The life and work of St. Paul

150 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
of God. It is only when the servitude is at its worst that Moses is called
forth. It is only when the perplexity is deepest that Sanl enters the
arena of controversy.
born.
It was only in the fulness of time that
^
Christ was
But even at this period St. Peter especially when he had left Jerusalem
must have been forced to see that the objections of the orthodox Jew to the
equal participation of the Gentiles in Gospel privileges could be met by counter
and that the arguments of Hebraists as to
objections of serious importance ;
the eternal validity of the Mosaic system were being confronted by the logic
of facts with opposing arguments which could not long be set aside.
For if Christ had said that He came to fulfil the Law, had He not also said
many things which showed that those words had a deeper meaning than the
primd fade application which might be attached to them P Had He not six
times vindicated for the Sabbath a larger freedom than the scribes admitted P 1
Had He not poured something like contempt on needless ceremonial ablutions P 8
Had He not Himself abstained from going up thrice yearly to Jerusalem to
the three great festivals P Had He not often quoted with approval the words
of Hoshea :
" I will have mercy and not sacrifice ? " 8 Had He not repeatedly
said that all the Law and the Prophets hang on two broad and simple
commandments P 4 Had He not both by word and action, showed His light
estimation of mere ceremonial defilement, to which the Law attached a deep
importance P ' Had He not refused to sanction the stoning of an adulteress P
Had He not even gone so far as to say that Moses had conceded some things,
which were in themselves undesirable, only because of the hardness of
Jewish hearts P Had He not said, " The Law and the Prophets were UNTIL
JOHN?" 6
And, besides all this, was it not clear that He meant His Church to be an
Universal Church P Was not this universality of the offered message of mercy
and adoption clearly indicated in the language of the Old Testament ? Had
not the Prophets again and again implied the ultimate calling of the Gentiles? 7
But if the Gentiles were to be admitted into the number of saints and brethren;
if, as Jesus Himself had prophesied, there was to be at last one flock and one
Shepherd, 8 how could this be if the Mosaic Law was to be considered as of
permanent and universal validity? Was it not certain that the Gentiles, as a
body, never would accept the whole system of Mosaism, and never would
accept, above all, the crucial ordinance of circumcision P Would not such a
demand upon them be a certain way of ensuring the refusal of the Gospel
message P Or, if they did embrace it, was it conceivable that the Gentiles
were never to be anything but mere Proselytes of the Gate, thrust as it were
outside the portals of the True Spiritual Temple P If so, were not the most
Luke xiv. 16 ; John v. 10 ; Mark ii. 23; Matt. xli. 10 ; John ix. 14 ; Luke xiii. 14;
xvi. 16. (See Life of Christ, ii. 114.)
2 Matt. xv. 20.
Mark xil. 33 ; Matt. ix. 13 ; xu. 7. Matt. xix. 8 ; Mark x. 5-9,
* Matt. xxii. 40. 7 See Rom. XT. 9, 10, 11,
Matt, xv, 17 ; Mark vii. 19, John x. 16, ro^n,.