e have heard, that certain which
went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls,
saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no
such commandment.... For it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost, and to us,
to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye
abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things
strangled, and from fornication: from which if you keep yourselves, ye
shall do well. Fare ye well." Here is freedom for the Gentiles from
the Ten Commandments and especially the observance of the Jewish
Sabbath, the most valued of the ten.

Romans ii. 14 plainly shows "the Gentiles had not the law," and this
constituted a mark of distinction between Jew and Gentile. But had the
law been also given to the Gentiles, the Jewish nation would not have
been fenced off from the rest of the world by it. The very fact that
they were a separate people under the law proves that their code was
not a universal law. Paul said: "For I testify again to every man that
is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law." Gal. v. 3.
This is clear, only the circumcised Jew and proselyte was under the
law.

In favor of the Mosaic law, many advocates say that all municipal
governments are based upon it; but this only proves that it is not of
the Kingdom of Christ, because his kingdom is not of this world.
Christ's law is the "ministration of Spirit" "the law of the spirit of
life written in the heart." The Sinai law was the "ministration of
death" written on stone. Moses' law only gave the knowledge of sin,
Christ's law gives a far more exquisite knowledge of sin, and contains
the remedy for its removal.

We find, in Matt, xxviii. 18-20, and Mark xvi. 15-20, the final
universal commission of Christ, his imperative orders to all teachers
and preachers in the Kingdom of God. Everything else is excluded but
Christ's Gospel, and _his commands_. They stand out against every form
of sin, and they only are to be preached to sinners as a means of
conviction and salvation, and to believers as their present rule of
life; and to show that he is not subjected to, nor in need of any
former code, he announces the fact that "All power is given me in
heaven and earth." Here Christ sets up his supreme authority, removes
all temporary systems, and demands subjection to _his own gospel and
commandments_.

It would have been more appropriate for the members of the American