for this chapter as God's permanent rule for THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 27 His assembly?" The answer is quite simple. The Spirit of God necessarily regulated what was there before Him ; but then the great aim of all the instruc- tion, is not miraculous powers nor any other transient actings, which were evidently for the special object of testimony in the early days of Christianity. None of these things form the centre of these chapters. What does ? The presence of the Holy Ghost. To this one point all grave consideration and sober arguing of the subject must come. Have we that one and the same Spirit still ? Can we count upon His presence ? Do we believe that He deigns even now to act in the assembly ? How many, day after day, say, " I believe in the Holy Ghost;" but do they prove their faith by their works? I would ask you, and desire to ask every saint of God, Do you believe in the real presence of the Holy Ghost as a divine Person, who is with the Church, who is in the saints, who is there expressly for carrying on the assembly according to the word of the Lord, and for maintaining the Lordship of Christ there ? If we have the Holy Ghost ; if He be in and with the saints still ; if this be a certain truth, and not dependent for proof upon a particular part of Scripture where miracles and signs are spoken of, but quite as clearly laid down where these have no place whatever; if He be positively promised to abide with us for ever, then I demand, How does He act ? Does unbelief dare to make the Spirit no better than a dumb idol ? Allow me to put a ques- tion or two : Has the Holy Spirit abandoned the 28 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. word of the Lord as His only standard for our practice as well as faith ? Or is it that men bring cunningly devised reasons for avoiding subjection to that word? But is it possible that children of Grod can content themselves with any reasons for disobedience? Alas! it is no want of charity to speak thus. They can quote continually, " Let all things be done unto edifying ; " and, " Let all things be done decently and in order." But do they ever reflect that not even the Corinthians had so violated the order of God's assembly by their unbecoming displays, as they themselves do every day, by a routine of their own (fixed or extempore), which does not resemble the form, any more than it embodies the spirit, of the divine order? There is the very chapter they quote, on the one side ; there are, on the other, the plain, positive facts of their religious prac- tice habitually. You have the Church of Grod no longer on the ground of one assembly — no longer holding to such a foundation-principle as liberty for the Spirit therein to edify by whom He pleases. You have different religious associations set up, often peculiar to different countries, and in no respect answering to either the assembly or the assemblies in the word of Grod. If a man belonged to the Church of Grod at Jerusalem, he belonged to the Church of Grod at Eome. It was merely a question of locality. He was a member of the Church of Grod, and therefore, wherever it might be, he, if there, belonged to the Church in that place. Scripture does not recognize THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 29 membership of a Church, but of the Church. If the Church of God was iu a given place, the Christian, unless put away, finds his place within it. You never find, I repeat, in Scripture, anything about membership of a Church ; it is always of the Church. This is a most significant difference, as indicating the departure of Christendom from God's word. For in our days, if you belong to this Church, you do not, for that very reason, belong to that Church. Instead of your membership in the Church of Grod being the ground why you are a member of it everywhere, on the contrary, so great is the change, that now the fact of belonging to one Church is the best possible proof that you do not. belong to another. If you belong to the Church of Scotland, you have no such connection with the Church of England ; if you are a Baptist, you do not at the same time belong to the Wesleyan Society, or to any other of the Dissenting bodies. Scripture knows nothing of the kind. Thus the revolution of Christendom is complete. A state of things entirely outside the word of Cod, and contrary to the word of Cod, has come in. Eeligious societies, independent of one another, have sprung up. I am not now speaking particularly of what is commonly called the Independent or Congregational system, though there the principle is carried out more antagonistically than in any other to the unity of the assembly of God as Scripture presents it. But take any or every one of them ; they are all more or less independent. It is so, even, to a large extent, with the national Establishment. On the contrary, in 30 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. the times of those who laid the foundation of God's assembly, he who belonged to the Church at all, of course belonged to it where he lived ; but if he moved or journeyed to another place, he was received accord- ing to his place in the Church everywhere. There might be in some cases a doubt as to his reality ; for subtlety as well as violence assailed the early Chris- tians. Hence they carried letters of commendation, or they were visited : that is, just the principle of what is now available can be shown in Scripture. Thus, in the case of Saul of Tarsus, when Barnabas heard the news of his remarkable conversion, he did not, like other disciples, think such a work too hard for the Lord ; but, being a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, he is quite ready to believe what grace could do, and goes and finds Saul, who is thus recognized of the Church in Jerusalem. So now, if a stranger comes forward, professing to be a member of God's Church, persons in whom all can confide visit him ; and thus the Church, upon their representation, conscientiously and heartily accepts the confessor of Christ. But we are not confined to any one rigid canon whatever. There is divine light in the word of God for every possible exigency, and if we have not that light, we had better wait on the Lord, and see whether the precious fulness of Scripture will not be rendered without doubt applicable to the difficulty, by the power of the Spirit, without our presuming to add anything like a rule to meet the case. It is not meant that there may never be perplexity, and that we may not feel our weakness and lack of wisdom. THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 31 Humility, patience, and faith will ere long prove better solvents than all the appliances of human art. God has undertaken to provide for us in His word ; and spiritual power consists in the bringing that word, by the Spirit, to bear practically upon every case that comes before us. The main point on which I insist, however, is this — that, according to Scripture, he who becomes a member of the Church of Grod at all is a member of it everywhere. He might carry letters of commend- ation to the assembly where he went. But why? Because, all through, the world, it was the Church of Grod. Now, I ask you, Ought we to accept, as God's assembly, anything systematically different from the Scriptural account of it? Ought we to allow another and contrary principle to rule its public services ? If we do, are we really, in this, subject to the word of Grod ? You may tell me of the obstacles which exist now, and that you have so many diffi- culties to contend with. All this is granted : only let us hold fast that here, as elsewhere, the will of God is paramount to all other considerations. If we find ourselves accrediting that which opposes Scrip- ture, our business is to cease from doing evil, and to learn to do well. It is not our duty — far from it — to form a new Church, but to cleave to that which is the oldest of all, and the only Church that is true — the assembly of God as it is exhibited in Scripture. Why do you hesitate ? Are you not satisfied with the Church of God ? Whose Church, what Church do you prefer ? 32 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. But you allege that times and circumstances en- tirely differ now; and you ask, with a sort of tri- umphant air, whether two or three Christians meeting here and there can be God's assembly ? Undoubt- edly, I reply, there is a sorrowful change ; but the true question is, Does God's will about His assembly change ? Which is right — to accept man's change, or to go back to God's will, even though there be but two or three who meet together in submission to His word ? If I am with them gathered to the Lord's name, owning the members of His body, waiting upon God to work by His word and Spirit, is not Jesus in our midst? And what so great comfort for our souls? I hope to prove, another evening, that this is the express provision of the Lord for these last days ; but however this be, all I stand to now is, that the free action of the Spirit, among the gathered members of Christ, is the one principle of the assembly of God laid down in His word. There can be no other which He sanctions. Either I am acting upon it, or I am not. If I am seeking to be faithful thus to the Lord, blessed am I, whatever my sorrow for the state of the Church. If I am not, at any rate, let me confess my faithless- ness. The word of God leaves no doubt what His unchanging mind about His assembly is. The Holy Ghost is come for ever to guide His assembly. All that is wanted is a spirit of repentance and of faith. There are hindrances ; there are ties ; there must be a high price paid in this evil world for obedience to the Lord Jesus. But am I His ? Do I value His THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 33 love ? Is He more precious to me than all else in this world? Is His yoke a burden, is His will sweet to my soul ? Then, I say, there is but one pathway. It is vain to be loud in our profession of readiness to go with the Lord to prison or to death. This He may not ask of us ; but He does, as it were, demand of every Christian whether he is true to His own glory in the assembly of God. It is not a question of rival institutions pertaining to different countries, or to different leaders ; neither is it a ques- tion of a special school of doctrine, or of a peculiar plan of discipline and government. Is old habit, is tradition, is interest in this life, to keep me back from faithfulness to that which God shows to be His will for His assembly ? If you see the will of the Lord, do not hesitate another day. Do not wait till everything is clear. It is not faith, when Grod calls one out, to say, First show me the land. Put away what you know to be wrong ; never go on in what is without doubt con- trary to the word of God. " To him that hath shall be given." Have you renounced what you know does not agree with, but opposes, the word of God ? Cleave to nothing but the word. Let me ask, for example, what you did last Lord's-day. Were you found, as a Christian, where you could honestly say, " I was in my place in the assembly of God?" Did the various members of the body come together trusting to the Holy Ghost to guide them, with an open door for this or that believer, as each had received the gift, to minister the same one to another, as good stewards c 34 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. of (rod's manifold grace ? or were you joining with others where the Scriptural plan would have been regarded as disorderly? If the latter, the Lord grant you to see clearly that you are not within the scene of His will, and of His glory in the assembly ! I say not that you are strangers to the grace of Christ, or outside the work of the Holy Spirit — far from it. I believe He blesses not only in Protestant associa- tions, but beyond them too. Is this to be unchari- table ? I believe that the Spirit of God acts, wherever He sees fit graciously to use the name of Christ, for the good of believer and unbeliever. I, for one, doubt not for a moment God has used His word for the conversion and comfort of souls among Roman Catholics — ay, and Romish priests, monks, and nuns. It may have been in a scanty measure, as assuredly the opposition to the truth is enormous, and the opening seems small indeed ; but yet has it been really so down to our own days, and still more largely and clearly in the past. But enough of this. The question is, not whether the Spirit of (rod may not cause truth to take effect in this denomination or that. The chief thing before our souls now is, Are we honouring Christ according to the word of God ? Are we subject to the Lord in the assembly ? Are we carrying out His will as far as we know it ? We may fail in doing so ; surely we all do. When you are thus come together, you may find some restless, some that do not altogether what they should; you may hear individuals that had better be silent, and you may see sometimes THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 35 those silent whom it would be blessed to hear. It may be that they are yielding to a morbid sense of responsibility, and fear of criticism, and many other things that hinder their utterance of what is in their hearts. All this may readily be. Nobody denies the possibility or the fact of failure. But how does this in the least degree weaken the truth of God, or the bounden duty of His children ? Let me put a case that any believer may under- stand. The Holy Ghost dwells in you, if you are a Christian ; but are you always acting in the Spirit ? No. Does not the Spirit always abide ? To be sure He does. Tou are always the temple of God ; you never can be anything else, if you are members of Christ ; but you may, for all that, sometimes grieve the Holy Spirit. Your obligation, however, never ceases. It is just so with the Spirit in the Church. Let the assembly come together. "We will suppose they are converted, and have received the Spirit of God, and really do, as an assembly, look to Him to guide. I use that expression " as an assembly," because it is not assumed that every member under- stands the truth about the Spirit of God. Some of them may be very ignorant. It is more or less a shame for them, but there may be such cases, and, in point of fact, such there are. Some saints have been attracted by spiritual instinct, who may have been trained up in dissent or nationalism, and who settle down with little progress in intelligence. These are apt to bring in the effects of the routine in which they have been brought up spiritually, so to speak ; c 2 36 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. and I need not say that their experience will not help them to be always submissive to the guidance of the Spirit. Nor is this at all confined to these only; for we know what weakness may be found among those that have been inured to the truth from their infancy. Their being where they are costs them but little ; they have not known any deep sense of the ruin of Christendom. Their souls have been exercised feebly. I am supposing them to be con- verted, but coming into the truth of the Church's position rather through parental training than at the loss of all ; and so there is apt to be a taking for granted, without any divine conviction, that things are all right. Need I say how desirable it is that there should be real, exercised, spiritual intelligence as to the working of the Holy Grhost in God's assembly ? But then, allowing these drawbacks, and all the rest that might be added, the great fact holds good, that as certainly as the Holy Grhost dwells in every Christian man, so sure it is that He dwells in the whole assembly — in the Church of Grod. What we have to consider is, whether individually, or as an assembly, we submit to be guided by Him to the glory of Christ. Indeed I cannot but judge it to be really Antinomian in principle, where men delibe- rately rest in this, that to be Christians is the one great matter — that if the Lord has shown us His grace, we need not make much ado about His will or anything else. Is it, then, come to this, that the great body of Grod's people not only do not know, but do not care to know, His will about His THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 37 assembly ? Do you resent this charge ? Then search and see what is your desire as to this. Is it to be subject to the Lord and His word ? Can there be a more direct test for me as a Christian, or a more evident way of proving my loyalty to my Lord, than in this very thing ? If I belong to the assembly of (rod, ought I not to renounce everything inconsistent with the Scriptural account and regulations of that assembly ? Further, let me warn you that have taken this position, that wrong principles, false doctrines, evil ways, may slip in. We know the devices of Satan ; but what some of us may have said before they were thus proved, this we may repeat with increasing emphasis now, that as (rod's Spirit is the Spirit of truth, so is He the Spirit of holiness also. When, therefore, the assembly refuses to bow to God's word, preferring to accept evil publicly, rather than judge it for Christ's sake, what is to be done in this case ? First, of course, full testimony is to be given, and warning, private and public, perhaps, and patient waiting on honest slowness and fear, in order to bring all right. But suppose all has been rejected, and the assembly in any place, deliberately prefers its own ease or will to the word of God, what then? The duty of separation is even more peremptory than from the ordinary ecclesiastical institutions of Christendom ; for it is a greater sin in the sight of God for those that have known the truth of God, and seemed to be acting upon it in faith, to abandon it for any reason whatever. Ought not 38 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. these, then, to be parted from with yet more gravity and horror in the sight of God, than one would turn from the meetings of those who have never known the value of the Lord's name for the assembly of His saints ? At the same time, when you find an assembly — let it be small, or let it be great — come together, owning their faith in the Holy Ghost's presence, we should not be quick in laying a sin to their charge. Surely there is to be slowness in judging an assembly yet more than an individual. Are we to assume that our thoughts, our feelings, are necessarily according to God? Hence we find the all-importance of waiting upon the Lord. But still the fact remains, that if the public sin be certain and clear, and all warnings be rejected, the more the assembly takes the position of being God's assembly, the more is its departure from Him to be lamented, and one's back is to be turned upon it, because it is, now at least, a false profession. God looks for truth in His saints, but He looks for it also in His assembly. It is the place where He expects the manifestation of His character before men, and not only where He makes good the edification of His saints. Everywhere He holds to the glory of His Son. I admit all the difficulties from the rising up of national systems after the great Eomish apostacy, from the spread of nonconformist bodies subsequently, and from more recent attempts of all kinds. But let me press upon all who hear me that we do not contend for anything of ours, whether inherited from our fathers, or an invention THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 39 of ourselves ; we do not contend for anything because it is new, nor even because it is old — bad it tbe green age of tbree centuries, or tbe hoary bairs of fifteen bundred years. We return to tbe ground wbicb it was our sin — Christendom's sin — to have left ; we return to a way wbicb we know to be absolutely good and true, because it is (rod's way. We take our stand upon tbe only divine foundation for tbe Church. We have no confidence in ourselves, but are sure we are right and safe in coram ending ourselves to God and tbe word of His grace ; and therefore we may be of good courage. If tbe character of our difficulties, dangers, and trials proves bow we need tbe Scripture, we leam also bow Scripture appbes ever fresh and mighty ; and tbus our hearts are encouraged to cleave to God more and more. I bave dwelt so long upon tbe assembly, that I shall not be able to say much as to ministry to- night. But I may be brief, more particularly as we shall bave tbe subject of Gifts and Offices before us another time. Let me just make a few plain observations as to ministry before closing. We bave seen that the Church flows from Christ risen and glorified, by tbe Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven to bind together and form the assembly upon earth. This is the only assembly that God sanctions, and therefore which every member of it ought to sanction, until the Lord takes it out of this world. We bave tbe words and workings of tbe Spirit of God in tbe assembly shown us in Scripture 40 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. already referred to. I come now to some general principles. And first of all, just as the Church is a divine thing, so is ministry. It flows neither from the believer nor from the Church, but from Christ, by the power of the Spirit. Now this at once clears the way. The Lord calls, not the Church ; the Lord sends, not the saints ; the Lord controls, not the assembly. I speak now of the ministry of the word. There are certain functionaries whom the Church does or may choose : for instance, the assembly may nominate the persons it thinks fit to take care of the funds, and to distribute of its bounty. The Church may employ its servants, selecting them according to its best wisdom ; and the Lord owns this choice. So it was done of old, as we read in Acts vi., where the multitude chose, and the Apostles laid their hands upon those chosen to look after the tables. So it was where "the churches" (in 2 Cor. viii.) chose brethren as their messengers ; and so, again, where the Philippian Church made Epaphroditus their messenger in minis- tering to the wants of Paul. (Phil, ii.) But we never find this kind of selection where the ministry of the word is concerned. Never ! On the contrary, the Lord Himself once looked upon His poor disheartened, scattered people, pitied them, and told the disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth labourers. (Matt, ix.) The very next chapter shows that He was the Lord of the harvest, who accordingly sends them Himself. Afterwards, He prepares His disciples for the full THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 41 character of the Christian ministry when He should leave them. Thus, in Matt, xxv., where there occurs the parable of the lord departing to a far country, we have the same truth — the Lord giving gifts to His servants. Now this really decides the matter. For the difference between that which the word of God acknowledges, and that which is seen now-a- days, lies in this, that, according to Scripture, the ministry of the word, in its call and in its exercise, is more truly divine than that which is now sub- stituted for it in Christendom. Hence, also, its proper dignity is impaired, specially the holy inde- pendence of man, which is essential to its due exer- cise, and, above all, to the glory of the Lord Himself. If preachers be sent by men, it is an usurpation of the Lord's prerogative, and the gravest detriment to His servants who submit to it. What is the effect of ministry exercised according to Scripture ? The most perfect freedom for all that is given of Cod for the blessing of souls. Accord- ingly you find the universal doctrine of the Epistles fully confirms that which the history shows in the Acts of the Apostles. But I must refer to both as briefly as may be. In 1 Cor. xii. — xiv., we have already seen that it is of the essence of the Church, as Cod's assembly, and the aim of the Spirit's presence therein, that He should have full liberty to use whom He pleases for the glory of the Lord and the blessing of all. The exhortation in 1 Peter iv. 10, 11, and the caution in James iii. 1, suppose the same openness and 42 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. its liability to abuse. This may suffice for " those within." As to " those without," the will of the Lord is equally clear. Thus, in Acts viii. we hear of perse- cution falling upon the Church, and they were all scattered (but the twelve), and went everywhere preaching the word. Now, I do not call this neces- sarily ministerial. Of course, some of them were ministers of the word, others not; but all went everywhere evangelizing. But it proves that the Lord recognizes any and every Christian man in going forth and announcing the glad tidings. (Com- pare Acts xi. 19 — 21.) But when we come to detail, we find Philip, in the same chap, viii., preaching freely. " But," some will say, " he was chosen of the Church." He was not chosen to minister the word. He was chosen, on the contrary, to leave the apostles, unembarrassed by serving the tables, to the ministry of the word. It was expressly for the purpose of relieving the apostles from the secular work, that the seven men were looked out by the multitude, and duly appointed over this lower task ; the call of the Church was for this only. It was the Lord that called Philip to preach the Grospel ; and the Lord blessed the word, which extended to and beyond Samaria. (Compare Acts xxi. 8 for both.) In Acts ix., we see a man on the highway to Damascus with a commission from the high priest to persecute the Jewish Christians. That was the only commission Paul received from man — an authority, THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 43 not to preach the Gospel, but to extinguish it, if it were possible. But the Lord, in sovereign grace, not only converted Saul of Tarsus, but sent him out, direct from Himself, a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. Paul thus becomes the standing type of Christian ministry. Apart from miraculous facts, he exempli- fied livingly the words, " we believe, and therefore speak." (2 Cor. iv.) We find the Lord, after this, introducing others into the work, more particularly Apollos, who was " an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures," but so very ignorant at first, that he knew nothing beyond the baptism of John (that is, the testimony which was rendered to Christ when He was living upon the earth). But if he was thus in the dark as to the Church and the full truth of Christianity, he was a converted man. Of course, there were souls converted before the coming of Christ. It is mere ignorance that sees any difficulty in such a statement. Apollos had received by the Spirit the early testimony to the Lord, but he did not know the work of Christ. This he is taught by a good man and his wife, who helped him in the fuller understanding of the Scrip- tures, and he comes out mightier than ever in the truth, but there is no hint about a human inauguration before he preaches. Yet the apostle Paul writes with all respect of Apollos, putting this unordained man between himself and Peter (1 Cor. iii.) Again, he tells them, in the last chapter of this epistle, that he had asked Apollos to come, but " his will was not at 44 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. all to come at this time." Does not this indicate a very different state of things from what men dream of apostolic rule, as well as from what exists now ? What it does truly illustrate is the way the Lord maintained His place. An inspired apostle gives his counsel to Apollos, who does not conform. This Paul himself records without censure; and, in fact, Scripture does not say which was right : it may very probably have been the great apostle, but on this point we are left entirely in the dark. In any case, the record brings out the weighty truth that the Lord abides the absolute Master and Director of His servants. Man likes to regulate ; but the Lord, to whom we are surely bound above all, exercises the hearts of His servants, and gives them in this word a guiding principle for all time. Is it true for your soul and for mine ? Are we practically servants of the Lord — of the Lord only ? or are we serving a denomination as its ministers? If we are only nationalist or dissenting ministers, I have nothing to say ; but if we are really ministers of Christ, let us beware. " No man can serve two masters : " if we have been striving to serve Christ and the sect whose officials we are, which is to be held to ? which to be given up ? Thus, along with the assembly of Grod, there is the ministry of the word, committed sovereignly to some of its members, not to all, yet assuredly for the good of all. Let the assembly respect the servants in their place, and let the servants respect the assem- bly in its place. None ever confound the two things THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 45 without the most disastrous consequences: neither must be sacrificed. It is the place of a servant, no doubt, to preach or teach in subjection to Christ ; it is the place of a servant, likewise, to counsel, guide, govern, according to his gift from the Lord. But whatever may be the servant's mind, judgment, or counsel, nothing dissolves the direct responsibility of the assembly to Christ. The same Jesus is Lord of the servant, but He is also owned as the Lord by the assembly of God. Take the instance, again, which is shown in Acts xiii. Barnabas and Saul go forth on a missionary circuit, directed by the Holy Ghost, and taking Mark with them. But Mark turns out an indifferent servant, and speedily returns to his home. They are going out again (Acts xv.), but Paul insists upon going without Mark. Barnabas, who was related to Mark, did not like him set aside, and contends with Paul about it — good man as he was — and this so sharply, that it leads to a severance of these two devoted and tenderly attached servants of Christ. Then Paul chooses Silas, and they were commended by the brethren to the grace of God. The Church, or the labourers, were, no doubt, convinced that Paul was in the right. Of Barnabas, nothing of the kind is said ; the subject, as far as he is concerned, drops. Paul enters on a large and enlarging sphere, and Silas goes with him, supplying, as it were, the place of Barnabas. Now, there we find not only an indi- vidual servant at work, but the joint action of two or more in the service of the Lord. Barnabas might 46 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. be as wrong in taking Mark, as Paul was right in choosing Silas ; but the principle is clear. Spiritual judgment is necessary in selecting a fellow-labourer. Forced association with one we do not believe com- petent or desirable, is clearly not according to the Lord's mind. Thus, in His service, there is such a thing as association, but no bondage about it. Barnabas was free to preach the word as much as ever. There was no lack of saints, of course, to welcome Bar- nabas, and no want of sinners to be preached to. But Paul would not have Mark forced upon him, and chooses another ; and this is an important example for us. How completely does Scripture provide both for co-operation and for refusing it ! The Lord Jesus keeps His due place, not only in relation to the assembly, laying down how it is to be ordered, but also in relation to ministry, showing how the work is to be carried out on earth. The word of Grod meets every need. But there is another thing that is wanted for all of us. What is this ? Simple faith in the Lord, in His grace, in His word. Where this is not, souls are apt to be cast down by difficulties. Then, when they see things looking other than what attracted them once, they begin to doubt everything. How different if our mind is made up for having to do with the Lord ! Let us look well to it, that we are subject to Him. Of course, I am not now denying moral subjection to " chief men " in the fear of the Lord ; this may be a part of subjection to Him ; THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. 47 but what we need to have settled is, that, at all times, and under all circumstances, we must please the Lord. He will be with us ; our circumstances may look critical and be trying enough; but we shall find infinite blessing to our souls — indeed, it is in times of trouble we prove the solidity of the blessing. Be assured that, as the Lord went through the cross to His heavenly glory, so we shall find His cross stamped upon every service ; but then, it is the Lord, and it is His cross. Let our hearts, therefore, be of good cheer. The two lines of truth here sketched — the assembly of Grod, and the ministry of Christ — you will find laid down in the word of Grod. Both flow from Christ, instead of being mere voluntary associations : as to both we lie under a responsibility which cannot be evaded. The Church is bound to receive Christ's ministers, instead of having the right to choose.* From Christ the power comes ; to Christ the servant is immediately responsible. If a man is called to serve, let him' rejoice in, but bow to, the blessed * The Congregational Lecture on " the Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament," by Dr. S. Davidson, may be compared with what we have seen in Scripture. " Let us now take a Church and trace its various proceedings. A number of believers agree to associate together. In a united capacity they resolve to confess Christ, to observe His precepts, and to follow His will. They choose pastors whom they judge to possess the qualifications described in the New Testament. In this way the believer chosen by them becomes an official person as soon as he accepts their invitation" (p. 269). " The compact entered into between the ruler and the ruled may be dis- solved by one or both of the parties. The union formed between pastor and people may be severed" (p. 271). "A minister is either 48 THE ASSEMBLY, AND MINISTRY. truth., that lie is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. The consequence of carrying it out will be, that the world will drop off; it may be even that many of his Christian friends will look cold. The ministry of Christ was never intended to work in the system of the world, any more than the as- sembly of God; both were meant to exalt the Lord Jesus, and to be an exercise of faith for His saints and servants. It must be so still. More than that, it was intended that in the Church and the world we should feel the difficulties and sorrows, as well as joys, of faith. I do not doubt the triumph in Christ ; but we can count upon trial and tribula- tion surely in this world. . We may find differences as to the world. Sometimes, too, in the Church of God there may be fluctuations. Every one who has served Christ knows something of this. But as to Him to whom the Church belongs, and whom we serve, He remains "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." The question is, Are we prepared to foUow Him ? the minister of one Church, viz., that by which he has been chosen, or else he is not a minister at all. When he ceases to be pastor of a Church, he ceases to be a minister of the Gospel, till he be elected by another He is not made a minister by the act of ordination, but by the people's call, and his acceptance of it, by virtue of which a solemn engagement is entered into ; and when the engagement terminates, he ceases to be a minister (!) " (pp. 252, 253). No principle seems to me more flatly opposed to God's Word than religious radicalism. WORSHIP, THE BREAKING OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. John iv. 10—24. LECTURE IV. The first and weightiest part of the subject now before us is worship. It most of all concerns us, because it most nearly touches God himself; and this, I am convinced, is the truest criterion, as well as the safest and most salutary for our souls. No doubt the breaking of bread may be included in worship, but it calls for a separate notice, as being of a complex nature, and having a distinct aspect toward the saints themselves; whereas worship, as such, is essentially God- ward. Again, it seemed due to its importance to give it a place of its own, as furnishing most impressively, and in an act which engages all hearts, that which brings before our souls the deepest and most solemn revelation of 2 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING divine holiness and grace in the Lord's death, in presence of which all find their level, all recognize what they were withont His precious blood, what they are now in virtue of it, and, above all, what He is who so died in atonement for them, that they might remember Him — yea, for ever — in thankful and adoring peace. The Scripture read to-night shows not only that worship forms a blessed, lofty, and most fruitful part of Christian life, but that the Lord Himself puts it in contrast with that which God enjoined in times that are past. As, on previous occasions, a consideration of God's ways of old helped us to see more distinctly the fresh revelations of God in the New Testament, so we shall find in the matter of worship. First of all, let me premise that there is a certain state of soul that is needed for worship. God looks for the worship of His children, and it is. a duty in which all of them have a direct and immediate interest; yet there is a basis necessary, both on God's part and on theirs, in order that there should be real, proper Christian worship. So it was with regard to the one body,* the assembly of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. If there be one domain more than another where the allowance of man's will is both a sin and a shame, it is in intruding into the worship of God. Yet, is there anything more fre- quently done, and with less conscience ? Is there an act where man more exalts himself, and does greater despite to the Spirit of grace? Let none suppose OF BREAD, AND FRAYER. 3 that this is speaking with undue severity. Can one speak too strongly of an interference which deludes the world, denies the Church, and destroys the, moral glory of Christ ? On a false foundation, or rather without foundation, man all the while is but actively dishonouring God, and this in the face of the brightest manifestation He has made, or can make, of Himself ; for it is in His Son. If, in truth, God has so spoken and acted, then we have Grod fully revealed ; and we must have one superior to the Son of Cod in order to find a brighter and fuller revelation than what we have in Christ. This, then, is both the source of all our hopes and blessedness, and the basis on which Christian worship proceeds ; nevertheless, though it is absolutely essen- tial to Christian worship that there should be a perfect revelation of Grod in Christ, this, infinite as it is, does not suffice. There is a need on man's part which must be met according to divine glory. Cod has not failed to reveal Himself fully; He has left nothing undone ; He has done nothing that is not absolutely perfect ; and all this so that there need be no doubt or question about it. There was, doubtless, a gradual unfolding of Cod's mind, and will, and glory : indeed, I think we might say that He could not have brought out all His mind until He gave His Son. But now that the Son of God is come, we can, as believers, say without pre- sumption — " He has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true." In fact, we should be deliberately slighting, or guiltily disbe- a 2 4 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING lieving what Grod has given in order that He should be known, if we did not say boldly " We know." Is it nqt a great thing, in a dark world like this, to have Grod preparing, even for His babes, such language as "we know? " Yes, and He would have us prove the truth of these words, " we know," not only as to ourselves but Himself. It is much to have a divine book in which we can, as led of the Spirit, look back on the past, forward unto the future, down upon the maze of the present, and say as to all, " we know." It is infinitely more and better that we can humbly and truly say, " we know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John v.) It is not a question of how far there may be intelligence developed in the child of Grod. There is such a thing as growth in knowledge ; but along with it we must also stand up for the great blessing and fundamental truth, that every soul Grod has brought to Himself has an unction from the Holy One, and knows all things. Now, the possession of this divine capacity is far beyond any measure of difference there may be in practical development. Of course, there are such differences, and there is thus room for the exercise of a spiritual mind, and the Spirit of Grod, no doubt, acts through the truth upon us, that we may make progress. But then we may rest confident, as we think of the children of Grod, that, wherever they are, under the most unto- ward circumstances, Grod has given them a new nature, and this a nature capable, by the Spirit, of OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 5 understanding, and appreciating, and enjoying Him- self. All the time here below is, or ought to be, just the season for growth. It is the school where we are to learn truth in practice ; but then it is the applica- tion and deepening in our souls of that which we have already in the grace of God. " I have not written unto you," says the apostle, " because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. " (1 John ii.) This is the portion of every child of God. % But this very privilege indicates the great essen- tial on man's side in order to be a worshipper. Man, as such, unless born of God, is incapable of worshipping God — no more able to do so than a horse is capable of understanding science or phi- losophy. I deny, entirely and in principle, that there is any capacity in man, as he is naturally, to worship God. He needs to be a new creature in Christ ; he needs to possess a new nature that is of God, in order to be able to understand or to worship God. Not that the simple fact of eternal life, which every soul receives in believing on the Son of God, alone qualifies for worship ; but then God does not give it alone. He has provided other means of the greatest possible moment, and He has vouchsafed them not merely to some, but to all His children. In many cases, however, lamentable to say, the appearance and the enjoyment of this great grace may be hindered. It may be hardly possible to discern either the divine capacity or the power of worship. But we are entitled always to reckon on 6 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING the Lord, the unfailing truth of His word, and the fulness of His grace. If God has given a new life to His children, and reconciled them to Himself by Him who has borne their sins in His own body on the tree, wherefore has this great work been done ? No doubt for His own glory, and out of His own love; but it is a part of that glory, and an answer to His love, that He calls upon His children to praise as well as serve Him now. And we have before us the consideration of this very subject — Christian worship, which de- mands the gift of the Pentecostal Spirit quite as much as either the assembly or ministry can do — a part of the homage of the children of God, and a return of heart which God claims from all that are His. The first great requisite, then, for man, in order to worship as a Christian, is that he be born of God, as the object of His grace in Christ, and receive the Holy Ghost to dwell in him. The Lord teaches the principle of it in the answer He gives to the Samaritan woman — " If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." There we have the kernel, as it were, of worship — " If thou knewest the gift of God." It is not the law, were it of God Himself, though even that she knew not as one that was under it; for the Samaritans were a mongrel people, Gentiles really, though partially Jewish in profession and form. But even if the law of God had been known in all OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 7 its fulness, unimpaired, and uncorrupted by man, it certainly would not have fitted for Christian worship. But it is, "if thou knewest the gift of God" — His free-giving ; if she knew God as a giver — that He is acting out of His free bounty and love. This is the first truth. But in the next place, " If thou knewest . ... who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would given thee living water." All the time God sanctioned the law as a system, He dwelt in thick darkness; that is, He did not reveal, but hide Himself, as it were. But when the only-begotten Son declared the Father, God no longer occupied the position of a claimant on man, which was necessarily the form in which the law presented His character. Of course, this character was right, and just, and good, like the commandment itself; and man ought to have bowed to Him, and answered His demand. But man was a sinner, and the effect of pressing the claim was to bring out more plainly the sins of man. Had the law been the image of God, as ignorant and perverse theolo- gians falsely teach, man must have been hopelessly left and lost. But this was far from the truth. The law, though of Grod, is neither God nor a reflection of God, but only the moral measure of what sinful man owes to God. God is light ; God is love ; and if man is in the depth of need, He gives freely, fully, like Himself. Indeed, it is what becomes Him, and what He delights in. " It is more blessed to give than to receive." It were strange if God were 8 defrauded of that which is the more blessed of the two. According to the law, He should have been a receiver, had not man broken down ; in the Gospel He is unequivocally a giver, and what is more, a giver of His very best to those whose only desert is ever- lasting destruction. But this is only possible through the glory and the humiliation of the Son of God, stooping down and suffering to the uttermost for sinners. How truly and beautifully, then, the Lord says, " If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water :" in other words, had she known God's grace and the glory of Him who freely talked with her, she would have sought and found all she wanted. little did she suspect who the lowly One was whom she supposed to be but a Jew, though she did wonder that a Jew could be so tender, and so bend down to a Samaritan woman. Little did she think that it was the Lord God of heaven and earth, the Only- begotten in the bosom of the Eather; had she known but a little of this, she would have asked and He would have given her living water. It is the Holy Ghost that is meant by the "living water." Thus, in a single verse, we have the whole Trinity, as it were, concerned. God's own grace is the first thing, the source; then we have the glory of the Person of the Son, and His presence in humiliation among men on the earth ; finally, the Son, according to His proper glory, gives to needy, thirsty souls the OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 9 living water — the Holy Ghost. Is it necessary to say that none but a person supremely divine could impart such a blessing ? Here, then, you have testified by our Lord Jesus the necessary basis of Christian worship. First of all, Grod revealed as He is in the Grospel as contrasted with the law — Grod in His grace ; secondly, the Son coming down in perfect goodness, and willing to be man's debtor in the least things that He might bless him in the greatest, by a love which can win the most careless and obdurate ; and thirdly, the gift of the Holy Grhost. What must Christian worship be, according to its true character and object in the mind of Grod, if all these things are necessary in order that it should exist ! It does, in very deed, suppose, on Grod's part, a full revelation of what He is in His own nature, and in His grace, to man. It does assume that the Son has come amongst men in love to make good that revelation, in the thorough putting away of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It also supposes that the heart, awakened to its real wants, has asked and received of the Lord living water, the Holy Grhost, not only as the agent of life and renewal, but as a well within of unfailing refreshment, spring- ing up into everlasting life. Accordingly, a little lower down in the chapter we have more developed instruction on the subject, although we have had the foundation of it in verse 10. The woman, when her conscience was touched, and she learned that she stood in the presence of a 10 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING prophet, though not yet recognizing in Him the Messiah, put her religious difficulties before Him for solution, quite sure that He brought the truth of God — "I perceive that thou art a prophet." Eemark, in passing, that the essential idea of a prophet, both in the Old and the New Testament sense, is one that brings the conscience directly into the presence of God, so as to have His light shed upon the soul. There were many prophets who predicted scarcely anything, but they were not the less prophets. Finding herself, then, in the presence of one who was able to announce the truth of God, she wants to have the questions of her soul answered. She turned to Him about that which, at all times, and everywhere, has and must have unrivalled in- terest. The world itself, blind and dead, will fight for nothing faster than its religion. There were differences then, as there are now. " Our fathers,' ' she said, " worshipped in this mountain ; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.'' The Lord solemnly tells her : "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father." He gives a rebuke, too : " Ye worship ye know not what. "We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." It is clear that what- ever hopes of salvation were held out to the Jew, they were founded on their belief in Christ. But while He vindicates the position (not the condition) of the Jews, He proclaims the dawn of a brighter day : " The hour cometh, and now is, when the true OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 11 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." He could speak thus plainly and strongly, because He was Himself the Son in the bosom of the Father, and was entitled, in virtue of the glory of His Person, to bring in worship suited to His own intimate knowledge and perfect revelation of the Father. Thereon at once follows the full and distinctive character of Christian worship. God is made known as a Father calling and adopting children; nay, more than this, He is seeking children. In this is the fulness of divine love going out from heaven and for heaven. In Israel men had to seek Jehovah, and this with carefully prescribed rites and rigid ceremonies : thus only could even the chosen people in their worship come and appear before God. Not- withstanding the nicest care, not one could approach into His presence — nay, not even the high priest himself; and if it had been possible for him to draw and stay near, it was not to God revealed as a Father. God was no more Father to Aaron, or Phinehas, or Zadok, than He was to the least member of the most obscure tribe in Israel. There was at that time no such manifestation of God. But now the hour was coming, and in principle come, when the Father was seeking worshippers. The Jewish system had been tried and found want- ing, and was now doomed. Before God the worldly sanctuary was already fallen, and Christ was the true temple. The Son of God was come, and this 12 "WORSHIP, THE BREAKING cotdd not but change all things — not only teach, but change all. No wonder, then, that there was, in and through His presence, a new and full display of God, a declaration of the Father's name. Here Christ makes known the new thing in this point of view; how earthly worship must vanish, not merely at the mountain of Gerizim, but even in Jerusalem ; that it was a question henceforth of worshipping the Father, and this in spirit and in truth ; for, wondrous to say, the Father was seeking such to worship Him ! What a truth ! God the Father going out in His own uncaused, creative love in quest of worshippers ! Of course, He was accomplishing this task by His Son, and in the energy of the Holy Spirit. Still, this was the principle, in direct contrast with nature and Judaism — the Father seeking worshippers. Not only was it an entirely new character of worship, suited to and demanding the new revelation of Grod Himself, but it necessarily and completely extin- guished the old lamps of the sanctuary hitherto acknowledged in Jewry. Not only was the spurious worship of Samaria more than ever condemned, but the brightness of heaven, now shining freely, eclipsed the feeble rays which in Israel were meant at least to make the darkness visible, and to keep up a testi- mony to better light that was coming. What had been temporarily owned and used of Grod was now becoming a nullity and a nuisance ; and God, as we might expect, brought in the vast change most righteously. Up to this time, man was on his trial. The Jew, as the sample of chosen, favoured man, 13 was being proved, and what was the issue of it? The cross and shame of the Lord Jesus. They rejected and slew their own Messiah, little knowing, too, that He was Jehovah, God over all, blessed for ever. Justly, therefore,' and after long patience, the Jews were put aside. Such was the moral develop- ment of the ways of Gk)d. There was nothing arbitrary, as every one who believes what God de- clares in His word as to Israel's rejection of the Messiah must at once see and feel. In the life and ministry of Christ was a manifestation of such grace and long-suffering as had never been witnessed or even conceived on the earth. But now the end was come before God. The Jews, by their conduct, were cutting the last ties which a people in the flesh could have with God. In rejecting their Messiah they rejected themselves. But when the cross was a fact, and redemption accomplished, when Jesus was risen from the dead, the grace and truth which had come by Him shone out in His work on the cross, and the plenteous redemption, not promised now, but accom- plished, was made known by the Holy Ghost. Accordingly, those who believed were in a capacity to worship the Father. It is not merely that they had faith in the Messiah, for this they had when He was here. But now that they had in Him redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins ; now that Christ made God Himself known as His Father and their Father, His God and their God (and this in the power and presence of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven), they could draw near into the holiest, 14 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING and truly worship the true God; they could say, not only by, but with the Lord Jesus, " Abba, Father." Not merely were spiritual life and redemption need- ful, but the Holy Ghost also ; and accordingly here the Lord adds that " Grod is a Spirit : and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Mark the difference of the language. When He speaks of His Father seeking worshippers, it is pure grace flowing freely out ; it is He who is seeking. It is not merely that He accepts the worship of His people, but He seeks worshippers. Yet let us remember that our Father is Grod. It is a thing easily forgotten, strange to say; but this is mere fleshliness, and not from our privilege in infinite mercy of nearness to Him, which ought not in the least degree to dull, but to increase and strengthen our sense of His majesty. " Grod is a Spirit," He says ; " and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." There is a certain moral necessity here, which cannot be dis- pensed with. The truth is, Christ creates, the law never does. The law kills ; what else can it do, or ought it to do, for sinful creatures ? It would be a bad law if it did let us off. If I deserve to die as a guilty man responsible to God, then, I say, the law is just, holy, and good in condemning me. It is the province of the Saviour alone to give me life, and not this merely, but to give me life by His death and resurrection, without sin, fruit or root, that I may stand in Him possessed of a new nature, wholly 15 delivered by grace from the misery, guilt, power, and judgment of the old man. This is the place of every Christian. These are the simple but most blessed elements of his life and standing before God ; but then, as they are insepa- rable from the gift of the Holy Ghost, so is He absolutely needed that we may worship our God and Father ; and for this purpose and others He is given. Thus we see what the living water means. " The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." It is the Holy Ghost given by Christ to be in the believer ; without Him there can be no such thing as the power of worship. But He is given, and the hour of true Christian worship is come in the strictest sense. And you that are here assembled to-night, are you prepared to acknowledge, for any consideration whatever, worship which is not of this character? You, especially, who are young in years, and per- haps, also, little established in the truth of God, hearken. You may be tempted, not only through natural hankering after the world and its worship, but you have relatives, connexions, friends, who think it hard you do not join them. In what ? In Christian worship ? Join them in it by all means. Whenever, wherever you find worship in spirit and in truth, fear not to join ; seek it, yes, earnestly seek it. Eather would I ask, Are you disposed to slight such worship for that which does all it can to return to the mountain of Samaria, if it cannot reach Jeru- salem; for a religious service that is both untrue 16 WORSHIF, THE BREAKING and formal; and an order that mingles some genuine worshippers in a crowd of false ? How many there are now-a-days who in word boast of their heavenly liturgy, in reality hurry through it with such evident heedlessness as to show that the sermon is all they care to hear ! One might fancy they were men who knew nothing, desired nothing, but to hear the way to be saved, instead of being (rod's children, called and capacitated to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But this is the misery of being in a position which is bound up with what they value in the flesh and in the world; where worshipping the Father according to His wor^. never was nor can be known. I admit that even this is better than belonging to another class of religionists, nominally in the same sect, who, being ignorant of Christ's redemption, bear with an evangelical discourse for the sake of services, the darkness of which is to them delightful, because it answers to their own condition. Fleshly worship suits a fleshly state. My charge is not about the slipping in of a hypo- crite amongst the true — these, no doubt, may creep in anywhere. The main point insisted on is, the error and sin of embracing the world in divine worship through a false principle, than which there is nothing in the present day more common, and in some eyes more desirable. Clearly this is not Chris- tian worship ; but still it is so styled ; it is accepted and justified as such ; and the refusal of it is branded popularly as the fruit of a harsh, unloving, censorious OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 17 spirit, instead of being seen to be, as it is, simple- hearted desire to carry ont the will of the Lord. Worship there cannot be, unless the ground of grace is taken: there must be life in the Spirit, nothing less than divine life and the power of the Holy Grhost working in the worshipper. Again, it ought not to be very difficult to discern where there is Christian worship. One can easily say where it is not. How can it be where there is no recognition of the assembly of the faithful in separation from the world ? where human formularies largely displace the divine word ? where the Holy Grhost is not welcomed* to work in the order laid down in Scripture? where anybody may be in mem- bership, and the evidently unconverted can join in, or lead, the most serious services ? The invariable effect is, that as you cannot raise the world to the height of faith, the believers who mingle all together indiscriminately must descend to the world's level. Hence, fine buildings, imposing ceremonies, exciting music, poetic sentiment, are apt to come in by de- grees, where Christian worship is unknown or for- gotten. Hence, too, the need of legal order, for it seems bold to trust the grace of Grod. You may have Christian worshippers in such a state of things ; for I have no desire to exaggerate ; but Christian worship there cannot be. Do you doubt this ? Perhaps the doubt is because you have never known wha^ worship really is. So much is this the case at present — the thoughts of Christians are so vague, unformed, and dark — that to many the B 18 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING very meaning of worship is lost. How many call a building where they meet to hear preaching a place of worship ; and when they go to hear, they think and say they are going to worship ! Does not all this show that the very idea of worship is unknown ? Nor is it to be wondered at. The truth is, there is a great deal of preaching of Christ in these days, much calculated to arouse and also to win souls ; but where is there a full setting forth of the Gospel of (rod's grace ? That Christ is preached at all, is a matter for which we have to thank (rod. Souls are converted, and learn, as far as the usual orthodox testimony goes, what is most true of their sins and their danger ; but we want the Grospel of God fully proclaimed — the Grospel as we see it set forth in the epistles — the glad news not only that the work of Christ has put sin away, but that the believer stands in a new life and relationship with God, of which the Holy Ghost is given as the seal. Where this is known, worship is the simple, necessary fruit ; the heart, thus set free by grace, goes out to Grod in thanksgiving and praise. So, in the chapter we began with, the believer enjoys not only a new life communicated, but a well of water within him, which springs up into everlast- ing life. Thus, by the energy of the Holy Spirit given to us, we possess, as a conscious thing, perfect, un- broken peace, and we cannot but breathe the joy of our ransomed souls to the praise o^our Saviour God. As a fact, this may not be found among the children of God, save few comparatively; because in general, OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 19 where there is a perception of Christ, they put the law in the place of the Holy Ghost, and thus fall into the uncertainty which in variably, where there is conscience, flows from the law thus misused, instead of enjoying the light, and power, and peace in Christ and His redemption, which is the proper fruit of the Holy Ghost's testimony to Christ and of His indwelling in the believer. Here only can you have Christian worship. It is founded upon the full revelation of grace in Christ dead, risen, and ascended; and it is in the power of the Spirit of Cod that this is enjoyed by the believer. But not this only : for God is a Spirit, and the consequence is, that Christian worship repudiates formality. " God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" There we have the nature of Grod revealed, and thence is deduced the moral need of worshipping Him in spirit and truth, not according to earthly form or human will. This, then, is the source, groundwork, and cha- racter of Christian worship. But we have one element more when we pursue the further instructions of the New Testament, In 1 Cor. xiv. we find it connected with the assembly. "We learn there on what prin- ciple, and by whom, worship is now paid to God. This is an important addition to our knowledge of God's will. No one contends for a moment that the Gospel should not be preached, or that believers should not be instructed in the truth. These are duties confessedly according to Scripture. There we have everything provided for, that can be needed for b 2 20 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING the good of the Church, and for the well-being of souls ; we have both the principle and the fact of all Chris- tian service most clearly laid down in the word of God. Among the rest, there is no lack of testimony to the manner according to which Christian worship should be conducted. We have seen that none can render acceptable worship to God but Christians : from it the world is plainly shut out, according to the teaching of Scripture. It is not a question of closing the door, or of excluding persons from the place where the faithful assemble. It is clear from Scripture that unbelievers might be present where the assembly of Grod may be gathered ; but they are incapacitated from rendering proper and acceptable worship unto Grod, because they have neither the new nature, nor the Holy Spirit, who is the only power of worship ; they neither know redemption, which is the basis of worship, nor do they know the Grod and Father of our Lord Jesus, who, with the Son, is the object of worship. Thus, in every point of view, the world is necessarily without the pale of Christian worship, and the bringing the world in, is a large part of the sin and ruin of Christendom. Again, we gather from 1 Cor. xiv. the place which the giving of thanks has in the worship of Grod ; and this connected, not with any one individual only, or a separate class, but with the order and operation of God in the assembly. Hence we read (ver. 15), " What is it then ? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also : I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understand- OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 21 ing also." Important as singing is, its end is not, of course, the sweet sound : the essential thing, as we are told, is " singing with the spirit and understand- ing also." What a proof that the Lord is looking for the intelligent service of His people ! So, in ver. 16, we read — " Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou say est?" If in Christian worship there were the utterance of an unknown tongue in the giving of thanks, or in bless- ing God, it would traverse the rules of edifying the assembly, because it would leave out those that could not intelligently join their " Amen." The passage is cited also to show that thaiiksgivino: and blessing, like singing, and other constituents of Christian worship known to us familiarly, were found from the first in the Christian assembly. But there is just the difficulty. Look right or left — look where you will, where can you find the Christian assembly? Where is there the gathering together of the children of Grod, in the name of the Lord Jesus, engaged in thanksgiving and bless- ing, praising and singing, as we read of here ? Yet the assembly of Grod, meeting as such, is essential to Christian worship. There might be the best of men chosen to conduct the service, and the order of praise and prayer might be as faultless as existing liturgies are open to severe criticism ; but what then ? Would it be the worship of the family of Grod ? If not, how could it be of really Christian character ? Grod looks 22 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING for the worship of His children in the Spirit. Do you say that, after all, it is only the slight difference of several taking part, instead of one? But grave as that might be, such a difference is not the essen- tial thing, but this — that there be perfect open- ness for the Spirit's action by whom He is pleased to speak. It is not, then, a question of one man, or half-a-dozen. On some occasions the Holy Grhost might use one or two, on others more than six in various ways. What Scripture demands is, that there be faith in the Spirit's presence, proved by leaving Him His due right to employ as may please Him. It is not, therefore, a mere question of one, or few, or many mouthpieces to give thanks, or bless, or take part in acts of Christian worship. The real and essential feature is, that the Holy Grhost, being present, should be counted on, and His employment of this Christian or that as He will. In an assembly where there were many spiritual men, it would have a strange appearance if but one or two took an active part in the worship of the Lord. Still, whether few or many speak at any given time, the only Scriptural mode by which acceptable worship is rendered is where the whole assembly unites in the liberty of the Spirit, with heart and mind, in the offering of their praises and thanksgivings to Grod through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Grhost, acting in the assem- bly by its members, may think fit to employ one or twelve to speak the praises suitable to His mind, and according to the condition of the assembly. And what can be sweeter to all, whether or not they OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 23 be thus employed as the audible channels of wor- ship, than to have the consciousness that the Holy Ghost in very deed so deigns to guide in one and all ? The one point of value is, that He should be free to direct all for the glory of Christ. There is another remark of a practical kind to be made as to worship. We must guard against bringing into the assembly our own thoughts of the worship to be offered unto God. An individual may give out a hymn to be sung in which he delights, and which may be not only beautiful but true and spiritual in itself; but it may be a mistake in him to give it out — a wholly unsuitable hymn for the occasion on which he desires it to be sung. Again, there may be some outside the assembly, known or unknown, who, out of curiosity, are come to see what the worship is like : now are you, fearing that they might wonder at the silence from time to time, to read a chapter, or give out some sweet hymn ? Need I say that such a step is indefensible, and beneath men who believe in the presence of the Holy Ghost ? Some may think there is liberty to do this or the like ; but who put such thoughts into the mind? Do you think the Holy Spirit is occupied with what those without may say or think of those within, or anything of the kind ? Is He not, on the contrary, filled with His own thoughts of Christ, and communicating them to us? The becoming thing, therefore, for us to do under such circumstances is to look from ourselves, and those within and without, to God, that He, work- ing by the Spirit, may give us communion with the 24 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING present thoughts of the Spirit of God about the Lord Jesus Christ. "When such is the case, how simple is the flow of thanksgiving for His special mercies to us and all saints ! how fragrant the sense God gives us of His delight in Christ ! what praise of His grace ! what anticipations of glory, and of Christ Himself there ! All these, and more, are but ingredients ; and they will variously predominate, as the Lord sees fit. Even a lower character of worship, if it be but suited to a given state, is, in my judgment, a far more pleasing thing to God than any strain ever so high, which has not the real present energy of the Spirit of God connected with it. Further, as to criticism : I cannot think the assembly of God is the right place for any man to stand up and show his superior wisdom in ; on the contrary, therein, above all occasions, is the place for the greatest to show his littleness before God. There may be seasons and circumstances where a judgment of what is given out may not be amiss, but a duty ; but the assembly of God is not the place for such a course. May I not take the liberty of applying to this what the apostle lays down as to another inno- vation : "If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the assemblies of God?" How, where, could any one gather such a practice from the word of God? Nor do I confine myself here, or in these remarks generally, to a bare text, but I am speaking of the whole tenor, and texture, and object of all that is given us in the Scripture. OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 25 Accordingly, as it is unauthorised, so the result can- not but be pernicious. What can the effect of criti- cism in the assembly of God be, but the sowing of discord and distraction where unity and concord should prevail? And yet it may be a thing too often done; against it I would warn my hearers earnestly. All are liable to make mistakes, and all deserve to be corrected occasionally ; but, as a general rule, comment upon another is altogether out of place in the Christian assembly. There is a meet time and place for every real duty; and it never can be right to rectify one wrong by another, how- ever godly the intention. Next, as to the breaking of bread, a few Scriptures will suffice. The Lord's Supper, not baptism, was revealed of the Lord, we all know, to the apostle Paul, as it is brought out in the same epistle (1 Cor. xi.) from which much has been already quoted. It is a holy institution, intimately linked with, and the distinct outward expression of, the unity of Christ's body, which it was St. Paul's work especially to develop. We have the Lord, accordingly, there revealing it afresh to the apostle Paul. He had not sent Paul to baptize, as he says, but to preach the Gospel. There is not the least doubt that he did bap- tize, nor that it was perfectly right in him to baptize. But baptism, so expressly charged on the eleven, after the Lord's resurrection, is not only a single initiatory observance — " one baptism," — but it is for each individual the confession of the foundation- 26 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING truth of Christ's death and resurrection. The subject of it stands forth as a believer in Him who died and rose ; he is no longer, therefore, a Jew, or a heathen, but a confessor of Christ. The Lord's Supper, on the other hand, belongs to the assembly, and forms an affecting and important object in the worship of the saints of God. It is, primarily and strictly, the standing sign of our only foundation ; it is the witness of His love unto death, and His work, by virtue of which such as we can worship. No wonder, there- fore, we have the apostle Paul showing the very solemn and blessed place which the Lord's Supper claims in the revelations of the Lord to him. " I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread : and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat : this is my body, which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner, also, He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." It is evident, on the face of the statement, what a large and deep place the Lord's death has in His Supper. No joy, no brightness of the favour of God in heaven, no consequent communion, nor hopes of everlasting blessedness with Him, can be allowed for a moment to distract from, or overshadow, the death of the Lord. But the reverse is the truth ; for the OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 27 more the Lord's death has its own central value before the Christian, all these things shine out not only more brightly but also more sweetly and affect- ingly to the heart. And so the same man who was God's blessed instrument for developing the full extent of the Christian's privileges, is the very one who gathers us round our Lord's death as that which pre-eminently attracts and fills every heart that loves His name. From Acts xx. 7, it is plain that the saints should break bread on the first day of the week, not of the month or quarter. But it is the resurrection-day, not the day of His death, as if we were summoned to be there in mourning as for the dead. But He is risen, and therefore, with grateful, solemn joy, we take the Supper on the day that speaks of His rising power. I cannot but believe that the Holy Ghost records the day for our instruction, as well as the object that called together the believers primarily. No doubt the apostle, passing through after a short stay, dis- coursed to those assembled; but they came together on that day to break bread. Have we consented to other thoughts and arrangements ? Or do we act as if we believed the Holy Spirit knows and shows us the best and truest, the holiest and happiest way of pleasing God and honouring Christ ? The death of the Lord keeps constantly before the soul our utter need as once guilty sinners, proved by the cross ; the complete blotting out of all our sins by His blood ; the glorifying of God up to, and above all in, death itself ; the manifestation of absolute grace, and withal 28 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING the righteousness of God in justifying us ; the per- fect glory of the Saviour — all these things, and infinitely more, are brought and kept before us in those simple but wondrous words — " the Lord's death ! " To take the Supper in remembrance of the Lord, and thus show forth His death, is what gathers us together as our prime desire. There can be no doubt about the meaning of the word of God which records this for our comfort and edifying; yet how could one infer that such was His will if one looked at the practice of Christians ? Compare what they are doing Lord's-day after Lord's-day, with the obvious lessons of Scripture, and intention of the Lord in so revealing His mind to us ; and say whether, for the most part, this simple, touching memorial has not been slighted by real saints, and whether its character has not been changed universally in Christendom. I speak not of points of form, but of its principle — of such an interference with its mode of celebration as leaves hardly a single shred according to the Lord's institution. Beware of thinking anything can be of equal moment with duly showing forth the Lord's death. The Supper of the Lord claims an unequivocal pro- minence in the worship of the saints. Not that one thinks of the mere fact of celebrating it, as to time, in the middle of the meeting. Indeed, it is remark- able how the Spirit of God avoids laying down laws about the Supper (and the same is true of Christianity in general) — a circumstance which the unfaithful may OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 29 abuse, but which gives infinitely greater scope to the spirit of Christian affection and obedience. This, however, we may safely say, that it is not a question of the point of time when the act of breaking the bread occurs. The all-important thing is, that the Lord's Supper should be the governing thought when the saints are gathered for this purpose on the Lord's day; that neither the prayers of many, nor the teaching of any, should put that great object in the shade. In ministry, however spiritual, man has his place ; in the Supper, if rightly celebrated, the abased Lord alone is exalted. There might be occasions where the evident guidance of the Spirit brings it early before us, or postpones it late in the meeting, and thus any technical rule binding it to the beginning, or middle, or end, would be human encroachment on Him who alone is competent on each occasion and always to decide. This openness may seem strange to such as are habituated to rigid forms, even where there are no written formularies; but that apparent strangeness is chiefly due to their habitual lack of acquaintance with the real presence and guidance of the Holy Grhost in the assembly. Where, however, the door is open to the action of the Spirit according to Scrip- ture, and where a just sense of what is in hand per- vades the assembly, the Spirit of Grod, somehow or another, according to the truth of things in His sight, knows how to adjust the right moment as well as all else, and to give us the comfort of His 30 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING guidance, if the Lord be but the confidence of our souls. Again, it may be that you sometimes go to the Lord's table and return disappointed, because there has been no exposition of the word, or no exhortation. Is it possible that you have gone to remember and show forth the death of Christ, and yet have come back with feelings of dissatisfaction ? How can this be ? Is it not the morbid influence of the present state of Christendom ? No doubt there is that in the natural heart which suits and likes what is now the vogue ; and the excitement of Egypt's food is readily craved, where the heavenly manna is loathed as light food. Unquestionably we have that within which helps what is found outside ; still it is humbling and afflicting to my own mind that a discourse should seem indispensable to garnish the breaking of bread, and that there should be a thought of want in the meeting where the Lord's death has been before the heart; when one has met around the Lord in His own name with those that love Him? Do you suppose that there is any service more acceptable to God Himself than the simple remembrance of Christ in His own Supper ? But, however that may be estimated, all this has been often and plainly forgotten, and the Supper of the Lord has not only been made, in many instances, a much rarer thing than Scripture warrants, but its proper character has been tampered with, and the great landmarks that the Lord laid down have been OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 31 utterly disregarded, so that the celebration is become anything men please to call it, except the Lord's Supper. Say that it is a sacrament, if you will; but one may perhaps doubt that, if so, it is the Lord's Supper. The Corinthians used to take- a common meal together on the Lord's-day ; for in those days Christians strongly felt the social character of Chris- tianity, and one may regret that it has been ever since so much lost sight of. After the meal, they celebrated the Lord's Supper. The devil, however, contrived to bring shame and confusion among them at Corinth by licence at this feast : some of them got intoxicated. No doubt it was a dreadful dishonour on the Lord's name ; but it ill becomes those to speak harshly who are apt to utter the loudest reproaches. We must remember that, in those days, they had just been brought out of heathenism ; and it used to be a part of the worship of false gods to get drunk in their honour. The Gentiles did not feel the immorality of it in the way that everybody knows now. It was thought no improper thing then to be thus excited, and worse, in their religious rites, and, indeed, at othei times. It is probable, therefore, that in this infant assembly at Corinth it was not counted such an enormity, as we know it to be, that Christians should so far forget the Lord at the agape. What aggravated the sin was the mixing up the Lord's Supper then and there, it seems, with the love-feast. Such conduct was destructive of the character of His Supper. To eat and drink thus was to eat judgment (1 Cor. xi. 29). What had been begun in the Spirit ended in the flesh. 32 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING I refer to tliis merely for the purpose of showing that, by bringing carnal feasting into such a holy assem- blage, we lose or destroy its true nature and aim. Thus, without confining oneself to the notice of any particular body, the practice of appointing par- ticular officials, whose sole right and title* it is to * Let me give a few extracts from the famous work of an able and moderate man, John Calvin : — " It is here, also, pertinent to observe, that it is improper for private individuals to take upon themselves the administration of baptism ; for it, as well as the dispensation of the Supper, is part of the ministerial office. For Christ did not give command to any men or women whatever to baptize, but to those whom He had appointed apostles. And when, in the administration of the Supper, He ordered His disciples to do what they had seen Him do (He having done the part of a legitimate dispenser), He doubtless meant that in this they should imitate His example. The practice which has been in use for many ages, and almo.-t from the very commencement of the Church, for laics to baptize, in danger of death, when a minister could not be present in time, cannot, it appears to me, be defended on sufficient grounds " (Inst. IV., xv. 20). "For the words of Christ are plain : 'Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them.' (Matt, xxviii. 19.) Since He appointed the same persons to be preachers of the Gospel and dispensers of baptism in the Church, ' No man taketh this honour unto himself (Heb. v. 4) according to the apostle, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron,' any one who baptizes without a lawful call usurps another's office" (Ibid. 22). Then, in chap. xvii. 43 of the same book IV., after alluding to some ancient ceremonies in order to dis- miss them, he proceeds to say the Supper " might be administered most becomingly, if dispensed to the Church very frequently, at least once a week. The commencement should be with public prayer ; next, a sermon should be delivered ; then the minister, having placed bread and wine on the table, should read the institution of the Sup- per, then explain the promise therein left us, and at the same time keep back from communion [excommunicaret] all those who are debarred by the Lord's prohibition. He should, after that, pray that the Lord, according to the kindness in which He bestowed this sacred OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 33 administer the bread and wine to each communicant, is clean contrary to the teaching of Scripture, and flies in the face of the evident intention of God, quite as much as the distressing conduct of the Corinthians themselves. For what is the Lord's Supper? Is it not the family feast? When you derange the Father's order among the members of His family, or when you bring in those that are not of His family, its character is gone, it is the family feast no more. Let us, then, assume the least un- favourable supposition of a Christian company, and of none but Christians. Yet supposing that the administration, as men call it, of the Supper of the Lord is committed to a real minister of Christ, or to food on us, would also instruct and form us to receive it with faith and gratitude of mind, and would make us worthy of the feast by His mercy, since we are not so of ourselves. Here either psalms should be sung, or something read, while the faithful, in due order, communicate at the sacred banquet, the ministers breaking the bread and conveying it to the people. The Supper being ended, an exhorta- tion should be given to sincere faith and confession of faith, to charity and manners worthy of Christians. Lastly, thanks should be offered, and praise of God sung. This done, the Church should be dismissed in peace." How man loves to meddle and legislate ! Now, it is instructive to observe that the fullest regulation of the Lord's Supper in Scripture occurs in 1 Corinthians, that is, in an epistle written to an assembly where as yet elders were not. Such I believe to have been the case ; but even if elders did exist there, the fact remains that absolute silence is kept respecting them, where modern thought would have called them in at once to meet the disorder by a proper administration of the Sacrament. This never occurs to the apostle. The whole assembly are admonished on moral grounds. Such is the divine remedy, not an appeal to the elders if they existed, nor a direction to have them appointed in order to correct the abuse, if there were none. 34 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING all who are His ministers, as the exclusive prerogative of such as minister only — I put the most favourable form which can be conceived for the popular notion — under any and all circumstances, it is a human in- vention, not only without the authority of Christ, but decidedly contrary to the doctrine and facts recorded in Scripture. I admit ministry most fully; but the Lord's Supper has no connexion with it. Make it a necessary function of those that rule to administer the bread and wine, and it bears not even an outward resemblance to the Lord's Supper. It becomes a sacrament, not His Supper ; a manifest in- novation, a decided and complete departure from what the Lord has laid down in His word. The very idea of a person standing apart, and claiming to administer it as a right, alters and ruins the Supper of the Lord. That Supper, according to Scripture, leaves no room for the display of human importance in the pretensions of a clergy ; least of all when the apostles were on earth. Blessed and honoured of God as these were at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, they were there in His presence as souls that were saved from sin and its judgment by the Lord's death. In the regulation of the Churches, in the choice of elders, in the appointment of deacons, they had their own proper place of apostolic dignity. The word of God clearly and fully proves that the administration of the Supper by an official is a figment and tradition of men, wholly wanting the support of Scripture. But there is another point that often troubles souls, OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 35 and might possibly harass, even where the "bread is broken in a holy, simple, Scriptural manner — the danger of eating unworthily, and so of incurring "damnation." Let me meet this at once by the assurance that, though one has to watch against a careless or otherwise unworthy participation, there is no thought of damnation, which would indeed upset for the believer all the comfort of the Gospel and the general drift of God's word. But some may say, "Do not the Scriptures assert as much ?" I admit the English version does, but not the word of God ; and we must not confound them. We have every reason to thank God for the English Bible, which, as far as I am acquainted with the subject, I believe to be as good a version, if not better than any other current in the world ; but for all this, it is only a version, and therefore a work in which the weakness of man appears, and in which are found here and there defects which human infirmity has not been able to avoid. One of these errors is on this very subject (in 1 Cor. xi. 29). The apostle is showing how essential it is that we go to the Lord's table, which invites us freely as every week opens, our hearts filled with grateful remembrance of Christ's self-sacrificing love, who died in atonement that we through Him might be saved. What is the result of a light, heedless state at the Lord's Supper ? If we take the bread and wine at that holy feast, as we eat the common food God provides in our own houses, not discerning the Lord's body — in other words, if we eat and drink unworthily, it is not the c 2 36 WORSHIP, THE BREAKING Lord's Supper we are eating, but rather judgment to ourselves. The Lord's hand will be on such, as the apostle shows by the case of the disorderly Corinth- ians ; but even in that aggravated instance, it was expressly temporal judgment, that they should not be damned, or "condemned with the world." On the other hand, there is no excuse for absenting yourself from the Lord's table. There is no escape from the hand of the Lord, save by humbling ourselves and vindicating Him by self-judgment, and then coming. The Lord's Supper is no more a sweet privilege than a solemn duty for all His own, save those under dis- cipline ; and when we think of the love He has shown us in the boundless sacrifice He has made for us — the deliverance wholly undeserved He has wrought for us in His own deep abasement and suffering under Grod's wrath on the cross, together with all the gracious encouragement He has therein brought be- fore us for our comfort, admonition, and support in our conflict through the world, we cannot but regard the thankful commemoration of the Lord's death as a paramount obligation which, under no circumstances, ought to be neglected. Another person's fault should not keep me away : if it rightly acts so on one, it ought to hinder all. Is the Lord, then, to be as it were forgotten because somebody deserves censure ? Let the faulty individual be reproved or otherwise dealt with according to ♦Scripture ; but my place is to " do this in remem- brance of Christ." Again, sense of my own faulti- ness should not keep me back. " Let a man examine OF BREAD, AND PRAYER. 37 himself, and so- let him eat" — not stay away. He who abstains from the Lord's Supper virtually says he is none of His. This will suffice as to the breaking of bread, barely as the subject has been touched. A few words remain to be added in regard to prayer. There is very often a great mistake made as to this. We hear sometimes about the " gift of prayer ;" but where do you find it ? Show me a passage of Scripture which speaks of a "gift of prayer" in the sense in which people commonly use the term ? What is the effect ? It largely hinders conscien- tious, modest, simple souls, who otherwise would join heartily in public prayer. But they cannot give themselves credit for possessing the " gift of prayer." They are frightened by what is a mere bugbear — by what is really, if they but knew it, a blunder. The consequence of this for them is, that they hang back, and are silent, when the meeting would be greatly benefitted by their help. Are there not some now present who know well that they have had many a time a desire to pray, and thus express the wants of Grod's assembly to Himself, but who have been deterred because they feared their lack of a " gift of prayer," and that they might not be able to pray long enough, or in a way acceptable to some whom they have heard insisting on the " gift of prayer ?" Is it not a fact ? I entreat you, beloved friends, to listen to them no more, nor heed your own thoughts and feelings. 38 WORSHIP, ETC. Examine the word of God for yourselves, and you will find that the apostle lays down (1 Tim. ii.), and even peremptorily, his desire that the men pray everywhere. Let them, then, commit them- selves to the Lord without doubt, and at the same time remember, that Scripture, at any rate, never even hints about a "gift of prayer." This brings us to another point connected with the one I have just endeavoured to explain. It is in my opinion a mischievous notion that those who possess a minis- terial gift should be regarded as the only proper persons to let their voices be heard in the assembly of God. GIFTS AM) LOCAL CHARGES. Eph. iv. 7—11. LECTURE V. I should feel to-night that my subject was dry indeed, and promising little profit to souls, if we had only to look at gifts and offices in themselves. It is thus that the subject is often regarded, and is apt to become, therefore, not only a barren, speculative question for some souls, but also a snare to others — barren to such as, looking upon it from outside, think that they at least have nothing to do with gifts and offices ; and a snare, perhaps, as often, to those who conclude that they themselves are especially, if not exclusively, concerned in them. The truth is, these spiritual functions closely and materially affect both Christ and the Church of Grod. Attached to Christ as their source, they (at any rate gifts) flow down from the same reservoir of rich grace on high, 2 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. whence all the main characteristic blessings of the Church proceed. They proceed from Him in heavenly places, and therein is the true answer to much the greater part of the aversion some feel to the subject, as if ministerial gifts were only a means of giving importance to their possessors. It would be hard to think that such a turn can be anything but a gross perversion of what comes from Christ or heaven. In truth, they are of the deepest moment in God's eyes, as He deigns to use them for the glory of His Son ; and, surely, the consideration of the light that Scrip- ture affords should be precious to those whose joy as well as responsibility it is to profit by them ; and not least to those who have personally and most jealously to watch how the gift of Christ's grace is used, lest it should be diverted from the object for which the Lord gave it, to some selfish or worldly account. It is evident, I think, that simply to state the source is, in the principle of it, to cut off all excuse for the earthly aggrandisement, in various forms, which, the Lord's gifts are too commonly made to serve. But then there is another remark to be made. Not only do these gifts of Christ spring from Him in heaven, and therefore must, if anything can, refuse to mingle with the vanity of the world and the pride of man (I speak, of course, of the gift itself, and not of the flesh's perversion of it) ; but, besides, there is another feature of these gifts, which is of immense interest to us as believers in the Lord Jesus. They are essentially bound up with Christianity, not on the contemplative side, but in what is equally needful, GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 6 its active, aggressive character. Again, whether you look at the source or the character, all is founded on an eternal redemption that is already accomplished The more these considerations are weighed, the more their importance will appear ; the more, also, it seems to me, the subject of the gifts of Christ will be seen to be entirely above that earthly and barren domain to which theology at least would consign it. Further, is there not a wrong done to God and His saints, wherever that which the Lord deigned to make known to us in His word — that which con- stitutes, rightly applied, so essential a part of the blessing of the Church — is viewed as a mere secondary matter that can be taken up or laid aside at will ? In point of fact, such indifference to His truth is deep dishonour done to Him, and a corre- sponding loss invariably to the souls of the saints who thus slight His will. It must be evident, if it were only from the scripture just read, that the Holy Grhost does not in any way banish the subject of gifts into some dark corner — if such there can be in the Scriptures — whence we may, if we please, draw it forth from time to time, and regard it as a matter of small consequence. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, where the Holy Grhost has shown both heights and depths of blessing in Christ and in the Church — in the very centre where He shows us, too, the Lord Himself, in His own glory, at the right hand of Grod — it is there, beyond almost any other part of the New Testament, that we find the Spirit a 2 4 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. launching out into an account of the gifts of the Lord to the Church. But, observe, I say the " gifts of the Lord" because so it is that they are regarded here, rather than gifts of the Spirit. Indeed, it would be difficult to find such an expression in Scripture. There is a passage which seems to say as much in Heb. ii. ; but it is properly " the distributions of the Holy Ghost." You will find, also, in 1 Cor. xii., that wisdom, knowledge, and the rest are said to be given, by " the same Spirit" But still, in these things, the Holy Ghost, properly speaking, is not regarded as the giver, save mediately. The Lord is the real and proper giver ; the Spirit of God is rather the inter- mediate means of conveying the gift, distributing or making it good, — the energy by which the Lord acts. And I conceive it to be of moment, practically, that we should see that the gifts which are used to call out and build up the Church, and which are the only true basis of ministry, take their rise from Christ Himself. Ministry, then, may be defined to be the exercise of gift, and therefore it is evident that these gifts of grace are bound up with it in the most intimate manner. There can be no ministry of the word, properly speaking, without gift, by the Spirit, from Christ. But let us look for a moment at the development which the Holy Ghost gives to the truth that these gifts flow from Christ. " Unto every one of us is GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." It is not a bare question of qualities pos- sessed ; still less is it merely a matter of attainment, let it be ever so well meant to give honour to the Holy Ghost. It is a new thing given, the positive consequence of grace ; it is the fruit of the' free favour of the Lord, who in these things acts accord- ing to His own sovereign will and for the glory of God. " And imto every one" (or each) " of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. "Wherefore He saith [taking up Psalm lxviii.] 'When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.' ' Although the Lord Jesus was in His person, one need hardly say, competent at all times, still He was pleased, in the order of the ways of God, to wait for the great work to be done — and done, too, not merely as regarded man in divine mercy towards him ; but there was the enemy to be dealt with ; there was the power to be broken that had led captive the children of God. Hence the spiritual enemies were first disposed of, and the Lord is accordingly represented here as ascending up to heaven on the defeat, the total defeat before God, of all the once mighty unseen power of evil. Upon this foundation ministry is built. The Lord Jesus goes up into heaven. He has Himself confronted and defeated the powers of darkness. He has led captivity captive ; and thereon " He gave gifts to men." How completely the door for man's energy and ambition is closed ! How care- 6 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. fully God — alone able to teach us on this subject, and in His revealed word having, in fact, given us the perfect truth — shows us the Lord Jesus, from first to last, the one means of good to us, and glory to Grod the Father by the Holy Grhost ! Do you view Him only as Saviour and Lord ? The truth is, there 'is not a single seed of the Church's blessing, there is not a means of acting upon the souls of ourselves or of others, that is not, every whit of it, connected with Christ. Where we have not apprehended this vital, all-embracing connexion with Him, and where that which assumes to be ministry, for instance, does not flow from Him only, it is clear there is a some- thing not to be held fast, but, on the contrary, to be got rid of; an object not to be fought for as if it were a prize, but to be suspected as contraband, brought into the light of Grod, and judged in His presence. For whose ministry is it, if it be not of the Lord Christ ? and for what are we contending, if it be not for the gifts of Christ ? The Lord, then, is ascended on high, and from that height of bliss and glory He has given gifts to men, and the Spirit of Grod carefully turns aside for a little, and puts us in the very presence of the mighty work on the ground of which Christ took His seat there. " Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" What grace in Him ! What infinite love to us, that He might bless us — eternally bless us ! He had, with the Father and the Spirit, a divine, co-equal right to that place of supreme majesty. They alone GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 7 were competent to fill it. But He descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He had the highest place above, if I may say so, naturally, in- trinsically. It belonged to Him as the Son of God, who counted it not robbery to be equal with Grod ; but He deigned to be made flesh ; and, as a part of the counsels of God, it was needful that He should be man. Without the incarnation, there could have been no retrieving of the universal ruin of man, and of the dishonour of God through sin ; there could have been neither defeat of Satan, nor an adequate and righteous deliverance for man. But now He descends first into the lower parts of the earth. He takes upon Him the sorrow, the shame, the sin. To have condescended to become man, and to live as He lived rejected and abased on earth, would have been much ; but what is this to the cross ? He went down to the very uttermost, and in consequence of this humiliation, He is now, as man, exalted to the highest. In His death He retrieved all that was ruined — indeed, I may say, infinitely more. He " restored that which He took not away ; " He brought a new and better glory to God than had ever been thought or even prophesied of in any respect ; for I fear not to say that, as all types and shadows are but the feeble heralds of His glory, so, too, there is, there could be, no prediction rising up to the height of blessing that was found in Christ, nor fathoming the depth of His moral glory in the sight of God. Himself was needed to come forth — Himself needed that the full worth of His sufferings 8 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. and cross might be known. Before that, there could be no sufficient expression of His glory. It was out of this descent into the lower parts of the earth that He went up — out of this thorough coming down by Him who was as truly Grod as man, in the very nature which before had borne such fruits of shame and disgrace to Grod. But what a change ! Humanity is a nature in which the blessed God could delight, as He looked upon it in the Lord Jesus. Now, too, He ascends ; and this, not as He came down ; for, descending simply as the Son of Grod to become the Son of Man, He goes up, not the Son of Gk>d only, but also the Son of Man. Indeed, it is especially in this very character of man that we find Him seated in heaven now. " He ascended up," as it is said, " far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." On this magnificent ground, whether one looks at the humi- liation on the one hand, or at the exaltation on the other — on this twofold ground of a height of gloxy, consequent on a depth of abasement, beyond all thought, is founded that ministry which is according to Grod, being the simple exercise of the gift of Christ. And yet, could it be credited, if one did not know it, that there are men, and Christians, too, who can look upon such a scene unmoved, if not moved only to spite, and sneer, and reproach ? But it must be so. To work thus, belongs to Him whom the world knew not. No wonder, therefore, that it recognizes not the gifts of His grace. Whatever can be made to merge into the world's greatness, whatever can be GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 9 altered to suit the age's taste, the world can admire. Even Christianity and the name of Christ — per- verted, no doubt, and regarded only in some partial way — may be adopted. Why, even the heathen were willing to do it. There was an emperor, as probably many of you know, who would have been glad to put Jesus Christ as a god in the Pantheon. And so it is now. Has not Christendom something akin for its success? It has taken up piecemeal this insti- tution and that; it has made them the means of adorning the scene into which God " drove out the man," exiled by Him because of sin. But we who believe are assuredly entitled to look above this world, and there to see, higher than all heavens, our Lord and Master. And what is He doing there ? What is His present occupation, according to that which the Spirit of God tells us here ? He is giving gifts unto men. Let us bless Him for it ! He (Himself a man, for so it is that He has taken this place) is giving gifts unto men. From on high He looks round about upon this world, and His grace makes man to be the vessel of these precious gifts, which savour not only of the Person who is there, and of the work He has done, but also of the glory from which He gives them. They are heavenly gifts. They will not, if He be consulted, conform to the world's thought or measure ; nor were they ever intended to serve the world, but the Lord Jesus, though surely, for His sake, serving any and everybody. Let us take care, then, that we truly are subject 10 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. to Him in whom we believe. And let us beware of the evil heart of unbelief, lest we treat a word of His lightly. Let us remember, it is easy, pretending to honour His word, to let it slip away from us, counting it something of the past- — no doubt to look back on it with reverential awe, but still as a thing gone by. Is this the living word of a Grod that lives for ever and ever ? Are you going to treat the Head of the Church as if He were dead ? Nay, He never was dead as the Church's Head. Never ! He only took that Headship as One alive again from the grave, and so giving life ; He only took it as not only raised from the dead, but gone up to heaven : and yet men act as if the Head of the Church were a dead and not a living Lord ! And if He is thus living, what is it for ? Is it merely as High Priest, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, to bring His people through the wilderness ? There is some tendency in Christians to overlook the priesthood of Christ; but there is a far greater danger of their forgetting Christ as the living Head, who still stands at the fountain-head of blessing, ever in faithful love giving His gifts to man. No doubt, it is all summed up as if it were a given thing here — " He gave;" and there is a very interesting reason for such a way of presenting His gifts, for the Lord surely would not Himself put the gifts of His grace in such a form as to interfere with the Church's constant hope of His own return. On the contrary, He would fix the Church in the attitude of expecting Himself from heaven. Accordingly, not even the supply of minis- GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 11 terial gift is so put as to defer the fulfilment of the " blessed hope " from age to age. On high is the Head of the Church, and as Head it is part of His work to vouchsafe all needed gifts for men. Here, then, is the whole scene of His grace summed up in one — the Lord gave gifts to men ; " and He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." We have not a catalogue of all the gifts. It is not at all in the manner of Scripture or of the Lord to furnish a mere formal list ; for the truth is not written in the word of Grod so as to satisfy human curiosity, or form a system of divinity. What is done, is infinitely Jpetter. He has given us exactly what suited His wisdom in each particular part of Scripture. Hence, if we compare, for instance, what we have here with the first Epistle to the Corinthians, we shall find striking differences. There are some gifts found here, not there ; and some found there which are not here. Now, this is not a thing of chance, nor a matter in which the apostle used merely his own judgment, and decided things after his own mind. Nobody denies that his heart and mind were deeply exercised. Grod forbid! But we may bless Grod that there was an infinitely wise mind directing all things, and that there was a judgment which knew the end from the beginning. We shall find, accord- ingly, that the apostle mentions these gifts according to that divine intelligence. Indeed, the reason of it, to some extent, may appear as we proceed. First of all, the gifts (<%ara) here enumerated 12 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. are in view of the perfecting of the saints, which is the great primary object, branching out into the work of the ministry, and the edifying the body of Christ, as connected with it. Now, there, at once, may be discerned the key, or divine reason for pre- senting here certain gifts and not others. Here we have nothing, for instance, abont speaking in a tongue ; neither have we any mention of miracles. Why so ? What have they to do with the perfecting the saints ? The reason seems to me clear and adequate. Those gifts for signs were of all consequence in their place ; but how could a tongue or a miracle perfect a saint ? We see, in the first Epistle to the Corin- thians, that, instead of perfecting, they on the con- trary became a very great snare for the saints. No doubt the Corinthians were carnal, and therefore they were like children amused with a new toy — with that which was, indeed, an engine of power. And we know how great a danger this is, just in proportion to our unspirituality. We have the very solemn lesson that even the greatest powers and most astounding manifestations of the Holy Ghost in man cannot give spirituality, and do not minister to the edification of the saints necessarily in any way; but, if there be a carnal mind, they become a positive means of the soul exalting, itself, turning away from the Lord, losing its balance, and bringing discredit upon that which bears the name of Christ on the earth. In this Epistle, however, Grod is occu- pied with His counsels of grace in Christ for the Church, beginning primarily with the saints as such. GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 13 He always takes up the question of individuals before He deals with the Church. And how blessed and wise is this ! He does not begin with the body of Christ, and then end with the perfection of the saints. This would be, very likely, our thought, but it is very far from His. He first puts forward the per- fecting of the saints, and then shows us the work of the ministry, and the edifying the body of Christ. Thus, the true explanation of the passage is, that it is the development of Christ's love to the Church. His eye is fixed upon the blessing of souls. It is Christ not only gathering in, but building up — causing them to grow up to Him in all things. Accordingly, He gives the gifts which are of grace suited to this end. " He gave some apostles and some prophets." These are the two gifts which the second chapter of this epistle shows to be at the foundation, we may say, of this new building, the Church of Grod. Thus, in the 20th verse, we read, " They were built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." Evan- gelists, evidently, are not the foundation; neither are pastors and teachers; but prophets, as well as apostles, are. And we can easily understand this. We can see that, as God was introducing into the world a wholly new system when He set His Son at His own right hand — a new work of Grod in the Church, so there was a new word which had to accompany this work, whereby He would act upon the saints so as to give them to grow up to the perfecting of His will and the glory of His Son 14 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. in this unprecedented thing, the Church of God. Accordingly, then, we have the foundation laid, and not Christ alone. Of course He is, in the greatest and highest sense, the foundation — " Upon this rock I will build the Church :" the confession of His own name, His own glory as the Son of the living God, is this unquestionably. But still, as the means not only of revealing the mind of God touching the Church, but also particularly of -laying down with authority the landmarks of His husbandry in the earth — the Church of God, the apostles and prophets were thus used. The former were more particularly distinguished by an authority in action, the prophets by giving out, according to God, His mind and will about this great mystery. It is hardly worth while to disprove the notion that the prophets here refer to the Old Testament. The phrase " apostles and prophets " is strictly limited to those that followed Christ. Had there been the inverse order — -prophets and apostles, there might have been some shadow of reason for this idea ; but the Spirit of God, in His wisdom, has taken care to exclude the thought. The work spoken of is alto- gether new. The apostles and prophets seem to be expressly introduced in this order. But in the third chapter a decisive reason is furnished by the Holy Ghost. It is written in the 5th verse that the mystery of Christ, " which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, is noiv revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit ; " so that we have there, with the most perfect clearness, GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 15 not only the same order still preserved, but the posi- tive expression " now revealed." The prophets of the Old Testament, therefore, are necessarily excluded. These prophets are of the New Testament as well as the apostles. But more than this, let me make the remark, before going farther, that this character of ministry was altogether new. When our Lord was upon earth, no doubt there was more or less preparative action for it. He sent out, first, twelve apostles ; then He sent out seventy, to carry a final message to His people. All this was a thing never found in any age previously. It was wholly unprecedented upon the earth — an activity of love that went out with a blessing to others. God Himself had not done it ; for the solemn word by a prophet, and the secret action of His grace before, are too distinct to be confounded with it. Who had ever seen or heard such a thing as a Man on earth gathering men to Himself first, and sending out from Himself after- wards a message of love, the glad tidings, not yet, of course, in the fulness which was afterwards imparted when the great work of redemption was done, but at any rate the blessed news of the King on God's part of the kingdom of heaven on the earth ? This is what the Lord did on earth : He sent out disciples or apostles with the message of the kingdom. And no doubt it was in man's eyes strange, and to faith a blessed thing, suitable only to Him who had divine grace as well as divine authority, worthy of, and reserved for, the Lord Jesus here below. But it is 16 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. remarkable that, in Eph. iv., all the earthly part of our Lord's action is left completely out, and the gifts here spoken of are, beyond controversy, dated from, and shown to hinge on, the ascension of the Lord. Do I mean to deny that the apostles were in- cluded — the twelve, or, strictly speaking, the eleven along with the one supplied to fill up the place of him that was cut off ? In no wise ; but nevertheless their earthly call and mission are quite passed by. We can all understand that the Lord as Messiah might prepare a mission suited to Israel, as I have no doubt that " the twelve " had this distinctly as its reference ; for the twelve apostles naturally answer to the twelve tribes. The sitting on twelve thrones, spoken of in connexion with them also in Matt, xx., clearly confirms the thought. What hinders these same men afterwards from becoming the vessels of a heavenly gift ? Thus we can recognize in the earlier apostles a sort of double relationship. There was a link with Israel, which was conferred by the Lord when He was upon earth in the midst of His people, dealing with them ; but a new place became theirs when the Lord ascended on high. But, besides, the Lord took care to break in upon this Israelitish form and order, and the apostleship of St. Paul becomes an event of cardinal importance in the development of the ways of God, because therein all thought of Jerusalem, all reference to the tribes of Israel, is dropped, and that takes its place, which is clearly extraordinary in all its circum- stances, and heavenly in source and character. More GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 17 particularly this was plain, that the Lord made manifest what was really true with regard to the others, that they on the day of Pentecost received that gift of apostleship which was suited to the heavenly work which they were afterwards to have, in addition to their previous earthly call and work. Apart from and towering over the twelve, stood the apostle Paul, bringing out into the utmost promi- nence the principle that his apostolic mission was a heavenly thing, entirely and exclusively such as far as he was concerned. Therefore he was the fitted person to say, as it was of course by the Spirit of God that he did say, " Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." The glory of the Messiah on the earth fades away and is eclipsed by a deeper and brighter glory, the heavenly glory of Him who is now at the right hand of God. It is the same Christ, the same blessed One, without doubt, but it is not the same glory ; and more than this, it is a better and more enduring glory. It is the glory that is suited to the new work of God in His Church, because it is the glory of its Head. " Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him." Thus, the Church being a heavenly body, and Christ Himself, its Head, being in the actual and fullest sense a heavenly Person, ministry takes a heavenly shape : and these gifts which flow from Him are its first expression. Hence, then, we have the clear inti- 18 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. mation from the Scripture before us that these gifts from Christ on high are heavenly in their character and source. Another thing also may be noticed by the way. If we take the bestowal of these gifts as dating from the ascension of Christ, where is there room left for the hand of man ? Where can you insert that pre- liminary ceremonial on which tradition lays so much stress ? Who ordained the apostles for their heavenly work ? Who laid hands upon them, as authori- tatively installing them in that high office ? You will say that, unquestionably, the Lord called them when He was here " in the days of His flesh." He did call them for their mission to Israel ; and when risen, but still on earth, He charged them to disciple the nations (Matt, x., xxviii.). Btft what hands of man did He employ in setting them apart to their proper heavenly work? Will any believer breathe the thought that this was an imperfection in their case ? Did the new work of God, based on a dead and risen and ascended Saviour, and carried on by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, want any- thing for its due commencement? If there is no appearance, then, of that rite of laying on of hands, which some count not merely desirable, but essential for all that minister, from the highest to the lowest grade, how comes this strange omission ? Who will venture to impeach the regimen of Christ ? Will any zealots for " holy orders," as men speak, affirm or insinuate that the Lord did not know better than they what became His own glory in His chief GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 19 ministers ? Let them beware of their theories and their practice, if either lead them to become "judges of evil thoughts." In truth, the Lord took care, now that it was a question of a new and heavenly testimony, not abso- lutely to abolish that ancient sign of blessing, but to break in upon, and leave no excuse for, the earthly order so easily abused by man. Hence, as if for the purpose of manifesting yet more distinctly the vast change which was come, in the case of him who styles himself emphatically " minister of the Church" (Col. i.), there is no derivation from the twelve apostles that were before him. On the contrary, from His own place in heavenly glory, the Lord calls one who was not going up to Jerusalem, but rather from it ; one who had no connexion with the apostles — nay, so much their enemy, that most stood in doubt of him, after he was arrested by sovereign grace in the midst of his determined, systematic hatred of Christianity, and persecution of all who bore the name of Jesus. What a proof that not only the conversion of Saul of Tarsus was of the pure and rich mercy of God, but that his apostolate sprang from the same source, and bore the same stamp, as the salvation which reached him ! Thence- forward he becomes the characteristic symbol, as he was the most distinct and abundant testimony, of the grace that is now not saving only, but choosing vessels and fitting them as instruments for the active blessing of mankind, and especially of the Church of God. It was the Lord Jesus, at the right hand of b 2 20 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. God, calling and sending an apostle to the Church, a chosen vessel unto Himself, to bear His name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel; but first taken out from both Jew and Gentile, and then sent to them (Acts xxvi. 17). The same principle embraced the other apostles, no doubt; because they, on the day of Pentecost, were made gifts of grace, in the highest degree, to the Church, from the now ascended Lord, its Head. But there is fresh and brighter light in the case of Paul, who was not more truly " as one born out of due time," compared with all those that went before, than he furnishes, in the strongest colours, the un- mistakeable intimation of the mind and will of the Lord 'as to the future. But, then, it will be objected that, after all, there was a miracle in Paul's conversion and call, which takes the case out of just application to ordinary ministry. A miracle most striking and significant there was, when the Lord in glory revealed Himself as the Jesus he was persecuting in the members of His body — notwithstanding it rested mainly on the apostle's testimony; and there were not wanting, even in the Church of God, and among his own converts, it would seem, those who questioned the apostleship of Paul. His call far from Jerusalem ; his isolation from the other apostles ; the very ful- ness of grace manifested toward him ; the emphatic heavenly stamp imprinted on his conversion and testimony, all tended to make the case peculiar, and irregular, and unaccountable, wherever the old earthly GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 21 order so prevailed as to cast suspicion on any display of the Lord's ways beyond or different from the past. Personally a stranger to the Lord during His mani- festation here below, there was no question of his candidateship, like a Joseph or a Matthias, on the ground of his having companied with the twelve from the baptism of John till the ascension. There was no decision by lot in his instance, nor any formal numbering with the twelve. He was a witness of Christ's resurrection no less than the rest, yet it was from no sight of Him after His passion upon earth. He had seen the Lord, but it was in heaven. His was the Gospel of the glory of Christ, no less than of God's grace. Thus carefully was the great apostle made the witness of non-succession, and of a ministry direct from the Lord, independently of man ! No doubt the highest expression of that ministry was in Paul, who thenceforward becomes the most illustrious exemplar of its source and character. Allow me, also, to put another question. Who ordained the prophets of the New Testament ? when, and how, and by whom were they appointed ? who ever heard of hands being laid upon their heads ? Search the New Testament through, if you wish the best proof that the notion is unfounded. Let me come to the point at once, and affirm further, that neither prophets nor any other of these classes were installed of man after that fashion. Here we have apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers ; can you show me a single instance among these classes where the individual was called by human 22 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. authority ? Is it denied, then, that there was such a form of blessing as the laying on of hands in the New Testament? For my part, I accept the fact, not only in its apostolic application to the sick and to those who had not yet received the Spirit, but also in its connexion with our subject. The question is, its scriptural use. Let me ask, When were hands ever laid on any save to confer a gift by the power of the Spirit, or to commend those already gifted to Grod's grace in a special work, or formally to assign men to the charge of secular work ? It is clear, for example, that Philip, along with his six companions, had hands laid upon him ; but was it for his work as preaching the Grospel ? On the contrary, he was one of the seven men chosen " to serve the tables,' ' in order that the apostles might not be distracted from prayer and the ministry of the word. " The seven " thereon were ordained to be employed in the external service of the Church. Apart from this, the Lord was pleased to send him forth in the proclamation of the word here and there ; as an evangelist naturally would be a wanderer, not according to the meaning of the word so much as the exigencies of the work. Hence, when the persecution about Stephen broke out and scattered those in Jerusalem, Philip had a new task which had nothing to do with his local duties as one of the seven. His diaconal service would station him at Jerusalem, to take care of the poor, for this was the purpose for which he was ordained ; whereas, his preaching Christ flowed from a gift of that cha- racter, not from ordination. In fact, as far as the GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 23 New Testament speaks — and it speaks fully and precisely — no one teas ever ordained by man to preach the Gospel. Hands were laid by the apostles upon Philip, like the rest, after he was chosen by the multitude, and thus he was appointed to take charge of the tables; for the Scripture, perhaps because of a certain peculiar state of things at Jerusalem, does not positively give the title of " deacon " in this case, though one does not deny its general justice, for there was something akin in their duties. It is certain, therefore, that whether we look at an apostle, or a prophet, or an evangelist, or a pastor and teacher, or either of these last, there was no such ministry instituted for the Church, which itself existed not, until after our Lord's ascen- sion ; and in none of these cases was there the laying on of hands as the initiatory sign or inauguration of these ministers. All admit the imposition of hands in certain cases, ordinary or exceptional. The exagge- ration of clericalism should not hinder the Christian from being perfectly fair in dealing with this and every other question. There is nothing that will dispose of prevalent traditions so readily and con- clusively as searching and submitting to Scripture. There is full and clear instruction there, the effect of which is to confute all that tends to exalt man and lower Christ, whatever support men may try to extract from the word of Grod for selfish ends. It is outside the light of inspiration that all these errors live ; once let that in, and it will soon be seen that the Holy Grhost is not providing for the worldly 24 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. honour of man on earth, but for glorifying Christ in heaven. What, then, is the genuine meaning and scope of Acts xiii. ? It has long been the well-known stock passage which theological controversialists are wont to cite for ordination in general. Some insist on it as warranting their "three orders" of bishops, priests, and deacons ; others allege it as decisive for parity of ministers, whether Presbyterian or Congregational. The Episcopalian points with triumph to Barnabas and Paul in the first rank ; to Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen in the second; and to Mark in the third (as, after the dispute with Barnabas, to Paul, Silas, and Timothy respectively).* * So Archbishop Potter, in the well-known text-book, " A Dis- course on Church Government (pp. 73, 74)," if one may, without un- kindness, specify a single defaulter out of the crowd. Yet the Arch- bishop evidently gave up the passage as bearing on ordination. " It cannot be proved that Paul and Barnaba> were ordained at this time to be ministers. If they were ordained to any uffice or ministry, it must be that of apostles, not only because they are presently after this called apostles, before they received any farther ordination, but also because they were prophets before that time, as shown in onu of the preceding chapters [chap. iii.J. But this is very unlikely, because this rite of imposing hands, whereby other ministers were ordained [an assumption of the archbishop's without and against Scripture], was never used in making apostles It was a distinguishing part of their character that they were immediately called and ordained by Christ Himself, who gave them [nay, but ' the disciples ' and not apostles only, John xx.] the Holy Ghost by breathing on them ; but neither He nor any other is ever said to lay hands on them. When a place became vacant in the apostolic college by the apostacy of Judas, the apostles, with the rest of the disciples, chose two candidates, but left to God to appoint whether of them He pleased, to take part of the ministry and apostleship, from which Judas fell. Neither was St. Paul GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 25 Only examine the passage, and the more closely you do so, the better will you be enabled to judge inferior to the rest of the apostles in this mark of honour ; for he often asserts himself to be an apostle not of men, nor by mau, but imme- diately, and without the intervention of men, to have been appjinted by Jesus Christ, in opposition to those who denied him to be an apostle, as was shown in one of the former chapters. But then it will be asked for what end Paul and Barnabas received imposition of hands ? To which it may be answered, that this rite was commonly used, both by the Jews and primitive Christians, in benedictions. Jacob put his hands on the heads of Ephraim and Manasseh when he blessed them ; and, to mention only one instance more, little children were brought to Christ, that He should put His hands on them and bless them. Accordingly, it is probable this imposition of hands on Paul and Barnabas was a solemn benediction on their ministry of preaching the Gospel in a particular circuit to which they were sent by the Holy Spirit's direction. Hence it is called, in the next chapter, a recommendation to the grace of God for the work of ministering the Gospel to certain cities, which they are there said to have fulfilled. So that this rite was not their ordination to the apostolic office, because the end for which it was given is here said to be fulfilled, whereas their apostolic office lasted as long as their lives. And therefore, Paul and Barnabas seem only now to have had a particular mission to preach the Gospel in a certain limited district, in the same manner as Peter and John were sent by the college of apostles to Samaria, to confirm the new converts and settle the Church there." — Crosthivaite' s (or the Seventh) Edition, pp. 201, 202. This is substantially true d s nd, far preferable to Calvin's remarks (Inst. IV., iii. 14) : " Why this separation and laying on of hands, after the Holy Spirit had attested their election, unless that ecclesiastical discipline might be preserved in appointing ministers by men ? God could not give a more illustrious proof of His approbation of this order, than by causing Paul to be set apart by the Church, after He had previously declared that He had appointed him to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. The same thing we may see in the election [?] of Matthias. As the apostolic office was of such impor- tance that they did not venture to appoint any one to it of their own judgment, they bring forward two, on one of whom the lot might fall, 26 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. how little it countenances, how strongly it condemns, every scheme of ordination which men attempt to base npon it. In the Church that was at Antioch there were, it is said, " certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch and Saul." That is, we have these five prophets and teachers, while engaged in serving the Lord with fasting, made the object of an important communication from the Holy Ghost respecting two of their number. " Separate me Bar- nabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Barnabas had been for years actively engaged in the work of the Lord ; and so had been Saul of Tarsus ever since his conversion. Not only was he set apart in the providence of God before his birth, as he speaks of it in Chap. I. of Galatians, but he was called by the grace of God from the time when he was struck down on the way to Damascus. But the Spirit of Grod now separates him to a special mission. It is clear that this is not an announce- ment of the ministerial call of either Barnabas or Saul : Scripture is arrayed against Scripture by all who say so. The previous part of the Acts proves that thus the election might have a sure testimony from heaven, and at the same time the policy of the Church might not be disregarded." The truth is, as to the case of Matthias, it was before the mission of the Holy Ghost, and there was no question of the Church's policy or election either; but by the lot the choice between the two was cast, in the Jewish form (Prov. xvi. 33), into the sole disposal of the Lord. GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 27 that Barnabas was long blessed in the ministry of the word within and without, and that Saul especially was bold and mighty in the work. The latter, in- deed, from the first, brought out the Sonship of Christ in a way which we have no reason to believe any other had done up to that time, as we learn from that very chapter which gives us his conversion. The notion, therefore, that ordination was the ques- tion in Acts xiii. is most manifestly false. But how comes it that the theologians fail to notice that their determination to see ordination here destroys their respective systems, as well as contradicts other Scriptures ? Who was it ordained Paul and Barnabas, and to what ? They are called apostles in the very next chapter (xiv. 4) ; and hence, evidently, the notion of ordaining Paul and Barnabas is quite unfounded, unless those whom Grod has set second and third in the Church can ordain the first (1 Cor. xii. 28). Again, the truth is, there is not the smallest reason to call Mark a deacon at that time. He accompanied them as their " minister," probably to get lodgings, to invite people to come and hear the word, and in general to serve them on their missionary tour ; but, as for his being their chaplain, it is mere illusion. John Mark preaching to Paul and Barnabas ! The truth is, that he then turned out an indifferent help in the work, because he soon tired and went home to his friends. However, this only by the way. But it is transparent, that those who turn the account into the ordination of Paul and Barnabas, 28 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. involve the consequence that it is actually the inferior class conferring the highest ministerial rank upon them ! If they were not apostles before, they have nothing to allege in support of the dignity but the sandy foundation that the act of laying on of hands upon them at Antioch conferred the apostolate ! In this case it was an equal, if not a lower grade, giving a higher rank to those above themselves. Thus, it is evident that the notion is altogether unfounded. Is it insinuated, then, that there was no meaning or value in this laying on of hands ? That would be, indeed, to treat the word of (rod unwarrantably. It was a solemn and precious act of fellowship with these honoured servants of Christ. It was an act not only valid then, but valid now. But there was no pretence of conferring anything whatever. The real drift of the transaction is expressed in chap, xiv. 26. It is said, that they "sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled." Such was the aim of the laying on of hands by their companions in labour at Antioch ; for it may not have been the brethren generally, but only those engaged in the work, and I wish to make every con- cession that is fair to those who desire to draw the utmost from the passage. But the meaning of the act is neither more nor less than a sign of blessing, or of fellowship with those going forth on their new missionary errand. It was probably repeated : see Acts xv. 40. The laying on of hands was of the most ancient GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 29 y date in the Old Testament. Thus, Grenesis gives it in the case of a father or grandfather laying his hands on the children ; and so, in the New Testa- ment, we have the frequent use of it where there was no pretence of conferring any ministerial cha- racter. It was a sign of recommendation to Grod by one who was conscious of being so near to God that he could count upon His blessing. The Lord takes up little children, lays His hands upon them, and blesses them ; and so with the sick, too, when healing some. It was not at all a question % of eccle- siastical order in these instances. No doubt there were cases where hands were laid on for the pur- pose of inaugurating an office. It is often thought that the same rite was used in instituting elders, as in Acts xiv. 22, 23, where the apostles Barnabas and Paul were "confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of Grod a And when they had ordained them elders in every Church, and had prayed with fasting, they com- mended them to the Lord, on whom they believed." But this is an assumption. It is not exactly said here, or anywhere else, that hands were laid upon the presbyters. This silence, if the fact were so, is remarkable. It may have been probably the case ; but Scripture takes care never to say it. We have the statement that hands were laid upon deacons. We know that an elder was a much more important personage in the Church than a deacon. People 30 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. may reason and speculate ; but I have no doubt that the Spirit of Grod, seeing the superstition that was attached to the form of laying on of hands, took care never to connect the two things together in a positive manner. The passage which some conceive does so, is in the first Epistle to Timothy (v. 22), where Paul tells him to " lay hands suddenly on no man." But the object of this is too vague for a sure conclusion, the connexion being by no means certain. There is no allusion to elders expressly after verses 17 — 19. Thus iiL the 21st verse we read, " I charge thee before Grod and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, without pre- ferring one before another, doing nothing by par- tiality." How can one suppose elders in particular referred to there ? I see a general description of his work in verses 20 — 21, after which comes the exhor- tation on which so much has been built — " Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins." It is possible that there may be included in this an allusion to the danger of haste and carelessness in accrediting an elder, but the language is so comprehensive as to take in, it seems to me, every case which might call for the imposition of hands. But supposing that it did certainly refer to elders and that hands were laid on these functionaries as well as on deacons, the important and undeniable fact in Scripture is, that elders were never ordained except by persons duly authorized, who had a real commission from the Lord for the purpose. Now GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 31 many may imagine that this is a concession fatal to the free recognition and exercise of gifts. They may think it yet more strange to find that those who contend for the largeness of the action of the Holy Ghost, lay the utmost stress upon a divine commission and a definite authority. But be assured that the two things go together, where they are held according to God. None will be found to be more tenacious of godly order than the very persons who stand most for the rights of the Holy Grhost in the Church. My assertion is, that in this very matter of ordination Christendom has missed God's mind and will, and is ignorantly but not without sin fighting for an order of its own, which is mere disorder before God. If Scripture is to decide, the common plan of ordina- tion for all who minister to those without and within is a departure from the order of God prescribed in His word. Undoubtedly, in the case of " the seven " (Acts vi.) you do find apostolic appointment. The great point in this case was, that there the congregation elected and the apostles solemnly appointed. But it was no more than the congregation choosing fit persons to take care of their poor, &c. Nothing could be more proper. It shows the condescending goodness of God towards those who gave of their substance and those who received it. If the Church contribute, it is according to His will that the Church should have a voice in the selection of those in whom they have just confidence that they will distribute, in God's sight, not only with good conscience and feeling, but 32 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. wisely. Tims one sees here a conspicuous instance of God's wise and gracious care. The multitude chose such men as they deemed most suited to the exigency. But even here the mere choice of the believers did not give them that place in itself; for if all chose, none but the apostles appointed them over the business, secular as it was. The principle tells in a directly opposite way with regard to the elders, and yet more as to the minis- terial gifts of Christ. We have no such thought expressed as a congregation choosing elders — never in any part of Scripture. On the contrary, we have the fact that the apostles went about ; and where assemblies were already formed, in which were per- sons possessed of certain spiritual and moral quali- fications which pointed them out to their spiritual and experienced eyes as suitable for eldership, such they chose. Among these antecedents, those who desired the office must be persons of good report, and who, if married, had only one wife. There were many individuals brought to the faith of Christ in those days, who had several wives. This was a scandal, and sure to be felt the more as Christian truth spread. Such a direction showed what was in the mind of Grod. One could not rightly refuse the confession of a man who had two or three wives, if he were converted ; but he must not expect to become an elder or bishop ; he could not be a suitable local representative of the Church of Grod. Again, take the case of a man who had children brought up badly. Perhaps this neglect may have GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 33 been before lie was converted ; perhaps after conver- sion, he may have entertained the evil notion of leaving the children to themselves, on the faithless plea that Grod, if He saw fit, wonld convert them some time or other. Such mistakes have been made, and miserable have been the results. Whatever the cause of an unruly house, its head could not be a bishop. No matter what might be his spiritual gifts, they could not countervail ; no such man could be charged with the oversight of Grod's assem- bly. For such an office, it was not so much a question of gifts as of moral weight. A man might be a prophet, a teacher, an evangelist — his disorderly wife or children would not nullify his gifts ; but he ought not to be made an elder, unless he brought up his children with godliness and gravity, and himself walked with a good report among those without. Thus the Lord stringently required, in such an official, these moral qualifications, as well as spiritual capacity for his work. Even if one possessed all these things, he was not an elder because he had them, unless duly authorized. He needed to be ordained ; he must have a legitimate appointment besides. And in what did this consist ? Manifestly the whole value turns upon a valid appointing power. In what consisted that competent authority? Are we to set up or to imagine one ? It must be accord- ing to the Lord and His word. Now the Scripture allows of no valid appointing power except an apostle, 34 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. or an envoy who had from an apostle a special commission for the purpose. Where is there such a delegate now that can pro- duce an adequate (that is, an apostolic) commission for the work of ordaining ? You never saw, neither do I ever expect to see, the like. The fact is, the word of God nowhere hints at the continuance of an ordaining power. It demonstrates in the most explicit manner that after the Lord set up churches here and there, when He established local func- tionaries in each church, apostolic appointment or choice, and this only, was what He stamped with His approval. The requisite qualifications are clearly laid down ; but the fact is equally clear that none but an apostle or an apostolic delegate was warranted to nominate the elders to their office, and not a word about perpetuating that power of appointment after the apostles left the earth. We have an apostle writing, not to the Church or churches to choose elders, but to one who was specially charged to do this task. Yet even to Titus there is not a word about another continuing the task; nay, not a hint that Titus himself was to continue it after the apostle was dead. Neither was Titus authorized to appoint where he pleased, but the apostle assigns him the sphere of this commission. Besides being a special envoy of the apostle, Titus was doubtless a teacher and preacher. But here there was a definite region where he had the duty of ordaining elders in every city. Titus was responsible to do this in Crete ; but GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 35 there is nothing said of the establishment of elders elsewhere or at other times. On the contrary — and this would be a strange direction for a diocesan — he was to be diligent to come to the apostle at Nicopolis. He was not to be left at Crete. It is evident that such directions as these from the apostle to Titus afford no warrant for others to appoint elders now. This is pure assumption, whereas all depends on a valid authority. Titus was apostoli- cally commissioned, and could produce an inspired letter of instructions to him personally. Who can do anything analogous ? "It must be so," is a poor and vain reason to him who respects due authority. It is easy to settle matters after a sort where this is allowed to pass ; but, beloved friends, we want the word of Grod. Let me ask for a plain answer to the question, Do you believe that the word is perfect ? Do you doubt whether the Lord, who cares for His own order in the Church, did or did not foresee all the need and difficulty ? Do you insinuate that He forgot anything of real value to us now ? Do you suppose that He omitted to take into account the death of the apostles ? He did nothing of the kind. The apostle speaks distinctly of his death (and more than one apostle too). He speaks of perilous times and the importance of Scripture after he was gone ; 1 tut not a thought about a line of successors to appoint afterwards, not a hint about bequeathing his powers in* this case. To you who are commended to God and the word of His grace, to you who tremble at His word, is that silence nothing ? To my own c 2 36 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. mind it is a fact not more surprising at the first blush, than increasingly pregnant with meaning the more it is weighed. Popery, despising this fact, assumes the contrary from human reason, and is built upon this contrariety. Not that one cares to denounce any one system in particular by name, save only to bring out the truth, which shows the will of the Lord and proves the evil by the good. In truth, every earthly system, no matter how opposed it may become to the word of (rod, begins by adding something of its own to that word. The power of ordination attaches not to bishops, but to apostles and their delegates. The moment you allow men the principle of development after the Scripture canon closed, the moment you clothe with apostolic authority a body of officials who never were authorized divinely for the work under- taken, you are off the ground of faith in, and defer- ence to, the word of Grod. The present practice has not the smallest foundation in Scripture. Indeed, one may safely go farther, and affirm not only that the ordination, of which people talk so much, before preaching and teaching Christ, is not a thing to be coveted in the present shape in which it is found among men, but that it is now a disorderly institution, a grievous dishonour to the Lord who gives ministerial gifts by the Spirit. In short, it is a mere and sorry imitation of what is recorded in the word of Grod. Examine well, and you will sot>n find it does not even resemble what we read of there. God's word remains true, sure, and plain : only GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 37 there once was a positive personal commission, armed with a certain apostolic authority, either direct or indirect ; and this you ought to have, if you pretend to ordain elders, as Titus did. Permit me now to press another question. Which is the most scriptural course — to do what was always becoming in a Christian, or to copy an apostolic delegate ? Which commends itself most to your conscience, to your heart, to your faith ? We will suppose now, in this place, an assembly of God's children. They see in the word of God that, beside the common privileges and duties of all saints, there were certain gifts for ministry, and that there were also certain offices, which needed an apostle or his representative to fill them up. They would like to have them all, of course ; but what is to be done ? Are they to neglect what was written to the assembly at Corinth, or to the saints at Ephesus, and to ape what was not written to the Church but to Timothy or Titus? Would it not be humbler to consult the word of Grod, and inquire of Him, that they might learn what is His will concerning this matter? What do we see there ? That as to the gifts of Christ, they never required any sanction here below before their exercise ; nay, they never admitted of human intervention. The only exception is, where there was a positive power of the Holy Ghost con- veyed by the laying on of the apostle's hands. Fully do I admit that there was an exception in such cir- cumstances. Timothy was designated by prophecies beforehand for the work to which the Lord called 38 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. him (compare Acts xiii. 1, 2). Guided by prophecy (1 Tim. iv. 14 ; 2 Tim. i. 6), the apostle lays his hands upon Timothy and conveys to him a direct power (x^ l P lfT F a ) °y "the Holy Ghost, suited to this special service he had to accomplish. Along with the apostle, the elders, who were in the place, joined in the laying on of their hands. But there is a difference in the expression the Spirit of God em- ploys, which shows that the communication of the gift depended for effective agency not in any way on the elders, hut only on the apostle. The particle of association appears where the presbytery are spoken of, that of instrumental means where the apostle speaks of himself. It was an apostle that communicated such a gift. Never do we hear of elders thus con- ferring a gift : it was not an episcopal function, but an apostolic prerogative, either to communicate spiritual powers or to clothe men authoritatively with a charge. Hence it is admitted that, in the peculiar case of Timothy, there was, by the laying on of apostolic hands, a very special effect produced; but who can do this now? Were this the claim (however one might desire to view, not indifferently, but with the patience of God, the prevalent and superstitious perversion of a sign, admirable in itself when applied and understood scripturally ) , yet if any man now presumed to convey a spiritual power, like an apostle, should one hesitate to call him an impostor? A mis- taken course in assuming the rights of an earthly sovereign is, or may be, treason. What is it to pre- tend falsely to communicate the Holy Ghost, or a GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 39 distinct power of the Holy Ghost, in the name of the Lord? Beloved friends, it is a grave thing to trifle thus with the Spirit of God. There are those in our day whose ignorant boldness fears not to arrogate the right of conveying the Holy Ghost and ministerial power in this manner ; but, thanks be to God, they are otherwise known to be fundamentally unsound, so that their influence over the faithful is inconsider- able. Then we have, alas ! the Eastern and Western bodies of Christendom, who are hardly less guilty. But among ordinary Protestants, and especially among men of average Christian respectability, such pretensions are regarded with pity or horror. Even where the formularies, as in the Anglican Com- munion, approach fearfully near the precipice, the excuse is, that their godly framers intended no more than to impart fitting and scriptural solemnity to various offices in the Church. I admit, however, that the excuse is lame, and that it is hard to decide whether these most suffer in conscience who employ the most serious forms ecclesiastically without be- lieving them, or those are most injured in faith who accept, as divine, pretensions which are doubtless more respectably connected and venerable, but not better founded than those of a modern imposture. But the important truth on this subject to be seen is, that these ministerial gifts were given by the Lord without any form further than that He war- ranted and sent them. Beware of disputing His will and wisdom. How is one to judge of the pos- 40 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. session of a gift ? Undoubtedly by its due exercise, which finds an answer in the conscience. Let me ask you again, How do you know a Christian ? When people talk theoretically, or discuss polemically, there are always great and numerous difficulties in the way. But if you went, for practical reasons, to a godly clergyman or dissenting minister, he could give you ample means of judging who are Christians in what he calls his flock. Listen to many a man on his knees, and, if he be a Christian, he will speak as a child to his Grod and Father ; but hear him on his legs, and he will perhaps controvert, without knowing it, what he has been just saying in prayer, till, on his perverse principle, he cannot tell whether Grod is his Father or not. How happy that there are such seasons of devotion where people speak with simple- hearted truthfulness ! Away from their systems, let them speak to Grod, and their true characters and even condition will soon be manifest, as a general rule. Thus, the fact is that, in practice, Christians have little difficulty in knowing, for the most part, who are converted and who are not. There may be a certain number of doubtful souls, of whom we need not speak now. Let a believer be sent for to a sick man ; is he wholly at a loss how to speak ? Does he not seek as soon as possible to gather whether the sick man has peace in Christ, or is anxious about his soul, or whether he has ever realized his lost and guilty condition ? If the believer finds no sense of sin, he will solemnly warn of judgment, and set before that soul the cross, imploring him to receive Christ ; GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 41 or he will exhort him to rest in Christ, because he is assured of his faith. If, then, so little haze really rests on the question, who are and who are not children of Grod, think you that the possession of a gift is a question so obscure and doubtful? Some may have more gift than others. But the gift of teaching implies the power of bringing out the word of God, and apply- ing it aright. Again, take the power of ruling — for there is such a thing as rule in the Church, and I hope none here present imagine it is gone — he who has the gift of rule, exercises it, of course, according to the word of Grod. Scripture knows nothing of a blind obedience. The conscience is awakened, the heart set free and attracted to Christ. To these is the appeal of Christian ministry. It is not the blind leading the blind, nor is it the seeing leading the blind ; but rather the seeing lead the seeing. Christ gives liberty as well as life, and this withal responsible to do the will of Grod. There- fore it is that, according to the intention of Grod, His children do not well to contrive systems to escape difficulties ; they need faith to go through them with Grod. Let them prove their gifts, if indeed they have gifts from the Lord, by real power. There may be severe trials and difficulties now and then. Even Paul himself had to do with doubters of his apostleship, and this within the Church, and among his own children in the faith. What true-hearted man should be downcast if he is slighted ? But the time came when the Lord vindicated His servant, 42 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. and when the self-will and pride which refused a divine gift was utterly put to shame, if the heart was not brought back to lowly thankfulness. The chief mistake we are apt to make is in the way of im- patience ; we do not allow time and space for the Lord to work ; and that lack of patient waiting only defers the wished-for solution, because it makes the difficulty so much the greater. But as to the discernment of a ministerial gift for preaching or teaching, it is in general plain and simple. If a brother stand up to speak in the Christian assembly without a gift from Grod, he will soon and painfully find it out. If self-judging, he will learn much from his own conscience ; but he may quite sufficiently soon hear from others that which will make him understand that he has not a gift in the judgment of his brethren. But where there is really a gift, is it not possible that prejudice may act, and this be refused ? It may be, certainly, for a time. Perhaps the speaker thinks too highly of his gift ; perhaps he mistakes the character of it, and the right scene and time for its exercise ; perhaps he is too exclusively occupied with his line of things, and too urgent or anxious to assert his gift. All this may be, often is, and always creates difficulty. But the truth remains, that what is of Grod approves itself in the long run. My own experience, as far as my limited range of observation and knowledge goes, in- clines me to think that the children of God are prone to make too much rather than too little of gift. In the present state of the Church there is but a GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 43 feeble development of gift, and this is felt the more in proportion to spiritual intelligence and a true posi- tion. Do you wish to know your place fairly and fully? Look in confidence to God, and search the word of His grace. Many things there are to hinder and to draw away : partly the effect of education, partly the difficulties of finding an honest livelihood, especially if a man has been a professional preacher. If he abandons, not preaching, but that profession, as an unscriptural innovation, he loses everything, for the most part, even his bread, unless he have private means of his own. Hence it is that the inducements for such an one to remain where he is are enormous; the difficulties of coming out at the word of the Lord are incalculable. The power of Grod alone can accom- plish the change, and sustain the soul in peace and praise, " stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." While we may be sure that the word and Spirit of Grod give us clearly the true position for the indi- vidual Christian and for the Christian assembly, we ought not, I think, as things are, to expect a great variety and strength in the gifts of the Lord's grace. Of course He can work sovereignly, and assuredly we ought to be most thankful for what is given. No doubt, also, there are gifts distributed somewhere or other. There are gifts of Christ in members and ministers of the national establishments, I do not question ; there are His gifts likewise in the dissent- ing societies ; and are we to suppose there are none of His gifts of grace in Eomanism itself? For my 44 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. part, I cannot doubt there are. Who would, who could, reject the testimony of facts that there have been persons therein — such as Martin Boos, for instance, not very long ago — used for the conversion of sinners, and for the helping on of saints in some degree ? And are such men not gifts of Christ to the Church — as truly gifts, though in that false position, as if they were out of it ? Their being Romanists — ay, Romish priests — does not destroy His grace, whatever we may feel as to their faithfulness. The fact is, that the Lord gives according to His own will by the Holy Grhost, and we ought to acknow- ledge these gifts wherever they are. If a man be a dissenter, whether a minister or one of the people, in either case I am satisfied he is in a false position. It is not a question of a feeling of dislike to dissent, if one believe its foundations to be unscriptural. I ask the forbearance of any dissenters who may be here, in affirming, calmly and solemnly, my conviction that dissent is unsound in its distinctive principles ; a thorough contradiction of the very character of the Church as one body ; and, in the popular call and choice, undermining ministry as a divine and perma- nent institution flowing from the Saviour's grace. Dissent is religious radicalism, which essentially opposes Grod's will as much as, and perhaps more than, any other principle. The proofs are too plain. Dissent substitutes the election of the people in the place of the sovereign choice of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether immediate or mediate. But how is the truth better secured in the national GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 45 bodies ? By patronage, clerical, lay, or governmen- tal ! And the painful apology for this systematic self-will is that the men nominated by the govern- ment of the day, or a landlord, or a college, or a corporation, have gone through the usual forms ! Is there the faintest resemblance between this worldly machinery and the divine system of spiritual gifts from Christ set forth in Ephes. iv. ? I see only One who has ascended up on high. Axe you looking to any other person ? to any other kind of ascent ? to any other heaven for the favours you crave after ? I appeal to you as Christians. Do you value the word of God ? Do you cherish that word only for the salvation of your souls? or do you confide in that same word and Spirit for guidance as to ministry and church office ? What subjects more simply be- long to the Lord ? For what do we need Him more ? As a believer I surely feel the want of Cod's word for my daily walk, no matter what my circumstances, or sphere, or duties. And do you, can you believe that the word that lives and abides for ever does not concern itself with so grave, deli- cate, and spiritually needful a thing as the ministry of the word ; or that, if it speak thereon, you are not bound to hear and bow ? The sum of what has been said is, then, that these two great principles are revealed in Scripture, and recognized by the early Church : namely, the Lord giving gifts of His own grace which did not require human intervention ; next also, a system of authority which did require that intervention ; as in the appoint- 46 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. ment of elders by the apostles, or persons commis- sioned to do their work in certain cases. It is clear that we have neither apostles living on the earth, nor representatives, like Titus, charged by an apostle to do quasi-apostolic work. The consequence is, that now, if subject to the word of God, you cannot and do not look for elders in their precise official form. If any man allege these can be, it might be well to hear his grounds from Scripture. What has been produced is, in my judgment, amply sufficient to disprove it. You cannot have persons formally and duly appointed to this office, unless you have a power formally and duly authorized of the Lord to appoint them. But you have not that indispensably needful power to authenticate elders : this is your fatally weak point. You have neither apostles nor functionaries commissioned by the apostles to act in their stead; and therefore the entire system of appointment breaks down for want of competent authority. Dare you say of your elders that the Holy Ghost has made them bishops? You have none really, scripturally entitled to appoint. What then ? Are there none suitable to be elders or bishops, if there were apostles to choose them ? Thank God ! there are not a few. You can hardly look into an assembly of His children without hearing of some grave elderly men who go after the wanderers, who warn the unruly, who comfort those who are cast down, who counsel, admonish, and guide souls. Are not these the men who might be elders, if there were a power existing to appoint GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 47 them? And what is the duty of a Christian man, as things now are, in the use of what remains ? I say not to call them elders, but, surely, to esteem them highly for their work's sake, and to love and acknowledge them as those who are over the rest of their brethren in the Lord. I ask you solemnly, beloved friends, do you acknowledge any to be over you in the Lord ? — any living servants of the Lord to be over you in Him ? Do you imagine such a re- cognition as this offends against the principles of Grod ? Bather let me warn you against picking out certain favourite texts from Cod's word, to which only you pay obeisance. If we do so, we are build- ing up a sect, as far as in us lies, no less truly than our neighbours. On the other hand, beware of adopting that human invention — apostolic succession — to escape dilemmas. If we dare to call men apostles who are not, under the fiction of succession, the Lord, in due time, will not fail to challenge our word and act, and will ask, who entitled us to endorse such an unheard of thing as this ? who gave us leave, without His word, virtually to acknowledge this or that as an apostolic man by accrediting his claim to ordain ? It is evident that to ordain elders is, however well-meant, an imitation of what apostles did, and, if unauthorized, not only without validity, but an unwitting usurpation of an authority which reverted and now pertains to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Thus, the difference between a true position and a false one, in the present state of the Church, is not at all that one has got a due ordination and 48 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. the other wants it. In truth no body on earth pos- sesses it now. Do yon acknowledge the want ? or are you trying to cover the humiliating but evident fact that you have not the only ordaining power which Scripture sanctions? And yet you go on ordaining, though you have neither apostle nor apostolic deputy ! Which course is most orderly ? To do as you do ; or to acknowledge our actual lack, and carry ourselves accordingly before Grod and man — to confess that we want apostles or their delegates, and therefore that we cannot have presbyters duly chosen and formally appointed ? There are, I repeat, men endowed with such qualifications as would render them eligible, so far as we can pre- tend to say, if there were a competent ordaining power. And the general principle of Scripture (Rom. xii.) manifestly is, that he who had the gift of ruling, or of taking the lead among the saints, is bound to use it with diligence (as the teacher, exhorter, and others, are responsible to discharge their respective functions), even if circumstances made legitimate appointment to a charge impracticable. But subjection to the word of Grod discovers readily that a state of things substantially analogous to our own defective condition is provided for in Scripture. The Lord in His wisdom let such wants be felt in the early Church. Thus the apostle was inspired to write epistles to churches where there were no elders ; as, for instance, the epistles to the Thessalonians and the Corinthians. The last was notoriously a dis- orderly church, and elders might have been thought GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 49 useful there. Nevertheless, not the least word or hint about elders there is heard from first to last. Had elders been then ' in their midst, would not the apostle have called them to account, and blamed their want of godly care and diligence in oversight ? Of this there is not a trace. Further, we know it was not the practice of the apostles to constitute elders in an infant Church. Where Paul and Barnabas chose elders for the disciples, it was in assemblies that had existed probably for years, and thus there had been time for spiritual qualifications to be developed. But in a new assembly, where the saints were young comparatively, a certain time had to be allowed, so that those who were competent for such a work should be made evident. Accordingly it is rather a rare thing to read of the apostles choosing or appoint- ing elders. On the other hand, in the first epistle to the Thes- salonians, we have in the last chapter very impor- tant instruction given to the saints. They, too, are a similar instance of a young Church, yet they were told to own those that laboured among them. Hence all this may be where presbyters are not. Thus, in 1 Thess. v. 12, 13, the apostle writes, " We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." The presence of elders is not requisite in order to have and to own those who are over us in the Lord. There is much of importance for us now in that Scripture, for we have D 50 gifts a:nd local charges. elders no more than they. I think we ought to lay its exhortations to heart. There are not a few ill- instructed souls, within and without, who hold the notion that, unless there be official appointment, they cannot have anybody over them in the Lord. This is all a mistake. No doubt, when a man was offici- ally appointed, there was a definite guarantee in the face of the Church given by an apostle or an apos- tolic man ; and there was, thereby, no little weight given to those who were thus appointed. Such a sanction had great and just value in the Church, and would be of consequence among the unruly. But none the less did Grod know how to provide instruc- tion for assemblies where there was not yet official oversight. How merciful for times when, for want of apostles, there could be no elders ! But it will be noticed that the Corinthian assembly abounded in gift, though elders are seen nowhere among them. The Thessalonians do not appear to have possessed the same variety of outward power, while elders or bishops again are never hinted at. Yet, at Corinth the household of Stephanas devoted themselves regularly (tra^av) to the service of the saints; and the apostle beseeches the brethren to submit them- selves to such and to everyone that helped and laboured. The Thessalonians he prays to know those who laboured among them, and presided in the Lord, and admonished them. Evidently this did not depend upon their being apostolically appointed, which could hardly have been in their circumstances, as lately gathered. It is founded upon that which, GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 51 after all, is intrinsically better, if we mnst be con- tent with one blessing out of two. Surely, if it comes to be a question between real spiritual power and outward office, no Christian ought to hesitate between them. To have the power and the office combined, no doubt, is the best of all, when the Lord is pleased to give both ; but in those early days we see that individuals were often and rightly engaged in the work of the Lord before there could be the seal of an apostle, as it were, affixed ; and such the apostle encourages and commends earnestly to the love and esteem of the saints, before and inde- pendently of that seal. How precious that we can fall back on this principle now ! Even at Corinth and Thessalonica, then, those were raised up in the midst of the saints who showed spiritual ability in guiding and directing others. That was the work of those to whom one epistle exhorted subjection, and whom the other epistle commended as " over them in the Lord." Such men as these did not labour only ; because some might be actively engaged in the Lord's work, who might not be over others in the Lord. But these manifested power to meet difficulties in the Church, and to battle with that which was ensnaring souls, and so to guide and encourage the weak, and baffle the efforts of the enemy. They were not afraid to trust the Lord in times of trial and danger, and therefore the Lord used them, giving them power to discern, and courage to act upon what they did discern. This was part of what fitted them to take the lead in the d 2 52 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. Lord. There were such at Thessalonica as well as Corinth, and yet there is not the slightest intimation that they were regularly installed as elders, but, on the contrary, the strongest evidence that elders as yet had not been constituted in either place. The regular practice was to appoint elders after a certain time; indeed, it could only be when the apostles came round, or sent an authorized delegate to choose fit persons and clothe them with a title before the Church, which none but the bad would dispute. Need I observe how Grod .has been graciously pro- viding for the wants of His children ? This subject will come definitely before us on the next occasion on which it will be my lot to address you. I will not, therefore, do more now than draw attention to His far-reaching wisdom in meeting the difficulties of the day, when a valid authority to ordain as the apostles did is not left on the earth. Not that His children are left without help ; they have the same Lord and the same ever-present Spirit. Hence there is no need of some change or new invention to meet the difficulties of the day, but the return in faith to what was and is the will of the Lord ; and this with in- telligence of the actual state of the Church, and the feelings which become it. "We have seen that the Lord alone, as the rule, gave these gifts of ministry : it depends upon His love to His Church, His faithfulness to the saints. Is the Lord Jesus one whit less tender and true now than He was on the day of Pentecost ? Who would insinuate it ? Neither can I sympathize with those GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 53 who look wistfully back on the earliest times, as if they only afforded scope for faithful souls. No doubt a bright halo of grace surrounds the scene where the Holy Ghost was first poured out on men, with a simplicity and power which carried all along ; but who was the spring and whence the energy which produced fruits so much the more wondrous when we think of the soil once so hard, and stubborn, and cold? Was it not the Lord acting for His own name, by the Holy Grhost, after He took the place, in risen and ascended glory, of giving gifts to men? Is not His grace as equal to these perilous times as He proved Himself when ushering in the mystery that was hid from ages? Are there saints to be perfected and ministerial work to be done ? Does the body of Christ need to be built up ? Then assuredly His gifts cannot fail till the work is done, and all are brought into the unity of the faith ; and the many adversaries, and subtle snares, and increas- ing perils, will only draw the more upon the faithful love of the Lord of all. There is fulness of blessing in Christ for the Church now as truly as then. "Would that we but confided in Him more for every exigency ! Are we, then, to disparage the truth or to doubt His grace, by setting up some work of our hands, some calf of gold, as if we knew not what is become of Him who is gone on high? Far be it from Grod's children ! Let me suppose you come togethei as God's assembly ; you know not who is to speak, exhort, give thanks, pray. To unbelief this is but 54 GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. confusion. Certainly it looks so, if I forget who is in the midst ; certainly it does, if I do not believe that the Lord is there ; but if assured that He, who has all power in heaven and on earth, loves and cherishes the Church, and that the Holy Ghost, divine as He is, dwells with and in us, what need I fear ? If this position is true for one saint, it is true for all. For my part, I would not dare for a moment to stand upon any foundation which did not contemplate the whole length and breadth of the Church of Grod, which did not in its faith and love go out to and embrace all the saints of Grod. Of course, allowance must be made for exceptional states, as for persons guilty of sin that would require their exclusion (immorality, bad doctrine, and such like) . But still, if I know that this is the ground of the Church according to Scripture, and that there was no other from the first taken and acted on by the holy apostles, the question is, Am I upon it? If I am called to labour in the word and doctrine, the Lord points me out the way. He opens the door which none can shut, and shuts and none can open. He finds a path for the feeblest of His pilgrims, and gives them courage, and makes it plain if they have to serve Him. Let us never doubt Him. But may there not be a number of gifts ? So much the better. If there are five, or twice five, gifted men in an assembly, let us thank the Lord. There is room for all. Grod forbid that we should sanction the novelty of each minister having his own little flock ! Is it not a degradation for those who GIFTS AND LOCAL CHARGES. 55 so speak, aud for those so spoken of ? No one behaves himself — nay, he does not even know how to behave himself — who does not bear the sense in his soul that the saints are " the flock of God." But evi- dently men do not speak of Grod's flock, if the divine ground of the Church be forgotten : then it is " my flock," or "your flock." There is always room for the exercise of His gifts, whatever and however many they may be. Besides, it is a strange time to fear that any could be spared as superfluous. The hour warns me that this subject must now be closed. My endeavour has been to expound and enforce the fundamental distinction between gifts and offices — the one, we saw, flowing from Christ on high, the other requiring appointment here below of men, themselves authorized of the Lord for the purpose. As for gifts, they always remain sure, as truly as Christ abides the head and source of sup- ply. As for the formal authorization, it is no longer possible, because you have not a duly authorized power to appoint. All you can do in the direction of appointing, if you will do something, is to set up a paltry and rather arrogant imitation of the apostles and their delegates. But if you really love the Lord, and value godly order, is it not your bounden duty, in the name of the Lord, to acknowledge all His gifts in a way you have never done ? Acknowledge them privately and publicly in the work He has assigned them. If the gift be small, acknowledge the Lord in it as heartily as if it were a great one; 56 NOTE ON ACTS XIV. 23. and if it be a great one, acknowledge it as humbly and unjealously as a small one. On the other hand, do not try to imitate what the apostles did ; beware of pretending to do what ought not to be thought of, unless there were apostolic power. And as to appointing deacons or choosing elders, Scripture affords no warrant, unless there was direct or in- direct apostolic authority, which does not now exist. NOTE ON ACTS XIV. 23. This opportunity is taken to furnish clear and conclusive evidence against the notion that the elders were chosen by the votes of the churches. The word yeipoToviu), if etymologically viewed, means to stretch out the hand ; hence it was applied to election, as we say by show of hands, and, generally, to choice or appointment without reference to the manner. Just so xf/rjcpiXofiai starts from mere reckoning with pebbles, and was used for voting thus, then for voting in general, and lastly for the simple resolve or decision of the mind. The context, not the word in itself, shows which is to be understood. Hesychius explains ^Eiporoveiv by KaQiar^v (compare Tit. i. 5), 'v 'Iov£cuW. " We constitute thee this day high priest of the Jews." This may suffice to prove what we are to judge of Dr. J. Owen's statement (Works, vol. XV. pp. 495, 496, Goold's edition) that " Paul and Barnabas are said to ordain elders in the churches by their election and suffrage ; for the word there used will admit of no other sense, however it be ambiguously expressed in our translation." Indeed, Beza, Diodati, Martin, and others had committed them- selves to the same thing. Dr. G. Campbell, however, Presbyterian as he was, repudiated this version of the text, and (in his Prelim. Diss, x., Part v. § 7) pronounced per suffragia, in the Latin of Beza, " a mere interpola- tion for the sake of answering a particular purpose." If one do not endorse so strong a censure, the only alternative is that the gloss sprang from inadequate research and strong prejudice. The truth is, that we need not go beyond the New Testament to demonstrate the error ; for here, as else- where, even when applied to the most rigid election, 58 NOTE ON ACTS XIV. 23. X- never means choosing by the votes of others, which it must mean to bear the alleged sense. Wherever the word occurs technically, the person intended does not take the votes of others merely, or preside as moderator of the election, but is the voter himself. Now, in this case, the subject in question is, beyond doubt, not the disciples, but Paul and Barnabas. If any voted by stretching out their hands, it was the apostles only. Hence the authorized version rightly dropped "by election," the sense given in some of the older English and foreign translations, which had been too much in- fluenced by the Genevese school, and even Erasmus. The true meaning is, that the apostles chose elders for the disciples in each assembly (not the disciples for themselves). And this is entirely confirmed by Acts x. 41 and 2 Cor. viii. 19 ; in one of which passages God is said to have chosen beforehand; in the other, the churches are the choosers, precisely as here the apostles. Neither God nor the assemblies gathered the votes of others : no more did Paul and Barnabas. But this is the sole testimony which has ever been imagined directly to favour the popular election of elders ; and we have seen that the inference drawn is assuredly fictitious. For the matter in hand the usage of the word in the political or civil affairs of Greece is no evidence. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to add that %. does not mean the imposition of hands, for which Scripture supplies another phrase, never confounded with the word in question. But this confusion soon began to show itself in ecclesiastical authors, who not unfre- quently employ x El ? OTOVia where we might expect Xeipodema, or ?/ eTcideaiQ tu>v yeipibv* This error occurs in the so-called Apostolical Canons, Chrysostom, and NOTE ON ACTS XIV. 23. 59 subsequent writers ; and it may have led the authorized translators to give " ordained" rather than " chose," or ''designated." Bishop Bilson, in his "Perpetual Govern- ment of Christ's Church," is guilty, not of this confusion only, but of the strange error that " the elders" included " deacons." (See chap. vii. and x.) But really the dis- cord of commentators is almost past belief, unless one have read extensively and proved the fact by experience. Thus Hammond tries to extract from this verse the appointment of a single bishop to each church or city ; whereas one might have inferred (without appealing to such incontestible proof to the contrary as Acts xx. 17, 28) that the plurality of the presbyters with the singular distributive was as strongly against him as language could make the case, short of an express contradiction. Had Hammond's idea been meant, nothing could have been easier than to have written TrpevfivTepov kcit L-K\rj