obligatory. But are these, still holding Christ to be their Lord and Master and worshipping in his name, any less a Church of Christ? Certainly not. And it is

unchristian when those who observe what others, on what they deem good ground, do not think it right to observe, on that account aim to deprive them of the name and honors which belong alike to all members of the Christian Church, that is, to all who acknowledge Jesus as the Christ.

In the next place, who are the members of a Christian Church? The answer to this has already been implied. They who voluntarily meet with Christians, for the purposes of Christian worship, and in the belief of Jesus Christ, are members of a Christian Church. But are there no special qualifications for Church membership? Certainly those which I have named, belief in Jesus, and sincerity; but there are no others, for the Scriptures have named no others. And none others would be thought of but for the unscriptural procedure of Christian Churches, in framing and establishing rules of admission, and defining a multitude of qualifications, for which there can be produced no authority but their own. So common is this at the present day, that every sect, with few exceptions, has its list of graces and doctrines, to which the candidate must subscribe as his own, before he may be hailed as a member of a Church of Christ. But if we keep in mind the apostolic use of language, we shall believe that it is a thing exceedingly plain and simple to be a member of the Church of Jesus; we shall perceive that every person is a member of the only Christian Church there is, who, as a Christian, assembles with

Christians, and unites in Christian worship. I do not say that nothing more is necessary to constitute a man a worthy member of Christ's Church. This is quite another thing. He only can be a worthy member, who is filled with the spirit of Christ, as well as bears his name. He who has this spirit, is a worthy, a true member of the body of Christ; to his fitness no assembly of Christians can add any thing; from it they can take nothing away.

Again, who are the officers of a Christian Church? In the New Testament we read only of deacons, ministers, or servants, presbyters or elders, overseers or bishops. And during the apostolic age these were without power. In the infant state of the Church, when for a time, at least, the funds of believers were a common stock, persons were wanted to take care of them and distribute them; and deacons were appointed. It was natural, that over young small societies, a watchful oversight and instruction should be needed; for these purposes the elder persons, or elders, were selected to act as overseers. Such were the officers of the Church in the day of its beginning; men without power, or rank, who dedicated themselves to the spiritual and temporal wants of the various Christian communities. Out of this, it is in the knowledge of every one, how soon there grew the most absolute and cruel power; how soon Christians were more busied in playing the parts of lords and princes than in watching their flocks and feeding them; how soon all the features of simplicity, which at first marked the religion of Jesus, were lost in the overwhelming flood of power and wealth, which swept over the Church, and

buried all beneath it. We rejoice that the Church is returning by visible steps towards its more primitive state. We rejoice that in some places, at least, the principle is recognised that there is no power in the Church to inflict either spiritual or civil censures.*

If it be asked, who, at the present day, are the officers in the Church of Christ, it may be said, that they are officers in the Church, whom Christians choose to make such, with so much power as Christians choose to confer. Who shall be the officers in the Church, and what the offices, is one of those things in itself indifferent, which has been left to be regulated by the customs, usages, prejudices of different ages and nations. In some countries, unhappily, Christian power and authority and rank have descended, like civil, from remote and dark ages, to the present, and is obliged to be submitted to by those, who, if they could obey the dictates of their judgements, would gladly cast it off, and return to a nearer resemblance of the primitive Church. But where no such inherited hierarchy exists, where the mind is free to think and determine and choose for itself, there the government of the Church will be vested in those whom Christians shall deem most worthy, and the nature and extent of their trusts will be clearly defined and limited by the great principles of expediency and utility.

Once more, what is the discipline of the Christian Church?

The Church of Jesus has ever been fond of administering dicipline to members refractory either in con

*That is, as explained under the next head, to use any power beyond that of moral persuasion. ED.

duct or doctrine. All the high officers of the Church, from the Roman Church down, have been invested with more or less of power over the liberty, property, and lives of Christians. Memory supplies us with abundant examples of the awful abuses of power which have cast a shade of deep darkness over the history of the Church. Every communion, almost without exception, to the extent to which its power would go, have delighted in acts of power, by which Christians have been variously punished, for supposed or real faults of life, or for imagined heresies in faith. Even in this land, where religion is free to be understood and practised according to its principles as laid down in the New Testament, with none to molest or make afraid, even here, power is still loved, sought, abused, and submitted to. The body, technically called the Church, still takes pleasure in administering Church discipline; particularly in guarding with jealousy the integrity of the true faith, and in applying correctives to those who may Idare to waver.

In answering, then, the question, what is now, or ought to be the discipline of the Church? I answer, it is, or ought to be nothing. If discipline was resorted to by the apostles in the early age of the Church, circumstances then perhaps made it more necessary; it was administered by inspired apostles, and could not be abused. But this power never has been safe, and never can be safe, lodged in human hands; and far distant be the day, when in the Church to which we belong, power shall ever be put forth, of any kind, save that of moral persuasion, for the correction of faults. either in conduct or in faith. If a fellow Christian is

guilty of a moral fault, and you believe your counsel may be of service, go to him as a man, a friend, and a brother, and reason with him; but not as a Christian officer, to threaten and compel. If a man err in his faith, sit with him, and reason with him as becomes a man, if you feel concerned for his salvation; but sit not upon him, either as a member of a little Church, or a great Council, unless you would sin grievously against the spirit of the Gospel and the charity of Christ.

What, in the last place, are the privileges of a Church of Christ? They are the privileges which belong to every one who takes upon himself the name of Jesus, the privilege of faith, of communion, of hope, of worship, of love. The privilege of the Christian is that he is the follower of Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life ; that he has motives placed before him of power sufficient to draw off his heart from the world and fix it above; that he is brought by faith and love into near communion with God, the great centre; that he is then in Jesus the heir of everlasting life. These privileges, and no other, are ours. It is nothing that we name the name of Christ, if we imbibe not his spirit and walk not in his steps. 'Think not to say to yourselves,' said Jesus to the Jews, that ye have Abraham for your Father; God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.' And we may say, think not to say ye have Christ for your master; it will avail nothing that ye bear the name of Christ, if ye have not his spirit; God may fill his kingdom out of the east, west, north, and south, while ye shall be cast out,

I have thus written briefly of the Christian Church, of its nature and constitution, of its members and their