CHAPTER XXI. FIRST GATHERING OF THE CHURCH- -VISIBLE CHURCH, CHILDREN AND SLAVES MEMBERS- - FIRST PUBLIC WORSHIPFIRST REVIVAL OF RELIGION-FIRST PRAYER MEETING. W 1 E have seen the first step in gathering the Church; "God called unto Adam" while he was trying to flee from him. He also called Abraham: "by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed." He called and converted Paul, when full of hatred he was seeking to destroy the Church. The Scripture says, " Whom He did predestinate, them He also called."3 The Gospel is now the call of God. The next step was the commencement of revelation, the promise of the great Deliverer; the Seed of the woman which was to bruise the head of the serpent; promises, prophecies, and commandments, being afterwards added from time to time until the word of God was complete; and a curse recorded against any man who should add to it.3 Then came public worship; and, as an act of faith, the offering of a lamb in sacrifice and a lamb was slain continually in the Church of God from the time of Abel's sacrifice for the space of four thousand years; until He who was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," "a lamb without blemish and without spot; who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world," was offered on Calvary. Since then, the Lord's supper commemorates the same sacrifice; and is, by way "of remembrance," " to show the Lord's 1 Heb. xi. 8. 2 Acts ix. 4. 3 Rom. viii. 30; i. 6. 4 Gen. iii. 15. 5 Rev. xxii. 18. 6 Rev. xiii. 8. 1 Peter i. 19. I death till he come." The reading of the word of God, preaching, prayer, and praise, have also always formed part of public worship. The visible church, according to God's own appointment, has always embraced not only his people, but their households their children and their slaves. God said unto Abraham "Thou shalt keep my covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations."2 "He that is born in thy house, or bought with thy money must needs be circumcised." 3 And he that is not, "that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant." 4 "The Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: but every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof." When the Jews were separated from other nations, as the visible church of God, the stranger 5 that wished to unite with them could do so. For circumcis ion and the feast of the Passover there was one ordinance both for the stranger and for him that was born in the land:"6 as now, the stranger born out of the visible church may be baptized and partake of the Lord's Supper. In all generations the covenant of the Lord has been, "I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." The children of our first parents were therefore named in faith, and were trained to make offerings to God. God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants brought a whole nation into the communion of the visible church, and made them his peculiar people. Throughout the Old and New Testaments they were directed to teach their children the reason for the sacraments; as showing God's wonderful works in saving his people. God's statutes and commandments were “to them, 8 1 1 Cor. xi. 25. 2 Gen. xvii. 9. 5 Exod. xii. 44, 45. 3 Gen. xvii. 12, 13. 4 Gen. xvii. 14. Gen. xvii. 7; Acts ii. 39; 1 Cor. vii. 14. 6 Num. ix. 14; Exod. xii. 48. Ex. xiii. 8, 14: Deut. iv. 9. 1 their sons, and their sons' sons:" and they were to "teach them to their children diligently;" and to "bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord:"2 not to it, but as already in it. Thus we find Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, etc., circumcising and consecrating their households; likewise, the jailer at Philippi "was baptized, and all his straightway;" also Lydia and her household, and the "household of Stephanas." 3 In all ages God has required from his people a public recognition of the covenant made with them and their seed. The Jewish child was in early infancy to be publicly brought into covenant with the visible church by the sacrament of circumcision; as the child of the Christian is now by baptism. If he forebore to join in the celebration of the Passover feast when grown, he was to be "cut off from among his people." " 6 The first public worship, and the first revival of religion mentioned, was at the birth of Enos, the son of Seth, born when Adam was two hundred and thirty-five years old. "Then began men to call upon the name of the LORD." In the margin it reads "men began to call themselves by the name of the Lord." They acknowledged the Lord as their God; and called themselves, and were called by Him, his people. They felt their dependence on God; and Seth named his son accordingly, Enosh, man in weakness. Individually, Adam, Abel, and Seth, had before this called upon the Lord with their sacrifices. Adam had begotten sons and daughters; they also had been multiplying; and as they grew up had forsaken the worship and the face of the Lord. When Enos of the third generation was born, there appears to have been the first public gathering of the visible church. It could have consisted only of Adam, Eve, and such of their younger children as they could control, and Seth and his 1 Deut. vi. 2, 7. 2 Eph. vi. 4. 3 Acts xvi. 33. 4 Acts xvi. 15. 6 1 Cor. i. 16. 6 Num. ix. 13. Gen. iv. 26. : family. Possibly some of Adam's other children may have joined them; but from the record it is doubtful if they did, they could not have continued with them, as it appears the whole world, excepting those named in the one line of father to son, became corrupt. They began to "call upon the name of the Lord;" it was the beginning of prayer-meetings. The names which the Lord has assumed, such as, the Almighty, the Lord thy God, the Father, Jesus, the Saviour, the Comforter, the God of Jacob, the Hearer of Prayer, etc., etc., not only make known to us His nature, attributes, and covenant relationship with His people, but they are also the foundation of their prayers. In all ages the Lord's people have called upon His name: relying upon His promises, that when they gather together in His name, "He will be in the midst of them," and "that whatsoever they ask in His name, He will do it.”2 1 1 1 Matt. xviii. 20. 2 John xiv. 13, 14. CHAPTER XXII. FIRST CONSECRATION OF PROPERTY-FIRST PROPHETS-FIRST TRANSLATION OF THE BODY-FIRST PREACHERS. THE HE giving or consecration of property to the LORD, was connected with and was part of the first act of worship. Cain, "a tiller of the ground, brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD." Abel, a keeper of sheep, “brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof." The sacrifices were of their most valuable property. How early the custom of devoting one tenth to the Lord was introduced we cannot tell. Abraham" gave tithes of all" to Melchizedek, "the priest of the most high God,"1 more than four hundred years before the Lord claimed the first born "among the children of Israel, both of man or beast," saying: “It is mine:"2 beside demanding a tenth "of the produce of the land, of the fruit of the tree, of the herd and of the flock."3 Jacob vowed a vow, saying, "If God will be with me," etc.," of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee." The church in the time of the Jews, in addition to the tenth, were directed to give the first fleece and the first fruits of the land; and also to offer many particular sacrifices beside their free-will offerings. They were constantly to remember the Levites, as the Lord's ministers who had no portion in the land; and also to consider the poor. Three times each year, at their great feasts, every male was to appear before the Lord in the appointed place, and the charge to them was, "They shall not appear before 3 Levit. xxvii. 30, 32. 4 Gen. xxviii. 20, 22. 4 1 Gen. xiv. 18, 20. 6 5 Deut. xviii. 4. "Ezra iii. 5. |