little of any outward institution. The time for direct guidance in such matters was not come. But the principles of justice, and mercy, and love, of which Christ's teaching is full, the common need of men for an organization of some kind, the previous existence of the Jewish state-these were the materials with which the Church had to work at the beginning of its development. At the other end lies the dominion over all mankind which Christ claimed. But as to what lies between, there is hardly a word in the way of actual command. A rudimentary organization suited to the rudimentary needs is established; but the disciples are left free to adapt it, and to build up new institutions within it, according to the new circumstances that may arise. That our Lord, in the forty days before the Ascension, when He spoke of the things of the kingdom of God, gave intimations as to the principles which should guide His followers, is a very natural supposition. What is certain from the silence and subsequent action of the Apostles is that He gave no definite directions for the organization of the Church.

Our Lord belonged to the Jewish commonwealth, which, as has been pointed out, had at the base of all its relations a consciousness of the divine righteousness; and that righteousness had formed, and had at various times changed, the laws. In this sense, Israel had represented the kingdom of God on earth. The key of the kingdom was in the hands of the Scribes and Pharisees 1, whose extra traditions and whose fence around the law had rendered the kingdom inaccessible to those without,

1 Matt. xxiii. 13.

and formal and hypocritical to those within. Our Lord's first effort, therefore, was to infuse a spirit of reality into relations which had been thus formalized: and at the outset the hope might well have been entertained that, as changes had been made before, so, without any violent revolution, the simpler and more universal truth, and the social state flowing from it, might displace the cumbrous and artificial system then existing. It is interesting to imagine the possible course of events had this hope been realized: how the Jews might have become the apostles of a simple human righteousness and the belief in the One God to mankind, and the sacrifice of a laborious and a successful life, instead of that of an ignominious death, have been the means of reconciling the world to God. But selfishness was too deeply ingrained to yield to such a process. The sin of man required for its extirpation the Sacrifice of the Cross. Nevertheless, it is certain that Christ made the attempt to win the Jewish nation by persuasion, not by death. He began His ministry by announcing Himself as the herald of a spiritual jubilee 1, and declared that the prophet's announcement of an era of deliverance was fulfilled that day in men's ears; and He lamented at the close of His ministry that the nation had not known the day of its visitation 2.

This refusal was the turning-point of the history of the Jewish nation. It was also the turning-point in the development of the infant community of Christ's disciples, which changed from a sect into a Church or kingdom. The attempts which had been made in

1 Luke iv. 18, 19, 21.

Luke xix. 44.

earlier times to reform the Jewish community had been made by sects, or small bodies of like-minded men. Isaiah had had his special disciples. We trace in Jeremiah's and Josiah's day a small society of godly men bent on restoring true piety in Israel2. The Chasidim 3, and later on the Pharisees 3, were sects. Even John the Baptist gathered a company of disciples, who at first rivalled those of our Lord, and who, notwithstanding his own readiness to pass away, remained, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, for many years*. Our Lord, accordingly, from the first, allowed His disciples to baptize and enrol converts, and the number of adherents to what might then have been called the sect of Jesus was large, as St. John reports. But when the opposition of the Scribes precluded the hope of the conversion of the nation, a new creation became necessary. The kingdom of God must be taken from the wicked husbandmen, and given to a nation who would yield the fruits of righteousness. Let us trace this process.

First, the tone of the teaching grows more peremptory. If we may, with Neander, consider the Sermon on the Mount as a kind of epitome of the earlier teaching, we may take its authoritative tone and clear definition of the Master's position as significative of this new departure", 'I say unto you.' Next (or with Luke immediately before), we have the call of

1 Isaiah viii. 16.

2

2 Kings xxii. 12-14. See Stanley's Jewish Church, ii. 518.

3 Ib. iii. 327-9, 376-8.

4 Acts xix. 3.

Life of Christ (Bohn's Standard Library), p. 240.

7 Matt. v. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44.

5 John iii. 26.

the twelve, the number being that of the tribes, and signifying the formation of a new Israel. We find these twelve set apart for special training under the Master's eye. 'He ordained twelve that they should be with Him'.' As a part of this training we may note the trial mission recorded in Matt. x, where they are sent forth to cast out devils, and to heal diseases, and to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand. The charge which was given them is evidently designed to prepare them and others for a lifelong service far beyond the range of the Galilæan towns. Simon Peter was early recognized as their leader; and he, with James and John, came to form an inner circle through whom the Master revealed the more secret passages of His life and thoughts. Round the Master gathered a larger and less defined company, some of whom, like the family in Bethany, remained in their own homes, some followed Christ wherever He went 2. The circle of the most immediate followers were all, in spirit at least, perhaps actually, required to give up all that they had. He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be My disciple. The tie which bound them together was faith in their Lord, the faith of St. Peter, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' This faith was synonymous with absolute devotion, a devotion attested by baptism into His name, and subsequently by the Lord's Supper. And this devotion implied, even in those who did not belong to the inner

1 Mark iii. 14.

2 This has been ably worked out by the aid of a well-instructed imagination by the author of Philochristus.

Luke xiv. 33.

4 Matt. xvi. 16.

circle, a readiness to give up all at any moment: 'He that hateth not father and mother, yea, and his own life also, cannot be My disciple1.' This new Israel was built up on a spiritual basis and directed towards spiritual ends. Its princes are the meek, the poor in spirit, the peacemakers, those who suffer for righteousness' sake, and those who are willing to be the servants of all. Those whom we honour now as the founders of the kingdom and its typical characters, went with Christ from place to place, having no other object than to learn and teach the truth; they had no certain dwelling-place, and were supported by a common fund furnished, probably, in part from the original possessions of those who, like Matthew, actually gave up all, and in part from the contributions of well-wishers. This did not imply asceticism, though even asceticism in the East, as shown by the Buddhist sects, is a far easier yoke than in the West, and the disengagedness also of a teaching and mendicant body is not so difficult under the simpler conditions of Eastern life as it would be in the complex social state of the West. But it involved an absolute abandonment of all selfish and ambitious aims. To this society, unlearned as its members were, but having its conscience purified by faith and unselfish love, Christ declared that the keys of the kingdom of God, before held by the Jewish Rabbis, were transferred 2. Their conscience was the reflex of the divine truth and love which no longer dwelt with the rejecting and rejected nation. Their decisions were

1 Luke xiv. 26.

2 Matt. xviii. 18; comp. ch. xvi. 19. John xx. 23.