Church will work in all its parts to do that which Christ did when he was here below. To give eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, to heal the sick and to raise the dead, to cure the foul leprosies of society, to heal the deep wounds of the troubled heart, to clear the pathway of the doubter, to aid the sinner to return to God and virtue, to this will the Church of the Future devote its whole energy. What would be the result here in Boston, if all the sects, laying aside their jealousies, should coöperate together for a single year, with combined action, to remove the Intemperance, the Licentiousness, the Ignorance, the Poverty of this community? What would be the effect if all sects throughout the South should combine their energies to abolish slavery there? Before such a combination what evil could maintain itself? Then would the Church not only repeat in its prayer, "Thy kingdom come," but would carry out its prayer into action, and see this long deferred reign of Christ commencing below.

Of the organization of the Future Church I will not undertake to speak. It seems to me that it will be various, that it will in some of its parts admit the solemn rites and symbolic forms of Catholicism, in others the simplicity of the Quaker. Its organization may sometimes include our industry and take in all parts of our life, but in other circumstances confine itself to directing our moral enterprises, and carrying on special reforms. But I think that in the Future

Church the distinction between clergy and laity will altogether cease, for this distinction does not belong to Christianity, but was imported into it from Judaism. In the early Church all were clergy and all laity, all priests and all people. By one spirit all had been baptized into one body, and no clerical order is intimated. The Church had its officers as any association must, but these officers did not form a class or clerisy. The Clergy-Church must be changed into the Church of the People, before the members can all feel their individual responsibility for the total action of the body. The ministry, worship, and preaching will remain, but the Church will not be built on the ministry but the ministry on the Church.

With these ideas and these principles, my friends, we united together, seven years ago, and established this Church of Disciples. We took that name in sincere humility. We wished to be scholars, learners, sitting at the feet of Jesus. We wished to unite together, to coöperate, to help each other onward and upward. Our Creed was Faith in Christ, and we were comprehensive enough to include in our body many varieties and even extremes of opinion. Your minister was one of yourselves; he claimed no preeminence, he assumed no official authority, he wished that all the brethren should occupy the pulpit, he wishes and hopes for it still. A band of brothers and friends, we sought for a deeper religious life, for a larger view of truth, for a better habit of active good

ness. So we began; so, I think, in some measure, we have gone on. We have met with changes, with some severe trials. We have lost, in a variety of ways, a very large body of our best members. As I look around, half of those who were with us at first are no longer here. But our principles are here, our ideas stand fast; and to those ideas and principles I wish steadily to adhere. We have not been faithful to them. We have taken too light a view of our duties toward them. We have not gone deeply enough into the religious life, nor been willing enough to deny ourselves and labor for the sake of our Church. We have never been popular, for we ran counter to many prejudices; to the prejudices of the Conservatives, and to the prejudices of the Reformers. We could not be one-sided, narrow or ultra; nor could we be lukewarm and neutral. So many of our friends have left us from time to time, offended with one thing or another in our conduct and course. But I believe I may say that not one ever left us in anger, nor is there to-day a shadow of coolness between us and our former brethren. This, at least, is something for which to be grateful.

And now we enter to-day into this new house, which is to be our own home. Its simple but harmonious forms, its cheerful seriousness of character, harmonize well with our views of the nature of the religion which we wish here to study together. We wish and intend that these doors may be always open

to welcome the stranger, the feeble, the wretched. We wish and intend that here the rich and the poor may sit together, and the differences of rank and caste be forgotten. We wish that the fugitive slave, and the penitent prodigal may here feel themselves welcome, as they always have been. We have always rejoiced in open doors, in free seats, in having a Church composed not of the rich but of the poor as well. We shall sell no pews, nor put it into the power of any body of pew-holders to control the religious action of the Church. This Church has been built by the free and generous offerings of its members, who gave, hoping for nothing again, except the pleasure of knowing that they were providing for the accommodation of others as well as for their own.

And now, my friends, may this place be to us none other than the House of God and the Gate of Heaven! May it become dear to us as the place where our best affections shall be unfolded, our purest hopes cultivated, new and better views of time and eternity attained. May Faith and Love and Hope abound in the midst of us. And though no candles burn before the altar, though no incense streams upward from the waving censer, may the Lamp of the Lord be here kindled, and the Incense of the heart arise here to Heaven.