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XV.

[Preached January 11, 1852.]

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH A FAMI

EPHESIANS iii. 14, 15.-"Our Lord Jesus Christ, of whor family in heaven and earth is named."

IN the verses immediately before the text t tle Paul has been speaking of what he calls a that is, a revealed secret; and the secret that the Gentiles would be "fellow-heirs, an same body, and partakers of the promise in the Gospel." It had been kept secret from th ages and generations; it was a secret which had not suspected-had not even dreamt of peared to him to be his duty to keep as far as from the Gentile. Circumcision, which taught duty of separation from the Gentile spirit, and practices, seemed to him to teach hatred towar tile persons, until, at length, in the good pleas providence of God, in the fulness of time, the instrumentality of men whose hearts rath whose intellects were inspired by God, the trut out distinct and clear, that God was the Father Gentiles as well as of the Jews, "for the sam over all is rich unto all that call upon Him." x. 12.) In the progress of the months, my Cl

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brethren, we have arrived again at that period of the year in which our Church calls upon us to commemorate the Epiphany, or manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, and we know not that in the whole range of Scripture we could find a passage which more distinctly and definitely than this brings before us the spirit in which it is incumbent upon us to entor upon this duty.

In considering this passage we shall divide it into these two branches:

I. The definition which the Apostle Paul here gives of the Church of Christ.

II. The Name by which this Church is named.

I. In the first place, let us consider the definition given by the Apostle Paul of the Christian Church, taken in its entirety. It is this" the whole family in heaven and earth." But, in order to understand this fully, it will be necessary for us to break it up into its different terms.

1. First of all, it is taught by this definition that the Church of Christ is a society founded upon natural affinities — a “family." A family is built on affinities which are natural, not artificial; it is not a combination, but a society. In ancient times an association of interest combined men in one guild or corporation for protecting the common persons in that corporation from oppression. In modern times identity of politi cal creed or opinion has bound men together in one league, in order to establish those political principles which appeared to them of importance. Similarity of taste has united men together in what is called an association or a society, in order, by this means, to

attain more completely the ends of that which they had devoted themselves. Bu have been raised artificially, so their end is, dissolution. Society passes on, and guilds rations die; principles are established, an become dissolved; tastes change, and then t tion or society breaks up, and comes to n is upon another principle altogether that t we call a family, or true society, is formed. built upon similarity of taste, nor identity o but upon affinities of nature. You do not c shall be your brother; you cannot excl mother or your sister; it does not dep choice or arbitrary opinion at all, but is foun the eternal nature of things. And precise same way is the Christian Church formed-u ral affinity, and not upon artificial combination family, the whole family in heaven and eart made up of those who call themselves bret of those who are brethren; not founded mer the principles of combination, but upon the p of affinity. That is not a church, or a fam society, which is made up by men's choice; a in the upper classes of life, men of fashio together, selecting their associates from the class, and from what is technically called a soc is a combination, if you will; but a society it a family it is not, a Church of Christ it can And, again, when the Baptists or the Independe any other sectarians, unite themselves with me ing the same faith and entertaining the same op there may be a sect, a combination, a persuasion. Church there cannot be. And so, again, when th

in time past, linked himself with the Jew, with those of the same nation, there you have what in ancient times was called Judaism, and in modern is called Hebraicism-a system, a combination, but not a Church. The Church rises ever out of the family. First of all, in the good providence of God, there is the family, then the tribe, then the nation; and then the nation merges itself into humanity. And the na tion which refuses to merge its nationality in Humanity, to lose itself in the general interests of mankind, is left behind, and loses almost its religious nationality, like the Jewish people.

Such is the first principle. A man is born of the same family, and is not made such by an appointment, or by arbitrary choice.

2. Another thing which is taught by this definition is this, that the Church of Christ is a whole, made up of manifold diversities. We are told here it is "the whole family," taking into it the great and good of ages past, now in heaven; and also the struggling, the humble, and the weak, now existing upon earth. Here, again, the analogy holds good between the Church and the family. Never more than in the family is the true entirety of our nature seen. Observe how all the di versities of human condition and character manifest themselves in the family. First of all, there are the two opposite poles of masculine and feminine, which contain within them the entire of our humanity-which together, not separately, make up the whole of man. Then there are the diversities in the degrees and kinds of affection. For, when we speak of family affection, we must remember that it is made up of many diver sities. There is nothing more different than the love

which the sister bears towards the brother with that which the brother bears towards The affection which a man bears towards h quite distinct from that which he feels to mother; it is something quite different to sister; totally diverse again towards his bro then there are diversities of character. Fir ture wisdom and stern integrity of the fat the exuberant tenderness of the mother. And is brave and enthusiastic, another thought other tender. One is remarkable for being f humor; another is sad, mournful, even m Again, besides these, there are diversities of in life. First, there is the heir, sustaining and honor of the family; then, perchance, th in whose career all the anxiety and solicitu family are centred; then the man of business, they look up, trusting his advice, expecting sel; lastly, perhaps, there is the invalid, from cradle trembling between life and death, drav all the sympathies and anxieties of each me the family, and so uniting them all more clos their having one common point of sympa solicitude. Now, you will observe that these accidental, but absolutely essential to the id family; for so far as any one of them is los the family is incomplete. A family made up sex alone, all brothers and no sisters, or in w are devoted to one pursuit, or in which ther diversity of temper and dispositions, - the same onous repeated identity, a sameness in the t character, this is not a family; it is only th ment of a family.