The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-16
PAUL TO CORINTHIANS
MEANING OF THE APOSTLES ADVICE
TO THE GREEK CHURCH.
Early Christian ImmOralities and Ex-
cuses TlierefOr-PersOnaI Liberty
and Moral Obligations.
Brooklyn Eagle.

rev. Ut. Lyman ADDott continued MS series
of lectures on the Life and Writings of
st. Paul" He said:
"The First Epistle to the Corinthians,
which we are to begin the consideration of
this evening, was written three or four
years after PauIs departure from Corinth.
This epistle is the one which, perhaps, of all
in the New Testament has the least unity,
deals the least with any one topic. and is.
perhaps for that very reason, the most
characteristic of the varieties of thought,
temperament and character in the apostle.
This epistle illustrates his stern morality.
his strong and vigorous antagonism to all
divorce of religion and ethics. This illus
trates his catholicity, which is quite differ
ent from liberation. This illustrates his
naive egotism, coupled with his self-abnega-
ton. The frankness with which he speaks
Of himself and his own services and his own
sacrifices is nowhere better illustrated, and
nowhere is better illustrated the service and
the sacrifice which he really makes Of HIM
self. In this epistle is perhaps as well illus
rrated as anywhere his practically, his COM
mon sense. 1t is the more interestingly
illustrated because in the passage which I
shall quote this evening that practical COM
mon sense is interviewer with the remnants
of his rabbinical education, and the rabbi
nicaI methods which he constantly, more or
less, was accustomed to employ. In this
epistle, too, are to be found passages I'M
excelled in spiritual eIoquence--that psalm
to love. the thirteenth chapter of the First
Corinthians, and that passage which is part
ly an argument and partly a poem, on the
resurrection. the fifteenth chapter of the
First Corinthians. 1 must take these mat
ters up one after the other, carrying the
x4.kI1 g.
continuing and concluding it next Sunday
evening.
The occasion of the First Epistle to the
Corinthians was letter sent to Paul from
Corinth This letter brought him some sad
news and some interesting and suggestive
Inquiries. In response to it Paul deals gem
erically speaking. with five topics first,
with the factions which had arisen in the
COrlntnlan Church; secondly, with the inn
moralities which had arisen in the Corinth-
ian Churcn; thirdly, with certain specific
questions addressed to him in the letter
from the church; fourthly, with the ques-
ton of spiritual gifts as exercised in that
church, and filthy with the question of the
resurrection and of immortality. There had
already arisen then, about the year 81 A. D..
perhaps little earlier. those sectarian divi-
slons which have been the curse of the
church of Christ from that time to this
INTO separate sects, as in Professionalism.
Sometimes they have conducted war with
one another within the church, which still
preserved a formal unity, as in the battle
between Jansenist and Jesuit in the Ro-
man Catholic Church. There were, 1t seems
tour parties-one calling itself by the name
or Paul. one by the name of Peter, one by
the name of Apollos and one by the name
of Christ. What were these parties? To
vef late canhot eve Positive answer and
light back upon this early period gives us a
reasonable indication of their essential ele-
ments.
FACTIONS IN THE CHURCH.
The early church was composed of two
streams, one coming from Jewish the other
from Pagan sources. The Jews held fast to
the old Jewish law. They believed that the
Christian must become a Jew before he
could become Christian. They believed
that he was subject to the Jewish law. They
argued that that Jewish law had never been
abolished or set aside. They could ever
point to the words of Christ, that not one
Jot nor one little of the law should pass
till all should be fulfilled. They insisted.
therefore, upon circumcision. They insisted
that meat offered to idols should not be
eaten They insisted that pagans and Chris
tians could not intermarry, and If they had
intermarried they must separate. And be-
cause Peter was in some special measure
an apostle to the Jews and had remained
pre-eminent in the Jewish church, he was
counted as their special leader and repre-
sentative. This was the Petrine faction It's
analogue would be the conservative, per-
haps what / might call the Puritan party in
our own time time: There was; secondly; the
was not obligatory, that the law was not
binding; that men We're no longer bound by
circumcision or by Sabbath laws or any
such thing, and later it ran into a philoso-
ply of lawleSsness. They claimed as their
representative Paul. because he was the
apostle to the Gentiles. They represented
what might be called the radical or progress
sive wing of the ancient church.
"A system Of philosophy existed in Greece
there IN mi lie
gan philosophy with the Jewish religion. In
Alexandria. there had grown up the Alexan-
sary to discuss tonight, by allegorizng the
Old Testament Scriptures endeavored so to
explain them away as to make them appear
rational and interpret them along the lines
OF Greek philosophy. Apollos had come
from Alexandria, and it is reasonable to
suppose that the faction that conferred
around him and called him as their leader
was the faction which pre-eminently
claimed to unite philosophy and religion
that it's analogue in our own time is found
IN the school which Is known as the new
theology. that type of mind and thought
which endeaNorS to harmoniZa an old faith
with new forms of thought.
And. finally, there was a party which
claimed to be no party, which put aside
Paul and Appollos and Peter, and with
Paul and Appollos and Peter put aside the
Old Testament and New. Testament rec
ords, so far as they may have existed and
claimed direct and immediate fellowship
with Christ more imme date and direct than
pluer people. IL was the particularly sane
titled party: 1t was the holiness party: it
was the mystical party. It had its analogue
IN that element which has been in the
church ever since which / may call the
mystic element 1t dsdained all party
names it called itself of Christ.
$50 there were these four nascent fac
lions. The conservative or Puritan, the
radical or Gentle, the philosophical or
Alexandrine and the mystical. calling itself
Christian. Each of these parties took you
Will observe, the name of a leader famous
in the church. but IL would be unjust to
suppose that the leader whose name they
took sanctioned or approved their principles
that. We only know that they gathered
themselves together, separated themselves
from other fellow Christians and took the
name Of famous leader in the church. Tt
has been so ever since We have had Au-
gustinians. Lutherans, Calvinists, Armin-
the end of the chapter. Let me read, not
now paraphrase nor a translation but
PauPs own words, put into their modern In
depreciation, as he might write them in this
close of the nineteenth century.
For Il hath been declared unto me OF YOU. my
en- by them OF which OF the house OF
Now this say. that every one of you saith
am OF luther and Of Calvin; and Of Wesley;
and OF Christ.
SECTARIAN DIVISION.
For we have had in this country a sect
and very considerable one, which, dlsown-
ing all sectarian name and claiming to be
unsectarian. has become a new sect and is
known as Christian. or. in order to distin-
guish 1t from the rest Christian 1t is a
large body in the South and West
Is Christ divided? was Paul crucihed for you