:^\^^^^ 
 
 <jt m %\w&^mt ^^^. 
 
 J.'f7. 
 
 mtt. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 'if. 
 
 ^ 
 
 BS 2410 .W37 1894 
 
 Watson, Robert A. 1845-1921 
 
 In the apostolic age 
 
 Shelf. 
 
^ 
 
BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS. 
 
 Edited by the 
 
 REV. ARTHUR E. GREGORY. 
 
 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Robert A. Watson, M.A., D.D. 
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, Castle St., City Rd., E.C. 
 
 And 66, Paternoster Row, E.C. 
 
 i8q4. 
 
BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS. 
 
 Editor: Rev. Arthur E. Gregory, 
 
 Tlce Epistles of Paul the Apostle. A Sketch of their 
 Origin and Contents. By George G. Findlay, B.A., Tutor 
 in Biblical Literature and Bxege.sis, Headingley College. 
 Small crown Svo, 2.s. Cd. Fourth Thousand. 
 
 The Theological Student. A Handbook of Elementary 
 Theology. With List of Questions for Self-Examination. 
 By J. Robinson Gregory. Small crown Svo, 2s. 6d. Third 
 Thousand. 
 
 The Gospel of John. An Exposition, with Critical Notes. 
 By T. F. Lockyer, B.A. Small crown Svo, 2s. 6d. Second 
 Thousand. 
 
 The Praises of Israel. An Inti'oduction to the Study of 
 
 the Psalms. By W. T. Davison, M.A., D.D. Small crown 
 
 Svo, 2s. 6d. Third Thousand. 
 From Malachi to Matthciv : Outlines of the History of 
 
 Judea from 440 to 4 B.C. By Professor R. Waddy Moss, 
 
 Didsbury College, Manchester. 2s. lid. Second Thousand. 
 An Introduction to the Study of Hebrew. By J. T. L, 
 
 Maggs, B.A., Prizeman in Hebrew and New Testament 
 
 Greek, London University. 5s. 
 In the Apostolic Age : The Churches and the Doctrine. 
 
 By Robert A. Watson, M.A., D.D. 2s. Cd. 
 
 IN PREPARATION. 
 
 The Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. By W. 
 T. Davison, M.A., D.D. 
 
 The Prophetical Writings of the Old Testament. By 
 Professor George G. Findlay, B.A. 
 
 I'he Synoptic Gospels. By Marcus D. Buell, D.D., 
 
 Professor of New Testament Exegesis in Boston University, 
 U.S.A. 
 
 The Writings of St. John. A Sketch of their Origin 
 and Contents. By Professor George G. Findlay, B.A. 
 
 An Introduction to the Study of New Testament Greek. 
 By J. H. MouLTON, M.A., Fellow of King's College, Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews. By W. L. Watkinson. 
 
 The Ministry of the Lord Jesus. By T. G. Selby, 
 
 Author of "The Imperfect Angel." 
 The Evidences of Christianity. By Professor J. Shaw 
 
 Banks, Headingley College. 
 
 London : CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, Castli; St., City Rd., E.G. 
 
m THE APOSTOLIC AGE 
 
 THE CHURCHES AND THE DOCTRINE. 
 
 BY 
 
 EGBERT A. WATSON, M.A., D.D, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'GOSPELS OF YESTERDAY," "JUDGES AND RUTH," AND "THE BOOK OF JOB' 
 
 IN "expositor's bible," ETC. 
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, Castle St., City Rd., E.C; 
 
 And G6, Paternoster Row, E.C. 
 
 1894. 
 
MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 The Editor hopes to include in the series of Books 
 for Bible Students three or four vokimes (of which 
 this is the first) designed to give a sketch of the 
 history and development of the Christian Church 
 from the age of the apostles to the present day. 
 These Manuals are not intended to set forth any 
 denominational view of ecclesiastical history or 
 organisation, and will be written by members of 
 different branches of the Church. 
 
 Contributors to this series write with entire 
 independence, and each is responsible only for 
 the opinions he himself expresses. The Editor, 
 whilst offering occasional suggestions, has never 
 sought to hamper the scholars whose co-opera- 
 tion he has been so fortunate as to secure. On 
 many points, especially of exposition, those who 
 strive together for the faith of the gospel must 
 be free to express diverse views. A true Bible 
 student will know how to value this revelation of 
 the thoughts of many hearts concerning the things 
 pertaining to the kingdom of God. 
 
 A. E. G, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. BEGINXIXG.S OF DOCTllINE AND OF THE CHUECH 
 
 II. THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN .JEIIUSALEM 
 
 III. THE PEOGRESS OF DOCTRINE 
 
 IV. THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY . 
 V. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 
 
 VI. INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 VII. THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL 
 
 VIII. DISORDERS AND HERESIES 
 
 IX. THE MESSAGE AND WORK OF 8T. JOHN 
 
 X. THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAOE 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 49 
 
 72 
 
 98 
 
 125 
 
 151 
 
 176 
 
 200 
 
 233 
 
 267 
 
IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE: 
 
 THE CHUECHES AND THE DOCTKINE. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 THE subject we have in view, tlie development 
 of Christianity during the apostolic period, 
 differs considerably from a history of the apostolic 
 Church. It will not be necessary to enter fully 
 into the personal life and influence of the leaders, 
 nor to examine the bearing of every incident ; 
 nor will the whole ground covered by early 
 evangelistic work have to be brought under 
 survey. There will be no need, for instance, to 
 inquire particularly into the events of the day 
 of Pentecost, the circumstances of Stephen's 
 martyrdom, the relations of Barnabas, Mark, and 
 Luke to St. Paul. Starting with the origin of 
 doctrine during our Lord's life on earth, we shall 
 
2 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 see how points of belief successively came into 
 view, how they assumed dogmatic form, gained 
 acceptance, and became catholic. We shall note 
 the experiments that went along with the expan- 
 sion of the Church, the settlement of its order, the 
 observances by which its fellowship was enriched. 
 The spirit of Christianity should have made it, 
 from the first, free, progressive, unconventional ; 
 and it was indeed apprehended more or less as a 
 law of liberty by all who followed " The Way." 
 There was nothing in the temple service, and 
 very little in that of the synagogue, to hamper 
 the Christian congregation, or ecdesia, in arrang- 
 ing its affairs. At first, indeed, belief in Jesus 
 as the Eedeemer of the Hebrew people alone, 
 a form of the new faith which many held ex- 
 clusively, tended to limit freedom and retard 
 progress. The Hebrews who became Christians 
 could not assume independence in thought and 
 worship, as if the old covenant had been entirely 
 superseded by the new revelation. Some of the 
 leaders never understood that it was their part to 
 move forward boldly, unfettered by precedents, 
 having regard to the great future promised to 
 the Church. These points we shall have to 
 notice, and the conflict of opinion and diversity 
 of practice, out of which gradually arose the 
 conception and order of a free society, no longer 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 3 
 
 subordinate to Judaism, or standing aloof from it 
 in partial dissent, but equipped for a separate 
 career of world-wide effort and influence. How 
 the expression of doctrine, hindered at first by 
 the narrow Judseo - Messianic view of Christ, 
 took a larger sweep ; how the Church escaped by 
 degrees from the shadow of the temple ; how the 
 stream issuing from the divine fountainhead — "the 
 spiritual Eock that followed them, which Eock was 
 Christ" — gathered power in its free and generous 
 flow, — these things will appear in our inquiry. But 
 we shall not have to pass to the later course of 
 the heavenly stream, when, partly to serve the uses 
 of life, partly for the pride of men, it was divided 
 and led away in various channels, its liberty 
 impaired, its brightness sullied by earthly ele- 
 ments. 
 
 The significant words used by St. John in 
 comparing the work of Christ with the work of 
 Moses — " grace and truth came by Jesus Christ " 
 — describe well the scope of our Lord's ministry. 
 The fulness of redeeming grace, and the truth 
 which brings liberty and light, were His gifts 
 to the world. He was not a lawgiver as Moses 
 was, but something greater. His revelation 
 supplied the elements of law, the principles of 
 moral order, the facts on which responsibility. 
 
4 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 duty, salvation are based. With His revelation, 
 all development, individual, social, national, 
 became possible. There is no vigour in right- 
 eousness, no purity in life, no mercy and gener- 
 osity, no enjoyment of existence that men may 
 not hope to reach. " In Him are hid all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge." " He was 
 made from God unto us wisdom, and righteous- 
 ness, and sanctification, and redemption." — With 
 this belief we begin. 
 
 And our inquiry turns first to that fellowship 
 in faith and work which during the apostolic 
 period came under definite rules and conditions. 
 
 It has often been said, as by the author 
 of Ecce, Homo, that Christ instituted a society, 
 " that to organise a society, and to bind the 
 members of it together by the closest ties, were 
 the business of His life." ^ Baptism is declared 
 to have been a solemn initiation, from which He 
 refused absolutely to give any one a dispensation. 
 In view of the society, we are told, " He called 
 men away from their homes, imposed upon some 
 a wandering life, upon others the sacrifice of 
 their property, and endeavoured by all means to 
 divorce them from their former connections, that 
 they might find a new home in the Church." 
 These statements go beyond the fact ; and the 
 
 ^ Ecce Homo, ch. ix. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. S 
 
 writer has to admit that " the one thing which 
 Christ required was a certain personal attachment 
 to Himself, a fidelity or loyalty " : he has also to 
 admit that baptism is seldom mentioned in the 
 accounts of our Lord's life : " we do not read, for 
 example, of the baptism of the principal disciples." 
 Yet again he has seen clearly and found it his 
 duty to emphasise the truth that the Christian 
 is a law to himself. 
 
 As in the teaching of our Lord, so in the 
 Christian life, there are many paradoxes. It is, 
 however, needless to multiply them as Ecce Homo 
 did ; and whatever arguments may be adduced 
 to prove that Christ organised a society, the 
 whole subject will be simplified, and the fact 
 better represented, by keeping to our Lord's own 
 statement of His mission — that He came to 
 reveal the kingdom of God. The main thing, 
 the sublime reality, is this kingdom of God. 
 Christian faith and fellowship here, the Church 
 on earth and its doctrines, are phases, means, 
 temporary and subordinate developments ; that 
 which abides and will abide for ever is the 
 kingdom of God. Christ gave that, not in 
 picture and parable only, but in spiritual fact and 
 power to the world. 
 
 A church is an association of persons who 
 profess faith in Christ, subordinate to a certain 
 
6 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 government administered by men, and explicit 
 rules which have been agreed upon by those who 
 constitute or those who guide the society. In 
 this sense no church existed during our Lord's 
 life. He neither made nor applied definite 
 regulations for the admission of men to the 
 circle of His apostles or disciples. Each of the 
 Twelve was called personally, and the call was 
 his ordination. No office-bearers were appointed 
 over the fluctuating numbers of men and women 
 who gathered about Christ as disciples. The 
 apostles had no authority while He lived — were 
 indeed incapable of exercising it. As their name 
 implies, they were nun sent to carry the tidings 
 of the advent, and proclaim the kingdom of God. 
 The name disciples, again, was not rigidly restrict- 
 ive. Any one who came to hear, and showed a 
 disposition to obey, was a disciple. The fellow- 
 ship was that of learners, brethren who sat 
 together at Christ's feet. 
 
 Our Lord taught what fellowship should be by 
 His words and example, and purified it by His 
 rebukes and ethical directions. More than that, 
 He gave the idea of brotherhood in faith and 
 love, the brotherhood of those who, believing in 
 Himself and loving God, were to be like members 
 of a united family. In this w^ay He laid the 
 foundations of the Church ; and on one occasion. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 7 
 
 at least, He spoke of it in a passage that may be 
 called prophetic. But the kiDgdom of God or 
 of Heaven was always in His mind, and His 
 teaching constantly bore on the nature and 
 power of that sublime theocracy which the name 
 represented. This kingdom, He said, is inward, 
 spiritual, and cometh not with observation. Men 
 may discover it after long search, or find it as if 
 casually. They may seek it as one seeks a pearl 
 of great price, or be included in it as fishes in a 
 net. It is a divine fact put within their reach, 
 or laid hold of with enthusiasm, with a rush, as 
 when the multitudes went after Christ to hear 
 Him. It extends wherever the power of His 
 life and the truths of His gospel extend. Men 
 know themselves to be in it when they realise 
 the fact that God rules ; and they enjoy its 
 liberty when they understand that His govern- 
 ment is unspeakably gracious, and accept His 
 way of grace. 
 
 The terms in which Christ speaks of the 
 kingdom of Heaven do not define the Church 
 visible or invisible. The Church did not extend 
 secretly as leaven hid in meal, but openly by 
 formal admission of members, after instruction 
 and profession of faith sealed by baptism. The 
 Church is not within us, but outward, and often 
 much in evidence by means of its places of 
 
8 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 worship, reports, statistics, organizations. Christ 
 left the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper; He laid down the duties of human 
 intercourse, and made love its law ; He presented 
 an object for the Church's existence. In these 
 ways He prepared for what was to come. He 
 introduced men and women into fellowship with 
 Himself and with the Father. He declared the 
 principles of life individual and social, moral and 
 spiritual, and made that life possible by His 
 personal influence on every soul. He gave the 
 life and promised the more abundant life. But 
 on His departure those who believed in Him had 
 to institute the Church. They had to find a 
 modus Vivendi, a way of living and co-operating 
 with each other. They had to settle on what 
 terms they should worship together and work 
 together ; who should be of the association ; in 
 what way they should exert their strength and 
 employ their enthusiasm; what should be done in 
 their meetings; how their Church should be ruled. 
 The experiments began early, and have been 
 going on ever since. We are still endeavouring 
 to make our churches useful in the highest sense 
 to the human race, perfect instruments of the 
 Spirit, serviceable to the kingdom of God. 
 
 Assuming, then, that while Christ was on 
 earth there was no Church in our sense of the 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 9 
 
 word, assuming that organization was still in the 
 future — " on this rock I vnll huild My Church " 
 — we now proceed to another point, that of 
 doctrine. And here a similar affirmation has to 
 be made — Christ stated no doctrines. He pre- 
 pared for them, gave the data of dogmatic 
 theology, provided all the elements of a Christian 
 creed ; but He did not frame and lay down what 
 we call doctrines. 
 
 For what is a doctrine in the accepted 
 meaning of the word ? It is a statement of 
 truth as seen by the human mind after reflection. 
 A doctrine sets forth the result of our thought 
 about spiritual realities. The fact is one thing 
 — the doctrine another. Truth is one thing — 
 doctrinal statement of truth another. Christ 
 gave facts in His life, truths in His teaching. 
 We reason about them, set them beside each 
 other, settle and state so far as we can the 
 meanings of the facts, the bearings of the truth. 
 So we frame what we call the doctrines of the 
 Christian religion, the Christian creed. 
 
 The Church is Christian society organized in a 
 way more or less defined, by human adaptation 
 of means to ends. Christ Himself appoints the 
 ends : men settle how they are to be attained. 
 It is part of the discipline of believers to seek 
 harmonious association with each other in the 
 
lo IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 service of God and of humanity. And doctrine 
 and creed are spiritual facts, interpreted and set 
 forth under the guidance of the Spirit of God, 
 after the human mind has considered them and 
 found some assurance of their meaning. 
 
 Our Lord asked of His disciples on one 
 occasion, " Who say ye that I am ? " His life 
 among them had revealed fact as to His nature ; 
 He had taught spiritual truth. But the doctrine 
 had to be stated by the disciples themselves 
 after reflection, as a result of the application of 
 their own intelligence and reason to the facts 
 observed and the truths received. The question 
 had its reply : Peter answered, " Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." That, as 
 we shall see, was not the first statement of a 
 doctrine of the person of Christ. The disciples 
 had been all along thinking about their Master, 
 who He was, what His relation was to God ; 
 and occasionally they had put their thought into 
 words. But the important thing here is that 
 Christ encouraged the formation of doctrine, 
 invited the disciples to come to a conclusion, and 
 to put that conclusion about His person into a 
 form of words of their own. 
 
 Sometimes it is said that doctrine is super- 
 fluous ; not only that we might dispense with 
 doctrines, but that we should be far better 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH, ii 
 
 without them. The answer is, partly, that our 
 Lord Himself sought to elicit an answer in 
 doctrinal form; and partly, that the only thorough 
 way of learning is by reflection on the deeds 
 and words of Christ, and repeated attempts to 
 state in our own language what they seem to 
 mean. No doubt error may result. Human 
 intelligence fails in the attempt to represent 
 divine fact. In the development of Christian 
 doctrine, there has been much ignorant work 
 — over - minuteness in expression, Pharisaic 
 restriction, misinterpretation of truth, false 
 colouring of fact. Still the attempt at doctrinal 
 accuracy is in the way of progress. 
 
 Now a Church, as it is the means of promoting 
 Christian fellowship, also helps the development 
 of doctrine and the education that accompanies 
 it. For this reason, therefore, one of the first 
 things to be done after our Lord's withdrawal 
 from the world was the formation, in a simple 
 way, of a Church or eclectic society by those 
 who believed in the kingdom of God and the 
 gospel of Christ. They wished reassurance in 
 their belief; they needed to consider and 
 reconsider among themselves what the words of 
 the Lord meant, what His will was. The 
 influences around were hostile to faith, and they 
 had to create an atmosphere friendly to it. 
 
12 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Spiritual truth was seen in dim outline ; they 
 had to bring it out in clear symbolism. The 
 gatherings of the disciples for prayer and con- 
 sultation, in the interval between the resurrection 
 and ascension of Christ, were the beginning, and 
 partly fixed the membership, of the society of 
 believers. After the ascension those gatherings 
 continued and became periodical. Then pledges 
 of sincerity in faith were required ; elders and 
 deacons were appointed. The creation of the 
 Church in this manner was necessary ; it was also 
 providential. In no other way could Christians 
 have advanced in knowledge, and at the same 
 time retained such unity of faith as would have 
 made the gospel a power in the world. 
 
 As to the beginnings of doctrine, examples 
 may be found in the first three Gospels, of the 
 way in which the disciples gradually formed and 
 expressed definite opinions regarding Christ and 
 His work. It cannot be affirmed that the 
 conclusions to which they came before our 
 Lord's departure were very numerous. They 
 had observed His life, but much of its significance 
 had escaped them. They had heard wonderful 
 words as in a dream ; they saw the death through 
 blinding tears ; the resurrection dazzled them. 
 It is plain that their creed, until Christ left the 
 world, must have been brief and imperfect. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 13 
 
 Many of the articles of it were, however, of the 
 first importance — that He was the Messiah of 
 Hebrew prophecy; that He was the Son of God; 
 that His name and power were to bring redemp- 
 tion to Israel. The resurrection-life of our Lord 
 added new facts and elements of faith ; but 
 these, and the interpretation of them which He 
 Himself supplied, as to the two whom He 
 instructed on the way to Emmaus, did not pass 
 into distinct doctrine until some time had 
 elapsed. 
 
 On the Sea of Galilee, when the tempest had 
 been calmed at Christ's word, the disciples who 
 were with Him asked in amazement, " What 
 manner of man is this, that even the wind and the 
 sea obey Him ? " It was a question of reflection, 
 of interest quickened by the thrill of astonish- 
 ment. But they did not venture at once to 
 state a belief that Jesus was Lord of nature. 
 We can see how far short they came of any 
 such conviction in this, that soon afterwards, a 
 multitude having followed Him unto a desert 
 place, the disciples prayed Him to send the 
 people away, that they might go into the villages 
 and buy themselves food. Eeflection had not 
 led to any clear general idea of His power to 
 meet the exigency of the hour. Another scene 
 on the lake showed progress in faith and 
 
14 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 conviction. The disciples were in their boat 
 "in the midst of the sea." They saw Him 
 coming to them in the dim morning light. 
 Peter said, " Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come 
 unto Thee upon the water." To Peter at least 
 Christ appeared at that moment Lord of the 
 forces of nature ; and almost immediately after- 
 wards, when the men found themselves in safety, 
 of their own accord they said, " Of a truth Thou 
 art the Son of God." True, the scope of the 
 statement, "Jesus, our Master, is the Son of 
 God," was confined almost entirely to the con- 
 viction that some of the power over nature 
 which belongs to the Almighty dwelt in Christ, 
 as the striking characteristics and authority of 
 a father may dwell in his son. Yet there was 
 movement towards the doctrine of the person of 
 Christ, which has in the course of time become a 
 most important branch of Christian theology. 
 
 Another illustration may be taken — the slow 
 advance of thought regarding the significance of 
 our Lord's death. In St. Matthew, ch. xvi., it is 
 recorded : " From that time began Jesus to show 
 unto His disciples how that He must go unto 
 Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders 
 and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and 
 the third day be raised up." A declaration like 
 this certainly rec^uired much reflection. But 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 15 
 
 the first disclosure of our Lord's early death, 
 though the resurrection also was predicted, 
 appears to have caused bitter disappointment. 
 That very act of self-devotion, which was to 
 crown the work of Christ, and bring the fulness 
 of His spiritual power to bear on the world — 
 that sacrifice by which the indifference and 
 earthliness of men were to be overcome, and 
 atonement made between heaven and earth — was 
 regarded as a calamity. Not only was there no 
 approach to a doctrine of sacrifice in the minds 
 of the apostles, but Peter turned on Christ with 
 the hasty rebuke : " Be it far from Thee, Lord ; 
 this shall never be unto Thee." The vision on 
 the Mount of Transfiguration soon after left the 
 three disciples in amazement. They heard, as 
 in a dream, something said about the decease 
 Christ was to accomplish in Jerusalem ; but 
 they could not connect death with glory. Again, 
 their failure to apprehend the great issues of 
 their Master's life is evident from the question 
 they addressed to Him : " Why, then, say the 
 scribes that Elijah must first come ? " Is Christ 
 to die and rise from the dead ? They cannot 
 see what good that will do. The old tradition 
 about Elijah has more interest than the great 
 event for which the Lord sought to prepare 
 them. ISTot till after the sacrifice has been 
 
1 6 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 offered, do they begin, under the pressure of 
 necessity, to gather an explanation of its meaning, 
 to understand what He had said : " Except a grain 
 of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by 
 itself alone ; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." 
 It may be asked : If the apostles of Christ 
 had no right understandinng of His life and its 
 purpose till after the resurrection and ascension, 
 how is it that we have in the Gospels pictures so 
 clear of the supernatural Christ ? How came 
 these memorials of things said and done, that 
 seem explicable only if the witnesses had been 
 aware from the first what was required in the 
 final issue, how the life needed to be shown in 
 order that the sacrifice might stand out as its 
 crown and seal ? To this the answer seems to 
 be, that the facts and sayings recorded in the 
 Gospels were fixed in the memory of the disciples, 
 apart from any imperfect theory of their mean- 
 ing. Nothing is clearer than the straightfor- 
 wardness of the synoptical Gospels. The alleged 
 tendencies, here Ebionite, there universalistic, 
 are not made out. In simple good faith the 
 memorable logia and the incidents of the life 
 of our Lord were recalled and reported as they 
 had impressed themselves on undogmatic minds. 
 Had the attempt to philosophise and arrange 
 gone far at an early date, the result would have 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 17 
 
 coloured the narratives. They are all the more 
 wonderful and evidentially valuable that the 
 witnesses had no system, and may even have 
 failed to understand and retain some hints of 
 meaning which would have been significant for 
 doctrinal purposes. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel is certainly different. 
 Written, perhaps, fifty or sixty years after our 
 Lord's life on earth, the Gospel of St. John 
 belongs to the time when Christian doctrine 
 had made considerable progress. Now there is 
 reflection about many incidents, and the reflec- 
 tion has a distinctly dogmatic cast. The opening 
 passage of the Gospel is entirely of this nature. 
 The writer appears no longer as a disciple 
 reporting simply what the Lord had said and 
 done. He is a teacher with the unction of the 
 Spirit. He uses his right as one who has 
 thought earnestly and is divinely guided to 
 knowledge of the truth. He can explain what 
 Christ said by events that followed His departure ; 
 he has a theory of the Eedeemer's glory.^ 
 Occasionally it is difficult to separate from the 
 sayings of Christ the doctrinal interpretations of 
 the apostle, which are not out of place, but, on 
 the other hand, carry the authority of inspiration. 
 
 Before passing from this brief review of 
 
 1 St. John ii. 11. 
 
1 8 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 origins, special attention must be given to the 
 one passage in which our Lord speaks prophetic- 
 ally of His Church. The confession of Peter — 
 " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God " — was by far the most important doctrinal 
 statement made before our Saviour's departure. 
 To this, then, as the corner-stone of the structure 
 of doctrine, Christ attached great importance, 
 and the passage we are to consider is the 
 declaration that followed : " Blessed art thou, 
 Simon Bar-Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not 
 revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is 
 in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou 
 art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My 
 Church ; and the gates of Hades shall not pre- 
 vail against it. I will give unto thee the keys 
 of the kingdom of Heaven : and whatsoever 
 thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
 heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
 earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. xvi. 
 17-19, K.V.). 
 
 Here we notice, first, that the confession, based 
 on the apostle's observation of our Lord's words 
 and life, is acknowledged to be a revelation, 
 God-given, inspired. Peter is declared a prophet, 
 with the prophet's blessedness. Then, as Pro- 
 fessor Bruce has said,^ the declaration of Christ 
 
 1 The Kingdom of God, p. 262. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH, 19 
 
 implies, first, " that the Church to be founded 
 was to be Christian ; or, to put it otherwise, the 
 person of the Founder was of fundamental 
 importance." Our Lord meant, " I am indeed 
 the Christ, the Son of the living God ; and you, 
 Peter, and all who like you hold this belief, will 
 sustain the rising temple of My Church." Is it 
 implied that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of 
 Jewish prophecy and hope ? Yet His Messiah- 
 ship is not equivalent to His Christhood. For 
 the Christhood of Jesus is not limited by the 
 hopes of the Old Testament, nor does Christ 
 literally fulfil many of the predictions of Hebrew 
 prophets commonly attached to the Messiah. 
 The name Christ as used by Peter, still more 
 as we use it, is practically a new name, filled 
 gradually with meaning, as the scope of the 
 gospel, the nature of the mediatorial work of our 
 Lord, and the spirituality of His salvation, came 
 to be understood. " Son of the living God " is 
 also a name pregnant with germinal doctrine. 
 It implies that the life of God, His presence, 
 power, and will, have been unfolded in a unique 
 way by Christ. The Church is to be built on 
 these truths. It is to be Christ's Church, the 
 Church of the Son of the living God. 
 
 The next thing, according to Professor Bruce, 
 implied in our Lord's declaration, is that the 
 
20 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Christian Church should be " practically identical 
 with the kingdom of God." This, however, does 
 not agree with our conclusions. As we have 
 seen, the language used by Christ in speaking 
 of the kingdom of God does not apply to the 
 Church. The kingdom of God is far greater 
 and more spiritual than any Church that has 
 ever existed. When our Lord says, " I will give 
 thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven," He 
 does not mean the same as if He said, " I will 
 give thee the keys of the Church." 
 
 Peter's confession of faith, " Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God," gave him a 
 high prerogative. What was it ? To admit 
 men into the Church ? As things fell out, as 
 Christ knew they would fall out, that would 
 have been no great honour. The extraordinary 
 development of the Church four or five centuries 
 after this, and the magnificence that began to be 
 associated with its services, reflected a false light 
 on its early condition, and overbore the fact that 
 much of iron and clay was mingled with its 
 gold and silver. Even in the second decade, St. 
 Paul was saying, on this very point, concerning 
 one church whose members were contentious : " I 
 thank God that I baptized none of you, save 
 Crispus and Gains, lest any man should say that 
 ye were baptized into my name. And I baptized 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 21 
 
 also the house of Stephanas" (1 Cor. i. 14-16). 
 The common habit of venerating the Church 
 ignores that imperfection which must cling to 
 every organization of human elements. 
 
 But the kingdom of Heaven — that is some- 
 thing higher, finer, grander ! Of that we cannot 
 speak with too much reverence. That is God's 
 dominion, the sphere of His grace, the theatre of 
 His benignant providence, of His everlasting 
 mercy. And when Christ said, " I will give 
 unto thee " — not, I give,- but I will give, by and 
 by, when thou knowest My gospel aright — " I 
 will give thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 Heaven " — He promised an honour far greater 
 than that of directing the affairs of the Church : 
 that is to say, the office and privilege of pro- 
 claiming intelligibly, from the heart to the heart, 
 God's mercy, God's way of salvation, so that 
 men, believing, might pass into the light and 
 liberty of the heavenly life. " I will give unto 
 thee the keys " — by and by thou shalt be an 
 evangelist, a preacher of the glorious gospel. 
 Thou shalt fling wide the doors by thy preaching, 
 and many shall enter. 
 
 The office of the true evangelist, who with a 
 sound creed and living faith assures others of 
 Divine salvation, is indeed one of the highest 
 prerogatives with which man was ever charged. 
 
22 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 In this St. Paul gloried — " Christ sent me not 
 to baptize, but to preach the gospel." Simon 
 Peter was to receive it, but not to the exclusion 
 of others. The gift of the evangelist cannot be 
 reserved to one or to a few. The gospel is free, 
 and the opening of the doors is in the power of 
 all who have received the gospel, who under- 
 stand it, and can offer it in faith to their 
 fellow-men. 
 
 The third point, that of the binding and 
 loosing, presents no little difficulty. To say 
 that Christ promises to the Church in all its 
 judgments the sanction of heavenly righteous- 
 ness, implies too much. No Church, nor conclave 
 of the best and wisest leaders of any Church, 
 exercising the power of binding — say, of binding 
 men to certain articles of belief, or restraining 
 them by certain laws and regulations — has ever 
 used that power so that the decisions did not 
 need review in the court of Heaven. Whatever 
 is promised must lie within the limits allowed 
 by Divine prerogative to human acts, acts of 
 faith and love, of holy authority springing from 
 the earnest desire to serve mankind. The bind- 
 ing must mean putting restraint on ambition 
 and passion, on violence and wrong. The 
 loosing must signify introducing men to gospel 
 liberty and hope. What St. Peter and all 
 
BEGINNINGS OF DOCTRINE AND CHURCH. 23 
 
 servants of truth like him were to do, in and 
 throuo'h the Church, to advance the redeemino- 
 work of God, would be directed, overruled, and 
 blessed by Him who makes no errors, whose 
 judgment is irrevocable and eternal. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE FIRST TWELVE YEAKS IN JERUSALEM. 
 
 IVrUMERICALLY small, to all appearance 
 -^^ casual and without influence, was the 
 first gathering of believers after our Lord's 
 ascension. They did not meet, however, under 
 any shadow of doubt or disappointment. Words 
 lingered in their minds that carried desire and 
 hope into a wonderful future, in which they had 
 unbounded faith. " Ye shall receive power when 
 the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall 
 be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all 
 Judsea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts 
 of the earth." ..." This Jesus, which was 
 received up from you into heaven, shall so come 
 in like manner as ye beheld Him going into 
 heaven." Their first duty was to wait for the 
 coming of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ had 
 promised to be their Friend and Comforter, their 
 Guide into all truth. How they imagined the 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 25 
 
 advent of this Paraclete, we can only conjecture. 
 There must have been some vague expectation 
 of a new presence, another life that would bring 
 its holy influence to bear on them, a heavenly 
 voice revealing divine things not as yet known. 
 Beyond, lay their task of witness-bearing, in 
 which, as Christ had promised (St. John xv. 26), 
 the Holy Spirit was to aid and support them. 
 The extent of that witnessing they scarcely 
 comprehended ; but they knew it was to be the 
 work of their lives. Then they had, to sustain 
 them in duty, the hope of the return of Christ 
 to take His place as Messianic Head of the 
 tribes of Israel. It was for prayer the little 
 company of believers met, and the Master's 
 promise guided their supplication. 
 
 Of the groups that constituted the first 
 gathering of the Christian society, that of the 
 apostles was central and chief. The eleven were 
 there, men whose faith and devotion had revived 
 after severe trial, agreed on the whole as to the 
 testimony they bore concerning their ascended 
 Lord. With them were James, Joses, and 
 Simon, who are uniformly called the brethren of 
 Jesus, and always, where mentioned together, 
 associated with Mary His mother. Of these 
 three men, sons of Joseph perhaps by a former 
 marriage, we know that for a considerable part 
 
26 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 of the ministry of Jesus they had refused to 
 Lelieve in Him, although they appear to have 
 followed His career with some solicitude. It is 
 stated by St. Paul (1 Cor. xv. 7), that after His 
 resurrection our Lord showed Himself to James, 
 and this event must have carried to the mind 
 of the doubter a certainty that nothing could 
 afterwards overturn ; he saw and believed. 
 The brothers Joses and Simon have no special 
 notice in the subsequent history. James, how- 
 ever, became by and by head of the Church 
 in Jerusalem ; and the character of his faith 
 had a most important influence on Judsean 
 Christianity. Persuaded late, almost against his 
 will, one would suppose, he became a sincere 
 believer in Christ ; yet the personality of Jesus 
 and the spiritual originality of His teaching do 
 not appear to have carried James, even in the 
 course of years, far beyond the circle of Jewish 
 ideas and hopes. 
 
 The third group was composed of women, of 
 whom Mary the mother of our Lord is alone 
 named. Others were likely those mentioned in 
 the Gospel of St. Luke, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, 
 and Mary the mother of the Apostle James. 
 Here we have a fact significant in many ways. 
 Jewish custom not seclude women. Still, in 
 the temple and in synagogues, they worshipped 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 27 
 
 by themselves ; and no provision was made by 
 the law for their taking part in consultations or 
 decisions of any public kind. Now, in the first 
 Christian gathering, women had their place side 
 by side with the apostles. This created an 
 equality in privilege never before dreamt of, 
 and gave the councils of Christianity a more 
 gracious element than Judaism allowed. No 
 doubt, the fact that Mary, our Lord's mother, 
 was one of the women, had much to do with the 
 welcome extended to them when they appeared 
 in the upper chamber. Mary's right to be 
 present could be denied by none. Her tender 
 affection and earnest thought had followed Jesus 
 all His life ; her heart had been pierced as by a 
 sharp sword when He hung on the cross ; her 
 motherly love had passed into reverence and 
 wistful devotion. Who more than she had a 
 claim to take part in any gatherings and con- 
 sultations that had their origin in love to Him, 
 and sought the fulfilment of His design ? With 
 Mary all womanhood found entrance into the 
 inner circle of the Christian society ; yet not 
 solely on her account, for there were other 
 ministering women whose faith had often cheered 
 our Lord during His life on earth. 
 
 The first meeting of Christians, then, brought 
 together not by any careful plan, but in the 
 
28 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 simplest way, determined much, far more than 
 was seen at the time, in regard to the con- 
 stitution of the primitive Church. It practically 
 decided that the apostles were not to act by 
 themselves. There was to be no division like 
 that between clergy and laity : all believers, all 
 who had real interest in affairs, were to have 
 their part in the decisions and activities of the 
 Christian society. And this was confirmed at 
 the next meeting of which we have any record. 
 
 During the short space of a week or thereby, 
 the gathering of the believers in Jesus Christ, 
 who sought fellowship in prayer, had greatly 
 increased. From some twenty the number had 
 grown to one hundred and twenty. With 
 numbers came fresh vigour and the desire to 
 act ; and action took the shape of filling up the 
 official circle of the twelve apostles, which seemed 
 incomplete since Judas fell away. Peter accord- 
 ingly proposed, and the others agreed, to appoint 
 one to the vacant place. Two were found who 
 had been disciples from the beginning, and were 
 witnesses of the resurrection. Prayer was offered 
 for Divine guidance, and then, by lot, or what we 
 should call ballot, Matthias was elected. There 
 was apparently no formal ordination, for as yet 
 the laying on of hands was not practised; Matthias 
 was simply numbered among the apostles. 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 29 
 
 The Christians were thus already a self- 
 governing society. Eelying on the grace of God, 
 with quiet decisiveness they advanced in the 
 way they thought best. It cannot be said that 
 they had any special inspiration or guarantee 
 in this election. Matthias never, so far as we 
 know, distinguished himself as an apostle. In 
 point of fact, one not chosen by the Church, 
 Saul of Tarsus, became the twelfth. The whole 
 history of the churches during the apostolic 
 period shows, along with the inspiration of 
 certain men, 'a human element, a popular element 
 which made trial of methods and ideas. The 
 simplicity of the Christians and their honest 
 loyal intention are the features that strike us. 
 The early Church was not essentially different 
 from the churches of to-day. 
 
 It is necessary now to consider the relation in 
 which the Christians of Jerusalem stood to the 
 Jewish Church, the splendid temple and elaborate 
 ritual, which appeared to all pious Hebrews the 
 glory of their country and of the world. It 
 would be little to say that faith in Christ as the 
 Messiah of Israel had in no way separated the 
 Christians from the national religion. More 
 correct is it to say that hope for the future of 
 Judaism and of Israel shone with promise in the 
 company of the disciples of Jesus. To them 
 
30 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 the ancient religion appeared on the point of 
 renewal. Not one jot or tittle was to pass from 
 the law : all was to be fulfilled. Most of the 
 apostles came from Galilee, with a veneration 
 for the holy city and the temple which had not 
 as yet suffered disenchantment. They were full 
 of the thought that their Master, the promised 
 Messenger of the Covenant, was to purify the 
 sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, 
 that they might offer unto Jehovah an offeriug 
 in righteousness (Mai. iii. 3). Jesus was Head, 
 not only of the Church, but also of the nation. 
 He was of the royal family, a Prince of the line 
 of David. When His claims were known and 
 acknowledged, the tribes of God would pass 
 through a new birth, and accomplish their destiny 
 as the spiritual aristocracy of the world. 
 
 The practice of the apostles was in harmony 
 with these views. By regular attendance in the 
 temple, they sought, as far as possible, to associate 
 their faith with the old devotion. At the close 
 of the Gospel of St. Luke, it is recorded of the 
 apostles, that after the ascension of Christ " they 
 worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with 
 great joy, and were continually in the temple, 
 praising and blessing God." In the Book of 
 Acts (ch. ii. 46) it is stated that day by day 
 they continued stedfastly with one accord in the 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 31 
 
 temple, and breaking bread at home. The third 
 chapter begins, " Now Peter and John were 
 going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, 
 being the ninth hour " ; and there follows an 
 account of the cure of the lame man, and Peter's 
 address to the crowd in Solomon's porch. 
 Events that took place some twenty-seven years 
 later, on Paul's return from his third missionary 
 journey (Acts xxi.), show that the Christians of 
 Judaea still observed the Mosaic rites, and were 
 as devoted as ever to the temple and its worship. 
 And so they continued to be till the destruction 
 of Jerusalem. The Christians had their own 
 meeting - place, their own organization ; their 
 numbers increased by thousands at a time. 
 And it is significant that a great company of the 
 priests became obedient to the faith. Not only 
 did the Christians endeavour to keep in touch 
 with Judaism, but, for good or evil, they suc- 
 ceeded. Even the persecutions by the Sadducees 
 did not alienate them ; and the time came when 
 those persecutions ceased, and the leader of the 
 Church in Jerusalem was honoured as highly as 
 if he had belonged to the priestly caste. 
 
 The parallel readily occurs which is to be 
 found in the beginning of Methodism. The 
 Church of England, venerated by John Wesley 
 and his associates as the true Church of God and 
 
32 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 mother of souls, corresponds to the Jewish 
 Church, with its ancient traditions, its sacerdotal- 
 ism and prestige. The authorities of the national 
 Church, the priests and the Sanhedrin, were 
 recognised by the apostles much in the same 
 way, and with almost the same reservations, as 
 the authorities of the Church of England were 
 by Wesley. The Christian Church began as a 
 society within the Jewish Church, endeavouring 
 to bring about the fulfilment of its mission 
 through the rule of the Messiah ; and in a 
 somewhat similar way Methodism began, as a 
 society within the Church of England, endeavour- 
 ing to purify that institution and bring about 
 the accomplishment of its spiritual mission. 
 No break with the old system was, at the outset, 
 contemplated in either case. And the parallel 
 holds in respect of the persecution which the 
 early Methodists, like the early Christians, had 
 to undergo. By both alike the virulent opposi- 
 tion of some in the churches they loved was 
 regarded as an error of ignorance, which must in 
 due course be repented of and disallowed. 
 
 Now these facts in the history of early 
 Christianity had a most important influence on 
 its development, and could not fail to leave their 
 impress upon it, just as the parallel facts left 
 their mark on Methodism. To some extent, 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM, 33 
 
 indeed, Christ had intended His followers to 
 profit by it. On the moral side the law was to 
 survive. Our Lord did not disturb those founda- 
 tions of faith which had been laid long before in 
 the history and legislation of the Hebrew people : 
 He built on them, and desired His people to 
 build on them. He claimed the God of 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as His Father, whose 
 kingdom He came to reveal. In many ways the 
 attachment of the Christians to the old faith and 
 worship was profitable and necessary. 
 
 Yet, on the other hand, it may be a question 
 whether the apostles realised, as Christ meant 
 them to realise, the clear division He had made 
 between the Old Covenant and the New. And 
 it is certain they took in far too literal a way 
 His parabolic words regarding the future head- 
 ship of the Twelve over the tribes of Israel. It 
 was well that believers in Christ should be 
 devout after the ancient manner ; but not so 
 well they should cling fast to the ancient ritual, 
 as if the Jewish priesthood still retained its 
 commission, and its mediation were still needful 
 to the acceptable worship of God. Instituting 
 the Sacrament of the Supper, our Lord had 
 used the words : " This cup is the New Covenant 
 in My blood." The law and the prophets. He 
 said, had prophesied until John. Of the destruc- 
 
34 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 tion of the temple He spoke without regret ; and 
 although He never declared the priesthood to be 
 useless, He constantly taught that the essence of 
 religion was quite apart from priestly sacrifice 
 and intercession. To Himself He applied the 
 oracle of Psalm cxviii. : " The stone which the 
 builders rejected, the same is become the head 
 of the corner." The significance of these and 
 many other deliverances of Christ was not at 
 first understood. As it came to be perceived, 
 the task that presented itself to the leaders of 
 the Christian Church was one of great difficulty. 
 The difficulty lay in this, for one thing, that 
 the whole system of Judaism seemed to go 
 together — the moral law of the ten command- 
 ments, the law of feasts and sacrifices which 
 gave the priesthood its authority, and the oral 
 or traditional law handed down and expounded 
 by the rabbis. How far was this sacred legisla- 
 tion to be preserved, how far renounced ? Were 
 Christians to keep the Passover, the Feast of 
 Pentecost, the ceremonies of the great Day of 
 Atonement, the purifications, the rules concern- 
 ing clean and unclean foods ? Were they to 
 attend or not attend upon the synagogue wor- 
 ship ? How far duty lay on this side or that, 
 not one of the apostles could say. No clear 
 instruction had been given by Christ, and there 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 35 
 
 was no policy. But the conservative instinct 
 was strong ; and on the whole the feeling was 
 to make no separation, to go on recognising the 
 customs and sacred ordinances of the Jewish 
 Church. 
 
 Another difficulty of the new beginning was 
 connected with the use and authority of Scrip- 
 ture. The apostles were anxious to prove to 
 themselves and to their fellow-countrymen, that 
 in every particular the life and work of Jesus 
 agreed with the ancient oracles. Each discovery 
 in the books of Moses, in the Psalms, in the 
 Prophets, of a Messianic prediction which had 
 been fulfilled in the course of Christ's ministry 
 and suffering, attached Christianity more closely 
 to the letter of the Old Testament. Still it 
 might seem that the teaching of Christ was 
 opposed to that of Moses, and the Christians 
 had at first no dialectician among them who 
 could decide the relation between ancient scrip- 
 ture and new revelation. Neither the written 
 word, nor any part of the venerable tradition, a 
 national heritage of high authority, could easily 
 be relegated to a secondary place, and have value 
 thenceforth only in relation to recent ideas and 
 events. The Christians were not called to 
 change their faith ; but they were to be agents 
 in a religious evolution, and it was hard to 
 
36 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 realise the duty. Not perhaps till near the close 
 of the apostolic period did they perceive that the 
 New Testament of their Lord and Saviour, grow- 
 ing in their hands by the production of Gospel 
 and Epistle, was to be the final directory of faith 
 and religion, the Bible of the new age. 
 
 Now, this being the state of things, there was 
 clearly no little danger that the new elements 
 of faith and hope given by Christ — all the dis- 
 tinctive ideas of Christianity, in short — would at 
 first be advanced so timorously as to produce 
 slight impression, and that they would gradually 
 fall into shadow as time passed, and no visible 
 second coming of the Lord fulfilled the trust of 
 the Church. And here we see the extraordinary 
 importance of the events of the day of Pentecost. 
 The Christians had been meeting daily for 
 prayer, in the belief that power would be given 
 them from on high. This, to begin with, was 
 the confidence which kept them together, and 
 made a warm glow of feeling, that gradually 
 increased to keen desire and enthusiastic hope. 
 The gathering in the upper chamber grew 
 larger every day. The addresses of the apostles, 
 who were already going back with deep con- 
 viction upon their memories of Christ — the 
 marvellous fact of the resurrection — the extra- 
 ordinary departure of Christ from the world — 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 37 
 
 the new spirit of earnest prayer — made the time 
 one of fervour and excitement. Then came that 
 effusion of the Spirit, that unparallelled demon- 
 stration of the reality of faith, its power in the 
 soul and in the world, which gave Christianity 
 the force and copiousness of a new fountain 
 springing from inexhaustible reservoirs. 
 
 The day which brought to the Christian 
 Church its baptism of fire, was that of the 
 Jewish Pentecostal festival. It has been said 
 that this harvest celebration was a fit time 
 to be " the feast of ingathering for the nations, 
 when the Church, the mystical body of Christ, 
 was presented unto God to be an instrument of 
 His glory and a blessing to the world." Scarcely 
 in this way can the Old and New Covenants be 
 brought together. The festival of the ancient 
 Church now passed into the background ; the 
 new manifestation of Divine grace was to bring 
 joy of a kind to which there was scarcely a 
 parallel in Israel's history. After fifteen event- 
 ful centuries, the giving of the law was to have its 
 complement in the gift of the Spirit, the liberty 
 and elation of consecrated lives. And suddenly 
 and mightily the preternatural energy came. A 
 rushing wind, strange tongue-like flames that 
 burned and flashed above the heads of the crowd, 
 
38 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 symbolised the new Divine power and courage that 
 grew in each soul, and knit the believers together 
 as one man. Then broke forth the ecstatic utter- 
 ances, the fearless witness-bearing to Christ, His 
 Messiahship, His glory, which from the place of 
 meeting overflowed into the street. No inherit- 
 ance from Israel's past could account for this. 
 Peter was able to quote words from the Prophet 
 Joel predictive of what had taken place ; and 
 those words had a singularly oracular tone, for 
 they spoke of the pouring out of the Spirit or 
 Breath of God upon all flesh, of the sons and 
 daughters prophesying, the young men seeing 
 visions, the old men dreaming dreams. Yet 
 again, it was not with dreams and visions the 
 newly-anointed prophets dealt. It was of fact 
 they spoke ; of knowledge and hope they were 
 conscious of possessing. Joel's prophecy was at 
 once verified and transcended in the experience 
 of the Church. 
 
 Here, then, was the spiritual force Christianity 
 needed to carry it forward on its career. It 
 might continue partly subordinate to Judaism, 
 might partly oppose Judaism. There might be 
 a long period of conflict and probation before 
 the new faith should be fully disentangled from 
 restraining conditions. But the ardour of an 
 irrepressible life had been imparted ; and we 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 39 
 
 trace the evolution and manifestation of that 
 life in its first springtime of impulse, so ex- 
 uberant, so intense and heavenly, that something 
 like a reformation of Judaism seemed to be at 
 hand. The gift of tongues, moreover, pointed to 
 an enterprise and success beyond the range of 
 the Old Covenant. There was to be no one 
 sacred speech. Men of all nations were to hear 
 in their own languages the mighty works of God. 
 By the tidings of what had occurred among 
 the Nazarenes a crowd was rapidly drawn 
 together, and Peter was quick to use the oppor- 
 tunity of witness-bearing. His address dwelt 
 on the Joel prophecy, on a prediction of the 
 resurrection found in the sixteenth psalm, and 
 its fulfilment in Jesus of Nazareth. The 
 preacher called for repentance, and invited all 
 to be baptized in the name of Jesus, the Christ, 
 for the remission of sins. He promised that 
 those who believed should have the gift of the 
 Holy Spirit. The result was far beyond ex- 
 pectation. That day three thousand were added 
 to the Church. The heavenly afflatus passed 
 rapidly from soul to soul. Human testimony 
 alone could not have wrought such conviction. 
 A power was abroad constraining men to believe. 
 This was surely the dawn of the great day of 
 the Lord. 
 
40 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 The Church now felt itself to be launched on 
 its career. But the accession of large numbers 
 brought a burden. Many who received baptism 
 must have been very ignorant of the facts of 
 Christ's life, and only half persuaded of His 
 Messiahship. Men do not pass at a bound 
 from disbelief or indifference to full knowledge 
 and faith. Then the administration must have 
 been greatly strained. Within a short time 
 opportunities of meeting would have to be pro- 
 vided, so that all the converts might receive 
 instruction. There had also to be some under- 
 standing in regard to the worship, the teaching, 
 the observances needful to insure unity. To 
 these matters the energy of the Church had to 
 be addressed. For the edification of the new 
 converts, " the fellowship of the apostles " was 
 the security. It seems to be implied that one 
 or other of the Twelve took charge of each 
 meeting, and gave the instruction {didache), 
 which had already received a certain form. 
 There was also " breaking of bread " in some 
 sacramental way, as the pledge of faith, the 
 symbol of brotherhood. The narrative does not 
 imply that there was a complete celebration of 
 the Lord's Supper at each meeting. It points 
 to a simple ordinance, perhaps an agape or love- 
 feast, private and distinctively Christian, side by 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 41 
 
 side with the prayers and rites of the temple 
 still publicly observed. By these means the 
 administration of the Church kept pace, as far 
 as possible, with its increase. And otherwise, 
 apart from any definite rule, the spirit of the 
 converts approved itself. They assumed duties 
 toward each other which sprang from the sense 
 of unity and the obligation of Christian love. 
 Those who were rich sold their possessions, that 
 they might be able to relieve the wants of their 
 poorer brethren. A virtual community of goods 
 was established. Gladness and praise were the 
 marks of the new Israel. 
 
 So far without hindrance the spiritual life of 
 the Christian society expressed itself, took form, 
 gained certainty in movement, and expansive 
 force. But very soon the Pentecostal impulse 
 had to meet an obstacle which Christ foresaw, 
 for which, also. His own experience had prepared 
 His followers. The Christians may not have 
 expected the authorities of the ancient religion 
 to prevent their proclamation of Jesus as the 
 Messiah. They had no desire to change the 
 laws and customs of the nation. They imagined 
 that everything might go on as before, with this 
 difference only, that the ministry of the priests, 
 the teaching of the rabbis, the government of 
 the Sanhedrin, should now have regard to the 
 
42 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 fact that the Messiah had come, and to the ideas 
 that Jesus had added to the old system of 
 belief. Peter, fully persuaded in his own mind, 
 encouraged by the extraordinary success of his 
 first address to the people, may have supposed 
 that with equal demonstration of the Spirit and 
 convincing power an appeal might be made to 
 the Sanhedrin itself. And there were reasons, 
 of which he was perhaps aware, for taking this 
 sanguine view. The leading Pharisees had 
 apparently come to see that the crucifixion of 
 our Lord was a blunder, if not a crime. Their 
 inveterate feud with the Sadducees disposed 
 them to regard the Christian belief with favour, 
 for the resurrection was a distinct support to 
 their side of the controversy. The Sanhedrin, 
 too, might well fear to commit itself to another 
 dangerous experiment, in the way of rousing the 
 populace and coercing the Eoman governor. 
 Altogether the outlook was hopeful ; and the 
 apostles may have scarcely dreamed of serious 
 opposition. 
 
 There did, however, come a succession of 
 hindrances and trials ; and the Church had need 
 of the spiritual faith and zeal received on the 
 day of Pentecost. When Peter and John first 
 declared openly in the temple that Jesus was the 
 Son of God, that His crucifixion was a fulfilment 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 43 
 
 of prophecy regarding the sufferings of the 
 Messiah, that repentance and faith in Him were 
 needful to salvation, and that He was to come 
 again and bring the restoration of all things — 
 the boldness of their testimony could not pass 
 unnoticed. The priests, the captain of the 
 temple-guard, and the Sadducees, laid hands on 
 the two apostles, who were kept in custody 
 till the next day, and then brought before the 
 council. The quarrel does not require to be 
 traced in detail. It was undertaken in a timid 
 way by the Sanhedrin, and neither daunted the 
 spirit of the apostles, nor embarrassed the activity 
 of the Christians. Fearlessly, even to the council 
 itself, Peter reaffirmed his faith in the crucified 
 Jesus as the Messiah, and the Saviour of Israel. 
 The gathering of the Church to which he and 
 John afterwards related their experience, was 
 marked by a renewal of the spiritual ardour and 
 extraordinary signs of the day of Pentecost. The 
 enthusiasm of the Christians, now numbering 
 some five thousand, rose higher than ever. "With 
 great power gave the apostles their witness of 
 the resurrection of the Lord Jesus " : the tran- 
 scendent fact was stamped effectually upon the 
 consciousness of Jerusalem and of the world. 
 
 The second attempt made by the Sadducees 
 to suppress the rising faith was thwarted by 
 
44 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 Gamaliel. The third, however, resulted in the 
 death of Stephen, who had used language that 
 appeared sacrilegious ; and the narrative of St. 
 Luke states that " there arose a great persecution 
 against the Church which was at Jerusalem, and 
 they were scattered abroad throughout the regions 
 of Judsea and Samaria, except the apostles" (Acts 
 viii. 1). Next, after some years, Herod became 
 the aggressor, in order to please the Jews. The 
 stroke fell on James the brother of John ; and it 
 almost fell on Peter. Thus began the fellowship 
 of suffering which was for many centuries to 
 bind the faithful together and unite them closely 
 to their Lord. But the period now reviewed, 
 and even the first three decades of the Churcli 
 in Jerusalem, cannot be described as a time of 
 serious persecution. The Eoman rule was at 
 first favourable to Christianity, and the violence 
 of Jewish opposition was kept in check by those 
 tokens of pious devotion to the law and the 
 temple in which the Christians did not fail. 
 
 Meanwhile, within the Church, sources of 
 danger were not altogether wanting. Its rapid 
 growth was, humanly speaking, incompatible with 
 purity. So popular a movement was likely to 
 draw into it persons who saw the opportunity of 
 gratifying their ambition, and earning regard 
 otherwise beyond their reach. The case of 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 45 
 
 Ananias and Sapphira was of this kind ; and we 
 may say that primitive Christianity was in far 
 greater peril from the hypocrisy of persons like 
 these, than from the opposition of the Sanhedrin 
 and of Herod. Again, however, the tide of 
 spiritual power and moral earnestness swept over 
 the barrier. The offenders were convicted of a 
 sin so heinous, that exposure and condemnation 
 carried the sentence of death. No sword of 
 human justice was unsheathed : the guilty pair 
 died by the visitation of God. 
 
 The narrative of the Acts passes rapidly from 
 point to point without note of time. We know, 
 however, that the death of Herod Agrippa, 
 mentioned in ch. xii., took place A.D. 44. The 
 first twelve chapters, therefore, cover about 
 eleven or twelve years. During this period, 
 besides progress in the organisation of the Church, 
 there had been other important gains. Faith in 
 the power and grace of the Holy Spirit had been 
 assured. During our Lord's life the disciples 
 were entirely dependent on His personal pre- 
 sence and living word. They entered a higher 
 range of the religious life when the Spirit bore 
 witness with their spirits of the things of God, 
 and His Divine monition and support could be 
 everywhere enjoyed. Along with ecstatic utter- 
 ance ascribing praise to Christ, the power from 
 
46 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 on high was found to mean cahn wisdom for 
 ordering affairs, light on every matter of faith 
 and duty. It was no temporary gift the ascended 
 Saviour had bestowed. The Church was per- 
 manently endowed with spiritual strength and 
 zeal. The Holy Ghost was the heat of each 
 personal life, a unifying force in the body of 
 believers. Under changing conditions the Spirit 
 did not fail the trustful ; there were new needs, 
 new forms of effort, the same unworldly ardour, 
 power, and hope. 
 
 A clearer view of the scope of Christianity 
 had also come. When Stephen was arraigned, the 
 terms of the charge made against him may not 
 have been founded on his teaching; yet the accusa- 
 tion, " We have heard him say that this Jesus of 
 Nazareth shall destroy this place (the temple), 
 and shall change the customs which Moses 
 delivered us," is so far borne out by his own 
 words. He was bolder than most Christians of 
 the time, and showed singular spirituality of 
 faith when he said, " The Most High dwelleth 
 not in temples made with hands." To the 
 narrow Jewish mind the language appeared 
 blasphemous, and Stephen was hurried to death. 
 But his brave testimony enlarged the Christian 
 horizon. Philip, another of the seven deacons, 
 several of whom became helpers of the apostles 
 
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS IN JERUSALEM. 47 
 
 in the work of teaching, followed the lead of 
 Stephen, and first ventured to extend the Church 
 beyond Hebrew boundaries. Proselytes of Gentile 
 birth had already been received ; Philip preached 
 to Samaritans, and did not scruple to baptize 
 those who professed faith in Christ. One of his 
 converts, indeed — Simon, a notorious sorcerer — 
 proved so base a hypocrite, that Samaritan 
 Christianity might well have fallen into discredit. 
 Yet the sincerity of the rest seemed to be fully 
 shown by their receiving the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost. And Philip, having crossed the first 
 dividing wall, was led soon afterwards beyond 
 another. " A man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of 
 great authority under Candace, queen of the 
 Ethiopians," a believer in the Jewish religion, 
 but no proselyte, received the gospel with ready 
 faith. Philip baptized him into the name of 
 Jesus, and he went on his way rejoicing. 
 
 These were cases of some importance, yet by 
 no means decisive as precedents. The vision of 
 Peter, however, which taught him to call no 
 man " common or unclean," and the baptism at 
 Caesarea of the Eoman centurion Cornelius, were 
 authoritative. If the other apostles and the 
 Church in Jerusalem had courage and generosity 
 enough, the way was open for them to carry the 
 gospel to the Gentiles around and to the world. 
 
48 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 But Judaean Christianity held back, and Antioch 
 on the Orontes became the first metropolis of 
 the wider faith. There, at no great distance from 
 Jerusalem, religion was at once more free and 
 more earnestly aggressive. The Christian Jews 
 who went to that city from Palestine, preached 
 the gospel at first to their countrymen and to the 
 Grecian Jews. Not till later was the heathen 
 population in Antioch evangelised ; and the adop- 
 tion of the name Christians then seems to have 
 implied the need of a common designation for 
 those who were of one faith, yet differed from 
 both Jews and heathens. At all events, the 
 religion of Christ passed there into its larger life ; 
 for in vile, beautiful Antioch no other faith had 
 any vitality or force. Judaism lagged behind. 
 The gospel advanced to try issues with the 
 superstition and idolatry of the world. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PROGKESS OF DOCTRINE. 
 
 THE progress of Christian doctrine will now 
 engage our attention. We shall look into 
 the earliest discourses recorded in the Acts and 
 the Epistle of James, where belief appears in a 
 transitional form. In these we shall trace the 
 growth of that broad and spiritual gospel which 
 at length became the message of the Church. 
 And we shall find that the doctrine came slowly 
 into clearness, and took shape under the influence 
 of those Jewish observances it was intended to 
 supersede. The singular fact will present itself, 
 that the ancient religion — narrow, national, 
 ceremonial — supplied a symbolism by which 
 Christianity set forth broad spiritual ideas for 
 the enlightenment of the world. 
 
 All the Gospels, including that of St. John, 
 show how persistently the apostles of our Lord 
 clung to the half - political conception of His 
 
50 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 mission. Almost the last question they addressed 
 to Him was, " Lord, dost Thou at this time restore 
 the kingdom to Israel?" No doubt they thought 
 of a kingdom in which He should rule and dis- 
 pense His grace, so as to make Israel the nucleus 
 of a world - wide federation, the centre of a 
 universal worship of God. Yet their hope was, 
 to a great extent, on the earthly plane. The 
 Messiah was to be a veritable king. He was to 
 ordain and establish holiness, somewhat in the 
 manner of a despot. He was to compel obedience 
 and flash divine lightnings of indignation against 
 the rebellious. But the spiritual idea of the work 
 of Christ was in conflict with this crude belief. 
 And the inquiry how the pure and generous 
 view prevailed over the other is needful to a 
 right apprehension of Christianity, not only as it 
 was first preached, but also as it is in essence — a 
 religion for all time and for the whole of man- 
 kind. 
 
 During the period covered by our last chapter 
 there was little opportunity for quiet thought. 
 Still, a few must have been engaged in trying to 
 understand the relation of Christ's death to the 
 Jewish law and its sacrifices, and to determine 
 the new position of Israelites. As there was a 
 complete system of belief under the Old Covenant, 
 so, it was felt, there must be a system of belief 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 51 
 
 under the New. While at first the Messiahship 
 of Jesus might be accepted on the ground of His 
 resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit, believers would soon inquire what the 
 new faith was to do for them individually. As 
 the sayings and parables of Christ were recalled, 
 and the earliest gospel took shape, this inquiry 
 must have become more pressing. Innumerable 
 points in the teaching of Jesus turned on personal 
 duty and salvation. " The Way " was seen to be 
 one for each life, not for the Hebrews as a people 
 only, nor for any mass of men seeking political 
 power or liberty. And the influence of this 
 under-current of thought is to be traced in the 
 earlier discourses, in which, although they are 
 mainly oratorical, doctrines or germs of doctrines 
 come gradually to expression, the first-fruits of 
 Christian remembrance and inspiration. 
 
 We commence with the idea of salvation. 
 The name Saviour is twice given to our Lord in 
 the Gospels. Once it occurs in St. Luke, in the 
 annunciation of Christ's birth to the shepherds : 
 " There is born to you this day in the city of 
 David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." Again, 
 in the Gospel according to St. John, the name 
 occurs as given to Christ, not by the apostles 
 in acknowledgment of His Divine power to forgive 
 and redeem, but by the men of Samaria, who 
 
52 
 
 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 certainly had very crude ideas of the meaning of 
 the word. The second of these occasions may be 
 left out of account. But as soon as thought 
 began to go back on the revelation of the new- 
 order, the angel's annunciation must have rung 
 with new force. Turning to the Acts of the 
 Apostles, then, we find the name Saviour given 
 to Christ (ch. v. 31) by Peter in an address to 
 the Sanhedrin : " Him did God exalt with His 
 right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour." Pre- 
 viously the forms of teaching were — that God 
 had made Jesus " both Lord and Christ " ; that 
 God had " glorified His Servant Jesus " ; that 
 Jesus was " the Holy and Ptighteous One," " the 
 Prince of Life " ; that every soul which did not 
 hearken to Him should be "utterly destroyed 
 from among the people " ; that He had been sent 
 by God to bless the Jewish people "in turning 
 away every one of them from their iniquities." 
 Speaking to the Sanhedrin, also, on a previous 
 occasion, Peter said : " In none other is there sal- 
 vation : for neither is there any other name 
 under heaven, that is given among men, wherein 
 we must be saved." Thus advance was made to 
 the idea that Jesus Christ is personally a Saviour, 
 not merely the means of deliverance, but one 
 endowed with the saving energy, as the words in 
 Acts v. 31 imply. 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 53 
 
 Stephen died with the prayer on his lips, 
 " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The vision 
 which sustained him was that of a Divine Friend 
 waiting to welcome him home. To Cornelius 
 and his household Peter testified that the risen 
 and exalted Jesus was " ordained of God to be 
 the Judge of quick and dead," and that " through 
 His name every one that believeth on Him shall 
 receive remission of sins." Almost in the same 
 terms, St. Paul, preaching in the synagogue at 
 Antioch of Pisidia, described the salvation of 
 Christ, adding, however, these words, which 
 already showed the direction of his thought : 
 " By Him every one that believeth is justified 
 from all things, from which ye could not be 
 justified by the law of Moses." And it is in 
 this address that the name Saviour occurs in 
 Acts for the second time : " Of this man's seed 
 hath God, according to promise, brought unto 
 Israel a Saviour, Jesus." 
 
 Now it cannot be denied that the use of so 
 distinctive a name — that is to say, the doctrine 
 that Jesus Christ is a Saviour — implies a spirit- 
 ual conception of His work. The step in thought 
 was of great significance. It meant recognition 
 of the power of Christ to enlighten and liberate 
 the soul. Yet, at the same time, it is noticeable 
 that, just as in the angel's annunciation reported 
 
54 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 by St. Luke, so also in Peter's address to the 
 Sanhedrin and Paul's at Antioch, Jesus is repre- 
 sented as Saviour of Israel. Christ is exalted, 
 Peter said, " to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to 
 give repentance to Israel and remission of sins " 
 (Acts v. 31); and Paul declares that God "hath 
 brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus " (Acts 
 xiii. 23). There is growing spirituality ; yet the 
 salvation of Christ is primarily for the Hebrews 
 as a people. At first it appeared a strange thing 
 when any outside the chosen race, whether 
 Samaritans, Eomans, or Greeks, entered into new 
 life by believing in Christ. To Peter and his 
 brethren such occasions seemed exceptional. St. 
 Paul was the first who came to see that there 
 was nothing either strange or exceptional, because 
 Christ is the Saviour of all men. 
 
 The next doctrine we consider is that of /or- 
 giveness, or the remission of sins. The Gospel of 
 St. Luke records that in our Lord's last conversa- 
 tion with the disciples He said : " Thus it is 
 written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise 
 again from the dead the third day; and that 
 repentance and remission of sins should be 
 preached in His name unto all the nations, 
 beginning from Jerusalem." With these words 
 before him, St. Luke proceeded to write the Book 
 of Acts. What then do we find in the addresses 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 55 
 
 recorded there ? That of Peter on the day of 
 Pentecost was clearly intended to convict his 
 hearers of the guilt of Christ's death : " Him, 
 being delivered up by the determinate counsel 
 and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of 
 lawless men did crucify and slay." It was 
 according to the purpose of God that Christ 
 should suffer. They would have had no power 
 against Him otherwise. But in rejecting Christ, 
 in demanding His blood, in persecuting Him to 
 death, the people of Jerusalem had been guilty 
 of a sin so great that all others were insignificant 
 beside it. It was the unique transgression, 
 summing up in itself all iniquity and rebellion. 
 Peter speaks of no other sin, thinks of no other. 
 He requires Israel to repent of that. And he 
 has an assurance to give which invites repentance. 
 The sin does not remain as a load that must 
 crush the nation. God has raised up Him whom 
 they slew. Jesus is by the right hand of God 
 exalted, He has obtained the promise of the Holy 
 Spirit, and by Him the Spirit has been poured 
 forth. There is therefore a way of forgiveness, 
 and Peter can offer to all who repent of the sin 
 of rejecting Christ full remission in His name. 
 
 Pass now to the occasion when the same 
 apostle spoke, in the porch of the temple, after 
 the cure of the lame man. Again the great sin 
 
56 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 of Israel was the tlieme. Admission was made 
 that the crime was one of ignorance, and that 
 the sufferings of Christ were fore-ordained and 
 predicted. Yet Peter does not lessen his words 
 of condemnation. " Whom ye delivered up and 
 denied before the face of Pilate ... Ye denied 
 the Holy and Eighteous One, and asked for a 
 murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the 
 Prince of Life." And again, the resurrection of 
 Christ is declared to have opened a way of 
 remission. The power of the exalted Christ has 
 been invoked, and by faith made visible in the 
 cure of the lame man. And the conclusion is : 
 " Eepent ye therefore, and turn again, that 
 your sins may be blotted out." If they will only 
 do so, a new day shall dawn for Israel. The 
 nation shall have times of refreshing, and then 
 the Christ will come in fulness of power and 
 glory. At the close of the address there is a 
 clear reminiscence of the words of our Lord 
 regarding remission to all nations, for Peter ends 
 thus : " Unto you first God, having raised up 
 His Servant, sent Him to bless you, in turning 
 away every one of you from your iniquities." 
 Already the light of the greater gospel has 
 dawned. 
 
 Yet once more, before the Sanhedrin, Peter 
 spoke on this subject ; and the passage is con- 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 57 
 
 elusive in regard to the first form of the doctrine 
 of remission. Before Sadducees who denied the 
 resurrection, and the council which had sentenced 
 our Lord, these bold words were spoken : " The 
 God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye 
 slew, hanging Him on a tree. Him did God 
 exalt with His right hand to be a Prince and a 
 Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel, and 
 remission of sius. And we are witnesses of these 
 things, and so is the Holy Ghost whom God hath 
 given to them that obey Him." The sin is 
 condemned once more, and remission is connected 
 not with the death, but with the resurrection and 
 exaltation of Christ. It is the Messiah raised 
 up by God's right hand who gives remission. 
 He is on high to offer grace, to proclaim pardon ; 
 for He desires to save Israel. 
 
 Now it has been asked why the apostles did 
 not connect the forgiveness of sin with Christ's 
 atoning death — why they did not declare, from 
 the first, that He had died as a sacrifice, that His 
 death was the true oblation fulfilling the types 
 of the Old Testament, and providing for the 
 remission of all sin ? And the answers given are 
 diverse. Dr. Young, author of The, Christ of 
 History, in his book, The Life and Light of 
 Men,'^ maintains that, according to the belief 
 
 1 Page 354. 
 
58 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 and teaching of the apostles, "the holy work 
 entrusted to the Eedeemer was not to appease 
 God's anger, but to be the highest utterance of 
 God's love — not to satisfy God's justice, but to be 
 God's messenger to bless mankind — not to make 
 expiation for sin, but to turn men away from sin, 
 to fill their hearts with abhorrence of it." He 
 says that during the ten or twelve years which 
 succeeded the death of Jesus, so far as the 
 materials of information go, " there is not a word 
 or hint of sacrificial expiatory sufferings, of 
 pardon from God procured by these, or of 
 imputation or satisfaction. . . . Almost the sole 
 subject of apostolic teaching," he says, " was 
 Christ, the Messiah of God, but rejected and 
 crucified by men — Christ the hope of Israel and 
 of the world — Christ in whose name was preached 
 to all men. the forgiveness of sins."^ 
 
 Criticising Dr. Young's opinion. Dr. Dale 
 affirms that if the apostles had proclaimed the 
 expiatory power of the sacrifice of Christ to 
 those who had been guilty of His death, the 
 teaching " would have been worse than useless." ^ 
 One thing only had they to insist upon, he says, 
 that in crucifying Clirist the Jewish people had 
 committed an appalling crime. " To have ex- 
 
 1 The Life and Light of Men, p. 357. 
 
 2 The Atonement, p. 113. 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 59 
 
 plained that the death of Christ was a propitia- 
 tion for the sins of the world would have 
 perplexed the minds of those to whom he (St. 
 Peter) was speaking, and broken the force of 
 those terrible denunciations by which he en- 
 deavoured to awaken their consciences and alarm 
 their fears." Dr. Dale's opinion is that the 
 apostles were aware that our Lord died to make 
 propitiation for the sins of the world ; but 
 he thinks such a doctrine could not have 
 been safely made known to those who had 
 been guilty of the death of Christ or had con- 
 doned it. 
 
 Now this is a doubtful and dangerous position. 
 To say nothing of what might well be called 
 suppressio veri, if the language of Peter is 
 regarded, much will be found that went to relieve 
 the conscience of the Jew. Admission is made 
 that the crime was committed in ignorance. The 
 fact is insisted upon that Christ had suffered by 
 the determinate counsel of God (Acts ii. 23, iii. 
 18). The suffering of Christ is shown to have 
 been a fulfilment of prophecy ; and the attempt 
 to extinguish His life has only prepared the way 
 for His exaltation and glory. Moreover, as the 
 ascended Messiah, He is ready and able to forgive 
 the sin of Israel. Clearly the preacher did 
 his utmost, even while he brought home the guilt 
 
6o IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 of Christ's rejection, to prove that the state of 
 Israel was not irremediable. 
 
 The explanation of the language used by St. 
 Peter is that the apostles had not before their 
 minds the doctrine of Christ's sacrificial atoning 
 death. As yet they did not realise that His 
 death, the great offering for sin, superseded the 
 sacrifices of the Old Covenant, and that He had 
 given Himself for the sins of the world. Weiss 
 says that at Acts iii. 1 8 /., " there lies plainly 
 enough for the consciousness of the speaker the 
 presupposition that through the fulfilment of the 
 prophecy concerning the suffering of the Messiah, 
 God had done His part to provide for the people 
 the Messianic forgiveness of sins." ^ This must 
 be admitted. Yet fulfilment of the prophecy of 
 Isaiah liii., which was before the mind of Peter, 
 did not imply the complete doctrine of a sacrifice 
 for all sin, which was an entirely new idea to 
 the Jewish mind. The apostles were, at this 
 stage, only gathering their recollections of Christ's 
 teaching, and comparing statement with statement. 
 They were far from the definite doctrine of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews : " If the blood of goats 
 and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling 
 them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the 
 cleanness of the flesh : how much more shall the 
 
 1 Biblical Theology, English Trans, p. 177. 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 6i 
 
 blood of Christ, who through the eternal covenant 
 offered Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse 
 your consciences from dead works to serve the 
 living God ? " 
 
 Meanwhile the teaching of Peter, Stephen, and 
 Philip did its work in preparing for the fulness 
 of the gospel. They declared that there was no 
 name but that of Jesus of Nazareth by which 
 Israel could be saved. They attached faith, 
 remission, and hope to the grace and power of 
 Him who had been led to death and raised to the 
 right hand of God. They convicted men of the 
 sin of Christ's death, and shook the conscience of 
 Israel. They opened the way to pardon and 
 higher life, by declaring Christ to be the Saviour. 
 For Israel first, and by and by for a broader 
 circle, the hope of salvation was unfolded. .- 
 
 The notion of inspiration held by some would 
 imply that the apostles, being divinely enlightened, 
 were able, from the day the Holy Spirit came on 
 them, to see all there was to see, and state Christian 
 truth perfectly. The advance in doctrinal state- 
 ment is supposed to mean that they adapted their 
 instruction to the persons they addressed, and 
 gave more as men were able to receive it. This 
 view of inspiration is altogether inadmissible. 
 When our Lord promised the Holy Spirit to 
 
62 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 guide His followers into all truth, He clearly 
 meant that the guidance was to be continuous 
 and progressive. The Spirit was to lead the 
 minds of believers to point after point, from 
 which wider views of truth should be obtained. 
 St. Peter did not see at first that Gentiles were 
 to be free to enter the kingdom of God without 
 passing through the gate of Judaism. The vision 
 of the net or sheet let down from heaven with 
 clean and unclean animals had to show him 
 this broader doctrine of the new dispensation. 
 Nevertheless he was an inspired man before he 
 had the vision. It was in Christian theology as 
 it has been in natural science — truths came to 
 light gradually ; and some devout inspired men, 
 who had minds open to the light of God, passed 
 away without making the great discoveries that 
 seemed to lie plain before them. But doctrines 
 which were discovered late were none the less 
 true on that account. 
 
 Among the writings of the New Testament the 
 Epistle of James is of peculiar interest, from the 
 point of view we are now taking. It is quite 
 evident that about a.d. 50, when Paul and 
 Barnabas returned from their first missionary 
 journey, James had been led to approve of their 
 ministry among the Gentiles. He showed no 
 desire to confine the hopes of the gospel to those 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 63 
 
 who kept the law of Moses. Expressions used 
 by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians (ii. 
 7 ff.) imply that the narrower interpretation of 
 Christianity had still some hold of the mind of 
 James as well as of St. Peter and St. John ; and 
 certain persons who professed to be under the 
 instructions of James interfered with the liberty 
 of the converts at Antioch. But James was the 
 mouthpiece of the council which decided that 
 heathens who believed were to be admitted 
 without circumcision to the privileges of the 
 Christian Church. Summing up, he quoted from 
 Amos (ch. ix. 11, 12) a prophecy which was so 
 far explicit, and the terms of the finding were 
 that the Gentiles who turned to God should not 
 be troubled with the observances of Judaism, 
 but should be required simply " to abstain from 
 the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and 
 from what is strangled, and from blood." A 
 divine work was going on which might enlarge 
 greatly the boundaries of the Church. James 
 agreed with the apostles and the Judiean Church 
 generally, that no difficulty should be placed in 
 the way ; and Paul and Barnabas were satisfied 
 with the mandate they received. 
 
 Nevertheless traditional belief continued to 
 influence the Christianity of James. He still 
 held that the Hebrew people were to be first in 
 
64 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 the new kingdom of which Jesus was Messianic 
 Head. This is to be gathered from the epistle 
 which bears his name, and has every mark 
 of genuineness. Weiss is of opinion that the 
 writing belongs to the time " prior to Paul," ^ by 
 which is to be understood the time previous to 
 any of the epistles of St. Paul. This can scarcely 
 be maintained, though Dr. Salmon has argued 
 very fully for a date so early that James could 
 properly address all Christians as under the 
 obligations of the Mosaic law.^ The epistle 
 shows, at all events, the nature of Christian 
 belief as it first prevailed in the Church at 
 Jerusalem. Whether we take it to have been 
 written before A.D. 50, or suppose James ten 
 years after that date to have still adhered to his 
 first conception of Christianity, we must agree 
 with Godet that, " as Peter personifies in himself 
 the normal transition from the Jewish economy 
 into the free grace of Christianity, James repre- 
 sents the transition into that transition." ^ 
 
 The epistle is addressed " to the twelve tribes 
 which are of the Dispersion." The writer has 
 Jewish Christians in view, along with other 
 
 1 Biblical Theology of the New Testament, p. 170. 
 
 2 Historical Introduction to the Books of the Neio Testament, 
 p. 45. 
 
 ^ Biblical Studies, New Testament, p. 218. 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 65 
 
 Hebrews who have travelled beyond the mother- 
 country, probably for the purpose of carrying on 
 their business. And the Christian faith of James 
 is in harmony with his patriotic hope as a Jew, 
 for he does not write to any believers in Jesus 
 who are outside the Hebrew Church. He speaks 
 of Jesus as Lord and Christ. He names Him 
 " the Lord of Glory/' thereby implying the belief 
 that Christ has been exalted to heaven. He 
 tells the poor to be patient " until the coming of 
 the Lord " ; that is to say, he looks for the second 
 advent of Christ to take place soon. And with 
 that he expects a readjustment of all things. It 
 is as Judge the Lord will come (ch. v. 9) ; and 
 when He returns to the earth He will put an 
 end to oppression, and relieve those who have 
 patiently suffered. One reference he ap]3ears to 
 make to the death of Christ, and it is of a 
 singular kind. He charges the rich with that 
 crime : " Ye have condemned, ye have killed the 
 liighteous One ; he doth not resist you " (ch. v. 
 6). It has become clear to him that worldly 
 position and the desire to maintain it had much 
 to do with the rejection of Christ. A poor 
 despised Messiah had not been to the liking of 
 the proud wealthy class. This would seem to 
 be the meaning of the passage, though it is 
 capable of another interpretation. 
 
66 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 James is said to have been a man of ascetic 
 piety, a Nazirite who lived in the plainest way, 
 and occupied himself greatly with acts of de 
 votion. His Christianity is in the temper and 
 spirit of the Nazirite vow. Apart from the 
 doctrinal hints just indicated, and a few others, 
 his epistle deals with matters of morality. Yet 
 there is no legalism: he writes in a strain of 
 liberty caught from the revelation of the spiritual 
 life. At times his style is proverbial ; but gener- 
 ally he has the manner of an Old Testament 
 prophet, and the illustrations he employs are 
 from the Hebrew Scriptures. To show the im- 
 portance of prayer, he adduces the example of 
 Elijah, not the command of Christ. He com- 
 mends endurance, not by a reference to the cross, 
 but by recalling the patience of Job. Speaking 
 of faith, he goes back to the cases of Abraham 
 and of Eahab. There is no reference to the 
 death of Christ for sin, nor to forgiveness as 
 bestowed by Him. 
 
 At two points James speaks of salvation. 
 " Putting away all filthiness and overflowing of 
 wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted 
 word, which is able to save your souls " (ch. i. 
 21). Here the "implanted word" is the "word 
 of truth " previously mentioned ; and in this 
 obscure way he seems to refer to the gospel of 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 67 
 
 the Messiahship of Jesus. There is a danger, he 
 knows, that the statement of this gospel may- 
 kindle wrath ; and that he greatly deprecates 
 (ch. i. 19, 20). But a meek reception of this 
 " word," leading to reverence for the meek and 
 gracious One who is the true Messiah, will bring 
 spiritual life. The followers of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ have new power to endure, a great and 
 heavenly hope. They are " a kind of first-fruits " 
 of the creatures of God. Again, at ch. ii. 14, 
 he asks : " "What doth it profit, my brethren, if a 
 man say he hath faith, but have not works ? 
 Can that faith save him ? " The works he 
 speaks of here are not those of the ceremonial 
 law. The " word of truth " has shown him that 
 beneficence, peaceableness, self-restraint, humility, 
 purity, patience, are the true works of God. And 
 these there must be, if a life is to have approval 
 and salvation. To recite the articles of a creed 
 in the Oriental fashion — to say, for instance, " I 
 believe that God is One " — is no justification of 
 a life. That may be called faith ; but a deeper 
 and more energetic principle of Godward feeling 
 must be shown. 
 
 Such, then, is the Christianity of James. 
 There is no sort of antagonism to Moses and 
 the law. Yet his religion is not Mosaism, nor 
 legalism. It is not that " righteousness which is 
 
68 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 of the law," rejected by Paul. On the other 
 hand, it is not the free spiritual religion which 
 Christianity became when separation had been 
 made between Judaism and the Gospel. For 
 James, and those in circumstances similar to his, 
 " The Way " provided life, freedom, hope, which 
 Judaism alone could not give. The liberating 
 element was recognition of Jesus as spiritual 
 Head and Leader of Israel. When His mediation 
 was received, even as a germinal idea, there was 
 new birth. Life went out on a higher level, 
 with new consciousness of God, new motives of 
 duty : the journey now was along a path which 
 led to heights unknown. 
 
 We know that the Hebrew Christians in 
 Judaea remained for at least a century in the 
 transitional stage of belief. Like all similar 
 conditions, it was at once one of privilege and 
 one of danger. If they had said, We have 
 not yet attained, we must press on that we may 
 apprehend that for which we have been appre- 
 hended by Christ Jesus, — in that case the gain 
 would have been without alloy. But men are 
 apt to imagine the good to be the best, and not 
 only to content themselves with what they have, 
 but to think all others should remain where they 
 are. The apostles did not fall into this error, 
 but many of the members of the Church did. 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 69 
 
 Hence arose the party of Judaising Christians 
 whom St. Paul often encountered. In Jerusalem 
 itself there was no break with Judaism, until 
 events proved the hopelessness of a creed which 
 rested in any sense on the temple and its 
 ceremonies. In the year a.d. 70, Jerusalem was 
 destroyed, and the sacrifices of the Mosaic law, 
 which could be offered in no other place, came 
 to an end for ever. Before the final assault on 
 the city, the Christians fled to Pella, a town of 
 Decapolis, where the Church was reconstructed. 
 Afterwards, when Jerusalem was rebuilt, with 
 the name of ^lia Capitolina, they returned, 
 having in the interval broken off their connection 
 with Judaism. This division was hastened, 
 about the year a.d. 135, by a persecution which 
 the Christians of Palestine suffered at the hands 
 of the Jews. So at length, in the third or fourth 
 generation, Hebrew Christianity was driven into 
 freedom. 
 
 It may seem strange that the " blindness of 
 Israel " rested, in part even, on those who were 
 of the election of grace. It is, however, still 
 more wonderful that one who gloried in his 
 Jewish birth, a Pharisee, a Hebrew of the 
 Hebrews, should have led the way into the full 
 liberty of Christ. We must refrain from judging 
 that on the one side there was a want of cour- 
 
70 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 ageous fidelity to Christ, on the other alone the 
 true illumination of the Spirit. Each in his 
 way — James who clung to the law, and Paul 
 who, loving Israel with deep filial affection, broke 
 from the bonds of the law — showed the fervent 
 religious spirit which Judaism nourished and 
 Christ brought to fruitfulness. In the heart of 
 it the old Hebrew faith had a love and a light 
 which make the Psalms and many parts of 
 prophecy dear for ever to the Christian. Nor 
 need we despair of an unveiling of the Hebrew 
 mind, to be followed by its "turning to the 
 Lord." 
 
 Writing in 1885, Professor Cheyne quoted the 
 saying of a devout Prussian Jew : " Although 
 I am still far from believing Jesus to be the 
 Son of God, yet I consider Him my Mediator 
 with God, and I often say in my prayers, ' This 
 for the sake of Jesus of Nazareth ' " ; and the 
 quotation is followed by the remark that this 
 confession and others of a like kind seem to 
 promise a revival of primitive Jud?eo-Christianity. 
 " Are we sure," asks the professor, " that the 
 Hellenised theology of the Church of the 
 Councils" (the post - apostolic councils) "is not 
 partly responsible for Jewish unbelief ? . . . 
 While the prejudices of Judaism are what they 
 are, is not a Judieo-Christian Church a neces- 
 
THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 71 
 
 sity ? " ^ Assuredly the Jew who finds difficulty 
 in accepting our forms of thought and doctrine 
 may, by his own path, reach the Light of the 
 World. We have no doubt either of the Chris- 
 tianity or of the inspiration of St. James ; and 
 Hebrews now may be Christians like him. A 
 contemporary anovem en t among the Jews of New 
 York, under the evangelist Hermann Warszawiak, 
 seems to show that when the appropriate note is 
 struck, Hebrew faith responds as in apostolic 
 days. Yet the boldness of Paul is the true 
 example. His ideas were not Hellenic ; they 
 were vividly original. The " hope of Israel " 
 lies along his way ; for now at least the vitality 
 of the Hebrew race is rather of the present 
 world than of the soul. A Judteo-Christian 
 Church would have the light of promise only 
 if the external and ceremonial gave place to the 
 spiritual, and thought and feeling were pene- 
 trated by a new fervour of faith. 
 
 1 Expo.iitor, Third Series, vol. i. p. 411. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 WE are now to consider how, in two ways, by 
 gef)graphical and by doctrinal expansion, 
 Christianity entered on a new stage of its divine 
 career. The beginnings of enlargement were 
 made before Paul appeared on the scene — were 
 indeed inherent in the gospel as a message of 
 redemption and life. But decisive movement 
 came through Paul's inspired boldness and vigour 
 of mind. While the twelve apostles held back, 
 he took possession, in Christ's name, of the whole 
 world as the field, and claimed fulfilment of the 
 prediction : " They shall come from the east and 
 west, and from the north and south, and shall 
 sit down in the kingdom of God." 
 
 The fragmentary accounts which Paul gives 
 of himself enable us to follow the progress of his 
 religious life, from that moment when, face to 
 face with the Lord, he became a new creature, 
 
 72 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. -j^ 
 
 bound to the faith he had persecuted, free from 
 the bondage in which he had gloried. We are 
 able also to go back on the time previous to his 
 conversion, and make out partially what his life 
 had been. And we are astonished, first, that 
 he went over to Christianity ; and again that, 
 having become a Christian, his vehement temper 
 and restless energy did not rend in pieces the 
 timorous society into which he threw himself. 
 At every step in his career we see the man 
 constrained by the love of Christ — one who had 
 been crucified with Christ, and lived because 
 Christ lived in him. The marvel of his own 
 change was always present to his consciousness, 
 and gave him unbounded faith in the power of 
 the gospel to reconcile to God those who were at 
 the farthest point of enmity. 
 
 As one of the most important young disciples 
 of the Pharisaic school, Saul of Tarsus must 
 have been behind the scenes and known all that 
 had been done by the Sanhedrin against the 
 Christian faith. He must have had full informa- 
 tion why the death of Christ was resolved upon, 
 whether for the reason Caiaphas alleged, that one 
 man must die for the people, or because Pharisaic 
 methods and supremacy were found to be in 
 extreme danger. This acquaintance with the 
 state of aftairs, which none of the other apostles 
 
74 J^ THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 could have had, came to be of great service to 
 him afterwards in considering the real meaning 
 of our Lord's death. Even before his conversion, 
 he had doubts of the saving power of the law ; 
 and as he stood by watching the martyrdom of 
 Stephen, his faith in the old order must have 
 been severely tried. But for the time he was 
 held from conviction. The alternative was either 
 to renounce Judaism, because it could be main- 
 tained only by merciless persecution, or to pledge 
 himself anew to the policy of the council. To 
 this latter course he felt himself shut up ; and 
 with new fervour he strove to remove from 
 Israel the curse of schism. All the more, we 
 may suppose, that his mind misgave him not a 
 little, he became fanatical against the followers 
 of " The Way," and outdid every one in severity 
 and violence. 
 
 It was not long, however, till the truth broke 
 on his mind. On the journey to Damascus he 
 had time for reflection, and at the right moment 
 the Lord met him in love. What he knew of 
 the personality of Jesus of Nazareth was revived, 
 and made the basis of a most touching and 
 penetrating appeal : " Saul, Saul, why per- 
 secutest thou Me ? " The fetters of mind and 
 soul were snapped by that momentary appear- 
 ance of Christ as the true Messiah, the Fulfiller 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 75 
 
 of the destiny of Israel, the Light of the craving 
 soul. Thereupon Saul left Pharisaism as a 
 system and as a religious temper behind for 
 ever. He saw in a flash what it was, a narrow- 
 ing of religion, a reduction to absurdity of 
 Judaism, an enemy of liberty and life. It took 
 him years of thought to find the full gospel of 
 Christianity. But no leader of the early Church 
 could possibly see the errors and defects of 
 legalism as he saw them. What they were and 
 to what they led he knew by the keen experi- 
 ence of a mind uncompromisingly sincere ; and 
 therein lay his power as a dialectician. In the 
 gloom of the blindness which fell on him he had 
 first the consciousness of sin immeasurable, which 
 remained as a haunting memory, and kept his 
 great soul one of the lowliest. Then came 
 forgiveness, the liberty of full remission, the gift 
 of grace immeasurable ; and when this was 
 sealed by baptism, his education in Christianity 
 began. Apart in Arabia, with such knowledge 
 of Christ as he could acquire to found upon and 
 provide a key to the ancient Scriptures, he 
 sought the truth. And as he searched, it was 
 communicated " by revelation of the Lord." 
 There came to him in course of time a clear and 
 strenuous realisation of the world-gospel. 
 
 It has been supposed that during the years 
 
76 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 he was in Arabia, and those following which he 
 spent at his home in Tarsus, Paul reached some- 
 thing like his full equipment as a teacher of 
 Christianity. One is indeed apt to imagine that 
 when in company with Barnabas he began his 
 work as an evangelist at Antioch, the whole 
 scheme of doctrine which appears in his greater 
 epistles had already been settled. This view, 
 however, cannot be held without partial disregard 
 of the Book of Acts and of the earliest writings 
 of Paul — the two letters to the Church in Thessa- 
 lonica. It is beyond doubt that the germinal 
 principle from which his doctrine sprang had 
 been revealed to him at an early date. His 
 experience of Pharisaism, and the thraldom in 
 which mind and life had been held, prepared him 
 to receive the truth that the law had no power 
 to save. He was carried back beyond Moses to 
 Abraham, and Abraham's justification by faith, 
 an example to which he often recurred. But 
 with this light to guide him, he had still far to 
 go in order to find the full and balanced doctrine 
 of salvation set forth in the Epistle to the Pomans. 
 He had a vision of truth which already placed 
 him in front of those who were bound to Mosaic 
 ceremonialism. Their conception of Christianity 
 had not lifted them above the temple mount, to 
 which they hoped all nations would yet gather 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 77 
 
 for the worship of God. But Paul had a kind 
 of contempt for the system in which he had been 
 educated : to him Christianity was something 
 greater than any Hebrew vessel could contain. 
 The task was before him of relating the whole of 
 Christ's work as the Incarnate Son of God, and 
 especially His death and resurrection, to the 
 generous divine plan and to the needs of the 
 human souL And he had to advance carefully. 
 For, though he turned from Jewish legalism, he 
 could not turn from the revelations of the Old 
 Testament. Not the most ardent of those who 
 continued to observe the law of Moses had a 
 firmer faith in the Scripture than his. The Jew 
 was first in privilege : Paul had to make out 
 what that privilege was. The Jew had the 
 oracles of God : no word must be spoken that 
 would gainsay or slight one of those oracles. 
 Under such conditions the formulation of doctrine 
 could not be rapid. 
 
 The first period of study — some seven or 
 eight years, including fifteen momentous days 
 with St. Peter at Jerusalem — was spent by Paul 
 in such a way that the knowledge of the gospel 
 he acquired must have been, as we say, theoretical. 
 He seems to have had no opportunity of trying 
 practically its influence on the minds of other 
 men. And it is clear that when he reached the 
 
78 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 close of this long period of studious retirement, 
 he was by no means prepared to venture beyond 
 the circle of believers in Judaism with his offer 
 of salvation through Christ. He seems still to 
 have assumed that a knowledge of the true God, 
 such as Jews and proselytes to the Jewish religion 
 alone possessed, was absolutely needful as a pre- 
 liminary to the higher faith. He knew, indeed, 
 that he was to be an apostle to the Gentiles. 
 From the first this had taken firm hold of his 
 mind. But how it was to be fulfilled did not 
 yet appear. He began to preach, holding with 
 the other apostles that, as a general rule, if not 
 always, the Jewish belief must prepare for the 
 Christian. Only, he would show the Jewish 
 belief in its true light : he would speak of the 
 covenant with Abraham rather than the legisla- 
 tion of Moses. Thus the Gentiles who received 
 the gospel would easily see the wider life, the 
 spiritual freedom, that lay beyond Hebraism. 
 The law would be to the Gentiles a tutor bring- 
 
 o 
 
 ing them to Christ (Gal. iii. 24), but would not 
 require years to effect the introduction to the new 
 teacher. It would simply guide them across a 
 court which had been the prison of souls for 
 centuries; then they would reach the gate leading 
 forth into the broad spaces of spiritual life. 
 These would appear to have been the views of 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITl. 79 
 
 Christianity in relation to the Old Testament, 
 which Paul held when, about the year 44 a.d., he 
 began his work as an evangelist. Our Lord's 
 saying in regard to Zacchseus might have been 
 taken by St. Paul as a text for his evangel: 
 " To-day is salvation come to this house, foras- 
 much as he also is a son of Abraham." And the 
 apostle was following with inspired logic the 
 Master's own judgment of Pharisaism and the 
 legal spirit, when he set them aside as of no 
 avail for justification. The parable of the 
 Pharisee and the Publican, one may say, was 
 constantly in Paul's thought. 
 
 Shortly after the martyrdom of Stephen, a 
 desire had arisen among the Jews of Syrian 
 Antioch to hear more of Christ than those 
 disciples could tell whom persecution had driven 
 to their city. In response to their appeal to the 
 Church in Jerusalem for an accredited teacher, 
 Barnabas had been sent, and his work had been 
 wonderfully successful. Many proselytes of 
 earnest inquiring mind were worshippers in the 
 synagogue, and in an atmosphere far more free 
 than that of Judaea the new faith was widely 
 accepted. "Much people was added unto the 
 Lord." The work by and by exceeded the ability 
 of Barnabas ; and, casting about for a helper, he 
 bethought himself of the ardent young convert 
 
8o IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 whom, seven or eight years before, he had be- 
 friended in Jerusalem and introduced to the 
 apostles there. " He went forth to Tarsus to 
 seek Saul." And then, for a whole year, the two, 
 who were to be long fellow-labourers in the 
 gospel, wrought together establishing the first 
 Christian Church beyond the limits of Palestine. 
 
 We can scarcely be wrong in ascribing mainly 
 to the energy of Saul the strong position 
 Christianity gained in Antioch. His were the 
 logic and originality which made the new religion 
 distinct from the Hebrew faith. Those he found 
 waiting to hear him were awakened, were think- 
 ing and hoping. In the young enthusiasm of his 
 soul he did his utmost to convince them; and 
 we can easily imagine how with overmastering 
 power of mind he constrained many to follow the 
 way he had himself been led. When they stood 
 with him in the new liberty of the faith of the 
 Son. of God, they were no longer Jews. Their 
 hopes and sympathies were too wide, their view 
 of divine grace too generous. They were now 
 Christians — to themselves, to the Jews, and to 
 the world. 
 
 Thus Antioch became a centre. With faith 
 came liberality. The Christians there con- 
 tributed to send help against a famine to the 
 brethren in Judaea ; and Barnabas and Saul were 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 8i 
 
 chosen to carry the gift. With increase of 
 spiritual power among themselves came the 
 desire that other cities might share their know- 
 ledge of Christ ; and Barnabas and Saul were 
 with fasting and prayer sent forth on a mission- 
 ary journey. Prophets and teachers are named 
 through whom the will of the Holy Spirit was 
 on this occasion made known ; and the terms of 
 their deliverance are significant. " The Holy 
 Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for 
 the work whereunto I have called them." The 
 Church at Antioch was as yet a Church of the 
 circumcision. The commission, however, was 
 vague, and allowed the evangelists liberty. They 
 understood it to mean that they were to seek the 
 conversion mainly of Jews and proselytes to the 
 Jewish religion. The new apostle was advancing 
 to a conviction that would soon enable him to 
 invite the Gentiles directly into the kingdom of 
 Heaven. Meanwhile he went forth a messenger of 
 Christ to those who already knew and trusted 
 the promises of God. 
 
 Before considering the nature and results of 
 the preaching of Paul and the development of it, 
 we may briefly review his missionary travels ex- 
 tending over some thirteen years. The world 
 was before the two evangelists when they set out 
 from Antioch about the year a.d. 46. They 
 
82 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 might have turned eastward instead of westward. 
 But Paul's knowledge of the Greek language 
 and literature may be said to have fixed their 
 choice of the latter direction ; and westward also 
 lay the great centres of thought and power. Yet 
 the Dispersion of the Jews had to be thought of. 
 Where were the lost sheep of the house of Israel 
 to be found in greatest numbers ? While Alex- 
 andria in Egypt had strong claims, it was well- 
 known that the Phrygian and Asian cities had a 
 large Jewish population. The district along the 
 northern coast of the Levant accordingly was the 
 first to which the missionaries directed their 
 course ; and they went by way of Cyprus rather 
 than on foot through Cilicia, where Saul may not 
 at this time have considered it well to appear in 
 his new character as a preacher. 
 
 We may reckon a week or rather more for 
 the events that took place in Cyprus, including 
 the conversion of Sergius Paulus, which was 
 exceptional in various senses. From Perga in 
 Pamphylia the way followed was northward to 
 Antioch of Pisidia, eastward to Iconium, south- 
 ward to Lystra, south-eastward to Derbe. Pioughly 
 speaking, the distances were such as might be 
 covered in a journey from Southampton to Kenil- 
 worth, thence to Cambridge, Hitchin, and London, 
 and the return was by the same route. As a 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. Zl 
 
 result, the first circle of Christian outposts was 
 planted north of the Taurus range. 
 
 The second expedition made by Paul, who on 
 this occasion had Silas as his companion, began 
 about the year a.d. 52, and occupied two or three 
 years. Barnabas, who with Mark set out about 
 the same time, sailed to Cyprus ; Paul, on the 
 other hand, went by way of Cilicia, and revisited 
 the scenes of his former labours and sufferings, 
 Derbe, Lystra, Iconium. Thence it would have 
 been easy to cross into Asia, where Colosse and 
 Laodicea lay on the main road to Ephesus. This, 
 however, was not his route. He went northward 
 across the plains of the Axylon, and then struck 
 westward by a road leading over broken country 
 to Adramyttium and Troas. So the extreme limit 
 of Asia to the west was reached, and any further 
 advance in that direction must be across the 
 ^gean Sea. The call came from Macedonia. A 
 ship was found which conveyed the evangelists 
 by way of Samothrace to Neapolis, and the land- 
 ing in Europe was thus made on the northern 
 shore of the ^gean. The chief cities visited were 
 Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth ; 
 and at the last a year and a half was spent. On 
 his way back to Syria, Paul had a short time at 
 Ephesus. 
 
 The third journey, of the earlier part of which 
 
84 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 there are no details, brought the apostle first, 
 apparently, to Lystra, Derbe, Iconium, and Antioch 
 of Pisidia. Thence he travelled by the " upper 
 country " — that is, probably, the high land where 
 the affluents of the Mseander have their sources — 
 to Ephesus ; and his stay there was very eventful. 
 Crossing to Macedonia, he went westward to 
 Illyricum, and thence into Greece, and for three 
 months travelled from city to city. The return 
 journey was by way of Macedonia, and by sea 
 from Philippi to Troas. Then, having rejoined 
 the ship at Assos, he sailed by way of Miletus to 
 Tyre. The close of the third journey brings us 
 to about the year a.d. 59. 
 
 It may be asked whether the evangelistic work 
 done by Paul and his companions — among whom 
 Barnabas, Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos, Silas, 
 Timothy and Titus may be reckoned — was the 
 main part of the missionary effort made beyond 
 the limits of Palestine up to a.d. 60. Little is 
 said in Acts about the original apostles after 
 Paul appeared on the scene ; and few churches 
 seem to have been planted by them. By the time 
 the First Epistle of St. Peter was written, which 
 appears to have been after a.d. 75, Pontus, 
 Cappadocia, and Bithynia, as well as Galatia, 
 must have been widely evangelised. The Apoca- 
 lypse gives the names of seven churches in Asia 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 85 
 
 — Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, 
 Philadelphia, Laodicea — and of these only two 
 are specially connected with the name of Paul, 
 Ephesus and Laodicea, to each of which he wrote 
 an epistle. The cluster of neighbour cities, Colosse, 
 Laodicea, and Hierapolis, was not apparently 
 visited by him on any of his journeys. But his 
 energy and example stirred many besides the 
 evangelists already named to the service of the 
 gospel. Epaphroditus (Phil. iv. 18), Tychicus 
 (Eph. vi. 21 ; Col. iv. 7), Epaphras of Colosse 
 (Col. iv. 12), Archippus (Col. iv. 17), Stephanas, 
 Fortunatus, and Achaicus (1 Cor. xvi. 16), 
 Andronicus and Junias (Eom. xvi. 7), Urbanus 
 (Rom. xvi. 9), Tryphsena and Tryphosa (Eom. 
 xvi. 12), are some of those who, not later than 
 A.D. 64, were known to Paul, and partly under 
 his direction as evangelists. The Church founded 
 in Kome was already large and flourishing in 
 A.D. 58, as the last chapter of the epistle shows. 
 Without attributing to Paul's influence alone the 
 whole of the missionary zeal that was developed 
 in the time between a.d, 46 and a.d. 60, we 
 must conclude that his ardour and instruction 
 were the main sources of an enterprise which 
 extended with amazing rapidity. He speaks of 
 some as having been " in the Lord " before him. 
 But even they learned of him ; for the only 
 
86 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 gospel for the world was that which he preached. 
 The first epistle written by Peter shows how 
 largely he came under Paul's influence. The 
 Epistle to the Hebrews is to a great extent a 
 development of his views. And when, after long 
 meditation, St. John began to write, it was clear 
 that he had derived somethinf? from Paul, although 
 his original mind gave a new cast to the world- 
 evangel. 
 
 From this rapid survey of the work of Paul 
 we return to consider the nature of his teachins^ 
 before the keen opposition of the Judaising party 
 forced him, in self-defence, to readjust and re-state 
 his whole doctrinal system. He began, as we 
 have seen, his first missionary journey, intending 
 to offer the gospel of the Christ mainly to Jews 
 and proselytes of the Jewish faith. A specimen 
 of his preaching is given in Acts xiii. Addressing 
 those who were gathered in the synagogue of 
 Antioch in Pisidia, he opened by touching on 
 some points in the early history of Israel. This 
 introductory sketch is brought down to the life 
 of David, and there he finds the point of relation 
 between the old and the new faith. " Of this 
 man's seed hath God, according to promise, 
 brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus." The 
 work of John the Baptist has engaged Paul's 
 attention, and is perhaps referred to because the 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 87 
 
 Jews of Antioch and neighbouring parts had 
 already heard of the extraordinary awakening 
 which took place under his preaching. (See 
 Acts xviii. 25, xix. 3.) Coming to speak of the 
 gospel, Paul says it is sent as the word of salva- 
 tion to those who are children of the stock of 
 Abraham, and to those that fear God — that is, 
 the proselytes. And the substance of it is 
 mainly the resurrection of Jesus, whom the 
 people of Jerusalem and the rulers had con- 
 demned, knowing Him not, nor the voices of the 
 prophets, although they fulfilled the old oracles 
 by bringing about His death. The resurrection 
 verifies predictions to be found in the Psalms. 
 And through Him who has been raised from the 
 dead without seeing corruption there is pro- 
 claimed remission of sins. Those who believe 
 on " this Man " will be justified from all things 
 from which they could not be justified by the 
 law of Moses. It is St. Paul's teaching as to 
 the saving power of Christ, that He can give 
 remission, not only of ceremonial sins, but of 
 those transgressions from which the law offered 
 no cleansing. This is a personal contribution 
 to the doctrine of Christianity. Here he shows 
 the open door into a liberty of conscience and of 
 life of which the law knew nothing. And it is 
 to this, not to the fulfilment of the destiny of 
 
88 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Israel as a nation, the address advances in its 
 climax. Its last doctrinal word compares the 
 justification brought by Christ with that provided 
 by the law of Moses, and pronounces the latter 
 imperfect. The appeal which follows is based 
 on the prediction that if this work should be 
 despised, this true justification through the true 
 Saviour, those who despise it must perish. 
 
 The Pauline doctrine is here in germ, al- 
 though the necessity of winning Israel kept the 
 preacher on lines conventional. There was but 
 a hint of the wider gospel that was struggling 
 in birth. But, a week afterwards, when the 
 Gentiles of Antioch had been stirred by the talk 
 about a new teaching, and were found crowding 
 in a most unexpected way the Jewish meeting- 
 place, and buzzing about its door, the hour came 
 for a bold advance. Jews were conservative, 
 those of them who were of pure Hebrew birth 
 intensely so. This gathering of heathens annoyed 
 them, " filled them with jealousy." The privileges 
 of their descent and election were threatened, and 
 Paul soon knew the altered temper of the Hebrews. 
 Scarcely had he begun to speak when there were 
 mutterings and contradictions ; and opposition 
 grew to a storm. Then the decision was taken, 
 and both the evangelists were agreed in express- 
 ing it : " Seeing ye thrust the word of God from 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 89 
 
 you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal 
 life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." The difference 
 between Paul and Barnabas on the one side, and 
 their Hebrew assailants on the other, was not 
 merely about law-keeping, ritual, or circumcision. 
 The preachers of Christ had a gospel for their 
 soul. Was that to be offered to all who sought 
 after God in their consciousness of need ? 
 Afjainst the narrowness which denied the 
 Gentiles any direct access to the promises of 
 God, Paul and Barnabas could not but rebel. 
 
 And the word which by instinct came to the 
 lips of Paul, marking the advance in his idea of 
 Christian doctrine, was one he had been learning 
 — who can doubt ? — from the memorabilia of 
 Jesus. " Eternal life " is an expression repeatedly 
 attributed to Christ in the synoptical Gospels. 
 If the impressive parable of the Sheep and the 
 Goats was in the mind of Paul — and the circum- 
 stances certainly recalled it — he could not forget 
 that " eternal life " was to be the inheritance of 
 those on the right hand of the throne. The 
 Fourth Gospel is, however, that in which this 
 expression most frequently occurs ; and we can 
 be almost sure that some of the sayings long 
 afterwards gathered by the Apostle John were 
 already passing from mouth to mouth : " Ye 
 search the Scriptures because ye think that in 
 
90 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 them ye have eternal life ; and these are they 
 which bear witness of Me." ..." This is life 
 eternal, that they should know Thee the only 
 true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, emn 
 Jesus Christ." Luke in narrating how Paul and 
 Barnabas turned to the Gentiles, evidently saw 
 the importance of the new expression used by 
 Paul ; for he repeats it. " As the Gentiles heard 
 this, they were glad, and glorified the word of 
 God ; and as many as were ordained to eternal 
 life believed."- 
 
 Although Paul was forced to this break with 
 the Jews of the synagogue at Antioch, it must 
 not be supposed that he departed from his first 
 intention of preaching mainly to those of the old 
 faith. At Iconium, on this first journey, the 
 evangelists began in the synagogue. On his 
 second journey, at Philippi, Paul sought the 
 Jews' place of prayer ; at Thessalonica he went 
 on three successive Sabbaths to the synagogue ; 
 at Berea, at Corinth, and at Ephesus, he addressed 
 himself to the Jews. It seems to be a point 
 with the historian to show that on no occasion 
 did Paul omit the duty which as an apostle 
 he was bound to recognise, of seeking first the 
 salvation of Israel. And in fact the decision to 
 leave the Israelites to their blindness meanwhile 
 was again urged on Paul by events in Corinth 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 91 
 
 similar to those in Antioch. The churches, there- 
 forC; planted by him, on his first two journeys at 
 least, were of mingled membership. A few of 
 pure Hebrew birth were probably to be found in 
 all of them ; but the Jewish element was mainly 
 either Hebrews born abroad or proselytes. And 
 these becoming Christians, were partly carried by 
 the power of Paul's reasoning, partly driven by 
 the opposition of the unbelieving Jews, into so 
 decisive acceptance of Christian truth that they 
 had no difficulty in joining fellowship with the 
 converted Gentiles, a rapidly-increasing number 
 in every Church. The Jews brought, with 
 knowledge of the Old Testament, the habit of 
 worship and the pure morality which were of 
 essential service in the Christian societies. The 
 Gentiles, who had much to learn, supplied a 
 valuable antidote to the legalism from which 
 even believing Jews could not easily divest them- 
 selves. Thus of twain one new humanity was 
 made. The elements were those of a Christianity 
 reverent of the past, capable of pressing on with 
 the march of Western life. 
 
 The train of thought Paul at first chose in 
 presenting truth to the Gentiles is shown in his 
 speech at Athens. The opportunity of addressing 
 an audience in the centre of Grecian culture was 
 one for which he may have longed, and there can 
 
92 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 be no doubt he did his best, both in preparing 
 the minds of his hearers for Christian truth, and 
 urging the impressive facts. Of the manner and 
 matter of his address, it is, from this point of 
 view, impossible to speak too highly. The unity 
 and spirituality of God, His glory in creation and 
 providence, were illustrated and brought home to 
 the audience in contrast to their own imperfect 
 and incoherent beliefs, yet in such a way that no 
 assumption of superiority, or appearance of bigotry 
 could mar the effect of the argument. Human 
 thought had been darkened and restrained by 
 ignorance, and human life had been defiled by 
 sin. To remove the ignorance, a new revelation 
 had been provided, and from the sin a way of 
 repentance had been opened. One signal event 
 had at once declared the grace of God to all, and 
 made certain the judgment of all. The Man 
 ordained to be Judge of the world had been raised 
 by God from the dead. The fact of the resurrec- 
 tion was that by which the heavenly gospel was 
 to gain power in human history, and raise into a 
 new faith individual and social life. On that 
 assured event Paul rested his hope of convincing 
 and converting Athens. 
 
 The address was too earnest, too insistent, for the 
 audience as a whole. And yet we cannot doubt 
 that, as some in Athens were impressed by it, so 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 93 
 
 in every heathen city men of thought hailed this 
 bold teachinsj as the solution of difficulties which 
 had long perplexed their minds. We may sup- 
 pose that sometimes, in preaching to heathens, 
 Paul used the proof of Divine providence which 
 was to be found in the history of Israel. At 
 other times he may have begun, as in the Epistle 
 to the Eomans, with a stern indictment of the 
 grossness of heathen society, rousing the con- 
 sciences of men by pointing to crimes which even 
 heathen moralists condemned. In these and 
 other ways, at all events, he and those who 
 learned from him made an impression on the 
 age. We know that during his second visit to 
 Ephesus the population of the great city was so 
 moved by Christian teaching, that Demetrius 
 and his fellow-craftsmen who fashioned shrines 
 for Diana complained of failing trade. This 
 complaint, indeed, was often used on slender 
 provocation, in order to rouse an excitable 
 populace. The sale of a few bundles of hay 
 less or more per day is seriously written about 
 by Pliny as proving that the faith of Christ was 
 spreading to the detriment of trade, or had been 
 happily suppressed. Yet the extraordinary scene 
 in Ephesus when the theatre was filled with a 
 shouting crowd shows how the wind of the 
 gospel was shaking the dry bones of heathenism. 
 
94 /iV THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 There remain for notice at this stage the two 
 Epistles to the Thessalonians, which wxre written 
 during the second missionary journey. These 
 show the kind of difficulties that disturbed 
 the churches, especially those mainly com- 
 posed of converts from heathenism. St. Paul 
 writes to the Thessalonians who had " turned 
 from idols to serve a living and true God, and 
 to wait for His Son from heaven." Speaking in 
 a kindly way of the churches in Judaea, that have 
 endured for the sake of Christ, he congratulates 
 the Thessalonian Christians on having attained 
 the same faith. He complains of the unbelieving 
 Jews who forbid him to speak to the Gentiles, 
 who " fill up their sins always," on whom " the 
 wrath is come to the uttermost." The sufferings 
 of believers in the midst of a hostile heathen 
 population must have been considerable, and one 
 aim of the first epistle is to comfort and support 
 those who had to endure, and to guard them 
 against retaliation. The expectation they were to 
 cherish of the Lord's second coming was a great 
 help to patience, and the apostle writes as if 
 Christ's glorious return might take place even 
 during the lifetime of those he addresses. 
 Another subject on which he enlarges is holy 
 life. The opening passage of chapter iv. is an 
 earnest appeal to the members of the Church to 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 95 
 
 abjure uncleanness. They are warned that in 
 respect of impurity, " the Lord is an avenger." 
 Paul's own sincerity, singleness of motive, and 
 endurance of affliction for their sakes, supply a 
 plea for the steadfastness of his converts on 
 which he confidently reckons. Wonderful are 
 the religious knowledge and the spirituality to 
 which in a short time the Church has attained. 
 The epistle is full of matter which mere tyros 
 in Christian thought and feeling could not have 
 understood. 
 
 A misapprehension on the subject of the 
 second coming of Christ made it necessary for 
 Paul to write, very soon after the first epistle, 
 another in which he is more explicit on the point 
 in question. Again he speaks of the persecutions 
 and afflictions the Thessalonians had to endure, 
 from which they would be delivered " at the 
 revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven." The 
 disobedient, he said, were only preparing for 
 themselves retribution when that great event 
 took place. Yet Christians were not to think 
 that the day of the Lord was just at hand. 
 There would be, before it, a " falling away," 
 and " the man of sin, the son of perdition, would 
 be revealed, he that opposeth and exalteth him- 
 self against all that is called God, or that is 
 worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of 
 
96 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 God, setting himself forth that he is God." The 
 whole description of this apostasy and of the 
 chief actor in it is of difficult interpretation. 
 The opinion supported by Weiss appears in best 
 agreement with the time and language, that it is 
 a development of the fierce and bigoted opposition 
 of anti-Christian Jews. This, Paul believes, will 
 be headed by a false Messiah, who will actually 
 obtain a place in the temple as the representative 
 of God. Difficulties had arisen in the Church, 
 because some were behaving themselves in a 
 disorderly way. Probably counting on the speedy 
 appearance of Christ, they were refusing to 
 work, and becoming mere busybodies in the worst 
 sense, a nuisance to the rest. These Paul sternly 
 rebukes, exhorting all to continue in well-doing. 
 The two epistles are interesting, more as show- 
 ing the state of the Church and certain outlying 
 points of belief and doubt, than as exhibiting 
 the theology of Paul. It has been noted ^ that 
 the death of Christ is only once mentioned, and 
 the cross not even once ; and Professor Findlay's 
 explanation stands. The epistles are supplement- 
 ary to teaching given by word of mouth a few 
 months before. As yet, however, the doctrines 
 of justification by faith and redemption through 
 
 1 The EpMks of the Apostle Paul, hy G. G. Findlay, B.A., 
 p. 46. 
 
THE ENLARGEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY, 97 
 
 the sacrifice of Christ have not been clearly 
 formulated. The opposition of the unbelieving 
 Jews is not yet exchanged for the far more 
 serious opposition of the Judaising Christians, 
 which drove Paul to find a clear statement of the 
 liberty that is in Christ Jesus. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 
 
 THE enlargement of Christianity St. Paul 
 laboured for was not won without a severe 
 struggle, which came to a head about a.d. 53. 
 It is necessary to trace the progress of this 
 dispute, which troubled the churches over a 
 considerable area, and greatly affected the form 
 of Christian doctrine stated by St. Paul. He 
 was driven for a time into strenuous antagonism 
 to men who claimed to be believers ; and one of 
 his epistles shows the heat of his spirit when the 
 freedom of the gospel and its power in the world 
 seemed to be in the greatest peril. 
 
 Within the Church at Jerusalem there had 
 been, almost from the first, a sect composed of 
 Pharisees and others, who believed in Jesus as 
 the Messiah, but still held by the ceremonial law, 
 and insisted on its permanent obligation. St. 
 Paul, beginning the Christian life, shook the dust 
 
THE LA W AND THE GOSPEL. 99 
 
 of Pharisaism from his feet, and soon learned to 
 rej^ard circumcision and uncircumcision alike as 
 of no account beside faith. But those of the 
 ultra-conservative party believed circumcision to 
 be necessary, and would have pressed the rite 
 on all who adopted the faith of Christ. They were 
 in fact bent on making the Church a mere Hebrew 
 sect or synagogue. We hear of these bigoted 
 Judaising Christians after the return of Paul and 
 Barnabas from their first missionary journey. Pte- 
 suming their ministry at Antioch in Syria, with the 
 new experience and boldness they had gained in 
 Galatia, the evangelists appear to have admitted 
 Gentiles freely into the Church. The door of 
 liberty thus opened was almost immediately 
 noticed by the watchful conservatives of Jeru- 
 salem. Very soon a company of them arrived 
 at Antioch, and began to denounce what had been 
 done. There was controversy which grew to 
 dissension, and bitter feelings were stirred. But 
 division was prevented. Loyal to the Church, 
 St. Paul did not break with the narrow sectaries. 
 He agreed to appeal to the apostles and elders in 
 the mother-city; and at the conference held 
 there, under the presidency of James, the matter 
 was discussed and to all appearance settled. 
 The Judaising section urged their view. On the 
 other side St. Peter gave his opinion strongly. 
 
lOO AV THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 When James pronounced the decision, harmony 
 seemed to be restored. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, the conduct of Peter 
 soon afterwards did not accord with his speech 
 at the conference. He had broken bread with 
 a Eoman centurion, converted under his own 
 preaching. At Antioch, on the other hand, in 
 the presence of men who claimed to know the 
 mind of James, he refused to eat with the un- 
 circumcised Gentiles whom Paul and Barnabas 
 had admitted to the Church. And the sinister 
 influence of his refusal spread. The others in 
 Antioch who were of Jewish birth separated 
 themselves with him. Perhaps the converts 
 from heathenism were men of low caste and little 
 knowledge, scarcely weaned from their idolatry, 
 speaking " half in the speech of Ashdod." The 
 Jew, unaccustomed to Gentile freedom and con- 
 versation, would feel a moral shock, and instinct- 
 ively recoil from those who were to sit with 
 him at the Lord's table. The revulsion was per- 
 haps as strong as would have been felt if, in the 
 time of slavery in America, negroes had proposed 
 to sit down with their white masters. Be this 
 as it may, the result was very unfortunate. The 
 conduct of Peter and those who followed him 
 gave new support to the Judaising sect. It was 
 implied that until Gentiles were purified by the 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. loi 
 
 Mosaic rites they could not be acknowledged as 
 Christian brethren. 
 
 St. Paul condemned Peter strongly for his 
 vacillation, and the words of rebuke must have 
 carried considerable weight. We so judge from 
 the tenor of the First Epistle of Peter, which 
 is thoroughly generous and catholic. But the 
 Judaising party, counting, as it would seem, 
 on the support of James, whether with or 
 without reason, were confirmed in their view, 
 and began to plot against Paul as a danger- 
 ous innovator and enemy of religion. On his 
 second missionary journey, however, these op- 
 ponents did not overtake him. The hindrances 
 he encountered were as before from Jews, deter- 
 mined to give no quarter to a religion which 
 opened wide to Gentiles the door of hope. At 
 their hands he suffered afresh, in Thessalonica, 
 Corinth, and Ephesus. The feeling shown by 
 these persecutors was nearly the same as that 
 of the Judaising Christians, but it was far less 
 dangerous to the gospel. To be denounced by 
 Jews was no doubt painful ; but they were open 
 enemies of Christ : to endure their persecution 
 was to testify on behalf of Divine grace. But 
 when those who professed to believe in Jesus 
 as the Messiah turned ac^ainst Paul and beqan 
 to condemn him, the gospel was wounded in the 
 
102 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 house of its friends. This was treachery as well 
 as enmity. St. Paul was stirred as he had 
 never been. 
 
 And when, in the churches of Galatia, the 
 Judaisers commenced their work of subversion, 
 something Paul had done in perfect good faith, 
 on his second journey, gave them a weapon 
 against that very doctrine of Christian liberty 
 which was so dear to him. At Lystra he had 
 found a young convert of the name of Timothy, 
 son of a Jewish mother married to a Greek. 
 According to his own rule, Paul would have 
 said that circumcision was unnecessary. If a 
 Gentile did not need to undergo the rite, neither 
 did one who was half a Jew. But, with his 
 customary readiness to yield in non-essentials, 
 Paul deferred to the opinion of Jews, who held 
 that Timothy could not be in the right relation 
 to God and to his Hebrew ancestry without 
 circumcision ; and the rite was performed. 
 The concession thus made proved to be ill-timed. 
 Very soon afterwards, the Judaising sectaries 
 followed Paul from Antioch in Syria to Galatia ; 
 and, beginning their work of detraction, they 
 could point to what had been done in Timothy's 
 case as entirely in harmony with their view, 
 and affirm that there was the best reason for 
 the circumcision of every convert. 
 
THE LA W AND THE GOSPEL. 103 
 
 The opinion has been widely held, that the 
 Galatian churches in which the Judaising party 
 had most success were situated in the Gallic 
 district, lying in the central or north-central 
 region of what we now call Asia Minor. The 
 difficulties of this view are considerable, and 
 have been fully and ably set forth by Professor 
 W. M. Eamsay, in his work, The Church in the 
 Boman Empire before a.d. 170. He shows that 
 the Eoman province of Galatia, extending irregu- 
 larly from Pontus and Bithynia in the north to 
 Pamphylia in the south, and including Lycaonia 
 and part of Phrygia, is that referred to in Acts 
 when the name Galatia is used. His conclusions 
 not only establish the accuracy of the travel- 
 document of Luke, but explain away what is 
 incomprehensible, that churches well known and 
 important, visited once and again by St. Paul, 
 evidently among the first he founded, and enjoy- 
 ing much of his thought and care, should be not 
 so much as named in the Acts of the Apostles. 
 It was supposed that Paul preached in the 
 northern or Gallic part of Galatia on his second 
 missionary journey. But this region did not 
 lie in the way from Phrygia to Mysia, or to any 
 point which might be described as over against 
 Mysia. The map which accompanies Professor 
 Ramsay's book exhibits the results of the closest 
 
I04 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 modern research and the best knowledge of 
 ancient geography ; and a glance at it, taken 
 along with the author's careful reasoning, throws 
 much light on the whole subject of the Galatian 
 churches and the epistle addressed to them. 
 Antioch by Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe — 
 tlie churches founded on St. Paul's first journey, 
 visited also by him on his second and third 
 journeys — are, by Professor Eamsay's showing, 
 the churches of the epistle. 
 
 The arguments for this conclusion cannot here 
 be stated. But any one making trial of the 
 theory will find that it clears the history for 
 him. In Gal. iv. 13, for example, reference is 
 made to the first or former time when the 
 gospel was preached to those churches ; and this 
 falls in with the statement of Acts, that they 
 were visited by Paul not only on his first, but 
 also on his second journey. There is some 
 difference of opinion as to the precise time when 
 the epistle was written. But Professor Eamsay's 
 theory admits of a date during the second 
 journey, perhaps the latter part of the stay 
 at Corinth, or a date following the close of that 
 journey. The whole circumstances, and the 
 feelings of the writer as they are to be gathered 
 from the epistle, correspond with what is 
 narrated in Acts. The churches, mainly Gentile 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 105 
 
 (Gal. iv^ 8), were in localities where Jewish 
 opinion had considerable vogue, and the Old 
 Testament was easily accessible, for appeal is 
 often made to it. The large Jewish population 
 and the synagogues in all four towns account 
 for this. It is amazing to St. Paul that those 
 Galatians should have fallen away from their 
 liberty in Christ (Gal. i. 6). He can explain 
 it in no other way than that they have been 
 bewitched (ch. iii. 1). And the experiences 
 Paul had in the South- Gala tian towns show 
 why he was astonished. At every one of them 
 he gave the gospel to the Gentiles, in the face of 
 the most violent opposition of the Jews. The 
 system that now bewitched his converts denied 
 them any part in Christ. We may surmise 
 that the reading and exposition of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures in the Christian assemblies had pre- 
 pared the converts to be fascinated by the 
 Judaising theory, which, they may have thought, 
 would give them not only the standing of 
 believers in Christ, but also the place of mem- 
 bers in the venerable Church of the Old Testa- 
 ment. The antiquity of the Hebrew faith was 
 attractive, for it exceeded that of their ancestral 
 worship of Zeus and Hermes. 
 
 The case of Titus is specially referred to in 
 the epistle, and is evidently brought forward by 
 
io6 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 St. Paul as against that of Timothy, whose cir- 
 cumcision by his order was well known in all 
 the churches. Speaking of the visit he made to 
 Jerusalem after his first journey, he says : " Not 
 even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, 
 was compelled to be circumcised." Paul had 
 actually taken to Jerusalem in his train an 
 uncircumcised Greek, and presented him as a 
 Christian. To the " false brethren " who urged 
 then that Titus should be circumcised, Paul "gave 
 place in the way of subjection, not for an hour." 
 The Galatians could see for themselves how 
 different was the case of Timothy. Had the 
 sectaries, basing on this, dared to say of him 
 that he preached circumcision ? (Gal. v. 11). It 
 was absurd. " I, brethren, if I preach circum- 
 cision, why am I then persecuted " by those who 
 believe in circumcision ? He had yielded, by 
 way of conciliation, perhaps at the instance of 
 the grandmother and mother of Timothy. Surely 
 that might be distinguished from the retro- 
 gressive insistence on circumcision which the 
 Judaising Christians made their main point. 
 
 The great purpose of the epistle is to set 
 forth the doctrine of Christianity in opposition 
 to belief in law-keeping as a means of salvation. 
 Beginning with a strong affirmation that the 
 gospel he had preached to the Galatians was the 
 
THE LA W AND THE GOSPEL. 107 
 
 only gospel, Paul found it necessary to vindicate 
 his right to speak on Christ's behalf as an 
 inspired apostle ; and he did so by giving a 
 plain account of his religious experience, and 
 the commission he had from the Lord. He 
 had been endowed with spiritual understanding, 
 and had stood upon his knowledge of the mind 
 of Christ even in rebuking one who was an 
 apostle before him. The Galatians had been 
 hearing denials of his claim to teach Christianity ; 
 they might now judge for themselves. The 
 apologetic statement passes, at ch. ii. 15, into a 
 strain of argument turning on Paul's personal 
 experience of death to the law and its works — 
 that is, to all those outward ceremonies and 
 rites of which circumcision was the type. Then 
 appeal is made to the religious history of the 
 Galatian converts themselves. The great gift of 
 the Spirit had been bestowed upon them ; life 
 in the Spirit had begun ; they had suffered for 
 their Christian faith and hope ; " powers " (ch. iii. 
 o) had been wrought among them: and all this 
 had been apart from the law, when they simply 
 believed in Christ. They heard much about 
 Abraham and the argument that circumcision 
 was instituted as a sign of the covenant of God 
 with him. But the faith of Abraham, not 
 circumcision, brought him justification ; and it 
 
loS IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 was in prospect of the faith of the Gentiles God 
 had made the promise that in Abraham all the 
 families of the earth should be blessed. The 
 law detained under a curse those who were 
 subject to it, for no one kept it in every point. 
 And Christ redeems all who trust Him from this 
 very curse, " having become a curse for us," in 
 submitting to death by hanging on a tree, o 
 
 Then, again, as to the covenant made with 
 Abraham and the promise which was to be 
 fulfilled in his seed — that is, in Christ as Head 
 of the new kingdom of faith — the law came four 
 hundred and thirty years later. The law was 
 not the most ancient institution by any means. 
 If the Galatians desired antiquity, they must 
 pass it by; and the rather that it was added 
 because of transgressions. Had Israel been true 
 to the old Abrahamic covenant, and believed like 
 Abraham, the law would not have been neces- 
 sary. Were Christians to bind themselves by 
 a system which had no life-giving power, but 
 only restrained and shut up all things under 
 sin ? That system was meant for the childhood 
 of spiritual life, the tutelage of the soul. Christ 
 gives the full privilege of sonship, and in Him 
 the law is superseded. To be Christ's is to 
 enter on the inheritance which the law could 
 never give ; it is to have the freedom, the re- 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 109 
 
 demption, the fellowship with God of those who 
 are at home with Him. 
 
 The Galatians had once been in bondage to 
 gods that were no gods. Under the false 
 system of that idolatry they had known tlie 
 insufficiency of " weak and beggarly rudiments." 
 Tlie ceremonies and feasts of Judaism, if kept 
 in a legal spirit, as a meritorious burdening of 
 the life for religion's sake, were of the same 
 nature as the old idolatrous observances. Those 
 who practised Jewish rites were going back to 
 a lower type of reUgion ; and Paul was afraid 
 "lest by any means he had bestowed labour 
 upon them in vain." There were personal 
 reminiscences of his work among them on which 
 he could not return without deep emotion ; and 
 he now recalled the kindness he had received 
 at the hands of his converts, in the hope of 
 bringing back their early confidence in his 
 teaching. His letter is in the same strain of 
 earnest solicitude for their spiritual life as his 
 first labour among them had been. 
 
 Proceeding with his argument after this 
 appeal, he uses, in a way that would be quite 
 intelligible to those who had been hearing the 
 rabbinisms of Jewish orators, the allegory of 
 Isaac and Ishmael, to show the freedom of true 
 sonship ; and then he advances to the strongest 
 
no IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 point of his epistle : " Behold, I Paul say unto 
 you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will 
 profit you nothing." The adoption of ceremon- 
 ialism and legalism would entirely alter their 
 relation to Christ. Trusting in law-keeping, 
 they would fall away from grace. "Ye are 
 severed from Christ, ye who would be justified 
 by the law." 
 
 Such, then, is Paul's vigorous protest against 
 the Judaising Christians, his attempt to undo 
 their false teaching. The whole argument is, 
 in a sense, doctrinal ; yet the doctrine is closely 
 connected with worship and character. The 
 law that is set aside is the ceremonial law, not 
 the moral law of the ten commandments and the 
 Pentateuch generally. Not till afterwards did 
 Paul enter on the relation of Christianity to 
 the ethics of Judaism. In this epistle, indeed, 
 he may have failed to make his meaning quite 
 clear, for at one place (ch. v. 14) he speaks of 
 the whole law as fulfilled in the precept, " Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself " — which, of 
 course, is to be kept.^ While most persons 
 would understand this, some might be perplexed. 
 And we can easily believe that he himself was 
 led to think out the subject, and to treat it in 
 
 ^ Compare the treatment of this matter by Weizsacker, The 
 Apostolic Age, English Trans, p. 155. 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. in 
 
 the Epistle to the Eomans, by noticing or being 
 shown the difficulty his language caused. The 
 worship, the kind of thinking that accompanied 
 the worship, the reflex influence on character 
 which ceremonialism produced — these were the 
 vital matters that occupied Paul's mind, for in 
 these lay the barriers to salvation. With cere- 
 monialism went the certainty of self-righteous- 
 ness, narrowness of view, a low and injurious 
 idea of religion and of God. By and by there 
 would be discontent with the system, which 
 could not long satisfy those who had once seen 
 the freedom of grace. And discontent with the 
 system might result in abandoning the faith. 
 But, on the other hand, with belief in Christ 
 went the pursuit of a high and liberating ideal, 
 constant dependence on the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit, largeness of nature, spiritual redemption. 
 Contrasting the law and the gospel, the language 
 of St. Paul is in no respect too strong, too eager 
 for the occasion. His promising churches are 
 like to be entangled in a fatal net. Once for 
 all he must show what the danger is, and bring 
 every possible argument and appeal to bear on 
 the minds of the converts. 
 
 The Epistle to the Galatians sets forth the 
 first stage of Paul's doctrine of justification by 
 faith. Against the attempts to obtain acceptance 
 
112 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 and standing in the kingdom of God by the way 
 of observing rites, ceremonies, feasts, cleansings, 
 abstinence from certain foods, he places the one 
 liberating and exalting call to believe. And the 
 cross is central. Eelying on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ who was crucified for them, living in the 
 faith of this Saviour, crucifying the flesh with 
 its affections and lusts, they would be sons of 
 God. The justification of their lives would be 
 assured to their own consciousness. Not as 
 fettered slaves would they move, nor as chil- 
 dren without any real part in the activities of 
 the spiritual kingdom, but as free men, guided 
 by the inner light of the Spirit, who should of' 
 the Spirit reap everlasting life. 
 
 We cannot tell how far this masterly epistle 
 served its end. It seems to have gained wide 
 acceptance almost at once, and in Galatia at 
 least to have arrested the heresy against which it 
 was directed. Towards the close of St. Paul's life 
 there was no little confused teaching, which 
 mingled some of the old Jewish ceremonialism 
 with oriental notions of late introduction. In 
 the Epistle to Titus we have hints of this. But 
 the attempt to drag Christianity back to the 
 prison of Judaism must have been given up as 
 futile at a very early date. A modified conser- 
 vatism survived in Juda3a for a few generations ; 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 113 
 
 the case was different, however, among the 
 Gentiles, to whom the distinctive practices of 
 Judaism were naturally and increasingly dis- 
 tasteful. We may take it that the most of the 
 Galatian believers kept the way of liberty ; and, 
 like others in those days, they needed to be re- 
 strained in their use of Christian freedom itself. 
 
 Passing meanwhile the Epistles to the Cor- 
 inthians, which develop very strikingly the 
 doctrines of salvation through the death of 
 Christ and the sanctifying power of the Spirit, 
 we proceed to look at the teaching of the 
 Epistle to the Eomans in so far as it carries 
 to a further stage, and in a sense completes, the 
 discussion of Christianity in relation to the law 
 of Moses. The Roman Church must have had 
 many converts from Judaism among its members. 
 The whole scope of the treatise shows how in- 
 terest in the destiny of Israel had called for a 
 clear vindication of the gospel as in no sense 
 opposed to the promises and Divine inspiration 
 of the Old Testament. The strain is throughout 
 conciliatory to the Jews, who appear to have 
 been sincerely anxious to find a resolution of 
 perplexing questions. Gentile Christians may 
 also, of course, have desired to comprehend the 
 connection between the Old Covenant and the 
 New. The whole of Paul's dialectical skill had 
 
114 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 here a worthy field ; and as the argument is 
 carried from point to point, the splendid inspira- 
 tion of the writer yields its finest fruit. 
 
 The law ceremonial, a system of outward 
 observances, was that on which the Judaising 
 Christians had insisted in addressing the Galatian 
 churches. In his epistle to them, accordingly, 
 Paul had confined himself to ceremonialism. 
 The subject of moral obedience and its value 
 was scarcely touched. It was indeed only 
 against the restraining, narrowing system of 
 ritual and form that the liberty in Christ, so 
 often spoken of in the Epistle to the Galatians, 
 could be strongly asserted. Had it entered St. 
 Paul's mind that freedom from the moral law 
 might be claimed, he would certainly have 
 guarded his language. But the Galatians knew, 
 or should have known, what he meant. Now, 
 in writing to the Eomans, he has others beside 
 the Judaising heretics in view ; and from the first 
 the law is considered in its moral aspect. Eite 
 and ceremony are not excluded from the discus- 
 sion ; but the subject is much more difficult than 
 when they alone were concerned. The aim of 
 the apostle, indeed, is to carry thought beneath 
 them, to the realities of Judaism, the ideas re- 
 presented by its rites, and to show the gospel as 
 the way to a salvation the moral law of the Old 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL, 115 
 
 Covenant could not give. The course of argu- 
 ment is as follows: — 
 
 To the extent to which Judaism was profit- 
 able as a divine religion, circumcision was only 
 of value as a sign of the consecration of the 
 heart. And Judaism, with this sign and the 
 consecration it represented, gave the true Israelite 
 great advantage. For the true Israelite, believ- 
 ing God, was justified through his faith, and his 
 ffittth was greatly helped by the oracles of God 
 which were given to Israel. Obedience of the 
 moral law and observance of the ceremonial law 
 did not justify him. The most obedient Jew was 
 still, so far as the law was concerned, under sin 
 and the judgment of God. The righteousness of 
 God is of His grace, apart from the law, to him 
 who believes. And this righteousness has its 
 fulfilment in Christ, " whom God set forth to be 
 a propitiation, through faith, by His blood." 
 
 The case of Abraham, treated in the Epistle 
 to the Galatians, seems to have been perpetually 
 recurring. Now it is finally disposed of. Abra- 
 ham was justified before he received the sign of 
 circumcision. That rite was " a seal of the 
 righteousness of the faith which he had, yet 
 being uncircumcised." The promise, moreover, 
 that he should be heir of the world was not 
 through the law ; it was of faith, that it might 
 
Ii6 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 be according to grace. As for the law, it really 
 makes transgression evident, that need may be 
 felt of forgiveness, and of that grace of God on 
 which forgiveness depends. The whole human 
 race, with Adam as its head, was under sin ; and 
 the Mosaic law came in beside, that offence might 
 abound. It made duty multiform, keeping pace, 
 we may say, with the evolution of the human 
 mind and of society ; and the extension and 
 definiteness of the law of duty necessarily made 
 failures more numerous and conspicuous. Now 
 the gospel is, that where sin abounded grace 
 abounds much more, that grace reigns through 
 righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 But did this mean that holy life is no longer 
 binding on those who are in the liberty of grace ? 
 In no sense. The faith in Christ which gives 
 justification means dying with Him unto sin. 
 Liberation from sin is insured by the new life 
 derived from Christ — not by obedience, which 
 is futile, but by the Spirit, who makes believers 
 free sons of God. The believer dies to the law, 
 even to the moral law, as a system exercising 
 dominion. But, dying to the law and living by 
 faith, he is not set free from holiness ; he is, on 
 the other hand, united to Him who cleanses from 
 every evil thought and desire. The law still 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 117 
 
 seems to have hold of the believer on the side 
 of his flesh, his bodily appetites and baser feel- 
 ings ; and there it continues to restrain and 
 convict and kill ; but in the spirit he is free, an 
 heir of God and joint-heir with Christ. 
 
 Israel's portion was that of the most privileged 
 people. But the promises of God were never 
 for the whole of the Hebrew nation. They 
 were for the election, a favoured race within the 
 favoured people. How were those of the election 
 chosen, why were they chosen to receive the grace 
 that made them true believers in God ? That 
 Paul cannot tell. He can only say, it was of 
 God, who " hath mercy on whom He will, and 
 whom He will He hardeneth." There is still 
 an election of grace in Israel, and there will 
 continue to be such a remnant. If, indeed, 
 those constituting the remnant do not believe in 
 Christ, even they must fall off like withered 
 branches, their faith not uniting them to the 
 living root. But they have this advantage, that 
 meanwhile they can be easily grafted into the 
 true olive. 
 
 It cannot be supposed that this account of 
 the relation between Judaism and Christianity 
 was at once understood and made part of the 
 creed of the churches. Doubtless it satisfied the 
 minds of many whose study of the Old Testament 
 
1 1 8 IN THE APOSTOLIC A GE. 
 
 and hereditary belief in the law had brought them 
 into perplexity. To many others, however, with- 
 out sufficient knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, 
 it must have been perplexing rather than helpful, 
 as it is, indeed, to numbers of Christians still. 
 Yet the inspired teaching of St. Paul in this 
 epistle provided for all inquirers, as they became 
 able to receive his doctrine, the solution of a 
 difficult question none of the other apostles 
 appear to have touched. And in another 
 direction he led the churches to a faith which 
 was immediately understood and accepted — the 
 faith in Christ's atoning death as the means of 
 remission and salvation. To this we shall now 
 turn our thought. 
 
 Our examination of the addresses recorded in 
 the Acts of the Apostles showed that, so far as 
 those addresses represent the earliest form of 
 gospel preaching, remission of sins and the 
 Christian hope were not at first connected with 
 the death of our Lord, but with His resurrection. 
 The doctrine of Christ Himself resjardingj His 
 death was, that He came " not to be ministered 
 unto, but to minister, and to give Himself a 
 ransom for many " ; that His blood was to be 
 " shed for many unto remission of sins " (St. 
 Matt. xxvi. 28). Neither during His continu- 
 ance on earth nor for some time afterwards was 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 119 
 
 this rightly understood ; and it was to St. Paul 
 first the importance of the death of Christ was 
 clearly revealed. His careful inquiry into the 
 reminiscences of our Lord's teaching, his close 
 study of the circumstances attending the trial and 
 crucifixion of Christ, the need he felt for a system 
 of doctrine that would entirely set aside the cere- 
 monialism and priestly officialism of the Jewish 
 Church, were the conditions out of which arose by 
 degrees, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that 
 gospel of atonement which was his great gift to the 
 world. The subject was too great, and presented 
 too many aspects, to be completely formulated in 
 one sentence or in many. He returned to it again 
 and again, adding thought to thought, statement 
 to statement, each bringing into view something 
 more of the great revelation of Divine grace. 
 
 When the Epistles to the Thessalonians were 
 written, the truth had not presented itself to the 
 mind of St. Paul in the definite form it after- 
 wards assumed. Those epistles belong, as 
 Professor Findlay says, " to an early period in 
 the development of Gentile Christianity, and to 
 an early phase of the apostle's doctrine." ^ And 
 it is only in germ that the whole Pauline theology 
 of the cross can be held to be involved in what 
 is said of the " obtahiing of salvation through 
 
 ^ The Epistles of Pcml the Ajiostle, p. 45. 
 
120 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." But the Epistle to the 
 Galatians shows a very distinct advance. Now 
 it is affirmed that Christ " gave Himself for our 
 sins, that He might deliver us out of this present 
 evil world." Paul's personal relation to Christ 
 is expressed in the words : " I have been crucified 
 with Christ . . . who loved me and gave Himself 
 up for me." To the Galatians, Jesus Christ had 
 been " openly set forth crucified " ; His cruci- 
 fixion was one of the great facts which had 
 deeply impressed the converts, and attached them 
 to the Saviour. We have a glimpse of the 
 difficulties under which the glorious apologetic of 
 the Divine death came to be entered upon by 
 Paul, where he says : " I, brethren, if I still preach 
 circumcision, why am I still persecuted ? Then 
 hath the stumbling-block of the cross been done 
 away " ; and again : " As many as desire to make 
 a fair show in the flesh, they compel you to be 
 circumcised ; only that they may not be perse- 
 cuted for the cross of Christ." The Judaising 
 Christians appear to have minimised the cross, 
 regarding it probably as the shame of the Jewish 
 Church, an accident, by no means necessary to 
 the complete Messianic work of Christ. But 
 Paul saw things quite differently. It was his 
 boast to believe in the Crucified. The endurance 
 of that death which brought our Lord under the 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 121 
 
 curse of the law, and destroyed its power, was to 
 him the very heart of the gospel. " Far be it 
 from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, through w^hich the world hath been 
 crucified unto me, and I unto the world." 
 
 We are accustomed to read into these expres- 
 sions, all of which belong to the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, the ideas that are set forth in Eomans. 
 This, however, is chronologically a mistake, 
 although in ordinary thought and teaching it 
 may be reckoned perfectly allowable. To the 
 Galatians, Paul does not speak of atonement or 
 propitiation, nor does he mention the blood of 
 Christ. The expression in 1 Thessaloniaus, 
 " Jesus Christ who died for us," is now followed 
 up by the clearer statement, " who gave Himself 
 for our sins." Yet in Galatians justification is 
 " through faith in Jesus Christ," not yet as in 
 Eomans, "by His blood." The law pronounces 
 one who hangs on a tree accursed. This Paul 
 boldly seizes as an explanation of the power of 
 Christ to take away the condemnation of the law. 
 Its curse is borne for men and borne away. He 
 who bore it is by that very act the Eedeemer, 
 the Justifier. Unbelieving Jews might insist 
 that the curse rested on Christ. Judaising 
 Christians might in various ways try to get over 
 the difficulty that He in whom they professed 
 
122 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 to believe as the Messiah had " hung on a tree." 
 But Paul compelled all Christians to fix their 
 attention on the cross. It was there the law 
 was challengjed, defied, and overcome. Through 
 Christ's endurance of the cross all who believe 
 escape the condemnation of the law. Paul is 
 crucified with Christ, glories in the cross ; for 
 through that cross, as he now sees its meaning, 
 he has entered on a new life — a redeemed life. 
 In Christ crucified he escapes the law, and be- 
 comes dead to the world, as if his eyes had 
 closed upon its evil allurements for ever. 
 
 A few years were passed by St. Paul in the 
 practical work of an evangelist, and in earnest 
 study carried on patiently in his home at 
 Antioch, and during his travels by many a 
 lonely road ; and then, in the Epistle to the 
 Eomans, he stated the doctrine of the cross so 
 as to set aside and give far more than a sub- 
 stitute for the old Mosaic system of expiation. 
 Justification, he says, is freely by the grace of 
 God, " through the redemption that is in Christ 
 Jesus : whom God set forth to be a propitiation, 
 through faith, by His blood, to show His (God's) 
 righteousness, because of the passing over of 
 the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of 
 God." The idea thus carefully expressed is 
 larger far than that of the passage in Galatians 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 123 
 
 just considered ; and it is also more penetrating. 
 It is larger, for now the grace that mingles with 
 the whole providence of God is seen culminating 
 in " the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 
 The curse of the law pronounced on one who 
 hangs on a tree recedes before the thought of 
 God's power to justify, by means of a great 
 propitiation, all the ungodly who believe. It is 
 more penetrating, for the doctrine enters into 
 the need of the sinful to have a sufficient 
 pledge and availing symbol of reconciliation ; 
 and this is declared to be provided, not by 
 Christ's hanging on. a tree, but in His blood. 
 Passages that follow seem intended to set in 
 its right place that earlier form of teaching 
 which attached remission and spiritual joy to 
 the resurrection of Christ and His exalted life. 
 The reconciliation that is brought about by the 
 death of Christ takes effect on those who are 
 enemies of God, converting them into His 
 friends. Believing in Christ crucified for them, 
 they are "justified by His blood " (ch. v. 9). But 
 salvation is in His life : " We were buried there- 
 fore with Him through baptism into death : that 
 like as Christ was raised from the dead through 
 the glory of the Father, so we also might walk 
 in newness of life." There is death with Christ 
 unto sin, life in Him unto God. 
 
124 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 It is to be noted that throughout the Epistle 
 to the Eomans Christ is never said to have died 
 as a sacrifice. For some reason, St. Paul appears 
 to have decided not to use that word of the old 
 dispensation. But something far higher and 
 more significant is implied when he says : " As 
 through one man's disobedience many were made 
 sinners, even so through the obedience of the 
 One shall the many be made righteous." The 
 only instances of the use of the idea of sacrifice 
 in the writings of Paul are in 1 Cor. v. 7 : " Our 
 passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ " ; 
 and in Eph. v. 2 : " Christ also loved you, and 
 gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice 
 to God for an odour of a sweet smell." The 
 great difference between the blood of animals 
 led ignorantly to the slaughter, and the blood of 
 Christ who gave Himself for us, required this 
 sparing use of the analogy. Writing to the 
 Eomans, Paul had to guard against the miscon- 
 ception not only of Jews, but of those who were 
 familiar with the sacrifices offered to idols, 
 between which and the oblation of Christ there 
 lay an immeasurable breadth of sacred purpose 
 and sanctifying power. 
 
CHAPTEE VL 
 
 INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 FOE human salvation no elaborate machinery 
 is required. The way for the believer is 
 one not of restraint, but of redemption ; the 
 government is not from without, but by an 
 authority that has its seat in the heart. While 
 the unity and simplicity of their first enthusiasm 
 continued, the Christians can hardly be said to 
 have needed or had any organization. Christ 
 seemed to rule with a gentle touch. His living 
 hand guided every movement. His will controlled 
 the activity of each life. There was co-operation 
 without restraint, true harmony without the 
 need of rules. And this was in the line of the 
 ideal to which our Lord pointed when He said, 
 " The kingdom of God is within you." The new- 
 Church would be a real theocracy, a divine 
 republic, in which every one should do what is 
 right according to the example of Christ and the 
 
 125 
 
126 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 will of the Spirit. With brotherliness and love, 
 each would find the way of consideration for 
 others to be that of self-development. There 
 would be no lords over the Divine heritage : all 
 would be alike kings and priests unto God. 
 
 But the ideal was not realised, has never 
 been realised. Early in the day of Christianity, 
 it was found that for fellowship and co-operation 
 there must be laws and governments. The 
 aim became complex, the elements multiform. 
 Ignorant persons joined the Christian society ; 
 and the self-willed, the ambitious, not soundly 
 converted to lowliness and love, had to be con- 
 trolled. Those who thought they had a call to 
 be teachers, but knew not whereof they affirmed, 
 had to be set under discipline. And since 
 apostolic authority could not be exercised at 
 every point continually, the organization of the 
 churches had to follow the plan of one or other 
 existing scheme of government. From the day 
 elders were first appointed, to the present, the 
 order of the Christian society has been matter 
 of experiment, and from an early date it has 
 been matter of discussion. 
 
 Along with the government, the sacraments, 
 creed, and worship of the Church had their 
 development. Very simple, and indeed indeter- 
 minate, at first, they tended to become elaborate; 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 127 
 
 and the process of elaboration brought contro- 
 versy, variety, division. Within the apostolic 
 period the beginnings of this are to be traced. 
 One and another, especially St. Paul, with in- 
 spired decision, laid down principles which were 
 not always understood. In four or five centuries 
 the churches organized by the apostles grew to 
 be very different from the simple societies they 
 intended. Officialism, which is of the world, 
 found a new scene of operation, and the sacra- 
 ments, the creed, the worship, came in every 
 circumstance under supervision and control. The 
 Church was no longer free : within it individual 
 lives were governed by a new rabbinism. 
 
 Our aim at present will be to note the chief 
 points of order and the principal observances of 
 the Church, while the direct superintendence of 
 the apostles kept officialism in check. We shall 
 see that no codified law nor stereotyped ritual 
 was imposed to hinder the free activity of the 
 churches. All that belonged to outward arranoe- 
 ment was still amenable to the spiritual life. 
 Towards the close of the chapter, attention will 
 be given to the idea of the Church as it appears 
 in the epistles, and the conception of catholicity 
 embodied in the later writings of St. Paul. 
 
 1. Government. — Xothin^, we have seen, is 
 
128 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 more significant on this head than the uncon- 
 ventional freedom of the first Christian society. 
 The apostles stood practically on the same level 
 as the other members of the Church — the men 
 and women whose faith in Christ was as firm 
 and sincere as their own. The brotherhood was 
 real. Certain of the apostles, no doubt, took 
 the lead, and the apostolate as a whole had due 
 respect; yet leadership was never claimed as a 
 right, nor was deference enforced. All followed 
 cordially when Peter showed the way, as they 
 would also have followed if Mary, the mother 
 of our Lord, had shown a better way. The 
 knowledge and inspiration of the eleven gave 
 them superiority, but they never presumed on it, 
 nor did they even regard their special vocation 
 as beyond the reach of other disciples. Matthias 
 having been elected by the Church, was admitted 
 to the full status of an apostle. It will be 
 found that this position of leadership without 
 formal insistence on authority was that which 
 all along contented the apostles, and gave full 
 scope for their powers. 
 
 It is a singular fact, conclusive against any 
 theory of the dictatorship of the apostles, that 
 James, our Lord's brother, presided at the con- 
 vention held in Jerusalem. True, he is spoken 
 of by St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Galatians, as 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 129 
 
 one of the apostles ; but this only shows that 
 the original group made no exclusive claim of 
 authority ; and the general position of James, 
 Peter, and John is not obscurely indicated by the 
 expressions used of them — " who were of repute," 
 " who were reputed to be pillars." By tacit yet 
 hearty consent of the Church, they had the lead 
 in affairs, that was all. And the presidency held 
 by James was not an office formally conferred ; 
 it was a duty undertaken. We know, however, 
 that prescriptive rights grow out of casual superi- 
 ority. And James may, as Dr. Lightfoot has 
 argued,^ have come to be a kind of bishop. 
 Whether this was always and in all things to the 
 advantage of the Church, is quite another question. 
 Evidently Paul did not hold himself bound by 
 the opinions of the apostles who were before him, 
 or of James. His free criticism of them showed 
 that he felt himself, as a Christian thinker, to be 
 on ground they could not dispute ; and, in his 
 own turn, he made no claim of lordship over 
 the faith of others (2 Cor. i. 24). With the 
 assurance of inspiration that gradually came to 
 him as he found the power of tlie gospel which 
 he preached, Paul certainly held himself entitled 
 to give directions in the name of Christ. He 
 uses expressions such as these : " In giving you 
 
 ^ Dissertations on the Ajjostolic Age, p. 155. 
 
I30 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 this charge" (1 Cor. xi. 17); "As I gave order 
 to the churches of Galatia" (1 Cor. xvi. 1). 
 Yet at other times he distinguishes between the 
 authoritative word and his own personal opinion : 
 "To the rest say I, not the Lord" (1 Cor. vii. 
 12). And the modesty of his claim to be recog- 
 nised as a guide in Christian faith and morals is 
 clearly set forth : " We preach not ourselves, but 
 Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your 
 servants for Jesus' sake " (2 Cor. iv. 5) ; "I 
 Paul myself intreat you by the meekness and 
 gentleness of Christ, I who in your piesence am 
 lowly among you, but being absent am of good 
 courage toward you "(2 Cor. x. 1). He seems 
 to have regarded inspiration as a Divine gift, 
 which had to win acceptance and make its own 
 way ; his position and right as an inspired man 
 and an apostle had to commend themselves to 
 those he addressed. Never once did he take his 
 stand on absolute authority, and say, whether 
 your conscience and reason approve or not, this 
 must be. His motto was, " By the manifestation 
 of the truth commending ourselves to every man's 
 conscience in the sight of God " (2 Cor. iv. 2). 
 Strange indeed was the retrogression from this 
 kind of spiritual dignity to that claimed later by 
 bishops of the Church. The less of the spirit of 
 meekness and of Christ there was, the more con- 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 131 
 
 fident appear to have been the assertions of 
 Divine right to dictate and overbear. 
 
 The first men set apart within the Church for 
 special duty were the seven whose appointment 
 is recorded in Acts vi. Those chosen on this 
 occasion were required simply to distribute the 
 gifts of the Church to the dependent widows. 
 There is no evidence that persons were specially 
 needed in every church to serve in the same way 
 as in Jerusalem. In the larger societies, how- 
 ever, the office of deacons was instituted. We 
 have incidental notice of deacons in the Church 
 of Philippi ; and in 1 Tim. repeated reference is 
 made to the diaconate, and rules are laid down 
 regarding those who should be ordained to it. 
 Many of those first chosen to " serve tables " 
 were soon engaged as evangelists ; and we can 
 easily believe that the higher duty, either of 
 preaching or of the eldership, usually followed 
 and superseded one that was mainly secular. 
 The qualities pointed to in 1 Tim. iii. 8, 9, 12, 
 13, indicate a fitness for other than administra- 
 tive work. "They that have served well as 
 deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and 
 great boldness in the faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 The eldership was a natural adaptation of the 
 order of zegtnim, or senators, in the Hebrew 
 
132 IN THE A POS TOLIC A GE. 
 
 synagogue, called also par nasim, or pastors, of the 
 flock. The presbyters or elders of Jerusalem are 
 mentioned first in Acts xv. as associated with 
 the apostles in discussing the question sent up 
 from Antioch. Like the corresponding officials 
 in the synagogue, these Christian elders had a 
 charge in doctrine and discipline as well as 
 administration. In the Epistle of James, a 
 singular half-sacerdotal function is ascribed to 
 them. Any one who is sick is to send for the 
 elders of the church, who will " pray over him, 
 anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." 
 This appears to have been a practice taken 
 across from Judaism. St. Peter in his First 
 Epistle (ch. v. 1) lays aside his apostolic dignity 
 to claim the eldership. It was the one office 
 w^hich, side by side with the apostolate, implied 
 spiritual oversight of the church in which it was 
 exercised. " Prophets " and " teachers " are also 
 spoken of as enjoying an acknowledged position. 
 But these were not in the same category. They 
 spoke and taught, not as chosen to an office, but 
 under the impulse of the Spirit. On his first 
 missionary journey St. Paul appointed elders in 
 each of the churches he had founded ; and to 
 these elders or presbyters he appears to refer in 
 1 Thess. V. 12, where he says : " We beseech you, 
 brethren, to know them that labour among you 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 133 
 
 and are over you in the Lord and admonish you ; 
 and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for 
 their work's sake." Already a very definite and 
 authoritative government of each Christian society 
 had been set up ; and the responsibility of those 
 who ruled and taught was to Christ Himself, 
 rather than to the membership of the church. 
 
 It is impossible to say what was the rule in 
 the election of these elders, and the probability 
 is that, while the apostles lived, no definite pro- 
 cedure had been settled. St. Paul seems to have 
 chosen fit men when he found them, and with 
 prayer, and perhaps the laying on of hands, 
 inducted them to the office. In other cases, 
 the members of the church appear to have had 
 a part in the choice of their presbyters. The 
 election of Matthias was a precedent in the 
 method of appointment, and the use of the word 
 yeipoTovkw, "choose by voting" (2 Cor. viii. 19), 
 seems to show that the democratic order pre- 
 vailed. We must believe that in general, unless 
 an apostle or apostolic deputy like Timothy 
 exercised his right, the whole membership of the 
 church voted in the appointment both of elders 
 and deacons. 
 
 It is not necessary to discuss the subject of 
 the episcopate at any length. Admission has 
 been made that James, our Lord's brother, may 
 
134 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 have been a permanent preses of the elders in 
 the Church of Jerusalem, primus inter pares, and 
 this may be called his episcopate. Timothy, 
 again, who had a certain charge of the churches 
 in Macedonia and Ephesus, may be said to have 
 exercised the episcopal office, though some Epis- 
 copalian writers prefer to say that he was a 
 kind of vicar-apostolic. He received from St. 
 Paul directions regarding the qualifications of 
 the "bishops" (1 Tim. iii. 1 ff.), who also ap- 
 pear as elders (ch. v. 17); he ordains them, 
 or takes part in their ordination. Yet his office 
 is almost on a level with theirs. He has himself 
 received a sacred endowment "by prophecy, with 
 the laying on of the hands of the presbytery " 
 (1 Tim. iv. 14), St. Paul himself having taken 
 part with the elders in his ordination (2 Tim. 
 i. 6). Dr. Lightfoot's argument for a three- 
 fold ministry is cautious, conspicuously free from 
 sacerdotalism, and therefore deserving of special 
 attention. His opinion is, that there must have 
 been a kind of episcopate at an early date, and 
 that it " cannot, without violence to historical 
 testimony, be dissociated from the name of St. 
 John." ^ But he holds that the episcopate was 
 " created out of the presbytery " ; ^ and this 
 creation, he further says, " was not so much an 
 
 I Dissertations on the Apostolic Church, p. 242. ^ Ibid. p. 190. 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 135 
 
 isolated act as a progressive development 
 
 The original relation of the bishop to the pres- 
 byter .... was not forgotten, even after the 
 lapse of centuries. Though set over the pres- 
 byters, he was still regarded as, in some sense, 
 one of them." It would have been entirely con- 
 trary not only to the teaching of St. Paul, but 
 also to the teaching and spirit of St. John, that 
 an apostle should be a lord over God's heritage ; 
 and that a bishop should assume even the name 
 of lord is a singular, one must say, an unpardon- 
 able divergence from the scriptural idea of office 
 in a Christian church. Tlie jus magistcrii, or 
 right of government, which is held to justify the 
 title of lord, is indeed a large assumption. It 
 gives the modern bishop far higher authority 
 than the apostles ever spoke of possessing. " He 
 is," says Canon Liddon, "by his office not merely 
 the c.a'plit but the radix, ecclcsice, the source and 
 origin of all the activities for good within his 
 diocese." ^ A claim like this is simply astound- 
 ing in the light of history and common sense. 
 
 In harmony with the early idea of a church 
 as a spiritual fraternity of believers in Christ, all 
 of whom were " priests unto God," there came to 
 be, first, for order's sake, the eldership or presby- 
 tery. Occasionally, one elder so distinguished 
 
 ^ St'i'mon in The Contcmjjorary Pul2nt, vol. iii. p. 330. 
 
136 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 himself by his preaching gifts or administrative 
 ability, that he stood naturally first among the 
 brethren as pastor or as teaching elder. Some- 
 times, again, a church may have supplied only 
 one man lit for the eldership. The presbyters 
 were kiricrKoiToi, overseers ; and he who was for 
 some reason chief among them might be o 
 iTTLa-KOTro^. But there was certainly no rule nor 
 understanding that a bishop in each church was 
 to have peculiar lordship as a successor of the 
 apostles, and that bishops were to " reproduce 
 from age to age among men the fulness of 
 the apostolic authority." The idea came with 
 officialism ; and in regard to that, Canon Liddon 
 is a writer who blows hot and cold. He would 
 not altogether bless it, perhaps ; still less would 
 he curse or seem to question. 
 
 2. Observances. — The worship of the primitive 
 Christian society appears to have consisted of 
 extemporaneous prayers, suited to the needs and 
 circumstances of the Church, along with some 
 forms of adoration, familiar through their use in 
 the synagogue. Reading of the books of the 
 Old Testament, passages from which were intro- 
 duced into almost every discourse, must have 
 been also part of the service. In token of 
 brotherly feeling, the disciples partook together 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 137 
 
 of a common meal, at the close of which wine 
 was distributed as a " cup of blessing." The 
 a'ydiTrj, or love- feast, and the heiTrvov Kvpcov, or 
 Supper of the Lord, were not at first discrimin- 
 ated. It was only after some time, when the 
 significance of the death of Christ was under- 
 stood, that the words, " This is My body broken 
 for you," " This cup is the New Covenant in My 
 blood," bore their deep meaning in the orderly 
 observance of the Lord's Supper as a sacrament. 
 The Gentile churches, neither held by Jewish 
 custom nor familiar with Hebrew ways of 
 thinking, used a liberty in developing their wor- 
 ship and conducting their affairs which unfor- 
 tunately sometimes passed into licence. But the 
 distinctive features of Christianity as a cultus 
 took form among them. The custom of observ- 
 ing the first day of the week as that of assembly 
 and fellowship could not, in JudcTa, supersede 
 the old Sabbath law. The Gospel of St. John 
 supplies evidence that, between the resurrection 
 and ascension of our Lord, the disciples met on 
 the first day of the week, and this was the start- 
 ing-point of the new order. There is, however, 
 no other notice of its use among the Christians 
 of Palestine during the apostolic age. But as 
 the separation between Christians and Jews be- 
 came an object in " the parts of the Gentiles," the 
 
1 38 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 change of the day of assembly was of great im- 
 portance. At Tarsus St. Paul waited seven days, 
 in order that he might be present with the dis- 
 ciples on the first day of the week, when they 
 " came together to break bread." Writing to the 
 Corinthians, he counselled them to make their 
 treasuring of money for the help of the poor 
 brethren on the first day of the week. No 
 distinct injunctions or notes of an invariable 
 practice mark the institution of the "Lord's day." 
 It was, however, sufficiently commended, not 
 only as distinct from the Jewish day of rest, but 
 also as the day of the resurrection. St. Paul 
 declares once and again that for Christians the 
 Jewish Sabbath, with other forms of the cere- 
 monial law, had been left behind. The phari- 
 saical rules of Sabbath-keeping were alien from 
 the new freedom he found in Christianity. In 
 no sense, therefore, does he countenance formality 
 or rigidness in the observance of the first day of 
 the week. Eeligious communion and worship 
 were spontaneously engaged in by Christians on 
 that day. Yet the need of a day of rest was too 
 pressing to be neglected, and the use of the 
 Sabbath for the highest ends, for the culture of 
 the spiritual life and for works of mercy, flowed 
 from the whole spirit of the Christian religion. 
 Old Testament sanctions of Sabbath-keeping 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 139 
 
 were accordingly transferred to the Lord's day. 
 Christ's purpose of fulfilling the law pointed to 
 the holy and reverent use of the day of rest ; 
 His example guarded His followers against the 
 bigotry of the rabbis ; and, whenever secular 
 duties and the usages of society allowed, the 
 Lord's day was devoted to the engagements of 
 religion. 
 
 In the Gentile churches as well as the JudaBO- 
 Christian, baptism was the initiatory sacrament. 
 The most ancient formula appears to have been 
 — "into the name of Christ." The reception of 
 the rite implied at first profession of faith in the 
 Messiahship and resurrection of Jesus. Then, as 
 more meaning was attached to His teaching and 
 death, the creed or confession became more 
 definite. Immersion appears to have been used 
 on every possible occasion, though we cannot 
 suppose it to have been exclusively practised. 
 Eeference is undoubtedly made to immersion in 
 those passages in which burial and resurrection 
 with Christ are declared to be symbolised by 
 baptism. St. Paul says that in the Corinthian 
 Church which he founded, he made no point of 
 administering the rite. " Christ sent me," he 
 says, " not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." 
 A few had for some reason received baptism at 
 his hands in Corinth ; but he recalled with satis- 
 
140 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 faction that they were few, when he found the 
 abuse of ordinances becoming a scandal to 
 Christianity. Nevertheless, baptism was from 
 the first the sign of the new faith and hope, the 
 seal of union with the Lord ; and language was 
 used, as in 1 Peter iii. 21, attributing very great 
 significance to it. The love of symbol which had 
 grown up under Judaism was sparingly provided 
 for by Christian rites ; and therefore those insti- 
 tuted had the greater importance and sacredness. 
 In Titus iii. o, baptism is the " washing of 
 regeneration." In 1 John v. 6, reference is 
 made to it in the singular statement regarding 
 Christ, who is, in believers, the overcoming power : 
 " This is He that came by water and blood, even 
 Jesus Christ ; not with the water only, but with 
 the water and with the blood." Afterwards the 
 apostle says : " There are three who bear witness, 
 the Spirit, and the water, and the blood ; and the 
 three agree in one." The baptismal formula 
 preserved in St. Matt, xxviii. 19, was brought 
 into use at an early date. 
 
 The Lord's Supper, commemorating Christ's 
 death and pointing forward to His second advent, 
 was, we have seen, an observance of the Church 
 from its beginning. The command of Christ, 
 " Do this in remembrance of Me," could not l)e 
 forgotten by those who sat at the table with Him 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 141 
 
 that night on which He was betrayed, and re- 
 ceived from His hands the symbolic bread and 
 wine. The words used by our Lord in the 
 institution of the sacrament are variously re- 
 ported in Matthew, Mark, and Luke ; and there 
 is verbal difference even between the last of 
 these accounts and that given by St. Paul in 
 1 Cor. xi. 23/! This passage has the clearest 
 marks of having been made circumstantially 
 accurate, in order to meet the new sense of the 
 importance of the sacrament. The observance 
 had been properly associated with a common 
 meal, or agaipc. According to St. Paul's account, 
 the bread blessed by our Lord was that used in 
 the BeiTTvov, or supper, and at the close of supper 
 the wine was blessed and distributed. The 
 agape was therefore required, or was, at all 
 events, in perfect keeping with the original form 
 of the ordinance. No warrant whatsoever is to 
 be found for the precautions and sacerdotal regu- 
 lations afterwards brought into use. The broken 
 bread, passed from hand to hand and partaken 
 of by all, symbolises the broken body of Him 
 who declared Himself to be the Bread of Life. 
 The wine is the symbol of His blood. That He 
 gave Himself for the salvation of men, that a 
 new relation or covenant is established between 
 God and men by His death, that there is 
 
142 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 spiritual union with Him, participation of His 
 grace and life by those who eat and drink in 
 faith, that communicants are solemnly pledged 
 to His service and to the hope of His return in 
 power, — these are the connotations of the holy 
 sacrament. 
 
 The fellowship of Christians, beginning with 
 baptism and sustained by prayer, and by the 
 agafpe, and the Lord's Supper, brought intellectual 
 and practical enlargement. It was fellowship in 
 thought as well as in love and in good works. 
 The discourses of the apostles, evangelists, 
 prophets, and elders, unfolded the meaning of 
 the words of Christ, His sufferings, atonement, 
 and resurrection, explained His relation to the 
 Father, the nature of His salvation, the promise 
 of His second coming. Those who met in the 
 Christian assemblies had education in reasoning 
 and the formation of opinion. The apostolic 
 writings, culminating in the Epistle to the 
 Eomans, made appeal to the intellect as well as 
 to the spiritual feeling of all to whom they were 
 addressed. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul 
 complains that he has had to feed them with 
 milk, not with meat ; but his aim was so to 
 instruct believers that they might be rooted and 
 builded up in Christ, and established in their 
 faith (Col. ii. 7). With St. Paul as their chief 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 143 
 
 guide in thought, the evangelists and other 
 teachers of the Gentile churches addressed them- 
 selves to the deep and difficult questions of the 
 Christian religion. And there was need of all 
 available knowledge and skill in dialectic, for 
 very soon the gospel had to bear the brunt of 
 many attacks. 
 
 Side by side with the intellectual discipline, 
 however, went another, that of love and good 
 works ; and in this, more than the former. 
 Christians enjoyed the finest blessing of their 
 fellowship. The love of Christ was their in- 
 spiration in generous effort for the poor, the 
 afflicted, the ignorant, the lost. The fruit of the 
 Spirit among them was " love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meek- 
 ness, temperance," against which there was no 
 law (Gal. V. 22 /.). They were taught to love 
 one another with a pure heart fervently, to do 
 good to all, especially to those who were of the 
 household of faith. On the whole, the culture 
 of unselfishness, of what we now call altruism, 
 distinguished the Christians. In kindness to one 
 another, and quick response to every call of 
 human need, they surpassed all the brotherhoods 
 of the age. Although their minds were not set 
 on earthly comforts or rewards, yet they were 
 the most faithful in service, the most devoted in 
 
144 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 friendship, the most sympathetic with the sorrow- 
 ful; and generous to the poor. 
 
 Before Christianity began to spread among the 
 Gentiles, the need of friendly association among 
 those who lay under the neglect of the lloman 
 empire, and had no interest in its vast prosperity, 
 had been met by clubs {sodalitates), partly held 
 together by religious rites. These were com- 
 posed of obscure persons (tenuiores), and were of 
 the nature of benefit and funeral societies. 
 "Within their circles the freeman and the slave 
 were equal, and their secret meetings were greatly 
 enjoyed. But they were proscribed by law ; and 
 the Christian societies, resembling them in some 
 respects, came under the suspicion which they 
 excited. There can be no doubt that the 
 churches of Christ, as they spread over the 
 empire, found the way in great measure prepared 
 for them by those other associations, and won 
 acceptance in providing a true religion, a finer 
 brotherliness, and a better hope. Now at last 
 the longings of the soul could be satisfied, the 
 lonely and sad could breathe the air of home. 
 
 3. We pass nov/ to the idea of the Church, as 
 it appears in the apostolic writings. 
 
 With one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
 believers may be said to have constituted from 
 
INSTITUTIOA'AL DEVELOPMENT. 145 
 
 the first one body, one Church. The desire for 
 unity was in the minds of Paul and Barnabas, 
 and the disciples of Antioch when they made 
 appeal to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. 
 These, again, showed the same desire when they 
 came to the decision announced by James. 
 While the practice in Jerusalem differed much 
 from that of the new Gentile churches, the need 
 of a common understanding was acknowledged. 
 Yet the Judciean churches seem afterwards to 
 have gone their own way and left Gentile 
 Christians to adopt such forms of worship and 
 belief as they pleased. The interference of the 
 Judaising party with the churches of Galatia 
 and the work of St. Paul was not sanctioned by 
 the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. It was 
 essentially schismatic and lawless. The general 
 scheme of doctrine and observance establislied 
 under the administration of St. Paul was not 
 challenged by his brethren. There is good reason 
 to believe that the responsible leaders of the 
 Judcean Church followed with deep interest and 
 almost unbroken approval the inspired inter- 
 pretation of Christianity which St. Paul gave in 
 his epistles. Of the agreement of St. Peter and 
 St. John with their brother apostle we have 
 clear evidence. 
 
 There were, nevertheless, two distinct streams 
 
 10 
 
146 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 in the current of Christian thought and worship ; 
 and these for a time parted so widely that com- 
 plete separation might have been looked for. 
 Towards the close of St. Paul's ministry the 
 Judffio- Christian churches and those mainly 
 Gentile — the former clinging to the temple- 
 worship and the Mosaic law interpreted in the 
 light of Christ's Messiahship, the latter striking 
 boldly into the freedom of the dispensation of 
 the Spirit — were so far asunder, that some 
 modern differences separating churches from each 
 other, that for instance between Episcopacy and 
 Presbyterianism, are moderate by comparison. 
 And it was in full view of this divergence that 
 St. Paul stated his doctrine of the unity of the 
 Church in the form it has in his latest epistles. 
 "While there was little communication between 
 the two sections — while in the one circumcision, 
 cleansings, even sacrifices, were d& rigueur, and 
 Christ as the Messiah was expected to give 
 spiritual dominion to Israel ; and in the other 
 the Mosaic rites generally w^ere refused as "weak 
 and beggarly rudiments," and Israel almost dis- 
 appeared as a nationality from the Christian 
 horizon — St. Paul spoke of the Church as the 
 one body of Christ, described it as " the pillar 
 and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. iii. 15), as the 
 " irXrjpw^ia of Him who filleth all in all." With 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 147 
 
 large charity he allowed to Hebrews their strong 
 coQservatism ; and he was able to affirm the 
 substantial unity, in faith, in testimony, and in 
 fruit-bearing, of both sections of the Christian 
 republic. Christ, he said, had created of the 
 twain, that is, of Jew and Gentile, one new 
 humanity, so making peace (Eph. ii. 15). 
 Whether Hebrew Christians realised it or not, 
 the law of commandments had been abolished, 
 and through Christ the believer who still followed 
 the old Jewish way, and the Gentile to whom 
 Christ was the new and only way, alike enjoyed 
 access in one Spirit unto the Father. The 
 commonwealth of Israel (Eph. ii. 12) was still 
 for Paul, and also for many who were once far 
 off from God, something to be identified with ; 
 and the Judcean churches had a special part in 
 the witness-bearing which was to be extended 
 throughout the world. 
 
 The unity of the Church, as Paul saw it, was 
 certainly no formal unity, no unity maintained 
 by a central government, apostolic, presbyterial, 
 or episcopal. Such an authority did not exist. 
 Those who talk of schism and of rending the 
 garment of Christ, and appeal to the words of 
 St. Paul against that dreadful crime, forget 
 entirely the circumstances under which he wrote. 
 There was no distinct creed or confession of 
 
148 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 faith for the whole Church, no uniform discipline. 
 The Christians in any city, such as Ephesus, 
 Philippi, Eome, were only feeling their way 
 first towards agreement among themselves, then 
 towards a larger harmony with others. No 
 doubt the epistles of St. Paul and the other 
 apostles, handed from church to church, were 
 promoting unity both in creed and observance. 
 Yet they did not lay down rules to be invariably 
 followed. Counsel given to the churches re- 
 flected the freedom of the apostle's thought, 
 and also left room for Christian liberty in the 
 churches addressed. For mere outward agree- 
 ment or uniformity was not an object either to 
 St. Paul, St. Peter, or St. John. It was an 
 afterthought in Christianity. Where the Spirit 
 of the Lord was, there was liberty, and without 
 the Spirit rules and subordination to rules 
 would only create a new Pharisaism, the very 
 opposite of real life. The solidarity of the 
 Church, therefore, was to be compatible witti 
 the freedom of each society in guiding its 
 affairs according to the mind of Christ, the 
 spontaneity of each faithful elder and deacon, 
 the enthusiastic desire to serve God in his own 
 way of each member of the Church. There 
 were diversities of gifts, of ministrations, of 
 workings, but to each one was given the mani- 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 149 
 
 festation of the Spirit to profit withal (1 Cor. 
 xii. 6, 7). Christ was the Head of His body 
 the Church, the Head of each church ; and His 
 Headship implied a catholic faith, a broad unity. 
 But He was also the Head of each believer, the 
 Light of each life. One might interpret the 
 Lord's words, or realise His will, in a different 
 way from another ; and one man might have 
 more light than all the others of the society to 
 which he belonged. The revelation of truth 
 came by a law of freedom, and was to be used 
 freely. Christ, the Head of each life and of all 
 the churches, being One, would provide by His 
 Spirit for their unity ; and everywhere the law 
 of love was to prevail, love which suffers long 
 and is kind, which beareth all things, believeth 
 all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things 
 (1 Cor. xiii.). 
 
 The idea of unity which in a few centuries 
 began to fetter the Church was in complete 
 contrast to that which Paul set forth. It sprang 
 from the centralisation of authority, the dictation 
 of officials, the desire to ape in a world-wide 
 Church the imperialism of Rome. Monarchical 
 government of prelates in great sees ; decision 
 often gained by bare majorities, or secured by 
 dishonourable expedients in councils of bishops ; 
 patriarchal or archiepiscopal administration ; and 
 
150 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 finally, the rule of the bishop of Eome — these 
 were steps in a process which St. Paul for one 
 would have viewed with horror. The sects, 
 so called, in Protestantism, condemned as they 
 are by those whose sympathies are ecclesiastical 
 rather than Christian or human, show in their 
 number and vitality the freedom that happily 
 survives, the operation of the Spirit, whose fire 
 the new legalism has not been able to quench. 
 All the unity Christendom needs may co-exist 
 with our present divisions ; — and, in fact, the 
 only schismatics are those who deny the law of 
 love, standing proudly apart from brethren who 
 draw their life from the Divine Head, and 
 labour to do His will and extend His glorious 
 kingdom. 
 
CHAPTEE VIL 
 
 THE CONCILIATION OF ISKAEL. 
 
 WITH the spread of Christianity among the 
 Gentiles, the future of Israel as a nation 
 ceased to be of immediate practical importance 
 in the outlook of the Church. The prophecies 
 of the Old Testament regarding the destiny of 
 Israel were not forgotten ; but the evangelisation 
 of the heathen world was the great talk of the 
 time, and the centre of activity soon moved so 
 far to the west that events in Palestine had 
 little effect on Christianity. This, however, did 
 not imply that the Hebrew element in the 
 Church was losing importance. The Israelites in 
 Judaea, and those scattered through the churches 
 in Asia, Greece, Egypt, and Italy, formed no 
 small proportion of the believers in Christ ; and 
 their mental vigour and religious spirit gave 
 them great weight. 
 
 Xow it seemed absolutely necessary to the 
 
152 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 success of the gospel that the Hebrew Christians 
 should exhibit a cordial union with the converts 
 from heathenism, and in Palestine especially 
 should not only remain true to the faith, but 
 renounce those ideas and customs, inherited from 
 the fathers, by which the free development of 
 Christianity was hindered. And none acquainted 
 with Judaism, aware how strong a hold it had 
 on the children of Abraham, could fail to see 
 the gravity of the situation. We do not wonder, 
 accordingly, to find a treatise so important as the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews devoted to the questions 
 that arose out of it. 
 
 There is reason to believe that in the Gentile 
 churches, after the failure of the Judaising sect, 
 those of Hebrew birth who became Christians 
 were on the whole on good accord with their 
 new brethren. Attempts that were made to 
 graft on Christianity the fables and angel- 
 worship of Judaistic gnosticism may have had 
 more success among the Hebrew converts than 
 among those who had been originally heathens. 
 Yet, generally speaking, after St. Paul's vindica- 
 tion of the gospel from the ceremonial law, 
 things appear to have moved towards harmony. 
 The middle wall of partition between Jew and 
 Gentile was broken down, and their fellowship 
 in faith and hope must have been made cordial 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 153 
 
 to no small extent by the tenor of the Epistle 
 to the Eomans and others from the pen of St. 
 Paul. It was an argument of great force, that 
 the Abrahamic covenant, which preceded the 
 law and was founded on faith, had its fulfilment 
 in the catholic salvation of the gospel. Eeas- 
 suring to Hebrews was the promise that, while 
 blindness in part had befallen Israel, yet, when 
 the fulness of the Gentiles was come in, " all 
 Israel should be saved" — to the great enrich- 
 ment of the Church. No man could speak 
 more strongly in honour of Israel, or show more 
 desire for its redemption, than he whom unbeliev- 
 ing Jews branded as an enemy of their country 
 and a traitor to their faith. The pathetic words 
 must have gone to the heart of many a Jew : 
 " I could wish that myself were anathema from 
 Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen 
 according to the flesh . . . My heart's desire 
 and my supplication to God for them is that 
 they may be saved." And there was a doctrine 
 which had still more weight in confirming 
 Hebrew converts — the doctrine of the election. 
 Eeturning to the words of Isaiah, " If the 
 number of the children of Israel be as the sand 
 of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved," 
 Paul identified with that remnant the Israelites 
 who believed in Christ " according to the election 
 
154 iN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 of grace" (Eom. ix. 27, xi. 5). To them it 
 was no loss of position to become members of 
 the Church of Christ, but a distinction, the 
 enjoyment of a closer relation to God than 
 Israel as a people ever had. The Jewish sense 
 of superiority to others could no longer be main- 
 tained ; but here was a higher privilege. Those 
 who were in Christ were the elect of all nations 
 and all time, objects of that Divine grace, to the 
 revelation of which the whole of prophecy 
 looked forward. 
 
 Yet the reconciliation of Hebrews to their 
 Gentile fellow-believers and to the new order 
 of things, carried so far by St. Paul, was by no 
 means complete. He had touched on many 
 points that aided faith, but nothing had been 
 said about the priesthood, the temple, the 
 sacrifices, the altar. It was true these belouged 
 to a system which had come in long after the 
 Abrahamic covenant ; still they were of Divine 
 institution. Was Moses to be set aside entirely, 
 and the whole system of worship associated with 
 his name to have no place or recollection even 
 as symbolism ? Surely the sanctuary, made 
 according to a pattern which Moses saw in the 
 holy mount, had some spiritual analogue, and 
 the sacrifices were not without a significance that 
 ought to be preserved ? We can believe that 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 155 
 
 Christian Jews spoke in this way ; and the 
 epistles we now consider were fitted to meet in 
 some degree the inquiries that such men could 
 not help pursuing. 
 
 Throughout his epistles St. Paul never once 
 mentioned the priesthood ; nor, as we have seen, 
 did he trace any analogy between the sacrifices 
 of the temple and the oblation of Christ. 
 Although he spoke of the blood of Christ in 
 accordance with our Lord's own language, when 
 instituting the sacrament of the Supper and 
 elsewhere, he drew no contrast or comparison 
 between the shedding of Christ's blood and the 
 sprinkling or pouring out of the blood of 
 sacrificed animals. These and other points 
 suggested by the Mosaic ritual he seems de- 
 liberately to have avoided. There can be little 
 doubt that, while St. Peter wrote in careful 
 harmony with the teaching of his brother apostle, 
 he aimed at supplementing what St. Paul had 
 written. The Epistle to the Hebrews, however, 
 is the full exposition of the analogies and con- 
 trasts which interested Jewish Christians. The 
 writer, aware of the need for such a discussion, 
 addressed himself with fine enthusiasm and great 
 dialectic power to the whole subject, at once so 
 inviting and so beset with difficulties. 
 
 The First Epistle of Peter is generally believed 
 
156 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 to have been written about a.d. 64, and there 
 may seem no conclusive reasons for placing it 
 at a later date. Professor Earnsay argues that 
 the imperial law of Eome had not, till ten or 
 twelve years later, pronounced decisively against 
 Christianity and made adherence to the Name 
 of Christ a capital offence ; and he holds that 
 the Epistle assumes a statute of this nature. 
 Yet here and there heathen enthusiasts may 
 have been anticipating the law in attempts to 
 suppress the new faith, and may have in certain 
 cases enlisted Eoman officials in the work of 
 persecution. This may be all that is implied at 
 ch. iii. 15, and iv. 14 ^. It is doubtful, too, 
 whether the expression " your adversary the 
 devil" certainly means the hostile State. It 
 may equally well be held to indicate the spirit 
 of heathenism. Still Professor Eamsay's acute 
 and careful arguments ^ for a date as late as 
 A.D. 75-80 must be allowed on the whole to be 
 almost conclusive. If we add to them the 
 further significant considerations, that even for 
 St. Peter the Mosaic law and ritual have fallen 
 entirely into the background, and that he makes 
 no reference to the temple and temple worship 
 as existing, we have good reason to believe that, 
 when he wrote, the fall of Jerusalem was a thing 
 
 ' The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 279/". 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 157 
 
 of the past. There is a marked difference 
 between the way in which St. Peter touches on 
 Mosaism, and the discussion of the subject in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. The latter un- 
 questionably precedes the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem ; the former appears to have followed it. 
 
 Written by one thoroughly acquainted with 
 Judaism, an Israelite apparently by birth, 
 although Greek was his mother tongue, the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have been 
 addressed from Eome to the churches in Judrea, 
 and particularly to that of Jerusalem. The 
 writer founds on the Old Testament, which he 
 knows in the Septuagint version, and he uses 
 every Messianic passage that falls in with his 
 purpose, in no case interrupting his argument 
 to prove that the reference must be to the 
 Messiah. He rests with equal confidence on 
 the writings of St. Paul. With the Epistles to 
 the Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians before 
 him, he speaks of the humiliation and exaltation 
 of Christ, His part in creation, and His universal 
 dominion, adopting as acknowledged truths many 
 doctrines of those epistles. He assumes that 
 the Hebrews to whom he writes are already well 
 instructed in apostolic teaching, and proceeds on 
 that basis to show the superiority, in every sense, 
 of Christianity to the Mosaic system. 
 
158 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 It may be a question whether the Christian 
 Hebrews of Judaea had given as much attention 
 as the author presupposes to the writings of St. 
 Paul. If the Epistle of James is to be taken 
 as indicating the state of belief a few years 
 previous to the publication of Hebrews, there 
 had scarcely been sufficient preparation for the 
 bold arguments of this apology. For instance, 
 James says nothing of the Divine Sonship of 
 Christ, which the new writer assumes at the 
 outset ; nor does the Epistle of James refer to 
 the Godhead of the Holy Spirit. The writer 
 to the Hebrews is full of enthusiasm for the 
 religion of Christ, which he has embraced with 
 intense faith and studied with every possible 
 aid. He takes for granted that the Hebrew 
 Christians of Judaea are as forward in knowledge 
 as those in Eome, with whom he has discussed 
 the topics of his treatise. If he is mistaken in 
 this, the error is a generous one, and it has made 
 his epistle one of the precious legacies of the 
 apostolic age. 
 
 The aim of the writing as a whole is to revive 
 and place on sure ground the faith of Hebrew 
 believers, who were in danger of renouncing 
 Christ under the continual pressure brought to 
 bear on them by those of the old religion. The 
 persecution of Paul in Jerusalem was of a 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 159 
 
 peculiar bitterness ; yet we may take it as 
 certain that all who left Judaism for Christ 
 became marked men, against whom everything 
 within the limits of Eoman law was done 
 by way of service to God. James, the Lord's 
 brother, conforming devoutly to the Mosaic 
 ritual, was for a long time unmolested. Many, 
 however, who followed him in the observance 
 of Hebrew rites, were without his firm faith in 
 Christ ; and these were in danger of " drifting 
 away " from the things they had heard. The 
 fascination of the venerable system, which they 
 felt the more in attempting to resist it, tended 
 to draw them into the back - flowing tide. 
 Patriotic feeling and family influences, too, were 
 strongly against them. The writer of our 
 epistle shows them how much they would lose, 
 what fearful condemnation they would bring 
 on themselves, if they yielded. Neither should 
 entreaty nor persecution be allowed to sever 
 them from Christ, for to renounce their faith in 
 Him would be to repeat the dreadful act of 
 crucifixion, and put Him to open shame again. 
 If choice was difficult because much they valued 
 would be lost, because a Divine system sanctified 
 by ages of holy use could not be given up with- 
 out a pang, the epistle should prove that for 
 everything renounced something better would be 
 
l6o IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 gained — substance for shadow, spiritual purity for 
 ceremonial cleansing, entrance into the heavenly 
 sanctuary for a place in the temple court. 
 
 The word of the Old Covenant is first con- 
 trasted with that of the New, and it is shown 
 that Christianity has the higher place, because 
 the Son of God, through whom God has spoken 
 in the end of the days, stands far above the 
 angels. The covenant established among men 
 by the ministration of angels must yield to that 
 revealed by Him who is the effulgence of the 
 Father's glory, and the very image of His sub- 
 stance. The dignity of Christ is not as yet fully 
 manifest. All things, indeed, are subjected unto 
 Him (Heb. ii. 8), but we do not see His eleva- 
 tion to universal dominion. He has been made 
 a little lower than the angels, He has become a 
 sharer of flesh and blood like those for whose 
 deliverance He suffers. His glory and honour 
 are in a sense veiled by what He has undergone 
 to bring many sons unto glory. But, having 
 made purification of sins. He has sat down on 
 the right hand of the Majesty on high ; and 
 His Divine authority gives the gospel of His 
 salvation a claim on men which " the word 
 spoken through angels " could not possess. 
 
 Again, He is superior to Moses, for, however 
 faithful Moses was in the house of God, the 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. i6i 
 
 position of Christ is that of a Son, not of a 
 servant. It is His gospel the Holy Ghost warns 
 men not to reject, as Israel rejected the word 
 of God " in the provocation, in the day of the 
 temptation in the wilderness." The incomplete- 
 ness of the deliverance which Moses began and 
 Joshua continued, was shown in this, that the 
 people they led never entered into rest. The 
 true Sabbath rest remains to be enjoyed ; and 
 all must give diligence to enter into it, through 
 obedience to the word of Christ. 
 
 The subject of the priesthood is next fully 
 discussed, and the doctrine taught that Jesus is 
 the one great Priest. He was made like unto 
 His brethren, that He might be merciful and 
 faithful in His office, and that He might " make 
 propitiation for the sins of the people " (ch. ii. 
 17). To fulfil the duties of His priesthood. He 
 has passed through the heavens (ch. iv. 14). 
 His priestly distinction is that He can be 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities, that 
 He was "in all points tempted like as we are, 
 yet without sin" (ch. iv. 15); and, having been 
 made perfect through suffering, "He became 
 unto all them that obey Him the Author of 
 eternal salvation " (ch. v. 9). Aaron held his 
 office as one called to it by God ; Christ also had 
 a Divine appointment : " Thou art a priest for ever 
 
 11 
 
i62 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 after the order of Melchizedek." And here the 
 higher dignity of Christ's office is clearly seen. 
 Abraham, the father of the sons of Levi, paid 
 tithes to Melchizedek ; one made a Priest after 
 that order stands, therefore, above the Levitical 
 priests descended from Abraham. He is also a 
 priest " for ever," not made " after the law of a 
 carnal commandment, but after the power of an 
 endless life." A most sacred oath confirms 
 Christ in office : " The Lord sware and will not 
 repent Himself " ; and this declares Jesus to be 
 " the surety of a better covenant." While the 
 Aaronic priests could not continue by reason of 
 death. He hath His priesthood unchangeable ; 
 He ever liveth to make intercession for them 
 that draw near unto God through Him. He has 
 no need to offer daily sacrifices like the Levitical 
 priests, who, themselves sinful, brought offerings 
 that could not, as touching the conscience, make 
 the worshipper perfect (ch. ix. 9). " Christ 
 having come a High Priest of the good things 
 to come, not through the blood of goats and 
 calves, but through His own blood, entered in 
 once for all into the holy place, having obtained 
 eternal redemption." 
 
 Again, as to the sanctuary in which the 
 worship of the Old Covenant was conducted, it 
 w\is only " a copy and shadow " of the true 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 163 
 
 tabernacle of which Christ is minister. The 
 arrangements of the earthly sanctuary, with its 
 Holy Place and Holy of Holies, belonged to a 
 provisional system, which, according to the 
 promise of a New Covenant (ch. viii. 13), was 
 to be superseded. The way into the true Holy 
 Place, the heavenly sanctuary, had not been made 
 manifest while the first tabernacle was still 
 standing. The sprinkling of sacrificial blood 
 on the book of the covenant, the people, the 
 tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry, 
 was a means of cleansing meet enough for 
 " copies of the things in the heavens " ; but the 
 heavenly things themselves are cleansed with 
 better sacrifices than these. " Once at the end 
 of the ages hath Christ been manifested, to put 
 away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." By 
 the whole argument readers are pointed from 
 symbolic things and purifications to spiritual 
 realities, and an availing oblation. 
 
 Further, the faith of Old Testament believers 
 is spoken of in the highest terms of praise ; but 
 it is shown that the promises on which they 
 based their hope had never been fulfilled. They 
 "received not the promise, God having provided 
 some better thing concerning us, that apart from 
 us they should not be made perfect." Believers 
 in Christ receive a kinf^dom that shall not be 
 
1 64 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 shaken ; " they come unto Mount Zion and unto 
 the city of the living God, the heavenly 
 Jerusalem." They have to go forth unto Jesus 
 without the camp, bearing the reproach of His 
 cross ; but He who brought again from the dead 
 the great Shepherd of the sheep, with the blood 
 of the eternal covenant, will make them perfect 
 in every good thing to do His will. 
 
 These are some of the arguments of a daring 
 epistle, which conveys also many exhortations 
 and warnings fitted to revive the fidelity of the 
 Hebrew Christians. It reached Jerusalem, how- 
 ever — perhaps about a.d. 69 — at a time when 
 those for whom it was designed could not fully 
 profit by its eloquent reasoning. The trouble 
 and terror of the judgment day of Judaism were 
 upon them. Soon afterwards the confusion of 
 an unparalleled civil strife reached its climax, 
 and the advance of the Roman army upon 
 Jerusalem was the signal of fiight for all 
 Christians. In the privations and dangers of 
 the dispersion, Hebrew Christianity kept its 
 light burning, but did little more. The epistle 
 which might have done much for the faith of 
 the remnant, had to wait for appreciation until 
 in other circumstances a new generation could 
 profit by the truth. Outside Palestine, however, 
 it was accepted and valued. 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 165 
 
 The First Epistle of Peter, to which we now 
 turn, is addressed to the sojourners of the Disper- 
 sion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and 
 Bithynia. The writer has clearly in view the 
 Hebrew Christians, who are, according to St. 
 Paul's doctrine of the election of grace, chosen 
 from among the Israelites, as Israel was formerly 
 separated from the Gentiles. For St. Peter, 
 these Hebrew Christians constitute the nucleus of 
 the Church, and to them heathens who believe 
 are joined by baptism. In this conception of 
 the Christian theocracy Peter adopts the Pauline 
 doctrine of the election, but with his own inter- 
 pretation. The sense of Hebrew birthright 
 survives, as we might expect ; yet it is held in 
 harmony with a catholic gospel. The epistle, 
 beginning with this hint of Israel's priority, 
 is not written for Hebrews alone. The 
 utmost care is taken that there shall not be 
 one word offensive to Gentile Christians, and 
 that they shall be included in the promises 
 and enjoy the hopes which belong to the elect 
 race. 
 
 The epistle is addressed to the Galatian 
 churches along with others ; and some reference 
 might have been expected to the ceremonial law 
 in its relation to the observances and worship 
 of Christianity. Following St. Paul, it might 
 
1 66 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 have seemed fit that St. Peter should give his 
 view of the quarrel which had once distracted 
 Galatia. But it is entirely left behind. Not a 
 word is said of the differences which Hebrew 
 Christians once had, either among themselves 
 or with the Jews who did not believe in Christ. 
 Peter stirs no disputation, old or new ; Christians 
 could pray, could hope, could rejoice in Christ, 
 though the temple and its sacrifices were things 
 of the past. The apostle has realised that the 
 position of a believer in Christ is far higher than 
 that of an Israelite. The prophets of the Old 
 Testament sought and searched diligently in their 
 day for a salvation that was to come. Christians 
 could rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory, j-eceiving the end of their faith, even the 
 salvation of their souls. Bright indeed was the 
 prospect which the faith of Christ brought with 
 it. Peter with the rest of the apostles had once 
 looked for a revival of Israel's prosperity as a 
 nation. They hoped to see the Holy Land 
 cleared of Eoman troops and unbelieving Gentiles, 
 ruled by the Messiah as a King, extending its 
 influence over many nations. But what is the 
 Christian view, as it now opens before the eye of 
 faith ? It is the hope of an " inheritance incor- 
 ruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away; reserved 
 in heaven for those who are kept by the power 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 167 
 
 of God througli faith unto salvation." And how 
 is that salvation effected ? Isaiah said : '* All we 
 like sheep have gone astray ; and the Lord hath 
 laid on Him the iniquity of us all." That was 
 indeed fulfilled. " Ye were going astray like 
 sheep, but are now returned unto the Shepherd 
 and Overseer of your souls" (ch. ii. 25). The 
 Jewish sacrifices brought worshippers to a dumb 
 oracle. There was a blank after the atonement 
 was made. A man cleansed from his defilement, 
 the crowd on the great Day of Atonement after 
 the blood was sprinkled, heard the words of 
 forgiveness, and went away feeling no real change 
 in their relation to God. But the sufferings of 
 Christ for men gave them a living Friend and 
 Helper. Peter remembered Him well — that Jesus 
 " who did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
 mouth ; who, when He was reviled, reviled not 
 again ; when He suffered, threatened not " (ch. 
 ii. 22/). Though the Christians in Galatia and 
 throughout the world had not seen this Saviour, 
 they yet loved Him. In Him, though He 
 remained invisible, they could believe; and when 
 they believed they died unto sin, and lived unto 
 righteousness (ch. ii. 24). Their standing in the 
 new order of things was that they were chosen 
 to be a people for God's own possession, that 
 they " might show forth the praises of Him who 
 
1 68 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 had called them out of darkness unto His 
 marvellous light." 
 
 Most interesting to us, in the track of thought 
 we are now following, are the ideas taken across 
 from Jewish worship and employed in the 
 epistle to illustrate Christian truth. 
 
 The idea of priesthood is one, and it is used 
 in another way than in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews. There the main contention is that 
 Christ is the only Priest in the spiritual dis- 
 pensation ; and although believers are called to 
 offer up the continual sacrifice of praise, they are 
 never spoken of as priests. St. Peter, by no 
 means opposing this doctrine of the sole priest- 
 hood of Christ, prefers to say that He suffered 
 for sins, that He bare our sins in His own body 
 upon the tree, and speaks of Him not as a priest 
 but as the Shepherd of our souls. The priest- 
 hood of tbis epistle is that which all Christians 
 exercise. They are a " holy priesthood, to offer 
 up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through 
 Jesus Christ" (ch. ii. 5); they are "a royal 
 priesthood." The application of the word in 
 this way implies that the ancient system of 
 propitiation, and the law which made those 
 entitled to offer sacrifices an order by themselves, 
 have been superseded. There is no longer a 
 priesthood of the house of Aaron ; for spiritual 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 169 
 
 sacrifices — of praise, thanksgiving, devotion — are 
 to be offered by all. Human priesthood has this 
 meaning, according to the epistles, and it has no 
 other. Nearest to the Jewish standpoint of all 
 the apostles who have left important doctrinal 
 w^ritings, Peter might have been expected to 
 retain, with the name priest, some of the old 
 sacerdotal functions, and to reserve such for the 
 official ministers of the Church. If he had seen 
 any need for them — if, for instance, he had seen 
 that there should be an offering of the bread and 
 wine of the Lord's Supper at an altar by way of 
 sacrifice — he would certainly have referred to it. 
 But he dismisses everything of the kind ; and 
 the other New Testament writers are in complete 
 harmony with him. " The priestly functions 
 and privileges of the Christian people are 
 never regarded as transferred or even delegated 
 to the officers of the Church. They are called 
 stewards or messengers of God, servants or 
 ministers of the Church, and the like ; but 
 the sacerdotal title is never once conferred 
 upon them. The only priests under the gospel, 
 designated as such in the New Testament, are 
 the saints, the members of the Christian 
 brotherhood." ^ 
 
 The next expression we notice, is that in 
 
 ^ Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age, p. 141. 
 
I70 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 ch. i. 2, " sprinkling of the blood of Christ." 
 The ceremony of sprinkling the blood of sacri- 
 ficed animals upon the people was used in 
 ratification of the covenant made by God with 
 Israel. " Moses took the blood, and sprinkled 
 it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of 
 the covenant, which the Lord hath made with 
 you concerning all these words " (Ex. xxiv. 8). 
 One-half of the blood was sprinkled on the altar, 
 one-half on the people. It was a singular 
 ceremony, an impressive ceremony, suited to the 
 time and occasion, full of significance for those 
 who believed that the blood of man or animal 
 was the life. It meant a vital relationship 
 between Jehovah and Israel ; it implied that 
 the life of Israel depended on obedience to the 
 covenant, that to abjure the covenant was to 
 die. The same ceremony of sprinkling the 
 blood of a sacrifice was often used, as in the 
 consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priestly 
 office described in Lev. viii. : " Moses took of 
 the anointing oil, and of the blood which was 
 upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and 
 upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon 
 his sons' garments with him." In this and 
 other ceremonies the sprinkling of the blood 
 meant cleansing. A priest on whom the blood 
 was sprinkled was fitted for holy service. One 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 171 
 
 who had been unclean was restored to ceremonial 
 purity when the blood of his sacrifice had 
 touched him. 
 
 Now the use of the figure by St. Peter, as 
 also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, refers to 
 these ceremonies. For the Old Covenant made 
 with Israel there is a New Covenant, and Chris- 
 tians are chosen to enjoy its privileges. Their 
 faith and pledge of obedience are ratified as if 
 by the sprinkling of blood. Christians are also 
 to be a priesthood ; and their purification for 
 this office and privilege, the taking away of the 
 defilement of their sin, are denoted by the 
 sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. 
 
 But how ? In what sense ? There is an 
 element of fact, an element of figure. The fact 
 was that Jesus had died, that His death had 
 been by violence, so that His blood was poured 
 forth. He Himself said that His blood was to 
 be shed for the remission of sins. The death 
 by violence, the shedding of blood, made the 
 offering of Christ upon the cross appear like 
 one of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the 
 blood of which was sprinkled on the altar and 
 on the worshippers. This is the one side. 
 
 Yet when St. Peter speaks of the sprinkling 
 of the blood of Christ, the expression is figurative. 
 The old usage becomes a symbol. For the blood 
 
172 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 of Christ was not actually sprinkled on those 
 who stood about the cross. The meaning is, 
 that Christ, in giving Himself to a violent death 
 for men, binds them to Himself and to God ; 
 that His death is a propitiation of which the 
 power is felt by faith — as if the blood were 
 actually applied to the body ; that the effect of 
 His death, realised by faith, is to consecrate the 
 life. There is a transition from the physical to 
 the spiritual, at the point where the fact of 
 Christ's death becomes significant of God's pur- 
 pose and will, which enter into the life of the 
 soul. The idea is similar to that which the 
 Old Testament practice conveyed, but it is in 
 a higher range. Now the soul, the will, the 
 whole being, are consecrated. There is no 
 ceremony corresponding to the sprinkling of 
 blood. Baptism does not represent this ; for it 
 continues a symbolic usage, which existed along 
 with the sprinkling of blood. Purification comes 
 through faith, and through realisation of the 
 grace of God ; reception of Christ, as made unto 
 us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
 and redemption, the enduement of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Once more, the idea of redemption is taken 
 across by St. Peter from the Old Testament : 
 " Ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL, 173 
 
 with silver or gold, from your vain manner of 
 life handed down from your fathers, but with 
 precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and 
 without spot, even the blood of Christ" (eh. i. 
 18 /.). Here, entirely in harmony with previous 
 use of the symbol, the deliverance of Israel is 
 recalled, and also the rite of redemption or 
 ransom of the first-born which was closely con- 
 nected with that deliverance. 
 
 The redemption from Egyptian bondage was 
 an event of the first importance in Israel's 
 history, and everything associated with it entered 
 deeply into the thought and religion of the 
 nation. A Deuteronomic statute was : " Thou 
 shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in 
 the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God re- 
 deemed thee," and the psalms and prophecies 
 have many references to that signal mark of 
 Divine favour. God was the Eedeemer of Israel 
 because He had wrought this deliverance for 
 His people ; and they were confident He would 
 always in like manner intervene for their help. 
 " Fear not, O Israel, for I have redeemed thee ; 
 I have called thee by thy name ; thou art 
 Mine." " He shall redeem Israel from all their 
 iniquities." 
 
 Now, with the redemption from Egypt was 
 associated the institution of the passover and 
 
174 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 the slaying in each house of the paschal lamb ; 
 and to this St. Peter refers : " Ye were redeemed 
 with precious blood, as of a lamb without 
 blemish " — following Paul, who says : " Our pass- 
 over also hath been sacrificed, even Christ " 
 (1 Cor. V. 7). History told that the blood of 
 the lamb was sprinkled by the Hebrews on the 
 door-posts and lintels of their houses, on the 
 night of the destruction of the first-born in 
 Egypt. To this the figure as used by St. Peter 
 apparently returns. The same God, whose 
 gracious intervention rescued their fathers, was 
 now the Pedeemer of His elect people from 
 their vain manner of life. The blood of the 
 true Paschal Lamb, spiritually without spot or 
 blame, is the efficient means of this holy 
 deliverance. 
 
 With this reference, however, another is inter- 
 woven, which implies a point of contrast to Old 
 Testament usage. In the Book of Numbers the 
 redemption of the first-born of each household 
 in Israel is partly by the substitution of the 
 Levites, who are dedicated to holy service. But 
 a certain number of first-born sons, beyond the 
 available Levites, are redeemed with the payment 
 of a specified sum into the sacred treasury. Not 
 in this way, by corruptible things such as silver 
 and gold, are any redeemed under the New 
 
THE CONCILIATION OF ISRAEL. 175 
 
 Covenant. The precious blood of Christ has 
 virtue enouojh for all. 
 
 Those uses of Hebrew symbolism by St. Peter, 
 and still more his reliance upon the Christian 
 salvation, apart from any thought of special 
 right or privilege belonging to the children of 
 Abraham, the circumcised, the faithful keepers 
 of the law, must have had immense influence 
 for good. This was the manifesto of one who 
 had once stood in opposition to Paul, doubtful 
 of Christian freedom ; and it was in accord with 
 all that the Apostle of the Gentiles had said. 
 Judaism is past, the temple is nothing, its 
 sacrifices are symbols — Christ remains. He is 
 the continual sacrifice, the chief corner-stone, the 
 example of suffering, the leader of activity, the 
 Shepherd and Overseer of life. In all things 
 God is to be glorified, through Jesus Christ. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 DISORDEKS AND HEEESIES. 
 
 THE apostolic churches were far from ideal, 
 either in their discipline or spiritual state. 
 Already we have seen the lapse from Christian 
 freedom and faith, which had to be counteracted 
 by St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians ; and this 
 was one of many errors which caused no small 
 anxiety and division. For life there must be 
 liberty ; and the religious life, under the con- 
 ditions then existing, was in constant peril 
 of abusing the liberty that is in Christ. Influ- 
 ences outside Christianity, and often opposed to 
 it, were rooted in the soil of heathen thought, 
 and poisoned the atmosphere. The turmoil of 
 conflicting ideas had never been greater in the 
 world's history than at the time when the gospel 
 made its appeal to the human mind ; and of all 
 the theatres of speculation none were filled with 
 more eager controversy than those in the region 
 
 176 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 177 
 
 first evangelised, from Syria to Italy. Antioch 
 on the Orontes, Ephesus, Thyatira, and the other 
 Asian cities, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, 
 Athens, Rome — in each of these, immemorial 
 custom fought with novel schemes of life, 
 brutality with civilisation, falsehood with truth, 
 superstition with philosophy, vehement denial 
 with zealous belief. Moving westward in the 
 track of empire, a whole tribe of oriental notions, 
 fresh to the Roman world, sought new settlements, 
 found hospitality, and increased the ferment of 
 thought. The Christians, with awakened minds, 
 eager to learn and live, heard what was said, but 
 were often unable to discriminate, intermeddled 
 with all knowledge, and were too ready to bow 
 to the show of argument. Heathen vices clung 
 to many of them ; and others, though sincerely 
 converted, were still ignorant and credulous. 
 The new importance found in the Christian 
 societies by men of obscure birth and low rank 
 often developed an egotism, the exhibitions of 
 which were irritating and alarming. In the 
 companies of persons, mostly poor, who composed 
 the churches, the few who had wealth were 
 conspicuous and received deference out of pro- 
 portion to their piety or wisdom. On the whole, 
 it may be said that the faith of Christ had at 
 this time to pass through an ordeal, the strenu- 
 
 12 
 
178 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 ousness of which can hardly be repeated. 
 Christianity emerged with all its power to 
 regenerate human life ; and we have full warrant 
 for our confidence, that whatever may be done in 
 the future to destroy it will be overcome by the 
 power of that Spirit whose Divine energy was its 
 salvation in the early days. 
 
 Glancing over the apostolic churches, we are 
 arrested almost immediately by the condition of 
 the church in Corinth. The two epistles 
 addressed to it, their length and fulness of 
 reference, give that church more importance 
 than any other in the field of our present inquiry. 
 It would be wrong to assume that elsewhere the 
 Christian societies were in the same disorder as 
 at Corinth, where the gravity of the position 
 required the sustained efforts of St. Paul. Other 
 churches had less of his counsel, probably because 
 they needed less. The city of Corinth, standing 
 midway between Asia and Italy, was peculiarly 
 disturbed by the unrest of the age. It was a 
 rendezvous of people of the adventurous sort 
 from east and west. With the endless streams 
 of travellers, military men, merchants, fortune- 
 seekers, flowing towards Eome, or from it, went 
 currents of opinion and desire that ploughed 
 deeply into the soil. Beset with difficulties, the 
 work of the gospel in church had been success- 
 
DISORDEIiS AND HERESIES. 179 
 
 ful. St. Paul had given to it his best energy, 
 Apollos his learning and fervour ; and the church 
 had become large. But the weeds of heathen 
 vice grew apace among the good seed ; and the 
 two epistles enable us to understand the state of 
 things at a most perilous and trying time. 
 
 The spring of evil tendencies which flowed in 
 different directions was pointed to by Paul when 
 he wrote, " Ye are yet carnal, and walk after the 
 manner of men." In the Church of Christ the 
 natural fleshly manner and mind should no 
 longer prevail ; in an ideal congregation they 
 would never appear. Of these come jealousy, 
 strife, pride, the assumption of wisdom. Slaves 
 brought up in the mews of Corinth, poor labour- 
 ers and handicraftsmen to whom the gospel had 
 brouo'ht the first dream of life, found themselves 
 members of a free community ; but the dominion 
 of the lower nature was not destroyed by the 
 charge. They were instructed by self-installed 
 teachers of Christian truth, men who were 
 still ignorant and proud. St. Paul did not 
 hesitate to tell those teachers how faulty their 
 work was, and to rebuke the conceit of their 
 converts : " If any man build on the foundation 
 wood, hay, stubble, the day shall declare it." 
 " Already are ye filled, already are ye become 
 rich, ye have reigned without us." " If any man 
 
i8o IN THE ArOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 thinketh that he is wise, let him become a fool 
 that he may be wise." These are sharp sarcastic 
 sayings ; bat the circumstances called for them. 
 
 For the evils to be dealt with were not on 
 the surface. In a very short time there had 
 come to be a daring antinomianism, which the 
 Church allowed. The uncleanness of heathen 
 life, kept in check in some cities by the better 
 sort of public opinion, had in Corinth scarcely 
 any restraint. As modern instances abundantly 
 show, a town of rapid growth, peopled chiefly 
 by those in quest of wealth, without associations 
 and memories to give it dignity, is apt to be 
 infested by persons of loose behaviour, and to 
 take its tone from them ; and such was Corinth. 
 During the hundred years of its career under 
 the Eomans, the city had become rich and 
 splendid ; but the splendour disguised its foul- 
 ness. The Christian societies held a gospel 
 which never palliated sins of uncleanness ; yet 
 they were often too ready to accept professions 
 of repentance, and in Corinth great evils had 
 come of this. Men who bad been admitted to 
 the Church, after a superficial conversion, returned 
 to their vices, and even to the practice of idol- 
 atry. In his First Epistle (ch. v. 9), St. Paul, 
 referring to a previous letter not now extant, 
 reminds the Corinthians of the distinction made 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. i8i 
 
 in it between transgressors within and outside 
 the Church ; and he proceeds : " Now I write 
 unto you not to keep company, if any man that 
 is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, ^ 
 or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an 
 extortioner; with such a one no not to eat." 
 The worst case was of a kind that passed beyond 
 the ordinary vileness of Gentile life. It was 
 that of a man who had taken his father's wife, 
 his own stepmother. The direction regarding 
 this offender was that the members of the church, 
 being gathered together, should, in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and acting with the full 
 consent and spiritual influence of Paul himself, 
 and the power of Christ, " deliver such a one 
 unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that 
 the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 Some judicial punishment must have been at 
 command for this offence. In other cases, the 
 apostle endeavoured to counteract the antinom- 
 ianism which infested the Church, by enforcing 
 what may be called transcendental doctrine. 
 Their bodies, he said, were members of Christ ; 
 and again : " Know ye not that your body is a 
 temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which 
 
 ^ The word vXiavUrKu must here cover the whole ground of 
 the Tenth Commandment, including concupiscence. 
 
1 82 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 ye have from God." St. Paul held by the prin- 
 ciple that redemption, even from fleshly sin, is 
 through the power of high and sanctifying ideas 
 and the indwelling Spirit of God. 
 
 Again, most unseemly exhibitions of heathen 
 coarseness disOTaced the gratherino^s of the Church, 
 especially the common meal, held perhaps on the 
 evening of every Lord's day. " There existed 
 among the Greeks an ancient custom of holding 
 entertainments, at which each one brought his 
 food with him, and consumed it alone. The agapm 
 in the Corinthian Church were conducted on the 
 plan of this ancient custom, although the peculiar 
 object of the institution was so different ; con- 
 sequently the distinction of rich and poor was 
 rendered peculiarly prominent, and the rich 
 sometimes indulged in excesses which desecrated 
 the character of these meetings." ^ As this meal 
 closed with the observance of the Lord's Supper, 
 bad conduct was all the more disgraceful. " In 
 your eating, each taketh before other his own 
 supper : and one is hungry, and another is 
 drunken. What ? have ye not houses to eat and 
 to drink in ? or despise ye the Church of God, and 
 put them to shame that have not?" (1 Cor. xi. 
 21 /.). The rebuke here is followed by an 
 
 ^ Neander, rianting and Training of the Christian Church, 
 p. 249. 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 183 
 
 account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, 
 and by the solemn warning, " Whosoever shall 
 eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord un- 
 worthily, shall be guilty of the body and the 
 blood of the Lord." 
 
 A heathen custom, followed by some defiantly, 
 by others under cover of Christian freedom, 
 caused offence in another way. At feasts given 
 by those who were still idolaters, food which had 
 been dedicated to the gods, not only by the open- 
 ing libation, but also by actual sacrifice, was 
 served to the guests. Of this some Christians 
 had no scruple in partaking. It had been their 
 habit to attend such feasts ; and now, without or 
 with consciousness of the idol, they continued to 
 attend them. To Jewish members of the Church 
 this was horrible ; and many Gentile converts 
 were shocked. St. Paul gives his direction : " If 
 any man say unto you. This hath been offered in 
 sacrifice, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and 
 for conscience sake : conscience, I say, not thine 
 own, but the others" (1 Cor. x. 28 /.). They 
 could not, he said, partake of the table of the 
 Lord, and of the table of devils : liberty was 
 sacred ; yet there were limits beyond which a 
 Christian would not pass. 
 
 Such were cases in which grave scandal was 
 caused by the manners of heathenism intruding 
 
1 84 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 into the Church. But those which may be called 
 ecclesiastical and doctrinal were even more 
 serious ; and, glancing first at the doctrinal errors, 
 we are startled by some which appear too grave 
 to have had a moment's tolerance. When one 
 professing to speak under the influence of the 
 Holy Spirit declared Jesus to be anathema, the 
 offence was probably a singular one. Such a 
 false prophet could have no following. We can 
 conceive that the reference was to the death 
 on the cross, and that, in the heat of utter- 
 ance, instead of saying that Christ was made 
 a curse, the speaker had used a word which 
 implied actual severance from God, actual re- 
 probation. Moreover, the blasphemous saying 
 is connected with gross pagan errors. The 
 ecstatic prophesying of those days, especially in 
 Corinth, allied itself with Bacchanalian frenzy, 
 and with the fanaticism of the priestesses of 
 Apollo. Women with heads uncovered, their 
 hair hanging loose, proclaimed their crude 
 notions with most unbecoming noise. In the 
 vehemence of half-articulate appeals to God and 
 man, modesty, piety, and truth must have been 
 often lost sight of. " When ye come together, 
 each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a 
 revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpreta- 
 tion." It was a wild jangle, which might indeed 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 185 
 
 express religious eagerness, but was perilous to 
 faith, and had to be suppressed, or at all events 
 moderated, by wise authority. 
 
 Again, the resurrection was denied by some ; 
 already there was a Christian Sadduceeism. How 
 it arose cannot now be made out. The quotation 
 from Isaiah, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow 
 we die," which St. Paul uses ironically, has been 
 held to show tliat Epicureanism had formed 
 alliance with Christian belief. Persons disposed 
 to that philosophy, it is imagined, may have 
 caught the light of the gospel and been drawn 
 into its liberating currents of thought, but yet 
 found themselves unable to receive in any form 
 the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. 
 This conjecture, however, has no support in 
 history, which throughout exhibits the Epicurean 
 philosophy in opposition to Christian faith. Nor 
 can the heresy be traced to Jewish converts 
 who had been originally Sadducees ; the line of 
 argument used by St. Paul is not that which he 
 would have followed in dealing with Hebrew 
 unbelievers. Those who had been led somehow 
 to deny the resurrection must have once believed 
 in it ; and there is no need to search far afield 
 in order to discover a possible cause of misgiving. 
 The dissipation of the substance of the body in 
 cremation forbade the belief that all its parts 
 
1 86 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 could be recovered and reunited. St. Paul has 
 evidently before his mind this serious obstacle 
 to faith when he speaks of a " spiritual body " 
 in 1 Corinthians, and in the Second Epistle of the 
 " buildinsf from God," which is to clothe the soul 
 when the " earthly house of our tabernacle " is 
 dissolved. Any doubt here was fatal to Christian 
 faith and hope ; and by the eloquent reasoning 
 of 1 Cor. XV., the apostle did his utmost to 
 overcome it. No other New Testament writer 
 found it necessary to enter on the subject. 
 
 Turning now to the party divisions wliich 
 had arisen in the Corinthian Church, we can see 
 that they had their origin in want of thinking 
 power and of the ability to co-ordinate different 
 aspects of Christian truth. Some approached 
 the gospel under the guidance of St. Paul, and 
 followed him in the determination to know 
 nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 
 Probably in their desire to carry out this prin- 
 ciple, they viewed with too much doubt the 
 teaching of men who returned to the Old Testa- 
 ment for religious ideas and types, and of others 
 who used language that savoured of the philo- 
 sophy of the world. There were many points 
 in St. Paul's teaching which could easily be 
 magnified beyond his intention. Narrow minds 
 attaching their faith to his distinctive forms of 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 187 
 
 expression would soon find themselves at issue 
 with others who favoured Jewish tradition or 
 Greek speculation. The party of A polios, doc- 
 trinally not far removed from that of Paul, 
 appears to have been sharply in opposition. 
 Apollos is described, in Acts xviii. 24, as a 
 learned man and mighty in the Scriptures. The 
 striking features of his preaching, which had 
 great success in Corinth, are no doubt indicated 
 in this characterization. The brusque directness 
 of St. Paul's address contrasted with the polish, 
 the ease and fluency, and the wealth of allusion, 
 which distincjuished the orations of the Alex- 
 andrian. A full knowledge of the Hebrew 
 scriptures, which he had acquired in youth, now 
 served him well in commending the faith of God 
 as against idolatry, and also in showing how the 
 promises and foreshadowings of the Old Covenant 
 had their fulfilment in Christ. Greeks who could 
 hardly bear the vigorous dialectic of St. Paul, 
 were attracted by the oratory and fervour of 
 Apollos, and were led to Christianity, we may 
 suppose, in the way he himself had reached it, 
 by receiving first the message of John the 
 Baptist. While Paul, taking his stand on the 
 commission he had from Christ and his con- 
 sciousness of inspiration, gave the gospel as a 
 personal message, a Divine word with which he 
 
1 88 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 was charged to the world, Apollos placed his 
 hearers in touch with a whole series of inspired 
 men, and with an ancient Divine system which 
 survived in essential spiritual contents, though 
 its day had passed. We have no difficulty in 
 understanding how a division would thus arise. 
 The harmony which lay beneath was not appre- 
 hended ; the differences only were noticed by 
 the less-instructed minds of the Church. 
 
 The Petrine party, again, was doubtless that 
 which held to a certain extent the obligation of 
 the law of Moses, not only on its moral side, but 
 in some of its ceremonial provisions. The 
 members of this party, we may suppose, ac- 
 knowledged the mother Church of Jerusalem, 
 and reo-arded Jesus more in the light of the 
 Jewish Messiah than as the Eedeemer of the 
 world. They did not take the name of James, 
 but were nearly in the same position as that 
 which his epistle occupies. St. Peter, or 
 Cephas, as they preferred to call him, had been 
 one of the original apostles. He appeared more 
 worthy of confidence than St. Paul. It was ahnost 
 certainly at second-hand they had been informed 
 of Peter's doctrine, perhaps by men of a sort 
 not unlike the Judaising fanatics in Galatia. 
 Still, if we take the objection to the eating of 
 flesh offered to idols as proceeding from this 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 189 
 
 party, there is no reason to doubt that here, as 
 well as at other points, the mind of Peter was 
 expressed. The views were quite opposed to 
 the liberal teaching of St. Paul, and those who 
 held them were likely his most bitter critics. 
 The sect, however, was not in circumstances 
 favourable either to influence or growth ; it was 
 bound to decay. 
 
 The last of the four divisions called itself 
 " of Christ," seemingly by way of exclusive 
 claim. The epistles do not throw much light 
 on the peculiar tenets of this sect. Perhaps 
 some, weary of the quarrels between the 
 adherents of Paul, of Apollos, and of Cephas, 
 had protested against divisions in the Church by 
 creating another. Knowing less of Christ than 
 St. Paul, St. Peter, or even Apollos, they yet 
 dared to claim special acquaintance with the 
 mind of the Lord, either through the revelations 
 of the prophets of their party, of whom there 
 would be no lack, or by study of such frag- 
 mentary Gospels as had come into their hands. 
 St. Paul could not very strenuously oppose the 
 idea followed by those who called themselves 
 " of Christ," nor could he, in so many words, 
 discredit their prophets; and the fragmentary 
 Gospels in circulation were most likely those of 
 which he had availed himself. Still he doubted 
 
I90 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 the Christ party, and placed it under condemna- 
 tion along with that bearing his own name. 
 Nothing could indeed have been more dangerous 
 than assumption of peculiar intelligence regard- 
 ing the holy personality of Christ, which after 
 eighteen centuries of study is not yet fully 
 understood. Those were not the days, nor was 
 Corinth the place, for a true doctrine of the 
 Divine Word made manifest in the flesh. 
 
 We turn now to the doctrinal and moral dis- 
 orders which appeared first in the Asian churches, 
 and are touched upon chiefly in the Epistles of 
 St. Paul addressed to them, in the Pastoral 
 Epistles, in the First Epistle of St. John, and 
 in the earlier part of the Apocalypse. The 
 sources of these heretical opinions, and the lax 
 morality associated with them, are still involved 
 in great obscurity ; but there can be little doubt 
 that a union of Judaism with oriental dreams, a 
 theosophy which vainly claimed, like that of our 
 own days, to be scientific, was the main fountain 
 of the new notions. Too little can be gathered 
 about them to make them interesting in them- 
 selves. They were probably introduced to the 
 Christians in Colossae and the neighbouring 
 Asian towns by a single enthusiast, whose 
 opinions where far from coherent. Untrained 
 minds, not firmly settled into a habit of belief. 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 191 
 
 would be easily caught by the mysterious and 
 hyper-spiritual strain of the teaching ; but their 
 applications of it would tend to hopeless con- 
 fusion. Those, again, who had some learning, 
 and were attracted by the wide sweep of the 
 Gnostic philosophy, would differ entirely from 
 the others in their way of blending it with 
 Christianity. It is, therefore, useless to search 
 for a system. When Epaphras came to Paul at 
 Eome to consult him on the difficulties of the 
 situation in the Colossian Church, he would be 
 able only to indicate various points of error that 
 had struck him in the teaching of the heresiarch, 
 and different ways in which thought and conduct 
 had been affected. Writing his epistle, St. Paul 
 advanced the truth with decision and boldness 
 against the vagaries that threatened faith. But 
 he had no desire to attack theosophy as a 
 scheme. His intention was rather to build up 
 against it the Divine system of doctrine, the true 
 philosophy of the gospel. As he met the 
 Judaising fanatics in Galatia with a kind of new 
 revelation of Christianity, so he could meet the 
 gnostics with a new apocalypse. The doctrine 
 of the person of Christ and His relation to the 
 Father and to the universe, was Paul's refuta- 
 tion of theosophic teachiug. His language 
 shows that the church at Colossal as a whole 
 
192 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 was sound in the faith and united. What he 
 had to do was to warn those who were in danger 
 of being drawn away, rather than to recover the 
 few who had lapsed. 
 
 The Judaistic strain in the false doctrine 
 taught at Colosspe is quite apparent in Paul's 
 references to circumcision, to " the bond written 
 in ordinances," to meat and drink, feast days, and 
 Sabbaths. (See ch. ii.) And it is a theosophical 
 Judaic strain of theorising that is combated 
 where the apostle writes : " Let no man rob you 
 of your prize by a voluntary humility and 
 worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things 
 which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his 
 fleshly mind." To St. Paul it must have been 
 quite evident that whatever claim of spirituality 
 and unworldliness was made by the teacher at 
 Colossce, the ascetic rules, the severity to the 
 body, which he enjoined as necessary to the 
 higher life, covered real grossness of nature, a 
 tendency to sensual indulgence. (Ch. ii. 23.) 
 The restraint professedly put on the will had its 
 origin and issue in " will-worship " ; contempt 
 of the body showed not the heavenly but the 
 earthly mind. St. Paul saw how from specula- 
 tion about transcendental mysteries and the 
 inherent evil of matter, and rules of abstinence 
 which made too much of physiological facts, it 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 193 
 
 was easy to pass to something like animalism. 
 " Voluntary humility," the grovelling habit of 
 mind opposed to true manliness, was the anti- 
 thesis of Christian liberty and courage. The 
 rule of the spiritual life was : " As therefore ye 
 received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in 
 Him, rooted and builded up in Him, and 
 stablished in your faith." 
 
 The Epistle " to the Ephesians," written for 
 the circle of Asian churches including Colossse, 
 emphasises again the glory of Christ in His 
 resurrection and His elevation " above all rule, 
 and authority, and power, and dominion." The 
 wisdom of true Christian faith is referred to, 
 possibly as against the false wisdom or gnosis of 
 theosophy. But the main theme of the epistle 
 is the deliverance Christians have obtained from 
 the disorder, darkness, and death of the heathen 
 world. Immorality, indeed, still lurks among 
 them ; but they are to walk " as children of 
 light." 
 
 Turning to the Pastoral Epistles, we find 
 clear allusions to a developed Gnosticism, still 
 approaching Christianity through Judaism. 
 Timothy has been left in Ephesus to oppose the 
 " different doctrine," which taught men to " give 
 heed to fables and endless genealogies, which 
 minister questionings" (1 Tim. i. 4). The 
 
 13 
 
194 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 teachers of this doctrine claim to be interpreters 
 of the law, but " they understand neither what 
 they say nor whereof they confidently affirm." 
 It had come about as the Spirit foretold : men 
 were falling away from the faith, "giving heed 
 to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils . . . 
 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain 
 from meats, which God created to be received 
 with thanksgiving" (ch. iv. 1, 3). Timothy is 
 charged to guard that which is committed to 
 him, and to turn away from the "profane 
 babblings and oppositions of the gnosis which is 
 falsely so called." 
 
 In the Second Epistle reference is made to 
 " strife about words " and " profane babblings," 
 the miserable dregs of theosophic controversy. 
 Hymenseus and Philetus have been teaching 
 that the resurrection is already past, assuming a 
 false spirituality, or perhaps aiming at a doctrine 
 of absorption into the Divine Essence. Nor 
 does it appear that the worst is over. " The 
 time will come when they will not endure the 
 sound doctrine ; but, having itching ears, will 
 heap to themselves teachers after their own 
 lusts ; and will turn away their ears from the 
 truth, and turn aside unto fables." 
 
 Titus laboured among the Cretans, and the 
 epistle addressed to him speaks of "Jewish 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 195 
 
 fables and commandments of men who turn 
 away from the truth," whose mind and conscience 
 are defiled, " who profess that they know God ; 
 but by their works they deny Him, being abomin- 
 able, and disobedient, and unto every good work 
 reprobate" (ch. i. 14—16). The propaganda of 
 the Judaising sect apparently survives ; but it 
 has fallen into most disreputable hands, and 
 become unblushingly antinomian. " Foolish 
 questionings and genealogies, and strifes and 
 fightings about the law," are the stock-in-trade 
 of the factious, and Titus is charged to deal 
 summarily with those who persist in troubling 
 the churches. 
 
 The Second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle 
 of Jude, which considerably resemble each other, 
 show the desire of their writers to meet Gnosticism 
 on its own ground. They enter into discussions 
 regarding the fall of the evil angels and their 
 punishment, the power and limitations of the 
 angels that have kept their principality, Michael 
 and the rest ; they also discuss the creation and 
 destruction of the world, and the future punish- 
 ment of the wicked. The whole atmosphere of 
 Christian life as revealed in these epistles is 
 turbulent : the churches are infested by mockers, 
 men who doubt the promise of Christ's coming, 
 who wrest the Scriptures to their own destruc- 
 
196 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 tion, who defile the flesh, and set at nought 
 dominion, and rail at dignities, who are " hidden 
 rocks " in the love-feasts, " clouds without water, 
 carried along by winds, autumn trees without 
 fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots ; 
 wandering stars, for whom the blackness of 
 darkness hath been reserved for ever." The 
 confusion reflected in these epistles may have 
 been' confined to a few churches with which the 
 writers were acquainted ; yet it is difficult to 
 understand how even within a limited area 
 Christianity could have .been so soon perverted. 
 Discipline must have been exceedingly lax, either 
 because authority was insufficient, or because the 
 office-bearers of the churches had themselves 
 yielded to the evil influences of the time. 
 
 In his First Epistle St. John speaks of " many 
 antichrists," deniers of the Christhood of Jesus 
 and His Divine worship. These had gone forth 
 from the Church, not under compulsion, but as a 
 result of their gradual rejection of the essential 
 doctrines of Christianity, and now they endeavoured 
 to subvert the faith of those who still held the 
 true creed. One form of Gnosticism was that 
 which denied the reality of Christ's life in the 
 flesh. The notion was that as an emanation 
 from God, Christ had assumed the mere appear- 
 ance of a human body, so that neither His 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 197 
 
 sufferings nor His death were actual. In the 
 Second Epistle this heresy is condemned as 
 specially antichristian. We may be almost 
 certain that it was in Ephesus, or some other 
 Asian city, St. John had found those who 
 endeavoured to deprive the gospel of its essential 
 power, by taking from it the mediation of Christ, 
 and the atonement of the cross. More than any 
 other theosophical error, this appeared to St. John 
 dangerous and deadly. Not only in the Epistles, 
 but in his Gospel, he set himself to controvert it. 
 The Word of God manifest in the flesh, " that 
 which we have heard, that which we have seen 
 with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our 
 hands handled, concerning the Word of Life " — 
 these are the subjects of his testimony. The 
 heresy he had in view may not have been widely 
 professed, but it had far-reaching effects, in the 
 way of causing indifference to fleshly sin, and 
 separating faith from practical life. The name 
 of Cerinthus, although not mentioned in any of 
 the New Testament writings, is closely connected 
 in history with this corruption of Christianity. 
 " The lower earthly Messiah, the man Jesus, was, 
 according to Cerinthus, only the vehicle and 
 organ of that heavenly Christ who wrought in 
 him. The heavenly Christ was raised above all 
 suffering; He withdrew from the man Jesus 
 
198 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. > 
 
 when he was given up to the pains of death." ^ 
 It is easy to trace in the Epistles of St. John the 
 strain of earnest contention with these views. 
 The " philosophy " of Cerinthus may have been 
 ethically blameless, but it left no safe position 
 either for morality or faith. On the whole, the 
 Gnosticism of the apostolic period affected the 
 churches less in the way of perverting thought, 
 than of relaxing the bonds of piety and duty. 
 The gospel was clear, definite, self-evidential, 
 and held its own way more or less in conflict 
 with the dreams and illusions of the time, 
 declaring always the need of repentance and 
 regeneration, calling men from idolatry and 
 impure life to the redeeming evangel of the 
 crucified and exalted Son of God. 
 
 The addresses to the Asian churches contained 
 in Eev. ii., iii., belong to an earlier period than 
 the Epistles of St. John. The Nicolaitans, to 
 whom reference is repeatedly made, appear to 
 have taught that freedom from the law came 
 with the knowledge of spiritual mysteries ; and 
 this freedom was understood in a carnal and 
 immoral sense. Their opinions are described 
 as the depths of Satan, and the schismatics 
 themselves as a synagogue of Satan. They are 
 
 ^ Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and 
 Church, Bolm's Translation, vol. ii. p. 45. 
 
DISORDERS AND HERESIES. 199 
 
 compared to Balaam, whose scheme for the seduc- 
 tion of the Israelites was a type of the most 
 hateful treachery to religion. The Book of 
 Eevelation flames against these and all other 
 foes of the Church, and hurries on through 
 temptestuous prophecy to victorious peace. In 
 the time of sore trial it was the reveille of 
 Christian courage, endurance, and hope. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 THE Apocalypse, by whomsoever written, and 
 at whatever time, bears a peculiar relation 
 to the thought and life of the Church. Nothing 
 else belonging to the apostolic age has the 
 same poetical genius, the same tumultuous vigour. 
 Eagerly Christian it is, yet in a different manner 
 from the other New Testament books. Starting 
 apparently from a reading of the last discourse 
 of our Lord as reported in St. Matthew's Gospel 
 (ch. xxiv.), it launches into eschatology, intolerant 
 of unbelief, breathing indignation against the 
 enemies of the Christian faith, splendidly hope- 
 ful as regards the coming glory of Christ and the 
 blessedness of the redeemed. It knows one 
 great enemy of Christ whose blasphemy has 
 infected the whole world, so that purgation must 
 be with blood and fire. Trumpets sound, vials 
 are poured forth, destruction and death follow, 
 
 2C0 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 201 
 
 the smoke of the abyss darkens sun and air, 
 men gnaw their tongues for pain, the earth 
 quakes, and the cities of the nations fall. And 
 yet, in a heaven above the veiled sun and 
 smitten stars, the victors stand with harps of 
 gold around a glassy sea, streams of living 
 water flow, beside which the heavenly Shepherd 
 leads His flock ; and, louder than the crash of 
 earthquake and universal war, is heard the voice 
 of great multitudes in swelling hallelujahs. 
 
 The book is Judieo-Christian in a way of its 
 own. Closely akin to Old Testament prophecies, 
 it is Hebraistic in style and language. It recurs 
 frequently to the worship of Israel and to the 
 city and temple of Jerusalem, and gives to Christ 
 names and dignities that emphasise His relation 
 to Jewish history. Among New Testament 
 books it alone enumerates the tribes ; even the 
 heavenly Jerusalem is described as having on 
 its twelve gates " names written which are the 
 names of the twelve tribes of the children of 
 Israel." Those who are sealed on their foreheads 
 as servants of God, are a hundred and forty and 
 four thousand Israelites, the elect remnant of 
 the nation apparently, and these are the nucleus 
 of the "great multitude, which no man could 
 number, out of every nation, and of all tribes 
 and peoples and tongues." The four " living 
 
202 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 creatures " and other visionary figures, which 
 appear again and again, are taken with various 
 alterations from the Books of Ezekiel, Zechariah, 
 and Daniel. Those who " come victorious from 
 the beast " (ch. xv.) sing the song of Moses the 
 servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, the 
 words of which are derived from the Old Testa- 
 ment. The woman of ch. xii., " arrayed with 
 the sun," who gives birth to the royal man-child, 
 is the Jewish Church; and the Apocalypse knows 
 no great New Testament Church, for the Chris- 
 tian communities are spoken of as isolated, not 
 as cohering in a single " body of Christ." The 
 victorious Lamb (ch. xiv. 1) stands upon Mount 
 Zion ; and the desolation of the " Holy City " is 
 to be repaired by the descent from heaven of 
 another city, the New Jerusalem, which is the 
 Bride, the Lamb's wife. The " great city," again, 
 in the streets of which the dead bodies of the 
 witnesses lie, " where also their Lord was cruci- 
 fied," spiritually Sodom and Egypt, is Pilate's 
 city, the blaspheming city, Rome. The Roman 
 power is charged with the murder of Christ. 
 
 The appearance of the Lord, as described in ch. i. 
 and elsewhere, is based not on recollection of His 
 human personality, but on the vision of Daniel (ch. 
 X. 5, 6) ; and His dignity and power are those of 
 the conquering Messiah of Hebrew prophecy. He 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 203 
 
 is the " Lion that is of the tribe of Judah," the 
 " root and the offspring of David," and He bears the 
 " key of David." He is also the Lamb slain from the 
 foundation of the world, and the "Word of God," for 
 the book is saturated with belief in His sacrifice 
 and Divine dignity. Yet His special attendants are 
 the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have 
 kept an ascetic purity, and have been purchased 
 from among men to be the first-fruits unto God 
 and unto the Lamb (ch. xiv. 4, 5). In token of 
 His suffering and power. He is arrayed in a 
 garment sprinkled with blood ; for He is an 
 avenger, the despotic ruler of the Gentiles. 
 " Out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, 
 that with it He should smite the nations, and 
 He shall rule them with a rod of iron ; and He 
 treadeth the winepress of the wrath of Almighty 
 God." The consummation of His triumph in 
 the glory of that city which is called His bride 
 is marked by the fulfilment of an Isaian pro- 
 phecy : " The nations shall walk amidst the 
 light thereof, and the kings of the earth do 
 bring their glory into it. And the gates thereof 
 shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall 
 be no night there) : and they shall bring the 
 glory and the honour of the nations into it." 
 
 But not on the great hopes of Hebrew pro- 
 phecy alone does the author of the Apocalypse 
 
204 ^^ THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 found. His conceptions of the person of Christ 
 and the breadth of His redemptive work are 
 original and striking. The figure of the Lamb 
 " as though it had been slain " gives pathos to 
 the soteriology of the book, and is in pervading 
 contrast to the enmity of the world from which 
 Christ's followers suffer. The dignity of the 
 manhood of Jesus is implied when He is called 
 " the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the 
 beginning of the creation of God." His place is 
 "in the midst of the throne, and of the four 
 living creatures, and the elders," and He receives 
 their praises. Higher and more significant is 
 the title, "Son of God" (ch. ii. 18); and He is 
 also " the First and the Last, and the Living 
 One." Here is the participation in the Divine 
 nature, which has given His sacrifice its power, 
 and made His blood availing for the ransom 
 and purification of men. 
 
 Early in the book there is a vision pointing to 
 a great redemption. " After these things I saw, 
 and behold, a great multitude, which no man 
 could number, out of every nation, and of all 
 tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before 
 the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in 
 their hands." These are heard crying, " Salva- 
 tion to our God, which sitteth on the throne, 
 and unto the Lamb " ; and the song is one of 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 205 
 
 thanksgiving for their own deliverance. They 
 are the army of martyrs who have come out of 
 great tribulation. The purity of their raiment 
 is accounted for by the unique metaphor that 
 they have " washed their robes and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb," and they enjoy 
 the tearless blessedness of the heavenly paradise. 
 One vision is marked by the declaration: "The 
 kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of 
 our Lord and of His Christ." The meaning 
 seems to be that the dominion hitherto exercised 
 by the Eoman Emperor is to pass into the hands 
 of God. When the Divine government is estab- 
 lished by the discomfiture and destruction of 
 " Babylon," the voice of a great multitude, " as 
 the voice of many waters, and as the voice of 
 mighty thunders," is heard saying, " Hallelujah, 
 for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.* 
 On this follows the "marriage supper of the 
 Lamb," whose " bride hath made herself ready " 
 (ch. xix.). 
 
 Most striking, however, through its contrast 
 with the tenor of many of the visions, is the 
 voice out of the throne which proclaims, "Behold 
 the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall 
 dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples." 
 In the new world, pain, sorrow, and death shall 
 be no more ; whosoever thirsts shall receive of 
 
2o5 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 the water of life ; those who overcome shall 
 inherit all things. The " holy city, Jerusalem," 
 which has on its gates the names of the tribes 
 of Israel, bears on its twelve foundations the 
 names of the apostles of the Lamb. Within the 
 walls, " in the midst of the street thereof," is the 
 " river of the water of life," on either side of 
 which grows the tree of life, bearing twelve 
 kinds of fruits, yielding fruit every month ; " and 
 the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the 
 nations." Into this city those alone enter who 
 are " written in the Lamb's book of life." Yet 
 the invitation is heard : " He that is athirst, let 
 him come : he that will, let him take the water 
 of life freely." The river of life of Ezekiel's 
 New Jerusalem has, like this of the Apocalypse, 
 a tree yielding twelve kinds of fruit. But the 
 water and the tree and the city in Ezekiel are 
 for the Hebrew tribes especially. It is again 
 in Isaiah (ch. Iv.) we find the Old Testament 
 analogue of the universal invitation to the water 
 of life ; and in the earlier collection of oracles 
 (ch. XXV.) Jerusalem appears as the great festival 
 city of all nations, the centre of light and joy 
 to the whole world. 
 
 On the whole, the Judaistic strain of the 
 book is mingled with another as strong. From 
 the first the author glories in Christ, the crucified 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 207 
 
 and risen Saviour. There is no hint of law- 
 keeping. Jews who deny Christ and oppose 
 His truth are a "synagogue of Satan"; and none 
 have a right to the promises of God but those 
 who have their names written in the Lamb's 
 book of life. The Apocalypse brings comfort to 
 the faithful, and showers promises upon them ; 
 but the fearful and unbelieving, with idolaters 
 and murderers, have their place in the shadows 
 and fires of Divine wrath. It would seem to 
 be assumed throughout that men have already 
 heard the gospel and made their choice, and 
 placed themselves either on the right or left 
 hand of the Judsje. 
 
 It has been observed that passages which 
 compare in their prophetic tone with the Apoca- 
 lypse are to be found in the early writings of 
 St. Paul, who began with the roll of Hebrew 
 poetry in his ears, and in its spirit of fervid 
 anticipation and haste : " The Lord Himself 
 shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with 
 the voice of the archangel, and with the trump 
 of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : 
 then we that are alive, that are left, shall 
 together with them be caught up in the clouds, 
 to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we 
 ever be with the Lord." " To you that are 
 afflicted, rest with us, at the revelation of the 
 
2o8 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His 
 power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to 
 them that know not God, and to them that obey 
 not the gospel of our Lord Jesus : who shall 
 suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from 
 the face of the Lord and from the glory of His 
 might, when He shall come to be glorified in 
 His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them 
 that believed in that day." And again : " Then 
 shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord 
 Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, 
 and bring to nought by the manifestation of His 
 coming ; even he, whose coming is according 
 to the working of Satan with all power and 
 signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit 
 of unrighteousness for them that are perish- 
 ing." These extracts from 1 and 2 Thessa- 
 lonians bear a striking resemblance to the 
 Apocalypse. The eager Hebrew spirit appears 
 in both v/riters ; and we may even say that 
 portions of the Apocalypse seem to fill out 
 with their startling images the outlines sketched 
 by St. Paul. In 2 Peter and the Epistle of 
 Jude the same cry is heard. There can be 
 no doubt that the Apocalypse confirmed judg- 
 ments and hopes which had become current 
 in the early Church. Yet it stands alone in 
 its sustained vehemence. There sounds through 
 
MESSAGE AND IVOR A' OF ST. JOHN. 209 
 
 it one trumpet-voice alternately of doom and of 
 victory. 
 
 For our present purpose there is no need to decide 
 between two dates for the Apocalypse which find 
 most favour, the earlier in Galba's reign, a.d. 68, 
 and the later in Domitian's, about a.d. 85. And 
 indeed there seems no reason for supposing that 
 the composition was continuous. The book is a 
 collection of visions, which the writer may have 
 had at intervals during a lengthy period. The 
 expressions, " After these things I saw," " After 
 these things I heard," and others of a similar 
 kind, frequently occurring, mark the opening of 
 more or less distinct episodes of the revelation, 
 separated from one another perhaps by months, 
 or even years. And it would be against the 
 analogy of the prophetical books of the Old 
 Testament to suppose that the visions advance 
 in what may be called historical sequence, never 
 returning on events already reflected in the 
 mirror. It is practically hopeless to arrange 
 the contents of the Apocalypse so that a history 
 or forecast of the history of the Church may be 
 made out. The visions are not independent ; 
 the same quality of imagination pervades them, 
 the same longing and indignation ; and there is 
 a steady process of thought. Yet it is possible 
 that scenes more or less resembling one another 
 
 14 
 
210 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 corresponded to different trains of events. On 
 the other hand, visions not apparently connected 
 may have had a common source. No contempor- 
 aneous records give sure data for the interpreta- 
 tion ; and the conjectures some have thrown out 
 must be very cautiously received. The book, as 
 a whole, can hardly be called a work of artistic 
 plan. If it were, the messages to the seven 
 churches would not have had a place in it. A 
 scheme of interpretation, therefore, is very diffi- 
 cult, if not impossible. 
 
 Passing to the next subject, the relation to 
 St. John's own life of the various writings 
 ascribed to him, the first question to be con- 
 sidered regards the possibility or likelihood that 
 the Apocalypse, the Epistles, and the Gospel 
 were fruits of the same inspiration, the same 
 genius. Criticism has dealt copiously with this 
 problem ; and characteristic expressions found 
 in the Apocalypse and the other books have 
 been collated in sufficient numbers to remove, 
 at least, the first flush of prejudice against a 
 single authorship. To these it is not proposed 
 to refer in detail. One example, however, may 
 be fully wrought out, to show the nature of the 
 argument. 
 
 The idea of witness-bearing is a mark of the 
 writings ; and the same words, translated witness, 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 211 
 
 hear witness, testimony, testify, occur frequently in 
 all. Corresponding to the title Apocalypse or 
 Eevelation, it is said of the writer, that he " bore 
 witness (i/juaprupTjae) to the word of God and 
 the witnessing {ixaprvplav) of Jesus Christ" (ch. 
 i. 2). Jesus Christ is " the Witness {p,dpTV(;), 
 the Faithful One" (ch. i. 5, iii. 14). It is "by 
 reason of the witnessing of Jesus Christ " the 
 writer is in the isle called Patmos. In ch. vi. 
 there are seen under the altar the souls of them 
 that were slain for the witnessing {fiapTvplav) 
 which they gave. In ch. xv. " the sanctuary of 
 the tabernacle of the witness " (fiaprvplov) is 
 opened in heaven. The " testimony of Jesus " 
 is the charge of the holy brethren ; it is also the 
 spirit of prophecy (ch. xix.), and for it the 
 faithful have been beheaded (ch. xx.). The 
 closing chapter repeats the idea of witnessing 
 in various ways : " I, Jesus, have sent Mine 
 angel to testify unto you these things in the 
 churches " ; "I testify unto every man that 
 heareth " ; " He which testifieth these things 
 saith, Surely I come quickly." The writer feels 
 the need of emphatic and solemn declaration of 
 what is believed, seen, and heard. Christ is 
 God's Witness ; those who have faith in Christ 
 are His witnesses before the world, unto death. 
 The impression we gather is that of obstinate 
 
212 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 incredulity and enmity, against which the truth 
 must be strenuously advanced. Christ and 
 angels and men affirm Divine verities ; and judg- 
 ment falls on those who reject the witnessing. 
 
 Turniug to 1 John, we find soon and often 
 the same idea. In ch. i. 2, " The life was 
 manifested, and we have seen and bear witness 
 (fjuapTvpovfjiev) " ; in ch. iv. 14, "And we have 
 beheld and bear witness." These expressions 
 are entirely in the spirit of the apocalyptic 
 witnessing. Ch. v., however, introduces a some- 
 what different aspect of the idea. " It is the 
 Spirit that witnesseth. . . . There are three 
 that bear witness : the Spirit, the water, and the 
 blood " ; and at v. 9, " If we receive the witness- 
 ing (fiapTvpLav) of men, the witnessing of God is 
 greater ; for this is the witnessing of God, that 
 He hath borne witness (/jLe/jLaprvprjKe) concerning 
 His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God 
 hath the witness in himself." Here the witness- 
 ing is much more subjective. The Spirit, the 
 water, and the blood, witness to the believing 
 soul. The Divine witnessing is in contrast to 
 that of men, which is verbal ; and it is efiPectual 
 in a higher sense, becoming a consciousness of 
 truth in the believing mind. The supreme 
 witnessing of the Christian faith is of this nature. 
 It makes clear to the spiritual consciousness 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 213 
 
 " that God hath given to us eternal life, and that 
 this life is in His Son." 
 
 So far there is similarity, and, along with that, 
 progress of thought. The external is still of 
 value. Yet even the things which have been 
 heard and seen and handled are transmuted in 
 the spiritual heat of the new life. It is not the 
 words and deeds, but their inner meaning, an 
 apocalypse to the soul, that engages the writer 
 of the epistle. In the third letter, which in 
 point of order should perhaps be first, the word 
 fiapTvpeo), " bear witness," occurs twice with a 
 less subjective meaning. 
 
 The Gospel, after the paragraphs of introduc- 
 tion, presents the familiar words : " There was a 
 man sent from God, whose name was John. 
 The same came for witnessing, that he might bear 
 witness concerning the Light." In three other 
 places in the same chapter, the witnessing of 
 John is referred to. In the interview with 
 Nicodemus, Christ says (ch. iii. 11): "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto thee. We speak that we do 
 know, and of what we have seen we bear 
 witness ; and ye accept not our witnessing." 
 Eegarding Christ's witnessing it is affirmed, a 
 little further on (ch. iii. 32): "What He hath 
 seen and heard, of that He beareth witness ; and 
 His witnessing no man accepteth. He who 
 
214 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 accepteth His witnessing hath set his seal to this, 
 that God is true." The witnessing is not purely 
 subjective — it is that of word and life ; but the 
 apprehension of it is entirely spiritual. The 
 Samaritan woman at Jacob's well hears Christ, 
 and in the village makes her impression of Him 
 known. Many of the people believe, for the 
 saying of the woman, " bearing witness " (ch. iv. 
 39). The witness to Christ of the Father, and 
 of the works which the Father gave Him to do, 
 is the subject of a paragraph in ch. v., in the 
 coarse of which the verb and substantive tos^ether 
 occur nine times. The verse immediately follow- 
 ing (ver. 39) enjoins searching of the Scriptures, 
 " which bear witness concerning Me." Passing 
 to ch. vii., we find Christ explaining the world's 
 hatred of Him, on the ground that He bears 
 witness concerning it, that the works thereof are 
 evil. Another group of the same words is to 
 be found in ch. viii., where Christ's witness to 
 Himself is placed beside that of the Father. The 
 witnessing of the Spirit of truth is in ch. xv. 
 ioined with that of the disciples : " He shall bear 
 witness concerning Me. And ye also bear 
 witness." In the account of our Lord's trial 
 before the high priest the word naturally occurs ; 
 and before Pilate Christ declares, " I am come 
 into the world, that I should bear witness unto 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 215 
 
 the truth." The closing sentences of the Gospel 
 also use the word as descriptive of the whole 
 purpose of the evangelist. 
 
 The facts regarding this cluster of words are 
 not only significant in themselves, but doubly so 
 when the comparatively infrequent use of the 
 terms throughout the other New Testament 
 books is taken into account. The circumstances 
 of the Christians who had to suffer for bearing 
 witness to the Name no doubt led to the use of 
 IJuapTvpia, etc., in the Apocalypse ; and the altered 
 impact of the idea in the First Epistle is due to 
 the more subjective and spiritual nature of the 
 thought. Iq the Gospel, again, history is dealt 
 with, and verbal testimony becomes important. 
 Yet the testimony of the Spirit to the human 
 consciousness is a striking feature of the ^aprvpla 
 there described. The argument from the whole 
 group of words and ideas is strongly in favour of 
 a single authorship. 
 
 One other resemblance among many may be 
 noticed — the use of the expression " My Father " 
 by Christ in the Apocalypse and the Gospel. 
 In the messages to the churches, " My Father " 
 occurs thrice ; and the coincidence with the Fourth 
 Gospel is so manifestly undesigned, that one is 
 tempted to say no further proof of the single 
 authorship need be sought for. The Gospel is 
 
21 6 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 written by some one familiar with that expression 
 so frequently employed by Christ, some one 
 who had been especially touched by it. He 
 reproduces it along with the other " My God," 
 as if he had in his memory the message confided 
 to Mary Magdalene on the resurrection day : 
 " Say to My brethren, I ascend unto My Father 
 and your Father, and to My God and your God." 
 Suppose, however, it is admitted that these 
 and other similarities of diction go to prove the 
 identity of the author of the Apocalypse with the 
 epistoler and the evangelist, there remains the 
 far more serious question of general scope and 
 tone. And the theory that the visions of the 
 Apocalypse extended over a considerable time, 
 perhaps to well on in the reign of Domitian, 
 may seem to throw fresh difficulty in the way of 
 a solution. For, this being assumed, only a few 
 years could have elapsed between the composi- 
 tion of the Apocalypse and of the Epistles. We 
 can easily accept the suggestion that solecisms 
 of John's Greek composition, such as are to be 
 seen in the former, were corrected by an 
 amanuensis or disciple who revised the latter. 
 We can see also that when the prophetical strain 
 was dropped, the Hebraisms and the impetuosity 
 of the diction would in great measure disappear. 
 But why is the theme of sudden and dreadful 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 217 
 
 judgments about to overtake the world almost 
 put aside ? Why does he who had dipped his 
 pencil " in the hues of earthquake and eclipse," 
 turn to speak of love ? Why is the outward lot 
 of Christians no longer spoken of, and the inward 
 life dwelt upon in its genesis and growth ? Can 
 it be maintained that within a short time the 
 vehement author of the Apocalypse began to find 
 his mission in declaring that God is love, that 
 he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God ? 
 Judgment is certainly not forgotten in the 
 Epistles and the Gospel ; the note of stringent 
 criticism and condemnation of the evil world is 
 still heard ; yet there is not now exultation over 
 the fearful doom of the empire. Persecution has 
 not come to an end. It will increase. There 
 are many antichrists, and the world-power is as 
 strong as ever. But the energy and fire of 
 apocalyptic indignation have passed into calm 
 reason and loving solicitude ; passionate declara- 
 tions have been exchanged for quiet persuasive- 
 ness. We are compelled to consider how the 
 spiritual life of St. John and his Christian 
 genius came to yield this new and unexpected 
 fruit. 
 
 There seems good reason for surmising that up 
 to A.D. 60 at least, John lived quietly at 
 
2i8 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 
 
 Jerusalem, a companion of James, the Lord's 
 brother, with those personal convictions regarding 
 Christ and that zealous love to Him which had 
 come through the tenderest fellowship. We 
 know that in the early years after the ascension 
 John was a constant worshipper in the temple, 
 and he probably continued the practice. Yet 
 the growing antagonism of the Jews to "The 
 Way " must have gradually alienated the apostle 
 from them. He remembered the cross, and the 
 sacred trust given him by the dying Lord. To 
 John, those who persistently reviled his Divine 
 Friend and made the cross a mockery were liars 
 and blasphemers. But, turning from the anti- 
 christian Jews, he might not at first become 
 sympathetic towards the Gentiles. For his 
 patriotism continued keen, his hopes were for 
 a regenerate Israel ; and the Gentiles were to his 
 mind identified with the lioman power, a vast 
 federation opposed to his country and his faith. 
 The earlier writings of St. Paul had certainly 
 influenced John, as we have already seen ; and 
 they opened glimpses of the redemption of the 
 heathen world. With the later Pauline Epistles, 
 also known to John, came a still wider vision of 
 hope. Concerning the future redemption and 
 the glory of Christ, a passage in Ephesians (ch. 
 i. 17 ff) is strikingly parallel to the Book of 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 219 
 
 Pievelation : " That the God of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a 
 spirit of wisdom and revelation (apocalypse) in 
 the knowledge of Him ; having the eyes of your 
 heart enlightened, that ye may know wliat is the 
 hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory 
 of His inheritance in the saints, and what the 
 exceeding greatness of His power to usward who 
 believe, according to that working of the strength 
 of His might which He wrought in Christ, when 
 He raised Him from the dead, and made Hiai 
 to sit at His right hand in the heavenly 
 places, far above all rule, and authority, and 
 power, and dominion, and every name that is 
 named, not only in this world, but also in that 
 which is to come." More perhaps in general 
 scope than in verbal parallelism, this may appear 
 related to the Apocalypse. But the corre- 
 spondence is evident, and we must believe that 
 even when he was in Jerusalem John enjoyed 
 no small breadth of outlook and hope regarding 
 the heathen world. 
 
 Still the interest which St. John had in the 
 Gentiles was put to the test when, leaving 
 Palestine, perhaps about a.d. 68, he entered 
 upon his new experiences among the churches 
 of Asia. In the cities he saw the vigorous life 
 of the age flowing to and from the temples, to 
 
220 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 and from the great centres of thought and power. 
 As compared with the vast population of those 
 cities, the members of the Christian churches 
 seemed at first sight very few. The Hebrews 
 who believed, together with the Gentile converts 
 who had found through them union with the 
 true God and His Christ, appeared but a forlorn 
 hope in the assault on ancient superstition and 
 the thrones of evil. The blaspheming heathen 
 power had not changed ; Christians had suffered, 
 were still suffering, many of them with indomit- 
 able courage ; the roll of martyrs was long and 
 honourable. As the apostle went from city to 
 city, he found also that the Christian churches 
 were centres around which faith rallied, and that 
 the secret leaven of the gospel was widely 
 spread. This seems, however, to have meant 
 to him that the inevitable hour of combat was 
 near ; and, without some direct Divine inter- 
 vention, the fierce power of blaspheming Eome 
 would overwhelm Christianity. The only hope 
 of believers, accordingly, was in the promise of 
 the Lord's second coming, to the rapid approach 
 of which all signs appeared to point. With 
 this on the horizon, John looked around on 
 human life and marked its spirit, and thoughts 
 of the judgment about to fall crowded on his 
 mind. It was decreed ; it was terrible ; but it 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 221 
 
 was just. His theme was prescribed to him, to 
 announce and vindicate the consuming righteous- 
 ness of God. When he was forced to retire to 
 Patmos, perhaps because he had openly attacked 
 the idolatry of the Asian cities, faith and zeal 
 found embodiment in the apocalyptic visions. The 
 little island afforded no audience. But he could 
 fill scrolls with Christian prophecy, and his 
 words, like the roll of swelling waters, might 
 beat against imperial gates, and shake the strong- 
 holds of unholy power. 
 
 The Apocalypse expressed again and again 
 the conviction that Christ's second advent and 
 the end of the existing order of things were 
 impending. " The things which must shortly 
 come to pass " (ch. i. 1) ; " the time is at hand " 
 (ch. i. 3); "I come quickly" (ch. iii. 11); 
 " The Lord, the God of the spirits of the 
 prophets, sent His angel to show unto His 
 servants the things which must shortly come 
 to pass. And, behold, I come quickly" (ch. 
 xxii. 6, 7) ; " He which testifieth these things 
 saith, Yea: I come quickly" (ch. xxii. 20). 
 Before the very eyes of the seer events seemed 
 to be moving towards a rapid inevitable issue. 
 So far as his revelations were known and 
 believed, they must have revived the notion 
 universally held in the first decade after our 
 
222 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Lord's death, now perhaps waning in the Gentile 
 churches, that the world was near its end. 
 Conveying the promise of a great Divine inter- 
 vention, the Apocalypse sustained the Christians 
 in their endurance of hardship and cruelty. 
 
 Here, then, is the situation disclosed by the 
 book. John, whose nature is emotional, who is 
 easily impressed by outward influences, open 
 also to the light from the throne of heavenly 
 righteousness, has been hurried along by his 
 eager faith ; and we see him, his eyes aflame 
 with indignation and prophetic fire, looking for 
 the last things. He is a " Son of Thunder " as 
 at the first, unsympathetic towards all who are not 
 bravely Christian. The rising day of the world's 
 new life is darkened with clouds of judgment, 
 and he exults to think that Christ shall soon 
 inherit His destined kingdom. Beyond and above 
 the sin and the doom there is light. Jerusalem 
 destroyed, great Babylon cast like a millstone 
 into the sea, there shall be a new city of God 
 upon an exceeding high mountain, a true 
 Olympus. The splendour of it is dazzling. 
 What is the glory of Eome to that of the city 
 in which the throne of God and of the Lamb 
 occupies the central place, to which all the high- 
 ways of the world converge ? And after war 
 shall be peace, after tribulation, joy. Is it far 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN, 223 
 
 away, beyond a thousand years of Satanic discord ? 
 or is the generation living to see the splendour ? 
 On that the oracle gives no clear voice. But 
 the judgments are at hand, and the victory and 
 splendour will come ; and the city shall gather 
 its multitudes out of every nation, and kindred, 
 and tongue, and people. ^ 
 
 Passing now from this stage of St. John's 
 inspiration to that which is reached in the 
 Epistles, let us first notice the limit within which 
 a change takes place. 
 
 For one thing, it seems clear that the virulence 
 of persecution had gone by, so that the Christian 
 life had more room for its proper development. 
 There are indications of this in ch. ii. 8 of the 
 First Epistle : " The darkness is passing away, and 
 the true light already shineth." Love is assert- 
 ing itself against hatred ; the kindlier emotions, 
 which are the true effluence of the Christian 
 spirit, shine within the churches and about 
 them. In the time of severe trial, believers 
 had been called to " resist unto blood, striving 
 against sin"; and in ch. ii. 13, those who had 
 come successfully through this ordeal are ad- 
 dressed : " I wrote unto you, young men, because 
 ye have overcome tov Trovrjpov," the Evil One — 
 that is, the imperial enemy, not as in ch. iii. 8, 
 diabolos. These have found that One is in them 
 
224 I^ THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 greater than he that is in the world, or cosmos. 
 (Ch. iv. 4.) It is clear to John now, that, like 
 all human institutions, the mighty empire is 
 under the law of change. " The cosmos passeth 
 away and the lust thereof" (ch. ii. 17). It 
 appears also, from certain signs, that the end 
 may be close at hand. ** There have risen many 
 antichrists ; whereby we know that it is the 
 last hour." It still remains true that the world 
 under imperial law knows not Christians, is not 
 aware of the object of their association and work, 
 nor what is the nature of their power. They are 
 " children of God " ; and the cosinos, ignorant of 
 their heavenly outlook, maintains its opposition, 
 perhaps by enforcing the laws against the sodali- 
 tates, or clubs, so as to prevent meetings for 
 Christian worship. But there is no hint that 
 the approaching change from the old order to the 
 new is to be accompanied by physical manifesta- 
 tions of the Divine wrath. 
 
 Again, as to the second coming of Christ, a 
 new conception of the whole subject is marked 
 by the expression, " Greater is He that is in you 
 than he that is in the world" (ch. iv. 4). It 
 may be said that, in the Apocalypse, God and 
 Jesus Christ, as the Head of the Divine kingdom 
 on earth, appear for believers. Now the in- 
 dwelling of God, the energy of Christ as a power 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 225 
 
 in the soul, give the spirit-born their strength. 
 And to this corresponds an expression which 
 has a singular hypothetical turn. In ch. ii. 28, 
 and again in ch. iii. 2, it is not affirmed that 
 Christ will appear again in the flesh ; only the 
 possibility is expressed, " if He shall be mani- 
 fested." In the former passage, indeed, the if 
 is not absolute ; and in the second passage, the 
 alternative translation, " if it shall be mani- 
 fested," has some colour. But there is perhaps 
 a question whether the manifestation of Christ 
 is to be looked for either immediately or in the 
 way of visible presence. He is to be in believers 
 the life of their souls, and the manifestation 
 will result in the fulness of their resemblance 
 to Him as children of God. In one passage 
 (ch. iv. 17), the "day of judgment" is men- 
 tioned, and here the final assize may be intended. 
 Yet there is good reason for interpreting the 
 words, " in the day of judgment," as relating to 
 the trial of Christians for their religion before 
 provincial authorities. And we have a general 
 principle tending to confirm this view in ch. v. 
 4, where there is no hint of a counter-judgment, 
 a visitation of Divine wrath which shall destroy 
 the enemies of Christianity, but, with true pro- 
 phetic insight, the writer says : " This is the 
 victory that hath overcome the world, even our 
 
 15 
 
226 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 faith." Finally, it is to be observed that the 
 manifestation of the Son of God is affirmed to 
 be not against men or nations, but against their 
 spiritual enemy. " To this end was the Son of 
 God manifested, that He might destroy the works 
 of the devil." 
 
 Now it cannot be said, comparing the epistle 
 with the Apocalypse, that the point of view is 
 entirely fresh. Eegarding Babylon, that is the 
 Eoman Empire, a voice in the Apocalypse says: 
 " Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye 
 have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye 
 receive not of her plagues : for her sins have 
 reached even unto heaven, and God hath re- 
 membered her iniquities." The same separateness 
 between those who believe in Christ and those 
 who are of the world is maintained in the 
 epistle. The cosmos is associated with " the evil 
 one"; it is not to be loved, but overcome; it hates 
 the followers of Christ, and its hatred is not to 
 be wondered at. There is also heat of indigna- 
 tion in the epistle against those who do not 
 believe the testimony of God to His Son. But 
 for the very cosmos with which Christians have 
 to contend, Christ is the propitiation (ch. ii. 2), 
 and judgment is quite as strongly given against 
 those who profess to know Christ, and yet do 
 not keep His commandments, as against those 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 227 
 
 who deny His Godhead and His life in the llesh. 
 It seems that a time of comparative quiet has 
 come, when Christians, no longer sifted by perse- 
 cution, are under strong temptation to seek the 
 world's glory, and because they covet social 
 position, to fall into hatred of one another and 
 neglect of the destitute. The members of the 
 churches do not all appear now as suffering 
 saints, " who have washed their robes and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb," who are 
 by their purity distinguished from the murderers, 
 adulterers, and liars of the world. There may 
 be murderers and liars in the circle of professed 
 believers. Many false prophets are heard, who 
 claim to speak in the name of God, and against 
 them Christians have to be warned. They are 
 to try the spirits ; they are furnished with tests 
 which they are to apply to those who claim 
 their attention. It has, in fact, become evident 
 to the writer of the epistle that the existing 
 order is not to be violently overturned, that 
 Christians are to be instruments in the hand of 
 God for the gradual establishment of a new 
 order. They can become fit for this task only 
 through their love to each other, the purity and 
 power of their faith, their unity with Christ ; 
 and here lies the chief concern of the author. 
 The law of love is that on which stress is laid. 
 
228 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Through that God is known, and by obedience to 
 it His life becomes energetic in Christian circles, 
 and beyond them. There is no expectation of 
 the speedy conversion of the heathen world to 
 Christianity. At tlie close of the epistle the 
 distinction is sharply maintained between those 
 who are of God, and the cosmos which " lieth in 
 the evil one." The duty of Christians is not to 
 convert but to overcome. Still it is by faith, 
 and in the spirit of truth and love, they are to 
 seek their victory. And the way is opened for 
 efforts on behalf of the world, inasmuch as pro- 
 pitiation is made for its sins. 
 
 Our survey of some of the points touched in 
 the epistle, and the conditions under which it 
 was written, strengthens the argument for a 
 single authorship, or at least removes difficulties 
 that seemed formidable. It is quite according to 
 analogy that a man of strongly emotional nature, 
 loving Christ and Christ's work, should begin 
 with the hope of His speedy and glorious triumph 
 over enemies ; but afterwards, when necessity was 
 felt, should change to earnest solicitude about 
 His friends. John finished his Apocalypse in 
 tremulous expectation of awful events, which 
 the voices he lieard seemed to place in the 
 immediate future. But the mundane order, 
 which was to all appearance incompatible with 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN, 229 
 
 the progress of the kingdom of God, did not 
 fall to pieces, did not suffer abrupt and terrible 
 destruction. The Eoman Empire, the cosmos, 
 still held together; the work of the world went 
 on ; Christians, unable to separate themselves 
 from the common duties of life, kept at their 
 posts, and found the value of their faith in the 
 discipline they shared with other men. The 
 great revolutions and calamities of the apoca- 
 lyptic visions were to be deferred ; and, pend- 
 ing their fulfilment, the mind of the apostle 
 turned to the condition of the churches and the 
 spiritual life of believers. Soon after Domitian's 
 accession, while there was a lull in the storm, 
 St. John seems to have returned to Asia, and 
 begun the new mission which the state of the 
 churches required. With chastened mind, with 
 a sense of present duty, which by no means 
 overcame his hope, yet checked his exultation, 
 he turned to the task of building up his fellow- 
 believers in their most holy faith. It was love 
 of Christ that had brought him to the summit 
 of vision, and that same feeling now made 
 him the eager teacher of Christ-like love, as 
 the mark of those who were born anew. His 
 indignation against the world fades as he dis- 
 covers the abuses and evils that prevail within 
 the Christian circle. His heart is sore, not 
 
230 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 because those of the faith are persecuted, but 
 because many of them sin, and make light of 
 their sin, hate their brethren, believe themselves 
 to be in the way of salvation while they do 
 unrighteousness. Visions of the glory to come 
 have to be exchanged for quiet and patient 
 teaching of the truth as it is in Christ. 
 
 And this could not but lead the apostle to a 
 new study of that Divine life which it had been 
 his privilege to know in its manifestation to 
 men. What did Christianity exist for ? What 
 was it to do for the world ? These inquiries, 
 which the circumstances of the time demanded, 
 could be solved only by a right understanding 
 of the words of Christ, and the testimony regard- 
 ing God embodied in Christ's deeds and death. 
 The sin of men and the cleansing blood of Christ, 
 the darkness of the world and the light which 
 shone in Christ, the hatred that is in the human 
 heart and the love that is of God, the faith in 
 Jesus as the Christ which is the condition of 
 the new birth, — these were doctrines which could 
 be established only in the words and life of the 
 Lord Himself. The disciple began to retrace, 
 with fine care and spiritual intelligence, the 
 way he had taken nearly sixty years before, 
 when he went from city to city with his Master. 
 Grace and truth gleamed through many an avenue 
 
MESSAGE AND WORK OF ST. JOHN. 231 
 
 of memory ; Christ's works of beneficence, His 
 words of heavenly power and peace, the tears 
 He wept, the sunshine of His smile, gradually 
 came into clear relief, — the revelation of God, 
 the living evangel of the world. 
 
 In the Gospel, the fruit of St. John's inspira- 
 tion at its final and highest stage, there are 
 notes similar to those of the Apocalypse and 
 epistles. It reports the words of Christ, which 
 make profound severance between the life re- 
 deemed and the life condemned : " This is the 
 judgment, that the light is come into the world, 
 and men loved the darkness rather than the 
 light ; for their works were evil. For every one 
 that doeth ill hateth the light, and cometh not 
 to the light " ; again : " The hour cometh in which 
 all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, 
 and shall come forth ; they that have done good 
 unto the resurrection of life, and they that have 
 done ill unto the resurrection of judgment." 
 These passages, as the Eev. Stanley Leathes has 
 pointed out, resemble Eev. xxii. 12:" Behold, 
 I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to 
 render to each man according as his work is." 
 Notable, however, is the difference, the con- 
 trast, between the two writings, especially on 
 the subject of the last things. The discourses 
 reported by St. Matthew and St. Luke bearing 
 
232 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 on what appears to be the second advent of our 
 Lord, have no place in the Fourth Gospel. In- 
 stead, there is the promise of the Paraclete 
 (John XV., xvi.), who shall bear witness of Christ, 
 who shall also " convict the world in respect of 
 sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (ch. 
 xvi. 8). The glory of Christ in those who 
 believe is to be through the Spirit : " He shall 
 glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and 
 shall declare it unto you." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE GOSPELS IN THE CHUKCH. 
 
 IT is a singular fact, of which various explana- 
 tions have been proposed, that throughout 
 the epistles of the New Testament few references 
 are made to the details of our Lord's life, or even 
 to His discourses as reported in the Gospels. In 
 no case does an apostle supplement his arguments 
 or enforce his exhortations by quoting a parable 
 spoken by Christ, saying, for instance, " as our 
 Lord taught in the parable of the Sower," or, 
 " as we learn from the parable of the Good 
 Samaritan." We would naturally expect to find 
 incidents of the life of Christ frequently used in 
 the epistles by way of illustration. Still more 
 would we expect our Lord's own sayings to be 
 often cited in order to confirm doctrinal teaching 
 and ethical direction. The main facts narrated 
 in the Gospels underlie the apostolic writings ; 
 and the death and resurrection of Christ, in par- 
 
 333 
 
234 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 ticular, are often recalled. But the passage in 
 2 Peter i. 17, 18, is almost unique: "For He 
 received from God the Father honour and glory, 
 when there came such a voice to Him from the 
 excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom 
 I am well pleased: and this voice we ourselves 
 heard come out of heaven when we were with 
 Him in the holy mount." Beside this may be 
 placed the passage in 1 Cor. xv., where St. Paul, 
 after stating barely " that Christ died for our 
 sins according to the Scriptures; and that He 
 was buried ; and that He hath been raised on 
 the third day according to the Scriptures," pro- 
 ceeds to give a list of the appearances of the 
 risen Lord to Cephas, to the Twelve, to above five 
 hundred brethren at once, and to James, — partly 
 following, partly supplementing the Gospel narra- 
 tives. But the absence of detail is noticeable, 
 and indeed the only passage in the whole of the 
 epistles of St. Paul which can be said to corre- 
 spond verbally with a Gospel report, is the 
 account of the institution of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Looking into this subject, we find at once the 
 whole question of the origin and early use of the 
 Gospels confronting us. We have to inquire 
 whether they existed in the first century as we 
 have them now ; if they did exist then, in what 
 order they were written, and how they came to 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 235 
 
 be what they are ; further, we have to ask what 
 relation the histories of our Lord's life had to 
 the development of Christian faith. Of these 
 points the last is the one we shall chiefly keep 
 in view. AVas it from Gospels such as we have 
 the first churches learned their faith ? Or 
 were the growth of the Christian religion and 
 the faith of believers mainly guided by the 
 epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. James, 
 and by teaching which in its general strain 
 resembled the epistles ? 
 
 Nothing is more common now than the 
 affirmation that, for the essential elements of 
 Christianity, we must return to the earthly 
 human life of our Lord as the basis of every- 
 thing, — Christian ethic, apologetic, doctrine, and 
 life. Did Paul mean this when he wrote : 
 " Other foundation can no man lay than that 
 which is laid, which is Jesus Christ " ? Did he 
 mean that what constitutes the substance of our 
 Gospels was then the study of Christians ? Not 
 only as a matter of what may be called anti- 
 quarian interest, but far more as a question 
 bearing on the nature of apostolic teaching and 
 the development of Christianity, this whole sub- 
 ject demands investigation. 
 
 Weiss has said : " The Christian faith would 
 have remained just as it is, and lost no part of 
 
236 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 what is its deepest foundation, had it pleased 
 God to leave us only the apostolic teaching, as it 
 lies before us in the epistles of the New Testa- 
 ment, and along with the Gospels, to deprive us 
 of all information from which we might have 
 wrought out for ourselves a detailed picture of 
 Jesus' earthly life." ^ This is a bold position, 
 very different from that which many take. 
 Matthew Arnold, in one of his latest essays, 
 wrote : " Jesus Himself, as I have remarked 
 elsewhere, is even the better fitted to stand as 
 the central figure of a religion, because His re- 
 porters so evidently fail to comprehend Him 
 fully, and to report Him adequately. Being 
 so evidently great, and yet so uncomprehended, 
 and being now inevitably so to remain for ever. 
 He thus comes to stand before us as what the 
 philosophers call an Ahsoluter - The meaning of 
 this seems to be that by so much as the personal 
 life of Christ retires from view and becomes un- 
 known and unknowable, leaving Him at length 
 only as the Master of a method and a secret, to 
 that extent and in that way He becomes most 
 fitted to stand as the Head of a religion. Neither 
 the evangelists nor the apostles understood Christ 
 says Arnold. They give us only now and then 
 
 1 The Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 15. 
 
 2 St. Paul and Protestantism, etc,, Popular Edition, p. 163, 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 237 
 
 glimpses of the real Christ. Let us know the 
 method and the secret, and attach them to a 
 Migue personality capable of inspiring emotion, 
 and we have the true Christianity. It is a view 
 that makes havoc of the Gospel narratives, but 
 leaves the writings of Paul, in so far as he had the 
 method and the secret, with a certain value and 
 authority. Then we come down to the mental 
 confusion of a writer who at one time says, " We 
 are not bound by the words of Jesus spoken in 
 Galilean ears, so much as by His spirit and temper, 
 and the messages our own hearts receive. . . . 
 Take the mere words of Christ, and make them the 
 exact standard of morals, and use them in their 
 narrow, legal, inelastic limitations, and you destroy 
 Christianity"; who at another time says, " The 
 practical impotence of pious ideals in regulating 
 public conduct arises mainly from this very cause, 
 that we perpetually act as though Christ never said 
 what He meant, and rarely meant what He said ; 
 that He was a visionary, a glorious dreamer, a 
 religious rhapsodist. ... It is because we have 
 lost sight of the true humanity of Jesus that 
 His life has faded into so unreal a thing to us." 
 And if we care to see the extreme beyond this 
 confusion, the writings of the Eussian Tolstoi will 
 show it. He says : " The arbitrary separation of 
 the metaphysical and ethical aspects of Chris- 
 
238 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 tianity entirely disfigures the doctrine, and 
 deprives it of every sort of meaning. The 
 separation began with the preaching of Paul, 
 who knew but imperfectly the ethical doctrine 
 set forth in the Gospel of Matthew, and who 
 preached a metaphysico -cabalistic theory, entirely 
 foreign to the doctrine of Jesus. . . . And the 
 metaphysical theory, with its accompanying cere- 
 monial, deviated more and more from its true 
 and primitive meaning, until it has reached its 
 present stage of development, as a doctrine 
 which explains the mysteries of a celestial life 
 beyoud the comprehension of human reason, and 
 with all its complicated formulas gives no 
 religious guidance whatever with regard to tlie 
 regulation of this earthly life."^ There is plaii.ly 
 a difference of no common kind between the 
 views of Christianity held by one who says that 
 from the epistles alone we may find the true 
 way, and one who says that these epistles, based 
 on imperfect knowledge, have led the world 
 astray, that we must go back to the words of 
 Christ. Now, what do we mean by returning to 
 the origin ? What was the Christianity of the 
 first century ? Was it based mainly on apostolic 
 doctrine, of which Tolstoi has said such hard 
 things, or was it based on the ethical teaching of 
 
 ^ Tolstoi, My Religion, p. 219. 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 239 
 
 Christ and His example, as they are set forth in 
 the Gospels ? And how are we to understand 
 Christianity to-day ? 
 
 The earliest discourses reported in the Acts of 
 the Apostles do not dwell on the character, deeds, 
 sayings, and personal life of Christ. He is spoken 
 of as "a man approved of God by mighty wonders 
 and signs which God did by Him." He is called 
 the " Holy and Kighteous One," the " Prince of 
 Life." He is the Prophet who was to be raised 
 up like unto Moses. He is the holy Servant of 
 God, anointed by Him. Stephen's long address 
 rests no argument on the Divine wisdom of 
 Christ ; and there is no attempt to prove that 
 the characteristics and power shown by Christ 
 during His earthly human life gave Him pre- 
 eminence. The only reference to Christ is in 
 these words : " They killed them which showed 
 before of the coming of the Eighteous One ; of 
 whom ye have now become betrayers and 
 murderers." Philip, indeed, is reported to have 
 "preached Jesus" to the Ethiopian eunuch, be- 
 ginning from the passage of Isaiah. And in this 
 " preaching of Jesus," we must believe, there was 
 included some account of His life on earth, of 
 which the Ethiopian could not have been in- 
 formed. We note also that when Peter went to 
 Csesarea to instruct Cornelius the centurion, the 
 
240 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 discourse he gave, even as it appears in a brief 
 report, was mainly on the subject of our Lord's 
 ministry. The outline supplied by Luke includes 
 references to the baptism of John, the beginning in 
 Galilee, the enduement of Christ with the Holy 
 Spirit and with power, the miracles of healing, the 
 ministry in Judsea and Jerusalem, the crucifixion, 
 the resurrection on the third day, and the ap- 
 pearance of the risen Lord to chosen witnesses, 
 " who did eat and drink with Him after He rose 
 from the dead." The filling up of this outline 
 must have given a sufficient view of the life of 
 Christ. But it was for a heathen who had heard 
 little of Christ. 
 
 The conclusion to which we were led is that, 
 where addressing themselves to Israelites, the 
 apostles and early evangelists counted on a 
 general knowledge of the life of Christ. It was 
 known that He had spoken as never man spake ; 
 it was known that His teaching had been with 
 authority, that the Eoman centurion who had 
 charge at His crucifixion said of Him, " Certainly 
 this was a righteous Man," or, according to the 
 Gospel of Mark, " Truly this Man was a Son of 
 God." There were many in Juda3a and Galilee 
 who had been healed by Him of diseases, had 
 eaten of the bread of the miracles, and joined in 
 the hosannahs of His praise. His wisdom, His 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 241 
 
 purity, His patience and heavenliness, had struck 
 the popular mind. Eelying on the impression 
 His life had produced, and the thrill of horror 
 which had followed His death, the apostles began 
 their preaching. The speedy revelation of the 
 majesty of Christ, and establishment of His 
 kingdom, filled their minds. They did not go 
 back on the past, for they held the testimony of 
 the earthly human life of Christ to be sufficient 
 without any recapitulation of theirs. Not what 
 Christ had been in His humiliation, but what 
 He had become in His resurrection, and what 
 He was to be in His approaching manifestation, 
 were the subjects of their witness-bearing. 
 When Matthias was chosen to be an apostle, it 
 was important that he had " companied with 
 the disciples all the time that the Lord Jesus 
 went in and went out among them, beginning 
 from the baptism of John unto the day that He 
 was received up." Yet the main point of testi- 
 mony to which the previous knowledge of Christ 
 was to give force was His resurrection. Belief 
 in Jesus as the Messiah of the Jewish people, the 
 Saviour of Israel, was the faith the apostles sought 
 at first to create ; and those who, with whatever 
 imperfect knowledge of Christ's earthly human life 
 they began, professed this faith, were received into 
 the membership of the Church by baptism. 
 
 16 
 
242 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 During this earliest period the need for written 
 and detailed accounts of the Lord's life on earth 
 does not seem to have been felt. If converts 
 who knew little about the work of Christ and 
 His teaching desired information, the apostles 
 were ready to give it from their own personal 
 knowledge. The details of His ethical teaching, 
 the evidences of His personal dignity and Divine 
 authority, the miracles, the sufferings of Christ, 
 were not forgotten. But they were viewed as 
 important, not so much in themselves as for the 
 proof they gave that Jesus was the Messiah 
 promised through the prophets. His dignity 
 and life in heaven. His power made manifest in 
 the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, were the 
 crreat facts on which faith was to rest. The 
 
 o 
 
 Christ that was to be would not walk in the 
 lonely ways of humiliation and suffering : He 
 w^ould reign. Nor had His life ceased to be 
 visible : it was in His people. Their energy 
 continued it, widened it. By and by the world 
 should see Him in His glory. 
 
 There was accordingly no formal attempt 
 made in the first decade to gather and arrange 
 the reminiscences of our Lord's life on earth. 
 We read of no conference of those who had been 
 witnesses throughout of all that Christ did and 
 taught. Things began well with the conversion 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 243 
 
 of thousands on the day of Pentecost ; and the 
 method of preaching which had been so success- 
 ful was followed. The apostles found a way of 
 commending the faith of Christ which was suited 
 to the time and was made availing by the Spirit. 
 Their gospel was one of faith and hope, the glad 
 tidings of a new age. Though they had known 
 Christ after the flesh, yet now they knew Him 
 in a higher stage of His mediatorial life. Nar- 
 ratives of the human life of Christ were not 
 hastily compiled, for it seemed premature to 
 close the record. In a short time there would 
 be more to tell. Those who despised the lowly 
 Saviour would soon be amazed by the revelation 
 of His Divine glory. The outlook was pointed 
 by Paul : " The Lord Himself shall descend 
 from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
 archangel, and with the trump of God : and the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first : then we that are 
 alive, that are left, shall together with them be 
 caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
 air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord " 
 (1 Thess. iv. 16, 17). 
 
 Now, after the first two decades there was a 
 gradual departure from the hope of an immediate 
 appearance of Christ and end of the seon. This 
 changed the point of view from which the whole 
 facts of Christianity were regarded; and mean- 
 
244 I^ THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 while a new generation was growing up, and 
 needing to be informed of the character, deeds, 
 and sayings of the Saviour. Further, as the 
 Gentiles came under the influence of the new 
 religion, the need of memorials of the life of 
 Christ must have been pressingly felt among 
 them. For Greeks had keen interest in the 
 personality of those they admired. The bio- 
 graphies composed by Plutarch had great vogue 
 from the time of their publication in the first 
 century ; and the place which they filled for 
 hero-worshipping Greeks could not long remain 
 void so far as that life was concerned from 
 which the hopes of the new age took their rise. 
 
 Again, the relation of the Christians in Judaea 
 to the old Hebrew religion is to be considered. 
 The apostles and those who in the early years 
 joined the Christian society, had no desire to 
 separate themselves from the temple and from 
 Judaism. They believed that the nation would 
 as a whole repent of the great crime of putting 
 Christ to death, accept Him as the Messiah, and 
 so become ready for the "restoration of all 
 things " at His return. But this expectation, 
 while it gave significance to many of our Lord's 
 sayings, as for example, that He was not sent 
 save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and 
 that He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 245 
 
 it, also blurred and made almost incomprehen- 
 sible many other things that fell from His lips. 
 Clinging to the temple and the ritual of the 
 Mosaic law, they could not understand why the 
 Lord should have said regarding the temple, 
 " Seest thou these great buildings ? There shall 
 not be left here one stone upon another, which 
 shall not be thrown down " ; nor again, what He 
 said to the woman of Samaria, " Believe Me, the 
 hour Cometh, when neither in this mountain nor 
 in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father." His 
 condemnation of the Pharisees with their fastidi- 
 ous keeping of the law. His consent to Eoman 
 dominion, in the saying, "Eeuder unto Caesar 
 the things that are Caesar's," His command to the 
 young ruler to sell all that he had and give to 
 the poor, and generally His indifference to earthly 
 honour, state, and power, were equally difficult 
 to comprehend. But as the disciples began to 
 perceive that the Hebrew nation was bent on 
 rejecting a second time their Divine Deliverer, 
 that the temple was becoming the headquarters 
 of those most bitterly opposed to the Christian 
 faith, that Eome was indeed less hostile than the 
 Sanhedrin, that persecution, not success, was to 
 be the lot of believers, fresh light was thrown on 
 those sayings of Christ which had seemed difficult 
 and paradoxical. A full record of our Lord's 
 
246 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 sayings would have been confounding to those 
 whp became Christians expecting that the 
 Messianic kingdom was soon to be set up. 
 Humanly speaking, a gospel compiled at tliat 
 stage would have been imperfect, almost frag- 
 mentary. Eeminiscences which one and another 
 had clearly in their minds would have seemed 
 doubtful, incredible. The first written narrative 
 was therefore happily deferred till the notions 
 of an earthly kingdom to be set up in Jerusalem 
 by Christ had been left behind. The whole 
 substance of our Gospels was meanwhile vividly 
 remembered by the witnesses. As need arose, 
 fact after fact, parable after parable was related. 
 But a generation at least had to pass before the 
 recollections were brought together with a sense of 
 comprehension, and that consent of the understand- 
 ing and feeling apart from which no Gospel of the 
 life of Christ, properly speaking, could have been 
 given to the world. 
 
 "Weiss has dated the publication of the original 
 report, an Aramaic Gospel, the basis of that which 
 we have as St. Matthew's, about a.d. 67. It is, 
 of course, on testimony long after date, that of 
 Iren?eus and Eusebius, that he rests ; but there 
 seems no reason to doubt that "some seven-and- 
 thirty years after the death of Jesus a personal 
 witness put on record His most important utter- 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 247 
 
 ances and deeds, as well as a large number of 
 the more significant events of His life." ^ Very 
 soon after this we may place the publication of 
 tlie Gospel of Mark, which, according to Clement 
 of Alexandria, was written in Eome for the 
 Komans. Again relying on tradition so far as 
 it is borne out by internal evidence, we believe 
 the Gospel to have been compiled to no small 
 extent from the recollections of St. Peter, 
 and to have been published before the fall of 
 Jerusalem, say about a.d. 69. The Tliird Gospel, 
 that of Luke, is later, as may be inferred from 
 the introduction. The date to which it has been 
 assigned is previous to A.D. 80. Finally, the 
 publication of the Gospel according to St. John 
 must be referred to some year in the decade 
 between a.d. 90 and A.D. 100. At what time 
 the original Aramaic Gospel of Matthew was 
 brought into its present form there is no certain 
 tradition. From Justin Martyr we gather that 
 in the earlier half of the second century all the 
 four Gospels, as we have them, were received as 
 genuine, and read in the churches. 
 
 It appears, then, that previous to any narrative 
 of the life of Christ in an orderly written form, 
 almost all the epistles of Paul had been pub- 
 lished, and probably also the Epistle of James 
 
 1 Weiss, The Life of Christ, p. 39. (Clark.) 
 
248 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 and the Epistle to the Hebrews. Now, in the 
 two last mentioned we find traces of oral reports 
 relating to the life and sayings of our Lord, 
 differing somewhat from those contained in any 
 of the Gospels. For example, in Heb. v. 7, we 
 read : " Who in the days of His flesh, having 
 offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
 crying and tears unto Him that was able to save 
 Him from death, and having been heard for His 
 godly fear, though He was a Son, yet learned He 
 obedience by the things which He suffered." 
 The reference is apparently to the anguish in 
 Gethsemane. In the Gospels, however, we read : 
 " Jesus began to be sorrowful and sore troubled. 
 Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding 
 sorrowful, even unto death" (Matt. xxvi. 37, 
 38); and "being in an agony He prayed more 
 earnestly : and His sweat became as it were 
 great drops of blood, falling down upon the 
 ground " (Luke xxii. 44). The " strong crying 
 and tears " must have been heard of by the 
 writer of the epistle through another report. 
 On the other hand, frequent references in this 
 epistle to the manner of Christ's death are 
 derived from sources used by the evangelists. 
 Turning to the Epistle of James, we find at least 
 one saying of Christ's which is not preserved in 
 any of the Gospels. It occurs in ch. i. 12: 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 249 
 
 " Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : 
 for when he hath been approved, he shall receive 
 the crown of life, which the Lord promised to 
 them that love Him." The promise of a crown 
 of life has various parallels in the Gospels ; but 
 singularly the only place in which it appears 
 literally is Kev. ii. 10: " Be thou faithful unto 
 death, and I will give thee the crown of life." 
 It would appear that the promise which James 
 quotes was one he had heard of through the 
 Apostle John. Now the Epistle of James is 
 mainly ethical, and touches on many points of 
 duty enjoined by Christ. But it is rare to find 
 His exact words given ; and even when they 
 are, as at ch. v. 12, they are not quoted as 
 Christ's. In Hebrews, again, almost the whole 
 teaching in regard to our Lord lies beyond the 
 range within which the first three Gospels, at 
 least, confine their portraiture of Christ. This 
 epistle shows that even while the recollections 
 of our Lord's earthly human life were being 
 gathered, and the first written Gospel was taking 
 shape, another series of ideas formed part of the 
 common faith and intelligence of Christians. 
 And the Epistle to the Hebrews is especially 
 important, because it proves that this supra- 
 human history of Christ, as fulfilling the Old 
 Testament, was that on which, about a.d. 67, 
 
250 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 reliance was placed for the confirmation of 
 Jewish Christians in the faith. The writer does 
 not go back on the life of our Lord on earth, and 
 select those sayings and deeds which might 
 impress a new generation with His Divine 
 authority and His claim on the faith of Israel. 
 He does not recall manifestations of Christ's 
 glory and power, which had roused the enthusi- 
 asm of those who witnessed them. The ex- 
 piation by our Lord of the sin of men, and the 
 priestly and redeeming power He has gained 
 through suffering. His entrance into the Holy 
 place not made with hands, His ascension to a 
 place higher than the angels on the right hand 
 of the Majesty on high, are the facts, recognis- 
 able only by faith, on which this writer rests. 
 Like James, he calls for belief in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as the Lord of Glory, whose coming is to 
 bring salvation. 
 
 During the decade from a.d. 50 to a.d. 60, 
 the Gentile churches received the instruction on 
 which faith was based, not entirely, but to a 
 great extent, from Paul and the evangelists who 
 caught enthusiasm from him. It was he who 
 gave their Christian belief its character at the 
 outset; and although he came in the course of 
 years to be tolerant of any who preached Christ, 
 even in envy and strife (Phil. i. 15), he was at 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 251 
 
 first exceedingly anxious to keep his converts in 
 the doctrine he liimself had taught. It is, then, 
 at this stnge important to determine what Paul 
 meant by the expression " my gospel," how it 
 was related to the earlier teachincr and to the 
 narratives of the evangelists. 
 
 The discourse of Paul at Antioch of Pisidia 
 already reviewed^ must be taken as a type of 
 the instruction he was in the habit of giving to 
 his hearers in the synagogues ; and even the out- 
 line shows that he made the story of the Lord's 
 life a feature in touching on various points in 
 the testimony of John Baptist, on the rejection 
 of Christ by the people of Jerusalem and their 
 rulers, His crucifixion, entombment, and resur- 
 rection, and subsequent appearances. Now we 
 must assume that the epistles follow and supple- 
 ment a scheme of teaching of which the address 
 at Antioch is an example. Not one of the 
 epistles which have come down to us is a first 
 lesson in Christianity ; all are for those who 
 have received the gospel, and have become by 
 profession members of the Church. We cannot 
 gather from the contents of Paul's writings how 
 he laid the foundation of his gospel, for he no- 
 where thinks it necessary to restate the whole 
 instruction he gave either to Israelites or to 
 
 See p. 87. 
 
252 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 heathens in order that they might become in- 
 telligent believers. But one who made so close 
 a study of the events attending the death and 
 resurrection of Christ, who had taken great pains 
 to discover the precise words used by our Lord 
 in instituting the Sacrament of the Supper, who 
 wrote of Christ that He " being in the form of 
 God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality 
 with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form 
 of a servant, being made in the likeness of men " 
 (Phil. ii. 6,7); and again, " When the fulness of 
 the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of 
 a woman, born under the law," — this writer, it 
 is clear, did recognise the importance of the 
 earthly human life of our Lord in relation to 
 His saving work. And what he himself recog- 
 nised as a part of the good tidings lie must have 
 embodied in his teaching. 
 
 It remains true that in the epistles of Paul 
 there is no quotation from the parables, and that 
 references made to the discourses, as at Eom. xii. 
 14, xiii. 10, xiv. 9 (cf Matt. v. 44, xxii. 32, 40), 
 are not directly in the way of citation. While 
 Old Testament passages are given generally with 
 notes of their origin, for instance in Eom. ix. 25, 
 "As he saith also in Hosea"; ver. 29, "And as 
 Isaiah hath said before"; or vaguely, ver. 33, "Even 
 as it is written," we find no sayings of Christ 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 253 
 
 cited literally as they stand in any of the 
 Gospels, with a note of quotation, " As the Lord 
 said." In one place we find a general reference 
 to Christ's words reported in Matt. x. 9, 10: 
 " Get you no gold nor silver nor brass in your 
 purses ; ... for the labourer is worthy of his 
 food." This is recalled in 1 Cor. ix. 14: "Even 
 so did the Lord ordain that they which proclaim 
 the gospel, should live of the gospel." In 1 Tim. 
 V. 18, the quotation, "The labourer is worthy 
 of his hire," is made with the introduction, " For 
 the Scripture saith " ; and we must suppose that a 
 gospel writing is meant. The passage beginning 
 with 1 Thess. iv. 15, "For this we say unto you 
 by the word of the Lord," may he admitted, as 
 Professor J. T. Marshall contends, to be a re- 
 miniscence of the discourse in Luke xxi. But 
 it is by no means a literal quotation ; and the 
 statement relating to the institution of the Lord's 
 Supper, 1 Cor. xi. 23 ff., remains, as already 
 said, unique in its parallelism with the narrative 
 of Luke. 
 
 Now this last instance shows that the infre- 
 quency of quotations from the discourses of our 
 Lord was not due to any unwillingness of Paul's 
 to invoke the supreme authority of Christ. 
 When he gives the terms of the institution of 
 the Supper, which he had "received of the 
 
254 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Lord," he clearly implies that the matter is 
 settled. We can see, however, that arguing in 
 the epistles, not only with converts from 
 heathenism, but also with Israelites whose faith 
 he wished to confirm, he did well to rest as far 
 as possible on the scriptures of the Old Testa- 
 ment. And perhaps the want of an accredited 
 history of the life of Christ was a further reason 
 for the fewness of his quotations. St. Paul could 
 not say, " As you find it written in the memoirs 
 of the apostles " ; and unless he referred to a full 
 accessible and authoritative scripture regarding 
 the Lord, the purpose would not be served. It 
 seems clear that, while on certain points, like 
 the Lord's Supper, he had arrived at a precise 
 knowledge of what fell from Christ, in other 
 cases his information was not precise. He had 
 never been long enough with any of the Twelve 
 to receive a full account of the deeds and sayings 
 of Christ, and to fix them accurately in his 
 memory. He may not, therefore, have chosen 
 to quote many of the sayings. He was watched 
 in Corinth by those who claimed to be the 
 party " of Christ." In other towns, Philippi for 
 instance, his teaching was criticised sharply ; and 
 he would refrain from exposing Christ to 
 criticism by using quotations which might be 
 cavilled at. This, however, does not imply in 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 255 
 
 the least that his fiaal appeal was other than to 
 the words of Christ. We leave the inquiry 
 with the conviction that Paul certainly based 
 his gospel on the historical facts, and derived 
 the ethical teaching and theology which his 
 epistles contain from the sayings and discourses 
 of our Lord. It is contended by Professor J. T. 
 Marshall that he had before him the original 
 Aramaic Gospel. The evidence, however, is 
 hardly sufiicient to warrant such a conclusion. 
 
 But, assuming that Paul's teaching included 
 a recapitulation of the main facts of our Lord's 
 life and His great sayings, we have still before 
 us the question. In what sense Paul's gospel 
 was distinct and was the fruit of his personal 
 inspiration. 
 
 There can be no doubt that he conceived his 
 gospel proper as beginning where the interpreta- 
 tions of those who knew Christ in His earthly 
 human life no longer served. He distinctly 
 says (Gal. i. 11, 12): "I make known to you, 
 brethren, as touching the gospel which was 
 preached by me, that it is not after man. For 
 neither did I receive it from man, nor was I 
 taught it, but [it came to me] through revelation 
 {ZC a7roKa\v'\lreco<;) of Jesus Christ." The vision 
 or unveiling of Jesus Christ to himself personally 
 gave him, he says, the essence of his gospel. 
 
256 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 Now the teaching of the apostles in the early 
 period affirmed that by raising from the dead 
 Jesus who had been crucified, God had made 
 Him manifest as both Lord and Messiah ; that 
 Christ having ascended to the heaven was to be 
 there till the times of restoration of all things ; 
 that in no other than Christ is there salvation ; 
 that being by the right hand of God exalted, 
 and having received of the Father the promise 
 of the Holy Ghost, He bestows that Divine Spirit 
 on men. If, then, we are to find in the teaching 
 of Paul a special element, it must add something 
 to that which the earlier inspiration had given 
 to the Church. Now, returning to the first 
 reported address of St. Paul, we find a hint of 
 the special truth he claimed to have received, in 
 the words : " By Him every one that believeth 
 is justified from all things from which ye could 
 not be justified by the law of Moses." Christ had 
 come to bring men, every man who believed, 
 into a relation to God which the law of Moses 
 was incompetent to give. It had previously 
 seemed, even to the apostles, that the Mosaic 
 law covered in its reconciling and sanctifying 
 design the whole ground of Divine grace, and 
 that the work of Christ was to be done along 
 with the Mosaic law, in the way of making it 
 effectual as a means of reconciling men to God, 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH 257 
 
 Paul's revelation is that Christ transcends Moses, 
 has a mission, a power, a redeeming energy 
 which pass beyond Mosaism or any purpose 
 Mosaism served. The word "justify" is laid 
 hold of by Paul at the very outset, as describing 
 an effect common to both the Mosaic law and 
 the work of Christ, so that the transcendency of 
 the latter may be clearly seen. Israelites re- 
 flecting on what Paul had said would soon per- 
 ceive the limit of the law's power to justify. 
 There were offences from which escape was 
 impossible by any ceremonial purgation, by any 
 sacrifice. Breaches of the great commandments 
 of God could not be expiated; the wages of sin 
 of this kind was death. 
 
 And every man was guilty. As Micali had 
 said, so every one who knew his own heart 
 would say : " Wherewith shall 1 come before the 
 Lord and bow myself before the high God ? 
 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of 
 rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? 
 Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, 
 the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " 
 To these questions, which the Mosaic law could 
 not answer, which no prophet answered so as to 
 bring the peace of assured acceptance with God, 
 Paul had seen Christ to be the answer. To 
 declare this, to make known that for every 
 
 17 
 
258 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 sinner, for all sin, there was justification through 
 Christ, — this was his gospel. There was, in 
 addition, the idea of eternal life, which, in 
 speaking to the Gentiles at Antioch, Paul offered 
 to them through Christ. The bold assurance 
 which by revelation of the Lord he was able to 
 give, was that the remission of all sins, entire 
 deliverance from condemnation, and a life in 
 God extending into the boundless heavenly 
 spaces, would be enjoyed by all who exercised 
 faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Christ of 
 God. 
 
 But this, though it was indeed Paul's gospel, 
 the fruit of that inspiration which gave him 
 unique insight into the purpose of Divine 
 grace, is not to be dissociated from the revela- 
 tion made by Christ Himself during His ministry 
 on earth, Paul understood, interpreted, declared 
 what the Spirit had given him of the things of 
 Christ. The gospel was his only in the sense 
 that he was the instrument of the Spirit in 
 making known what Christ Himself had meant 
 and declared in His proclamation of the kingdom 
 of God, by parables, by statements regarding His 
 own mission, by the terms in which He invited 
 all to come to Him that they might have rest 
 and life. In no way did Paul impose upon the 
 words, the endurance, and death of Christ, signi- 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH, 259 
 
 licaiice which did not belong to them. To sup- 
 pose that the gospel as taught by Jesus was one 
 thing, and that Paul's is another, would be to 
 mistake entirely the spirit in which the apostle 
 souglit, by most prayerful study, the illumination 
 that made him the great evangelist, not for the 
 Gentiles only, but also for the cliildren of 
 Abraham. 
 
 Having seen the truth as it is in Christ, Paul 
 had boundless confidence in his reading of it, as 
 the one gospel, by the faith of which alone the 
 liberty and fulness of the life in Christ are to 
 be enjoyed. Writing to the Galatians, he affirmed, 
 in startling words, the claim of that message on 
 the faith of all : " Though we or an angel from 
 heaven should preach unto you any gospel other 
 than that which we preached unto you, let him 
 be anathema." The world's gospel, the glorious 
 gospel of the blessed God, the gosf)el of justifica- 
 tion for all men from every transgression, was 
 in Galatia beini]j drac^cred back into the narrow 
 prison of Mosaism, made conterminous with a 
 system that provided no means of absolution 
 from the real sins, the mortal guilt by which 
 the consciences of men were burdened. The' 
 Saviour of mankind was to be a mere helper of 
 the circumcised, an additional glory to those 
 who gloried in the flesh. All that Paul had 
 
26o IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 received in Divine revelation, all he lived for, 
 had come into peril. He wrote like one wrest- 
 ling for the very life of humanity against the 
 reign of death. 
 
 To the Thessaloiiian Christians Paul had 
 preached the same gospel. They were, indeed, 
 mostly converts from heathenism, and for this 
 reason, perhaps, the apostle does not, in either 
 of his letters to them, use the word "justifica- 
 tion," in speaking of the saving work of Christ. 
 He says, those who know not God and obey not 
 the gospel of our Lord Jesus, " shall suffer pun- 
 ishment, even eternal destruction from the face 
 of the Lord and from the glory of His might " 
 (2 Thess. i. 9), Thus he describes the result, 
 not of simple unbelief, but of deliberate rejection 
 of Christ, and paints the doom which seemed to 
 impend over the antichristian Jews. His gospel 
 of light and salvation had its background of 
 darkness and wrath. But to believers he wrote : 
 " We are bound to give thanks to God alway for 
 you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God 
 chose you from the beginning unto salvation in 
 sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth : 
 whereunto He called you through our gospel." 
 And he exhorts them : " Stand fast, and hold the 
 traditions which ye were taught, whether by 
 word or by epistle of ours" (2 Thess. ii. 13- 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 261 
 
 15). With regard to the Christian salvation, 
 other expressions are : " Jesus, who delivereth us 
 from the wrath to come " ; " God, who calleth 
 you into His own kingdom and glory " ; " God 
 appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the 
 obtaining of salvation, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ who died for us." In these and other 
 places the blessings of redemption are spoken of 
 solely as enjoyed by believers who have been 
 chosen by God and have accepted the word of 
 the message, "not as the word of man, but, as it 
 is in truth, the word of God" (1 Thess. ii. 13). 
 But the breadth of the gospel is made clear in one 
 passage, where Paul complains of the Jews that 
 they are " contrary to all men ; forbidding us to 
 speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved." 
 His gospel had met with opposition, because it 
 was universal. The enmity of the Jews, of 
 which he has to complain, shows what his 
 message had been. The same spirit as they 
 had exhibited in killing the Lord Jesus and the 
 prophets, was now shown in the attempt to 
 destroy the gospel of forgiveness and life offered 
 to all men through Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is, however, in the Epistle to the Eomans 
 that the splendid breadth of that message, which 
 Paul gloried to proclaim as his gospel, is most 
 eloquently and distinctively set forth. In the 
 
262 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 world, lie says, with the law, or without the law, 
 there is sin and the reign of death. Through 
 one trespass the judgment came on all men to 
 condemnation. All the world is under judg- 
 ment; all have sinned and fallen short of the 
 glory of God. But through one act of righteous- 
 ness the free gift came unto all men to justifi- 
 cation of life. That act of righteousness was 
 the death of Christ for the ungodly. The word 
 of faith is nigh to all. " If thou shalt confess 
 with tliy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe 
 in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, 
 tliovi shalt be saved." " There is no distinction 
 between Jew and Greek ; for the same Lord is 
 Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon 
 Him." Where sin was, grace came ; " where sin 
 abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly ; 
 that, as sin reigned in death, even so mio'ht "race 
 reign through righteousness unto eternal life 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." Such is the 
 gospel, which by familiarity appears to us no 
 longer wonderful. It was Paul's apocalypse of 
 Christ. 
 
 And his message is completed by a return to the 
 earthly life of the Lord. Paul teaches that the 
 life " in Christ " is a Christlike life. In 1 Thess. 
 reference is made to the imitation of Christ. In 
 Galatians the apostle says : " Bear ye one another's 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 265 
 
 burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." In 2 Cor. 
 he urges the grace of liberality by the appeal : 
 " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He 
 became poor, that ye through His poverty might 
 become rich." In epistle after epistle the energy of 
 souls justified and redeemed is directed into the 
 channel made by the human life of Christ. As 
 He was meek and gentle, so should His followers 
 be. As Christ pleased not Himself, so should 
 every Christian please his neighbour for his good 
 unto edifying ; and each should grow up through 
 the knowledge of the Son of God unto a full- 
 grown man, unto the measure of the stature of 
 the fulness of Christ. We may say, therefore, 
 that the whole tendency of the writings of Paul 
 is to send us for practical directions to the life 
 and words of the Lord. His way of instruction 
 is to begin with a general statement of the facts 
 of the transcendent life of Christ. Then he 
 affirms that in this Christ, who died and rose 
 again, there is justification from all sins, redemp- 
 tion, adoption into the family of God, eternal 
 salvation and life. He calls for faith in Christ, 
 who gave Himself for us according to the will of 
 God the Father. This faith established, he bids 
 the believer look to the Lord as his example, and 
 obey His law. Were the narrative Gospels ren- 
 
264 ^-^ THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 dered unnecessary by the epistles of Paul ? No ; 
 the desire for them was kindled, and the need for 
 them made imperative. Thus the most original 
 of the New Testament writers, he who gave to 
 the world the great doctrine which in a sense 
 unveiled the gospel, stands, as it were, to point 
 the churches of his time, and to point the world, 
 to One greater than himself, whose shoe's latchet 
 he was not worthy to unloose. He comes after, 
 as John the Baptist went before, to say, "Behold, 
 the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of 
 the world." For a little, when belief is new, he 
 will have his converts to be imitators of himself, 
 as he also is of Christ Jesus. But it is only for 
 a time. When his epistles are written, when his 
 work is done, he makes way for the evangelists, 
 who come one after another to show us Christ. 
 It was not by accident that the epistles of Paul 
 preceded the Gospels. The order will often be 
 followed in men's apprehension of the truths 
 regarding Christ for the right development of 
 their faith. 
 
 The statement made by Dr. Weiss, that 
 Christian faith has grown up " from the basis of 
 the apostolic preaching," implies that their 
 preaching is represented in its totality by the 
 epistles. From this opinion we have seen good 
 cause to dissent ; and it follows that the Christian 
 
THE GOSPELS IN THE CHURCH. 265 
 
 faith would not have remained just as it is, 
 " losing no part of what is its deepest foundation," 
 if the epistles alone had come down to us. It 
 cannot he affirmed that the historical notices of 
 our Lord's life emhodied in the epistles are 
 sufficient foundation for a practical and unassail- 
 able faith. We need what St. Peter and St. Paul 
 gave their hearers by oral communication, but 
 did not find it necessary to rehearse in tlieir 
 writings ; and this we have in the reports of the 
 evangelists. 
 
 At the same time the practice of the apostles, 
 who stood so much nearer the fountain-head than 
 we stand, who knew the mind of Christ, whose 
 reverence for their Divine Master would not 
 have suffered any personal considerations to 
 interfere with their obedience to His will, must 
 always be taken as throwing the best light on the 
 meaning of His words. Certain interpretations 
 put by Tolstoi, for instance, on the sayings, 
 " Judge not," " Eesist not evil," and the like, have 
 no warrant in the example of Paul ; and the 
 tendency to neglect almost everything in the New 
 Testament excepting the Gospels, moves towards 
 an imperfect Christianity. 
 
 Another modern fashion, that which sets up a 
 contrast between St. Paul and St. John, is equally to 
 be condemned. At the close of a long life, when 
 
266 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 
 
 he could enter on the labours of all the apostles 
 and evangelists, St. John had unquestionably 
 a most honouiable place among the teachers of 
 tlie world. When doctrine was well advanced, and 
 its development set the facts and sayiugs of the 
 Lord in a new light, it was his to bring out the 
 consummate harmony of the whole elements of 
 Christian revelation. The light he conveys is at 
 once broad and penetrating. But it shines not 
 to eclipse or to impugn the earlier Gospels and 
 writings of the apostles. It reveals the same 
 Jesus, enforces the same doctrine, the same hope : 
 " God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have eternal life." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abraham, faith of, 107, 115. 
 Advent, second, of Christ, 95, 221. 
 Ananias and Sapphira, 44. 
 Antioch in Pisidia, 82, 86. 
 Antioch in Syria, 48, 79 ; St. 
 
 Paul's work at, 80. 
 ApoUos, party of, 187. 
 Apostles, 6 ; worshipping in the 
 
 temple, 30 ; fellowship of, 40 ; 
 
 inspiration of, 61 ; claim of, 
 
 128 ; teaching of, 235 ; their 
 
 knowledge of Christ's life, 240 ; 
 
 their witness to resiirrection, 
 
 241. 
 Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 236. 
 Athens, St. Paul at, 91. 
 Atonement, in 1 and 2 Thess., 119 ; 
 
 in Gal., 120 ; in Romans, 122. 
 
 Baptism, 4 ; St. Paul on, 20 ; and 
 
 knowledge, 40 ; the initiatory 
 
 sacrament, 139. 
 Barnabas at Antioch, 79 ; and 
 
 Saul sent out, 81. 
 Binding and loosing, 22. 
 Bruce, Professor A. B., quoted, 
 
 18. 
 
 Ceremonial Law, 111. 
 
 Cheyne, Professor T. K., quoted, 
 70. 
 
 Christ, as Jewish Messiah, 2 ; and 
 Moses, 3, 35 ; revealing King- 
 dom of God, 5 ; instituted no 
 
 Church, 6 ; stated no doctrines, 
 9; death of, 14, 65, 96, 118; 
 Son of Living God, 19 ; brethren 
 of, 25 ; a Saviour, 51, 87 ; a 
 sacrifice, 124 ; dignity of, 160 ; 
 priesthood of, 161 ; blood of, 
 170 ; in Apocalypse, 203 ; 
 Arnold's view of, 236 ; Tolstoi's 
 view of, 237 ; in Book of Acts, 
 239 ; need for life of, 243 ; St. 
 Paul pointing to, 263. 
 
 Christianity, liberty of, 2 ; and 
 Judaism, 29, 34, 117 ; spiritual 
 force of, 38 ; universal, 50 ; 
 individual, 51 ; as against law- 
 keeping, 106 ; its ordeal, 177. 
 
 Christians, the name, 48, 80 ; of 
 Judsea, 68 ; characteristics of, 
 177. 
 
 Church, what ? 5, 7 ; instituted 
 by believers, 8 ; beginning of, 
 12 ; foundation of, 18 ; and 
 kingdom of God, 20 ; in Jeru- 
 salem, 25 ; self-governing, 29 ; of 
 England, 31 ; administration of, 
 40 ; moral danger of, 44 ; geo- 
 graphical ex])ansion of, 72 ; 
 ideal of, 125 ; idea of, 144 ; two 
 divisions of, 145 ; unity of, 147. 
 
 Churches, planted by St. Paul, 
 91 ; apostolic, not ideal, 176 ; of 
 Asia, 190. 
 
 Circumcision of Timothy, 102. 
 
 Clergy and laity, 28. 
 
268 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Colossse. churcli at, 191 ; Epistle 
 
 to, 192. 
 Confereuce at Jerusalem, 99. 
 Corinth, 178 ; church iu, 179 ; 
 
 parties in, 186. 
 Cosmos in 1 Jolin, 226, 229. 
 Covenants, Old and New, 33, 160. 
 Cyprus, 82. 
 
 Dale, R. W., D.D., quoted, 58. 
 
 Deacons, 131. 
 
 Doctrines, what? 9; Christ in- 
 vited, 10 ; beginnings of, 12 ; of 
 salvation, 51 ; of forgiveness, 
 54 ; of atonement, 60, 118 ; in 
 Epistles to Thess., 119 ; in Gal., 
 120 ; in llomans, 122. 
 
 EccE Homo, 4. 
 Elders, 131. 
 
 Ephesians, Epistle to, 193. 
 Ephesns, the gospel at, 93. 
 Episcopate, 129, 133. 
 Evangelists, office of, 21 ; con- 
 nected with St. Paul, 84. 
 
 Faith and works, St. James on, 67. 
 
 Fellowship, Christian, 6 ; nature 
 of, 142. 
 
 Findlay, Prof. G. G., quoted, 96, 
 119. 
 
 Forgiveness, doctrine of, 54 ; con- 
 nected with Christ's resurrec- 
 tion, 57. 
 
 Galatian churches, 103. 
 
 Galatians, Epistle to, 63, 103 ; 
 character of. 110 ; success of, 
 112 ; St. Paul's gospel in, 255. 
 
 Gentile churches, 146. 
 
 Gentiles, St. Paul an apostle to, 
 79 ; St. Paul turns to, 89. 
 
 Gnostic philosophy, 191. 
 
 Gospels, 16, 49 ; use of, in epistles, 
 233 ; need of, 243 ; First Gospel 
 Aramaic, 247 : of Mark, 247 ; of 
 Luke, 247 ; of John, 231. 
 
 Government of Church, 127. 
 
 Hebrew Christians reassured, 153. 
 Hebrews, Epistle to, 155, 157 : 
 
 aim of, 158 ; effect of, 164 ; 
 
 notices of Christ iu, 248. 
 Herod Agrippa, 45. 
 
 Idolatrous Feasts, 183. 
 
 Immorality in Corinth, 180. 
 
 Inspiration, 61. 
 
 Israel, great sin of, 55, 59 ; blind- 
 ness of, 69 ; hope of, 71 ; a 
 privileged people, 117 ; relation 
 of, to Christianity, 151. 
 
 James, the Lord's brother, 25 ; 
 Epistle of, 62 ; his Christianity, 
 63 ; date of his epistle, 64 ; a 
 Nazirite, %^ ; president of con- 
 ference, 128 ; a bishop ? 129 ; 
 quotes sayings of Christ's, 249. 
 
 James, the apostle, 44. 
 
 Jerusalem, destruction of, 69. 
 
 Jew and Gentile in Christ, 147, 
 152, 
 
 Jewish, Church and Christians, 
 29, 34; Oiristianity, 65, 152; 
 transitional belief, 68. 
 
 John, St., Gospel of, 17, 231 ; 
 First Epistle of, 196, 223 ; revel- 
 ation of, 200 ; writings of, 211. 
 
 Judaising Christians, 86, 98 ; at 
 Antioch in Syria, 99 ; in Galatia, 
 102. 
 
 Jude, Epistle of, 195. 
 
 Justification by faith, 76 ; in 
 E})istle to Gal., 111. 
 
 Kingdom of God, 5 ; keys of, 20. 
 
 Law, Mosaic, St. James and the, 
 67; as a means of salvation, 106 ; 
 ceremonial, 109 ; makes trans- 
 gression evident, 116 ; and 
 Christianity, 257. 
 
 Liddon, Canon, 135. 
 
 Life eternal, 89. 
 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, quoted, 129, 
 134, 169. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 269 
 
 Lord's day, 137. 
 
 Love feast, 40, 137, 141, 182. 
 
 Luke, St., Gospel of, 247. 
 
 Macedonia, call from, 83. 
 
 Mark, St., Gospel of, 247. 
 
 Mary, Mother of tlie Lord, 25. 
 
 Matthew, St., Gospel of, 247. 
 
 Matthias elected, 28. 
 
 Messiahship of Christ, 19 ; ideas 
 of, 50. 
 
 Methodism, 31, 
 
 Mosaic rites, observed by Chris- 
 tians, 31 ; to be set aside ? 154. 
 163. 
 
 Observances, 136. 
 
 Ofhcialism, 127, 136. 
 
 Old Testament, Christianity at- 
 tached to, 35 ; Symbolism of, 
 170. 
 
 Pastoral Epistles, 193, 
 
 Paul, St., at Antioch in Pisidia, 
 53 ; appearance of, on the 
 scene, 72 ; education of, 73 ; 
 conversion of, 74 ; in Arabia, 
 75 ; turns from Judaism, 77 ; 
 begins his work, 79 ; missionary 
 travels of, 81 ; and Silas, 83 ; 
 preaching of, 86 ; at Athens, 91 ; 
 at Ephesus, 93 ; rebukes St. 
 Peter, 101 ; personal claim of, 
 107 ; Epistle to Galatians, 106 ; 
 to Piomans, 113 ; authority of, 
 129 ; on baptism, 139 ; his love 
 of Israel, 1 53 ; Epistles to Cor- 
 inthians, 179 ; teaching of, re- 
 garding Christ, 250 ; his gospel, 
 255 ; pointing to Christ, 260. 
 
 Pentecost, day of, 36. 
 
 Peter, St., Confession of, 10, 18 ; 
 preaching of, 42 ; vision of, 47 ; 
 speeches of, 55 ; First Epistle of, 
 155 ; party of, 188 ; Second 
 Epistle of, "195. 
 
 Peter, St., First Epistle of, 155; 
 date of, 156 ; to whom addressed, 
 
 165 ; scope of, 166 ; idea of 
 
 priesthood in, 168. 
 Pharisaism, 75. 
 Philip, 46. 
 
 Presbyters, 132 ; election of, 133. 
 Priesthood, 155 ; in Epistle to 
 
 Hebrews, 161 ; in 1 Peter, 168. 
 Propitiation, 59, 172. 
 
 Ramsay, Prof. W. M. , on Galatian 
 churches, 103 ; on date of 1 
 Peter, 156. 
 
 Redemption, in 1 Peter, 172 ; in 
 Apocalypse, 204, 
 
 Resurrection of Christ, 56, 241 ; 
 denied, 185, 
 
 Revelation, Book of, 200 ; Hebra- 
 istic, 201 : resemblance of, to 
 1 and 2 thess., 207; date of, 
 209, 218; authorship of, 210; 
 style of, 216 ; eschatology of, 
 221. 
 
 Romans, Epistle to, 113; aim of, 
 114 ; teaching about grace, 262. 
 
 Rome, rule of, 44 ; Church in, 113 ; 
 in Apocalypse, 202. 
 
 Sabbath, 157. 
 
 Sacraments, 139. 
 
 Sadducees, 43. 
 
 Salvation, idea of, 51, 56 ; St. 
 
 James on, 66. 
 Sanhedrin, 42. 
 
 Saviour of Israel, Christ as, 54. 
 Schism, 147. 
 Society, Christian, 4 ; the first, 
 
 25 ; character of, 126. 
 Spirit, Holy, waited for, 24. 
 Sprinkling of blood, 170. 
 Stejihen, death of, 44 ; charge 
 
 against, 46. 
 Supper, the Lord's, 137, 140, 
 
 253. 
 
 Theosophy, 192. 
 
 Thessalonians, First Epistle to, 
 
 76, 94 ; Second Eiiistle to, 95. 
 Timothy, circumcision of, 102 ; 
 
270 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 First Epistle to, 193 ; Second 
 
 Epistle to, 194. 
 Titus, Epistle to, 195. 
 Tolstoi, quoted, 237, 265. 
 Transtiguratiou, 15. 
 
 Uniformity not an object, 148. 
 
 Warszawiak, 71. 
 
 Weiss, Dr. Bernhard, quoted, 60, 
 
 64, 235, 264. 
 Wesley, John, 31. 
 Witnessing in Johamiine writings, 
 
 211. 
 Women in the Church, 26. 
 Worship, primitive Christian 136. 
 
 Young, Dr. John, quoted 57. 
 
 MORRISON AND GIBB. PKINTERR, EDINBURGH. 
 
" The editor of this series of Handbooks is to be heartily congratulated. 
 He has chosen his subjects well, and he has chosen the right men for 
 them." — The Expository Times, 
 
 BOOKS FO)? BIBLE SJUDENTS. 
 
 Editor: Reu, ARTHUR E. GREGORY. 
 
 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL: An Introduction to the 
 
 Study of the Psalms. By W. T. Davison, M.A., D.D. 
 Small crown 8vo, 2s, 6d. Third Thousand. 
 
 The BrsHOP of "Worcksteu writes: — "Yours is the work of a vi>:orous, 
 indei^endeut, and devout expositor. I hoi>8 that I may be able to make 
 some use of it before i bring out another edition of my book," 
 
 Dr. Makcus Dods writes : — -"As nearly jx^rfect as a manual can be. It 
 is the Avork of a reverent and oi^en-miuded scholar, who has spared nn 
 l)ains to compress into this small volume tho best information and the 
 most trustworthy ixjsults arrived at by himself and other experts." 
 
 FROM MALACHI TO MATTHEW: Outlines of the 
 
 History of Judea from 440 to 4 B.C. By Professor E. Waudv 
 Moss, Small crown 8vo, 28, 6d. Second Thousand. 
 
 "Professor Waddy Moss is a careful scholar, with a sound li'erary 
 sense, wdmirably fitted to write on this difficult subject, and he has spared 
 himself no trouble, llie work is purposely liojjular in its style, but 
 beneath its smooth sentences fhere lies many a hard problem faithfully 
 grappled with. It is they who have worked over this ground themsalves 
 who will estimate the work most highly." — The Exjiository Times. 
 
 "Mr. Moss"'s book is worthy of the series. . . . His style is straight- 
 foi'ward and graphic. He can tell a story rapidly and forcibly. There is 
 vigour and there is vitality throughout. ... It is to be hoped that both 
 these manuals will be largely used." — Tlve British Weekly. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HEBREW. 
 
 By J. T, L. MAfiosi, B.A., Prizeman in Hebrew and New- 
 Testament Greek, London University, Small crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 "Mr. Maggs has done an excellent piece of useful, unpretending work. 
 Its distinctive merit is the perfect clearness of its grammatical instruction. 
 . . , He has certainly acquired a full appreciation of the points that at 
 the outset require to be made clear." — TJie Literary World. 
 
 Kev. W. F. MouLTON, D.D., says; — " I do not know any book within 
 the same compass which aj^proaches this in usefulness for the beginner. 
 . . . Many students who are not beginners may find much to reward them 
 in the perusal of Mr. Maggs' book." 
 
 London: CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, Castle St., City Road, E.C. 
 and 66, Paternoster Row, E.C. 
 
BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDEHTS-Continued, 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN : An Exposition, with 
 
 Short Notes. By Thomas F. Lockyer, B. A., Author of 
 "Expositions of the Epistle to the Romans" and the "Epistle 
 of James " in The Piilpit Cominentart/. Small crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 Second Thousand. 
 
 Rev. Alp:xandkk Maclaren. D.T)., Manchester, writes of " The careful 
 study and devout sympathy with the deep things of John's Gospel which 
 mark it. ]t seems to me an admirable condensed guide to its trend <f 
 thought, and I congratulate you on having done so difficult a thing so well." 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE: A 
 
 Sketch of their Origin and Contents. By Gkoege G. Findlay, 
 Tutor in Bihlical Literature and Exegesis, Headingley College. 
 Small crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. Fourth Thousand. 
 
 The Bishop of Worcester says : — " Your admirable little book on 8t. 
 Paul's Epistles. ... It seems to me just the book for young students, 
 while those more advanceil may read it witii profit." 
 
 " A most useful book. It is exceedingly simple, but every line is from the 
 hand of a master long familiar with the whole subject." — British Weeklji. 
 
 THE THEOLOGICAL STUDENT: A Handbook of 
 
 Elementary Theology. By J. RoBrNso^^ Gregory. 2s. 6d. 
 Third Thousand. New Edition, with Explanatory Index of 
 theological terras and a full list of Questions for Self- Examination. 
 
 " Mr. Gregory is ... a born and trained theologian. Some departments 
 lie has made well-nigh his own — especially the doctrine of the Last Things. 
 And better than that, he can Avrite for beginners." — The Exjjository Times. 
 
 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE: The Churches and the 
 
 Doctrine. By Robert A. Watson, M.A., D.D. 2s. 6d. 
 
 THE LAY PREACHER'S HANDBOOK: First Steps 
 
 in Homiletics. By C. 0. Eldridge, B.A. Small crown 8vo, 
 2s. Second Thoiisand. 
 Professor W. T. Davison, D.D., says: — "Clear, simple, and practical; 
 by no means meagre, though commendably brief. It teaches excellently 
 by example as well as by precept." 
 
 "Clear, sensible, practical." — The Xorth British Daily Mail. 
 
 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE : An Address to Lay 
 
 Preachers. By Professor G. G. Findlay, B.A. Small crown 
 8vo, paper covers, 6d. 
 
 London: CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, Castle St., City Road, E.C.; 
 and 66, Paternoster Row, E.C. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 OC 1 7 49 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t