Lord.”  Some in Gentile cities had been members of artisan societies, guilds with benefits in case of sickness or death, not unlike lodges among ourselves; and many hints, and perhaps offices (the overseer or bishop, for instance) were taken from them.  Some had been familiar with the Roman relationship of patron and client, and when the little groups of converts were gathered together in a wealthier Christian’s house, he would be given something of the position of the Roman patronus.  Still others had been trained in the synagogue, either as Jews or as proselytes, and would naturally follow its organization in their Christian synagogues.  There seems to have been variety of form, and along with this variety a felt and expressed unity, with freest intercommunion and hearty cooeperation for the evangelization of the world.  Throughout there was democracy, so that even a leader so conscious of divine authority as Paul appeals to the rank and file, “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.”

In worship, the Church from its early days had the two fixed rites of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; but beside them were most informal meetings for mutual inspiration.  “What is it then, brethren:  When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation.  Let all things be done unto edifying.”  Here was room for variety to suit the needs of many temperaments.

And in doctrine there is a similar freedom.  One can see in all the Christian speakers and writers in the New Testament an underlying unity in great convictions:—­the God and Father of Jesus Christ is their one God; Jesus is their one Lord; they are possessed and controlled by the one Spirit of love; they are confident in a victorious hope; they draw inspiration from the historic facts of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection.  But they interpret their inspirations in forms that fit in with their mental habits.  The fisherman Peter does not think with the mind of the theologically trained Paul, nor does the unspeculative James phrase his beliefs in terms identical with those of the writer to the Hebrews.

Jesus left His Spirit in a group of men; that group gradually was forced out of the national Jewish Church, and became the Church of Christ, dominated by His living Spirit and organizing itself for work, worship and teaching, out of the materials at hand among the peoples where it spread.

We have taken this brief retrospect over the origin of the Church not because it is important for us to discover the precise forms the Church took at the start and reproduce them.  It is nowhere hinted in the New Testament that the leaders of these little communities are laying down methods to be followed for all time.  Indeed, they had no such thought, for they expected Jesus to return in their lifetime and set up His Kingdom; and they gave scant attention to forms of organization and doctrine that would last