The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-06
PAUL TO THE GALATIANS
HIS MESSAGE TOLD THEM THAT RE-
LIGIoN IS THE LIFE OF LOVE.
Rituals and Ceremonies Are Useless
when Contrasted with Essential
elements of True Faith.
Rrnoklvn Eaple.

a large congregation, the Rev. DIR. Lyman
Abbott delivered the ninth Lecture in his Sc
rieS on the life and writing@ OF st. Paul.
DR.. Abbott said
'"ro understand the significance of Paurs
epist1e to the Galatians it is necessary to re-
peat little more fully what has already
been said respecting parties in the Chris
tian Church in the time of Paul, and TO
trace their history down to the present day.
briefly. The Christian Church was
posed Of two parties, one of which had come
from Jewish and the other from GENTLE
sources Each of them brought with it its
old notions, more or less modified or trans
formed, and the Jewish religion itself had
been modified and to some extent trans
formed by the intermixture Of pagan con-
ceptions. Without going back TO trace the
intermixture of paganism with Judaism,
which resulted in the kind Of Judaism that
existed in the time of Christ, it must suf-
flee tonight to describe the Jewish party as
it existed in the first century.
This party, then, believed in a rigid and
religious ritual. 1t believed that this rigid
and religious ritual had been prescribed by
Cod and was Of divine authority, and 1t in
Guided three elements, others, possibly, but
three that are treated Of in the epistle to
the Galatians. 1t contained regulations re-
respecting the rite of circumcision and re-
specting the observance of certain days. es-
pecially the seventh day of the week, known
as the Sabbath.
In the early history of the Jews sacri-
fees might be offered by any one and at
any place. They We're offered by those who
were not priests They were offered by
elijah at Mount Carmel offered by Gideon,
offered apparently by David, and Saul ex-
pected to offer at least sacrifice, and 9TH
ers are mentioned. But by the time of the
exile this liberty of sacrifice had been
changed. Sacrifice was allowed only in
t Jerusalem by the time of the return from
the exile. Sacrifice was only allowed at
Jerusalem and only allowed by the priest
hood The whole service of the temple was
carried on by the sons of Levi, and the
priestly service by the sons of Aaron No
one could offer sacrifice except the priest.
No one could come to God acceptably ex-
cept with a sacrifice and through the inter-
mediary of q priest. And this later day no.
tion was either carried back and incorpo-
rated in the earlier traditions or else there
was in the earlier tradition some story
narrative that gave sanction to it. There
was, for instance. the story that Dathan
and Korah and Abiram undertook to offer
sacrifice without proper authority and the
earth opened and swallowed Dathan and
Abiram up. There was a story of Uzza,
who was not rabbi, who put forth his
hands to hold the ark lest it should tumble
from the wagon which it was placed
and he was struck dead by the Almighty
Whether these stories were in the earlier
literature, as some have supposed, or
whether they We're incorporated at later
period, as others have supposed, they GER
tatnly existed and were believed by the
Jews In the time of Paul. There was this
class of priests who alone could enter the
sacred precincts of the temple, who alone
could offer sacrifices who alone could inter-
mediate between God and man.
But there was another class of religious
men, not so appointed and not so ordained
the prophets. They were the religious
preachers and teachers OF Israel They were
times from the plough. sometimes they were
educated men, sometimes they We're, rela-
lively speaking, uneducated. But anyone
might prophesy. He required no ordination,
ne required no appointment, and he be-
longed TO no tribe and to no family and to
no order, and he was in no organization.
Any man who felt the spirit of God upon
him, or thought he did, had the right to
give utterance to what he thought was
truth. The freedom of religious teaching
was secure under judaism, and it still ex-
sisted in the time Of the restoration.
JEWISH CONCEPTIONS.
NOW, when the Christian Church was
born. the Jews, coming into the Christian
specting the temple and the priesthood
They said that twelve apostles are the rep
resentatives of the twelve tribes They said
that in the Christian Church there was,
similarly. an authority reposed in the apos-
ties. which only the apostles could impart.
Gradually this conception of priesthood
and a temple service was wrought into the
Christian Church, and for time dominated
II, and 1t now openly avowed and declared
fHn f1ara fcf nf n
the successors of the old Jewish priesthood.
That priesthood was permanent, so il is
SAID. It's ONCE was permanent, its sacred
ness was permanent. The modern minister
IS, therefore, a priest as truly the ancient
Jewish ecclesiastic was a priest 1t IS true
he no longer belongs to the house of Aaron,
II IS true he no longer belongs to the tribe
of Levi, but he is in different kind of
succession. He must receive his authority
from the priests that preceded him. and
they from the priests that preceded them,
and SO he must be able to trace his lineage
and SO to Christ And these priests
have the same Office to perform that
the priests in the old Jewish Church did.
They offered a sacrifice. The simple sup
per which Christ told men to take in mem
DRY of Him is converted from this Jewish
custom into the bloodless sacrifice of the
mass, and every time bread is broken and
the wine Is poured out sacrifice for
SIN IS offered by q new and Christian priest.
And this Christian priest Offering this sac
Tlilce must have an altar and the simple
supper table on which the simple memorial
church becomes itself an altar sacred and
set apart and hedged about, and there is
round about it not indeed a great wall as
there was in the Jewish temple, but there IS
n railing, and within that railing is a sa-
cred precinct, and it is hardly proper for a
1ayman TO pass within that railing and APP
proach this sacred altar. The church thus
becomes no longer a meeting house or an
ASSEMBLY for religious people, it becomes a
temple, the minister is a priest the Lords
supper is a sacrifice, the communion table
IL an altar. and the church is a. temple
The second rite in the Jewish Church,
which the book of Galatians deals with, is
the rite of circumcision. Here, again. we
are somewhat uncertain as to origin 1t is
certain that the rite of circumcision was
known far outside of Jewish circles; in an
Jews from the surrounding nations. That
is no argument against it; for il seems
generally to have been the divine plan not
10 incorporate some entirely new thing but
10 take that which already exists and give
TO it new and sacred significance; Christ
took the simple Passover supper, a family
feast and gave to it a new Significance
making it a memorial of himself AT ali
events, according to one tradition, circum-
cision dates from the days of Abraham.
According TO another tradition il would ap-
pear TO have originated, so far as Judaism
is concerned, in the time of Moses. Which
ever IS true, ii was very ancient. 1t had
1xisted among the Jews for eleven or twelve
hundred years, perhaps for three or four
thousand. This rite of circumcision was the
distinguishing characteristic of the Jews in
the time of Christ No man could be a
jew, no man could become an heir of the
Iewish promise, according to the rabbinical
conception, unless he was circumcfSed. IN
deed, the term of reproach most vigorous