The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-06

receive ordination. They never ordained me;
disavow al authority from them. Ny au-
thority comes direct from God Himself; j
| am appointed of Christ; / am a prophet
! His spirit rests upon me. So far from ac-
/ knOWledgIng the authority of Peter the
/ Primate, withStoOd him TO his face; told
him he was wrong; l faced him out before
| them all and proved to them and to him
/ that he was wrong.
Then he appeals to their experience.
! WHAT was your experience? he says. How
! did you get your power? How did you get
| this new life? Did it come through sacri-
/ flee? Did it come through temple service?
| Did 1t come through priests? Did it come
| through obedience to law? Through none
Of these things. 1t came through the spirit
of God that came upon you. When you re-
ceived the Lord Jesus Christ your Sa-
viour, having received Him, having re-
ceived the life, viii you go To the flesh
and to the law again?
And then he appeals to the Old Tesla
ment. Which came first he said faith or
law? Why faith came first, before there
was any law, before Mount Sinai, before
Moses. Four hundred and fifty years be-
fore God proclaimed the law God pro-
claimed the promise to Abraham as d prom
Use to faith, and when God has given His
promise He cannot take it back. When He
has said to men, If you have faith in Me
that is enough, that is all ask He cannot
afterward put on conditions and say If
you have faith in Me obey the law He has
given His promise, and the promise stands
TO Abraham and to all that have faith as
Abraham had. And as to Abraham He gave
the promise before he was circumcised; cir
cumcision was not a condition of the prom
Use, CIRCUMCISION was not a cOnd1tlOn or the
life. The life came first the circumcision
after. The life came first, the law after.
What, then, is the use of the law? No use?
Oh. yes, he says; it is useful; it is useful
I'm the Greek village life or city life there
was Il servant whose function it was to take
the little children TO school. He was called
pedagoguS. and our word pedagogue
comes from that Greek word, and Paul
says the law is such a servant to lead chill
dren to Christ; but when they have got to
the school they do not have the pedagogus
any longer with them; his work is done.
Now, Paul says the object of the law was
70 snow men that they needed a Saviour.
The ideal was put before them in order that
they might see that they needed a divine
this more fully and deliberately put forth in
the epistle to- the Romans, but this now is
the declaration. The law was added after
ward.
we were shut up. as men in prison, in or
der that we might know the need of deliver
ance; but when the deliverance has come
and we have gone out we are no longer in
the prison, we no longer need the prison
walls.
THE APOSTLES ALLEGORY.
"Then he enforces this history by very
curious bit of allegorizing. He tells the
story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar.
1t would take me as long to tell it as 1t
would to read it, and longer than 1 need to
take for this evenings purposes. But he
used the Old Testament in allegorical fash
9ONS
story to mako a parable that reinforces
the same truth. They that are under the
law, he says are the children of the bond
woman. They that are under the gospel
are the children of the free woman and
still the children of the bond woman perse-
cute the child of the free woman. If / did
not find that use Of that story in Paul. if
l found it in a modern preacher | should
question whether 1t was an apprcp pirate and
proper Interpretation of the Old Testament
story. l doubt very much whether he in
tended it as an authoritative Interpretation:
He takes it as an illustration to his hand
and it serves his purpose then, though it
would no longer serve his purpose now.
"rhen he says to them the law followed
the promise, the law came in to prepare us
for Christ, and Christ has come. You were
wards, you Jews, and while you were chill
dren you were under the law, but you are
children no longer, you have grown to man
hood Why will you go back, why will you
go back to the old bondage and the old
method and the old way? Because do you
not see, he says, if you go back to the law
and trust in that you must keep the whole
leave part. You cannot interpret it, in
terpret part of it.. when you must. either
stand on this. stand on the law. or else you
must sweep the law away altogether and
stand on something else. And then he tells
them on what that something else is they
must stand. Religion is life, religion is
spirit. There are two conceptions of religion
which he has put before them. The one
that ct man who says | live in the tiesh,
not do. And then the man who says, /
cruelty the flesh, have nothing more to
do with 1t, have quit it, am living in the
spirit. Gods spirit is in my spirit Cod
| spirit fills me with new life, and live
the life of God in the world. This contrast
let me read For the argument against
Paul then was the argument that is against
every form of legalism now. If you set
aside the law and disregard. 1t, then you
will lead laWlesS, wicked lives. No, Paul
says, you are mistaken
This, say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall
not fulfill the lust OF the flesh.
For the flesh luSteth against the spirit, and the
| spirit against the fesh and these contrary
the one to the other; SO that We cannot do the
things that We would.
But if We be led of the spirit We are not under
| the law.
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering gentleness, goodness, faith, meek
ness, temperance; against such there is no law.
And they that Christ's have crucified the
flesh with the affections and lusts
II we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the
| spirit
THE office of religion is to put that spirit
| into the man. Then he needs no law. To
| sum all up in the first place. the Christian
| religion is not new form of law, but it is
a new life In the second place, no rite or
ceremony or order of any kind is of the es-
| sence of religion Nothing external to men
is of the essence of religion. No order of
| priesthood no temple or church service no
| form of worship, no baptism, no Lord 5
| supper, no Sabbath day.
And then what it is he includes, he
makes perfectly clear when he writes to the
| Colossians:
Let no man therefore judge you either eating
or drinking or feast days moon,
Sabbath days; which are shadow Of things to
come, but the body is Christ s.-Col. ZIG.
But now when you have gained the knowledge
of Color either when God has acknowledged
ycu-how is it that you are turning backwards
to those childish rules. weak and beggarly. Would
you go back again into bondage? We observe days
and months and seasons and years.
This is think, l am sure, the lesson of
PaulS epStle to the Galatians. Nothing ex-
ternal to man is of the essence OF religion.
Religion does not consist in observance of
certain days, or going to certain services,
or approaching God through certain priests,
or receiving certain ceremonialS any
thing of that sort. 1t is the spirit of faith
and hope and love. If the minister helps
If the church helps you to faith and hope
and love use it, If baptism and the Lords
supper feed in you the spirit of faith and
hopes and love, employ them; II the Puri-
tan Sabbath strengthens you in the life of
faith and hope and love, observe the Puri-
for one moment imagine that you can live
the life of selfishnesS, the life of self-indul-
gence, the life of Disqualification, and then
be a religious man because you attend a
Roman Catholic church or a Congregational
church, because you listen to Protestant
preacher or receive mass from Roman
Catholic or an Episcopal priest, because
tized as Christian, or because you OBJ
serve Good Friday on the one hand the
Sabbath day on the other. Religion is the
life of love. Nothing less than that suf-
fees; nothing more that that is called for"
----A-e-b----
JOY.
CThis outer world tread on) as a harp
4 gracious instrument whose fair strings
We learn those airs shall be set to play