through the power of the Spirit who will dwell in each and all, and be
mighty to pull down all the strongholds of Satan, and to advance the
kingdom of our blessed Lord at home and abroad, to the joy of men and
angels!




THE CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION.


A Christian congregation professes to be a congregation of Christians,
and to represent the same kind of body which, in the apostolic
epistles, is termed a "church"--"saints and faithful brethren"--
"faithful in Christ Jesus"--"holy brethren."

It is not, therefore, a number of people meeting only to hear a
sermon, or even to unite in public worship, but without any visible
coherence, social life, or united action, but _a body_, an _organised_
whole; the Lord's Supper being the grand symbol of the unity of its
members with one another, and with the whole society of the Christian
Church on earth and in heaven.[A]

[Footnote A: The social character of the Lord's Supper, and its being
a constant witness to the oneness of the whole body of Christ and the
_communion_ of saints, has been often so perverted as to have become
in the minds of many the grand test and evidence of sectarian
division, while "hearing a sermon" is the utmost latitude which is
given to the believer who wishes to testify his love to all who love
the Lord Jesus in sincerity. "I would hear him preach, but I would not