to us all, to put new wine into old bottles. The
Jewish and the Gentile elements did not coalesce. The point round which
the strife was waged was not whether Gentiles might come into the
Church. That was conceded by the fiercest Judaisers. But it was whether
they could come in as Gentiles, without first being incorporated into
the Jewish nation by circumcision, and whether they could remain in as
Gentiles, without conforming to Jewish ceremonial and law.

Those who said 'No' _were_ members of the Christian communities, and,
being so, they still insisted that Judaism was to be eternal. They
demanded that the patched and stiff leathern bottle, which had no
elasticity or pliability, should still contain the quick fermenting new
wine of the kingdom. And certainly, if ever man had excuse for clinging
to what was old and formal, these Judaising Christians held it. They
held by a law written with God's own finger, by ordinances awful by
reason of divine appointment, venerable by reason of the generations to
which they had been of absolute authority, commended by the very example
of Christ Himself. Every motive which can bind heart and conscience to
the reverence and the practice of the traditions of the Fathers, bound
them to the Law and the ordinances which had been Israel's treasure from
Abraham to Jesus.

Those who said 'Yes' were mostly Gentiles, headed and inspired by a
Hebrew of the Hebrews. They believed that Judaism was preparatory, and
that its work was done. For those among themselves who were Jews, they
were willing that its laws should still be obligatory; but they fought
against the attempt to compel all Gentile converts to enter Christ's
kingdom through the gate of circumcision.

The fight was stubborn and bitter. I suppose it is harder to abolish
forms than to change opinions. Ceremonies stand long after the thought
which they express has fled, as a dead king may sit on his throne stiff
and stark in his golden mantle, and no one come near enough to see that
the light is gone out of his eyes, and the will departed from the hand
that still clutches the sceptre. All through Paul's life he was dogged
and tormented by this controversy. There was a deep gulf between the
churches he planted and this reactionary section of the Christian
community. Its emissaries were continually following in his footsteps.
As he bitterly reproaches them, they entered upon another man's line of
things made ready to their hand, not car