tions, the duty of preaching the word and administering the ordinances. As in a republic there is no aristocracy, or any permanent rank or caste, but all men alike are citizens, though some are appointed to do a special work in legislative, judicial, and executive offices, so in the New Testament church we find everywhere Christian equality of rights, with a convenient distribution of labor. There were pastors (called also bishops and elders) and deacons, to serve as officers in the local church; and there were evangelists or missionaries, whose time was devoted to a general propagation of the faith wherever opportunity offered, from place to place. But there was no priesthood, or hierarchy, separate from the membership. The hereditary priesthood of the Mosaic system was typical of Christ, and expired when he ascended on high, to plead his own sacrifice in our behalf. Christian ministers more nearly represent the duties of the ancient prophets. The New Testament doctrine is that so far as any priesthood exists on earth it belongs to all Christians. Thus Peter in his first epistle (ii, 5, 9,) writes: "Ye also as lively (living) stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. * But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

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This would seem to lay the broadest foundation for Christian work, and to forbid official monopoly of religious instruction, while leaving local pastors to discharge the special functions, in their own church meetings, which they are appointed and paid to perform. Thus while a bishop or presbyter must be a man "apt to teach," and must, as a pastor, "feed the flock," he had no exclusive right to preach. Others also might use their gifts of speech in the church-meetings and elsewhere, provided the people were willing to listen; for the right of speaking must always be co-ordinate with, and limited by, other people's right of hearing. Paul's instruction to the church at Corinth is harmonious with this idea, in regard to the liberty which he accorded to all (but the women) to prophesy; that is, to speak under the promptings of the Spirit: "For ye may all prophesy, one by one, that all may learn and all may be com

forted." And the whole account which Paul gives, in that connection, of the ordinary public worship of the primitive church shows that it was much like that of the synagogue, with which the first converts in each city had been familiar. There was no formal sermon; but after the reading of the Scriptures, remarks were made, usually upon the portion read, by the elders and other brethren.

There is now attached to the word, to "preach," a technical and formal idea which is not known to the New Testament. We think of a "Reverend," duly educated in theology and ordained by the clergy, who ascends a pulpit, and, after condueting devotional exercises, gives out a verse or two of Scripture, upon which he founds a carefully prepared logical and rhetorical discourse, which is quite too much the prominent feature of the service. Of course, untrained men would make poor work in imitating this procedure, which has for centuries proved edifying to the church. But in the New Testament, "preaching" means any proclamation of gospel truth, whether brief or protracted, with or without a text, by church officer or private member. The ministers themselves did not deliver a sermon after the modern fashion, but commented on the lesson of the day, or discussed a needed topic, introducing quotations from Scriptures in support of their views. And thus everybody preached. It was a Christian rather than a ministerial function. The pastor did it regularly, in his own church, as the official teacher, but claimed no exclusive right; much as in our schools and colleges the principals and professors teach as officers in their respective institutions, but without thought of forbidding anyone to teach who can find a pupil elsewhere.

The historic narrative confirms this view; for in the book of Acts we read: "There was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. They that were scattered abroad went

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everywhere preaching the word." Later we read: "They who were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of these were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they

were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." And this was the beginning of that famous church of Antioch, which almost could dispute with that at Jerusalem for the honor of being the mother-church of Oriental Christendom, so great was its missionary power, and so noted was it as having originated the name Christian. (Acts xi, 19-26.) And all this we are informed was approved and rejoiced over by "the church which was in Jerusalem."

A very marked individual case of lay-preaching we apparently have in the person of the celebrated Apollos; for it is doubtful if the word "minister," (diánovos) applied to him in 1 Cor. iii, 5, is there used in a technical sense; it being one of the most generic words in the New Testament, and applied to persons in all kinds of service, whether as apostles, evangelists, pastors, deacons, deaconesses, or private members. The historical account in the Acts of the Apostles (xviii, 24-28) furnishes no intimation that he was other than a layman, who was well read in the Scriptures and eloquent of speech, and who came to Ephesus ignorant of a fully developed Christianity, and acquainted only with the reformation commenced by John the Baptist. He began to preach this Johannean doctrine in the synagogue, where he was heard by Aquila and his wife Priscilla; who, seeing in him the elements of great usefulness, "took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." This private instruction of the gospel by the tent-maker and his wife, was all that Apollos seems ever to have known of a theological seminary and a ministerial ordination. Filled now with a still more intense zeal to save souls and promote true religion, he crossed over to Greece, to Corinth and the adjacent region, where his biblical knowledge and persuasive eloquence had a powerful effect upon the Jews in converting them to Christianity. "For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was (the) Christ." When he went upon this mission, he took cominendatory letters from the brethren of the Ephesian church, who "wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him."

We have thus an illustration of primitive doctrine and

practice, and can understand the process by which Christianity was so rapidly spread through the Roman empire. The church. did not confine itself to clerical preaching, but used the talent of the entire male membership. As though to authenticate this procedure for all time, and to give every Christian brother a warrant for using his tongue, in persuading men to embrace Christ, the message which the glorified Jesus sent by his servant John, in the closing chapter of the Bible, is this: "The Spirit and the Bride (the whole church) say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." As the invitation is to the whole perishing race, so the message is meant to be communicated by all the redeemed church.

And how have this right and privilege of laymen to preach the gospel been treated, in the succeeding history of the church? There was no denial until hierarchical assumptions were set up, and that which had fallen to the ministers, as a matter of order in the stated services of the large churches, was claimed as the prerogative of the class. Neander (Hist., I, 193, etc.) well comments upon "the formation of a sacerdotal caste in the Christian church" as a "radical change," and as "something wholly foreign to the Christian consciousness." It took several centuries to suppress the New Testament idea. We find Tertullian (in his treatise on Chastity, c. vii) saying: "Are not even we laics priests? It is written: 'He hath made us kings and priests to his God and Father.' It is the authority of the church and the honor which has acquired sanctity through the joint session of the Order, which has established the difference between the Order and the Laity. Accordingly where there is no joint session of the ecclesiastical Order, you offer (the sacra ment of the supper) and baptize, and are priest, for yourself alone. But where there are three there is a church, although they are laics." In his treatise on Baptism, he says (xiv): "I think baptizing was lawful to him to whom preaching was," and (xvii) "Even laymen have the right, for what is universally received can be universally given. If bishops, or priests, or deacons are not present, disciples in general are called to the work. The word of the Lord ought not to be hidden by any;

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similarly baptism, which is equally God's arrangement, can be administered by all." In the so-called "Apostolical Constitutions," which, with later additions, embody much traditionally derived from the primitive church-customs, we find (viii, 32) this significant injunction in the name of Paul: "Let him that teaches, although one of the laity, if skillful in the word and grave in his manner, teach; for (it is said) They shall be all taught of God." Hilary, also, commenting on Ep. iv, 12, concerning the ministry, says: "At first all were accustomed to teach and to baptize. In order that the people might increase rapidly, it was permitted in the beginning, to all to evangelize, to baptize, and to expound the Scriptures." The historian Eusebius also states (vi, 19) that when Origen left Egypt and took up his abode in Cæsarea, he was requested by the bishops to expound the sacred Scriptures publicly in the church, although he had not been ordained a priest; and that when Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, complained of this preaching of a layman before a bishop, as an unheard of irregularity, the bishops of Jerusalem and Cæsarea declared that such a position was "far from the truth; for, indeed, wheresoever there are found those qualified to benefit the brethren, these are exhorted by the holy bishops to address the people;" and they specify several instances with which they were acquainted.

But, as time went on, the hierarchy had things its own way, and the laity were reduced to silence and passivity by the Romish church, save as in case of extremity, where no priest could be had, the baptism administered by laymen was conceded. The Council of Carthage forbade a layman to preach except by invitation of the bishop, and Leo prohibited monks and laymen to preach at all, as that was the right of the bishop only! This was the consummation of Romish usurpation.

Among the first beginnings of resistance to Rome we find this point coming up. Thus Jerome, of Prague, a knight and not an ecclesiastic, taught, over a century before Luther began his work, that anyone who could might preach, baptize and administer the Lord's Supper, and he preached, himself, throughout Bohemia and Moravia in castles, houses, streets, and fields. And in this he did only imitate Wickliffe, whom he greatly