In now entering on the subject-matter of my text, I remark

I. That Christ's body is his church.

One to examine, but not to dissect, while all other bodies shall die, this is deathless. "Because I live," says our Lord, "ye shall live also." Paradox as it sounds, this body is ever changing, yet unchangeable : different and the same; an undying whole formed of dying parts. Strange! yet not more strange than many things in nature. You are not the same person, for example, who, worshipped here twelve months ago. In name, in form, in features the same, in substance you are entirely different. Like Michael and Satan, who contended for the body of Moses, life and death have been contending for yours; death attacking, life defending; so that, the former constantly repairing what the latter is constantly destroying, the corporeal forms which we animate and inhabit, are undergoing such rapid as well as perpetual change, that a period much shorter than seven years renews our whole system. Life is just a long siege; and, though death triumph in the end, looking at the many years over which the struggle is protracted, surely we are fearfully and wonderfully preserved as well as made. But take another, and more familiar illustration. Look at a river. The exile returns to the haunts of his early years, and there, emblem of the peace of God, the river flows as it flowed when his life was young. Tumbling in snowy foam over the same rock, winding its snake-like way through the same verdant meadows, washing the feet of the same everlasting hills, it rushes through the glen with the impetuous passions of a perpetual youth, to pursue its course onward to the ocean that lies gleam

ing like a silver rim around the land. A gray old man, he seats himself on the bank where wild roses still shed their blossoms on a bed of thyme, and the crystal pool at his feet, these waters foaming round the old gray stone, that bright dancing stream, as they recall many touching memories of happy childhood and companions dead or gone, seem the same. Yet they are not. The liquid atoms, the component parts of the river, have been undergoing perpetual change. Even so it is with the church of Christ. The stream of time bears on to eternity, and the stream of grace bears on to glory, successive generations, while the church herself, like a river fed by perennial fountains, remains unchangeable in Christ's immutability, in his immortality immortal.

These figures, however, fail in one important point. That river is one. The body is one. Unfortunately, the churches are many, split into such numerous, and, in not a few instances, such senseless divisions, that I know nothing better fitted to make a man recoil from the spirit of sectarianism than to see, drawn out to its full length, the long, wondrous, weary roll of the various sects that exist in Christendom. Fancy all these urging their claims on a newly-converted heathen! What a Babel of tongues! With what perplexity might he ask, amid so many contending factions, Which is the true church and body of Christ? Let us see.

Seven sons of Jesse are summoned into Samuel's presence. Goodly men, they stand before him, candidates for the crown of Israel. But they cannot all be kings; and which of them is to be the Lord's anointed? One after another, all the seven are rejected. Amazed at the result, the prophet turns to their father, saying, "Are here all thy children?" and on being told,

"There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep," he says, "Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither." A messenger goes. By-and-by, feet are heard at the door; it opens; and, little dreaming of the honors that await him, David, who had left his harp, and pipe, and playful lambs, on the hills of Bethlehem, enters-modesty, and manliness, and beauty in that countenance which was "goodly to look to." While the old man eyes the lad, as he stands reverently before him, a voice not caught by Jesse's ear, but heard by Samuel's, says, "Arise, anoint him, for this is he."

Now, suppose that the different churches, like these sons of Jesse, stood before us. Whatever may be made of their claims, each cannot be Christ's true body. 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

II. That Christ's body, which is not identical with any one church, is formed of all true believers, to whatever denomination they may belong.

It is natural for men to be partial to their own sect. Nor do I quarrel with the feeling, if, looking kindly on others, you are ready to extend the hand of fellowship to all that love the Lord Jesus Christ. Mothers are prone to think their own children lovelier than their neighbors'; and nothing is more natural than that we should say of our own denomination, Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. That is no breach of Christian charity. But to foster a spirit of sectarianism, and thus sin against Christ's spirit, is an offence as great as to sin against his truth. In some respects, indeed, I think bigotry is worse than heresy; and more hateful in God's sight than error, is the haughty churchism or exclusive self-righteous pride which say to others, "Stand by thyself; come not near me; for I am holier than thou."

"The king's daughter is all glorious within ;" but where on earth is the church which will stand that test? Where is the church that, among other points of resemblance to the ark, has not the unclean as well as clean within its walls, raven and dove, leopard and kid, the cruel lion with the gentle lamb? Are not events ever and anon occurring to remind us of the two birds. Noah sent forth on a voyage of discovery? Like this snow-white dove on weary wing returning to the ark, there are souls that can find no rest in sin or in the world, or anywhere away from God; happy souls! but, alas, there are others, also tenants of the ark, like yonder foul raven, that croaks and flaps his wings above cor

ruption, and riots on the carcasses of the dead. Such characters as the last are found in the purest churches; spots on the sun, dead flies among the ointment. Surely it behoves us to see that we are not of their number. For, oh! these are sad and solemn words, Many are called, but few are chosen. And, happier than Christ, happier than Paul, that pastor must have a small and select flock whose members cost him no anxiety, neither fears nor the tears of him who said, Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

By these remarks I would not disparage outward ordinances and forms. They are valuable in their own place and for their own purposes; frames, as they are, to set the picture in; caskets for truth's jewels; dead poles, no doubt, yet useful to support living plants, and very beautiful when the bare stem is festooned with green leaves, and crowned with a head of flowers. The church of Christ, however, is not to be identified with this or that other form either of government or worship. She embraces the good of all denominations, and rejects the bad, from whatever hands they have received the rite of baptism, to whatever communion they may belong, however pure their creed, or scriptural their form of worship. "The just shall live by faith," by nothing else. He belongs therefore to the true church who believes; and he who believes not, to whatever church he may belong, has "neither part nor lot in this matter." "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." God help us to lay that truth to