Verse 31 The narrative contained in the Acts 15:1-30 of this chapter, has been the subject of a great deal of discussion, this council being claimed by the advocates of various systems of ecclesiastical polity, as the original model of the institutions which they respectively defend; the arguments on all sides being built on inferences drawn from the few and doubtful intimations given in the account,--and, where these fail on imagination and conjecture If it had been intended as a model, it is impossible to doubt that its constitution and rules of procedure would have been more definitely detailed. He who reads the narrative without a point to carry, will see in it only an informal and an unpremeditated meeting for consultation, arising out of a peculiar and unique emergency,--without any idea, on the part of the actors, that they were establishing any precedent either for themselves or for others; far less that they were founding a system to extend over all the nations of Christendom, and to endure for all periods of time. It seems to have been simply a consultation, conforming, in its arrangements, to the situation of the parties interested, and to the nature of the emergency which called it forth. The apostles laid down no definite system of ecclesiastical organization, but adapted measures to emergencies, and instituted such forms of organization as were suited to their circumstances, and to the ideas of their age. The successive generations of Christians, in all branches of the church, have followed the apostolical example in this respect; and though, in theory, some profess to follow closely the original models, in practice, all agree in modifying their forms as required by the various exigencies of nations, and by the changes resulting from the lapse of time.