recognition to some one or more of the principles of Congregationalism. But it is in this case a defective Congregational church. The due recognition of the principle of the communion of churches is necessary in order to make a complete and orderly Congregational church. But, as to the form of recognition which is to be counted due recognition, our custom has varied: as in the matter of ordaining a pastor, for instance, so, also, in the matter of instituting a church. Of course if Congregationalism is to be regarded only as one among the many denominations, with its legally organized standing bodies, and its fixed system of rules and legal requirements, then formal connection with those standing bodies, formal use of those rules, and formal compliance with those legal requirements, are necessary in order to give any particular church a right to claim the title Congregational. But, if the marks of a true Congregational church are to be looked for in its conformity to certain principles as authorized by the doctrine and church life of the New Testament, then our use of the title will be somewhat different from the above. We shall, then, consider of any church, whether or not it is marked by sufficient conformity to the principles of our church order, and so classify it as Congregational or otherwise. At any rate, the bare fact that such extreme difficulty exists in the attempt to define Congregationalism by the marks which differentiate it as one denomination from other denominations is a most suggestive fact.

We consider now some of the various forms for the communion of churches which may be expected to follow upon the institution, according to the requirements of this principle, of the particular visible church. All acts of communion amongst sister Congregational

churches may be divided into two classes,

the formal

and the informal. All the more formal acts of communion may be subdivided into the direct and the indirect. We consider first the informal acts of communion.

It is plain that the New-Testament churches lived in varied, constant, warm, and effectual intercourse with one another; and yet very little of this intercourse can be formulated into rules for our detailed following. Of conventions, councils, synods, consociations, associations, clubs, boards, and the various organized forms for manifesting Christian unity which are employed by our churches in the present day, they knew little or nothing. We cannot by any means argue from this fact that we should make no use of such forms. The doctrine of strict conformity solely to the customs of the New-Testament churches should by this time appear obsolete.' We do hold, however, and in thus holding we simply remain faithful to the great formal principle of the true church polity, — that the principles and ideas embodied in New-Testament institutions and customs are designed to instruct and obligate all churches in all ages. We may, therefore, argue from the example of the New-Testament churches, that Christian churches in this day will do well to give a large relative importance to the more informal acts of communion. I have no hesitation in saying that these informal acts are much more important than the more formal. To have love toward our brethren in other churches, and to evince the reality and largeness of this love, is work above. all organizing and controlling of

1 This doctrine was, however, at one time, prevalent among the Puritans, especially of England. It was to controvert this doctrine that the great work of Richard Hooker was written.

synods and associations. The Home Missionary Society and the Congregational Union are of more importance to the communion of churches than is the National Council; unless, indeed, this, too, shall prove a potent means of propagating Christian churches and of really uniting them in love.

Of necessity, it is not feasible to give a full discussion of such informal acts of communion, or even a complete enumeration of them. Their form and variety must be left to the inventiveness of the Christian minds and hearts which compose the churches. In these things love has a genius for invention. It is fertile in expedients. It perpetually and momently devises new means for expression. It seizes upon all the instrumentalities contrived by selfish men for other ends, and converts them into instruments of love. It discovers in the steamship, the railroad, the telegraph, and telephone, new opportunities given by the Holy Spirit for diffusing the influences which flow from the mind and heart of Christ. It communes by rail, by wire, by express-package, or by letter. It surveys the result of the modern spirit of mechanics, and declares, as Dr. Anderson did of the railways of India, "The whole is built as really for the church as for the world, and wholly at the expense of the latter."

The union of Congregational churches in efforts for self-propagation and for the diffusion of the gospel in the whole world by the work of missions furnishes the most valuable forms of communion amongst sister-churches. The self-propagation of Congregationalism, and the relation of its principles to the work of missions, will, therefore, receive attention in separate lectures. The active, informal, and spontaneous expression of love in all practicable ways of communion should constantly

appear between the wealthier and stronger churches and those which are poorer and weaker. Because this expression has not been sufficiently given from East to West,' and from West back again to East, from every metropolitan church centrifugally to all the surrounding churches, and from them centripetally toward every metropolitan church, we have suffered far more than because we have not had enough of strong organization and ready-to-hand ecclesiastical machinery. We must remember that for one church really not to care for another involves an immoral lack of Christian love, and that for any church to manifest no care for other churches is an immoral failure to commune with others in love. The Congregational churches of the East, with their firmer stability and longer experience, are especially obligated to those of the West, not simply for gifts of money, but chiefly for vital interest, sympathy, appreciation, cheer. Each particular visible church is obligated to every other, not for the feelings alone, but also for their manifestation in all judicious ways and upon all fit occasions. The churches in the cities are especially bound by this principle of communion to demonstrate their interest and affection toward the churches of the surrounding country. The fellowship-meeting is in many places a most valuable means of communion amongst churches. Interchange of pastors is one of the means enumerated by the Cambridge Platform: no minister or congregation has the right, out of selfish, and, for the most part, narrow notions of the superiority of their own things to the things of others, to refuse a due amount of such interchange. The interchange of members in prayer-meetings and in the initiation and

1 In illustration of this fact consult the words of Dr. Post in American Congregational Union Addresses for 1854, p. 94, f.

management of beneficent enterprises is a means of the communion of churches. Delegates formally appointed, and informal visitors, should pass between the social meetings of neighboring churches with words of encouragement, cheer, advice, and even rebuke. Letters and gifts coming from one church to another are golden ties to bind them together. No member from one Congregational church should be able to reside for more than a few days in the vicinity of another Congregational church, without a verbal or written introduction commending him to fraternal care, interest, and affection. The epistola formata, or regular testimonial, should be in the pocket of every Christian traveller.1 There can be little doubt that the relative increase and sufficiency of these more informal acts of communion will characterize the advance of the kingdom of God upon earth. And long after our different rabbis shall have ceased to join in heated debate over the right form of constituting councils, synods, consociations, and all the other forms of set ecclesiastical conclave, the saints on earth and the saints on high will follow the movings of Christ's spirit within them to make known to one another and to the universe the strength and tenderness of their mutual love.

Of the more formal and direct means by which different particular churches may commune with one another, the number known as obligatory to Congregationalism may be reduced to one. This form is the recognition extended by each church to others when they give and receive advice. The thought upon which rests the use of such means is this, that all individual Christians, and all particular churches, may have the enlightenment of the spirit of Christ, and that, therefore, by a really

1 See Neander's Memorials of Christian Life, p. 78.