ORDINATION
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ORDINATION
not to assume personal or official prerogatives, but to employ the Gospel plan of salvation as the one and only agency for securing the remission of sins. In so doing they faithfully warned the wicked of their certain con- dernnation and ruin outside of the provisions of the Gospel, while they taught all men the necessity of prayer and personal faith in Christ as the indispensable condition of pardon and salvation.
2. In the whole apostolic histor\- not a single intima- tion is given of the possibility of the absolution of sin by human or priestly power. On the contrary, that idea was terribly rebuked in the case of the ex-sorcerer Simon, who, although a baptized believer, committed a heinous sin by thinking " that the gift of God might be purchased with money" or imparted by ceremonial acts. For this Peter charged him, saying, " Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee" (Acts viii, 13-24). In this transaction, as well as in his ad- dress to the Jews at Jerusalem, and in fact throughout his entire ministry, the teachings of the apostle Peter illustrate the scriptural doctrine that God onlj' can re- mit sin through the merits of Christ (see Psa. exxx, 4; Dan. ix, 9; Acts v, 31; xiii, 38; xxvi, 18). More- over, in his denunciations of sin and encouragements to righteousness, Peter showed precisely the nature and extent of the apostolic prerogative of the keys, and of binding and loosing, which was no more nor less than that of organizing the Christian Church, and admin- istering its government on the strict principles of moral purity established by the Gospel itself.
It was a sad and ominous day for the cause of Chris- tianity when a different interpretation began to be put upon the Saviour's instructions, and men, lacking the essential elements of Christian experience and all claim to the Holy Spirit's influence, began to imagine and proclaim themselves competent to remit sins, on account of some magical power acquired by clerical ordination. That there was no scriptural foundation for such errors, and that in fact they might have been corrected by due attention to the teachings of the New Testament, may be sho-\v'n from the recorded examples of ordination as practiced by the apostles.
3. The Appointment of Matthias to the Apostle ship. — The peculiar feature in this transaction (see Acts i, 21-26) was a pervading anxiety to ascertain whom the tord had chosen for the vacant place among the com- missioned witnesses of his resurrection. Hence the election or nomination by the Church of two candi- dates, prayer by the apostles, and the casting of lots, to determine which of the two should be numbered with the eleven apostles. In this case, as in those of the Lord's direct appointment, there was no imposition of hands.
4. The Orrlinatinn of the Seven Deacons. — This marked event in the history of the Church occurred in imme- diate sequence of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost at the Pentecost, and from the space allotted to it in the sacred record (Acts vi, 2-6), as well as from the fact that all the apostles were present, it may now be considered, as it doubtless was during the whole apos- tolic period, a model ordination for the subsequent Church. Its characteristic features were: (I) A de- mand for men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom; (2) An election or choice by the Church on that basis; (3) Prayer by the apostles; (4) The lay- ing on of hands, presumably by several of the apostles, as representative of the whole body. In this act the apostles illustrated their ideas of the proper functions of the Church in reference to its future ministers, and established a precedent of perpetual authority. It was a precedent, moreover, in obvious harmony with the precept of our Lord, given in connection with his ap- pointment of the seventy (Luke x, 2), " Pray ye there- fore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest." The apostles evidently re- garded this as the standing commission and perpetual
duty of the Church in reference to the promotion of Christ's kingdom in the earth. In it they saw that the Lord claimed the work of evangelizing the world as his own, and also the prerogative of calling and sending forth laborers, while at the same time he charged the Church with the responsibility of prayer and co-operation. This, too, was in harmony with the Saviour's promised gift of the Holy Ghost as the guide of the Church when he should no longer be present as its visible Head. The Spirit's influence was specially promised in answer to prayer, and it was only a pray- ing Church endowed with the Holy Ghost that could become the light of the world and the agency of its salvation. So long as the Church illustrated these characteristics it gloriously fulfilled its mission. It grew rapidly by the addition of regenerated believers, many of whom, in proportion to the demands of its widening work, were called of God and moved of the Holy Ghost to preach to others the same Gospel that had become to them the power of God unto salvation. The function of the Church, therefore, as to ordination was not to create or bestow the gift of the ministry, but simply to recognise and authenticate it when bestowed by the Head of the Church. Hence ensued prayer that the Lord would show the men whom he had chosen for that work, and the laying on of hands, to express the co-operative action and benediction of the Church.