We can not recognize the _side institution_, nor the officers in it,
as neither the one nor the other is known to the oracles of God, or to
history for ages after the sacred canon was complete. What is the use
to talk of a church of which there is not a trace in the volume of God,
nor in anything written for hundreds of years after the apostles? There
is not a trace of Romanism, of a pope, cardinal or archbishop in the
Bible, except in the prophecies that foretell the apostasy, nor in any
other writing of the first three centuries. Nor is there any account of
any of the others we have mentioned for a much greater length of time.
We find “the body of Christ,” “the kingdom of God,” and “the Church
of God,” spoken of in Scripture. The Lord says, “On this rock I will
build my church.” Here is something clear and definite. We can bring
this “body” before us, this “kingdom,” or “church,” be members of it,
confine our minds and hearts to it; keep it and all its grand interest
in view, and not some _side structure, imitation or something like it_.
The apostles and first evangelists, the overseers and deacons in the
first church, were all ministers or servants in the grand work of the
“one body,” or “the kingdom,” and not of any _side structure_. All who
are really ministers or servants of Jesus now, are in this “one body,”
“kingdom” or “church,” and devoted to its interests and growth, and not
to the building up, extending or perpetuation of any _side structure_,
under the pretext that it is like the original or any other, but for
the original itself.
All these side structures, names and laws are usurpation, and the true
ministers or servants of the kingdom, can but regard them as such, and
labor to melt them all away and put all the good material there is in
them into “God’s building,” “the temple of God,” and thus make this
material useful and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
As to clerical airs, the peculiar cut of the coat, the white necktie,
and all other such “outward signs of inward grace,” they are the
offspring of shallowness, weakness and folly, and wholly incompatible
with the plainness, meekness and humility of Jesus and of good taste
and sense.