EQUALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Evening Star, Issue 10932, 15 May 1899, Page 3

EQUALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Yesterday morning the Eev. A. North preached on the above subject in Hanover street Baptist Church, taking for his text Matthew xxiii., 8 : "Be ye not called Rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." After making a passing allusion to the series of meetings to be held this week, under the auspices of the Dunedin Ministers' Association, remarking that this gathering of the various denominations involved no compromise in matters of conscience, or belittling in the principles on which they differed, Mr North said the words of his text were directed against the spiritual assumptions of the Pharisees of old. They were to call no man their father, neither were they to be called masters. The text stood out against assumptions on the part of any man, or class of men, of spiritual superiority or rule over their fellows, or of authority to disclose or to interpret the mind of God. Christians wero all taught of Christ, were all disciples of Christ, and were all equally dependent upon Him for a knowledge of God and His will. There was no statement that there was one supreme teacher of all things, Christ was the one authoritative Teacher. He said: "I am the Light of the World." It was the privilege of every Christian to sit at Christ's feet, listen to His voice, and receive the truth directly from Him. They were not dependent on men, neither ought they to recognise human authority in the realm of truth. From that they were enfranchised by the Great Liberator. At the time of the Reformation men were clamorously claiming authority over the intellects and souls of their fellow-creatures, and this the reformers, in the might of God, stood up against. The assumption was unwarranted and unwarrantable. As they resented and resisted the interposition of men between themselves and Christ as the necessary media of His grace, so they lesented and resisted the interposition of men between themselves and Christ as the authoritative media of His truth. Dealing with thp words " all ye are brethren," the preacher asked "What are brothers?" They were the children of the one father, partakers of the one nature, those in whom the one life Jived and proved true to its type, and this was so in the fullest sense and highest degree of those who by faith and love were joined to Jesus Christ. They were regenerate, were sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty, born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh, but of God. They were brothers because they were brothers, and were not under each other's domination, but were equally under the rule of their Father, to whom they were all related in precisely the same way and in precisely the same degree. This was the point of the text: the equality of Christians in spiritual privilege and dignity and nearness to God, and the consequent freedom of Christians within the spiritual sphere from human domination or authority.