urprising conclusion is reached by omitting many considerations. Thus
in St. Matthew xvi. 19 a definite grant of official authority--as
appears in the passage, Is. xxii. 22, on which it is based--is promised
to St. Peter, and he is on this occasion, as Dr. Hort himself
maintains, the representative of the apostles generally. This
stewardship granted to the apostles, to shepherd the flock and feed the
household of God, is implied again in St. Luke xii. 42, St. John xxi.
15-17; and it seems to be quite unreasonable to dissociate the
authoritative commission to 'absolve and retain,' St. John xx. 20-23,
from the apostolic office. Dr. Hort would apparently {270} dissociate
such passages as those last referred to from the apostolic office, and
assign them to the church as a whole. But how then does he account for
the authority inherent in the apostolic office, as it is represented by
St. Paul, and in the Acts? St. Paul's conception of the authority of
the apostles is barely considered by him; and the authority of the
apostolate in the Acts is strangely minimized. Nothing is said of
Simon's impression--surely a true one--that the apostles had the
'authority' to convey the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of
hands (viii. 19). Certainly the phrases used toward the churches of
Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, 'to whom we gave no commandment,' 'it
seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater
burden than these necessary things,' imply a governmental authority,
which, if it is shared by the presbyters, is substantially that of the
apostles (Acts xv. 24-28).

Dr. Hort also minimizes greatly the element of official authority which
appears almost at once in the church by apostolic appointment and
delegation. No doubt there was at first an authority allowed--as must
always be allowed--to the acknowledged possessors of extraordinary
divine gifts, especially to the 'prophets.' But in the period of St.
Paul's later activity, when he is facing the future of the church and
has apparently ceased to expect an immediate return of Christ, these
special gifts retire into the background, while the ordinary functions
of government, and administration of the word and sacraments, remain in
the position which they are permanently to occupy in the hands of
regularly ordained officers.

Dr. Hort deals, as it seems to me, most unreasonably with the pastoral
epistles. It is surely arbitrary to dissociate 'the gift which