(_h_) _Acts 18:27_--"_And when he was minded to pass over into Achaia, the brethren encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him_"; _2 Cor. 3:1_--"_Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?_"
(_i_) _1 Tim. 5:9_--"_Let none be enrolled as a widow under threescore years old_"; _cf._ _Acts 6:1_--"_there arose a murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration._"
(_j_) _1 Cor. 11:16_--"_But if any man seemeth to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God._"
(_k_) _Acts 2:41_--"_They then that received his word were baptized_"; _1 Cor. 11:23-26_--"_For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you_"--the institution of the Lord's Supper.
(_l_) _1 Cor. 14:40_--"_let all things be done decently and in order_"; _Col. 2:5_--"_For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ._"
(_m_) _Mat. 28:19_--"_Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit_"; _Acts 2:47_--"_And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved._"
(_n_) _Phil. 2:30_--"_because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me._"
As indicative of a developed organization in the N. T. church, of which only the germ existed before Christ's death, it is important to notice the progress in names from the Gospels to the Epistles. In the Gospels, the word "disciples" is the common designation of Christ's followers, but it is not once found in the Epistles. In the Epistles, there are only "saints," "brethren," "churches." A consideration of the facts here referred to is sufficient to evince the unscriptural nature of two modern theories of the church:
A. The theory that the church is an exclusively spiritual body, destitute of all formal organization, and bound together only by the mutual relation of each believer to his indwelling Lord.
The church, upon this view, so far as outward bonds are concerned, is only an aggregation of isolated units. Those believers who chance to gather at a particular place, or to live at a particular time, constitute the church of that place or time. This view is held by the Friends and by the Plymouth Brethren. It ignores the tendencies to organization inherent in human nature; confounds the visible with the invisible church; and is directly opposed to the Scripture representations of the visible church as comprehending some who are not true believers.
