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CHAPTER II.
THE GRADUAL FORMATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
In the earliest times of Christianity there were no regular systems of doctrine, to bind men together. The truths of natural Religion, the special forms of Judaism, and a somewhat indefinite belief in Jesus, were the cardinal points and essentials of Christianity. The public religious service seems perfectly free. Where the spirit of the Lord was, there was liberty. No one controlled another's freedom. The much vaunted “form of sound words” was notoriously different with different teachers. Paul, who came late to Christianity, boasts that he received his doctrine straightway from God, not from those “who were apostles before him,” whom he seems to hold in small esteem. The decision of the council at Jerusalem, even if it ever took place, did not bind him. The practical side of Christianity was developed more than the theoretical. The effect of the truth proclaimed with freedom, was soon manifest; for the errors and superstition still clinging to the mind of the apostles could not chain mankind. Love increased; Christianity bore fruit; the Church spread wide its arms. It emancipated men from the yokes of the ancient sacerdotal class; but there was a fierce struggle in the new congregations before the Jewish forms could be given up. The Christians were “a royal priesthood;” all were “kings and priests,” appointed to offer a “spiritual sacrifice.” The apostles who had seen Jesus, or understood his doctrine, naturally took the lead of men they sought to instruct. As the number of Christians enlarged, some organization was needed for practical purposes. The pattern was taken from the Jewish Synagogue, which claimed no divine authority; not from the Temple, whose officers made such a claim. Hence there were elders and deacons.
