fairs of religion, rejecting the doctrines and commandments of men. Their appeal was from the decision of councils and the authority of popes, cardinals, and prelates to the law and the testimony, the words of Christ and his apostles."-History of Romanism by Dowling, page 272. Thus the church of God existed during the reign of popery, and in the place prepared of God she was nourished and kept alive "for a time, and times, and half a time." During this long period, however, she was largely in obscurity, symbolized by "wilderness." Though the church was largely obscured during the reign of apostasy, being hidden under the human rubbish and creeds of men, and though during the reign of Protestant sectism her members have been scattered in the various so-called Christian societies, so that really the true church has not shone forth in her visible beauty; yet she has existed, and thus has been perpetuated that true Christianity and church which Christ established in the earth; and in these last days the same church is coming up out of the wilderness and returning to the unity, purity, holiness, organization, and oneness of primitive days. Thus is fulfilled the prophecy in Solomon's Songs 8:5: "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" Christ is the one who is leading her out. So in these last days the church of God, in her gathered condition, is a visible organized body of believers, distinct and separate from all the religious bodies of human origin; and she is the same church, the bride of Christ, the identical woman that was seen in symbol (Rev. 12:1) in her primitive glory, and afterwards nourished in the wilderness, or state of obscurity, during a long period of apostasy, and now again brought back to the apostolic plane, looking fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. Figures in which the New Testament Church is Presented. A number of figures are used in the New Testament in presenting the church of God, and by these it is brought to view in all of its different phases. The first of these that we will consider is A BODY. Salvation constitutes us members of the church of God, and to those who have thus been saved out of the world and sin the Lord has given certain names or titles to distinguish them from others. In the New Testament God's people are termed Christians, disciples, brethren, saints, friends, and pilgrims. Each of these terms has its special signification. We are termed Christians to signify that the people of God are like Christ-demonstrate his character, life, and disposition to men. We are termed disciples, a word which means learners, to signify that the moment we are saved we enter the school of Christ and are taught of God. We are termed pilgrims to signify that this world is not our final destiny; that we are traveling to a better country, namely, a heavenly. We are termed friends to signify that, while at one time we were enemies and strangers, we have, through salvation, been reconciled to God and are no longer enemies, but are his friends. We are termed brethren to signify our relationship to the Lord and to each other. We are also termed saints, a word which means a holy one, to signify that all who are saved live sinless lives. Now these saints, or Christians, who are by salvation called out from sin and the world, joined to the Lord and to one another by the bond of love and heavenly fellowship, constitute a body. Whether viewed in a universal way, as all the saved on earth gathered into the one fold of Christ and the one faith of the gospel, or in a local sense, as a body of people in any city, town, or country place, who are saved of God and assemble together to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, they constitute a body, a saved body of believers. "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Rom. 12:5. "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 1 Cor. 12:27. So God's saved people constitute the body of Christ. This, of course, includes all the saved. In Rom. 12:4, 5, the apostle Paul represents the church by the human body. He says, "As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we [God's people] being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Here we see that the same close relationship that exists between the members of our physical body exists between the members of the spiritual body, the church. Our physical body is a perfectly organized body. Though composed of many members, yet these members constitute but one body. Not all have the same office. The hands can not perform the work of the feet, the feet the work of the eye, the eye the work of the ear, nor the ear the work of the mouth. Yet all these members work in perfect harmony. Just so it is with the church of God. There are many members; not all have the same office. "God hath set every member in the body [the church] as it pleaseth him"-apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, etc.; some to attend to spiritual affairs, and some to labor with their hands, earning the necessary means for |