“If this principle be correct, we may lay down the following general rule: that no person by virtue of a lower office can fill a higher one; but any one filling a higher office, can by virtue of that office, act in any of the lower. Thus a deacon can not by virtue of his deaconship, act as an elder, nor an elder as an evangelist, nor an evangelist as an apostle; but an apostle can act as evangelist, elder, or deacon; an evangelist, as an elder or deacon; and an elder as a deacon. We do not here speak of apostles and evangelists as officers of individual churches; for this is not the position they occupy, their calling making it necessary for them to move in a wider sphere; namely, to have, if apostles, the oversight of the churches. and if evangelists to labor to raise up churches in new fields. These, in our judgment, are the only officers qualified to organize churches. COOD 130.2