t be
taken up by them to be turned into a guild of 'church workers,' useful
for purposes of parochial organization.

One of the most striking facts about the Brotherhood in the States is
that, while the church spirit is unmistakable--as no one who was
present at the corporate Communion of 1,300 delegates in October of
this year at half-past six in the morning in a great church at Buffalo
could possibly doubt--it has successfully avoided becoming either a
party society or a society rent by factions.

It is because I believe the witness of this Brotherhood to the true
church spirit has already proved invaluable that I venture to dedicate
this little exposition of the great book of brotherhood--though without
leave granted or asked--to its founder and president.

{267}

NOTE E. See pp. 164, 166.

THE CONCEPTION OF THE CHURCH (CATHOLIC) IN ST. PAUL IN ITS RELATION TO
LOCAL CHURCHES.

By far the most frequent use of the word 'church' or 'churches' in the
New Testament is to designate a local society of Christians or a number
of such societies taken together, 'the church at Jerusalem,' 'the
church at Antioch,' 'the churches of Galatia,' 'the seven churches
which are in Asia,' 'all the churches.' But it is used also for the
church as a whole. In fact, before Christ's coming the word in the
Greek of the Old Testament had passed from meaning an assembly of the
people, as in classical Greek, to meaning the sacred people as a
whole[1], as St. Stephen uses it in his speech 'The church in the
wilderness' (Acts vii. 38). And it is exactly in this sense that it is
used by our Lord in St. Matthew, xvi. 18. 'The church' which our Lord
there promises to 'build' is the Church of the New Covenant as a whole.
We might paraphrase His words (as Dr. Hort suggests[2]) 'on this rock I
will build my Israel.' Thus there is throughout the Acts and St.
Paul's earlier epistles, a tendency to pass from the use of 'church' as
a local society to its use as designating the whole body of the
faithful. This was but natural seeing that each local society did but
represent the one divine society, the church of the Old Covenant,
refounded by Christ. See Acts ix. 31: 'The church throughout all
Judaea and Galilee and Samaria.' {268} xii. 1: 'Herod the king put
forth his hands to afflict certain of the church.' xx. 28: 'The church
of God which he purchased with his own blood.' Gal. i. 13: 'I
persecuted the church of God.' 1 Cor. xii. 28