tain qualifications described by the Apostle Paul, and which you will find in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, you will have advanced in maturity so as no more to be the infant, but, like the Churches in Crete, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, when they for the first time produced officers. (Tit. i. 5; Acts xiv. 21-23.)

Therefore, you will be ready to commence another step in advance, by the election of officers for your further wellbeing. Your having been for some time in a state of infancy will have done this for your benefit, that it will have proved who amongst you are the most likely to promote your further growth. An actual knowledge and experience of persons by your company, is far better than that which you could obtain from information embodied in the recommendations of one or two strangers. And to be able to rise superior to that certain mark of ignorance which instinctively prefers the strange prophet to the one at home, will demonstrate that you have passed your nonage, and are thriving in reality. I must now consider you with your officers as more organized, not more of a Church than before, but more efficient. Many things you must have had already attended to by one and another of your number spontaneously, and not by appointment: namely, such things as minuting your names, your subscriptions, and your resolutions; by which such had before manifested their compctence, and their faithfulness, and their zeal. Now the probability will be, those persons will be among the officers elected. And by the election of them to office, they will receive your acknowledgment of the

benefit of their services, and determination to give them your guarantee that they may never be weary in well-doing. Now, be careful to see that you do consolidate your exertions, and that your officers do exhibit the renewed ardour of youth, so as to get all those institutions or means for the instruction of the members in every grace and in every gift into active operation; and that your officers do themselves improve; for if they do not themselves improve in efficiency, and you seek by other means to advance your cause, either by catching at numbers or otherwise, you will be likely to commit a fatal error. As you were in your infancy at first without officers, so your officers will have to continue in their infancy, until they have, by the maturity of their efforts, produced a favourable effect upon the body at large. You will be at liberty to add to your officers. So that you can proceed adding fresh strength to your colleges of office-bearers, until the whole presents a harmonious combination of every gift and every grace that should adorn a Church.

After this, the greater increase of the Church may be expected; and it may be the work of the day (after being thus prepared) to welcome accessions. Recollect that this of increase, though it is not to be neglected, yet is not the chief point to be urged before you are as a company matured, and as an organized body exercised in every good word and work. The more the people are in numbers, the more work there will be in every proper department of the Church. And if you employ means to draw and

collect multitudes before you have the power to meet all their requirements, your popularity may prove your ruin; and in some cases it must checked.

You may, perhaps, be desirous to know how long a course of time this process would occupy; to which I would say, that it depending upon circumstances, over which you could not have an absolute control, the duration must be regulated by facts as they transpire; and, therefore, no definite period can be assigned. But do not allow yourselves, for this cause, to be discouraged. It is only once in a life that infancy occurs; and a Church is a never-dying community. The grand end of its organization is, that it may possess that vitality which may carry on its existence to the end of time. The mature life of a healthy Church is a great object, therefore be not sparing in zeal and endeavours to secure a good foundation. If the Lord should bless you with ample assistance, it may be a far shorter work than that of raising an ordinary one-minister Church. But whether short or long, recollect that the prosperity of your individual souls is not to be involved in any delay; your personal growth may be great, though, as a united body, not strong. And let those whose souls flourish have recourse to the holy means well known to the praying Daniels and wrestling Jacobs, and God will appear.

Two more remarks, and then I will conclude this head: The one relating to the number of members which should compose a Church, the other to the number of its office-bearers. We find no number any

where laid down in Scripture for the former, therefore conclude that they are bounded by relative circumstances of existence and convenience; that there be enough always to make a meeting, yet not more numerous than can conveniently meet in one place every Lord's day. They may, therefore, range from half a dozen individuals to two or three thousand. As to the number of the officers, it is nowhere limited in Scripture, except in the case of election of deacons. (Acts vii.); when the Apostles directed them to choose seven. Take this in connection with the fact, that in that Church there were the Apostles, and many pastors and teachers (Acts xiii. 1), and it would seem that the relative importance of the duty to be discharged demands a larger number of bishops than deacons.

In the second place, you must pay specific attention to the requisite circumstances of locality where the Church is to assemble. Locality is an essential concomitant of Church existence, because composed of material persons, and because these persons, to become a Church, must assemble together, and form one congregation. And by a necessary consequence, the further convenience of a suitable building follows. Of course the place will be where you can gather the Church, and where the Church chooses to assemble. But, supposing you had to select a locality, let it be as near as you can judge the centre of the range of the residences of the members, and easy and ready of access on every hand. The building which you will want on this site must be every way adapted to

answer the purposes which a fully organized and active Church would require for its various meetings and officers. Regard paid to these matters is important, inasmuch as the building is part of the necessary machinery you must employ to accomplish your glorious objects. This place, or building, should comprise a large room for the meetings of the Church, and smaller rooms for each of the two colleges of officers, in which they may meet to transact their duties, and where the members of the Church may at all proper times meet with them. Other rooms for Committees of the Church, class meetings, and other meetings of the Church members for the edification of themselves and others. Also, a commodious readingroom, with library, for the use of the Church and its officers. In addition to which, the Church should possess buildings in the different neighbourhoods around the circle of its influence, in which every Lord's day, and at all other suitable times, the Gospel might be freely and constantly preached to all.

Now, all this machinery cannot be set in operation at first, nor could this be created but as the strength of the Church advances, hence we have to look to this summary of means as the fruit of combined prosperity and judicious zeal. The little band composing the infant Church will at first require only a room in which to assemble, and then as many other rooms as they can occupy with gifted members to hold forth the word of life to all. As the assemblies increase in numbers, so must the rooms be exchanged for those which are larger, and if all were public buildings, it would be preferable.