The Gospel to the Gentiles,
By J. C.
“To whom we gave place by subjection; no, not for an hour: that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” The first converts to the Christian faith, were mostly Jews. The first great outpouring of the Holy Spirit was at Jerusalem, and here was established the first Christian church. These converts were made up mostly of the people of Israel, among whom were some of every other nation almost; but all were more or less under the influence of the rites and ceremonies of the Hebrew people. Not being called at once to drop these rites and ceremonies, they were in great danger of incorporating the customs and forms of the Jewish church into the church just entering upon its existence, and thus in its incipient stage, marring the beauty and comeliness of the church of Christ. The converted Jews were bigoted in their attachment to the customs of their fathers, and even the ardent and impulsive Peter, could hardly himself believe that the Gentiles could come upon the platform of the newly established faith, upon the same footing with the favored children of Abraham; and even his vision of the sheet, let down from Heaven, having upon it such symbols as conveyed to his mind most impressively the idea of a free gospel, and a Gentile church, we say even this proof did not so fully convince him of his bigoted prejudice for his peculiar customs, and against his Gentile neighbors, but that he occasionally faltered in his testimony to his brethren on this subject. At this period, so interesting, not to that age alone, but important to all succeeding ages and times, we may say at this time, when such a danger impended as this, of a Judaized Christianity being bequeathed to the Gentiles, we see the wise plan of raising up a bold, prudent, learned, yet wise, common-sense man, to vindicate the truth, and clear it of Jewish forms. It mattered not to him, how many or how devoted his opponents were; whether they were apostles or laymen, true or false, he saw through them all; and with wisdom and sound argument he sustained the right, and all in so noble and truthful a style, as convinced and won and pleased his brethren. Peter, James, and John, chief of the apostles, admired his talent, loved his tender spirit, and bowed to his just reasoning, and yielded to his scriptural conclusions. Alone he battled against Judaism, sometimes set upon by false Judaising teachers, at others by mistaken friends; and victorious over them all, his opponents yielded; the mistaken and bigoted but true-hearted Christian, confessed his error, while the heretical errorist sought only to evade the logic and force of Paul’s convincing eloquence. Considering the time when Paul was placed in the field of labor, considering his talents, natural and acquired, his industry, his zeal, his prudence and foresight, his firmness, his amiability and Christian virtues, and the wide influence he exerted in his own time, and down to the present, we cannot too highly extol the wisdom of God, in granting to the church such a man, at the very time when he was most needed.
J. C.