instance in which a person received into the Church under any one of these forms of administration would have been refused admission under any other.

As to the conditions of membership, taking the same five evangelical communions as examples, the similarity almost amounts to sameness. These conditions are represented by the professions and vows required at the time of reception into the Church. What are they? In the Protestant Episcopal Church, to renew the "promise and vow" made at baptism—namely, the renunciation of all sin, belief of the "Articles of the Faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed," and the obedient keeping of God's holy commandments.' In the Methodist Episcopal Church, to renew this same baptismal covenant, to confess Christ as the personal Saviour, to profess belief in Christian doctrine as set forth in the "Articles of Religion," to keep the "Rules" of the Church, to observe the Christian ordinances, to contribute to the support of the gospel and the benevolent enterprises of the Church, to promote "the welfare of the brethren and the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom." In the Presbyterian Church, to "receive and profess the Christian faith," to repent and "trust in the mercy of God which is in Jesus Christ," to "promise in his strength to lead a sober, righteous, and godly life," to observe the means of grace, to submit to the authority of the Church, to "continue in the peace and fellowship of the people of God." In the Lutheran Church, to profess the Apostles' Creed and to answer affirmatively the question: "Do you promise conscientiously to use the means of grace, to be obedient to the order and discipline of the congregation, and to be faithful members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church?" In the Congregational Church

'The Book of Common Prayer, "Order of Confirmation," "Ministration of Baptism to Such as Are of Riper Years."

"The Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, "Reception into Full Membership."

"The Book of Common Worship, "Order for the Administration of Baptism to Adults and Reception to the Lord's Supper," "Order for the Confirmation of Religious Vows and Reception to the Lord's Supper.”

'Forms for Ministerial Acts, "Confirmation."

es (according to the recommendation of the "Council Manual"), to profess the Apostles' Creed, and the system of truth held by the Congregational Churches, to repent of sin, to follow Christ "in all things, to walk with his disciples in love, and to live for his glory," to adopt the covenant of the Church, help to sustain all its worship and work, and to live in its fellowship.""

But these conditions may be more briefly, and not less significantly, expressed as the personal confession of Christ. "Every one who shall confess me before men"—it is the man, the woman, the youth, the child described in these words of the Son of Man that is accepted for admission into the visible fellowship of his people. And the content of the Name here confessed may be taken, according to the Church's apprehension of its meaning from the beginning, as that of the authoritative Teacher, the supreme Master, the sinless Example, the atoning Saviour. To demand a truly greater confession would be impossible; yet to substitute a less would be to set aside the substance of the evangelic faith.

It is, then, with this confession on his lips that the seeker of Christian fellowship and guidance stands knocking at the door of a congregation of Christ's people.

'The Council Manual, "Form for the Reception of Members."

III.

SOCIAL DEPENDENCE: DISCIPLINE.

It would be no matter of surprise if one should feel the thrill of a new gladness or the awe of a hitherto unrecognized obligation on his entrance into the congregational fellowship of the Christian life. With the realization of what this fellowship signifies there will surely come to him some such experience. For the congregation, however small or obscure, whose door is opened to receive him is included in the visible, confessing Congregation of those who have truly been gathered together in Jesus's name in all the world. If there be but two or three who meet in that Name, he who unites with them becomes a member-yes, a member of "the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven." That is the holy communion in which he holds his membership. For as Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, greeted the Corinthian Christians as "the Church of God which is at Corinth," in like language may the local Christian congregation be addressed anywhere and at any time. It is not simply a church, but the Church of God-a genuine part, representing the whole.

But it is with this local congregation that the newly received communicant has immediate relationship. They receive him; and not only unto brotherly association with themselves, but unto watch-care and Christian government as well.

Admission under the conditions of membership is followed by the administration of discipline.

It is this economic regulation that here remains for us to consider. And we shall have to begin by making these several distinctions: Discipline may be either formative or corrective, and both these kinds of discipline may be either personal or official. Let us see.

I. FORMATIVE DISCIPLINE-PERSONAL, OFFICIAL.

The older meaning of the word (discere, discipulus, disciplina) is to teach, to nurture, to train, and to oversee with this educative purpose. Exemplifications of it are conspicuous in the home and the school as well as in the Church. Teaching, nurturing, training-in a word, education-this is formative discipline. The young Christian, therefore, entering the communion of a true and well-directed church of Christ is admitted to the confidence and affection of fellow-disciples, to a place at the Lord's Supper, to organized opportunities of usefulness and influence-and to something more. He is admitted to a Christian watch-care that is distinctly educative.

Is discipline a forbidding word? It is a word of power. Compare an undisciplined with a disciplined eye or hand or appetite or intellect or spirit-in a word, an undisciplined with a disciplined life. It will show the difference between savagery and civilization, weakness and strength, crudity and economy; between the failure of even the well-endowed mind when it works unsteadily and unskillfully, "without a conscience or an aim," and the strong, steady step of achievement. Truly, therefore, might the ancient "Wisdom of Solomon" declare that "her [Wisdom's] true beginning is desire of discipline, and the care for discipline is love of her."

Nor should we think of the discipline of the soul in the Christian congregation as necessarily a matter of official or organized procedure. It is, first of all, not official in any sense whatever, but purely personal. Such, beyond doubt, is the impression that one would receive from the New Testament. Church members must always and by all means watch over and, as need may be, admonish one another, that they may both encourage the good and cure the evil.' They must show a spirit of mutual forbearance and forgiveness: "How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?" "Until seventy times seven." If one be

'In the one instance of the use of the word in the Authorized Version of the Bible-Job xxxvi. 10-it means instruction.

1 Cor. iii. 16; 1 Thess. v. II, 14.

overtaken in a fault, his brethren are not rudely to thrust him out of the Church, but to restore him in a spirit of meekness, remembering each his own liability to the power of temptation." Christians shall confess their sins one to another, and pray one for another, that they may be forgiven and made spiritually whole. Each is to treat the rest with a genuinely Christlike kindness; that is the ideal. "Receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God."'*

But formative discipline may also be official. It is ministered by the Church through regularly constituted Christian ordinances -through preaching, teaching, hymns, prayers, sacraments-and in pastoral care and leadership.

2. CORRECTIVE DISCIPLINE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT PERIOD PERSONAL, OFFICIAL.

But in the case of unfaithfulness and disobedience, the neglect or violation of law, there will ensue in every well-ordered society some ministration of reproof, restraint, or penalty, which is corrective discipline. Makers of discord and scandal, grieving instead of serving their fellow-members of the Church, must be reformed, or, when nothing else will avail, put away.

Christian

This, too, may be personal, not official, action. brethren are enjoined even to withdraw themselves from one who walks disorderly, that he may be made ashamed, at the same time not counting him as an enemy, but admonishing him as a brother."

"We, then, the members of this Church, do affectionately welcome you into this household of faith. We pledge to you our sympathy, our help, and our prayers that you may evermore increase in the knowledge and love of God." (Form for the Reception of Members in the Congregational Churches.)

"Brethren, I commend to your love and care these persons whom we this day recognize as members of the Church of Christ. Do all in your power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love." (Charge to the congregation, at the reception of members into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.)

*1 Cor. v. 6, 7. 2 Thess. iii. 14, 15. Cf. Didache, cc. II. 7; IV. 3; XV. 3.