sentiment towards their fellows. These terms go a great deal deeper than
the nickname which the wits of Antioch invented. The members of the
Church were not content with the vague 'Christian,' but they called
themselves 'saints,' 'believers,' 'brethren.' One designation does not
appear here, which we must take into account for completeness: the
earliest of all--disciples. Now, I purpose to bring together these four
names, by which the early believers thought and spoke of themselves, in
order to point the lessons as to our position and our duty, which are
wrapped up in them. And I may just say that, perhaps, it is no sign of
advance that the Church, as years rolled on, accepted the world's name
for itself, and that people found it easier to call themselves
'Christians'--which did not mean very much--than to call themselves
'saints' or 'believers.'

Now then, to begin with,

I. They were 'Disciples' first of all.

The facts as to the use of that name are very plain, and as instructive
as they are plain. It is a standing designation in the Gospels, both in
the mouths of friends and of outsiders; it is sometimes, though very
sparingly, employed by Jesus Christ Himself. It persists on through the
book of the Acts of the Apostles, and then it stops dead, and we never
hear it again.

Now its existence at first, and its entire abandonment afterwards, both
seem to me to carry very valuable lessons. Let me try to work them out.
Of course, 'disciple' or 'scholar' has for its correlative--as the
logicians call it--'teacher.' And so we find that as the original
adherents of Jesus called themselves 'disciples,' they addressed Him as
'Master,' which is the equivalent of 'Rabbi.' That at once suggests the
thought that to themselves, and to the people who saw the origination of
the little Christian community, the Lord and His handful of followers
seemed just to be like John and his disciples, the Pharisees and their
disciples, and many another Rabbi and his knot of admiring adherents.
Therefore whilst the name was in one view fitting, it was conspicuously
inadequate, and as time went on, and the Church became more conscious of
the uniqueness of the bond that knit it to Jesus Christ, it
instinctively dropped the name 'disciple,' and substituted others more
intimate and worthy.

But yet it remains permanently true, that Christ's followers are
Christ's scholars, and that He is their Rabbi and Teacher. Only the
peculiarity, the absol