The Newtown bee., 1900-05-18

pleasure of any man or set of men. They | contend that the form of New Testament church fits the spiritual need of msn as light answers to the physical eye. That church was pure democracy in which the bishop, or presbyter or pastor, as he might be called, was chosen by the local body to preside and deacons were elected in the same way to assist him. Power resided always in the people. There was absolute equality within the church.
 "Neither be ye called mssters," said
 Jesus (Matt. 23: 1O) ''for one is your
 master, even the Christ" No orders of
 clergy, no separation of the ministry from
 the laity. Dr Hatch of the Church of England, in his Hampton lectures of
 1851, eonfesses that in the Apostolic Age any layman might perform either of the functions afterward monopollzsd by the clergy. He might administer baptism or ! the Lords Supper, he might preach or exercise discipline. SIMPLE TYPE OF A CHURCH.
 This simple type of church Is suited to
 all ages and all circumstances. A peo. pie incapable intellectually, or apiritu- ! ally, of maintaining such church are still strangers to the religion of Jesus.
 A democracy allows greater freedom for
 development than any other form of
 government. The people have power to
 adopt any laws, or create any offices. de-
 manded by the transient or permanent
 needs of the body; provided always, that
 these laws, or offices. are not destructive
 of the foundation of democracy. For,
 after all, the analogy between a democ-
 racy and church has definite limits. In
 a democracy the people create their own
 fundamental law. They have the power.
 it they so elect, to abolish that funda-
 mental law, and cease to exist as a de-
 mocracy. No such power was committed
 to the church. The Bible is the consti-
 tutional law of that body, and no power
 under heaven can abolish, or amend, or
 suspend that law. A church cannot
 cease to be democracy without ceasing
 to be, at the same time and by the same
 act, New Testament church.
 What are the characteristics of the New Testament church?
 , (a.) Men and women were admitted into the fellowship of that church only upon confession of 8 personal and intel. lfgent faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour. , The church was spiritual body, the body of Christ. It was not identified with the State or nation, and it's nature forbade that it should ever be. The tares should grow with the wheat, &C., cording to the parable of Jesus, but the field in which they were to grow was ''the world," not the church. Only the soul that was born from above had any place ia the fellowship of the church.
 When Nicodemus, ruler of the Jews,
 came to Jesus seeking information, the same condition was held out to him as to v the social outcast, "Ye must be born A from ab0ve."
 It was not until after the church had won the Roman Emperor, and had ir A turn been conquered by the spirit of the ' world not until after 1t had consented to revise it's principles and readjust It's u practices in order to avail itself of ths weapons of worldly warfare not unti after it had yielded to the temptation '- which it's Lord resisted in the wilderness 5 and had bowed down to worship Satar for the kingdoms he promised as reward l. not until then that the Church opened its e doors to admit the 2nsaved into It's fel : lowship. "It is clear,' admits Professor j. Allen of the Episcopal Divinity Schoo U at Cambridge, "thsC if the Church wal '' to gain any hold upon the society of tn, i' old world, which was to pass away, 0, '- upon the new races that were to talk. l. their place, it must receive them into it l. fold as they werel It was no time t.
 wait until they had experienced what VI E call conversion" This is a candid state
 ment, evidently carrying with 1t the en
 dorsement of the learred professor
 Baptists deny that the Church ever has
 the right to admit into its fold 8 human /. being before conversation. The Churcl ~ was planted here by God, not to accomo . date itself to the spirit of the world, bu
 to subdue that spirit to the will of God 's When 1t adopted this compromise, it low
 cred It's standard, and invited defeat ant
 disaster; 1t raised the foodgates of cor .t ruption, and deluged the centuries witl " superstition. Jesus Christ never intend
 cd that soul should enter into the fel " lowship of His Church until it had beel
 transformed in affection and purpose. h IMMERSION AND sPRINKLNa.
 s (b.) The second characteristic of tn c. Apostolic Church was that it admitted ID converted men and women into its fel 'l lowship, only after baptism. Baptist 's claim that this is the only method CT ad IL mission sanctioned by Christ and Hi y Apostles, and that baptism invariabl! o meant the immersion of the entire bod, 5. in water. No question has ever arisel o as to the fact of baptism. In the Nev 'e Testament record it appears that 1t fol D. lowed usually immediately after conver z' sion, ss on the day of Pentecost, and a le in the case of Phillip and the Ethiopian le eunuch. Confusion did arise in thos, y countries which had abandoned baptism l. as to the nature of the rite. The Greei n Church, which is the Church of Russia has never abandoned immersion, and nc it confusion has ever arisen there as to the n manner of administering it. After 1645 B. baptism in England ceased to be practic B. ed by the Established Church, ant IT sprinkling took it's place. No wonder 'f that confusion arose, since, as Dear 'I Stanley of the Church of England said e "The change from immersion to sprink n ling has set aside the most of the apos