CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.

O

UR Minister is nearly always dwelling on the subject of hearers becoming members of the church,' said Mr. Shenstone, a regular attendant upon his ministry, and in moral character equal to many who were actual members in his church.

'He is,' answered Mr. Bond, to whom the words were addressed, and who in character was as morally consistent as Mr. Shenstone : ⚫ and to tell you the truth I don't care for so much of it. It is the Gospel that will save us and not the church.'

'I think,' said Shenstone, 'if we are regular hearers in his congregation and supporters of his ministry, and consistent livers before our families and the world, it is as much as can be required of us, and in fact what the better should we be if we were members of the church ?'

'Just so,' observed Mr. Bond, emphatically, concurring in the

statement.

Mr. Cox, who was present in the company when the above words were spoken, a godly, earnest, and intelligent member of a Christian church in the town, here observed :

'I do not attend your place of worship and hear your minister, so I cannot give an opinion as to whether he dwells too much, or in too unwelcome a manner upon the subject of joining the church; but this I am prepared to say on general grounds, that membership in the church of Christ is of very great importance, and well deserves your serious consideration. I am happy to be able to say that I have been a member now for thirty or forty years, and I hope when my membership ceases on earth it will be renewed in the "church of the first born in heaven." Of course, both of you believe that there is a church of Christ on earth and such a thing as membership within it.' 'Certainly,' answered Mr. Bond, we believe in both: but I do not know, of course, the meaning you attach to your phrases-" a church of Christ," and "membership within it." If you mean the body or number of all who believe in Christ as the Head, then I am bound to recognize that as part of my creed; and I doubt not Mr. Shenstone is with me in this.'

'I am,' said Mr. Shenstone quickly.

'That is what I mean,' said Mr. Cox. 'At the same time I did not say all I believe. There is not only this universal church of

Christ; but there is what may be called the Sectional church of Christ, of which I think it is necessary, as a Christian, to be a member.'

'It seems to me,' said Mr. Shenstone, if I believe in Christ and live according to my belief, that is all the membership of the church which is necessary, and all else is human and only prudential and expedient, which may or may not be attended to according to one's own judgment and conscience.'

'Besides that,' observed Mr. Bond, your Sections, as you call them, are so many, and the terms of membership are so different, that one may be confounded which to choose. Now the Church of Christ is one, and terms of membership simple, and if one has membership in His church, on His terms, I think he may be satisfied and let all the rest go.'

'It is very true,' answered Mr. Cox, the Sections of the Human manifestations of the Church of Christ are many, and the terms of membership differ in most of them; but, I do not see how these nullify your obligation to be a member in one of them, or confound you in choosing which to join.'

'I fail to see any obligation to be a member of any of your Sectional churches at all,' said Shenstone, and therefore there is no obligation to nullify. If I believe in Christ, and live as a Christian, as I have said, I belong to His universal church, and that is enough.' 'So I think,' added Bond.

'Besides,' continued Shenstone, 'if I am a member of the universal church of Christ, I do not see how you can exclude me from a Sectional, providing your sectional belongs to the universal.'

Here Shenstone and Bond looked at each other, and then both at Cox, as though they had gained a signal triumph in logic. But Cox, nothing daunted, said:

'I observe your apparent satisfaction at the conclusion to which you have come: but you know, there are always two sides to a subject, and always two parties to a discussion. You have stated your side, I will now state mine. In order to do so, I shall use a similitude. I shall take Humanity and Christianity on the one hand, and the Sectional Churches and the various Nationalities of men on the other. If you are a believer in Christ, and a liver in Christ, you belong to Christianity or to the Universal Church of Christ, as you belong to Humanity by being born and living as a human creature. Now suppose you were to stand forth and say, "We are not Englishmen ; nor in fact, do we belong to any of your Nationalities of earth, which are mere human and earthly orders or provisions; nor do we think it necessary; if we are men, and belong to Humanity, what more can be required?"

You see in what a position you would place yourselves before others. One asks, where were you born? you answer In Humanity. Another asks you to what nation you belong? you answer to none; we belong to Humanity. "Humanity," is the response, "where is that? What is that? I don't see it: I don't know it. I have heard of it before; but it is a most indefinite, nondescript sort of a thing."

'Thus you become in one way abstracted, and in another confounded; abstracted in that you belong to no Nation, and confounded in that you belong to Humanity. You allow no one Nation to claim you as a citizen; and Humanity absorbs you as a drop in the ocean. So that you belong nowhere in particular, but everywhere in general. I leave you to make the application at your leisure.' 'But you forget the last point I mentioned, Mr Cox,' observed Shenstone.

'What was that?

'This; if I am a member of the Universal Church of Christ, I am necessarily a member of one of its Sectional Divisions, although I may not comply with its human conditions of membership: as when one is born into Humanity, he must necessarily be born in some one Division of its Races, Peoples, or Nations.'

'I am not at all puzzled by your conclusion,' said Mr. Cox, 'you bring yourself into a dilemma rather than me. If you believe in Christ, and thereby claim a place in a Sectional Church, because you belong to the Universal, how is it that you do not acknowledge your connection with that particular Sectional Church in the same way that you acknowledge your connection with that nation or people of Humanity in which you have been born? If you have been born in England, you are not, I suppose, ashamed of the English language, customs, and institutions; nor would you be ashamed, I suppose, of similar things in France, Germany, Russia, or in any other Divisional part of Humanity, if you had been born in one of them?'

'But there is no choice in respect to my union with some Nation or People,' said Mr. Bond.

'Nor is there in respect to your union with some Sectional Church, according to your own reasoning a moment ago.'

'Yes, but you say I cannot be a member of a Sectional Church without complying with certain conditions. For instance, one Church says I must be baptized by immersion, or I cannot belong to it. Another says I must be Confirmed and receive the Lord's Supper, or I cannot be a member of it: another says I must meet in Class, or I cannot be a member of it. And thus, the Churches have their own peculiar conditions, to which one must conform before membership therein can be allowed.'

'You are quite correct, Mr. Bond,' answered Mr. Cox; and in these the churches are analogous to the Nations. Can you be a citizen of England, France, or America, without conforming to its laws, customs, and institutions? Can you occupy any of England's offices, without conforming to the conditions of England's citizenship?' 'Yes, but I can believe in Christ, and live a Christian life, without being a member of a Sectional Church,' said Shenstone.

'That is not denied: so you may live as a man without living in England, France, &c. You might find a territory somewhere on the face of the earth in which you may live isolated from nationalities, civilization, and societies; but what life would it be? Who choses to live

such a life? No one who knows the advantages of a life in civilized society, would prefer a life of isolation and seclusion. An Englishman, as a rule, prefers England to live in to any other country in the world, not to say an uncultivated and ungoverned territory; so a Frenchman prefers France, and an American America, etc.'

'There is so much of the human in your Churches,' said Bond, 'that it is difficult to recognize any of the Divine within them.'

'Doubtless, there is,' answered Mr. Cox. And no wonder either. The wonder would be if there was not. They are terrestrial churches, Mr. Bond, not celestial. They are in their membership composed not of angels or disembodied spirits, but of men and women, who are material and imperfect.

'That is not what I exactly mean,' said Bond. 'I mean there is so much of the human in their organizations and conditions of membership.'

'Well; there is not much to be surprised at in all that either. How could you have it otherwise? Take as an illustration our former figure there is a portion of Humanity for instance, organized into an English Nation; how much of the English there is in that Humanity thus Sectionalized! How much in its laws, customs, language, costumes, trades, etc. And thus you find a great deal of the French in the French organization of Humanity; and so you see belonging to every National Section of Humanity, peculiar features which, taking Humanity in the abstract, do not belong to it.'

But, I do not think,' said Shenstone, 'that your many Churches, with their differing organizations, forms of worship, and conditions of membership, were intended by Christ, because He speaks of His people being one. I am sure He did not organize them. They are not found in the beginning; nor can I see what good comes of them.' These things,' said Cox, to which you refer as belonging to the Sectional Churches, are not, in my judgment, any more opposed to Christianity or to Christ, than the various Divisions of Nations are opposed to Humanity and God. As to their organization, they are as much of Christ as Nations are of God: not of Him directly, but permissively. Then as to their oneness, they are one in the same sense as the Nations of the earth are one-embodying one life, of Christianity, with varying manifestations of that life in forms, orders, creeds, etc. There is one Lord, one Faith, one baptism. They are all one in the sense Humanity is one. What power can separate you as an Englishman, or the English Nation as a people, from Humanity, because you or the English Nation do not speak the same language or dress in the same costume as the Chinese or the Africans. Where is the Parliament or Monarch that can sever the American people from Humanity, because they severed themselves from the English Government? Oneness in Humanity does not consist in these National peculiarities being one, but in origin, nature, life. So there is no power in Synods, or Convocation, or anything else that can separate any living Sectional Church from Christianity because of its modes of worship, or forms of belief, or manner of government, or

terms of membership.

Connection with Christianity, whether in an individual or a church, consists not in these, but in the living and reigning Spirit of life in Christ within. Of course, the more unity in these subordinate things the better, perhaps, but they are not the bond binding them to the Universal Body.

And then, as to the advantages of these many Sectional Divisions of Churches, they may best serve the interests of Christianity, as the National divisions of mankind may serve Humanity. Each in its own peculiar form of government and membership, contributes to the maintenance and extension of Christian life in the world. There were, as you know, in the Apostolic times, the church of Corinth, the church of Ephesus, the church of Jerusalem, the church of Philippi, the church of Colosse, etc. Now there is nothing to show that these churches were not different in their organizations, as the various Sectional churches of our time, yet, they were all churches of Christ, and all maintained and extended the religion of Jesus Christ as existing among them.

'It is not difficult to perceive how it was impossible to continue the first organized church at Jerusalem, in its spread and growth through all places and times, unbroken and uniform, as Humanity in its growth and development through the centuries that followed its origin. As Humanity grew and spread in its multitudes into the different climes, continents, islands, and countries of the earth, it was only natural that it should divide into Sections according to those climes, islands, and countries, taking the several names, customs, and governments best adapted to each respectively. So as Christianity grew and spread through the ages, it was only what might be expected, that it would in its human forms of manifestation, divide itself into such sections, with their respective peculiarities, as would suit the varieties of minds and opinions of those that connected themselves with it. And as in building up the interests of Humanity, a Frenchman may do what an Englishman may not do, and vice versa; and as a Chinaman may do what an American may not do, and vice versa : so in building up the interests of Christianity, the Methodist Church may do what the Baptist cannot do, and the Church of England may do what the Congregational Church cannot do, etc.

Thus, we may see the wisdom in permitting these Sectional churches; in the advantages which may accrue to Christianity in the world from there existence.'

'Your analogy seems very plausible, I must confess,' said Mr. Bond; but after all, I think my objection is more to this membership of which our minister is so frequently speaking.'

Mr. Shenstone here interposed and said, 'Excuse me, Mr. Bond; it is not, perhaps, so much membership, as it is the condition on which membership depends. I, personally, should not object to be a member, if the condition was such as accorded with what I think should be the condition; and so far as I know your mind, I think you are one with me in this.'

'Exactly so,' Mr. Shenstone.