The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19


where, in the congregation or in the synod
or session; with officers elected for GER
tain specified function; with a creed, writ
ten or traditional. long or short and with
some order of service or ritual, simple or
complex. And when we read that Paul
wrote letters to the churches, call up
such organizations as now exist. If we are
Congregationalists we are apt to think of
a Congregations church; il PresbyteTTiians
of an Episcopal church, and so on.
Now. in point of fact there was no high
". ORGANIZED body of Christians whatever
when Paul began his missionary tour. and
certainly none during the earlier years of
his missionary tour, or during the early
time when he wrote The first of his letters.
The Oldest of his letters was written prob
ably A. ID. 6S. and the church did not come
into any definite organization before the
middle of the second century. ] think not
so early as that. Christ formed no eccle-
Siastical organization / do not mean to say
that He established no church, for that is
question of phraseology. But lie formed
no ecclesiastical organization. He did not
tell His disciples how they were to form
their organization. He prescribed no rules
for the government of such an organization.
Twice. and twice only. He referred to
church in prophetic ternls-something that
was 10 exist, but what it was to be, how
it was to be organized, what were to be its
officers, and what its functions and it's
duties. He never said. He appointed no Off
GERS. Once when He about to preach
in Galilee and He could not do all the
preaching himself, He sent twelve of His
disciples to preach in the villages, while He
But the one organization was. so far asthe
gospel indicates just as temporary the
other. for a particular purpose, with no ex-
iStence after that purpose was served.
Christ prescribed no creed anything like
a creed. He asked His disciples what they
thought of Him.. He. asked the Pharisees
what they thought the Messiah would be.
He taught them truth. but he never sys-
tematized truth, or formulated 1t. There
was no creed i'm the time of Christ, sys-
tematic statement of doctrine. He prescribed
no ritual and nothing like ritual. His dis
ciples did, indeed, come to Him once, say
ing. After this manner pray you: First
begin with reverence for your Father; then
ask Him for what things you want Are you
hungry, ask Him for bread; are you per-
tempted ask Him for deliverance; have you
sinned. ask Him for forgiveness. Tell Him
what things you have need of. That is all;
MADE INTO LITURGY.
I'VE have taken this instruction and con-
verted it into a liturgy. And we have
right so to do. But it is our liturgy made
out of Christ's broad and general instruc-
ton. He neither framed an organization,
gave a creed established a ritual nor ap-
pointed officers When He died and rose
again His disciples were inspired by the
resurrection with a new hope and a new
faith They did not lose-as we shall see
next Sunday night-they did not lose Alto
gether their old Messianic conception of
Messiah who was to come in power and
glory and set the world right with dash
They still thought that. They had no con-
ceptiOn of any necessity of organization
and they framed and formed none. They
loved Christ. They expected Him to come,
from week to week, from month to month.
IN this expectation they met together in
loving fellowship. They had, of course no
church building. They met in private houses
generally. Aher a little they would get
now and again a hail. a schoOlhOuse or
perhaps whole Jewish synagogue would
tod to ffsra-
ity, and the synagogue building would be-
come a Christian church. As persecution
came on they carried their worship in
secret places. They worshiped, as we well
know, in the catacombs 1t became to
them kind of solemn, sacred and strong
cathedral. They had no ritual. Their meet
ings were much more like modern prayer
meetings, except there was more strength
in them, than like modern church services.
They sang together, sometimes the Hebrew
psalms; sometimes some prophet would
write a Christian psalm or adapt Hebrew
psalm to, Christian use. They instructed
one another. Anyone might speak; any
one might preach. There was no ordina-
ton; there were no officers
They met usually once a week; some
times twice a week. The converted Jews
had, for time, two holy days; they kept
the Sabbath. because that was prescribed
for them by the old law. But they could not
let the other day go by, the day on which
Christ had risen from the dead That could
not be left to secular uses wholly. They
could not forget that glory, and SO they
met on the first day of the week and sang
hymns of praise to their risen Lord and
prayed for His coming again in glory and
CHANGES IN THE CHURCH.
so, for a time in the whole Christian
Church, Sabbath and Sunday lived together
in anity: and as the church grew more and
more pagan in the source of its member
ship, and less and less Jewish, more and
more the Jewish Sabbath dropped out end
the Christian Sunday took it's place 1 am
often asked what is the authority for the
change of day. There is no authority, ex-
cept that broad and general authority which
God has reposed in His children every where
to worship Him according to the dictates of
their own conscience and in the way that
best suits their true spiritual life. There is
nowhere in the New Testament statement
OF DIVINE authority explicitly given for any
change in the day. Those who think them
selves under the obligation to maintain the
Mosaic law are right in thinking they should
observe the seventh day rather than the
first Sunday belongs to the liberty of the
children of God. The early Christians had
no creed. sIn fact, they had no membership.
There was nothing to belong to. When a
man was converted he was baptized. Not as
a condition OF joining the church. but a
sign and token of MS profession of faith in
Christ. When Roman jailer at Phillippi
was baptized he was not admitted to a
church. There was church at Phillippi
to admit him to- he was baptized as a
solemn and sacred way of declaring his
faith in the Messiah. This baptism at first
a later period came in the baptism of infant
children. Baptism was generally by INNER
sion, If not by Submersion. You see the diff
ference. tits by no means clear that it ever
was observed by submerson. The earliest
picture we have of baptism is one upon the
walls of the catacombs, in which John the
Baptist ana Jesus are represented as .tand-
ing up to their waists in water, while John
pourS water on the head of Jesus. 1t is not
at all improbable that the earlier baptism
the apostolic baptism, method which
has utterly gone out of effect in our
churches now, a method of immersion
coupled with pouring. Certainly sprinkling
was in the apostolic church unknown.
1.-The Greeks had their voluntary aSsocia-
tions. which were sometimes charitab le
sometimes religious, sometimes social. They
were a. festive people, and these gatherings
were generally accompanied with some
meal. The Hebrews were also a festive
people. Their religious forms and ceremo-
MES were accompanied to remarkable de-
gree with eating. They believed in it as a
means of unloosenng the tongue and unit
ing people in good fellowship. They were
wise. So these early Christians, meeting to-
gether in private homes and expecting and
looking for the coming of the Messiah
straightway to set the world right, not only
sang hymns, not only repeated together ex-
tracts from the Hebrew psalms, not only
administered baptism as a sign and token
not of admission to the church, but of faith
in Christ, but they sat down to a common
table together. And when they did thus
break bread together they remembered
naturally enough that night, when Jesus
Christ sat with the twelve and break bread
with them and passed them the bread and
the wine.
But as yet this simple social supper had
not become q sacrament 1t was not adj
ministered by a priest or a minister No
one was appointed for that purpose Even
as late as the latter half of the second CEN
fury Tertullian says that ordinarily we re-