What is the true idea of a Christian church, and what the temper and
spirit in which its affairs should be conducted?
For this inquiry certainly we are not to go back to New England
or Cotton Mather primarily, nor yet to the earlier Anglican
authorities, or the long line of Roman precedent, and the Fathers of
the Church, nor even to the Apostolic churches, but to Jesus Christ
himself, and to the earliest association that could be called a
Christian church.
There is a difference in this discussion between _the_ Church and
_a_ church. _The_ Church is the great generic unity or outside
organization; _a_ church is a society related to the whole, as a
private family to the State.
In the time of our Lord the generic body--_the_ Church of God--was
the Jewish church. Jesus was a regularly initiated member of that
church, and very careful never to depart from any of its forms or
requirements. He announced in the Sermon on the Mount that, in
regard to the Jewish law, he was not come to destroy but to fulfill.
He said distinctly to his disciples: "The Scribes and Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat: all things therefore whatsoever they bid you
observe, that observe and do; but do ye not after their works, for
they say and do not." The Apostles never separated formally from
the Jewish church. They were so careful in this regard that they on
one occasion induced St. Paul, who was reported to be a schismatic,
to go in a very marked and public manner into the Jewish temple
and conform to the Jewish ritual; and when he addressed a company
of Jews on one occasion he commenced with the words: "Men and
brethren, I am a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee." He elsewhere
speaks of the perfectness of this initiation into all the customs
and privileges of the national church--that he was a Hebrew of the
Hebrews.
The Christian Church arose inside the Jewish church, exactly as the
Methodists arose inside the Church of England. They were a society
professing subjection and obedience to the national church in all
respects where the higher law of God did not require them to go
against earthly ordinances. Thus, when the Jewish Sanhedrin forbade
the Apostles to preach in the name of Jesus, they answered, "Whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto
God, judge ye." In like spirit did John Wesley and his ministers
answer the bishops when they tried to shut their mouths from
preaching the gospel to the poor of England.
But in the mean time it is to be remembered that the Lord Jesus
gradually formed around himself as a personal centre an organization
of disciples, both men and women. This band of disciples may be
looked upon as the seed form of the Christian Church, and the order
of their union having been administered immediately by the Master
must be studied as conveying the best example of the spirit and
temper, though not necessarily the exact form, in which all churches
should be constituted.
That this company of believers was regularly organized, and
perfectly recognized as an organization, appears from a passage in
Acts, where it is said that after the ascension of our Lord this
little church came together and abode together for several days. The
names of many of them are given--the eleven Apostles, the mother of
Jesus, his brethren, and several others, called in the enumeration
"the women," are mentioned, and it is further stated that "the
number of them was about one hundred and twenty."
St. Paul indeed speaks of an occasion on which Christ, after his
resurrection, appeared to five hundred disciples at once, of whom
he says the greater part were living when he wrote. This hundred
and twenty were probably such a portion of the whole company of
disciples as had their residence in and about Jerusalem, and could
therefore conveniently assemble together. We first see them called
together to perform a corporate act in filling a vacancy among their
officers. The twelve by the appointment of the Lord had occupied a
peculiar position of leadership. The place of one of these being
vacated by the death of Judas, the little church is summoned to
assist in the election of a successor. The speech of Peter is
remarkable as showing that he considered the persons he addressed
as a body competent to transact business and fill vacancies. After
relating the death and fate of Judas, he ends by saying, "Wherefore,
from these men that have companied with us all the time that the
Lord Jesus went in and out among us must one be ordained to be
a witness with us of his resurrection." Here, then, are all the
evidences of a regularly trained church already in existence when
our Lord left the world.
But if we look at the twentieth chapter of John we shall see that
the little company that performed this act had been previously
ordained and inspired by Jesus, and wisdom had been promised to
guide their proceedings.
It is said that immediately after Christ's resurrection--after he
had appeared to Mary Magdalene--he suddenly appeared in an assembly
of the disciples, showed them his hands and his side, said to them,
"Peace be unto you," breathed on them, and said, "Receive ye the
Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them,
and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." The disciples
spoken of here were the whole company of believers who yet remained
faithful--not merely the eleven, since one of the eleven at least
was absent.
The words of the promise are not to be superstitiously interpreted,
as they have been, as giving an arbitrary, irresponsible power to an
aristocracy in the church, but as expressing this great truth: that
whenever a body of Christians are acting under the influence of the
Holy Spirit, under a high and heavenly state of Christian feeling,
their decisions will be in sympathy with God and be ratified in
heaven. It is only to those who receive the Holy Ghost that such
power pertains.
Having shown, then, that Christ left a trained, inspired, ordained
church of believers to perpetuate his work on earth, it now becomes
interesting to go back and watch the process by which he trained
them.
The history of the formation and gradual education of this church
is interesting, because, although the visible presence of the
Master made it differ from any subsequent church, yet the spirit
and temper in which he guided it are certainly a model for all.
Christ's visible presence relieved them from all responsibility as
to discipline. He governed personally, and settled every question
as it rose. In this respect no other church can be like it. But the
invisible Christ, the Christ in the heart of all believers, ought
to be with every church, that it may be carried on in _spirit_ as
Christ conducted his.
In the first place, then, Christ carried on this his first church as
a family, of which he was the father, and in which the law was love.
He said to his disciples, "All ye are brethren;" he addressed them
habitually as "children," sometimes as "little children," and laid
on them with emphasis a _new_ commandment, that they should love one
another as he had loved them. The old commandment, given by Moses,
was, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; the new commandment of
Christ was, Love one another as I have loved you--better than self.
St. John interprets this thus: Hereby we perceive the love of God,
because he laid down his life for us. We ought also to lay down our
lives for the brethren.
This church or family of Christ was very wide and free in its
invitation to any to join, and many did join themselves, so that at
times portions of them traveled with him as a missionary family from
place to place.
Thus, in Luke viii., we read that "it came to pass that he went
through every city and village preaching and showing the glad
tidings of the kingdom; and the twelve were with him, and certain
women whom he had healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary,
called Magdalene, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward,
and Susanna, and many others, who also ministered unto him of their
substance."
This coöperation of women in the missionary church would in some
countries have given an occasion of offense and scandal. But the
laws and institutions of Moses had prepared a nation in which
the moral and religious mission of woman was fully recognized.
Prophetesses and holy women, inspired by God, had always held an
important place in its history, and it was in full accord with the
national sense of propriety that woman should hold a conspicuous
place in the new society of Jesus. It is remarkable, too, that the
bitterest and most vituperative attacks on the character of Jesus
which appeared in early centuries never found cause of scandal in
this direction.
These pious women exercised, for the benefit of our Lord and his
disciples, the peculiar gifts of their sex--they ministered to them
as women best know how. One of them was the wife of a man of high
rank in Herod's court. Several of them appear to have been possessed
of property. Some of them, however, were reclaimed women of formerly
sinful life, but now redeemed. The wife of Herod's steward, and
the spotless matron, the mother of James and John, did not scruple
to receive to their fellowship and sisterly love the redeemed Mary
Magdalene, "out of whom went seven devils."
The contributions for the support of this mission church became so
considerable, and the care of providing for its material wants so
onerous, as to require the services of a steward, and one of the
twelve, who had a peculiar turn for financial cares, was appointed
to this office. Judas made all the purchases for the company,
dispensed its charities, and, as financier, felt at liberty to
comment severely on the "waste" shown by the grateful Mary.
It seems that Judas was a type of that class of men who seek the
church from worldly motives. The treatment of this treacherous
friend by Jesus is a model that cannot be too earnestly studied
by every Christian. St. John says, "Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray him." But
he carried himself towards him with the same unvarying and tender
sweetness that he showed to all the rest. He was Love itself. He
could not possibly associate with another without love, and there
was something peculiarly delicate and forbearing in his treatment of
Judas (as is more fully considered in our next chapter).
He might easily have exposed him before his brethren, but he would
not do it. It seems from the narrative that even when Judas left the
little company to complete his crime, the simple-hearted disciples
knew not where he was going.
There was no calling him to account, no exposure, no denunciation,
no excommunication. Why this care, this peculiar reticence, on
the Master's part? It was a part of his system of teaching his
family what he meant when he said, Love your enemies. It was a
way of teaching that, when they came to understand it fully, they
never would forget. Moreover, during his whole life, in all his
teachings to this little church, his main object was that they
should be rooted and grounded in that kind of love which no injury,
or cruelty, or perfidy can change, the kind of love which he showed
when he prayed for those who were piercing his hands and feet. But
he found them not apt scholars. They were apt and ready in the
science of wrath. With them the way of anger and what is called
righteous indignation went down hill, but he always held them back.
When a village refused to receive the Master, it was James and John
who were ready to propose to call down fire from heaven, as Elias
did. But he told them they knew not what manner of spirit they were
of; the mission of the Son of man was to save--not to kill.
As a delicate musician shudders to strike a discord, so Jesus
would not excite among his little children the tumult of wrath and
indignation that would be sure to arise did they fully know the
treachery of Judas. He so carried himself that the evil element
departed from them without a convulsion, by the calm expulsive
force of moral influences. He bore with Judas patiently, sweetly,
lovingly, to the very last. He kept the knowledge of his treachery
in his own bosom till of his own free will the traitor departed.
There is something so above human nature in this--it is such
unworldly sweetness, such celestial patience, that it is difficult
for us at our usual level of life to understand it. It is difficult
to realize that these expressions of love which Jesus continued
to Judas were not a policy, but a simple reality, that he loved
and pitied the treacherous friend as a mother loves and pities the
unworthy son who is whitening her hair and breaking her heart, and
that the kiss he gave was always sincere.
It is an example, too, that may with advantage be studied in
conducting the discipline of a church. Here was the worst of
criminals meditating the deepest injuries, the worst of crimes, in
the very bosom of the infant church, yet our Lord so bore with him,
so ruled and guided his little family that there was no quarrel
and struggle,--that the very best and most was made of his talents
as long as they could be used for good,--and when he departed the
church was not rent and torn as a demoniac by the passage from them
of an evil spirit.
But there were other respects in which Jesus trained his church,
besides that of managing a discordant element within it. There were
many who would become disciples from sudden impulse or sympathy, who
had not the moral stamina to go on to spiritual perfection. Aware
of this, the Master, while ever gracious, ever ready to receive,
exacted no binding pledge or oath. He displayed no eagerness to
get men to commit themselves in this way, but rather the reverse.
Whoever came saying, "Lord, I will follow thee," met a gracious
reception. Yet the seeker was warned that he must take up his
cross, and that without this he could not be a disciple. He was
admonished to count the cost, lest he should begin to build and not
be able to finish. In some cases, as that of the young nobleman, the
tests proposed were so severe that the man went away sorrowful; and
yet, for all this, the heart of the Master was freely open to all
who chose to follow him.
But as Jesus would take none without full warning of the stringency
of his exactions, so he would retain none a moment beyond the time
when their hearts were fully in it. Free they were to come as God's
love is free--free also to go, if on trial they found the doctrine
or discipline too hard for them. Christ gathered his spiritual army
on the principles on which Moses commanded that the army of Israel
should be gathered for battle, when proclamation was made that any
one who for any reason was not fully in good heart should go home,
"What man is fearful or faint-hearted, let him go and return to his
house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his."
There is a very striking passage in the sixth chapter of John's
Gospel, where Jesus, in the most stringent and earnest manner, spoke
of the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood; or, in
other words, of an appropriating and identifying union of soul with
himself as constituting true discipleship. This exposé of the inner
depths of real spiritual life repelled some, as it is written:--
"Many, therefore, of his disciples said: This is a hard saying.
Who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples
murmured, he said: Doth this offend you?... But there are some
of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who
they were who believed not and who should betray him."
From that time, we are told, _many_ of his disciples went back
and walked no more with him. They left the church; and we read of
no effort to discipline or retain them. The spiritual life of the
church expelled them by the law of moral repulsion; they felt they
were not of it, and they left, and were suffered to leave. The only
comment we read of as being made by the Lord was this: "Then said
Jesus to the twelve: Will ye also go away?" There was the door,
freely open, would they, too, go? Then said Peter: "Lord, to whom
should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ."
We can see here what was the sifting process by which our Lord kept
his little church pure. It was the union of vivid spirituality with
perfect freedom. The doors of entrance and of exit were freely open;
and those who could not bear the intense and glowing spiritual life
were at all times free to depart; in the words subsequently used
by the Apostle, "they judged themselves unworthy of eternal life."
Hence, like a vigorous human body, Christ's little church threw out
from itself the unvital members, and kept itself healthy and strong.
This perfect freedom to depart at any time constituted the strength
of the little order. Its members were held together, not by a dead
covenant, not by a conventional necessity, not by past vows uttered
in high excitement--but by a living choice of the soul, renewed from
moment to moment. Even the twelve had presented to them the choice
to go away, and took anew their vow of constancy. Hence it was that
even the astounding horrors of the sudden fall--the crucifixion of
the Master--did not break their ranks. There were none left but
those so vitally united to him, so "one with him" that, as he said,
they "lived by him." He was their life; they followed him to the
cross and to the grave; they watched the sepulchre, and were ready
to meet him in the resurrection morning. It was this tried and
sifted remnant to whom he appeared when the doors were closed, after
the resurrection, on whom he breathed peace and the Holy Ghost,
and whose spiritual judgments and decisions he promised should
thereafter be ratified in heaven.
This little company were, as nearly as human beings can be, rooted
and grounded in perfect love. The lesson of their lives had been
love, taught them by precept from day to day, as he harmonized their
contentions and repressed their selfish ambitions; and by example,
as he persistently tolerated, loved, bore with a treacherous friend
in his own family.
It was necessary that they should be prepared to exercise power, for
power was about to be intrusted to them. It was necessary to prepare
them to be the governors of the future Christian Church. But he was
unwearied in efforts to make them understand that superiority must
only be a superiority in doing and suffering for others. When the
mother of James and John asked the highest two offices for her two
sons, he looked at her with a pathetic sadness. Did she know what
she was asking? Did she know that to be nearest to him was to suffer
most? He answered: "You know not what you ask. Can you drink of
the cup that I shall drink, and be baptized with my baptism?" And
when they ignorantly said, "We are able," he said that the place of
superiority was not his to give by any personal partiality, but was
reserved for the appointment of the Father. But the ambitious spirit
now roused had spread to the other disciples. It is said that when
the ten heard it they were indignant with James and John. But Jesus
called them to him and said:--
"Ye know that they that are accounted to rule over the Gentiles
exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise
authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but
whosoever shall be great among you let him be your minister,
and whosoever will be the chiefest let him be servant of all;
for even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and give his life a ransom for many."
One of the very last acts of his life, and one of the most affecting
comments on these words, was his washing his disciples' feet as a
menial servant--a last significant act, which might almost be called
a sacrament, since by it he, in view of his dying hour, put this
last impressive seal on his teaching of humanity and brotherly love.
The contest which should be the greatest, in spite of all his
efforts, all his teachings, all his rebukes, had only smouldered,
not been extinguished, and was ready at any moment to flame out
again, and all the way up to Jerusalem when he came to die they
walked behind him quarreling over this old point. As a dying mother
calling her children around her confirms her life-teaching by
some last act of love never to be forgotten, so this Master and
Friend before the last supper knelt in humility at the feet of each
disciple and washed and wiped them, and then interpreted the act as
a sign of the spirit in which leadership in his church should be
sought: "If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought
also to wash one another's feet." In after years the disciples could
not but remember that Jesus knelt at the feet of Judas and washed
them as meekly as those of all the rest; and then they saw what he
meant when he said, "Love your enemies."
From first to last the teaching of Christ was one long teaching of
the doctrine and discipline of perfect love. When the multitudes
followed him, and he went into a mountain to give his summary of
the new dispensation, we hear of no high, mystical doctrines. We
hear doctrines against censoriousness, against the habit of judging
others. We hear men cautioned to look on their own faults, not on
those of others. We hear love like the perfect love of God set up
as the great doctrine of the new kingdom--love which no injury, no
unworthiness, no selfishness can chill, or alter, or turn aside;
which, like God's providence, shines on the evil and unthankful, and
sends rain on the just and the unjust--this mystery of love, deeper
than the mystery of the Trinity, was what, from first to last, the
Master sought to make his little church comprehend.
This love to enemies, this forgiveness, was the hardest of hard
doctrines to them. "Lord, how often shall my brother transgress
and I forgive him?" says Peter; "till seven times?" "Nay," answers
Jesus, "till seventy times seven." "If thy brother trespass
against thee seven times a day, and seven times turn again saying,
'I repent,' thou shalt forgive him." The Master taught that no
religious ordinance, no outward service, was so important as to
maintain love unbroken. If a gift were brought to the altar, and
there it were discovered that a brother were grieved or offended,
the gift was to be left unoffered till a reconciliation was sought.
It is not merely with the brother who has given us cause of offense,
but the brother who, however unreasonably, deems himself hurt by us,
that we are commanded to seek reconciliation before we can approach
a Heavenly Father.
A band of men and women thus trained in the school of Jesus,
careful to look on their own faults, refraining from judging those
of others, unselfish and lowly, seeking only to do and to serve,
so perfected in a divine love that the most bitter and cruel
personal injuries could not move to bitterness or revenge--such a
church is in a fit state to administer discipline. It has the Holy
Spirit of Jesus with it; and it may be said, without superstitious
credulity, of a church in that spirit that its decisions will be so
in accordance with the will of God that "whosesoever sins they remit
are remitted, and whosesoever sins they retain are retained."
But where have we such a church?
The church of the Master was one of those beautiful ideals, fair
as the frost-crystals or the dew-drops of morning. It required a
present Jesus to hold it, and then with what constant watchfulness
and care and admonition on his part was it kept! We can only study
at his marvelous training, and gather some humble inspiration. It
was this church of Jesus, the Master, this tried, sifted, suffering
body of faithful men and women whose prayers brought down the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and inaugurated the Apostolic Church.