SUNDAY MORXIXG SERMON. 

 By the Pastor, Rey. James W. Cooper, D.D. 



But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. — Samans xi., IS. 



The church of Christ is an organism. Its successive generations 

 are not separate links welded together in a chain; they are new 

 branches put forth by a growing tree. The kingdom of God is a 

 kingdom of life. The originating and directive force in the Christian 

 church is a principle of life, which shapes its character and gives it 

 productive power. This life principle is the indwelling Spirit of 

 the risen Christ. 



Whenever a company of Christian believers are drawn together by 

 the Holy Spirit and united in a church fellowship, the result is more 

 than an aggregation of individuals; it is the creation of a new unity. 

 An organization has come into being which has a separate individuality 

 and corporate life, with qualities and powers all its own. Henceforth 

 it exists in its own character, to develop its own personality, and ful- 

 fill its peculiar mission in the world. 



The first appeal of Christianity is, indeed, to individual men. One 

 by one human hearts are converted to God and baptized by His Spirit. 

 Souls must be regenerated, before a Church can be formed. But 

 when these believing souls are united in a covenant of grace and 

 fused together by the fire of their common faith, then we have the 

 genuine and living iinity of a Christian church — a church which draws 

 into itself the qualities of all its members, but which, as a whole, is 

 different from any one of them — a living, worshiping, working 

 church, which is more permanent, more wise, more efiicient in its 

 corporate life, than any or all of those who compose it, in their sepa- 

 rate lives. 



Fifty years ago, this South Congregational Church, into which so 

 many of us here present have put ourselves, was first brought into 

 being. Its history covers less than two generations. There are those 



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