The Primitive Church a Triumphant Church.. Over Satan, the Prince of Darkness... Over Paganism under the Roman Power... The Government of the Church........... Classification of the Primitive Ministry. INTRODUCTION. The Bible record of the origin of man is unsurpassed by any other history of origins, either in artless simplicity or in scientific accuracy. Modern science has over and over again corroborated and confirmed the revealed account of the solidarity of the human family. Her best exponents have conceded the sublime fact that all men, notwithstanding their perplexing diversities, social, intellectual, and physical, must have originated from one single pair. In the similarity amongst ancient languages, philology has discovered historical monuments which prove not only that the different nations sprang from a common origin, but also that their forefathers must have gazed at the same sky, tilled the same soil, and lived under the same roof, and spoke the same language. How beautiful and simple the inspired record which reveals to us that God "made of one every nation of men" (Acts 17:26)! Not only do we read that all men proceeded from one original pair, but the Book of God tells us that even the material substance of the woman was taken out of the man. This simple account un folds the sublime purpose of God, who is the God of order and whose nature and character is love. He loves harmony and peace, and therefore he created the woman out of man-a part of himself-so that they twain might be one not only by relation and attachment but also by nature. Thus children born of such union, where nothing but unity, harmony, and love could be expected, would of necessity love one another and live in harmony and peace, so that there would be only one great universal family in the whole world. But alas! sin destroyed the harmony and sowed the bitter seed of enmity and jealousy even between the first two brothWhat followed is too sad for narration. Enmity and hatred, jealousy and envy, division and strife, have checkered the pages of the history of the human family since the first innocent blood of a brother was shed by a brother's impious hand. ers. But the purpose of God in creation, though for a time thus obstructed, could never be frustrated. True, the human family was rent asunder by social, political, and religious factions, and seemingly became irreconcilably estranged from one another; but where sin abounded, |