1 S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 79.
My Church.
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Literature.
Al.liott (L.), Signs of Promise, 157.
Adeney (\V. F.), in Men of the New Testament, 109.
Book (W. H.), The Columbus Tabernacle Sermons, 142.
Brown (0. K.), The Young Man's Affairs, 139.
Burrell (D. J.), Tlie Spirit of the Age, 296.
Clow ( W. M.), The Secret of the Lord, 42.
Dewhurst (F. E.), The Investment of Truth, 191.
Goulburn (E. M.), Tlie Holy Catholic Church, 1.
Gray (W. H.), Old Creeds and New Beliefs, 232.
Greenhough (J. G.), Tlie Cross in Modern Life, 105.
Holland (H. S.), Creed and Character, 37.
Horton (R. F.), The Teaching of Jesus, 125.
Jones (J. C.), Studies in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, 255.
Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 109.
Newman (J. II.), Sermons Preached on Various Occasions, 263.
Nicoll (W. R.), The Lamp of Sacrifice, 113.
Owen (J. W.), Some Australian Sermons, 167.
Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, ii. 33.
Sanderson (T.), Unfulfilled Designs, 141.
Shepherd (A.), Bible Studies in Living Subjects, 219.
Stanley (A. P.), Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age, 76.
British Congregationalist, March 23, 1911 (W. B. Selbie) ; Sept. 21, 1911
(J. Warschauer). Christian World Pulpit, xxxiv. 207 (C. Garrett); lviii. 243 (J. A.
Brinkworth). Churchman's Pulpit : St. Peter, St. James, xv. 36 (C. Hardwick). Contemporary Review, xcvii. (1910) 165 (G. Whitelock). Expositor, 2nd Ser., vii. 311 (J. A. Beet). Homiletic Review, New Ser., xliv. 239 (F. R. Hiel).
My Church.
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. — Matt. xvi. 18.
Christ had come very nearly to the close of His Galilean ministry. He had been preaching for about a year, and the twelve disciples had been accompanying Him, listening to His preaching, doing a little preaching themselves, and gradually learning the truth which He had come to proclaim. He had taken them apart by them- selves for more close individual religious instruction. He pursued the Socratic method. He asked them to what conclusions they had come as the result of what they had seen and heard during this year's companionship with Him. He asked, " Who do men say that I am ? " And the Apostles reported various answers : " Some say John the Baptist ; some, Elijah ; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." Then He said unto them, " But who say ye that I am ? " And Peter, who was never slow to speak, answered, perhaps as spokesman for the rest, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." To this Christ replied : " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
The whole passage from which these words are taken has been a battlefield for centuries between two irreconcilable con- ceptions of Christianity. Our Lord had put a question to His disciples, and it was no mere casual inquiry suggested by some chance turn in the conversation. It was really an investigation into the foundation of that world-wide kingdom He had come to establish.
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288 MY CHURCH
I.
The Rock Foundation of the Church.
"Thou art Peter (Petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church."
1. The name of Peter is not bestowed here but interpreted. Christ does not say, " Thou shalt be," but " Thou art " : and so presupposes the former conferring of the name. Unquestionably, the Apostle is the rock on which the Church is built. The efforts to avoid that conclusion would never have been heard of, but for the Koman Catholic controversy ; but they are as unnecessary as unsuccessful. Is it credible that in the course of an address which is wholly occupied with conferring prerogatives on the Apostle a clause should come in which is concerned about an altogether different subject from the " thou " of the preceding and the " thee " of the following clauses, and which yet should take the very name of the Apostle, slightly modified, for that other subject ? We do not interpret other books in that fashion. But it was not the " flesh and blood " Peter, but Peter as the recipient and faithful utterer of the Divine inspiration in his confession, who received these privileges. Therefore they are not his exclusive property, but belong to his faith, which grasped and confessed the Divine-human Lord ; and wherever that faith is, there are these gifts, which are its results. They are the " natural " consequences of the true faith in Christ in that higher region where the supernatural is the natural. Peter's grasp of Christ's nature wrought upon his character, as pressure does upon sand, and solidified his shifting impetuosity into rocklike firmness. So the same faith will tend to do in any man. It made him the chief instrument in the establishment of the Early Church. On souls steadied and made solid by like faith, and only on such, can Christ build His Church.