Nine-tenths, at least, of the church members never think of speaking for Christ. If they see a man, perhaps a near relative, going right down to ruin, going rapidly, they never think of speaking to him about his sinful course, and of seeking to win him to Christ.
Now certainly there must be something wrong, and yet when you talk with them, you find they have faith, and you can not say they are not children of God; but they have not the power, they have not the liberty, they have not the love that real disciples of Christ should have. A great many people are thinking that the church needs new measures, that it needs new buildings, that it needs new organs, that it needs new choirs, and all these new things. That is not what the church of God needs to-day. It is the old power that the Apostles had—that is what we want.—MOODY.
He has but one church; for the second Adam, like the first, is the husband of one wife. And just as the church cannot have two heads, neither can the head have two bodies; for, as that body were a monster which had more heads than one, not less monstrous were that form where one head was united to two separate bodies.
Of all these churches, then, each claiming to be cast in the true gospel mould,—that with consecrated bishops, this with simple presbyters, this other without either; that administering baptism to infants as well as adults, this only to adults; that robed in a ritual of many forms, this thinking that religion, like beauty, when unadorned, is adorned the most—which is Christ’s body, the Lamb’s wife? which are we to receive as the favorite of heaven? Of which does God say as he said of David among rival brethren, “Arise, anoint her, for this is she?” Of none of them. Christ has a church, but it is none of these.
In explanation of a remark which may surprise some, and is fitted to teach all of us humility and charity, I observe: that Christ’s body which is not identical with any one church, is formed of all true believers, to whatever denomination they may belong.—GUTHRIE.
