erform the work of Christ
harmoniously and present to the world the grand spectacle of one body.

[Sidenote: First steps to ecclesiasticism]

Jesus taught the humble equality of the New Testament ministry. "All
ye are brethren" (Matt. 23:8). According to the New Testament they
were all of one general order or rank, although greatly diversified
in gifts and qualifications and the kind of work accomplished by each.
The first example we have in Scripture of _positional authority_ in
the ministry as distinguished from the authority of the Holy Spirit,
is the case of Diotrephes, of whom the apostle John wrote in his
third epistle. We are also informed as to the nature of the authority
exercised by him and the direction in which it led. It was _human
authority_, something additional and foreign to the authority and
government through the Holy Spirit, and the first example of church
government by a single man. It proceeded from the evil root of pride
and ambition, the love of "preeminence" among the brethren; and
this usurped power and authority led to a judicial process by which
innocent brethren were 'cast out of the church.'

What a contrast this presents to that New Testament picture of the
divine ecclesia, exhibiting the highest form of human society known
to history, a body in which every member had his gift and use for it.
Among these many activities, oversight and preaching had their place,
but did not constitute the whole sum of Christian service. Paul
describes Christ as the living head "from whom the whole body fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the _effectual working in the measure of every part_,
maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph.
4:16). The object of the ministerial function was "the perfecting of
the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the
body of Christ" (verse 12, R.V.).

In his early epistle to the Philippians, Paul makes reference to
the officers that guided that church. He sends greetings "to all the
saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and
deacons" (Phil. 1:1). Polycarp, writing to the same church in the
next century, addresses the "presbyters and deacons," showing that the
apostolic order was still preserved there.

[Sidenote: Bishops vs. Presbyters]

In the Ignatian epistles, however, written early in the second
century, there appears positional authority of a