are

brethren, so far as in him lies, earnestly to strive to bring the gospel into immediate and saving contact with the hearts of all to whom Divine Providence gives him access.

The imperative obligation resting on the churches to do this work, is strikingly seen in the light of this consideration, that if they neglect it, it will be left undone. And the inevitable consequence of neglect will be, a dishonorable yielding up of their rightful and precious heritage to moral desolation and the everlasting ruin of the souls whose welfare stands closely connected with their watchfulness and fidelity. Whatever else the professed followers of Christ may do, if they neglect the spiritual interests of their own households and kindred and neighbors and associates, they cannot wash their hands in innocency. "The voice of a brother's blood crieth unto God" against them. And the sentence pronounced against such undutiful servants can be no other than this: "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their season." Matt. xxi. 41.

Temple of Solomon. Here they were to organize their first church, and consolidate their strength, with a view to the discipling of all nations to their Master. From this local center, they were to pass to another, as they gathered strength to possess and hold it, and then to another, clearing the ground as they went, at each successive point, for a permanent and organized settlement,-unless in any case driven away temporarily by persecution, and thus onward toward the grand consummation. This order of procedure was instituted by the Saviour himself, in his parting address to the disciples: - "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." These local churches thus planted, or to be planted as the good cause advanced, dotting the world over, like stars set in a dark firmament, each to illumine its own peculiar sphere, and all eventually by their united glow to light up with a perfect brilliancy the entire firmament itself. Each is to be held responsible, as its first care, to look after the spiritual welfare of its own members, and provide and employ the best means of self-edification. then it is to do good to all in its own immediate neighborhood who are without the pale of its communion; the inmates of Christian homes, associates in labor and business, neighbors and friends, fellow-attendants on the sanctuary, and townsmen, - all who are susceptible to impressions of good from its labors,- all, in short, whom it can reach; recognizing its obligation under the gospel rule fully to occupy its peculiar field of labor in the community in which it is established. Each individual, whether minister or lay-member, is not to lose himself in the mass, but, in the spirit of Christ-like love to his neighbor, is to assume his full share of the work; and in concert with his

And

2. These views, as sustaining the paramount importance of parochial Christianization, we shall see illustrated and confirmed if we follow the track of the apostles, and their fellow-laborers, in their efforts to execute the "Great Commission" received from Christ.

After "waiting" in Jerusalem till the Spirit was poured out from on high, and seeing the full organization of the mother church, which indeed is the mother of us all, "they were scattered abroad everywhere, preaching the word,"- planting churches, as they went, throughout Judea, Samaria, Phoenicia, and Syria, as far as Antioch. From that city, as a radiating point, in due time, missionary journeys were undertaken under the sanction of the

church there, which resulted in the establishment of organized Christian institutions over a large part of Asia Minor, and some of the adjacent islands, and subsequently in Greece and Italy. In all these movements we see no trace of an ecclesiastical establishment of a provincial or diocesan character. The local church stands forth prominently and singly, as the divine instrumentality for concentrating and uniting the Christian elements in each single community, as the beating heart which is to send forth through the entire body of the population, the vital currents of spiritual healing.

It is worthy of special notice to what extent the missionary labors of the apostles and their companions were expended in the "training," as distinguished from the "planting" of the early churches. Their mission had reference not simply, as some might hastily suppose, to the conversion of men and the gathering of them into the visible fold. A great part of their time and energy was devoted to the care of the churches they planted. They aimed to make them self-sustaining, not simply as it regards pecuniary means and officers, but as it regards self-edification and growth, and to render them radiant centers for diffusing throughout their appropriate sphere the quickening and purifying influence of the gospel. Hence, we now and then read in "The Acts of the Apostles," such a record as this: "Then had the churches rest, and were edified; and, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, were multiplied." Acts ix. 31.

We find that Paul and Barnabas, after reaching the farthest limit in their first missionary tour, "returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the king

dom of God." Acts xiv. 21, 22. Subsequently, after abiding "long time" at Antioch in "teaching and preaching the word of the Lord," it is both affecting and instructive to read how, "Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do."" Acts xvi. 36. For reasons that need not here be stated, Paul shortly after set forth on this important mission, not with Barnabas, but with Silas; "and he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches." Acts xv. 41.

Specifications of this kind, however, need not be multiplied, for a single consideration is sufficient to set the whole matter at rest, so far as any question can be raised upon this subject. The Apostolic Epistles prove conclusively that in the view of the writers, the honor and strength and triumph of Christianity, as a spiritual system designed to leaven and transform human character and human society, are bound up inseparably with the soundness and purity of the churches, and their fidelity to the principle of local expansion.

As an aid to churches in reaching this vigorous condition of intrinsic and aggressive life, on which so much depends, outside aid may in their infancy be requisite. In early times, as we have seen, the labors of apostles and their inspired coadjutors, were rendered in such a case,- -a method of aid paralleled in more recent years by the services of missionaries, sent out and sustained by voluntary Christian Associations. As soon, however, as the point of self-support is reached, it is evident that a church is to take the full responsibility of its internal and external advancement into its own hands. It is one out of the many organized bands of missionaries dropped down here or there upon the earth, at the appointment of Christ, to care for and cultivate, for Him, its particular

portion of the broad field. It is one of the many families of true spiritual workmen set on the walls of Zion, which is required and expected to build over against its own house. By this division of labor, the entire walls are to be reared up in beauty and in strength.

3. Growth in a church, as tending toward a complete parochial Christianization, is of the first importance when viewed as an indication of an internal healthful life. Up to the point of maturity, all living things thrive and grow whenever placed in circumstances appropriate to their natures, unless there is operating some functional derangement, or some internal cause of decay. A fruit-tree, for example, if it has air, and sunshine, and moisture, and a good fertile soil, and a locality adapted to its peculiar requirements, is expected to grow, and grow healthily, and bear fruit, according to the law of its vegetable nature. It will not, of course, grow thus in the winter, nor out of its appropriate soil and climate. But if, when all external conditions are right, the spring and the summer pass without presenting the green foliage, the new spreading shoots, the fragrant blossoms, and the rich harvest of fruit; or, if the growth, such as it is, is gnarled, and the fruitage imperfect and unsavory, we instinctively inquire for some cause that is threatening the very life of the tree. So, if the physical frame of a child ceases to expand or to expand proportionately, when all the external laws of infantile growth are observed, how naturally the parents' apprehensions are excited with reference to the insidious approach of some internal disease! Not to multiply examples, it seems to hold true, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, that appropriate and proportionate growth indicates soundness and health, while a suspension or cessation of such

growth evinces unsoundness and disease, in all cases where maturity has not yet been reached, and where the external conditions required by peculiarity of constitution have been complied with.

It is

Now does not this law extend into the domain of spiritual life? Can any reason be found why it does not, either in the nature of a spiritual life, or in the conditions of its development and expansion? Does the Christian consciousness, or the Bible, furnish any ground of doubt upon this question? Nay, rather, is not the application of this law absolutely required, by all that we know of the characteristics and workings of scriptural piety? Does not the Saviour teach that his kingdom, whether set up in the individual soul, or in the social heart, is a germ of self-expansive life, whose nature it is to grow, until it subdues and assimilates to itself all the faculties of the individual, and all the relations and interests of the social body? "the grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth;" but which "groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." It "is as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise, night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." The parable of the leaven hid in the meal illustrates and confirms the same principle, as viewed from a somewhat different point. The principle may be thus stated: Christian piety, whether regarded as personal, or as existing and acting in and through social organizations, either on a smaller or a larger scale, in its very nature, as being

a Divine element, tends by a steady, continuous progress toward a maturity of universal and complete diffusion.

Why should we not apply this principle, directly and without qualification, to the local church in its relations to the parish, as its theater of spiritual operation? It would seem, antecedent to all observation, reasoning from the nature of the case, and the teachings of Scripture, that, in the absence of external causes tending forcibly to break up or to reduce a church, as, for example, persecution, or emigration, or the devastations of war, pestilence, and the like, a church which did not, on the whole, grow in the number and spiritual strength of its membership, — a church that did not, from year to year, make advances upon the unbelief and irreligion existing among the intermingled or surrounding population, -a church that was not gradually enlarging its borders, and drawing to itself the wealth, the intelligence, the moral influence of the community, and controling them in the interest of Christ's cause, giving bright promise, in its completed maturity, of ultimately absorbing, by a thorough transfusion of its own life, the entire parish into itself, must be an unsound church,- that there must be something wrong in its spiritually sanitary condition. If the growth of the mustard plant, set in a favorable location, should be suspended, we should naturally look for some disease or defect in the plant itself as the cause. If the working of the leaven in the three measures of meal should cease when as yet only one measure is leavened, all the external conditions being favorable to the completion of the process, the housekeeper would be led to question, whether the leaven, if originally good, had not lost its essential properties as leaven.

The full application of this principle to the local church, may seem to carry a too sweeping charge of dereliction or

duty. But whatever qualifications may be demanded, this conclusion can not be denied without doing violence to the plainest evidence : that it is the first great duty of the local church to grow, with a view to the thorough Christianization of its parish. Failure here, when no providential and unavoidable hindrances exist as a reason, is a clear and alarming indication of unhealthfulness of spiritual life. In such a case, the salt has in some degree lost its savor, and, so far forth, is "good for nothing." So far forth the talent is laid up in a napkin, the light is put under a bushel, and the things that remain are ready to die.

In drawing this analogy between animal and vegetable life and spiritual religion, it is not intended to press points too closely, or, at least, unreasonably. A healthful child grows by a steady organic expansion, till he reaches manhood. A vigorous tropical tree in its appropriate climate reaches its perfection by a similarly continuous process. But in the cold latitudes, vegetable growth is suspended during the season of frost and ice, and, in all climates, it may be seriously checked and even destroyed by sudden and severe atmospheric changes.

It has already been intimated that the expansion of a local church may be checked by violent providential causes, or such events as tend to disturb and break up the elements of society. And we may say furthermore, that the most retired and staid communities may at times come unavoidably under the influence of agitating and diverting occurrences, that shall affect prejudicially their religious condition. again, it can not be expected, that the increase of a church, however true and devoted to its work, shall proceed by a uniform arithmetical ratio, adding numerically, from one twelve-month to another, just so many to its membership. During one year, there may be

And then,

large accessions, as the fruit of a widespread revival; another year may be marked by a large number of deaths and dismissions, uncompensated by additions; while yet, again, the increase may be decided, yet small.

Facts like these, though seemingly militating against the position we have taken, only require a more comprehensive generalization to bring them under the general law, that where providential circumstances do not hinder, it is the paramount duty of a church to grow, and if it is in a healthful state of spiritual life, it will grow. To illustrate: A youth may, during a single year, shoot up toward man's stature with great and marvelous rapidity. During the next year, he may remain at the same point as to hight, and yet properly speaking, he is growing still, — not upward, but in filling out into fair proportions the stature already attained. This year a tree in your orchard may be loaded down with fruit. The succeeding summer it may appear to the eye a barren, worthless cumberer of the ground; and yet it is only recruiting its energies, and gathering new vitality and fulness for the production of future harvests, really advancing in all that constitutes its permanent value as a fruit-bearer. And in these instances the same process will be repeated, till life culminates in full maturity.

These analogies show us how a church, although not presenting the same numerical increase from year to year, may yet be really gaining ground toward the accomplishment of the special mission assigned to it in its internal, and its more immediate external, relations. Judged not by annual statistical reports merely, but by measurements extending over longer periods, the unfavorable aspects presented are only eddying currents thrown back over the shallows, while the deep waters of the channel flow onward toward their

ocean home with a grand and steady movement. So that the facts adduced, instead of furnishing an argument against the position that the growth of a church in the direction of parochial Christianization, is of paramount importance, inasmuch as it is a sure index of spiritual health, give to this position a decided support.

4. But we go one step further. Growth in a church is to be viewed not simply as symptomatic, but as productive of results. It is not only an indication of health under the conditions specified; it is frequently, if not always, a necessity as the preserver and promoter of health. Drawing our illustrations from the phenomena of life in the physical world, we understand that a plant, whose growth is interrupted or even retarded, is apt to fall at once into a diseased state, and to be covered with destructive vermin. And we know, also, that no way is so effective to get rid of the ravagers, as to quicken the life and restore the vigor of the plant, by means of better fertilization, irrigation, and other like resorts, well known to horticulturists. The same principle holds good, in many respects, in the treatment of the human body. Oftentimes the best method of maintaining health in childhood and youth, is not a direct medical battling with disease, but such a hygienic treatment as tends to replenish the central bodily forces, and to keep them in action, and, in this way, to secure the regular unobstructed development of every organ. Growing villages and towns, growing states and nations, have a certain power of resistance to demoralizing influences. It is when they cease to make advances, and activity and thrift give place to want of public spirit, to purseproud and labor-despising gentility, or listless poverty, that the social body goes most rapidly to decay.

And is it not obvious, from experience and observation, that as soon as a