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finding an entrance here and there in ways far beyond our knowledge. We may trace in every part of the human family those who are shown by their lives to be partakers of the Divine spirit, whether consciously or by the proleptic and unconscious processes which we have described. But we look upon those who consciously partake of this spirit, who confess God as he has been manifested in Jesus Christ, and who enrol themselves in the company formed for the purpose of making Him known to men, as the specially elect portion of the race or church of mankind. These are destined or appointed to communicate the Divine Spirit to all mankind, and to be the channels of salvation to the world.

It is with this elect portion that we have chiefly to do. But it is necessary to keep the rest in mind, lest, when we speak of the Christian nation, or of societies formed for art, or science, or commerce, as branches of the Church, or again of the universal Church as coextensive with mankind, we should find a stumblingblock in the fact that there are some belonging to each of these circles who do not consciously acknowledge the Christian name. The possession of the spirit, not the name, is the matter of importance, though we must seek to make these two conditions coincide. And even where the spirit is but dimly manifest, we must regard those who in any degree possess it as the immature members of the family. The Church is universal in the fullest sense, and its essential character is that of its most characteristic members, of those who most fully partake of the Christian spirit. That spirit we may speak of

either as the spirit of the universe, or of humanity, of Christ or of God. The universal spirit, since humanity is the crown of the universe, is the spirit of humanity. The spirit of humanity, since Christ is the head of humanity, is the spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christ, since Christ is one with God, is the spirit of God.

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It is true that the Christian Church has not for the most part understood the high calling which we thus vindicate for it. Those who confess God in Christ have usually been inclined to limit their view of His kingdom, or to adjourn the possibility of its full extension to a future world. But the Apostolic Church, though compelled by circumstances to a limited scope of action, distinctly contemplated this extension. It has been the mistake of each successive age to deny it. It must be the privilege of our own age to recognise it and to give it effect.

The Christian Church, then, is absolutely universal. It works through selected individuals, societies, nations, for the good of the whole body, with a view to make it one spiritual unity. Whatever the Christian spirit touches it transforms and ennobles. It connects it, first in thought, then actually, with God and with Christ, who are felt by spiritual minds to be present everywhere and in all things. Each effort of knowledge is an effort to know some part of God, that is, to know his will, that will which is another expression for love. Each art is a representation of some phase of that beauty which is part of the Divine nature, the calm and joyous side of love. Each effort of culture, whether of the mind or of the earth, is the exten

sion of a humane and a Divine influence over some fresh sphere. Each mode of human intercourse, whether for social purposes or of direct utility, is a field for the cultivation of mutual affection, of human and Christian love. Thus to the spiritual mind everything undergoes a change, and is converted from neutral or evil associations to become moral and spiritual, Christian and divine, first in the thought of the believer, then in actual reality.

But, further, we must introduce here what may be - rightly called the Sacramental idea-that which makes outward and visible things the channels of inward and spiritual blessing. The societies of men are bound together by the outward objects with which they deal; the family by the primary needs of life and objects of desire, scientific societies by the particular studies, whether material or historical, with which they deal; literary and artistic societies by music or poetry, sculpture, or painting, or architecture; and others in similar ways. But these objects are not to a Christian mere brute matter. They have been changed by the alchemy of religious thought and feeling. They become to the Christian apprehension the means through which God and the human spirit are perceived, and spiritual blessings communicated. Each object of science reveals not only the law of its existence but a part of God's nature. Each art reveals not merely natural beauty but human feeling, which also is divine. The family life is full of the outward and visible signs of love, and love is of God. The common partaking, appropriation, and enjoyment of these,

therefore, makes them also partakers of each other and of God. These things become the channels through which love, and beauty, and truth, and all that constitutes the human and divine excellence, enter into us. They are also the means to us of aspiration and of prayer, by which we associate ourselves with God and Christ, and reach out towards the promised unity, the establishment of the kingdom of heaven. Thus the whole Church, including humanity in its widest sense, and every several organisation within it, contains the materials of constant worship, communion, and edification. It is not too much to say that he who thus appropriates the world realises at every turn the inner meaning of the words, 'Take, eat, this is my body.'

If we add to this the Christian doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers, we may justly speak of each of those who work in the several departments of human life as ministering to their brethren in a holy office. And if we bear in mind the teaching of the Apostles, that the service of God is not so much that of any formal function, not even of public prayer, as that of a life pervaded by the Christian spirit, we have in the various rings or circles of human society so many branches of the universal Church, each having its organised church worship-the priest, the sacrament, the service 1.

prayer, the

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1 Rom. xii. I: 'Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service' (λoyi) λarpeía). James i. 27: Pure religion' (Opnokeía kalapá) ‘and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows,' &c. The two words which most clearly expressed formal worship to Jews and heathens are thus claimed, not for the public worship of the Church, but for the devotion of the life.

But, further, we must look upon the Church, not as a single and simple organism, the members of which are only attached by the bond of faith to the central. society. We must look on the Church as enfolding and including a vast number of organisations, each of which partakes of the character and vitality of the whole. We are not simply members of the Christian Church, but members of the Church of England; not simply units in the great body of humanity, but citizens of our own country; and not this only, but members of orders, families, colleges, associations, professions, within the Church. We must strive neither to narrow ourselves down to our specialism, nor lose ourselves in a vague universalism. Our affections must be made vivid by their direction to home and country, but they must be enlarged by devotion, like that of our Lord, to the good of mankind. The truest Christian life is that which works earnestly in its special calling, while yet having an eye to the general good: or rather, since we are taught first to pray, Thy kingdom come,' it is a life which begins with an appreciation of the great result, and, by keeping this in view, redeems and raises the special service in which it is engaged. The Church idea, that of a society bound together for the furtherance of the divine purpose and the making known of God's fatherly love to all mankind, must be reproduced in each society formed within it, and become its vivifying element. It is said by biologists that in every organism there are innumerable gemmules circulating, which are of the same character as the whole, and which are capable under certain cir

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