in particular." To the Ephesians, he says, "There is _one
Body_, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
all[3]."

And, further, it is to this one Body, regarded as one, that the special
privileges of the Gospel are given. It is not that this man receives
the blessing, and that man, but one and all, the whole body, as one
man, one new spiritual man, with one accord, seeks and gains it. The
Holy Church throughout the world, "the Bride, the Lamb's wife," is one,
not many, and the elect souls are all elected in her, not in isolation.
For instance; "He is our peace who hath made both [Jews and Gentiles]
one, . . . to make in Himself of twain _one new man_." In the same
Epistle, it is said, that all nations are "_fellow_-heirs, and of _the
same body_, and _fellow-partakers_ of His promise in Christ;" and that
we must "one and all come," or converge, "in the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;" that as "the husband
is the head of the wife," so "Christ is the Head of the Church," having
"loved it and given Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word[4]." These are a few out of
many passages which connect Gospel privileges with the circumstance or
condition of unity in those who receive them; the image of Christ and
token of their acceptance being stamped upon them _then_, at that
moment, when they are considered as _one_; so that henceforth the whole
multitude, no longer viewed as mere individual men, become portions or
members of the indivisible Body of Christ Mystical, so knit together in
Him by Divine Grace, that all have what He has, and each has what all
have.

The same great truth is taught us in such texts as speak of all
Christians forming one spiritual building, of which the Jewish Temple
was the type. They are temples one by one, simply as being portions of
that one Temple which is the Church. "Ye are _built up_," says St.
Peter, "a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Hence the word
"edification," which properly means this building up of all Christians
in one, has come to stand for individual improvement; for it is by
being incorporated into the one Body, that we have the promise of life;
by becoming members of Chr