CHAPTER IV.

Duties of Church-Members.

"We being many are one body, in Christ, and every one members one of another." Rom. xii. 5.

ALL the followers of Christ, throughout the world, are sometimes spoken of in the New Testament, as "the general assembly, and church of the first born whose names are written in heaven." They are spoken of as sustaining to each other the relation of brotherhood, as having common interests and hopes, as bound together by mutual duties and affections, as following a common leader, and united to a common head, and thus as constituting, wherever they are scattered over the world, one great communion. This great and comprehensive fellowship, including not only all the believers in particular churches, but all who on account of their situation or peculiar circumstances have never yet become members of any local christian body,this community including individuals of every people and kindred to which the gospel has ever been preached-is what is called, figuratively, the church universal.

To this communion, the universal brotherhood of Christ's disciples, the kingdom of God on earth, does the apostle refer when he says, "As

we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." He would have every christian remember that he is one of the great host of the redeemed, one of the vast company of Christ's servants, and thus set himself diligently to do, for the advancement of the common cause, for the promotion of God's kingdom and the benefit of God's people, just that which he has the opportunity and the ability of doing. He compares this great community to the system of the human body, made up of many parts, of which each part has its own particular work, and in which the healthful action of each part is essential to the well being of the whole and of every other part. In the context he applies this idea with much particularity. Every one, whatever his endowments, or his opportunities for usefulness, is exhorted to use them to the best advantage, and with diligence, for the common benefit; and to fulfil the duties of his own station in the kingdom of Christ, without ambitiously encroaching on the allotted sphere of others.

Now if this comparison is applicable to the great community of Christ's disciples, the church universal; how much more applicable is it to a particular church, a compact and local body of believers, associating themselves for special commun

ion in the gospel. With how much more emphasis, may the members of a church say, As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. And how peculiarly applicable to them in their common and mutual relations, are those exhortations to duty which Paul enforces by this comparison.

I propose now to consider the duties which the members of a church owe to each other. The church is one body having many members; in which every member owes certain duties to the brotherhood, taken collectively, and certain other duties to each brother individually. These two classes of obligations may be noticed separately.

I. What are the duties which each individual owes to the whole body taken collectively?

1. Every member should take pains to interest himself in the well being of the church. This is implied in the very nature of the institution; for why are these persons associated, if they are not to take a lively interest in the promotion of those ends at which the institution aims, and in the attainment of which its well being consists? If the members are not bound to make themselves acquainted with the state of the church, to know whether the common standard of christian attainments and christian prac

tice is high or low, and in a word to concern themselves with whatever concerns the well being of the spiritual body to which they belongwhy should they be united in a church at all?

2. Every member is under obligation to unite with the church in its worship and ordinances. I mean, he is to walk with the church to which he belongs, in obedience to all the laws and institutions of Christ. It is not enough that he attends public worship somewhere every sabbath, and partakes of the Lord's Supper at stated periods. He ought to be found every Lord's day, in his own place, among the brethren with whom he has entered into covenant. Nothing but some arrangement of Providence should make his seat empty, either at the table of the Lord, or in the sanctuary. If this is not so, if the members of the same church are not bound to commune together statedly and constantly in worship and in ordinances, the church which actually worships God and celebrates the death of Christ, is not a society permanently and sol-emnly bound together; it is only a fortuitous assembly of persons who have been brought together on this occasion by caprice, and who at the next time of meeting may be scattered to the four winds. Was not the church at Cenchrea distinct from the neighboring church in Corinth? Had not each of those churches its own members who were not the members of the other?

How can any church meet to worship God, and to observe his ordinances, unless its members come together? And if one member is entirely at liberty to go any where else, whenever the whim takes him, why not another?—why not all?

This plain principle is often transgressed from thoughtlessness. A member of the church has a curiosity to go to some other place of worship; -some peculiar ceremony is to be witnessed, or some new voice is to be heard,-o perhaps the idea suggests itself that a change of place for a sabbath or for half a sabbath would be pleasant. Under some such motive you leave your own place of worship and go to another, not dreaming that so small a thing can be of any consequence. But if you may do so once without some extraordinary reason, why may you not do it twice, and again and again, till it comes to pass that your seat is vacant no small portion of the time? And what is the effect of all this? Some, perhaps, who see only that you are not in your place, do not know where you are; to them it is as if you were at home neglecting entirely the institutions of public worship, and your example teaches them to do likewise.. Others perhaps know the fact that you are strolling from one place to another to indulge your “itching ears;" to them it is as if you were to make a declaration that you do not respect or value your own church and minister, and your exam