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clustered and crystallized. The whole world of SER M. Jewish Christians leaned upon St. Peter, as the whole world of Gentile converts leaned upon St. Paul, and the whole body of mixed believers turned, after the fall of Jerusalem, to the sole surviving Apostle at Ephesus. Each was connected with the sole authentic records of the life of Christ; whatever may be the explanation in detail of the origin of the twin Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, there can be little doubt that it was St. Peter's disciples, who first received the representation which is preserved to us in the Prophet and Lawgiver according to St. Matthew, the human Friend according to St. Mark: whatever may be the account of the compilation of the Gospel and Acts of St. Luke, we need not hesitate to recognise in them St. Paul's view, first, of the Suffering Victim, then of the Invisible Guide of the universal Church; whatever may have been the immediate objects of the Gospel of St. John, we at once acknowledge that we there have the complete image of the Word made flesh, which the early Church naturally believed could have proceeded from none but the beloved disciple. Each has borne his part in the unfolding of the Divine economy. Peter, the Apostle of courageous and confident hope, Paul of faith, John of love; Peter, of power and action; Paul of thought and wisdom; John, of feeling and of goodness; Peter clings to the recollections of the older world, that is passed or passing away: Paul plunges into the conflicts of the present: John, whether as prophet,

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SERM. evangelist, or teacher, fixes his gaze on the invisible and the future: Peter gave to Christianity its first outward historical form; Paul its inward and spiritual freedom; John, that Divine end and object in which form and spirit harmonize.

And what wonder is it, that—as in epochs far less momentous, in characters far less impressive, the germs of future destiny have been discovered,— so here subsequent ages have delighted to recognise in each that peculiar type and form of the Christian faith which was to them most congenial? What wonder that the whole of Christian Europe through those early struggles which can hardly fail to recall to our minds the times of the Jewish covenant, reposed with such unshaken confidence on the name of Peter? that in the gradual rising of a freer spirit, the gradual opening of a wider sphere, theologians and statesmen, nations and individuals, were enkindled with new life by the words of Paul? that in these our latter days, all thoughtful minds, whether in search of evidence from Christian history, of comfort from Christian truth, of instruction from Christian holiness, are turning by a natural instinct to the writings of the last Apostle, who left the historical record in his Gospel of the things which he saw and heard, and taught us that God is Spirit, and that God is Love?

What I have said is not inconsistent with the existence of the other spheres of influence in the apostolical age, which will at once occur to many of us. Not to speak of modes of thought external

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but still congenial to the first beginning of the SERM. Christian society-not to lay stress on the longcherished veneration for the teaching of John the Baptist-I will name two individuals who might seem at first sight to hold almost divided sway with the three great Apostles, and who certainly are, next to them, the two chief centres of interest; I mean, James the Just, and Apollos. But though they require a distinct mention in any complete analysis of the apostolical age, it is obvious that their sphere was too limited and temporary, and their position too subordinate, to interfere with the general truth of the absolute and unrivalled supremacy of one or other of the three Apostles. Thus with regard to James, it is indeed impossible to mistake the tone of authority and the independent character which belongs to his Epistle, or the commanding position, which, according to Josephus and Hegesippus, no less than the Acts, he occupied amongst the Jews and Jewish Christians of Palestine. though from this point of view he was regarded and may by us be regarded in the position in which he is on one occasion placed by St. Paul as the very chiefest pillar of the early Church, yet from a higher and more general point of view, he is absorbed in the similar but wider sphere of Peter, the one great Apostle of the Circumcision. And though Apollosd was so "eloquent" in Alexandrian wisdom, and "so mighty in the Jewish Scriptures" that he was placed by the

b See Sermon on the Epistle of St. James. d Acts xviii. 24; 1 Cor. i. 12; iii. 22.

Still,

c Gal. ii. 9.

SERM. Corinthian factions on a level even with Paul and

I. Cephas, and though modern criticism has found it

difficult to refuse him at least a share in that great Epistle, of unknown origine, which forms so remarkable a link between the writings of Paul and John, yet the few hints which we possess of his life and character, amply justify the usual belief which for all practical purposes has merged his career in that of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

Such is the general view which must always have been present more or less to every careful reader of the New Testament, but which has only been brought out in its full distinctness by the increased study and observation of later years. It is indeed the peculiar privilege of an age like ours, that in proportion as it recedes from the events of the past by lapse of time, it is enabled in thought and imagination to reproduce them with a vividness which to previous ages was wholly unknown. If criticism destroys much, it creates more. If it cuts away some grounds from our faith, it re-constructs out of the chasm others incomparably more secure. If the sea of doubt has advanced along one part of our coast, it has proportionably receded from another. If it has been maintained that "infidelity is" in some respects "in a more hopeful position" towards Christianity than heretofore, its ancient strongholds have been absolutely destroyed. If Christians of the fourth century still enjoyed something like a living recollection of the first, it would be easy to • See Sermon on the Epistle to the Hebrews.

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prove, that of facts so remarkable as the object and SERM. plan of the several Gospels, the chronology of the Epistles, the gift of tongues, and many similar points, even Eusebius and Chrysostom knew far less than we do. If Christians of the fourteenth century reposed with confidence on the genuineness of the so called Apostolical Constitutions, and the elaborate forgery ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, it was still reserved for Christians of the nineteenth century to discern in those remains of the apostolical age which increased inquiry has but doubly confirmed to us, whole scenes, characters, and institutions, which were to our forefathers as if they had never existed at all.

Nor let us shrink from making use of this, God's especial gift to us, from a fear lest by so doing we should think less reverently of those whom God has chosen out to communicate His will to men. "I was afraid and hid thy talent in the earth," was the speech of the unfaithful servant. "Stand up, for I also am a man," was the speech of the first Apostle to one who would have worshipped him. Creation is not set aside, because God has allowed us to discover the general laws by which the world was brought into existence; still less is revelation resolved, as some would say, into "a merely human process," because we are able to trace the human or the natural agencies through which it has been conveyed. It has been remarked not less wisely than boldly,

f See Essay on The Traditionary Knowledge of the Apostolical Age.