Excerpt from History of the Christian Church, Vol. 1: The Early Church Corresponding to the two elements in the idea Of the Church, it has both an invisible and a visible Side. AS a life, its hidden spring is the Spirit Of Christ in the hearts of believers. As a fellowship or brotherhood, it has, Of practical necessity, certain outward bonds of unity. Christ himself appointed such in the authority of the apostles, in the rite of baptism, and in the eucharist. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.