through The Church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known" (Eph. 2: 10).

This Church is the "Pleroma"; it is that which Christ fills (Eph. 1:23). This is the concept of The Church: The Pleroma of the Spirit. There is "one body" (Eph. 4: 4). "The whole community of Christians," says Ellicott (s. 1.), "is the mystical body of Christ."

That there is any other "head" than Christ, is excluded. It is evident that all those pertain to this body who have Christ as their head. All those who have this "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," constitute The Church. That there is any external band or bond, Paul nowhere hints. The unity is that of "lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love." To enable this Church to grow up perfectly there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11), who serve it, but do not constitute it. These make “increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love."

To conclude, these and other New Testament teachings justify the conception of The Church as the whole body of those who are one body because there lives in all the parts one Spirit. No lesser definition of The Church is, scripturally, possible than that this word names the complete company, however scattered on earth, of those who have affinity with God. The "saints" constitute The Church. And by "saints Paul unmistakably means those who have working in them the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Christ.

Schleiermacher is therefore justified in regarding the

triumphant Church as the sum of all the efforts of the Spirit.

So also to Ritschl, as to Luther, and Calvin, and Huss, before him, The Church is the communion of the saints which can never have the visibility of an institution.

This New Testament concept of The Church prevailed until the dominance of catholicism.

So Tertullian says: "The very Church itself is the Spirit Himself" (Modesty, 21). And again: "Every number of persons who may be combined together into this faith is accounted a church."

Earlier, Origen says: "The Holy Scriptures declare the body of Christ to be the whole Church of God, and the members of this body to consist of those who are believers " (Ag. Cel., 48).

That which constitutes The Church, constitutes a church according to Origen: "In every association of Christians are the angels and the power of Christ and the spirits of all believers." The whole Church is present, spiritually; in a church, it is representatively there. And, as Tertullian loved to emphasize, where three are, there is Christ and there is a church.

To conclude, the New Testament teaches that "The Church" never should mean anything other than the body of Christ, which has as its component parts those called in the New Testament faithful, or saints, or the hopeful in God.

And every separate company of such is a church. Concerning organization or government or form of worship, the New Testament is singularly reticent,

In accord with this opinion, from among many we may cite a few writers.

Augustine says: "The whole Church is made up of all the faithful, because the faithful are members of Christ; these may be separated in sight but are bound in love."

Chrysostom calls The Church "the multitude of believers." Among later writers we may cite Bishop Jewell: "The church is the fellow citizens with the saints' such a church are they who in any place of the world truly fear the Lord and call upon His name."

Hatch says The Church is "the whole congregation of Christian people dispersed throughout the world."

Hort says, The Church is "the community of Christians as a whole, all in whom Christ dwells as units are stones of the Eternal Tabernacle; when each stone is perfect the temple is complete."

Canon Bruce ("Apostolic Order," p. 123), quotes from John Hooper, Bishop and Martyr, A. D. 1551: "The Church of God is not by God's word taken for the multitude of bishops, priests, and such others; but it is the company of all men hearing God's Word and obeying the same, lest any man should be seduced, believing himself to be bound to any ordinary succession of bishops and priests, but only to the Word of God and the right use of the Sacraments."

In the office of the Holy Communion in the English Book of Prayer, The Church is "the mystical body of Thy son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people.

VII

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH

Did The Church originate with Jesus?

Paul's teaching.

"Church of Jesus Christ" an unknown phrase in New Testament.

God's covenant one and everlasting.

Jeremiah and the covenant.

Jesus and the New Covenant.

The torah a mere episode.

Two testaments, but one Bible.

The relation of Jesus to The Church.

The Church never defunct.

Faith, hope, love the constituting elements.

The new Israel is the true old Israel.

"My Church."

The disciples, this Church, has no organization.

How the Christian Church came into separate being.

The rejection of Jesus and His disciples.

The true Israelite.