The life and work of St. Paul

248 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
of the Lord, in conference, and found himself so completely their equal in the
gifts of the Holy Ghost, that it was impossible for them to resist his
credentials. He had greatly enlarged their horizon, and they had added
nothing to him. He had returned from Jerusalem more than ever conscious
of himself, conscious of his own power, clear in his future purposes. He
inspired into the Church of Antioch his own convictions with a force which
no one could resist.
But since the letter from Jerusalem suggested so many inquiries, and laid
down no universal it
principle, was inevitable that serious complications
should subsequently arise. A scene shortly occurred which tested to the
extremest degree the intellectual firmness and moral courage of St. Paul. St.
Peter seems about this time to have begun that course of wider journeys
which, little as we know of them, carried him in some way or other to his
final martyrdom at Rome. "We do not again hear of his presence at Jerusalem.
John continued there in 'all probability for many years, and Peter may have
felt his presence needless ; nor is it unlikely that, as Peter dwelt on the wider
views which he had learnt from intercourse with his brother Apostle, ho may
have found himself less able to sympathise with the more Judaic Christianity
of James. At any rate, we find him not long after this period at Antioch, and
there so frankly adopting the views of St. Paul, that he not only extended to
all Gentiles the free intercourse which he had long ago interchanged with
Cornelius, but seems in other and more marked ways to have laid aside the
burden of Judaism. 1 Paul could not but have rejoiced at this public proof
that the views of the Apostle of the circumcision were, on this momentous
subject, identical with his own. But this happiness was destined to be
seriously disturbed. As tho peace of the Church of Antioch had been previously
troubled by " certain which came down from Jerusalem," so it was
uow broken by the arrival of " certain from James." Up to this time, in the
Agapw of Antioch, the distinction of Jew and Gentile had been merged in a
common Christianity, and this equal brotherhood had been countenanced by
the presence of the Apostle who had lived from earliest discipleship in the
closest intercourse with Christ. But now a cloud suddenly came over this
frank intercourse. 3 Under the influence of timidity, the plastic nature of
Peter, susceptible as it always was to the impress of the moment, began to
assume a new aspect. His attitude to the Gentile converts was altered. " He
began to draw away and separate himself," in order not to oft'end the rigid
adherents of the Lord's brother. 3 It is not said that they claimed any direct
authority, or were armed with any express commission ; but they were strict
Jews, who, however much they might tolerate the non-observance of the Law
by Gentiles, looked with suspicion perhaps almost with horror on any Jew
1 Gal. ii. 14, tfcucwt xal ov\ 'lovScuxwf 6Js. Nothing definite can be made of the
tradition that St. Peter was first Bishop of Antioch.
2 If the reading ifAflo/ in GaL ii. 12 were right it could only point to James himself ;
but this would have been a fact which tradition could not have forgotten, and Jamei
seems never to have left Jerusalem.
8 Gal. ii. 12, vircVreAAey KCU i.iapi(w