In Huntington hall last evening Rev. Philip Stafford Moxom, D. D., delivered the second of his Lowell Institute lectures on "The Church in the First Three Centuries." In this lecture he dealt with the organization of the early church.
At first, said the lecturer, the church and Christianity were practically identical. Not since the apostolic era have they been absolutely coextensive. The early church was a mass of protoplasm without offices or functionaries. But it soon began to develop an organization.
Jesus wrote no book and established no offices. The disciples at first had no idea of forming a church or establishing a system. They simply sought to teach divine love, forgiveness of sins, eternal hope. The ecclesia became communistic. Those who had property shared with those who had none.
