the edifying of the Church" (Rom. xv. 14; 1 Cor. xiv. 12.)

Every congregation is a division of God's army, by means of which the world is to be brought to Christ, and in that division there are many who, were they thus trained to exercise their gifts, would be most successful workers for Christ. There may be in our congregations most precious gems, which, if they were brought out and polished, would shine and adorn the Church in their day and generation. There may be hidden at present in our congregations, some Wesley, some Whitfield, some Moffat, some Moody, who are lost to the cause of Christ, because their pastors never trained them, and gave them no work to do; so that when the question shall be put to them at the great day, Why stood ye there all the day idle? they will be able to reply, "Because no man hired us."

In no way can a minister get a better knowledge of the gifts and graces of the members of his flock, than by these open meetings. They would also give him an opportunity of encouraging and stimulating the members in their meetings, giving them an opportunity of having their difficulties solved which had come up in the course of their Bible reading, and which may have been reserved for his opinion.

Were our congregations trained in this manner, every member would be an embryo Church in himself, and wherever he went, he would carry a living Christianity along with him. At sea, on land, as merchants, as tourists, as colonists, as soldiers, as sailors, they would be living members of Christ; and if on fire themselves, they would set on fire all with whom they came in contact. Whereas when the members of a congregation are trained and accustomed to do nothing but sit and listen, and sometimes to sleep, they are incapable of being of any use in

whatever circumstances they may be placed. When they get married, they have no ability to conduct family worship, when they go to the country they are not able to evangelise, and when they go abroad, or remove with their families to some colony, where Popery or heathenism reigns, they have no ability to speak or work, they themselves turn cold and careless, while their children grow up in the religion or the no religion which surrounds them.

The fellowship meetings are the reproductive organs of the Church, and when these are suppressed or allowed to die, its propagative power is gone. Colonial committees are very useful in sending our people's religion after them, but they can never make up for lost opportunities. It would be more economical to send their religion with them.

This leads us to notice another way in which the parochial system is unfavourable to the growth and extension of the Church. It is an artificially constructed piece of mechanism put together by the state. It has not grown, it has been made. The consequence is that being incapable of growth, every increase or addition must come spasmodically from without, not naturally from within. To create a new congregation, the parochial system requires a building and an endowment to begin with, and if the money is not forthcoming there can be no church. In thinly populated districts which cannot support an ordained minister, the present system is altogether powerless, and normal Christianity cannot exist.

How very different was the synagogue system upon which the Christian Church was founded. The synagogues were not made, they grew. It was not the rulers first and then the congregation, but the congregation first and then the rulers. So in the Church of Christ, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them," said Jesus; and wherever He is, there

is a Church, He the head, and they the members, with all the blessings of the new covenant. Though there should never be an increase of their number, it would be as truly a church as the largest congregation in Christendom.

That was the way in which synagogues grew and multiplied, that was the way in which Christian congregations grew and multiplied in apostolic times, and that is the way in which Christianity will yet spread over the whole world. There is not a spot on earth so thinly peopled but that there a healthy and vigorous Church may be basking under the sunshine of a Saviour's love.

Christianity has a self-organising power equal to that of any tribe on earth. Throw a hundred or two of AngloSaxons upon a foreign shore, and within a week they will have elected a council and chosen a president. So it would be with living Christians; if a little company of them were in circumstances that separated them from the community of Christ's people, they would instinctively form themselves into a church, and appoint a pastorate over them, without troubling themselves about apostolic succession.

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CHAPTER XIII.

FELLOWSHIP MEETINGS A CHRISTIAN INSTINCT.

T is a remarkable circumstance, and yet one that might have been expected, that whenever a revival of spiritual life takes place in any locality, the spiritual instincts of God's children induce them to hold fellowship meetings among themselves for prayer and the study of the Bible. Not that they have any idea that this was the original form of Christian worship, or that it is commanded in Scripture; on the contrary, the traditions of sixteen centuries have engrained it in their minds that the only ordinance which God has appointed is attendance on public worship on the Lord's day, conducted by a minister. The fellowship meetings therefore are regarded as spiritual luxuries of their own invention, which they may attend or not attend according to their inclination. They would shrink with horror from the idea of giving up attendance on public worship which is man's ordinance, while they live in habitual disregard of God's ordinance, by forsaking the assembling of themselves together for the purpose of exhorting one another.

There are three reasons why it is difficult to keep up fellowship meetings consistently with the present arrangements of the Church. The first is that they are always held on a week night, never on the Sabbath day, the purpose of which is to prevent them from having even the appearance

of taking the place of public worship. The consequence is, that having to compete with worldly arrangements, few can conveniently attend; whereas were they held on the Lord's day when business is laid aside, it would be convenient for all to attend. The second reason is that public worship having taken the place of Christ's ordinance of the fellowship meetings, Christians feel under no obligation to observe it. When they have attended public worship they feel as if they had exhausted their duty for the day. The third reason is, that it requires spiritual life either to engage in it or enjoy it. When the Church stands most in need of it, therefore, that is the time when it is most likely to be given up. "Exhort one another daily, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

We have another proof that Christian fellowship is a Christian instinct, in the constitution and practice of the Wesleyan Church. John and Charles Wesley were devoted Churchmen, and thoroughly believed in the temple theory and the priestly standing of the clergy. But they instinctively perceived that there was a want in the apostolic system, and that Christian fellowship was indispensable to spiritual life. They therefore ordained that besides attending public worship, the members of the Church should meet during the week in classes under a class leader. In other words they re-invented the kat oikon churches to supplement the meeting of the whole Church in one place. The class meetings are like, and yet they are unlike the kat oikon churches. They are like, because the public are excluded, and they have thus a real separation from the world. They are also like, because they are open meetings, and all take part. But they are also unlike, because they are not held on the Lord's day and because instead of meeting for worship, and the study

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