“Sami epee ape meee at eee eae an ae ae aaa pcs stapes tesmemeg aera ns Soaseee mene ae aes aaa S52 ST SES. Se Eee Se !IBRARY OF PRINCETON SEP -9 2011 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Mee sn Ss KK Ee BX7321- .A15 1924 Abbott, Byrdine Akers, 1866-1936. Disciples : an interpretation / Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/disciplesinterprO0abbo THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST ek Pre DISCIPLES AN INTERPRETATION By B. A. ABBOTT Editor of ““The Christian-Evangelist,”’ Author “The Life of Chapman S. Lucas,’? Sometime Pastor of the Christian Church at Charlottesville, Va.; Harlem cAvenue Christian Church, Baltimore, Maryland; and Union Avenue Christian Church, Sdint Louis, Missours LIBRARY OF PRINCETON sr cui iaresrd abt (HEOLOGICAL SEMINARY THE BETHANY PRESS CHRISTIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION ST. LOUIS, MO. Copyright, 1924 Christian Board of Publication St. Louis, Mo. Prefatory of Christ. It is not necessary and it is not desirable. With them the ultimate Christian authority is Jesus Christ and the New Testament reveals his mind. ‘‘We have the mind of Christ.’’ N O one can write an authoritative book for the Disciples But books of interpretation and information are needed by a people from time to time, in order to hold them to their visions, and make them able to grapple with the prob- lems of 2 civilization perpetually growing larger and more complex. This book keeps in mind the relation of the Dis- ciples to the changed methods and) temper of the times, and to the new thought world into which we have come. Following a long period of work as pastor in the east and central west, it has been my pleasure during the past seven years to visit both State and National conventions of Disciples of Christ in many sections of our country. I have talked with people in all ranks of church life, and have looked at the Brotherhood whole and from many angles. In every way my esteem for the consecration and ability of the ministers and for the personnel and prophetic out- look of the churches has grown greater, and my conviction of the truth and the timeliness of the proposal of the Disci- ples has been strengthened and vitalized. After much refiection upon what I have seen and heard in these farflung visits, and after practically rereading jthe history and ideals of the Disciples as set forth in the writ- ings of the Campbells, the autobiography of Barton W. Stone, the five great debates of Alexander Campbell and the histories of the movement by B. B. Tyler, J. H. Garri- son and W. T. Moore, I have written this interpretation. It is intended for the general reader, for the use of pastors in training new converts, for classes in Christian leadership, and for Sunday schools and colleges wishing a brief course in the history of the Disciples. 5 6 PREFATORY The work has been done in hours snatched from press- ing duties in the office and from the precious quiet evenings at home; in the environment of strange hotels; and in the Pullman on long and often lonely transcontinental trips while seeking to do my bit for the Brotherhood. This interpretation is dedicated to my comrades in a great movement which will continue to be both a revival and a crusade until the goal of Jesus Christ has been real- ized in the strength of.a united church and the glory of » redeemed world. Special thanks are given Jesse M. Bader, Superintendent of Evangelism, on account of whose suggestion and en- thusiasm I undertook and continued the work; to Frederick D. Kershner, Professor of Christian Doctrine in Drake Uni- versity; to R. Graham Frank, General Secretary of the International Convention of Disciples of Christ, and to my wife, Helen Ireland Abbott, all of whom read the manu- script and made valuable suggestions; to Miss Jessie Wood- ley, my secretary, who labored patiently and often over hours to get the work ready for the compositors; and to Ww. P. Sheiton, whose co-operation as General Manager of the Christian Board of Publication made possible the issue of this volume. If this book shall make even a small contribution to the ehurch which is to me the very gate of heaven—the church which would in the name of the ‘‘Master of all good work- men’’ render a service to all the churches, and above all to the Church of which all are but visible segments, I shall be repaid a thousandfold for my labor. B. A. ABBOTT. Jan, 26, 1924. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. History of the Disciples of Christ II. The Proposal of the Disciples III. Doctrine of the Disciples IV. The Bible and Its Use V. The Church and Its Purpose VI. The Ordinances and Their Reason VII. Baptism, the Faith Ordinance VIII. The Lord’s Supper, the Love Ordinance BBA a IX. The Lord’s Day and Its Value X. Joining the Church XI. A Good Church Member XII. How the Churches Work XIII. How the Churches Work Together . XIV. How the Churches Work with Others XV. The Supreme Purpose of Jesus Christ XVI. Seripture Background . 92 106 118 132 145 162 178 196 213 229 244 CHAPTER I HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST RUE Church history records the works of God through his people, chosen because they were willing to be chosen as his instruments. Jesus founded the Church and it went well until it yielded to the snare of institutionalism and Roman Catholic absolutism which held sway for a thou- sand years. This power was broken and Protes- tantism was launched by the work of Martin Lu- ther. The building ideas in Protestantism were justification by faith, freedom of conscience, the right to read the Scriptures and to be guided by them without overhead authority. But the ideal has not yet been fully wrought out. Creeds were written and men required to conform to them. Protestantism was in danger of becoming an ar- rested development. To protest against the divi- sions and the threatened crystallization of Prot- estantism arose the Disciples of Christ, as outlined . in this chapter. In their democracy and accept- ance of the Bible, with all the implications, the Disciples stand on the ultimate Protestant grounds. They have carried out and practiced the true Prot- estant ideas. 10 THE DISCIPLES How the Movement Arose Thomas and Alexander Campbell in West Vir- ginia, Barton W. Stone with other men of great intellect and spirituality in Kentucky; Walter Scott in Ohio, Dr. Chester Bullard in Virginia, and James O’Kelly in North Carolina and able Christians in various parts of the country, without knowledge of the views and actions of each other, lifted up their voices against division in the body of Christ, caused by unwarranted assumptions of authority by the institution, and by the substitu- tion of interpretations of the New Testament for the New Testament itself. The earliest large movement in this direction began in 1804 under the leadership of Barton W. Stone, a Presbyterian minister in Kentucky. It grew out of the Caneridge revival, near Paris, Kentucky, which was one of the most remarkable spiritual manifestations in the history of Chris- tianity. Out of it in whole or in part, gushed three new streams of church life in America—the Chris- tian Connection, the Cumberland Presbyterian, and the fiery evangelism communicated to the Dis- ciples by Barton W. Stone and his churches. In August, 1809, Thomas Campbell, of Wash- ington, Pa., formed ‘‘The Christian Association of Washington,’’ and in September of the same year issued a remarkable Declaration and Address, deploring the tendencies of party spirit and hurt- HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 11 ful divisions among Christians, and the ecclesias- tical enforcement of the human interpretations of God’s Word in place of the pure doctrine of Christ. The principles of this address were cordially endorsed by Alexander Campbell, his son, and in the following year (1810) he began publicly to urge them upon the churches. It was hoped, and sincere and strenuous effort was made, to avoid setting up a new body of people but the temper of Christians at the time compelled such a course. The first separate organization as a church was formed May 4, 1811, at Brush Run, Pennsylvania, with twenty-nine members; in 1813 this church united with the Redstone Baptist Association and ten years after with the Mahoning association of the same people. In 1823 Mr. Campbell began publishing The Christian Baptist, and his teach- ings soon attracted wide attention. Opposition was aroused and his views were denounced as het- erodox, but large numbers accepted them. Many new churches came into existence under his labors and those of Walter Scott, and the Baptists began to declare non-fellowship with the Campbells and their associates. Thus the Disciples were driven to form themselves into a separate body, that they might follow the truth as God gave them to see it. Until this day they regret separate existence but they do not apologize for it. 12 THE DISCIPLES Their life as an independent, modern body may be dated from 1827 when they became known as Disciples of Christ. It was plainly a renaissance of the apostolic ideal, organization, method and emphasis. Establishing a separate group of Chris- tians made the plea of the Campbells for Christian union more difficult, but did not nullify it. It is consistent and logical to preach the value and truthfulness of a doctrine even though the practice of it may lag far behind. Ideals must be held up and urged even if the future should be long in realizing them. Christians and Disciples Unite In 1832 Barton W. Stone, together with a ma- jority of those who held his views, and Alexander Campbell and his followers, began to be united into one body. A meeting had been called for the purpose; ‘‘Raccoon’’ John Smith and B. W. Stone were the appointed speakers representing the Dis- ciples and the Christians respectively. There was a public, dramatic, and touching overt act on Sat- urday, January 1, 1832, at Lexington, Kentucky, which may be regarded as the actual formal step that initiated the union of Disciples and Chris- tians. It is so important historically and so sug- gestive practically and doctrinally that we copy the following description of it from the Life of Jobn Smith. Closing his address Smith said: Va HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST te For several years past I have stood pledged to meet the religious world, or any part of it, on the ancient Gospel and order of things, as presented in the words of the Book. This is the foundation on which Christians once stood, and on it they can, and ought to, stand again. From this I cannot depart to meet any man, or set of men, in the wide world. While, for the sake of peace and Christian union, I have long since waived the public maintenance of any speculation I may hold, yet not one gospel fact, commandment, or promise, will I surrender for the world! Let us, then, my brethren, be no longer Campbellites, or Stoneites, New Lights, or Old Lights or any kind of lights, but let us all come to the Bible and to the Bible alone, as the only Book in the world that can give us all the light we need. He sat down, and Stone arose, his heart glow- ing with love, and every pulse bounding with hope. I will not attempt to introduce any new topic, but will say a few things on the same subjects already pre- sented by my beloved brother. After speaking for some time in a strain of ir- resistible tenderness, he said: Controversies of the Church sufficiently prove that Christians never can be one in their speculations upon those mysterious and sublime subjects, which, while they interest the Christian philosopher, can not edify the Church. After we had given up all creeds and taken the Bible, and the Bible alone, as our rule of faith and prac- tice, we met with so much opposition, that, by force of circumstances, I was led to deliver some speculative dis- courses upon these subjects. But I never preached a sermon of that kind that really feasted my heart; I al- 14 Toe DISCIPLES ways felt a barrenness of soul afterwards. I perfectly accord with Brother Smith that those speculations should never be taken into the pulpit; but that when compelled to speak of them at all, we should do so in the words of inspiration. I have not one objection to the ground laid down by him as the true scriptural basis of union among the peo- ple of God; and I am willing to give him, now and here, my hand. He turned as he spoke, and offered to Smith a hand trembling with rapture and brotherly love, and it was grasped by a hand full of the honest pledges of fellowship, and the union was virtually accomplished! It was now proposed that all who felt willing to unite on these principles, should express their will- ingness by giving one another the hand of fellow- ship; and elders and teachers hastened forward, and joined their hands and hearts in joyful accord. A song arose, and brethren and sisters, with many tearful greetings, ratified and confirmed the union. On Lord’s day, they broke the loaf together, and in that sweet and solemn communion, again pledged to each other their brotherly love. This union of the Christians and the Disciples was not a surrender of the one party to the other; it was an agreement of such as already recognized and loved each other as brethren, to work and to worship together. It was a union of those who held alike the necessity of implicit faith and of HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES oF CHRIST 15 unreserved obedience; who accepted the facts, com- mands, and promises, as set forth in the Bible; who conceded the right of private judgment to all; who taught that opinions were no part of the faith delivered to the saints; and who were now pledged that no speculative matters should ever be debated to the disturbance of the peace and harmony of the Church, but that when compelled to speak on controverted subjects, they would adopt the style and language of the Holy Spirit. (History of the Disciples of Christ, by Moore, pp. 208-209.) A considerable number of the ‘‘Christian’’ Churches refused to enter this union and they grew into the body known as ‘“‘the Christian Chureh’’ but not an organization of the Disciples held back. For the next thirty-five years Mr. Campbell was the foremost figure in the united movement. The body has grown to be large and influential and is ealled ‘‘Christian’’ and ‘‘Disciple.’’ The group headed by Stone was known as ‘‘Christian’’ by his choice, while Campbell preferred the name ‘‘ Dis- eiple.’’ The church is registered in the census of the United States as Disciples of Christ. Conditions and methods were little stressed at first but the authoritative standard was prominent from the beginning. That authority was the Bible. Rapid growth soon forced the consideration of methods, and thorough study made it apparent 16 THE DISCIPLES that the only way to union was by the restoration of the apostolic church as delineated in the New Testament. The apostles preached Christ as the object of faith. Having thus a clear vision of their goal, method, and guide, the Disciples faced their duty and undertook their part in the spread of Christianity. The modern Disciples of Christ, now more than a century old, have never lost their passion for Christian union nor abandoned the belief that it will be brought about by the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the New Testa- ment exerted through the Church of Jesus Christ. Never in their history have the Disciples failed to co-operate with any true Christian union move- ment. Alexander Campbell heartily supported both the ‘‘American and Foreign Bible Society’’ and the ‘‘American Bible Society’’ by personal gifts and by exhorting all the churches to do like- wise. He donated the royalties from his debate with Purcell to these societies equally. In 1838 it amounted to $800. The proceeds from each copy was six cents. Mr. Campbell was also a member of the ‘‘American Bible Union’’ whose object was to procure and circulate the most faithful versions of the Seriptures. The Disciples have always joined other Christians heartily in all co-operative movements. When the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor arose the churches immedi- HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 17 ately entered into it and became an important force in its development. They have always been active in union Sunday school work. From its foundation, they have co-operated with the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America and have furnished some of its ablest leaders. They were active in the Interchurch World Movement and bore their share of the burden when it collapsed. Thus many times they have proved their faith by their works. The Principles Followed In order to escape the party spirit which has broken the peace and reduced the power of Christ’s Church, the Disciples sought to stand on common, universal ground. Without this there ean be no real union. They propose the following principles of life and union to their brethren, in addition to the great fundamentals manifestly held by all Christians: 1. A universal Church. The pioneers said, and their successors today declare, that ‘‘the Church of Christ is intentionally and constitutionally one, and all divisions which break this unity are con- trary to the will of God.’’ 2. They propose a universal book as the only rule of faith and practice, the only authoritative and complete repository of all that is necessary to faith, practice and expectation in this world and in that which is to come. That book is the Bible, 18 THE DISCIPLES the only book which can support claims of univer- sality and of special revelation. "3. The universal confession of faith, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. (Matt. Lolo 6m 4. The universal, Scriptural names, believer, Christian, disciple; saint, brethren and the other great words that describe the people of God. 5. The universally accepted ordinances, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in form, administration and purpose as they were given and practiced by Christ and his apostles. 6. The universal life, such as that set forth by Christ and his apostles in the New Testament. 7. The universal aim, which is to establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Pioneers Probably the eight most prominent men who gave the temper, the direction, and the pace to the movement known as the Disciples of Christ dur- ing its first period can be pointed out. Four of these were from the Disciples with Mr. Campbell as leader and four from the Christians with Mr. Stone as leader. Of the former group Thomas Campbell ‘‘contributed most to the union senti- ment which was prominent at the beginning; Alex- ander Campbell contributed most to the construc- tive features, both theological and ecclesiastical ; Walter Scott contributed most to the evangelistic HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 19 spirit and work, while Dr. Robert Richardson con- tributed most to the devotional and spiritual side of the movement.’’ These have been called the ‘‘Big Four’’ among the modern founders of the Disciples. The Christian Church, or ‘‘New Lights,’’ gave the following leaders: Barton W. Stone, the pioneer and editor; Samuel Rogers, the erusader and evangelist; his brother, John Rogers, the interpreter and biographer; and John A. Gano, the indefatigable evangelist. With such a galaxy of masters it is little wonder that such a cause soon became prominent in the new country. The ‘‘Christians’’ brought into the movement a new evangelistic element, while the ‘‘Reformers’’ brought into it an earnest study of the Scriptures and an equally earnest plea for conformity to all that the Seriptures enjoined. Agencies and Methods During the early period the foundations of the future work of the Disciples were firmly laid by these men and others. They instituted agencies of co-operation, of training, and of mutual leader- ship, without which no church ean live and grow. The chief agencies in building the brotherhood have been from the first the printing press, the local congregation, the college and the association of the local churches through representative con- ventions and missionary societies. The country was sown with tracts and papers, chief among 20 THE DISCIPLES which were The Christian Baptist and The Millen- nial Harbinger, founded and edited by Mr. Camp- bell. Barton W. Stone and John T. Johnson edited and published The Christian Messenger. These journals were the beginnings of the Christian Church press. From time to time many periodicals saw the light, but most of them soon perished for lack of support or because they had served their purposes. Among distinguished weeklies which came in the second era were The American Christian Review, edited by Benjamin Franklin, the Christian Standard, by Isaac Errett and The Christian- Evangelist, by J. H. Garrison and B. W. Johnson. The two last papers are still being published. Two quarterlies existed for a while. There are several excellent state papers and parish papers almost innumerable. World Call, a monthly missionary magazine, is published by the United Christian Missionary Society. It is the continuation of five small monthlies. With the Christian Standard and The Christian-Evangelist have arisen the two pub- lishing houses which supply the brotherhood with books and literature necessary for the conservation and propagation of their plea and for the equip- ment of their Bible schools. Evangelism has been a prominent method of work among the Disciples from the beginning. Men of flaming hearts and fiery tongues went HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 25 everywhere preaching the gospel. The world has never seen a more powerful, brilliant, dramatic, or effective evangelism than the pioneering of these early Disciples in the wonderful new West where the seeds of the nation were being planted in the soil of earth’s greatest continent. Bethany College was founded in 1841 to dis- seminate Christian education. It was part of a comprehensive scheme worked out by Mr. Camp- bell. The plan included a system of education for the home, the community and the chureh. It really proposed a new undergirding of civilization. Mr. Campbell’s idea was to make the Bible funda- mental as a text-book. Bethany is said to have been the first college in the world to introduce the English Bible into its curriculum. Along with formative agencies and methods al- ready noted we are to mention Mr. Campbell’s de- bates. It is doubtful whether there is any better means of promoting the truth or educating the public than by open, high toned and properly ethicized discussion. These debates may have cre- ated the impression that the Disciples are a people fond of strife; but their history will show, that while they have never allowed the community to stagnate mentally in religious things, no people have been on better terms or dwelt with their neighbors in more cordial, sincere, or brotherly relationship than the Disciples have with theirs. 292 THe DISCIPLES In fact, long pondering upon their plea, upon the Savior’s prayer, and upon the sorrowful results of division, has awakened in them a passion and a genius for friendship with all God’s people. Mr. Campbell engaged in five oral debates cov- ering the period, 1827-1842. The first was with Dr. John Walker, Presbyterian minister; the sec- ond, with Dr. William McCalla, Presbyterian; the third, with Mr. Robert Owen, of Scotland, atheist and socialist ; the fourth, with Archbishop Pureell, a Roman Catholic; and finally with Dr. Nathan L. Rice, a Presbyterian minister of Lexington, Ky. Henry Clay presided at the debate with Mr. Rice. The last three debates are amongst the ablest and most informing discussions in the annals of Chris- tianity. They not only attracted universal atten- tion, but commanded the profoundest study of leading minds of the times. They helped to purify the ideals, and to eliminate much of the unneces- sary and the harmful from the religious thinking of Christians in all the churches. No student of American Christianity can really understand the development of religion and church life in the Mis- sissippi Valley and throughout the West without reading at least Campbell’s debates with Mr. Owen, Archbishop Pureell, and Dr. N. L. Rice. The discussion with Mr. Owen was probably the chief influence in saving ‘‘The Golden West’’ from HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES oF CHRIST ao atheism and from social and communistic experi- ments which would have wrecked its civilization for several generations and made it permanently very undesirably different from what it is today. Organization and Achievement Almost immediately following the important era of debates came the era of the general organization of the churches. The Disciples are congregational in polity. They have no central overhead ecclesi- astical body that legislates for the local churches, either doctrinally, ecclesiastically, or in methods, plans or programs of work. But it early became apparent that no single congregation acting inde- pendently could carry out the terms of the Great Commission to preach, teach, baptize, and plant Christianity in all the world. The genius of the movement required missionary enterprise. Hav- ing taken Christ as Lord and Master, his command to preach the gospel in all the world became espe- cially urgent, profoundly imperative. Hence, the missionary societies came. By them the Disciples have been more fully educated in the world vision of Christ and given an objective and an oppor- tunity as wide and deep as the needs of the human race. Besides, so much momentum had been generated by their vigorous evangelism that it was necessary to have organization to keep it all from ending in chaos. A great religious body with the dynamic 24 THE DISCIPLES of passion and the momentum of activity becomes a terrible menace to itself and Christendom unless made orderly and directed by wise organization. So the ablest and most far-seeing men planned a missionary organization in 1849. Alexander Camp- bell was its first president. It was known as the American Christian Missionary Society. The first foreign missionary sent out by the society was Dr. James T. Barclay, of Virginia, who went to the city of Jerusalem. Other societies came later, the chief ones being the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions in 1874; the Foreign Christian Mission- ary Society in 1875; the National Benevolent As- sociation in 1886; the Church Extension Board in 1888, the Board of Ministerial Relief in 1895; the Board of Temperance and Social Welfare in 1907; the Board of Education in 1915; and in 1910 the Association for the Promotion of Christian Unity. During the years 1874-1913 the churches had been instructed and educated in missionary ideals, chiefly under the leadership of A. McLean and F. M. Rains, until the enkindled passion and vision came to expression in the Men and Millions Move- ment. This was a most remarkable crusade and challenged the Disciples with the mission of the Master as they had never before been challenged. It created a new era of enlargement and enthu- siasm in the Church. It grew out of the sugges- tion of Alexander Paul, a missionary to China, HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 25 while on a sick bed, that $200,000 be raised to meet the great new opportunity in that country. It was like a vision and he spoke of it again and again until through prayer and conference with such leaders as F’. M. Rains, A. McLean, A. HE. Cory, W. F. Holt, Mrs. M. E. Harlan, Grant K. Lewis, R. A. Long and others it was decided to raise $6,- 300,000 for the general missionary, ministerial, educational and benevolent work of the Church. R. A. Long subseribed and paid $1,100,000 toward this fund, which was perhaps the largest single sum ever given in such a way. This movement resulted not only in securing millions of dollars but more than 8,000 young people enlisted for life service of some specific kind and a new system of finance was adopted by most of the churches. Its influence has been altogether spiritual and new streams of life and power are manifest everywhere as a result of it. In response to an overwhelming demand the American Christian Missionary Society, the For- eign Christian Missionary Society, the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions and the National Be- nevolent Association were merged into one organ- ization, which is known today as the United Chris- tian Missionary Society. This kind of expansion and arrangement shows the methods of adapta- tion to the growing life and outreach of the Church. These organizations are general, but the different 26 THE DISCIPLES states have their own missionary associations. Some states are districted and each district care- fully organized. The policy of general voluntary organization has proved practicable and effective, though it has caused much discussion and even at times threat- ened serious divisions among the churches. There is always more danger of schism than of heresy and the former probably does more harm than the lat- ter. How to work together will always be a prob- lem for people who think and who are personally responsible to God for their conduct. Under the stimulation of co-operative efforts the strong have helped to bear the burdens of the weak and development has been, for the most part, sym- metrical and spiritual. The local churches have been strengthened and at the same time delivered from hurtful provincialism. They have been kept informed about the needy places of the world and have been able to cope with the growing life of the nation. In October, 1909, a centennial convention was held in Pittsburgh, Pa., in celebration of the utter- ance of the Declaration and Address by Thomas Campbell and others at Washington, Pa., in Sep- tember, 1809. Disciples from all over the world were in attendance. Some had travelled around the earth to be present. Probably 50,000 people came together in this celebration. A communion HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST ae | service was held in Forbes Field and at least 30,000 Christians partook of the Lord’s Supper together. It is believed to have been the largest communion service ever held in the history of Christianity. There have been few if any, other visible gather- ings for any purpose that equalled it in numbers. This celebration was greatly fruitful. The Dis- ciples became more conscious of their power and importance as a movement in the Church with this visualization and it may be said to have eaused a new era of enthusiasm and expansion and of dis- cussion. The discussion has often caused uneasi- ness but the more thoughtful regard it as the grow- ing pains necessarily incident to enlargement. In the course of the movement two serious storm centers have developed. One was instrumental mu- sic in public worship, the other was the organiza- tion of special societies for evangelistic, mission- ary, benevolent and educational purposes. The mu- sic question agitated the churches greatly for a time. It was a survival and echo of the conflict in the Scotch churches over the use of any kind of instrument in the churches and of singing anything but the psalms. The majority of the Disciples have decided that the organ is not sinful though many congregations refuse to ‘‘fellowship’’ with churches using the organ. But experience has proved that music does not despiritualize people and the whole question is now treated as one indifferent to morals. 28 THE DISCIPLES religion and church order. The debate over the societies is still kept up, but in the meantime the vast majority of the people are working co-opera- tively through them. They are treated as expedi- ences but time has demonstrated their value. Colleges and Education At first the Disciples were unusually active in education. Beginning with Bethany College, which has had a very distinguished career, individual Disciples and groups of men and women have established colleges in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Washington, Cal- ifornia, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, New York and in fact in almost every state in the Union, for the service of the Church. Many of these colleges have gone out of existence because, being purely indi- vidual enterprises, there was no money to keep them going after their founders had passed away. The educational interests of the Disciples lan- guished for a considerable period. Even Bethany College was almost lost on account of lack of sup- port. But recently a new zeal for education has been kindled throughout the brotherhood. Much money is being given by wealthy business men to strengthen and enlarge the colleges. The statement has been made recently that more money has been given to support and endow colleges of the Disci- ples during the last ten years than during all the previous history of the movement. This is the be- HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST 29 ginning of a new educational era. It is full of promise for the future of the Disciples. They now have (1923) about thirty colleges in the United States and one in Australia. Some of them are senior colleges and most of them have brighter prospects for usefulness than ever before. One of the most important education develop- ments was the establishment of Bible chairs in con- nection with some of the State universities of the land. The idea of placing theological seminaries next to the universities was first proposed in the United States by Thomas Jefferson in connection with the University of Virginia. But it remained for the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions, one of the former organizations of the Disciples of Christ, to put this unique but very practical and practicable idea into active operation. Accord- ingly chairs have been established at the Universi- ties of Michigan, Virginia, Kansas, Texas, and Bible Colleges at the Universities of Indiana and Missouri. The results have been satisfactory. The experimental stage is past. Probably other chairs of the kind will be established in the future. Recapitulation and Outlook There are churches of this faith and order in every state in the Union, excepting Nevada and New Hampshire, and in the following countries: Africa, England, Scotland, Canada, Sweden, Nor- way, Denmark, the West Indies, South America, 30 THE DISCIPLES Australasia, China, Japan, India, Mexico, Hawaii, the Philippine Islands and Tibet. The totals for the world are: number of churches 9,533 ; member- ship 1,416,457; ministers, including missionaries 8,184. The 8,763 Sunday schools in the United States and Canada have 1,097,386 pupils. These figures are not only conservative but are believed to be hundreds of thousands below the actual num- ber of members in the United States. Many of the churches refuse to give statistics and only those which do so are counted. | Thus, briefly, came into existence and grew this religious body which is a new world development of Christianity from the sowing of Christ and his apostles. It is able to flourish in all countries be- cause it is an organism rather than an organiza- tion. It is the most completely democratic of any religious body and takes its stand firmly upon the original Protestant principle enunciated by Chil- lingworth: ‘‘The Bible, the whole Bible, and noth- in¢ but the Bible, is the religion of Protestants.”’ The movement is inclusive and not exclusive and its passion is to deliver the Chureh of Christ from those proseriptions, suspicions, and ambitions which have marred its beauty, disturbed its peace, despoiled its spirituality, and limited its power in the earth. The Disciples gladly rejoice in the thought that others as well as themselves are Christians. They HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLES oF CHRIST Sl simply desire to be Christians only, and their churches aim to be only churches of Christ. With no ereed but Christ, no book but the Bible, they have no aim but to serve. Religious conditions in the world and amongst the Disciples cause them to believe that their views will meet with even greater favor in the future than in the past, and their growth will be more rapid and solid. The passing of a century shows no abatement of energy or diminution of evangelistic fervor, and their principles are commanding wider and more favor- able consideration than ever before. CHAPTER II THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES HE seed of the Reformation of the 16th Cen- tury was sown in the heart of Martin Luther when, as a youth of eighteen years, he saw for the first time a complete copy of the Bible. The seed was quickened in his study of the Bible which he found chained in the convent. The seed was further quickened as he was ascending Pilate’s Staircase on his knees on his first visit to Rome when he heard a voice of thunder crying from the bottom of his heart, ‘The just shall live by faith.’’ That was the true conception of the Christian life. The Ref- ormation became a reality launched upon the field of history when he nailed the ninety-five theses to the door of Wittenberg Church, and when he ap- peared as the defender of the faith and of the supremacy of the conscience of the individual at the Diet of Worms. There and then modern de- mocracy was born and the way opened to recover the true idea of the church. But it was a long way to full realization and we have not yet reached the goal. The centuries since have been full of religious debate. With free- dom of discussion, the 17th and 18th centuries wit- nessed many strange ideas. Atheism and anarchy 32 THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES oo were rife. It was an age of exploration and new nations were struggling for life. Men were neces- sarily tenacious of their views and hostile to one another. The 18th century of the Church dawned with the sectarian, ecclesiastical and theological mind. Foundations were being laid in America and every sect was urging its claims that it might control the new land. Strife was terrible and bit- ter. Into such a condition in 1809 Thomas and Alexander Campbell set up the plea for the union of God’s people. The text, ‘‘Come out of her, my people,’’ was being preached everywhere as the cure of the ills of Christianity. Even the wonder- ful preaching and work of Barton W. Stone, be- ginning in 1804, was at first based upon the view that reformation by ‘‘coming out’’ was the right way to a pure, New Testament Christianity. In the midst of this the Campbells discovered in the New Testament that the way to the perfec- tion and power of the Church was by union, in- stead of by division or by the process of ‘‘coming out.’’ To be sure union had been advocated be- fore by spiritually minded ministers and by eccle- siastics. But with the former it was simply a fine wish of the heart and with the latter a purely ec- clesiastical measure. The basis proposed was the ereeds and the method that of the absorption of one body by another. The Campbells proposed faith in Jesus Christ as the doctrinal basis of 34 Tur DISCIPLES union, the New Testament as the only authorita- tive interpretation of the mind of Christ, and the life, the practices, the spirit and the fruits of the apostolic Church as the norm of methods and ideals. This was the discovery of the Campbells and they made it their plan and proposal to the Christian world, and they spent their lives with passion and arduous work to bring it to the atten- tion of Christendom. This was one of the greatest ereative religious visions of recent times tending to restore the apostolic Church, to increase spir- ituality, and to establish brotherhood in the world. It is to be classed with the vision of the spiritual value of the Bible followed by John Wickliffe; the freedom of the faith by Martin Luther; the sov- ereignty of God by John Calvin; the purpose of God in heathen missions by William Carey; and the necessity of the personal experience of God by John Wesley. The Proposal of the Disciples It is their proposal to the 200 different religious bodies which shelter under the name ‘‘Christian.”’ It implies that whatever the necessity for analysis and division in the past the time has now come for synthesis and union. The principles underly- ing the proposal of the Disciples are that the Church is one, that it is spiritual, that it is the body of Christ, that it is a brotherhood and that division is therefore against the will of God and THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES 35 the very genius of Christianity. Reconciliation and atonement must not only prevail between God and man, and man and man, but also between ehureh and church. The proposal of the Disciples is their plea for the union of all God’s people on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. It is a eall to God’s people to come out of their separate and isolated existence and become one in Jesus Christ with his doctrine, work, word, hope and worship as guides in the way of life. It is, therefore, a plea of large friendships and all-inclusive fellowships. It is the plea to all God’s people to take the Word of God as their only rule of faith and practice. Reason of the Proposal 1. It is urged by the evils of sectarianism. Thomas Campbell, who first made the proposal, was a Presbyterian minister from Ireland. When he settled in Western Pennsylvania he found bit- ter divisions among the churches where he worked. How strong were the feelings of antagonism be- tween people of different churches in his day may be judged from an incident. On one occasion Alex- ander Campbell, who with his father was promot- ing the new Christian Union movement, was caught in a severe storm and one of his neighbors, a mem- ber of another church, refused to let him come into the house to shelter from the storm because he was 36 THE DISCIPLES adjudged a heretic. That was sectarianism gone mad but all sectarianism has such possibilities. The first aim of the proposal was to destroy such a spirit. 2. It is urged by the words of Christ and His Apostles. The Campbells were impelled by the study of the New Testament to seek for the union of God’s people. No one who studies the words of Christ and his apostles can for a moment harbor the thought that division is right. Schism is a sin. It is the rending of the body of Christ. Christ’s prayer for the oneness of his disciples, recorded in the gospel of John, chapter 17, became the great, all-impelling dynamic of this new movement, and it has been both its approach and the appeal to Christendom ever since. Paul traces the roots of division back to the un- regenerate heart and shows how it limits and shriv- els those who become parties to it. Division is a sin of the earnal nature. This causes the unholy passion for the pre-eminence. ‘‘By that sin angels fell.’’ The creeds which were written to hold to- gether the people so lately come out of ecclesias- ticism became dogmatic and static and so divisive. The plea of the Disciples is a plea for more room, for larger love and for practical, co-operative alignment with all God’s people. 3. It is urged by the spiritual value of union. THe PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES ST (a) The full and combined strength of all the churches is demanded to combat the evils of the time and to make progress in a world like this. There is not a Christian group in existence, there never has been, and there never will be one which is equal to the moral battles or the spiritual leader- ship of mankind alone. The enemy is too great to be met with divided forces. (b) Union is essential to the full realization of the Christian character. We need the hymns of all writers to express our views and to waken us to fulness of worship. It is wrong to attempt to make churches according to type. No one should specialize in Christian virtues. As the apple needs substanee, form, color, flavor, ripeness, and beauty —all that earth, air, sun, darkness, dew and rain can give to make it perfect—so each one needs all the influence and revelation of Jesus Christ that may come out of all the churches. The greatest evil of sectarianism is that it excludes so much. It is exclusive instead of inclusive. The re-united Church will be the fountain of all good things, the homing place of all genuine saints. We want Mat- thew’s hope, Mark’s power, Luke’s humanity, John’s supernaturalism in the Church. We want Peter’s eloquence, Paul’s logic and literary power, James’ practical wisdom, Stephen’s consuming fire, and John’s visions and revelations in the Church. 38 Tut DISCIPLES It will take the true saints of all the churches to make the true Chureh. Christian union will bring all the riches of faith and glory of character to- gether in each church and in each character. We cannot be made perfect without one another. ‘¢ And these all having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better things concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made per- fect’’ (Heb. 11:39, 40). Nature is perfected by man and man is perfected by fellowship. (c) Christian union is essential to the fullest understanding of Jesus Christ. A broken mirror cannot reflect an object without distortion. A di- vided church can neither get the complete vision of Christ nor give his full image to the world. Sece- tarianism has a distorted view of Christ and of man. Through it the world can neither see God nor man as they are. A broken church gives broken views of truth and of God. (d) Finally, it is only the united Church that will be able to convert the world. Christian union is the shortest route to this spiritual achievement. Christian missions must come by the home field for Christian union must come there first. Jesus prayed: ‘‘That they may all be one; * * * * that the world may believe that Thou didst send me.’’ THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES 39 The Nature of the Union Proposed The organic union of different churches seems not to have been thought of at first by the pioneers. The notion was rather a co-operative association, a body somewhat analogous to the Federal Coun- ceil of the Churches of Christ, which is a unity movement through co-operation, with this dif- ference that ‘‘The Christian Association’’ of Thomas Campbell and his associates was composed of individuals out of all the churches rather than being a co-operative movement of the churches themselves. The influence and spirituality of such an association would quickly extend throughout the different bodies as has the Christian Endeavor So- ciety in our times. The full purpose and scope of this association was written out by Thomas Campbell and it has come down to us in a large tract called the ‘‘ Declaration and Address.’’ Dr. F. D. Kershner has recently written an able and fresh interpretation of this important Chris- tian union document. The Christian union proposed is not of the mak- ing of man. It must be of the mind and heart before it becomes organization and environment. Any union that is mechanical and not vital cannot last long and while it lasts its unreality will result in the starvation of the heart. 1. The idea of union is given by Jesus Christ himself. He prayed for it amid the deepening 40 THE DISCIPLES shadows of Gethsemane (John 17:20-24.). The unity described there is so profound that the hu- man mind can seareely follow it. It is metaphys- ical. It sounds the depths of personality. It calls for oneness in the midst of separateness. It is deeper than the dream of mystic or philosopher. It is more ecstatic than the rapture of seer or dev- otee. Yet on its outer rim we can see that it is (a) oneness of purpose, (b) oneness of will, (c) oneness of work, (d) and that its bond and seal is love—‘‘as Thou. lovedst me,’’ (John 17:28). From these things we understand that the very - essence of Christian union or unity—one and both—is love. According to Jesus Christ when Christians love one another they are united. And we know from observation that Christians of dif- ferent groups may and do love one another and that they work together to fulfill the purpose of Christ. In the view of it in Christ’s prayer it is not an ecclesiastical fixation that can be established by vote and canon but it is a relationship, a real- ity, that must be wrought out by prayer and tied together by the strongest force in the universe, love. 2. St. Paul analyzes Christian union and points out its elements. This will be found in Ephesians 4:4-6. (a) ‘‘There is one body’’—hence a visible union, all the members of the body working to- gether. They cannot exist unless they so work. THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES 41 (b) ‘‘One hope’’—which must be the hope of eternal redemption. In a large way it may be regarded as unity of desire and expectation in what we call idealism. (c) ‘‘One Spirit’’—the Holy Spirit given to all Christians, hence making them move by one common impulse. (d) ‘‘One Lord,’’ who is Jesus Christ. Christians must be one in ac- cepting him as the supreme authority in religion. The real test of a Christian and therefore of churches also, is whether they aecept Jesus as Lord. The crucial, practical doctrine of Christianity is the lordship of Christ. ‘‘Whatsoever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Je- sus.’’ (e) ‘‘One faith,’’ no doubt the faith em- bodied in the Good Confession made by Peter and commended by Christ and later witnessed by Jesus himself before Pontius Pilate: ‘‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’’ (Matt. 16:15; 1 Timothy 6:13). This faith was first lived by the apostles and then written down in the New Testament by inspiration as the rule of life, the incentive to practice. The ‘‘faith’’ is a body of doctrine; it is the attitude of the soul; it is the sum of one’s beliefs and trust. One in faith— polarized about Jesus Christ and God. (f) ‘‘One Baptism’’—that practiced by apostles, that ob- served by Jesus Christ himself. There are not many baptisms—there are not many forms of bap- tism. Christian union demands that we all prac- 42 THE DISCIPLES tice the same thing here. This is not a matter of indifference and men are not permitted to change it at will. Citizenship is free but no citizen is entitled to change the stars and stripes to suit himself, nor to alter the oath of allegiance nor the ritual of expressing his citizenship. Baptism con- notes a profound inward change, but it also has its outward symbol. And Christians must use the same symbol for the sake of unity. Let no one tamper with the great seal of the kingdom. Christ appointed baptism and we must all practice the same substance and form of it. And the New Testament baptism is immersion. (g) ‘‘One God and Father of all’’—the transcendent God, who rules over all; the immanent God, who acts through all; the incarnate God, who dwells in all. This is a wonderful list of spiritual gifts we may enjoy, of spiritual glories to which we may attain. And it is remarkable, that nearly all Chris- tians agree on all these points—agree on them by believing and practicing, excepting on the ‘‘one body’’ and the ‘‘one baptism.’’ The Disciples pro- pose that both of these points be settled by the records of the New Testament studied naturally according to the laws of language and interpreted without prejudice by prayer and by the illumina- tion of the Holy Spirit. (See John 16:13.) 3. All this shows that Christian union must be thought of as a great spiritual consummation, as THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES 43 an active expression of the new order of society in Jesus Christ. It was viewed in this light by Alex- ander Campbell who wrote: I never cherished a scheme so Utopian as the scheme of union which floats in the minds of some professors. Men unite not as masses, but as individuals. We come together one by one, not in nations nor organized masses. Parties, like nations, indeed, may hold an armistice—they may agree on a cessation of hostilities—they may even propose a reciprocity of kind offices—they may open their respective houses, pulpits, and communion tables to each other—they may form a confederation of communities to a certain extent; and still reserve certain peculiarities for further discussion. But as voluntary associations farther they cannot go. Yet this would be but an ecclesiastic, not a Christian union; and only a partial ecclesiastic union. Christian union is a more intimate, spiritual, celestial sort of thing, into which we can enter only in our individual capacity and upon our own individual responsibility. It presupposes closer acquaintance, stronger personal confidence, more spiritual attachment, a real oneness of spirit, a full coalescence of souls in the joint participation of the same Holy Spirit. While a satisfactory definition of Christian union is impossible at this time it may, neverthe- less, be of service to attempt it. The following is offered: A united Church would be one of which Christ is the confessed and accepted head; in which every member would be sensitively respon- sive to his will; where each would have liberty for the rightful use of his own personality— Godward, manward, selfward ; in which faith, hope and love awakened in the heart by the Spirit 44 THE DISCIPLES through the Word would be the binding forces; and where all the members acted in such harmony that the sum total of their influence would be fully expressed for the promotion of the cause of Christ in the world and for spiritual suggestion, culture and comfort of the members themselves. Such a union would be inward, real, vital, sym- pathetic and creative—like the life that animates the body, like the life of God in the soul of man —instead of being mechanical, arbitrary, and so largely dominated by the human element, as at present. Outwardly there might be seams and even sections in organization, like the States of the union, but it would be an organism as well as an organization and the unity would be even a kind of mystical identity which would as occasion arose, express its life as the deep, rising, irresistible tide of American patriotism faced the World War. The Way to Union 1. It will come by the actual acceptance of God’s word. As Thomas Campbell wrote 114 years ago: This desirable rest, however, we utterly despair either to find for ourselves, or to be able to recommend to our brethren, by continuing amid the diversity and rancor of party contentions, the veering uncertainty and clash- ings of human opinions: nor, indeed, can we reasonably expect to find it anywhere but in Christ and his simple Word, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our desire, therefore, for ourselves and our brethren would be, that, rejecting human opinions and the inventions of THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES 45 men as of any authority, or as having any place in the Church of God, we might forever cease from further con- tention about such things; returning to and holding fast by the original standard; taking the divine word alone for our rule; The Holy Spirit for our teacher and guide, to lead us into all truth; and Christ alone, as exhibited in the word, for our salvation; that, by so doing, we may be at peace among ourselves, follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. 2. No doubt Christian union will be largely worked out through co-operation. There must be actual association before there can be genuine union. Personal fellowship and appreciation must be practiced. Co-operation in good works of ev- ery kind will help wear away the sharp corners, overcome the strangeness and awkwardness of con- tact, and produce the Christian love and the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Not far away then will be real Christian union. This course would save Christians from the attempt ‘‘to sec- tarianize the truth and dismember Jesus Christ.’’ 3. Union will come by the influence of the Holy Spirit. We shall be led of the Spirit when we ear- nestly study and pray to be so led. We may say reverently, that that is God’s active part today in bringing his people into the rich and satisfying experience of Christian union. 4. Taking the example of the Master as guide surely the plainest pathway to Christian union is prayer. Any union effected without that will be but a mechanical human arrangement which will 46 THE DISCIPLES make the case worse rather than better. Church statesmanship is to be used but prayer must be the largest element in it. Prayer melts away pride and self-will and enlightens the mind. It lifts the heart into the experience of God and suffuses it with his purposes. Christian union will come by way of the closet of praying Christians. The Progress of the Proposal 1. The progress of Christian union in the world has been very marked and very encouraging. While there are more sects than there were a hun- dred years ago there is not nearly so much sectari- anism. The churches love each other and their an- tipathies are not so strong nor so bitter. It may be that we are much nearer the goal than we dream. The effort to achieve Christian union has had its hindrances and drawbacks, perhaps at times the plea itself has been too much specialized but still it has marched on. 2. Once the Disciples were alone in preaching Christian union but practically the whole Chris- tian world is preaching it now. The desire for Christian union has reached such a stage that it is doubtful whether any other subject is as thor- oughly and widely discussed in Christendom. This is because Christian union is, after all, not the task of any one group of Christian people alone. It belongs to all. Furthermore it is Christ’s plea; yea, it is his prayer. THE PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES 47 3. The plea of the Disciples is also justified by the progress of the world. The whole trend today is toward united action. Experience both in the Church and in the world demonstrates the necessity of union as a basis for democracy and for progress. The Future of the Proposal One of the greatest problems of the Disciples is to maintain a separate existence and yet be able to push their proposal for Christian union effectively. Two dangers confront them here—the danger of ineffectiveness and the danger of sectarianism. 1. The first danger is due to the seeming incon- sistency of being a separate, aggressive body and still urging union. Yet it is only by separate ex- istence that they can gain attention. An idea must become incarnate in order to be effective. It is possible, in fact it seems the only way, to form a body for the preaching of a truth to others and at the same time hold the group in such a state of mind and heart that it will accept its own proposi- tion when the hour is ripe for it. This can be done by keeping the eyes on the true goal. An army fights for peace—it is aggressive, destructive, the very opposite of peace. But the moment arrives when everybody is willing to accept peace and then the order to ‘‘cease firing’’ is given. Of course, somebody is conquered, gives in. In the ease of Christian union everybody becomes conquered by 48 THE DISCIPLES the love of Christ and all ‘‘give in’’ whole-heart- edly to Jesus Christ. 2. The other phase of our problem is to avoid sectarianism in our own hearts. There is a great temptation to this, especially when there is rapid growth and the manifest blessing of God upon the work of our hands. “But that very fact should keep us humble. It should keep us in the love of God, which is the souree of our love for our fellowman. Conviction that we are right in our views ought to work out a broad and generous feeling toward others. Besides this, no one is ever in the right when he is sectarian in spirit. Truth is always perverted when attempt is made consciously or unconsciously to sectarianize it. We can avoid the steel-trap of sectarianism by sincerely ‘‘practicing the presence of God,’’ by using truly ‘‘the means of grace’’ given for the education of the soul. In addition to this we must keep our hearts set on the great issue of Christian union and earnestly pray that Christ will raise up many others to make this plea, and we must be ready to move out with all the rest when the way is plain. 3. There are several union propositions before the world now. There is the Roman Catholic, which means absorption of all Christians into their body. This is impossible, unthinkable. There is the Anglican or Episcopal, which means the ac- THe PROPOSAL OF THE DISCIPLES 49 ceptance of their orders, their ministry and the historic episcopate. There is the proposition known as the Philadelphia Plan, which contem- plates a central overhead authority with the recog- nition of the common practice of all the churches of today; and there is that of our own Church, which is union on confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God and the ac- ceptance of the New Testament as the only ‘au- thoritative interpretation of that confession and of the principles of worship and organization. 4. The proposal has not been outgrown. It has not been discounted by any changes in theology, church or society. It has not been altered in any respect by the astounding growth of science and invention. We must still preach it and live it. The plea of the Disciples will finally prevail if it is Christ’s way. And it must be Christ’s way,— it is certainly in accord with Christ’s way, for he prayed long and earnestly somewhere between the Upper Room and Gethsemane ‘‘for them also that believe on me through their word; that they may all be one.’’? Our stubborn sectarianism, our fond denominationalism, our errors and our pride can- not hold out against that great, blood-crimsoned, Intercessory prayer of the Master who loved the Church and gave himself up for it. CHAPTER III DOCTRINE OF THE DISCIPLES HE Disciples teach that God is our Father in heaven, according to the reverent and loving words of Christ; that Jesus Christ is his Son and the Savior of sinners; that the Holy Spirit is the comforter, revealer and interpreter of God’s word and God’s way, given to all who obey God and ask for him; that man in his natural state does not know God and must be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven; and that man will live forever and be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. They believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only be- gotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. They believe that Jesus Christ died on the eross to save sinners. They believe in the Church and in the Kingdom of God. A Doctrine Without a Creed Yet the Disciples have no written authoritative statement of doctrine. Why? It is not because ‘they do not believe most of the statements in the creeds, but because’ sey regard the dogmatic creeds as having been divisive and as continuing so; and that whatever may have been their influence in the 50 DOCTRINE OF THE DISCIPLES ol past they have served their day. When the New Testament was not accessible to the people, and they needed some kind of interpretation to aid them in understanding duty and divine things, the ereed rendered a service. Five things may be said against the use of authoritative, written creeds today. First, they are divisive. History proves this and the use of them today will likewise demonstrate it. Second, they are not comprehensive enough. They leave too many things unsaid and thus they fall short of the demands and developments of the Christian life. Third, they need perpetual revision, which is equal to saying they are not mobile, adaptable, nor fundamental. They have a tendency to substitute partial truths for full truths. If they were fun- damental, useful and permanent, they would fit without any revision into the growing life and changing times, just as gravity, air, light and heat automatically adapt themselves to any physical conditions that can arise. Fourth, they work against unprejudiced thought and hinder freedom of utterance. These things have always been priceless beliefs cherished by the Disciples. They have held most strenuously to the right of private opinion ar the sacredness and duty of honest, clear thinking, as far as one is equal to it. 52 THE DISCIPLES Fifth, when the New Testament became widely circulated and accessible to all, it was not necessary that there should be any other written statements setting forth Christianity in an authoritative way. Instead of belief in a creed the Disciples urge be- —— lief in Jesus Christ. Christianity is not embodied in a proposition, it lives in a person. Sufficiency of the New Testament The Disciples have always held to the New Testa- ment as a sufficiently simple and clear statement of the contents of a Christian’s privilege and duty. It was a saying of one of the early interpreters of the Disciples, that if the creed contains more than the Bible it contains too much, if it contains less than the Bible it contains too little, if it con- tains exactly what the Bible contains it is unneces- sary for we have the Bible itself. If one reads, digests, and believes what is contained in the New Testament he will have both the doctrine and the spirit of Christianity. St. John wrote at the end of his gospel: ‘‘Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.’’ (John 20:30, 31). The Bible is to be thought of as the written standard of authority. Disciples are accustomed to say, ‘“Where the Scriptures speak we speak and DOCTRINE OF THE DISCIPLES Oo where the Scriptures are silent we are silent.’’ No doubt there are many things in the Bible which must be explained but this is better done by the living voice than by the dogmatic utterance of any ehurch council or the stereotyped statement of any ereed. The rights and duties of all men and espe- cially of Christians are clearly set out in the New Testament. ; The gospel of Christ contains the theology of Christians. It is a living, vital message full of fire and life-giving force. As far as it is possible to analyze a living force the gospel was analyzed by Walter Scott who said it consists of facts to be be- lieved, commands to be obeyed and promises to be enjoyed. These ideas show us that the Disciples are not a theological people. They have always resisted making a theology out of the gospel or an ecclesias- ticism out of the brotherhood. The management of their lives is not so much by line upon line and precept upon precept as it is by the inspiration of the truth, and the presence of the Master. They seek to move by the direct word of God and the leadings of the Holy Spirit. They regard Chris- tianity as a way of life rather than a system of philosophy, or a scheme of science. As a way of life it is set forth by the words and example of Christ and his apostles, which are the final, full and sat- isfactory utterances of all things necessary to be 54. THE DISCIPLES preached, believed, and practiced in order to the fulfillment of earth’s duties and the enjoyment of eternal blessedness. Faith in a Person The Disciples teach faith in a person rather than belief of a theological proposition. They would give a vital message rather than offer a logical scheme; a living doctrine rather than a mere in- teresting history. In a true sense no group of Christians has more persistently preached the essential doctrines of Christianity than have the Disciples. But they have drawn these doctrines directly from the New Testament and connected them with Jesus Christ as their test and center of gravity. The essence of the religious life is to follow him. The end of the religious effort is to reach the goal he has pointed out. The Disciples have no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, no aim but to serve. Their confession of faith is that of Peter, as he looked into the face of the Master, who was en- couraging him to say what was in his heart: ‘‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’’ (Matt. 16:16.) That is the only doctrinal procla- mation required of a man who would enter into the Church and it is required of him that he bring his life openly into harmony with Jesus Christ’s teaching and example. Does he obey Christ as his Savior? That is enough. That is the beginning DocTRINE OF THE DISCIPLES a of the new life in public. It exalts Christ as the Lord of life and the hope of all aims, and dreams, and visions. The true theology is Jesus Christ himself. He said: ‘‘ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.’’ That was the Master’s statement of truth. The fatherly side of God, the secret and standard of character, and redeeming love are all incarnate in Christ. He was God manifest in the flesh. He is all and in all for all true doctrine. Doctrine and Apologetics Perhaps a word should be said here relative to the controversies that have been in the world from the beginning and that are disturbing the peace of many today. First, as to naturalism and miracles, the Disci- ples believe in miracles; in a supernatural reli- gion; in a divine Christ; and in a living, loving, ever present God. Regarding revelation and rationalism, they be- lieve in a Bible inspired of God; that the world ean only be saved by the death and sufferings of Christ ; in a life nourished by the teachings of the New Testament; and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They have freely used reason to deal with the facts of Christianity. They believe God must be loved with the mind, as well as with the heart, and that Christianity is a reasonable religion. Every one must give a reason for the faith that 56 THe DISCIPLES is in him. Faith itself is the higher reason and it is based upon the supernatural. They have regarded such questions as election, predestination and the old controversies about free- will and foreordination matters of opinion. The consensus of views would no doubt relegate evolution to the realm of science and philosophy and, so long as men see it as the way God works, the majority would accept it in some form, though some would reject it entirely. But neither the ac- ceptance nor rejection of it would impair one’s standing as a Christian or as a good church mem- ber. These things are but saying that the Disciples have avoided mere speculative thought except as a personal matter, that they have discerned strictly between matters of opinion and matters of faith. Thus the many controversies that have agitated others have seareely touched them. Such questions as premillennialism or postmillennialism have never broken their ranks nor created much discus- sion nor disturbance. The facts of the second coming of Christ, the future life with its rewards and punishments, are preached and believed and life is controlled accordingly. No mere theory is ever made a test of fellowship or of the integrity of the religious life. This produces some conservatism and desirable DOCTRINE OF THE DISCIPLES 57 homogeneity while allowing freedom of discussion and therefore steady and genuine progress. Nature of Christianity The views of the Disciples on the nature of Chris- tianity may be stated, without authority, but simply as an interpretation, as follows: Christianity is the life created by the influence of Jesus Christ working in the individuals: and society of the human race. Its essence is spirit, its fruit is life, its purpose is to redeem man from sin and to grow him into the measure of the stature of fulness in Christ Jesus. Christianity is ex- pressed in the realm of history and human experi- ence in five aspects: 1. Christianity is doctrinal. Therefore it has a book. In this form it is definite revelation. It is the deposit of the eternal in literature by the Spirit of God through the mind, speech, pen and action of human beings as teaching, history, precept and suggestion. Its supreme and authoritative state- ment is in the New Testament. We say the New Testament, because all that is permanent and uni- versal in the Old Testament has been brought over into the New Testament through the life of Christ, and in a more spiritual form. Christianity is, and always will be, the religion of a book as well as the religion of the spirit. 2. Christianity is spiritual. (John 4:23, 24.) 58 Tok DISCIPLES It therefore must have both ritual and prayer. For this expression of it we have (a) baptism; (b) the Lord’s Supper; and (c) what is generally ealled ‘‘the order of public worship.’’ The latter is a perpetual but varying and adaptable form, and means that the feelings, sentiments, purposes and aspirations of the soul can be organized in a way that will increase their depth in experience and their power in social application. The deepest things in the soul are set out, visualized, made facts, in the ordinances which are unchangeable and in the order of the services which is variable according to conditions and desires. The order of the services, the expressional form of worship, is man’s free part in ritual. The rites of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are Christ’s fixed power in the soul’s confessional. The action of the soul in these forms is social, sacramental, experimental, rational and mystical. These ordinances harmonize the unrestrained, free- flowing love that forever lies at the heart of the gospel and the unbendable, inflexible law that in- heres like iron in the moral order. They leave the action of the human will free but make blessed re- sults certain. These formal and ritual aspects of the gospel must be maintained as well as the other phases of Christianity. In the ordinances the human spirit and the divine are acting in harmony to the great DOCTRINE OF THE DISCIPLES 59 end of the purification and redemption of man’s soul, 3. Christianity is institutional. This is seen in the Chureh and the subsidiary bodies that grow out of its creative life. The Church at its highest and best is the social organ of the Holy Spirit. It purifies the individual and society, oahu it is sacramental. It maintains and inspires preaching, therefore it is the agent of the living Word. It creates, fosters and directs fellowship, there- fore it is social. It teaches the living truth as ideal ethic and authority, therefore it is a rational, character- building energy. It kindles and directs the spirit of worship, therefore it is a mystical influence. It inspires and directs good works in the world, therefore it is a beneficent, social organism. It cultivates the heart-life of humanity, there- fore it is the spring of kindness, charity, sentiment and love. It rallies forces and fights the evils of this world, therefore it is the power-house of reformations. It buries the dead with the ritual of faith and hope, therefore it is the apostle of immortality. In it membership is perpetual, for time and eternity, therefore it becomes the assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. 60 THE DISCIPLES Could there be Christianity at all without the Church? Can men be brotherly without the brood- ing spirit of a brotherhood? 4. Christianity is ethical. The Disciples have al- ways laid great stress upon good works not as a means of salvation for the individual but rather as the expression of the life that dwells in him. As naturally as the tree blossoms and bears fruit be- cause it is rooted in the earth, so naturally will a Christian perform good deeds because his life is rooted in Jesus Christ and because he has the won- derful experience of the life of God in his own soul. | 5. The supreme expression of Christianity is Je- sus Christ himself and next to him it is to be seen in living men and women who are like him. Christ relives his life in his people. They were created unto good works. God reveals himself, his works and his acts in this world, at least partly, through human personality. The heavenly treasure is in earthen vessels. 6. All these expressions of Christianity co-oper- ate to produce the same end. ‘They all mean something. The power of Christianity is weak- ened, its beauty marred, its fulness prevented by leaving out any of the phases, doctrine, worship, ritual, institution, or ethic. If we leave out the doctrinal we prevent men from loving God with the mind; if the ritual and ordinance, we impair the DOCTRINE OF THE DISCIPLES 61 heart qualities of religion; and if we neglect the Church as an organization we weaken the power that promotes Christianity, and destroy its sweet and satisfying fellowships. There must be no miss- ing links in the golden chain that binds us to God. Above all, we must gather into our own personal, spiritual activities every power, privilege, duty, experience and aspect of Christianity. In this way alone can we come to the fulness of character in Christ. | The doctrine of the Disciples is to be interpreted by the work of the Disciples. They have held al- most a puritanic view of morals without which profession has seemed to them hypocrisy. The real Christian is the hope of Christianity. Each con- version is a heart-beat from the throne. It prof- its a man nothing to have the profession without the deed, the form without the power, the sem- blance without the reality. This practical view of the Christian life has made the Disciples an ex- eeedingly active people in all good reforms, in law enforcement, in evangelism and religious education, as well as driving them to root their faith deeper in the eternal heart. The Disciples and Mysticism The Disciples are by no means merely a prag- matie people. They believe in the perpetual pres- ence and indwelling of Christ, of the Holy Spirit and of God. They declare against the legalistic and 62 Tur DISCIPLES literalistic aspects of the Christian life and believe that prayer is real. As the child can approach and understand the father on earth so the Christian can. speak to his Father who is in heaven. As the child may ask for and receive bread from its parents so the child of God may ask for and re- ceive the Holy Spirit. God’s beauty, his love, his reality, his revelation may be expressed through human life. In him we live and move and have our being. He is near to all that call upon him. Christ is the great com- panion in sickness, sorrow, life, struggle, tempta- tion and death. The life beyond is a larger and more wonderful room in the Father’s house of many mansions. Every man will have his chance to reach this home. This is also part of the faith of the Disciples. Consequently there have been found high types of Christian character and beau- tiful examples of sainthood among them and they are steadily growing in the sacrificial hife and its joy. Doctrine, we hope, is steadily transmuted into life and ever out-blossoming in light and beauty on the Godward side. Their saints are not clois- tered and cassocked but they are out in the turmoil of life garbed like other men—crusaders, martyrs and the consecrated whose daily work is divine service—like Dr. Albert L. Shelton who gave his life through his profession and Robert H. Stockton who gave his life through his fortune. CHAPTER IV THE BIBLE AND ITS USE HE word Bible means book. But it has for cen- turies referred to a special collection of writ- ings, which the brightest minds and most devout people have considered divinely inspired. This collection of writings was first called the Holy Bible by Chrysostom, the famous Greek preacher. The names found in the book itself are Oracles, Serip- ture and Covenant. (Rom. 3:1, 2; Heb. 5:12; 1 Peter 4:11; Acts 7:38; 2 Timothy 3 :14-17; 2 Peter 3:16; Hebrews 8:13.) What the Bible Is The Bible consists of two general sections called the Old and the New Testament respectively. The Old Testament contains thirty-nine books, the New Testament twenty-seven. F. Godet compared the Bible to a great temple with sixty-six different rooms, each one of which is filled with divine light. That means that this book is to be thought of as the word of God. It contains literature of every kind and there is universal agreement that even in that respect it is not excelled by writers in any tongue. But these forms of language are only vehicles, for the supreme purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to man as his Father and Friend in order that 63 64 THE DISCIPLES man’s soul may be saved and his conduct be made righteous. John Watson has very fittingly called the Bible God’s Message to the Human Soul. The Bible is to be considered a divine revelation. A brief analysis will aid us in grasping the scope and nature of the Bible from a literary point of view. The Old Testament is generally distributed into the three great divisions: I. The law which consists of the first five books; II. The prophets—including Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor proph- ets; and Ill. The writings which have sometimes been called the wis- dom literature. This section includes the three poetical books: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs; in addition, the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles. The law-books exhibit the fundamental covenant with its legal sanctions and conditions, whereby Israel was set apart and kept apart for the execution of the divine pur- pose. The prophets exhibit the unfolding of the purpose in the history, and emphasize the spiritual aspect and abiding conditions of the covenant. And the writings in various tones, reproduce as in the Psalms, the answer of the human soul to God’s voice, or, as in Proverbs and Job, the questionings and reasonings of the spirit as it turns its regard inwards upon itself. The New Testament may be divided as follows: I. Historical—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. II. Didactic—Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessa- lonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 and 2 and 3 John and Jude. III. Prophetical—the book of Revelation. All of these wonderful productions find their center and draw their light and fire from Jesus Christ our Lord. THE BIBLE AND Its USE 65 The four gospels narrate his life and glorious works on earth. Acts tells how the new life, that came from him through the preaching of the Word and by the gift of the Holy Spirit, passed from Jerusalem to Rome; the epistles set forth the significance of the gospel facts, revealed according to our Lord’s promise, John 16:12, 13. The book of Revelation shows the Lamb as King, reveals a prophetic vision of the struggle between right and wrong, and shows how Jesus is to become Victor on earth, to- gether with his Church.—Adapted from The Concise Bible Dictionary. i The Origin of the Bible The Bible was given to man by divine inspira- tion. That is why it is a revelation of God. In- spiration and revelation are related to each other as life and expression. The life in the tree ex- presses itself in leaf, flower and fruit. Inspira- tion is the inbreathing of God by the Holy Spirit. Revelation is the vision or body of doctrine and idea created by inspiration. This revelation comes to us in many forms; in individual lives, in great epochs of history, in providence, in such organiza- tions as the Church, in religious assemblies, but especially in men like the prophets, the apostles, the psalmists and the evangelists, who fully put themselves at the service of God, to be used by him in his special work at whatever cost in labor and suffering. It would be wide of the mark to enter into detail respecting the nature of inspiration. Let us hold to the fact and accept the word of the divinely in- 66 THE DISCIPLES spired writer. The author of the letter to the He- brews says: ‘‘Many were the forms and fashions in which God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these days at the end he has spoken to us by a Son.’’ (Hebrews 1:1, 2. Mof- fatt.) Peter bears testimony in like manner, 2 Peter 1:16-21; ‘‘For it was no fabricated fables that we followed when we reported to you the power and advent of our Lord Jesus Christ ; we were admitted to the spectacle of his sovereignty, when he was invested with honour and glory by God the Father and when the following voice was borne to him from the sublime Glory, ‘This is my son, the Be- loved, in whom I delight.’ That voice borne from heaven we heard, we who were beside him on the sacred hill, and thus we have gained fresh confirm- ation of the prophetic word. Pray attend to that . word; it shines like a lamp within a darksome spot, till the day dawns and the day-star rises within your hearts—understanding this, at the outset, that no prophetic scripture allows a man to inter- pret it by himself; for prophecy never came by human impulse, it was when carried away by the Holy Spirit that the holy men of God spoke.’’ (Moffatt. ) Paul says unequivocally in 2 Timothy 3:16, ‘‘All seripture is inspired by God.’’ (Moffatt.) THE BIBLE AND Its USE 67 The Truth of the Bible This is established in many ways, logical, prac- tical, experimental and intuitional. 1. Considering the efforts made to destroy it, the neglect it has suffered, the misuse of it, the texts that are wrested, its survival proclaims it divine. Even nations have tried to destroy it but it has lived. 2. The second proof of its truth is its unity. It was written by different men of different coun- tries who had no converse with each other. The times of these writings covered about forty cen- turies. Yet the Bible is a perfect unity in its teachings and ideals. There were many mediums of revelation; there was only one Revealer. 3. Its reasonableness is another evidence of its origin in the divine mind. There is nothing foolish, weak or trivial in its pages and its supreme in- terest is in the joys and sorrows, in the well-being of men and women. It demands justice and fair- play for all. It may be said to be the book of the poor and weak, as against the tyrannical and self- ish. It is a democratic book, it is the people’s book. When it has been exclusively the book of the priest, the university and even of the preacher or the Church, it has been misused. It is the people’s book, God’s word to them in their own tongues, the greatest trust democracy ever held. 4, But most of all we judge of its inspiration 68 Tue DISCIPLES by its results. Coleridge said he believed the Bible to be inspired because it inspired him. It could not produce what was not within itself. Reading the Bible, men will grow better. They will be en- lightened. They will be taught the way of life. We are perpetual witnesses to this miraculous power of the Bible. When obeyed it brings to pass the results predicted by itself. Its fruits are the proofs of its infallibility within the sphere and range set out for itself. The criticisms about verbal, plenary, static and dynamic inspiration are generally of little profit. It is hair-splitting and speculating which tend to destroy the spirit of obedience. Does the Bible accomplish what it claims to be able to accomplish? Millions of con- verted people answer in the affirmative. Then the Bible must be what it claims to be—the Word of God. 5. The Bible is a good book. It makes those who read it better. It is fit to have been given by a good God, a loving Father. Purpose of the Bible There are two great sources of mistake in using the Bible. One is in failing to divide it rightly considering to whom it is addressed and applying to the saints what belongs to the sinner and ap- plying to sinners what belongs to saints. The other mistake is failing to understand the purpose of the Bible. It was intended to be a revelation THE BIBLE AND Its USE 69 of God. ‘‘In the beginning God,’’—these are the first words of the Book. It answers, as no other book possibly can, the question ‘‘What and Where is God?’’ (Psalm 139; Matt. 6:9; John 4:21-24; John 14:7-10.) It is the history of God’s dealings with men. As we follow the Bible through all its wonderful pages we are taught the reality and personality of God, of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus Christ. The Bible is not a book on farming, chemistry, geology, astronomy or on any science, though all these are suggested in it. But it reveals God and how to find him; Jesus Christ and how to obey him. It is a book on how to live here, how to pre- pare to live forever, how to die and how eventually to see God face to face. St. Paul declared: ‘‘ All Seripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for amendment, and for moral discipline, to make the man of God proficient and equip him for good work of every kind.’’ (2 Timothy 3:16, 17, Moffatt.) Leading Ideas of the Bible We can only indicate a few of these, but merely to mention them becomes an education to us. The Bible shows us the personality and greatness of God. It deals with the origin, experience and des- tiny of man. It gives us the key to the meaning of personality and its possibilities. It reveals the way to the forgiveness of sins. It is the only re- 70 THE DISCIPLES liable and reasonable source of knowledge about immortality and life beyond the grave. It teaches us the mystery, the personality and the power of the Holy Spirit. It reveals to man the awfulness of wrongdoing and is perfectly inflexible in the revelation of man’s accountability. If he does well he will be rewarded, if he does wrong his sin will find him out. No book so thoroughly and tre- mendously shows the destruction that follows the wrongdoer and finally overtakes him and brings him to the bar of justice. It points out this world to us as a Vamty Fair and teaches us that the things we see are temporal, while the things of the Spirit, which we do not see, are eternal. It gives us the substance of ethics, teaching us that justice, kindness and mercy are the fitting things for man to pursue. It teaches us how to live together hap- pily and is thus the secret of society. It shows us that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Power of the Bible No other book ever written approaches the Bible in influence and power over the human mind and the human heart. This has been recognized gen- erally by great writers and thinkers. 1. The Bible is a book of education. We find in it all the materials that tend to awaken thought, kindle emotion, stir up aspiration and develop character. It builds human personality. No man can read it and remain ignorant. Something of its THE BIBLE AND Its USE a own power passes into the spirit of him who dwells upon its quiet, luminous pages. Ruskin declared that he was indebted to the Bible for his style. Daniel Webster was so wedded to its study that he was called ‘‘the Bible concordance of the Senate.’’ Webster’s love of the Bible was inherited from his mother, and his memory was tenacious. It has been said that the Bible ‘‘formed his style as. an orator,’’ and the same is true in a large measure of Lincoln and of Gladstone, the great English statesman. These and many more famous men in public lfe—poets, orators and others—have built their fame upon their familiarity with and their love of the Bible. 2. It contains in an excellent degree the quality of consolation. It was called by the French hu- manist, Renan, ‘‘humanity’s book of consolation.’’ No matter through what sorrow one has passed, nor through what he must go, no matter the trial, _ temptation or hardship, the Bible will give con- solation. It does this by the teaching and by examples showing that God never fails man in any trial. It ‘‘shines through the gloom and points us to the skies.’’ 3. It converts men from darkness to light. ‘‘The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.’’ We have many instances where men have read the Bible and instantly changed the course of their 72 THE DISCIPLES lives as a result. The standing examples are Au- gustine and Martin Luther. 4. It is the secret of great preachers. The Bible is the preacher’s source book. When he spends his days and nights over it, he receives the truth to be delivered, and he glows with the spirit, flame and fire that belonged to the apostles. But above all he is brought into communion with God and goes forth with the divine passion urgent in his soul. 5. The Bible has never been exhausted. It is the master-book that grows other books. It con- tains the germ of newspapers, schools, universities, architecture, oratory, music, law and medicine. Out of it have grown whole libraries. Without it such books as Pilgrim’s Progress never would have been written. A literary man has found five hun- dred direct and indirect quotations from the Bible in Shakespeare. It is the inspirer and guide of creat men. It is the builder of institutions, and it is the secret of the greatest nations of all history. How to Study the Bible Here we will indicate some of the ways in which to go through the Bible. The young Christian should start with the intention of making it his daily companion throughout his whole life. Some books are read once and dismissed, some will be for childhood, some for youth and some for man- hood and old age. Most of these the Christian THE BIBLE AND ITs USE 13 will outgrow but the Bible is to be a daily com- panion to him, from the cradle to the grave. It is therefore well to learn how to read it, how to use it, and how to divide it rightly, that it may bring the proper result in the life. 1. The Bible should be read through many times in the order in which we have it. In that way a general outline of it will form in the mind, and its atmosphere and light will linger about the mem- ory of the heart. Many people make it a habit to read the entire Book every year. 2. It is profitable to read an entire book at a sitting and to study each book as a whole till the Bible has been thus gone through. 3. The Bible may be read simply as good read- ing. As one of America’s great men says: ‘‘There is no other book so interesting.’’ Just from that standpoint, what orations, for example, surpass those of Moses? What dramatic literature the book of Job? What hymns are as good as the twenty-third Psalm? What poetry is better than the Song of Solomon? What sermons outrank those of Isaiah? And the story of Jesus is match- less from every approach of men or of angels. 4, The Bible may be studied doctrinally. It is its own theology and its own explanation, and one may spend a lifetime formulating the doctrines it suggests. 5. Another way to go through the Bible is by 74 THE DISCIPLES its great characters. From first to last its interest radiates from great men and women. And no other character-studies ever written are so vivid or striking, so instructive or so completely full of human interest as the personalities in the Bible. 6. It should be read devotionally. One reads for communion with God; to learn the difference be- tween right and wrong; and to educate his own heart with noble purpose and splendid vision. Those who study after this fashion will be sur- prised to find how much of the Bible is prayer. Like a golden thread, it runs all through the won- derful book. The Bible never loses the sense of dependence upon God, and of God’s goodness to man. 7. It can be studied profitably by the different forms of civilization, the different modes of society, and the different countries under which its writers lived and wrote their words immortal. 8. A popular way of studying the Bible is by covenants or dispensations. For example, the dis- pensation from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abra- ham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Christ, who made God’s eternal covenant with man, unfolding thus God’s purposes in humanity. (Hebrews 13:20.) The covenant is one of the fun- damental ideas of the Bible and one of the most suggestive. 9. The Bible may be studied topically; as for THE BIBLE AND Its USE nD example, the light it throws upon civilization, upon questions of war and peace, and upon the ideas of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, upon character and upon life and death. 10. A valuable way to go through the Bible to- day would be with reference to the existing con- ditions in State, Church and Society. It is a book of social service. The prophets of Israel, espe- cially, dealt in a most thorough way with the very questions that are arising now between rich and poor—questions of labor, and property, and money. One is almost surprised when he studies the Bible with that as the guiding principle, to find that the struggle for social justice is so completely and luminously treated. 11. Another fruitful line of study would be the rise and fall of nations. The principles that build and those that break are featured. The Bible con- tains a complete history of the beginnings, the principles and the nature of freedom. Here we find the substance and inspiration of all such docu- ments as the Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence. From first to last the Bible stands for equality, brotherhood, and mutual service among men. 12. The institutions of the human race would afford another valuable study course through the Seriptures. The family, the tribe, the court, the 76 THe DISCIPLES tabernacle, the temple, the synagogue, the school and the Church. 13. We may study the Bible with reference to the Great Beyond. The New Testament has the demonstration and the last word on this, the most important of all man’s passions. The 28th Chap- ter of Matthew, the 14th Chapter of John and the 15th Chapter of 1 Corinthians answer every rea- sonable question of head and heart about death and the Great Beyond. 14. But the supreme way to study the Bible is to use it as the revelation of the will of God and to have the conscience, the heart, the will and the mind educated to do His will as the whole duty and the whole happiness of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14.) Supremacy of the Bible The Bible is the supreme treasure of the human race. It is the literary expression of the mind of God on the subject of man’s nature, his needs, his duties, his possibilities and his eternal destiny. It is more to him than all books of science, law, art, statescraft, literature, more even than civilization. It is more because it deals with that which is of supreme value to man—his soul, his conduct, and his eternity. It is more to him because it is an inspired book that inspires. If all the achieve- ments of science and invention—which we regard as being the greatest instruments of man’s material welfare—were blotted out the Bible would continue THE BIBLE AND Its USE fit so to energize, arouse, envision, and give to man the desire to make the most out of himself, and the altruistic passion to make the most out of others, that he would take up again the fascinating and rewarding search for the secrets and the blessings of nature. Where there is an open Bible and free- dom of action the long, glorious march of lberty will be continued and schools, churches, states, nations and great and good men will be made to lead the peoples on. The heart to work will be kept beating with enthusiasm and the dark experi- ences of life will not erush men. Life will stead- ily grow into greater wonder and majesty because the feet of humanity will be guided in the path that grows brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. As we launch forth on the great adventure, by which we fare forth beyond sun, moon, and stars, we shali go out unafraid and conscious of the Great Presence if we have the Bible in our hands. When Sir Walter Scott, the literary idol of all who love beautiful books, the man of clean life and noble ideals, was dying he said to Loekhart, his son-in-law : ‘Bring me the Book.’’ ‘“What book?’’ asked Lockhart. **The Book,’’ said Sir Walter; ‘‘the Bible; there is but one.’’ And through the Bible which was given him he got glimpses of the Shining Ones coming down to the river to meet him. CHAPTER V THE CHURCH AND ITS PURPOSE HE Church of which we are thinking in this chapter is the Church of which Jesus Christ said, ‘‘On this rock I will build my Church; and the powers of Hades shall not succeed against it.”’ (Matt. 16:18. Moffatt.) It is the Church which the Disciples are seeking to restore and to propa- gate. Its survival in spite of every kind of oppo- sition from its enemies, and its growth and prog- ress notwithstanding the neglect, the strife and the misrepresentation of its friends, marks it as the miracle of history. It has had no army to protect it or to enforce its ideas. It controls no societies of wealth so that it would be possible for it to put the iron ring of want around those who might not agree with its aims and work. The early Church had not, neither has the Chureh today, such alliance with any earthly government that it could disseminate its doctrines or build its organization by force. Yet it has lived and does live and is the strong- est, the most mobile, agile, forward-looking, inclu- sive, industrious and wide-awake body in the world. Of all the general organizations on earth the Church alone kept its morale during the World 78 THE CHURCH AND ITs PURPOSE 79 War. We confidently believe that no shock nor terror of the future can overthrow it or perma- nently hurt it. The Origin of the Church The Church was instituted by Jesus Christ. He said, ‘‘I will build my Church.’’ It is therefore, of divine origin and continues to be upheld, di- rected and used as the body of Jesus Christ acting in the field of human experience. 1. The Church idea roots back into the Old Tes- tament era. Through many centuries God has had a people whom he ealled out from the world. These people known to us as the Jews were a na- tion, rather than a Church, but God’s purposes for the peoples of earth were lodged in them. They became the apostles of the divine ideal, and prepared the world for the coming of Christ and his Church. 2. But the Church is a New Testament institu- tion. In the nature of the case there could not be a Church of Jesus Christ until after he lived his hfe as a revelation and manifestation of God’s purposes, died on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and was buried and arose from the dead to bring life and immortality to lght through the gospel. 3. How Christ built his Church may be easily traced in the New Testament. He called about him disciples and apostles to whom he gave the 80 THE DISCIPLES message of God for the peoples of earth. He called together a people, gave them a doctrine, and im- parted to them a power. The people are the Church, the doctrine is the gospel and the power is the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church for interpretation, cleansing, guidance and perpetual awakening and inspiration. 4. The Church is perpetually renewed by the streams of people who are won by its preaching to accept Christ as the Son of God, to own Him as Master, and Lord, to seek his presence in the com- munion, his comfort in the promises, and his train- ing in the teaching. ‘‘The essence of the Church lies in the Savior who reigns and the people he governs. Where he is there is his Chureh; and where he reigns, there are his people.’’ 5. An illustration of how the Church was di- vinely organized and divinely perpetuated may be seen in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apos- tles. Jesus Christ who had ascended to heaven and been crowned both Lord and Christ, after his crucifixion and resurrection poured out the Hoiy Spirit upon his apostles, and inspired them to preach the gospel with tongues of fire. The people heard, believed, repented, confessed Christ, were baptized into his Name and added to the Church. 6. To become a member of the Church it is neces- sary to have an inner experience, an outward ex- pression, a divine blessing, and a new social at- THE CHURCH AND ITS PURPOSE 81 tachment. The inner experience is to hear and believe the gospel, and to repent of sin. The out- ward expression is to confess Christ as Lord and be immersed in his name. The divine blessing is to have God remit one’s sins and grant him the gift of the Holy Spirit. The new social alignment is to become a member of the visible organization. These things performed with the spirit and un- derstanding make one a member of the Church as it is in the sight and intention of God. (Acts 2 :36, 37, 38, 42, 47.) All of this is profoundly spiritual. It reaches the depth of the relationship between God and man, and between man and man. It is to have the eternal atonement by which we are made one with God, and an abiding reconciliation with our fellowmen. It is the greatest spiritual revolution the soul ean experience in this world. Its symbol and power is the eross. (See also Chapter X in this book.) The Nature of the Church It is an error to think of the Church as being only ‘‘another human organization’’ or a kind of sacred or religious lodge for the people who wish that kind of association. It partakes of the divine nature for it is sublimely described as ‘‘the Church of the living God,’’ and in a beautiful and familiar way, with a speech I trust we all under- stand as “‘the house of God’’ (1 Timothy 3:15), 82 THE DISCIPLES ‘‘the habitation of God’’ (Ephesians 2:22) and it is called ‘‘his body’’ (Ephesians 1:23). It is thus a Shekinah, a perpetual incarnation, and the in- strument of Christ’s work in the world—his army, his herald and his school. Let the Church there- fore be considered a divine institution. In the field of history ‘‘the Church he (Christ) founded was not a state, a hierarchy, a coercive authority, a kingdom of this world, but a spiritual society, consisting of those who, by a faith like Peter’s in Jesus Christ himself, are built into him as lively stones.’’ The Church is both an organization and an or- ganism. As an organization it is equipped with officers and directors. ‘These are chosen by the members in a democratic way. It is their part in the management of the Church. It is their high privilege of co-operating with God in the enter- prise of serving humanity. As an organism the Church has a life that is perpetually extending it- self and depositing the energy and cutting out the new channels through which the divine life flows into the world. Both as an organization and as an organism the Church is an instrument of the Holy Spirit who saves it from crystallizing and falling into a erude and stereotyped manner of doing things. The Church like Paul must die daily but it is also re- THE CHURCH AND ITS PURPOSE 83 newed day by day by the inflow of the divine life through teaching and prayer. 1. The Church is the society of Jesus. (Eph. 5: 25-27.) He is its Lord, its head, its director. It is spoken of as the body of Christ. (Eph. 5:29, 30.) He is always to be found in the midst of his Chureh, as symbolized in the book of Revelation by ‘‘seven golden candlesticks.’’ (Rev. 1:12-16.) Hence among the designations of members of the apostolic church was the name ‘‘Christian.’’ They had been made over and were filled with Christ’s spirit. His mark was upon them. Their character was a Christian character. They were like Christ. Christ was in them, the experience and the hope of glory. So that when Peter and John appeared be- fore the council and spoke with boldness it was written, ‘‘They marvelled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.’’ (Acts 4: 18.) The Church of Christ is the beginning of the New Humanity. 2. The Church is a society of believers. Dr. R. F.. Horton truly says: Although a systematic doctrine of the Church is neither to be found nor to be looked for in the New Tes- tament, certain characteristic notes or features of the Christian Society are brought before us from which we can form some conception as to its nature. The funda- mental note is faith. It was to Peter confessing his faith in Christ that the promise came, ‘‘Upon this rock will I build my church’’ (Matt. 16:18). Until Jesus 84 THE DISCIPLES found a man full of faith He could not begin to build His church; and unless Peter had been the prototype of others whose faith was like his own, the walls of the Church would never have arisen into the air. Primarily the Church is a society not of thinkers or workers or even of worshipers, but of believers. Hence we find that ‘‘be- lievers’’ or ‘‘they that believed’’ is constantly used as a synonym for the members of the Christian society (e. g., Acts 2:44; 4:32; 5:14; 1 Tim. 4:12). Hence, too, the rite of baptism, which from the first was the condition of entrance into the apostolic church and the seal of mem- bership in it, was recognized as preeminently the sacra- ment of faith and of confession (Acts 2:41; 8:13-36; Rom. 6:4; 1 Cor. 12:13). This church-founding and church-building faith, of which baptism was the seal, was much more than an act of intellectual assent. It was a personal laying hold of the personal Savior, the bond of a vital union between Christ and the believer which resulted in nothing less than a new creation (Rom. 6:4; 8:1, 2; 2 Cor. 5:17). 3. The Church is a brotherhood. In the New Testament its members are called ‘‘brethren.’’ It put the brotherhood idea into the world and has acted by that doctrine through the centuries. A true Church is organized love. ‘‘Love the brother- hood’’ is a divine injunction. This love did not end merely in kind feelings and civil conduct of the members toward one an- other. It was seen also in the fellowship of giving. In the earliest chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, we find that there was a community of goods es- tablished. People sold all they had and made a THe CHURCH AND ITS PURPOSE 85 common fund. This was distributed ‘‘unto each according as any one had need.’’ There was a wonderful, sacrificial stewardship—‘‘not one of them said that aught of the things which he pos- sessed was his own.’’ (Acts 4:32.) The idea of a common possession was purely voluntary and later became so modified that we do not hear of it again. But it did not die. It only changed form. After this Jerusalem incident, stewardship be- came the ideal expression of consecration and brotherhood. A man is bound to use what he has, as being the possession of God, while he himself is its agent. The brotherhood idea was further emphasized in the meetings of which the Lord’s Supper was the central fact. They came to the Communion to learn of Christ, to experience Christ. They came as brethren. They were all equal before him. There was no vanity, no rank and order, no caste. Christ was the Master and they were brethren. 4. The Church is a character-building society. Hence one of the names of the early Christian was ‘‘saint.’’ God called out a people to purify them unto himself. One of the most striking facts in the early Church was the emphasis placed upon char- acter. So much was stress laid upon this, so fine were the characters produced by it, and so great 86 THE DISCIPLES was the contrast to heathen character and ethics that the Christians were called a third race. True to the apostolic doctrine and practice, the Church is valued still by the high type of men and women it produces. Greater than writing litera- ture, painting pictures, organizing states or invent- ing wonderful machines is the making of the new character in Christ Jesus. It is character by re- generation and it is fostered and grown to perfec- tion by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 5. The Church is a society of learners. One of the names for its members often used in the New Testament, is ‘‘disciples.’’ Disciple means learner. Every one who belongs to the Church, if he is a good Church member, is a perpetual learner in the things and ways of Jesus Christ. This name for the Christian is used oftener than any other in the New Testament. It is beautiful in humility. It carries the picture of Jesus sitting on the mount, preaching the immortal sermon, while his disciples are seated about him with radiant, eager faces, learning his ‘‘ wonderful words of life.’’ No finer illustration of the Church exists. 6. The Church is a society of saviors. We gather this from Paul’s statement that he becomes all things to all men that by all means he might save some. (1 Cor. 9:22.) Our Master taught the same when he told his disciples they were the salt of the earth and the light of the THE CHURCH AND Its PURPOSE 87 world. One of the best definitions of the Church we know is as follows: The Church is the association of those who love, in the service of those who suffer. Its highest influence is to inspire men and women to live by love and to work by love; its highest service to ‘“‘rescue the perishing and care for the dying.’’? (See also pp. 59-60.) Mission of the Church This phase of the subject has been anticipated in the preceding section, but for the sake of clear- ness and fulness we must set it forth directly, as well as indirectly. Besides, there is much not yet said on this topic. The mission of the Church is the mission of the Master. Whatever he did while he was in the world the Church must do. It fulfills all its duty by making known Christ’s purposes and by inspir- ing men with his spirit. This invests the soul with the power that will energize it to live the life and bear the fruits Jesus intended. He meant it as a saving environment for the individual; and through individuals, a redeeming power for soci- ety. That means to organize society for good in- stead of evil. It sets up the task of making good men and women as the supreme duty. That is its redemptive work. (Luke 24:46-49.) The whole power of the Church is to be used to that end. 88 THE DISCIPLES That is the object of all the forces, offices, organi- zations and personalities of the Church. It lifts altruism into the realm of the spiritual and gives us the higher Christian ranges of the grand old commandment, ‘‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ’’ ‘“‘And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, * * * * unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of man, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ.”’ (Ephesians 4:11-15.) The final purpose of God wrought out in this world is seen in redeemed men and women. 1. The supreme power of the Church in redeem- ing the race is to reveal God as Father and to show men how to live together as his children. This was Christ’s mission in the world. He said in his Upper Room prayer that he had made God known to his disciples that they might have the eternal life which comes from God and Christ. (John 17: 3, 4.) 2. The second help in redeeming the race is wit- ness bearing. (Acts 1:8.) There are two or three THE CHURCH AND [TS PURPOSE 89 ways in which witness may be borne. (a) There is the witness of character. A Christian is a burn- ing bush out of which God speaks. We must live as Christ lived. No one can doubt Christ inearnate in righteous men and women. (b) A second way is by knowing the New Testament and teaching it. (ce) A third is by worship. This involves ehureh attendance. Public worship is a powerful and winsome witness of the reality and presence of God. Often those who come to church to scoff will remain to pray when they see others at prayer. (d) Preaching the Word and hymn-singing are methods of testifying for God. True preaching is revelation. (e) The administration of the ordi- nances also bears witness to the authority, goodness and power of God and Christ, and to the cleansing and joy-giving presence of the Holy Spirit. 3. The Church is charged with the task of con- serving truth. It is called the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Tim. 3:15.) This commits the Church to complete friendliness to truth wherever found. It should be the friend of science, as well as it is of religion. It should be the pillar and ground of the truth as respects positive, constructive move- ments and reforms. It is fatal for the Church to be on the wrong side, or silent when great moral erises arise. The Church is the eustodian of the Bible. It is 90 THE DISCIPLES to guard it sacredly and build by it industriously. It must broadcast it to the world in every way pos- sible. The truth that makes men free is in the New Testament. Conflicts between heterodoxy and orthodoxy, and strife between the faithful and the heretical are to be greatly deplored. Nevertheless it is the first duty of the Church to guard its trust of the Bible, and see that no irreverent adventurer casts doubt upon its divine origin or sublime truths. It is like keeping the fountains of life pure from poison and contamination. This is peculiarly the duty of the scholars of the Church and it reminds us that nothing is more needed in the Church than thor- oughly reverent and honest Christian scholars. By this is meant not simply men who have a gen- eral belief in religion but men who believe in a personal God, in his Son Jesus Christ, men who give themselves up to the leadership of his spirit, who love God and their fellowmen, and who believe the Bible to be the word of God. 4. The program of the Church for spreading these needful and sublime ideas is given by Jesus Christ himself in Matt. 28:18-20. It is a wonder- ful program, reaching as far as the farthest man of the race, going as deep as his utmost needs, and enduring to the last year of time. This means, taken as a whole, that it is the duty of the Church to Christianize all mankind, in every THE CHURCH AND ITs PURPOSE 91 department of life and in all its works, pleasures, recreations and associations. It means the creation of a complete Christian order, the enlargement of the Church itself to be coterminous with all races and nations. Christ thought in the largest terms and gave his bigness of vision and spirit of adven- ture to his followers. The power of the Church is to be found in preaching, baptizing and teaching, and this is per- petually renewed by the presence of Christ who never fails a loyal people. The Church’s Power and Influence Jesus told his disciples that whatsoever they bound on the earth should be bound in heaven. He gave to them the keys of the kingdom, which meant in a large way that the Church is to fix the destiny of mankind. Its continuing and increasing power shows that this is to be the case. The Church has always dealt with spiritual forces that are indestructible, divine and eternal. The heart of the world is crying out for these things today and has been all through history. It never gives a stone when a hungry heart asks for bread. A holy Church is the true guide for society. It keeps love alive in the world. It keeps faith alive in the world. It puts men in mind of their own souls and is in perpetual warfare with what harms hu- manity. The Church is indeed a society of saviors. It shows a lost world the way home to the Father. CHAPTER VI THE ORDINANCES AND THEIR REASON T would be more nearly correct to speak of Christian ordinances than of Church ordinances. The Church itself has neither the authority nor the spiritual genius to establish a symbol binding upon the followers of the Master. Only Christ could appoint a symbol which would be binding, enrich- ing and satisfying enough for an ordinance to ex- press the language of the soul seeking the presence and blessing of God. The ordinances are in na- ture sacraments and indeed are almost universally so designated. The Latin word sacramentum meant to the Roman mind, the oath of allegiance taken by a soldier to a general. It came to mean, in Christian thought, a sacred covenant. We like to think of the ordinances as the soul’s oath of loyalty to the Great Captain of our salvation. The sacraments or ordinances are the physical acts by which the benefits of the new covenant are repre- sented, sealed and applied to believers. Says Dr. W. W. Clow, ‘‘Sacraments are those rites or or- dinaneces which have been instituted to symbolize the truths of the spirit evident to the soul, by the things of nature evident to the senses.’’ An idea worthy of much study because it shows how deeply rooted in reality the ordinances are. 92 THE ORDINANCES AND THEIR REASON 93 How the Ordinances Arose The ordinances accepted and taught generally by the Protestant churches, because taught in the New Testament, are Baptism and the Lord’s Sup- per. They were both appointed by Jesus Christ before the Church itself came into existence. The Master gave them, the Church administered them. The day of Pentecost is almost universally re- garded as the birthday of the Church. But the Master established the Supper the same night in which he was betrayed. He anticipated the mighty fact it was to memorialize in the most solemn and impressive manner. He caught the high, tender mood of the Upper Room and perpetuated it for- ever in this ordinance of the heart, this seal of an eternal friendship. Baptism was commanded after his resurrection and just before his ascension. It would appear that before that hour he had not spe- cifically set his own authority upon it. He never baptized in water. But now when he would es- tablish a great loyalty he appointed this expressive rite. Neither Baptism nor the Lord’s Supper was ob- served with full Christian content until the estab- lishment of the Church and the proclamation of the gospel on the day of Pentecost. They came in as symbols to mediate and unite the deeper things of the Spirit and the more external things of or- ganization. They are, therefore, both inward and 94. THE DISCIPLES outward, and no matter how much abused—and surely they have been used badly enough—they still impart a power that can come from no other source. The Church is to give them perpetually to those for whom they are divinely intended till the end of the ages for the purpose which Christ meant when he appointed them. Only Two Ordinances The Greek and Roman Catholic churches teach that there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Con- firmation, the Lord’s Supper, Penance, Extreme Unetion, Ordination and Matrimony. When the Reformers detected the corruptions of the Church in their day and brought its doctrines and practices to the test of the Word of God, they found that the ceremonies observed under the names of Confirmation, Penance and Extreme Unc- tion had no warrant in Scripture, and that Or- dination and Matrimony, though certainly divine institutions, are not symbolical ordinances, are not applicable to all believers as such and that they were not instituted by Jesus Christ. Matrimony is one of the oldest institutions in the world. It is holy and essential both to the home and to society, but it is as much of the State as of the Church. This does not detract from its essential sacredness and obligatory meaning, but it removes marriage from the category of the sacraments. Confirma- tion, Penance, and Extreme Unction are church THE ORDINANCES AND THEIR REASON 95 eustoms. The last two have been attended by great abuses, not to say scandals. Only Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were ap- pointed by Christ himself for perpetual and ever- lasting observance as ordinances or rites and they alone have any obligatory claims as such in the New Testament Church. Hence the Disciples prac- tice these alone as true Church ordinances and not the least of their contributions has been to help fix them in their proper places in Christian experi- ence and worship, and to exalt them again in the honor and appreciation of Christians. Why Ordinances at All One or two religious groups have discarded them entirely as having no place in a spiritual religion but these bodies have made little progress. If every other church had dismissed them, those bod- ies which reject them entirely could not have been held together. Yet it is fair and profitable to ask why ordinances at all, and there is no embarrass- ment in finding justification for them in reason as well as in the Scriptures. The necessity for such ordinances arises from the constitution of human nature itself. Man con- sists of a body by which he is connected with the material world; of a soul that unites him with so- ciety ; and of a spirit, by which he has communion with the eternal. The ordinances are based upon the necessity for social utterance of these three 96 THE DISCIPLES aspects of man’s nature. They may be arbitrary signs and expressions, as it is possible speech may be, but they are essential to the utterance of feel- ings, dreams and ideals too deep for words, too spiritual for analysis and too intuitional for cold, formal logic. Yet when tested by the most rigid logie they stand. ‘They are justified by history and experience; they are organized into, and inter- woven with, the constitution of the Church. They are the answer of God to the deep prayer of hu- manity and the answer of man to the loving call of God. (1 Peter 3:21.) They are rooted in the Seriptures so that wherever the Bible is taken as a rule of faith and practice these ordinances exist. They could not be broken down without greatly impairing, perhaps without completely destroying the power and spirituality of organized Christian- ity. The ordinances, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, answer in a very unique and remarkable way to the ideas of modern psychology. By so much as that is scientific these ordinances are scientific. If there is such a thing as the subconscious mind into which pass the impressions of experiences, mem- ories, facts and ideas, where they form a kind of reserve that comes into active service in times of crisis and perpetually rise up to give color and sub- stance to thought and life, then Baptism and the Lord’s Supper must be reckoned as among the THE ORDINANCES AND THEIR REASON 97 most useful of all experiences, helps and dynamics stored away in the subconscious mind or in the conscious memory. No man who acted in good faith when baptized ever forgets his baptism, and life is perpetually refreshed and sweetened by the Lord’s Supper. If there is anything in the hy- pothesis of ‘‘suggestion,’’ the Christian ordinances are to be considered the most powerful influences that can be projected into the soul. ‘‘God works through a power of newness of life which arises within the needy soul. The gifts of God wait upon something that happens in the minds of men, some profound, burning, passionate, conviction of the whole mind conscious and subconscious.’’ The conviction that causes man to sift his own soul and search for God in the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, gives God entrance into man’s mind, into his essential being. It is a scientific, psychological basis of the power of a ceremony. It shows the enlightenment by the ordinances. It is explained in the Word, ‘‘If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God.’’ Symbol is not reality but it is a help or guide to reality. The musical staff is not music, not reality, but it leads to it. People could not sing together without observing symbols, nor can they find spiritual reality without observing ritual. Civilization could not exist without ritual, neither ean a Church. 98 THE DISCIPLES It is at this point that religion presses art into service. The ritual of religion is its drama of the heart and soul, its picture of the idea that would otherwise be forever hidden, and the method by which vision is made experience. One had as well deny the service of art to culture and life as the service of the ordinances to religious experience. A quotation from Dr. Georges Duhamel, the emi- nent French writer, illustrates the idea. He de- clares: It cannot be said any longer that pure art is of no use: it helps us to live. It helps us to live, in the most practical manner and every day. Every moment you make instinctive, reiterated, and forcible appeals to all forms of art. And that not only in order to express your thought, but still more and above all to shape your thought, to think your thought. You find yourself in the midst of a landscape, and there is an image at the back of your eye. The manner in which you accept and interpret this image bears the mark of your personality and also of a crowd of other personalities which you call to your aid without knowing it. You live in a sonorous universe where everything is rhythm, tone, number and harmony: human voices, the great sounds of nature, the artificial uproar of society envelops you in a vibrant and complex network that you ought unceasingly to decipher and translate. Well, this you cannot do without submitting to the influence of the great souls who have occupied themselves with these things. The understanding of movements, harmonies, rhythms, only comes to you at the moment when the THE ORDINANCES AND THEIR REASON 99 musicians reveal their secret to you, since they have been able, in some fashion, to interest you in them. In the same way Christianity is helped by the ordinances which have come out of its life, as has music, architecture, the Church, a new culture, and a new and purer social atmosphere. Ordinances or rites are essential to the life of society itself. They express and intensify the right relationship between people. Handshaking is the ritual of friendship. The handshake is not friendship but an expression of it and by that fact fosters and increases friendship. It is likely that friendship would perish from among men if hand- shaking were to cease. We end quarrels by it. We express the consummation of profound unions by it. John Smith and B. W. Stone at the union of the ‘‘Disciples’’ and ‘‘Christians’’ shook hands as a symbol of the consummated union. The ab- stract and somewhat fantastic expression, ‘‘ Hands across the sea,’’ has made a real contribution to international friendship. The mental picture it draws has wrought a charm. ‘‘Symbols then enter largely into the daily life of any community that has a past in common. Certain actions stand as the expression of certain inner realities’? and make them more certain in the soul, in life, and in society by expressing them. ‘‘The expression is in no sense a pretense; it is the only way, or at least the commonly accepted way, 100 THE DISCIPLES of manifesting forth a reality which otherwise could not be seen or heard or touched.’’ Manners and morals are much more intimately connected than most people imagine. Break down man- ners and you have certainly destroyed the first line of defense for morals. The habit of saying ‘‘good morning,’’ even though a habit, contributes much to optimism, and helps to make many a happy day. These illustrations show the depth of our every day unconscious ritual; but how much more power- ful it becomes, when given as the solemn act of a body of people, and the quest and expression of God’s will, in such symbols as Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. There has been much discussion, bitter and de- plorable, over these rites, but that shows their deep hold on men’s hearts. It may even be doubted whether Christianity could have lived as a force in life and history without them. How long would Masonry last without the lodge and the ritual? When the early Christians were driven into the catacombs and eaves of the mountains, these ordi- nances kept memory alive; memory vitalized faith; faith inspired loyalty; loyalty held them to one another and to Christ, and thus it came to pass that the young Church was indestructible. Marks of True Ordinances The problem connected with the Christian or- dinances has always been to make them real; to THE ORDINANCES AND THEIR REASON 101 have them physical and outward, and at the same time to keep them so they would minister to the spiritual life instead of promoting legalism and superstition. To fulfill such an office they must have several characteristics : 1. They must be simple, so simple as not to be mistaken for reality within themselves; so simple that they can be performed any time, anywhere under proper circumstances. If they did not pos- sess this quality, only a few could ever observe them. Suppose the memorial to Christ required a Taj Mahal of white alabaster, with its crystal and marble and exquisite peacock throne of precious stones, with its cost of millions, and the years necessary to construct it and the artistic glory it embodies—instead of being the simple supper it is —who could observe it? Suppose it required a pilgrimage to Christ’s tomb in order to show proper worship—how many would keep up their love for him? And would not those who erected the magnificent structure, or made the long, tire- some pilgrimage, imagine that they had thereby purchased their own cleansing from sin? That would, indeed, make the ordinances misleading. 2. The ordinances must be of such a character that they cannot be used idolatrously. The Lord’s Supper has at times been almost so treated. This is a blasphemous abuse that can only be prevented by keeping close to the simplicity of the New Tes- 102 THE DISCIPLES tament. The ordinances must be used to make Christ more real, not to obscure him. 3. The ordinances must be fitting symbolically. Such are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In them both the sacrificial and sacramental system of Christianity are pictured. The Lord’s Supper is the emblem of the blood shed on the cross, while Baptism is a pictorial enactment of the death, bur- ial, resurrection and beginning of the new life in Jesus Christ. 4. They must be connected with character build- ing, not magically, but in the same way that lan- guage is, as the outward expression of inner thought and purpose. They must carry an enlight- ening message, a purifying consecration, and a strengthening inspiration. Christianity has mys- tical and miraculous aspects but there is not a tinge of magic in it and whoever treats it super- stitiously, mechanically, or commercially, has missed its whole genius and power. 5. The ordinances must carry true and valuable social implications, like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. For they put men forth confessing the highest principles; aiming at the sublimest char- acter; and uniting themselves together as brothers. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are social as well as religious ordinances. Through them, one de- clares himself a social force, as well as a saved soul. They are intended for others, as well as for THE ORDINANCES AND THEIR REASON 103 those receiving them. They are the sign and seal, the bond and ratification, of the relationship of souls in ‘‘the beloved community.’’ By them the man who has chosen Christ brings his new life out into the open. 6. They must be intended to connect the soul with God. In their deepest nature, they are of the essence of worship. For man performs them to show his faith and love, and to make himself more worthy of the possible greatness of his own soul. The ordinances partake of the nature of prayer. 7. To be Christian, a symbol must be authorita- tive and not merely accidental or the outgrowth of custom. In a good sense it must be arbitrary, for then the acceptance of it owns Christ’s right to make tests of men’s sincerity. A man may ac- cept or reject it, thus showing also the sovereignty of his spirit. There can be no reasonable doubt of the spiritual validity of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. What is needed, is not to decry them, neglect them. nor alter them as some do, but to live on the spiritual levels to which they lift us in the golden glow of our first love for Christ, the life to which we pledge ourselves when we pass under the spell of the Three Great Names. No Substitutes for the Ordinances The question will arise to those who reflect upon the ordinances from every point of view, why the 104 THE DISCIPLES Church might not acceptably change them or in- vent substitutes that would seemingly suit its own environment and age better. The idea should be treated fairly. An all-sufficient answer would be that no such ehange is needed. All the elements of compre- hensiveness and adaptability inhere in those we already have. They express just what one wishes to have expressed, and they carry with them the riches, the sacredness and the flavor of two thou- sand years of observance by people dedicating their lives to Christ, and seeking to feel the flame of his life warming their hearts. They were given by Christ. That alone en- shrines them, as they are, sacredly in the Christian heart. It is an inexpressible satisfaction to have something just as Christ gave it, to do something just as Christ directed it. To change the ordinances would introduce a lib- erty which holds great possibilities of harm. If the ordinances can be changed why not anything else? Where would the revisions stop? Senti- ment, authority, expediency, and utility are- against substituting anything for the ordinances as Christ delivered them to his Church. The principle involved may be illustrated by a beautiful and penetrating paragraph from an essay on poetry by the English poet, John Drinkwater. He points out that poet after poet uses the same Tue ORDINANCES AND THEIR Reason 105 metrical forms, although they might invent others. This is because the poet’s instinct tells him that they are the right and natural ones for language to fall into. He says: But the strange and wonderful thing is that each poet, while he adds to his authority by using these traditional forms, is able to impress them with his own personal sense of rhythm in such a way that they never grow stale, and are indeed new things with each new poet who uses them. The old summer returns—the same old wonder- ful, beautiful summer, but the green verdure with which the trees cover themselves and the fresh flowers blooming are as ‘‘marvellously new, as truly exciting discoveries for us when we see them as though there had never been such life before.”’ So the poet Sees and feels and questions out of his individual life, until ‘the old experience is transfigured into something radiantly new and interesting, and he breathes into the old forms of poetry his own delighted sense of rhythm, until they too become fresh and vivid as the flowers that come to us with untiring wonder year by year. In the same way, the Christian ordinances are forever new and fresh, divine tokens, divine assur- ances, wonderful experiences and realities for each soul coming to Christ. We would not wish to change the world’s great poems, nor its miracle of musie and musical forms, nor the roses, nor the summer, nor Baptism nor the Lord’s Supper. CHAPTER VII BAPTISM, THE FAITH ORDINANCE Eee many centuries baptism has been a storm- center in ecclesiastical and theological think- ing, and it is still the occasion of much earnest, if not acrimonious, debate. But with the New Testa- ment in our hands, it ought not to be hard to de- cide its place in spiritual experience. It should be thought of, and received, in the same spirit in which we approach prayer, or the Lord’s Supper. We should neither over-emphasize nor undervalue it. It has a place in the organization of spiritual- ity, and of the Church. The Place of Baptism Baptism is mentioned directly or indirectly in the New Testament no less than 115 times. The forerunner of Christ was called John the Baptist, because he preached in the wilderness and bap- tized those who came unto him. Jesus himself was baptized, declaring as his reason—‘‘thus it be- cometh us to fulfill all righteousness.’’ This shows that Baptism is a spiritual experience and not a dogma; for Jesus Christ was neither a ‘“‘literalist’’ nor a ‘‘legalist.’’ To have due respect unto God’s appointments, to perform them literally, as nearly 106 BaPpTisM, THE FaltH ORDINANCE 107 as possible, and to preach them earnestly, is not to fight against the deeper spiritual life, but on the other hand, it is to contend for it. There was a difference between the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus. Indeed, their dis- ciples seem to have clashed over their respective claims, and sects of John’s followers persisted for a considerable time after his death. But John rec- ognized in Jesus the Messiah, and Jesus declared John the greatest born among women, and yet de- clared that he had not attained unto the greatness of the Kingdom. There was much in common in the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus— for example the form and the rigid ethical de- mands of both. Both were also the challenges of a great opportunity. As to the purpose of John’s baptism, he was once asked by a deputation from Jerusalem why he baptized, and he replied in substance that it was to introduce Jesus. (John 1:25-28.) He de- elared that he was a voice preparing the way for Jesus. John’s baptism was temporal; Jesus’ baptism was permanent. John’s baptism was a kind of reformation; Jesus’ was a new life. John’s baptism was with reference to the first coming of Christ; Jesus’ baptism was with reference to his second coming. John’s baptism was for the Jews only; Jesus’ baptism was for the whole world. John’s 108 THE DISCIPLES baptism was for Christ about to appear; Jesus’ baptism was for Christ already come. John’s bap- tism was to prepare a people; Jesus’ baptism was to make way for a new spiritual order. John’s baptism contemplated only repentance and for- giveness of sin; Jesus’ baptism was for repentance, for remission of sins, for the confession of his Lord- ship, and for receiving the Holy Spirit. Christian Baptism is so deep that it is the sign, the seal, the beginning and the pledge of the new humanity Je sus came to create. ‘‘As many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.’’ (Gal. 3:27.) ‘‘If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.’ Jesus connected Baptism with the great commis- sion, directing those who preached the gospel to baptize and to teach also. Baptism is put into the same category with preaching and teaching. It links these mighty creative spiritual forces to the life of the individual both outwardly and inwardly and gives them practical result. All those who entered the early Church came in by the confes- sional act of Baptism which completed their con- version and declared the beginning of the new life. (Acts 2:47.) Who May be Baptized Baptism is the final form of the confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God. When the devout Ethiopian officer was ardently BaPTisM, THE FAITH ORDINANCE 109 seeking the realization of the lyric prophecies of Isaiah in his own soul, and discovered that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was the Suffering Servant who bore the sins of the world, and asked what hindered him to be baptized, he was told that he might if he believed with all his heart. On de- claring that he believed Jesus to be the Son of God, he was baptized. (Acts 8:32-39.) Baptism is for all those who would polarize their lives about Jesus Christ. Baptism is, therefore, for all who understand- ingly, intentionally and sacrificially accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and want to declare that fact to the world. It is for those who feel broken, crushed and disgraced by sin, and are determined to throw it off; it is for such as are of a broken heart and a contrite spirit; it is for all, who having never received it, want to enter upon a larger life with the gladness and sense of the liberty it gives— like Lydia; it is for those who would enter the beloved community known as the Church, who want to live in the love of God and by the word and name of the Master. (Acts 2:38; Acts 8:34- 39.) No mere formalist should be baptized—for Bap- tism is a vital experience. It can only be religious as it is done of one’s own choosing, with thought- ful purpose and conviction, with thirst for union with Jesus Christ and his people. Baptism leads 110 THE DISCIPLES into the experience of the love of God which has been the satisfaction and the ecstasy of the saints of all ages. Baptism cannot be received by proxy; the soul receiving it must have part in it. A true baptism always carries the full, glad consent of the heart of the person being baptized. ‘‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.’’ An unbeliever, a non-believer, an irresponsible person cannot be baptized. Even though he go through the form, it isnot Baptism. It requires the union of the will of God and the will of man to make a baptism valid. W hat Baptism Is By this we refer to the elements and the action of it. As such it consists of (1) an inner experi- ence; (2) of an outer form; and (3) a visible act. 1. The Inward Substance of Baptism As an action of the soul it is the experience of God through man’s desire to find him, to know him and to do his will. Its wonderful spiritual content may be judged from the fact that the candidate is baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This puts the divine, as well as the human, intent into Baptism. It is on the strength of the Great Commission (Matt. 28: 18-20) that the Three Names are invoked in Bap- tism. Sometimes baptism was only in the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 10:48; 19:5.) The calling BAPTISM, THE FAITH ORDINANCE 111 of the Three Names over the convert as he is being baptized expresses the prayer of the Chureh for him, as well as his own prayer for himself. It is an act of worship, for Jesus himself, by whom, in his own actions, it was first tied up with the Chris- tian teaching, received it with prayer. Baptism is the ery of the heart for the forgiveness of God. (See 1 Peter 3:21. Moffatt.) 2. The Outward Form of Baptism (a) The word baptizo is a Greek word. It is brought over into the English language without translation—Anglicized, as we say. The word means to dip, to plunge, to immerse. (b) This meaning is also established by exegesis of references to the subject in the New Testament. The context of the word when used, will not allow any other meaning but immersion. In the volume of ‘‘The International Critical Commentary’’ on Romans, by William Sanday and A. C. Headlam, both Oxford scholars, the follow- ing exegesis of the reference to Baptism in the sixth chapter of Romans is given: Baptism has a double function. (1) It brings the Christian into personal contact with Christ, so close that it may be fitly described as union with him. (2) It expresses symbolically a series of acts corre- sponding to the redeeming acts of Christ. Tao THE DISCIPLES Immersion = Death Submersion = Burial (the ratification of death) Emergence = Resurrection This shows at once that only immersion can be considered the Scriptural form of Baptism, and at the same time reveals its entire appropriateness for the expression of the spiritual experience and idea to be conveyed. (c) Likewise the figures and similes of Baptism in the New Testament all mean immersion. For example, ‘‘washing,’’ ‘‘laver of regeneration,”’ ‘‘burial,’’ ‘‘resurrection,’’ ‘‘suffering.”’ (d) The early history of the Church establishes the same fact. Sprinkling and pouring were in- troduced, and were allowable only in the emergency of sickness. In case of recovery, immersion was to be gone through with by the person having re- ceived affusion. This makes it more certain that the form of apostolic baptism was immersion. Sprinkling and pouring were introduced far this side of the days of the apostles; hence they are human substitutes for the divine appointment. 3. Outwardly, as Visible to Others Baptism is a visible act by which the witness of it understands that the one being baptized is dedi- eating his life to Christ and the Church. Baptism is the experience that translates one from being a non-Christian to being a Christian. BAPTISM, THE FAITH ORDINANCE 113 What Baptism Does for Us One of the obstacles to the proper interpretation of the teachings of Jesus has always been that his followers have insisted upon thinking of them theologically, instead of under the aspect of life, and nothing has suffered more in this respect than Baptism. It has been entangled with philosophy, theology, metaphysics and mysticism until it has seemed to some miraculous and to others supersti- tious. We get the true view of it only as we see that Christ gave us a way of life, and not a theo- logical system. Baptism is an open declaration of purpose to walk in that way, and it is an experi- ence that will help us to do so. This can be understood from the New Testament, and by the use made of Baptism in the apostolic Chureh. It is certain that it is not to be taken in any magical, commercial, formal, or miraculous sense. It is spiritual in purpose and intention, as we know from the New Testament, and from what follows in personal and social experience. The community accepts men at a different valuation after their baptism, and the baptized themselves have a different feeling and attitude to their own lives and to life in general. There are mystical aspects in Baptism—depths we cannot fathom; but it was intended to be followed by a new life, and we have noted that in thousands of instances a 114 THE DISCIPLES higher level of living is attained after Baptism and through Baptism. Even the baptism of Jesus was followed by (1) the open heaven—suggesting access to God; (2) the descending dove—meaning the full indwelling of the Holy Spirit; (8) and the voice of God de- claring him His beloved Son—the voice of assur- ance. If Baptism was a blessing to Jesus, who was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sin- ners, what must it be to sinful man who needs for- giveness, cleansing and every re-enforcement of his nature? Baptism feeds the inner life and gives a better outer environment. We begin to encompass the real meaning of Bap- tism when we pass over the controversial aspects and think of it in relation to character and per- sonality. What does not contribute to character and life has no place in the divine economy. In the New Testament ‘‘nothing moves with aimless feet.’’ Baptism is both initiatory and dedicatory but it goes much further. 1. It is a profound experience which, because of Spiritual intention, possesses a sacramental qual- ity. It is one of the most spiritual commitments by which the soul can express its devotion to God, and to his Church, and it undoubtedly has force in the making, development and quality of human character, yea, even of human personality. Char- BAPTISM, THE FAITH ORDINANCE 115 acter is built by motives and actions. It is the deposit of prayer wrought into permanent reality by conduct. This being true, Baptism has a pro- found connection with character, for it contains all the great dreams and resolutions that can work constructively in the human heart. 2. In Baptism one owns the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and girds himself with a great loyalty.. He becomes a member of Christ’s body, and hence roots his life in the soil of brotherhood. Since Baptism is an outward act it has important social implications. The baptized are united in the for- mation of a sacramental society. In the last anal- ysis, Baptism is the declaration of the faith and the desire to make Christ the Lord of society and to establish the fulness of spiritual kinship between his followers. Loyalty and fellowship are the corollaries of Baptism, and their finest product is Christian character. (Acts 2:36-38; 10:36.) 3. The second motive in Baptism is to break com- pletely with the old life of sin and follow Jesus Christ. It is a pledge to live the white life. It is the token given to God and society that one is de- termined to keep himself unspotted from the world. It is the effort of the true Christian knight to honor Christ by the white flower of a stainless life. It is in this sense that Baptism is for the re- mission of sins. Paul says in the sixth chapter of Romans that we are baptized ‘‘in order to crush 116 THe DISCIPLES the sinful body and free us from any further slavery to sin.’? (Moffatt.) Baptism, therefore, is an act in which one resolves to give up at any cost, or at all costs, the life of sin. That is a heroic hour when one takes up such a battle! And in Baptism one seeks the divine aid which comes in the gift of the Holy Spirit that helps all our in- firmities. (Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:26-29; Col. 3:1-17.) 4. Baptism expresses the passion to become united with Jesus Christ. The idea is a mystical one, but it is of the very essence of personal reli- gion. Nothing short of that has reality—nothing else satisfies the heart. The truly Christian soul wishes to enter into the earthly experiences of Je- sus Christ. This commits one to the sacrificial life. He becomes willing, he believes himself able, to be baptized with the baptism Jesus was baptized with (Mark 10:38-40). Love always wants the deepest union with the beloved. Baptism is a dramatic picture of the soul’s effort to enter into passions and experiences of Jesus Christ. ‘‘Our baptism in his death made us share his burial so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live and move in the new sphere of life.’ (Rom. 6:4. Moffatt.) 5. Paul taught that Baptism is the prophecy, per- haps even the beginning of the resurrection life. It is performed in view of that grand consumma- tion. When one is baptized, he declares that he is BAPTISM, THE F'AITH ORDINANCE 117 searching for immortality, and he begins at once to live forever. The Easter lily has blossomed in his heart with deathless beauty and fragrance. Paul says: ‘‘If we have grown into him by a death like his, we shall grow into him by a resurrection like his.’’? (Romans 6:5. Moffatt.) One who enters into Baptism intelligently, humbly and _ passion- ately seeking for God, undoubtedly has stirrings of the eternal life awakened in him in an unusual way. (Romans 8:11.) 6. Baptism is an experience that exalts the mind and makes the soul elate with the highest desires and resolutions. It has been ealled an enlighten- ment, and is near of kin to the ecstasy and pure rapture of the mystic; hence we read again in the New Testament: ‘‘If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.’’ (Col. 3:1-17.) It must be, therefore, that a quality ef heavenly mindedness is received in the service of Baptism. It stirs the innermost depths of being, _ and harnesses man to ideals and forees that de- velop him into Christlikeness. It gives visions of the open heavens, experiences of the Holy Spirit and assurances of acceptance with God akin to those which came to the Master when he was bap- tized in the river Jordan. (Matt. 3:13-17.) CHAPTER VIII THE LORD’S SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE HE sacrament, or ordinance, of which we are about to speak, which is observed every Lord’s Day in the churches at public worship, by eating a piece of a broken loaf, and drinking of the blood of the grape, is called by four wonderful names. Names by Which Known It is first known in the New Testament as the breaking of bread. (Acts 2:42-46.) It is still fit- tingly so ealled in many churches. In this supper Christ is our bread of life. The earliest name in Church history is eucharist. The word comes from the Greek word eucharista and means the giving of thanks. It was based upon the beautiful act of the Master himself, who, as he inaugurated it, gave thanks both for the loaf and for the cup, before partaking of them. (Matt. 26:27; Luke 22:17, 19; 1 Cor. 11:24.) This tender, reverent, humble act of praise and gladness shows the spirit of the Lord’s Supper. Besides, the Lord’s Table is the place of the broken heart and the contrite spirit ; but it is also the place where one overcomes, and rises out of the wreck, with the joy of love and victory upon his lips. The favorite name of the institution is The 118 Lorp’s SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE 119 Lord’s Supper. . (1 Cor. 11:20.) It is fittingly called a ‘‘supper’’ or a ‘‘meal’’ because it nour- ishes the soul of the disciple. It has been said that this was the name of the meal which accompanied the ordinance in the Greek churches, but that view is not strongly supported. It is plain that Lord’s Supper is a New Testament name. The Supper is also the ‘‘communion”’ because it is the fellowship of the soul with Christ. (1 Cor. 10:16, 17.) -This gives it the deepest significance, and the most pre- cious implications. It carries the social idea, as well as the religious, and puts the ordinance in the heart of the worship, as the emblem of reconcilia- tion and brotherhood. Origin and Perpetuity of the Lord’s Supper The occasion and place of its appointment reach the high water mark of spiritual friendship, of hope, of revelation, and of the assurance of divine forgiveness and love. It was the central fact, and the eternal influence, of the gathering in the Upper Room. It all bloomed out of the meeting and the hour, as naturally as the unfolding of a blossom. The apostles knew that the time of Christ’s departure was at hand, and in the solemn, mystical hour they were engaged in tender and sublime association. They clung close to him in the strange, awful pre- monition that he was soon to be taken away from them. As they were eating the paschal supper, 120 THE DISCIPLES Jesus took a loaf and a cup, and declared that they stood for his body and blood, broken and shed for them, and then he fixed the acts of assembly, of breaking bread and drinking the cup, as a per- petual service for the Church. After his ascension he met Paul somewhere— possibly during his retreat in Arabia (See Gala- tians 1:11-17) and gave him the ordinance (1 Cor. 11:23). Did he drink of the cup anew with Paul in his kingdom after the fashion of his self-revela- tion to the disciples in the supper at Emmaus? We cannot tell; but Paul declares that Christ gave it to him to deliver to the churches, to be observed ‘*till he come.’’ Thus the ordinance is of divine origin, and it is for the disciples in all ages, and in all countries, to the end of time (Matt. 26 :26- 29; Mark 14 :22-25; Luke 22 :14-20; and 1 Cor. 11: 23-25). In it Jesus touched those chords and impulses that are eternal in the human breast. As long as love lives, the Lord’s Supper or its equivalent must abide. Probably the 14th chapter of John, and possibly the 15th and 16th were his table talk at the first communion. Jesus revealed the glory of the Father’s house, and pointed the way to it. He promised ‘‘another comforter,’’ the Holy Spirit, and he declared that he was so close to his disciples that they were his friends, and that they depended upon him as the branches upon the vine Lorp’s SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE 121 for life and fruitage. His intercessory prayer (John 17) reveals the sentiments of unity that flow out of the Lord’s Supper. Not one soul there would ever want to forget that meeting in the Upper Room; and its flavor, sentiment, tenderness, and beauty have been per- petuated by this symbolic ordinance through all the centuries since. It has made every place wher- ever observed an Upper Room. It has made every home more sacred, because the Upper Room was in a private home. Jt caught the mood of love, the deep purpose of the crimson sacrificial life, and made it possible to reproduce them to the end of time. And it put the radiant hues of the after- glow of life, a touch of the eternal glory, upon the common heart. The Nature of the Lord’s Supper There has been much discussion on this point, and it has been contended by some that a real miracle, which changes the material elements into the actual body and blood of Christ, takes place in the elements. This view cannot be maintained by the Seriptures. Nor do experience and history support it. Nor is that kind of a miracle necessary to vitalize its power, and enforce its influence over the soul, and over the assembly of the saints. We are taught by the Scriptures to think of the Lord’s Supper under four different aspects. 1. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial. By it, see THE DISCIPLES memory reflects certain facts. It calls up a great history. ‘‘Do this in remembrance of me.’’ Not in memory of the few sweet, illumined, love-gloried, wonderful hours in the Upper Room, but of ‘‘me,’’ the Master. It brings before the participant, in addition to the Upper Room—Gethsemane, the judgment seat and the injustice suffered, with that sublime self-mastery, by the Master, at the courts of Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod; the coarse and cruel treatment by the soldiers; and then the Via Dolorosa, and Calvary at last! It whispers to him who partakes of it: ‘‘Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that he should give his only begotten Son to die on the Cross to save us from our sins.’’ There are many wonderful monuments in the world, but none so great as this one, for it calls millions of hearts to memory, to prayer and to love. Says Dr. James I. Vance: The Holy Supper tells the story of Christianity in the days of the apostles, and in all days since the apostles, in Christian lands and in all lands, in its apparent de- feats and in its unquestioned triumphs, whether regarded as a doctrinal system or a ritual of worship or an ethical revolution or a passion for a person or an enthusiasm for a kingdom. However Christianity may be regarded or estimated or interpreted, its entire story is packed into and inseparably bound up with the simple memorial ob- servance of the Holy Supper. 2. The Lord’s Supper is a communion. In the observance of it we get fresh contacts with Christ. LorD’S SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE 123 We experience the Master’s presence anew. As he gave the emblem he said: ‘‘I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’’ (Mark 14: 25.) This idea is emphasized by Paul. He says: ‘“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ?’’ (1 Cor. 10:16.) The power of the Lord’s Supper was not ex- hausted in that Upper Room long ago. Millions of upper rooms have come since where the table is spread. Christ’s presence and deathless love are again made real in the heart’s satisfactions, in the sense of forgiven sins, and in the con- scious peace and exaltation that steady the soul and sing in the bosom. The Supper tells us and we come to know for ourselves, that He lived not alone in the long ago, but that He is alive today, and to live forever more. It is essential Christian- ity to have this personal relationship with the Master. This is why the Lord’s Supper has power to purify the worldly, to comfort the sad, to re- veal to the slow of heart, to inspire the discouraged and to unite the estranged. In one of George MacDonald’s beautiful stories, the Highland mys- tic had a passion to see God. He had sought him in sunlight and in moonlight, in the mountain and by the sea, but without satisfaction. But one day 124 THE DISCIPLES in the communion they saw his face glow, and heard him say softly: ‘‘Father o’ Lights.’’ The vision had come as he partook of the Lord’s Sup- per. MacDonald’s parable is true. 3. The Lord’s Supper is a fellowship. It has great social power and influence. It binds together by the power of the living Christ all those who say of Him, ‘‘My Lord and my God.’’ On the night of its origin, the disciples came into the Upper Room full of worldly ambition, of petty jealousy and of selfish pride. They did not want to wash each other’s feet, and each one sought the place of highest honor. But in the Supper they became reconciled to each other. A man who has sin in his heart, or lives in wrong toward his fellowman, does not find the Lord’s Table a comfortable place. The hour was too holy for Judas and he went out into the night. The sinful heart must either repent and forsake sin at the Lord’s Table, or else its pos- sessor must go away altogether. The signs of back- sliding are first felt and revealed at the Lord’s Supper. At the Lord’s Table all are equal. There are no reserved seats. The poor may rejoice that he is exalted—the rich that he is made low. And this spirit of fraternity does not stop at the church door. It is not left in the sacred place. It gets out into life and sets the spirit of charity, of broth- LoRD’S SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE 125 erhood, of kindness, of sacrificial love to work. It is not only fraternalizing the Church—it is frater- nalizing society. Doubtless the Lord’s Supper will play a great part in the reunion of the churches. 4. The Lord’s Supper is a covenant. As the Master gave the cup to his disciples he said: ‘‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you.’’ (Luke 22:20.) Perhaps nothing deeper, or more touching is said about this ordinance of the heart than these words of the Master. It is as if he said the new covenant which binds man to God and to Jesus Christ and which binds man to man is sealed in blood. Love can go no further than this and it is impossible that the divine love for man should be more ten- derly, more appealingly, more awfully, or more profoundly expressed than by the blood of the Master’s heart. What a cup of life this commun- ion cup is! When the men of Scotland were herded in the yard of the old Greyfriar’s chureh in Edinburgh on account of their loyalty to their faith, they made a covenant and signed their names in the blood drawn from their own veins that they would stand firm to the end. It was the seal of an oath that made history. The perpetual obsery- ance of the Lord’s Supper is the perpetual renewal of our covenant oath with God in His presence and in the presence of that which symbolizes the Blood 126 THE DISCIPLES of the Covenant. How wonderful to partake of the Lord’s Supper! 5. The Lord’s Supper is prophetic. ‘‘As often as ye eat this bread and drink the cup ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.’’ (1 Cor. 11:26.) The Master himself said in his talk at the first communion (St. John, 14th chapter): ‘‘And if I eo and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself.’’ Thus, the Lord’s Supper symbolizes a great history, gives a deep experience, vitalizes the passion of brotherhood, reminds us of our covenant of loyalty and speaks a wonderful prophecy. Baptism prophesies the resurrection of the dead; the Lord’s Supper proph- esies the eternal communion. That which the soul draws from the Lord’s Supper abides forever, and communion in eternity will be a face to face ex- perience without the need of interpreting symbol. The celebrated and deeply spiritual English minister, Phillip Doddridge, who wrote some of our finest hymns, once dreamed that he had been called from earth into the Father’s house of many mansions. In the midst of its indescribable and satisfying splendors he was shown a door over which gleamed his own name in letters of gold. He entered and saw the walls covered with pic- tures of scenes in his own life on earth. One inter- ested him above all others. It was the picture of an incident in his own childhood. He had been Lorp’s SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE 127 thrown from a horse upon a jagged pile of rocks. It had always caused wonder that he was not killed by the fall. The picture explained it. There were angels whose arms held him up and prevented the fall from dashing out his life. While looking at this picture in gratitude and amazement, as we shall view the miracles and mercies that guard our lives here below when we reach the celestial land, the Master came in bearing in his hands a cup of gold set with jewels and chased with wonderful clusters of grapes, glowing with the light that was never on land or on sea. The Master drank from the cup and handed it to him. He was about to drink the blood of the grape anew with the Savior in his eternal Kingdom. Then after the fashion of dreams he awoke. His soul was exalted with a great ecstasy and it was long before the spell of it passed from his spirit. Whatever the second coming of Christ may mean, the Lord’s Supper includes the idea of it. Christ will come again without sin unto salvation —he is coming again—he is here; but there will doubtless be a grand climax to history. We bring this before us in the weekly communion service and write it more deeply upon our hearts each time, that we shall see him face to face and know even as also we are known. To have this thought stirring anew in our hearts every week with power 128 THE DISCIPLES and action is enough to give us the victory over the flesh, over the tempter and over time itself. Frequency of the Lord’s Supper Oft repetition does not make the Supper ‘‘com- mon’’ and dispel its power. Like prayer, like reading, like converse with our friends, it becomes more to us each timeit is observed. At first the Supper seems to have been observed daily (Acts 2:42, 46) in private homes. It made these forever consecrate to the love that lays down life for its friends. No place seems more appropriate to have a Church than in the home and the Lord’s Supper is peculiarly fitting there. Every home ought to have an Upper Room which looks out into the home eternal. And ‘‘there is no place like home’’ when it has such a room. Holding the Supper daily seems soon to have been discontinued and it became a weekly observ- ance. However the New Testament lays down no law except that which may be inferred from the example of the apostles and the history of the early Church. These show that the communion was re- peated at least once a week. (Acts 20:7.) It is most desirable that it should be celebrated often. That deepens its hold upon the heart and fixes it in the habit of pure thought and noble practice. It exalts life and puts the purpose of righteousness into daily conduct. In Pliny’s ‘‘let- ter’’ or report to Emperor Trajan he says that the LorbD’S SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE 129 custom of the Christians was to meet early in the morning on ‘‘a fixed day’’ and sing hymns to Christ as God, and bind themselves by a sacra- mentum to commit no crime. It is a thrilling idea to believe that perhaps with every heartbeat some- body, somewhere in the world is observing this great feast of love, of life, and of eternity; and that this has been so during the millennia of Chris- tian history. It gives us the sense that the whole race is the family of God—some of them away from home but being brought in by the shepherd quest of the Great Elder Brother. Who Should Partake of the Supper The New Testament allows each individual to decide this for himself. ‘‘Let a man examine him- self and so let him eat and drink.’’ Whoever is following Jesus, as well as he is able, in love and sincerity ; whoever is fighting against his sins and seeking to subdue all to Christ has the privilege of the Table. It is for all the weary and heavy-laden who seek the Savior’s peace. It is for the discon- solate and lowly. It is for the wounded and broken-hearted. It is for little children and tired mothers. It is for those who have broken their lances in the joust of life and have come in de- feated, subdued and disheartened. It is sunset and evening star to the aged. It is for all those who seek the homing heart of the Master who him- self had not where to lay his head. It is for all 130 THE DISCIPLES those who hunger and thirst after God and heaven. The test for participation is whether one ‘‘dis- cerns the Lord’s body’’—whether one is perform- ing it with single and true heart as that which symbolizes and seeks Christ alone. The Supper can be forfeited in many ways but as long as faith and love and hope intentionally, gladly, intelli- gently awake and see Christ in the Supper one may partake of it and be assured that he is ac- cepted in the beloved. To partake of it without thinking of Christ, to partake of it simply as a ‘‘ehureh ordinanee,’’ to partake of it because it is a custom or is expected of us, is to miss its depth and to eat of nothing but bread, to drink of noth- ing but the blood of the grape. We should not put the right to partake of it on the ground of fit- ness but on the ground of one’s need of Christ, and on the ground that Christ is seeking his disciples. The Lord’s Supper and Character We shall recapitulate the ideas, aims and pur- poses of the Lord’s Supper as we show its relation to character. It is an edifying, that is to say a buwding ordinance and its creations are more beau- tiful than all the works and arts of man. Un- doubtedly the ordinances belong to God’s methods of working in us to our eternal salvation. According to Jesus Christ everything in Chris- tlanity is to be judged by what it does for the in- dividual man and through him for the collective Lorp’S SUPPER, THE LOVE ORDINANCE 131 man which we eall society. Jesus taught us that all ordinances, institutions, doctrines and practices are for the sake of man. ‘‘The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.’’ This seems to us pre-eminently true of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, which we have learned to think of as the love ordinance. There is not a fine thing in the human heart that is not stimulated by partaking of it because there is not a flower of love and sacrifice in the heart of God that does not blossom red in this cen- tral institution of the religion of Jesus Christ. It feeds the life on all that we cherish as of supreme worth. It inearnates a wonderful history, it keeps alive a profound experience, it rouses the heart to vivid hope by the golden prophecy of the second coming of our Lord. ‘‘He died for me, he lives for me, he is coming again for me,’’ the heart keeps singing while the Holy Grail of the Eternal Atone- ment is pressed to his lips. It develops forward-looking men. It fosters optimism. It kindles the fires of hope and good cheer in the soul of man. Can a man be a pessi- mist who partakes of the Lord’s Supper? For, beyond and above the dark outline of the hills of time, he will see the light that breaks from heav- en’s dawning morning and while others still stand in the shadows of night his face will be radiant with the coming day. CHAPTER Ix THE LORD’S DAY AND ITS VALUE As to the New Testament life is a trust. Everything must be dedicated to God and managed for his purposes in the service and elevation of mankind. All ordinances, institutions and redeemed lives must be used to express witness of God, to convey blessings and to help bring the kingdom of God to earth. To such end space, in- stitution and time must be dedicated. As an earnest of it all we have the consecrated place, the Lord’s house; the consecrated institution, the Church; and the consecrated time, the Lord’s Day. In this chapter we are to think of the consecrated time which we eall the Lord’s Day. Why Called the Lord’s Day There is something in a name, especially in what gives it and what it counts for after it has been given. The Lord’s Day is called by some ‘‘the Sabbath,’’ thus accommodating the Jewish name to the Christian fact. Sometimes it is called ‘‘Sun- day,’’ thus using the old pagan name for the new Christian idea. It is also called ‘‘the first day of the week,’’ after the reckoning of the Jewish eal- endar, thus making Judaism own the Lordship of 132 Tue Lorp’s DAY AND ITS VALUE 133 Christ. But in the Christian schedule of time it is properly known as the Lord’s Day. There is a special and dramatic reason why it was called the Lord’s Day. In the Roman empire during the early days of Christianity, they had ‘‘the Emperor’s Day.’’ The Roman Emperor had been deified by the superstitious, ignorant and in- competent people. The Caesars had apparently crowded out the gods and taken unto themselves divine honors. There was an attempt to make Caesarism a religion and the religion of the world. at that. The disciples of Christ refused to ac- knowledge such honor to the Roman Emperors. They put the name of Christ above every name and bowed to him alone as Lord and God. Hence over against this emperor’s day, and in defiance of it, they had a day which was to them, and has been ever since, ‘‘the Lord’s Day.’’ This is a beautiful, religious, descriptive and Seriptural term for this pearl of days as we shall see in study- ing its origin. The Origin of the Lord’s Day While the Lord’s Day partakes of the principle of the Sabbath, the day upon which God rested after creation, the national day of rest among the Jewish people, and their sacred day, it is distinctly a different day, conveying a different purpose and having a different spirit. While it still carries the idea of merey and good works, there is nothing of 134. THE DISCIPLES hardness or repression in it. It was to be a day of freedom and of joy from the first. The spirit of the Lord’s Day is not the old spirit of Jewish rules but the new spirit of Christian inspiration. It continues all the economic values of the Jewish Sabbath with the added spiritual values of witness to Jesus Christ... St. Paul calls the Sabbath day ‘a shadow of things to come’’ and says that ‘“‘the body is of Christ’’ (Col. 2:16, 17). The beginning of an entirely new conception and use of the sacred day is to be found in the teach- ings of Jesus Christ himself. When he was ac- eused of working on the Sabbath he said, ‘‘My Father worketh even until now and I work’’ (John 5:17). He also declared ‘‘the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.’’ The Sab- bath day was never abrogated by special command or enactment. There was no need that it should be. It gradually decomposed only to recompose as the Christian day as indicated above. The Sab- bath day passed into the Lord’s Day—after the same fashion that many lower things of the old dispensation were lifted to a higher plane and transfigured with a new glory in the Christian dis- pensation. The death of Christ brought a new era which eaneelled the ordinances and festivals of the old Jewish era. (Colossians 2:14, 15.) The change from Sabbath to Lord’s Day came by the example and practice of the early Chris- THe Lorp’s DAy AND ITS VALUE 135 tians. They kept the first day of the week as their holy day. (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2.) It was no doubt first suggested by the things which came to pass on the first day of the week. The chief, stu- pendous, creative, and revelatory powers of Chris- tianity were on that day made history. Jesus Christ arose from the tomb on the first day of the week and appeared to Mary and the disciples at Emmaus. Seven days later Jesus met with his dis- ciples in the Upper Room on the first day of the week. This shows that there is regard for times and seasons and times and places with Jesus Christ. Pentecost came on the first day of the week. Jesus Christ appeared to John on the Lord’s Day, when he was in exile in ‘‘the isle called Patmos’’ and revealed to him his eternal clory and made known the fact that he works in this world through the churches. Thus again the first day of the week was honored and marked out as the Christian’s sacred day. It is, for the first time, written down as the Lord’s Day in the book of Revelation. (Rev. 1:9-20.) From the way in which John spoke of it, it must have been com- monly so recognized by the Church. On the first day of the week, the Lord’s day, Paul met with the disciples at Troas and preached until midnight. These things show that as God blessed and hal- lowed the seventh day for the Jews, Jesus Christ 136 Tur DISCIPLES consecrated and glorified the first day for his Church, and it became their day of rest and wor- ship—a day forever fragrant with the spices brought to the tomb by the holy women; forever a fresh beginning, bright with the thought of strong, radiant angels; and forever calm and sweet with the sense of the Great Presence; for- ever glorious with the message that the power of death is broken; and that Jesus is alive and to live forevermore (Rev. 1:18). Strange indeed, it would have been had not the day been adopted as the Church’s holy day. Tertullian, one of the greatest early churchmen, sums up the matter by saying: ‘“We keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath, instead of the seventh, because our Lord arose from the dead on that day’’ (about 195 A. D.). We are to regard the day as of divine origin, with all spiritual purpose and value for man. But it was never imposed upon man as an obligation. It was offered to him as a blessing and as an ex- pression of God’s love and grace. It conveys the idea that God is seeking the fellowship of man and thus it puts upon all Christians the greatest of all obligations—the obligation to meet God’s offer, to show an exalted spirit, and to seek those things which are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. To be trusted to do right with- out a mandatory obligation puts one under the Tue Lorp’s Day AND Its VALUE Ao t strongest obligation of all. It challenges his honor, his gratitude and his loyalty. The Object of the Lord’s Day The Lord’s Day was given to satisfy the phys- ical, social and spiritual needs of man. Our Mas- ter settled that in the principle enunciated con- cerning the Jewish Sabbath by which he rescued it from the mass of traditional regulation which had obliterated its true purpose. He said: ‘‘The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.’’ As absolute necessity required, the Sabbath might be ‘‘broken.’’ The law of the need of humanity takes precedence over all other laws. This idea can be easily abused but it cannot be abused without harm to him who does so and with- out hurt to the Church, the home and society in general, Physical Blessings of the Lord’s Day No influence of Christianity bears more or richer blessings to the individual and society than the Lord’s Day. It ministers to man’s physical need. It gives rest from toil and renews his springs of energy. The bow that is always bent loses its elas- ticity and its efficiency. It cannot send the swift arrow singing to its work and will finally snap long before the end of its possible term of life. It is thus with the man who never stops to rest. He becomes stolid, his work is poor, and freshness and 138 THe DISCIPLES power pass away from his mind, heart and body. The Lord’s Day restores man and keeps him eager and fit. It adds beauty to youth, vigor to man- hood, and sweetness to old age. The economic value of the Lord’s Day makes it an obligation upon all people. It prolongs life and makes work joyful. It helps to make a sturdier and healthier race. The French people are smaller than the other European peoples except in South- ern Italy, which has been ruined by war—and is facing obliteration in the course of a few cen- turies unless some wise thinker finds a way to over- come its decay. It is nervous, excitable and ever ready to break into disorder. This is due in large measure to the destruction of the Lord’s Day, to wine and to immorality. When France took the Lord’s Day away from her people she gave the nation a blow from which it has never recovered. One of the mightiest aids in making the greater race for which we wait is the Lord’s Day. In our own country, a good degree of our labor trouble is caused by ignoring the claims of this day. Men eannot work all the time without dangerous dis- content. We can do more and better work in six days than in seven. When work become irksome it is poor in quality and less in quantity. Money made by unnecessary work on the Lord’s Day is ‘‘ill- gotten gain.’’ It is peculiarly degraded and evil THE Lorp’s Day AND Its VALUE 139 because it comes as the result of robbing men of their God-given rights of freedom and rest. In many instances the curse of blood rests upon money so made because it is the result of exploiting helpless men, women and children. The Lord’s Day ministers to man’s happiness. What a drudgery life would be if there were not one day to lift up the back, tired and bent from toil. The man who has no Lord’s Day finally loses the sense of freedom in the petty and galling tyr- anny of little things. Such a man is in a bondage as bitter as chains. The spirit of the Lord’s Day should be a glad, though not a trivial spirit. If there were not a day of rest, of recreation, of free- dom from business responsibility, there would be little happiness in most lives and none at all in some lives. Humboldt very truly said: ‘‘It is as unreasonable as it is inhuman to work beyond six days weekly.”’ Social Blessings of the Lord’s Day The Lord’s Day affords opportunity for social improvement. It ought to be used to strengthen the ties that bind families together. Parents and children should know one another, and the love that makes the most beautiful institution in the world is made sure by association. In some families the members are strangers to one another. All week the father is at business, the children at school and the mother alone. Then college days come and that 140 THe DISCIPLES is the virtual separation and seattering of all from the home roof. Well for a family if in the times when it is possible they come to know each other fully and sympathetically. The Lord’s Day af- fords the best opportunity for this. It may thus help to bring the world of which Frances EH. Wil- lard dreamed—a world full of happy homes. The Lord’s Day should be a day of loving kind- ness to the sick. Hospitals can be visited and flowers, the language of sentiment and love, be given to cheer and comfort the afflicted. Neigh- bors and friends may be drawn together. Prob- ably most of the good deeds that will put people on the right hand in the day of judgment are done on the Lord’s Day. (Matt. 25 :31-46.) 3. Above all, the Lord’s Day is intended to be a day of fellowship with God. This should be first of all a personal matter. Of course, every day ought to have its devotions—its ‘‘God’s Minute,’’ but it is necessary to give much time to the cultiva- tion of one’s soul. There is a personal relationship which each one sustains for himself with God. The Lord’s Day affords the best echanee to fulfill that high duty to one’s self. The soul must have its still times. ‘‘Be silent to God—let him mould thee.’? With such hours may come an exaltation that will conquer circumstances and enable the soul to explore the infinite. St. John, the divine, was in the spirit on the THE Lorp’s Day AND Its VALUE 141 Lord’s Day and got the vision of the eternal Christ, heard voices of song and teaching, and renewed his courage by coming to know that Christ was in the midst of his Churech—as the light in the candle- stick—and, therefore, that the Church would go on conquering and to conquer until the New Jeru- salem was fully come down from God out of heaven. That is the central idea of the Book of Revelation which is a Lord’s Day vision. What mattered it to the old apostle of love that he was shut up in the little isle? The vision revealed to him Christ going forth conquering and to conquer until all evil was overcome and the kingdoms of this world made the kingdom of heaven. This made him strong, patient, undespairing and in- vineible. It made his soul master of time, things and circumstances. It is one of the purposes of the Lord’s Day so to gird and renew men’s souls. The spiritual idea of the Lord’s Day is also ful- filled in part by taking account of one’s obligation to God. This may be inferred from the statement : ‘‘Upon the first day of the week let each one lay by him in store as he may prosper.’’ This direc- tion was given in reference to a collection that was being made in the church at Corinth for the poor saints in Jerusalem. (1 Cor. 16:22.) But there is a permanent and universal principle in- volved in it. It suggests that those who have been blessed with money should meditate upon what 142 THE DISCIPLES they owe to God. That requires review of one’s successes and failures in life and of one’s depend- ence upon God. It means that the Lord’s Day must be used by us as a time when we by definite thought and decision consecrate our money and our lives to God. What a great revolution it would work in most lives if every Lord’s Day morning before ‘‘the Sunday paper’’ has blunted the feelings by its material fascinations men would reverently exam- ine themselves to see how their bank accounts stand in the sight of God—what they owe him and what they should give to the Church, what indeed they should do with their money week by week as they earn it. That would double their power and joy and make their money a source of happiness to themselves and to the world. The Lord’s Day is church day. It is appointed for a day of witness-bearing. It 1s a day for get- ting acquainted with one’s friends religiously. The apostles and the apostolic churches met each Lord’s Day to break bread. The Lord’s Day is set for communings in the sanctuary. The Lord’s Table is spread and we are to partake of it. This prac- tice was part of the secret of the wonderful power and progress of the early Christians. The prac- tice was so widespread and persistent that the celebrated Greek preacher Chrysostom ealled it dies panis or ‘‘the day of bread.’’ On that day THE Lorp’s Day AND ITs VALUE 143 also the Word is preached that our souls may live. Every Christian should assemble with his fellow Christians. This makes the Lord’s Day a per- petual witness to the reality of Christ and the love of God in the hearts of men. What a wonderful witness to the power of religion it is when millions of little children, and millions of men and women rise up and go to church on this ‘‘ welcome, delight- ful morn.’’ It is living witness to Christ’s Lord- ship and his Saviorhood and no one ean think about it and not be impressed. Without the Lord’s Day people would soon become selfish, the world would vo back to paganism and mankind be smothered with materialism. If we stop to commune with God one day of the week, we shall not forget him the remaining six. A Great Christian Opportunity The Church has no greater opportunity than that of the Lord’s Day. ‘‘ Without the Lord’s Day, the centuries never could have passed down to us that vivid memory of Jesus which is still the world’s supreme incentive to nobility, and by neg- lecting that day we dim his memory for the gen- erations to come.’’ Voltaire is quoted as having said: ‘‘There is no hope of destroying the Chris- tian religion so long as the Christian Sabbath is acknowledged and kept by men as a sacred day.”’ The Lord’s Day should therefore be used indus- triously, energetically, religiously for the benefi- 144 Tse DISCIPLES cent ends that bless humanity with larger love for man and God. The fact that the wheels of indus- try, for the most part, cease their noise and re- lease millions to leisure is not only an enforcement of the gospel the Church preaches but it affords a chance to get at men, women and children with the words of life. To allow the day to become lit- tered and clogged with worldly things, or taken up with coarse pleasures and grovelling quest of money is to poison life at its fountain and to cause the deterioration of personal, home and national character. The Church can make little progress without this day, and all the finer Christian feel- ings will become blunted if it is not properly ob- served. The Lord’s Day is a test of character and a builder of character and we rise or fall according — to the way we use it. This was the view of Abra- ham Lincoln, who said: ‘‘As we keep or break the Sabbath we nobly save or meanly lose the last hope by which man rises.’’ Philip Schaff, a great Christian scholar, said: ‘‘Next to the Chureh and the Bible, the Lord’s Day is the chief pillar of society.’ We must guard the day as the bulwark of our liberties, the spring of our sweetest delights, the constructive power of our highest character and the temple day in which we get new and inspiring visions of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Lord. CHAPTER X JOINING THE CHURCH T will be useful to study the question of joining the church. By the church we here mean the local church, the suecessor to the kind of church deseribed in the New Testament. It is necessary to emphasize this idea in order to correct certain loose notions that have crept into the general way of thinking about the church and membership in it. One may hear men say that they believe in Jesus Christ but that there is no necessity for the Church. ‘*My religion is between God and myself,’’ ‘‘I ean worship without the Church,’’ are expressions oft heard today. The secretary of a labor organiza- tion said to the writer: ‘‘Jesus Christ is all right but I have no use for the Church.’’ We also often hear that one ean be as ‘‘good out of the church as in it.’’ And that erroneous thought, so disre- spectful to Jesus who built the Chureh, who loved it, and who gave himself up for it, soon becomes the conviction that one can live a better life out of the Church than he can as a member of it. This is more than the self-righteousness of the egotistic natural man; it is the Pharisaism of Satan. All arguments against joining the echureh will 145 146 THe DISCIPLES vanish away when one considers fully what it means to be a member. What It Means to Join the Church To join the church is to make definite enlistment in this local body by an overt act, by a visible alignment with others who have dedicated their lives to the laws of the Master. It is to agree to the doctrines and ideals of the church, to submit to its initiatory act, to adopt its standards of life, and to covenant to enter into the works and re- sponsibilities and aims of the organization. It is a eovenant of brotherhood and the establishment of communion with God. It is the investment of life with a great loyalty. To join the church is to matriculate in Christ’s school and to enlist in Christ’s service. It is to put one’s self at Christ’s command. Why Join the Church 1. Because it is God’s way of saving his children and of building up the new humanity. ‘‘The Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved.’’ (Acts 2:47.) People were not only called to a confession of faith but to a commitment of life, which is seen and certified by joining the ehurch. 2. One joins the church for the sake of Christ. It was his way. He said, ‘‘I will build my ehurch.’’ Those who refuse to join the church, JOINING THE CHURCH 147 really, therefore, refuse to let Christ have his way with them. Jesus wanted his followers to confess him before men. (Matt. 10:32, 33.) There is something in it precious to him and it is the chief way of testifying for him. To want to be a Chris- tian and remain out of the chureh looks too much like wanting Christ’s blessings, but denying Christ himself. If we love Christ we will join his band of disciples. What an awful hour that was when Peter denied being with him. (Matt. 26:69-75.) But no worse than denying his people today. 3. One should join the chureh for the sake of the community and of the men and women who do not know how to manage their lives. One socializes his personal, religious experience, when he joins the church. He makes his faith a fact and a force. He is glad to take a step in which he would have others follow him. Somebody is always waiting to see what you will do in order that he may be able to decide what to do. The man who wilfully and carelessly stays out of the church is the great- est stumblingblock in the world. The man who refuses to join the church refuses to light the lamps of the temple that will show men the path of life. The man who keeps out of the church lives in the jungle and helps to obliterate the trail which leads to the city of God. 4. One joins the church for his own sake. No man can do great things without the help of others. 148 THE DISCIPLES To join the church is to get the strength and life of all poured mto one’s own personal power and feeling. One will learn more at school than in solitary study. It takes the influence of others to keep up our own enthusiasm. Joining the church takes the indefiniteness out of life. It tends to de- liver us from desultoriness. It puts one in a flock where he is safe. Indefinite people are always in peril. Vague goodness finally fades out entirely and then becomes easy sport to temptation. Join- ing the church commits one openly to the practice of his own convictions, and lets his neighbors know exactly what he would do with his life. It gives point to his purpose. And the way to get fulness of joy out of one’s religion is to join the church and fulfil its life. Spiritual isolation is the worst of all loneliness and the most dangerous. Edward Rowland Sill, speaking of his spiritual aloofness wrote to a friend: For my part I long to ‘‘fall in’’ with somebody. This picket duty is monotonous. I hanker after a shoulder on this side and the other. For power, for influence, for convictions, for safety, for joy one should join the church. 5. Religion would die out in this world without an organization to foster it and to promote it. If there were no organized government, there would be no patriotism. The man without a country JOINING THE CHURCH 149 would have nothing to love. The church visual- izes religion, and makes it a foree to be seen and felt. It has been the mightiest power for good that ever entered the arena of time. But if all the early Christians had been like the rich young ruler who was asked to follow Christ and would not do so, there would never have been a church at all. Without a chureh religion could not have been propagated. Who Is Fit to Join the Church Perhaps no one pushes the idea to its fullest im- plications. But that is the wrong way to look at it. We need the church more in our weak, crude, undeveloped hours, than in our strong, ripe, ma- tured hours. There are many things to believe and to resolve when one would be fit to join the church, but these are all such as the conscience approves and all good men applaud. The following general statement of fitness to join the church from ‘‘Outlines of Social Theol- ogy’’ by William DeWitt Hyde, is good: Membership in the church is the privilege of all who accept the will of the Father as the rule of their lives; who acknowledge Christ as the revealer and interpreter of the Father’s will; and who receive the Spirit of love as the substance of the new life in which the will of the Father and the example of the Son is to be reproduced in themselves. 150 THe DISCIPLES That is, one is fit to belong to the church if he believes in God, aecepts Christ and receives the Holy Spirit. One should believe in the Bible when he joins the church, for the Bible is the rule of faith and prac- tice for the church. One is fit to join the church when he gives up his life to Christ and wishes to follow him. It is not a question of the degree of one’s goodness when he would join the church, but of his love of God, his passion for Christ, and his love of the brethren. One must be willing to be a spiritual democrat and to practice brotherhood to- ward the weakest and lowliest. Speaking in a special and specific way—one is fit to jom a church when he believes in the beliefs of the church, when he is in agreement with its practices, customs, ideals and interpretations and when he is willing to share its burdens and re- sponsibilities. One is never fit to joi a church until he is willing to come in by the church’s way instead of dictating his own. One is fit to join the church when he wishes to do so in order to be part of the big, world-inclusive programs of the church. How to Join the Church Nothing is more important than that we under- stand this point. We are all proud enough to want to invent our own way into the church. But there are very open and definite steps to be taken. JOINING THE CHURCH 151 One does not merely drift into the church. He is not a member of the chureh simply because he is a good man. Being born of Christian parents does not give one membership in the church. The church is made up of those ‘‘who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God.’’ (John 1:18.) Joining the church is a spiritual step that must be prepared for and earried out spiritually. We make the mat- ter too easy, too matter of fact, too materialistic today. Joining the church is not like joining a lodge, or a political party, or a college fraternity. It is a profound spiritual experience, a vast and wonderful spiritual enterprise, an adventure of the soul in the service of the weak, the practice of brotherhood and the worship of God. 1. In order to join the church one must believe with all his heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and openly take him as Master and Lord. Let no one be beguiled into the belief that a mere kindly disposition is enough to entitle him to chureh membership. He must believe in Christ and trust him as God manifest in the flesh. Belief is a wonderful inner state. It calls out all the energy of the soul and when it becomes faith it polarizes one about Jesus Christ. We come to the church through Christ and not to Christ through the church. 2. The next step is renunciation. That means 152 THE DISCIPLES definite determination to part company with the world. Inwardly it is repentance, outwardly it is reformation. Renunciation means giving up some- thing. It is giving up the lure of the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is a thoroughly misleading and tremendously dangerous deception that there is nothing to give up when one joins the church. The church is both a sacramental and a sacrificial society. There are things known and acknowledged by all to be wrong. These, of course, must be given up. And sometimes even the good must be given up. That is where sacrifice comes in. The lower good must be put away in order that the higher good may come. One might have to give up busmess, which is good, in order to be a minister or a mis- sionary which is a higher good. We may have to abstain from food, or innocent amusements, or visiting certain places for the benefit of our broth- ers, who cannot do many things we may be able to do, without harm to themselves. We must give up liberty itself, dear as it is to us, for the sake of love. There are sins of the spirit, sins of society, sins of imagination, sins of the heart to be renounced in order to join the church. The renunciation may not deliver us at onee— but we declare war against our sins and fight it JOINING THE CHURCH es out with them if it takes all the length of life to do so. One does not have to be good to join the church, but he must be striving with all his being to grow nto goodness—to grow Godward, to become Christ- like. The church is really made up of men and women who are fighting to overcome themselves and their environment in order to attain unto per- fection. 3. The next step is confession and dedication. No hour of a man’s life is finer than that in which he becomes a confessor of the faith. He puts his life out into the sunlight. Confession was one of the hardest things in the early church. It was the point where men preached their first sermon and where their purposes and intentions became known unto their neighbors and erstwhile friends. In early days, people paid their lives for the privilege of confessing Christ. It does not go as far as that today ; but if the confessor is in earnest it will cost something. It is the great hour of adventure in the quest of a spiritual character. One throws himself into the sea of life at the word of Christ. Confession means that one is willing to pay the price in order to keep his faith in Jesus Christ. There is a wonderful picture which portrays this. It is in the early days of Christianity. The young and beautiful Roman girl is on trial before the emperor. Her lover stands at her right whisper- 154. THE DISCIPLES ing in her ear. She is being forced to choose be- tween Christ and becoming a vestal virgin in the service of Diana, or Christianity and death. The girl’s pure uplifted face foretells her decision. It is her confession of Christ and her renunciation of all that rivals him. In order to join the church one must renounce the world at any cost. That is why it is sublime to be a church member. 4. The crowning act of belief, faith, trust, re- pentance, renunciation and confession in order to join the chureh, is baptism. This was always given by the church and accepted by the candi- date as the final step into the church. ‘‘ Baptized into Christ’’ is the description. ‘‘He that be- lieveth and is baptized,’’ said the Master. About 3,000 were baptized on the day of Pentecost and added to the church. There is no record that any one in the apostolic days became a member of the church without baptism. And baptism was always immersion. Christian baptism is immersion of a penitent believer into the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When one is properly received into the church the final step is by being immersed, having had the spiritual preparation and experi- ences mentioned in the preceding lines. The question has arisen in these days whether persons who have received affusion as baptism should not be fully accepted in our churches. It JOINING THE CHURCH 155 has caused much discussion and not a little un- pleasant feeling. It is argued by those who advo- eate it that members in other churches show the fruits of the Spirit and are acknowledged to be Christians—therefore it is claimed, they should be received for the sake of Christian union and ful- ness of fellowship. This however overlooks too many important points and decides too many things In a summary way. It is based on senti- ment and emotionalism rather than on the Seriptures. Christian fellowship and church membership are different. The Disciples fel- lowship all Christians in many ways; but only a few are willing to do violence to the New Testa- ment way or to the souls of prospective members by inviting them into their churches without im- mersion. To do this adds to the unhappy divisions already existing and it substitutes the opinion of those who have received affusion for the actual facts and acts required by the New Testament. A New Testament Church should have a New Testa- ment Baptism. The divided church can never be reunited excepting on the words of the Master who built the church and whose it is. When the church leaves immersion it leaves universal ground and therefore commits itself to a divisive position. Besides, ‘‘open membership’’ tends to cultivate proselyting which degrades him that uses it and him that receives. It is not conceivable that a 156 THe DISCIPLES conscientious person would want to join the chureh by special concession. One who wishes to be a member should come in the regular way. No man asks a lodge to alter conditions of admission in order that he may join. When a man passes from one country to another he must comply with the conditions of citizenship if he would become a citizen of the new country. We gladly acknowl- edge the good character of others, but to have re- ceived the Spirit and achieved all the Christian virtues does not absolve one from keeping the ritual Christ has established. Jesus never sinned and John thought that on the ground of his per- fection he need not be baptized, but Jesus said, ‘‘Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness, ’’ and John baptized him. Cornelius received the Spirit as the apostles had, yet he was required to be baptized for that very reason. The higher one’s character the more his obligation to observe all the ordinances. No man ever gets above keeping the forms of worship and religious expression. And no man’s character can be so perfect that we would put it against a positive command of Jesus Christ. Christ’s word has greater authority than any man’s character. A man may be a good citizen but he is not allowed to vote without registering. No candidate can be so intensely and greatly pa- triotic that he can become president of the United States without taking the oath to uphold the con- JOINING THE CHURCH 17 stitution. There should be uniformity and uni- versality in the form of Baptism for the sake of the Church universal. By using the Baptism of Christ and his apostles we may establish such a form and then wherever and whenever one sees it enacted, even by people who may not understand the common language of each other, this symbol will be understood. It would of itself be the universal sign that would ereate a bond of sympathy. The Greatness of Belonging to the Church 1. In belonging to the church, one has dedicated his life to the highest things known to humanity. He pledges himself to live in the spirit and to lift the world out of the mud as far as his influence goes. And he is helping men to prepare to live forever. There is not a good principle, or passion, or aim of which one is able to think that the church has not championed. Its motto is: ‘‘F1- nally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, what- soever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.’’ (Phil. 4:8.) Joining the church is the quest of the beautiful, the true and the good. The church has ever been the champion of fair play. It has kept the golden rule alive in the world. It is a sublime thing and 158 THE DISCIPLES schools one’s heart and mind to search only for that which is pure, true and lovely. 2. In belonging to the church one becomes heir to the championship of the great things for which the prophets and apostles lived and died. These great men flung from dying hands the torch of progress and truth and it is a supreme honor to carry it forward. In a true sense the mantle of Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Paul, Peter and John and the martyrs and confessors of the heroic epochs of the church have fallen upon his shoulders. No greater distinction than this could crown one’s life. All the best people we have known and know were and are members of the church. The people of sacrifice, of unself- ishness, of purity of life, of good works, the people with the light of eternity in their faces are all members of the church. It is a distinction to be even an humble member of such a body. 3. The church is a society of vast and colossal adventure. It is composed of men and women who live and act as seeing him who is invisible. The church member is part of all the big moral enter- prises undertaken in this world. And no matter how important one may seem to be if he is not in the church, he stands outside of the greatest move- ments of history and of his own times. A simple but interesting incident illustrates this. A book- keeper who was superintendent of a mission Sun- JOINING THE CHURCH 159 day school became angry with the pastor whose ehurch controlled the mission, and he was about to be dismissed even from this inconspicuous Chris- tian service. But his wife appealed to the pastor to give her husband a chance. She said, ‘‘That. is the only thing that connects him with the really great things of life. If that is taken away he will sink into nonentity.’’ There was something toueh- ing in the appeal but we are here impressed by the idea that church. life connects one with the things that matter in this world. 4. The church has had creative power by reason of the eternal truth it proclaims and the life it fosters and the Holy Spirit of God which has been given to it. It has survived the shock of dissolv- ing empires and falling civilizations and today the hope of the world is in what it will do and say. Its missionaries are in every land under heaven and there are no nations or tribes so low that some minister or worker of the church will not carry food, light, instruction, sympathy and love to them. The church has been fighting the good fight of faith now for two thousand years and its books contain the names of the greatest men of history. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, have been martyred for the sake of its doctrines. It has fought and won all the great moral battles that have marked the progress of the race for the last two thousand years. It has always been found on 160 THE DISCIPLES the right side of every moral question. It has grappled with some of the worst of the destructive forces at work in the world, and brought them under control. Here it is sufficient to say that ‘‘the church en- forced an ideal of self-mastery, understood at first with special reference to bodily purity, but capable of deeper and wider application; she severely condemned and finally succeeded in suppressing the practice of exposing and abandoning infants; she brought about an effective abhorrence of the barbarism of gladiatorial combats; she produced an immediate moral mitigation of slavery and a strong encouragement to emancipation; and she greatly extended the charitable provision made for the sick and the poor.’’ Under the church’s leadership slavery has passed entirely. By the moral force generated in this country the Louisiana lottery was destroyed, and the saloon has been overthrown in the greatest nation in the world. A new feeling of nation to- ward nation has been established and so much has the love of man been promoted that the leading nations of the world are ever ready to help the starving and the unfortunate. There are yet many evils to be destroyed. The ‘“White Slave Traffic,’’ the drug evil that threatens the existence of the race, the brutal prize fight, and the materialism which is corrupting life at its foun- tain must be put down and it is the altruism and the abhorrence of evil that comes out of the church which has taken up arms against these monsters. JOINING THE CHURCH 161 All great reforms must eventually come back to the church for moral energy, spiritual interpreta- tion and vital enthusiasm. It is the inspirer and director of social service. To belong to an organization like that lifts one out of pettiness. The smallest congregation hidden away somewhere in the hills, is a world force that Satan dreads more than an army with banners. When one joins the church he becomes ‘‘a consenting and contributing member of that body of Christ whose mighty redemptive ministry is destined at last to fill the earth with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.’’ Those who re- fuse to join the church miss the supreme chance of life. They ‘‘miss the sunrise.’’ CHAPTER XI A GOOD CHURCH MEMBER HIS is a question of importance for many reasons. It rebukes those who say: ‘‘I am a member of the church, but I do not work at it very hard. I am afraid the pastor would hardly own me as one of his flock.’’ Searcely would one say this if he reflected at all seriously upon his words. Being a church member is a privilege too high to be treated in such a light manner. To define or even to describe a good church member is a difficult task. It is not alone to speak of personality but of personality enriched, beau- tified and enlarged by the redemptive, regenerat- ing influence of Jesus Christ. A good church member is like a cut gem with many facets, every one of which sheds a glory in any kind of light. About half the New Testament is taken up in teaching the practices and the duties of Church membership. As a general statement it may be said that the four gospels show us in the words and example of the Master what it is to be a Chris- tian and why to become one; the Acts teaches how to become a Christian; the epistles reveal the won- ders, the glories, and the demands of church mem- bership; and the book of Revelation forecasts the 162 A Goop CHurRCcH MEMBER 163 victory of right over wrong, the establishment of the Kingdom and the final destiny and glory of the Christian. Of course, all these ideas belong to all the books of the New Testament in a degree—but as a working outline these divisions will be service- able. The Church Member Different There should be a difference between the mem- ber of the church and the citizen of the world. The outward difference is not always apparent but it is there, it is inward. Even if the life of the Christian is at times involved in inconsistency, he is still better than the worldly man for he is fight- ing his sin and his faults and trying to rise above his failures. We have seen church members who seemed far away from the image of Jesus Christ, and yet we have thought of them as heroic because they were fighting for their souls. A church mem- ber is to be accounted a good one, even though he may have grave faults, if he is earnestly and zeal- ously striving to overcome his sins. That makes the difference between him and the world and puts him far above it. Once Sir Walter Scott looked at a picture of Lord Byron. Some one criticised the picture—it was ‘‘not like Byron, it lacks lustre.’’ To which Sir Walter replied: ‘‘The lustre is there but it is not lighted. ’’ These words are not intended as an apology for 164 THE DISCIPLES Christians who live below the standard, but rather aS an encouragement to them to be good church members by taking up arms against their short- comings. The world expects more of church mem- bers than of itself. Christians should do more than others because more has been done for them. (See Matthew 5:43-48.) They should live above the world, outdo it in forgiving, in loving, in self- sacrifice, in zeal for all that is good. Prof. Glover says in his book, ‘‘The Jesus of History,’’ that the early Christians ‘‘out-lived’’ the pagan, ‘‘out- died’’ him and ‘‘out-thought’’ him and he pro- nounces this ‘‘one of the greatest wonders that history has to show.’’ ‘‘He came into the world and lived a great deal better than the pagan; he beat him hollow in living.’’ This the good church member is doing all the time. The miracle is daily repeated. The Best For the Highest The inspiration for being a good church mem- ber is in the thought that one has set his heart on Jesus Christ and wishes to be like him. If there is anything worthy of our best in every way it is the church which the Master founded, which he loves and which he guides. We should give our best for the most worth while. A man should not sell his life cheaply. When Holman Hunt, the celebrated British painter, was a young man he dedicated his life to the motto: ‘‘My best for the A Goop CHuRCcH MEMBER 165 highest.’ He painted many pictures and all of them religious but his supreme achievement was his ‘‘Light of the World.’’ He had given the best he had—his ripened, trained, enlarged genius for the highest he knew, the highest any one knows, the highest there is to know—Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. A good church member will give his church his life at its best. Too many use their freshest en- ergy and finest thought in their worldly callings or in their pleasures and bring their worn and jaded selves to the services of the church. A good ehureh member will not so dishonor his church. He will put it first and not second. His Habits There is an outline of the spiritual exercises of the good church members who lived in the glow of the first beautiful dawn of the day of love in the world, and who therefore became the pattern for ehurch members for all time. It is in Acts 2:42 and reads: ‘¢ And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teach- ing and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.’’ 1. From this we reckon that one of the first. char- acteristics of the good church member is con- stancy. Nor can this be accounted the least of his virtues. He is like the geyser, ‘‘Old Faithful,’’ in Yellowstone Park. Others are intermittent and 166 THe DISCIPLES uncertain but ‘‘Old Faithful’’ comes on the minute and never disappoints. He is the church member the pastor and his brethren ‘‘can count on.’’ Con- stancy in the church means to stand by it. And this is the making of causes. The shifty, fitful member neither gets joy nor power out of the church nor does good with his life. The North Star is apparently not as brilliant as some others but it is fixed and sailors steer their ships by it when it is dark. Constancy proves one’s earnest- ness and shows his faith. This has both steady- ing and inspirational power. State and Church are built upon dependable men and women. The Master said in one of his letters from heaven: ‘‘He who overcomes—I will make him a pillar in the Sanctuary of My God, and he shall never go out from it again. And I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which is to come down out of Heaven from My God, and My own new name.’’ (Rey. 3:12. Weymouth.) We have all heard men and women ealled ‘‘pillars of the church.’’ Greater compliment was never ut- tered and these are they who eventually attain the highest spirituality—the name of God, the new name of Christ is chased upon their stainless souls by the fire of the Holy Spirit. This shows what a church member may become if he will. Constaney means keeping on and therefore it A Goop CHuRcCH MEMBER 167 wins the crown when others fail and turn back. Jesus forewarned his disciples that there would be many things to lure them, to tempt them, possibly to make them afraid. He knew how near to falling they would often be but he encouraged them by the promise: ‘‘He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.’’ Demas is one of the most unenviable characters in the New ‘Testament. ‘*Demas hath forsaken me,’’ said Paul, ‘having loved this present world.’’ He may have come back to Paul later but his habit of vacillation kept him from being an ideal church member. 2. The good church member according to the specifications in the Acts must be continually a learner. ‘‘They continued stedfastly in the apos- tles’ teaching.’’ This implies that one must be a perpetual student of the things written and preached by the apostles. The good church mem- ber never grows tired of sitting at the feet of the Master, nor of attending his school. He can never get enough of God’s word. It is sweeter than honey to him. The apostles’ doctrine or teaching is to be found in the New Testament. The gospels tell us the story of Christ’s life on earth and record some of his sayings. The sermons of the apostles and their epistles are drawn from this life, and give ex- planation and interpretation of it that the saints in all ages may be enlightened, purified and awak- 168 THE DISCIPLES ened by the Holy Spirit. This was according to Christ’s own word in John 16:18, 14: ‘‘Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto VOUS h All this means that a good church member is intelligent in the Word, and in the knowledge of the progress of Christianity in the world. Truth is neither provincial nor static and we must follow it all the time to make ourselves worthy of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This idea calls us to give heed to the lng word as it is spoken and taught, printed and writ- ten, by God’s ministers today. Jesus Christ set up the pulpit as the chief voice of the church. It is for the interpretation of his word and for the admonition of the people. To heed this admoni- tion would require one to attend church regularly, to hear the minister and to improve himself con- tinually by the opportunity offered in the Bible classes of the Sunday school. The good church member ‘‘knows his Bible.’’ The Word is a lamp unto his feet, a light upon his pathway. The pulpit is the tongue that calls him to action and the erimsoned eross is the sacrificial A Goop CHuRCH MEMBER 169 symbol that goes before him in the great crusade of winning the world for God. Life must have much more than a good emotion or an honest purpose. It must have a sound, doc- trinal basis to make it intelligent, as well as pur- poseful. There must be light as well as heat, and knowledge as well as feeling. ‘‘The apostles’ teaching’’ is the good church member’s guide. He must honor his intellect by trusting it and warm his heart in the same way. Christ claims man’s intellect. Hence'he must have doctrine for his erowth and satisfaction. ‘‘Love the Lord with all your mind.’’ There is an intellectual hunger as well as a heart hunger. One must see as well as feel. 3. The good church member practices the fel- lowship. (a) He is brotherly. He sympathizes with all who are in distress and withholds not his presence, his words, nor his gifts if by them he ean bring a little comfort to another. (b) He is loyal to his brethren. He believes in the ‘‘beloved community’’ and contributes his share to its power and beauty. ‘This forbids the spirit of faction, or schism and the unlovely habit of judging and finding fault. It requires the prac- tice of the 13th chapter of First Corinthians. The true church is organized love and a good member will, like Jesus Christ, love the church and give 170 THE DISCIPLES himself up for it. We have known men to mort- gage their own homes to save the church building. We know one man who endorsed paper for the ehureh till the banks would not lend him money to enlarge his own business. There was a widow and she was highly praised by Jesus Christ be- cause she cast into the treasury all that she had. Thousands upon thousands of martyrs have laid down their lives for the Church. (ce) To this fellowship of the heart must be added the fellowship of the hand. The man who lives right in his church will give full co-operation not only in the public meetings with his fellow- church members but will exercise genuine co-opera- tion in every good work in which his church en- gages. He will not allow a few men “‘to do it all.”’ He will be a worker and not stand with his hands in his pockets while others are busy. He will be a soldier and stand up shoulder to shoulder with others who fight for the causes that call for men. He will help lift the loads, carry the burdens and make the great adventures required to Christian- ize the world. (d) To the fellowship of the heart, and the fel- lowship of the hand, the good member will add the fellowship of the purse. Every member of the church should help bear his proportionate share of the church’s financial obligations. Be it much or little he should give as God has prospered him. A Goop CHuRCcH MEMBER Hig If all were to do this the financial demands of al- most any church would be easily, promptly and happily met. Fellowship in the early church went so far as to partake of the wants of the people. No one said aught that he possessed was his own and they sold their goods and parted to each as he had need. The church is fulfilling this in various ways today—chiefly by striving to build a civilization from which poverty is absent. All the charitable institutions are fruits of the Spirit of Christ. (e) The good church member has fellowship, vote and voice in the management of his church. True fellowship implies democracy and that means that the voice of every member of the church should be heard in some way in every movement of the church. Plans of work and progress should be adopted at public meetings, giving every one a chanee to be heard, and then whatever the views held before such adoption, the plans should belong to all after a vote has been reached and a platform fixed. In a true fellowship no one seeks to have his own way. Rather all seek to have the way of Christ and work in that together. That would do away with the disposition to lord it over the ehurch and stop the leakage of power through un- reasonable contention and individualism. 4. The good church member is regular at the Lord’s Table. There he keeps in tune with the in- finite—there he touches and handles things unseen. 172 THE DISCIPLES The breaking of bread refers to the Lord’s Supper, which it seems was at first practiced daily by the early Christians. This did not last long and it became the custom to hold the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s day at the weekly meeting of the dis- ciples. We have already discussed the value of this divine appointment for the Christian soul and will not here repeat the discussion. (See Chapter VIII.) Yet at the risk of repetition it seems well to say that no one may misuse or neglect the Lord’s Supper without dire spiritual consequences. This ordinance has wonderful power over heart and conscience as is attested by the fact that those who have done wrong generally avoid the Table even though all the time burning within from re- oeret, remorse, and self-reproach. To neglect this feast of the heart is to take the first step backward toward the world. When one does wrong, he should not stay away from the Lord’s Supper but repent of his sin and come to the Supper for spir- itual strength and renewal. The power of the Lord’s Supper is in the fact that it makes Christ central in thought and real to the heart. It cultivates the sense of Christ’s love and redeeming power. It is the forget-me-not of the Christian religion. Because Jesus requested it to be observed in his memory, its observance will show as well as test the good member. For the real A Goop CHuRCcH MEMBER 173 test of a Christian, of a church member, is whether he loves Christ. ). The good church member perpetually prae- tices the presence of God. In this he reaches the high-water mark of the spiritual life. Prayer is experiencing the presence of God. It is ‘‘talking to God with all the heart.’’ It is the essence of re- ligion for it throws the soul upon the grace of God in trust and love, expecting forgiveness, help and guidance. One of the earliest and most pleasing pictures of apostolic practice is seen in Acts 3:1-10. ‘‘One day Peter and John were going up to the temple for the hour of prayer,’’ the narrative commences and it ends with the story of a mighty miracle, and a divine sensation in the community. If a church could choose what, above everything else, it would have its members become, it could well afford to choose that they be praying men and women. This is the climax of beauty and power—or let us say —the soul of beauty and of power. A good mem- ber is a praying member. First, in the secret places where God alone sees and hears; and then, publicly where his prayer may lift souls less ex- perienced in the divine heavenward. The highest culture is the culture of prayer, as it is the highest power. The church has never had time nor place nor as- sociation that meant more than the prayer meeting. 174 THe DISCIPLES It assures the presence of Christ, becomes the foun- tain of power, and pours about the gathered wor- shipers the atmosphere of heaven. The young con- vert should, at all costs, be regular in some of the prayer meetings of his church. The church which gives up its prayer. meeting is committing a sin against its young members. The prayer meeting was the life of even the early apostolic churches. (Read 1 Cor., Chapters 12, 13, 14.) There is no better type of church member than the praying man. He carries the suggestion of eternity with him and holds within his soul a con- viction of omnipotence. It gives him the sense of the presence and goodness of God and enables him to partake of the riches, the purity and the mag- netism of the divine nature. It was public prayer mentioned in Acts 2:42, and to it came all the Christians that they might light the fires of devotion upon their own altars. It is an education of the soul to be led in prayer by one who knows how to approach the throne of grace. The good church member will never get busy enough to forget to read his New Testament and pray. In this way he always lives by super- natural power. His Attitude to Life The ideal church member is an optimist. To say a man is a Christian is to say that he is happy. No A Goopv CHurcH MEMBER 175 one more certainly misinterprets Jesus Christ and his religion than the man of gloomy spirit, and doleful outlook. The Christian life is a new life and its chief note is joy. One of the strongest contrasts of the Christian of the early days to the pagan was his happiness. He had found the secret of eternal joy and his freedom from eare, his ability to meet death with calmness and even with gladness, commended his life to outsiders. There is no place in which the superiority of church life is more apparent than in the joy that leaps from the heart and lips of the best type of church member. Faith gives freedom from eare. It does not worry. It sings in prison, it sings in the valley and shadow of death. Paul’s word was, ‘*Rejoice in the Lord always—and again I say rejoice.’’ He wrote five epistles out of prison but not one of them was sad. They are like a cage of song birds when the sun falls through tree and window. It is the duty of church members to cultivate a cheerful and contented spirit. There are many things in the church to cause people to be glad: the good news of Christ; the sense of forgiven sin; the warmth and mutual help of fellowship; the honor and dignity of human personality; the discovery of things of eternal worth; and finally the hope of heaven. 176 THe DISCIPLES He ts a Soul-Winner Every one who comes to Christ has a double eall. He is first called to save his own soul and secondly to save the souls of others. In the early church it would seem that every man and woman was a preacher. (Acts 8:4.) ‘‘Follower and bringer’’ might be used as a fitting description of a good member of the church. His ideal is Andrew, who ‘‘findeth first his own brother, Simon’’ and ‘‘brought him unto Jesus.’’? (John 1:41, 42.) The motto of the church training its membership thor- oughly would be ‘‘Every Member a Soul-Winner.’’ The song of the members should be the reaper’s song: ‘‘We shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves. ’’ Examples of Good Church Members The New Testament is rich in the record of ideal men and women. Naturally we think first of the leaders—apostles, evangelists, and preachers. But the list does not stop with these. The common man gets his inning in this new movement. Some of the examples of good church members are as follows: Barnabas, the business man, Acts 4:36, 37; Stephen, the deacon, Acts 6:8; Ananias, of Damascus, the praying man, Acts 9:11-18; Dorcas, the kind- hearted, Acts 9:36-43; Lydia, the religious busi- ness woman, Acts 16:13-15; an old roster of great Christians, Romans 16:1-16; Epaphras, a heart at A Goop CHurcH MEMBER 177 leisure from itself, Col. 4:12, 13; Luke, the beloved physician, Col. 4:14 and the gospel of Luke; Phile- mon, the host of the saints, Philemon 4-7; a Chris- tian widow, 1 Tim. 5:9, 10; the Elect Lady, second epistle of John; Gaius, the prosperous of soul, third epistle of John; Jesus the Supreme Exemplar of Good Church Members, Mark 7:37; Acts 10:38. CHAPTER XII HOW THE CHURCHES WORK VERY Disciple should be a member of the church as it is represented in a visible, or- ganized body of people worshiping in a given lo- eality. This local church, commonly so-called, is a very real and practical body. It must have a program, a location, a house, and a vital connec- tion with the community in which it lives and works. It has its inner, confidential, spiritual as- pects and its outer, physical and business respon- sibilities. The Model for the Churches of Christ The model for the churches of the Disciples is found in the New Testament. According to this, the local church is a democracy ruled by Christ who is the head, guided in mind by the Written Word and led in the depth of inner ex- perience by the Spirit of God. Being such a de- mocracy, a part of the responsibility for the wel- fare of the church rests upon every member. In churches founded on the pattern of monarchies, such is not the case. Everything is ‘‘handed down’’ to the members and knowledge of the in- struments, the tasks and the methods are not es- sential. But in the New Testament Church it is 178 How THE CHURCHES WoRK 179 not so. Every member helps to make the atmos- phere, to point the direction, to mark the goal and to modulate the pace. Every church is independ- ent and its organization sufficient to build up its own life in faith, hope and love. The Disciples have no ‘‘overhead government’’ and will not have one, believing that this tends to ecclesiasticism, to the suppression of the individual member, to polit- ical and mechanical management of the church and to the hindrance of initiative and the entrance of the Spirit. The advantages of the democratic polity are many and great but it also has special dangers and responsibilities. Self-control must reach a very high degree and the church must be well informed or it will go astray. Responsibilities of Leaders The leaders of the church must provide the membership with opportunities for a_ satisfac- tory degree of intelligence. At annual congrega- tional meetings the plans and purposes for the fol- lowing year are fixed, officers are elected, and the general outlines of the work made plain to all. Everything should be done in the open and faithful records kept. Where this is neglected the people are left in ignorance and cannot be expected to be zealous. By this lack the church is made weak, and fails to reach its highest goals. Often misunder- standings arise and they cause strife and division. True leaders will always seek to prevent this. 180 THE DISCIPLES How Duties are Discovered The duties of the local church are determined in three ways. The first is by the general work of preaching the gospel and training the membership as laid down in the New Testament. The second is the need of the community where the church lives and works, viewed in the light of Christ’s teachings and commandments. The third is seen in the larger aims and operations that grow out of the co-operative effort of all the churches that exist and agree to work together in the Brotherhood. In this way each church is enabled to fulfil its mission and to call every member to some work. The member keeps informed by attendance upon the meetings of his church, by announcements and bulletins, by the visits of evangelists, missionaries and ministers and especially by the religious press, which brings tidings from the field—tidings that mark the progress of his own people—and which also mediate to him and his fellow members the interpretations and tendencies of thought that in- fluence the religious body to which his church be- longs. The Organization of the Church It is necessary also to know the organization of one’s church if he is to be a happy and useful member of it. The Church consists of Christ as the head, the officers given by him as leaders and the disciples at large as the body of Jesus Christ. How THE CHURCHES WORK 181 The church must have officers. A list of these is given in the New Testament. Perhaps the church at Ephesus was the most completely or- ganized and the most richly officered of the New Testament churches. It becomes, therefore, one of our most impressive and instructive models. The officers of this church were considered special ‘“‘oifts’’ of the crowned Christ (Eph. 4:8, 11 et seq.) to the people. This is the right view of the officers of the church—that they are not of human origin but of divine gift or granting. And Christ never gave his people better gifts than conscien- tious and capable officers. Church Officers The following officials are mentioned in Ephe- sians: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Their duties in general were to pro- vide for the equipment of the saints, the business of the ministry, the upbuilding of the body of Christ, and the development of individuals to full spiritual stature in Christ. (Eph. 4:11-15.) We also read of ‘‘bishops and deacons,’’ (Phil. 1:1; Acts 20:28) and of ‘‘elders’’ (Acts 20:17) and of a ‘‘deaconess’’ (Rom. 16:1). The officers of the church today are evangelists, ministers, pastors or elders, and deacons. The apostolic and prophetic offices prominent in the beginning, the formative period, have been absorbed into these and are ex- 182 THE DISCIPLES pressed through them in the enterprises and aims of the church. The Departments of the Church According to the New Testament, which contains both the model and the norm of the church, there are three general departments of service, and these constitute the framework of all our congregations, no matter what may be their general arrangement and outer form. These departments are the evan- gelistic, the pastoral and the benevolent. They are enlarged and subdivided as the conditions seem to demand but the ideas contained in them mark the lines of organization for all churches. All the functions of true church officers as they exist now or have ever existed were discharged by Jesus Christ when he was on earth and the present organizations are simply the effort to conserve and to distribute the power generated by Jesus Christ and to supply it to society in such a way that rt will perpetually work as a regenerating, redemp- tive force. The true apostolic succession 1s in the whole Church and not simply in officials and preachers. And it is not a question of orders and ordination but of the stream of life given by God. It requires all the Church with all its operations to fulfill Christ’s work and to convey the influence of his personality in this world. This is all im- plied in the teaching that the Church is the body of Christ. All offices and powers inhere in Jesus How THE CHURCHES WORK 183 Christ and are his gifts perpetually renewed and constantly made effective. Let us consider the three departments of the church, according to the New Testament. The First Is the Evangelistic Jesus Christ himself was the first evangelist. Then he sent forth ‘‘the seventy’’ to preach. The apostles were foundation evangelists. Their preaching consisted largely of witness bearing and exhortation. Their chief aim must be the chief aim of the evangelist today, to preach the gospel and to win people to Jesus Christ. They must make the appeal which wins and brings in the out- sider. This is the promotion department, the re- eruiting service of the church. The first work of the church in the order of time was evangelism. The church was born in a revival. It was created and has been built by Jesus Christ, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Word. This also includes pastoral preaching. The man called the ‘‘pastor’’ today is properly the minister, or the evangelist. He exercises the prophetic office (Ephesians 4:11) which includes seeing, foretell- ing and especially forthtelling. The preacher should get his message from God’s word by prayer and study and should proclaim it to the world with the fervor and rapture of the Spirit. This was done on the day of Pentecost. 184 THE DISCIPLES Under this head also belongs part at least of the ‘‘Great Commission,’’ Matt. 28:18-20. The mis- sionary of the cross in foreign lands is pre-emi- nently the personality of God’s evangel. If the evangelist at home is ‘‘the herald of a passion,’’ the missionary or evangelist abroad is the preacher of a redemption—the glorious gospel, the light that is sprung up to those who sit in the region and shadow of death. Often the missionary is the martyr of a passion. Jesus Christ was an evangelist and the first work he inspired in his Church after his ascension was the fiery evangelism of Pentecost. The chief book for the evangelist is The Acts. It is full of fire, and life, and power and it should be the back- eround of modern evangelism. In it the modern evangelist must find his message and largely his method. The Second Department of the Church Is the Pastoral This department is charged with the teaching and training of all the members. Experienced and spiritual men, chosen by Jesus Christ and accepted by the church, watch over the souls that are new and young in the Church of the living God. They receive the convert from the hands of the evan- gelist and impart to him knowledge, awaken in him the desire to serve, and seek to restore in him the divine image. Those who direct this department of the church How THE CHURCHES WoRK 185 are known interchangeably as elders, bishops, and pastors. The word ‘‘elder’’ is of Jewish origin, ‘*bishop’’ from the Greek, and ‘‘pastor’’ from the Latin. Special care should be taken in selecting the elders. They should not be chosen as we choose officials of a worldly society, by the largest vote, but called only after deep prayer and faithful con- sideration of their fitness. Their qualifications are set forth in 1 Tim. 3:1-7. Their duties are given by the apostle Peter, 1 Peter 5:1-4. With such a character as that described by Paul, following such work as that set forth by Peter we have the ideal pastor and genuine pastoral work. No ealling is finer than that of an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ. Out of this department of church lfe—out of its influences and work—grew up Sunday schools, edu- cational institutions, schools and colleges in gen- eral. The church is not to aim to have direct over- sight of all these institutions but it sows the seed that contains them. It inspires men and women to found them. The church is the friend of enlight- enment. Christianity is the friend of science. The most of the great universities were started by religious influence. The church has directly under her guidance many millions of children. This is her tenderest, her most beautiful, her most important work. 186 THkeE DISCIPLES Probably there is not and has never been a move- ment in the history of Christianity more important than the modern Sunday school. The background of the work of the elders should be the Sermon on the Mount, the parables and the epistles. These contain the substance of Christ’s teachings, and elders should if possible know them by heart. The elders also preside at the Lord’s Table, which is a holy duty no one should take up with- out clean hands and a pure heart. This puts the elders forth as guardians of the sacred rites of the chureh and as directors of the church’s worship and prayers. According to our custom there is a settled min- ister or ministers for each church or group of churches. He is usually known as the pastor. He is the regular preacher, and in his preaching he discharges the function of the evangelist at almost every service. He also performs the pastoral du- ties. He becomes minister of the church by popu- lar call of the congregation, usually on recom- mendation of a committee. After his acceptance, he remains as long as mutually satisfactory to him and the chureh. He resigns or is asked to resign when a change is to be effected. This is a very poor method but it seems to be the best way yet devised. The Scripture contains no precedent for the appointment of ministers for a local church un- How THE CHURCHES WorRK 187 less it be the action of Paul appointing elders and leaving Timothy as pastor at Ephesus, and Titus as the pastor of Crete. The Third Department of the Church Is the Benevolent It is under the direction of the deacons. The management of the business affairs of the Chureh of Christ is also committed to them. The word deacon means one who serves and therefore it is one of the finest works in the world. We cannot think of any who render more desirable service to the church and to humanity than its deacons. They consecrate their business judgment to the Master’s enterprise and by so doing become the chief creators of the chureh buildings that help to give opportunity and stability to Christianity. The architectural achievements that have added so much glory and impressiveness to the Christian religion have in most modern cases been made pos- sible by the business energy, vision and consecra- tion of the deacons. The deacons provide the ways and means for the pastor’s support and they take the details of business management and of benevolent obligation off of his hands that he may be free to give him- self to the Word of God and to prayer (Acts 6:1-4). Many churches are suffering today for want of elders and deacons to do the work of the Church as indicated in this chapter. Too often the 188 THE DISCIPLES preacher has had to act as elder and deacon in ad- dition to his own duty with the result that the pastoral work, the business and the pulpit have all suffered. One man is not adequate except in point of suggestion and leadership, to the work of the complex, active modern church. The story of the beginning of the diaconate is an interesting and instructive one. The office of deacon seems to have grown out of the effort to take care of the poor widows in the church at Je- rusalem. This work has enlarged through the years until it has become the chief influence and inspiration in keeping alive kindness and helpful- ness in the world. The deacon spirit, that is the service spirit, is penetrating and coloring society. The importance of the work and purposes of the deacons may be seen in the orphanages and other benevolent and charitable institutions of the world. There are many thousands of such institutions seattered over the face of the earth which are not directly connected with the Church, but there is not one which did not directly or indirectly grow out the duty, ideals, and work of deacons as out- lined in the New Testament. The germ of what we now call social service is in the work of deacons. Viewing work of the church as being directed in the three departments —the evangelistic, the pastoral and the benevolent —we see that it is organized to take care of every How THE CHURCHES WoRK 189 want of man, body, soul and spirit. It contains a pertect ideal for civilization and it will likely prove the outline of the final form and methods of States. Intelligent and religious care must be taken in the selection of deacons. This is according to the first idea in the selection of the seven men, usually ealled the first deacons. (Acts 6:3, 4.) ‘‘Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you séven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wis- dom, whom we:may appoint over this business. But we will continue stedfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the Word.’’ The character requirements for deacons are of the highest kind and correspond closely to what is demanded of elders. They are set forth by Paul in 1 Tim. 3:8-12. Too often the membership makes too little of character and reputation in selecting the deacons and always with hurtful results to the church. When men of doubtful character, or unsavory reputation are put forth as chureh leaders, it weakens the influence of the church and emboldens men of the world to do wrong. It brings upon such men when selected to lead, the criticism if not the contempt of all who witness the procedure. But glorious indeed is the reward of those who, fitted by nature and grace to serve in these high offices, enter upon them not as the adornment of a career but as an opportunity to serve God and 190 THE DISCIPLES man. It. is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. The deacons should make special study of the incident of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) which may be thought of as the first idea of the Christian hospital. If the schools and universities grew out of the idea of the work committed to the elders of the church the hospital is the fruit of the diaconate. Christian doctors, whether formally elected or not, are real deacons of Christianity. The miracles also, most of which were mercies as well as wonders wrought upon nature and spirit, are to be especially studied. They show how far Christ would go to relieve the suffering of the world. He puts human need above everything else. The miracles are really the background and inspiration for all kinds of good deeds, and for the wonderful works of merey and healing in the world today. They are not only radiations of power from the throne but they are heart-beats of kindness from the Spirit. The Board of Officers The churches are guided in a human way by a body called ‘‘the board of officers.’’ This is really an executive committee composed of the minister, the elders and the deacons who have been duly elected by the church assembled for the purpose. There is a growing custom of holding an installa- tion service in public recognition of the leadership How THE CHURCHES WoRK 191 of these officers and in order to impress the con- gregation and the officers with the importance and the deeply religious character of the work upon which they are entering. Sometimes this ceremony is accompanied by fasting and laying on of hands as well as with prayer and a formal charge to faith- fulness. Ordination means a great deal. It was a New Testament custom at least, and should still be practiced. It made for good order and impressed deeply those being so blessed with the church’s confidence. | The board of officers meets monthly in most churches or when called together to receive and review reports of the work, to plan for needed enterprises and to consider and pray for the prog- ress of the church. It is organized with chairman, vice-chairman and recording secretary. This board itself reports to the congregation with recom- mendations for future work annually. At this time election of officers for the congregation is usually held. A well organized board divides itself into com. mittees to which the various ministries of the church are assigned to be done. One of our most suecessful church boards has the following com- mittees: Baptism, Sunday school, Communion, Evangelism, Finance, House, Library, Member- ship, Missions, Music, Pulpit Supply, Social Serv- ice and Ushers. 192 THE DISCIPLES The treasurer of the church and the clerk are the officers of the congregation. The clerk keeps its records. Huis duty is a very important one. A correct church roll is of value to the church and to each member. We have known court decisions to depend upon the church roll. And it is a genuine satisfaction and help, a real inspiration and dis- tinetion to have one’s name on the church books. At the direction of the church, the clerk usually issues letters of dismissal and commendation to members moving or wishing to join other local churches. ‘‘Dropping members’’ from the church record is a very doubtful practice. Many need reviving but few, if any, ought to be dropped. Sometimes it is necessary to remove a member but it is an extreme procedure and must be done with the spirit of discipline in the hope of having such a one made better and not as a final rejection or punishment of him. (1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2:5-11.) General Committees of the Church The rich, varied and manifold work of such a high character that looks to the renewal of hu- manity and to the establishment of the kingdom of God, calls for many laborers. It requires every member of the church to be active. The church being an organism creates its own forms and meth- ods of procedure. Being energized by the Spirit of God and seeking to accomplish such desirable How THE CHURCHES WorRK 193 spiritual and social ends, it has grown into a won- derful body whose influence reaches to the ends of the earth. There are hints that every member of the church in. early days was assigned to some special work. At any rate, something was expected of every one. As we learn from Ephesians 4:16, ‘‘For he, Christ, is the head and under him, as the entire Body is welded together and compacted by every joint with which it is supplied, the due activity of each part enables the Body to grow and build itself up in love.’’? (Moffatt.) Every ‘‘joimt’’? must supply something, every member be a vital part. There must be ‘‘the due activity of each part.’’ This is further enforced by Romans 12:4-8, where Paul says: ‘‘In our one body we have a number of members, and the members have not all the same function; so too, for all our numbers we form one body in Christ, and we are severally members one of another. Our talents differ with the grace that is given us; if the talent is that of prophecy, let us employ it in proportion to our faith; if it is practical service let us mind our service: the teacher must mind his teaching, the speaker his words of counsel; the contributor must be liberal, the superintendent must be in earnest, the sick visitor must be cheerful.’’ (Moffatt.) In these words there is at least the germ of the committee idea, and a place suggested for every 194 THE DISCIPLES one.