CHURCH WORK. (Continued from page 55.)

Under this head we wish to say a word as to Missions, Evangelization, Sunday-Schools, Tract Distribution, &100:

These, as may be seen, are not distinctly in the Church, but rather done by members of the Church on their own responsibility,- largely, however, with the fellowship of the saints. For every faithful evangelist, whether in the home or foreign field, for every devoted Sunday-school teacher, visitor, and every tract-distributor, we would unfeignedly bless God and pray. Let us never forget this. How much they need the prayers of the Church, for their guidance and support. We need only add a few words. Would that the principles of the Church, as laid down in Scripture, were recognized by all these workers. If human machinery, human reliance, were set aside, and for them dependence upon God and subjection to His word substituted, there might be less apparent work, but oh how much more real work. We cannot refrain from warning against the unequal yoke with unbelievers in the Lord's work. The world's money is taken to convert the world; unsaved teachers are set to teach unsaved children.

Let us not be understood as criticizing the Lord's beloved and honored servants, of whatever name. We merely point out in this, the briefest way, some of the features which strike us as being evidently unscriptural. To all engaged in any work for Christ we would say, Do not forget the word of God, or the Holy Spirit. See that your seed is the incorruptible seed of the word of God, and that your methods are none but those of the Spirit of God. Distribute no tracts but those of whose scripturalness you are assured. Resort to no sensational methods to attract or divert the masses, but rather preach Christ to perishing sinners,- a full gospel, in the unction and power of the Holy Ghost. Do not seek to multiply apparent conversions, but rather leave all that to the sovereign power of the Holy Ghost, whose work alone it is. Holding up the hand, coming forward to the anxious-bench, rising for prayer,- all these and any other human methods for driving men to decision are, to say the least, most questionable, and are calculated to turn-the eye from Christ alone. Individual work with inquirers is most important, and has been blessed to countless souls. Brethren, let us awake to the work of God. The time is short.

CHURCH AMUSEMENTS.

It is in no spirit of satire that we place this subject immediately next to that of Church Work. God forbid. The theme is too solemn. The world is under judgment:Satan is blinding men's eyes while he leads them a few steps more over the brink into eternity. Hell awaits the unsaved. This earth is stained with the blood of Christ, who, when He was here, devoted every hour and moment to His Father's will. In such a world the Church must ever be a witness against the prevailing levity and indifference. How solemn, then, is it to hear men pleading for amusements – to attract the masses, to keep up the interest of the young people. The pleasure of God's people is found in the unspeakable joy of learning more of Christ. "In thy presence is fullness of joy." The craving after worldly amusements is the sure sign of an empty heart. "The full soul loatheth a honeycomb." When the heart is filled with Christ, His word and works, there is no desire for what the world calls pleasures. Not that there is to be an ascetic severity in the child of God,- far from it. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy." "They began to be merry." But how infinitely removed is this holy joy – this heavenly elevation of mind – from the vain levity of this poor world. Amusements in the Church do but form the taste for the fuller enjoyment of the same in the world. The Church entertainment is but the training-school for the theater. Let us hear the word of God:"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (i John 2:15.)

CHURCH BUILDINGS.

"The first covenant had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary." (Heb. 9:9.) Solomon's temple was the fitting house for the types and shadows of the Old Testament dispensation. Christ has entered not into places made with hands, but into heaven itself; and through the rent veil has opened the way for us to enter there, by faith, and worship in the presence of God. (Heb. 9:11, 12 ; Heb. 10:19-22.) There is, then, no such thing as an earthly sanctuary now. The very thought is foreign to the genius of Christianity. Any building, then, which, by its form or furniture encourages the thought of a worldly sanctuary really misrepresents Christianity, and is a step backward to Judaism. The Church is a heavenly body, and all its testimony should be of that character. If we are pilgrims, our places of meeting should have about them nothing to contradict that fact. Simplicity should characterize them. There should be nothing to attract the attention:they should simply be convenient places of meeting, neatly kept. It is significant that we have no mention of Church buildings in the New Testament. Who ever thinks of what kind of a meeting-place the saints had at Corinth, Ephesus, or Rome ? Not infrequently the Church-meeting was in the house. (Rom. 16:5; Philem. 2.) At Troas the saints met in a room in the third story. (Acts 20:8, 9.) Paul at Ephesus made use of the school of Tyrannus, for his daily interviews with inquirers. (Acts 19:9.) As in many other things, the imitation of Rome is but too manifest in the "church architecture" of the day; and of the tendency of all this it is needless to speak. All such things are straws on the surf ace, which show the current of the stream,- the course of this world. Comment is needless on the subject of music and forms of worship in general. The spiritual mind judges as to all this.

THE MONEY QUESTION.

A glance at the reports of a Church congress, or the columns of a religious weekly, will show at once the prominence of this subject, at least in the thoughts of most persons. Turning to the New Testament, we fail to find this prominence given, though, as in all else, enough is said to guide the people of God. At Pentecost the gift of means was as liberal as the sense of the grace that had been shown. There were none that lacked:houses and lands were freely disposed of to meet the needs of the poor. (Acts 11.44,45; 4:34-37.) The effort to make this appear like the socialism of the day fails entirely when we see the unique position of the believers at Jerusalem. There were large numbers of strangers, and many poor. Needs were great and pressing; love was ardent, faith bright. But even then it was entirely voluntary, not compulsory. (Acts 5:3, 4.) The love and faith remain for all time; the conduct is left to the individual believer, though liberality is ever the mark of those who have learned of God. Community of goods is not, however, inculcated in the Scriptures, and is entirely foreign to their spirit. The rich had their duties, and the poor theirs as well, (i Tim. 6:17 ; James 1:9,10.) All able were to work that they might have to give, – not to the common purse, but to the needy. (Eph. 4:28; 2 Thess. 3:10, 12.) The needy poor (Jews) at Jerusalem were remembered and ministered to by their Gentile brethren. (Acts 11:27-30; Gal. 2:10; Rom. 15:25-27; 2 Cor., eighth and ninth chapters.) This liberality was to be shown wherever the need appeared,-even to the world, as ability was given. (Rom. 12:13 ; Gal. 6:10.) But it can be easily seen that these scriptures do not cover all the cases which seem at the present day to call for the expenditure of money.

That the object of many of these calls is proper and necessary we have no question. The Lord's servants are to be supported while they work for Him at home and abroad; necessary expenses in the securing of meeting-places have to be met; the poor have to be cared for; Bibles and tracts to be printed and circulated. But while allowing fully for all this, we are compelled to say that money occupies a very different place in the hearts of God's people than it did in the days of Paul. Now it would almost seem that the world is to be evangelized by money. Mission reports are often a column of receipts and expenditures. The problem of carrying the gospel to the heathen seems to be largely a financial one.

Far be it from us to despise the devotedness and zeal of many earnest souls; but we cannot hesitate to point out these signs of the times. Costly and gorgeous buildings for meeting-places are erected, which call for immense sums of money; large salaries are paid to brilliant and attractive preachers, who are employed in much the same way as persons engaged in secular work; unconverted singers are hired to furnish attractive music that will draw the crowd and please. To meet all these expenses there is the constant appeal for money. The unconverted are encouraged to contribute; all sorts of amusements are devised to raise money:and thus the Church, the chaste virgin espoused to Christ, is linked with the world. What wonder, then, that in this rush after money the Holy Ghost is ignored, the word of God neglected and disobeyed? "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Brethren, the last and least thing God needs for the carrying on of His work is money. Devoted hearts,- consecrated, instructed men of God, who, with His word in their lands, will carry His gospel everywhere,- every member of the body of Christ, in his or her place, filled and constrained by His love, doing their appointed work,- these He needs and longs for; but money cannot regenerate souls or build up saints. Why, then, make so much of money?

God's servants need to live, and it is His ordinance that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel. "Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things." (Gal. 6:6.) "If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" (i Cor. 9:7-15.) These and other scriptures show that the servant of the Lord is to be ministered to by those who have received the Word at his hands, and by other Christians. From the unsaved they were to take nothing. (See 3 John 5-8.) Think of the incongruity, to say the least, in preaching to a company of unsaved persons, telling them of God's gift, beseeching them to accept it, assuring them they can give nothing to God till they receive Christ,- that they are enemies to God,- and then taking up a collection! Does it not make the ungodly scoff? Does it not belie the solemn truth that has been preached ?

But to return. While the servant of God is to share in the temporal things of the saints, there is not a hint of a bargain between them. To fix a salary is to degrade the whole service, and to make the laborer not a servant of Christ, but of man. He is to look to the Lord who has employed him for support,- not to his brethren. Deep may be the exercises through which he may pass to learn to trust his blessed Master, but precious and real are the results. He is free from all that he may the better serve all; and his ministry has none of the savor of a bargain, the work of a hireling, but the freshness and spontaneity of love. While the ministrations of the saints are given not grudgingly, as under compulsion, but in the sweet constraint of love, and unto Christ.

While the servant looks to his Lord for support, the Lord looks to His people to be the channels of that supply which is as unfailing as His love and care. From the form of the expression it is evidently expected that the Lord's servant should live in the same comfort that is enjoyed by those among whom he ministers. The Lord would not have His saints burdened beyond their means that His servants may be in affluence; nor would He have their appearance or circumstances to be a reproach at once to Himself and His people.

Very few and simple are the directions as to all this. "On the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him." (i Cor. 16:2.) At the time when Christ and His love appeal to his heart, each one was to set apart an amount proportionate to his earnings – and this was to be used for the Lord, as He might direct, – for the poor (as in that immediate case), for the Lord's servants laboring at home or abroad, or for whatever might call for such help. It was to be given "not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver," (2 Cor. 9:7), as He, blessed be His name, is. Besides this, all are at all times stewards of God's things, and are to minister them under His eye and for Him.

As to money for buildings, the Church is not an earthly corporation, and needs not to own houses and lands in this world. At any rate, a simple and suitable building, of moderate rent or price, would at once relieve the saints of a burden and be a testimony to our strangership here. But we will say no more on this matter:our apology for speaking of it at all must be the need of scriptural instruction on the subject. '' God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." (2 Cor. 9:8-15.)

(To be continued.)