Parish Papers by Norman Macleod
page 205 of 276 (74%)
page 205 of 276 (74%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
special love, and received from Him a special commission to feed His
sheep. Apollos is no _apostle_; and as for Paul, he persecuted the Church, and confesses himself that he is not meet to be called an apostle. Apollos is good, Paul better, but Peter is best!" "We belong to neither," others could have boasted: "your divisions are so many, your differences so great, that we have retired from all your meetings in weariness; and each of us are of Christ only, and call no man master but Him; you should all join us, the _Christians_:"--thus making use of the very name of Christ to characterise a sect. Such were some of the schisms; and to the schismatics St Paul said, "Ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" The apostle desired to heal those schisms, and to bring the members of the Church into one mind. How did he endeavour to effect this? Had he been a Papist, he might have said--"Why thus divided? Because you are not building on the one true foundation, which is Peter! Do you not understand the meaning of the name, _Cephas_, or the Rock, given to him, and intended to teach all Christians that the temple of the Church was to be built upon _this_ rock, and this only; against which the gates of hell cannot prevail? Therefore, you who say, 'I am of Cephas,' are right; all others are schismatics." Never, apparently, had a man a better opportunity of revealing to the world this great secret of unity than St. Paul had, if such was his faith, especially when he compares the Church to a building, and speaks of a foundation-stone. "As a wise master-builder," he says, "I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.... For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is"--Cephas, or the rock? No! |
|