Was there anything more that needed to be turned in Peter—this thrice converted man? Yes, two whole chapters, the 10th and 11th of Acts, were required to tell of the winning of his sympathies for Christ. Peter already appreciate ed the Christian faith of those who had come by his road—the way of Moses, but he looked askance at Gentile believers, not. perhaps as "lesser breeds without the Jaw," but at least as unorthodox and not quite—. Now at last he learned that those who have the spirit of Christ may differ in their definitions of Christ.
A man may have turned much of his nature to Christ without turning his sympathies. I¢ is painful to know. that the word of exclusion is being uttered against those who do not add certain doctrines and traditions to their faith. It is the old issue that was settled for the Apostles long ago, but has apparently to be settled again for the church to-day. Is there a way of faith, that is the question, just faith in Christ as Saviour' and Lord without definition or addition? And if it brings us into fellowship with the Father must it not bring us also into fellowship in Christ's church?
This most beautiful of human faculties then, the power of turning and turning again to God, in response to His deepening appeal through Christ, is set forth for the instruction of the Church in the story of Peter, the typical disciple, with his four outstanding conversions. Let us note in conclusion the light it throws first on Church history and then on our own experience. The story of the Church for many is a tale of de-derision. Some attribute finality in the things of Christ to the age of our grandfathers, others time of the Puritans, others to the days of the Reformeis, others again to the so-called ages of Faith or further back still to the epoch of creed makers and mar-tyts. Whatever be the standard chosen' it is fixed in the past, and on this theory the only hope for the Church is to recover the standard that has been left behind and lost. 6
CHURCH HISTORY A SPIRAL, How much truer and happier it is to find the secret of the Church's history in its power of turning to the light sides of thought and life that hitherto have not been penetrated by the mind of Christ: This is the trite secret, I am convinced. It explains, for instance, how Francis taught the Church to bring its compassions under the sway of Christ and Luther its powers of private judgment. Nonconformity (ie, the Church's protest against the secular hand and mind, which has issued in high churchmanship) Foreign Missions (ie. the exten: sion of Christian interest and service beyond national limits to the whole world); Settlements. and such like (i.e. the wakening of the Church's conscience as to the dehumanizing of modern life)—these and other movements are repeated answers to the prayer that originated with the Psalmist "Turn us again, O God, cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved."
This should be a real element in our Christian hope, as it is also.a sound. reason for loyalty to the Church, that if we are faithful in our own day some new side of the life that Christ. redeemed shall be turned over to him for his possession and use. Church history is not a down grade movement, but a spiral, a continuous turning to God. and thus realizing the fulness of His salvation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.