Its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. Through the church
will eventually be made manifest, even to “the principalities and
powers in heavenly places,” the final and full display of the love of
God. Ephesians 3:10.
Many and wonderful are the promises in the Scriptures regarding
the church. “Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for
all people.” “I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of
the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate
heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them
that are in darkness, Show yourselves.” “Can a woman forget her
sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of
her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” Isaiah
56:7; 49:8, 9, l5.
The church is God’s fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds
in a revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him
who has bought mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son.
From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church. In
every age the Lord’s watchmen have borne a faithful testimony to
the generation in which they lived. God has sent forth His angels
to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able
to prevail against His people. Not one opposing force has risen to [10]
counterwork His work, that God has not foreseen. He has not left
His church forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what
would occur. All His purposes will be fulfilled. Truth is inspired
and guarded by God, and it will triumph over all opposition.
Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one
object on which God bestows His supreme regard. It is the theater
of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform
hearts.
Earthly kingdoms rule by physical power, but from Christ’s
kingdom every instrument of coercion is banished. This kingdom is
