CHURCH HISTORY. 23 



municated to them in His many conversations 

 which are not recorded, and particularly in that 

 period of forty days after His resurrection, prior to 

 His ascension. We are told in Acts i., that He 

 then talked with them of the things pertaining to 

 the Kingdom of God. The phrase " the Kingdom 

 of God," is often understood as referring simply to 

 the Kingdom of God in heaven, but its reference is 

 also to that Kingdom which Christ came to estab- 

 lish on earth, as when He taught us to pray, " Thy 

 Kingdom come." 



When He sent forth the seventy disciples they 

 were told to preach the Kingdom of God. St. Phi- 

 lip, the Deacon, preached the things concerning 

 the Kingdom of God. St. Paul's ministry at 

 Ephesus was a preaching of the Kingdom of God. 



If then it was Christ's design to found a kingdom 

 in the world, but not of the world, it must have 

 certain features, and those are probably what we 

 find in the Church which at once sprang up. It 

 was to be visible, a society, with some mode of 

 admission, with a govcrnmenl and discipline, with 

 some central truths, and with mean for preserving 

 its continuance and prosperity. 



We are to look ihen at the features of this soci- 

 ety which we find uniformly to have followed fts 

 establishment by the Apostles. 



First, The Sacrament of Baptism was the door 

 of entrance to this society. We see no exception 



