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HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
Our Saviour upon one occasion gave this command to his disciples: "Gather up the fragments that remain, let nothing be lost." Taking this command, then, in its strictest meaning, we can easily conceive that in matters of public interest it should be religiously observed.
Waiving every other subject that has a bearing upon this precious and necessary command of our Lord, we take up the church as one of the most interesting and important institutions of public concern. The Church in all of its branches, considered in their individual organizations, however widespread it may be, in whatever part of the habitable globe located, is one harmonious whole, forming a unit, a oneness, with Christ as its head. I do not think that I will be charged with any far stretched idea in making the above assertion; whoever reads the constitution which Christ has caused to be published for the government of his church on earth, must necessarily conclude with me, that his church, his visible or universal church, is one: this follows from that constitution, which is the Bible—one in its aim, one in its end, and one in its use. To gather up the history of each individual church, then, should be the aim of each disciple of the Lord Jesus, in order that its existence may be known.
If the church on earth is one, Christ being its head, there is, therefore, a common interest binding them
