than sympathy with virtue; whose indignation towards that which is wrong and hypocritical was more intense than their love for that which is good:  the material, the character, out of which the reformer and the prophet, those who are called to do great works on earth, are made.

The Church of Christ takes not in one individual form of goodness merely, but every form of excellence that can adorn Humanity.  Nor is this wonderful when we remember Who He was from whom this Church was named.  It was He in whom centred all excellence—­a righteousness which was entire and perfect.  But when we speak of the perfection of righteousness, let us remember that it is made not of one exaggerated character, but of a true harmony, a due proportion of all virtues united.  In Him were found therefore, that tenderness towards sinners which had no sympathy with sin; that humility which could be dignified, and was yet united with self-respect; that simplicity which is ever to be met with, side by side with true majesty; that love which could weep over Jerusalem at the very moment when He was pronouncing its doom, that truth and justice which appeared to stand as a protection to those who had been oppressed, at the same time that He scathed with indignant invective the Pharisees of the then existing Jews.

There are two, only two, perfect Humanities.  One has existed already in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the other is to be found only in the collective Church.  Once, only once, has God given a perfect representation of Himself, “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person.”  And if we ask again for a perfect Humanity, the answer is, it is not in this Church or in that Church, or in this man or in that man, in this age or in that age, but in the collective blended graces and beauties, and humanities, which are found in every age, in all churches, but not in every separate man.  So, at least, Paul has taught us, “Till we all come”—­collectively not separately—­“in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man”—­in other words, to a perfect Humanity—­“unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

3.  The last thing which is taught us by this definition is, that the Church of Christ is a society which is for ever shifting its locality, and altering its forms.  It is the whole church, “the whole family in heaven and earth.”  So then, those who were on earth, and are now in heaven, are yet members of the same family still.  Those who had their home here, now have it there.

Let us see what it is that we should learn from this doctrine.  It is this, that the dead are not lost to us.  There is a sense in which the departed are ours more than they were before.  There is a sense in which the Apostles Paul, or John, the good and great of ages past, belong to this age