This is the essential mode of describing the Church which has found place in the Reformation creeds. Some vary in the ways in which they express the thought; some do not sufficiently distinguish, in words at least, between what the Church is and what it has, between what makes its being and what is included in its well-being. But in all there are the two thoughts that the Church is made visible by the two fundamental things-the proclamation of the word and the manifestation of faith.
This mode of describing the Church of Christ defines it by that element which separates it from all other forms of human a.s.sociation-its special relation to the divine; and it is shown to be visible at the place where that divine element can and does manifest itself. It defines the Church by its most essential element, and sets aside all that is accidental. It concerns itself with what the Church is, and does not include what the Church has. It therefore provides room for all things which belong to the well-being of the Church-only it relegates them to their proper place.(439)
If the proclamation of the Word of G.o.d, and the manifestation of the faith which answers, be the essence of the Church, all that tends to aid both is to be included in the thought. There must be a ministry of some sort in word and sacrament inst.i.tuted within the Church of Christ in order to lead the individual to faith. G.o.d has created this ministry, and all the Reformed Churches were careful to declare that no one should seek entrance into office unless he was a.s.sured that he had been called of G.o.d thereto; and as his function is to be a minister of the Church and a servant of the faithful, no one "should publicly teach or administer the sacraments unless he be duly called (_nisi rite vocatus_)." Such a ministry has its field simply in ministering the means of grace. "The Church of Christ,"
says Luther, "requires an honest ministry diligently and loyally instructed in the holy Word of G.o.d after a pure Christian understanding, and without the addition of any false traditions. In and through such a ministry it will be made plain what are Christ and His Evangel, how to attain to the forgiveness of sins, and the properties and power of the _keys_ in the Church."
All this is matter of administration. Some societies of believers may have different ideas about the precise form that this ministry ought to take; but such differences, while they may lead to separate administrations, do not imply any separation from the one Catholic Church of Christ to which they all belong. However outwardly they differ, all retain the essential things-the preaching and teaching of the Word of G.o.d and the due administration of the sacraments. Some may prefer to set forth a creed of one kind and others may prefer another. The French, the Scottish, and the Dutch Churches had all their own creeds, and all believed each other to be parts of the same One Catholic Church of Christ.
"When we affirm," says Calvin, "the pure ministry of the Word, and our order in the celebration of the Sacraments, to be a sufficient pledge and earnest that we may safely embrace the society in which both these are found as a true Church, we carry the observation to this point, that such a society should never be rejected as long as it continues in these things, although it may be chargeable in other respects with many errors."(440)
Within this Christian fellowship, which is the Church of Christ, the sense by which we see G.o.d is awakened and our faith is nourished and quickened.
The Word of G.o.d speaks to us not merely in the public worship of the faithful, but in and through the lives of the brethren; their deeds act on us as the simple stories of experience and providence which the Scriptures contain. G.o.d"s Word speaks to us in a thousand ways in the lives and sympathies of the brethren. The Christian "receives the revelation of G.o.d in the living relationships of the Christian brotherhood, and its essential contents are that personal life of Jesus which is visible in the gospel and which is expounded by the lives of the redeemed."(441)
"The Christian Church," says Luther, "keeps all words of G.o.d in its heart, and turns them round and round, and keeps their connection with one another and with Scripture! Therefore, anyone who is to find Christ must first find the Church. How could anyone know where Christ is and faith in Him is, unless he knew where His believers are? Whoever wishes to know something about Christ must not trust to himself, nor by the help of his own reason build a bridge of his own to heaven, but must go to the Church, must visit it and make inquiry. Now the Church is not wood and stone, but the company of people who believe in Christ. With these he must unite and see how they believe, live, and teach, who a.s.suredly have Christ among them. For outside the Christian Church there is no truth, no Christ, no blessedness."(442)
For these reasons the Church deserves to be called, and is, the Mother of all Christians.