present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish " (Eph. v. 25—27).

198. Why is the Church called Apostolic ?

The Church is called Apostolic because (1) the Apostles were the first members; (2) their teaching is carried on in the Church; and (3) the bishops who ordain the ministers of the Church are successors of the Apostles.

II. THE INSTRUCTION on "Christ
Picture: Millais' "Sower."

Do you like reading history? Thrilling stories in history of the Church. (Ex.-Stories of St. Alban; the Monks of Iona; Gregory of Rome and the flaxen-haired English slave-boys.) History books especially interesting when they have pictures of the events spoken

of.

Now our Lord showed beforehand the history of His Church from first to last; illustrated with seven pictures. Could you find this? He

only mentions His Church by name twice (see St. Matt. xvi. 18, xviii. 17). But often He speaks of it as a kingdom. Now see St. Matt. xiii. The history of His Church, in four chapters. We will read it and look at the pictures.

Chapter I.-The Church's beginning (read ver. 3-8).

What is the picture? Seed sowing. The Lord at the time in a boat on Sea of Galilee; perhaps a sower at work on the hills round to whom He could point. The beginning of the Church in any place is like seed sowing; it is preaching the Word of God. The picture shows the disappointments which the first preachers would often feel. Why? What is the soil on which the seed falls ? Hearts of hearers. These not all good ground; some hard, others shallow, others choked up. (Illust.-St. Francis Xavier on shore of an island dying, worn out with labours which seemed fruitless, looking across to China and crying, "O rock, rock, when wilt thou open ?") Yet the work would never be all in vain (see ver. 23).

Chapter II.-The Church's conflict. What the members of Christ's Church would have to contend with. See the picture of this. Tares growing; sown in the dark by a great foe (ver. 24-26). Enemies to the faith, in whose hearts Satan has sown, these persecute the children of the kingdom. (Illust.Nero at Rome throwing Christians, even children, to the lions; covering

Chapter III.-The Church's growth.

Church to spread in spite of its persecutions; "blood of the martyrs the seed of the Church." Lord foreshowed its growth in two pairs of pictures. Pick them out. First pair (ver. 31, 33)— A mustard tree, growing from tiny seed to huge tree. Leaven in a large pan of meal, spreading on and on, making it into dough for bread. These are pictures of (1) outward growth of the Church-120 in upper room of Jerusalem, grown to many millions of Churchpeople now; (2) spread of religion from heart to heart; perhaps a whole family influenced by one religious daughter. Second pair of pictures (ver. 44-46). Hang them side by side; two men who have found something. What the difference? One had been seeking (pearl merchant); other had come suddenly upon the find (treasure finder). What have they to do with Church history? The pearl and the treasure are the truth as it is in Christ; some find it out after long seeking, some unexpectedly. Both give up all for it and join the Church (Phil. iii. 7-8). So the Church grows.

Chapter IV. and last.-The Church's purification.

Casting out all unreal, unholy, impenitent members. Find the picture (ver. 47-50); by the sea, drag-net with its great catch of all kinds of fishes out of the dark waters; the Church gathered out from the world, casting out the bad fish to decay, the good put into vessels

The Church, then, all good, all holyafter what day? Find another picture of this (ver. 40-43). Tares gathered out of the world. All that gave trouble to the true Christian; then the righteous shine forth as the sun in kingdom of their Father. Glorious end of all Church history. One Holy Catholic Church. Like a glorious city, where no shade of sorrow can enter (Rev. xxi. 1-5). Like a beautiful bride, clothed with the sun, moon under her feet, crowned with twelve stars (Rev. xii. 1).

In this history we have our place. How so? (1) We help to make the Church larger by being members of it; each makes it one larger; our forefathers long ago had the seed sown in their hearts. They found the truth and wanted us to find it; had their families baptized as babes. So from the first we grew up in the Church (Heb. xii. 22, 23, 28).

III. THOUGHTS

1. Great indeed is the confusion of thought on the subject of the Church. People who glibly express their belief in the "Holy Catholic Church," would many of them be unable to give a clear account of what they mean thereby. "Catholics" are still, in the popular mind and speech, identified with Romanists. The Nonconformist position has received no little support from Churchmen, who should know better. That position is that the true Church is an invisible Church, consisting only of persons who have been converted. "The Church consists not of the christened but of the Christly." (Mr. R. F. Horton.) The term "the Churches," is understood to apply to all the different sects; thus we hear of "the Baptist Church," "the Congregational Church," &c.

The

confusion caused by all this unscriptural teaching is deplorable, chiefly because it fosters schism, by which the Church of Christ is lamentably weakened, and party feeling engendered; and which is so strongly condemned by St. Paul. Get a Scriptural idea of what the Church is, then you begin to see what schism is, and the desire for the reunion of Christendom is awakened. Let our teachers therefore study this question. Dean Goulburn's "Holy Catholic Church" is a valuable book; but even more practically useful is

Canon Hammond's "The Christian Church: What is it?"

2. The Church ("Ecclesia") is a visible Society; it is the Body of Christ, and it is of the essence of a Body that it

(2) We have to take our part in the conflict, a little bit of Church history in every little heart and life, as you see the dark sky and the bright stars in every little pool of water at night. Thoughts which God's Spirit sows and the thoughts which the Evil Spirit sows, one against the other; what a story it would make if written. How will it end with you? Where will our place be at the last? (ver. 41-43.) If we let God's Spirit work in us, change us, sanctify us, then shall we be of those that shine forth," &c., help to make the Church more glorious. (Illust.— Little drops of dew on the grass at morn, caught up by sun, falling again, and through them the sun shines and forms lustrous bow in the sky, each drop reflecting the glory.) Each member of the Church to show forth God's glory.

FOR TEACHERS.

be visible. The term "Church" or Churches" is said to be found sixtyeight times in the Epistles. In twenty cases where the plural is used the word is acknowledged to apply to visible congregations; in ten it refers to the congregation assembling in a particular place; in nine cases it is referred to as the Body of Christ (Eph. i. 22, iii. 6, iv. 12-1 -16, v. 23; Col. i. 18, 24). The remaining passages will bear no other interpretation than that of a visible body. "This Body is necessarily outward and historical, and Christ instituted an outward rite for incorporation into it."-(Bishop Westcott.) In this Body the insincere and the evil are mingled with the good; much of our Lord's parabolic teaching loses all its meaning except this be so; such, for example, as that of the fruitless branches being cut off; the bad fish being cast out of the net; certain children of the kingdom being rejected. Every baptized person therefore is a member of the Church of Christ. "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body." The Church, then, is the body of baptized persons; the "Churches are the different parts of that one body in as many different places, and not different sects for giving different views of the truth. No aggregate of members, however numerous or pious, can form themselves into a Church, for the Church is a Divine Institution founded by our Lord, and no other can ever be formed. It is quite of recent date that the Wesleyan and other bodies of Christians

have assumed to themselves the name of "Churches." Dean Goulburn says: "If you severed and placed together in a heap the stock, the branches, the leaves, and the clusters of a vine, this would not be a vine. A vine is a tree, through whose stem the sap rises in spring, and circulates through the branches, and pours itself in rich luxuriance through every tendril and sucker. Now, like a tree, the Church is a living organism, deriving from Christ (Who is its Root) the life of the Holy Ghost."

3. "You are thinking that, however much Churches and theological schools may ostensibly differ, and however loudly they may anathematise one another, all devout and good Christians in the several communions, be they Church of England people, or Greeks, or Russians, or Quakers, or Baptists, or Romanists-all who are not influenced merely, but led by the Spirit of God-do substantially agree in the hidden ground of the heart, rest upon the same Saviour, derive support and comfort from the same promises. You are thinking that this is all the unity which Christ ever designed for His disciples; and that, as all good Christians all over the world are knit together by this invisible bond, the Founder's ideal has not been really frustrated or broken. If this is your view, you are running away with a half truth, and half truths not unfrequently prove, if insisted upon without reference to the corresponding half, the most mischievous of falsehoods. . . . What else but this spiritual union is 'the Communion of Saints,' in which we all daily profess our belief? St. Paul speaks indeed of there being 'one Spirit,' but does he speak of nothing else? These are his words: 'There is one Body and one Spirit.' . Animated by one common spiritual life, but also they all belong to one and the same visible Society."-(Dean Goulburn.)

...

4. Our unhappy divisions. "This morning I climbed a hill and looked down upon a heathen city! Yes, here at the close of the nineteenth century is a beautiful busy city, thronging with civilised, intelligent people, knowing precisely as much to-day of the one true God as the Britons did in the days of Boadicea. And it is but one of the thousands of cities in the world of which the same may be said.

But

Christ's servants stay crowded together in one little spot of the earth's surface, often treading on each other's toes,

working deliberately, not So much against Satan as against each other, the filling of one church meaning the emptying of another, the success of one worker the disappointment of another. And all the time millions of our fellowcreatures, for the lack of something better, are ignorantly worshipping stocks and stones."-("A Cry from China," quoted by Canon Hammond.)

5. Article XIX. declares that "the visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requi. site to the same." "It is therefore essential to a Church's existence to have a rightly ordained ministry, who are able to administer the Sacraments, which Sacraments are even spoken of (by St. Augustine) as forming the Church." (Bishop Harold Browne.)

6. "The Creeds furnish us with four marks of the true Church; that it is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. Its unity is that of the one Foundation, one faith, one Baptism, one discipline, one Communion. Its holiness springs from the presence of Christ, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, the graces conferred upon its members through the Sacraments. Its Catholicity consists in its being the one true Church throughout the world. Its Apostolicity results from its being built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, continuing in the doctrine and fellowship of the Apostles, holding the faith of the Apostles, governed and ministered to by a clergy who derive their succession from the Apostles." (Bishop Harold Browne.)

7. The Church (regarded as one from the days of Abraham) is beautifully set forth as a great wonder-a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars (Rev. xii. 1). Clothed in dazzling light, yet a borrowed and reflected glory; God's own glory bestowed upon her. The Song of Solomon has sublime thoughts about the Church as the Bride of Christ. "Behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant. . . . Who is this that cometh forth as the morning, fair as the morn, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? . . . Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? . . . O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me