Dedicatory.

This work is dedicated to the Church of all communions of which Christ is the head, (Eph. v: 23) with a strong desire and earnest prayer that all persons, into whose hands it shall come, may receive a quickening from the Holy Spirit, who will lead to the highest attainment of spiritual life, and to the greatest activity in the interest of the Church and the salvation of precious souls.

Dear reader, as your eyes run over this dedicatory note and the pages which follow, join your prayer with the author that strife between churches shall forever cease, and each in the other may see redeemed souls, and manifest such a love towards each other, that all men shall know that we are the disciples of Christ. (John xiii: 35). This cannot be assumed, or put on like a garment; it must be of the heart as a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing the world needs to see so much as Christ in professors of Christianity.

Yours in Jesus,

THE AUTHOR.

Introduction.

The Christian church is founded as the depository of revealed truth, and in it is the substance of the Divine revelation. St. Paul declares it to be the "body" of Christ, consisting of many members, the organ of the Divine life and manifestation (Eph. i: 22, 23; iv: 15, 16). It is indwelt of God, the "habitation of God through the Spirit." Therefore God is immanent in all its parts. Through it men are to find acquaintance with God; and through it He is to reveal and dispense himself to men.

It is the organ of the divine activities. Through it God carries forward his plans, accomplishes His purposes, and brings to pass His holy will. He is invisible; the Church is His open attestation and form, and in it He lives, moves, and has His being. There is perpetuated in it an extension of the incarnation, passion and sufferings of Christ and of His cross. These are projected forward through each succeeding generation, are resident in it, and make it a living Church. Without these it becomes dead.

It is possessed of a universal character. It belongs to every age, generation, clime, people and nation. It is heaven-born, and earth-wide in its spirit. It is the gift of God to mankind in their universality, wherever they may dwell. It recognizes no barriers in reaching the object of its desire. It leaps the rivers, scales the mountain ranges, spans the great seas and oceans, and laughs at the desert's burning sands, in its zeal and ardor to impart its joyful message, of pardon and redemption, to the lost image of Jehovah. It folds the great continents of the earth in its arms, and bends tenderly over the isles of the seas, exultingly proclaiming 'The world for Christ, and Christ for the world.

God, through the Holy Spirit, is present in it, directing its operations, assigning its services, and giving it organized form and strength. It embraces men in their weakness, blindness, selfishness, and earth-born inspirations. To overcome these is its mission. He knows the opposing, and almost indestructible powers with which it is to contend. He knows the feebleness, inconstancy, and falsity of mankind which He proposes to reconstruct and regenerate. He knows how far below the actual men may fall in seeking to establish the Divine ideal upon which His Church is founded. He knew it all before the beginning. He knew what the history of His Church would be; what organic forms it would assume, what divisions it would present; what failures it would record; and what diversity it would embrace. He knew all this, and yet He is present in it, through it all.

It cannot be wisely said that the various divisions of Christendom, presented in the different religious denominations, are altogether uncalled for, out of place, and entirely without the Divine approval, if it really is believed that God is immanent in the Church, directing its course and giving counsel to its various members.

...While on the surface there may seem to be a confusing and disturbing scene, nevertheless, in the deeper strata of its life, there will be found a faithful unity inhering in the midst of its apparent diversity, like a white light in which God dwells. The highest proof of the inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures is found in the fact that out of its sixty-six different books, representing as many writers, who lived centuries removed from each other, there is a striking unity running through them all; and that unity witnesses that God is the author of them all. Likewise, there is seen in the different members of the Church an unbroken unity which testifies that God is present in them all. And if present, He affords them some measure of His approval, signifying that for the end to be reached, and under the everchanging conditions of the world, under the present circumstances, it is best.

The statements concerning the teachings of the Holy Scriptures have ever been a source of division. But ultimately these emerge out of the arena of polemics clothed with their right mind, and assume a permanent residence in the thoughts of men. Those given in this work are apt, free from bigotry, and well illustrative of the sentence that time has put upon them.

The missionary spirit of the Church represents the measure of its spiritual force and evangelical power. The work of missions is part of Church history, that part which towers above all others in witnessing the Divine. The form in which information concerning the world-wide missionary movements of the Church is set forth in this volume cannot fail of being useful to all who are interested in the success of Christian missions.

The Gospel in every age, through the spirit of self-sacrifice and unearthly devotion, has made the names of some men immortal. These names stand forth as brilliant lights set in the midst of earth's darkness, by which God has piloted the Church safely through the seas of bitterness and bloodshed which have. attended its history. A peculiar flavor attaches to these names, the names of great Christian reformers, which is always engrossing and inspiring to those who later come upon the stage of the world's service and work. A list of these is aptly included in the history of the Church itself. Without these it would be incomplete.

This volume contains a fund of information indespensable to every Bible student. Its present form represents a prodigious amount of painstaking labor, carried on through many years of constant application. The Christian public is brought under obligations to the author and compiler for performing so large a service of so great worth.

Memphis, N. Y.

A. W. HALL.