a common Lord over all and were all
members of the same family. Thus, whenever the high tide of evangelism
comes in, the landmarks of sects are scarcely visible; but whenever
the tide goes out, behold, _the ancient boundaries of sects appear as
before_. This fact proves that there are no fundamental reasons why
sects should exist. It proves that in reality sects are a barrier
to the true work of Christ; hence are, in their essential nature,
antichristian. What, then, is the real cause of sects'?

Traced to the original source, modern sects, we find, originated where
the papacy originated--in the corruption of Christianity in the early
centuries. All came from the same roots of error.

[Sidenote: True causes of sects]

However modified and diversified in external form and in doctrinal
teaching they may now be, they exhibit in their ecclesiastical
constitutions a foreign character derived from the foreign stock from
which they sprang. Into this system there have been engrafted many
noble scions of truth from the "good olive-tree," and these have
produced commendable fruits of righteousness. But we are here
concerned with pointing out those fundamental characteristics of the
system that are foreign to the true church of Jesus Christ.

[Sidenote: Erroneous ideas of the church]

The first cause to which I call attention is an erroneous conception
of the church itself. At the cost of some repetition I must point
out that in the beginning the church was the universal company of the
redeemed, the whole _spiritual brotherhood_, whether isolated members
of Christ or those worshiping in local assemblies distributed over the
earth. The tie which united these members of Christ in one body
was their common faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and the life of the
Spirit. But as in those times vast centralized imperial power was
a divinity that every one worshiped, it was impossible properly to
appreciate _the moral and spiritual dominion_ of Christ by which
alone he designed to rule his church; therefore men soon proceeded to
pattern the church of Christ after the political government, first
by grouping together under one administrative human headship the
congregations of a province or section of the empire, and then finally
uniting these different provinces under one administrative headship
at Rome. From that day until the present time the church-idea that has
generally prevailed in Christendom has been an organization fashioned
acco