Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/304

Rh he would found a church on Simon Peter? It must have been a sandy foundation. Paul did not fear to withstand him to the face. Jesus appointed neither place nor day for worship. All the commands of the decalogue are reinforced in the New Testament, excepting that which enjoins the Sabbath; all the rest are natural laws. Religion with Jesus was a worship in spirit and in truth; a service at all times and in every place. He fell back on natural Religion and Morality, demanding a divine life, purity without and piety within; but he left the When, the Where, and the How to take care of themselves. A Church, in our sense of the term, is not so much as named in the Gospels. But Religion, above all emotions, brings men together. Uniting around this central figure, bound by the strongest of ties, the spiritual sympathies fired with admiration for the great soul of Jesus, relying on his authority, there grew up, unavoidably, a body of men and women. These the Apostles call the Church of Christ. Religion, as it descends into practice, takes a concrete form, which depends on the character and condition of the men who receive it: hence come the rites, dogmas, and ceremonies which mark the Church of this or that age and nation.

The Christian Church may be defined as a Body of Men and Women united in a common regard for Jesus, assembling for the purposes of worship and religious instruction. It has the powers delegated by individuals who compose it.