[Sidenote: The church as a divine institution]

Inasmuch as God set in the church apostles, prophets, evangelists,
gifts of miracles, of healings, etc., we must regard the church
as originally instituted as being more than a mere aggregate of
individuals associating themselves together for particular purposes.
We must recognize the divine element. This company was the host of
redeemed ones whom Christ had saved, in whom he dwelt, and through
whom he revealed God and accomplished his work on earth. It was his
body--the organism to which he gave spiritual life and through which
he manifested the fulness of his power and glory.

[Sidenote: Church relationship vs. individualism]

Any reformation that has not for its object the full restoration of
the New Testament church, can not be a complete reformation, but
must be succeeded by another. In this respect the church subject
is fundamental and all-inclusive. To emphasize a mere
"personal-union-with-Christ" theory to the disparagement of the divine
_ekklesia_, is to evade the real issue. Jesus declared, "I will build
my church," and that church was an objective reality, which was not
intended to be concealed under high-sounding theological verbiage nor
dissipated in glittering generalities. It is true that Christ himself
must be presented as the ground of our hope and salvation and as the
object of our personal faith, love, and devotion; as "the way, the
truth, and the life"; but we must not forget that there is also
a revelation of the way, the truth, and the life in the church of
Christ. The apostles preached Christ as the divine "way"; but when men
believed on him, he straightway "set the members every one of them