T4 Kf^.'« is parallel to « x«AA^^ui>«( r^ ^h*^) l)econie3 one ' spirit ' (m;uf)uith Him, and belongs to His (spiritual) bwlv,— 'your bodies are members (/luah) of Christ.' The idea of the Church as bride is found also in the iuKigerv of the Apocaly^»se. The marriage table is spread (Rev 10'), the bride is arrayed in fine linen, ' which is the righteous acts of the saints ' (vA.»). In c. 20 the powers of evil are bound or destroyed, and the New Jeru- salem comes down out of heaven as a ' bride adorned for her husband ' (212) ; • she is the Bride, the wife of the Lamb * lib »■ cf. •221').
Summary. — Such were the life and teaching of the Church in NT times. If we compare them with that of the succeeding age, two features stand out as specially characteristic of the earlier jieriod. The first is the much more vivid conscious- ness of the power and presence of God in His Church. The apostles, who were daily with them, had all been in close contact with tlie Lord, and most of them during a period of some years. "The ri.sen Lord was to them a living memory, and they imparted to the Church the force of tliat memory in all its freshness. The power of the Holy Ghost also was a fact of which men were more directly conscious in themselves than at any other time. Never have the central truths of Christianity — the position of Christ and the significance of His death — been more powerfully realized, and at no time has the Christian life in its practice been more closely connected with, and derived from, that belief. To the fixed apostolic tradition of doctrine and life all succeeding ages have looked as their authority. But in the strongest contrast with this fixedness of doctrine and moral life, stands the freedom from formal conditions in questions out- side these. Thus, if we turn to the organization we notice the informal way in which ollices grew up, and the comparative absence (until the close of the period) of a fixed division of labour. It is char- acteristic also of the time, that most of the technical terms are used also in a general sense, e.g. irpfa- ^impos, SiaKOfOi {StaKovia, diaKov^u) SiSdaKaXos. Or, if we turn to the worship, we are struck by the freedom of speech, the absence of exclusive minis- terial rights, of a formal liturgy and fixed ritual, excejit in the case of baptism, faying on of hands, and the Eucharist. In the tran.'iition period immediately following the apostolic age came the fixing of organization with its clear-cut division of labour, and the stereotyping of liturgies and ritual. And along with the.se developments came, at once their cause and their ell'ect, the decline of the prophet and prophecy.
Oenkral LiTBRATimB ON CHURCH. — The Church Histories of the Apostolic age ; esp Neander, Hist. 0/ the i'lajitiug and Training 0/ tlm Christian Church (Eng.), 1861 ; Thiersch, Uist. of Chritttittn Church in Ap. Aye (Eng.), 1852; llaur, Church Uist. 0/ the First Three Centuries (Kng.\ 1879 ; Renan, Ori^jities du Christitmistne, 1S33 ; Schaff, hist, qf Ap. Affe, 1886; Lechler, Ap. Age (Eng.), 188(1 ; Fressens6, L« sifcie apostolupu, 1889 ; iloller, Ch. Utst. (Eng.), 1892; Weirsiicker, Ap. Age (Eng.), 18i)5. Further, Kostlin. Das Wesen der hirche naeh Lehre und (iesch. des NT, 1872 ; Secberg, Der Bfgrif der christlichcn Kirclie, 1887 ; Uamack, Ilist. 0/ Dogma (Eng.), 1894.
S. C. Gayfohd. CHURCH GOVERNMENT IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. — Our knowledge of Church government in the ajiostolic age comes almost entirely from the N f . We can glean something from Clement and the Teaching ; but with Ignatius we are already in a new age, and later writers are too full of later ideas to help us much. Besides this, things were in a lluid and transitional state, com- jilicated on one side by the indefinite autliority held in reserve by the apostles, on the other by the ministry of gifts, which was crossed, but not yet displaced, by the local ministry of ollice.
'fhe general development is clear, though its later stages may fall outside NT times. The apostles were of necessity the first rulers of tiio C^iurch ; then were lulded gnulually divers local and unlocal rulers; then the unloiafdied out, and the local settled down into the three permanent
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orders of bishops, elders, and deacons. The chief disputed questions are of the origin of the local ministry, of its relation to the other, and of the lime and manner in which it settled down.
Twice over St. Paul gives somethinj; like a list of thechiefpersonsof the Church. In ICo l2''*hecounts up 'first, apostles; second, |)ro|ihets ; third, teadiers; then powers ; then t;ift.s of healings, hel|i.s, govern- ments, kinds of tongues.' A few years later (Ejih 4") his list of gifts for the work of service {SuLwia) is 'some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.' At the head, then, of both lists is the Apostle. Tlie apostles were not limited to the Eleven, or to tlie numljer twelve. Whether our Lord ever recognized Matthias or not, Paul and Harnabas {e.g. 1 Co 9') were certainly apostles, and we may safelj' add (Gal !''■') James the Lords brother. There are traces of others, and the old disciples Andronicus and Junias (Ko 16") even seem to be called ' notable ' apostles. On the other hand, Timothy is tacitly ('2 Co I') excluded. The apostle's qualification was fir.st and foremost to have seen (Ac I—, 1 Co 9''-) the risen Lord, and to have been sent out by Him ; secondly, to have wrought (2 Co 12'-) 'the apostle's signs.' His work was to bear witness of the things he had seen and heard {e.g. Ac 1') — in short, to preach ; and this implied the founding and general care of Churches, though not their ordinary ad- ministration. St. Paul interferes only with gross errors or with corporate disorder ; and he does not advise the Corinthians on further questions with- out hinting that they might have settled them for themselves. His mission was (1 Co 1") simply to preach, so that he had no Iccal ties, but moved from city to city, sometimes working for a while from a centre, but more commonlj' moving about.