Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

34 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMOn Peter's mind especially they had been impressed asthose words which conveyed the greatness of his office,and his resemblance therein to his Lord, his supremepastoral power, and his crucifixion.1 But they containedlikewise the whole structure of the Church, asthe great " Following of Christ," the society whichcarried His truth in them, and with His truth Hispower. As then the philosophers were the theologiansof heathenism, so the propagation of philosophy whichthey contemplated was by means of the society whichthe teacher instituted. In this the Academy, theLyceum, the Portico, and the Garden were at one :and, indeed, no other propagation was at that timepossible. There was philosophy long before therewere libraries, and libraries again for ages before eventhe notion could arise of substituting a book for asociety, which, indeed, before the invention of printingwas inconceivable. The school was a collection ofliving men, and the idea of philosophy was bound upwith this. But the Christian Church actually carriedout what each philosopher attempted with so littlesuccess, and that because it was the school of Christ.Our Lord taught not as the Scribes and Pharisees,that is, commenting on a law, but as one havingauthority, that is, as being Himself the fulfilment ofthe law, that to which it pointed, and for whosecoming it was instituted. He is the Lawgiver comein person, who delivers the law to His disciples, perpetuatingHis presence among them by His Spirit,by means of whom they carry on and propagate Hislaw. Thus as with regard to the Jew, the synagoguewas the embryo, which remained in the womb of the1 See John i. 44, where these words stand at the very beginning ofour Lord's ministry, and xxi. 19, where they occur at the end of it.