Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

42 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMdid, which made up the adoption of sons, so thChristian life which Peter set up at Home was thestablishment of the same relation to Christ in doctrine, worship, and morals. Obedience to him inthese three things O formed his kingdom. O The wholedomain of truth was guaranteed to the Christian asthe illumination given by the one Prophet. Hisworship was the perpetual recognition of the Redeemerin the very act of His sacrifice. His moralitywas summed up in charity, the filial spirit, whichraised the cardinal virtues to the level of divine gifts,and was thus " the fulfilment of the law " as perfectedby Christ. The painter in the catacombs of thesecond and third centuries, the sculptor on the monumentsof the fourth and fifth, conveyed all this wlthey represented Peter on the very scene of hspiritual triumph, the centre of the world's power, andthe seat of idolatry, striking that Rock which isChrist. He alone had received the rod of divinepower from the hands of his Lord. Thus he drewforth the one stream of salvation, the grace whichworks in the great Christian priesthood, and conveysto the sheep the faith and the sacraments, the wholesupernatural life. In their eyes as but one Moseswas the mediator of the old covenant, so but onePeter was the master-builder of the Church, the de-river of the stream to the sheep. They anticipated incolour and on stone what St. Leo, at the same spot,has set forth so powerfully and distinctly in language.The living mind of the Church in their day, as seenin their works and in his words, is the same. Thishe declares to his brethren, the bishops of Italy :" Whatever we do rightly and discern clearly is of hisown working and his merit, whose power lives and