e find that the most
marked feature of that age, so far as the church itself is concerned, is
the grand division between the 'Jewish faction,' as it was called, and
the followers of Paul. This division was so deep, so marked, so
characteristic, that it has left its traces all through the New
Testament itself. It was one of the grand aspects of the time, and the
point on which they were divided was simply this: the followers of
Peter, those who adhered to the teachings of the central church in
Jerusalem, held that all Christians, both converted Jews and Gentiles,
were under obligation to keep the Mosaic law, ordinances, and
traditions. That is, a Christian, according to their definition, was
first a Jew; Christianity was something _added to_ that, not something
taking the place of it.

"We find this controversy raging violently all through the early
churches, and splitting them into factions, so that they were the
occasion of prayer and counsel. Paul took the ground distinctly that
Christianity, while it might be spiritually the lineal successor of
Judaism, was not Judaism; and that he who became a Christian, whether a
converted Jew or Gentile, was under no obligation whatever to keep the
Jewish law, so far as it was separate from practical matters of life and
character. We find this intimated in the writings of Paul; for we have
to go to the New Testament for the origin of that which, we find,
existed immediately after the New Testament was written. Paul says: 'One
man esteemeth one day above another: another man esteemeth every day
alike' (Rom. xiv. 5-9). He leaves it an open question; they can do as
they please. Then: 'Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I
am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain' (Gal. iv.
10, 11). And if you will note this Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, you
will find that the whole purpose of his writing it was to protest
against what he believed to be the viciousness of the Judaizing
influences. That is, he says: 'I have come to preach to you the perfect
truth, that Christ hath made us free; and you are going back and taking
upon yourselves this yoke of bondage. My labor is being thrown away; my
efforts have been in vain.' Then he says, in his celebrated Epistle to
the Colossians, that has never yet been explained away or met: 'Let no
man therefore judge you any more in meat, or in drink, or in respect of
an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days