Sermon Preached at Union Church on Sunday Morning January 29, 1928, by the Rev. E. F. Horst-Smith things are yours whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cepha id ye are Christ's." I Cor, III verses 21 and 23.
The Apostle Paul in the course of his missionary labours had founded a Church at Corinth, While he remained there his influence was sufficiently powerful to keep the church united, But in his absence it had split up into. a number of rival cliques in a way that many Inter churches have done. These rival parties were called after the names of the different men whose leadership they acknow-Jedged and he enumerates four of them. Seeing there were these factions, it was natural that there should be Pauline party. There would have been no Church there at all, but for him. It therefore followed that amongst the earlier members of that Church many who had first heard the message of life from his lips declared, "We are of Paul." No later comer could ever usurp his place in their affections. But there was another party owning alliance to Apollos. He was an Alexandrian Jew who had come to the Church at Corinth after Paul had left' and had gathered 9 Rew set of converts, His philo-sophie spirit may have appealed to many of the Corinthians, and moreover they had been moved by his persuasive eloquence. There was yet another group who acknow Lledged Peter as their leader. Tt is uncertain whether Peter ever visit ed Corinth, bat the Church members would have heard of him. Many of them would Kaye travelled, Some may have gone to Jerusalem where they would discovered that Peter had been the acknowledged leader of the Apostolic band. He, unlike Paul and Apollos, had known Jesuo after the flesh. They would know that Paul and Peter, like the strong men they were, did'not always see eye to eye. Many of the Christians would feel that he had pointe of advantage over Paul, and this would give plausibility to the iden of forming a separate party, named after Peter. Moreover, there is with many people a tendency to honour the distant leader to. the detriment of the one who has been seen at close quarters, for' "dis tance lends enchantment to the view." And then, strangely enough, there was a Christ party. There. were some who claimed the mono-Poly of truth and implied that they only were true Christians, 'They took the one name which' should have covered them all and claimed it as a party name, thereby implying that their fellow Church members were not Christians at all,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.