initiated. It is certainly remarkable that in three of the Gospels the word Church does not occur, and in the remaining one it is used only on two occasions,1 of which one alone has any bearing upon the subject. The celebrated declaration, "On this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," is omitted in the parallel accounts, and is therefore exposed to the suspicion of a later date; for

1 Matt. xvi. 18, xviii. 17. Mr. W. H. Lowe shows that ekkλnoía in the latter passage refers neither to the Christian Church nor to the Jewish Synagogue, but simply to a body of ten persons, which in Hebrew is called, a congregation, ten being the number required by Rabbinic law for various more solemn religious acts. (The Fragment of Talmud Babli, 1879, p. 65, note Cc.) The added words, "What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven," have been understood as conveying to the Church the prerogative of forgiveness and condemnation. Yet the words are addressed, not to the Church, but to the disciples, who were desired to report to the Church the impenitence of an offending brother. If we interpret the words by the context, the meaning. seems to be that if the disciples acted in the just and forgiving spirit which was inculcated, their binding and loosing would correspond with the verdict of heaven. To suppose that the statement was intended to confer even on the Apostles an arbitrary and unconditional power of forgiving or not at their discretion, would be quite contrary to the whole tenor of the chapter. I am arguing on the supposition that the words have been correctly attributed to Christ; but some critics might show reason for doubt.

THE CHURCH IN THE TEACHING OF CHRIST. 17

we can hardly suppose that two of the Evangelists would deliberately omit a saying which constituted the very basis of ecclesiastical authority. At all events,

it would be impossible in any scientific treatment to regard this statement as an adequate foundation for the enormous superstructure of ecclesiastical assumption which has been built upon it. We must infer from these facts that the notion of a Church entered very little or not at all into Christ's teaching, and that in speaking of him as the Founder of the Church we express rather the unpremeditated consequence than the explicit purpose of his life and doctrine. He speaks, indeed, frequently of "the kingdom of heaven," or "the kingdom of God;" but he nowhere identifies this with a Church, or ascribes to it any definite organization. From among his disciples he selected an inner group, to enjoy a closer intimacy with himself, and to extend, through the medium of their word,

1 Professor A. B. Bruce accepts the saying as genuine on the ground that "it is far too remarkable to have proceeded from any one but Jesus." He thinks the third Evangelist may have omitted it owing to "a consciousness that the words were being used already for party purposes," and that Mark may have omitted it owing to the "modesty" of Peter, under whose influence he wrote. (The Kingdom of God; or, Christ's Teaching according to the Synopticul Gospels, pp. 260 sqq.)

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the area of his preaching; and this may show that he contemplated a large movement of reform on lines peculiar to himself. But there is no evidence that he made his Apostles the nucleus of a society, which was to be constituted under fixed rules, and placed under the direction of a hierarchy. It seems to have been his immediate purpose to scatter his great spiritual principles broadcast on the world, and allow them to germinate freely where and how they would.1

Nevertheless, a distinct society of "Brethren" appears to have grown up almost immediately after the departure of Jesus from the world; and within twenty or thirty years we find "Assemblies" (commonly translated "Churches") of these "Brethren " or "Saints" scattered over the Roman empire, and the idea of the collective Church, united as a single organism, already formulated by St. Paul. We cannot enter into the question of the mode in which these Churches were constituted. The researches of Dr. Hatch and others have made it probable that the organization was based upon existing lines, and was slowly elaborated to meet the growing necessities of the movement; and there is really no evidence that

1 See, especially, the parable of the Sower.

THE FORMATION OF THE CHURCH.

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the Church is a "divinely constituted society," in the sense that it owes all the details of its government to the express appointment of men acting under a divine sanction. Indeed, this kind of legal and inflexible constitution is inconsistent with the spirituality and freedom of primitive Christianity, when the general body of believers were "an elect race, a royal priesthood," "to offer up spiritual sacrifices;" and it was only through the intrusion of lower elements of thought, and the needs of a world-wide empire, which had ceased to be a kingdom of saints, that a vast organized authority gradually asserted itself, and claimed to represent on earth the prerogative of God. But in another and higher sense the Church was of divine origin. As human society has arisen out of the nature which God has implanted in the heart of man, so the Christian society arose out of that new spirit which separated all who received it from the superstition and immorality around them. It may be sufficient to notice two elements in the Christian consciousness which led to the formation of a Church.

"The communion of the Holy Spirit" is one of the great ideas of Christendom. These words came ori11 Peter ii. 9, 5.

ginally from the glowing heart of Paul, when he saw the Corinthian disciples wrangling about superficial questions, and forgetting the deep and inward life with God, without which Christianity was nothing but a name. The words have lived on, and passed into the devotions of the Church; and if they have too often degenerated into a heartless formula, which Christians honour with their lips and disown in practice, still they bear witness to an ideal which has been never wholly lost. Nothing unites men so powerfully as common religious sympathies and aspirations, and those who share in any degree the communion of the Spirit are drawn together as brother to brother; for before the majesty of this hidden life of God in the soul all lower estrangements dwindle into insignifiOut of this life the Church arose, as a community of brethren and children of God; and the members met together to express their sense of brotherhood, to offer common worship, and to give and receive the strength and encouragement which spring from the consciousness of common aims and hopes.

cance.

Further, Christianity has always been a missionary religion. Christ himself was a "teacher;" and to