FOUR HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED GOSPELS



the council were surprised when I took this
stand, and almost as much so when Peter agreed
with me. For Peter had seen a vision and had
heard a voice saying, "What God hath cleansed,
that call not thou common or unclean."
  So now it is arranged that our religion is to
be broad enough to include those whom we re-
gard as orthodox and those who seem to us to
be heretical. The more I think about it, the
more I feel sure that this is what Jesus would
have had us do. For, while He was sent only
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He
sent us into all the world; and if the Gospel is
to go into all the world it must adapt itself to
the needs of men everywhere. The law, as
Paul said to us, was our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ; but having found Christ, it is not
necessary that we regard all its forms as es-
sential even for us, much less that we should
burden our Gentile converts with them.
  It is clear to me that I could never preach
this doctrine effectively; mine is a Gospel for
the Jews. But Paul holds this to be of the
very essence of the Gospel, and we have agreed
that we have no right to forbid his preaching it.
Even so Jesus said, "Forbid him not, for he that
is not against us is with us."
  So it may be that what we have just done
is greatly to widen the scope of our great work,
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