MINISTRY, THE CHRISTIAN. The purpose of this article must be to trace the history of the existing Christian ministries, assuming, as with but insignificant exceptions all Christian communities do, that a ministry is necessary for their welfare, and indeed for their existence. Practically, our enquiry must be into the development of local ministries. We cannot consider the authority or the actions of Apostles or prophets except as they shaped the constitution of the primitive churches. That they did so, is clear. We find St. Paul appointing in the churches which he founded officers named "bishops" or "elders," titles which are synonymous. As his was a spiritual office it was a spiritual authority that he conveyed. In fact, a generation which expected an immediate and sudden return of the Lord, could have no interests that were not spiritual. There was one Christian duty that was pre-eminently spiritual. It was that of reproducing the Last Supper. It was dramatic. The leading Christian took the place of our Lord; he was, whether perman ently or for the occasion, the chief of the body of bishops or elders. The rest of them sat at meat with him, while the congre gation stood around. The sacred acts were repeated. Before liturgies were thought of, the president uttered an extemporary prayer ; he spoke as an inspired prophet. Soon, as part of the same process which led to the use of written Gospels in lieu of reminiscences which were growing faint or came to be at second hand, a fixed form of service was composed. There was no longer the primitive confidence. Soon also, some unknown man of genius changed the actual into a symbolic meal. When those three steps had been taken, the church had advanced far towards its perman ent shape. There was no necessity for an exceptional or prophetic ministry, and, in fact, the apostles who claimed to be such in the third generation had come to be regarded with suspicion, and the class soon died out.
Thus the local ministry had the field to itself. We have seen that the celebration of the Eucharist was its characteristic office. On this ground Ignatius calls the bishop the representative of Christ, and the presbyters the representatives of the Apostles. But the whole tendency of Christian thought was monarchical.
Perhaps the original churches were collegiate, the authority which came to be vested in the bishop being at first held collectively by the body of presbyters or bishops. But this soon ceased. The government passed into the hands of the bishop, with the body of presbyters as his council. In fact there was an analogy with the mediaeval guilds of western Europe. In them, as they survive in the city of London, the society is divided into two classes, the "court" which governs and the "livery," from which the "court" is elected, but which has itself no powers of administration. So, under the Roman empire, the guild, or collegium was divided into the ordo which ruled and the plebs which obeyed, the whole mem bership being often called the populus. When the Christian societies grew in numbers it was natural that they should avail themselves of the liberty allowed to humble folk of combining in collegia illicita, i.e., unlicensed, rather than illegal, guilds for such purposes as that of a burial club. No doubt other definitely religious ends were served by these organizations, in which the lead was naturally taken by the ordo. It is strange that in Latin and its derivative languages the technical term "orders" should have been borrowed from this quite secondary side of the office. In several languages plebs has similarly come to mean "parish"; Italian pieve, Welsh plwyf The authority of the ministry has been attributed to a grant from the Christian community, regarded as directly inspired by its Founder, of powers with which He had endowed it as a cor porate body, to certain of its members. It has also been regarded as a power over the members of the church which was bestowed by the Founder, first upon His Apostles and subsequently, through them, on a permanent line of successors. In explanation of this was developed the doctrine of Orders as sacramental. In its final form, as held in the Roman communion, there are three distinct sacraments of orders, those of bishop, priest and deacon. The papacy, in spite of its authority, is not regarded as having the same sanction, for it has "no outward and visible sign." A pope is regarded as becoming invested with his office from the moment that he signifies his assent to his election.