2.  Another thing which is taught by this definition is this, that the Church of Christ is a whole made up of manifold diversities.  We are told here it is “the whole family,” taking into it the great and good of ages past, now in heaven; and also the struggling, the humble, and the weak now existing upon earth.  Here again, the analogy holds good between the Church and the family.  Never more than in the family is the true entirety of our nature seen.  Observe how all the diversities of human condition and character manifest themselves in the family.

First of all, there are the two opposite poles of masculine and feminine, which contain within them the entire of our Humanity—­which together, not separately, make up the whole of man.  Then there are the diversities in the degrees and kinds of affection.  For when we speak of family affection, we must remember that it is made up of many diversities.  There is nothing more different than the love which the sister bears towards the brother, compared with that which the brother bears towards the sister.  The affection which a man bears towards his father is quite distinct from that which he feels towards his mother; it is something quite different towards his sister; totally diverse again, towards his brother.

And then there are diversities of character.  First the mature wisdom and stern integrity of the father; then the exuberant tenderness of the mother.  And then one is brave and enthusiastic, another thoughtful, and another tender.  One is remarkable for being full of rich humour, another is sad, mournful, even melancholy.  Again, besides these, there are diversities of condition in life.  First, there is the heir, sustaining the name and honour of the family; then perchance the soldier, in whose career all the anxiety and solicitude of the family is centred; then the man of business, to whom they look up, trusting his advice, expecting his counsel; lastly perhaps, there is the invalid, from the very cradle trembling between life and death, drawing out all the sympathies and anxieties of each member of the family, and so uniting them all more closely, from their having one common point of sympathy and solicitude.  Now, you will observe that these are not accidental, but absolutely essential to the idea of a family; for so far as any one of them is lost, so far the family is incomplete.  A family made up of one sex alone, all brothers and no sisters; or in which all are devoted to one pursuit; or in which there is no diversity of temper and dispositions—­the same monotonous repeated identity—­a sameness in the type of character—­this is not a family, it is only the fragment of a family.

And precisely in the same way all these diversities of character and condition are necessary to constitute and complete the idea of a Christian Church.  For as in ages past it was the delight of the Church to canonize one particular class of