The herald., 1896-04-27
st. Psul's Promotion

j. s. Thomson, preached a sermon yes
terday morning upon Christ's Promotion
of st. Paul Above st. Peter, taking the
text. He is a chosen vessel unto me, to
bear my name before the Gentiles. and
kings, and the children Of Israel-Acts
ix:15. In part he said:
I'm the Acts of the. Apostles the earli-
est history of the Christian church that
we have, Peter occupies more or less
conspicuous place in the first part of the
book. while Paul fills the largest place.
Peter appears in eleven chapters: but
after the fifteenth chapter he disappears
entirely; but Paul appears in twenty
one chapters, and, after the fifteenth.
the remaining thirteen chapters are de-
voted altogether to Paul. This shows
that Peter faded away before the in
creasing glory of Paul. If we consult
the epistles of the New Testament, We
shall see that Paul is superior to Peter.
We have two very interesting and in
structive epistles of Peter; but we have
thirteen epistles of Paul, omitting He
brews, the authorship of which is doubt
full. Paul's epistles show him to be an
original thinker of the highest order,
logician, a philosopher, a scholar, man
of daring faith of mighty conviction, OF
irresistible eloQuence, of commanding
authority. Pauls epistles were highly
esteemed, and the churches and Provi-
dence deemed 1t wise to preserve many
of writings, and few of Peters. In the
first and second chapters of Galatians,
Paul declares his independence of the
other disciples. He received his gospe!
and commission from Christ directly.
No apostle was his master. He owed
nothing to Peter He rebuked Peter i'll
public for his lack of consistency and for
his cowardly conduct Peter had to ac-
knowledge PaupS superiority. Paul had
no belief in Peters infallibility in relig-
ious matters, for he proved him to be
very fallible. The other apostles never
recognized Peters primacy, and, to do
Peter justice, it must be said that he
never claimed superiority above all the
other apostles Apostolic succession Is
the pretentious fiction of arrogant sac
redotalism. Christ gave Paul the world
for his missionary field. He was to
preach Christ to Jew and Gentle; but
Peters field was the Hebrew world. The
chapters, referred to in Galatians, show
that Pauls mission was far larger than
Peters. But Paul's qualifications for his
great work were far finer than Peters.
He was born. with all the rights and
privileges of Roman citizenship, in Tar
sus, one of the three great centers OF
learning, Athens and Alexandria being
the other two. He was proficient in
Greek literature, philosophy, and relig-
ion. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel, the
famous teacher of Jerusalem, and he
became thoroughly versed in Hebrew
theology. tradition and mysticism. Paul,
then, was a scholar, linguist. a phil
osopher, logician, theologian, seer
of visions, a hearer of celestial voices,
a worker of miracles, an ardent believer,
an irresistible missionary, founder OF
churches, a successful leader of men.
and free from all the foolish notions Of
Judaism and Paganism. In the elev-
enth chapter of Second Corinthians he
enumerates his enterprises, laoors, and
sufferings, and he claims that he ac-
complished more for the spread of the
gospel than all the other apostles did.
He saved Christianity from being jew
ish sect, and made it a world religion.
The powers. the works. and the commits
sion of Paul were far greater than those
of Peter. Paul stands next to Christ,
and Peter next to Paul. The order of
greatness is this: First, Christ, the re-
vealer and inspirer; second. Paul. the
cosmopolitan and builder; third, Peter.
the Jewish reformer; fourth. John, the
mystic; and, fifth, James. the Jewish
preacher Of practical Christianity.
Christ said: Call no man your father
upon the earth; for one is your Father.
who is in heaven. Neither be We called
masters; for one is your Master, even
Christ, and all ye are brethren That
is in the church and in religious matters.
titles are not proper. So all ecclesiasti-
cal titles are contrary to Christ's gos-
pei. In reading the first chapter of First
Corinthians. the eleventh chaptr Of Sec
ond Corinthians, and the first and second
chapters of Galatians, we learn that
there were divisions among the church;
some preferred Paul, some Apollos,
| some Peter. There were two great divis-
| ions, called the Pauline and the Petrinc
| parties. The wise leaders of that time
| desired to unite the Christian world in
| one great church. They attempted to
| gather all the conflicting parties into
CN% T-,,sr o1, hut
| the noble enterprise was failure. The
| Roman Catholic party took Rome as the
| center. The Greek churches refused to
| unite with the Roman Catholics, and
| so did the Armenian churches and other
| eastern churches. The Roman Catholic
| church has achieved the greatest sue
cess in the matter of Christian union;
| but it made its great mistake in select
| ing Peter for its patron saint, and not
| the mighty Paul, the cosmopolitan, the
| grandest apostle. Now Paul is the
| patron saint of Potestantisn1, having the
| great cathedral in London dedicated to
| him. while Peter is glorified in the splen-
| did cathedral in Rome. Christ's Chris
| tianity will accept Christ alone as the
| infallible head of his own church, and
| the Christianity which Is to be will
| ignore both Catholicism and Potestant-
| ism in their present conditions, and ac-
| cept the gospel of Christ as it's text
! book, and Christ himself as the illustra-
! ton of the Sermon on the Mount. Christ
| himself, as himself, and not as heathen
god, is the only hope Of social and re-
| ligious peace"
Theosophica1
A theosophical lecture was delivered
Yesterday morning by Stanley Fitzpat-
rick. Subject, Symbolism of the Cross
The speaker said:
The charge has often been made