principle that the spirits of the prophets were subject to the
prophets, and that, therefore, the spiritual impulse was no apology for
disorder.

142. But there were still worse things inside the Church. Even the
sacredness of the Lord's Supper was profaned. It seems that the
members were in the habit of taking with them to church the bread and
wine which were needed for this sacrament; but the wealthy brought
abundant and choice supplies and, instead of waiting for their poorer
brethren and sharing their provisions with them, began to eat and drink
so gluttonously that the table of the Lord actually resounded with
drunkenness and riot.

143. One more dark touch must be added to this sad picture. In spite
of the brotherly kiss with which their meetings closed, they had fallen
into mutual rivalry and contention. No doubt this was due to the
heterogeneous elements brought together in the Church; but it had been
allowed to go to great lengths. Brother went to law with brother in
the heathen courts instead of seeking the arbitration of a Christian
friend. The body of the members was split up into four theological
factions. Some called themselves after Paul himself. These treated
the scruples of the weaker brethren about meats and other things with
scorn. Others took the name of Apollonians from Apollos, an eloquent
teacher from Alexandria, who visited Corinth between Paul's second and
third journeys. These were the philosophical party; they denied the
doctrine of the resurrection, because it was absurd to suppose that the
scattered atoms of the dead body could ever be united again. The third
party took the name of Peter, or Cephas, as in their Hebrew purism they
preferred to call him. These were narrow-minded Jews, who objected to
the liberality of Paul's views. The fourth party affected to be above
all parties and called themselves simply Christians. Like many
despisers of the sects since then, who have used the name of Christian
in the same way, these were the most bitterly sectarian of all and
rejected Paul's authority with malicious scorn.

144. Inferences.--Such is the checkered picture of one of Paul's
churches given in one of his own Epistles; and it shows several things
with much impressiveness. It shows, for instance, how exceptional,
even in that age, his own mind and character were, and what a blessing
his gifts and graces of good sense, of large sympathy blended with
conscientious fi