to the sick; another, by his considerate kindness to the poor; and another, by his judicious treatment of the indolent, the insincere, and the improvident.  One elder excelled as an awakening preacher; another, as a sound expositor; and another, as a sagacious counsellor:  whilst another still, who never ventured to address the congregation, and whose voice was seldom heard at the meetings of the eldership, could go to the house of mourning, or the chamber of disease, and there pour forth the fulness of his heart in most appropriate and impressive supplications.  Every one was taught to appreciate the talents of his neighbour, and to feel that he was, to some extent, dependent on others for his own edification.  The preaching elder could not say to the ruling elders, “I have no need of you;” neither could the elders say to the deacons, “We have no need of you.”  When the sweet singer was absent, every one admitted that the congregational music was less interesting; when the skilful penman removed to another district, the Church soon began to complain of a scarcity of copies of the sacred manuscripts; and even when the pious widow died in a good old age, the blank was visible, and the loss of a faithful servant of the Church was acknowledged and deplored.  “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee:  nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” [247:1]

CHAPTER III.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.

The Israelites were emphatically “a peculiar people.”  Though amounting, in the days of our Lord, to several millions of individuals, they were all the lineal descendants of Abraham; and though two thousand years had passed away since the time of their great progenitor; they had not meanwhile intermingled, to any considerable extent, with the rest of the human family.  The bulk of the nation still occupied the land which had been granted by promise to the “father of the faithful;” the same farms had been held by the same families from age to age; and probably some of the proprietors could boast that their ancestors, fifteen hundred years before, had taken possession of the very fields which they now cultivated.  They had all one form of worship, one high priest, and one place of sacrifice.  At stated seasons every year all the males of a certain age were required to meet together at Jerusalem; and thus a full representation of the whole race was frequently collected in one great congregation.