perfect fruits, and what can be better, nobler, diviner? And all down through the Christian. centuries the more men and women have lived by the Gospel, or put the Gospel into their lives, the more like Jesus have they become, the more fully have they illustrated all the powers and graces of a manly and womanly character, the more completely have they been imaged after the all-perfect God. The more, too, have such men and women been interested and active in the welfare and happiness of their fellowmen, and in those humanitary, beneficent, and progressive causes and movements which are calculated to elevate, enlighten, regenerate, and save the sinful and sorrowing of the world. And, furthermore, the church, the so-called Christian church, notwithstanding its apostasy and many shortcomings, has been the one great agency by which immorality and wickedness. have been held in check and virtue and godliness promoted; by which the divine purpose has been carried forward toward its millennial fulfillment. If such important, blessed results can be accomplished by a demoralized, corrupt church, entering but partially into the mind and work of Christ, what might not be done in the same direction and behalf for man's redemption and God's glory by a thoroughly illumined, faithful, consecrated, inspired one? Such an one as in some not far distant day, I trust, shall, by a radical regeneration, have a place in the world. Such a church will prove the soundness of my view in declaring the fifth grand object of a true body of Christ; will dem

onstrate, by practical righteousness in all human concerns, the superiority of pure Christianity to all other religions, philosophies, and moral systems, and continually approximate the realization of the divine purpose in sending Jesus into the world.

I bring this discourse to a close, and with it the discussion of the subject under consideration, with a few pertinent observations. (1) That these conclusions regarding the essential cardinal objects of the true Christian church are alike worthy of the loftiest aspirations of the human soul, honorable to Jesus Christ, and glorifying to the Infi nite Father. (2) That they are fully sanctioned and attested by reason and Scripture. (3) That any others radically contrary or inferior to them. would render the church worthy of reprehension, if not of contempt. (4) That they have been too generally overlooked, ignored, or belittled, by the mass of professing Christians for more than fifteen hundred years. (5) That in the church of the future they ought to be made specially prominent as indispensable planks of the ecclesiastical platform, and perpetually magnified and proclaimed as elements of religious progress and stimulants to Christian endeavor and fidelity.

Let no one who is persuaded of the validity of these observations be misled by the thought that the specified objects for which the church is established can be sufficiently understood by inferor implication without solemn declaration, affirmation, and proclamation, both in the standards of faith and in the formal acknowledgment

of confessors. And may the great Head of the church guide, inspire, and strengthen his loyal subjects to be faithful in this as in all other Christian duties, to the end that they may labor effectively for his cause, and for the coming of his kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy.

DISCOURSE XI.

EXPOSITION OF THEOLOGICAL FAITH. PART I.

"One God, the Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." -- Eph. iv. 6.

"Ye are

come

* unto Mount Zion

*

* and to an

innumerable company of angels, * * * and to the Spirits

of just men made perfect.”—Heb. xii. 22. 23.

Every one shall give account of himself to God." Rom. xiv. 12.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”—Gal. vi. 7.

"He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." I Cor. xv. 25.

Having considered at sufficient length in the two preceding discourses what I have come to regard as the predominating cardinal objects for which the true Christian church exists, to be recognized and acknowledged by all the faithful followers of its great Founder and Leader, I now proceed to an exposition of the several articles or subdivisions of the second section of my propounded creed or platform, to wit:

I.

II. THEOLOGICAL FAITH OF THE TRUE

CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

The Divine Moral Order of the World.

(1.) "There is one and but one God, who is self-existent, infinite, all-perfect; an omni-present Spirit, and not not a corporeal, localized organism;

permeating boundless space and duration, and manifestable to finite intelligences at His own pleasure as to time, place, manner, and extent."

This is the God whom Jesus designates as "The Father," and of whom the Apostle Paul declares to be "above all, and through all, and in you all," "in Him we live, and move, and have our being.' He is one, and only one. No form of plurality must be ascribed to Him. Hence the popular doctrine of the Trinity, however stated, is inadmissible. He is self-existent, from eternity to eternity, needing no creator or prior cause; He being the Great First Cause. He is all-sufficient in Himself and absolutely independent. He is above all fate, necessity, or other modes of existence the inherent Origin, Force, Life, Intelligence, Will, Wisdom, and Goodness of universal being. He is infinite in all the attributes, properties, and qualities of His Deific nature; in extension, duration, and operation; in power, wisdom, and love; in everything that makes Him God. No limitation whatever must be imputed to Him, save only sin, error, or essential contradiction of His own intrinsic character or moral order. He is all-perfect in His essential nature, as he is also in the qualities and manifestations of his intellectual and moral capability - perfect in all conceivable respects. No fault or incompleteness exists in Him; in affection, thought, will, purpose, act, or accomplishment.

He is a Spirit, the Spirit, all-pervading, all-embracing, immanent in all things, throughout immen