A _Christian_ is the highest style of man; And is there who the blessed cross wipes of As a foul blot from his dishonour’d brow?-- If angels tremble, ’tis at such a sight. _Young._ O Antioch, thou teacher of the world!-- From out thy portals passed the feet of those, Who, banished and despised, have made thy name The next in rank to proud Jerusalem. Within thy gates the persecuted few, Who dared to rally round the Holy Cross, And worship Him whose sacred form it bore, Were first called _Christians_. In thy sad conceit, Thou mad’st a stigma of reproach and shame, This noblest title of the sons of earth: While, save for this, thy name were scarcely known, Except among the mouldering vestiges Of dim antiquity. So doth our God Make all men’s folly ever praise His name. _J. L. Chester._ To be an humble follower of Him, Who left the bliss of Heaven, to be for us A man on earth in spotless virtue living As man ne’er lived; such words of comfort speaking, To raise, and elevate, and cheer the heart, As man ne’er spake; and suffering poverty, Contempt, and wrong, and pain, and death itself, As man ne’er suffered. _Joanna Baillie._ The _Christian’s_ faith had many mysteries too. The uncreated Holy Three in One; Divine Incarnate, Human in Divine; The inward call; the Sanctifying Dew; Coming unseen, unseen departing thence; Anew creating all, and yet not heard; Compelling, yet not felt:--mysterious these; Not that Jehovah to conceal them wished; Not that Religion wished. The _Christian_ faith, Unlike the timorous creeds of Pagan priest, Was frank, stood forth to view, invited all To prove, examine, search, investigate, And gave herself a light to see her by. Mysterious these--because too large for eye Of man, too long for human arm to mete. _Pollok._ CHURCH. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.--Matthew, xvi. 19. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.--Matthew, xxviii. 20. So were the _churches_ established in the faith, and increased in number daily.--Acts, xvi. 5. And God hath set some in the _church_, first, apostles, secondarily, prophets, thirdly, teachers.--I. Corinthians, xii. 28. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the _church_, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.--Ephesians, i. 22, 23. Christ also loved the _church_, and gave himself for it.--Ephesians, v. 25.