their fulness of meaning.

[Sidenote: The body of Christ]

We should divest our minds, temporarily at least, of preconceived
ideas of formal church organization and earnestly seek to understand
the real signification of that church of which Christ was himself
personally the founder. A few texts make this point clear: "And hath
put all things under his [Christ's] feet, and given him to be the head
over all things to the church, _which is his body_, the fulness of him
that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 22, 23). The church, then, is the
body of Christ. Of this body Jesus himself is the head. "And he is the
head of the body, the church ... that in all things he might have the
preeminence" (Col. 1:18). "For his body's sake, which is the church"
(verse 24). Christ is head of but one body. "There is _one_
body" (Eph. 4:4). In these texts the body and the church are used
interchangeably, referring to one and the same thing. The body of
which Christ is the head is the church that he built, "the church of
God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20: 28).

[Sidenote: The atonement its procuring cause]

It is therefore to Calvary that we must look for the specific act by
virtue of which Christ personally became the founder of his church.
_There_ it was "purchased with his own blood." _There_ we find the
application of those sublime words of the Savior, "And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, _will draw all men_ UNTO ME" (John 12: 32).
By virtue of that act, God "put all things under his feet, and gave
him to be the head over all things to the church." Yea, by virtue
of that act, "God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name