people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one." Acts 5: 12-16.

Such was the church of God in her primitive glory. Clothed with the authority, power, light, salvation, holiness, and truth, of Christ, her great head, she went forth against the combined kingdoms of sin and darkness. The church shone in the earth, because it reflected the light of Christ to sin-darkened souls. "Ye are the light of the world," he said to his disciples. Truly, in those days her light shone as the bright morning sun.

The Primitive Church.

As we stand on the summit of present truth and point our telescope back over the mists and clouds that move along at our feet, and over the twelve hundred and sixty years of utter darkness that extend far beyond, even into the third century, we behold, on the mountains of God's own holiness, the temple of God, resplendent with the morning light of his own glory. With admiration we view her; and, behold, she is "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." She is "all fair," the city of the great king. That golden city is the primitive church.

As set forth in the oracles of God, her prominent attributes are the following: Divinity, Organization, Visibility, Oneness, Unity, Catholicity, Exclusiveness, Holiness, Unchangeableness, Indestructibility, and Perpetuity. These we

shall consider in their order.

THE DIVINITY OF THE CHURCH.

She is of divine origin. Her inception is coeval in the mind of God with that of the plan of salvation. Her origin, being the immediate

result of redemption, was inseparable from it. Since, therefore, in the counsel and good purpose of God, Christ was a "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8), the church redeemed through his blood also stood before the divine mind parallel with the gift of his Son. Of that holy institution, he cast a beautiful shadow upon the earth, in the form of the temple and all its contents. And after "Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after," in due time "Christ, as a son over his own house," appeared and built this beautiful church of the living God. He adorned her foundations and walls with the pure gold of his heavenly love, and set them with the precious stones of his graces and gifts; he adorned her pillars with the robes of his righteousness; and he shed in her the light of his own glory. She is from heaven. Along with Christ her builder, she is the gift of infinite love. She is "God's building," chosen of him for his own dwelling-place; and here he spreads a continual feast of love for all his heaven-born children. As the "true tabernacle" of present divine testimony, the Lord pitched her and not

man (Heb. 8:2). As the house of God, he that buildeth all things in her is God (Heb. 3:4). As the beloved city, she "hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11: 10). Her foundation is Jesus Christ the divine Savior. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Her life and light is the "eternal Spirit."

Her creed is the pure Word of God. Thus spake God by the mouth of his servant Moses: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not harken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Deut. 18: 18, 19. This is fulfilled in his Son, as the apostle testifies (Acts 3:22, 23). God here announced that he would put his words in the mouth of this prophet; and when he came, he testified, saying, "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." John 14: 10. Therefore "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the