Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-05-27
TIE FIRE L NJ A N.
Forthe Green Mountain Freeman.
The ChurCh~IlS Nature and Object
A sERMoN-BY REV. f. J. coMINGs.

l PETER, q 9.-"But We are a chosen generation,
royal priesthood, holy nation, peculiar people, that
ye should show forth the praises Of him who hath
called you out of darkness into his marvellous light"
These afhrmatlons are made in reference to
the church of Jesus Christ They are the cho-
sen generations, the royal priesthood, the holy
nation, the peculiar people The call of Abra-
ham from nation of idoators, the separation
of the Jewish nation, of which he was the hon
ored father, from all other natons-their reli-
gious rites and privileges, we're but shadows of
what are now living facts around us, Many
prophets and kings desired to see the things chat
we behold, but died without the sight. They
comprised Mount Sinai; we have come to Mount
Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the
living God. To them God spoke by his proph-
cts; to us by his Son. They witnessed his awful
power; we his matchless love.
Without extending these prelimnaries pass
directly to the main object in view of which
have chosen this text.
and,
II. What is its object on earth,
The church of Christ--what is it? The
church in general, is composed of all those per-
sons, of every age and nation, who truly love
and worship our Lord Jesus Christ. They may
be soourners here, or 'at home with the L0rd'
they may be struggling with temptations and
striving against sin, or they may be offering tri-
umphant praises in the temple not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens Yea they may
wet theft couch with tears, in this the house of
their pilgrimage, being forsaken, bulfctted, tor
mented, or they may be lifting up their full vol
ces in alteration to the name of the SlyiOr they
love, where no bitter tears are shed, and where
the wicked cease from troubling. If they love
Him, whose we are, whether there or here, they
compose the family of God'-'the church Of the
FirstB0rn whose names are written in heaven
The family of God! Reader, let your mind lin
ger around the thought, till your heart is fired
with zeal to be member of this household of
faith-yea until Jesus, as he casts his eye on
you, is not ashamed to say My Brother, my Sis
ter, my Mother
Such is the church in general No matter by
what names designated on carth Methodist, Bap-
fist, &c; if they have renounced all for Christ,
they are his sheep, and shall be gathered soon
into one fold, with one shepherd. Whether
| fighting the Lords battles on earth, or wearing
palms of victory and enjoying the rest of heav-
en-, they are the church, having one Lord, one
faith one baptism, one God and Father of us
ALL
A particular, loco! church, as the chuch Of
Corinth the church of Ephesus, is an assembly
of true believers in Christ, united together in
worshiping God, in one place, and maintaining
the ordinances that Christ has instituted and
that discipline over each other which he has di.
rected
Without organization alocal church cannot
exist. There may be many individual christians
holding the fundamental doctrines, but no church
They may be bound together by declaration o
the sum of their faith, and their vows to God
either Written expressed Uerbaiiy, or impHed.-
A creed and a covenant, in some way expressed
or understood, there must be- Whit enterprise
requiring combined effort, was ever undertakes
and achieved without organization! Even thos
Reformers who look and labor for the destruc
{ ton of all organizations as the eysium of thei
hopes, find it necessaryto organise! An organ
ization to destroy all organlzation The mani
fest inconsistency of such movement, has LEI
to the veXed question among them Shall we ad
nit the principle which we wish to destroy, b,
organizing our own public meetings. in the choice
t of President and Secretary
This organization in order to constitute
church, must be built on Christ, the Chief cor
ner stone, elect precious and the members mus
be lively stones, formed together into an ho
temple in the Lord. They must be "a holy ma
ton, peculiar people While in the wor
they are not Of the world While they pursu
many Of the same avocatious that others do, an
to the beholder present perhaps nothing 'pecu
liar they serve another master, live for total
| different object love and hate different things
and are travelling to an opposite destination
r The one to a land Where all is fair to honor
| immortality, eternal life; the other to shame anc
everlasting contempt. The one is even now il
5 darkness; and is going to a land of darkness tn
other is now i'll Gods marvellous light ant
, journeying to city where the sun shall no NOR
60 down, nor the moon withdraw itself-yea
city where they have no need of sun or moon
2 for the Lord God is the light thereof
The church on earth is composed Of huma
f materials, and hence by nature dark, frail chill
dren of wrath, even as others; but quickened b
the spirit, made new creatures in Christ Jesus
adopted into his family, made partakers wit
him in his labors, his griefs and joys, and destr
T. ed finally to reign with him. a royal priesthood
f forever
To be Continued
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