our practice agrees with that of the primitive church or differs from it. Phil. i. 1, and 1 Tim. iii. are the only passages in which the word deacon occurs in our English version of the Testament; in the former of these we read, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. There is no word of explanation respecting their duties; of course that could not be expected in a mere salutation. In the second of these passages, to which we have already referred, we have the character of a deacon pointed out, but not his duties. Fortunately for our enquiry the word diakovos is found much more frequently in the original than our English form, deacon, in our Version. Doubtless an examination of the passages in which it occurs will aid us much in our enquiry. We will look at them carefully and will supply the word deacon, in brackets after the word which represents the Greek

διάκονος.

1 Cor. iii. 5. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers (deacons), by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?' These were the preachers of the word, and in no sense corresponded with the Seven mentioned in Acts vi.

2 Cor. ii. 6. 'Who, also, hath made us able ministers (deacons) of the New Testament.' Here we find that the work performed by the deacons was the same as that mentioned in the verse last referred tothe propagation of the gospel.

2 Cor. vi. 4. In all things approving ourselves as the ministers (deacons) of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses.' The work is again that of making known the gospel of peace. 2 Cor. xi. 23. 'Are they ministers (deacons) of Christ? I am more.' The meaning of the word is the same in this instance as in the former.

Eph. ii. 6-7. That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ, by the gospel : whereof I was made a minister

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(deacon), according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of his power.' Proclaiming the gospel of Christ is again the work performed by the deacon.

Eph. vi. 21. But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother, and faithful minister (deacon) in the Lord shall make known to you all things.' This deacon was sent to the church at Ephesus, that he might relate to them the state of Paul and Timothy, and might comfort the hearts of the disciples, (verse 22).

Col. i. 5-7. 'Whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: as ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow-servant; who is for you a faithful minister (deacon) of Christ.' The work done by the deacon, Epaphras, is so plainly and unmistakeably pronounced to be the publishing of the truth of the gospel that none can fail to observe it in this instance.

Col. i. 23-25. 'If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature, which is under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister (deacon); who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: whereof I am made a minister, (deacon) according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God.' This needs no comment.

Col. iv. 7 is similar in language and in import to Eph vi. 21, ‘All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister (deacon) and fellowservant in the Lord.'

1 Thes. iii. 1-2. 'Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we

1 Tim. iv. 6. 'If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister (deacon) of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.' In this case the deacon was to remind the church of its duties. In all the passages which we have quoted, we find the work specified as the duty of the deacon to be, the proclaiming of the gospel in some manner, and that the word diakovos is translated by minister or some kindred term. Look again at the following passages:

Rom. xv. 8. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister (deacon) of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.'

2 Cor. xi. 13-14. For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers (deacons) also be transformed as the ministers (deacons) of righteousness."

Gal. . 17. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister (deacon) of sin?' In the first and the third of these passages the term deacon is applied to Christ, and in the second to the servants of Satan.

In Rom. xvi. 1, the term deacon is applied to a woman: I recommend unto you Phebe, our sister, which is a servant (deacon) of the church which is at Cenchrea.' In Rom. xiii. 4, it is employed with reference to a secular ruler: For he is the minister (deacon) of God to thee for good,' &c. We have now examined the various passages in the New Testament

word diakovos, which in Phil. i. 1 and in 1 Tim. iii. is untranslated, i. e. rendered deacon. What examples do they give us of the duties which our deacons should perform? None whatever; in very few cases is the word deacon used with reference to the officers of any church; and when it is so used, duties distinctive of that office are in no case specified. We have found that the term deacon is applied to Christ and to the ministers of Satan. We read of deacons of sin and of righteousness, of those of the truth of the gospel and of temporal rule. The word implies merely a servant or minister, and may therefore be employed with reference to any kind of service whatever. This will be the more manifest if we remember that they were called deacons who, at the marriage in Cana (John ii.), filled the water pots with water, and again drew forth the wine; as were those also to whom the command was given to bind the unprofitable servant and cast him into outer darkness (Matt. xxii. 13). We may describe a man as a servant, but such a description will not give us any idea of his duties. He serves a master, and may be called to perform any duties according to the will of his master, and the agreement between them. If he be employed to guard his lord's house, to till his land, or to travel to a distant country, he is a servant; and if his duties are not specified, it is vain to endeavour to discover them, the mere word cannot assist us. The case is not different with regard to the word deacon. Servant is an English word, well known to us all. Deacon is but a Greek form of the same word. If we read that a man is made a deacon to distribute goods, or to preach the gospel, we can understand it; but the mere word, deacon, can give us no light whatever respecting the duties to be performed.

We have examined the question of the authority of the Scriptures on the functions of the Diaconate candidly and faithfully, and have

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been led to the conclusion that we have no enumeration of the duties to be performed by the deacons of a Christian church. We have sought for some command on the subject, which we might obey, but we have found none. We have looked in vain for any detailed account of the duties of the deacons of any Christian church which might serve as a model for us, and still more fruitless has been the endeavour to gather from the various passages in which the word occurs, any statement of the functions of the deacons of a church, for the last enquiry has shown.us that the term, diakonos neither does nor can specify any offices or duties, but may be applied to service of any kind. If it be urged that a word may be limited in its signification - that an expres. sion, which has, in the first instance, a general application may become restricted to a particular signification; we reply, that we must not argue that because a thing might be, therefore it is; and we must not assume that an expression is thus restricted until we can give some reasons for such an assumption. Moreover, it is useless to tell us that a term is employed in a particular sense, unless we are also told what that particular sense is. We have seen that no such particular signification is given to the word, deacon, in the New Testament. It is therefore both perfectly gratuitous and utterly useless to say that it has any such limited meaning when employed by Paul in the two cases in which alone the word remains untranslated (Phil. i. 1 and 1 Tim.iii). That there were men in the early churches who were called deacons or ministers these passages prove beyond the possibility of a doubt; but it is quite impossible for us to point out any functions or duties and to say that they were common to the deacons of all churches, and were characteristic of their office, or indeed to mention any duties as distinctive of the Diaconate of any church, when not in some special emergency.

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Doubtless many will think, on hearing the conclusion at which we have arrived, that we wish to abolish the Diaconate. But it is not so. We should be very sorry to see the office neglected. Indeed we do not see how a church can prosper without having its deacons. But are we not going to work in the wrong manner, when we seek in Scripture minute directions respecting the duties of our church officers? Was the New Testament at all intended for such a purpose? The fact that such minute directions are not given, proves, we think, that it was not. Had it been the will of God that we should receive detailed information respecting the government of our churches, such information would have been given us; and as it is not given, we conclude that it was not the Divine will that we should have it. An error on this point, has, we think, led to most of the difficulties connected with this subject and to the discussion which has arisen therefrom. Men take it for granted that the earliest churches of Christ were intended as a perfect model for us. They assume that we are to frame our churches according to precepts or examples contained in the New Testament, and therefore labour zealously to discover the supposed directions and examples; and not finding them, they are naturally led to seize upon any passages in which they fancy they can find the slightest reference to the subject in question, and to give them an importance never anticipated by the writer, or even to twist them and turn them to a meaning at variance alike with that for which they were written and with the general scope and tenor of New Testament teaching. Thus, when we read in Acts vi. that seven men were set apart for a special purpose, during a particular emergency, it is argued that the duties of deacons in all ages from the days of the Apostles to the present time should be similar to those of those seven men; although, as we have seen, the term diakonos is more frequently

We are aware that the views which we have expressed place the Diaconate on a foundation different from that on which it is generally supposed to rest, yet it does not appear to us strange that the writings of the Apostles should contain such slight information on this subject. It was literally impossible to give directions for the framing of a church which should be applicable in all cases; circumstances so alter the requirements of a church, that that which is best adapted for it at one time may be quite unsuited to it at another, and that which is most desirable for one society may be in no wise fitted for meeting the requirements of another. The church at Jerusalem, which had all things in common, had certain duties to perform, which were unknown in other communities. The offices of a church, in which there are many poor receiving assistance from it, must differ widely from those of another, in which all the members are in wealthy or in comfortable circumstances. In times of persecution, when the church is not permitted to meet openly, and men risk their lives by confessing their faith in Christ, the functions of the officers must be far different from ours in the present day, when we can not only boldly proclaim the truth in our assemblies, but can carry the truth even to the homes of those who would otherwise remain ignorant of the gospel; and, in a large and populous town wants are felt and duties are necessitated which are unknown in

some thinly peopled districts, where the pastor can with ease visit each house in the village in which he resides. The Mosaic dispensation was not intended to spread over the whole earth, or to last through all ages, therefore it was quite practicable that it should abound in ceremonies; but the gospel of Christ is to be preached in every land under heaven, that wherever man is found there shall be the church of Christ; and it is the last dispensation that shall be given to man, therefore it must not be encumbered with ceremonies or forms which would render it unsuited to any people or to any age. In the earliest ages of the world men were unable to appreciate abstract truth, and could worship God only under a garb of ceremonies; but, when Christ came, He taught men that true religion was to worship God in spirit and in truth. He constantly warned those by whom he was surrounded against trusting in forms, attending to the external, whilst the internal was despised or neglected. The Jews, whilst maintaining their rites most scrupulously, had to a great extent forgotten their import; the form was kept but the spirit had departed. We do not say that this is a necessary result of having rites and ceremonies connected with religion; but it is certain that in the human mind there is a strong tendency to cleave to the ceremonial, and to exalt it unduly, whilst the vital and spiritual is neglected and degraded. The Judaists appear to have been among the greatest enemies of the churches of Christ in the days of the Apostles; and this simply because they were anxious to introduce Mosaic ceremonies. They could not forget their old prejudices and customs. The simple worship of the Apostles seemed to them too meagre, and they therefore sought to enrich and embellish it by introducing the ceremonies of the Jewish ritual. We see the same tendency in our own time. We are always ready to cry out against the church of

Rome for exalting the form and neglecting the life, and even the Anglican church does not escape our censure in this respect; but it is not to the forms and rites of their worship only that we object, but also to the exclusiveness connected with the functions of their officers; as for instance the rule which makes it unlawful, for any one but a priest to read the absolution. Yet does not our practice differ from theirs in degree rather than in kind, when we seek to frame our churches after the letter, rather than the spirit of New Testament teaching? It seems to us exceedingly probable that had minute directions been given us respecting the officers of the church and their duties, the outward part would have been exalted even more highly than it has; and thus we are led to admire the wisdom of God in withholding the details of the government of the earliest churches.

From the facts which we have noticed our duty as regards the Diaconate is plainly seen. We have found that the New Testament contains neither commands nor examples which set before us the duties of the Diaconate, and it is therefore impossible for us to decide those duties by the letter of Scripture. But the spirit of the Word may guide us. We find that whenever a work was to be done, a deacon, minister, or servant, was appointed to do it. When in the church at Jerusalem it was necessary that there should be a distribution of goods, seven men were set apart for the office; and when the Word was to be preached, a Paul, an Apollos, or an Epaphras was ready for that diaconate. On the same principle should we appoint our deacons now. We are not told what particular duties they are to perform. Let them do that which the church sees ought to be done. Many seem to think that the great thing is to get a deacon, and then to consider what work he shall do. But this is beginning at the wrong end. We must first see what work is to be

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done, and then appoint deacons to do it. There is no dearth of labour, but the duties must vary very much according to the circumstances of the church. In some small villages the pastor may be able to perform most of the duties which devolve upon the officers of the church; but little service may be required from his fellow deacons. But this cannot be the case in many of our large and densly peopled towns and cities. In many rural churches the intellectual preparation required for the pulpit duties is not great, and the pastor has few engagements during the week; thus he requires but slight assistance in the oversight of his flock; but in our city churches, in which the pastor is engaged at meetings almost every evening in the week, and in which it is absolutely necessary for the efficiency of his preaching that much hard study and diligent research be employed in preparation for the labours of the Lord's-day, it is quite impossible that he should also conduct the discipline and manage the business of the church, visit the sick, perform the funeral services, teach the Word of Truth from house to house, and attend to the innumerable other duties devolving upon the church, and which must be done by some one. It is necessary that the pastor should visit his flock, that he may be able to enter into the trials and difficulties of its members, and so administer the wants and necessities of those whom he addresses. But the visiting is not his chief business, and the other duties to which we have referred certainly form no part of the great work to which he is especially called, viz: the preaching of the gospel of Christ. We have found abundance of work-a laborious diaconate, and yet we hesitate as to what our deacons ought to do. The primitive churches selected deacons whenever they saw that a duty required to be performed. Let us do likewise. Let us look diligently around us and see what work is to be done, and then appoint our deacons who