The church is portrayed as the vital spiritual community where believers gather for worship, encouragement, and mutual growth (Hebrews 10:25). Illustrations often use images of teamwork, like flying geese or kite parts, emphasizing unity, active participation, and shared responsibility in advancing God's kingdom and nurturing faith.
The Church is besieged but preserved, like a burning bush that is not consumed.
This is the state of the Church militant; she is like the ark floating upon the waters, like a lily growing among thorns, like the bush which burned with fire, and was not consumed: so the city of God is always besieged, but never ruined.
— Henry Smith
The Church must reach into all parts of society to bring moral renovation to the world.
The Church must grope her way into the alleys and courts and purifices of the city, and up the broken staircase, and into the bare room, and beside the loathsome sufferer; she must go down into the pit with the miner, into the forecastle with the sailor, into the tent with the soldier, into the shop with the mechanic, into the factory with the operative, into the field with the farmer, into the counting-room with the merchant. Like the air, the Church must press equally on all the surfaces of society; like the sea, flow into every nook of the shoreline of humanity; and, like the sun, shine on things foul and low as well as fair and high, for she was organized, commissioned, and equipped for the moral renovation of the world. Bp. Simpson.
The Church is described by many biblical names illustrating its spiritual identity and role.
Assembly of the Saints; Assembly of the Upright; Body of Christ; Branch of God's Planting; Bride of Christ; Church of God; Church of the Living God; Church of the First-born; City of the Living God; Congregation of Saints; Congregation of the Lord's Poor; Dove; Family in Heaven and Earth; Flock of God; Fold of Christ; General Assembly of the First-born; Golden Candlestick; God's Building; God's Husbandry; God's Heritage; Habitation of God; Heavenly Jerusalem; Holy City; Holy Mountain; Holy Hill; House of God; House of the God of Jacob; House of Christ; Household of God; Inheritance; Israel of God; King's Daughter; Lamb's Wife; Lot of God's Inheritance; Mount Zion; Mountain of the Lord of Hosts; Mountain of the Lord's House; New Jerusalem; Pillar and Ground of the Truth; Place of God's Throne; Pleasant Portion; Sanctuary of God; Sister of Christ; Spiritual House; Spouse of Christ; Strength and Glory of God; Sought out, a City not forsaken; Tabernacle; The Lord's Portion; Temple of God; Temple of the Living God; Vineyard. Date.
True pillars of the Church are firm in faith and transparent in character like alabaster pillars.
In the Cathedral of St. Mark, in Venice, a marvellous building, lustrous with an Oriental splendor far beyond description, there are pillars said to have been brought from Solomon's Temple: these are of alabaster, a substance firm and durable as granite, and yet transparent, so that the light glows through them. Behold an emblem of what all true pillars of the Church should be!—firm in their faith, and transparent in their character; men of simple mould, ignorant of tortuous and deceptive ways, and yet men of strong will, not readily to be led aside, or bent from their uprightness. A few such alabaster men we know; may the great Master Builder place more of them in his temple! Spurgeon.
Quarrels in the Church cause it to waste away instead of advancing its mission.
Any physician will tell you, that if there be fever in the body, if the pulse be one hundred and twenty instead of seventy or eighty, the body will waste and pine away. If there be the fever of ceaseless quarrels and disputations about little crotchets in a Church, or congregation, instead of growing, it will decline; instead of advancing in its majestic mission, it will positively decay, until it die out, a suicide, having turned the weapons that ought to have been combined against the foe against its own bosom, and into its own heart.
— Dr. Cumming
The Church is like a ship tossed by waves but never drowned because Christ steers it.
As a ship upon the sea is tossed upon the waves from one place to another, even so is the Church often tossed in the sea of this world, yet never drowned, because Christ is in it, and holdeth the helm with his hand.
— Cawdray
Stragglers who fall from the Church’s ranks may perish unnoticed, showing the cost of falling away.
There are stragglers in the church, as well as in the army, who fall out of the ranks and are lost. Sometimes they follow the regiment for days, by the ashes of its camp-fires, and subsist as best they can on the charity of the people, and the scraps left by those in camp. They sleep anywhere, or where night overtakes them. Three such from a Minnesota regiment have just arrived, after an absence of two weeks. They fell out of the ranks from sickness and exhaustion, and were thenceforth most truly wayfarers. They dodged guerillas, they slept in the brush, they feasted on the food left in deserted camps, and finally reached a point where they could obtain transportation to their regiment. Stragglers are not always thus fortunate. One found his way, by the aid of a stranger, into the hospital at Sedalia. He was dying even then, and could not give his name or regiment. He was a mere boy, and unequal to the toil of marching. He was wet and cold and weary, and in a few hours died; and we buried him in a nameless grave, thinking of the fond hearts that far away would bleed for tidings of him, the absent, the missing one, never, alas! to return to them. Army Correspondent.
Churches can have members who are spiritually dead yet continue in formal roles and attendance.
Have you ever read "The Ancient Mariner"? I dare say you thought it one of the strangest imaginations ever put together, especially that part where the old mariner represents the corpses of all the dead men rising up to man the ship, — dead men pulling the rope, dead men steering, dead men spreading sails. I thought what a strange idea that was. But do you know that I have lived to see that time? I have seen it done. I have gone into churches, and I have seen a dead man in the pulpit, a dead man as deacon, and a dead man handling the plate, and dead men sitting to hear. Spurgeon.
Churches often lose zeal as they age, with members becoming spiritually inactive and resistant to change.
In the first years of a church, its members are willing to endure hardships, and to make great exertions; but, when once it is prosperous, they desire to take their ease: as one who builds a ship is willing to work all the way from keel to deck until she is launched; thenceforward, he expects the ocean to buoy him up, and the winds to bear him on. The youth-time of churches produces enterprise; their age, indolence. But even this might be borne, did not these dead men sit in the door of their sepulchres, crying out against every living man who refuses to wear the livery of death. I am almost tempted to think, that if, with the end of every pastorate, the church itself were disbanded and destroyed, to be gathered again by the succeeding teacher, we should thus secure an immortality of youth. Beecher.
Despite population growth, evangelical church membership has increased proportionally more over time.
There are several classes of persons who croak over the prospects of Christianity in this country, viz., infidels, backsliders, impracticable religionists, old fogies, and desponding Christians. These individuals are often heard declaring that our churches are losing ground, falling behind the increase of our population. Statistics show, that the ratio of communicants to the inhabitants, ten years of age and upwards, was as follows:—
| In 1500, one communionist for 10 5-6 inhabitants. | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | " 1832, | " | " | " | 7 1-3 | " | | " 1843, | " | " | " | 6 4-25 | " | | " 1850, | " | " | " | 4 31-33 | " | | " 1860, | " | " | " | 4 2-5 | " |
During this same period, the population has increased nearly sixfold: but the communicants of evangelical churches have increased nearly fourteen and one-half fold; or the increase of church-membership has been two and a half times greater than that of the population. Comment is unnecessary. The figures speak louder than rhetoric. D. Dorchester.
Multiple churches in one town can be seen as spiritual fortresses against evil.
CHURCHES, Use of Some years since, there were a couple of gentlemen passing through Rutland, — the one acquainted with, the other a stranger in, the place. As they drew near the upper end of the town, the stranger, pointing to a building, asked, "What is that house occupied for?" — "That is the regular Baptist Church," replied the acquaintance. A few hundred yards farther on, the use of another edifice was inquired after, to which it was replied, "That is the Christian Church." — "Ah, yes!" As they entered the thickly-settled portion of the town, "Why there is another church," remarked the stranger. "Yes: that is the Freewild Baptist Church," said the acquaintance. Below the town, half a mile, they came to another house. "That is the Presbyterian Church," remarked the acquaintance. "Well, I declare!" said the stranger, "Rutland has the most forts to keep the Devil out, of any place of its size that I ever saw."
Controversies in the church are not necessarily evil but reflect the value of true religion.
Reason teacheth us, that, in ignorance and implied belief, it is easy to agree, as colors agree in the dark; or, if any country decline into atheism, then controversies wax dainty, because men do not think religion scarce worth the falling-out for: so it is weak divinity to account controversies an ill sign in the Church. Lord Bacon.
Joining any sincere Christian group is better than remaining outside the faith.
At a Bible Society meeting in England, a Romish priest came on the platform, and said, "Now, gentlemen, here you are telling us we should all take the Bible, and join you. Which shall we join? Here you are, — Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, Quakers, Shakers, and the rest. All claim to be the best. What shall we do?" An Irishman replied, "I answer the gentleman, that, if he will join any one of us, he will be a great deal better than where he is now."
Envy in ministry causes secret slander and opposition to others' success.
Will any workman malign another because he helpeth him to do his master's work? Yet, alas! how common is this heinous crime amidst men of parts and eminency in the Church! They can secretly blot the reputation of such as stand cross to their own; and what they cannot for shame do in plain and open terms, lest they be proved palpable liars and slanderers, they will do in general and malicious intentions, raising suspicions where they cannot fasten accusations. And so far are some gone in this satanical vice, that it is their common practice, and a considerable part of their business, to keep down the estimation of those they dislike, and defame others in the slyest and most plausible way; and some go so far, that they are unwilling that any that are abler than themselves should come into their pulpits, lest they should be applauded above themselves. A fearful thing that any man who hath the least of the fear of God should so envy at God's gifts, and had rather that his carnal hearers were unconverted, and the drowsy not awakened, than that it should be done by another who may be preferred before them. Baxter.
Church members constrained by rigid forms lose freedom to grow and express true faith.
Many churches are like conservatories, in which the members are like a flower in a flower-pot: there it is in the flower-pot, and it cannot get out; and little sticks are put down beside it to keep it in a particular position; and every branch that attempts to go beyond a given point is instantly snipped off in order that the flower may assume an ideal shape. And the members of many churches are like geraniums trained for show, tied up, and constrained in root and branch and stem. There are thousands of people in churches that sit around in their respective rows, and take whatever nourishment is dealt out to them, and grow in just the shape as prescribed for them by those that have them in charge, and have no voice in determining what kind of structure shall be made of them. Beecher.
God uses trials like a jeweler’s tools to polish His church, His precious jewels.
We see in a jeweller's shop, that, as there are pearls and diamonds and other precious stones, there are files, cutting instruments, and many sharp tools for their polishing; and, while they are in the work-house, they are continual neighbors to them, and come often under them. The Church is God's jewel; his work-house, where his jewels are polishing for his palace and house; and those he especially esteems, and means to make the most resplendent, he hath oftenest his tools upon. Leighton.
The church is essential like a lighthouse despite human faults among its members.
Do you ask, "Why not do away with the church, if its members make so many mistakes?" Would you take away the lighthouse, because careless mariners, through wrong observations, run their ships high and dry upon the shore? Would you put out the lamp in your house, because moths and millers burn their wings in it? Beecher.
The Old Testament nourishes and enriches the New Testament Church like a life-giving river.
The Old Testament is the watershed of the New. These deep springs, which irrigate and fructify the New-Testament Church, took their rise from the mountains of Judea, and descended, like the volume of the Nile, to fertilize and fructify the landscape around it.
— Captain Gordon
Rejecting the Bible and church is like refusing healing from a doctor for a broken limb.
There are men who imagine they should do well enough if they could throw the Bible overboard, and the ministers after it, and sink the whole church in the sea. It is as if a man with a shattered limb should think to better himself by thrusting the doctors and their instruments out of doors. They did not break his leg, but only propose to set it. Under the hand of the poorest of them, the limb will be better than if the shattered bone were left to heal unsplintered.
— Beecher
Without Sunday, the visible Church of Christ could not exist on earth.
It is not too much to say, that, without the Sunday, the Church of Christ could not as a visible society exist on the earth. Dr. Macleod.
Uniformity in religion is undesirable; diversity reflects God's beautiful design.
Uniformity in religion is not desirable. It is by no means desirable, even if you could obtain it. For one thing, it is very unbeautiful. A palace with every aspect like every other aspect, and every wing like every other wing, and every window like every other window, and every column like every other column, would be a tame and spiritless palace. A city with every street a second edition of every other street, and every house in every street a second edition of every other house in every other street, would not be a very beautiful city. A landscape without lakes, without rivers, without hills, without mountains, without rocks, without forests, is dead and spiritless. One star differeth from another star in glory, and, if it were not so, would the heavens be as beautiful as they are? Would you like to have the stars all of the same size, divided into equal distances, and measured, as it were, by rule? Are not the stars more beautiful because they are scattered carelessly yonder in the deep blue, sometimes numbers of them together, and at another time a tiny star shining forth almost solitary and alone in the distance? Would the heavens be as beautiful as they are if it were not so? And would it be as beautiful, dear friends, if you could bind every minister to preach the same as every other minister all over England, if there could be one formula, if the prayers and every thing here on the sabbath morning were exactly the same as the prayers in every other place, and if we were in all things exactly alike?
— T. Jones
A child questions why ministers say 'Amen' but never 'A woman' in prayers.
A bright little girl, eight or nine years old, who had heard much talk on the subject of woman's rights, came home from meeting one day, and asked in a somewhat indignant tone, "Mamma, what makes the minister always say Amen? Why don't he ever say A woman?"
A legend illustrates the belief that women speaking in church was considered unlawful.
The legend says, that once, when St. Bernard entered the great church at Spire, Germany, the image of the virgin saluted him, saying, "Good-morrow, Bernard!" He replied, "Oh! your ladyship hath forgot yourself. It is not lawful for a woman to speak in the church."
Children should be allowed in church to hear and be captivated by Christ's commendation.
The Rev. John Brown, in a narrative of his experience, remarks, "I reflect on it as a great mercy, that I was born in a family which took care of my Christian instruction, and in which I had the privilege of God's worship, morning and evening. About the eighth year of my age, I happened, in a crowd, to push into the church at Abernethy, on a Sacrament Sabbath. Before I was excluded, I heard a minister speak much in commendation of Christ; this, in a sweet and delightful manner, captivated my young affections, and has since made me think that children should never be kept out of church on such occasions."
Lukewarmness in the church hinders effective witness and spiritual growth.
A minister of the gospel, in excusing himself and his church for not exerting themselves to instruct and gather in the multitude around them, said, "It is impossible for so large a church as ours, to do much for those out of our body. It takes," said he, "one-third of us to watch the other two-thirds!" What a confession is this! Only one in three possessing the true spirit of Christianity, and he is prevented from being an efficient soldier of the cross, by the lukewarmness and sins of his brethren!
## EVERY PUNISHED.
tion. The unhappy niece, confounded and overwhelmed, could not support the idea of the consequent shame and punishment of her guilt, and she suddenly expired. She was buried at the same time with her aunt.
A minister's rebuke about divisiveness applies personally to each listener, urging self-reflection.
When sitting under the ministry of a devoted servant of God, says a gentleman, he on one occasion preached upon the Diotrephesian spirit. In his usual faithful manner, he pointed out its sad effects upon a church, until in his application he came so close, that I was surprised, knowing, as I did, how delightful the harmony had always been in that church. I soon began to persuade myself, however, that there was a Diotrephes there, but could not satisfy myself who it was. Finally, I ventured to seek information, and turning to a good brother, an elder in the church, I said, Mr. L—, who does Mr. S. mean? "You and me," was his quick reply. I have never asked since, who my minister meant, when he was delivering the message of his Master.
A new convert's disappointment reveals the gap between ideal and real Christian fellowship.
A young lady in Rhode Island, who had been brought up by a pious and devoted mother, and who had always looked up to Christians as patterns of all that was excellent in piety and morality, as forming societies next in their loveliness to that of heaven, was led to repentance, and united with a Christian church. Some time after her baptism, she heard some of the older and leading members of the church, speaking in terms of severity and bitterness respecting the faults and errors of some of the other members; and without appearing grieved at the conduct they so freely censured. Her surprise and disappointment were most painful. Is this, thought she, the boasted fellowship of the church? Can these professors know any thing of the spirit of Christ? She was led to doubt their Christianity; and yet as they had expressed the same attachment to Christ and his cause which she had herself, she was led to think that her own feelings, as well as theirs, were but the kindlings of enthusiasm, the joys of false hopes, and the reveries of an excited imagination. Thus her mind was filled with gloom and despair; she felt she had been most cruelly deceived, and her wretchedness was extreme. She poured out her soul in tears, day and night; but tears proved the food rather than the medicine of her grief. At length she began to be subject to doubts respecting the reality of spiritual religion; she, of course, neglected many of its duties; if she tried to pray, her prayers seemed but foolishness;—at length Jesus Christ became an object of skepticism, and at last she even called in question the existence of a God. And here she remained "in tideless, shoreless wo," till, through the agency of the Providence and Spirit of God, she was led to come to herself, arise and go to her father's house!
Oh! how should such a fact as this urge professed Christians, one and all, to be "kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love," and to put away from among them "all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, with all malice."
A minister tactfully rebukes a congregation for neglecting their care for him.
Rev. Zabeliel Adams at one time exchanged with a neighboring minister—a mild, inoffensive man—who, knowing the peculiar bluntness of his character, said to him, "You will find some panes of glass broken in the pulpit window, and possibly you may suffer from the cold. The cushion, too, is in a bad condition; but I beg of you not to say any thing to my people on the subject; they are poor, &c." "O no! O no!" says Mr. Adams. But ere he left home, he filled a bag with rags and took it with him. When he had been in the pulpit a short time, feeling somewhat incommoded by the too free circulation of the air, he deliberately took from the bag, a handful of the rags, and stuffed them into the windows. Toward the close of his discourse, which was more or less upon the duties of a people toward their clergyman, he became very animated, and purposely brought down both fists upon the pulpit cushions, with a tremendous force. The feathers flew in all directions, and the cushion was pretty much used up. He instantly checked the current of his thought, and simply exclaiming,—"Why, how these feathers fly!"—proceeded. He had fulfilled his promise of not addressing the society on the subject, but had taught them a lesson not to be misunderstood. On the next Sabbath, the window and cushion were found in excellent repair.
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