the sacred record, of the ordination either by the Twelve or by the
Seventy, of even one presbyter or pastor. With the exception of the
laying on of hands upon the seven deacons, [47:4] no inspired writer
mentions any act of the kind in which the Twelve ever engaged. The
deacons were not _rulers_ in the Church, and therefore could not by
ordination confer ecclesiastical power on others.

There is much meaning in the silence of the sacred writers respecting
the official proceedings and the personal career of the Twelve and the
Seventy. It thus becomes impossible for any one to make out a title to
the ministry by tracing his ecclesiastical descent; for no contemporary
records enable us to prove a connexion between the inspired founders of
our religion, and those who were subsequently entrusted with the
government of the Church. At the critical point where, had it been
deemed necessary, we might have had the light of inspiration, we are
left to wander in total darkness. We are thus shut up to the conclusion
that the claims of those who profess to be heralds of the gospel are to
be tested by some other criterion than their ecclesiastical lineage. It
is written--"_By their fruits_ ye shall know them." [48:1] God alone can
make a true minister; [48:2] and he who attempts to establish his right
to feed the flock of Christ by appealing to his official genealogy
miserably mistakes the source of the pastoral commission. It would,
indeed, avail nothing though a minister could prove his relationship to
the Twelve or the Seventy by an unbroken line of ordinations, for some
who at the time may have been able to deduce their descent from the
apostles were amongst the most dangerous of the early heretics. [48:3]
True religion is sustained, not by any human agency, but by that Eternal
Spirit who quickens all the children of God, and who has preserved for
them a pure gospel in the writings of the apostles and evangelists. The
perpetuity of the Church no more depends on the uninterrupted succession