in varying degrees, even unto entire divergence. We shall find, we believe, that in no one of the three great forms of the Church of God were these lines identical, but instead more or less divergent, proving that the visible Church is not identical with the invisible. But this will be more fully treated hereafter.

§ 6. But what is the Church of God as manifested in its threefold form? We answer in the words of Prof. Samuel Harris, D.D., of Yale Theological Seminary: "The Church is the organic outgrowth of the life-giving and redeeming grace of Christ penetrating human history in the Holy Spirit." On this definition, note: (1) That it applies to all three dispensations of the Church of God, though particularly designed to define the Christian Church. (2) That it makes the life of Christ penetrating humanity and redeeming it the germ and root of the Church. (3) That this life penetrates history through the Holy Spirit. That life enters the individual heart in regeneration and is nurtured in sanctification. The Church is not therefore independent of Christ and the Spirit in its inception, progress, and consummation. (4) Yet the Church is not this life, but the organic outgrowth of the life-giving and redeeming grace of Christ. The Church of God is more than the number of the redeemed; it is more than the fruits of the Spirit in the hearts of the redeemed; it is more than the atoning work of Christ its Head; it is also an organic outgrowth, "the communion of saints." (5) This organic outgrowth or manifestation may be, or it may not be, exactly conterminous with the redeeming grace of Christ penetrating human society in the Holy Spirit. The Church is an organic manifestation of an invisible life, which may gather into itself some foreign elements, and which may continue to exist as an organism for a time after its life-giving energy has been withdrawn.

Now this Church of God, born of the grace of God,

629 Bib. Sacra, 114.

begun in Eden, destined to fill the world with glory, and to be consummated in heaven (1 Cor. 15: 24-28), has had three forms of organic manifestation, above alluded to, called the patriarchal dispensation, the ceremonial or Mosaic dispensation, and the Christian dispensation - the family, the national, and the ecumenical forms.

We will now trace this organic outgrowth of the grace of God in Christ penetrating human society.

I.

THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION, OR THE FAMILY
FORM OF THE CHURCH OF GOD.

§ 7. We assume the patriarchal theory of the origin of society, which has been stated by Sir Henry Maine to be, "the origin of society in separate families, held together by the authority and protection of the eldest valid male ascendant. . . . The strongest and wisest male rules. . . . All under his protection are on an equality.' This is also Darwin's view. . . . At present it must be concluded that the most probable theory of the structure of early society is that, in a more or less developed form, the family was the original unit; sexual and parental affection point to it, and early law and custom confirm it."7

§ 8. But, whatever the origin of human society, this earliest form of the Church of God can not be carried back beyond man's apostasy. The Church begins where so many sermons begin, at Adam's fall. Had Adam stood in his integrity, the worship he and his posterity would have offered unto God would have expressed the beauty of their own native holiness. The confession of sin and the redemptive element would have found no place in it. It would have been like that of the angels. The Church of God, as we know it, could not in that case have existed.. This is evident.

§ 9. The beginnings of the Church of God were in this wise. The life-giving and redeeming grace, of which the.

'Prof. George Harris, D.D., 5 Andover Rev. 662, 664.

Church is the organic outgrowth, was announced to our apostate parents in the garden of Eden in a most comprehensive and germinant promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3: 15). When this proto-evangel opened the door of hope, there was no Church, and no material for a Church, except as sinners could be brought to repentance. The love and wisdom of God in a plan of redemption had been dimly hinted at, but the prime condition essential to the beginning of the Church, penitence, had not yet been wrought in the heart of man.

The first recorded appearance of the Church of God in germ was in the sacrifices offered by Cain and Abel (Gen. 4: 3, 4). And it is significant that the scriptural list of saints begins with the name of the first martyr (Heb. 11: 4). When the second son of Adam became righteous, we do not know; but worship, both eucharistic and expiatory, either by command of God or by the demand of fallen human nature, had been instituted long before the special sacrifice which God respected and which angered Cain. It seems certain that the faith of Abel began the Church of God.

§ 10. But the life of saints continued to the exodus of Israel. There may have been breaks in the succession, even after Seth renewed it; but the great promise of a Saviour was handed down through Enoch, Noah, and others, until it was confirmed in a covenant with Abraham and with his seed. The meager record gives only the great events; and saints seem always to have been few. Indeed, twice the Church became almost extinct at the flood and at the call of Abraham. The mingling of the sons of Seth with the daughters of Cain ended in the deluge. Through Noah God sought to people the earth again with a godly seed. But this seed became corrupt, until a single family was called, and, to keep it pure, was made to wander up and down the promised land. Many others, like Melchizedek, may have retained belief in Jehovah, but the sacred narrative leads apparently to another conclusion. Men knowing

God glorified him not as God, but fell into idolatry, save the few who continued the genealogy of faith, the Church of God, until the giving of the law.

§ 11. The form of the Church in this period was very simple, hardly entitled to the term organic. It is expressed by the word patriarchal. The household was the only visible organism. Its elements of worship and belief were: (1) The Sabbath. The day of rest and of worship was instituted, we believe, before the apostasy. It was ordained of God in man's physical constitution and announced (Gen. 2: 2); and it was observed after the fall in some fashion, as indicated in the moral law (Ex. 20: 8). (2) Sacrifices. These were eucharistic and expiatory (Gen. 4: 3-5). Wherever men called upon the name of the Lord, it is probable that they did so in connection with such sacrifices. Noah (Gen. 8: 20), Abraham (Gen. 12: 7, 8; 13: 18; 15: 9; 22: 1-13), Isaac (Gen. 26: 25), and Jacob (Gen. 28: 18; 33: 20; 35: 14) sacrificed unto the Lord. Their sacrifices had in remembrance God's blessings, and also man's sin and the promised Saviour; and were therefore eucharistic and expiatory. They were continued down to the giving of the law (Job 1: 5; 42: 8; Ex. 10: 25); that is, from the beginning to the end of the period. (3) A priesthood. The patriarch was the priest of his household. This is declared of some of the patriarchs; it is presumptively so of the rest. There were no other priests. Hence the term patriarchal has been given the period. (4) There was no initiatory rite at first. Natural birth or purchase or conquest introduced into the household and into all the privileges of the Church estate. But God's covenant with Abraham was sealed by the sign of circumcision. It covered children and slaves (Gen. 17: 10-14). This outward rite was the sign and seal of a spiritual renewal (Deut. 10: 16; 30: 6), of the covenant of promise (Gal. 3: 7, 29), and of the life hid with Christ in God (Col. 3: 3). It therefore binds the three dispensations into one covenant (Col. 2: 11, 12). (5) The

creed embraced a few and simple beliefs-God, prayer, salvation, special promises-on which faith lay hold (Heb. 11: 1-29). "To follow up any of the religions thus represented, in the true line of their subsequent history, must certainly land us in a creed recognizing only one God . . . a worship of simple patriarchal sacrifice and prayer, and belief in the favor of a personal and merciful God thereby."8 This creed was unwritten, traditional, enlarging as God revealed himself to the patriarchs.

§ 12. This form of the Church, though so simple, was not unifying. Natural selection may have drawn the pious into some forms of fellowship; but the only recorded attempt at consolidation or solidarity by building the tower of Babel was frustrated (Gen. 11: 1-9). The Jacobs and the Esaus could not agree or live in peace; but neither gathered a following after his kind from beyond his own household. The form was narrow, clannish, isolating. It could not make the people of God one congregation. There was no fellowship wider than that of the family circle, unless at rare intervals (Gen. 14: 18-20).

§ 13. Nor did this form of the Church conserve piety. Twice in its progress the Church ran almost out; but God interposed to save it, first, by the ark of Noah (Gen. 6: 1

8 Comp. Hist. Religions, by Prof. J. C. Moffat, D.D., part 1, 246. The Veda are to the Aryan or Indo-European family of nations including the English, what Genesis is to the Semitic family of nations, including the Hebrew. Max Müller, in his Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i, sect. 1, says: "The religion of the Veda knows of no idols;" "God has established the eternal laws of right and wrong;" "He punishes sin and rewards virtue;' ""the same God is willing to forgive; just, yet merci. ful; ""the idea of faith is found in the Veda, including trust in the gods, and belief in their existence; a belief in personal immortality, without a trace of metempsychosis or the transmigration of souls.' "The Veda is the earliest deposit of the Aryan faith." "The religion of the Veda is Polytheism, not Monotheism;" but "not what is commonly understood as Polytheism. Yet it would be equally wrong to call it Monotheism." 27-44.

The development in the Bible is upwards into greater clearness and fulness; that of the Veda downwards, until in Buddhism religion is lost in a system "without a God," "without what goes by the name of 'soul,' "without an objective heaven," "without a vicarious saviour," "without rites, prayers, penances, priests, or intercessory saints." It is only by accommodation that such a system can be called a religion. "The word 'religion' is most inappropriate to apply to Buddhism, which is not a religion, but a moral philosophy." Olcott's Buddhist Catechism, ques. 128, i, note.