SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1928, Page 17

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A. H. COLLINS

THE CHARTER OF THE CHURCH

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them.”—Saint Matt. XVIII. 20.

It is regrettable that this passage is often misquoted. How many times we have heard it used as if it read: “For where two or three are gathered together, there am I in with them, and that to bless them.” Now. it is true that where Christ comes He comes : to bless, even though His presence means correction and reproof, and not soothing or peace. But that is not the meaning of this particular passage, and where we quote Scripture we should quote it correctly. Moreover, in this ease, the misquotation involves misinterpretation. This is not a promise made to a prayer meeting, but to a church meeting, and to a church meeting called for a particular purpose. The distinction is of such importance that I am going to ask you to consider it with care.

The question of the forgiveness of injuries had troubled the disciples, and Simon Peter, acting as the spokesman of the rest, raised the question: “How oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” The Babbis said four times was the limit, but Peter raised the standard and suggested “seven times.” Christ’s answer was a surprise. ‘‘l say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven,” meaning unlimited forgiveness. But that did not end the matter, for our Lord proceeded to define the course to be followed in eases of difference between disciples. First there should be private endeavour to adjust the difference, and effect a reconciliation. “Go show him his fault between thee and him alone.’’ If this fail there is to be the interventions of mutual friends. “Take with thee one or two more.” If these mutual friends fail, then a third course is to follow —“Tell it to the church,” and if the offender will not harken to the united voice of the church, “Let him be to thee as the Gentile, and the publican.”

Then follow words ,oi the greatest seriousness. “Verily I say unto yon what things, so ever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in, heaven, and what things soever ye shall loose on. earth shall be loosed in heaven.” “For where two or three are gathered in My name there am I in the midst.”

Read this way the passage assumes the utmost gravity, for it imposes on the church duties of the most serious order, and it raises questions that involve not only the peace and honour of the church, but the very existence of the church. But there arise two questions. What is the church? Whence does it derive its authority? and to these questions I turn.

“THE KINGDOM.” Our Lord said little about the church. The word does not occur in three of the four gospels, and only twice in Saint Matthew. Christ’s great word was not “the church,” but “the kingdom.” This makes it the more important that we mark well His words when He does speak of the Church. The word for

•church is “the .eeelesia,” or “the assembly.” The ckurch is not the building, but the persons assembled in. the building.

But even.so,, the New Testament use of the word “eeelesia” is twofold. It describes the church universal, and the church local. In passages like these: “Ho is Head of the Church,” "Christ loved the Church,” “the Church which He hath redeemed,” “the Church which is His body.” The reference is. not to any local assembly of Christian people, but to the communion of saints, the Holy Catholic Church, what Dr. Matheson calls “the society of the friends -of Jesus,” an organic union of many members, having different gifts and callings, all pervaded by the same life blood, ruled by the same head, animated by the same soul, and all working to the same end.” All who have repented of sin and, received Christ as Saviour and Lord are members of that church, whether their names are on a local church register or not. Outside that church there is no salvation, for it includes true and faithful men in all lands, and ages, and creeds. It is not Roman nor Anglican:

it is not Presbyterian nor Methodist; it is not Congregational nor Baptist. The church is not the bishops and the clergy. It is not confined to any particular form of government, nor the observance of this or that rite. The sole condition of membership is the possession of a certain character. "They that have my Spirit, these said He. are Mine.” WHAT A CHURCH IS. But the word is used in a more restricted way. For example, we read of “the Church which is at Corinth,” "the Church which is at Ceasarea,” and the a-postle, in his letter to Philemon, speaks of “the church in thy house.” Any company of Christian people gathered in the name of Jesus Christ, for the observance of Christian ordinances is a church local. All true and faithful men are members of "the Holy Catholic Church,” though some have no visible union with a local assembly. Their names are written in “the Lamb's Book of Life,” though they are not enrolled in the local church register. They are not “strangers and foreigners,” but "fellow citizens of the household of God,” though they do not lodge with the members of the family. They are one with us in the emotions and aims of the Christian life, though not in membership with the local eeelesia. The local assembly may consist of the smallest plurality, “two or three,” but it is not the number that matters, it is the spirit. . The spacious and stately cathedral with vaulted roof, flying shafts, carved pillars and “storied windows richly light,” may not be a church of God

it all, while the plain meeting house >r rustic cottage may be the true sane;uary of the Most High. But whether ’ew or many, the assembly must be in

Christ’s name, gathered around His sacred person, as the planets circle round the sun. Everything must be done in His name, and in conformity, with His spirit. Where Christ is there is the Church. Where Christ is not there is n-o Church. Any rite which-has His authority is hindins' oh Christians, and

any observance which has not His authority is not binding. The condition of entrance into. the .Church is pergonal faith in the Lord' Jesus, .and hot baptism, nor orthodoxy of beliefs, hor conformity to human standards, “In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but, a new creature.” That is the vital, the foundation matter, that is Pauline and Protestant. The Church is Christ’s own institution, but ’He did not lay down fixed and rigid rules of Church order. THE EARLIEST CHURCH. Competent historians admit that the earliest church was congregational, but we may not on that account claim that this is the one and only ‘legitimate Church order. The method adopted was decided by local circumstances, i “There are diversities of operation, but the same spirit.” The Congregationalist finds Con-gregationa-lism; the Presbyterian finds Presbyterianism, > and the Episcopalian s finds E-piseopalianism. But when any man asserts the exclusive rights- of his own church -order lie is flying in tJie face of -Scripture and history. No particular church order -or type of ministry, or form of government, is essential. The whole Sacramentarian claim—the’priestly power in baptismal regeneration, the power to change bread and wine into the flesh and blood of the Son of God, the claim to the iiist-orie episcopate, and the denial of the validity of the ministry of non-Episeopal ministers —is not.. only a breach of Christian charity, it is an insult to the common-sense, 'similar to ths claims of magic men and. miraeleworfrers of savage tribes with their incantations, and exorcism's, and’ recipes for rain-making, and. amulets against plagues and earthquakes. Frankly these thing's ’belong to the childhood of the world, and grown people should believe I them no longer. ■ WHENCE THE POWER.'. The second ’ question is, whtnee does the Church derive its power? I have said ■that a church after the New Testa,meat pattern may consist -of a handful of simple folk meeting in the plainest of plain buildings, and worshipping in the simplest of simple ways. They may wear no stamp of intellectual distinction; they may possess no’special gifts, no social status, no formal creed, yet Christ promises them answer to their prayers, the confirmation of their decisions, and the pledge of His Divine Presence. The passage is amazing in the power it confere, and the misuse of this power may easily spell disaster. The Bishop of Birmingham, and the author of that brave 'book, “The Impatience of a Parson,” see the peril, and have spoken plainly. It was the revolt against spiritual bondage which gave rise to Nonconformity. .Salvation Jby magic is as incredible as healing ‘by witchcraft.

But criticism of the false is; not enough. It’ is vain to say that Sacerdotalism is false unless we put in its place something better and nobler. We have -been strong -and, alas, sometimes bitter, in our denials and weak in our affirmations. The .idea of the Church has almost vanished, yet there is nothing else like it in all the world, and the recovery of the spiritual conception of the Church, -and its divine authority, • would mean an immense accession of power. For -the Church is not a social club, a debating society, and still less is it a mutual admiration, society. The Cliureh is a fellowship of the twiceborn, it is the organ of Christ’s mind, the instrument of Christ’s will. The Church is “the body of Christ.” It is not the “Church of Rome” er “The •Church of England” or “The Baptist Church.” It is Jesus Christ’s church, The principle for which our fathers suffered and died was spiritual freedom, the right to serve God as conscience led them. They did hot contend’for liturgy or no liturgy. That question may be determined by taste and education. They contended for spiritual freedom, whatever the form or the absence of form, whether few or many. Where Christ is there the church is, and if He is not present there is no church, whatever the outward form. There may. be numbers, wealth, fashion, music, elo- ; quen-ce, but there is not a church. The church is neither autocratic democratic, but theocratic It is neither the rule of the clergy, nor the rule of .the laity, but the rule of Christ, and it is there the spiritual authority of the church rests, and the frank and sincere recognition of that fundamental fact woud. end a good .many of the evil things which make good men mourn. A COMMON MESSAGE.

Far too much emphasis has been placed upon “our unhappy divisions.” After I all, the Church —hot.!.;. Established and Free—has, speaking generally, proclaimed a common message. On the eternal fundamentals the Church has been one. It is simple peddling, piffling criticism to exaggerate differences of accent or of ritual as if these were the all-important things. ( There is something far more important indeed than changes in a prayer book. Why cannot there be freedom here If, by any chance, England should be threatened by a bullying regime such as recently prevailed in Russia with regard to religion, it would be seen at once that Christianity in all its forms in _ this country is at the bottom one. We do differ, but we do not hate. Religion has nothing to fear from liberty. The more it is brought out into the open the better. New light is dawning upon the world. Science has opened up to us a universe of which our fathers never dreamed. The new light may compel changes in thought, recasting of human creeds, and restatements of the ancient faith. Why not?

CHRIST’S SERVANT. The minister is not the servant of ■ the church; he is Christ’s servant. He is not speaking in Xis own name, but In the Name of the Master, and each part of the service will be determined by reference to the will of our Lord. Dr, Gordon has told of the revolution which came to his ministry as the result of a dream in which he thought he saw Christ sitting in the pew one Sunday morning. Think, .too, of the effect it would have on our public worship. How eager we should be to be present! Howprepared and expectant we should be! What a lilt would be in our song, what fervour in our prayers, what honest tyihing of our substance! How quiet ■ and reverent we shouldbe ; Ay would redeem public worsnip from formality and ricylert. -Jf -■ tlie ; church ; Is

Christ’s church, how can we think lightly of an institution He founded, over which He rules, and through which He works, for the redemption of the’ world? If He is “in the midst” then pride and arrogance, unholy rivalry and self-assertion and exclusiveness must grieve Him, Our place is at His pierced feet, our attitude is submissioii to His authority, our prayer “Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?”

SOME FALSE IDEA'S. Robert Louis Stevenson said that not until he went to Samoa did he get outside the mental domination of Rome. In a similar way we have to get away from the false ideas of the church, and free our minds of the erroneous and msichievous associations of the term in which theological opinion and churchmanship have imprisoned it. It is character and Christlikeness, not creed, that saves. Many who are outside the borders of any ecclesiastical communion are more truly Christian than others, whose correctness of creed and ceremonial observance of churehly order a,re beyond all question. Jesus spoke the last word on the whole subject when He drew His deathless picture, of the proud ■churchman of His day, and the humble and prayerful publican from whom the Pharisee disdainfully drew the skirts of his embroidered robe. The best church is the church that .produces the best men. The Holy Catholic Church consists in the. unbreakable communion of those who live their faith, in righteousness and goodness, serve. God in the service of their fellows, in fighting wrong, abolishing abuse, and making some corner of the world a little brighter, deny the Devil’s creed of selfseeking, and find the fulfilment of their being in some form of unselfish effort. The Church of Christ is the church inspired by His ideals and obedient to the impulses of His Spirit.