Oneness of the Church of Christ.
I think that these simple ideas will be received by this congregation and by any reasonable person. If Jesus Christ had a church on the earth in the first century, it was the Church that He established. There is evidence that He did establish a church. By reading the New Testament it is plain that He organized it Himself; therefore it was His Church. He placed in it apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, (so we read in the epistle to the Ephesians, 4th chapter,) "for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God." These men were sent out to preach the Gospel without purse or scrip. They were commanded to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." And the principles which they taught were the principles of Jesus Christ. The plan of salvation that they introduced was divine. It was not their own. When Paul preached to the Gentiles and Peter preached to the Jews, they preached the same Gospel, the same doctrine, by the same Spirit. The people who received their word and repented of their sins, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, were all baptized by one spirit into one body. There was but one body, no matter how many members there were in it; there was but one church, no matter how many branches there might be to it. The Church was one, the Gospel was one, the God they worshipped was one, the Savior was one. There was "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all;" and the path that they walked in was the one way marked out by the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "Wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
These men whom the Lord placed in His Church had the word of the Lord. God revealed Himself unto them. Jesus Christ manifested Himself unto them. This is one of the characteristics of the Church. It was in communication with its Divine Author. The spirit that came down from heaven was in these men; not only in them, but in the body of the Church. The whole body was quickened by it, led by it, and inspired by it. Therefore the truth was in the Church. But there came a great change after the Apostles were slain. Darkness came in like a flood and overspread the earth, as the prophet of old foresaw when he said that "darkness would cover the earth and gross darkness the people." Because of that darkness which has overspread the earth has come the condition that exists in the Christian world today.