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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 61. The Tie of Blood and Spirit.
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The Tie of Blood and Spirit.
The Church is a family, God's family. It is common blood that makes a family. The child comes into the family through the blood of the parents. In quite another sense it can be said it is one blood that makes the church family. Through the blood of the Head of this family there comes the life to each one, and that life it is that makes him a member of the family.
The Church is not an organization formed by men for an agreed purpose. It is a society founded by the Holy Spirit for a great purpose. Its members belong there only because the Spirit of the Founder is in them. Each one into whom the Spirit has come is a member of the society because of that fact. The Holy Spirit is the bond of union that holds the members together. As they are drawn closer to Him they are drawn closer to each other.
Membership in a family is by birth. The child comes into the family by birth; he comes into the church family by birth too, the higher spirit-birth. The child has his father's spirit and in some degree his likeness. The member of the church family has his Father's spirit, and in some degree His likeness. Wherever there is a heart that has opened to the gracious Spirit of God there is a member of His family. For He quickly enters every such heart and His presence is the certificate of membership in His family, the Church.
The members of this family meet with the Head of the family, of course. Getting together is a family trait. The Spirit in each draws them together. They meet out of love for their Father. They love to tell Him of their love for Him, and to express their feelings of regard. The common word for this is worship. They meet to read their Father's letters, and to talk about Him and His plans and wishes. Such meetings naturally bring a glow of warmth to the heart, clearer thought of His wishes to the mind, and a keener edge to the desire to please Hun. They meet, too, to plan how best to win the other children of the Father who have strayed away from the home circle, and lost many of the old family traits. The Father's letters constantly talk about going out for the others, and going to those farthest away and telling them of His yearning love for them.
For this church family is a sort of reunited family. The old original family was badly broken up and scattered. The Father sent down His Son to get them back and together again. It was a great, difficult task. He lost His life on the errand, but He succeeded in the task. Some came, and more, and many more. But the Father's heart is very hungry for the rest. He is ever calling them back. His Spirit in a man is ever urging that man to get the rest back, too, into the inner circle again.
As the members of the reunited family are scattered in all parts of the world, these meetings are held in different places. For convenience and mutual helpfulness, different branches of the family have been organized. Men have been drawn together by national ties, language ties, neighborhood ties, and by ties of friendship. Personal temperament has been a great tie. Some prefer to give full expression to their feelings; others find a freeness of expression in spirit through quiet meetings.
By agreement and by growth the great branches have been built up with certain statements of belief, and certain forms of management and of worship. All this has played an important part and still does. But these varying outer forms are incidental. They are a convenience for the mutual working together of men in a common plan of work. The vital bond of all is the Holy Spirit's presence. He is the great dominant factor, and the one element of unity in the whole, and of continuity through all time.