SUNDAY COLUMN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 113, 25 February 1950, Page 3

SUNDAY COLUMN

THE MARKS OF THE CHURCH (CONDUCTED BY THE ASHBURTON MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION). “He is the Head of the Body, the Church.” —Colossians 1: 18. Let us consider, in very summary form, a few indisputable facts about the Church —facts which distinguish the Church from all other societies on earth. (1) The Church is a local fact, evidenced such by the meeting of Christians in a visible fellowship of worship, work and witness. (2) The Church is a world fact, since it is represented in every land under heaven and unites in this wider fellowship people of every nation, tribe and tongue. It is “catholic” in the sense of “universal.” (3) The Church-is an abiding fact. It has outlived countless persecutions and, even more remarkable, the evident unworthiness of many of its professed members, to say nothing of its appointed offices. Again and again it has seemed oir- the point of dissolution, but has always revived. \ (4) The Church everywhere has the Bible, which tells of (a) the preparation of Christ, (b) the life and teachging, death and resurrection of Christ, (c) the beginnings of the Church itself, (d) the faith of the earliest apostles of Christianity. (5) The Church everywhere proclaims the Gospel, that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” and that “Jesus is Lord.”

(6) The Church everywhere calls people to the Chritsian way of life, as declared by Jesus and His apostles —the way of faith, hope and love'. (7) The Church everywhere observes the Lord’s Day as a weekly celebration of the Lord’s resurrection. (8) The Church everywhere celebrates baptism as the rite of initiation into its fellowship and the Lord’s Supper (under various names) as the commemoration of His atoning death. (9) The Church is the agency through which the Spirit of Christ continues His work in the world. It is, in a very real sense, “an extension of the Incarnation,” since it is the Body of which He is the Living Head. We are justified in drawing a distinction between the “visible” and the “invisible” Church, as St. Augustine did. Some church-members, we fear, are not really ■ Christians: their profession is only a form. The true «invisible” Church is constituted by those whom Christ will own as His. We may also include in the Church —“the communion of saints” —the members of the Church triumphant in heaven as well as those belonging to the Church militant on earth. Though the Church is set to witness on earth, its fellowship transcends death, for it is a fellowship of life eternal. This summary, it will be observed, reveals a unity which transcends all denominational and sectarian differences. This is what makes possible such a body as, “The World Council of Churches,” and this is what we mean when we say, “I believe in the Holy Universal Church, the Communion of Faints.” (E. S. Kiek).