In  relation  to  themselves  the  Christians  were  brothers.  After  his
resurrection  the  Lord  had  called  the  apostles  his  brothers :  and  the
descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost,  filling  each  one  with  the  same
life  and  same  Spirit,  made  the  society  into  a  real  family  or  *  brother-
hood ^'  The  Christians  were  the  Brothers :  the  individual  Christian
was  e.g.  *  Quartus  the  brother.'  This  title  soon  became  universal  and
supplanted  that  of  disciple :  it  is  still  heard  in  the  *  dearly  beloved
brethren'  of  our  own  services.  This  was  not  however  something
entirely  new,  either  in  idea  or  in  title.  The  Jews  called  themselves
'the  brothers.'  And  when  distinction  firom  the  Jews  was  desirable,
other  terms  were  needed.  In  the  Acts  we  are  watching  the  trial  as  it
were  of  various  suggestions — the  (being)  saved,  the  believers,  the  fait J^ftU^
those  who  call  upon  the  Name,  the  saints.  However  appropriate  these
might  be  in  meaning,  for  common  or  technical  use  a  particular  and
personal  name  is  more  useful,  and  so  the  name  taken  from  *the  Name'
secured  a  final  and  complete  triumph,  viz.  the  Christians,

A  similar  history  is  to  be  traced  in  the  naming  of  the  society  as  a
corporate  whole.  At  first  a  separate  name  was  not  needed.  But  as
it  gradually  became  evident  that  the  new  society  was  not  going  to
coincide  with  the  old  commonwealth  of  Israel,  various  terms  became
current,  e.g.  the  Way,  this  Life,  the  Faith,  this  Salvation^,  The  Lord
had  constantly  spoken  of  the  Kingdom,  but  the  common  use  of  this
name  would  have  caused  perilous  confusion  with  *the  kingdom'  of
Caesar.  A  more  distinctive  term  was  wanted,  and  there  was  another
name  which  the  Lord  himself  had  used  in  two  crucial  utterances,  viz.
