The life and work of St. Paul

252 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
inspired conviction on the one side, and designing particularism on the other,
"
hard terms were used. Your principle ia a nullification of Moses, of inspira-
"
tion, of religion itself," said the Judaists ; it is downright rationalism ; it is
rank
" "
apostasy." Your Gospel," replied the Apostle, is no Gospel at all ;
it is the abnegation of the Gospel it is a ; bondage to carnal rudiments ; it is a
denial of Christ."
A reproof is intolerable when it is administered out of pride or hatred, but
the wounds of a friend are better at all times than the precious balms of an
enemy that break the head. We are not told the immediate effect of Paul's
words upon Peter and Barnabas, and in the case of the latter we may fear
that, even if unconsciously, they may have tended, since human nature is very
frail and weak, to exasperate the subsequent quarrel by a sense of previous
difference. But if Peter's weakness was in exact accordance with all we know
of his character, so too would bo the rebound of a noble nature which restored
him at once to strength. The needle of the compass may tremble and be
deflected, but yet it is its nature to point true to the north ; and if Peter was
sometimes swept aside from perfectness by gusts of impulse and temptation ;
if after being the first to confess Christ's divinity he is the first to treat Him
with presumption ; if at one moment he becomes His disciple, and at another
bids Him depart because ho is himself a sinful man ; if now he plunges into
the sea all faith, and now sinks into the waves all fear; if now single-handed
he draws the sword for His Master against a multitude, and now denies Him
with curses at the question of a servant-maid we are not surprised to find
that one who on occasion could be the boldest champion of Gentile equality
was suddenly tempted by fear of man to betray the cause which ho had helped
to win. 1 But the best proof that he regretted his weakness, and was too
noble-hearted to bear any grudge, is seen in the terms of honour and affection
2
iu which he speaks of Paul and his Epistles. It is still more clearly sbown
by his adopting the rery thoughts and arguments of Paul, and in his reference,
while writing among others to the Galatians, to the very words of the Epistle
iu which his own conduct stood so strongly condemned. 3 The legend which
is commemorated in the little Church of " Domine quo vadis " near Home, is
another interesting proof either that this tendency to vacillation in Peters
actions was well understood in Christian antiquity, or that he continued to tho
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last to bo the same Peter consistently inconsistent," as he has most happily
bcen called 'liable to weakness and error, but ever ready to confess himself in
tho wrong, and to repent, $nd to amend :
" And as tha water-lily starts and slides
TT it, i T i-ii n: t i
Upon the level in little putts of wind,
Though anchored to the bottom such was ho."
'
1 At each tn epoch of transition it was inevitable that charges of inconsistency
Bhovtld be freely bandied about on both sides, and with a certain amount of plausibility.
Cf. Gal. vi. 13.
2Pet.iii. 15.
3 Comp. 1 Pet. il. 16, 17 with Gal. v. 1, 13, 14, and 1 Pet, H. 24 with a passage of this
rery remonstrance (Gal. ii. 20).