'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

New Zealand Tablet, 4 December 1913, Page 3

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

(A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.Z. Tablet by 'Ghimel'.)

THE PRIMACY OF ST. PETER ( Continued FURTHER THOUGHTS OF A CONVERT. According to the twenty-first chapter of St. John, Peter's commission ran: ‘ Feed My lambs . Feed My sheep. . . Feed My sheep.’ ‘ He is made then, John (the plain man) considers, shepherd of souls; guide of wanderers; support of the weary. He is to feed Christ’s flock, and gently lead those that are with young. If the words of the Good Shepherd mean anything, they must mean this. ‘There are others standing by: John whom Jesus loved ; James who was the first to die for Him; Andrew who was the first to be called; but it is not to this man or that that the Lord speaks; but to one man more faithless than them all.

' There are no exceptions to the flock. Not the Jews only from whom He sprang; or the Gentiles to whom He went; or the Romans who were to lead Him whither He would not. It is simply Christ's lambs, Christ's sheep. ' You—the foundation, the porter, and the fisherman, who trembled at the onslaught of hell; who ran from your trust at the noise of feet and the glare of torches; who dropped your net and denied three times that you knew Me in- Galilee—you are to be the shepherd of those for whom I laid down My life. Here, too, the man in the street looks round upon the heads of the various denominations and asks if any of them even so much as claims to carry out this commission. The head of the Anglican Church replies: ' I do not claim it. I claim it only for those of my own race. In England, yes, a primacy of jurisdiction; in Ireland, Scotland, and America, a primacy of honor only. For all Christ's flock, no.' In the name of other Protestant sects a voice rings out: 'I do not claim it. Neither this nor anything like ; t. . . Men are not sheep! . . . For Englishmen have learned at last that no man has a right to dictate to them the terms of salvation or the clauses of God's redemptive contract. We owe no allegiance to either foreign or home prelates — none but God speaking in the conscience. We are free, sturdy, self-reliant, Bible-nurtured, determined British citizens : ready to answer to our Maker for what we do and believe. . . We are men, not sheep. How dare you call us that?' These replies appear very strange to the earnest inquirer after truth. ' This may be worldly wisdom, but not divine. It was not so that the Good Shepherd spoke. Men are sheep, of whom I am the weakest and most foolish. See how they follow one another through the hedges that God's law has planted; how when vice is a fashion it ceases to be vice; how they drink of poisoned waters and eat deadly food : how they follow beaten tracks and think they have found out a road for themselves; how confident when they think themselves alone; how helpless when they fall! ' Surely they need care and tenderness and chastisement. Did ( not the Good Shepherd say so? And is there no one who will give it them ? Is there no one who will cease to flatter, and will tell them their foolishness; who will lead them to green pastures and make them to lie down by waters of comfort; who will cry to them when the wolf is coming ; who will seek and save that which is lost? And above all, is there no one who will tell them that they are one flock, not many— there is "neither Greeks nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all"who will gather them when they are scattered in the cloudy and dark day, and call to them with a voice that they knowthat there may be, as Christ Himself said, one fold and one shepherd.' A reply docs come, humbly indeed but without diffidence: ' Yes, I claim all this: for I am Peter, shepherd of Christians and Vicar of Christ. It was to me that Christ said long ago in Galilee, " Feed My lambs ... . feed My sheep." That voice is still

in my ears, and lam not ashamed to obey it. When men flatter men, I am not ashamed to call them sheep and treat them. so. When men talk of freedom and energy, I tell them that obedience is better still. I am not ashamed to call this food bad, and to bid all that will hear me not to approach it; and that good, and encourage them to feed upon it. I appeal both by love and wrathby crook and staff. I draw this frightened creature towards me, and I drive that infected sinner from my flock. I recognise no distinction of race, color, or birth; they are all Christ's sheep, and therefore all are mine. The English and the Indian alike are committed to me, and I rule them with the same rod within the same hurdles. Other sheep I have—sheep who are not yet of this fold—and to them I am as zealous as to those that know me.- I stretch out my hands all day long, as I have stretched them for centuries, giving the same call as I did a thousand years ago, knowing that one day they too will hear my voice, as my Master promised. And already they are coming back in thousands from the northern hills where their fathers led them. . . And Ido all this through the scorn of men and the howling of wolves, and the forgetfulness or ignorance or. obstinacy of those that are already mine, because it was the Good Shepherd Who set me here, and bade me rule. I am ready to lay down my life for them as He did, and as I have done already myself before Nero, as well as in Clement and Urban and Gregory : for their sake I die daily as Paul did. For I am Peter, waiting till my Master Himself comes back to ask me of the flock, the beautiful flock which He gave into my charge. Is there any who disputes my crook with me?'