CHAPTER XIII CHURCH ORGANISATION: THE MINISTRY THE was Gift of the central HE central and fundamental fact of the Church's inner life was that gift of the Holy Spirit, in virtue of which she was to remain for ever a Pentecostal Church: the "Spirit-bearing Body" of Christ. The inner nucleus of the Church-practically, if not precisely, identi- fact. cal with the Apostolic band-had received a farreaching promise of this gift on the night of the Lord's betrayal, and a foretaste of the gift itself on the first Easter night, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.”1 Six weeks later He came with striking outward manifestations: the "Power from on high," for which the disciples waited, descended upon them,2 and the life of the Christian Church was really begun. It is from this spiritual Presence, by which the Church is kept in continual contact with the life of her ascended Lord, that flow out all those multitudinous activities, those diversified gifts, and that gradually crystallised organisation which mark the Church of the New Testament. The phenomena of Pentecost were repeated once 2 Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i. 8. 1 John xx. 22, 23. Phenomena repeated. again on a smaller scale when St. Peter drew into the Church its first Gentile recruits: a fact which is noted in the narrative as having struck St. Peter at the time.1 Something of the kind is implied also in the account of the sending forth of Barnabas and Saul by the Antiochene Church on their first Gentile mission. The Holy Ghost, at any rate, made His presence known, if not by visible signs, yet by clear and precise guidance in answer to prayer a type of that continual guidance promised by the Lord before His passion.2 More externally similar to the phenomena of Pentecost, though clearly not the same, are those gifts of ecstatic utterance which the Corinthian Church exhibited some years later. But these fleeting or rarely recurrent manifestations, similar to the phenomena of a "revival," would seem to be less Charismata at Corinth. Normal spiritual endowment. truly representative of the Church's divine endowment than are the normal ways in which her energies find expression-in the ministry of the Word and Sacraments, and the "edification," that is, the "building up," of the Body. of reception. We find this fund of spiritual power communicated to individual souls when, after repentance and conConditions fession, believing on the Lord Jesus, they were baptized with His baptism.3 This is the teaching of the Day of Pentecost, when the ministry of baptism was as yet confined to the Apostles. Soon, however, after the ordination of the Seven, bearing with it the delegation of certain of 2 John xiv., XV., 1 Acts x. 44-8; xi. 15. xvi. their functions, it becomes clear that for the plenary endowment the direct touch of Apostolic hands is necessary. St. Philip the Evangelist con- Transverts and baptizes: his work is supple- mitted by mented by the laying-on of the hands of Apostles. St. Peter and St. John. Thus from the archetype of the rite of confirmation emerges a principle clearly marked elsewhere in the Acts and Pauline Epistles: the principle of Apostolic primacy. As the central fact of the Church's life is the Pentecostal gift, so the central authority is the Apostolic body, through which that gift is normally Primacy transmitted. There is a certain ambiguity of about the word "apostle" as used in the Apostles. New Testament, to which we shall have occasion to refer later on; but the centring of authority in the College of Twelve is indisputable as regards the earliest days. Nor is it without significance that, College in the latest book of the New Testament, of the names of "the Twelve Apostles of the Twelve. Lamb" are inscribed upon the foundations of the City of God. To begin with, the care taken immediately after the Ascension to fill the place of Judas by one duly qualified and divinely chosen, and so to complete the original number,3 is itself very significant. A twelfth witness of the Saviour's ministry, passion, resurrection, and ascension is appointed betimes; and receives, with the Eleven, the fiery baptism of the Spirit. The Twelve thus "clothed with power" begin at once, by St. Peter's mouth, to proclaim the risen Lord. They receive by baptism the three thousand converts. Adherence to their teaching 3 Acts i. 15 sqq. 1 Acts viii. 12-17. 2 Rev. xxi. 14. The Twelve at 2 and fellowship is one of the principal marks of the primitive Church, while their own authority is accredited by a constant display of miraculous "signs."1 Witnessing before the people by these extraordinary works of power, they testify also with unflinching courage before the hostile Sadducees. To them the faithful bring their contributions to the common fund; and, when a more elaborate machinery of distribution and administration becomes necessary, it is they who take the initiative in proposing a delegation of their own functions, who summon the laity to elect candidates and ordain with prayer and laying on of hands the men selected. Their responsibilities keep them in Jerusalem when the rest are scattered by persecution; and there they form a sort of central executive committee, receive the report of the first missionary circuit of Paul and Barnabas, and, in council with the "presbyters," resolve the resultant problems and issue an authoritative encyclical to the Churches in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. This last occasion represents, it would appear, a moment of transition, when the Twelve are about to disperse : henceforth the local Jerusalem authority is vested in James "the Lord's Brother"-already prominent as presiding at the Council-and the presbyters who had been associated with the Apostles in the same. As soon as the Acts (henceforth absorbed in the work of St. Paul) ceases to give us information about the Twelve, the Pauline Epistles take up the story, expressing in more theoretic fashion the Apostolic 1 Acts ii. 43; iv. 33; v. 12 sqq. 3 Acts vi. 1-6. 5 Acts xv. 2 Acts iv. 1-22; v. 27 sqq. 4 Acts viii. 1. 6 Cf. Acts xxi. 18. 4 Apostle ship St. Paul. claims which St. Luke exhibits to us in the concrete. St. Paul claims to possess a direct Apostolic commission from the Lord Himself, independent of the Twelve,1 an equality with described the very chiefest of them accredited by by signs and wonders;2 and in asserting the prerogatives of his own apostleship describes, of necessity, theirs also. He claims to rule and command. (constitutionally) the converts in the churches he has founded, and to regulate their worship. His authority extends to solemn excommunication and equally solemn absolution "in the person of Christ," and that transmissible even by letter. Finally, the transmission of the grace of orders and of the power of ordination is claimed for the Apostolic office. As he and Barnabas had in 50 A.D. ordained presbyters in every church in Galatia,7 so ten years later he authorises Titus to do the same in Crete, and Timothy at Ephesus.9 We should be tempted, perhaps, to regard St. Paul's apostleship as absolutely unique were it not that there are strong indications given by him, and by St. Luke in the Acts, which favour the association of Barnabas and James "the Parallels to Paul's apostle Lord's Brother" with him and the original ship. Twelve. St. James's position seems never to have been questioned. The Lord had vouchsafed to him a special appearance on the day of the resurrection; 10 |