I

THE TWO CONCEPTS OF THE CHURCH

WHILE religion is a personal and individual matter, in that it is the response man gives to the God whom he recognizes in his world, yet it is true of almost every form of religion that it is associational.

What is called, rather vaguely, the religious instinct is a social instinct.

Few individuals would, if they could, be solitary religionists. While there is that in religion which may cause man to be alone with his God at times, yet no religion could propagate itself except as it caused the association of its adherents with one another. We take it for granted, then, that religion is the affair of an association, of a society of people. That this is true of the religion called Christian is beyond question. True, some have sought to be Christian in isolation. But, this is contrary to the genius of this religion which has as one of its supreme commandments, the love of the brethren. From the beginning, when Christ made disciples, those who believed in Jesus were associated together. Of this we have such full evidence in the New Testament that it is not necessary to examine the matter.

No one can doubt that the Christian, as was its mother religion, the Hebrew, is of all religions preeminently social, since it makes the religious bond

the chief means of union whereby its members are united. The slow but sure effect of the Christian religion is to dissolve all national ties.

This association of Christians has almost from the very start been called ecclesia or church. The Church has been corporate or institutional Christianity.

It would have been a blessing of immeasurable value if a pure doctrine or belief concerning The Church had prevailed from the earliest to the present time. Unhappily, hardly a century after Christ we see the beginning of a struggle between two ideas or concepts of The Church which has lasted till to-day with sad results to The Church. It is clearly evident to any who look at all attentively at the adherents and advocates of the Christian religion that these are divided among themselves into two distinct parties.

There are two and only two distinct concepts of The Church. There may be Christians and churches not clearly self-classified, not accurately placed, yet every Christian and every church is either " catholic or" evangelic."

We use these two terms as most convenient and historically most accurate. We might say " catholic" and "reformed"; but since the non-catholic idea is, in our opinion, the older, injustice is done in calling the non-catholic idea " reformed." As" catholic" is a self-appropriated name by one division of Christians we do no injustice to them in so naming them, though in so doing we must say at once that there is no concession of exclusive right to its use. Nor does this linguistic concession mean, as Cardinal Gibbons main

tains, that the later self-styled catholic church, the Roman Church, is alone catholic in the ancient sense of this word.

The representatives of these two do not differ as to the general importance and necessity of churches for the existence and propagation of the Christian religion but they do differ as to the seat of the authority which may pertain to this association as well as the nature and extent of that authority.

They differ as to the exact nature of the mission which is given to Christians as a Church.

They differ as to the means and methods whereby The Church should execute the trust committed to it. They differ also as to the relative position of Christ, Church and Christian.

The evangelic and catholic concept of The Church differ, concisely stated, in this: The evangelic notion is that the Christian religion, the Christian consciousness forms and determines Christian churches which all manifest The Church. The catholic notion is that there exists a formally established society which, as a Church, forms and determines the Christian religion. So Schleiermacher, concisely differentiates in Protestantism The Church is reached through Christ, in Catholicism, Christ is reached through the Church.

In the catholic concept, The Church, it is supposed, can and does exist only in one form, which is essential not to its mere well-being, but to its very being, and the true religion is that which this church has, it is said, maintained, still teaches and always will teach.

That this is a correct statement appears from the insistence upon apostolic succession, of some sort, in all catholic churches. It is maintained that The Church had an existence form from Christ. The society which Jesus is supposed to have established has, as essential to its existence, those who perpetuate in some way of outward succession the authority which, these maintain, was given to it by Jesus Christ.

The catholic concept is: The Church is an institution created by Jesus Christ, to which He has given His own authority and power, and this authority and power are present in some form of government. This governing body is supposed to be of Christ's own appointment, existing by His will, representing His authority, embodying His spirit. It has "the keys" for the government of The Church and of the world. This governing body can declare what doctrines are divinely true and obligatory on man. It can determine what man's religious and even secular duty is. From the third century until the fifteenth, this was the prevailing concept; for a thousand years this was practically the only thought or idea of The Church.

Catholicism has existed under various forms, and, though these parts contradict one another in other matters, and even as to the seat of authority, yet all parts of the catholic church agree in the assertion that the authority which is derived from the Spirit of God, the presence of Jesus Christ resides in the episcopal or other so-called heads of The Church.

In the catholic notion, The Church is existent only in a society which has a divinely determined form of

government. Its visibility is secured through divinely determined ordinances, administered by those whose appointment originated with the first appointed officers of The Church by Jesus Christ. Divine grace is received through visible sacraments, according to a divine arrangement, so that redemption or salvation is communicated by outward and visible means. Christ's words, "as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you," which is supposed to mean the apostles and their successors, is the charter of its existence and transmitted authority. It has power and right to bind on earth and in heaven. An Anglican bishop has defined The Church as, Christians under the rule of bishops, successors to the apostles. "The catholic conception of the bishop, secures the channels of grace and truth and represents the Divince Presence " (Gore, "The Church and the Ministry," p. 61). The extreme form of the catholic concept is expressed in the Douay Catechism definition of The Church, as "the congregation of the faithful under Jesus Christ, their invisible head, and His vicar on earth, the Pope."

The reformed or evangelic concept of The Church is that this word Church names the whole body of God's children, of whom Christ is Saviour and head. It is the "general assembly of the Church of the firstborn."

This Church of the redeemed, the true Israel of God has no perfect existence in visible organized form or unity on earth. But, this Church of God, purchased with "His blood" is manifest and apparent in the many churches. The churches manifest The Church.