king to Him for salvation, and are bringing forth the
fruits of holiness to His praise and glory.

The Lord Jesus Christ did not, during His ministry, set up a Church as
an outward organisation. He was Himself to be the Church's foundation;
but in order to be qualified for this office it was necessary that He
should first lay down His life. The work of building and extending, in
so far as it was to be effected by human agency, must be undertaken by
others after His departure. He came to fulfil the law, and so He was not
sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He worshipped,
accordingly, in the Jewish temple and synagogues, observed the
sacraments and festivals of the Old Testament Church, and during His
earthly ministry bade His disciples observe and do whatsoever the men
who sat in Moses' seat commanded. "The faithful saying, worthy of all
acceptation," with which the Christian Church was to be charged as God's
message to the world, was not yet published, for Christ had still to
suffer and enter into His glory, and the Holy Ghost had yet to be sent
by the Father before the standard of the Church could be set up. While
the Church rests on Christ, it is founded upon His Apostles also, to
whom He committed the work for which He had prepared them, and for which
He was still further to qualify them by bestowing power from on high.
The gifts which He received for men when He ascended were needed to
equip them for the work of founding that Church, which became a
possibility only through His death and resurrection. Applying to them
the redemption purchased by Christ, the Holy Ghost wrought in and with
them, and crowned their labours with success. The Christian Church was
set up on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came down upon a
band of believers assembled at Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the
Father. Under His inspiration Peter preached the first Christian sermon
with such power that the same day there were added unto the Church three
thousand souls.

The Church is termed the _Holy_ Catholic Church. When the epithet "holy"
is applied to the Church, it is not meant that all who profess faith in
Jesus Christ and are in connection with the visible Church, are holy, or
that any of them are altogether holy. Our Lord taught that while in the
world His Church would contain a mixture of good and bad. He likened it
to a net in which good and bad fishes are caught, and to a field in
which wheat and tares gr