Church polity...

Index

Page.

PREFACE 7

CHAPTER I— Preliminary Survey 9 II— The Apostolic Office 19

" III— The Evangelistic Office 35

IV— The Pastoral Office 48

" . V~The Deacon's Office 65

" VI— Woman's Work 71

" VII— The Rule of Discipline 92

" VIII— Church Discipline 102

IX— The Rights of the Congregation 131

X— Appeals 140

XI— Trials 151

44 XII— Practical Unity 165

APPENDIX 179

Preface

Though ' 'of making of books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh," while man's personal and social needs create the demand, books will be made, and the flesh cannot grow weary in a worthier effort than that which supplies such demand. As material progress awakens inventive genius to apply natural forces to practical purposes, so spiritual progress stimulates the rational powers to use moral forces with wise economy and the greatest effect.

The following pages contain the results of reading, reflecting, writing and experience that run through more than thirty years of public life. At the earnest solicitation of many persons of different religious bodies, they are put into permanent form, in the hope that a wider circulation may increase their usefulness, and coming generations may gather fruit from these years of toil.

The author claims some special fitness for his task, but wishes his work to stand exclusively on its merits as a scriptural presentation of a timely topic of much practical, if not vital, importance.

The aim has been to be accurate in thought, clear in statement, and comprehensive in treatment of the subject in hand, without tediousness in detail or attempt at exhaustiveness of materials in reach. There is no pretense of originality in ideas, or language in which they are expressed. Sometimes authorities are cited and their language is copied without specific credit being given or usual quotation marks being used, that the manifestation of the truth may commend itself to every man's conscience in the sight of God without prejudice.

But the author here gratefully acknowledges his indebt-

PREFACE.

edness to the publications of A. Campbell, R. Milligan, B. C. Deweese, and others whose books and essays have been read with pleasure and profit.

Especial recognition of valuable assistance is due to M. P. Hayden, who has been deeply interested in the work from its beginning, and who is the author of the chapters on Church Discipline and Woman's Work.

This work is in no sense a creed nor a book of discipline for any religious body. While the author knows no reason in scripture or common sense against the adoption of forms in the administration of church government, this treatise on Church Polity was not written with any expectation of adoption for such purpose, and, if it were, it could not be fairly regarded as a form of discipline until it is adopted by congregations affiliated in a general body. It is given to the public in the hope that it will meet a felt want and do good in the better ordering of the churches of Christ according to the teachings of the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, in correcting irregularities that have hurt the cause of righteousness and impaired the usefulness of congregations, and in helping to unify the movements of the mighty army of the redeemed marching under the Captain of our salvation to the conquest of the world and the bringing of many sons to glory.

Church Polity.

CHAPTER I.

Preliminary Survey.

The trend of religious thought toward the reunion of Christendom on a thoroughly scriptural basis brings into prominence all questions that have relation to this end.

Subjects that have been considered from peculiarly denominational standpoints, and that present barriers to Christian unity, demand reconsideration in the light of advanced intelligence, with a view to satisfactory adjustment.

As in observing the motions of the planets from the earth, confusion and retrogression in movement are sometimes apparent because of the moving earth and its distance from the center of the solar system, which is the true point of observation — so there is seeming conflict in systems that are seen from varying distances from the central orb of truth, that vitalizes and controls the whole sweeping circle of divine revelation. The Christo-concentric view of Christianity is now generally accepted as the true view that harmonizes all parts of the inspired volume, revealing the lesser orbs of truth in right relation to a common center.

The rays of Christian principle radiate from the person of Christ, who gives them power over mind, heart and conscience. All duty may be traced in direct line to Jesus. Methods are incidental and subject to modification by consecrated wisdom and varying social conditions and environments.

Any method stamped with divine approval must always be regarded as the best. In the absence of such approval,

IO

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the most effective way to accomplish a required duty should be sought, and, when found, adopted. Where Christ has left men free, they should stand fast in their liberty, only using it not for an occasion of strife and division, but by love serving one another. (Gal. v: 15.) The initial point of investigation is clear-cut definition. This is the more important when the line of inquiry leads directly into conflicting theories, over petrified usages, through mountains of prejudice, and across marshes of ignorance.

In strictness, there is no church government, since the church has no legislative authority, and no right to enforce its own will upon Christ's freemen. Judicial authority, within certain limits, and executive power are given to chosen representatives of the body of Christ to apply the law of His kingdom and to enforce the will of the King throughout His earthly realm.

Church polity rests upon the authority of Christ, and is the application of His law in the organization and regulation of His kingdom among men. Its form is monarchical. To accept Hooker's dictum: " It is not possible that any form of polity, much less polity ecclesiastical, should be good unless God Himself be the author of it. ' '

Blackstone says: "All authority among men is either usurped or derived." Usurpation leads to tyranny. It is always dangerous to human rights, and especially so in the church, which should be the conservator of highest freedom. Soul-liberty consists in the absence of all restraint, except as God binds it with moral and religious obligation.

Rightful authority is derived from the only source of all authority, through lawful channel. Without such provision for its communication, just government cannot exist.

Public law is a rule of conduct prescribed by the supreme authority. But no law executes itself. What are called laws of nature are the generalizations of the Creator's uniform mode of action in the physical universe. There must be intelligence clothed with executive power in order to have efficiency in maintaining social order.

In the Christian institution there is but one King, I^ord and lawgiver — Jesus the Messiah. "He is the maker and

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monarch of all." He alone reigns over His church. He is invested with all authority in heaven and on earth. His government on earth is not in person or by proxy. He wears a crown in heaven, and His kingdom, in its true, divine and ancient character, throws its arms around every one in every place that calls upon the name of the Lord out of a pure heart and holds him directly responsible to the Head and Monarch of all. Though a spiritual kingdom, not of this world, it is not a mob, nor a fierce, lawless democracy, led by every aspirant and demagogue who has some by-ends and selfish impulses urging him forward in the career of personal honor, fortune or aggrandizement. The sovereign Lord and exalted King has need of laws, officers and organization through which to send forth His sanctifying spirit and power into this world. A book is not sufficient to govern the church. No book ever governed any community — not even the book of the law, or the book of the Gospel ; else Moses would have resigned when he wrote the law, and would never have laid his hands upon Joshua; else Jesus would never have sent out apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers of the New Testament, when He had been crowned King, and sovereign executive His will. After the New Testament had been written, Paul would not have commanded Timothy or Titus to reprove, to rebuke, or to commit to faithful and competent persons the office of instructing and building up the church. Nor would he have commanded the community to know them that were over them in the Lord, and who admonished them, and to esteem them very highly in love for the sake of their work, i. e. , their office, and to submit themselves, and to obey them as those who watched for their souls.

There are two principles of ecclesiastical organization that result in systems that are of elementary and essentially diverse attributes and tendencies. These are absolutism and individualism: the one is based upon dogmatic authority, and tends to concentration and tyranny; the other repudiates all authority in religion, and tends to disruption, anarchy and ruin. A spiritual despotism is the direct tendency of the one, and an uncontrollable spiritual libertinism and licentious liberalism is the certain onward progress of the other. In the

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first ages of Christianity, the authority system issued in absolute Popery from accumulated abuses and corruptions; in later times the no-authority system uniformly terminates in the dissolution of society, and finds its quietus in pure Pharisaical independency, in which organization and discipline are greatly defective, and which is, therefore, essentially inadequate to the present condition and wants of society.

Whenever individuals unite for any purpose whatever, commercial, industrial, political, social, educational, benevolent or religious, there must be some kind of organization and government. There must be some basis of operation and co-operation, official superintendency and administration, and co-operation in execution, in order to the accomplishment of the object sought. Those who associate together for the promotion of a common interest must be organized into one body, with a head to plan and direct, and with hands and feet to execute or carry on the work to be done. No society can permanently exist without government; some persons must be placed in authority to guide and control, and the rest must submit to their authority, follow their guidance, and work under their direction. So that where there is society there must be government; where there is government there must be law; where there is law there must be penalty for its violation; when the law is violated and the penalty incurred, the law must be enforced and the penalty inflicted; otherwise the law cannot be enforced, the government cannot be maintained, and society cannot be preserved and protected. These are fundamental and well-established principles of government, and constitute the basis of all forms of government, parental, political, scholastical and ecclesiastical. They are true, also, of all organized industries and co-operative enterprises among men, as mills, factories, railroads and moral and benevolent societies. In all these, there must be organization, government, administration, co-operation.

Jesus Christ has established a kingdom upon earth. This kingdom is also called a church, an ecdesia. This ecclesia consists cf persons called out from the world to be disciples or subjects of Christ. For mutual helpfulness, and for the

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spread of the Gospel at home and abroad, it is necessary for Christ's followers to unite together in some organization and under some form of government. What shall this organization be ? What shall be the form of government for Christians ? Has the Lord Jesus Christ established a system of organization and government, or are Christians at liberty to make their own arrangements and adopt their own form of government ? What saith the scriptures ?

The scriptures clearly establish the following propositions:

(1.) Jesus Christ is King of His kingdom and Head of His church. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He is Lord and Christ, the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; He is the Head of the church, which is His body; He is the Chief, the great Shepherd and Bishop of the souls of His followers.

(2.) Jesus Christ has established laws for the government of His kingdom or church. He is our Prophet or Lawgiver; we are commanded to hear Him; we are under law to Christ, and it is our duty to observe whatever He has commanded.

(3-) Jesus Christ has appointed officers for the regulation and administration of the affairs and interests of His church or kingdom. ' 'And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues." "And he gave some to be apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers." Comparing these two passages, we have the following order: 1st, apostles; 2d, prophets; 3d, evangelists; 4th, pastors and teachers. Hence, under Christ, the apostles stand first among the officers of His kingdom.

(4.) The apostles are Christ's representatives or ambassadors, chosen, instructed, sent forth by Him, and inspired by the Holy Spirit to represent Christ's authority upon earth, and establish His kingdom in the world.

Thus the apostles of Christ, as His master builders or architects, established the foundation of Christ's church or

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kingdom, and others are to build upon this foundation according to their instructions.

(5.) The system of church organization and administration established by the apostles of Christ for the government and regulation of Christ's disciples is binding on the church to the end of time. Where the apostles bind us, we are bound to observe their directions; where they have left us free, we are free to make our own arrangements according to the law of expediency. (Matt. xxviii:i8, 20; I Tim. vi:i5; Eph. i:2o-23; I Peter v 14; I Cor. xii:28; Kph. iv:n; Johnxv:i6; Luke xxii:2Q, 30; Matt. xviii:i8; John xiii:20.)

At first, the entire government of the church was in the apostles, and their personal supervision continued while they lived. They made provision, however, for a continual personal supervision of the affairs of the church after their departure. The government of the church is still under the rule and guidance of the apostles, as their directions are embodied in the teaching of the New Testament, and the affairs of the church are now to be managed in harmony with their instructions.

The commission of Jesus to His apostles is the vital ?iexus between the crowned Head on high and His body on earth.

From it came the established church and the completed revelation of Christ; the inspired record of the life, teaching, miracles, atonement, resurrection and coronation of our Lord, and all needful truth into which the chosen apostles were guided by the Holy Spirit. This record is the New Testament, the sole statute book of Christ's kingdom.

The commission presents two phases of Christianity, viz.:. the evangelical and the ecclesiastical. The former includes the making of disciples and bringing them into personal and vital union with the divine life in Christ. Preaching is the divinely appointed means of salvation. (I Cor. 1:21.) The latter embraces everything necessary to the observance of all things commanded by Christ in order to the perfection of His people and the usefulness of His church. ;

The apostolic college was founded by the Lord Himself, and consisted of men chosen from among His own personal converts, who were sent out into all the world to convert all

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i5 nations. It furnishes a grand model for the church in all ages in its aggressive and superintending character. This model contains a congregational, a presby terial and an episcopal element — congregational, in that the congregation, en masse, has a voice in electing its own officers, in receiving and excluding members, and in deciding questions of prudential management; presby terial, in that the congregation is required to submit to the elders of its own choice, when they are approved as scripturally worthy; and episcopal, in that there is enjoined a care of all the churches by an official superintendence of competent evangelists. It is methodical, but not methodistical, in the wise combination of all those elements which are the essential characteristics of efficient administration under any form of church polity.

Since the Christian Church is not a Christian church, but comprehends all congregations of Christians, contemplated as one great, universal community or kingdom, the co-operation of churches in districts, states and nations is essential to the highest triumphs of the church of God in its grand mission on earth. Competition between denominations should be superseded by co-operation of Christian congregations serving the same I^ord, filled with the same spirit, and obeying the law of Christ.

Christians are placed under a Christocracy. The rights of God and rights of man are safety lodged in the hands of our King, who is the peer of the eternal God and the peer of glorified man. His spiritual kingdom is the church. He is head over all things for its sake. He claims only the regenerated, sanctified and redeemed sons of men as His holy nation. They are spread over all nations but united in one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one hope, one church. No social system can perpetuate itself, extend its influence, or make its means and instrumentalities available, without a confederative organization. There is always need for government and discipline in the church of Christ. These are indispensable to good order and usefulness.

Government, in its elementary principles, is the same in heaven and earth, in church and state, and under all forms.

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There may be abuses of authority and errors in administration, to which all institutions are liable. But abuse should not annihilate right use, nor vitiate and annul a divine institution, or even a human one that is indispensable to the existence and welfare of any society.

The church in a city, state, an empire, or a world of fallen humanity, must have an organization that has the pow T er of abstracting from the mass of mankind materials to promote its healthful growth as a community. This power consists mainly in such an organization as brings to bear upon that community its whole moral and spiritual force.

Therefore, counsel, conjoint purpose, and concerted action, in their aggregate mass of influence, are the first grand instrumentalities to accomplish this end. This requires statistical knowledge, joint consultation, co-operation by executive boards, stated meetings for deliberation, and special meetings on occasion to meet emergencies.

These are the elements of a polity that conforms itself to the genius of human nature and to all conditions of human society, as developed in the Christian scriptures. The right of suffrage is the foundation of all freedom, both political and religious. Salvation itself is attainable only in virtue of this right. A man votes for or against Christ, as he chooses. * No man is compelled to go to heaven or hell. In religion, everything must be voluntary. But when a man confesses Christ as his personal sovereign, he is obligated to obey His laws and to respect the equal rights of Christ's freemen throughout His kingdom. This obligation draws men into local assemblies for worship, sendee and fellowship.

G. A. Jacobs, D. D., in his admirable work, "The Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament," gives a clear survey of the subject in his first chapter. A few paragraphs are here transcribed:

' 1 Jesus Himself commenced His kingdom, and those who attached themselves to Him became its citizens. Jesus Himself made known the great moral principles which were to regulate His subjects.

1 ' But the church was not begun until after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost,

and it was never mentioned, except prospectively, before that time. Men could be admitted into the kingdom of Christ as soon as they were willing to submit to His authority, and to conform to the life which He lived and taught; but they could not be formed into a church until they believed in Him as the Son of God, the Saviour of those who received Him by the justifying righteousness of His life and the atoning sacrifice of His death, and the imparter of the Holy Spirit, and the future judge of man; and this could not be until after His work . on earth was done, and He had risen again and ascended into heaven.

"The apostles, therefore, were the founders of the Christian church. They were its divinely appointed and infallible teachers and legislators. They were its supreme authorities on earth to declare its doctrines, and to prescribe its form and polity, to admit into it and exclude from it, to bind and to loose, to remit and to retain sins. They were, in short, to organize the church as a regular society, possessed of a definite character, with its own especial rights, privileges and objects. They were to rule in it as long as they lived, and it rested with them to leave such instructions for its future guidance as they might consider necessary for its continuance and welfare as a permanent institution in the world.

1 ' To qualify them for this high office and important work, the apostles received a divine authority and power from the

commission of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

' ' The church of the apostolic period is the only church in which there is found an authority justly claiming the acknowledgment of Christian bodies in other times. And such authority is found in this church, not because it was possessed of a truer catholicity, or a purer constitution, or a more primitive antiquity than belong to succeeding ages, for neither antiquity, nor purity of form, nor catholicity confers right to govern or command ; but because it was under the immediate rule and guidance of the apostles, and it is their infallible judgment alone, as exhibited in this church, which has a legitimate claim to our submission.

"Notwithstanding the still generally acknowledged sui8

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premacy of Holy Scripture, the main current of church opinion on all questions of polity and practice, to say nothing of doctrines, has for a very considerable time been setting strongly towards the ecclesiastical system of the third and fourth centuries, to the neglect, in this respect, of the New Testament; and many are carried quietly along with the tide, knowing little or nothing of the shore to which it is wafting them.

"It is very unwise, unapostolic and un- Christian to bind fast what the apostles unbound, and for one church to condemn another for differences of judgment in such questions. The authority to which alone we should appeal is that of the Divine Head of the whole church, as it may be gathered from the words and actions of His inspired apostles. The one safe and legitimate course in all our church reforms is to go to the New Testament as our guide.

"The valuable remark of Richard Hooker is a necessary caution. He says: 'The superstition that rises voluntarily and by degrees which are hardly discerned, mingling itself with the rites even of every divine service done to the only true God, must be considered as a creeping and encroaching evil, an evil the first beginnings whereof are commonly harmless, so that it proves only then to be an evil when some further accident doth grow unto it, or itself come unto further growth.'

1 'The essential characteristics of the early Christian community are personal, spiritual liberty in Christ and a social equality in the church. The whole polity of the apostolic times was adapted to these conditions, and grew out of them as a natural organism of the common Christian life. ' '

A practical treatise on the subject will cover all its bearings on the propagation of the Gospel, the planting of churches, the good order and co-operation of congregations, and the wise combination of evangelical forces in resisting the assaults of all forms of opposition from the enemies of Christ.

The following chapters will treat the several branches of this important theme under appropriate heads.

THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE.

GHAPTER II.

Thk Apostolic Office.

In the historical development of Christianity, the apostleship is next to the life, teaching, miracles, sacrificial atonement, and victorious resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

This is the complement of the ministry among men of our Lord, and is essential to complete that which He began to do and to teach. Jesus instituted the apostolic office with special care, and buttressed it with His own personal choice and education of the men to fill it on the one side, and with the special endowment of the Holy Spirit on the other.

This office is the sole means of bringing the incarnate life and the death of the Son of God into contact with individual minds, hearts and consciences from the day of His ascension down to the remotest ages, even to the end of time.

Through Jesus in person, those chosen for this office ' ' received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith among all nations for his name. ' ' (Rom. i:5, xvi:26. )

These persons thus chosen and specialty endowed were ambassadors for Christ, to whom was given the ministry of reconciliation. (II Cor. v:i8, 20.)

They were invested with plenary authority to transact business in this world for the King in the heavens, in the inauguration of His kingdom on earth and the establishment of it, so that it might be an everlasting kingdom, break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms, and by peaceful conquest work its way to universal dominion.

From its nature and position, this office is extraordinary, of highest rank and dignity, giving authority and unity to the appointments of Christ's kingdom on earth. A clear conception of it lies at the foundation of a correct understanding of the Gospel, the church and its polity.

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The first inquiry is as to the persons of the apostleship. Who are eligible to the apostolic office ?

The word "apostle" means one sent, a missionary. It is used in the scriptures in speaking of Christ sent by His Father, of those sent by Jesus, and of those sent by the church. (Heb. iii:i; Matt. x:2; Actsxiv:4, 14; Phil, ii : 2 5 . ) But when applied to the apostolic office, it is limited to those sent by Christ in person, and during His life included only twelve disciples. The names of the twelve apostles are mentioned in four lists. (Matt. x:2-4; Mark iii: 13- 19; Luke vi:i3-i6; Acts i: 13.)

One of these by transgression fell, and another was chosen ' ' to take part of this ministry and apostleship ' ' from which Judas fell, and was numbered with the eleven. He was Spirit-filled and acted with the eleven on the day of Pentecost, thus keeping the original number full. (Acts i:26 and ii:i 4 .)

Later, Paul was chosen by a personal appearance of Jesus, and became in a peculiar sense the apostle of the Gentiles. (Acts ix:i5, xxvi:i6-i8; Rom. xi:i3.)

These thirteen men are all that Jesus chose and put into the apostolic office.

Conybeare and Howson truly say: "They were appointed by Christ Himself with absolute power to govern His church; to them He had given the keys of the kingdom of heaven with authority to admit or to exclude; they were also guided by His perpetual inspiration, so that all their moral and religious teaching was absolutely and infallibly true; they were empowered by their solemn denunciations of evil and their inspired judgments on all moral questions to bind and to loose, to remit and to retain, the sins of men. This was the essential peculiarity of their office, which can find no parallel in the after history of the church. But, so far as their function was to govern, they represented the monarchical element in the constitution of the early church, and their power was a full counterpoise to that democratic tendency which has sometimes been attributed to the ecclesiastical arrangements of the apostolic period. M ( ' ' Life and Epistles of Paul, " chapter xiii.) They had no official sue-

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cessors. From the nature of their duties there could be no succession. First of all, they were witnesses to Christ. In order to be witnesses, they must have personal knowledge of the things concerning which they bear testimony. They must have seen the I^ord, heard Him, handled Him, been instructed and commissioned by Him; particularly, they must have seen Him after He was known to be dead, that they might be witnesses of His resurrection. (Acts i andii.) Secondly, they must be so fully under the supervision and control of the Holy Spirit as to guard them against mistake in remembering what the Great Teacher said to them, in giving utterance to His teaching, in expressing other truth into which they were guided by the Spirit, and in confirming their claim to spiritual endowment in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. These were the signs of an apostle. (John xiv:26, xv:26, xvi:i3, 14; II Cor. xii:i2)

Without these qualifications of having companied with the immediate associates of Jesus, and of Spirit-endowment manifested in unmistakable miracles, no man could be an apostle of Christ. The assumption of apostolic authority without apostolic illumination and power is a shadow without a substance, — a form of godliness without the power thereof. This is the germ of the most dangerous ecclesiasticism and the most intolerable tyranny that has ever afflicted the church of the living God.

The commission of Christ to His apostles defines the scope of their office. It is the letter of instruction from the King to His ambassadors. It comes from Him who is clothed with all authority in heaven and upon earth. It commits to these apostles all the interests of the kingdom of heaven on earth. When endued with power from on high, they were to make disciples of the nations, introduce them into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and teach them to observe all things commanded by Him. All this involved the full proclamation of the Gospel, the announcement of the law of pardon as Heaven's ultimatum to a rebellious world, the institution of ordinances for the observance of Christ's disciples, and the giving of all needful laws for the government of the church