CHURCH.[1]
The word church is derived from the Greek word _Kuriakon_, the Lord's
(from _Kurios_, the Lord), and it has various significations. (_a_)
Sometimes it means the whole body of believers on earth--"the company
of the faithful throughout the world"--"the number of the elect that
have been, are, and shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head
thereof; and is the spouse, the body and the fulness of Him that
filleth all in all." [2] (_b_) Sometimes it is applied to a body of
Christians differing from the rest in their constitution, doctrines,
and usages; as, for example, the Church of Rome, the Greek Church, the
Reformed Church. (_c_) Sometimes it refers to the Christian community
of a country or its established religion, as when we speak of the
Gallican Church, the Swiss Church, the Church of England, the Church of
Scotland. (_d_) It is used in a still more limited sense to represent
a particular congregation of Christians who associate together and
participate in the ordinances of Christianity, with their proper
pastors or ministers. (_e_) It is applied also to the building in
which the public ministrations of religion are conducted, as when we
speak of the church in such a street, St. James' church, St. Peter's
church, etc.
In this chapter we use the word church in the fourth sense, as
representing a particular congregation of Christians. To such a
community every young man should belong, and in connection with it he
is called to discharge certain special duties. There are four aspects
in which the life of the Church, in this sense, may be regarded.
I. It represents Christian worship.--(_a_) Public worship seems
essential to the very existence of religion. At least, every religion
the world has seen has had its meetings for public rites and
ceremonies. Faith unsupported by sympathy, as a rule, languishes and
dies out in a community. Were our churches to be shut Sunday after
Sunday, and men never to meet together as religious beings, it would be
as though the reservoir that supplies a great city with water suddenly
ran dry. Here and there a few might draw water from their own wells,
but the general result would be appalling. (_b_) Public worship also
strengthens and deepens religious feeling. A man can pray alone and
praise God alone; but he is, beyond all doubt, helped when he does so
in the company of others. He is helped by the conditions of time and
place; and the presence and sympathy of his fellow-worshippers have
upon him a mighty uplifting influence. (_c_) Above all, public worship
is the channel through which we receive special blessings from God.
There is communion in the sanctuary between us and Him. "The true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the
Father _seeketh_ such to worship him." God desires our worship, and
blesses it to us. That He does so has been the experience of
Christians in all ages. They have found in the house and worship of
God a strength and power that supported and blessed their life. They
have realized that the promise of Christ is still fulfilled, "Where two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of
them." (Matt. xviii. 20.)
II. The Church represents Christian teaching.--In the congregation the
Word of God is read and preached. (_a_) Preaching has always formed
part of the service of the Christian Church from the very earliest
times. In the second century Justin Martyr says: "On the day called
Sunday, all who live in the cities or in the country gather into one
place, and the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets
are read as time permits; then when the reader has ceased, the
president verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good
things." This description of an early Christian service is applicable
still. Wherever the Church meets there is religious teaching. (_b_)
And it is the only such teaching that multitudes receive. Without it
they would be left to grope their way alone. (_c_) Whenever,
therefore, there has been a revival of life in the Church, great stress
has been laid upon the preaching of the Word of God, and God has
specially blessed it to the conversion of sinners and the edification
of His people.
III. The Church represents Christian fellowship.--(_a_) It keeps up
the idea of brotherhood in the world. It brings people of different
ranks and classes together, and that under most favorable
circumstances. Whatever a man is in the world, in the Church he is
made to feel that in the eye of God he is a member of one family,
having the same weaknesses, the same sorrows, the same needs, the same
destiny before him as those around him. In the Church "the rich and
poor meet together" in equality before the same God, who is the Maker
of them all. (_b_) But especially in its worship is the Church a
common bond between _believers_. On one day of the week men of all
nations, kindreds, peoples and tongues, a multitude whom no man can
number, unite in spirit together. Their prayers and praises ascend in
unison to the Throne of Grace. They enter into the "communion of
saints." They belong to one holy fellowship. (_c_) At the table of
the Lord they take their places as partakers of one life--as one in
Christ. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the
communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are all partakers
of that one bread." (1 Cor. x. 16, 17.)
IV. The Church represents Christian Work.--It is not merely a society
for instruction or for the cultivation of devout feelings. It is an
aggressive society. Every congregation of believers is a branch of the
great army which is warring against the kingdom of darkness. Every
individual is called upon to be a "fellow-laborer with Christ," and not
merely to work out his own salvation, but to work for the salvation of
others. The motto of every true Christian Church should be, "Work for
everybody, and everybody at work." Those who may be able to do little
as isolated individuals may do much by combining their efforts with
those of others. The Church gives them the power and the opportunity.
We may now glance at some of the special duties incumbent upon those
who are connected with the Church, and particularly upon young men.
1. We should be regular in availing ourselves of the means of grace
which the Church affords. If it be the home of worship, of teaching,
of fellowship, and of work, it is a home from which we should not make
ourselves strangers. There is a blessing to be found there, and we are
remiss if we do not seek it. Every young man should be a regular
attendant on the ministrations of religion. He should be so (_a_) for
his own sake, and (_b_) for the sake of others. He may perhaps have at
times the feeling, I can get my worship in the fields and my teaching
from my books; I can get along without the Church. But surely he
undervalues the promised blessing to those who "forsake not the
assembling of (themselves) together." Surely he undervalues the power,
and strength, and comfort, that come from association with believers.
But even if he could get on without the Church, is he not bound to
consider others? Has any man in a world like ours, where all are bound
together and are dependent on one another, any right to consider as to
whether he can get on alone? Is he not bound to consider those around
him? We must all feel that it would be a great calamity to a nation
were public worship given up, churches closed, and Sunday made a day of
recreation. But those who absent themselves from public worship are
undoubtedly using their influence in that direction. If it be right
for them to absent themselves, it must be right also for others to
imitate them, and it is easy to see how disastrous generally such
imitation would be.
Especially should every young man become _a communicant_ at the table
of the Lord. Besides the many spiritual benefits of which the
sacrament is the channel to every devout believer, it is an ordinance
which is particularly helpful to the young. It leads them to make a
decision, and decision gives strength. From the moment they
deliberately and solemnly make their choice, there is a power imparted
to their life that it had not before. In the life of the well-known
Scotsman, Adam Black, it is said that shortly after he went up to
London he became a communicant in the Church to which he belonged. "I
found," he says, "this step gave a stability to my character, and
proved a defence from follies and vices, especially as a young man in
London, entirely my own master, with no one to guide or check me."
2. We should take each of us our full share in the work of our Church.
It is a poor sign of a church when all the work done is by the
minister, or by the office-bearers alone, and it is a still poorer sign
of those who belong to it. It is a sign that they have not felt the
power of that grace which ever leads the soul to put the question,
"What wilt thou have me to do?" There are none who cannot do
something. The writer read lately of a church in England, the grounds
of which were regularly tended and made beautiful by the young men
belonging to it. That may seem a small service, but it was something.
It showed a good spirit. If we are to get the most out of the Church,
we must help it to do its work--charitable, missionary, Sunday School,
Young Men's Guild. If the best heart and talent of young men were put
into these and other agencies, the power of the Church for good would
be increased immeasurably, and not the least of the advantage would
come to the workers themselves. Let each do his own part. There is
one way, we need scarcely say, in which we can all help the Church's
work: by giving to it "as the Lord hath prospered us." Under the Old
Testament dispensation every one was under strict obligation to give a
fixed proportion of his substance for religious purposes. Surely we
should not be less liberal when the proportion is left to our own sense
of duty. Freely we have received. Let us also freely give.
3. While loyal to our own Church, we should cherish towards all
Christians feelings of charity and good-will. Many of us, probably
most of us, belong to the Church to which our parents belonged; and so
long as we feel it ministers to our spiritual benefit we should keep by
it and work with it. There is little good obtained by running from
church to church, and those who sever themselves from their early
religious associations are often anything but gainers. But while we
are loyal to our own regiment in the Christian army, and proud, so far
as a Christian may be so, of its traditions and achievements, let us
ever feel that the army itself is greater than our own regiment, and
not only cherish good-will and brotherly love towards those who fight
in that army, but be ready at all times to co-operate with them, and to
fight with them against the common enemy. It is well to be a good
churchman, it is infinitely better to be a good Christian. It is best
when one is both; for indeed he is the best Christian who is the best
churchman, and he is the best churchman who is the best Christian.
[1] The subject of "The Church, Ministry and Sacraments" is to be fully
dealt with in a Guild text-book by the Rev. Norman Macleod, D. D. We
only refer in this chapter to those phases of Church life that are more
immediately connected with Life and Conduct.
[2] _Confession of Faith_.