3. Accordingly our Lord after his resurrection, in giving his commission to the Church, said : " Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and lo, I am with you al- ways, even unto the end of the world." (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.) In Mark xvi. 15, the commission reads thus : "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." This commis- sion prescribes the present duty of the Church ; one that is not to be deferred or languidly performed until a new and more ef- fective dispensation be inaugurated. The promise of Christ to be with his Church, as then commissioned, to the end of the world, implies that its obligation to teach the nations is to con- tinue until the final consummation.
4. Having imposed upon his Church the duty to preach the Gospel to every creature under heaven, He endowed it with all the gifts necessary for the proper discharge of this duty, and promised to send his Spirit to render their preaching effectual. " He gave some, Apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers." Of these officers some were temporary, their peculiar function being the founding and organizing the Church ; some were permanent. Their common object was the perfecting of the saints. Their mission and duties were and are to continue until " all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Eph. iv. 11-13.) The duties of the ministry, therefore, are to continue until all, that is, all believers, the whole Church, or, as our Lord says, all the elect, are gathered in and brought to the stature of perfection in Christ.
5. The Apostles understood their commission in this sense and entered on their duties with a clear view of the task set before them. Our Lord, in his high-priestly prayer said concerning them, " As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." He would not leave them alone ; He promised to send the Paraclete, the Helper, who should bring all things to their remembrance ; He would give them a mouth and a wisdom which all their adversaries should be unable to gainsay or resist. The Spirit was to abide with them and dwell in them, so that it would not be they who spoke, but the Spirit of the Fa- ther who spoke in them ; that Spirit was to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; He was to render their