tration is left to ordinary officers. Having served the grand purpose of the apostolic office, they disappeared. That office could no longer be filled by living men, because none possess these special qualifications. In that apostleship they had no

successors.

QUESTIONS.

1. Give the meanings of the term apostle, and point out its definite application.

2. Mention several extraordinary qualifications peculiar to apostles.

3. In what ways were they specially endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost?

4. What proof is there that the apostles understood the terms of their commission ?

5. In what respect can they have no successors, and why?

CHAPTER XI.

PROPHETS AND EVANGELISTS.

PROPHETS were miraculously endowed to unfold divine mysteries. Human culture being rare, and attainments comparatively small, and, at best, wholly insufficient, this office was necessary for edification. The gift was far above all human effort in the most favourable circumstances. By the gift of inspiration, Scripture was infallibly expounded, immediate revelations presented, future events foretold. Like the apostolic office, the prophetic, also necessary for the establishment of Christianity, was not perpetuated. The office ceased with the completion of the canon of inspiration. Then the gift was withdrawn, and no perpetuation of the office can be traced. Only as prophecy is used in its wider acceptation for the declarative announcement of the will of God, does it still remain. The ministerial prophetic office is merged in that of pastor or teacher.

Evangelists were also the gift of Christ. When this title describes the high powers with which such officers as Timothy and Titus were invested, the class evidently was special and temporary. They were the delegates or vicars of the apostles. They were clothed with special powers for a limited time and purpose. Under special apostolic direction, they travelled and acted in the organization of churches. As such they could have no successors. It is worthy of note that evangelists are omitted in the list of officers in the Epistle to the Corinthians. The third class there spoken of are teachers. May this not be intended to intimate that these offices are practically the same? Το evangelize is to announce the glad tidings of great joy. This, as a public office, is the special work of the ministers of Christ, yet all Christians may, in a measure, do the work of an evangelist. They may co-operate according to their capacity and opportunity in spreading the knowledge of salvation. The work of preaching to the world was specially intrusted to the apostles, and evangelists were largely employed by them for this end. Those they delegated were qualified by the Holy Spirit with extraordinary powers. Sometimes they are found, as Philip, acting under the special impulse and direction of the Spirit (Acts viii.) Their work was important, though temporary, and ceased so soon as churches were fully organized. They were not mere itinerant missionaries; they were stated officers with a wide range of duty. Their sphere was the Church at large. As they were deputed, clothed with apostolic power, they went forth under apostolic supervision. As such, this office, along with that of apostle and prophet, fell quietly out of sight and ceased. Whether evangelists or teachers, possessed of ordinary powers for ordinary labour, under direction of the ordinary officers of the Church, be not still necessary, is another question, to be settled on its own merits and evidence. But this is certain, that the special office of evangelist, divinely inspired and apostolically directed, ceased with the special requirements of the apostolic age.

QUESTIONS.

1. Of what use were prophets in the New Testament Church? 2. In what respect has that office ceased?

3. What was the position of an evangelist in apostolic times? 4. What question may now be proposed as to evangelists ?

CHAPTER XII.

APOSTOLIC GUIDANCE.

PERSONALLY the apostles have passed away. Practically their guidance is continual. Being dead, they still speak and act. Clearly and fully they yet speak by their inspired writings. Thus they are still present everywhere throughout the Church and the world, ordering and establishing as the plenipotentiaries of the King. They still put the Church in remembrance of all that is necessary and essential. But they do more. They teach by example. Their practice, in is given for authoritative guidance. In their illustrative examples, ordering and establishing the churches, Christ is still bestowing apostles, prophets, evangelists, for the work of the ministry. In this sense of teaching and guiding by example, the Church has continuously the blessing of the office of apostle. Four cautions are here important :

:

as far as it is apostolic,

1. Their practice must be read in the Bible. Every fact known with certainty as to their principles and practice in the establishment and constitution of the Church is preserved there, and there alone. Other sources have but human authority; this is divine. Unless established by Scripture, it is of no force.

2. It is apostolic practice' that is authoritative. As men, the apostles were liable to err. The contention was so sharp between Paul and Barnabas, that they departed the one from the other.' Human errors are recorded regarding them, in order to be avoided.

3. Whatever was special in their office cannot be aspired after. None but the apostles could have received an immediate commission from Christ, be personal eye-witnesses of His majesty, and be endowed with the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost.

4. Temporary practices, also, are manifestly not intended to be perpetuated. Whatever practice was sanctioned by the apostles, which arose evidently out of the peculiarities of the time or place, as the love-feast, or the kiss of charity, cannot be regarded as imperative, or designed to be permanent. Such usages were suited only for the circumstances of the age. Unless positively enjoined, these local customs cannot be binding on the Church.

Apart from these considerations, the apostolic model must ever be that to which the Church should conform. If we are uncertain whether some practices were merely temporary, or were intended to be permanent, then that uncertainty must be allowed its weight in their adoption. This will not militate against all those practices that are clearly apostolic and permanent. Such are of universal obligation. This is evident from these facts:

First, The Church was established by the apostles, as it ought to be, according to the mind of Christ.

Secondly, Their practice is recorded in the Divine Word for guidance. Otherwise there is no reason why so much of what they did should have been preserved and transmitted, while · so few precepts are laid down.

Thirdly, No change in the constitution or government of the Church is so much as hinted at. No trace can be found in the New Testament of such a possibility.

Consequently, APOSTOLIC PRACTICE, ESTABLISHED BY SCRIP

TURE, NOT OF A TEMPORARY CHARACTER, IS BINDING ON THE CHURCH. This principle may be embodied in two rules :—

I. NO TRULY APOSTOLIC PRACTICE CAN BE LAWFULLY IGNORED BY THE CHURCH.

II. NOTHING CAN BE LAWFULLY INTRODUCED INTO THE CHURCH WHICH IS DESTITUTE OF APOSTOLIC SANCTION.

It cannot be doubted that the faithful application of these rules would soon bring the various portions of the Church into a position of purity, liberty, authority, unity, and energy, that would tell powerfully upon the world. Wherever scriptural apostolic practices are not adopted, the Church ought to be prepared with proof that these were temporary institutions. To introduce and perpetuate arrangements destitute of such example, is not only to degrade the apostolic office, and to elevate ordinary officers to their position, but to prefer the wisdom of men to that of the Most High God. In this case no limit can be put upon the inventions and innovations to which the Church would be exposed.

The divinely-appointed standard is to be observed in whatever the apostles introduced and omitted. Qualified and empowered by Christ Himself, their practice as well as the principles they announced had the divine approbation. Wherever that practice is faithfully observed and followed, the Church conforms to the mind of the apostles. There may be difficulty in ascertaining what that practice exactly was in every case. We need not be surprised at this, for it was unnecessary for them to enter into details. The apostles wrote to churches, knowing that their members were fully conversant with these. In such circumstances, occasional facts and indirect hints alone were necessary. These were sufficiently intelligible to those addressed. These brief allusions set forth in practice the main principles that entered into the constitution of the Church. This is a striking peculiarity of the Word of God. In rare instances does it enter into details. Generally it lays down great principles applicable to a variety of circumstances. Man attempts to legislate for every specific case. God has abstracted from each what is peculiar to all. That general rule He bestows for our guidance. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' applies to all relative and continuous duty. These general principles decide the multitude of instances. These perfect laws change not with ever-varying circumstances. They are compendious and suitable to every case. So in the constitution of the Church. Apostolic practices furnish the grand leading principles. These are not in

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