Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 Excerpt: ... that sentiment aright into Christian unity; so that more and more there may be realized that vision which Paul in his highest moments caught from afar, when he wrote those divine words to the Church of Ephesus. For as he himself also tells us, to this end did Christ give to His people the ministry of various ranks and differing gifts: "For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" For that perfect unity is not to be sought in any age of the past, though some may claim it; even as that perfect faith and knowledge of the Son of God never yet existed among men. The ministry was given and is continued to this day, that the unity which springs from faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ may be wrought out more and more. Not in the past, but in the future, is Christianity's Golden Age as in the days of Paul, so now, the language must be " till we all attain." And as we now look forward to the Coming Church as to a reality loftier, nobler, more glorious than the Church of the Present; so even they of the apostolic age looked forward to the Coming Church, though they rejoiced in the "sweet communion" and the " heavenly ways" of the Church in their own day. The words of faith in which the early Christians were wont to make a good confession are still familiar: "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church." This was not an item of doctrine, or a theological sentence elaborated by mental reflection. To be able to say it one required no more instruction than at the North in war times one required to be ...
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