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 tje 9lpostle 
 
 BY 
 
 LYMAN ABBOTT 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
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 COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY LYMAN ABBOTT 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
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 3>-B 
 
PKEFACE 
 
 This volume is one in a series of wholly inde- 
 pendent volumes, which attempt to apply the prin- 
 ciple of evolution to the elucidation of spiritual 
 truth. Of these there have already been published 
 " The Evolution of Christianity ; " " Christianity 
 and Social Problems ; " and " The Theology of an 
 Evolutionist." This volume seeks to employ that 
 principle in the interpretation of the writings of the 
 Apostle Paul. I hope to follow it with one or 
 more volumes in application of the same principle 
 in the interpretation of the other Biblical writers. 
 
 Much if not most of the interpretation of Paul 
 assumes that he entered on his ministry after his 
 retirement in Arabia with a completed system of 
 theology, that this system underwent no material 
 change, that it was the same in his first preaching 
 as at the end of his life, and is the same in the 
 epistles to the Thessalonians as in the epistle to 
 Colossians or the pastoral epistles ; that, in brief, 
 the various epistles are to be regarded as though 
 they were different chapters in a book written at 
 one time, by one and the same mind, in elucidation 
 of the same system of thought 
 
IV PREFACE 
 
 This volume is written on a very different as- 
 sumption. It assumes that Paul grew both in 
 grace and in knowledge after his conversion ; that 
 he learned much while he was teaching ; that he 
 neither at once threw off entirely the Pharisaic tra- 
 ditions in which he had been reared, nor acquired 
 at once a completed system of philosophy to take 
 their place ; that the revelation to him of truth was 
 not an instant revelation flashed upon him in the 
 hour when the risen Christ appeared to him on the 
 road to Damascus, but was a gradual revelation 
 growing out of that vision ; that some of the con- 
 ceptions of the kingdom of God with which he 
 entered on his ministry were subsequently modified 
 and partly laid aside ; that conceptions of that 
 kingdom which are to be found in his later epistles 
 were only gradually attained; that there are dif- 
 ferences, and important differences, if not incon- 
 sistencies, in the teaching of the different epistles ; 
 that his point of view underwent material changes, 
 and that these changes can be traced in a careful 
 study of his epistles in the order in which they 
 were written. In short, it is assumed in this vol- 
 ume that, as there is a progress of doctrine dis- 
 cernible in the Bible, and a growth in the know- 
 ledge of God manifested in the difference between 
 the earlier teachings of Moses and the later teach- 
 ings of John, so there is, in a lesser degree, a 
 
PREFACE V 
 
 progress of doctrine discernible in the writings of 
 individual writers in the Bible. Such progress in 
 the writings of Paul this volume attempts to trace. 
 The unity of Paul's theology is — so at least this 
 volume assumes — not that of a system completed 
 at the outset, but that of a system growing in the 
 mind of the teacher, a system which was formed by 
 the very process by which he gave expression to it. 
 If this is thought to be inconsistent with belief 
 in inspiration, my reply is, I regard as erroneous 
 that theory of inspiration which has ignored when 
 it has not denied Paul's declaration concerning 
 himself : " We know in part and we prophesy in 
 part," and " We see in a mirror darkly." Such a 
 theory neither accords with the claims of the Bib- 
 lical writers nor with the nature of their writings.^ 
 For over a quarter of a century the writings of 
 Paul have been a favorite theme of study with me. 
 I have sought, in a somewhat wide range of read- 
 ing, to get such light as I could from the work of 
 previous students. It would be impossible for me 
 to give credit to the authors to whom I am indebted, 
 both because it would involve an extensive biblio- 
 graphy of the subject, and because, doubtless, in 
 many cases, I have imbibed ideas from authors and 
 have now forgotten the source from which they 
 
 1 See The Theology of an Evolutionist, chap. iv. : The Evolntion 
 of EeTslation. 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 came. The main authority for the interpretation 
 of Paul's writings contained in this volume is Paul's 
 own writings ; next some study of the social condi- 
 tions of Rome in the first century, and of Greek 
 literature — both philosophical and poetical — in 
 that and the three or four preceding centuries. 
 The text of Paul's writings on which I have chiefly 
 relied has been that of Westcott and Hort ; the 
 exegetical commentaries which I have found most 
 helpful are those of Meyer, Alford, EUicott, Stan- 
 ley, and Jowett. But I acknowledge also especial 
 obligations to Professor McGiffert's " The Apos- 
 tolic Age," whose interpretation of Paul appears 
 to me the clearest, most rational, and most spiritual 
 which I have met ; Conybeare and Howson's " Life 
 and Epistles of St. Paul," which, in spite of much 
 subsequent development of Biblical criticism, re- 
 mains the best account of the times and circum- 
 stances of the apostle ; Dr. Ramsay's " The Church 
 in the Roman Empire," and " St. Paul the Traveller 
 and the Roman Citizen," which furnish fine illus- 
 trations of interpretative insight coupled with and 
 aided by a scholar's familiarity with the surround- 
 ings of the apostle ; Dr. George Matheson's " Spir- 
 itual Development of St. Paul," and A. Sabatier's 
 " The Apostle Paul," — the first of which traces 
 the spiritual development of St. Paul from a study 
 of his epistles, the second of which conversely traces 
 
PREFACE Vll 
 
 the progress of his thought in his epistles from a 
 study of the spiritual development of the apostle. 
 It only remains to add that, in giving extracts from 
 Paul's letters, I have generally followed neither 
 the Old Version nor the New Version, but have 
 given a free rendering of my own, in the endeavor 
 to afford the English reader a clearer insight into 
 the meaning of the original. The pastoral epistles 
 — those to Timothy and Titus — are not included 
 in this volume, partly because there is some uncer- 
 tainty as to Paul's authorship of them, but chiefly 
 because they are ecclesiastical rather than philo- 
 sophical, and therefore do not materially add to 
 our understanding of his spiritual thought. 
 
 LYMAN ABBOTT. 
 Brooklyn, N. T., September, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chronological Table 
 
 I. The Point. of View 
 
 II. Paul's Education and Conversion 
 
 III. Paul the Missionakt 
 
 IV. The Eaklt Chuboh 
 
 V. The Lettees to the Thbssalonians 
 
 VI. Paul at Cokinth 
 
 VII. The Fikst Lettbk to the Cobikthians. I. 
 VIII. The Fibst Letter to the Corinthians. II. 
 IX. The Second Lbttee to the Corinthians 
 X. The Letteb to the Galatians . 
 XI. The Letter to the Romans. I. 
 XII. The Letter to the Romans. II. 
 
 XIII. The Letter to the Romans. III. 
 
 XIV. The Letter to the Romans. IV. 
 
 XV. The Letters to the Ephesians and the Co- 
 
 LOSSIANS 
 
 XVI. The Letter to the Phileppians 
 XVII. Conclusion 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 44 
 
 62 
 
 76 
 
 93 
 
 116 
 
 147 
 
 164 
 
 181 
 
 211 
 
 227 
 
 253 
 
 269 
 
 286 
 303 
 318 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 The following chronological table of St. Paul's Life and Epis- 
 tles is taken from Bishop Lightfoot's Biblical Essays, pages 221- 
 223. 
 
 While there is some question about the dates here given, and 
 I have placed Philippians after Colossians and Ephesians, there is 
 no reason to doubt that the general order and substantially the 
 dates, of the letters and the main events in Paul's life, as re- 
 corded in the Book of Acts, occurred as represented in this table. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 34 St. Paul's conversion. 
 
 He visits Arabia, and returns to Damascus. (Gal. i. 17 ; 
 Acta ix. 20-25 ; 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33.) 
 37 First visit to Jerusalem. (Acts ix. 26 ; Gal. i. 18.) 
 37-44 To Caesarea and Tarsus, visit to Syria. (Acts ix. 30 ; Gal. 
 i. 21.) 
 
 44 St. Paul brought by Barnabas to Antioch. He stays 
 
 there a year. (Acts xi. 26.) 
 
 45 Second visit to Jerusalem with alms. (Acts xi. 29, 30.) 
 46, 47 At Antioch. 
 
 48 First missionary journey (Acts xiii. 1-xiv. 26) with Bar- 
 nabas. He visits Cyprus, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, 
 Lystra, Derhe, and returns to Antioch. 
 
 51 Third visit to Jerusalem with Barnabas (Gal. ii. 1 seq. ; 
 
 Acts XV. 1 seq.) Second missionary journey with SUas. 
 (Acts XV. 36-xviii. 22.) 
 
 52 Crosses into Europe. First visit to Philippi, Thessalonica, 
 
 and Corinth. (1 Thessalonians.) 
 
 53 At Corinth. (2 Thessalonians.) 
 
 54 Leaves Corinth for Ephesus. Returns to Antioch. Third 
 
 missionary journey. (Acts xviii. 23-xxi. 15.) To 
 Ephesus again. 
 
i CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 55 At Ephesus. Second visit to Corinth. (2 Cor. xii. 14; 
 
 xiii. 1, 2.) 
 
 56 At Ephesus. 
 
 57 At Ephesus. 
 
 58 At Corinth. (Romans.) Third visit to Philippi. Fourth 
 
 visit to Jerusalem. 
 
 59 At Csesarea. 
 
 60 Voyage to Rome, and shipwreck at Malta. 
 
 61 Arrival at Rome. 
 
 62 At Rome. (Philippians) Spring. (Colossians, Ephesiaus, 
 
 Philemon) Autumn. 
 
 63 Spring. Release of St. Paul. His subsequent history is 
 
 not known with any certainty. 
 
 The letters to Timothy and Titus, if written by him at 
 all, were written subsequent to his release. According 
 to a uniform tradition he was beheaded under Nero in 
 Rome ; the probable date, A. D. 67 or 68. 
 
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF PAUL 
 THE APOSTLE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE POINT OF VIEW 
 
 The literary history of the world furnishes no 
 parallel to the influence exerted by the writings of 
 Paul, except such as is afforded by the history of the 
 Bible in which those writings are found. Of the 
 life of the man himself we have but a fragment, — 
 perhaps I should rather say a series of fragments. 
 The story of his life, as it can be gathered from 
 the Book of Acts, includes nothing of his youth or 
 early education, nothing of his closing years and 
 death.^ What we know on these subjects we are 
 
 ^ My judgment coincides with that of Dr. Kamsay in " placing 
 the author of the Book of Acts among the historians of the first 
 rank." — St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, p. 4, £f. 
 Comp. McGiffert, The Apostolic Age, p. 346 : " If anything is clear, 
 it is that the Book of Acts is not a mere collection of documents, 
 but a well ordered and artistically arranged composition." But 
 whether we regard it as written by Luke or edited hy some un- 
 known writer out of older documents, among which were the 
 *' we " passages from the pen of Luke, so far as Paul's life is con- 
 cerned, the book gives us only a fragment, which it is not always 
 easy to harmonize with the autobiographical memorabilia contained 
 in Paul's Epistles. 
 
Z PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 left to gather from autobiographic references in his 
 Epistles and from a not too trustworthy tradition. 
 The story in Acts begins at his conversion, when 
 he was probably over thirty years of age. It ends 
 with him a prisoner in Rome. Thus a mere frag- 
 ment of his life is all that is afforded us. And his 
 writings are mere fragments. He has left no trea- 
 tise ; no work on philosophy. One of his letters 
 may perhaps be regarded as a summary of his 
 general teaching, but that was not written for the 
 purpose of furnishing such a summary. Jowett's 
 translation of Plato occupies four volumes, in the 
 revised and new edition five volumes, of consider- 
 able size. A part of these volumes is taken up, it 
 is true, with introductions ; but if these were taken 
 out, and we had simply the dialogues of Plato, we 
 should have not less than three octavo volumes 
 of considerable magnitude. If we accept aU the 
 extant letters which any one supposes Paul wrote, 
 we have a little less than sixty pages of a moder- 
 ate-sized octavo. If we take those letters which 
 by the consent of nearly all modern scholars are 
 attributed to Paul, we have a little over forty 
 pages. That is all.^ 
 
 These letters are all we have, and probably all 
 we ever shall have, of the writings of Paul. They 
 
 '' Few scholars now attribute Hebrews to Paul ; Sabatier and 
 MoGifEert both question Paul's authorship of the Pastoral Epistles 
 I. and 11. Timothy and Titus. — The Apostle Paul, p. 264 fB. ; The 
 Apostolic Age, p. 398 ff. Kamsay assumes Paul's authorship of 
 them. — The Church in the Soman Empire, p. 246. 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 3 
 
 are letters written to particular churches to meet 
 particular exigencies. In writing them Paul had 
 no conception that he was writing for future gener- 
 ations. He did not dream of his own immortality. 
 He did not consciously write for posterity. He 
 formulated no system, was not ambitious to be the 
 founder of a philosophy. And yet no teacher out- 
 side the Bible has ever been studied as Paul, and 
 no teacher in the Bible has ever been studied as 
 Paul, save only Christ himself. There are libraries 
 in Europe and in this country in which there is a 
 measurably complete collection of what the great 
 Shakespearean scholars have written concerning 
 Shakespeare ; but it could almost be said of the 
 books written and of the sermons preached con- 
 cerning Paul, as John said, hyperbolically, of the 
 things which Jesus did : If they were all recorded 
 and brought together, the world itself could not 
 contain them.-^ For eighteen centuries men have 
 been speaking in interpretation of this writer, and 
 they are likely to continue speaking in interpreta- 
 tion of him for centuries to come. 
 
 How happens it that this Jewish rabbi of the 
 olden time has produced such an impression ? How 
 happens it that, whereas the classical authors of 
 that time are studied by only the few, and the 
 
 1 " The literature -whioh bears upon St. Paul is so extensive that a 
 complete account of it would he as much heyond the compass of 
 this article as it would be bewildering to its readers." — Encyclo- 
 pcedia Britannica, toI. Xfiii. p. 430. A complete bibliography of 
 the subject would itself make a volume of considerable size. 
 
4 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 rabbinical authors of that time are studied by 
 scarcely any — this man, only a fragment of whose 
 life we possess, and only fragments of whose teach- 
 ings we possess, has been and still is studied with 
 such passionate enthusiasm by the many? It is 
 partly, doubtless, because he is enigmatical ; we are 
 all interested in solving riddles. But the principal 
 reason is this : Paul translates Christianity, which 
 in its original form was Hebraic, into the intellec- 
 tual forms of the Occident. 
 
 The Hebrew was not a philosopher.^ It might 
 almost be said of him that he did not think, he 
 acted. He concerned himself with truth only as it 
 was life, and for truth apart from life he cared not. 
 A farmer goes to his door in the morning and 
 looks at the clouds. Is it going to rain or clear 
 to-day? he asks. Not because he cares anything 
 about the clouds ; he cares only whether he shall 
 get in his hay or not. But the scientist looks at 
 the clouds to learn what is the truth of meteorology. 
 The teacher goes to the schoolroom and studies 
 there child-nature, simply that, by understanding 
 the nature of the children before him, he may 
 better be able to instruct their intellect, to inspire 
 
 1 " One who is devoted to the search for fundamental truth; in a 
 restricted sense, one who is versed in or studies the metaphysical 
 and moral sciences." — Century Dictionary. It is in this sense I 
 use the word here. The Hebrew was not interested in truth as a 
 science or system, hut only in truth as it was applied to and 
 effective in life. Matthew Arnold has described very clearly 
 the difference between the Hebrew and the Greek mind, in this 
 respect. 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 5 
 
 their life, to broaden their horizon, to make them 
 wiser, better, larger men and women. The psycho- 
 logist goes into the same school-room to study 
 child-nature, plying the children with hard ques- 
 tions even more thoroughly than the teacher, but 
 he does this, not for the pupil's life, but that he 
 may, out of the questions and answers, construct a 
 philosophy of child-nature. The Hebrew character 
 was like the farmer's character and the teacher's 
 character. He cared for truth only as it had a 
 bearing on life. 
 
 We have in the Old Testament a collection of 
 Hebrew literature ; in that collection there is not a 
 book that can properly be called a book of phi- 
 losophy. There are three volumes which are called 
 " Wisdom Literature," — Job, Proverbs, Ecclesi- 
 astes. But no one of these is a book of philosophy 
 in the modern sense of the term. The Book of Job 
 discusses the problem of suffering, but it reaches 
 no conclusion. It is a great epic poem, not a phil- 
 osophical treatise. It begins with life and suffer- 
 ing a mystery ; and it ends with life and suffering 
 a mystery. The teaching of the Book of Job is 
 this : Philosophy is vain and idle ; the answer to 
 the enigma of life which we have borrowed from 
 other nations is false ; there is no answer to the 
 question, How could a righteous God have made a 
 suffering world ? life is an insoluble mystery. The 
 Book of Proverbs is a collection of coined apho- 
 risms, ethical precepts, spiritual precepts ; but it 
 contains no generic philosophical system. Out of 
 
6 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 them, perhaps, we may construct a philosophy, but 
 they do not of themselves embody a philosophy. 
 Ecclesiastes discusses the mystery of life from 
 three points of view, — that of the pleasure-seeker, 
 that of the cynic, and that of the student,- — but 
 ends with simply this : Fear God and keep his 
 commandments. The result of the discussion is 
 not a philosophy of life, but the practical conclu- 
 sion — do right. 
 
 Accordingly, in the Old Testament we never find 
 definitions. We find some quasi-definitions, such 
 as that of the prophet, " What doth the Lord re- 
 quire of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and 
 to walk humbly with thy God ? " but of the kind of 
 discussion of what religion is and how it is to be 
 defined, which we find in Max Miiller, for instance, 
 there is no illustration from Genesis to Malachi. 
 We find in the Old Testament no creeds, no theo- 
 logical system, and no attempt to formulate a 
 system. The Hebrew was content to live. He 
 reverenced God, but he did not define him. He 
 urged men to practical duty, but he did not discuss 
 the theoretical basis of practical duty. He had no 
 theories of life. He lived ; that was all. When 
 Jesus Christ came, he also made no attempt to 
 formulate a philosophy. He disclosed the spirit of 
 life with greater clearness than it had ever before 
 been disclosed. He brought new impulse and new 
 inspiration into life. But he did not define. He 
 did not philosophize. 
 
 On the other hand, the Greek cared compara- 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 7 
 
 tively little about righteousness in life, and very- 
 much about truth in thought. He cared also about 
 beauty, both in form and in conduct. Indeed, the 
 word he chiefly used to express excellence of char- 
 acter was a word which means beauty, — nothing 
 else. Paul, coming at a time when Hebraism was 
 breaking from its shell, when Christ was giving to 
 it a new life, translated the new life into terms of 
 Greek thought. He enabled men to think about 
 what before they had only done. He is the link 
 between life and philosophy, the intellectual inter- 
 preter of spiritual life. This is the reason why he 
 is studied and admired ; it is also the reason why 
 he is by so many repudiated. For there are still 
 these two elements in the community. There are 
 many men who do not care to think ; they only 
 wish to do. They do not want a philosophy of life. 
 They are quite willing to live empirically. But, 
 generally in Europe and America, and particularly 
 in the Germanic races, the Greek type of man 
 dominates intellectually. We are not content sim- 
 ply to live ; we desire to harmonize our life and 
 our thinking. And especially the children of the 
 Puritans desire to do so. They wish to think truly 
 as well as to do righteously. 
 
 Paul is in this sense the founder of theology, as 
 Copernicus was the founder of astronomy. Bacon 
 the father of the inductive system, and Plato the 
 originator of modern philosophy. Paul was the 
 first man to attempt to translate the Hebrew vision 
 of life into the Greek form of thought ; the Oriental 
 
8 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 perception of life as conduct into the Occidental 
 conception of truth as thought. He is the intel- 
 lectual interpreter both of the Old Testament and 
 of the New ; both of Moses and of Christ. 
 
 In our study of Paul I ask the reader to lay aside 
 all theological preconceptions. Mediaeval scholas- 
 ticism has overlaid Paul with a formalism of its 
 own, and imputed to Paul a philosophy of its own. 
 Paul has been studied in the light of the sixteenth 
 century, not in the light of the first, and in the en- 
 tirely legitimate attempt to apply his teachings to 
 modern problems of thought and life he has been 
 studied as though he had those problems before him 
 when he wrote. Sometimes the conceptions of 
 religion against which he consecrated his life's best 
 energies have been imputed to him ; sometimes a 
 later half-Christianized paganism foreign alike to 
 him and to his age. The desire to find atithority 
 for " doubtful disputations " has led the disputants 
 to go to Paul, not to learn with open mind what he 
 has to teach, but to find in his teaching support 
 of the positions of a modern controversialist. And 
 out of this and kindred misuse of Paul's Letters 
 has grown such misconception of his spirit as is 
 indicated in the following letter, not long since ad- 
 dressed to me : — 
 
 " Has not religious persecution, denominational intol- 
 erance and bigotry, resulted rather from the theology of 
 the Apostles than from the gentle, loving life, spirit, and 
 teachings of Christ? Is there not and has thei-e not 
 always been in the pulpit too much interpretation of the 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 9 
 
 teachings of Christ in the spirit of Saul, and too little 
 interpretation of Paul in the spirit of Christ ? " 
 
 The reader who takes up this volume to read it 
 through the atmosphere of such preconceptions, 
 who believes that Paul was the first of that long 
 line of theologians who have corrupted the simpli- 
 city of Christ's teaching by scholastic refinements 
 and far-fetched distinctions, the reader who has 
 been accustomed to regard Paul as the founder 
 of a school of thought rather than as a minister to 
 noble living, and to identify him with the misinter- 
 preted ninth chapter of Romans rather than with 
 the incomparable thirteenth chapter of First Co- 
 rinthians, the reader who measures Paul's teaching 
 by its relations to Augustinianism or Calvinism, 
 Puritanism or Methodism, oblivious of the peculiar 
 thought and life problems of the nascent church of 
 the first century, must lay aside these preconcep- 
 tions altogether, or he may as well lay aside this 
 volume. What I ask him to do is to imagine that 
 he has come unexpectedly across an old and curious 
 collection of nine letters written by one Paul, for- 
 merly called Saul, and that he wonders who and 
 what manner of man this Paul was, and what was 
 the object of his writing, and what the meaning of 
 these letters. If he will take up this volume in 
 this spirit and read it through, he will then be able 
 at the close of his reading to form his judgment as 
 to whether the book justly and fairly interprets the 
 unknown writer. But if he assumes at the outset 
 that Paul is a Calvinist or an Arminian, a Conser- 
 
10 PAUL TUB APOSTLE 
 
 vative or a Radical, the founder of a school or the 
 critic of a philosophy, he will not be able to under- 
 stand my understanding of Paul, since his point of 
 view will be so absolutely different. 
 
 Assuming, then, that the reader is willing and 
 able to lay aside his point of view, and for the little 
 time we are together to accept mine, it becomes nec- 
 essary to indicate certain elements in the character 
 of Paul which in this volume I apparently take for 
 granted, though in reality this estimate of his char- 
 acter has grown out of the same studies from which 
 this interpretation of his writings has proceeded. 
 
 First of all we have to realize that Paid is a 
 prophet, a seer. Some men grope their way to 
 truth ; some men rise like birds upon wings, and, 
 looking down upon truth from above, see it spread 
 out beneath them in God's sunlight. These are the 
 poets and seers. Such a man was Isaiah, Plato, 
 Carlyle, Emerson, Browning ; such a man was 
 Paul. He has been studied as though he were a 
 logician, a deducer of truth from premises, a for- 
 mulator of a system for the system's sake, an an- 
 cient John Calvin. The student has been puzzled 
 to trace the logical connection in his Epistles ; often 
 there is no logical connection. Paul is not a lo- 
 gician ; he is often unlogical, sometimes illogical. 
 He uses arguments, not because they are philoso- 
 phically sound, but because they will accomplish 
 his purpose. His mind is not of the type of 
 Aristotle ; it is of the type of Isaiah. 
 
 He was not a student of philosophy. There is 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 11 
 
 in his writings nothing to indicate that he was fa- 
 miliar with Greek philosophy ; nothing to indicate 
 that he had even heard of Plato or Socrates.-' He 
 probably had heard of them, but he never refers to 
 them. His life was not that of a philosopher. It 
 was not spent among books, but among men. He 
 was an evangelist, traveling from province to pro- 
 vince and from city to city, preaching sermons and 
 occasionally writing letters of counsel to groups of 
 Christ's disciples who were his friends. He did not 
 use truth as a philosopher uses it, — that is, as one 
 who admires truth for its intellectual beauty, or a 
 system of truth for its harmonious proportions. To 
 him truth was instrumental, — a means, not an end. 
 He used it to help men. " All scripture which is 
 inspired," he writes to Timothy, " is profitable." 
 Profit, not symmetry, is the measure of inspiration. 
 " I kept back nothing," he says to the Ephesian 
 elders, " that was profitable unto you." Profit to 
 the hearers is his standard in teaching. So far as 
 he could see that truth would be profitable to men, 
 he used it — and no further. He was born and bred 
 in a dialectic age, educated in a dialectic school, 
 and speaks to audiences trained in dialectics. He 
 therefore uses the dialectic method. But he does 
 not arrive at truth by logical processes; he per- 
 ceives it. It is, he says, " spiritually discerned." 
 He is a seer and prophet, overlaid by rabbinical 
 education, and using the dialectic method to com- 
 mend truth to an age pervaded, alike in Hebrew, 
 1 But see note, p. 20, cliap. ii. 
 
12 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Greek, and Eoman communities, by the dialectic 
 spirit. 
 
 Such a man as this puts language to a severe 
 test, and it breaks down under his use. A pioneer 
 in truth never can use words in their old-time 
 meaning. The missionaries in China to-day are 
 divided into two parties on the question which 
 Chinese word they shall use in order to teach the 
 simple proposition that God is love ; because the 
 Chinese have no word that means God, and this is 
 because they have no conception of God. A per- 
 sonal Father who loves his children is not in their 
 consciousness, and therefore it is not in their lan- 
 guage. Paul had ideas that ran beyond the con- 
 sciousness of his age, and ran, I sometimes think, 
 beyond the consciousness of our age ; but he had 
 to use the language that existed in his time and 
 put his ideas into that language. Words cracked 
 under Paul's use of them. He wishes to tell men 
 what righteousness is, but he has no word which 
 will represent his conception of righteousness. He 
 wishes to tell men how he conceives divine right- 
 eousness can be obtained, and there is no language 
 by which his conception can be expressed. The 
 language does not exist, because the idea does not 
 exist. He takes old words and puts new mean- 
 ings into them. Scholars have gone back to the 
 Septuagint to see how the Greek word was used 
 there. They have gone to the classic Greek to find 
 out how it was used there. But Paul does not use 
 the pivotal words in his teaching as they were used 
 
TBE POINT OF VIEW 13 
 
 by the Septuagint or by the pagan Greek. "We are 
 to learn Paul's meaning by studying Paul's use, by 
 comparing word with word and phrase with phrase 
 and passage with passage, that we may grope our 
 way to the transcendent life which broke into frag- 
 ments the words which he employed to utter life. 
 
 Paul was a seer and a prophet ; and as seer and 
 prophet, not as philosopher and theologian, he is to 
 be studied. He used Greek words to express ideas 
 which the Greek mind had never entertained, and 
 we must learn their meaning and clothe his words 
 therewith. He was, moreover, an orator. The ora- 
 tor always thinks of his audience when he speaks or 
 writes. He is not interested in the simple exposi- 
 tion of truth ; he is interested to get this particular 
 truth at this particular time into the minds of the 
 particular men and women before him, — whether 
 in fact or in imagination. Whether he is a writer 
 or a speaker, if he has the oratorical temperament, 
 his object is to put his intellectual life into the life 
 of other men and women ; and that was emphati- 
 cally Paul's character. Men have taken Paul's 
 account of what was said of him by his enemies as 
 though it were a true description of him : " His 
 bodily presence is weak, and his speech contempti- 
 ble." Why do they not go to the life itself ? Look 
 at this man in certain critical epochs of his life. 
 He is set upon by a mob in the temple, beaten, half 
 killed, rescued from the mob by the soldiers, and 
 there, with his garments all disheveled and covered 
 with dust, asks, " May I speak to the mob ? " raises 
 
14 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 his hand, and the mob hushes and listens. Henry- 
 Ward Beecher himself, in England, never won a 
 greater triumph of oratory than did Paul on the 
 temple stairs at Jerusalem. A mob seizes two of 
 his friends and rushes into a theatre with them. 
 Paul can hardly be dissuaded from rushing into the- 
 theatre to rescue his friends, because he feels sure 
 of his power to calm that audience with his words. 
 He preaches before Felix, and Felix trembles, who 
 never was known to tremble before or after, — hard, 
 insensitive, callous Roman that he was. Paul is an 
 orator, and he uses language in oratorical forms. 
 He puts himself into the mental attitude of his 
 auditors ; makes it his business to understand the 
 men he is talking with. To the Greek he became a 
 Greek ; to the Jew he became a Jew ; he became all 
 things to all men. There was no man he did not aim 
 to understand ; no man in whose place he did not 
 try to put himself that he might put life into him. 
 This man with a life too great for the language 
 of his time, enthralled by his dialectic education 
 and breaking through it, using logical forms but 
 not logical processes, logical in his speech but not 
 in his mental structure, full of a passionate devo- 
 tion to truth, but only because truth ministers to 
 life, Hebrew of Hebrews, and using the dialectic 
 method only that he may impart Christian life to 
 the Greek world, and through Greece to the heart 
 of Europe — this man is over-full, and his words 
 pour out of him as water pours out of a bottle when 
 it is held upside down. Sometimes he quotes an 
 
TEE POINT OF VIEW 15 
 
 objection and dismisses it without an answer ; some- 
 times he answers it ; sometimes it is difficult to tell 
 whether he is a critic or an advocate of a doctrine ; 
 sometimes, like Browning, he hardly knows himseK 
 which he is. 
 
 Nor is this all. He sometimes addresses himself ; 
 argues with himself ; does not see the truth clearly 
 before he begins to utter it, but thinks, as it were, 
 aloud, feeling his way to the truth in his writing. 
 He was born a Pharisee, bred a Pharisee, educated 
 a Pharisee. In his writing we can sometimes see 
 him struggling to free himself from the Pharisaic 
 bands that bind him, and finally emerging and 
 carrying his audience with him by the very strug- 
 gle.i 
 
 This man — prophet, not philosopher — poet, 
 not logician — orator, not scholastic — has written 
 no treatise, only letters, and a letter is never the 
 sole product of the man who writes it. To know 
 Paul's writings we must know not Paul only, but 
 the men to whom he writes. 
 
 " There lies the letter, tut it is not he 
 As he retires into himself and is ; 
 Sender and Sent-to go to make up this 
 The offspring of their vinion." ^ 
 
 This, which is Lord Tennyson's canon for the 
 interpretation of letters, is to no author more appli- 
 cable than to Paul. These letters of his are not 
 
 ^ See, for illustration of this, post, ch. xiii. 
 
 ^From an "Unpublished Sonnet" in Preface to Memoirs of 
 Lord Tennyson, by his son. 
 
16 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 theological treatises. They are true letters, written 
 by one who possessed the true oratorical tempera^ 
 ment, who wrote always for immediate effect, and 
 in the study of whose letters " Sender and Sent-to " 
 must be alike studied. He writes in one way to 
 the Colossians, in another way to the Thessalo- 
 nians, in another way to the Corinthians. He 
 does not care whether he is consistent with himself 
 or not. To him, as to Emerson, consistency is the 
 vice of small minds. He only cares to convince 
 men and win them to himself and to his Christ. 
 
 Finally, Paul's style has all the vices of letters 
 proceeding from such a man, and dictated extem- 
 poraneously ; for Paul did not write, he dictated. 
 It abounds in parentheses, interpolations, correc- 
 tions, and involved sentences ; sometimes the sen- 
 tence is left unfinished. When the letter was ended, 
 he sometimes added a postscript in his own hand. 
 See what big letters I have written, he says — for ' 
 he was half blind, and wrote as half blind men do, 
 in large characters.^ 
 
 Imagine, then, this man writing one of these 
 letters. He has seen a vision of the truth ; he would 
 lay down his life to give that truth to the men he 
 loves, — loves, as he says, the more, the less he is 
 loved. But they do not see ; and he cannot under- 
 stand why they are so blind. He thought they 
 understood him, and they did not. They have fal- 
 len away again ; they have gone away from the 
 
 'Gal. vi. 11, Rev. Vers. ^ "See with how large letters I have 
 written unto you, with mine own hand." 
 
THE POINT OF VIEW 17 
 
 truth whicli they once received from him. His 
 heart is full. He sees before him those to whom 
 he wishes to speak ; they are as though they were 
 present with him. He begins to talk with them, as 
 he paces up and down the room ; the amanuensis 
 keeps pace as well as he can with the increasing tor- 
 rent ; the speaker thinks as he speaks, and corrects, 
 modifies, inserts parentheses, and, as it were, inter- 
 lineations, as he dictates. The thought grows in 
 expressing ; the inadequacy of language oppresses 
 him ; he turns the truth back and forth in endeavor 
 to shed its light. He phrases an objection and 
 sweeps it away in one short sentence or leaves it 
 contemptuously to refute itself, or the transcending 
 truth of his own experience passes beyond all 
 bounds of exposition and he breaks forth into a 
 rhapsody of praise or prayer. When the letter is 
 finished, he has neither time nor patience to revise. 
 He adds a salutation, sometimes a longer postscript, 
 sends it in haste, and then goes about other work 
 which is pressing upon him. 
 
 This is the Paul whom we are to study. Not a 
 John Calvin, rather a Browning ; but a Browning 
 on fire with a moral intensity such as Browning 
 never knew ; a Browning who believes that the 
 kingdom of God is close at hand ; a Browning who 
 believes that every day brings it closer and still 
 closer ; a Browning who believes that the night is 
 almost gone and the day-dawn is at hand ; a Brown- 
 ing who believes that he possesses the secret which 
 will abolish injustice from government and fear 
 
18 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 from the hearts of men, and will usher in the king- 
 dom of righteousness and the glory of God. 
 
 Philosopher among poets is Browning ; poet 
 among philosophers is Paul : prophet, seer, preacher, 
 orator, interpreter of Christ's spirit to the thought 
 of the world. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Paul's education and conversion 
 
 Paul was born in Tarsus.^ His ancestry was 
 Hebrew, and he was by birth, by inheritance, and 
 by education a Hebrew.^ His city was a Greek 
 city in its atmosphere, though under Roman domi- 
 nation. It was a famous university town ; it was 
 claimed in that time that the university was greater 
 than that of Alexandria.^ It was not only a uni- 
 versity town, but notable for Greek scholarship, 
 perhaps scarcely less so than Athens itself, possibly 
 even more so. Thus this boy breathed a Grecian 
 atmosphere in his boyhood. But he did not receive 
 a Greek education. His knowledge of Greek litera- 
 ture would be something like the knowledge which 
 a Huguenot boy might get in Paris in the time of 
 the Revolution respecting the literature of Diderot 
 and Voltaire; for the Hebrews regarded Greek 
 literature, and with some show of reason, as grossly 
 immoral.* A Hebrew would no more have set his 
 
 ^ Acts xxi. 39 ; xxii. 3. For convenience I retain throughout 
 this Tolume his later name of Paul. 
 
 2 Phil. iii. 5. " An Hebrew from Hebrews,'' i.e. from Hebrew 
 parents on both sides. 
 
 8 See Lightfoot's Biblical Essays, p. 205. 
 
 <* He never materially changed his estimate of paganism. Rom. 
 i. 22-26 ; 1 Cor. vi. 5 ; 2 Cor. vi. 14 ; Gal. ii. 15 ; iv. 8 ; 1 Thes. iv. 5. 
 
20 PAUL THE AFOSTLE 
 
 boy to the study of the Greek poets and dramatists 
 than a Puritan in the reign of Charles II. would 
 have set his boy to study the dramatic literature of 
 that age. There are three or four citations from 
 the Greek poets in Paul's writings, but they are 
 simply popular proverbs such as any man might 
 pick up in common intercourse in society.-' 
 
 He learned the trade of tent-making, for the 
 
 ^ " There is no groTind for saying that St. Paul was a very eradite 
 or highly cultivated man. An obvious maxim of practical life from 
 Menander (1 Cor. xv. 33) , a religious sentiment of Cleanthes repeated 
 by Aratus, himself a native of Tarsus (Acts xvii. 28), a pungent 
 satire of Epimenides (Tit. i. 12), with possibly a passage here and 
 there "which dimly reflects some classical writer — these are very 
 slender grounds on which to build a supposition of vast learning." — 
 Lightfoot's Biblical Essays, p. 206 ; comp. McGiffert's Apostolic 
 Age, p. 114 note ; Sabatier's Apostle Paul, p. 47. A correspond- 
 ent, however, sends me the following interesting parallel be- 
 tween utterances of Plato and of Paul, as an indication that Paul 
 was not unfamiliar with Plato. He adds, " Of course these quo- 
 tations may be mere coincidences.'' 
 
 PLATO PAUL 
 
 Now if death is like this, I For me to live is Christ, and 
 say that to die is gain. to die is gain. 
 
 The hour of departure has I am now ready to be offered, 
 arrived, and we go our ways, I and the time of my departure is 
 to die and you to live — which at hand. 
 
 is better God only knows. To be with Christ, which is 
 
 far better. 
 
 I am very far from admitting For now we see through a 
 that he who contemplates ex- glass, darkly, but then face to 
 istences through the medium face, 
 of thought sees them only 
 ' ' through a glass, darkly," any 
 more than he who sees them in 
 their working effects. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 21 
 
 rabbinical law required every boy to learn a trade ; 
 but he was not, apparently, dependent upon it for a 
 livelihood; there are indications in his life — to 
 some of which I may refer hereafter — that he 
 was not poor, that at least he had means of sup- 
 port independent either of his industry or of the 
 churches which he served. 
 
 It was his boast that he was not dependent upon 
 the latter ; and he apparently never took anything 
 by way of salary from them, though he gratefully 
 acknowledged gifts, which they occasionally sent 
 to him.^ 
 
 How long he lived at Tarsus we do not know. 
 By the age of twelve ^ he had gone up to Jerusalem, 
 
 Then we ought not to retali- See that none render evil for 
 ate or render evil for evil to any evil unto any man. 
 one, whatever evil we may have 
 suffered from him. 
 
 But necessity was laid upon For necessity is laid upon me ; 
 me — the word of God I thought yea, woe is unto me, if I preach 
 ought to be considered first. not the gospel ! 
 
 I am a man, and, like other We also are men of like pas- 
 men, a creature of flesh and sions with you. 
 blood, and not of " wood or 
 stone," as Homer says. 
 
 I speak because I am con- We have wronged no man ; 
 vinced that I never intention- we have corrupted no man ; we 
 ally wronged any one. have defrauded no man. 
 
 The life which is uneitamined Examine yourselves whether 
 is not worth living. ye be in the faith. 
 
 1 Acts XX. 33, 34 ; Phil. iv. 10-17 ; 1 Thess. ii. 9 ; 2 Thess. 
 iii. 8. 
 
 ^ Acts xxii. 3. " Brought up " signifies from early youth. Com- 
 
22 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 where later, and very likely at that time, his sister 
 was living — 7 whether at that time married or not, 
 we do not know ; she was married afterwards.^ Here 
 he entered the great Jewish university, under 
 Gamaliel,^ one of the great Hebrew scholars of his 
 time, and studied with passionate devotion the lit- 
 erature, the law, and the hopes of Israel. He has 
 told us what the results of this study were. He 
 became not only a Pharisee — that is, a separatist 
 or a Puritan of the time — but one of the strictest 
 sect of the Pharisees, exceedingly scrupulous in 
 belief and in practice.^ He was orthodox of the 
 orthodox. We can therefore tell a little what his 
 beliefs were ; for we know what their beliefs were. 
 He believed that the law had been given to Moses 
 in the mount ; that every word and every letter of 
 it had been so given. He would have been a great 
 deal more impatient of the Higher Criticism than 
 most impatient critics of that criticism are in our 
 time. He would have had none of it. He believed 
 that Moses wrote every word and every letter of the 
 Pentateuch, including the account of his own death ; 
 and that Moses wrote this by dictation, word for 
 word, as God gave it to him ; unless, indeed, he 
 went still further and believed, as some Pharisees 
 did, that God wrote the book himself in heaven and 
 
 pare Luke iv. 16 and Act3 Tii. 20. Jewish children were sent 
 away to school at the age of twelve. 
 
 ^ Acts xxiii. 16. 
 
 ^ For history and character of Gamaliel see my Com. on Acts 
 V. 34. 
 
 ^ Acts xxii. 3 ; xxvi. 5 ; Phil. iii. 4-6 ; Gal. i. 14. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 23 
 
 handed it down to Moses on the mount, finished 
 and ready for reading.^ 
 
 To understand this law was the supreme object 
 of his study ; to obey this law was the supreme 
 object of his life. But that part of this law which 
 most interested Paul was that which interests us the 
 least, — the Levifcical or ceremonial part. The argu- 
 ment for the supremacy of this portion of the law 
 was very short and simple, and is not difficult to 
 understand. The moral law — so argued the Phar- 
 isees — relates to man's duty to his feUow-man ; 
 the ceremo nial law ^jelates t" man's flnfy to ^'^^ 
 God. Justice, mercy, kindness, are obligations due 
 "IBy^an to his fellow-man; but to offer the ap- 
 pointed sacrifices, to observe the appointed fasts, to 
 attend the sacred feasts, to obey the Sabbath regu- 
 lations, to fulfiU the required ritual in worship, to 
 perform the ceremonial ablutions, is doing man's 
 duty to God. It is a great deal more important 
 to do one's duty to God than to do one's duty to his 
 fellow-men. It is, therefore, far more important 
 that he should offer the right sacrifice, pay the 
 right tithes, comply scrupulously with the Sabbath 
 and festal regulations, and observe the laws respect- 
 ing cleanliness and uncleanliness, than that he 
 should do justly or love mercy. The declaration 
 of the prophet, that to do justly, love mercy, and 
 walk humbly with God ^ was all that God required, 
 
 ^ See Schiirer : Jewish People in Time of Christ, ii. 1 : p. 306 £B., 
 p. 337 ff. 
 
 2 Micah vi. 8. 
 
24 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 had long ceased to be orthodox teaeliing. That 
 Christ had attempted to revive this old teaching of 
 the prophets and put righteousness above ritual was 
 one of the charges preferred against him.^ With 
 that teaching Paul would have had no sympathy. 
 He could not believe it. To him ritual was the 
 heart of the law. Religion was obedience to ritual. 
 He practiced what he believed. " As touching the 
 law," he said, " I was blameless." He fasted twice 
 a week : on the fifth day, because on that day 
 Moses had gone up into the mount ; on the second 
 day, because on that day Moses had come down 
 again. His year was fuU of fastings. He cele- 
 brated in fasts almost every great calamity in the 
 national history: the overthrow of Jerusalem by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, the burning of the Temple by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, the murder of Gedaliah by Ish- 
 mael, the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. 
 He was scrupulous about the Sabbath. He would 
 carry no bundle on the Sabbath day ; would not walk 
 any considerable distance, and never, under any 
 circumstances, for pleasure or recreation. He was 
 scrupulous about the Jewish feasts as well. He 
 was always at the synagogue when the Sabbath day 
 came round. Whenever he returned from a walk, 
 the first thing he did was to get the ewer and basin 
 of water that stood in every Jewish household, 
 and to wash at least his hands. He might have 
 touched a Gentile ; then he would have been un- 
 clean ; and had he eaten with unclean hands, the 
 
 1 Matt. ix. 11-13 ; xii. 2 ; Luke xi. 37-42; Mark to. 2. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 25 
 
 uncleanness would have entered into him and de- 
 graded him. 
 
 And yet he was not satisfied ; for he had an 
 ethical nature. He half-consciously believed that 
 there was something more in righteousness than 
 hand-washing, Sabbath observance, synagogue at- 
 tendance, tithe-paying, and fasting. He believed in 
 justice and mercy, in temperance and righteousness ; 
 and although, as touching the ceremonial law, he 
 was able to be blameless, yet his ethical ideal always 
 transcended his practice, and he never attained 
 it. He has given us a graphic picture of himself 
 at this time. It is true that this picture probably 
 represents his later interpretation of his earlier 
 experience. We know that Bunyan's pictures 
 of his own condition are not such as he would 
 have painted when he was a tinker. We know 
 that John B. Gough's account of his own experi- 
 ences is not such as he would have given when he 
 was a drunken stage actor. So the experience of 
 Paul before his conversion was doubtless a vague, 
 uninterpreted, strange unrest, not at all the vivid 
 consciousness as he subsequently described it as 
 perceived from the vantage-ground of a higher 
 experience : ^ — 
 
 " Once I was living without law. But when the com- 
 mandment came, sin lived again, and I died ; and the 
 
 1 It must be remembered that his statement that he was the 
 chief of sinners (1 Tim. i. 15), supposing he wrote the letters to 
 Timothy, was made at the close of his life and as the result of his 
 backward look upon it. 
 
26 PAUL, THE APOSTLE 
 
 commandment, which was in its object life, I found to 
 be in its result death. For sin, taking the command- 
 ment as a base of operations, thereby deceived me, 
 and through the commandment slew me. So, then, the 
 law itself is holy, and the commandment holy, just, 
 and good. Then the good becomes death to me. No, 
 by no means. But sin, that it might appear sin, 
 works out death in me through that which is good ; 
 that sin, by means of the commandment, might become 
 exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spirit- 
 ual ; but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For what I am 
 working out in hfe I do not comprehend ; for not as I 
 would, do I ; for the result of my action I hate. But if 
 the result is hateful to me, I concur with the law that it 
 is good. Now, then, it is no more I working out my 
 life, but that which dwells in me, namely, sin. For I 
 know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells not 
 any good. For to will is present with me ; but how to 
 work out that which is good I find not. For the result 
 of my life is not the good that I would, but I practice 
 the evil which I would not. But if what I would not is 
 the result, it is no more I that am working out my life, 
 but that which dwells in me, namely, sin. I find, then, 
 the law that when I would accomplish good works evil is 
 present with me. For I delight in the law of God in 
 the inner man. But I see another law in my mem- 
 bers warring against the law of my mind and bringing 
 me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my mem- 
 bers. O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me 
 from this body of death ? " ^ 
 
 With the study of the law he studied also Israel's 
 1 Eom. vii. 9-24. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 27 
 
 hope. Through the long vista of the centuries the 
 literature of Israel had been bound together by a 
 golden thread of promise. From the earliest tra- 
 dition, when it was said that one should rise through 
 whom man should grind the serpent's head to pow- 
 der, down to the last prophecy of Malachi, the Old 
 Testament abounds with promises of a Messiah's 
 coming for Israel's redemption. These prophecies 
 and promises he studied, and what he thought about 
 them was something like this : He believed that a 
 Messiah would suddenly appear in power and great 
 glory; that he woidd put himself at the head of 
 Israel ; that all the enemies of Israel would mass 
 themselves against him ; that he would either de- 
 stroy them or would subjugate them. Then, when 
 they had been subjugated or destroyed, Jerusalem 
 would be renovated ; the dispersed of Israel from 
 all lands would be gathered together in the Holy 
 Land, and Jerusalem would become the imperial 
 city of the world. The saints who had died and 
 were dwelling in the shadowy under-world would 
 emerge, and with the children of the dispersion 
 assemble in Palestine. Wars and famine, blind- 
 ness and disease would cease, and the reign of peace 
 and the glory of the kingdom of God would be 
 ushered in, and Israel would be the world-power 
 and Jerusalem the imperial city of the world.^ It 
 would be easy, were there room, to quote pas- 
 sages from the Old Testament which seemed to give 
 warrant to these expectations. If we take the Bible 
 
 1 Schiirer : Jewish People in the Time of Christ, ii. 2, p. 163 £E. 
 
28 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 literally ; if we forget that its poetry is truly poetry ; 
 if we regard it as a book of philosophy, not as a 
 book of literature, it is easy to find chapter and 
 verse to warrant every element in this Pharisaic 
 conception of the Messiah's kingdom. An evidence 
 of this lies in the fact that there are to-day those 
 in Christendom who still believe, substantially, that 
 this result is yet to be brought about, and who 
 have been compelled thus far to postpone from 
 time to time the anticipated consummation. 
 
 Imagine, then, Paul as a man of passionate ear- 
 nestness, whose patriotism was his religion and 
 whose religion was his patriotism ; who believed 
 that the law of Moses was a law handed down direct 
 by God, and who thought that the most important 
 part of that law was the Levitical code ; who be- 
 lieved that a Messiah would come to ransom Israel 
 and make it the dominant nation of the world, and 
 Jerusalem the queen city of the world. To him 
 there come rumors of a strange sect which has 
 arisen in Palestine. We interpret primitive Chris- 
 tianity by the teachings of its converts. We have 
 the Four Gospels, written by those who loved and 
 honored Christ. We have the letters of Paul, writ- 
 ten by one who was his devoted follower, and who 
 delighted to call himself the slave of Jesus Christ. 
 But Paul had no such resources at his command. 
 Not a Gospel was written ; not an Apostle had yet 
 written a line. Paul learned about this new sect 
 from its enemies.^ And if we go, first to the New 
 
 1 There is no reason to suppose that Paul had ever seen or 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 29 
 
 Testament, and then to tlie primitive writings of 
 the early days which report what the pagans had to 
 say, and finally to ancient rabbinical writings and 
 their later echoes, we can easily reconstruct the 
 conception of Christianity which came to Paul. It 
 was something like this : ^ 
 
 A child, a boy, born out of wedlock, and with the 
 stamp of a bastard on him, has appeared in Pales- 
 tine.^ He has claimed to be the Messiah, the hope 
 of the glory of Israel. He has gathered about him 
 a ragged regiment of the unkempt, the ignorant, 
 and the vicious, — publicans, harlots, drunkards ; in 
 all the nation no learned man, no man of influence, 
 to do him reverence. He has claimed to heal men's 
 diseases and to feed their hunger. He has appealed 
 to their prejudices and their passions, and so has 
 increased the horde that followed him. He has had 
 no word of condemnation for the openly vicious ; he 
 . has never denounced drunkenness, or the extortions 
 of the tax-gatherer. But he has found no satire too 
 keen and no invective too bitter for the church and 
 its honored and orthodox leaders. The men high 
 
 heard Jesus Christ during the latter's life. Had he done so he 
 would almost certainly have referred to the fact. 2 Cor. v. 16 
 implies the reverse, and the implication is confirmed by the fact 
 that wherever he makes any reference to personal acquaintance 
 with Christ it is to the latter's post-resurrection appearances to him 
 as in 1 Cor. xv. 8. 
 
 ^ See Isaac Goldstein's Jesus of Nazareth for ancient Rabbinical 
 view of Jesus. 
 
 2 That this charge, early brought by Jewish enemies against 
 Jesus, was brought against him in his lifetime is, I think, implied 
 by John viii. 41. 
 
30 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 in station, the scribes, the theologians, the priests, 
 the members of the Sanhedrim who have descended 
 direct from the seventy v?hom Moses by the direc- 
 tion of God endued with authority — these he has 
 denounced as liars, robbers, and hypocrites ; he has 
 called them a generation of serpents ; he has told 
 them they cannot escape the damnation of hell. 
 He has not only denounced the lawmakers, he has 
 broken the law again and again. He has set the 
 Sabbath at naught, and told men to carry their bun- 
 dles on the Sabbath. He has scoffed at the sacred 
 ablutions which are a part of the Mosaic law. He 
 has discarded the sacrificial system, venerable with 
 centuries of use, and blasphemously assumed to 
 forgive men their sins without that sacrifice by 
 which and through which forgiveness can alone be 
 won from a just Jehovah. He has declared that 
 the expectation of a Messiah who will make Jeru- 
 salem the queen city and Palestine the dominant na- 
 tion of the world is a delusion ; that Jerusalem wiU 
 be destroyed, and of the temple not one stone will 
 be left upon another. The nation has condemned 
 him ; Jehovah has condemned him. God puts the 
 stamp of approval on men by their prosperity and 
 victory ; he puts the stamp of disapproval on men 
 by their suffering and defeat ; and this man has 
 suffered the most galling and ignominious defeat. 
 The law declares that " he that is hanged is accursed 
 of God," 1 and this man has been crucified, and 
 thereby thrice accursed : the curse of God as well 
 
 1 Dent. 21. 23. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERaiON 31 
 
 as the condemnation of the nation is upon him. 
 The Sanhedrim has condemned him for blasphemy ; 
 the Roman government has condemned him for 
 treason, — for he was a disturber of the peace as 
 well as a renouncer of religion ; God has condemned 
 him by his providence. His death should have put 
 an end to this strange superstition. But it has 
 not. His followers have now started the story that 
 he has risen from the dead, and, worst of all, men 
 are believing it, and this strange and ignominious 
 sect is growing in numbers. I am ashamed for my 
 race that such folly and such weakness could find 
 a place in their esteem. 
 
 Something like this was Paul's belief, something 
 such his sentiments concerning the Christian sect. 
 He who wrote to the Romans, " I am not ashamed 
 of the gospel of Christ," would not have so written 
 had he not formerly believed that this Messianic 
 sect brought disgrace upon his nation.^ He who 
 wrote to the Corinthians that the foolishness and 
 weakness of Christ were the wisdom and power of 
 God would not have so written had he not once 
 thought the Christian sect notable for its folly and 
 weakness. 
 
 In this state of mind he was summoned one day 
 to attend a meeting of the Sanhedrim. Whether 
 he was actually a member of the Court we do not 
 
 1 See Matheson's Spiritual Development of St. Paul, p. 33 : " Is it 
 not plain that Paul deprecates any feeling of shame concerning 
 Christianity, because he has a distinct remembrance of the time 
 ■when Christianity did present itself to his mind as a thing to be 
 ashamed of ? " 
 
32 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 know, but the Sanhedrim had been convened, and 
 a Greek was put on trial. In those times the 
 customary method of rabbinical discourse was his- 
 torical. The rabbi began with the ancient history 
 of Israel, and traced it, in order that he might 
 show the glory of Israel. Stephen, who was origi- 
 nally a Greek and a pagan, but who had become a 
 proselyte to Judaism and then a convert to Chris- 
 tianity, began his speech where the rabbis generally 
 began theirs. Nor did his audience at first sus- 
 pect his meaning. It dawned upon them gradually. 
 It was a very skillful speech : ^ " Abraham, your 
 father," he said, " was called out of the land of 
 paganism. Joseph, the son of Jacob, was seized 
 because of the envy of the patriarchs and sold into 
 Egypt. Moses was driven into exile by the pas- 
 sionate unpatriotism of a Hebrew. And when, 
 after forty years of exile, he came back to deliver 
 Israel by command of God, Israel would not listen 
 to him, but repudiated him. When at last they 
 followed him to the base of Mount Sinai, where the 
 law was received, they put up the golden calf and 
 worshiped it under the very thunderings of Mount 
 Sinai. Despite tabernacle and temple, they have 
 ever since been rebellious against God." Grad- 
 ually the audience began to see what was meant, 
 and Stephen concluded it was time to make his 
 
 ^ Acts vii. 2-53. It is not oecessary to consider ■whether the 
 Book of Acts gives us an accurate report of this speech or 
 not. There is no reason to douht that the author has emhodied 
 its spirit and the general course of Stephen's argument. For fine 
 analysis of this speech see Sahatier's Apostle Paul, p. 42 ff. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 33 
 
 application, and he made it with vigor. " Ye stiff- 
 necked and uncircumcised ! " he cried, " You call us 
 Greeks uncircumcised : you are the uncircumcised ; 
 you have always resisted God ; you have always 
 fought against him; you have always persecuted 
 the prophets ; you have always repudiated his law ; 
 it is no strange thing that when the Messiah came 
 you crucified him ; it was like you in your whole 
 history, from the beginning to the end." Then 
 they gnashed their teeth and set themselves to de- 
 stroy him. Suddenly a light breaks over his face, 
 a light that awes them for a moment, and, looking 
 up, he cries, " I see the heavens opened, and the 
 Son of man standing on the right hand of God." 
 This crowns the blasphemy of his speech, the court 
 becomes a mob, the people rush upon him, and, 
 without waiting for judgment, seize him and carry 
 him from the room. Paul follows. Even then, 
 though murder is in the heart of this people, they 
 do not forget the ceremonial law. It is required 
 that the witnesses shall cast the first stone.^ Paul 
 takes charge of the cloaks of the witnesses, that 
 they may cast their stones with the greater vigor 
 with unencumbered hands. 
 
 On such a man as Paul such a scene must have 
 produced a profound and strange effect. Many 
 men are satisfied to kill an adversary. Paul was 
 not of that kind. Nothing would satisfy him but 
 killing the heresy ; and the heresy was not killed. 
 The blow on the lighted iron sent the sparks 
 1 Deut. xvii. 5-7. 
 
34 FAJJL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 a-flying ; the Christians fleeing from the persecu- 
 tion which followed the death of Stephen went tell- 
 ing the story of the cross and of the resurrection ; ^ 
 and Paul gnashed his teeth in commingled rage 
 and shame at the fanaticism of this heresy and at 
 the temporizing policy of Israel's rulers, inter- 
 preted by that much but falsely praised Gamaliel 
 at whose feet he had sat. Gamaliel had said, " Let 
 them alone ; for if their plan and operations are of 
 men they will come to naught, but if they are from 
 God ye cannot overthrow them." ^ And to him, it 
 is said, the Sanhedrim agreed. Trimmer, com- 
 promiser, coward, was he. It is not true that what- 
 ever is of God flourishes when men are disloyal. 
 And it is not true that whatever is not of God 
 comes suddenly to naught if men who ought to fight 
 it dare not. 
 
 Paul set himself to extirpate this false religion, 
 nurtured in the very heart of Israel. He perse- 
 cuted its adherents ; became exceedingly mad against 
 them ; went from house to house in search of their 
 conventicles ; spared neither men nor women ; 
 presided at many a cruel scourging; added jeer 
 and insult to the penalties inflicted ; endeavored in 
 vain to induce disciples of the new faith to renounce 
 their Lord ; sent more than one to share with 
 Stephen the martyr's coronation.^ Their effectual 
 non-resistance intensified his passion. The time- 
 
 ^ Acts viii. 4. 
 
 2 Acts V. 34-39. 
 
 3 Acts viii. 3 ; ix. 1 ; xxij. 4 ; xxvi. 9-11 ; Gal. i. 13 ; 1 Tim. i. 13. 
 
PAVL'8 EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 35 
 
 serving priests and Pharisees grew weary of his in- 
 tensity. Time-servers and place-holders always do 
 weary of earnest men. They could not understand 
 the spirit of a Paul, who was determined to put 
 down falsehood at every hazard. So when he came 
 to the high priest, and asked for a firman to the 
 Jewish authorities at Damascus, that he might bring 
 to Jerusalem for trial there any whom he might 
 find belonging to this Christian sect, the high priest 
 was very glad to get rid of him, and gave the de- 
 sired authority. 
 
 And yet during all this time Paul had not him- 
 self been at peace. The audacity of Stephen was 
 of the kind to appeal to his own native audacity. 
 The boldness of a man who dared face a mob was 
 of the kind that he admired. The clear-sighted 
 courage of an opponent who understood the issues 
 commended him to Paul more than the cowardice 
 of time-servers who professed Paul's faith. More- 
 over, the teaching of Stephen and of others began 
 to produce an impression upon Paul. He began to 
 question whether he wholly comprehended Jewish 
 history and Jewish character. The more his mind 
 misgave him the more vehement became his passion 
 against the Christians ; the more vehement that 
 passion the more his mind misgave him. Some- 
 thing such was t he condition of Pa ul when he started 
 for Damascus. It was a six days' journey. He 
 was practically alone. His attendants were not 
 theologians, probabl y not ver y_piaus_ men,_ They 
 couiJ~not discuss old traditions and ngH-faiths with 
 
36 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 him. He was left to himself, and he found himself 
 a very uneomfortahle companion. The kindliness 
 in his heart was always great, and there marched 
 in the way before him the shadowy forms of those 
 whom he had put to death. He was always cour- 
 ageous, and the boldness of the men who stood for 
 their own convictions unto death stirred him with a 
 new, strange pain. The problem of his own life 
 came up again before him, and he remembered that 
 though he had been blameless in the law, he had 
 never had that peace which the Psalmist and the 
 prophets promised to the man who has the blessing 
 of the Almighty. So he studied and wondered 
 and thought, and fought himself, as before he had 
 fought others. For the man who is strong in his 
 own conviction is rarely angered by opposition. It 
 is the man who only half believes who is roiled and 
 irritated by questioning ; irritated because he fears 
 the questioning will rob him of his faith. To-day 
 in America it is not the men who believe in spirit- 
 ual religion with their whole nature who are angry 
 because their theology is questioned, but the men 
 who are half afraid their theology is false, and there- 
 fore cannot endure to have it put on trial. So 
 was it with Paul. 
 
 Five days had passed. He was already approach- 
 ing his journey's end, when, at midday, there sud- 
 denly shone a light from the heavens so dazzling 
 that he and his retinue fell to the ground, and a 
 voice cried out to him, " Saul, Saul, why persecut- 
 est thou me? " He answered, stiU with his native 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 37 
 
 independence unbroken, " Sire, who art thou ? " 
 The answer, " I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou 
 persecutest," was enforced by a vision of the Risen 
 One whom Stephen had seen standing on the right 
 hand of God ; at the same time the Voice discloses 
 to him the conflict which had been going on in his 
 own soul, a secret from all others, scarcely even 
 recognized by himself : " It is hard for thee to kick 
 against the goads." ^ This reading of his heart's 
 secret is more convincing than either Voice or Vi- 
 sion. He surrenders instantly. " Sire," he replies, 
 " what wilt thou have me to do ? " ^ The surren- 
 der was required to be complete. " Go on to Da- 
 mascus, and it shall be told thee what thou shalt 
 do." From one of the despised Christians he was 
 to get his instructions. Such is the thorough work 
 God makes with a soul, and such the thorough work 
 a true soul makes with itself. When Paul surren- 
 dered he surrendered absolutely and entirely.^ 
 
 I do not propose to discuss here the phenomena 
 that attended Paul's conversion. Similar pheno- 
 mena have been recorded from time to time by 
 men in whom sudden changes have been wrought. 
 
 ^ The figure is interpreted by Eccles. xii. 11 : " The words of 
 the -wise are as goads." His uneasy conscience "was the goad, 
 ■whose prickings he would not follow. 
 
 ^ The word Kurie, rendered Lord, is not necessarily a recognition 
 of divine authority. It is a general title expressive of respect, and 
 is sometimes translated " Sir," as in John xii. 21 ; xx. 15 ; Acts 
 xvi. 30. But its use by Paul here indicates reverence for the 
 one whom he had formerly despised. 
 
 ' There are three accounts of this event in the Book of Acts ; 
 eh. ix. 1-9 ; xxii. 3-11 ; xxvi. 9-18. 
 
38 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Constantine thought he saw a cross in the sky. 
 Loyola thought he saw hosts of good and evil set in 
 battle array against each other. Luther thought 
 he saw the devil coming to tempt him, and flung the 
 inkstand at him. Were these real visions ? I know 
 no reason why we should think they were not.^ 
 Why should we think the celestial sphere may not 
 be all about us, and sometimes, in some sudden and 
 illuminating moment, pierce through the mystic 
 cloud which generally hides it from our vision ? 
 
 It is true that only Paul saw the Vision, and 
 apparently only Paul heard and understood the 
 Voice.^ It is also true that he afterwards speaks 
 of the Christ who was revealed in him? But it is 
 also true that he was blinded by the light and ever 
 after carried about with him, in some physical 
 effect upon his person, what he calls the marks of 
 the Lord Jesus.* How far the Voice and Vision 
 were external, how far wrought within, it is per- 
 haps impossible to determine. But it is also of 
 very little consequence. How far the Vision was 
 produced by a phenomenon in the heavens, how 
 far by a phenomenon in the brain, it is not impor- 
 tant, and perhaps not possible, to determine. Paul 
 was instantly arrested, and his whole life was revo- 
 
 ^ The fact that Paul was stricken witli blindness shows that the 
 phenomenon was partially at least objective. 
 
 2 Comp. Acts ix. 7 with Acts xxii. 9, where the phrase "heard 
 not the voice " is to be interpreted as " did not recognize any artic- 
 ulate Avords." 
 
 3 Gal. i. 16. 
 * Gal. vi. 17. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 39 
 
 lutionized ; that is the important fact, and that is 
 not questioned.1 Professor Jowett, of Balliol Col- 
 lege, Oxford, will be recognized by every one as 
 both a great and a thoroughly independent scholar. 
 And this is what he says on the subject : — 
 
 " There is no fact in history more certain or undisputed 
 than that, in some way or another, by an inward vision 
 or revelation of the Lord, or by an outward miraculous 
 appearance, as he was going to Damascus, the Apostle 
 was suddenly converted from being a persecutor to a 
 preacher of the gospel." ^ 
 
 Paul began at once to preach in the synagogues 
 in Damascus that Jesus of Nazareth is the Mes- 
 siah.^ The synagogue service made it possible 
 for hearers to ask questions. To such questioning 
 Paul was subjected. How could he reconcile the 
 doctrine that Jesus was the Messiah with historic 
 precedent and the Mosaic law ? Paul was not one 
 to hold inconsistent opinions in different hemi- 
 spheres of his brain. He was not one who could 
 hold certain opinions apart from and inconsistent 
 with other opinions. He felt that he must study. 
 What place so good for study as the foot of Mount 
 
 1 Paul's letters abound with references to this conversion ; e. g. 
 Rom. vii. 24, 25 ; 1 Cor. xv. 8, 9; Gal. i. 15, 16; Ephes. ii. 3-6; 
 Phil. iii. 4-8, etc. 
 
 2 Jowett's Com. p. 227. 
 
 ' "Immediately preached in the synagogues, Jesus, that he is 
 the Son of God." Acts ix. 20. This is the unquestionable read- 
 ing. See Alford, Westcott and Hort, and Eey. Version. His 
 preaching was not at this time the theological doctrine that the 
 Messiah is divine, but the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. 
 
40 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Sinai, whither Moses had gone to receive the law, 
 whither Elijah had retreated, and where he had 
 seen the fire and earthquake and tempest, and had 
 listened to the still small voice ? Paul turned his 
 back on Damascus, and retreated for we know 
 not how long — two or three years — to Arabia. 
 There he restudied the prophecies, reexamined the 
 law, recreated his philosophy. There, too, he set- 
 tled, perhaps not without conflict, his life purpose.-' 
 If he attached himself to this Christian sect, he 
 must give up all that most men hold dear, — his 
 ambitions, his friendships, his family ties, every- 
 thing. He has not told the story of the inward 
 struggle, but he has told us of the result : — 
 
 "If any other one thinks to have confidence in the 
 flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock 
 of Israel, of the tribe of Beniamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew 
 parents, measured by the law, a Pharisee, measured by 
 zeal, persecuting the Church, measured by the standards 
 of righteousness afforded by the law, blameless. But 
 whatsoever things were advantages to me, these have I 
 reckoned to be but loss. Yea, verily, I do moreover 
 continually reckon aU things to be loss because of the 
 supereminence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my 
 Lord, through whom I suffered the loss of all things and 
 reckoned them but refuse, in order that I might gain 
 Christ, and be found in him, not having my own right- 
 eousness, that which proceeds from the law, but that 
 
 ^ His subsequent history negatives any notion that he went into 
 Arabia to preach. It was not until fourteen years later that he ac- 
 cepted fully and entered upon his mission to the Gentiles. See 
 Chronological Table on p. xi. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 41 
 
 which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which 
 proceeds from God and is founded upon faith; that I 
 may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and 
 the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed unto 
 his death, if possibly I might attain to the resurrection 
 from the dead ; not that I have already attained Christ, 
 or am already perfected, but I press on if also I may 
 lay hold on that for which I was laid hold of by 
 Christ." 1 
 
 From this retreat Paul came out to enter on his 
 missionary career, bringing with him some of his 
 old Jewish prejudices, bringing also the Levitical 
 forms of speech in which he had been educated. 
 It often happens that a man retains the forms of 
 utterance of his early education when the spirit 
 within him has been entirely revolutionized. Thus 
 Paul still used rabbinical phraseology, still cast 
 much of his thought in rabbinical forms, and still 
 entertained to some extent the rabbinical concep- 
 tions of the Messianic kingdom. He did not at 
 first understand his mission as the Apostle to the 
 Gentiles, or, if he did, he did not enter upon that 
 mission. Eight or ten years appear to have passed 
 away between the time of his return from Arabia 
 and the first true missionary journey of which we 
 have any record in the Book of Acts.^ 
 
 He* began preaching in Damascus. But perse- 
 cution soon arose against him there. He came 
 
 1 Phil. iii. 4-12. 
 
 2 Probably more rather than less. Lightf cot makes the period 
 eleven years, Biblical Essays, p. 221. 
 
 Seo Chronological Table on p. xi. 
 
42 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 near paying the penalty of his bravery with his 
 life. Damascus was a city surrounded by walls. 
 On these walls were houses with windows looking 
 out upon the country beyond. In one of these 
 houses, as a good Providence had ordered it, lived 
 a Christian, and Paul was let down out of the win- 
 dow of one of these houses, beyond the wall, and 
 so escaped from the guards who were watching the 
 gates to apprehend him.^ Thence he went up to 
 Jerusalem. But he was driven out of Jerusalem 
 also ; ^ if he had stayed there, he would have fol- 
 lowed Stephen to a martyrdom sooner than he did. 
 Thence he went up to Tarsus, his native city. 
 Some time elapsed ; what occurred during this 
 time we do not know. He next appears in Anti- 
 och, a pagan city, given over to philosophy, art, 
 and pleasure.^ Here was a little church where the 
 followers of Jesus had been gathered, some of them 
 originally pagans, some of them Jews. Satire was 
 a prevailing form of humor and a common sub- 
 stitute for argument in those days, and this sect 
 that thought they were going to revolutionize the 
 world and bring in the Messianic kingdom were 
 satirically called Christians, — that is, Messianists.* 
 
 1 Acts ix. 24, 25. 
 
 2 Acts ix. 29. Comp. xxij. 21. • 
 8 Acts xiii. 1, 2. 
 
 * The word " Christian " occurs in the N. T. only three times ; 
 Acts xi. 26 ; xxvi. 28 ; 1 Pet. iv. 16. Its satirical use by Agrippa, 
 and Peter's use of it, as well as the reputation of Antioch for coin- 
 ing derisive epithets, combine to support the interpretation here 
 given of the origin of the term. 
 
PAUL'S EDUCATION AND CONVERSION 43 
 
 This little church said to Paul, or Paul said to the 
 little church, or God said to both and they both 
 heard and listened, Send Paul and Barnabas on a 
 mission to the heathen. It was the first foreign 
 missionary effort. All the arguments that have 
 ever been made against missionary effort since were 
 tenfold stronger then. But they did not avail 
 against the spiritual enthusiasm of this church. 
 Paul received his ordination to missionary service 
 at a prayer-meeting without a single Apostle there 
 to give him the benediction ; it is doubtful whether 
 a single Apostle in the Christian Church would 
 have given him a benediction had he been there. 
 And so he started forth to convert the world before 
 the Messiah should come again. 
 
CHAPTER in 
 
 PAUL THE MISSIONAEY 
 
 It is not within the province of this volume to 
 trace chronologically the history of Paul's mission- 
 ary travels. Only in brief outline can I indicate 
 some of the general features and characteristics of 
 the fifteen years of life of which we have any record 
 in the New Testament. It ends with Paul's first 
 imprisonment at Rome. Tradition reports further 
 missionary journeys, and his final death as a mar- 
 tyr by the headsman's axe under Nero, in the six- 
 tieth year of his age, A. D. 67 or 68. 
 
 In these missionary journeys he preached wher- 
 ever he could. Generally, whenever he went into 
 a town or city, he first looked up his Jewish bre- 
 thren.^ In some of the larger cities there was a 
 Jewish synagogue. He was a Jewish rabbi, recog- 
 nized as such, — probably wore some insignia which 
 served to designate him as a rabbi, so that when 
 he was seen in the synagogue he was invited to 
 the platform to address the congregation. If he 
 was refused a hearing in the synagogue, or was in 
 a city in which there was none, he would preach in 
 the market-place. Every Greek and Roman city 
 
 1 Acts xiii. 14 ; riv. 1 ; xvi. 13 ; xrii. 1, 2. 
 
PAUL TEE MISSIONARY 45 
 
 had a market-place, where ideas as well as goods 
 were interchanged with great freedom. Here Paul 
 often talked with people in groups, as he could find 
 them. Sometimes he took a private house of his 
 own, but oftener found his way into the private 
 house of some one who was already of his way of 
 belief, and there talked to the people gathered to 
 hear him. On one occasion he hired a Greek 
 schoolhouse which had probably been abandoned 
 by its teacher.^ He did not confine himself, how- 
 ever, to preaching ; indeed, the preaching was the 
 lesser part of his work. He did a great deal of 
 what we call personal work. He went from house 
 to house. He talked with people singly or by twos 
 and threes. He had no Anglo-Saxon dread of 
 enthusiasm ; was not afraid of emotion ; talked to 
 men, oftentimes with tears in his eyes. For he 
 was on fire with a passionate fervor, and he urged 
 his disciples also to be fervid.^ 
 
 When he preached to the Jews, he followed very 
 much the line of argument which Stephen had 
 followed. It is interesting to compare Stephen's 
 speech, delivered at the time of his martyrdom, and 
 the first sermon preached by Paul in a synagogue.^ 
 They run along the same lines. Paul begins as 
 Stephen began, with the history of Israel ; he 
 shows how Israel had been expectant of a Messiah, 
 and yet how it had been characterized by unbelief 
 
 1 Acts xiv. 8-18 ; xyii. 17 ; xriii. 7 ; xix. 9 ; xx. 7-12. 
 
 2 Acts XX. 18-20 ; Phil. iii. 18 ; Rom. xii. 11. 
 ' Acta vii. with xiii. 15-41. 
 
46 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 and in all its history had been disobedient to God 
 and recalcitrant ; breaks off the history before it is 
 completed ; states that the Messiah was born of 
 the seed of David, as promised ; that Israel has 
 put him to death ; and then bears testimony as a 
 living, personal witness that this Jesus has risen 
 from the dead. This appears to have been his 
 habitual course of argument with the Jews in his 
 earlier ministry. He bases his whole argument 
 for Christianity on the fact of the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ, attested not by others, but by his 
 own personal vision of and personal communion 
 with him as a living Messiah.^ 
 
 When he preaches to the pagans, though he ends 
 with the same prophecy of an approaching judg- 
 ment, he pursues a different course. He does not 
 refer to the Bible ; says little about the Messiah ; 
 speaks of Jesus, indeed, but of Jesus as one coming 
 to fulfill the hopes and expectations to which pagan 
 poets have given expression. The most notable of 
 his reported sermons to the pagans is one delivered 
 in Athens. Athens was the home of Greek philo- 
 sophy and the centre of Greek worship. Petronius 
 says that it was easier to find a god than a man in 
 Athens ; Pausanias, that there were more images 
 in Athens than in aU the rest of Greece combined ; 
 and Xenophon that the whole city was an altar, a 
 votive offering to the gods.^ It could not have 
 
 1 Acts xiii. 30-37 ; xvii. 2, 3, 30, 31 ; 1 Cor. xv. 3-8. 
 ^ Pausanias writes about a century after Paul's visit, but his 
 description is doubtless applicable to tbe Athens of Paul's time. 
 
PAUL THE MISSIONARY 47 
 
 been long after Paul's visit to Athens that the 
 same Council of the Areopagus, which, on his visit, 
 summoned him to give account of his heralding of 
 " strange gods," erected a statue to Nero, and in- 
 scribed upon the Parthenon the legend " The Coun- 
 cil of the Areopagus, and the Council of the Six 
 Hundred, and the Athenian People [to] Emperor 
 Greatest Nero Caesar Claudius, Augustus, Ger- 
 manicus. Son of God." ^ To a city with such no- 
 tions of deity and thus pervaded by idolatry and its 
 attendant priestcraft, comes Paul, and his heart is 
 stirred within him by the ignorance and the super- 
 stition which surround him. He talks as he has 
 opportunity in the market-place. People listen. 
 Crowds begin to gather about him. At length the 
 university takes the matter up.^ There was a 
 council of the university which had authority to 
 regulate religious teaching in Athens ; and this 
 council summons Paul to give account of himself. 
 He is not, indeed, put on trial ; he is not charged 
 with any crime ; but the question is raised. What 
 right has he to teach ? he is no scholar, no gradu- 
 ate from any Greek school, and he knows very 
 little of Greek philosophy. The people compare 
 him to a little bird that picks up a crumb here and 
 a crumb there ; a petty plagiarizer, they call him.^ 
 
 1 See Century Magazine, June, 1897, pp. 301-309. 
 
 2 For the grounds of this interpretation of the trial, see Dr. 
 Ramsay's St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen, pp. 241- 
 249. 
 
 ' Acts xrvii. 18. " Babbler " is literally " seed-picker.'' It is a 
 word of Athenian slang, applied to a (^uack teacher who retailed 
 
48 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Others, more seriously, charge him with being a 
 setter-f orth of strange gods, — a crime for which 
 Socrates had died four hundred years before. The 
 council lay hold upon him and lead him up to the 
 great platform where the tribunals are wont to be 
 held, and, surrounding him in a circle and standing 
 him in the midst, they ask him to give account of 
 himself and state what his doctrines are, that they 
 may consider whether he shall have license to go 
 on any longer in this university town. And this 
 is his answer : — 
 
 " Ye men of Athens, in every point of view I see you 
 more than others reverential to the gods. For, passing 
 through your city and looking about upon the objects of 
 your worship, I found here even one altar on which was 
 inscribed ' To an unknown God.' Whom, therefore, 
 without knowing him ye worship, him declare I unto you. 
 The God that made the world and all things therein ; he 
 that is lord of heaven and earth, in no handmade temple 
 dwells, neither by human hands is served, as though he 
 needed aught — he who himself gives life and breath and 
 all things, and has made of one blood all the nations of 
 the earth that they may dwell together, and has fixed the 
 appointed seasons and limits of their abode ; that they 
 should seek God, if haply they might feel after him, and 
 find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For 
 in him we live and move and have our being ; as certain 
 also of your own poets have said, ' For we are also his 
 
 scraps of leaminf; whioli he picked up at haphazard and re- 
 peated. Dean Farrar rendersit ' ' picker-up of learning's crumbs." 
 See Ramsay's St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen, pp. 
 242, 24.3. 
 
PAUL THE MISSIONARY 49 
 
 offspring.' Inasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of 
 God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto 
 gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 
 And the times of this ignorance God overlooked ; but he 
 now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because 
 he hath appointed a day in the which he wiU judge the 
 world by that man whom he hath ordained, giving assur- 
 ance unto aU in that he hath raised him from the dead." ^ 
 
 It has often been noticed with what characteristic 
 skill Paul approaches this council, how he com- 
 mends their reverence for the gods, quotes their 
 own poets, and leads them toward that to which he 
 would direct them, the revelation in Jesus Christ 
 of the Grod whom, though unknovni, they worship. 
 But when he speaks of the resurrection of the dead, 
 they will hear him no more ; and so he goes his 
 way. This sermon may be taken as a type of Paul's 
 spirit in dealing with the pagan world, as the other 
 may be taken as a type of Paul's method of dealing 
 with the Jewish world. With this message, the 
 same in its outcome, though so different in its ap- 
 proach, he travels from city to city and province to 
 province. 
 
 In this missionary work he has some great ad- 
 vantages. 
 
 The world is practically one, and under one gov- 
 ernment. He can travel where he pleases. There 
 are no boundaries that he dare not pass over. The 
 time has gone when a man is regarded as a foe if 
 he passes out of his own country into another, for 
 . 1 Acts xvii. 22-31. 
 
50 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 all the countries in which Paul traveled are parts 
 of the one great Roman Empire. 
 
 And Paul himself is a Roman citizen. His father 
 and his mother were Jews, but they had become 
 Roman citizens. How we do not know. Perhaps 
 they had paid a great price for it. More probably 
 they had been captured in war, and thus became 
 Roman slaves, and then for some service rendered 
 had been manumitted.^ And when the Roman 
 slave became a freeman, he became a Roman free- 
 man. So, while Paul was born and raised reli- 
 giously a Jew, his citizenship was Roman ; as the 
 children of a Russian Jew who has come to this 
 country and here been naturalized, are American- 
 born citizens, though of Jewish parentage. Of this . 
 fact Paul more than once takes advantage.^ But 
 this is not the most significant effect of his Roman 
 citizenship upon him. It makes him cosmopolitan. 
 He realizes himself as belonging to the world. He 
 has a certain pride in his Roman citizenship, and 
 this Roman citizenship and the pride which it 
 brings vnth it has enlarged his horizon and made 
 him a greater man than he could have been simply 
 as a Hebrew. He refers to Roman citizenship more 
 than once in his epistles, and to the privileges which 
 
 1 Paul's frequent references to slavery (Kom. i. 1 ; vi. 16, 20) 
 and his evident sympathy with slaves (Ephes. vi. 5, 8 ; Col. iii. 
 22-25 ; Philem. 12, 16) indicate his intimate familiarity with the 
 conditions of servitude. 
 
 2 Acts xvi. 37; xxii. 25. Comp. xxiii. 27; jcxv. 11, 16. Be- 
 cause he was a Boman citizen he was beheaded, not crucified. 
 
PAUL THE MISSIONARY 51 
 
 it confers, as illustrations of citizenship in the 
 kingdom of God.^ 
 
 Moreover, the language of the world — that is, 
 the language of the cultivated world — was one. 
 There were many dialects, and the common people 
 were far apart from one another linguistically, but 
 the people of culture spoke the Greek language 
 throughout the Roman Empire, much as fifty years 
 ago the people of culture in Europe spoke the 
 French. And Paul spoke Greek like a Greek, not 
 like a Hebrew. He was born in a Greek city, was 
 brought up with Greek surroundings, and had the 
 apparent culture of a Greek. When the mob set 
 upon him in Jerusalem, and he was rescued by the 
 soldiery, and turned to the officer and asked. May 
 I speak to them ? the officer was surprised, and 
 replied. Canst thou speak Greek ? ^ The moment 
 he spoke in Greek the officer paid respect to him. 
 He said to himself. This is a different man from 
 what I had thought ; he is a man of culture. The 
 ability to speak the Greek language as a Greek 
 marked its possessor as belonging to the upper class. 
 
 It is probable that he was by no means a poor 
 man. It is true that he was a tentmaker ; that at 
 times he labored with his own hands; true that 
 he says nothing himself about his possessions. 
 But the indications are unmistakable that he was a 
 man of some competence. A man could not now, 
 
 1 Phil. iii. 20, Eev. Ver. ; Ephes. ii. 19. See Liglitfoot's Biblical 
 Essays, pp. 203, 204. 
 
 2 Acts xxi. 37. 
 
52 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 and could not then, travel throughout Greece and 
 Rome without money. He traveled in good fashion. 
 When he went up to Rome, he took two compan- 
 ions with him as his slaves.^ He appealed to Caesar. 
 It was an expensive proceeding to appeal to Caesar.^ 
 Paul took the appeal without any hesitation, — Paul, 
 who had said again and again, I will not be a bur- 
 den to the Church, and will not take charity from 
 them. Paul was not a man to take an appeal to 
 Caesar and then ask the churches to pay the biUs. 
 Paul was put in prison, and Felix held him there 
 because he expected a bribe. Felix did not expect 
 a bribe from poor men. This Paul was no un- 
 kempt, ragged, poverty-stricken wanderer. He 
 was a Greek gentleman of culture, a Roman citi- 
 zen of dignity, a gentleman of adequate means for 
 leisurely and measurably comfortable travel.^ 
 
 1 For evidence of this, see Ramsay's St. Paul the Traveler and 
 JRoman Citizen, p. 316. 
 
 ^ " An appeal to the Supreme Court could not he made hy every- 
 hody that chose. Such an appeal had^to be permitted and sent 
 forward by the provincial governor ; and only a serious case would 
 be entertained. But the case of a very poor man is never esteemed 
 as serious, and there is little doubt that the citizen's right of appeal 
 to the Emperor was hedged in by fees and pledges." Ramsay 
 thinks that the object of Paul's appeal was to receive an imperial 
 judgment in favor of religious liberty. ' ' Paul had weighed the 
 cost ; he had reckoned the gain which would accrue to the Church 
 if the Supreme Court pronounced in his favor ; and his past expe- 
 rience gave him every reason to hope for a favorable issue before a 
 purely Roman tribunal, where Jewish influence would have little 
 or no power." — Ramsay: St, Paul the Traveler and Roman Citi- 
 zen, pp. 310-312. 
 
 * The fact that he worked at times with his own hands to add to 
 
PAUL TEE MISSIONARY 53 
 
 At the begianing of Ms career the spirit of Rome 
 was a spirit, not of toleration, but of that indiffer- 
 ence which at times serves almost as good a purpose. 
 Rome did not care for the conflicts of religions. 
 There were a number of deities and a number of 
 religions, and it was the early policy of Rome to 
 allow every people to have their own religion and 
 their own gods. When the Jews brought complaint 
 against Paul that he was interfering with their 
 religion, and brought him before GaUio in Corinth, 
 Gallio said. If it were a question of misdemeanor or 
 crime, reason would that I should bear with you ; 
 but if it is a question of words and of names and 
 of your law, ye yourselves will look to it ; for I 
 have no mind to be a judge of such matters ; and 
 he drove them from the judgment seat.^ In the 
 Book of Acts Paul is never accused merely of being 
 a Christian. That is not the charge against him. 
 He is accused of being seditious, of turning the 
 world upside down, of inciting men to violence, of 
 interfering with trade.^ If it had been sufficient 
 simply to say that he was a Christian, these false 
 charges would not have been invented. It was not 
 
 his income (Acta xviii. 3 ; xx. 34 ; 1 Cor. iv. 12 ; 1 Thess. ii. 9 ; 
 2 Thess. iii. 8) is not inconsistent with the belief that he was not 
 wholly dependent on such labor ; and he habitually refused to 
 depend on the churches. 1 Cor. ix. 12 ; 2 Cor. xi. 9 ; Phil. ir. 
 17. 
 
 lActsxviii. 12-17. 
 
 2 Acts xvi. 20, 21 ; xvii. 6, 7 ; xix. 26, 27, 37, 38 ; xxiv. 5, 6. 
 Ramsay in The Church in the Koman Empire has given a very clear 
 account of the gradual rise of persecutions against the Christians 
 as Christians. 
 
64 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 until toward the latter part of Paul's historical 
 career that in Rome Christians were persecuted 
 simply because they were Christians. The indica- 
 tions are that this form of persecution was first 
 instituted by Nero, to deflect the growing indigna^ 
 tion against himself because of the burning of 
 Rome. His decree, once issued, remained a part of 
 the imperial policy, sometimes enforced, sometimes 
 unenforced, until well on to the time of Constantine. 
 But not until Paul's first imprisonment in Rome 
 had that decree gone forth. 
 
 Nor was there at first any very strong religious 
 opposition to Paul on the part of the pagan peoples. 
 The people cared very little about their religion. 
 The philosophers had long since abandoned it. 
 The wits made fun of it. The gods were ridiculed 
 by the comedians. And the people were tired of it. 
 It was maintained by the priesthood, and for their 
 own benefit.! When there appeared a man saying, 
 Here is a new faith, the people were ready to listen. 
 The sinew of the old faith had relaxed ; the arms 
 of the old religion were paralyzed ; the old religion 
 was decrepit. 
 
 Add to this that the appeal of Paul was, in the 
 main, to the poorer classes. His congregations 
 were made up, he tells us himself, not of the rich 
 or the strong or the wise or the noble, but of the 
 
 1 The attitude of Rome tOTvard the old religion is well epitomized 
 hy Gibbon in his famous sentence, " The various forms of "worship 
 which prevailed in the Roman world were considered by the peo- 
 ple as equally true ; by the philosophers as equally false ; and by 
 the magistrates as equally useful." 
 
PAUL THE MISSION ART 55 
 
 poor and the outcast.^ The religion he taught ad- 
 dressed itself to the freedmen, to slaves, to the out- 
 cast of society. Its message to them was, You 
 yourselves are sons of God. Peasants, I bring you 
 a Messiah who was himself a peasant. Carpenters, 
 I bring you a man who was the son of a carpenter. 
 He is the world's deliverer ; the rescuer of niankind ; 
 he brings in a new reign and a new life into the 
 world, in which you are to share. 
 
 With this message was another like it : Death 
 does not end all ; there is a life beyond ; and we 
 know that there is such a life because we know the 
 man who was dead and lived again. The power of 
 Christianity inspired by this faith in the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ it is hard for us now to realize. 
 Eighteen centuries have intervened between our- 
 selves and the living witnesses of the resurrection. 
 But then they were living. 
 
 And yet there were difficulties which Paul had 
 to encounter, and many of them. It was not plain 
 or easy work. He has given us in one graphic 
 picture, in very few words, his experience : — 
 
 " At the hands of the Jews five times received I forty 
 stripes save one ; thrice was I beaten with rods ; once 
 was I stoned ; thrice I suffered shipwreck ; a day and a 
 night have I spent in the deep. In journeyings of ttimes ; 
 in perUs of rivers ; in perils of brigands ; in perils from 
 my kindred ; in perils from the Gentiles ; in perils in 
 the city ; in perils in the desert ; in perils on the sea ; 
 in perils among false brethren ; in toU and weariness ; in 
 
 J 1 Cor. i. 26-28. 
 
56 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 sleeplessness ; in hunger and thirst ; in fastings ofttimes ; 
 in cold and nakedness ; not to mention that which is 
 added to these, and which presses upon me day by day, 
 the care of all the churches." * 
 
 Financial interests were interfered with, and took 
 umbrage at the interference. Christianity has al- 
 ways had to contend more or less against what men 
 call vested interests. This has been true ever since 
 its birth. Pliny, in his letter to Trajan, written 
 about the year 112, complacently commends the 
 success of his persecution of the Christians, because 
 as a result there had been a great increase in the 
 demand for fodder for the cattle raised for sacrifice.^ 
 There is something humorous in this naive balan- 
 cing of Christianity on the one side and the sale of 
 fodder for cattle on the other, and this estimate of 
 Christianity, in the view of so thoughtful a Roman 
 as Pliny, as the lighter weight of the two. This 
 antagonism of moneyed interest was a prime factor 
 in the opposition which Paul had to encounter. It 
 was because the masters of the poor insane girl saw 
 that their gain was gone when the devil was cast 
 out of her that Paul was arrested and beaten at 
 Philippi. It was because the sales of the images 
 of Diana were interfered with that Paul's compan- 
 ions were mobbed at Ephesus.^ 
 
 Financial interests were perhaps less venomous 
 than race prejudice. The hostility between Jew 
 
 1 2 Cor. 3d. 24-28. 
 
 ^ See Eamsay's The Church m the Roman Empire, pp. 196-201. 
 
 3 Acts xTi. 19 ; xix. 24-28. 
 
PAUL THE MISSIONAMT 57 
 
 and Gentile was great. The anti-Semitic prejudice 
 of our own time affords but a mild illustration of 
 the anti-Gentile prejudice in the time of Paul among 
 the Jews. When he said to the Jews, The Greeks 
 also are God's children and are sharers of his love 
 and have an inheritance in his kingdom, they rose 
 in wrath against him.^ Even the Christian Church 
 yielded him but a scant and half-hearted support. 
 One faction in it was always bitterly opposed to 
 him, the more bitterly because its opposition was 
 conscientious. This opposition was intensified and 
 strengthened by the conservative element in the 
 Church, which thought that Paul had gone quite 
 too far when he disregarded the whole ceremo- 
 nial law, and, without claiming any special divine 
 authority, discarded that rite of circumcision which 
 had come down to them with the sanction of Mosaic 
 enactment and of centuries of practice.^ Whether 
 pagans could become Christians at aU unless they 
 first became Jews was seriously doubted. A great 
 council was held in Jerusalem to consider this ques- 
 tion. A quasi-liberality finally triumphed in this 
 council, and it expressed the judgment that pagans 
 might become Christians provided they abstained 
 from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and 
 from things strangled, and from fornication.^ The 
 
 1 Acts xiii. 47-50 ; xiv. 4, 5 ; xvii. 5. 
 
 2 Acts XV. I ; Gal. ii. 3, 4. 
 
 ^ Acts 3CV. 23-29. Ttis "was not a church council in the ecclesi- 
 astical sense of that term. The churches of Palestine were not 
 represented. It was simply a meeting of the church at Jerusalem 
 to answer the questions brought to them by Paul and Barnabas 
 
58 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 resolutions were given to Paul and Barnabas to 
 carry to the Gentile cliurclies. Paul took them, 
 but very soon quietly set aside three of these pro- 
 hibitions. An idol, he told his disciples, is nothing 
 in the world, and meat offered to an idol is just as 
 good to eat as any other meat ; but, if it disturbs 
 the conscience of these weaker brethren, — so with 
 gentle satire he characterized the Apostles at Jeru- 
 salem, — forbear from eating for love's sake.-^ 
 
 In all this career, with the difficulties and the 
 dangers which he had to confront, the character- 
 istics of Paul stand out luminous in the fragmentary 
 sketches which history furnishes us of his career 
 and character. He had passion and intensity, but 
 great self-poise ; versatility, but steadiness ; schol- 
 arly tastes, but great presence of mind in sudden 
 emergencies. He was equally at home before the 
 university in Athens, before a Jewish audience in a 
 great synagogue, before a group of pious women by 
 the riverside, and before Festus or Felix in a semi- 
 royal court. He captivated men by his personal 
 magnetism ; arrested them by his quiet calmness in 
 times of peril. In Jerusalem he is about to be 
 scourged xmder orders of the chief captain. As 
 they are binding him, Paul quietly asks the cen- 
 turion, " Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman 
 
 ■whether the present representatives of that church really repre- 
 sented them in saying- : Except ye be circumcised ye cannot he 
 saved. Acts xvi. 1-3. Paul declares explicitly that he would not 
 have submitted his judgment on the main question to any one, 
 whatever authority he might claim. Gal. i. 8, 9 ; ii. 11-14. 
 1 1 Cor. viii. 4, 7-12. 
 
PAUL THE MISSIONARY 59 
 
 uncondemned ? " and the centurion, alarmed for his 
 own safety, goes straightway to report to the chief 
 captain.^ Forty Jews have taken a vow that they 
 will eat nothing and drink nothing until they have 
 killed Paul. His nephew learns that they are 
 lying in wait, gets access to the captive in the 
 castle, and reports the news to him. Paul calls 
 the guard and says, " Take this young man unto the 
 chief captain, for he has a certain thing to teU 
 him." 2 The guard is increased, and Paul is 
 brought safely to his destination. I suspect the 
 Jews broke their vows and did eat something, 
 though Paul was not kjUed. 
 
 These qualities of courage, of poise, of magnetism, 
 of versatility, receive perhaps their most dramatic 
 illustration in the story of his shipwreck. He is 
 put on board ship as a prisoner. He carries his 
 two companions with him as body-servants. He is 
 at once made friends of by the centurion, who takes 
 him into his counsel when they debate whether they 
 shall sail from a given port or not. The centurion, 
 who is the commander of this government ship, 
 decides that they shall set sail in spite of Paul, for 
 the captain of the ship counsels it. The storm 
 comes on ; they are in bitter stress of weather ; all 
 hope is gone ; they are in utter despair. Then it is 
 that this little, bent, half-blinded Jew goes about 
 among the frightened sailors and soldiers and says. 
 Be of good cheer ; my God has given me a vision, 
 and sent me a message; we shall all be saved. 
 1 Acts xxii. 25-29. = Acts xxiii. 17. 
 
60 PAUL TEE AFOSTLE 
 
 When some sailors under pretense of carrying 
 anchors out of the bow let down a small boat into 
 the sea, that they may get into it and escape, it is 
 Paul who detects the cowardly fraud and calls 
 the attention of the centurion and the soldiers 
 to the deserters, and with a sharp cut of the sword 
 the rope is severed and the boat drifts away into the 
 night. It is Paul, too, who as day dawns makes 
 his way about the slanting and slippery decks and 
 distributes bread among the cowering groups, fam- 
 ished and frightened, and calmly asks the blessing 
 of his God upon the meal, amid the roaring of the 
 tempest.^ 
 
 This man is no lay figure on which philosophy 
 hangs like clothes on a skeleton in a dry-goods 
 window. He is a hero, a gentleman ; Coleridge 
 calls him the gentleman with the finest manners of 
 any man upon record, — cultivated, refined, heroic, 
 versatile, magnetic ; a born interpreter of truth, a 
 leader of men, a creator of life, an epoch-making 
 
 1 Acts xxril. Consult Mr. James Smith's admirable monograph 
 on Hie Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul. 
 
 2 " The Paul of Acts is the Paul that appears to us in his own 
 letters, in his ways and his thoughts, in his educated tone of pol- 
 ished courtesy, in his quick and vehement temper, in the extraor- 
 dinary versatility and adaptability which made him at home in 
 every society, moving at ease in all surroundings, and everywhere 
 the centre of interest, whether he is the Socratic dialectician in the 
 agora of Athens, or the rhetorician in its university, or conversing 
 with kings and proconsuls, or advising in the council on shipboard, 
 or cheering a broken-spirited crew to make one more effort for 
 life. Wherever Paul is, no one has eyes for any but him." — Ram- 
 
PAUL TEE MISSIONARY 61 
 
 say's St. Paul the Traveler and the Soman Citizen, pp. 21, 22. For 
 iUustiations of traits of character furnished by incidents in his 
 life, see Acta xiii. 10 ; xiv. 15 ; xvi. 3, 25, 37 ; xvii. 16 ; xviii. 5, 
 9, 18 ; xix. 30 ; xx. 20-31 ; xxi. 37-40 ; xxiii. 17 ; xxiv. 10 ff., 
 25 ; XXV. 10, 11 ; xxyi. 2 ff., 29 ; xxvii. 10, 21 ff., 31, 33-36 ; xxviii. 
 3-5, 17 fB. They illustrate his passionate nature, strong emotions, 
 self-poise, presence of mind, courage, tact, oratorical skill, quick- 
 ness in repartee, versatility, consecration, devotion to his cause. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE EAELY CHURCH ^ 
 
 Paul's letters were for the most part written to 
 certain primitive churclies. What was the charac- 
 ter of these churches ? 
 
 When we speak of a church, we think of a highly 
 organized body, Presbyterian or Episcopal or Con- 
 gregational or Roman Catholic, with a clearly 
 defined ecclesiastical power vested somewhere, — in 
 the congregation, or the session, or the wardens, or 
 the priest ; with officers elected to perform certain 
 specified functions ; with a creed, written or tradi- 
 tional, long or short ; and with some order of ser- 
 
 * Authority for most of the statements in this chapter may he 
 found in Dean Alford's Greek Testament, Dean Stanley's Christian 
 Institutions, Dr. Hort's The Christian Mcdesia, Professor Hatch's 
 Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, 
 The Organization of the Early Christian Churches, hy the same 
 author, Bishop Lightfoot's The Christian Ministry, and Professor 
 A. V. G. Allen's Christian Institutions. These are all Episcopal 
 scholars of acknowledged authority in the department of Church 
 history. It may be fairly said that now substantially all scholars 
 who treat ecclesiastical history as other history is treated by scien- 
 tific scholars, that is, as a development, agree in the general view 
 underlying the picture of the early churches presented in this 
 paper. For the opposite view the student may he referred to 
 The Church and the Ministry, by Canon Gore, and Sacerdotalism, 
 by Canon Knox-Little. 
 
THE EARLY CHURCE 63 
 
 vice or ritual, simple or complex. And wlien we 
 read that Paul wrote letters to the churches, we 
 imagine such organizations as now exist, — Congre- 
 gational or Presbyterian or Episcopal or Papal. 
 
 But, in fact, there was no well-organized body of 
 Christians whatever when Paul began his mission- 
 ary tour, and certainly none during the earlier years 
 of his missionary tour, when he wrote the first of 
 his letters. The latest of his letter^ was written 
 probably before A. D. 68, about which time his mar- 
 tyrdom took place,-' and the church did not grow 
 into any definite organization before the middle of 
 the second century, probably not so early as that. 
 
 Christ formed no ecclesiastical organization. 
 This is not equivalent to saying that he formed no 
 church, — a question I do not consider ; but he 
 prescribed no rules for church government. Twice, 
 and only twice, he referred to a church,^ but in 
 prophetic terms, as to something future ; but how 
 it was to be organized, what were to be its officers, 
 and what its functions and its duties, he never said. 
 He appointed no officers. Once, in Galilee, he sent 
 twelve of his disciples to preach in the villages, 
 while he preached in the cities. Once, in Perea, 
 a larger district, with a more scattered and diverse 
 population, he appointed seventy to go, two by two, 
 on a similar itinerant mission. But the one organ- 
 ization was, so far as the gospel indicates, as tem- 
 
 1 Tliis is Bishop Lightfoot's date ; some scholars would put it 
 a little earlier. 
 
 2 Matt. xvi. 18 ; xviii. 17. 
 
64 PAUL THE AJPOSTLE 
 
 porary as the other ; it was created for a particular 
 purpose, and ceased to exist when that purpose had 
 been served. Christ prescribed no creed, nor any- 
 thing like a creed. He taught truths, but he never 
 systematized or formulated truth. He prescribed 
 no ritual, and nothing like a ritual. His disciples 
 did, indeed, come to him once, saying, " Teach us, 
 Lord, to pray ; " and he said, " After this manner 
 pray : begin with reverence for your Father ; then 
 ask him for what things you want. Are you hun- 
 gry, ask him for bread ; are you perplexed, ask him 
 for guidance ; are you tempted, ask him for deliv- 
 erance ; have you sinned, ask him for forgiveness. 
 Tell him what things you have need of. That is 
 all ; that is prayer." We have converted this in- 
 struction into a liturgy ; and we have a right so to 
 do. But it is our liturgy, not Christ's, though it is 
 made out of Christ's general instructions. As he 
 neither framed an organization, formulated a creed, 
 nor established a ritual, so he appointed no officers. 
 Whatever may be the meaning of the somewhat 
 enigmatical declaration, " Thou art Peter, and upon 
 this rock I will build my Church," the immediately 
 succeeding history makes it clear that neither Peter 
 nor the rest of the twelve thought that it gave him 
 any supremacy, or appointed him to any permanent 
 office, or conferred on him any power to appoint a 
 successor. 
 
 When Christ died and rose again, his disciples 
 were inspired by the resurrection with a new hope 
 and a new faith. They did not at first lose their 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH 65 
 
 Jewish conception of a Messiah who was to come 
 in power and glory and set the world right. They 
 had no conception of any necessity for organization, 
 and accordingly they formed none. They loved 
 Christ, expected him to come at any moment, and 
 in this expectation met together in loving fellowship. 
 They had, of course, no church buildings. They 
 generally met in private houses. Sometimes they 
 would get a hall or a schoolhouse ; or perhaps a 
 whole Jewish synagogue would become practically 
 converted to Christianity, and the synagogue build- 
 ing would become a Christian church. As perse- 
 cution came on, they carried on their worship in 
 secret places. Thus in time the Catacombs became 
 to them a kind of solemn cathedral. They had no 
 ritual. Their meetings were much more like mod- 
 ern prayer-meetings than like modern church ser- 
 vices. They sang together, sometimes the Hebrew 
 psalms; sometimes some prophet would write a 
 Christian psalm or adapt a Hebrew psalm to Chris- 
 tian use. They instructed one another. Any one 
 might speak ; any one might preach. There was 
 no ordination ; there were no officers.-' 
 
 These early Christians had no creed. They had 
 no membership ; there was no organization to be- 
 long to. When a man was converted, he was bap- 
 tized, ilot as a condition of joining the church, but 
 as a sign of his profession of faith in Christ. When 
 a Roman jailer at Philippi was baptized, he was 
 
 1 Acts ii. 42, 46, 47 ; iv. 23-31 ; xx. 7, 8 ; Ephea. t. 19 ; Col. 
 iii. 16. 
 
66 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 not admitted to a church. There was no church 
 at Philippi to which he could be admitted. He 
 was baptized as a solemn and sacred way of de- 
 claring his faith in the Messiah.^ This baptism at 
 first and for many years was only of adults ; at a 
 later period came in the baptism of infant children.^ 
 Baptism was generally by immersion, but it is by 
 no means clear that it was ever by submersion. The 
 earliest picture we have of baptism is one upon the 
 walls of the Catacombs, in which John the Baptist 
 and Jesus are represented as standing up to their 
 waists in the river Jordan, while John pours water 
 on the head of Jesus.^ It is not at all improbable 
 that the earliest form of baptism was one which 
 has now utterly gone out of use in our churches, 
 — a method of immersion coupled with pouring. 
 Certainly sprinkling was in the Apostolic Church 
 unknown. 
 
 The Greeks had their voluntary associations, 
 which were sometimes charitable, sometimes reli- 
 gious, sometimes social. They were a festive people, 
 and these gatherings were generally accompanied 
 with a meal. The Hebrews were also a festive 
 people. Their religious forms and ceremonies were 
 accompanied to a remarkable degree with eating. 
 They believed in it as a means of unloosening the 
 tongue and uniting people in good fellowship, and 
 
 1 Acts xTi. 30-33 ; comp. Acta viii. 36-38 ; x. 47, 48. 
 ^ See Dean Stanley's Christian Institutions, chap. i. 
 " See Smith's Diet, of Christian Antiquities, art. " Baptism ; " 
 Lnndy's Monumental Christianity, pp. 62, 63, 385-387. 
 
TEE EARLY CHURCH 67 
 
 in this they were wise. So these early Christians, 
 meeting together in private homes, and expecting 
 the coming of the Messiah straightway to set the 
 world right, not only sang hymns, repeated together 
 extracts from the Hebrew psalms, and administered 
 baptism as a sign and token of faith in Christ, but 
 sat down to a common table together. And when 
 they did thus break bread together, they remem- 
 bered that night when Jesus Christ sat with the 
 twelve, and brake bread with them, and passed them 
 the bread and the wine. But as yet this simple 
 social supper had not become a sacrament. It was 
 not administered by a priest or a minister. No one 
 was appointed for that purpose. Even as late as 
 the latter half of the second century Tertullian 
 claims that the laity are priests, and when there 
 are no clergy present may perform all the priestly 
 functions.^ He was more radical than most minis- 
 ters would venture to be in our time. 
 
 Any one could administer baptism. Paul him- 
 self was baptized by a layman." Any one could 
 preach, and every disciple did.^ The only ordina- 
 tion was that well summed up in the Book of Rev- 
 elation, " Whosoever heareth, let him say. Come." * 
 When the disciples were scattered, they went every- 
 where preaching their simple doctrine. It does not 
 
 1 Allen's Christian Institutions, p. 126 ; comp. 82 ; comp. Hatch 
 on Organ, of Early Chs. p. 124 ; Dean Stanley, Christian Insti- 
 tutions, p. 46. 
 
 ^ Acts ix. 17. 
 
 s ActSTi. 5, 9, 10; viii. 4. 
 
 * Rev. xxii. 17. 
 
68 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 follow that this pattern is to be followed by us now. 
 Preaching has changed its character. There are 
 reasons why men should be especially educated as 
 preachers. There are reasons why the Lord's sup- 
 per should generally be administered by persons 
 appointed for the purpose. But in the primitive 
 churches the story that the Messiah has come, that 
 he has risen from the dead, that he will return 
 soon, that he will set the world right — any one 
 could tell. A theological education for such preach- 
 ing was not required. 
 
 Thus gradually churches grew up. Wherever 
 there were Christians, they met in some private 
 house, talked with one another, sang hymns to- 
 gether, sat around a Christian festal board, and 
 baptized those who accepted Christ as the Messiah. 
 They required no ordination for preaching or for 
 the administration of what we now call sacraments. 
 Indeed, at first there was necessity for some pres- 
 sure to be brought to bear upon these disciples to 
 meet together. They hardly saw the necessity for 
 it. They had no conception of the work that lay 
 before them. So they were exhorted from time to 
 time not to forsake the assembling of themselves 
 together. But they were urged to do this, not 
 because there was a great work to be done, but be- 
 cause the day of the Lord's coming was at hand.^ 
 When he came, it was weU he should find his 
 chosen ones in fellowship and communion. 
 
 Gradually, however, the necessity for organiza- 
 1 Heb. A.. 25. 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH 69 
 
 tion impressed itself upon the disciples. The first 
 pressure came from the distribution of charity. 
 These early Christians were almost all of them 
 poor, — freedmen, ex-slaves, half beggars. It is 
 impossible for us to conceive the extent of the pov- 
 erty in the Roman Empire. Those from whom the 
 Church was chiefly recruited were the poorest of the 
 poor. Now and then some rich man also accepted 
 Christ as the Messiah. Those who were not quite 
 so poor as the poorest contributed of their funds, 
 and there began to be a distribution of goods. That 
 is always a difficult thing. Done carelessly, it 
 does more harm than good. It provoked the first 
 controversy in the Christian Church. The Greeks 
 said, " The Hebrews are getting more than their 
 share." And the Hebrews answered them by say- 
 ing, "We will elect a commission of seven, all of 
 whom shall be Greeks, and they shall take the 
 whole matter into their own hands." And so the 
 first step toward an ecclesiastical organization was 
 made.-' 
 
 There was also, as these assemblies for worship 
 continued, a necessity for some one to supervise 
 and direct the worshiping ; to see that it was 
 done in order ; to prevent those from talking who 
 had not anything to say, — quite an important 
 function to be performed at times in religious as 
 well as in secular gatherings. Thus there came to 
 
 ^ Acts vi. 1-6. The names of these deacons are all Greek, which 
 indicates, though not conclusively, that they were Greeks, not 
 Hebrews. 
 
70 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 be an officer in the worshiping assembly who had 
 oversight over the worship as well as over the 
 charity. Still further oversight was required. It 
 was a migratory period. Men traveled back and 
 forth — not as much as they do now, but still in no 
 small measure — and men came from distant com- 
 munities, saying, " We are Christians ; help us." 
 Just as soon as there was money or food to be 
 given, there were tramps ready to take it. Then, 
 as now, it became necessary to have some one with 
 courage and caution to see to it that the tramp was 
 a worthy tramp, and the beggar a deserving beggar. 
 Thus the local church adopted the method of giv- 
 ing letters to any one who had been accustomed to 
 worship with it ; and when a man went away from 
 home he took a letter from the overseer of his wor- 
 shiping assembly, certifying that he belonged to 
 the brotherhood at Ephesus or Rome, or wherever 
 it might be. The officer who had the authority 
 to grant these letters very soon got, through that, 
 power to determine who should receive the letters 
 and who should not. 
 
 StiU further, after a little, the preaching ceased 
 to be quite so simple as it was at first. Letters 
 were written by various Apostles to different 
 churches. Accounts were written of the life and 
 teachings of Jesus Christ. These were sent, first 
 to one church and then to another ; and the 
 churches exchanged these letters one with another. 
 There was a great deal more of fraud and forgery 
 in that time than in ours, and pious forgery and 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH 71 
 
 pious fraud were not considered altogether illegiti- 
 mate. Thus false letters and false histories were 
 foisted upon the people. There were letters pur- 
 porting to come from Paul and from Peter, which 
 Paul and Peter had never seen.^ It was neces- 
 sary that some one should have charge of these 
 records, and this person who had charge of the 
 records would naturally exercise some judgment 
 whether the records were right or wrong. 
 
 Thus, little by little, power grew in the hands of 
 the overseer, or episJcopos, as he was called, or 
 bishop, as we call him now. At first he was the 
 simple pastor, or overseer, or bishop, of a single 
 church.^ When the churches came into affiliation, 
 he became the bishop of a group of churches in a 
 town, and then of a larger district. Thus, grad- 
 ually, the oversight of the churches grew up : first, 
 out of the necessity for care in the administration 
 of charity ; next, out of the necessity for order in 
 worship ; next, out of the necessity for determin- 
 ing who were members of the nascent organiza^ 
 tions ; and, finally, out of the necessity for deter- 
 
 1 Even in the apostle's lifetime. 2 Thess. ii. 2. 
 
 ^ Acts XX. 28. The word rendered overseers is episkopoi, else- 
 where rendered bishops. It is generally conceded that episkopos 
 or bishop and presbuteros or elder originally signified the same 
 office. " That the presbuteroi (elders) did not differ from the 
 episkopoi (bishops or overseers), is evident from the fact that the 
 two words are used indiscriminately (Acts xx. 17, 28 ; Tit. i. 5, 7), 
 and that the duty of presbyters is described by the term epi- 
 skopein, to take oversight of the flock." Thayer's Lexicon of the 
 N. T. They were forbidden by Peter to exercise lordship over the 
 churches. 1 Pet. v. 3. 
 
72 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 mining what were the legitimate documents and 
 the real basis of religious instruction. 
 
 In the earlier period the organizations grew in 
 different forms, according to different localities. 
 Broadly speaking, they were three. For these 
 Christians, not having any idea of permanent work 
 or permanent organization, naturally took on the 
 form of organization common in the community in 
 which they happened to Hve. There were three 
 forms of organization current in the first century, 
 — the Jewish, the Greek, and the Roman. The 
 Jewish organization was oligarchic. The elders, 
 or older men, came by a sort of natural prescrip- 
 tion to exercise authority in the village and in the 
 synagogue. It came to them through their charac- 
 ter, somewhat as chieftainship comes in the North 
 American tribes. They were not elected ; they 
 were not appointed; they grew into their office. 
 But, having taken their office, they ruled. They 
 were the judges ; had the power to discipline ; con- 
 trolled the services of the synagogue ; were the 
 governing body. Where a Christian church was 
 made largely of Jews, it took on the Jewish organ- 
 ization. Then there were elders or presbuteroi, 
 and these elders were themselves the governing- 
 body in the church. 
 
 Greece, on the other hand, was a democracy. It 
 is true that it had at this time passed under mo- 
 narchical control, but it is also true that it main- 
 tained its democratic spirit, and, wherever it could, 
 something of its democratic institutions. Our town 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH 73 
 
 meeting may almost be said to be borrowed from 
 the early Greek democracies. Where Christians 
 were mainly gathered out of a Greek community, 
 they took on the Greek form of organization. Then 
 the whole congregation gathered together ; by a 
 show of hands they elected their officers ; and these 
 officers exercised the same kind of authority and 
 control which they were accustomed to exercise in 
 the Greek associations.^ 
 
 In Rome the organization was monarchical ; it 
 was centralized. The government was administered 
 on military principles ; it was centred in one man 
 in each city, one man in each province, and, finally, 
 in one man over all, the Emperor, who was com- 
 mander-in-chief of the empire. Where the church 
 was made up of Romans, it took on the Roman 
 form. Sometimes the man was elected ; sometimes 
 he put himself into office by his superior influence, 
 his superior power, or his superior tact. But, how- 
 ever he secured the office, when he secured it, he 
 was recognized, at first as the head of the local 
 church ; then, subsequently, when one of several 
 churches grew into prominence or other churches 
 were organized from it, he became the head of the 
 group of churches. Thus for a time there were the 
 three forms of organization, more or less differen- 
 tiated, — the Jewish, or oligarchic ; the Greek, or 
 democratic ; the Roman, or monarchical. 
 
 ' Acts xiv. 23 ; 2 Cor. viii. 19. Cheirotoneo, translated in Acts 
 ordained, in Corinthians chosen, in classic Greek signifies to elect 
 by a show of hands. 
 
74 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 When Paul began his preaching, this work of 
 organization had not taken place. He was himself 
 the instigator and inspirer of the life out of which 
 the organization grew. He went from city to city 
 and from province to province. At first, as soon 
 as a few Christians were gathered together, he left 
 them to tell to others the message he had told to 
 them, and went on to the next city. And when 
 those who had accepted the message gathered to- 
 gether, they framed their own organization accord- 
 ing to their own ideas. As the founder of the little 
 household of faith, Paul exerted a potent influence 
 over them. When they elected officers, they asked 
 his advice. When maladministration crept in, he 
 demanded reform, and in no ambiguous terms. 
 But in the main it may be said of Paul that he was 
 a poet and a preacher rather than an organizer or 
 administrator. 
 
 We are to conceive, then, of Paul as going from 
 place to place, gathering a few people about him, 
 inspiring them with his enthusiasm and his love for 
 Christ, and, in the earlier part of his ministry, with 
 his hope of Christ's immediate return and the im- 
 mediate establishment of the kingdom of God upon 
 the earth. We are to conceive of him as visiting 
 and living with these little bands, some of them 
 converted Jews, more of them converted pagans, 
 with no creed, no ritual, no order, nothing but a 
 faith and an expectation. We are to conceive of 
 him as getting word from time to time of difficul- 
 ties which they had encountered, of dangers and 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH 75 
 
 corruptions and false beliefs which had crept in 
 among them, and then of his writing letters to 
 them of counsel, of friendship, of encouragement, 
 or of rebuke, as circumstances demanded. 
 
 These letters of Paul have been studied as theo- 
 logical treatises for many years ; but they are not 
 theological treatises. They are not in any proper 
 sense of the term pastoral epistles or bishop's letters, 
 written with the authority of an ecclesiastic to the 
 church oyer which he has a right to exercise con- 
 trol. They are not literature and are not to be 
 studied as literature. They were not written for 
 literary purposes and have not literary form. They 
 a re letters of a friend written, tn fT-ienrlH ~TBSy 
 are person al, affectionate, iudiv irlnal "Phq wrij^pc- 
 never thought that they would last eig hteen centu- 
 ries^ He n6V6r thought t hat the Christian Church 
 would last eighteen centuries. He never conceived 
 for a moment that eighteen centuries would pass 
 over the world before Christ would come again and 
 set all things right. If he had, he would have 
 written very different letters. They, perhaps, would 
 have been more philosophical and less fragmentary, 
 but they would not have tingled with life and been 
 red with his own heart's blood. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS 
 
 Almost immediately after his conversion, Paul 
 went to Arabia and began his study of the Old 
 Testament prophets in order to reconcile his new 
 view of the Messiah with the Scriptures ; and as 
 he re-read these Scriptures he got a new concep- 
 tion of the extent, and in some measure of the 
 nature, of the Messiah's kingdom. He no longer 
 believed that it would be for Israel only. He 
 found in the Old Testament prophecies abundant 
 evidence for the belief that the Messiah was to be a 
 Saviour for other nations ; that the Gentiles should 
 come to his light, and the heathen to the bright- 
 ness of his rising. One brief prophecy from the 
 Book of Isaiah, the forty-ninth chapter, may serve 
 as a type of promises which, studied with an open 
 mind, would give him this conception : — 
 
 "And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be 
 my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore 
 the preserved of Israel : I wUl also give thee for a light 
 to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto 
 the end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the redeemer 
 of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despis- 
 eth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of 
 rulers : Kings shall see and arise ; princes, and they shall 
 
THE LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS 77 
 
 worship ; because of the Lord that is faithful, even the 
 Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee." ^ 
 
 With this new conception of the breadth and 
 largeness of the kingdom, he started upon his mis- 
 sionary tour to the Gentiles. But, although he had 
 a new conception of the largeness of the kingdom 
 which the Messiah was to initiate, there is no reason 
 to think that he had a new conception of the nature 
 of that kingdom or of the secret of its power and 
 the method of its initiation. On the contrary, there 
 is reason to think that he still entertained the old 
 Jewish conception, so far as its nature and method of 
 operation were concerned. What he believed, as 
 we gather from his earlier writings and his sermons, 
 was that the Jesus who had died and risen again 
 would presently descend to the earth ; that he would 
 bring with him the celestial forces from heaven ; 
 that he would gather together Israel ; that he would 
 put himself at the head of this army, celestial and 
 terrestrial ; that he would conquer — utterly, abso- 
 lutely, entirely, and forever ; that he would extir- 
 pate the enemies of God, and would reign King 
 over kings and Lord over lords. It is not unrea- 
 sonable to think that he was confirmed in this 
 opinion by the reports which came to him of the 
 trial of Jesus. In one passage dealing with this 
 subject he says that he speaks "by the word of the 
 Lord." This is very generally understood to mean 
 
 ^ Isaiah xlix. 6, 7. Paul refers to such prophecies in the 0. T. 
 of the ingathering of the Gentiles, in Acts xiii. 47 ; Rom. iv. 17, 
 18 ; ix. 25-29 ; i. 11, 14-20 ; xv. 9-12, 21. 
 
78 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 by a revelation whieli had come to him from heaven. 
 I do not think that is a correct interpretation. 
 " The Lord," in Paul's use of the term, generally, 
 if not always, means the Messiah. " The word 
 of the Lord " means the teaching of this Messiah 
 as it had been reported to him. How much he 
 knew of the teaching of Jesus we cannot tell ; but 
 we do know that he had reported to him not only 
 the fact of the crucifixion, but the details of that 
 crucifixion ; for he refers to these details with 
 some specificness. We do know that he knew of 
 the facts of the resurrection and some details re- 
 specting the resurrection. And it is reasonable to 
 suppose that he knew the facts of the trial ; that he 
 knew that Jesus was arrested and put on trial for 
 blasphemy ; that the nature of this blasphemy with 
 which Jesus was charged was his claim to be the 
 son of the living God; that when this trial pro- 
 ceeded, no witnesses were found who could agree 
 and whose testimony was adequate to justify a ver- 
 dict of guilty even by a packed jury ; that then the 
 high priest, violating the Jewish law, called Jesus 
 himself to the stand and administered the oath, 
 adjuring him " by the living God that thou tell 
 us whether thou be the Messiah, the son of God ; " 
 that Jesus replied, " I am, and ye shall see the 
 Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, 
 and coming in the clouds of heaven." ^ It is not 
 strange, then, that Paul, holding to his early belief 
 of a kingdom that was to be inaugurated by celestial 
 iMatt. xxvi. 62-64; Mark xiv. 61, 62. 
 
TEE LETTERS TO THE TEESSALONIANS 79 
 
 and supernatural force, felt that this belief was 
 confirmed by the vision which had been afforded 
 him of the risen Christ and by the report which 
 had come to him of the words of Christ at the time 
 of his trial. That Paul entertained any other view 
 in the earlier part of his ministry there is no rea^ 
 son to think ; that he did entertain this view there 
 is abundant reason to think. 
 
 We have reports, as we have already seen, of two 
 of his sermons, — one to the Jews in Antioch in 
 Pisidia ; one to the pagans on Mars Hill in Athens. 
 They both reach by different routes the same con- 
 clusion. In the synagogue in Antioch Paul begins 
 by praising the history of the Jewish people, breaks 
 off in that history, narrates the birth, the death, 
 and the resurrection of Christ, and brings his dis- 
 course to a conclusion with a picture of a judgment 
 which this Christ wiU initiate at his coming. At 
 Athens he does not begin with the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, for his auditors knew nothing of them. 
 He says nothing of prophecy, for his auditors knew 
 nothing of prophecy. But, beginning with the 
 revelation which God has made in nature, speaking 
 of the spiritual ignorance in which men are living, 
 as attested by their altar to an unknown God, he 
 comes to the same conclusion that he did in the 
 synagogue in Antioch : God will judge the world 
 by that Man whom he hath ordained, and he has 
 demonstrated this judgment because this Man has 
 risen from the dead.^ 
 
 1 Acts xiii. 16-41 ; xvii. 22-32. 
 
80 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 SucL, doubtless, was also his preaching at Thes- 
 salonica. It was one of the largest cities in ancient 
 Greece. Salonica, the same city under a different 
 name, is said to be the largest city in European 
 Turkey, excepting only Constantinople. It is one 
 of the few cities which have survived the decay that 
 has fallen upon that unhappy empire of the olden 
 time. It had and still has a noble harbor. It then 
 was the capital of the Roman province of Mace- 
 donia. In this city there were a great number of 
 Jews, as there stiU are. It has been throughout its 
 history a Jewish centre. Paul began, as was his 
 wont, preaching in the synagogue. He preached 
 three Sabbaths ; then his preaching in the sjna^ 
 gogue came to an end. The Jews would hear him 
 no longer, and he went out to preach to such as 
 would hear him in the town. Where and how he 
 found his preaching-places we do not know, nor 
 how long he continued his preaching ; but this was 
 his message, — the message he had given in Antioch, 
 the message he had given in a different form in 
 Athens : " The Messiah has come ; he has been 
 put to death ; he has risen from the dead ; he is 
 living ; he will presently return with power and 
 great glory ; he will bring his angels with him, and 
 he will judge the world ; but he will not judge them 
 by a race standard ; he will judge them by stand- 
 ards of absolute righteousness ; then all those who 
 love God and look for his appearing wiU be gath- 
 ered into his kingdom, and all those who oppose 
 God and desire not his appearing will be destroyed 
 
THE LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS 81 
 
 with everlasting destruction from the presence of 
 this coming Messiah." He still thought that the 
 power of this kingdom woidd lie in the power of an 
 almighty King. He had yet to learn, what in our 
 next chapter we shall see he did learn, that the 
 secret of its power would be the love of a Father 
 who suffers long and stiU is kind. 
 
 What aroused the particular excitement against 
 him in the city we do not know. Envy, perhaps, 
 by the Jews against this man who was opening the 
 kingdom of God to the pagans ; perhaps general 
 religious hostility ; perhaps, as at Ephesus, the in- 
 terference of his preaching with what men are 
 pleased to call vested rights. At aU events, a mob 
 was gathered together. In the outskirts of this 
 city was a suburban population of peasants, super- 
 stitious, ignorant, an easy prey to demagogues. 
 The word pagan means villager. The word heathen 
 means heath-dweller. The villagers and the dwell- 
 ers on the moors and uplands and away from the 
 cities were for a long time repudiators and resisters 
 of Christianity. They were the pagans and the 
 heathen of the olden time. Some of these rural 
 marketmen had come into the city selling their 
 wares.^ Among them a mob was aroused, which 
 came to the house where Paul was staying, — the 
 home of a kinsman of Paul's, Jason by name, who 
 had taken him in and made him his guest. The 
 mob demanded that Paul and Silas and Timothy 
 
 ^ See Acts xvii. 4r-9, and my commentary thereon ; Ramsay's 
 St. Paul the Traveler and Boman Citizen, p. 226 fE. 
 
82 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 should be giveu up. Jason would not give them 
 up. He concealed them or contrived their escape. 
 Then Jason himself was seized by the mob and 
 brought before the rulers of the city. The com- 
 plaint was made against Paul, Silas, and Timothy 
 that they were proclaiming a new kingdom ; that 
 they were heralds of some one coming to reign in 
 the place of Caesar ; that the old Roman imperial- 
 ism would be swept away and a new kingdom put 
 in its place. The charge was not without show of 
 reason. Paul did declare a new kingdom : he did 
 declare the overthrow of the present base Roman 
 Empire and the establishment on its ruins of a new 
 kingdom of the Lord. Then occurred just what 
 happened more than once in the anti-slavery riots 
 of our own country. It was the duty of the ruler 
 of the city to preserve peace in the city. He said 
 to himself, " We cannot have these disturbances 
 here." It is generally supposed to be easier to stop 
 one man from speaking than to stop a mob from 
 opposing his speaking. In our own anti-slavery 
 time it was not supposed that Isaiah Rynders and 
 the mob disturbed the peace of New York ; it was 
 Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison and 
 Henry Ward Beecher. It was not the man who 
 led the mob, it was the man who made the speeches. 
 So the attempt was made, not to queU the mob, 
 but to silence the speakers. And this was the 
 method adopted in Thessalonica. The city magis- 
 trate took bonds of Jason that there should be no 
 more rioting in the city, and there was only one 
 
THE LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS 83 
 
 method by which Jason could prevent rioting in 
 the city ; it was by putting a stop to the preaching. 
 This was a very ingenious device. If Paul could 
 have met the mob, he would have met it gladly. 
 He who said of himself that he had fought wild 
 beasts at Ephesus would have been willing to fight 
 these wild beasts in Thessalonica. But if he con- 
 tinued in his ministry, he would endanger the man 
 who had generously taken him into his house and 
 cared for him. This was too much for the chivalry 
 of Paul ; this he would not do. So he retreated 
 from Thessalonica and left the infant church just 
 born. 
 
 It appeared to have in it greater promise than 
 any church which Paul had up to that time visited. 
 It included some Jews ; a few Greeks ; a great 
 multitude of proselytes ; and some noble and 
 wealthy women. No mention is made of its includ- 
 ing any noble or wealthy men. But though Paul 
 could no longer preach in Thessalonica, he could 
 write letters. A letter would not arouse a mob as 
 a speech would. So, on arriving at Corinth, he 
 takes the first opportunity which is afforded to send 
 back a letter to the Thessalonians. This letter is 
 full of warm, tender, earnest affection. It is mainly 
 a friendly personal letter. There is very little 
 theology in it. It is quite as remarkable for what 
 it omits as what it contains. It says nothing about 
 Christ crucified, whom Paul tells the Corinthians 
 he determined in Corinth to make the subject of his 
 ministry ; only an incidental reference to Christ's 
 
84 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 death, because he must have died in order to be 
 raised from the dead ; nothing about his patient 
 endurance of evil ; nothing about his life and ex- 
 ample ; nothing about his teachings. Paul begins 
 by recalling to the Thessalonians their reception 
 of him, and his affection for them, and the evidence 
 he gave of that affection by the service he rendered 
 them, by the life he lived with them, by his refusal 
 to be at any expense to them whatever for support, 
 by the work he did with his own hands. He re- 
 calls to them how gladly they received his gospel, 
 how they put aside idols in order, as he says, to 
 wait for the coming of the Lord. He reminds them 
 that from their church went forth such reports, that 
 the cities of Macedonia round about learned of this 
 remarkable gathering in which Jew and pagan, 
 poor and rich, were united, for the first time, per- 
 haps, in Grecian history, certainly in the history of 
 this particular city. He urged upon them the high- 
 est standards of righteousness, purity, and truth ; 
 and the ground on which he urges this is that the 
 Messiah is coming, and coming soon. But some 
 have already died. Will they lose this Messianic 
 kingdom? Have they been banished to the sha- 
 dowy Hades in which the Greeks believed? And 
 are they there to remain, losing the glory of the 
 coming of the Lord ? No. They wiU come first, 
 and we who still live will follow after. 
 
 " But I would not that you should be ignorant, breth- 
 ren, concerning them that have fallen asleep, in order that 
 ye should not grieve as do the rest — those who have no 
 
THE LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS 85 
 
 hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also 
 those that, because of Jesus, have but fallen asleep, God 
 will lead forth with him. For this we say to you, by 
 the word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain 
 unto the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those that 
 are asleep. For the Lord himself, with a shout of com- 
 mand, with the voice of an archangel, and vrith the 
 trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven, and the 
 dead in Christ shall rise up first. Then we, the living, 
 who remain, shall be snatched up together with them in 
 the clouds, unto a meeting with the Lord in the air ; and 
 so shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore, strengthen 
 one another with these words. But concerning the times 
 and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write 
 to you. For ye yourselves know perfectly that the day 
 of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When 
 they are saying, peace and safety, then sudden destruc- 
 tion comes upon them, even as travail upon a woman 
 with child, and they shall not escape." * 
 
 Paul then goes on to explain that this hope which 
 he has put before them of a kingdom close at hand 
 is given to them not for their mere delectation ; it 
 is given to incite them to higher, nobler, purer 
 living. Because this kingdom is coming, because 
 it is close at hand, they are to live pure and holy 
 lives ; they are to be industrious and honest ; they 
 are not to be drunken ; they are to watch as senti- 
 nels watch upon guard ; they are to care for one 
 another and comfort one another ; they are to re- 
 joice even in times of persecution, buoyed up by 
 > 1 Thess. iv. 13-v. 3. 
 
80 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 this hope of a speedy deliverance and a speedy 
 victory. And he ends with this prayer : " And the 
 very God of peace sanctify you completely ; and 
 may your spirit and soul and body be entire and 
 blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." ^ 
 The letter begins by calling on them to turn aside 
 from idols, to look for the Coming ; it goes on to 
 answer objections to that Coming and to develop 
 the doctrine of the Coming ; and it closes with a 
 prayer that they may be so kept that they shall be 
 blameless at the Coming. 
 
 What was the effect of this letter on the Thes- 
 salonian church we do not know. We have only 
 two sources to guide us in answering that question. 
 One is the effect which a similar faith has had at 
 other epochs in Church history ; the other, a second 
 letter which Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. 
 
 In the beginning of this century an enthusiastic 
 and devout man by the name of MiUer, as a result 
 of study of the prophecies of the Old and New 
 Testaments, came to the conclusion that Christ 
 would come at a certain date. He went about 
 preaching in the Northern States this Coming of 
 the Lord. He also thought that the secret of the 
 forcef ulness of Christianity was a visible power and 
 glory. He thought it would come with " observa- 
 tion," and men would be able to say, " Lo here, lo 
 there." Great numbers of adherents flocked about 
 him. Men were not incited by this expectation 
 to live holily, without blame, with purity and with 
 1 1 Thess. V. 23. 
 
THE LETTERS TO THE THE8SAL0NIANS 87 
 
 industry. They laid aside their industries, forgot 
 the common duties of life, were absorbed in the ex- 
 pectation of a sudden miraculous Coming. Wher- 
 ever that wave of excitement swept over the country 
 it left behind it a moral and spiritual desolation. 
 The excitement of to-day was followed by death to- 
 morrow. Like a prairie fire, it left but burnt grass. 
 Some such effect seems to have followed in the 
 church at Thessalonica. The Thessalonian Chris- 
 tians seem to have stopped their work, given up 
 their industry, and folded their hands while they 
 watched for the Coming of the Lord in power and 
 clouds and great glory. 
 
 And so Paul writes his second letter to the Thes- 
 salonians to correct the errors into which they have 
 fallen. He reiterates the Coming of the Messiah ; 
 re-declares that the Christ will come in power and 
 glory, and will destroy his enemies and will establish 
 his kingdom. But he tells them that he will not 
 come immediately. Daniel, living in the age of 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, has painted the picture of 
 that strange, mad, brilliant king. He has painted 
 him in colors none too vivid, as the embodiment of 
 all that is blasphemous, profane, and wicked. Paul 
 recurs to this picture, and he teUs the Thessalo- 
 nians that the coming of Christ cannot be until 
 such a man of sin appears, and comes to the full- 
 ness of his growth. Had Paul ever heard the story 
 of the tares and wheat ? Did he know that the 
 wheat could not be gathered until the tares had 
 grown, also, to their ripeness ? Had he ever heard 
 
88 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 the story of Christ's talk with his disciples, just 
 before his death, as they sat on the hill overlook- 
 ing Jerusalem, when he told them that not one 
 stone should be left above another, and warned 
 them that wars and rumors of wars and decadence 
 in the Church must first come? At all events, 
 in some way or other Paul reached the conclusion 
 that the kingdom of God could not come until the 
 kingdom of evil was itself perfected. And thus he 
 cautions the Thessalonians : — 
 
 " But we beseech you, brethren, for the sake of the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering to- 
 gether unto him, that you allow not your understanding 
 to be lightly overthrown nor yourselves to be thrown 
 into tumult ; neither by your own spiritual ecstasy, nor 
 by the speech of others, nor by an epistle as from us, so 
 as to imagine that the day of the Lord is close at hand. 
 Let no one deceive you by any means ; because that day 
 shall not come except there come the falling away first, 
 and the man of sin be unveiled, the son of destruction, 
 who sets himself against and exalts himself above every 
 one that is called God or is an object of worship, so that 
 he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth 
 that he is God. Remember ye not that while I yet was 
 with you I said these things to you ? And now ye know 
 that which holds him back in order that he may be re- 
 vealed in his own time. For already the mystery of 
 lawlessness is at work, only there is one that restraineth 
 now, until he be taken out of the way ; and then wiU be 
 unveiled the lawless one, whom the Lord shall destroy 
 by the breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the 
 glory of his coming : — that lawless one whose coming 
 
THE LETTERS TO THE TEESSALONIANS 89 
 
 is accompanied with the superhuman working of Satan, 
 with all power and lying signs and wonders, and with all 
 deceitf ulness of unrighteousness for those that are per- 
 ishing because they did not receive the love of the truth 
 that they might be saved." ^ 
 
 He ends this epistle, as he ended the other, with 
 practical counsel — that men be quiet, that they 
 attend to their own business, that they go on with 
 their industries, that they do not think they hasten 
 the coming of the kingdom by sitting and looking 
 for it, but by living righteous, holy, and godly 
 lives. 
 
 As a simple interpretation of Paul's letters this 
 chapter should, perhaps, stop here. But the reader 
 has perhaps, if he cares, a right to know what im- 
 pression these letters have produced on my own 
 mind, and what I hold respecting the subject of 
 them, — the Second Coming of Christ. I speak on 
 this subject with great hesitation ; not because I 
 have not studied it, but because the more I have 
 studied, the more hesitation I feel about speaking 
 dogmatically upon it. Some things are, however, 
 very clear to me ; some are less clear. 
 
 It is, in the first place, very clear to me that 
 Paul believed that the Messiah was to come again, 
 and to come in his own generation.^ " We which 
 
 1 2 Thess. ii. 1-10. 
 
 ' Not necessarily while he was living, hut certainly during the 
 lifetime of that generation. This declaration " We which are 
 alive" agrees with the declaration, " We shall not all sleep." 
 1 Cor. XV. 51. 
 
90 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 are alive," he says. He speaks in the present tense. 
 It is equally certain that this expectation has not 
 been fulfiUed. Even if we suppose, as some do, 
 that all that which was true in the prophecy was 
 fulfilled by the destruction of Jerusalem, that de- 
 struction does not fill to the full Paul's picture of 
 the coming of Christ in clouds and glory, of the 
 dead arising and being caught up in the clouds, and 
 of the instant destruction of aU sin and iniquity 
 from the world. But Paul was mistaken not only 
 in his conception of the time of the Messiah's com- 
 ing ; he was mistaken also in his conception of the 
 secret of the power of the kingdom. The kingdom 
 of God does not come with observation. Men are 
 not to say, " Lo here, lo there." The glory of the 
 kingdom of God is, as Paul told the Corinthians a 
 little later, the glory of the cross, the glory of self- 
 sacrifice. It is the glory of crowned suffering. It 
 is not by clouds and angels and archangels, not by 
 the pomp and circumstance of war, terrestrial or 
 celestial, that Christ conquers, but by the " invin- 
 cible might of meekness." All this is true, and 
 yet it does not foUow that there is no truth in 
 Paul's expectation. It does not follow that there 
 is no meaning in the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
 ment, the prophetic words of Christ himself as 
 they are reported in the Gospels, and these pro- 
 phetic words of Paul in the Epistles to the Thes- 
 salonians. 
 
 The Bible looks upon all history as a revelation 
 of God. That is the end and object of it. The 
 
THE LETTERS TO TEE THESSALONIANS 91 
 
 diviae end of human development is not what we 
 call civilization, — steam engines and highways and 
 railroads and telephones and ceiled houses and fine 
 clothes and luxurious food ; it is not a comfortable 
 and easy time ; it is not even merely liberty and 
 righteousness. It is the revelation of God to the 
 sons of men, because they are sons of God. In 
 the Old Testament times this revelation of God is 
 made through divers prophets and patriarchs, speak- 
 ing in various ways that which God has witnessed 
 to them in their own consciousness. This revela- 
 tion of God in the Old Testament times is itself, 
 in the Hebrew conception, a preparation for 
 another, a clearer and a better revelation of God, 
 which has come to pass in the New Testament : in 
 the manger at Bethlehem ; in the life that follows ; 
 in the cross ; in the resurrection. But this is not 
 the consummation of the revelation. This much 
 seems to me clear in the teachings of Christ and 
 the Apostles. This revelation and all that has 
 grown out of it, this revelation and the love which 
 has flowed from it, this revelation and the brother- 
 hood which it has helped to cement together, this 
 revelation and the witness of the Spirit of God that 
 could not come until men had some conception of 
 the divine love to men — this revelation is itself 
 the preparation for a further revelation yet to come. 
 The end is not yet. The book of Revelation is 
 not a closed book. As the Old Testament was a 
 preparation for the New, so the New Testament 
 is a preparation for some disclosure of the glory 
 
92 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 of God not yet understood by us. Now, as in his 
 earthly life, Christ walks incognito. How few 
 there are who pierce the disguise and comprehend 
 his divinity ! To many still he is but the son of 
 a carpenter. To many still he is no Son of God. 
 And the revelation of divinity will not come to its 
 completion until that disclosure which he has made 
 of himself, in humbleness and in love, is supple- 
 mented and perfected by a revelation so splendid, 
 so shining, so universal, that the men who will not 
 see cannot help but see ; and mankind, looking 
 back from the splendid manifestation of divinity 
 yet to be flashed upon a startled world, and connect- 
 ing it with the manger, and the life of suffering, 
 and the Cross, will see the splendor of that earthly 
 life as they cannot see it until it is interpreted 
 by the splendor of the celestial. Not by standing 
 with our faces turned upward looking into the 
 heavens are we to prepare for this greater glory, 
 nor yet by walking forward with our face always 
 turned backward to Christ in the manger or on 
 the Cross, but with our expectant faces toward the 
 future, believing that the hymn we sing, " Nearer, 
 My God, to Thee," will yet find its fulfillment, and 
 the hope and sometimes anguish of faith long de- 
 layed will find its answer in a revelation which no 
 man can interpret because no man can understand. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAUL AT CORINTH 
 
 Forty-five miles from Athens lies, or rather 
 formerly lay, the city of Corinth. Athens was the 
 intellectual metropolis, Corinth the commercial me- 
 tropolis of Achaia. Even more than Athens it at 
 this time reflected the national character. It was 
 situated on an isthmus between two seas, the 
 ^gean on the east, the Ionian on the west ; and 
 on a plain between two ranges of hills separating 
 northern from southern Greece. Foreign com- 
 merce, to avoid the stormy peninsula, came to 
 Corinth, where either the goods were trans-shipped 
 or the vessels were carried by a kind of roadway 
 from one sea to the other ; domestic traders de- 
 siring to pass from northern to southern Greece 
 were compelled to pass at Corinth through the 
 mountain ranges which separated northern and 
 southern Greece. Hence Corinth was the gateway 
 of both internal and marine commerce. It was the 
 commercial metropolis of ancient Greece. And 
 its glory and its shame were those of a great com- 
 mercial metropolis. 
 
 It had been a great and a glorious city. " The 
 light of all Greece," Cicero calls it. But two hun- 
 dred years before Paul's visit it had been visited by 
 
94 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 a Roman army, and vengeance had been taken upon 
 it for some real or fancied insult put upon Rome. 
 It had been given over to sack. The men had 
 been killed, the women and the children had been 
 sold into slavery, and the city, with its temples and 
 its altars and its public buildings, had been given 
 to the flames. For a hundred years it lay in ruins. 
 Then Julius Caesar resolved to rebuild it. He sent 
 thither Roman colonists, and it regained something 
 of its ancient eminence. 
 
 This city, with a great foreign population gath- 
 ered in it, still had a great commerce and enjoyed 
 commercial privileges and some political and social 
 privileges as well. For it was the natural capital 
 of Greece. And whatever example Corinth set, 
 Greece was likely to follow. What Paris has been 
 to France, that in some sense Corinth was to 
 Greece. It was pervaded by the commercial spirit. 
 We are mistaken if we imagine the Greeks to have 
 been exclusively an intellectual people. They were 
 also a very commercial people. Five hundred years 
 and more before, Pindar had said, " Money, money, 
 money makes the man," in bitter satire of his 
 countrymen ; and this spirit that money makes the 
 man was nowhere in Greece embodied as it was in 
 Corinth. It was a city given over to luxury and 
 to the vices of luxury. Greece was never a very 
 highly moral state, and Corinth was preeminently 
 an immoral city even for Greece. The religion of 
 that day had nothing to do with morality. There 
 was no attempt on the part of the priests in the 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 95 
 
 temples to promote moral life. It is said that there 
 were a thousand prostitutes connected with the 
 temple to Yenus. That simple fact is sufficient to 
 indicate how little effect the religion of Greece had 
 in promoting moral life. The women of Corinth 
 were left, for the most part, to grow up in ignorance, 
 and were kept in seclusion in their homes. Only 
 the prostitutes were educated. They had their 
 receptions, and in them the wisest and the hest, 
 the philosophers and the moralists, were wont to 
 gather for brilliant conversation with one another 
 and with women who in our time we would not 
 allow within our homes. So far had this gone 
 that it became a proverb in Greece ; for a woman 
 to become devoted to a life of shame was called 
 in Greece to Corinthianize. 
 
 This moral quality of Corinth had affected its 
 intellectual quality. Philosophy was no longer 
 philosophy. It was sophism. The sophists were 
 teachers of a pseudo-philosophy.^ They organized 
 their schools, plied the arts of the rhetorician and, 
 perhaps it should be said, of the logician, certainly 
 of the dialectician. They plied them for money, — 
 which was perhaps legitimate ; they plied them not 
 for truth, — which was certainly not at all legiti- 
 mate. The average teacher in Corinth had that 
 idea of the duty of a professor of instruction which 
 
 1 It does not come within the scope of this volume to do any 
 more than give the merest outline of the schools of philosophy 
 dominant in Corinth in Paul's time, and only for the purpose of 
 interpreting his life and letters. 
 
96 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 is entertained and frankly avowed by some jour- 
 nalists at the present day respecting the profession 
 of journalism. They say that the newspaper is a 
 commercial enterprise ; it gives to the people what 
 the people want ; if you do not like the newspaper, 
 you must change the appetite of the people. So 
 these professors of rhetoric and logic in Corinth 
 said, " We are conducting a commercial enterprise, 
 and we give the people what the people want." 
 And what the people wanted was ingenuity in in- 
 tellectual fence. The sophist pretended to know 
 everything and to teach everything. He would 
 talk to you on any subject his auditors might 
 choose for a theme. Much, again, like some mod- 
 ern journalists. It made little difference to him 
 whether he knew anything about it or not ; he had 
 skill in intellectual fence, and that was enough. 
 He would discuss, therefore, all manner of ques- 
 tions, — political, moral, philosophical, abstract, 
 concrete, religious, secular, terrestrial, celestial, 
 present, future. Long before this time Plato had, 
 with biting sarcasm, characterized these teachers of 
 sophism, with whom Paul was to come in conflict in 
 Corinth, and this is his characterization of them : 
 "A sophist," he says — these are not, indeed, his 
 exact words, but Jowett's epitome from one of his 
 dialogues — "a sophist is one skilled in a contra- 
 dictious, dissembling, undivine, fantastic, juggling- 
 with-words art of imposition." That is a Greek 
 philosopher's definition of Greek sophism.^ 
 
 ^ See Plato's Sophist and Jowett's Introduction thereto. 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 97 
 
 Such a spirit necessarily issued in universal skep- 
 ticism. The sophists agreed in assuming that the 
 mind could only know external phenomena ; these 
 were only the manifestations of reality ; the reality 
 itself could not be known. Even these phenomena 
 could be known only approximately. For percep- 
 tion of these would differ with different men, and 
 would depend upon their temperament, education, 
 and circumstances, and in the same man would 
 differ at different times. Man therefore could 
 know nothing with certainty ; he knew all things 
 only relatively. There was no standard or crite- 
 rion by which he could judge between the true 
 and the false impression. He could therefore never 
 be sure of what he did know, or thought he knew. 
 He must therefore suspend judgment ; hold all his 
 knowledge tentatively ; never say, I know, only, So 
 it appears to me now.^ The issue of this mental 
 philosophy of Greece, at this period, is not unfairly 
 represented by the sentence attributed to one of this 
 school, " I only know that I know nothing." 
 
 Such was the mentaL philosophy of Corinth. 
 Moral philosophy existed in two schools : Epicu- 
 reanism and Stoicism, both dating from about the 
 beginning of the third century before Christ.^ The 
 
 ^ For a good brief description of this pseudo-philosophy, see 
 Windelband's Hist, of Phil. 197 fE. Paul's " We know in part 
 and we prophesy in part " and " We see through a glass darkly " 
 is a recognition of the truth in skepticism, while his affirmation, 
 Nevertheless, as things are, faith and hope and love abide, and 
 of these we are sure, is his reply to skepticism. 
 
 ^ Epicurus lived b. c. 342-270 ; Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, 
 dates of birth and death unknown, flourished about B. c. 290. 
 
98 PAUL TEE AFOSTLE 
 
 doctrine of Epicurus was that the object of philoso- 
 phy is practical, not theoretical ; it aims not to give 
 us a theory of the universe, but a happy life. His 
 philosophy, that happiness is the end of life and 
 therefore the object of philosophy, easily degener- 
 ated into that conception with which his name is 
 popularly connected — the doctrine that enjoyment 
 of animal pleasures is the chief end of life. It had 
 already become before Paul's time what Lecky 
 calls it, " little more than a principle of disintegra- 
 tion or an apology for vice, or at best the religion 
 of tranquil and indifferent natures, animated by 
 no strong moral enthusiasm." ^ If philosophy may 
 be judged by its tendency. Epicureanism, as a system 
 of moral philosophy, is justly condemned by the 
 moral degradation into which it speedily descended. 
 But in the teachings of Epicurus it was no defense 
 of sensualism. It is not possible, he said, to live 
 happily without living prudently, honorably, and 
 justly. He distinguished between the lively plea- 
 sures of energy and the quiet pleasures of repose, 
 and urged his disciples to seek the latter and 
 higher happiness. For he put mental joys above 
 those physical pleasures which are due to self-in- 
 dulgence ; in other words, he put happiness above 
 pleasure, though his disciples, in practice, soon 
 reversed the order. But in whatever order the vari- 
 ous kinds of happiness are ranked, it was of the 
 essence of his system, not merely that virtue tends 
 to produce happiness, but that it is virtue because 
 
 ' Lecky : Hist, of European Morals, i. 186. 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 99 
 
 it tends to produce happiness, and that is the great- 
 est virtue which produces the greatest happiness. 
 
 Stoicism was a far more strenuous and muscular 
 form of philosophy. It was a genuine and earnest 
 protest against the universality of pleasure-seeking 
 and the superficiality of the sophists. But though 
 more earnest in its spirit and more moral in its 
 tendency than the rival system of Epicurus, it was 
 scarcely less materialistic. The Stoic was what we 
 call in modern times a monist. He thought there 
 was only one thing in the world, namely, matter 
 and force, the latter being a subtle form of matter, 
 and that God and the soul were themselves forms of 
 matter and of force. He did not recognize a per- 
 sonal God ; but he did recognize law. There was 
 an inherent, an indestructible law, and men should 
 obey this law, not because they must, as though 
 they were machines, but because obedience was 
 reasonable. The Pharisee rested the duty of obli- 
 gation to law upon conscience ; the Stoic rested it 
 upon reason. Thus Stoicism was a protest against 
 the immorality of the time, because it was irrational ; 
 and equally a protest against the superficial philo- 
 sophy of the time, because it was irrational. Yet, 
 though reason was appealed to, it was that it might 
 interpret necessity. It was equally impossible to 
 escape Fate or Destiny or to modify it. It is not 
 possible, practically, to differentiate Stoicism from 
 fatalism. It did not in terms deny the freedom of 
 the will ; but it denied that the will could achieve 
 anything. And in its reaction against the happi- 
 
100 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 ness theory of the world it discarded wholly the 
 sentiments. Of the faith which perceives the invis- 
 ible, of the hope which believes that righteousness 
 brings reward here or hereafter, peace now or peace 
 in eternity, and of the love which feels a sympathy 
 for men and a desire to serve them with unrewarded 
 activity, there is scarce any trace to be found in 
 the writings of the Stoics, who were the moralists 
 of the first century. There is very little of it to be 
 found even in Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic of a later 
 age, already pervaded in some measure by the 
 spirit of Christianity. 
 
 This threefold philosophy has reappeared in our 
 own time, somewhat modified by the difference 
 in temperament between the Anglo-Saxon and the 
 Greek, and by the intellectual difference between 
 the first and the nineteenth centuries. In our 
 time the skepticism is known as agnosticism, the 
 Epicureanism as utilitarianism, the Stoicism as de- 
 terminism. The first is the doctrine that nothing 
 can be known with certainty concerning that real- 
 ity which lies back of phenomena, that unity which 
 makes of them a universe ; the second is the doctrine 
 that the only rational motive for action is the ex- 
 pectation of happiness, the only basis of ethics, the 
 power of action to produce happiness, and the only 
 standard of virtue the results of action in happiness ; 
 the third is the doctrine that all the events of life 
 are determined for man by a law or power outside 
 himself, that his freedom is apparent, not real.^ 
 
 1 The first, — agnosticism, is illustrated by Huxley's q^uotation 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 101 
 
 Into the city of Corinth with its commercial 
 spirit, its grossly immoral life, and its religion con- 
 pounded of these three elements, — a skepticism 
 fatal to all intellectual earnestness, an Epicurean- 
 ism making happiness the end of life, and a fatal- 
 ism destructive of all sense of personal responsibi- 
 lity, came Paul, discouraged and disheartened. His 
 mission up to this time may well have seemed to 
 him a failure. He had started out from Arabia, 
 after his three years of study, with high hopes, and 
 had returned to Damascus to tell the Pharisees, of 
 whom he was one, that Jesus of Nazareth was the 
 Messiah ; and they had driven him from the city. 
 He had then gone up to Jerusalem. Surely, he 
 had said, they will hear me ; they know me ; they 
 know how earnest I was in persecuting the Chris- 
 tians, and now that I have the light I can give it 
 to them. He tried to give it to them, and they 
 
 from Kant {Some Controverted Qitestions, p. 276) : " The greatest 
 and perhaps the sole use of philosophy is, after aU, merely nega- 
 tive ; . . . and instead of discovering truth has only the modest 
 merit of preventing error ; " the second, utilitarianism, by the def- 
 inition of John Stuart Mill ( Utilitarianism, p. 9) : " The creed 
 ■which accepts as the foundation of morals, utility, or the great- 
 est happiness principle, holds that actions are right in propor- 
 tion as they tend to produce happiness, wrong as they tend to 
 produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended 
 pleasure and the absence of pain ; by unhappiness, pain and the 
 privation of pleasure ; ' ' the third, determinism, by the affirmation 
 of J. Cotter Morrison {The Service of Man, p. 289), "A man 
 ■with a criminal nature and education, under given circum- 
 stances of temptation, can no more help committing a crime than 
 he could help ha'ving a headache under given conditions of brain 
 and stomach." 
 
102 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 treated him, or would have treated him if they 
 could, as they had treated his Master. He had to 
 flee from Jerusalem. He had undertaken almost 
 singlehanded to carry this message into Greece. 
 The Christian Church had very little faith in his 
 mission. It did not believe that Christianity ap- 
 plied to the pagans. And he had gone out with 
 almost no support except the benediction of the 
 prayer-meeting at Antioch ; and nothing had come 
 of his mission. He had gone to city after city, to 
 synagogue after synagogue, and every synagogue 
 had treated him as he had been treated at Damas- 
 cus and Jerusalem. When he turned from the 
 synagogue to the pagans, he had found himself at 
 once confronted with the charge of endeavoring to 
 raise an insurrection, to create animosity to the 
 Roman empire and the Roman emperor, and to 
 initiate a new kingdom. He was sUenced by the 
 Roman authorities. In no single place had he 
 been able to stay more than a few days or a few 
 weeks at the utmost. No wonder that he came to 
 Corinth disheartened and discouraged. " I was 
 with you," he says, " in fear and in weakness, and 
 in much trembling." 
 
 He reviewed the past, and he saw that his mes- 
 sage of a second coming of Christ within the 
 present generation to revolutionize the world had 
 accomplished nothing. He looked upon Corinth, 
 and he saw that the hope of a sensuous glory yet 
 to come was but a poor weapon with which to attack 
 a present sensuous glory ; that a picture of a future 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 103 
 
 kingdom of heaven would have in it no power to 
 stir the heart of a people given over to commercial 
 and luxurious splendor in their own time. They 
 might well have answered, had they known the 
 proverb, " A bird in the hand is worth two in the 
 bush," and their answer would not have been 
 wholly unreasonable. 
 
 Moreover, he had Jjee n foll owing the_(^hiist, and 
 he had received more and more the Christ spirit. 
 He had comej to see what at first he did not see, th e 
 glory of humiliatio n, t he riches of poverty, th e ex- 
 altation of abasement, the radiancy of self-sacrifice. 
 He began, as he~Ead in other^ciHes, at first, appar- 
 ently, accomplishing nothing. But when compan- 
 ions came, he took heart of courage, and went into 
 the synagogue and preached. There he met with 
 the same experience he had met before. The Jews 
 would not hear ; they reviled him. But he did not 
 meet opposition as he had met it before, by fleeing 
 to another city. He cast down before the Jewish 
 opponents the gauntlet of defiance ; took refuge 
 in a house adjoining the synagogue ; took with him 
 the ruler of the synagogue, who had been con- 
 verted to Christianity ; and set up what might be 
 called a rival synagogue adjoining. Thus he be- 
 gan his real ministry in Corinth. 
 
 The Jews presently tried the same tactics they 
 had tried successfully at Philippi and Thessalonica. 
 They made an assault upon him and brought 
 him before the Roman governor, a brother of the 
 famous Seneca. But now they had no charge 
 
104 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 whicli they could bring against Paul. They could 
 not charge him with preaching a new king and a 
 new kingdom ; for the theme of his preaching had 
 changed. And when Gallio had investigated and 
 heard what they had to say, his answer was, in 
 substance, this : " If this concerned Roman law, I 
 would hear it ; but it is a matter of words and 
 names and your own religion : to be a judge of 
 these matters I have no mind." And he drove them 
 from his judgment-seat. And when the Greeks took 
 the ruler of the synagogue who had brought the com- 
 plaint against Paul, and beat him before the judg- 
 ment-seat, Gallio let them do it ; he did not care. 
 
 So much for Paul's outward experience. He 
 remained in Corinth a year and a half. What 
 did he preach? The omissions of the Bible are 
 marvelous, and some of them inexplicable. Why 
 is it that Luke gave us the report of Paul's sermon 
 at Athens, when nothing came of the preaching, 
 and has given us no report of any sermon at Cor- 
 inth, out of which grew the first considerable and 
 prosperous church ? But if Luke has not reported 
 the Corinthian preaching, Paul's first Letter to the 
 Corinthians indicates its character. The second 
 chapter in that Letter defines his philosophy, and 
 describes his method of meeting both the agnosti- 
 cism and the utilitarianism of his time. How he 
 met determinism we shall see when we come to 
 consider his letters to the Romans. This second 
 chapter is as follows : ^ — 
 
 ^ The word -which I sometimes translate " wisdom " and some- 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 105 
 
 " And I, when I came to you, brethren, came not with 
 an ambition to excel other teachers in rhetorical or sophis- 
 tical skill, in declaring to you my testimony concerning 
 God. For I did not choose to know anything among you 
 but Jesus Christ, — and him crucified. And in weakness 
 and in fear and in much trembling was I with you ; and 
 my speech and my preaching were not in the persuar 
 sive rhetoric of sophism, but in demonstration of spirit 
 and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wis- 
 dom of men but in the power of God. Yet we speak 
 wisdom, among those who are full grown, but not 
 the wisdom of this age, neither of the rulers of this 
 age, who are becoming quite good for nothing. But the 
 wisdom we speak is the wisdom of God, a mystical wis- 
 dom, a hidden wisdom, which God prepared before the 
 ages and which is to result in our glory, which none of 
 the rulers of this age understood, for if they had under- 
 stood it they would not have crucified the Lord of this 
 glory. But, as it is written. Things which the eye has 
 not seen and the ear has not heard and which have not 
 entered into the heart of man to conceive, these God has 
 prepared for those who love him.^ But God has re- 
 vealed them to us through the spirit ; for the spirit [of 
 man] searches all things, even the deep things of God. 
 For who among men knows the experiences of man ex- 
 cept the spirit of man which is in him ? So also the ex- 
 periences of God knoweth no one except the Spirit of 
 God. But we have received, not the spirit of the world, 
 but the spirit which comes forth from God, in order that 
 
 times "sophism," in this paraphrase, is the same word in the 
 Greek. There is a play in the Greek which I have not found 
 possible to represent in the English. 
 ^ Isaiah Ixiv. 4. 
 
106 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 we may understand the experiences which are freely im- 
 parted to us by God. These also we speak, not in forms 
 of speech which can be taught by human wisdom, but in 
 such as are taught by the Spirit, interpreting to spiritual 
 men spiritual truths. But the unspiritual man ^ does not 
 receive the experiences of the Spirit of God, for they are 
 foolishness to liim, and he is not able to understand them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned. But the spiritual 
 man discerns all experiences, but he himself is discerned 
 by no one. ' For who knew the mind of the Lord ? who 
 shall counsel him ? ' ^ but we have the mind of Christ." * 
 
 Paul feared lest he should be confounded with the 
 Greek sophists, and Christianity should be regarded 
 as simply a new school of philosophy. When we 
 remember how often it has been so regarded, how 
 often, even to-day, theology and religion are con- 
 founded, how often to believe a system of philoso- 
 phy is accounted the same as to believe in Christ, 
 how often the creed or formulation of a system of 
 theology is made the test of the Church, and of the 
 loyalty of the ministry, we cannot think Paul's 
 apprehension groundless. Against this misappre- 
 hension he guards himself in the most explicit 
 terms. The Greeks, he says, seek after a philoso- 
 phy ; they are given over to sophism, dialectics, 
 ingenious fence, fine rhetoric. With all that I 
 would have nothing to do. I came to proclaim a 
 Person, not to teach a new philosophy. Not by 
 the acceptance of a philosophy but by contact with 
 a Person do we acquire wisdom and righteousness 
 
 ' Literally, /isycAjc man. ^ Isaiah xl. 13. ' 1 Cor. chap. ii. 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 107 
 
 and purity and deliverance from this present evil 
 world.i 
 
 But with clearness of vision he sees the half- 
 concealed premise which underlay the skepticism 
 which confronted him, and with his accustomed 
 boldness he frankly accepts, and indeed vigorously 
 affirms, the logic of the conclusion. 
 
 If its premise be granted, its logical result must 
 be accepted also. Let it be granted that man is 
 only a higher kind of animal, that he has only 
 those avenues to knowledge which the animal pos- 
 sesses, that he can know only what he sees, hears, 
 touches, tastes, and what by his reasoning powers 
 he can conclude from these sensible phenomena, 
 and all the great religious convictions which are 
 the foundation of the higher life of humanity dis- 
 appear. The "natural-" man is necessarily an ag- 
 nostic ; and by "natural" man Paul does not mean 
 a wicked man. The transliteration of the Greek 
 gives us the best interpretation of his meaning, — 
 the psychic man. The psychic man, he says, re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they 
 are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned. That is, 
 the man who depends for his knowledge upon his 
 senses and his reason, upon the use of those facul- 
 ties which he possesses in common with the animal, 
 though they are in an immeasurably higher state of 
 development, must be an agnostic. Paul's issue is 
 not with the conclusion of the agnostic but with his 
 1 1 Cor. i. 22, 23, 29, 30. 
 
108 PA [XL THE APOSTLE 
 
 premise. Every man, Paul affirms, possesses a two- 
 fold nature. Sometimes he speaks of man as three- 
 fold, — body, soul, and spirit ; but generally he com- 
 bines the body and the soul, that is, the material 
 mechanism and the psychic or immaterial portion 
 which he possesses in common with the animal, in 
 one nature, which Paul calls the flesh. This soul of 
 man includes the social faculties, and the reasoning 
 powers, which he shares with the animal though they 
 are developed in an eminent degree beyond that 
 of any other animal. But in addition to this, man 
 possesses a spirit. This includes his conscience, 
 whereby he perceives the essential and inherent 
 distinction between right and wrong ; faith, whereby 
 he perceives immediately and directly the invisible 
 realities, whereby he looks upon the things which 
 are not seen and are eternal ; ^ hope, which enables 
 him to look forward to that which transcends any 
 present experience and prophetically to realize it ; ^ 
 love, which according to Paul is no sensual passion, 
 but a spiritual and divine experience, transcending 
 and outliving, not only the body but the higher 
 psychic experiences.^ By this spirit man is linked 
 to God, by it he is provoked, excited, coerced to 
 search that he may know more than phenomena, 
 that he may understand the eternal reality which 
 lies behind all phenomena. For he is never satis- 
 fied with simply knowing phenomena ; he searches 
 the very depths of God himself ; and this restless 
 spirit of inquiry constitutes itself an argument that 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 18. 2 Rom. viii. 24. » 1 Cor. xiii. 8. 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 109 
 
 man is by his nature fitted for acquaintance with 
 God.i Thus we know God, as we know one 
 another, through the medium and in the domain of 
 personal experience. We have received hoth in 
 creation a spirit akin to God who has made us in 
 his own image, and in redemption the spirit of God 
 himself, which dwells within us ; the double gift 
 having been conferred that we may be sharers of 
 the divine experience, partakers of the divine na^ 
 ture. These experiences cannot be interpreted 
 except by analogues in spiritual experience. The 
 gulf between the material and the spiritual is im- 
 passable ; we can understand the spiritual only in 
 and through the spiritual. 
 
 Out of this philosophy grows Paul's conception 
 of preaching. The preacher is a prophet ; he does 
 not argue from phenomena to prove to the psychi- 
 cal man the probable truth of realities that are un- 
 seen. He is a herald, a witness ; he testifies to the 
 things which he knows, and he endeavors to evoke 
 
 1 " The spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God " (1 
 Cor. ii. 10) may mean that as Tve turn our thoughts inward to 
 search ourselves, so God searches, as it were, himself. The refer- 
 ence, then, would be to divine self-consciousness, and the argument 
 would be that we know God, not by reasoning, but by the impres- 
 sion, as it were, of the divine self-consciousness on our own soul. 
 This appears to be the common interpretation ; but it seems to me 
 to impute to Paul a metaphysical refinement foreign to his nature. 
 The same word is throughout his writing used to designate the 
 spiritual nature in man and the Spirit of God, and it is only by the 
 context that the reader can determine which significance is to be 
 given to it. See, for illustration, Rom. viii. 16, " The Spirit itself 
 beareth witness with our spirit." 
 
110 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 a spiritual perception in the natural man, by call- 
 ing into activity his dormant spiritual nature. 
 Thus the power of the preacher is the power of a 
 personal witness ; it does not rest in rhetorical excel- 
 lence, though that may be made an instrument in 
 the testifying. It does not rest in philosophical 
 argument, though the preacher may show by phi- 
 losophical argument that the truth to which he tes- 
 tifies is consistent with the "phenomena perceived 
 by the natural man. But the real secret of the 
 preacher's power is his ability to reveal his own 
 living spirit to the dormant spiritual man, and so 
 awaken in him the capacity to receive the Spirit 
 of God, which speaks in and through and to the 
 spirit of man. 
 
 This is the mysticism of St. Paul. 
 
 Nor is he less radical in his method of meeting 
 the utilitarianism of his time. Happiness is neither 
 the end of life nor the criterion of virtue. The 
 highest of humanity was a sufferer. Epicurus 
 divided pleasures, as we have seen, into two classes : 
 the pleasures of activity and the pleasures of repose : 
 the first sensfious, the second intellectual. Christ 
 knew neither. He was poor ; deprived not only of 
 the luxuries but of the ordinary comforts of life ; 
 without place, power, or the gratification of ambi- 
 tion. His life wore all the aspects and involved 
 all the hardships of failure. He was without the 
 intellectual pleasures of education, literature, con- 
 genial friendships, or the still more subtle pleasures 
 of meditation, quietude, repose. After three years of 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 111 
 
 life, spent in poverty and in increasing obloquy, he 
 died a shameful death. To follow him involved all 
 his followers in a similar discarding of happiness 
 and acceptance of crucifixion. If one would be his 
 disciple he must take up his cross and follow him ; 
 must chose as his portion " pain and the privation 
 of pleasure." Such was the Leader and such the life 
 Paul resolved to present to the Corinthians. Among 
 you, he says, I did not choose to know anything ex- 
 cept this Messiah, and to know him only as crucified. 
 This declaration of Paul has been often mis- 
 quoted ; as though he affirmed as a principle of his 
 life, which limited all his teaching, the determina- 
 tion never to know anything save Jesus Christ 
 and him crucified ; as though this was the one and 
 only theme of his instructions. But this is not 
 what he says ; nor was his preaching thus limited. 
 What he says is, I did not choose among you to 
 know anything save Jesus Christ and him crucified. 
 It is as if he had said, I came to a city mired in 
 luxury and in self-indulgence ; notorious for its in- 
 famous license ; tickling itself with a pseudo-philo- 
 sophy which did not affect the moral life ; a city 
 whose only moral movement was a movement 
 founded on pure reason, not on conscience ; a city 
 in which meekness, gentleness, forgiveness, kind- 
 ness, self-abasement, and humiliation were abso- 
 lutely unknown, or known only to be scoffed at ; 
 and I resolved to put away all the instruments on 
 which I had before relied, all the methods I had 
 before employed, and rely wholly upon the story 
 
112 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 of Christ and his cross ; I resolved that I would 
 rest my preaching, not on the glory of a Christ yet 
 to come, but on the glory of a Christ who has al- 
 ready come ; not on a glory to be revealed in 
 clouds and angels and power, but on a gl oryjwhjcli- 
 is revealed inpoyerty, humiliation, crucifixion. In 
 doing this, I resolved, too, that I would appeal to 
 the spiritual that is in man. I would not appeal 
 to men's ambition, and think to sanctify it by pre- 
 senting to them a celestial picture to respond to 
 their ambition. I came to see that in every man 
 there is a power of insight, and I resolved that I 
 would try to awaken that, dormant as it is, and 
 make men see the invisible. 
 
 In brief, Paul's answer to utilitarianism is self- 
 sacrifice ; his answer to agnosticism is spiritual in- 
 sight. 
 
 Up to this time in Paul's experience he has said 
 nothing about the crucifix:ion, except incidentally 
 to refer to the death of Christ as a basis for setting 
 forth the resurrection of Christ. From this time 
 forth he has little to say about the resurrection of 
 Christ ; so little, apparently, in his preaching to the 
 Corinthians that some of the church came to the 
 conclusion that there was no resurrection, and he 
 writes them at length on the subject. In his pre- 
 vious sermons and in his previous letters to the 
 Thessalonians he has nothing to say about the cru- 
 cifixion and much to say of the second coming ; in 
 his future letters, little to say of the second coming. 
 Instead : he will depart and be with Christ ; he will 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 113 
 
 be absent from tlie body and present with the Lord ; 
 a crown of righteousness prepared for him awaits 
 him.i Christianity becomes more and more to him 
 a present life, le ss and les s a mere hope of a future 
 Jiigi. It is after this that he writes to the Romans 
 that men are justified by faith alone. It is after 
 this that he writes to the Philippians that because 
 Christ hath humbled himself, and taken the form 
 of a servant, and been obedient even unto death, 
 and that the death of the cross, therefore God 
 hath highly exalted him. It is after this that he 
 writes to the Galatians, in mystical phrase, that he 
 is crucified with Christ, nevertheless he lives ; yet 
 not he, but Christ lives in him. It is after this 
 that he writes to the Corinthians that, even if he 
 had known Christ after the flesh, he would not care 
 for the knowledge, so surpassing is the mystical 
 and spiritual vision of the ever-present Christ.^ 
 From this time forth he is the preacher of these 
 two things : first, the glory of self-sacrifice ; and, 
 secondly, the mystical life of the inward faith. 
 / Thus we have traced in Paul's experience three 
 \stages. In the first we see him a Pharisee. He is 
 Conscientious ; he has studied the law ; he believes 
 in it ; he endeavors to fulfill it ; and as regards 
 what we call the ceremonial law — that is, as re- 
 gards the law defining man's especial obligations to 
 
 1 Phil. i. 23 ; 2 Cor. v. 6-8 ; 2 Tim. iv. 8. In his Epistles to 
 the Corinthians there are only incidental references to the second 
 coming : e. g., 1 Cor. i. 7 ; xv. 23. 
 
 2 Rom. iu. 28 ; Phil. ii. 6-11 ; Gal. u. 20 ; 2 Cor. v. 16. 
 
114 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 God — he is blameless. But he has hope of a 
 Messiah who is coming to make Jerusalem the 
 queen city of the world, and when he sees a sect 
 arising which declares that the Crucified One is 
 the Messiah, he will have none of it, and when it 
 grows strong he sets himself to work to destroy it. 
 In th e second st age of his spiritual experience he 
 has seen this crucified Saviour risen ; he has thus 
 brought to him the consciousness of the resurrec- 
 tion ; in that consciousness of the resurrection he 
 gets his conviction that Jesus is the Messiah. _ But 
 he still believes in the Pharisa ic conception of the 
 kingdom of God ; he stiU thinks that tTie Messiah 
 is straightway coming to bring about that kingdom 
 of GocTTand he goes forth as the herald of a coming 
 king. In t he third stage o f his experience he is no 
 longer a Pharisee, and he is no longer a Pharisaic 
 Christian. He seeajhere is no, glor y like the glor^ 
 of self-_akasfim.eBt-aBd self-sacrifice; thatjthere is 
 no evid ence o f religion like the evidence of the in- 
 ward witness of the soul itself. He speaks as a 
 mystic to mystics, as a spiritual man to spiritual 
 men, and he sets forth the glory of the life which 
 has been lived on the earth. And when the glory 
 of the risen Christ or the glory of the Christ before 
 the beginning of the world is referred to, it is only 
 that it may intensify the glory of the earthly career. 
 Along with this change comes a change in his 
 conception of his function and his work. He be- 
 gins to see now that the Koman Empire is to last. 
 He begins to see that the Christian religion must 
 
PAUL AT CORINTH 115 
 
 be made the religion of the Roman Empire. He 
 no longer goes from place to place as a mere herald 
 of a coming king. He stays a year and a half in 
 Corinth ; he stays two years in Ephesus. He plans 
 also to extend his missionary tour. He resolves 
 that he will go to Eome.^ A little later he re- 
 solves to go from Rome to Spain,^ the westernmost 
 boundary of the Roman Empire. He has enlarged 
 the conception of his mission, — it is to make faith 
 in Christ the faith of the Roman Empire. He has 
 changed his conception of the instrument of power, 
 — it is no longer the glory of the Coming One, it 
 is th e glory of One who has come and has dwelt 
 "£?H_*^S-£9*t^- And he has changed the method 
 of his address, — he does not appeal to the reason, 
 endeavoring to win men by philosophical argument : 
 he does not address himself to the appetite for the 
 marvelous, promising in a second coming a miracle 
 greater than any that has been wrought; he ad- 
 dresses himself to the spiritual in man, awakening 
 in him that which shall perceive the divine love. 
 1 Acts xix. 21. 2 Rom. ^v. 24, 28. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE FIEST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 
 
 Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians was 
 written from Ephesus, three or four years after his 
 departure from Corinth, in answer to a letter from 
 the Corinthian church which brought him some sad 
 news and some suggestive inquiries. In his re- 
 sponse Paul deals with six topics : — 
 
 1. The spiritual basis of knowledge. 
 
 2. Certain factions which had arisen in the Co- 
 rinthian church. 
 
 3. Certain immoralities which had entered into 
 and threatened to destroy it. 
 
 4. Certain specific questions addressed to him by 
 the church. 
 
 5. Problems growing out of varieties of spiritual 
 gifts claimed by dififerent members. 
 
 6. Immortality and the resurrection. 
 
 In the previous chapter I have considered Paul's 
 treatment of the first topic ; the others I take up 
 in the order in which Paul treats them. 
 
 THE FACTIONS 
 
 "Within a quarter of a century after Christ's 
 death there had already appeared that sectarianism 
 
TEE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 117 
 
 which was to be the future bane of the Christian 
 Church. And it had appeared in much the same 
 form. Factions arose which called themselves after 
 the name of eminent prophets and teachers. It is 
 a curious illustration how little the Church of 
 Christ has really bowed to the authority of Scrip- 
 ture, which in its creeds it has so much exalted, 
 that, in spite of Paul's earnest condemnation of 
 these Corinthian factions, they have been so con- 
 stantly repeated since. Not to mention the Domin- 
 icans and Franciscans and Benedictines, — follow- 
 ers respectively of Dominic, Francis of Assisi, and 
 Benedict of Mersia, or the Jansenists and Jesuits, 
 one of them avowed followers of Jansenius, the 
 others really followers of Loyola but taking the 
 name of Jesus, — we have had Augustinians, Lu- 
 therans, Calvinists, Arminians, Wesleyans, — that 
 is, parties doing exactly what Paul condemned, one 
 saying I am of Calvin, another I am of Luther, 
 exactly as in Paul's time one said I am of Paul, and 
 another, I of Apollos. Indeed in one respect the 
 parallel has been even more exact ; for we have 
 had in modern times three separate sects disavow- 
 ing sectarian principles and sectarian creeds, and 
 endeavoring to avoid the appearance of sectarianism 
 by calling themselves by the name of Christ. 
 
 Concerning the four parties mentioned by Paul 
 nothing is with certainty known. Their names as 
 ecclesiastical parties do not reappear in the history 
 of the Church. The spirit of faction has been per- 
 manent, particular factions have not. But we 
 
118 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 know enough to form a reasonable surmise as to 
 their constitution and character. There is no 
 reason to suj)pose that either of the individuals 
 mentioned approved the organization of the party 
 which assumed his name, or intended to make him- 
 self its leader. It is certain that Paul did not. 
 There is no reason to suppose that either ApoUos 
 or Peter did. It is certain that the great leaders 
 in the Church, in subsequent ages, had no such 
 purpose. It was not the design of Augustine or 
 Luther, of Calvin or Wesley to form a sect or 
 school of followers. Each of these great prophets 
 saw some great truth which the world needed, and 
 gave expression to it. Men of similar tempera- 
 ment, attracted by his message, accepted and re- 
 peated it, in varying forms, and then the school 
 was formed, which subsequent debates, growing out 
 of self-defense or of attack upon rival or antago- 
 nistic schools, crystallized into a party or sect, with 
 its creed, its form of worship, its order of govern- 
 ment, — in short, into a church, no longer simply of 
 Christ, but of Luther, or Calvin, or Wesley as the 
 case might be. It is probable that history has 
 repeated itself, and that neither Paul, ApoUos, nor 
 Peter intended to form a party, and that neither 
 gave any sanction to the party which claimed to 
 follow him, and that those who said " I am of 
 Christ " followed Christ no more truly than did 
 the others. 
 
 The first faction probably grew out of the Jewish 
 element in the Christian Church. Christianity had 
 
THS FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 119 
 
 grown out of Judaism, and there was a large and 
 at first dominant party in the Church, with head- 
 quarters at Jerusalem, which held that Christianity 
 was a phase of Judaism ; that the pagan must be- 
 come a Jew before he could become a Christian ; 
 that the laws of Moses were of perpetual and uni- 
 versal obligation, and that the Church of Christ 
 was subject to them.^ This party insisted, there- 
 fore, that converts from paganism must be circum- 
 cised, that they must not eat meat offered to idols, 
 that they must not intermarry with pagans, and if 
 already intermarried must separate, that they must 
 observe the Jewish feast-days, especially the Sab- 
 baths, — in a word, that they must be conscientious 
 Jews. They cited chapter and verse from the Old 
 Testament in support of their contention, and 
 might have coupled therewith the declaration of 
 Christ in the Sermon on the Mount that not one 
 jot or tittle of the law should pass away tiU all 
 be fulfilled. They took the name of Peter as 
 their leader, because he was in some special mea- 
 sure an apostle to the Jews and had remained pre- 
 eminent in the Jewish Church ; but there is small 
 reason to believe that he personally sanctioned their 
 principles, their policy, or their spirit. The ana- 
 logue of this Jewish or Petrine faction is the con- 
 servative party in our own time, the Puritan of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Covenant- 
 ers of Scotland, the Huguenots of France, and the 
 
 ^ This party and its development in the Church -will he described 
 more fully in the chapter on Paul's Letter to the Galatiana. 
 
120 PAl/L THE APOSTLE 
 
 most scrupulous and observant in the Roman 
 Church in all ages. In short, this party is ana- 
 logous to that which regards the Christian religion 
 as a law of God, and obedience to that law as the 
 chief characteristic of the Christian life. 
 
 The second faction was born of and supplied by 
 the Gentile element in the Christian Church. The 
 Gentiles knew nothing of Judaism, and cared no- 
 thing for it. Its feast-days and fast-days, its sacri- 
 ficial system, its regulations concerning clean and 
 unclean, its practice of circumcision, were all no- 
 thing to them, and to these they were naturally 
 indifferent. But this was not all ; the Greeks and 
 Romans were not accustomed to identify morality 
 with religion. The idea that God is a righteous 
 God, and demands righteousness of his children, 
 which is the fundamental doctrine of Mosaism, was 
 a novel doctrine to them. They were more ready 
 to accept the hope of a present emancipation from 
 galling bondage, ecclesiastical and civil, or an ex- 
 pectation of a great enfranchisement in the future 
 with the second coming of the Messiah, than they 
 were to accept such a change of character as would 
 make them truthful, pure, generous, self-sacrificing. 
 They disregarded the Levitical law, and were quite 
 ready to disregard also the moral law. They 
 claimed Paul as their leader, though it is certain 
 that Paul, as we shall see in this First Epistle to 
 the Corinthians, repudiated very vigorously their 
 repudiation of the moral law, and their separation 
 of morality and religion. The analogue of this 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 121 
 
 Pauline party is to be found in history in the liberal 
 and progressive party in the Church in our own 
 time, in the Cavaliers of the seventeenth century, 
 in the more lax and careless spirits in court circles 
 in the Roman Church in the Middle Ages, and in 
 the Antinomians and Anabaptists of Germany in 
 the time of Luther. 
 
 The third party grew out of an endeavor, which 
 had been made previous to Christ, to unite Gre- 
 cian philosophy with the Jewish religion. This 
 endeavor had given rise to an Alexandrian school, 
 Greco-Jewish in its character, and deriving its 
 name from Alexandria, where its chief activity 
 was seen. This school, by a process not necessary 
 to describe here,-^ endeavored, by allegorizing the 
 Old Testament Scriptures, so to explain them, or 
 to explain them away, as to make them appear 
 rational, and consonant with Grecian philosophy. 
 ApoUos had come from Alexandria; and this 
 Greco-Jewish school, importing its allegorical and 
 rationalistic spirit into the Christian Church, 
 called itself after the name of Apollos. The ana- 
 logue of this school is to be found in what is called 
 the' New Theology of our time, and in the School- 
 men of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Finally, there was a party which claimed to be 
 no party, which put aside Peter and Paul and 
 Apollos, and with them the Old Testament Scrip- 
 
 ^ This party and its development will be described more fully 
 in the chapter on Paul's letters to the Colossians and the Ephe- 
 
122 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 tures, and such New Testament records and tradi- 
 tions as existed, or gave to them a wholly secon- 
 dary place, and claimed direct and immediate 
 fellowship with Christ, and inspiration from him. 
 It called itself, therefore, by his name, and claimed 
 preeminently to derive its principles and its au- 
 thority from him. It was the mystical, the sancti- 
 fied, the holiness party of the first century. It 
 has its analogue in that party in more modem 
 times which discards aU traditions, including the 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which 
 recognizes no other authority than what is called 
 the inward witness of the spirit, and which assumes 
 preeminence in vision and faith. It is historically 
 illustrated by the Brethren of the Common Life, 
 the Illuminati, the Quietists, and other similar 
 mystical sects. 
 
 If the reader thinks that in these characteriza- 
 tions essential distinctions are ignored, and incon- 
 gruous qualities are strangely intermixed in a 
 blurred picture, he must remember that distinc- 
 tions are thus ignored and qualities are thus inter- 
 mingled in actual history. Loyalty to conscience 
 merges by insensible degrees into a despotic and 
 dwarfing literalism, liberty into a dangerous and 
 self-indulgent license, intellectual activity into con- 
 founding dogma with truth and creed with life, 
 the spirit of faith and hope into a disembodied 
 religion, incapable, because disembodied, of effec- 
 tive warfare in this world. Each of the four 
 parties which Paul entitles by the names of the 
 
TBE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 123 
 
 leaders which they had respectively chosen pos- 
 sessed, it may safely be assumed, both the virtues 
 and the vices of analogous parties in subsequent 
 times. They possessed severally the excellencies 
 and the defects, the truths and the errors of the 
 more modern forms of conservatism, liberalism, in- 
 tellectualism, and mysticism. 
 
 Thus there were four nascent factions in the 
 Corinthian Church : the /Conservative, or legal, or 
 Puritan j-dhe radical, or liberal, or Gentile; the 
 3, philosophical, or. scholastic, or Alexandrian ; and 
 yy the_mystLcal, or transcendental. Each of them 
 took the name of a leader famous in the Church, 
 though probably not one of them had the leader's 
 authority for so doing. Each separated itself 
 from the others and constituted an independent 
 party if not an independent organization. Thus 
 began sectarianism in the Christian Church. 
 Thus Paul condemned it : — 
 
 " Now I beseech you, brethren, in the name of our 
 Lord, Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, 
 and that there be no schisms among you ; but that ye 
 be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same 
 purpose. For I have been given to understand concern- 
 ing you my brethren, by members of Chloe's household, 
 that there are strifes among you. What I mean is this : 
 that each one of you says, I am of Paul, but I of Apol- 
 los, but I of Peter, but I of Christ. Christ is divided. 
 Was Paul crucified for you ? or were you baptized into 
 the name of Paul ? I thank God that I baptized none 
 of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest any one should 
 
124 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 say that ye were baptized into my own name. And I 
 baptized also the household of Stephanas ; besides I 
 know not whether I baptized any other. . . . When one 
 saith I am of Paul, but another I am of ApoUos, are you 
 not acting in a very human fashion ? ^ What then is 
 Apollos ? And what is Paul ? Servants through whom 
 ye became believers. And each served as the Lord gave 
 him the ability. I planted, Apollos watered ; but God 
 gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth 
 anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the 
 increase. But he that planteth and he that watereth 
 are one, and each shall receive his own reward accord- 
 ing to his own labor. For we are laborers together with 
 God. God's husbandry, God's building are ye. . . . 
 Therefore let no one glory in men. For all things are 
 yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, whether the 
 world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to 
 come : all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is 
 God's." 2 
 
 The reader Bas but to substitute the names 
 of Lutber, Calvin, and Wesley for the names of 
 Paul, ApoUos, and Peter, and this trenchant rebuke 
 and earnest appeal would be literally as appli- 
 cable to the Church in the nineteenth century as 
 in the first. How then would Paul meet these 
 sectarian divisions with the sectarian names, — 
 
 1 The best reading is &v9panroi., not <TapiciKot, "Are ye not men ? " 
 not, " Are ye not carnal ? " but the phrase is to be interpreted by 
 the parallel passage in the preceding verse (1 Cor. iii. 3): " Are ye 
 not walking after the manner of men ? " 
 
 2 1 Cor. 1. 10-16 ; iii. 4-9, 21-23. 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 125 
 
 Lutherans, Calvinists, Wesleyans ? How did he 
 meet them in his own time? 
 
 He would not meet them by either one of the 
 four methods which have been proposed in our 
 modern times as a cure for sectarianism, — a mutual 
 agreement to accept as the basis of union the Bible, 
 a Church order, the Church sacraments, or a com- 
 mon creed ; certainly it was not by either of these 
 methods that he proposed to the Corinthians to 
 cure their dissensions. 
 
 He did not propose and could not have proposed 
 the acceptance of the Bible as the foundation of 
 ecclesiastical unity, for the Bible did not exist. 
 The Old Testament existed, but he could not have 
 called upon them to unite upon the Old Testament, 
 because he said over and over again in his Letters 
 that Christians were not bound by the laws of the 
 Old Testament ; they were freed from the law. 
 And the law constituted a large part of the Old 
 Testament. He could not, therefore, have united 
 them on the basis of their acceptance of the Old 
 Testament as a final and absolute authority. And 
 he certainly could not have united them on the 
 acceptance of the New Testament as a final and 
 absolute authority, for the New Testament did not 
 exist. He was himself, in this very letter, writing 
 a part of the New Testament. Its books were not 
 brought together in one collection, whose authority 
 was recognized by the Church, until the second or 
 third century. In truth, the notion that the Church 
 is or can be founded on the Bible is a curious in- 
 
126 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 version of the perfectly well-known historical order. 
 The Jewish Church, if not founded by Abraham,^ 
 certainly existed as a definite ecclesiastical organi- 
 zation in the time of Moses ; but the Old Testa- 
 ment in its present form was not completed till over 
 a thousand years later. In a similar manner, the 
 Christian Church was brought into existence at 
 Pentecost, if not before ; but the New Testament, 
 as we now have it, was certainly not completed 
 until the end of the first century or early in the 
 second. The Bible is the creation of the Church, 
 and therefore the Church cannot be founded on 
 the Bible. The basis of the Church cannot be the 
 literature which its own life has created. 
 
 Nor did Paul make the unity of the Church de- 
 pendupon acceptance of any particular form of 
 ecclesiastical organization. Neither here nor any- 
 where else does he lay stress upon the supremacy 
 and authority of either Peter or the Twelve. It is 
 impossible to reconcile his utterances with the idea 
 that he recognized any such supremacy and author- 
 ity. He habitually claimed to be an apostle, the 
 equal of the other apostles, and to bear the witness 
 of his apostleship not in any ordination by other 
 apostles, but in the spiritual fruits of his work and 
 thus the ratification of his apostleship bj' the Spirit 
 of God.^ Not once does he directly appeal to the 
 
 ^ As Dean Stanley regards it in his History of the Jewish 
 Church. 
 
 2 Rom. xi. 13 ; 1 Cor. i. 1 ; ix. 1-2 ; Gal. i. 1, 19-22 ; ii. 4-6, 11 ; 
 Col. i. 1 ; 1 Tim. ii. 7 ; Titus i. 1. 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 127 
 
 apostles for decision on a doubtful question ; and 
 in the one ease in which an appeal is made to apos- 
 tles and others in Jerusalem, he^ declarfiS-lhat- he 
 would not have accepted their decision had.itheen 
 adverse to the doctrine of liberty ; and such deci- 
 sion as they reached he speedily tliough quietly dis- 
 regarded.i He does not suggest to the rival factions 
 at Corinth that they submit their differences to any 
 ecclesiastical authority. He does not refer them 
 to Peter, or to the apostolic college, or to a pres- 
 bytery, or an assembly, or to a special council 
 to be called for the purpose. He does not advise 
 them to unite in any existing form of ecclesiastical 
 organization, — papal, episcopal, or presbyterian. 
 Indeed, if I have correctly traced the growth of the 
 Church as an organization, ^ he could not have done 
 so. For neither papal, apostolic, or presbyterian 
 authority existed. There was as yet neither pope, 
 bishopric, synod, or general assembly. Different 
 churches were organized on different models in dif- 
 ferent localities. The form of organization is the 
 mechanism which life uses in its work; and the 
 unity of life cannot be based upon the mechanism 
 which it uses. 
 
 Paul might, perhaps, have made a common ac- 
 ceptance of the sacraments a basis of union, for they 
 were doubtless in common use ; but he did not do 
 so. One might as well base the unity of the home 
 as the unity of the Church upon a common meal. 
 
 1 Gal. i. 9-12. Comp. Acts xv. 28, 29 with 1 Cor. viii. 4-8. 
 ^ See chapter iv. 
 
128 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Certainly Paul does not propose any such founda- 
 tion. He does not mention the Lord's Supper in 
 this connection at all, and though he mentions bap- 
 tism, it is to dismiss it as a matter of wholly sec- 
 ondary importance. " I thank God," he says, 
 " that I baptized none of you but Crispus and 
 Gaius, lest any one should say that I baptized in 
 my own name. And I baptized also the household 
 of Stephanas. Besides I know not that I baptized 
 any other ; for Christ sent me not to baptize, but 
 to preach the gospel." It is scarcely possible to 
 conceive that the writer of this sentence, after 
 treating baptism, in whatever form, in so cavalier 
 a fashion, would have made acceptance of a partic- 
 ular form of administering baptism a condition of 
 church union. 
 
 Certainly Paul did jot attempt to secure Chris- 
 tian union by uniting tnese factions in agreement 
 upon a^cSnunon philosophy of religion, or a com- 
 mon^jyBib£il_as_aa-e^i:ession of such philosophy. 
 If the Bible is the child of the Church, the creed 
 is more evidently its child. It is what the Church 
 has come to think as the result, in part at least, of 
 a study of the Bible. If unity must be based upon 
 the creed, then unity was not possible till the third 
 or fourth century, for not till then did the Church 
 have any creed, even the simplest. It was at first 
 too busy living to philosophize about its life. And 
 in this very letter to the Corinthians Paul expli- 
 citly disavows the notion that the Church can be 
 built upon philosophy, as though it were only a new 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 129 
 
 school, with a new theory of life. He argues at 
 length that philosophic definitions of religious truth 
 afford no basis for Christian union. What he calls 
 " wisdom " we might without misinterpretation call 
 scholastic philosophy. The " wisdom " which the 
 Greeks sought after was the philosophic formula- 
 tion of all truth, and the whole of the second chap- 
 ter is taken up with showing that spiritual truth 
 cannot be adequately rationalized, that it tran- 
 scends intellectual definitions. It is not, he says, 
 with wisdom of words or excellency of speech — 
 not, that is, by a philosophy or a skillful phras- 
 ing of philosophy in a common symbol — that the 
 Church can ever be made one. History-abundantly 
 confirms his argument that theolog y_ afford^ no 
 ^sis for Christian union. The creeds have been 
 wedges to split the Church asunder, not bands to 
 bind it together. If we except the Apostles' 
 Creed, their object has been not to include all dis- 
 ciples of Christ but to exclude some who at least 
 called themselves disciples. Thus the Nicene Creed 
 was framed to exclude Arians, the Heidelberg 
 Catechism to exclude Romanists, the Westmin- 
 ster Confession to exclude Arminians, and the 
 Creed of Pius IV. to exclude Protestants. The 
 object of the creed maker has been to frame a 
 shibboleth which the supposed heretic could by no 
 possibility pronounce. It has been exclusive, not 
 inclusive. 
 
 Finally, Paul w ould not ^ay, as sometimes is 
 said in our time, that denominations are a blessing, 
 
130 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 and that we must have Congregational and Bap- 
 tist and Methodist and Episcopal and Presbyterian 
 and Roman Catholic bodies, to the number of a 
 hundred and twenty-five or a hundred and thirty 
 separate and often rival and contending sects, be- 
 sides independent congregations. This division of 
 the Church into separate parties he vigorously con- 
 demns. It is the result, he says, of earthliness ; 
 it is produced by envy ; it leads to strife. By 
 such sectarianism Christ is divided. The human 
 leader is treated as though he were the Master 
 who had been crucified for the world. The body 
 of Christ must not be divided ; it must not be 
 rent in sunder; there must not be in it factions 
 and parties. 
 
 Paul's remedy for sectarianism, his basis of 
 Church union, is very simple, far simpler than any 
 of those which modern reformers have proposed. 
 There is, he says, one fo undation, Jesus Christ, 
 Other foundation can no man lay. Loyalty to 
 Christ, — not to a creed about Christ, not to a 
 sacrament in honor of Christ, not to a Church 
 which Christ has founded, not to a Book which 
 tells about Christ, but loyalty to Christ himself, is 
 the basis, and the only basis of union which Paid 
 recognizes. " I beseech you, brethren," he says, 
 " by the name [that is, with the authority] of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same 
 thing, and that there be no schisms among you, 
 but that ye be perfectly united in the same mind 
 and in the same purpose : . . . that ye speak the 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 131 
 
 same tiing," — you have one message to give ; it 
 is the message of a Christ who came into the v?orld, 
 lived, suffered, died, rose from the dead, will come 
 again. Give that message. " Be perfectly joined 
 together in the same, mind" — perceive him, see 
 him, understand him, let your perception of him, 
 your understanding of him, unite you ; and " in 
 the same judgment," — the same fundamental pur- 
 pose, the bringing of the kingdom of Christ upon 
 the earth ; thus " bringing into captivity every 
 thought to the obedience of Christ." ^ 
 
 Cooperation in Chris tian __a ctivitY is Pau l's 
 
 remedy : 
 ^fThri 
 
 Jhrist. This simple proposition is confirmed 
 by certain modern experiments in the Church : 
 by the cooperation of Christian missionaries of 
 different denominations in foreign lands ; by the 
 endeavor, unhappily frustrated, of the Japanese 
 Christians to make one Japanese Christian Church ; 
 by the practical unity of widely differing Chris- 
 tians for Christian service in such organizations 
 as the Young Men's Christian Associations, the 
 Young Women's Christian Associations, the King's 
 Daughters, and the Young People's Societies of 
 Christian Endeavor. In all these cases there is a 
 general acceptance of the Bible as containing the 
 word of God, but there is generally no agreement 
 upon either doctrinal statements, church symbols, 
 or ecclesiastical government ; and yet while others 
 have debated Christian union, these organizations, 
 1 ICor. i. 10; 2 Cor. ^.5. 
 
132 PAUL THE AFOSTLE 
 
 acting on the counsel and in the spirit of Paul, 
 have secured it. On the other hand Church his- 
 tory abundantly illustrates the hopelessness of at- 
 tempting to secure ecclesiastical union by the other 
 and more formal methods. The Church of Rome, 
 founded on Papal authority, has been rent by fac- 
 tions quite as bitter as any that have split Pro- 
 testantism into contending sects. Protestantism, 
 based on the acceptance of the Bible as a final 
 authority, has not been protected thereby from 
 being broken into scores of sects. All Protestant 
 Churches accept the two Sacraments, but this has 
 proved no effective bond of union. And as to the 
 creed, the fact that there are in Scotland half a 
 dozen Presbyterian denominations, all accepting 
 the same creed and each independent of the other, 
 proves, if proof v^ere necessary, how utterly hope- 
 less it i s_to_attejmpj|;,,to build Church unity on ac- 
 ceptance of a common symbol.^ 
 
 THE IMMORALITIES IN THE CHtTRCH 
 
 Gross immoralities had entered the Christian 
 church in Corinth. They had been fostered by 
 
 ^ It does not come within the province of this chapter, "which 
 is simply interpretation of Paul's Letters, to discuss the question 
 whether orj^anic union of all Christian churches in one ecclesi- 
 astical body is either practicable or desirable. It is enough to point 
 out that (according to Paul) the basis of unity must be spiritual, 
 not ecclesiastical, literary, liturgical, or theological. Therefore 
 mutual respect for each other's ecclesiastical, literary, liturgical 
 and theological conception must precede organic union or even 
 ef&cient cooperation. 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 133 
 
 that spirit which in Greece, but by no means con- 
 fined to Greece, dissociated ethical principles from 
 religion. The object of pagan religion in Greece 
 and Eome was not to make men better. Indeed, 
 it may be said, almost without exception, that the 
 object of pagan religion has never been to make 
 men better. It has generally been either to pla- 
 cate an angry God or to bribe a corrupt one ; and 
 the angry God must be placated, and the corrupt 
 one bribed, without regard to the moral character 
 of the worshiper. Thus the forms of pagan wor- 
 ship have generally been, not only dissociated from 
 morality, but often themselves grossly immoral. 
 The worship of Ashtoreth among the Phoenicians, 
 and of Astarte among the Greeks and Romans, 
 was accompanied with immoralities so gross that 
 they cannot even be mentioned in modern litera- 
 ture. These gross immoralities connected with 
 the pagan temples and worship of Corinth had 
 crept into the Christian Church. The arguments 
 for them were such as have been often heard 
 since : The body is a mere transient dwelling- 
 place ; the man is not soiled because the body is 
 soiled ; a white soul may live in an evil body. As 
 a man is not made leprous because the house 
 is leprous, so he is not made leprous because his 
 body is leprous. That was the argument then, 
 and it has been often repeated since. Something 
 nearly approximating it has been taught by repre- 
 sentatives of pagan religions, impliedly if not ex- 
 plicitly, in American cities within our own times. 
 
134 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 The apologists for immorality cited Paul himself. 
 Christianity, they said, is freedom ; we are free 
 from the law ; therefore there is no longer any 
 law ; Thou shalt not steal, and Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery, are abolished ; we are free to do 
 what we will. A similar separation of religion 
 and morality has been not uncommon in later his- 
 tory. An ancient record thus characterizes Car- 
 dinal Lorraine, of France : " He is not much 
 beloved ; he is far from truthful ; he is naturally 
 deceitful and covetous, but he is full of religion." 
 And there is no reason to think that the chronicler 
 intended a satire. Criminals have sometimes been 
 excessively religious, if religion consists, not in 
 doing righteously, as the only method of being 
 acceptable to a righteous God, but in paying de- 
 votions to a God who cares not for character so 
 long as he receives what is due to himself. 
 
 Paul meets this incursion of immorality into the 
 Christian Church with fiery indignation. He never 
 suggests that the Church shall excommunicate a 
 man for false opinion, for heresy, for untrue creed, 
 nor even for schism and self-separation from the 
 Church. He never suggests that any one be ex- 
 communicated because he does not agree with his 
 brethren on a doubtful question of ethics. The 
 followers of Paul and the followers of Peter, the 
 men who eat meat ofPered to idols, and the men 
 who think it wicked to do so, are to live together 
 in fellowship in the same Christian Church. But 
 he who is openly and frankly immoral Paul insists 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 135 
 
 shall be at once excommunicated. " Are ye not 
 aware," he says, " that a little leaven leaveneth the 
 whole lump ? " A little corruption in the Church 
 is sufficient to taint the whole body. " You are 
 not," he says, " to keep company with fornicators : 
 with such an one not even to eat." Yet even in 
 this indignation he illustrates that practical com- 
 mon sense which in this extraordinary man is so 
 singularly intermingled with his uncompromising 
 fidelity to principle. You are not, he says, "to 
 separate yourself under aU circumstances from all 
 evil doers ; in that case you would have to go out 
 of the world. But if one of your brethren gives 
 himself up to vicious life he is no more worthy to 
 be called a brother ; you may eat with the heathen,^ 
 but with such a pseudo Christian as this you are 
 not to eat." 
 
 " I wrote unto you in that letter ^ not to keep com- 
 pany with fornicators. Not that you should altogether 
 separate yourselves from the fornicators of this world, 
 or the greedy of gain, or the extortioners, or the idol- 
 aters ; for in that case you must needs go out of the 
 world. But my meaning was that you were not to keep 
 company if any one who is called a brother is a forni- 
 cator, or greedy of gain, or an idolater, or a railer, or a 
 drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one you are 
 not even to eat." ° 
 
 1 Gal. ii. 11-14. 
 
 2 " Not this present epistle, . . . but a formeT epistle which 
 has not come down to us." — Alford in loco. 
 
 s 1 Cor. V. 9-11. 
 
136 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 SOME PRACTICAL QUESTIONS 
 
 Paul next comes to certain questions which have 
 been asked him. The first of these relates to 
 marriage. 
 
 In reading what Paul says about marriage we 
 must remember two things. Marriage in that age 
 was very different from marriage in ours. There 
 was no religious ceremony and no enduring bond. 
 Under the Roman Empire, in the first century, the 
 man and woman entered into partnership, lived to- 
 gether as long as both of them liked to live together, 
 and then separated. The bond could be dissolved 
 at the pleasure of either one. How readily it was 
 dissolved is illustrated by an instance related by 
 St. Jerome, who tells us that in his time "there 
 existed a wife who was married to her twenty-third 
 husband, she herself being his twenty-first wife." ^ 
 When, therefore, Paul talks about marriage, he 
 talks about the advisability of a woman's entering 
 into such a commercial and easily dissoluble re- 
 lationship with some man — something very differ- 
 ent from marriage in a Christian community as it 
 exists under the influence of Anglo-Saxon civiliza- 
 tion and Christian teaching. We must remember, 
 too, that Paul, when he wrote this letter to the Co- 
 rinthians, believed that the world was soon to come 
 to an end ; that there would be great distress, and 
 many persecutions ; that the perils to the Church 
 
 ^ Lecky's European Morals, vol. ii., p. 325. He furnishes also 
 other striking illustrations of the effect of this liberty of divorce. 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 137 
 
 were likely to grow greater rather than less ; and 
 that thus the condition of the times rendered mar- 
 riage, especially to the Christian, inexpedient. His 
 advice, which is, on the whole, against marriage 
 rather than in favor of it, is such as a Puritan 
 might have given in the time of Charles the First, 
 or a Huguenot in the time of Catherine de Medici. 
 His judgment in favor of virginity is based on the 
 fact of " the present distress." Upon the other 
 question, whether the Christian husband is to put 
 away his pagan wife, or the pagan wife the Chris- 
 tian husband, he is more explicit. Ezra, five hun- 
 dred years before, had required the people to put 
 away their pagan wives.^ Paul discards this pre- 
 cedent without even referring to it. " Unto the 
 married," he says, " I command, yet not I, but the 
 Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband, 
 . . . and let not the husband put away his wife." 
 His authority is the explicit teaching of the Master : 
 " Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be 
 for fornication, and shall marry another, commit- 
 teth adultery." ^ 
 
 The second question asked of Paul relates to 
 meat offered to idols. The worship of idols was a 
 sacrificial worship. Cattle were offered in great 
 numbers on pagan altars. The blood having been 
 
 1 Ezra X. 10-17. 
 
 2 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11 ; Matt. xls. 9. I see no reason for thinking 
 that the phrase " not I, hut the Lord," indicates a special revela- 
 tion to Paul. It is his recognition of the authority of the teaching 
 of Christ on this subject, which he had learned either by tradi- 
 tion or through one of the Gospels already written. 
 
138 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 poured out as a libation to the gods, the meat was 
 afterwards sold in open market, presumably for tlie 
 benefit of the priesthood and the temple service. 
 The Jews thought that, by eating meat which had 
 once been offered to idols, they participated in the 
 idolatrous worship ; and the Jewish Christians held 
 the same view. The Gentile Christians, on the 
 other hand, saw no harm in buying and eating such 
 meat as they had always been accustomed to do. 
 They even seem sometimes to have eaten in the 
 idolatrous temple, thus sharing in the pagan and 
 semi-religious feasts.^ The question was addressed 
 to Paul, May we eat meat offered to idols? In 
 reply he declares that an idol is nothing in the 
 world. There is none other God but one. Meat 
 offered to an idol is offered to a nonentity. You 
 are as free to eat such meat as to eat any other.^ In 
 estimating the radicalism of this utterance, the 
 reader must remember that no less a body than the 
 Council at Jerusalem had issued a formal resolu- 
 tion counseling Christians to " abstain from meats 
 offered to idols and from blood, and from things 
 strangled, and from fornication." ^ They had thus 
 treated the ceremonial and the moral obligations 
 of Moses as of equal force. Paul quietly, though 
 without referring to it, sets this resolution of the 
 Ecclesiastical Council at Jerusalem one side, and, 
 having vigorously condemned the fornicator, de- 
 clares that meat is not polluted because the animal 
 from which it is taken has first been sacrificed in a 
 1 1 Cor. viii. 10. ^ j Cor. -riii. 4. « Acts xt. 28. 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 139 
 
 pagan temple. But, he goes on to say, All men 
 will not understand this principle, nor recognize it. 
 Some will think it is wrong to eat such meat, and 
 if they think it is wrong, to them it will be wrong. 
 For it is always wrong to violate one's conscience 
 in order to indulge one's appetite. Therefore do 
 not eat if by so doing you will entice others less in- 
 telligent than yourself to violate their consciences. 
 And he declares for himself, " If food entices my 
 brother into sin, I will eat no flesh throughout all 
 time, lest I entice my brother into sin." ^ 
 
 There are no more idols, and the Christian is no 
 more perplexed respecting meat offered in sacri- 
 fice ; but there is perhaps no text in the Bible 
 more frequently quoted or more often misused 
 than the famous text just quoted. It cannot be 
 taken out of its relation to what has gone before, 
 without being misinterpreted and misapplied. Two \ 
 principles Paul lays down ; and the second is de- \ 
 pendent upon the first. The first is liberty ; the \ 
 second is service. He puts them together clearly 
 in Galatians : " Ye are called unto liberty, bre- 
 thren ; only use not your liberty for an oppor- 
 tunity to serve the flesh, but by love serve one 
 another." ^ One may not select one of these 
 principles and reject the other, and think that he 
 has Paul as an authority. He cannot say, I am a 
 free man ; I may do what I like, no matter how it 
 affects others. Neither can he say. No man may 
 do what he likes, because I think it will injure 
 1 1 Cor. viii. 13. •■' Gal. t. 13. 
 
140 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 another. The one interpretation is as false as the 
 other. The fundamental principle is this : Every 
 man has c onscience g iven him to be his own law- 
 giver; jiot to be a lawgiver f orchis neighbor. He 
 has no right to lay down the law for another ; but 
 the liberty which his conscience allows to him he 
 must use in the spirit of love to others. The 
 Christian is indeed urged by Paul to surrender 
 his liberty for the sake of his weaker brother, but 
 he cannot surrender what he does not possess. If, 
 for example, he is not free to drink a glass of 
 wine, he has no power to surrender his freedom 
 to drink a glass of wine. Freedom is essential to 
 temperance, for temperance is self-control, and if 
 one is not allowed to control himself, he cannot 
 be truly temperate. He cannot be coutrolled by 
 another and exercise self-control at the same time 
 and in respect to the same subject matter. A con- 
 vict in the State prison, while he is under the 
 control of the warden and his food is measured 
 out to him, may be undergoing a training which 
 will prepare him to exercise temperance when he 
 is discharged ; but while he is in the prison he 
 cannot exercise temperance, because temperance 
 is se?/-control, and he is not allowed to control 
 himself. 
 
 These two principles, liberty and service, are of 
 universal application. When, as in our times, 
 men, sometimes individually and sometimes collec- 
 tively, through resolutions, platform addresses, and 
 public journals supposedly edited in the interest of 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 141 
 
 public morality, deny the liberty of the individ- 
 ual to determine for himself the principles of 
 his own action and the methods of his own con- 
 duct, the first duty of the Church is to reaffirm 
 with vigor and courage the Pauline principle of 
 freedom. 
 
 Law, that is, the collective action of the majority 
 in a democratic community, may, and often must, 
 prevent the individual from acts which interfere 
 with the rights of his neighbor. But it may not 
 interfere with the individual's liberty to follow the 
 dictates of his own conscience in those matters 
 which do not violate the rights of others. May I 
 go to the theatre ? may I drink wine ? may I play 
 cards ? may I walk, or ride, or sail, or call, or play 
 games on the Sabbath ? The first answer to these 
 and all kindred questions is, Each individual must 
 decide for himself. " Who art thou that judgest 
 another man's servant? To his own master he 
 standeth or falleth." i If there ever was a com- 
 munity in which the restrictions of law imposed 
 from without were necessary, it was Corinth — the 
 corruptest city of the corruptest state in its cor- 
 ruptest epoch. If there ever was a church which 
 the religious teacher should surround with restric- 
 tions and prohibitions, to which he should have 
 said, There are some places to which you must not 
 go, some beverages you must not drink, some pic- 
 tures you must not look at, some teachers you 
 must not listen to, it was the infant church at 
 1 1 Eom. xiv. 4. 
 
142 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Corinth. But Paul does not attempt thus to hedge 
 them about with prohibitions. On the contrary, 
 it is to the Corinthians he says, " All things are 
 yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, or the 
 world, or life, or death, or things present, or things 
 to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and 
 Christ is God's." ^ And this he says in the same 
 letter in which he condemns them for dividing into 
 parties, and following severally Paul and Apollos 
 and Peter, and in which he condemns them for 
 acquiescing in and countenancing, in one of their 
 members, gross immorality. So Tertullian, when 
 asked. May we visit the pagan theatres ? replied, 
 " Places do not contaminate, but what is done in 
 the places." So Gregory the Great told Augus- 
 tine, missionary to Canterbury, not to destroy the 
 pagan temples, but to consecrate them. So John 
 Wesley said, " The devil has had the good music 
 long enough." ^ The method of Paul is consecra- 
 tion, not restriction ; the liberty of love, not bond- 
 age to another man's conscience.^ 
 
 1 1 Cor. iii. 21-23. 
 
 ^ Stanley's Commentary on Corinthians, p. 176. 
 
 ^ The political right of the community to regulate the keeping 
 and sale of dangerous articles of commerce, such as gunpowder 
 or dynamite, or poisons such as arsenic or prussio acid (and alco- 
 hol may he, and by some is, included in the list of dangerous 
 poisons), is not inconsistent with the liberty of the individual, 
 •which is always subordinate to the safety of the community. 
 This right of the State rests on the same principle as its right to 
 take the property of the citizen in taxation, though for ejcpendi- 
 ture which he does not believe in, or to draft bim for service 
 in war. 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 143 
 
 But the exe rcise of_ tbis_liber-ty is always to be 
 subordinated to the Jiiglier-law^-0f-4oveT The fun- 
 Hamental question for every Christian to ask him- 
 self is, How can I best serve the world? — that 
 is, his world. He cannot serve it at all unless he 
 is a free man. He will not serve it at all unless he 
 uses this freedom in the spirit of love. He must 
 be equally ready to employ his liberty for love, and 
 to forego it for love. If he believes the glass of 
 wine, the game of cards, attendance at the theatre, 
 Sunday recreation, will be innocent, harmless, even 
 beneficial for himself, he has not yet given to his 
 question a Christian answer. He must also ask 
 and answer the question what the effect of his pro- 
 posed act will be upon others. Sometimes he can 
 serve others best by using his liberty, and teaching 
 them that the Christian is free. Sometimes he can 
 serve others best by foregoing his liberty, and teach- 
 ing others that the Christian rejoices in self-limita- 
 tion and self-sacrifice. In which way he can serve 
 "hiFloroEEer, whether by using or by foregoing his 
 liberty, is a question which each individual must 
 decide for himself in each case as it arises. Though 
 Paul said, " If food entices my brother into sin, I 
 will eat no flesh," I doubt very much that he was 
 all his life a vegetarian. 
 
 The third question specifically addressed to Paul 
 respected the relation of women to the Church, and 
 their place and conduct in its worshiping assem- 
 blies. In the city of Corinth the women of evil 
 repute had liberty ; women of good repute, none. 
 
144 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 To go into a public assembly of any kind unveiled, 
 and to take public part in it, was at once to mark 
 the one who did it as a woman of the town. But 
 Paul believed, and later certainly said, perhaps had 
 already said in Corinth, that in Christ Jesus there 
 is neither male nor female ; that woman also is 
 God's child ; that where the spirit of the Lord is, 
 there is liberty; that, therefore, there is liberty 
 in the Church of Christ. Some women, availing 
 themselves of this, had come into church assemblies 
 unveiled, and had taken part in them, and were 
 bringing evil reputation upon themselves and upon 
 their church. Paul argues at length that the wo- 
 men should always wear their veils in the church 
 assemblies, and should not speak in them. 
 
 " But I would have you know that the head of every 
 man is Christ ; but the head of the woman is the man ; 
 but the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or 
 prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his 
 head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth 
 with her head unveiled dishonoreth her head ; for that 
 is even all one as if she were shaven. For if a woman 
 be not veiled, let her also be shorn : but if it be a 
 shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be 
 veiled. For a man indeed ought not to have his head 
 veiled, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God : 
 but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man 
 was not created from the woman ; but the woman from 
 the man. Neither was the man created for the woman ; 
 but the woman for the man. Therefore ought the 
 woman to have upon her head the sign of her subjec- 
 
TEE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 145 
 
 tion, because of the angel witnesses. ^ Moreover neither 
 is the woman to be accounted apart from the man, nor 
 the man apart from the woman in the Lord. For as 
 the woman was created from the man, so is the man also 
 born of the woman ; but all things are of God. Judge 
 for yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto 
 God uncovered ? Doth not even nature itself teach you, 
 that, if a man wears his hair long, it is a shame unto 
 him ? But if a woman wears her hair long, it is a glory 
 to her ; because long hair is given to her for a veil." ^ 
 
 A little later in the same letter he adds : — 
 
 " Let your women keep silence in the public assemblies ; 
 for it is not permitted to them to talk, but they should 
 keep themselves in subjection, as also saith the law. 
 And if they would learn anything let them ask their own 
 husbands at home ; for it is disgraceful for women to 
 speak in a public assembly. " ° 
 
 This counsel is an excellent illustration of Paul's 
 oratorical temperament. He desires to prevent 
 women from taking such a course in the Christian 
 assemblies in Corinth as wiU bring disgrace upon 
 them and upon the church, and he uses those argu- 
 ments which he thinks will appeal to them, and 
 which are suggested to him by his rabbinical train- 
 ing. His conclusion is one of practical common 
 sense. Some of his arguments, few, if any, Amer- 
 
 1 This paraphrase expresses what appears to be the best inter- 
 pretation of a confessedly enigmatical passage. 
 
 2 1 Cor. xi. 3-15. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. There is no doubt this was the fact in 
 Corinth. Women of notorious reputation, and none other, were 
 accustomed to take part in public discussions. 
 
146 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 ican readers believe to be sound. They do not 
 believe that woman was made for man. They be- 
 lieve that God made man, male and female, in his 
 own image; not for woman man, more than for 
 man woman ; but each for the other, and both for 
 God. 
 
 Self-reverent each, and reverencing each, 
 Distinctive individualities, bnt like each other, 
 Ev'n as those who love. 
 
 It is no longer true that it is a shame for a woman 
 to be uncovered in church. Most preachers cer- 
 tainly would find the inspiration of their presence 
 greatly lessened if the women auditors sat behind 
 inpenetrable veils. Whether there are angels look- 
 ing on or not, it is not material to inquire. If we 
 believe there are such unseen companions in our 
 worship, their presence would be no reason why 
 women should wear veils. And there is just as 
 little reason for insisting that women may not 
 speak in church meetings because they could not 
 do so with propriety in Corinth, as there is for in- 
 sisting that all women in a Christian congregation 
 shall go veiled in Oriental fashion because in the 
 first century and in the city of Corinth the absence 
 of the veil was a symbol of disgrace. 
 
 The subject of spiritual gifts and of the resur- 
 rection I reserve for the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIAKS (CON- 
 TINUED) 
 
 SPIRITUAL GIFTS 
 
 There were in the church at Corinth men pos- 
 sessing or claiming to possess extraordinary gifts, 
 and there was an emulation, not whoUy divine, be- 
 tween these men. Paul gives us in the twelfth 
 chapter a catalogue of these gifts. They are wis- 
 dom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, 
 prophecy, discerning of spirits, various tongues, in- 
 terpretation of tongues. Of these gifts we readily 
 recognize five as existing in the Christian Church 
 to the present day — wisdom, knowledge, faith, 
 prophecy, and discernment of spirits : wisdom, or 
 the logical or philosophical faculty, which belongs 
 to what we might call the rational element in the 
 Church ; knowledge, or the intuitive perception, 
 which directly and immediately perceives the higher 
 and diviner forms of truth ; faith, or the spiritual 
 imagination, by which men behold the invisible 
 world and walk as on mountain-tops in the clear 
 light of heaven ; prophecy, or that kind of elo- 
 quence by which one with great spiritual passion 
 moves on the hearts and emotions of men — what 
 
148 'PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 we sometimes call spiritual magnetism ; and dis- 
 cernment of spirits, or good common sense discrim- 
 inating between different teachers and different 
 types of teaching. 
 
 These various forms of gift are not uncommon 
 in our times, and those who possess them not in- 
 frequently look down upon those who possess a 
 different form from their own. Thus, the philoso- 
 phical mind is apt to look with disregard upon the 
 intuitive, and the intuitive upon the rational or 
 philosophical, while both of them call the man who 
 walks by faith a mystic ; the mystic is more humble 
 than a great many mystics are if he does not dises- 
 teem the man who walks by philosophy and reason ; 
 and the discerner of spirits — that is, the man of 
 practical common sense — does not always discern 
 charitably or judge wisely. 
 
 But there are gifts in Paul's catalogue which 
 have no parallel in our own time, even if they have 
 an analogue. Of the healing, we might say, per- 
 haps, that there is an analogy to be found in the 
 claims of Christian Scientists and Faith Curers 
 to cure physical disorder through purely spirit- 
 ual means. Of the gift of tongues, we may cer- 
 tainly say that there is an analogue to be found in 
 the claims of the Catholic Apostolic Church, more 
 popularly known as the Irvingites, who professed to 
 exercise exactly this faculty of speaking in unknown 
 tongues. But, for the most part, in orthodox or 
 evangelical churches of every branch, there is nei- 
 ther a claim to heal physical disorder by spiritual 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 149 
 
 means nor to speak in unknown tongues. How 
 are we to regard these so-called gifts ? Are we to 
 think of them as really manifestations of a Divine 
 Spirit ? as belonging to that early age, because the 
 early age had not yet drifted away from the touch 
 of Christ ? Are we to think that in the Apostolic 
 Church there were powers which since have died 
 out from the Church — powers which it has since 
 lost ? There are some objections to this, which is 
 the current view ; for it is to be observed that these 
 gifts of healing and of tongues do not appear to 
 have existed, to any considerable extent, outside 
 the church at Corinth. We should naturally look 
 for them where the spirit of God was the strongest, 
 where the life was the purest, where the faith was 
 the clearest — that is, at Philippi or Ephesus, 
 rather than in the church at Corinth, which was 
 the one in which there was the greatest departure 
 from purity of faith, the greatest sign of human 
 deficiency and imperfection ; Corinth, into which 
 error and heresy and strife and immorality had 
 entered. Moreover, we find Paul speaking with 
 greater freedom of some of these gifts than we 
 should expect him to do if he regarded them as 
 signs of the Divine Spirit. " I would rather," he 
 says in substance, " say five words that others can 
 understand than ten thousand words that others 
 cannot understand." ^ Are we, then, to consider 
 
 ^ True, he also says, " I thank God I speak with tongues more 
 than ye all ; " but this must be interpreted as equivalent to I have 
 the gift and could exercise it if I chose. See Alf ord on 1 Cor. xiv. 18. 
 
150 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 these gifts of tongues and of healing as evidences 
 of superstition? Do they belong to a credulous 
 age and a degraded church ? Possibly. And yet 
 there are difficulties in this view ; for Paul treats 
 them as gifts of the Spirit of God ; he commends 
 them in some measure ; and he urges his readers 
 to strive for the best and highest attainments in 
 these gifts. 
 
 I am inclined to think that the truth lies mid- 
 way between these two views and embraces them 
 both. Any state of great spiritual exaltation is 
 liable to be accompanied with great excesses, and 
 more liable in an ignorant than in an educated 
 community. The. phenomena which attend revival 
 meetings among the colored people in the South, 
 and have attended revival meetings in the West, 
 especially in the earlier years of our nation's his- 
 tory, are not wholly vicious, and certainly are not 
 wholly virtuous. They are indications of a great 
 excitement in which the sensuous and the spiritual 
 are strangely intermingled. We sometimes wish, 
 perhaps, that the world were differently con- 
 structed, that all the virtues were in one utensil 
 and all the vices in another. But, in fact, the 
 good and the evil are strangely intermixed in 
 every society and in every man ; and if the evil 
 are not as black as they are painted, neither are 
 the good as white as they are painted. Most men 
 are gray, or black and white in alternation. And 
 as it is with the individual, so has it always been in 
 society — the truth and the error intertwined ; in 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 151 
 
 times of great religious excitement the religious 
 fervor and the superstitious passion intertwined. 
 So I accept neither the explanation which regards 
 these gifts as purely a manifestation of a Divine 
 Spirit, nor that which regards them as simply a 
 manifestation of a superstitious age, but rather 
 that explanation which regards them as the mani- 
 festation of a spiritual excitement in a superstitious 
 age. It is not, however, necessary to answer this 
 question positively in order to ascertain the princi- 
 ples which Paul applies, and to apply them our- 
 selves in the solution of our own problems. 
 
 He says, in the first place, that no man can call 
 Jesus accursed by the Spirit of God. That seems, 
 at first, a needless remark, and yet we must re- 
 member that Paul himself had thought God had 
 put the mark of curse on Christ by allowing him 
 to be crucified. That was before Paul's conver- 
 sion ; but at a later epoch in the Church there 
 were Christians who still entertained that view. 
 They held that the Spirit of God entered into 
 Christ at baptism, because it could not be thought 
 that the Son of God should grow from childhood, 
 and that the Spirit departed from him on the cross 
 when he cried, " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me ? " because it could not be thought 
 that the Son of God could die. So, on the one 
 hand, the Son of God did not grow from boyhood 
 to manhood, and, on the other hand, the Son of 
 God was not put to death by the hands of man. 
 Paul says, first, that nothing can be truly spiritual 
 
162 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 which does not conform to and interpret the char- 
 acter and the career of Christ from the manger to 
 the cross. Any doctrine which tends to take men 
 away from Christ, to make them think less of 
 Christ, to cause them to substitute something in 
 the place of Christ, may at once be discarded by 
 the Christian without further argument. The 
 principle may be applied to certain forms of so- 
 called religious instruction in our own time — such, 
 for example, as the popular forms of theosophy, 
 which are taking men away from Christ to some- 
 thing other than Christ. 
 
 The second test Paul applies is profitableness. 
 If the gift is not of use, it is to be discarded. He 
 applies this at some length, in his argument re- 
 specting the gift of tongues. It is clear from 
 Paul's argument in this Epistle that the speaking 
 in tongues was not a speaking to men of different 
 races in their different languages for missionary 
 purposes. There was, indeed, no need of that in 
 Corinth, for all the people in Corinth spoke the 
 one Greek language and understood it ; and al- 
 though there were different dialects in Greek, they 
 were not so different in a city like Corinth that a 
 missionary must be supernaturally endowed with 
 power to speak in a tongue which otherwise he 
 must have laboriously acquired by study. Paul's 
 argument shows that this talking with tongues was 
 a kind of babbling, a talking without meaning or 
 significance, the parallel to which is to be found in 
 the inarticulate cries which sometimes accompany 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 153 
 
 what certain persons call "getting religion." 
 Paul says this cannot be of any use to any one ; 
 the gift, to be of value, must be profitable. 
 
 His third principle is that useful gifts are not 
 mutually exclusive, nor competitive, but coopera- 
 tive. Society is like a human body. It has what 
 we now call solidarity. It is not merely a mass of 
 individual units ; it is itself a unit ; but made up 
 of different members with different functions. As 
 the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot, are all neces- 
 sary for the one body, so all the varied gifts of life 
 are necessary for the one church. We are to 
 recognize variety of function, and at the same time 
 the unity of organism. Count Tolstoi urges that 
 every man should fulfill all functions — work with 
 his brain in the morning, and cobble shoes in the 
 afternoon. The result would probably be that 
 both the shoes would be poorly cobbled and the 
 brain work inadequately done. Certainly Tolstoi's 
 is not Paul's plan. He said. Let the foot be a 
 foot, and the eye an eye, and the hand a hand, but 
 all united in their various functions to make the 
 one organism. It is a prophet's perception of the 
 great principle of " division of labor," only Paul 
 puts it more wisely, more philosophically, and 
 more truly than it is in that much-abused phrase. 
 
 His fourth principle is that this unity of organism 
 is to be preserved in and through a variety of 
 function by self-respect and mutual respect. " If 
 the ear shall say, ' Because I am not an eye, I am 
 not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? 
 
154 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 If the whole body were an eye, where were the 
 hearing ? If the whole body were hearing, where 
 were the smelling ? " Every man is to respect his 
 own vocation. If he is in a vocation which he can 
 not respect, he should leave it. No man is to say, 
 My calling is not a worthy calling. If it is a call- 
 ing wherein he can serve society, it is a worthy 
 calling. And every man is to respect his neigh- 
 bor's calling. " The eye cannot say unto the 
 hand, I have no need of thee ; nor, again, the head 
 to the foot, I have no need of you." Society, 
 government, the church, each is an organism ; 
 each made up of men with different gifts ; each is 
 to use his own gift for the service of humanity ; 
 each to respect his own gift ; each to respect his 
 neighbor's gift ; and in this self-respect and this 
 mutual respect in and through the variety of func- 
 tion the unity of the organism is to be maintained. 
 And so from a study of the strife and jealousies in 
 the Corinthian church Paul educes his psalm to 
 love : — 
 
 " Are all apostles ? Are all prophets ? Are all teach- 
 ers ? Are all miracle-workers ? Are all faith-healers ? 
 Do all speak with tongues ? Do all interpret ? But de- 
 sire earnestly the greater gifts. And yet I show you a 
 way which excels all others. 
 
 " If I should speak with the tongues of men, and even 
 of angels, hut have not love, I am become sounding brass 
 or a clanging cymbal. And though I should have the 
 gift of prophecy, and should know all the mysteries of 
 God's councils, and should have universal knowledge ; 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 155 
 
 and though I should have fullness of faith so that I could 
 remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 
 And though I should dole out in alms all my possessions, 
 and though I should deliver up my body that I may re- 
 ceive the martyr's glory, and have not love, it profiteth 
 me nothing. 
 
 " Love bears long with ofBenders, and is helpful ; love 
 is not envious ; love does not show itself off ; does not 
 bear itself proudly ; does not behave unbecomingly ; 
 seeketh not her own things ; is not irritable ; does not 
 keep account of the evU ; rejoices not in injustice, but 
 rejoices with the truth ; silently endures all experiences ; 
 trusts in them all, hopes in them all, is patient under 
 them all. 
 
 "Love never loses its power. Are there prophecies, 
 they shall be done away ; are there tongues, they shall 
 cease ; is there knowledge, it shall be done away. For 
 we know truth only in a fragment and we prophesy 
 only in a fragment, but when the perfected life has 
 come to us, that which has come in a fragment will 
 be put away. When I was a little child, I spake like 
 a little child, I felt like a little child, I reasoned like a 
 little child. But now that I have become a man I have 
 put away the ways of a little child. For now we see 
 truth through a mirror, in enigmatical reflections, but 
 then face to face ; now I know only in a fragment, 
 then I shall know thoroughly, even also as I am known 
 thoroughly. But even as things are, there abide faith, 
 hope, love — these three. But the greatest of these is 
 love." ^ 
 
 Luther said, " Thank God for my sins ! " The 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 29-xiii. 13. 
 
166 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Church of Christ may almost thank God for the 
 strifes and jealousies of the Corinthian church 
 which occasioned Paul's psalm of love. 
 
 THE EE8UKKECTION. 
 
 The last subject which Paul treats in his first 
 letter to the Corinthians is the resurrection. 
 
 There were at the time when Paul wrote, and 
 perhaps it may be said there stiU are, four concep- 
 tions respecting the future life. The first is that at 
 death, or after a succession of lives and deaths, the 
 soul, completing the spiral of its existence, comes 
 back into God again and is absorbed by him. The 
 soul lives forever, only as the river lives in the 
 ocean — that is, not at aU. The second is that the 
 soul lives in another body. When the man dies, 
 the soul passes over into some other physical organ- 
 ism. There is what is known as the transmigration 
 of souls, or reincarnation ; a view which is now 
 brought before us in America by the Theosophists. 
 The third view is that the body itself is to be pre- 
 served, either by human care or by divine miracle. 
 The Egyptians preserved it by human care, em- 
 balming it with the utmost caution ; and from them 
 we have inherited a little of that fashion, though 
 we have abandoned the superstition which led to 
 it. We seal the bodies of our dead, sometimes, in 
 leaden caskets, trying to keep the mould and the 
 corruption away, though we know it to be in vain. 
 In the fourth place, there was the conception of the 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 157 
 
 Greeks and the Eomans, that when the soul left 
 the body it did not return to God or the gods, but 
 lived in a vague, shadowy under -world, without 
 organization, without real life. These four con- 
 ceptions of the future there were : First, absorp- 
 tion into God ; second, transmigration of souls, or 
 living in another body ; third, living in one's own 
 body, embalmed for the purpose, or gathered from 
 the four winds of heaven by a miracle at the resur- 
 rection, at the last day; and fourth, life in a disem- 
 bodied state in a shadowy underworld. 
 
 Out of the resurrection of Christ there grew 
 a fifth conception respecting the future life : a 
 strong, firm belief in the personal resurrection and 
 the personal immortal life of the dead, based upon 
 and inspired by faith in the fact that Jesus Christ 
 had died and had arisen again from the dead. 
 But truth never makes its way in an atmosphere 
 of error without difficulty ; and the truth of a 
 personal resurrection came, before long, to be 
 doubted. Paul writes to correct this error. He 
 argues the personal resurrection and personal im- 
 mortality by these considerations : First, if the 
 soul does not rise from the dead, then Christ has 
 not risen. But we have borne our testimony to 
 you that Christ has risen. If he has not risen 
 we are false witnesses, and Christianity is a fraud. 
 If the dead do not rise, if as individuals they do 
 not live personally in another life, then your dead 
 are perished, then it is not true that Christ will 
 bring with him his beloved. If the dead do not 
 
158 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 rise, if there is no resurrection, no personal immor- 
 tality, then Christ has not the victory which he 
 foretold when he said. The gates of hades shall not 
 prevail against my Church.^ For if his saints are 
 kept perpetual prisoners in hades, the gates of 
 hades do prevail against his Church ; his promise 
 is found false ; he is defeated and God is defeated. 
 Then, with an argumentum ad hominem, which 
 Paid is not afraid or unwilling to use at times, 
 he refers to a custom which we know existed later 
 in the Church and which we may fairly presume 
 had already begun to exist. When a man died 
 unbaptized, his friends baptized the corpse, or 
 sometimes vicariously some one for the corpse; 
 and Paul says. If there is no resurrection for the 
 dead, why do you baptize for your dead ? Finally 
 he meets an objection ■ — an old one, a familiar one 
 — " How shall the dead rise, and with what body 
 shall they come ? " 
 
 Many scholars have read the fifteenth chapter 
 of the First Corinthians as an argument for the 
 resurrection of the body. It seems to me clearly, 
 expHcitly, palpably, unmistakably, a cumulative 
 argument against the resurrection of the body. 
 Against those who thought that God would absorb 
 individuals, Paul stands for personal immortality ; 
 against those who thought the body must be em- 
 balmed or the soul must find its resting-place in 
 some other body, or the soul must live in a shad- 
 owy underworld without a body, he argues in the 
 1 Matt. xvi. 18. 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 159 
 
 latter haK of this chapter. " With what body 
 shall they come ? " This is his reply : You plant 
 a seed in the ground. It dies. Nor will anything 
 come from it unless it dies. But when something 
 does come, it is not that which you put in the 
 ground. The same life which was in the seed 
 comes to the surface, but clad with a new body. 
 God's resources are not so few as you imagine, if 
 you think that he who has made this body cannot 
 make another. There is one flesh of birds, another 
 of cattle, another of fishes. There is one glory of 
 the moon, another glory of the sun, another glory 
 of the stars, and, moreover, star differeth from star 
 in glory. And so shall it be in the resurrection 
 of the dead. That which thou sowest is a mere 
 seed ; that which rises has a new glory of its own. 
 If there is a natural body adapted to the needs of 
 this life, that is itself a reason for believing that 
 there is another, a spiritual body, adapted to the 
 needs of the other life. Christ came to earth. 
 Did he bring a body with him? In what body 
 did he live before he came to earth ? Was he 
 then disembodied, a shadowy creature in an under- 
 world, lamenting his state, as the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans thought their heroes were? Was he wan- 
 dering over the globe, transmigrating from body 
 to body, as the Hindus think their dead were ? 
 Was he waiting for some body to be prepared for 
 him, that he might come into the fullness of life ? 
 If it were possible for the body of flesh to rise, it 
 would do no good. If God were to bring together 
 
160 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 from all the quarters of the globe all fragments of 
 the body, it would serve no purpose ; for flesh and 
 blood can never inherit the kingdom of God, since 
 that which is essentially corrupt cannot inherit the 
 incorruptible, nor that which from the moment of 
 its birth begins to die inherit the immortal. Even 
 we that are living when the trump shall sound 
 cannot enter the kingdom of God with our bodies. 
 There must be a new organism and a new habita- 
 tion for a new life. In this is Christ's supreme 
 victory. For now we see that death is no destruc- 
 tion. Now we see that the end of death is not the 
 perishing of the seed in the ground. The end of 
 death is the uprising of a new and larger life. 
 Death no longer conquers. Death no longer has a 
 victory ? Death no longer even pricks as the sting 
 of a wasp. Death is deprived of its sting ? Death 
 is the advent to a larger life, and God shall clothe 
 that life with glory, as it pleaseth him. Read 
 Paul's argument in his own words, and see whether 
 I have misinterpreted it : — 
 
 " But some one will say, How are the dead raised, and 
 with what body do they come ? Foolish fellow ! That 
 which thou thyself sowest is not made to live except it 
 die ; and that which thou sowest is not the body which 
 is to be, but a mere seed, as, for example, a seed of 
 wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body 
 as it pleases him ; and to each of the seeds its own 
 body. Not all flesh is the same flesh ; but there is one 
 flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh 
 of birds, and another of fishes. There are also heavenly 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 161 
 
 bodies and bodies terrestrial ; but the glory of the he£u- 
 venly is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another. 
 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the 
 moon, and another glory of the stars — for star difEereth 
 from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the 
 dead : Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption ; sown 
 in dishonor, raised in glory ; sown in weakness, raised 
 in power ; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. 
 If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 
 And so it is written, the first Adam became a living 
 soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. Howbeit that is 
 not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; 
 and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is 
 from the earth, earthy ; the second man is from heaven. 
 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; 
 and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are hea- 
 venly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, 
 we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this 
 I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
 kingdom of God — neither doth corruption inherit in- 
 corruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall 
 not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, 
 in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the 
 trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incor- 
 ruptible, and we shall be changed. For it is necessary 
 that this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal 
 put on immortality. When this corruption has put on 
 incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, 
 then shall come to pass the word that is written : Death 
 is swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is thy 
 victory ? Where, death, is thy sting ? The sting of 
 death is sin, but the power of sin is the law. But thanks 
 be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
 
162 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Jesus Christ. So, then, my beloved brethren, be ye 
 steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of 
 the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not 
 in vain in the Lord." * 
 
 If the New Testament means to teacli the resur- 
 rection of the body, if Paul means to teach that 
 doctrine, it is very strange that the phrase itseK 
 never occurs in the Nevr Testament. The notion 
 that the body which is laid in the grave must rise 
 again in order to preserve personal immortality is 
 the relic of a paganism which ought long since to 
 have been forgotten. The body that lies in the 
 grave will rise in grass and flowers only. Nor are 
 our beloved to wait until some far-off time, while 
 their bodies sleep beneath the sod and the cold 
 winds play and the cold rain beats upon their bed. 
 Nor do they wait in some shadowy underworld 
 until the time of their redemption. To die is to 
 depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 
 Every death is a resurrection ; and the mother 
 who stands looking down into the grave and hear- 
 ing the clod falling upon the coffin should turn 
 and lift her eyes and see the loved one at her side 
 trying to caress her. For she should know, not 
 that there will be, but that there is, a spiritual 
 body, and that the last gasp on earth is contempo- 
 raneous with the first great inhalation of a new and 
 spiritual life in the celestial sphere.''' 
 
 1 1 Cor. XT. 35-58. 
 
 ^ No one of the lectures, as originally given, -which have 
 formed the material out of which this book is composed, gave 
 rise to more questionings than this one on Paul's doctrine of the 
 
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 163 
 
 resurrection. To go into the whole subject of even the Bible 
 teaching concerning immortality and the resurrection would take 
 me too far from the object of this volume, which is simply to 
 interpret Paul's Letters. It must suffice to say here, very briefly, 
 that in my judgment there is no one uniform teaching on this 
 subject by the Biblical writers. The conception of immortality 
 grew up gradually among the Hebrews as among other peoples ; 
 the earlier Hebrews had little or no conception of inimortality ; 
 the later Hebrews entertained substantially the same conception 
 as that of the Greeks — a vague ill-defined notion of a dark 
 underworld, a Sheol or Hades, where the dead maintained a dis- 
 embodied and impalpable existence ; the Pharisees in Paul's time 
 generally expected for the devout a resurrection from Sheol simul- 
 taneously with the advent of the Messiah, and this was probably 
 Paul's earlier view. Christ taught his disciples a difBerent faith ; 
 he told them that this world was not the only dwelling place of 
 life, that in his Father's house, the universe, were many dwelling 
 places, that he waa going to his Father and that they should come 
 to him to dwell with him and with his Father, and share their 
 glory; that his disciples could be kept in no underworld, that 
 whoever lived and believed in him could not die but should live a 
 continuous and unbroken life. Whether when he rose from the 
 dead he came back and animated his physical body, and so re- 
 vealed the continuity of his life to his disciples, or whether he ap- 
 peared to them in a spiritual body, and their eyes were opened to 
 discern him, is a question on which the cautious student will not 
 speak with assurance, — though the former seems to me the more 
 probable opinion. What we do know is that the continuity of his 
 life was ocularly demonstrated to his disciples. Paul passed gradu- 
 ally from his Pharisaic to his later Christian conception of death 
 and resurrection, as we all pass from the cruder to the higher and 
 more spiritual conceptions of life ; this transition in his faith 
 accompanied the change of his faith from the expectation of a 
 future Messiah coming in clouds and glory, to a perception of and 
 rejoicing in a crucified Messiah as the power and the wisdom of 
 God ; and this fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians marks, more 
 clearly than any other passage, his new faith in the continuity of 
 the spiritual life and its independence of all physical conditions. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 
 
 The overture to " Parsifal " contains the motifs 
 ■which are afterward worked out in the opera. Like 
 such an overture is the second of Paul's epistles 
 to the Corinthians. It contains the motifs of his 
 subsequent writing, the germs which he later de- 
 velops. It is, indeed, hardly too much to say that 
 the seeds of everything wrought out more fully in 
 the epistles to the Galatians, the Romans, the 
 Philippians, the Ephesians, and the Colossians, are 
 to be found in this epistle. And yet they are 
 simply seeds. They can hardly be called thoughts. 
 This is of all the epistles the least theological, the 
 least like a treatise, the least systematic. It has 
 less than any other- a topic. It is a letter of per- 
 sonal experiences.^ If we might compare the other 
 letters to sermons or addresses, we might compare 
 this letter to the kind of address in which one gives 
 his experience in a prayer-meeting. 
 
 And yet, it is for this very reason in some respects 
 
 ^ No other of Paul's letters is of equal importance to tliis 
 second letter in its bearing on the history of his inner conscious- 
 ness. Sahatier's The Apostle Paul, p. 165. Comp. Stanley on 
 Corinthians, p. 345. 
 
SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 165 
 
 the most vital and the most interesting. Its frag- 
 mentary character, its seed-like character, adds to 
 its value. For all vital theology is born of ex- 
 perience. The theology which a man works out in 
 his study through books is of comparatively little 
 use. The theology which has been wrought out 
 of him by actual experience in life takes hold of 
 men, because in such theology there is life. All 
 the great theologians have thus been men of great 
 experiences : Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, 
 Bushnell — in them aU we can trace the secret of 
 their thought in their lives. 
 
 It is true that, when we take up this Epistle to 
 study it, we have to study it with comparatively 
 little information respecting the outward experi- 
 ences from which it was born. The student of 
 Paul's life and epistles has to construct Paul's ex- 
 periences somewhat as a skilled scientist constructs 
 an ancient animal from two or three bones. So 
 out of single phrases, almost out of single words, in 
 this letter, scholars construct the experiences out 
 of which it sprang. 
 
 Paul has gone from Corinth to Ephesus. From 
 Ephesus he has journeyed to Jerusalem. He has 
 come back from Jerusalem to Ephesus again. He 
 has made visits to the churches in Asia. Mean- 
 while he has had strange experiences at Ephesus — 
 some of great exaltation, some of great depression. 
 He was overworked at Ephesus. Luke has given 
 us a picture of Paul's work in an address made 
 to the elders of the city. He went from house to 
 
166 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 house. He entreated men with tears. He labored 
 by day and by night. And he added to his mission- 
 ary labors toil with his own hands to eke out his 
 inadequate income, for he would not be dependent 
 on the churches. He has had wonderful success, 
 and he has met with very great hostility. He has 
 fought, he says, with the wild beasts at Ephesus, 
 for to wild beasts he compares the mob which 
 threatened his companions. In his journeyings, 
 too, he has met with great perils, by land and by 
 sea, from robbers and from storm. But, more than 
 that, he has carried with him the care of the 
 churches, which, he says, came uj)on him daily. 
 Every new church is not a new support, but a new 
 burden ; and the heresies, the crudities of opinion, 
 the immoralities of life, which are depicted with 
 some fullness in the First Epistle to the Corinthians 
 are reported to him from other churches also. He 
 bears them all vicariously. " Who is weak," he 
 says, " and I am not weak ; who is tempted into 
 sin, and I am not on fire ! " ^ 
 
 With these burdens of the churches and these 
 external persecutions, he had also some physical 
 deformity. We do not know what it was ; we can 
 only surmise. He calls it a thorn in the flesh. 
 He says that with it Satan buffeted him. It was, 
 or seemed to be, a hindrance to his work. Some 
 have thought it an affection of the eyes, produced 
 by the sudden glare of the light at the time of his 
 conversion ; some, his weak bodily presence, which 
 1 2 Cor. 2d. 29. 
 
SECOND LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 167 
 
 stood in his way when he undertook to address 
 audiences ; some, a stammer or impediment in his 
 speech, which he overcame with difficulty ; some, a 
 fever or other periodic disease. "Whatever it was, 
 it was an impediment, or seemed to him so to be, 
 so great that he said, " I besought the Lord thrice 
 that it might depart from me." By this he means 
 not that he offered three prayers for its depar- 
 ture, but that three times in his experience he was 
 confronted with it ; three times it seemed to him 
 almost like an insuperable obstacle ; three times 
 he wrestled in prayer with God that it might be 
 taken away from him.^ 
 
 His adversaries cited the existence of this 
 " thorn in the flesh " as an evidence of God's dis- 
 pleasure with Paul. The old Jewish law required 
 the priest to be physically blameless, and Paul 
 was not physically blameless, and the Jewish party 
 cited this fact as an evidence that he was no true 
 priest of God. Truth came to Paul by degrees, 
 as it does to the rest of us, and through hard ex- 
 perience. So at last it dawned upon him that the 
 weaker he was and the less able by any means of 
 his own to produce great impression, the stronger 
 was the testimony to the power of the truth and 
 the greatness of the divine life of which he was 
 the minister. And he says that when he dis- 
 covered that, when he saw that in his weakness 
 the greatness of God was glorified, when he saw 
 that because of his stammering speech, his weak 
 
 1 2 Cor. xii. 1-10. 
 
168 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 body, his defective vision, men could not say, " He 
 magnetizes his audience by his eloquence," but 
 must see that the power lay in the truth and not 
 in the speaker — when he realized this, he gave 
 thanks, and could glory in his tribulations, since 
 by them he could glorify his Father. But he did 
 not come to this conviction at first. Not only was 
 he hindered by this physical defect, but he was very 
 sick — so sick that he thought of himself as one 
 under sentence of death, awaiting the executioner's 
 sword. " I had," he said, " sentence of death with- 
 in myself. My only hope for the future lay in a 
 God who can raise even the dead to life again." ^ 
 
 Oppressed, persecuted, burdened by the care of 
 churches, overwrought and overworked, with this 
 physical infirmity tripping him up and buffeting 
 him, sick nigh unto death, there was brought to 
 him by Titus further news from the church in 
 Corinth. It was not altogether bad news. There 
 had been a grossly immoral person in that church, 
 and Paul had written with vigor that they should 
 at once excommunicate him. They had not done 
 so. There had been a battle over the question, 
 and, apparently, what we should call a compromise 
 had been reached. The church voted not to ex- 
 communicate this immoral person, but to censure 
 him, and it had reached even this conclusion only 
 by a majority.^ Still Paul had accomplished his 
 
 1 2 Cor. i. 8, 9. 
 
 ^ Comp. 1 Cor. T. 3-5, 11, with 2 Cor. ii. 6; "sufficient for 
 such an one was this reprimand inflicted by many." 
 
SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 169 
 
 real purpose ; the immoral person had repented of 
 his immorality and come back into the church 
 again, and the church had welcomed him, and 
 Paul was glad that his advice was not too strictly 
 followed. I forgive him, too, he says, so that he 
 returns to a right and true life.^ Paul had not 
 a small nature. He was not ambitious of per- 
 sonal victory. When his counsel was not followed 
 and better results were reached, he was still glad. 
 His was no mean pride ; his pride was great, and 
 great pride is good. It is only little pride that is 
 evil. 
 
 But his enemies were still virulent. They de- 
 clared that he had received no ordination ; Christ 
 had not appointed him ; the Twelve had not ap- 
 pointed him ; he had no right to claim to be an 
 apostle ; his witness was not true ; he had never 
 seen Christ, he had never been with Christ, he knew 
 nothing of Christ ; his preaching was not true ; he 
 set the law aside ; his motives were not good ; 
 he was a deceiver, a false prophet, a false teacher ; 
 he was preaching the gospel in order that he might 
 live by the gospel ; his motives were mean and 
 sordid. Such were the accusations which his ene- 
 mies in Corinth and elsewhere brought against 
 him. And they claimed authority for their accusa- 
 tions. They produced letters.^ Were these true 
 
 1 2 Cor. ii. 10, 11. 
 
 ^ The charges of Paul's enemies are deduced from his defence 
 against them. See 2 Cor. i. 17, 18 ; iii. 1 ; v. 12, 13 ; i. 10, 11 ; 
 xl. 6, 9, 12-14, 21-23 ; xii. 14, 19 ; xiii. 6. 
 
170 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 or forged letters ? There is some reason to think 
 that they were not true. Did they come from 
 Jerusalem ? We do not know. But the presump- 
 tion is that they purported to come from Palestine, 
 if not from Jerusalem. Do I need letters ? he 
 says. Do I need to have any one vouch for me ? 
 You know me ; you are my children ; you were 
 brought into the kingdom of God by my ministry ; 
 you are my letters, and I want no other than those 
 which I have written in your own heart's expe- 
 riences. To those I appeal. They are my author- 
 ity.i 
 
 Still, he was perplexed. I believe this is the 
 only time in his life in which he shows indecision. 
 At first he resolves that he wiU go to Corinth. He 
 is indignant at these charges made against him, and 
 he resolves that he wiU go and confront his enemies 
 and put them down. In his wrath he starts on the 
 journey ; but after he has gone a little way he 
 thinks better of it. It seems to him not well that 
 he should go while he is in that state of mind ; it 
 will do more harm than good ; and he abandons 
 his proposed visit. Then it is brought as a new 
 charge against him that he is weak and vacillating, 
 that he makes great pretense in his letters, but 
 when the time comes he fails in his promises and 
 does not fulfill them.^ 
 
 It is out of Paul's varied experiences, extend- 
 ing over a period of two or three years, that the 
 Second Letter to the Corinthians is written. He 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 1-3. 2 2 Cor. i. 15-23 ; ii. 1, 2. 
 
SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 171 
 
 defends himself at length against the charges which 
 have been preferred against him. He goes into 
 autobiographical memorabilia, which I have briefly 
 outlined and from which scholars have deduced 
 some of these incidents in his experience. He urges 
 on the church at Corinth that they take up a collec- 
 tion for the poorer Christians in Jerusalem. The 
 church at Corinth was not a rich church, but still 
 there were more people able to give in Corinth than 
 in some other cities, and he urges that they take up 
 a collection to be sent to the church at Jerusalem. 
 If some of the letters written to undermine his 
 authority were from Jerusalem, it was a noble and 
 wise Christian method of meeting that attack to 
 propose to carry back a contribution to the poor 
 church at Jerusalem from the very church which 
 the men in Jerusalem had been stirring up against 
 him. 
 
 But the parts of his letter which will interest 
 us the most are those parts in which, speaking from 
 his own personal experiences, he deduces the truths 
 which, in later epistles, he is to elaborate. 
 
 He has learned, in the only school in which we 
 can learn that lesson, the power of God to comfort 
 men in trouble, and how to comfort others in 
 trouble. 
 
 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all com- 
 fort ; who comf orteth us in all our afflictions, that we may 
 be able to comfort them which are in any affliction, by 
 means of the comfort wherewith we ourselves are com- 
 
172 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 forted by God. For as the sufEerings of Christ abound 
 in us, so also, through Christ, our comfort aboundeth." ^ 
 
 Later we shall find in tlie eighth chapter of Ro- 
 mans this experience expanded into a doctrine. 
 We shall find him stating how, waiting for the final 
 redemption, he is able to glory in tribulation, know- 
 ing that nothing can separate him from the love of 
 God. Meanwhile we learn where he gets this 
 faith which is triumphant over sorrow and trouble. 
 He gets it in the school of trouble. Persecuted, 
 oppressed, overworked, sick, carrying the troubles 
 of others in his own person, he learns how to share 
 the sorrows of others ; learns that when grief as- 
 sails, it brings ordination with it. The way in 
 which God ordains us to comfort our fellow-men is 
 by our own affliction. Mourning is a priestly gar- 
 ment if we only knew it. 
 
 He has been assailed by the defenders and main- 
 tainers of the Jewish law, for maintaining that men 
 are to be saved not by law, but by Christ. The 
 time has been when he also was a maintainer of the 
 Jewish law. Born and bred in the school of Phar- 
 isaism, he believed that the Jewish law was glori- 
 ous and was final ; and now he is attacked by those 
 who hold the same Pharisaic faith — although they 
 are in the Church of Christ ; and who impugn his 
 motives and attack his character and assail his doc- 
 trine, because he has departed from this Pharisaic 
 faith in the integrity and greatness of law. To 
 their attack he replies. 
 
 1 2 Cor. i. 3-5. 
 
SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 173 
 
 The law, hb says, is glorious, but the law is trans- 
 itory. Moses came down from the mount, his face 
 aglow with the glory and presence of Jehovah, but 
 when he finished speaking to the children of Israel 
 he put a veil on his face and departed from them 
 again into the mountain-top. To this incident 
 Paul gives a new interpretation. Moses, he says, 
 put the veil on his face that the people might not 
 see the glory fade away therefrom, for the glory 
 of Mount Sinai and the glory of the law fade 
 away.i Men will never be made glorious by taking 
 the law from Mount Sinai and shaping themselves 
 according to it, but by another and very different 
 fashion. We all, as from a mirror reflecting the 
 image of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 image from glory to glory. It is by understanding 
 Christ and by trying to repeat Christ to others — 
 not, as the Old Version says, by "beholding as 
 in a glass," but, as the New Version, by " reflect- 
 ing as a mirror " the glory of the Lord — that 
 we are changed from glory to glory ; not by shap- 
 ing our life to conform to an external standard, 
 nor by merely looking at it, but by receiving the 
 splendor of the divine life, and repeating a reflec- 
 tion of that splendor to others.^ 
 
 Has he done this ? Paul, who is ready enough to 
 defend himself against the charges of his enemies, 
 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 7-18. See EeT. Version for what seems to me the 
 true rendering of this passage, though there is good authority for 
 the rendering of the Old Version. 
 
 2 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
174 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 is ready enougli also to acknowledge the imper- 
 fection of his life. No, he has not done it. He 
 does not truly reflect the glory of Christ ; he reflects 
 it only from a dim and blurred mirror. 
 
 " For we proclaim not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as 
 Lord ; and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 
 For it is God, he who said, Let the hght shine out of the 
 darkness, who has shined in our hearts, for the purpose 
 of giving the illumination which comes from the recog- 
 nition of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But 
 we have this treasure in earthenware utensils, that the 
 preeminence of the power may be of God and not come 
 from ourselves. On every side we are pressed, but we 
 are not in straits ; perplexed, but not in despair ; hunted, 
 but not abandoned ; struck down, but not destroyed ; 
 always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, in 
 order that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our 
 bodies. For we who live are always delivered unto 
 death on account of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may 
 be made manifest in our mortal flesh." ^ 
 
 But although he does not reflect fully the glory 
 of the Christ, still he looks upon him, he sees him, 
 he appreciates him, he approximates him. And 
 this is faith : to see the Christ, to appreciate him, 
 to follow him, and to in any wise approximate him. 
 Men have taunted him with his blindness, and he 
 answers. It is true that this outward world is veiled 
 from me, because I bear in my body the marks of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. I look not at the things 
 that are seen. But I see the more clearly the 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 5-11. 
 
SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS ITS 
 
 things that are unseen ; and the things that are seen 
 are temporal, but the things that are unseen are 
 eternal.^ Later, one of Paul's disciples illustrates 
 and interprets this declaration by what is the best 
 definition of faith in the New Testament, and traces 
 in a wonderful historical panorama the story of the 
 saints of the olden time, who lived a noble life, be- 
 cause they looked at the things that are unseen and 
 are eternal, not at the things that are seen and are 
 temporal.^ 
 
 This looking at the unseen world has wrought 
 education in Paul. He has been nigh unto death, 
 and no man of a serious temper can go down to the 
 gates of death and look through the dark door and 
 wonder what is the unknown beyond, and not have 
 his life affected by the experience. Paul had been 
 thus affected. He had been brought up in the 
 Pharisaic faith that all men's bodies would wait in 
 the grave until some general resurrection, their 
 spirits meanwhile remaining in an intermediate 
 state until the day of general resurrection, when 
 the graves would open and the bodies would come 
 forth and the spirits would be rehabilitated. But 
 he had been down to the gates of death, and had 
 looked through the mystic door into the unknown 
 world beyond, and this hope in a general resurrec- 
 tion of the just and the unjust, in some far-off day, 
 did not sustain him, any more than it sustained 
 Martha and Mary to believe that their brother 
 would rise in the general resurrection at the last 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 18. '^ Hebrews sd. 
 
176 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 day.i He has been living, too, in the spiritual 
 world, and the body has seemed less and less to 
 him and the spirit more and more, and the concep- 
 tion of death which he wiU hereafter carry with 
 him is very different from that of his earlier 
 Pharisaic faith. 
 
 " For we know that if our tabernacle-home upon this 
 earth is dissolved, we have a structure from God, a house 
 not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Moreover 
 in this earthly tabernacle we groan, longing to be clothed 
 upon with our dwelling from heaven ; seeing that we 
 shall be found clothed and not naked. Moreover being 
 in this tabernacle we groan, being burdened, not be- 
 cause we wish to be unclothed, but because we wish to 
 be clothed upon, that what is subject to death may be 
 swallowed up by life." ^ 
 
 Never again shall we find Paul referring to any 
 general resurrection at the last day. Never again 
 shaU we find Paul thinking of a day in which all 
 the dead shall rise from their graves, and the sea 
 shall give up its dead. No ! hereafter for him death 
 is swallowed up in life ; dying is itself a resurrec- 
 tion ; and to die is to depart and be with Christ, 
 which is far better. 
 
 But it is not on the future only he has looked by 
 faith, but on the present also. He has been think- 
 ing more and more of the life of Christ, and his 
 life has led him more and more into sympathy 
 with the spirit of Christ, and he has come more 
 and more to understand how it is that Christ wilj 
 
 1 John xi. 24. 2 2 Cor. v. 1-4. 
 
SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTBIANS 177 
 
 conquer the world. His enemies have said that he 
 has never seen Christ, has never heard Christ teach, 
 is no apostle. We learn, if we are wise, from our 
 enemies. As Luther learned liberty from Roman- 
 ism, and John Wesley from High Churchism, as 
 Henry Ward Beecher learned love from law in 
 Puritanism, and Horace Bushnell learned the 
 power of vision from the rationalism of New Eng- 
 land, so Paul learned the power of the gospel 
 and the true character of Christ from the Tery 
 men who assailed him. Even if we had known 
 Christ after the flesh, he says, we should not now 
 so know him.i We have come to understand him 
 better. The spiritual vision is worth more than the 
 material vision. The sight counts for nothing ; 
 the spiritual vision is the all in all. Paul does not 
 wait for God to show himself by a revelation of a 
 Messiah in a Second Coming. He sees that revela- 
 tion in the Christ who has come. 
 
 " God was in Christ, reconciling the world to him- 
 self ; not reckoning up their transgressions against them ; 
 and has laid upon us the message of reconciliation. We 
 then are ambassadors for Christ. As though God spoke 
 through us, we beseech in Christ's stead : ' Be ye recon- 
 ciled to God.' For him who knew no sin, he hath on 
 our behalf made sin, in order that we might become 
 the righteousness of God in him. " ^ 
 
 This is, I think, the first clear enunciation by 
 Paul of the divinity in Jesus Christ ; at all events, 
 1 2 Cor. V. 16. s 2 2 Cor. v. 19-21. 
 
178 PAUL TBI: APOSTLE 
 
 none so clear as this before. And he will never 
 lose it, never grow away from it. Clearer, plainer, 
 certainly more elaborate statements of the person 
 and work of Christ wiU follow it, but they will 
 grow out of it. 
 
 But how shall this ministry of reconciliation be 
 made effectual ? In what way, by what process ? 
 There is but one way. It is by having the same 
 passion for the truth which there was in Christ. 
 Hereafter we shall find Paul dwelling on this : that 
 he is to die with Christ in order that he may rise 
 with Christ. We shall find Paul saying that he 
 follows after, that he may know the sufferings of 
 Christ and be conformed unto his death. We shall 
 find him saying that through Christ the world is 
 crucified to him and he to the world.-* We shall 
 find him entering into the passion of Christ, not 
 that by the passion of Christ he may enter into a 
 heavenly glory by and by, but because the passion 
 of Christ is the glory of Christ, and no man shares 
 the glory of Christ who does not share the passion 
 of Christ's self-sacrificing love. This he expresses 
 in these paradoxes of Christian experiences : — 
 
 " In all things, as ministers of God should, we re- 
 commend ourselves, — in much patience ; in oppressions, 
 in necessities, in straits, in stripes, in imprisonments, in 
 dissensions, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings ; in 
 purity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in a 
 holy spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the 
 power of God ; by the weapons of righteousness on 
 1 Gal. Ti. 14. 
 
SECOND LETTER TO TEE CORINTHIANS 179 
 
 the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, 
 by evil report and good report ; as deceivers yet true, 
 as unknown yet well-known, as dying, yet behold we 
 live, as chastened, yet not killed, as sorrowful, but always 
 rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having no- 
 thing, yet possessing all things." ^ 
 
 He who was so poor that he knew not where to 
 lay his head has diffused wealth throughout Chris- 
 tendom — making many rich ! He who was so 
 little known that no pagan history mentions his 
 name has now a name that is above every name, at 
 which every knee shall bow, and every tongue 
 shall confess him to be Lord, to the glory of God 
 the Father. By these facts we are to interpret 
 these paradoxes of Paul : " As unknown, yet well 
 known ; as dying, yet behold we live ; as poor, but 
 making many rich ; as having nothing, yet possess- 
 ing all things." 
 
 From this time we shall find in Paul only the 
 growth of these seeds and germs of experience. 
 We shall find him explaining in philosophic terms 
 how one may have victory, not only over sorrow, 
 but in sorrow ; showing the futility of the law, and 
 explaining the glory of the gospel ; interpreting 
 faith, and showing how the mere aspiration and 
 desire after righteousness is counted by God as the 
 beginning of righteousness ; we shall find him re- 
 joicing in the anticipated coronation when he is to 
 be offered as a sacrifice on the altar at Rome ; 
 finding in Christ's passion and death the world's 
 1 2 Cor. Ti. 4-10. 
 
180 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 hope and the Church's glory ; seeing in Christ the 
 very image and glory of the Infinite and Eternal 
 Father ; we shall find in the apostle's later writ- 
 ings the elaboration and fulfillment in teaching of 
 these seeds of the divine life, which have been 
 sowed by the hand of God, in a heart ploughed and 
 harrowed by trouble. But all, or nearly all, which 
 we shall find explicit in Galatians, Romans, Ephe- 
 sians, Colossians, and Philippians we find implicit 
 in this letter of personal experiences — the Second 
 Epistle to the Corinthians. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS ^ 
 
 The primitive Church, as it existed in Paul's 
 time, was composed of three elements, distinct and 
 sometimes antagonistic, though merging by insensi- 
 ble degrees one into the other ; they were respec- 
 tively composed of Jews, Gentiles, and proselytes. 
 The former brought into the Christian Church 
 their Jewish faith and Jewish traditions ; the 
 second knew nothing, or almost nothing, of either 
 the Jewish faith or the Jewish traditions ; while 
 the third, those who had repudiated Greek polythe- 
 ism and accepted faith in Jehovah as the one true 
 and righteous God, occupied a position midway 
 between the other two, and were probably the 
 most liberal and independent of the three par- 
 ties. The Galatian churches were composed largely 
 of Jewish converts. In order to understand the 
 
 1 I assume that the Galatian Christians, to whom Paul addressed 
 this epistle, were in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and 
 Derbe, which, according to the book of Acts, he visited ; not in 
 the so-called North Galatia, a district lying to the north and east 
 of Lyeaonia and Phrygia, and constituting only a part of the 
 great Roman province of Galatia, a region which we have no rea- 
 son to think he ever visited. The question is not, for the inter- 
 pretation of the letter, very important. The South Galatia view 
 ia held by Renan, Weizsacker, Ramsay, and McGiffert. 
 
182 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 epistle to the Gralatians, and its bearing upon certain 
 ecclesiastical and theological questions of our own 
 time, it is necessary to comprehend, not only the 
 nature of the Jewish party in the time of Paul, 
 but also its tendency and its history in subsequent 
 developments in the Christian Church. 
 
 The essential faith of Mosaism was that God is 
 a righteous God, and demands righteousness of his 
 children. The essential principle of Mosaism was 
 obedience to the laws which God has made, and 
 which have been by his prophets promulgated, by 
 divine authority. The essential symbol of Mosa- 
 ism was the Ten Commandments which present, as 
 the sum of human duty, reverence for God, respect 
 for parents, regard for the rights of person, pro- 
 perty, and reputation, and the safeguarding of the 
 family. This simple principle of Mosaism, that 
 God is a righteous God, that he demands right- 
 eousness of his children, and demands nothing 
 else, and that the principles of righteousness are 
 those illustrated by the Ten Commandments, had, 
 by the time of the Restoration from the Exile, 
 been greatly modified. An elaborate ecclesiastical 
 system had grown up, partly imported from pagan- 
 ism, with a priesthood, a ritual, and a central tem- 
 ple. It is not necessary for my purpose here to 
 consider how far the Levitical code is a divine 
 code, really organized and promulgated by Moses, 
 and how far it is a human addition to and corrup- 
 tion of the simple ethical and spiritual principles 
 which characterize the Book of the Covenant, 
 
THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 183 
 
 wliich is the oldest book in tlie Bible.^ It must 
 suffice to say that in the time of Christ this Leviti- 
 cal code was universally accepted by the Jews as 
 of divine authority, equal in its obligations with 
 the simpler and earlier law. The distinction be- 
 tween what we call the ceremonial and the moral 
 law was, if not absolutely unknown, entirely ig- 
 nored. Indeed, so far as the distinction was recog- 
 nized at all, the stricter and more orthodox of the 
 Pharisees gave preeminence to the ceremonial code 
 and regarded the ceremonies inculcated by the 
 Levitical law as more important and more sacred 
 than those inculcated by the second table of the 
 Ten Commandments.^ This Levitical code im- 
 j)osed on its votaries numerous obligations, three 
 of which chiefly concerned Paul's attention in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians : their obligations to and 
 through the priesthood, and the correlative rights 
 and duties of the priesthood ; the obligation of 
 circumcision ; and the obligation to observe cer- 
 tain sacred days, chief of which was the Sabbath 
 Day. Let us consider these separately. 
 
 In the Jewish history the most casual reader of 
 the English Bible will note two classes of sacred 
 officers, priests and prophets. The priests were 
 officially connected with the Temple. It was their 
 function to offer sacrifice ; they must belong to the 
 family of Aaron, and therefore were necessarily of 
 the tribe of Levi. They were supported by a reg- 
 ular tax levied upon all the worshipers, the amount 
 
 1 Exodus XX. 1-xxiv. 7. ^ See chap. ii. p. 23. 
 
184 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 of which was fixed, though no provision appears 
 to have been made for compelling the payment. 
 It was a profanation for any one, not in the 
 priestly succession, to enter the priests' court in 
 the Temple, or to offer the sacrifices, and no one 
 could come acceptably to God without a sacrifice. 
 According to an ancient tradition, when Dathan 
 and Abiram proposed to offer sacrifice to the Lord 
 without authority, the earth opened and swallowed 
 them up.i When Uzzah, who was not a Levite, 
 ventured to put forth his hand to prevent the ark 
 from falling off the cart on which it was being 
 carried, he was instantly struck dead.^ Whether 
 these stories are historically accurate, or whether 
 they were incorporated into Jewish history at a 
 later period, in order to give historical sanction to 
 the claims of the Jewish priesthood, first formu- 
 lated at the time of the Restoration, it is not im- 
 portant for us here to determine. Those claims 
 were universally accepted, and these stories were 
 imiversaUy believed to be historical, by all devout 
 and orthodox Jews in the time of Paul. 
 
 The prophets, on the other hand, belonged to 
 no class and received no ordination. They were 
 taken sometimes from the court and sometimes 
 from the farm ; sometimes they were educated, and 
 sometimes, relatively speaking, uneducated. No 
 appointment and no ecclesiastical approval was 
 required. Any one might prophesy. If he felt, 
 or thought he felt, the spirit of God upon him, he 
 ^ Num. xvi. 2 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 185 
 
 was at liberty to give utterance to his message. 
 Freedom of religious teaching was as absolutely 
 secure under Judaism as it could be made in that 
 olden time.^ In this air of freedom there were 
 then, as there are now, true prophets and false 
 prophets. 
 
 When the Christian Church was born, the Jews, 
 coming into the Christian Church, brought with 
 them the Jewish conceptions concerning the priest- 
 hood, the sacrifices, and the Temple. They re- 
 garded the twelve apostles as the representatives 
 of the twelve tribes. They believed that the pecul- 
 iar authority of the priesthood passed over to 
 the apostles and their successors. At first they 
 continued the sacrificial worship in the Temple. 
 When the Temple was destroyed, the sacrificial 
 worship could no longer be continued, because the 
 law prohibited the oifering of sacrifices except at 
 the Temple ; but still the essential idea lingered 
 in the mind of the Jewish portion of the Christian 
 Church, that approach could be made to God ac- 
 ceptably only through a priesthood and by means 
 of a sacrifice. That idea, in a certain portion of 
 the Christian Church, remains to this day. The 
 Christian ministry are regarded as the legitimate 
 successors of the Jewish priesthood ; that priest- 
 hood is regarded as permanent, its sacredness as 
 
 1 Imposture and treasonable speech were punishabfe, but not 
 erroneous doctrine. Deut. xiii. 1-5 ; xviii. 20-22. For illustra- 
 tions of freedom of speech, see 2 Sam. xii. 1-7; 1 Kings xxi. 
 17-24. 
 
186 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 enduring, its office as essential to the institution, 
 of religion. The modern clergyman is therefore 
 regarded as a priest, as truly as was the ancient 
 Jewish Temple official. It is true that he no longer 
 belongs to the house of Aaron or the tribe of Levi, 
 but he is no less in a churchly succession. He must 
 receive his authority from priests who preceded 
 him, and they from still preceding priests, and so 
 he must be able to trace his ecclesiastical lineage 
 back to the apostles, through whom he derives his 
 priestly authority from Christ. And these priests 
 have the same substantial office to perform as did 
 the priests in the old Jewish Temple. The simple 
 supper which Christ told men to take in memory 
 of him is converted into the bloodless sacrifice of 
 the mass, and every time the bread is broken and 
 the wine is poured out, a new sacrifice for sin is 
 offered by the Christian priest. This Christian 
 priest, offering this sacrifice, must have an altar ; 
 and so the simple supper-table, on which the me- 
 morial of Christ was celebrated in the primitive 
 Church, is converted into an altar, set apart for 
 sacrificial purposes. The analogy to the Priests' 
 Court in the ancient Temple, which only the priest 
 might enter, is a sacred chancel which only the 
 clergyman may enter. The church edifice is no 
 longer a meeting-house or an assembly for wor- 
 shipers ; it is a temple, with the various parapher- 
 nalia of the ancient Temple, if not literally 
 repeated, at least symbolically represented. Thus, 
 according to this conception, Christianity is a law, 
 
TEE LETTER TO TEE GALATIANS 187 
 
 righteousness is obedience, the clergyman is a 
 priest, the Lord's Supper is a sacrifice, the commun- 
 ion-table is an altar, and the church is a temple. 
 
 The second element in the Jewish Church, with 
 which the Epistle to the Galatians deals, is the rite 
 of circumcision. A difference of opinion respect- 
 ing the origin of this rite exists, similar to the dif- 
 ference of opinion which exists respecting the 
 origin of the sacrificial system. It is certain that 
 circumcision was known outside of Jewish circles 
 in times preceding the age of Moses, and it is al- 
 most certain that it was borrowed by the Jews from 
 other nations. That is no argument against its 
 divinely appointed function, for it seems generally 
 to have been the divine plan not to create new 
 ceremonials, but to take ceremonials which already 
 existed and give them a new and sacred signifi- 
 cance. Thus, Christ took the simple family supper, 
 which constituted the most essential feature in the 
 Passover celebration, and gave to it a new signifi- 
 cance by making it a memorial of himself, and of 
 the deliverance which he brings to all mankind. 
 At what time circumcision became incorporated 
 in the Jewish national life as a required ceremo- 
 nial is not altogether clear. Apparently, however, 
 it originated in the days of Abraham, was main- 
 tained during the Egyptian captivity, fell into abey- 
 ance during the wanderings in the wilderness, and 
 was revived under Joshua. ^ It is certain that it 
 had existed among the Jews for eleven or twelve 
 1 Gen. xvii. 10 ; Exod. iv. 25, 26 ; Josh. v. 4, 5. 
 
188 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 hundred years ; perhaps for seventeen or eighteen 
 hundred, and it was a distinguishing characteristic 
 of the Jewish people in the time of Christ. No 
 man could become an heir of the Jewish pro- 
 mise, no man could be recognized as a true wor- 
 shiper of the true God, unless he was circumcised. 
 The most vigorous and intense term of reproach 
 which a Jew could apply to another was the phrase 
 " an uncircumcised dog." Thus circumcision was 
 wrought into the very life of the Jewish nation, 
 and made the entrance door to it. 
 
 As in the Jewish conception of Christianity, the 
 church, the ministry, and the Lord's Supper have 
 taken the place respectively of the Temple, the 
 priesthood, and the sacrifice, so, in that conception, 
 baptism has taken the place of circumcision. In 
 the time of Paul, when a pagan became a Jew, he 
 was baptized ; that is, he was led into the water 
 and immersed in it, and, according to the later 
 rabbinical teaching, entirely submerged in it from 
 head to foot. It was contended by the stricter sect 
 of the Pharisees that if this submersion was in any 
 respect incomplete, the baptism was ineffectual. 
 In this ceremony his old faiths were washed away. 
 He was said, in rabbinical phraseology, to be buried 
 in baptism and raised a new creature. This cere- 
 mony, which the Jews had used as a means of en- 
 trance for pagans into the Jewish Church, John 
 the Baptizer employed, giving to it a new signifi- 
 cance, as a means of solemn profession, of new life, 
 among the Jews. This last of the Hebrew prophets 
 
TEE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 189 
 
 said in effect to those who listened to him : You 
 need cleansing as much as the pagans ; your faiths 
 are no better than theirs ; you need repentance no 
 less than they ; you also must be submerged, and 
 wash away your old faiths and your old sins, and 
 rise into a new life, in which you will cease to do 
 evil and learn to do well. Baptism was never used 
 by Christ during his life, but it was employed by dis- 
 ciples of Christ who had previously been disciples 
 of John the Baptizer ; ^ and it received Christ's sanc- 
 tion after his death, and in this sanction a new 
 direction and a new meaning. The apostles were 
 told to baptize men, not into the Jewish Church, 
 not merely into a repentance which ceases to do 
 evil and learns to do well, but into the power and 
 authority of a new life with God — into the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.^ 
 Baptism thus became an entrance door to the Chris- 
 tian Church, as circumcision bad been an entrance 
 door to the Jewish Church. It was administered 
 only to adults, and to them only on confession of 
 their faith. It was the way in which the convert 
 confessed his faith in Christ, a solemn symbolical 
 expression of that faith and of the consecration 
 which accompanied it, and of the new hope and 
 new life which grew out of that faith and that con- 
 secration. 
 
 But as the Church increased in numbers and in 
 solidity of organization, and as time passed on, and 
 
 1 John iv. 1, 2 ; oomp. John i. 35 S. 
 ''■ Matt, xxviii. 19 ; comp. Acts xix. 1-5. 
 
190 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 the second coming of Christ was more and more 
 postponed in the thought of the Church to a re- 
 mote future, the Church became dissatisfied with 
 a rite which brought only the convert into the 
 Church, and left his household outside. He wished 
 to bring his children with him. Was he a Jew ? 
 his children were born into Judaism. Was he a 
 Christian ? he wished his children to be born into 
 Christianity. Thus the Jewish conception of cir- 
 cumcision and its office passed over into baptism, 
 which was transformed from its original purpose 
 to meet the new demand made upon it. The in- 
 fant Christian was baptized, as the infant Jew had 
 been circumcised, and by this baptism he was made 
 a Christian, as by circumcision the Jewish infant 
 was made a Jew. As a natural consequence, it 
 came to be believed that no one could be a Chris- 
 tian who was not baptized, as no one could be a 
 Jew who was not circumcised. But Christianity 
 was recognized even by the most formal and ecclesi- 
 astical in the Church as in some sense a new life, 
 and a new and vital relation to God. Hence bap- 
 tism came to be regarded as a means by which 
 this new life was conferred, this new and vital rela- 
 tion formed, this transformation of character into 
 that of a child of God effected. Thus the doctrine 
 of baptismal regeneration, found its way into a 
 very considerable section of the Christian Church ;i 
 
 ^ "By baptism we are cleansed from sin, adopted into God's 
 family, being made his children by spiritual birth, so that his 
 First-begotten Son is not ashamed to call us brethi'en." — Blunt's 
 Theological Dictionary, article " Baptism." 
 
TBE LETTER TO TEE GALATIANS 191 
 
 the transformation was completed ; and the free 
 gift of God, received by faith, was made dependent 
 on a purely mechanical process, not in the least 
 understood by the babe who was subjected to it. 
 
 The third characteristic of Judaism with which 
 the book of Galatians deals was the setting apart 
 of certain days for special sacred observance. 
 Some of these were fast-days ; more of them were 
 feast-days. The most important of all was the 
 Seventh, or Sabbath day. So important was this 
 that the command enforcing it found a place among 
 the Ten Commandments. It is the only approxi- 
 mation to a ceremonial law found in that primitive 
 code of Mosaism. But the Fourth Commandment 
 can hardly be classified with ceremonial laws or 
 even as akin to them, since, as defined in that com- 
 mandment, the Sabbath was simply a rest-day. 
 The word " holy " as there used simply means set 
 apart, and is explained by the specifications which 
 follow : " Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy 
 work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath [that is. 
 Rest] of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do 
 any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy 
 man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, thy cattle, nor 
 the stranger that is within thy gates." The priests 
 early and very legitimately made use of this day 
 for additional Temple services, and the prophets 
 habitually and wisely made use of it for religious 
 instruction. This, however, if not an afterthought, 
 was certainly a secondary use. Gradually there 
 grew up additions to this simple law and this 
 
192 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 national habit of religious observance.^ By the 
 time of Christ, the day which God had appointed 
 for freedom had become a day of bondage. When 
 Christ cured the cripple on the Sabbath day, he 
 was condemned by the ruler of the synagogue for 
 breaking the Sabbath law ; ^ and when he bade the 
 cripple take the mat on which he lay, and which 
 he could easily roll up and carry under his arm, 
 and take away with him, the man was condemned 
 for violating the Sabbath day, because he bore a 
 burden.^ Christ deliberately and publicly set at 
 naught these Pharisaic and Jewish additions to the 
 primitive law, but it cannot be said that he in terms 
 set the law itself aside. He treated the Sabbath as 
 he treated circumcision and the sacrifices. He de- 
 clared that the faith of the uncircumcised centurion 
 was greater than any he had seen in Israel ; but 
 he did not in terms discard circumcision. He 
 forgave men their sins, without ever sending them 
 to the temple to offer sacrifice as a condition of 
 forgiveness ; * but he did not in terms discard sac- 
 rifices. So he repudiated the burdensome regula- 
 tions with which the Sabbath had been hedged 
 about ; but he did not in terms set the Sabbath 
 day aside. 
 
 ^ A striking- illustration of this derelopment of the Sabhath is 
 afforded by the account in Nehemiah xiii. 15-22. 
 
 « Luke xiii. 14. « John v. 10. 
 
 * Luke XTii. 14 is not an exception. The lepers were sent to 
 the priest for examination and the health certificate which the 
 law required before they could mix again with men. Lev. ch. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 193 
 
 When the Jews came into the Christian Church, 
 with their notion of priestly authority and the 
 obligation of circumcision, they brought with them 
 also their belief in the perpetual obligation of the 
 Sabbath day. When, on the other hand, the Gen- 
 tiles came into the Christian Church, they knew as 
 little of a Sabbath day as they did of circumcision 
 or the Jewish sacrificial system. But both Jewish 
 and Gentile Christians could not forget the first 
 day of the week, on which Christ rose from the 
 dead. This was their great gala day, not imposed 
 upon them by any obligation from without, but 
 observed with joy and gladness by a natural im- 
 pulse from within. Thus at first two holy days 
 were kept in the Christian Church, — the Sabbath, 
 or seventh day, because it was Jewish ; the Lord's 
 day, or first day of the week, because it was the day 
 of Christ's resurrection. As the pagan element 
 increased and the Jewish element decreased in 
 numbers, the seventh day gradually fell into dis- 
 use, the first day alone lived.^ 
 
 But when the seventh day feU into disuse, the 
 
 1 The question is often asked, What is the authority for the 
 change of day f There is none except that general authority 
 which God haa reposed in his children everywhere to worship him 
 according to the dictates of their own conscience and in the way 
 that hest suits their spiritual life. There is nowhere in the New 
 Testament a statement of divine authority explicitly given for any 
 change in the day. Those who think themselves under obligation 
 to maintain the Mosaic law are right in thinking that they should 
 ohaerve the seventh day rather than the first. Sunday belongs to 
 the liberty of the children of God. 
 
194 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 law which had created it and had imposed it 
 upon the Jewish people was transferred to the first 
 day. The notion came to he diffused in the Church, 
 and exists to the present time, that aU the obliga- 
 tions of the seventh day were transferred to the 
 first ; that the Fourth Commandment is of per- 
 petual obligation, but that the observance which 
 it imposed is fulfilled by the observance of another 
 day in the place of the one originally appointed. 
 A part of those who hold this view — a very small 
 part, it is true, but more logical than the rest — 
 maintain that the Jewish law remains still in force, 
 that it is the seventh day that is sacred and not 
 the first, and that we shall never have a true Sab- 
 bath, nor a true Christianity, nor a true religion 
 imtil we go back to the seventh day, and thus 
 fulfiU the obligation imposed, as it is claimed, on 
 all mankind by the primitive code of Mosaism. 
 But the great majority of Christians regard the 
 Fourth Commandment as in part obligatory and 
 in part not, without having any clear idea of how 
 they are to distinguish between what is and what 
 is not obligatory. 
 
 Thus there has come into the Christian Church 
 from the Jewish Church its fundamental concep- 
 tion of religion as consisting in obedience to a law 
 of God imposed on mankind from without ; and 
 this conception is illustrated in three characteris- 
 tics of the Jewish Church, perpetuated, though 
 in a modified form, — namely, the priesthood and 
 its sacrificial system, as a necessary condition of 
 
TBE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 195 
 
 acceptable approacli to God ; circumcision trans- 
 formed into baptism, as a necessary means of 
 entrance into the Church ; and the Sabbath as a 
 special day of religious observance universally 
 obligatory because of the Eourth Commandment. 
 
 When Paul first came into Galatia, preaching, 
 he denied the fundamental postulate of this sys- 
 tem. He denied that religion consists in obedi- 
 ence to a law imposed by God upon mankind. 
 " Be it known therefore to you, men and bre- 
 thren," he said, " that through this man to you is 
 proclaimed the remission of sins; and from aU 
 from which you could not be justified in the law 
 of Moses, in him, every man having faith is justi- 
 fied." ^ The sending away of sin, the deliverance 
 from its power, its burden, and its penalty, the 
 being made right in one's self, the being brought 
 into right relations with God, cannot be accom- 
 plished — this was the substance of the message — 
 by living in the law of Moses. It can be accom- 
 plished only by living in Christ, who is the revela- 
 tion of God, the wisdom of God, the power of 
 God. 
 
 Paul and his message were received with great 
 enthusiasm. Despite the recurrence of that mys- 
 terious malady to which he seems to have been at 
 times subjected, despite some obscuration of the 
 vision and some mark upon his face which ren- 
 dered him in appearance repulsive, especially to 
 those who had been taught to believe that every 
 1 Acta xiii. 38, 39. 
 
196 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 such physical blemish was a sign of divine displea- 
 sure, the Galatians welcomed him with ardent 
 affection. " If it had been possible," he says, 
 " you would have plucked out your own eyes and 
 have given them to me." ^ But their enthusiasm 
 was too intense to be long lived. Apostles of a 
 Jewish Christianity, claiming, if not possessing, 
 the authority of the Church at Jerusalem, followed 
 Paul here, as they did elsewhere, in order to op- 
 pose him.2 They insisted that Paul was no apos- 
 tle ; that he had received no authority from the 
 Twelve, and none from the Church at Jerusalem ; 
 that he was setting aside the laws of God, the au- 
 thority of the priesthood and apostolate, the sacred 
 rite of circumcision, doubly sacred from its divine 
 origin and its identification with the history of 
 God's chosen people, and the law of the Sabbath 
 day, placed by its very position in the Ten Com- 
 mandments on the same level with the laws against 
 idolatry, profaneness, murder, theft, and adultery. 
 They even charged him with inconsistency, and 
 with preaching the necessity of circumcision when 
 he preached to Jewish congregations.^ The Gala^ 
 tians hesitated, halted, went backwards. They 
 questioned whether the leader whom they had 
 received with such enthusiasm had not spoken 
 without authority. They questioned whether they 
 must not reinstate the rite of circumcision which 
 
 1 Galatians iv. 13-15. 
 
 ■■= Gal. i. 7 ; iu. 1 ; It. 17 ; v. 7-12 ; vi. 12, 13. 
 
 " Gal. T. 11. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE GALATIAN8 197 
 
 they had abandoned. They began again the Jew-' 
 ish observance of the Sabbath day. The news of 
 these changes was brought to Paid. It is to re- 
 monstrate with the Galatians, and to reply to the 
 apostles of Jewish Christianity, that he writes his 
 letter. In it he offers no compromise, suggests no 
 retraction and no apology. He reaffirms his radi- 
 cal position that righteousness does not consist in 
 obedience to law, and accepts all the conclusions 
 which that affirmation involves. 
 
 He begins with his own personal experience. 
 In the opening words of his letter he repudiates, as 
 explicitly as words can repudiate, the notion that 
 a Christian minister's authority is dependent on 
 any human or ecclesiastical appointment. " Paul," 
 he says, "an apostle, not deriving his authority 
 from men, neither through the instrumentality of 
 men, but through Jesus Christ and God our Fa- 
 ther who raised him from the dead." ^ And then, 
 as if to emphasize the equality of aU men in the 
 Christian Church, Apostles and non-Apostles, he 
 adds, " And all the brethren which are with me, 
 to the churches of Galatia."^ He will have no 
 compromise with Judaism in the Christian Church. 
 " If any other man," he says, " or we ourselves, or 
 even an angel from heaven, preach any other gos- 
 pel unto you than that which we have preached 
 
 1 TlavXos aiT6(rTO\oSj ovk Air* avBpdyjrotv ovSk dt' avOpdirou 
 aWa Sict 'Iriffov XptaTov Kal Oeou irarphs Tov iyeipai/TOs avrhj/ ix 
 v^KpStv. 
 
 2 Gal. i. 1, 2. 
 
198 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 unto you, let him be accursed." ^ That gospel he 
 has not received from any apostolic college, nor 
 through any apostolic succession : " I neither re- 
 ceived it from man, neither was taught it ; but 
 I received it through the revelation of Jesus 
 Christ." ^ His independence of all apostolic suc- 
 cession or appointment he goes on to make still 
 clearer by a bit of autobiography. When he was 
 converted, he did not confer with flesh and blood, 
 nor did he go up to Jerusalem to consult with 
 those who were " apostles before me." He began 
 straightway to preach without any ordination of 
 any description.^ Not till three years later did he 
 go up to Jerusalem, where he saw Peter and James, 
 the Lord's brother, and no one else. He was not 
 even known by face to the churches of Judea.* 
 When, fourteen years after, he went up again to 
 Jerusalem wdth Barnabas and Titus, it was not to 
 get ordination, nor to yield to nor to compromise 
 with the Jewish Christians who were attempting 
 to import into the Church the Jewish priesthood. 
 " To them," he said, " not even for an hour did we 
 yield ourselves in subjection." ^ The apostles re- 
 ceived him and Barnabas, not on any ground of 
 apostolic ordination, but because they saw in the 
 work accomplished demonstration that the free gift 
 of God had been given to them. For that reason, 
 and that only, did James, Peter and John give them 
 the right hand of fellowship in the continuance of 
 
 1 Gal. i. 8, 9. ^ Gal. i. 11, 12. » Gal. i. 15-18. 
 
 , * Gal. i. 22. 6 Gal. ii. 5. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 199 
 
 that work.^ As to the primacy of Peter, already 
 apparently claimed for Peter by some whom 
 perhaps Peter would have disowned, Paul makes 
 short work of it. " I withstood him," he says, 
 " to his face, because he was to be blamed." And 
 he did this "before them all."^ 
 
 Paul next appeals to the experience of the Ga^ 
 latians. How did they obtain the spirit of the new 
 life ? — by obedience to an external law, or by re- 
 ceiving that spirit gladly through faith ? Having 
 received this spirit as the beginning of their new 
 life, did they expect to perfect that life by going 
 back to live under the law ? Have all their past 
 experiences been in vain ? Have these experiences 
 taught them nothing? How came their spiritual 
 powers, their varied gifts ? Did these come to 
 them by obedience to the law of Moses, or by the 
 reception of the Spirit of God through faith ? ' 
 
 Then Paul appeals to the Old Testament history. 
 Which came first, faith or law ? Faith came first. 
 Before there was any law, before Mount Sinai, 
 before Moses — four hundred and thirty years be- 
 fore — God gave the promise to Abraham and to 
 his seed. And this promise made to faith, and 
 to Abraham as the father of the faithful, cannot 
 be annulled by a subsequent law. The promise 
 which God has once given he cannot take back. 
 When he has said to men, If you have faith in me, 
 that is all I ask, he cannot afterward add other 
 
 1 Gal. ii. 7-9. 2 Gal. ii 11, 14 
 
 8 Gal. iii. 1-5. 
 
200 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 conditions, and say, I also require you to obey the 
 law.^ 
 
 What, then, is the use of the law? It was 
 added to make clear to men that they needed the 
 life which is received only through faith. The law 
 was like a prison in which men were kept shut up 
 until faith should be revealed to them as the 
 means of their deliverance. It was like a tutor 
 who rules a child tiU he is old enough to rule 
 himself. Among the Greeks and Romans it was 
 customary to employ a specially trustworthy slave, 
 charged with the duty of supervising and caring 
 for the children until they were of age sufficient 
 to go unattended to their school. He accompanied 
 them out-of-doors on all occasions, was responsible 
 for their personal safety, guarded them against 
 bad company, went with them to and from the 
 school or the gymnasium, and in general exercised 
 over them a rigorous censorship. He was called a 
 prndagogus, from which our word " pedagogue " 
 comes. He was not properly an instructor or 
 teacher, but rather a censor' and disciplinarian.^ 
 The law, says Paul, has been such a poedagogus 
 to bring us unto Christ. But now that we have 
 arrived at manhood in him, we are no longer under 
 a, pcedagogus. We have always been sons of God 
 and heirs of God, but so long as an heir is a child, 
 
 1 Gal. m. 7-17. 
 
 2 " His duty was rather to ^ard them from evil, both physical 
 and moral, than to comnmnicate instruction, to cultivate their 
 minds, or impart acquirements." — Smith's Dictionary of An- 
 tiquities, article ' ' Psedagogus.'' 
 
THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 201 
 
 he is under guardians and stewards. So the race 
 in its childhood was under the rigorous rules neces- 
 sary for and characteristic of those who are living, 
 worldly lives.-' But the very object of Christ's 
 coming was that men might be redeemed from 
 these rigorous rules, might receive the adoption of 
 sons, might have the same spirit which was in 
 Christ in their own hearts, might live free and joy- 
 ous, because divine, lives. How is it, then, that 
 the Galatians have turned back to the life of bond- 
 age imder these rules, which are weak, unable to 
 accomplish anything, beggarly, bringing no enrich- 
 ment to the life ? He appeals to them, by their 
 affection for him, by their memories of their first 
 reception of him, by his love for them, to return 
 again to the life of liberty. ^ 
 
 These appeals and arguments he enforces by a 
 curious piece, of rabbinical allegorizing. He tells 
 the story of Abraham and his wives Sarah and 
 Hagar, and their sons Isaac and Ishmael. He 
 treats this Old Testament story as a parable. 
 They that are under the law he compares to Ish- 
 mael, child of the bond-woman ; they that are 
 freed from the law by Christ, to Isaac, child of the 
 free woman. As then Ishmael mocked at Isaac, 
 so now the legalist scoffs at the free Christian ; as 
 then Ishmael was cast out and Isaac inherited, so 
 now the legalist shall not inherit with the free 
 
 ^ Gal. iv. 3. "Elements of the world " {aroixiia toC Kfitr/iou) 
 are rigorous rules characteristic of world-life. 
 2 Gal. iii. 19-iv. 20. 
 
202 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Christian.^ We may question the legitimacy of 
 the argument, concerning which Professor Jowett 
 has well said : " Strange as it may at first appear 
 that his [Paul's] mode of interpreting the Old 
 Testament Scriptures should not conform to our 
 laws of logic, it would be far stranger if it had not 
 conformed to the natural modes of thought in his 
 own day ; " but we may well accept the conclusion 
 to which Paul conducts his readers : " Wherefore, 
 brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, 
 but of the free. With that freedom Christ has 
 made us free. Stand fast therefore, and be not 
 entangled again in a yoke of bondage." ^ 
 
 This allegory is a digression. Paul resumes his 
 argument. If the Christian receives circumcision, 
 if he accepts the obligations of the law, if he hopes 
 to become righteous by obedience to an external 
 standard, he must obey it absolutely and in every 
 part. He cannot take part and leave part. He 
 must either stand on his obedience, — and if he is 
 to do this, the obedience must be perfect, — or he 
 must find another standing-ground, and " by faith 
 wait for the hope of righteousness." ^ This is the 
 standing-ground to which Paul calls his readers. 
 Their hope is in the free gift of life from God 
 through Jesus Christ. Will not this freedom lead 
 them on to sin ? No. For it is the freedom of a 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 21-31. 
 
 ^ Gal. iv. 31-v. 1. Si6, aie\^oi, ovk io-^^v Traidlo'K'qs reKva aWct 
 TTJs i\fv6€pas. Tp iKevdepia Tjfias Xpitrrhs 7]\€vdepa}(rsv' (TTijKeTe odv 
 Kal /xt; irdMv ^vy^ Sovhelas ^yexeff^e. 
 
 8 Gal. T. 5. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 203 
 
 spiritual life, and if one is walking according to the 
 spirit, if lie is living tlie spiritual life, if he is in- 
 spired by faith in God, by hope of God's righteous- 
 ness, and by love for God and God's children, he 
 will no longer fulfill the desires of the flesh ; the 
 desires of the flesh and of the spirit are contrary 
 the one to the other, and he cannot do the evil 
 things to which the flesh calls him, if he is led- to 
 the life of holiness by the spirit within him.^ And 
 then Paul puts in sharp contrast the two lives, — 
 the works of the flesh, the fruit of the spirit : — 
 
 " What I mean is this : walk according to the impulses 
 of the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of 
 the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are contrary to 
 those of the spirit, and those of the spirit are contrary 
 to those of the flesh ; for these are set in array against 
 each other, in order that you may not he able to do what 
 you wish. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not 
 under law. But the works of the flesh are apparent to 
 all, for example: fornication, impurity, wantonness, 
 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousies, passionate 
 outbreaks, intrigues, divisions, factions, envyings, drunk- 
 enness, carousals, and such like ; of which I forewarn 
 you, as I did before forewarn you, that they who prac- 
 tice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 
 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffer- 
 ing, serviceableness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-con- 
 trol : against such there is no law. And they that are 
 
 1 Gal. V. 13-18. " The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the 
 spirit against the flesh '' describes the conflict between the fleshly 
 and the spiritual in man, and corresponds to Romans vii. 7-24. 
 
204 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 Jesus Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions 
 and its evil desires." ^ 
 
 He closes his letter with, some practical counsels, 
 pervaded by the spirit of the instructions which 
 have preceded. Then, as though he could not bear 
 to let this letter go without one more effort to re- 
 cover the affections and the loyalty of his friends 
 and disciples, he takes the pen into his own hand 
 ■ — the previous part of the epistle he had dictated 
 to an amanuensis — and in large characters, such 
 as a half-blind man might write, adds an auto- 
 graphic postscript, aflame with his own experience. 
 "ThroughChrist," he says, "the world has been 
 crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Neither 
 is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a 
 new creation." ^ 
 
 The teaching of Paul in the epistle to the Gala- 
 tians may all be summed up in the sentence. No- 
 thing external to man is of the essence of religion : 
 no order of ministry, no form of church service, no 
 rite or ceremony, no day of observance. It is, 
 indeed, true that the religious spirit must always 
 embody itself in some form. If there is to be reli- 
 gious instruction, there must be instructors ; if pub- 
 lic worship, leaders of that worship ; if united work 
 for Christ, an organization by which the work is 
 to be carried on ; if special services for the develop- 
 ment of the spiritual life, special times when those 
 
 1 Gal. V. 16-24. 
 
 ^ Gal. tI. 14, 15. &vTf thp irepiTOfi'li ti %aTiv Svrt i,KpoPu<TTla, 
 &.\\k Kaiv^ KTlais. 
 
TEE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 205 
 
 services can be held. Thus, religion must always 
 have teachers, services, rites, observances. 
 
 But no particular order of teachers, form of ser- 
 vice, method of rite, or time of observance is of 
 the essence of religion. Faith, hope, and love alone 
 are etern al. The language which they use, the 
 methods and instruments which they employ, may 
 be changed from time to time, that they may be 
 adapted to new conditions of life. The notion that 
 any ordination of any kind is essential to the Chris- 
 tian ministry, Paul repudiates in this epistle to the 
 Galatians in the most explicit terms. It is true 
 that he was separated to a special work by the lay- 
 ing on of hands ; ^ but it is also true that no apostle 
 was present at this ordination, which was not to the 
 ministry but to a special missionary service, and 
 that he had preached the gospel, and, indeed, ex- 
 ercised all the functions of an apostle, for some- 
 thing like ten years before his entrance upon this 
 special service. And there is not, either in the 
 book of Acts or in any of Paul's letters, the least 
 indication that any apostle had anything to do with 
 this or any other ordination of Paul. The notion 
 that Paul received his apostolate from the apostles 
 is explicitly denied by him. Elsewhere we shall 
 find him implying that there is no priest and no 
 sacrifice other than Christ,^ and this, which he im- 
 plies, is stiU more explicitly affirmed by the unknown 
 
 1 Acts xiii. 1-3. 
 
 = 1 Cor. V. 7. Comp. Eom. xdi. 1 ; Ephes. v. 2 ; Phil. ii. 17 ; 
 IT. 18. 
 
206 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 author of the epistle to the Hebrews.^ The mod- 
 ern minister, if he can be said to be a successor 
 of any order in the Jewish Church, is a prophet, 
 not a priest. Never is he called a priest in the 
 New Testament. All God's children are, in the 
 Apocalypse, accounted both kings and priests imto 
 God.^ On the other hand, the religious teacher is 
 not infrequently designated as a prophet ; ^ and the 
 prophet was in no order, received no ordination, 
 belonged to no sacred and exclusive fraternity, re- 
 ceived as his sole appointment the consciousness 
 of a Hmne message within his own heart. 
 
 As neither priest nor sacrifice is essential to reli- 
 gion, so no rite or ceremonial. Circumcision is 
 quite as explicitly commanded by the Old Testa- 
 ment as is baptism by the New,* and it was a more 
 distinctive badge of God's visible Church. Christ 
 never set it aside himself ; Paul does not claim that 
 he had any divine revelation directing him to set it 
 aside. He abandoned it, because experience proved 
 that, in the new conditions, it was a hindrance, not 
 a help, to piety. The liberty which Paul thus 
 exercised belongs to the Church in all ages. A 
 majority in the Church have exercised that liberty 
 as regards baptism. It was formerly administered 
 by immersion, if not always by submersion, which 
 in a warm climate was not inconvenient. The 
 
 1 Heb. vii. 27 ; ix. 23-28 ; x. 10-14. 
 
 " Key. i. 6 ; V. 10 ; xx. 6. Comp. 1 Pet. u. 5, 9. 
 
 8 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; xiy. 29 ; Ephes. ii. 20 ; iii. 5 ; iv. 11. 
 
 * Gen. xvii. 10, 13. 
 
TBE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 207 
 
 Church has substituted sprinkling. It was em- 
 ployed as a symbolical expression of personal re- 
 pentance and faith. The Church has transformed 
 it into an expression of parental consecration. If 
 baptism is a law, as circumcision was a law, and 
 Christians are under the law, as Jews were under 
 the law, then baptism should be by immersion, and 
 administered only to adults. The justification for 
 the change is to be found only in the fact that no 
 rite or ceremony is of the essence of religion, and 
 that God's children have the liberty to change any 
 rite or ceremonial, if, by so doing, they think they 
 can better minister to Christian life. 
 
 What is true of baptism is equally true of the 
 Lord's Supper. That its observance does not rest 
 on any explicit command of Christ, Dr. McGiffert 
 has very clearly shown.^ To make its observance 
 essential to Christianity is to make Christianity 
 simply a new form of Judaism. The method of 
 observance has long since changed. It is nowhere 
 celebrated in an upper chamber, at the close of a 
 meal, by men only, and they reclining at a common 
 table. In many churches fermented wine is aban- 
 doned ; in some, individual cups are used in lieu of 
 a common cup ; in one great section of the Church 
 only the priest partakes of the cup ; by a small but 
 very devout body of Christian disciples both baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper are dropped from the Church 
 life altogether. All thes e variations, are,. entirely 
 within the liberty of the children of God. Baptism 
 1 The Apostolic Age, p. 68, note. 
 
208 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 and the Lord's Supper are to be observed only in 
 so far as they promote the spiritual life, and in 
 whatever forms they wiU best promote that life. 
 
 As no priestly order, no sacrifice, and no rite or 
 ceremonial is of the essence of religion, so nei- 
 ther is any sacred observance or sacred time. To 
 regard observance of special days as essential to re- 
 ligion and to acceptance with God, Paul condemns. 
 He says : — 
 
 " Now, when ye have gained the knowledge of God, 
 or, rather, when God has acknowledged you, how is it that 
 ye are turning back to those rules, weak and beggarly, 
 to which you desire again to be in bondage ? Ye ob- 
 serve days, and months, and seasons, and years." * 
 
 That he includes in this phrase the observance of 
 Sabbath days he makes perfectly explicit in his 
 letter to the Colossians. "Let no man therefore 
 judge you, in meat or in drink, or in respect of 
 feasts, or new moon, or Sabbaths, which are a sha- 
 dow of things to come ; but the body is Christ's." ^ 
 If we are under the Jewish law, if the Fourth Com- 
 mandment is of perpetual obligation, if to gain ac- 
 ceptance with God we must keep one day set apart 
 to his special service in some special form, then the 
 Seventh-Day Christian is right. Saturday should 
 be our Sabbath, and the Mosaic law should deter- 
 mine our method of observing it. This is not 
 Paul's conception of religion. The_sin3iplejiu.ty of 
 the Christian is summed up in faith and hape and 
 1 Gal. iv. 9, 10. 2 Col. ii. 16, 17. 
 
TEE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 209 
 
 love. He is to take , such time for the cultivation 
 of the spiritual life and^ employ such methods as 
 experience indicates wiU best accomplish the 
 coveted result. If he does not desire spiritual life, 
 no Sabbath-day observance will promote it. If he 
 does desire spiritual life, he is free to select that 
 time and ' that method which are best adapted 
 to promote it. The Christian Church has not 
 frankly accepted this philosophy, but has uncon- 
 sciously acted upon it. The first day has taken 
 the place of the seventh, and the method of observ- 
 ance has changed quite as radically as the time ob- 
 served. 
 
 To sum all up in a single sentence. In Christ 
 there is neither priest nor sacrifice. The priest is 
 a mediator between man and God. In Christ the 
 way of access to God is open to the humblest, the 
 poorest, and the most sinful. The veil of the Tem- 
 ple is rent. Every man may enter the Holy of 
 Holies. But there are stiU prophets, who, .know- 
 ing God, interpret him to his children. Whoever 
 knows the Father may do this work of interpreta-^ 
 tion. Whoever entereth in by the door is a shep- 
 herd of the sheep.-' Whoever heareth may say, 
 Come.^ There is no special symbol of consecration 
 which is essential to divine sonship. Neither is 
 immersion anything, nor sprinkling anything, but 
 a new creation. Life is itself the test of all instru- 
 ments of life. There are Pedo-Baptists as conse- 
 crated to Christ as Baptists ; and there are Friends, 
 
 ^ John s. 2, ^ Revelation zxii. 17. 
 
210 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 who have received no water baptism of any kind, 
 as consecrated as either. No day is of the essence 
 of religion. The Church has done wisely to make 
 of Christ's resurrection day a festal occasion. It 
 has done wisely to celebrate that resurrection every 
 week. It has done wisely to keep this festal day 
 free from the cares and the toils of secular life, and 
 to use it for the culture of the spirit and for the 
 public and united expression of devotion. But the 
 obligation of the Lord's Day lies not in an ancient 
 code, given through Moses to an ancient people, 
 but in this : that the observance of such a day helps 
 to conserve and promote the fruits of the Spirit, — 
 love, joy, peace, long-suffering, serviceableness, 
 goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE LETTER TO THE EOMANS — I 
 
 Paul's epistle to the Komans more nearly re- 
 sembles a treatise than any other of his epistles. 
 At a very early date it was published in two edi- 
 tions, one with the personal matter omitted from 
 it, and in this form it served the purpose of a gen- 
 eral treatise or circular letter to the churches. The 
 other is the form with which we are familiar. 
 There is some difference of opinion among scholars 
 as to which of these was the early form, but it is 
 not important to determine that question. Whether 
 Paul first wrote it as a letter, and it was reedited 
 to be a treatise, or whether he first wrote it as a 
 circular letter or treatise, and then added to it to 
 make it a letter, in either case the form indicates 
 its essential character — that is, that it is general 
 rather than specific, a letter fitted to serve the pur- 
 pose of a treatise.-* 
 
 It was written to the Christian church at Rome. 
 Of this Christian church at Rome we know no- 
 thing, though we can surmise some things. We 
 know this : that the Jews were scattered throughout 
 the Roman Empire, and wherever they went they 
 
 1 See this matter fully discussed in Bishop Lightfoot's Biblical 
 Essays, Essay IX. 
 
212 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 carried with them something of the qualities which 
 they carry with them still. They were shrewd, 
 thrifty, and successful as traders. They mixed 
 freely with men of the Roman Empire in trade, 
 but they mixed with them no otherwise. What 
 Shakespeare makes Shylock say might well have 
 been said by a Jew in the first century : " I will 
 buy with you, seU with you, talk with you, walk 
 with you, and so following ; but I wiU not eat with 
 you, drink with you, nor pray with you." They 
 possessed a virile and aggressive faith, and it was 
 the only virile and aggressive faith in the Roman 
 Empire. They believed in one God, who was a 
 righteous God, and who demanded righteousness of 
 his people ; and they carried this belief in a right- 
 eous God and in the laws of righteousness, as in- 
 terpreted in the Ten Commandments, with them 
 wherever they went. It is true that they were 
 more earnest to enforce their conceptions of law on 
 others than to obey their conceptions of law them- 
 selves. But still they had a virile faith and an 
 aggressive religion, and men of intelligence and 
 probity (and there were such men in the general 
 degradation and degeneracy of the Roman Empire) 
 were attracted to their virile faith and their aggres- 
 sive religion. So there sprang up in every com- 
 munity what were called by the Jews proselytes, or, 
 in the Book of Acts, " devout " men. They were 
 still pagans ; that is, they were not circumcised, 
 and did not generally worship in the synagogue ; 
 but they believed in one true God as against 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 213 
 
 belief in the many gods, and in a righteous God as 
 against belief in immoral gods, and in a spiritual 
 God as against belief in the gods that could be 
 represented by idols and images. 
 
 The Christian church at Rome was composed of 
 three elements : partly of converted Jews, partly 
 of converted pagans, but probably very largely of 
 converted proselytes. These last were Romans 
 who, prior to their conversion to Christianity, had 
 ceased to believe in Jove and Mercury and Venus ; 
 and to worship in pagan temples, except simply 
 as matter of convenience and in conformity to the 
 fashions of the times ; and who had come to be- 
 lieve, more or less profoundly, in one righteous 
 God, and to that extent had accepted Judaism. 
 Out of this class — the most moral, the most intel- 
 ligent, and the most liberal of the Roman Empire, 
 free on the one hand from the trammels of Juda- 
 ism, freed on the other hand from the superstitions 
 of paganism — the Christian churches were largely 
 composed ; the Christian church in the Roman cap- 
 ital probably chiefly composed. 
 
 It was to this church that Paul wrote his letter, 
 about the year 58 a. d., four years after Nero had 
 ascended the throne. Paul was still at Corinth, 
 or possibly had started from Corinth on his jour- 
 ney to Jerusalem, whither he was to carry contri- 
 butions from the Macedonian churches to the poor. 
 He had already written those letters to the Corin- 
 thians and the Galatians which we have consid- 
 ered. He had seen converted pagans mistaking 
 
214 PAUL TDE APOSTLE 
 
 license for liberty, casting o£E all moral restraint, 
 and allowing themselves indulgence in grossly im- 
 moral conduct, and had written strenuously in 
 rebuke of that notion to the Corinthians ; he had 
 seen converted Jews falling back into Judaism, and 
 living under the restraints of the ceremonial law, 
 and had written to call the Galatians back to the 
 liberty wherewith Christ makes free. He had 
 written of the obligation of moral life to the one ; 
 he had written of the freedom from the Mosaic 
 ritual to the other. Teachers learn, if they are 
 wise teachers, more from their teaching than they 
 communicate to their pupils ; and Paul by his 
 teaching had learned as well as communicated. 
 He had begun life a Pharisee, believing that reli- 
 gion consisted in obedience to the law, and, pre- 
 eminently, in obedience to the ceremonial law, be- 
 cause it was the ceremonial law which dictated the 
 duties that man owed directly and immediately to 
 God. He had cast off this yoke of bondage, and 
 he had exhorted his converts to cast it ofE. And 
 yet, when he came to preach to pagans, he found 
 them quite ready to cast off all law and all moral 
 obligation, and to consider themselves set free 
 therefrom, to follow their appetites and passions 
 wherever they led. In this letter to the Romans 
 he brings together his twofold teaching to the Co- 
 rinthians and to the Galatians. He considers more 
 thoroughly than he had done in either letter the 
 whole relation of law to life. That may be said to 
 be the subject of his epistle. It is divided into 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 215 
 
 four parts. In the first lie discusses law as a remedy 
 for an evil age and an evil life ; in the second he 
 sets forth the gospel as a remedy for an evil age 
 and an evil life ; in the third he considers how far 
 that gospel extends and who may take advantage 
 of it ; in the fourth he enters into some practical 
 applications and general ethical reflections. 
 
 We shall best consider this letter by following 
 these divisions (though they are not as sharply 
 marked in the letter as I have marked them) and 
 taking them in their order. But to do this, we 
 must first endeavor to form a picture of the Roman 
 world at the time at which Paul wrote the epistle 
 to the Christian Church. For Rome, the capital 
 of the Roman Empire, was the centre of the Roman 
 world. 
 
 From the Roman capital proceeded all law ; in 
 it was centralized all authority. The Emperor 
 was an absolute despot, and all provincial gover- 
 nors were appointed by him and answerable to him. 
 And as all authority was centralized there, so was 
 all life. Rome not only gave the laws, Rome set 
 the fashions, for the world. What life was in the 
 imperial city of Rome, that, in its essential ele- 
 ments, though modified somewhat by provincial 
 customs, it was throughout the world. Thus the 
 relation of Rome to the Empire was somewhat 
 analogous to the relation of Paris to France, 
 though the city of Rome was far more dominating 
 in the Empire than is Paris in France. If life 
 could be touched at Rome, it would be touched 
 
216 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 throughout the world ; if it could be changed in 
 Rome, it would be changed throughout the world. 
 
 There are six standards by which we may mea- 
 sure any existing civilization : by the character of 
 the government ; by the condition of labor ; by 
 the moral standards which prevail in the social 
 life ; by the state of the home and the position of 
 woman ; by the quality and extent of education ; 
 and by the nature and influence of the religious 
 institutions.^ 
 
 The government of Rome was an absolute des- 
 potism. The Emperor's will, was law, unmodified 
 by any thought either of parental relation, of reli- 
 gious obligation, or of fear of the people. For the 
 eighty-two years between the accession of Tiberius 
 to the throne and the death of Domitian Rome was 
 ruled over by the five worst tyrants the world has 
 ever seen. Gibbon, — who, it is true, cannot be 
 wholly trusted as a historical authority, but whose 
 graphic pictures are nevertheless significant and 
 effective, and in this particular case true, — thus 
 characterizes them : " The dark, unrelenting Tibe- 
 rius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the 
 profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly ViteUius, and 
 the timid, inhuman Domitian." Tiberius made it 
 a law that to speak in derogation of the Emperor 
 was treason ; and one man was put to death be- 
 cause, in changes in his garden, he had removed 
 
 ^ This picture of Koman life in the first century is given more 
 fully in the Introduction to my Commentary on the Epistle to the 
 Komaus, and the authorities are there cited. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 217 
 
 the statue of the Emperor from it. Caligula was 
 a madman, insanely wicked. When the cruel 
 sports in the arena drew toward their close, be- 
 cause there were not victims enough to satisfy his 
 greed for blood, he sent his servitors around and 
 took here a man and there a woman from the audi- 
 ence, and flung them over into the arena, that the 
 cruel sport might still continue. At his feasts he 
 was accustomed, not infrequently, to have victims 
 tortured, that his eating might go on to the music 
 of their groans and tears. If Caligula was a mad- 
 man, Claudius was an idiot. He fell under the 
 dominion of perhaps the most shameful and wicked 
 woman the world has ever seen ; and never does 
 shamelessness and wickedness go so far or show 
 itself in vice so odious as in a woman given over to 
 vice. Messalina compelled by torture the women 
 of her court to join with her, not only in bac- 
 chanalian orgies, but in vice too shameless to be 
 mentioned. Nero was crazy with vanity, — a sen- 
 sationalist of sensationalists, giving himself to dra- 
 matic entertainments made real; "a painstaking 
 stage hero, an operatic Emperor, music-mad, trem- 
 bling before the pit, and making the pit tremble 
 too : " so Renan describes him.^ Sensation-mad 
 I call him ; if he did not actually set fire to 
 Rome, he came, when it was blazing, that he might 
 enjoy the gorgeous spectacle of its ruin ; then im- 
 paled the Christians on stakes, covered them with 
 
 1 Anti-Christ, p. 117. The volume gives a graphic and dramatic 
 picture of the times. 
 
218 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 inflammable material, set fire to them, and let them 
 burn, that by their flames his garden might be 
 illuminated. The Antichrist, the early Christians 
 called him. Beast, he is designated in the Revela- 
 tion of John. Whether the story be true or not, 
 I know not ; but the story runs, derived not from 
 Christian but from pagan sources, ^hat in one of 
 these arenas, when women were flung into the 
 arena to make cruel sport for wild beasts, he 
 dressed himself in a beast's skin and amused him- 
 self by attacking them. 
 
 This was the condition of government in Rome. 
 Its labor condition was no better. One half the 
 Roman people were slaves, and slavery was not 
 ameliorated by any suggestion of Christianity 
 pleading for mercy, nor by any restraint of law, 
 as in the older Judaism. The slave was the abso- 
 lute property of his master, who might do with 
 him what he would. One slave-owner threw a 
 slave into his pond to feed his fishes. Another 
 sacrificed a slave for stealing quail. Four hun- 
 dred slaves were sacrificed because their master 
 had been assassinated. These were the least cruel 
 acts of the Roman master. One cannot think of 
 the horrors that thrilled in the heart of a maiden 
 slave in that age. The other half of Rome was 
 divided in unequal portions : a few rich men liv- 
 ing in unstinted extravagance and luxury ; many 
 poor, living on the very edge of starvation, and 
 kept from it only by great cargoes of corn given 
 from time to time by the Roman Empire or by the 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 219 
 
 Roman, millionaires. Labor was disgraced, as it 
 always is in a slave state ; even the higher forms 
 of labor were disgraced, for slaves were copyists — 
 that is, printers — and writers and authors and 
 secretaries. All industry was done by servile toil ; 
 war was the only profession. Says Mommsen : 
 " Nowhere, perhaps, has the essential maxim of 
 the slave state, that the rich man who lives by the 
 exertion of his slaves is necessarily respectable, 
 and the poor man who lives by the labor of his 
 hands is necessarily vulgar, been recognized with 
 so terrible a precision as the undoubted principle 
 underlying all public and private intercourse." 
 
 There was nothing in social life to afford a basis 
 for political reform. The few rich men in Rome 
 never had read the Mosaic provisions urging men 
 to beneficence, never had been incited by the ex- 
 ample and the ministry of Christ to charity, and 
 never had it dawned upon them that wealth was a 
 trust for which they must give an account. So 
 they heaped up money they knew not how to use, 
 save in luxurious self-indulgence. One man, it is 
 said, gave a single feast which cost $400,000, and 
 that at a time when the wages of a workingman 
 were twelve to fifteen cents a day. Drunken orgies 
 went on from day to day, lasting sometimes an en- 
 tire week. Over the vices of that sensual age one 
 must draw a veil. Paul's description is abundantly 
 verified by Roman historians and Roman satirists. 
 
 From the horrors and the debasements of such a 
 life men and women could not flee for refuge and 
 
220 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 for purity to their homes. It can hardly be said 
 that there were any homes. The very word had 
 no existence in the language. There was nothing 
 we would call marriage. Once it had been a sac- 
 rament, and when man and woman were married 
 in Rome the marriage was for better, for worse, 
 till death came to sunder the wedded pair. But 
 that period had passed away. Marriage was now 
 but a civil contract. Man and woman entered into 
 a partnership which lasted only so long as it was 
 agreeable to them both. Either might send the 
 other away at will. In truth there was no mar- 
 riage ; there were bargains by which men and 
 women agreed to live together at mutual pleasure. 
 And the freedom of divorce, which in our own time 
 men are seeking to bring back from pagan Rome, 
 had done nothing to lessen the licentiousness of the 
 age — rather had increased it. 
 
 There was little basis of hope for the future in 
 the educational or religious influences of the time. 
 There were no public schools ; nothing for the 
 education of the common people ; nothing for the 
 education of any, except in two arts, that of the 
 gymnast and that of the orator. The temples 
 were often nesting-places of vice and never nurs- 
 ing-places of virtue. There was no real attempt 
 to make men better through religion. Religion 
 was sometimes a fashionable pastime, sometimes a 
 superstitious propitiation of the gods, never an 
 ethical incentive to or endeavor after practical 
 righteousness. The religion of the temples had no 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 221 
 
 relation to the moral life of the people. It did not 
 even attempt to make the world a better world, 
 and it made no pretense to do so. Philosophy was 
 sometimes moral ; religion was unmoral, and often 
 immoral. 
 
 Such was the society upon which Paul looked. 
 Not that there were not some fair women and 
 some brave men and some attempts at reformation 
 and a better life. But they were individual, unor- 
 ganized, and ineffectual. Government was an ab- 
 solute despotism ; labor was servile and degraded ; 
 society was given over to licentiousness and self- 
 indulgence ; the family was in fragments ; popular 
 education there was none ; and the object of the 
 religious institutions was to appease the wrath of 
 angry gods or bribe corruptible ones, not to make 
 men righteous. 
 
 It is to a Christian church in the metropolis 
 of an empire in such a state of society that Paul 
 writes his epistle to the Romans. And his first 
 word to them is this : The world cannot be made 
 
 better by law. Rome had one virtue left — law ; 
 it had power to enforce law ; and from time to 
 time emperors had endeavored by law to stay the 
 tide of corruption which was eating out the life of 
 the empire. Paul's first word to his Roman Chris- 
 tians is that human law is a vain reliance. You 
 once knew God, he says, and you have left him. 
 You once knew righteousness, and you have aban- 
 doned it. Rome has been a republic and main- 
 tained law ; it is now an empire and maintains 
 
222 PAUL THE AFOSTLE 
 
 law; it is itself the mother of law; and this is 
 what law has done for Rome and the Romans. 
 
 " And as they thought fit to cast out God from their 
 knowledge, God gave them over to an outcast mind, to 
 do those things which are not fit ; heing filled with all 
 unrighteousness, villainy, covetousness, maliciousness ; 
 heing full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity ; se- 
 cret maligners, open def amers, hateful to God, insolent, 
 haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to par- 
 ents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without 
 natural affection, unmerciful ; who knowing the sentence 
 of God, that they who practice such things are worthy 
 of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in 
 those that do them." ' 
 
 This has sometimes been treated as though it were 
 Paul's picture of human nature. It is not. It is 
 a picture of pagan society in the first century, and 
 it is a true picture of that society. It shows what 
 mankind had come to, when the only force which 
 they knew was the force of a stronger will over 
 them in a despotic and authoritative government. 
 Law had broken down absolutely and entirely, and 
 society had gone to decay. 
 
 Then Paul imagines the Jew rejoicing in this 
 indictment of the pagan and saying, This is a true 
 picture of paganism ; this is what we have always 
 said the heathen are. And to this imagined Jew 
 Paul replies : " You are not to be saved by circum- 
 cision, nor because you belong to Israel. There 
 is not one law for you and one laV for the pagans. 
 • 1 Rom. i. 28-32. 
 
TEE LETTER TO TEE ROMANS 223 
 
 God will render to every man, Jew or pagan, ac- 
 cording to his deeds. To them who by patient con- 
 tinuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor 
 and immortality, he will give eternal life : that is, 
 wherever a man has honestly, sincerely, earnestly 
 sought the higher life, and has done so, not by 
 forms and ceremonies, but by patient continuance 
 in well-doing, God bestows upon him the life he 
 seeks. 
 
 There is nothing he demands save the earnest 
 and sincere desire ; if the pagan has the desire he 
 will have the life, and if the Jew has not the desire 
 he will not have the life. For as human law has 
 not saved, so neither has divine law saved. Israel 
 has had the divine law — has had it flashed on the 
 people from Mount Sinai ; has had it enforced by 
 divine providence, rewarding obedience, and pun- 
 ishing disobedience. And what has the divine law 
 done for Israel ? This is Paul's answer : — 
 
 Are we better than they ? No, in no wise. As we 
 have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they 
 are all under sin ; as it is written : — 
 
 There is none righteous, no, not one ; 
 
 There is none that understandeth, 
 
 There is none that seeketh after God ; 
 
 They have all turned aside, they are together become 
 unprofitable ; 
 
 There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one : 
 
 Their throat is an open sepulchre ; 
 
 With their tongues they have used deceit : 
 
 The poison of asps is under their Ups : 
 
224 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : 
 Their feet are swift to shed blood ; 
 Destruction and misery are in their ways ; 
 And the way of peace have they not known : 
 There is no fear of God before their eyes.^ 
 
 There is no one place in the Old Testament which 
 contains all these passages. It is as though Paul 
 had picked out the texts in the Old Testament 
 which condemn the Jews and combined them in 
 one terrible indictment of Israel.^ 
 
 Thus by two object-lessons Paul undertakes to 
 prove that the world cannot be made better by law. 
 Rome has tried human law, — that has failed ; the 
 Jewish nation has tried divine law, — that has 
 failed. For it is not the object of law, whether 
 human or divine, to make the world better. 
 
 Law has divine uses ; but it is not remedial, it 
 is not medicinal. Law furnishes a standard of 
 righteousness, by which a man may compare him- 
 self in determining whether he is righteous, but it 
 has no power to make him righteous. It is like the 
 standard yardstick at Washington ; by it cloth may 
 be measured, but it cannot make of thirty-four 
 inches of cloth a yard ; for that the cloth must be 
 sent to the loom, that the added cloth may be 
 woven. Law, Mr. Moody has said, is like a look- 
 ing-glass ; the looking-glass shows one that his face 
 is dirty, but he does not take the looking-glass to 
 
 ^ Rom. iii. 9-18. Rev. Veraion. 
 
 " The quotations are from Ps. xiv. 2-4 ; v. 9 ; cxl, 3 ; x. 7 ; 
 Ptot. i. 16 ; Isaiah lis. 7, 8 ; Ps. xxxvi. 1. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 225 
 
 wash. Hs face with. Law also may restrain a man 
 from injuring his neighbor or even from injuring 
 himself ; but it cannot make him a useful man. It 
 may make him harmless, but it cannot make him 
 beneficent. Law is like a strait-jacket ; we may 
 confine a violent lunatic in it, for his own or others' 
 safety, but a strait-jacket wiU do nothing to restore 
 to him his reason. " We know," says the writer of 
 the letters to Timothy, " that the law is good, if 
 a man use it lawfully, as knowing this, that law is 
 not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless 
 and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the 
 unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and 
 murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornica- 
 tors, for abusers of themselves with men, for men- 
 stealers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there 
 be any other thing contrary to healthful teach- 
 ing." ^ By law comes the knowledge of sin ; by 
 law restraint from certain of the worse forms of 
 sin ; but by law does not come reformation of char- 
 acter or redemption from sin. 
 
 Law is not God's method for the cure of evil- 
 doing or of evil character : this is Paul's first af- 
 firmation. So to use it is to misuse it. In vain 
 do we think to promote temperance by putting the 
 word prohibition into a state constitution, or to 
 promote religion by putting the word God into a 
 national constitution. The worst forms of self- 
 indulgent appetite may be held in cheek by law ; 
 but the grace of self-control never can be imparted 
 1 1 Timothy i. 8, 9. 
 
226 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 by law, however vigorously and successfully en- 
 forced. Profanity may be checked by law, but 
 reverence can never be created nor cultivated by 
 law. In vain do the Puritans close the theatres ; 
 Cromwell dies, the Cavaliers come back into power, 
 and the drama of the reign of Charles II. is the 
 worst drama England ever saw. Neither by human 
 law nor by divine law, neither by written law on 
 tables of stone or unwritten law in the conscience, 
 can the world be set right. By the deeds of the 
 law, — that is, by doing what law commands, — 
 can no flesh be rightened in God's sight. 
 
 How then can it be rightened ? Paul's answer 
 to that question wiU form the subject for consider- 
 ation in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS — II 
 
 Paul, as we have seen, takes issue with the 
 fundamental principle of Judaism. That princi- 
 ple may be stated in a sentence as obedience to 
 law. He declares that religion does not consist in 
 obedience to law. Obedience to law results from 
 religion ; but religion is not attained by means of 
 such obedience. Obedience is not righteousness, 
 nor is it the road to righteousness. Commenta- 
 tors on Paul have sometimes tried to break the 
 force of his contention by distinguishing between 
 the moral and the ceremonial law. They have 
 said that the ceremonial law is abolished by Christ, 
 but that the moral law continues ; that it is not by 
 obedience to the ceremonial lawTliat. the world can 
 be saved, but by obedience to the morkl law. But 
 Paul makes no such distinction. His statement is 
 broad, radical, and comprehensive. By the deeds 
 of the law, he says, shall no flesh be justified in 
 God's sight. Having illustrated and enforced this 
 fundamental but negative proposition by the ex- 
 perience, first of the pagan, then o*f the Jewish 
 world, he proceeds to set forth, in language so 
 condensed as to be enigmatical, what is, in his 
 belief, the remedy for sin. 
 
228 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 This statement, in the form with which the 
 English reader will be most familiar with it — that 
 of the Old Version — is as follows : — 
 
 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no 
 flesh be justified in his sight : for by the law is the 
 knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God 
 without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the 
 law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of God 
 which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto aU and upon all 
 them that believe : for there is no difference : for all 
 have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ; being 
 justified freely by his gi'ace, through the redemption 
 that is in Christ Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be 
 a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his 
 righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, 
 through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at 
 this time his righteousness : that he might be just, and 
 the justifier of him which beUeveth in Jesus.' 
 
 Putting this declaration into a single brief sen- 
 tence, it may be epitomized thus : By obedience to 
 law no man can be justified ; he can be justified 
 only by receiving the free gift of God's righteous- 
 ness through faith in Jesus Christ, whom the 
 Father hath set forth as a propitiation. What 
 does Paul mean by this ? What he means by the 
 statement that the world cannot be justified by 
 the deeds of the law I tried to show in the preced- 
 ing chapter. What does he mean by the state- 
 ment that it can be Justified through the free gift 
 of God's righteousness, received by faith in Jesus 
 
 1 Eom. iii. 20-26. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 229 
 
 Christ, as a propitiation ? In this question four 
 questions are involved : First, what does Paul 
 mean by " justified " ? Second, what does he mean 
 by " God's righteousness " ? Third, what does he 
 mean by " faith " ? Fourth, what does he mean 
 by " propitiation " ? 
 
 What does Paul mean by the statement that 
 man is " justified " ? It is an infelicity in our trans- 
 lation that the words "justification" and "right- 
 eousness" are used to translate the same Greek 
 word. We should get the color of Paul's meaning 
 better if we were to bring back into the English 
 language a word which has become almost obsolete, 
 and were to say that men are to be Tightened by 
 God's righteousness. What, then, does Paul mean 
 by saying we are to be rightened or justified ? 
 
 Sin produces two different effects on the human 
 soul. It disorders the soul itself and it estranges 
 the soul from God. If there were no God, still 
 sin would be an awful thing in the disorder which 
 it produces in the individual and in society. And 
 these two effects intellectually and philosophically 
 may be regarded separately ; but they are in fact 
 one and the same effect. Intellectually and philo- 
 sophically we may discriminate ; vitally and really 
 they are identical. A little child disobeys the 
 mother, pouts, is angry, cries. The crying shows 
 the discomfort and the disorder within. The mo- 
 ther takes the child into her lap. The child strug- 
 gles to get away, jumps down, and runs away 
 again, showing estrangement between the child 
 
230 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 and the mother. The same thing that disorders 
 the child separates the child from the mother. 
 The two things may be treated separately in 
 thought, but in life they are always the same. It 
 is impossible that this child should be pouting, dis- 
 obedient, ugly, cross, and at the same time be 
 drawn toward the mother whom it is disobeying. 
 It will be estranged from the mother as long as it 
 is disobedient to her. The two effects are one. 
 The prodigal son called upon his father to give 
 him his portion, then went into a far country and 
 spent it in riotous living. The two things are 
 dramatically represented separately. But the go- 
 ing away from the father into a far country, and 
 the spending there his substance in riotous living, 
 are in fact one and the same experience. The boy 
 could not have lived at home in peace with his 
 father, enjoying his father, at one with his father, 
 if he was living a vicious, degraded, riotous life. 
 He must be separated from his father if he is liv- 
 ing in impurity and his father is pure. 
 
 As the two effects of sin are one, so the two 
 remedies are one. We may separate them in our 
 thought, but they are not separable in fact. We 
 may consider the child reconciled to the mother, or 
 we may consider the child smoothing out the brow, 
 ceasing to cry, drawing in the pouting lips, no 
 longer wretched because she is no longer willful 
 and disobedient. But the two experiences of self- 
 reconciliation and reconciliation with the mother 
 are really identical. The moment the child ceases 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 231 
 
 to be disobedient, the moment love comes back into 
 the child, that moment the child is ready to climb 
 into the mother's lap. Nor is it ready to climb into 
 the mother's lap and take the mother's caress and 
 be at one with the mother so long as it is disobedi- 
 ent to her. The same moral process that brings 
 peace to this child brings the child to the mother. 
 So in the parable of the prodigal son it is said. 
 When he came to himself, he said, I will arise 
 and go to my father. The coming to himself was 
 vitally one with going back to his father. The 
 going back to his father inevitably accompanied 
 his coming to himself. The two are separable in 
 statement, but they are one in fact. 
 
 The Christian Church has been divided for cen- 
 turies on the theological question whether Paul 
 means by "justification" reconciled to God or recon- 
 ciled within ourselves. Does it mean, God declares 
 him to be right or God makes him right ? But if 
 the above view is correct, the two are one and the 
 same. It is impossible that God should declare a 
 man to be right when God sees him to be wrong. 
 That would make God a liar. Because he sees in 
 the penitent the beginning of righteousness, he ac- 
 cepts it as righteousness, recognizes it, fosters it, 
 develops it. To the question, then. What is meant 
 by the statement, Man is justified or Tightened ? 
 the answer is. He is both reconciled with God and 
 reconciled with himself. The beginning of right- 
 eousness is in him, and therefore the reconciliation 
 between him and God is accomplished. He ceases 
 
232 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 to pout and Le climbs into his mother's lap. He 
 comes to himself and he returns to the father. The 
 two acts are one and the same act. 
 
 A similar discussion has taken place respecting 
 the words " the righteousness of God." Some 
 theologians have said that the righteousness of God 
 means a gift which God bestows on men ; others 
 have said that it means an attribute or quality of 
 God. But these two, also, are one and the same. 
 We can regard them from different points of view, 
 but they are not in fact separable. Philosophi- 
 cally different, they are virtually one ; in thought 
 different, in reality one. The righteousness of God 
 is God's own character which he gives. He does 
 not impart something ajjart from himself ; he im- 
 parts himself, and there is no grace of character in 
 himself which he is not ready to impart. God 
 gives his own life to men ; he pours himself into 
 men. So that, when Paul says we are rightened 
 by God's righteousness, what he says is this : AYe 
 are made right in ourselves, and we are brought 
 into right relationship by God, because God will 
 pour himself into us the moment we are willing to 
 receive him. 
 
 The third question is. What is meant by 
 " faith " ? Man is not justified by law, he is justi- 
 fied by faith. Here again our English language 
 misleads us. We have the noun " faith," but no 
 verb corresponding to it. So we either have to 
 say " belief " and " believe," or else we have to say 
 "faith" and then the awkward circumlocution, 
 
TEE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 233 
 
 " possess faith " or " exercise faith " ; or else we 
 have to do what we have done in our English 
 Bible, say " faith " when we use the noun and " be- 
 lieve " when we use the verb. In general, the verb 
 "believe" in the New Testament corresponds to 
 the word "faith " in the New Testament — that is, 
 one is the verbal, the other the noun form. When 
 Paul says we are to believe in Jesus Christ, he says 
 that we are to have faith in Christ. What does he 
 mean by this faith ? 
 
 The author of the epistle to the Hebrews, who, 
 if not Paul himself, was a disciple of Paul, teach- 
 ing essentially Pauline theology, has given us a 
 definition of faith. " Faith," he says, " is the sub- 
 stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
 unseen." Faith as thus defined is the perception 
 of the invisible and the eternal. Paul himself has 
 given, what is not in terms but is in reality, a defi- 
 nition of faith : While we look not at the things 
 which are seen, which are temporal, but at the 
 things which are not seen, which are eternal.-^ 
 Faith then is looking upon the invisible and eter- 
 nal world. But it is more than looking, it is per- 
 ceiving ; and perceiving spiritual truth is possible 
 only by receiving spiritual life. The life is per- 
 ceived only by receiving it. A thoroughly dishon- 
 est man cannot understand honesty. A thoroughly 
 impure person cannot understand purity. A thor- 
 oughly selfish person cannot comprehend the splen- 
 dor of self-sacrifice. It is only as we live that 
 
 1 Heb. xi. 1 ; 2 Cor. iv. 18. 
 
234 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 we see life. The seeing and the perceiving are 
 different phases of the same experience. 
 
 What Paul says, then, is this : The world is to 
 be set right by receiving God's free gift of him- 
 self. Belief is a purely intellectual act. Faith is 
 also an act of the will. It is the substance of 
 things hoped for as well as the evidence of things 
 unseen. We look — and we do not look without 
 the will directing our eyes that we may look — we 
 look at the things which are unseen. They are not 
 forced upon us ; we deliberately turn our attention 
 toward them. This is the difference between a 
 creed and a confession of faith : A creed is the 
 statement of an intellectual opinion — I think God 
 is. A confession of faith is the acceptance of God 
 — I receive him as my Father. 
 
 The fourth question is, What does Paul mean 
 by "propitiation" : " Christ Jesus whom God hath 
 set forth as a propitiation " ? It is right to say 
 that my answer to this question does not accord 
 with that generally given by orthodox teachers 
 and orthodox commentators ; for this reason, I 
 state the grounds on which my answer is based. 
 The word rendered " propitiation " ^ in this passage 
 is one used throughout the Greek version of the 
 Old Testament to designate the Mercy Seat. The 
 Temple at Jerusalem was composed of several 
 
 1 iXaiTTTjpioj'. Used only here and Heb. ix. 5, in N. T. In He- 
 brews it is rendered " mercy seat," and it is the word used in the 
 septuagint to designate the Mercy Seat. Exod. xxt. 17, 22 ; xxvi. 
 34 ; xl. 20 ; Lev. xvi. 2, 13 ; Num. vii. 89. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 235 
 
 courts surrounding a central sanctuary which was 
 divided into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. 
 Behind the curtain which veiled this Holy of Holies 
 from profane view was the Ark of the Covenant, 
 and over this Ark of the Covenant a lid or cover, 
 guarded by the cherubim, known as the Mercy 
 Seat. Within this Holy of Holies God was sup- 
 posed in some special sense to reside, or at least to 
 come to it from time to time ; and once a year, on 
 a great solemn occasion, the High Priest, and he 
 alone, was permitted to lift the curtain, enter into 
 the Holy of Holies, and there meet Jehovah at the 
 Mercy Seat. I understand Paul, then, to use this 
 figure — certainly he would have been so under- 
 stood, it seems to me, by all Jewish readers. 
 When he says that Jesus Christ is a hilasteerion, 
 he would be understood by his readers to mean 
 that Jesus Christ is the Mercy Seat.^ Of olden 
 time only the High Priest could enter the Holy of 
 Holies, and there once a year meet in fellowship 
 with God. But now the veil is drawn aside, and 
 Jesus Christ is the Mercy Seat. He walked 
 among men, open and welcome to the poorest and 
 the humblest. There came to him little children, 
 and he took them in his arms ; the lepers came, 
 and he touched them ; there was no one so poor, 
 so wretched, no one so sinful, that he might not go 
 
 ^ The reason assigned by Alford for thinking he means propi- 
 tiatory offering or victim, a meaning never given elsewhere in the 
 Bible to this ■word, is the accompanying phrases, through faith 
 ' ' in his blood," and ' ' to declare his righteousness," both of which 
 phrases he thinks indicates a victim. 
 
236 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 to Christ and receive the touch of healing, and 
 hear the word, " Thy sins be forgiven thee." 
 Even the lost woman whom we will not allow to 
 enter our household, might wash his feet with her 
 tears. Through him who welcomed all men, all 
 men may come to God. " I am not ashamed," 
 says Paul, " of the gospel of Christ, for therein is 
 God's righteousness revealed from faith to faith." 
 What is it that is revealed in that gospel ? What 
 do the four Gospels give us ? The story of a life, 
 the portrait of a man, the revelation of a person. 
 In this life, this man, this person, Paul says, God's 
 righteousness is revealed. Would you know 
 God's true character? Read that story, see how 
 Christ lived, how he loved, how he sacrificed him- 
 self, how he cared for men, what he was, and then 
 understand that this is our God ; this Christ shows 
 what kind of righteousness God possesses ; not a 
 righteousness that must be satisfied by blood in 
 order that he may be appeased, but a righteous- 
 ness that comes down from heaven to earth and 
 fills the earth with the glory of his self-sacrifice 
 that he may gather men to himself. 
 
 I ask the reader, then, to turn again to Paul's 
 statement of his understanding of the divine rem- 
 edy for sin, and re-read it, in the light of the an- 
 swer I have given to these four questions : What 
 does Paul mean by " justified " ? by " God's right- 
 eousness " ? by " faith " ? and by " Mercy Seat " ? 
 And for the better understanding of Paul's state- 
 ment, as I interpret it, I give it here in a para- 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 237 
 
 phrase, which avoids the use of certain words to 
 which long theological controversies have imparted 
 a meaning which I believe is foreign to Paul's ori- 
 ginal thought. 
 
 " Therefore righteousness does not proceed from ^ do- 
 ing deeds required by law ; not thus can any flesh be 
 rightened in his'sight. For through law " is knowledge 
 of sin. But in these latter days,' without law God's 
 righteousness is manifested, that same righteousness to 
 which the law and the prophets bare witness ; that is, 
 God's righteousness, — given through faith in the Mes- 
 siah, unto all those who exercise faith.* For there is no 
 difference ; for all have sinned and all fall short of God's 
 glorious image ; * being rightened freely by his gift 
 through that deliverance which is in Christ Jesus, whom 
 God hath set forth openly, as a Mercy Seat, by whom we 
 have access to the Father through faith in his blood ; * 
 thus serving to demonstrate his righteousness in the 
 passing over, in God's forbearance of past transgressions, 
 and demonstrating' his righteousness at this present 
 
 ■^ ^K indicates source or origin of righteous character. 
 
 ^ Not ike law : the statement is generic. 
 
 * vvv\ adverb of time, as indicated by parallel expression below. 
 
 ^ In contrast with "through law," which could be only for 
 Jews. 
 
 5 See Rom. viii. 18, 21 ; 1 Cor. xi. 7 ; 2 Cor. iii. 18; PhU. iii. 
 21. 
 
 ^ In the Law a Mercy Seat, behind a veil, which only the High 
 Priest could enter, once a year, and by the shedding of blood ; in 
 the Gospel a Mercy Seat open before all ; to which all have 
 access, at all times, with no shedding of blood other than that 
 which Christ has shed. Comp. Heb. ix. 1-14. 
 
 ' eij iviiiij.v indicates tendency ; irpbs €^Sei|i</ indicates ultimate 
 end. 
 
238 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 time ; that he might he seen to be ^ both righteous himself 
 and the rightener of him -whose righteousness proceeds 
 from ^ faith in Jesus." ' 
 
 I understand, then, Paul as recognizing certain 
 moral laws, interpreted more or less imperfectly by 
 the Mosaic statutes, by human enactments, and by 
 the voice of conscience in the individual, and say- 
 ing that it is not by endeavoring to shape our lives 
 into conformity with these ideals, not by saying to 
 ourselves we will not steal, nor kill, nor commit 
 adultery, nor slander our neighbor, because law 
 forbids, but will go to church and pay decorous 
 reverence to God, and keep his Sabbath day be- 
 cause law requires, — not by any such method can 
 any individual make himself righteous ; not thus 
 can society be reformed and purified. God's 
 method of reform is wholly other than this. He 
 is one who comes to earth, searches men out, suf- 
 fers in their suffering, bears the burden of their 
 sinning, and offers to fill them with himself that 
 they may become like him. To see that God is 
 such as this ; to believe in him, open the heart to 
 him, receive him, long to be like him ; to love 
 
 ^ This whole paragraph is dealing -with the manifestation to 
 mankind of God. The meaning is not that he might he righteous 
 notwithstanding he lightens, but that he might be seen to possess 
 a righteousness which rightens. 
 
 ^ ix 7r((rT€iDs in contrast with ii, epyav v6/j.ov, verse 20. These 
 two parallel phrases frame in the paragraph and indicate its ob- 
 ject, to set forth the contrast between the two types of righteous- 
 ness — the legal and the spiritual. 
 
 8 Rom. iii. 20-26. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 239 
 
 as he loves, serve as he serves, pity as he pities, 
 suffer as he suffers, and redeem as he redeems — 
 this is to live ; and he who in his aspirations and 
 desires begins thus to live is at one with God. 
 " Thus reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord 
 we are transformed into the same image from glory 
 to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit." ^ 
 
 This understanding of Paul's meaning is so far 
 different from that which has been most commonly 
 entertained, that, before proceeding to apply it to 
 the further interpretation of his letter to the Ro- 
 mans, I may be allowed to state more fully the 
 philosophy which underlies it. 
 
 The greatest and most vital power in influencing 
 life is personality. It is greater than law, instruc- 
 tion, or example. Indeed, all three have their 
 chief value because of the personality which lies 
 behind them, of which they are manifestations. 
 Law manifests primarily the will of the lawgiver ; 
 instruction, primarily, the intellect of the instruc- 
 tor ; example, both intellect and wiU in life. This 
 power of personality it is which makes the great 
 orator. We call it magnetism, so concealing our 
 ignorance. Why is it that one preacher fastens the 
 attention of his congregation upon him with his 
 opening sentence and holds it to the close, while 
 another, as learned, as skilled in rhetoric and elo- 
 cutionary arts, does but lull them to sleep ? It is 
 the man behind the speech which makes the orator. 
 This is the power that makes the great leader. 
 
 I 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
240 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 The Little Corporal, catching up the banner at the 
 Bridge of Lodi and dashing before his hesitating 
 soldiers, fires them with such enthusiasm that they 
 sweep past him, despite the raking fire from the 
 other end, and carry it by an irresistible onslaught. 
 This is the power that enables Sheridan, riding late 
 upon the battlefield of Winchester, to turn his flee- 
 ing soldiers back, and transform their rout into 
 victory. This is the power of the great statesmen, 
 the great moral leaders, and the great captains of 
 industry, who are able to imbue those about them 
 with their own courage, their own spirit of faith, 
 or hope, or patience, or energy, and so give new life 
 to a great industrial organization, or a nation, or 
 an epoch. This is the power of the mother, who 
 goes softly down to that door which swings both 
 ways on its hinges, not knowing whether she shall 
 receive a new life from the unknown, or shall her- 
 self go out into the unknown to return no more. 
 She takes this new life and gives herself to it. 
 She did love music ; now the only songs she sings 
 are lullabies. She did love literature ; now the 
 only stories she cares for are those which baby 
 listens to. She was fond of society ; now the so- 
 ciety of the little one, whose eyes look wonderingly 
 into hers, is the only society she cares for. She 
 governs, she educates, she illustrates by her exam- 
 ple, but, far more than all, she pours herself into 
 the life intrusted to her. By her courage she 
 makes him strong, by her hope she inspires him ; 
 her purity cleanses, her love vivifies. She gives 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 241 
 
 herself in sickness and in health, in weakness and 
 in strength, in toil and in play, rejoicing in the 
 self-immolation which is self -exaltation, looking for 
 no other reward than that which shall be hers 
 when by and by she shall walk the streets resting 
 on his arm and looking up into the face which 
 once looked from her lap up into hers. What Paul 
 affirms is that God is the great personality ; that 
 he gives himself to his children ; that more than 
 the law which is the utterance of his will, more 
 than the science which is the manifestation of his 
 wisdom, more even than the earthly life of Jesus, 
 which is the example set by the human life of God, 
 is his own personality, imparted to all who wish to 
 be like him, and to receive him as the source of 
 their life. 
 
 There were in the time of Paul two conceptions 
 of God in sharp contrast with which he sets forth 
 his conception, derived from his faith in Jesus 
 Christ as the Mercy Seat through whom we have 
 access to the unknown Father. To the Greeks and 
 Homans the gods were simply gigantic deified men. 
 In the Hartz Mountains, it is said, the traveler 
 sometimes sees a gigantic apparition before him. 
 He reaches out his hand toward the apparition. 
 The apparition offers his in return. He shakes his 
 fist at the apparition. The apparition responds 
 with like threatening gesture. Then he sees that 
 what has startled him is but his own image reflected 
 from the clouds. Such reflections of themselves 
 the Greeks and Komans worshiped. Their gods 
 
242 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 were cruel, vengeful, malignant, sensual, lying, 
 thieving. All the current vices of the time were 
 reflected in these deities. What is, perhaps, the 
 greatest tragedy of ancient Greek literature, 
 "Prometheus Bound," turns on the jealousy of 
 Jove and his wrath against Prometheus because he 
 had given to mortal man the gift of fire, which 
 belonged only to the gods. When men thus wor- 
 shiped immoral and vicious deities, the first and 
 most necessary message to mankind was that given 
 by Judaism, that God is of purer eyes than to be- 
 hold iniquity ; that he is a just and righteous God ; 
 that he is indignant with sin, and will not endure 
 it ; that his laws are holy, just, and pure, and that 
 men disobey those holy, just, and pure laws at the 
 peril of their lives. But this message was insuffi- 
 cient for the world's redemption. It presented a 
 conception of God far superior in moral quality 
 and in moral effects to the conception of pagan- 
 ism ; and the moral life of Judaism was far supe- 
 rior to the moral life of Rome. But it only vaguely 
 hinted at the hope derived from faith in a life- 
 giving God. Paul perceived in Christ a fuller and 
 a higher revelation. He perceived in Christ the 
 truth that God possesses a righteousness which 
 looks upon iniquity in order that he may cure it ; 
 that he cannot bear sin, and therefore will banish 
 it by the ministry of his patient love ; that his fires 
 of indignation are beneficent fires which burn out 
 the evil only to purify and preserve the good. Paul 
 perceived that the love which sends a pure woman 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 243 
 
 into a noisome and pestilential district that she 
 may carry to it her purity, is a higher form of 
 righteousness than that of the policeman who goes 
 only to administer the law and inflict penalty. He 
 saw in Christ revealed the truth that God has a 
 righteousness which itself rightens aU those who 
 have faith in him. 
 
 One pathetic incident in the life of Christ illus- 
 trates strikingly the contrast between the Chris- 
 tian and the Pharisaic conception of righteousness. 
 Christ had been invited by a Pharisee to dine with 
 him. The Jewish houses were built around an 
 open square, and the dining-room was often a kind 
 of porch which opened on this square. In such a 
 room as this Christ reclined at the table in Ori- 
 ental fashion, his naked feet stretched forth be- 
 hind him. The villagers, with the freedom of 
 Oriental manners, had crowded into the courtyard 
 to listen to the conversation of the great Rabbi. 
 One woman of the town, emboldened by her de- 
 spair, had crowded beyond the rest and stood close 
 by the Master. Something he said rekindled in 
 the ashes of her life a long-lost desire. Some 
 sacred memories of the past, some wistful but 
 despairing hope of the future, stirred within her. 
 The tears welled to her eyes and fell in great drops 
 on the naked feet before her. Startled that tears 
 from such eyes should fall on such feet, she knelt, 
 and, having nothing else, with the tresses of her 
 hair wiped the polluting drops away. Then she 
 covered them with kisses, and, finding herself un- 
 
244 PAUL THE AFOSTLE 
 
 resisted, took from her bosom a box of precious 
 ointment, and, breaking it, anointed the feet with 
 the ointment. The Pharisee said. This man is no 
 prophet, or he would have known what manner of 
 woman this is, for she is a sinner. But Christ 
 turned to the woman and said. Thy sins are for- 
 given thee ; go in peace. The Pharisee could not 
 then — alas ! the Pharisee cannot now — under- 
 stand the higher righteousness which welcomes the 
 first beginnings of penitence in an apparently lost 
 life, and by love recovers the lost and exorcises the 
 evil. 
 
 This, then, I understand to be Paul's doctrine : 
 The Jew held that righteousness consists in obe- 
 dience to law. Paul says, No, it does not consist 
 in obedience to law ; it consists in the reception 
 of a divine life. Germs of this teaching are to be 
 found in the Old Testament ; in, for example, the 
 Twenty-fourth Psalm : ^ — 
 
 Who dare ascend to worship on the mountain of Yahveh ; 
 
 Who dare to set foot on his holy abode ? 
 
 He who has sinless hands and a pure conscience, 
 
 Who cherishes no longing for evil and never swears falsely, 
 
 He will receive blessing from Yahveh, 
 
 And righteousness from God his help. 
 
 But Paul carries this revelation of the goodness of 
 God further than the Hebrew psalmist. For he 
 shows that this mercy, this goodness, this loving- 
 kindness, is not dependent upon man's having 
 obeyed the divine law, upon his having "sinless 
 
 1 Mr. Fumess's translation in the Polychrome Bible. I put a 
 comma after the word " falsely " where he puts a period. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 245 
 
 hands and a pure conscience ; " it is dependent 
 only upon his choosing goodness and virtue, and 
 his desire to receive them from God through Jesus 
 Christ, his Son. 
 
 Now let the reader open his New Testament, 
 preferably the Eevised Version, and with Paul's 
 letter to the Romans before him, apply the gen- 
 eral principle above stated to the elucidation of the 
 fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters. 
 
 Having defined the gospel remedy for sin as 
 life in God, not obedience to law, and the secret of 
 that life as the reception of God's free gift through 
 faith, Paul shows, first, that this is in accordance 
 with the history of Israel. Abraham had faith in 
 God, and this faith was counted unto him for 
 righteousness. David describes the blessings of 
 the man unto whom God does not impute his sin, 
 because he has confessed it and turned from it. 
 And this blessedness is not dependent upon cir- 
 cumcision, for the circumcision followed after the 
 faith and after the righteousness had been con- 
 ferred. It was a sign of the fulfillment of the 
 promise, not a condition of the bestowment of 
 the gift.-' Thus we are rightened by faith, and, 
 being thus rightened, we accept, not with submis- 
 sion only, but with gladness, tribulation, because 
 tribulation is the divine means of working out 
 that divineness of character in us which, if we 
 are living a life of faith, is our chief desire. This 
 gift of life through faith is not confined to the 
 
 1 Rom. iv. 
 
246 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Jews. For sin is not confined to the Jews ; sin 
 dates from Adam, and is as universal as the 
 human race ; and the remedy which Christ brings 
 is as universal as the disease ; the forgiveness is 
 as wide in its scope as the mercy. If through 
 one man's disobedience many were made sinners, 
 through the obedience of one shall many be made 
 righteous. Where sin abounded God's free gift 
 did more exceedingly abound.^ Then, says an 
 imaginary objector, we would better continue in 
 sin that grace may continue to abound. Such an 
 objector, Paul replies, does not understand the 
 nature of sin and death, nor of grace and life. If 
 we are living the life of faith, we are dead to sin ; 
 we no longer desire to go on with it ; the very 
 essence of life is a supreme desire for righteous- 
 ness. How, then, can a man who is living the life 
 of faith, that is, the life which chooses righteous- 
 ness, choose to go on in sin ? When we have come 
 into vital, sympathetic relations with Jesus Christ, 
 we have become, in our desires and aspirations, 
 dead to sin, as Jesus Christ was dead to sin ; and 
 alive only to righteousness, as Jesus Christ was 
 alive to righteousness. Redemption is the sum- 
 mons of Christ to a new life and the obedience 
 of the soul to that summons ; it is the proclama- 
 tion of emancipation to a slave, and the accept- 
 
 1 Rom. V. Hia object in this chapter is not to show the origin 
 of sin, or its nature, — that he does in the seventh chapter; 
 incidentally he traces sin back to Adam, but only to show that 
 the remedy must be wider than the law because sin preceded the 
 giving of the law. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 247 
 
 ance by the slave of liberty ; it is deliverance from 
 the world to which the soul was married, and its 
 marriage to a new lord — even Christ. Those 
 entirely mistake the very nature of redemption 
 who suppose that it is a contrivance by which men 
 who are sinners here may get into heaven here- 
 after. It is a divine method by which the dead 
 may live, the enslaved may be emancipated, the 
 soul may be wedded to and made participator in 
 the Christ life on earth.^ 
 
 Having stated his philosophy, having shown its 
 historical foundation in Abraham and David, hav- 
 ing shown its effect on the problem of suffering, 
 having answered the objections, Paul passes, by 
 one of those transitions so common with him, into 
 a personal experience, or at least what is in form a 
 personal experience. I was the other day at the 
 house of a friend, who showed me a wonderful 
 statue of Shakespeare, modeled by Ward, the 
 sculptor, and he told me that when Ward models 
 his statue he first makes in clay the skeleton, and 
 then on the skeleton he builds up the nerves and 
 arteries and muscles, and then clothes them with 
 flesh. Thus Paul lays, in an analysis of spiritual 
 development, the anatomical foundation of the cre- 
 ation he is to set before us. We may strip away 
 the flesh and blood and nerve and muscle from this 
 living statue that Paul puts before us, and, if we 
 do, we shall find beneath it a wonderful analysis 
 of spiritual development. And then, if we take 
 
 ^ Koiu. vi. l-vii. 6. 
 
248 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 up the narrative again, we shall find that he has 
 clothed that analysis with living flesh and breathed 
 into it the breath of a personal life. 
 
 Once, he says, I was dead in sin. I was living 
 a sinful life, and did not even know that it was sin- 
 ful. The law came to me. It said, ' Thou shalt 
 not covet.' Then first I learned that I was doing 
 wrong in nourishing my evil desires. But stiU. I 
 went on with the wrong, knowing it to be wrong. 
 And so, through the law, the sin that before was 
 pardonable became exceeding sinful. I began to 
 struggle against the sin, but I was under the domi- 
 nation of the flesh, sold like a slave, and I strug- 
 gled in vain. I was an enigma to myself ; what 
 I was doing I could not comprehend. What I 
 wished to do I hated to do. What I hated in 
 myself I did continually. I was two men. There 
 was an evil spirit in me that mastered me. More 
 and more clearly I perceived the right, and stiU I 
 did the wrong. I was at war with myself. I was a 
 slave to the law of sin, from which T in vain strug- 
 gled to be free. I was like a captive bound to a 
 dead body ; from the corpse I could not disentangle 
 myself.^ I was wretched, until I learned that God 
 measures man, not by his achievements, but by his 
 aspirations and desires ; not by what he does, but 
 by the purpose which animates him, and the end 
 which he pursues. I learned that those who follow 
 after the spirit are not under condemnation ; that 
 they have the fellowship and the friendship of 
 
 1 Eom. fii. 8-25. For paraphrase of this chapter see ante, p. 25. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 249 
 
 God; that this, on the one hand, is sufficient to 
 secure God's friendship, and, on the other hand, his 
 friendship and his fellowship can be secured in no 
 other way. If one pursues the flesh, he is at enmity 
 with God. If he pursues the spirit, he is in fellow- 
 ship with God. And if he thus pursues the spirit, 
 if Christ is in him, though the body is dead because 
 of sin, the spirit is alive, and at last the spirit will 
 triumph over the flesh, and even the flesh itself 
 will become an instrument of righteousness.^ For 
 not those who do righteousness, in obedience to an 
 external law of God, are his sons, but those who 
 follow after righteousness, being led by his spirit, 
 — they are the sons of God. The spirit which the 
 gospel gives is not a spirit of bondage to law, but 
 the spirit of adoption which leads us to see in God, 
 not an awful Judge, Sovereign, and Lawgiver, but 
 a dear Father, whom we may call with the famil- 
 iarity of childhood, Abba, that is, Papa. And we 
 know that we are children, because of the intimacy 
 of our spirit with his Spirit. And if we are chil- 
 dren, then we are heirs of God, inheriting him, and 
 we are joint heirs with Christ, and we shall be con- 
 formed to him. And if we suffer, it is only that 
 our suffering may work out in us an eternal weight 
 of glory. 
 
 " For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for 
 the unveiling of the sons of God. For the creation was 
 
 1 Rom. viji. 11. It is not of a future physical resurrection Paul 
 13 here speaking, hut of a life in which the hody itself heoomea 
 subject to the spirit. 
 
260 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 made subject to decay, not of its own ■will, but by reason 
 of him who hath subjected the same in the hope that the 
 creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage 
 of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children 
 of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth 
 and travaileth in pain together until now ; and not only 
 so, but also we ourselves, though we possess the first- 
 fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within 
 ourselves, waiting for the sonship, even for the deliver- 
 ance of our body. For by hope are we saved ; but 
 hope that is seen is not hope ; for who hopes for that 
 which he sees ? but if we hope for that we see not, then 
 do we with patience wait for it." ^ 
 
 And what this hope is that cheers, sustains, illu- 
 mines, and inspires, Paul makes clear : — 
 
 " Whom he did foreknow he also did foreordain to be 
 conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be first- 
 born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did 
 foreordain, them he also called ; and whom he called, 
 them he also rightened ; and whom he rightened, them 
 he also glorified." ^ 
 
 God has foreseen in man a possibility which 
 men never see in one another nor in themselves — 
 a possibility of being finally so conformed to the 
 image of Christ that Christ will be but as the first- 
 born among many brethren ; so that they will be in 
 the Father as Christ is in the Father, and have 
 given to them through him the glory which the 
 Father gave to the Son. And, foreseeing this pos- 
 sibility, the Father determines to make it a reality, 
 
 ' Rom. yiii. 19-25. 2 Rom. viii. 29, 30. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 251 
 
 and, determined to make it a reality, he calls hu- 
 manity to him that he may achieve this result in 
 them ; and, having called them to him, he rightens 
 them ; and, bringing them to himself, and bringing 
 order out of their moral chaos in themselves and 
 rightening them, he will glorify them and finally 
 present them faultless before the throne of his 
 grace with exceeding great glory. Secure in his 
 faith and in this hope of a life which is begun, 
 carried on, and ended in God, nothing can discour- 
 age or dishearten the apostle. 
 
 " If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that 
 spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, 
 how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? 
 Who shall bring any charge against those whom God has 
 chosen ? Shall God — he who has Tightened us ? Who 
 shall condemn ? shall Christ — he who has died, yea, 
 rather has risen again, who is at the right hand of God 
 and pleads our cause ? Who shall separate us from the 
 love of Christ ? Shall affliction, or straits, or perse- 
 cution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword 
 of the executioner? As it is written, ' For thy sake we 
 are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep 
 for the slaughter.' Nay, in all these things we are more 
 than conquerors through him that loved us ; for I am 
 persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, 
 nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created 
 thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God 
 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ^ 
 
 More than conquerors ! Napoleon, landing from 
 1 Rom. Yiu. 31-39. 
 
252 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 the island of Elba, met detachment after detach- 
 ment of troops sent out to capture him ; and as 
 they came to the Little Corporal, they wheeled 
 round in line behind him and swelled his forces as 
 he marched to Paris. The man who sees in Christ 
 Jesus the Mercy Seat, the man who believes that 
 God is in the world setting the world right, the 
 man who believes that God is in his own heart set- 
 ting his own heart right and working with him — 
 that man finds all the foes and enemies of his life 
 converted and made his friends : the temptations 
 strengthen him, the sorrows enrich him, the lone- 
 liness brings him nearer to the companionship of 
 God ; his very sins, failures, and shortcomings re- 
 veal to him the infinite mercy of the Father ; and 
 already here in this life he looks forward to the 
 time when he shall awake in Christ's likeness and 
 be satisfied ; yea, when Christ himself shall look 
 upon him and say, " I am satisfied." ^ 
 
 1 Ps. x-rii. 15 ; 1 John iii. 2 ; Isaiah liii. 11. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS — IH 
 
 That portion of Paul's Epistle to the Romans 
 which is contained in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh 
 chapters is confessedly the most difficult portion 
 in all his writing. It is difficult by reason of the 
 nature of the theme, — the relation of law to lib- 
 erty, or sovereignty to human freedom. It is diffi- 
 cult by reason of Paul's treatment of that subject, 
 for his arguments are in a measure archaic, — 
 effective in their time, ineffective now, and, as it 
 were, out of date. It is difficult by reason of the 
 fact that, in America, where individualism has 
 received its highest development, and where popu- 
 lar sovereignty has become a popular cry, there is 
 a disinclination to recognize any sovereignty but 
 popular sovereignty, any law above that which 
 men make fot themselves, anything greater than 
 human free will. The difficulty is enhanced still 
 further by the fact that the divine sovereignty has 
 been presented oftentimes in pagan and cruel 
 forms as a harsh, arbitrary, unreasonable, and 
 unjust sovereignty.^ This passage is made still 
 
 ^ Professor Jowett well puts the antithesis between the rea^ 
 sonable and the unreasonable form of faith in sovereignty : "A' 
 
254 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 more difficult by the fact that Paul himself in 
 these three chapters is seen passing through an 
 intellectual transition. He interprets the change 
 taking place in his own mind from the narrower 
 to the larger view of sovereignty. He argues with 
 himself ; we see the mental processes, and there- 
 fore the mental contradictions, of a mind working 
 its way toward the truth. 
 
 The most difficult problem, perhaps, in philoso- 
 phy is the relation of liberty to law, or human 
 freedom to the power that lies beyond and above 
 humanity. Within ourselves we are conscious of 
 freedom. We choose, and we know that we 
 choose. In vain is it argued that the will must be 
 determined by the strongest motive, that man's 
 will is but like a balance which inclines whichever 
 way the weight is heaviest. Within ourselves we 
 are conscious that we choose, and our whole sense 
 of moral responsibility toward God and toward 
 one another rests upon that consciousness. And 
 yet, on the other hand, we see and know that there 
 are forces outside ourselves which both mould and 
 direct us. We know that there is a Providence 
 
 religious mind feels the difference tetween saying ' God chose me ; 
 I cannot tell why ; not for any good that I have done ; and I am 
 persuaded that he will keep me to the end ; ' and saying : * God 
 chooses men quite irrespective of their actions, and predestines 
 them to eternal salvation ; ' and yet more if "we add the other half 
 of the doctrine, * God refuses men quite irrespective of their ac- 
 tions, and they become reprobates, predestined to everlasting 
 damnation.' The first is the expression of a Christian life, the 
 latter of a religious philosophy which has ceased to walk by 
 faith." — Jowett's Commentary on Romans, p. 500. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 255 
 
 which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may. 
 Our greatest dramas recognize this, our greatest 
 philosophers perceive it. Indeed, these forces 
 which lie outside ourselves — I do not stop here 
 to consider whether they are divine or undivine, 
 personal or impersonal — are far more efficient 
 in shaping our lives than we are ourselves. Thus 
 the determination of the question whether one 
 should be born in the first century or in the nine- 
 teenth century, in Imperial Rome or republican 
 America, has had a much greater influence on his 
 life than any determination of his. When we 
 should be born, where we should be born, what 
 qualities we should inherit from our ancestry, what 
 should be the formative influences in the most for- 
 mative period of our life — that of childhood — 
 these and kindred questions we had no share in 
 determining. They have been determined for us. 
 And yet, within the limits determined for us, we 
 know that we are free. 
 
 There are, indeed, some schools of philosophy 
 which, in order to simplify truth, deny one or the 
 other factor of this ever unsolved problem. There 
 are, on the one hand, necessarians who deny that 
 man is a free moral agent ; there are, on the other 
 hand, individualists who deny that there are any 
 forces superior to man's will. But it may safely 
 be said that neither the one class of thinkers nor 
 the other have any standing ground in human 
 philosophy. The great mass of men recognize, not 
 only in their schools of philosophy and their reli- 
 
256 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 gious systems, but in tteir dramas, their novels, 
 their whole life, these two factors — law and free- 
 dom, sovereignty and liberty — the forces and 
 currents of life without, and the force that lies 
 within. Man may be compared to a traveler on 
 an ocean steamer. He is free. He may walk 
 from the bow of the steamer to the stern, or from 
 the starboard to the larboard side, and yet, walk 
 where he will, the steamer is irresistibly carrying 
 him to his destination. No freedom that he can 
 exercise can change the course of the voyage on 
 which he is embarked. We find ourselves thus em- 
 barked on a strange voyage. We do not know 
 from what port we came, nor to what port we tend, 
 and we do not know what are the forces which are 
 carrying our ship, nor the bounds of the ocean on 
 which we sail, nor who is the commander that de- 
 termines its destiny ; but we know, if we know 
 anything, that within the narrow limits of our deck 
 we may walk where we like, and also that, in spite 
 of our walking and whithersoever we walk, we are 
 carried on to the final goal. That we cannot con- 
 trol. 
 
 This sovereignty over life was recognized in 
 Paul's time, as it has been in our times. It was 
 recognized then in three forms, which can here be 
 only very briefly, and therefore very imperfectly, 
 described. 
 
 In the first place, by the Stoics — and Stoicism 
 was the only virile philosophy in Rome in the 
 time of Paul. This Stoical philosophy taught that 
 
TBE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 257 
 
 nature is one great machine ; that each individual 
 man is a little machine ; that his course of life is 
 determined by the way in which he is made and by 
 his relation to the great machine of which he is a 
 part. Whatever is, must be — that was the doc- 
 trine of Stoicism.! It was simple necessarianism. 
 
 There was, in the second place, the doctrine of 
 fate, as it was portrayed by the Greek dramatists. 
 While fate was represented by the Greek as not 
 less inexorable than destiny by the Stoic, it was 
 very different in its character. Fate was personi- 
 fied in certain deities, and yet was superior over 
 all deities. It determined the destinies of the gods 
 as well as of men. But it determined them for 
 just ends. The function of fate was to reward 
 the virtuous and to punish the wicked, especially the 
 latter. No skiU could evade the Eumenides, no 
 place could hide from these avenging deities. No 
 tears, no prayers, no sacrifices, could avail to pro- 
 pitiate their wrath for wrong which had been done. 
 The penalty must be paid by the man himself, and 
 by his family, and by his descendants. Thus, while 
 the Romans held that there was a fate which was 
 simply materialistic, the Greeks held that there 
 was a fate which was moral, the end of which was 
 the infliction of punishment for sin. 
 
 The third form of this faith in sovereignty was 
 that among the Jews, who, no less than the Greeks 
 and the Romans, believed in sovereignty. This 
 belief was essential in the Pharisaic — that is, the 
 
 ^ For a fuller account of Stoicism see chap, vi., p. 99. 
 
258 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 orthodox — party in Judaism. They believed that 
 all things were determined by the decrees of Jeho- 
 vah, — the supreme sovereign. Their faith differed 
 from that of the Romans in that it was spiritual ; 
 it differed from that of the Greeks in that it was 
 not merely, nor perhaps even chiefly, punitive. It 
 differed from both in that it was imputed to and 
 invested in an individual, personal God. But this 
 individual, personal God gave no account of him- 
 self. He chose whom he chose, and he rejected 
 whom he rejected. His choice was the final factor 
 in life. No one could gainsay his choice, no one 
 could antagonize it successfully, no one could call 
 him to account for it, and no one could explain 
 why he exercised it. He had chosen Abraham 
 and called him out of paganism, and left other 
 pagans in their paganism. He had called Jacob, 
 and left Esau to be the head of the wandering 
 Bedouin tribes. He had called Joseph for honor 
 and glory, and left his brethren for ignoble lives. 
 He had called Moses, and had not only cast out 
 Pharaoh but had used him for his own destruction 
 and for the emancipation and the glorification of 
 Israel. He had chosen David from the sheep- 
 fold, and passed Saul by. So all through the 
 Jewish history the Pharisee thought he could trace 
 a divine sovereignty, which used both men and 
 nations for no reason that was given, for no reason 
 that could be given, using them because the sove- 
 reign chose them. God's choice was the ultimate 
 fact. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 259 
 
 Thus there were three conceptions of sovereignty 
 current in Paul's time : the necessarian — What- 
 ever is, must be ; the Greek — Fate, ruling both 
 gods and men to punish wrongdoing; the Phari- 
 saic — The choice of a personal God the final fac- 
 tor in human life. 
 
 In these schools Paul was educated. He had 
 come to believe in the sovereignty of what the 
 pagans called fate, or destiny, and to believe in 
 this sovereignty as personified in Jehovah ; and 
 he had grown up to believe that this sovereignty 
 was exercised in an arbitrary way — that is, with- 
 out any explanation which Jehovah gave to his 
 people or which his people could understand. He 
 had come to believe that Jehovah had chosen Israel, 
 not, as he himself said through one of the old pro- 
 phets, because they were great or good — for they 
 were the least and feeblest : he chose them because 
 he chose them.^ This was Paul's primary educa^ 
 tion. He was steeped and imbued with it. The 
 very fibre of his being was colored by this pro- 
 found faith in divine sovereignty. And yet he 
 was teaching something that seemed incongruous 
 with this conception. He was declaring that Gen- 
 tiles might come into the Church of God as well 
 as Jews ; that to the Greek and Roman the door 
 was as wide open as to the orthodox Pharisee ; 
 that the mercy of God in Christ Jesus was as uni- 
 versal as sin. His old faith and his new faith 
 were in apparently irreconcilable conflict one with 
 1 Deut. vii. 7, 8. 
 
260 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 the other : the old faith that God had chosen a 
 few, and those few Jews, and had given no rea- 
 son for it ; the new faith that God opened wide the 
 door of mercy, that his sun shone alike on the evil 
 and on the good, and his rain fell alike on the just 
 and on the unjust. 
 
 Paul was himself in perplexity. He did not him- 
 self understand how to reconcile this new faith 
 which was a part of his new life and this old faith 
 which was a part of his old life. He was speaking 
 to a people who, in one form or another, believed 
 in absolute sovereignty : the sovereignty of Jehovah 
 — that was the Pharisaic belief ; the supremacy of 
 Fate — that was the Greek belief ; the absolute 
 certainty of inexorable necessity — that was the 
 Roman belief. And yet he was saying to them 
 that all men were free to take the gift of God's 
 life. How could he reconcile this largeness of the 
 gospel which he had come to believe in, with this 
 old belief which was almost a part of his very exist- 
 ence ? How could he reconcile this belief in the 
 universality of God's mercy with this doctrine of 
 Roman necessarianism, of Greek fate, of Pharisaic 
 election ? How could he commend this universalism 
 to those educated in partiaUsm ? 
 
 Let us recall what he has said already in this 
 letter to the Romans : The world cannot be made 
 right by requiring obedience to law ; neither by 
 human enactment nor by divine enactment defin- 
 ing and requiring righteousness. The Roman has 
 tried the one, the Jew has tried the other, and both 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 261 
 
 have failed. The world must be set right; de- 
 spotic government made free ; labor emancipated ; 
 the home purified ; society uplifted ; education 
 made universal ; the church made effective as au 
 ethical instrument ; the individual soul transformed 
 — by receiving freely the gift of God's life. He 
 who thus freely receives God's free gift of life 
 will live thereafter a free and spontaneous life ; he 
 will be dead to sin, though sometimes he will creep 
 back to his grave, even after he has been raised 
 to newness of life ; he will be emancipated from 
 sin, though still the fetters will clank on his wrists 
 and on his feet. Still he will be a new man, and 
 in his pursuit after the new life he will be con- 
 scious that he is under no condemnation. God 
 will not condemn him ; he will not condemn him- 
 self. Rising into this new life, rejoicing in this 
 goodness of God, neither life, nor death, nor princi- 
 palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things 
 to come, nor any other created thing, can separate 
 him from the love of God, witnessed to his life, 
 wrought in his life. 
 
 Then Paul stops. We can imagine that, in his 
 dictation, he has gone as far as he can when he 
 reaches that culmination, and he says to his aman- 
 uensis, " I will wait a little;" There is clearly a 
 break between the eighth chapter and the ninth. 
 During this break in time, he ponders this question 
 within himself : How is it that this free gift of God 
 is given ? How can I reconcile the universality of 
 this gift with my belief in the election of Israel ? 
 
262 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 How can I commend it to a people who believe 
 either in necessity or in fate or in an arbitrary 
 Jehovah ? The ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters 
 are his answer to these questions. They are not 
 written for the purpose of disproving sovereignty — 
 they are not Arminian. They are not written for 
 the purpose of proving sovereignty — they are not 
 Calvinistic. They are not written for the purpose 
 of reconciling sovereignty and free will — they are 
 not philosophical. They are written for the pur- 
 pose of showing what is the end of the Roman 
 necessity, the Greek fate, the universal sovereignty. 
 To recall for a moment the figure : Paul still be- 
 lieves this steamer is ploughing its way, carrying 
 its passengers ; he still believes they can only walk 
 the deck to and fro. He does not discuss the 
 measure and the limits of their liberty ; he does 
 not discuss the absoluteness of the sovereignty 
 which determines their voyage. He addresses him- 
 self to this one single question : What is the end of 
 the voyage? What is the object of the sover- 
 eignty ? For what does it exist ? Is the Roman 
 right — is it simply a hard, materialistic necessity ? 
 Is the Greek right — is it simply the punishment 
 of wrongdoing ? Is the Jew right — is it simply 
 an arbitrary choice that cannot be explained ? 
 
 If we wish to know the meaning of an argument, 
 we must look to its conclusion. No man would un- 
 dertake to interpret Daniel Webster's reply to 
 Hayne by single sentences taken here and there. 
 He would turn, if he were in perplexity, to the end 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 263 
 
 of the address, to see to what issue the orator was 
 conducting himself and his hearers, and by the re- 
 sult reached would interpret all that had preceded. 
 The ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of Ro- 
 mans, in which Paul discusses this relation of 
 sovereignty to freedom, end thus : " God hath shut 
 up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy 
 upon aU." Roman ! you are mistaken. This 
 necessity is not a blind materialistic necessity. 
 Greek! you are mistaken. This fate is not for 
 the punishment of wrongdoing. Pharisee ! you 
 are mistaken. This is not an arbitrary choice 
 for which no explanation can be given. The end 
 and object of sovereignty, the purpose which it in- 
 flexibly maintains, the result which it will achieve, 
 is mercy upon all. 
 
 I am aware that this is not the interpretation 
 which has been currently given to these chapters, 
 and therefore I repeat it, that by repetition I may 
 make it clear. Paul, himself believing in sover- 
 eignty, and addressing auditors all of whom be- 
 lieve in sovereignty in one form or another, seeks 
 not to define what are the limits of human liberty, 
 nor to overthrow belief in sovereignty, nor to em- 
 phasize and establish it ; he seeks simply to show 
 what is the end which sovereignty has in view. It 
 is not a dread and inexorable necessity ; it is not 
 a fateful destiny seeking to punish the iniquitous ; 
 it is not an irresponsible and arbitrary choice ; it 
 is a supreme law wrought out by a supreme lover 
 for the accomplishment of universal mercy. 
 
264 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 In the light of these general statements I will 
 venture to paraphrase these enigmatical chapters. 
 
 Paul begins by affirming his love for Israel. He 
 has not lost that love because he declares that the 
 Jew and the Gentile are alike before God. I say 
 the truth in Christ, he says, in substance, 1 lie not, 
 my conscience bearing witness with me in the 
 Holy Ghost that I have great sorrow and unceas- 
 ing pain in my heart. I could almost wish myself 
 cast out from Christ. I could almost be willing 
 to be abandoned of him,^ if so I might bring my 
 kinsmen after the flesh to know him, to love him, 
 and to receive the gift of his life. For they are 
 my kinsmen, and I honor them. Theirs is the 
 adoption and the glory, theirs the covenants, and 
 the giving of the law, and the service of God, 
 and the promises to the fathers, and from them came 
 the Messiah. Nevertheless, Israel is not made up 
 alone of the children of Abraham. God's children 
 are the children of promise. God has a right to 
 choose whom he wiU. He could choose Abraham, 
 although Abraham was a pagan. He could choose 
 Jacob and pass by Esau ; he could choose Moses 
 and reject Pharaoh. Do you say. What right has 
 he ? — to your own Scriptures I refer you. They 
 teU you that man is clay, and God is the potter and 
 may do what he will.^ But if he may do what he 
 
 ^ Rom. ix. 3. That this is the meamng indicated by the use 
 of the imperfect tense is the view of Alford, Meyer, Winer, 
 Bnttmann. 
 
 " Rom. ix. 20-23. The figure is borrowed from the Old Testa- 
 ment. Isaiah xxix. 16 ; Ixiv. 8. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 265 
 
 will, then he may choose Gentiles as well as Jews. 
 He is not confined in his mercy to Israel; your own 
 prophets tell you so. What says Hosea ? "I will 
 call that my people which was not my people, and 
 her beloved which was not beloved." ^ On the 
 other hand, your own prophets tell you Israel may 
 be rejected. Isaiah teUs you so : " Except the 
 Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been 
 as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah."^ 
 What shall we then say ? This : If the Gentile 
 opens his heart to receive the life of God, he will 
 have life, and if the Israelite shuts his heart against 
 the Christ of God who brings him life, he will not 
 have life ; for God has a right to give life to Gen- 
 tile as well as to Israel, and is as ready to give it 
 to Gentile as to Israel. 
 
 Do I not, then, care for Israel ? My brethren, 
 my heart's desire and supplication to God is for 
 them that they may be saved. But how shall they 
 be saved, except by taking the free gift which God 
 gives to aU ? Moses himself tells you so. The 
 word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy 
 heart : that is, the word of faith which we preach.^ 
 Your prophets tell you so. There is no difference : 
 Greek and Jew are alike. How, then, is Israel 
 better than the pagans ? Because Israel is the 
 missionary nation of the world. Israel is the one 
 appointed to be the almoner of this life. How are 
 
 1 Rom. ix. 25 ; Hosea ii. 23. 
 
 2 Kom. ix. 27-29 ; Isaiah i. 9. 
 
 ^ Rom. X. 5-9 ; Lev. xviii. 3-5 ; Deut. xxx. 11-14. 
 
266 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 the pagans to know unless some one tells them ? 
 And how shall one tell them unless he be sent? 
 Beautiful are the feet of them on the mountains 
 who bear from Israel glad tidings to the Gentiles.^ 
 
 Do I then say that God has cast off Israel? 
 Because I go from the synagogues to preach to the 
 Gentiles, do I say that God has rejected Israel? 
 God forbid. No ! God gives his life freely to all. 
 The Israelite who opens his heart to receive the 
 light lives, and the Gentile who opens his heart to 
 receive the light lives ; and the Israelite who shuts 
 his heart against the light dies, and the Gentile 
 who shuts his heart against the light dies ; there is 
 no difference.^ Gentiles, do not boast yourselves, 
 then. Do not you think that you are the chosen 
 and Israel outcast. You owe your life to Israel.^ 
 
 That is as true now as when Paul wrote this let- 
 ter to the Romans. We Gentiles owe our life to 
 Israel. It is Israel who has brought us the mes- 
 sage that God is one, and that God is a just and 
 righteous God, and demands righteousness of his 
 children, and demands nothing else. It is Israel 
 who has brought us the message that God is our 
 Father. It is Israel who, in bringing us the divine 
 law, has laid the foundation of liberty. It is Israel 
 who had the first free institutions the world ever 
 saw. It is Israel who has brought us our Bible, 
 our prophets, our apostles. It is Israel who 
 brought us our Christ, himself a Jew. "When 
 
 ' Rom. X. 14-15 ; Isaiah lii. 7 ; Nah. i. 15. 
 
 2 Kom. xi. 1-11. 8 Rom. xi. 18-26. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 267 
 
 sometimes our own unchristian prejudices flame 
 out against the Jewish people, let us remember 
 that all that we have and all that we are we owe, 
 under God, to what Judaism has given us. 
 
 Paul affirms a sovereignty, superior to all human 
 will and controlling aU human life ; but it is not 
 that of an unintelligent necessity ; not that of a 
 terrible justice pursuing that it may punish ; not 
 that of an arbitrary, irresponsible, and partial 
 Arbiter ; it is a sovereignty whose source is love, 
 whose end is mercy.^ The great ship in which we 
 are embarked, that comes we know not whence, 
 sails we know not whither, and is under commands 
 that are not interpreted to us, is sailing to the 
 
 ^ "The affirmation that God has a Christian purpose toward 
 our entire humanity involves an extension of the field of redemp- 
 tion so enormous as to make otsolete, at a single stroke, the whole 
 theological map of the traditional view. And what seems worse, 
 while all clear-seeing men are aware that this does not necessarily 
 imply universal salvation, it is true that it looks that way. If 
 God shall succeed^ universal salvation will be the final result. 
 And this sounds so perilous to good morals, and seems to cut the 
 nerve of aU strenuous endeavor ! my brothers, when will 
 Christian thinkers fear atheism more than universalism, when will 
 they see that the deepest immorality lies in distrust of the right- 
 eous will of God, when will they awake to the fact that only those 
 who believe in a God for humanity and eternally for humanity 
 can resist unto blood ! Any scheme that puts God with an inclu- 
 sive and everlasting purpose of redemption behind mankind, looks 
 like universalism ; but let us remember that any other scheme is, 
 in our time, a royal road to atheism. When we asseit, as we do so 
 easily, the brotherhood of man, let us be sure that the universe, 
 according to our view, is not against it ; let us be sure that there 
 is in God a universal fatherhood upon which to found it.'' Kev. 
 George A. Gordon, D. D., in The New Puritanism, pp. 163, 164. 
 
268 PAUL TEE AFOSTLE 
 
 harbor of a universal love. Love is Destiny, love 
 is Fate, love is Sovereign. " God hath shut up all 
 unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon 
 all. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and 
 the knowledge of God ! Of him, through him, 
 unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for- 
 ever and ever. Amen." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE LETTEK TO THE HOMANS — IV 
 
 The Christian religion is, according to Paul, as 
 we have seen, a new and divine life, freely given 
 by the Father to his children — that gift he calls 
 grace ; freely received by the children from the 
 Father, through what he calls faith. Out of this 
 life, thus freely given, there spring outward mani- 
 festations in conduct ; in the twelfth, thirteenth, and 
 fourteenth chapters, and a part of the fifteenth, of 
 Romans Paul interprets to his readers what are 
 the operations of this principle of life, how it works 
 itself out in conduct, what answer this principle of 
 life gives to the questions which men are asking 
 respecting duty. In the first of these chapters he 
 considers the working out of this life in the indi- 
 vidual conduct ; in the second, its effect upon the 
 relation of the individual to the state ; in the third, 
 its bearing on certain questions of casuistry in life. 
 Finally, his letter finished, he writes a postscript of 
 personal salutation and friendship, largely made up 
 of individual greetings. In this postscript he men- 
 tions by name twenty-seven individuals, of whom 
 little if anything is known except that they are 
 here mentioned. The fact is significant as indicat- 
 ing that Paul was not a mere philosopher, interested 
 
270 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 in systems of truth, nor a mere reformer interested 
 in masses of men and the organization of society, 
 but a personal friend, interested in the welfare 
 of individuals. Passing this postscript without fur- 
 ther reference, I ask the reader to consider with 
 me the other three topics : What has Paul to say 
 concerning the practical bearing of his teaching on : 
 1. The ethical conduct of the individual ; 2. The 
 relation of the individual to the state ; 3. Doubtful 
 and debated questions of casuistry. 
 
 1. Eeligion, according to Paul, is the life of God 
 in the soul of man. Such a life necessarily in- 
 volves the complete consecration of man to God. 
 He is to give himself wholly in the spirit of love 
 to his Father. " I beseech you," he says, " by the 
 mercies of God that you present even your bodies 
 a living sacrifice." In Jerusalem, and indeed in 
 every heathen city as well, was a temple ; and to 
 this temple sacrifices were brought and laid upon 
 the altar, that thus they might be given to God. 
 So Paul says, we are to give ourselves to God. But 
 this sacrifice is to be a living sacrifice. Both Jew 
 and Gentile slew the sacrifice they offered to God. 
 According to Paul it is not by dying but by living 
 we are to offer ourselves to our Father. Christ had 
 before pointed out the same contrast between true 
 and false religion : " The thief cometh not but to 
 steal, and to kill, and to destroy ; I am come that 
 they might have life and might have it more abun- 
 dantly." ^ This affords one test for distinguishing 
 1 John X. 10. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 271 
 
 between true and false religion. Whatever, under 
 any guise of sanctity, purposes to lessen the life of 
 humanity, belongs to the false ; whatever purposes 
 to enlarge and enrich it, belongs to the true. Self- 
 sacrifice is never true sacrifice of self ; it is never 
 real self-immolation. It is always the sacrifice of 
 a lower for a higher phase of life. 
 
 As Paul does not recognize any form of self-de- 
 struction as a religious act, except as death leads 
 on and up to a resurrection and a higher life, so 
 neither does he recognize any of the too common 
 compromises involved in a partial consecration. 
 He knows nothing of the notion that one tenth of 
 one's income belongs to God and nine tenths to 
 oneself. Tithing as a fixed proportion for what 
 men are pleased to call benevolence is wholly for- 
 eign to Paul's conception of religion. All, accord- 
 ing to Paul, belongs to God ; how much of that 
 all each one shall spend on his own family, how 
 much in business activities, all of which are im- 
 moral if they are not beneficent, and how much 
 on unremunerative benefactions which we call 
 charities, is a question which each child of God 
 must determine for himself according to his cir- 
 cumstances. So Paul knows nothing of the notion 
 that there are some days which belong to God and 
 other days which belong to men. They are all 
 God's. The Sunday is no more truly the Lord's 
 day than Monday ; it is to be used in a different 
 way, but for the same essential purpose. Uncon- 
 sciously keen was the satire of the little child who 
 
272 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 said to her mother, " Was n't it generous of God to 
 give us six days for ourselves and keep only one 
 for himseK ? " So Paul knows nothing of the pop- 
 idar distinction between religious and secular. To 
 him there are not certain activities which are reli- 
 gious and certain other activities which are not 
 religious ; the whole life and all its activities are 
 to be the outcome of the life of God in the soul of 
 man. Religion is thus simply the art of living ; I 
 will not even say right living, for any other is not 
 living, according to Paul. When we are in tres- 
 passes and sins we are dead.^ 
 
 The whole life and all its activities are to be 
 given to God. And in thus giving himself to God, 
 not because he fears a penalty or hopes for a re- 
 ward, but because he has received God himself into 
 his life and has entered in a new life in God, man 
 gives himself to his fellow-men because the Father- 
 hood of God carries with it the brotherhood of man, 
 and faith in God as the universal Father involves 
 a "perception of humanity as one great family.^ 
 
 Therefore all the activities of the child of God 
 are to be employed by him as a member of this 
 family and to promote and enrich its life. It is 
 the life of God in Christ, as the head, which binds 
 this family together ; therefore he cannot sever 
 himself from the family without severing himself 
 from the life. But in this family all his activities 
 must be, and if he be truly a child of God, will be, 
 spontaneous, free, unforced. Does he preach ? he 
 
 ' Ephes. ii. 1. ^ Ep^es. Hi. 14. Rev. Ver. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 273 
 
 will preach according to th.e proportion of his faith 
 — that is, according to the measure of his spiritual 
 experience. Does he give? he will give with 
 liberality. Does he exercise mercy ? he wiU exer- 
 cise it ungrudgingly. Does he govern ? he will 
 govern with diligence. Is he engaged in business ? 
 he will put new life and new energy into his busi- 
 ness. Does he pray? he wiU pray with a new 
 fervency. This new spirit will show itself in all 
 his life. It will prevent all social hypocrisies ; his 
 love will be without false pretense. He will be 
 patient, generous, hospitable, sympathetic, lowly 
 minded. In nothing will this new life show itself 
 more evidently than in the changed attitude of 
 the soul toward personal enemies. It will be the 
 attitude of him who, persecuted, beaten, spit upon, 
 desired no revenge ; desired only that his assailants 
 might be forgiven. He cannot always live peace- 
 ably with all men ; but he will always wish to do 
 so, and wiU do so if it be possible. He will not 
 seek even to vindicate himself from threatened 
 wrong or unjust aspersion. He will leave his 
 vindication to his Lord. Pity for the wrongdoer 
 will always overcome anger because of the wrong 
 done ; and the only victory over an enemy which 
 will satisfy him will be the victory of love which 
 converts him into a friend. 
 
 " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
 God, that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, 
 holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable 
 service. And be not conformed to this age, but be ye 
 
274 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 transformed by the making anew of your mind, that ye 
 may prove what is the will of God — namely, that which 
 is good and well pleasing and perfect. For I say through 
 the grace given to me, to every one that is among you, 
 not to be high-minded, above that which he ought to be 
 minded, but to be so-minded as to be sober-minded, as 
 God hath distributed to each one the measure of faith. 
 For even as we have many members in one body and 
 all members have not the same office, so we being many 
 are one body in Christ and severally members one of 
 another. 
 
 " But having gifts differing according to the grace that 
 is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy ac- 
 cording to the proportion of our faith ; or service, let us 
 give ourselves to our serving ; or he that teacheth, to his 
 teaching ; or he that exhorteth, to his exhortation. He 
 that giveth, let him do it with singleness of heart ; he 
 that ruleth, with diligence ; he that showeth mercy, un- 
 grudgingly. Let love be without false pretense. Abhor 
 the evil, cleave to the good. In love of the brethren be 
 kindly-afBectioned one with another, in honor preferring 
 one another ; in diligence, not slothful ; in spirit, fer- 
 vent, serving the Lord ; rejoicing in hope, patient in 
 tribulation ; continuing steadfastly in prayer ; sharing 
 in common with the saints in their necessities ; pur- 
 suing hospitality. Bless them which pereecute you ; 
 bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that rejoice 
 and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind 
 one toward another. Mind not high things, but be led 
 away by the things that are lowly. Be not wise in your 
 own conceits. Give back to no one evil in return for 
 evil. Take heed beforehand that your conduct be hon- 
 orable in. the sight of all men. If it be possible, as 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 275 
 
 much as in you lieth, live peaceably with all men. 
 Dearly beloved, do not seek to vindicate yourselves, but 
 yield to the wrath of your enemies. For it is written : 
 ' Vindication is mine ; I will requite, saith the Lord.' ^ 
 Wherefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he 
 thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap 
 coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome by evil, but 
 overcome evil by good." ^ 
 
 2. In the thirteenth chapter Paul takes up the 
 more specific question of the relation of the child 
 of God to the state of which he is a member. 
 How is he to regard the authority of government ? 
 And in considering Paul's answer to this question 
 we are to remember that the government of Rome 
 at this time was as I have described it in a previ- 
 ous chapter, — despotic, cruel, corrupt. In what 
 way wiU one who possesses the life of God in his 
 soul regard such a government, if he is a subject 
 of it ? This is Paul's answer : — 
 
 " Let every soul subject himself to the higher powers. 
 There is no power but from God ; those that exist are 
 ordained by God. So that he who arrays himself 
 against the power arrays himself against the ordinance 
 of God." » 
 
 Are we to understand that Paul declares that 
 aU law is divine and aU disobedience sinful? 
 
 1 Deut. xxxii. 35. ^ Rom. sdi. 
 
 " Rom. xiii. 1, 2. There is a play on the words in the original, 
 which might be thus interpreted to the English reader ; the 
 powers that exist have been placed by God ; so that whosoever 
 displaoeth the power arrays himseK against the placing of God. 
 
276 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Would Paul maintain that Daniel was wrong when 
 he refused to bow the knee to the idol reared 
 in the Chaldean plain? That the apostles were 
 wrong when to the command that they cease from 
 preaching the gospel they refused obedience, re- 
 plying, Whether it be right in the sight of God 
 to hearken unto you more than God, judge ye ; for 
 we cannot but speak the things which we have 
 seen and heard? That William H. Seward was 
 wrong when he contended that there was a 
 " higher law " than any congressional enactment ? 
 No ! Paul does not say that we are always to obey 
 all governmental powers ; he says we are to be 
 subject to them. Daniel was subject to the powers 
 when he allowed himself to be cast into the lions' 
 den. The apostles were subject to the powers 
 when they were brought before the court and an- 
 swered the accusation. Jesus Christ was subject 
 to the powers when he stood before the courts of 
 Caiaphas and of Pilate unresisting. Subjection to 
 government does not always involve obedience 
 to its laws ; one is equally subject if he disobeys 
 and patiently endures the penalty. 
 
 Nor does Paul's teaching, properly understood, 
 condemn aU revolutions. It cannot be affirmed 
 that he would stigmatize as wrong the overthrow 
 of Bourbon despotism in Europe ; or the Puritan 
 revolution against the Stuarts in England ; or the 
 American revolution. To change one government 
 is not to array oneself against all government ; 
 to revolutionize a particular government is not to 
 
THE LETTER TO TEE ROMANS 277 
 
 destroy all government. Paul affirms that govern- 
 ment is a divine institution. So is the family ; so 
 is the church. He who sets himseK in array 
 against them sets himself in array against the 
 divine order. But he who in Paul's time insisted 
 that marriage ought not to be treated like a com- 
 mercial partnership, that it should be restored to 
 the primitive form, in which love bound husband 
 and wife together for life, would not thereby have 
 set himself against the divine order. Luther did 
 not set himself against the divine order when he 
 endeavored to array Germany against the form 
 which the Church had assumed in his time, and 
 brmg it back to something like its primitive sim- 
 plicity. Neither did Wesley, when he sought to 
 recast the Church and revivify it with a missionary 
 spirit which it had lost. So Cromwell and Wash- 
 ington, Hampden and Hamilton did not set them- 
 selves against the divine order when they attempted 
 to overthrow a corrupt government, which had 
 ceased to fulfill the ends for which government is 
 organized, and substitute a new and better govern- 
 ment in its place. They did not seek to abolish 
 government ; they sought to improve it. 
 
 There are three conceptions of the foundation 
 of government. The first bases it upon force. It 
 regards law as the will of a superior addressed to 
 an inferior ; and what makes him the superior is 
 the fact that he has power to enforce his will 
 by penalties attached to disobedience. The sec- 
 ond bases it upon the consent of the governed. 
 
278 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 According to this conception government is simply 
 a compact, by which men have agreed to relinquish 
 some of their natural liberties for the real or sup- 
 posed advantages derived from social order and 
 organization. This doctrine, of which Kousseau 
 was the preeminent expounder, was very popular 
 in the latter part of the last century and in the be- 
 ginning of this, and was apparently the doctrine 
 entertained by a part, though certainly not by all, 
 the founders of our United States Constitution. 
 The third is the doctrine which Paul here affirms. 
 Political organization is a part of the divine order. 
 As it is a part of the divine decree that men should 
 be not solitary but set in families, so that in the 
 divine order every man is bom into a family, so it 
 is a part of the divine decree that men should be 
 organized in political commimities, so that men are 
 born into the nation. Government is not a neces- 
 sary evil ; the less of it the better. It is not an 
 order rendered necessary only or chiefly by the 
 vices and sins of men. Its end is not merely nor 
 mainly the restraint of men who will not restrain 
 themselves. It is the ordered life of humanity. 
 It may be corrupted ; it may be diverted from the 
 ends for which it is divinely ordained. But still 
 it is better than none. The worst government is 
 better than anarchy. Disobedience to law may 
 become a duty, enforced by reverence for a higher 
 law. Revolution may become necessary in order to 
 secure a government more in harmony with the 
 divine order. But neither fact militates against 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 279 
 
 the truth that government is part of the divine 
 order, or modifies the general principle that revo- 
 lution is right only when in it there is a hope not 
 merely of overturning a bad government but of 
 substituting a better in its place. Paul's doctrine 
 that- government is a divine order, and that the 
 foundation of its authority is neither force in the 
 human superior, nor the consent of the governed, 
 but the will and authority of God himself, to 
 which the governor must conform, whether he be 
 king, oligarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, is not 
 inconsistent with a revolution like that of 1776 
 which aims at maintaining government, renovated 
 and reformed ; but it is inconsistent with all such 
 pseudo-revolutions as those of the Nihilists of 
 Hussia and the Eevolutionaries in Armenia, which 
 prepare no well considered plans of practical politi- 
 cal reform. No revolution is justifiable unless it 
 is constructive. And it hardly needs to be said 
 that when Paul wrote his Letter to the Romans a 
 revolution in Rome would have been more hopeless 
 of achieving any beneficent results than to-day a 
 peasant revolution in Russia or an Armenian revo- 
 lution in Turkey. 
 
 3. In the fourteenth and part of the fifteenth 
 chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans he takes up 
 a general question which he discusses at somewhat 
 greater length in his first Letter to the Corinthi- 
 ans. I need speak of his treatment of this question 
 here, therefore, only very briefly. 
 
 There are certain practical questions about right 
 
280 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 and wrong, upon which men are generally in sub- 
 stantial agreement ; there are,.,otKers concerning 
 which judgment depends very much on education. 
 These doubtful questions vary from time to time. 
 In Paul's time the doubtful questions concerned the 
 eating of meat offered to idols and the observance 
 of certain feasts which belonged to the Jewish 
 ritual. They have long since disappeared ; but 
 other doubtful questions have taken their place. 
 Is it right to play cards ? to dance ? to go to the 
 theatre ? These and kindred questions are the ones 
 on which now Christians are disagreed, as then 
 they were disagreed on the questions, Is it right to 
 eat meat offered to idols ? and to ignore the seventh 
 day of the week? In his letter to the Bomans 
 Paul lays down three principles by which the indi- 
 vidual can guide himself in answering these doubt- 
 ful questions. 
 
 The first principle is that the moral quality of 
 an act depends not on the act, but on the spirit of 
 the agent doing the act. It is of the very essence 
 of Paul's teaching that there is nothing evil in 
 meat that has been offered to an idol, and nothing 
 sacred in one day above another. But if one thinks 
 it is wrong to eat meat that has been offered to 
 idols, to him it is wrong ; if he thinks it his duty 
 to observe the seventh day of the week because the 
 Fourth Commandment prescribes that day, for him 
 it is duty. To disobey one's conscience is always 
 wrong. It is contrary to the very essence of Paul's 
 teaching to suppose that we can draw lines and 
 
THE LETTER TO TEE ROMANS 281 
 
 imagine that everything on one side of the line 
 is right and everything on the other is wrong. 
 There are no such lines. Life is all to be given to 
 God ; whatever helps the divine life is right ; what- 
 ever hinders it is wrong. But if a man does ia 
 fact, however mistakenly, draw such a line, then 
 for him to transgress it is wrong, because to trans- 
 gress it is to hinder his own divine life, violate his 
 conscience, and so obscure his moral judgment and 
 weaken his moral will. It is difficult to say why 
 it is wrong to play a game with colored figures on 
 bits of pasteboard and right to play a similar game 
 with historical names printed on them ; why it is 
 right to knock balls about on green turf, — that is, 
 play croquet, — and wrong to knock balls around 
 on a green table, — that is, play billiards ; why it is 
 right to witness charades in a parlor and wrong 
 to witness legitimate drama in a theatre. But if 
 education, or prejudice, with or without reason, has 
 led one to draw these lines, he is not to disregard 
 them because others do not draw them. " WTiat- 
 soever is not of faith is sin." Everything in con- 
 duct is to be the natural spontaneous outgoing of 
 the new life of God in the soul. This new life will 
 not at once, perhaps will not ever, sweep away old 
 prejudices. If a Hindu Christian feels that it is 
 wrong to destroy life for food, for him it is wrong. 
 Whatever one does contrary to his own concep- 
 tion of righteousness is wrong. The morality of 
 the act depends on the spirit of the one who does the* 
 act. 
 
282 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 The second principle has been well expressed in 
 the phrase " Thy conscience for thyself and not for 
 another." The conscience of each man is a law- 
 giver to him, but it is not a lawgiver to his neigh- 
 bor. Therefore neither may he that eateth despise 
 him that eateth not, nor he that eateth not condemn 
 him that eateth. The Liberal is not to look with 
 contempt on the Puritan, nor the Puritan with con- 
 demnation on the Liberal. He who allows himself 
 largeness of liberty as a child of God is not to de- 
 spise his stricter neighbor for his narrowness, nor 
 he who lives under law and within fixed lines to 
 condemn his freer neighbor because of his laxity. 
 
 Finally, while every man is to govern himself by 
 his own conscience no man is to live in disregard of 
 the conscience of his neighbor. The fundamental 
 principle is, that is right which promotes the life of 
 God in the soid of man ; that is wrong which hin- 
 ders this divine life. Though it does not hinder 
 that life in the one who acts, it may be wrong if it 
 hinders the life in another who is looking on. " No- 
 thing is unclean of itself ; but to him that account- 
 eth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 
 If because of thy meat thy brother is grieved, thou 
 walkest no longer in love." Love is not only " the 
 greatest thing in the world," it is the only thing. 
 God is love ; to walk not in love is to separate one- 
 self from God. I am not to impose my conscience 
 on another ; but I am to accept my neighbor's con- 
 science as a restraint on myself. For " we that are 
 strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and 
 
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 283 
 
 not to please ourselves." Our pleasure is not to 
 overbalance another man's life ; but neither is his 
 pleasure to overbalance our life. "We may regard 
 his conscience ; but we may not make it our law- 
 giver. If I may never do anything to which the 
 conscience of some neighbor objects, I can never 
 do anything. The Roman Catholic could not go 
 to a Protestant church because the Roman Catholic 
 thinks it is wrong ; and he could not go to a Ro- 
 man Catholic church because the Protestant thinks 
 it is wrong. The Protestant could not go to a Ro- 
 man Catholic church because the Protestant thinks 
 it is wrong, and he could not go to a Protestant 
 church because the Roman Catholic thinks it is 
 wrong. He could not go to church if another 
 man's conscience and not our own is to be our law- 
 giver. The whole principle of life is summed up 
 in the one counsel: "Let us follow after the 
 things which make for peace and the things 
 whereby we may build one another up," i. e. in 
 the divine Ufe. All comes back to this at last : 
 How shall we best promote the divine life in our- 
 selves and others ? The divine life is the source 
 of all truly righteous conduct; the divine life is 
 the standard by which all conduct is to be tested. 
 
 Paul's letter to the Romans, then, to sum up 
 these four chapters in one brief paragraph, I under- 
 stand to be this : Neither society nor the individual 
 can be made righteous by attempting conformity 
 to a law external to one's self, whether it is human 
 or divine. Man cannot be made righteousness by 
 
284 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 any external process. He is not repousse work. 
 There is only one way of living aright; it is by 
 freely receiving the gift of life freely given to the 
 soul by God. When one has received this free 
 gift of God into the heart, a new life springs up 
 in him spontaneously. He is as one married, who 
 gets a new life of love in his marriage. He is as 
 one emancipated ; set free from the old bondage 
 and the old relation of servitude. He is as a dead 
 man who has been called from the grave by 
 the overmastering voice of the Christ. To such 
 an one even tribulation seems joyful, for tribula- 
 tion is working out character, and character is all 
 he cares for. To whom does God offer this free 
 gift ? To all the world. There is, it is true, a 
 destiny or fate which overrules us. But it is not 
 as the Romans think it, a blind necessity ; nor as 
 the Greeks think it, a fate whose only office it is to 
 punish the wicked by avenging sin ; nor as the 
 Jews think it, an autocratic and irresponsible par- 
 tialism. The end of this destiny, the object of 
 this fate, the purpose of this Providence is infinite 
 and eternal mercy ; and when it has accomplished 
 its result, the law that has seemingly shut men up 
 unto disobedience will be seen to be God's prepara^ 
 tion for giving them newness of life. That new- 
 ness of life will mean for us here and now giving 
 ourselves wholly and unreservedly in the spirit of 
 joyous love to the service of our fellow-men be- 
 cause to the service of our God ; loyalty to the 
 church, to the state, and to the family because 
 
TBE LETTER TO TBE ROMANS 285 
 
 they are a part of God's ordinance ; the settlement 
 of all doubtful questions by the voice of God 
 within us ; and respect for the voice of God as it 
 speaks to others, or seems to others to speak to 
 them ; in brief, it will mean the life of faith, which 
 is the life of joyous freedom, — the glory of the 
 liberty of the sons of God. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE LETTERS TO THE EPHESIAN8 AND THE 
 COLOSSIANS 
 
 At the time of Christ's birth, intellectual su- 
 premacy had passed, in a measure, from Greece to 
 Egypt, and was centred in Alexandria, which for 
 some centuries remained the intellectual capital of 
 the world. This city was situated at the con- 
 fluence of three streams of intellectual and spirit- 
 ual life, — the Oriental, the Jewish, and the Greek. 
 Rome at this time hardly influenced Alexandria at 
 all, and from Alexandria as yet influences had not 
 passed out by migration into Rome. The Oriental 
 dreams ; the Greek defines ; the Hebrew acts. 
 These three sentences may serve as a characteriza- 
 tion of the distinction between the influences that 
 met and strangely intermingled in Alexandria. 
 For they did intermingle, and out of their conflu- 
 ence there grew up a scheme of combined dream- 
 ing, thinking, and practical ethics, which consti- 
 tutes what is known in history as the Alexandrian 
 School. Those who have made a study of the sub- 
 ject will have to exercise some indulgence towards 
 me in the endeavor here made to define in a very 
 brief compass the teaching of this school. It is 
 
LETTERS TO EPEESIANS AND COLO SSI AN S 287 
 
 very difficult to translate Oriental dreaming into 
 Occidental thought ; and to translate a composite 
 school, which was inconsistent with itself and in- 
 congruous and self-contradictory in its results, into 
 forms of thought which the lay American can 
 understand, without having studied these schools 
 of philosophy, is not an easy task. 
 
 The Oriental then regarded and now regards 
 God as the Absolute and the Unconditioned. 
 There can be nothing outside of him ; for if there 
 is anything outside of him, then he is limited. 
 Therefore God is the all, and the all is God. This 
 Unconditioned and this Absolute could not create, 
 because what he had made would be apart from 
 himself, and he would be limited by the very re- 
 sult of his creation. But Hebraism had centred 
 its faith in a personal God, — a God who was a 
 king over Israel, a God who created the world and 
 ruled it. The very essence of Hebraism was that 
 God had created and was apart from his world, 
 not identical with it. Thus there was apparently 
 an irreconcilable contradiction between the Ori- 
 ental and the Hebraic conception of God. This 
 contradiction the Alexandrian School endeavored 
 to solve, these conceptions it endeavored to unite 
 by its hypothesis of emanations : that there had 
 proceeded from this Unconditioned, this Absolute, 
 certain secondary causes or deities, who were called 
 by various names, such as chiefs, rulers, powers, 
 principalities, eons. These secondary causes or 
 deities — it is difficult to know which appellation 
 
288 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 to give them — were the creators of the world. 
 The Infinite, the Eternal, the Absolute, had not 
 created anything ; but from him had proceeded 
 these secondary beings, and these secondary beings 
 had created, and thus an imperfect world was 
 made by imperfect gods who had proceeded from a 
 perfect God. Thus the Hebrew found a God 
 whom he could believe in as a Person, and the 
 Oriental a God whom he could recognize as the 
 Absolute and the Unconditioned. 
 
 But this Infinite, this Unconditioned, was also 
 the Unknown and the Unknowable. The idea that 
 God is the Unknown and the Unknowable does not 
 date from the time of Herbert Spencer, nor even 
 from the time of the Alexandrian school ; it is to be 
 found far back in Oriental philosophy. But the 
 very essence of Hebraism was that man should 
 know God ; must become acquainted with him ; 
 must obey him ; must recognize and revere him. 
 And here again were two antagonistic conceptions : 
 a God who could not be known and a God who 
 must be known, or whom man must ever strive to 
 know. So these secondary deities served another 
 purpose. The. Infinite, the Unconditioned, the 
 Absolute, could not be known, but the chiefs, the 
 rulers, the principalities, the powers, the eons, 
 could be known. Thus there was room, on the one 
 hand, for the Hebraic acquaintance, on the other 
 hand, for the Oriental non-acquaintance. 
 
 There is evil in this world — natural evil, that is, 
 suffering, and moral evil, that is, sin. But if God 
 
LETTERS TO EFHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS 289 
 
 is perfect, he cannot produce either natural evil 
 or moral evil. And yet God is the all. How, if 
 God is the all and is in the all, can there be nat- 
 ural evil and moral evil ? how is it possible to re- 
 concile these two conceptions, the one of God, the 
 other of life? The Alexandrian school did so, 
 somewhat after this fashion : The Absolute, the 
 Unconditioned, is the f uUness that filleth all things 
 ■with himself ; there is, therefore, a perfect spiritual 
 life, and in this perfect spiritual life there is no 
 pain, no suffering, no disease, no sin, neither nat- 
 ural evil nor moral evil. But there is matter. 
 Some said it was eternal. Some said it was not 
 real, but only a. shadow which existed in the imagi- 
 nation of men. But whether it was a shadow or 
 eternal, it was, or it seemed to be. And the evil 
 was all in the shadow, the matter ; not in the real- 
 ity, the spiritual life. There really was no evil. 
 
 Out of this there sprung two schools of thought 
 again which were singularly contradictory. Be- 
 tween them, so far as I know, no reconciliation was 
 attempted. Both schools started with the aflBrma- 
 tion that matter is undivine. One school said. 
 Since matter is undivine^ since in matter resides 
 evil, therefore we must get rid of it. The issue 
 was asceticism. The other school said. Since mat- 
 ter is undivine, it has no real existence ; we may 
 utterly disregard it. Licentiousness of the body is 
 not a reality, it is only a pretense. Drunkenness 
 is not a reality, it is only a shadow. There is no 
 harm in the shadow. Therefore be drunken if 
 
290 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 you like and be licentious if you like. There is no 
 disease, and there is no sin. Believe that you are 
 well and you will be well ; believe that you are 
 virtuous and you will be virtuous. Sin and disease 
 were regarded only as what a modern school of 
 philosophy calls '' mortal thoughts." Modem 
 Christian Science is an inheritance from the Alex- 
 andrian school. 
 
 This Alexandrian school of philosophy, with its 
 dreaming about God and its definition of God, and 
 its dreaming about sin and its definition of sin, 
 passed over into Greece, and was found at Ephe- 
 sus. And when the Ephesian church became a 
 Christian church, this Oriental philosophy mixed 
 with the Christian doctrine, and out of this inter- 
 mixing of Oriental dreaming, Greek definition, 
 Hebrew activity, and Christian doctrine there grew 
 up what are known as the Gnostic sects of the early 
 Church. So far as history gives us any account of 
 them, they did not g^ow into definite organization 
 until after Paul, but there are abundant evidences 
 of their germ in the epistle to the Ephesians and 
 in that to the Colossians. It would, indeed, seem 
 as though Christian philosophy and this Oriental 
 philosophy were absolutely antagonistic one to the 
 other. This Orientalism was pantheistic. The 
 essence of the Christian religion is the personality 
 of God. This Orientalism was in thought, if not 
 in name, polytheistic. The essence of Christianity, 
 as of Hebraism, is monotheism. This Orientalism 
 regarded law as only a form of nature ; Christianity 
 
LETTERS TO EFHESIANS AND C0L0SSIAN8 291 
 
 regards it as the expression of a wise aud righteous 
 will. This Orientalism regarded sin as only a sem- 
 blance or appearance, or, at best, only an imma- 
 turity in the development of the race. Christianity 
 regards sin as a wiUf ul setting of man's will against 
 God's will. Orientalism said that by and by all 
 life would come back into God by a natural pro- 
 cess, as the clouds come back to the ocean. Chris- 
 tianity held that no man could come back to God 
 without deliberate repentance and deliberate faith. 
 Orientalism held to the absorption at last in the 
 Infinite and the Eternal. Christianity held to an 
 immortal personality. StiU, Orientalism entered 
 the Christian Church, and was a greater peril to 
 it than either paganism or Judaism. Paganism 
 fought Christianity ; an open foe is not much to be 
 dreaded. Judaism would have imprisoned Chris- 
 tianity ; it was not impossible to open the door and 
 let Christianity out from its cage. But this Orien- 
 talism entered the Christian Church itself, cor- 
 rupted it at its very fountain, claimed to be the 
 supreme Christian sect, and looked down with dis- 
 dain upon other and simpler-minded Christians as 
 far below them, ^ — not altogether unlike some- 
 thing we have seen in our own time. 
 
 Paul wrote the epistle to the Ephesians and that 
 to the Colossians with this mental state of the 
 Christians in the province of Asia in mind. The 
 phrases which he uses in these epistles, which to 
 
 1 This peril is admirably described by Sabatier : The Apostle 
 Paul, pp. 221, 222. 
 
292 PAUL TUE APOSTLE 
 
 many of us are unmeaning, were full of significance 
 to those Asiatic Christians. " Principalities," 
 " powers," " rulers," " fullness," these and kindred 
 words were familiar words in the Alexandrian phi- 
 losophy, to describe these secondary gods, these 
 emanations, these manifestations, these representa- 
 tions of the Infinite and the Absolute. Paul does 
 not directly attack Orientalism. He sets before 
 his readers Christianity as containing all that which 
 is necessary to satisfy both the intellectual wants 
 and the spiritual wants recognized by the Alexan- 
 drian schools, because it can satisfy the intellectual 
 wants and the spiritual wants of all humanity. He 
 recognizes in these men a seeking after truth, and 
 he uses their own phrases to show them that Chris- 
 tianity fulfills all that they seek. The epistle to 
 the Ephesians was probably written as a circular 
 letter, and sent, not to the church at Ephesus alone, 
 but to a number of churches, and the copy which 
 has come down to us since is known as the epistle 
 to the Ephesians because it chances to be the copy 
 sent to that one church.^ The epistle to the Colos- 
 sians was probably sent to the church at Colossae 
 alone ; still, it follows substantially the same line 
 of argument, and expounds substantially the same 
 philosophy, and sets forth substantially the same 
 truths, as the epistle to the Ephesians. It may 
 
 1 See McGifEert, The Apostolic Age, pp. 275, 379 fE. Comp. Cony- 
 teare and Howsou, Life and Epistles of Paul, ii. 405 ff. Alford's 
 reply in the Prolegomena to his Commentary on Ephesians appears 
 to me inconclusive. 
 
LETTERS TO EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS 293 
 
 almost be said to be another copy of the circular 
 letter, although not written by a copyist, but 
 freshly rewritten by the apostle. It is not certain 
 which was written first, and it is not material to 
 determine which was written first. I treat Colos- 
 sians first because that sets forth more fully Paul's 
 conception of Christ, which constitutes the founda- 
 tion of his entire treatment of this Alexandrian 
 school of religious philosophy. 
 
 Christ, he says, is himself the one in whom aU 
 fullness dwells, and in whom aU principalities and 
 powers are centred. He is the image of the invisi- 
 ble God, the first-born of the whole creation. In 
 him — that is, by means of him, as the only inter- 
 mediary cause 1 — were all things created that are 
 in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, 
 whether they be thrones or dominions or principal- 
 ities or powers. He does not deny that there are 
 invisible agencies ; he does not afiirm that they ex- 
 ist ; but he says, if there are any, they are all cre- 
 ated by and through Christ. 
 
 " All things are created through him and for him, and 
 he is before all, and in him all things have their unity. 
 And he is the head of the body — the Church ; he is 
 the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all 
 he might have the preeminence ; for it pleased the full- 
 ness of all to dwell in him." ^ 
 
 ^ 4v : the instrument or means by or with which anything is 
 aooomplished. — Thayer's N. T. Gr. Lex. 
 
 2 Col. i. 16-19. Literally : It pleased the whole fullness to 
 dwell in him. 
 
294 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 I do not know where in Paul's epistles you wiU 
 find a better statement of his conception of Christ : 
 the first-born of all creation ; the intermediary in- 
 strument through whom the Infinite and Absolute 
 has become the creator ; the image of the Unknown 
 and the Invisible, and so the revelator of the Un- 
 known and the Invisible ; creator of all, centre of 
 all, authority over aU. And this Christ who is 
 thus above all principalities and powers, this Christ 
 in whom the fuUness of divinity dwells, the fullness 
 which, according to the Oriental school, dwells in 
 all nature and makes all nature God, this one has 
 himself brought together pagan and Jew and be- 
 come the head of the Church and the fullness of 
 the Church. And because he dwells in us, and be- 
 cause he dwells in all things, we are not to be afraid 
 of anything ; we are not to become ascetics ; we 
 are not to set off certain arbitrarily selected things 
 as inherently and essentially evil. 
 
 " Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, 
 or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or sabbath 
 days : which are a shadow of the things to come ; but 
 the body is Christ's." * 
 
 Shadows ! yes, there are shadows ; they are these 
 ascetic rules which the Alexandrian school has 
 borrowed from Oriental philosophy, mingled with 
 Hebrew legislation, and endeavored to impose on 
 the free children of God. Substance ! yes, there 
 is a divine substance, a reality — not an Absolute 
 1 Col. u. 16, 17. 
 
LETTERS TO EPEESIANS AND COLOSSIANS 295 
 
 and Unconditioned ; but the Christ, who reveals 
 the Infinite to men. 
 
 " If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the 
 world,* why, as though living in the world, do ye sub- 
 ject yourselves to ordinances. Handle not, nor taste, nor 
 touch (all which things are to perish with the using), 
 after the precepts and doctrines of men ? " ^ 
 
 Are we, then, to adopt the other hypothesis of 
 Orientalism and conclude that we may use all 
 things as we will ? No ! for if we have this spirit- 
 ual life we shall be lifted above sin, if not above 
 temptation. 
 
 " If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the 
 things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the 
 right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that 
 are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. 
 For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 
 When Christ, our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye 
 also with him be manifested in glory. Put to death, 
 therefore, your members which are upon the earth ; for- 
 nication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetous- 
 ness, which is idolatry ; for which things' sake cometh 
 the wrath of God ; in which ye also walked aforetime, 
 when ye lived in these things." * 
 
 These Orientalists hold that all human relation- 
 ships are but shadows. It is said of Eamkrishna, 
 
 1 That is, the primary rules and regnlations which belong to 
 world-life. 
 
 2 Col. ii. 20-22. 
 8 Col. iii 1-7. 
 
296 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 the modern Messiah of the Vedantic philosophy, 
 that he separated himself from his wife in order 
 that he might live a pure and holy life. But Paul 
 says that we are to carry the new and divine life 
 into these relationships, not to escape from them. 
 Therefore he bids wives obey their husbands ; hus- 
 bands, be gentle and loving to their wives ; children, 
 obey their parents ; parents, provoke not their 
 children ; servants, be obedient to their masters ; 
 masters, be considerate to their servants, remem- 
 bering that they also have a master. In short, 
 Paul, starting with this doctrine that Jesus Christ 
 is the only intermediary between the Infinite and 
 humanity, the one mediator between God and man,^ 
 and is thus mediately the Creator, the Revealer, 
 the Redeemer, declares that life from him is to flow 
 into God's children ; and this life will, on the one 
 hand, make them free from the prohibitions of as- 
 ceticism, and, on the other hand, will lift them 
 above corruption. This is Paul's letter to the 
 Colossians, briefly stated. 
 
 His letter to the Ephesians begins with a similar 
 definition of Christ, but proceeds rather along spir- 
 itual than along ethical lines. In it Paul declares, 
 more elaborately, that this Christ has reconciled 
 pagan and Jew. He declares more fully how this 
 life dwelling in man makes a new life to proceed 
 from him, and he defines, more eloquently than 
 anywhere else in Scripture, the essence of the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 1 Comp. 1 Tim. ii. 5. 
 
LETTERS TO EPHESIAN8 AND COLOSSIANS 297 
 
 "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, 
 from whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is 
 named, that he would grant you, according to the riches 
 of his glory, to be strengthened with power by means of 
 his Spirit in the inward man ; that Christ may dwell in 
 your hearts through faith ; to the end that ye, being 
 rooted and grounded in love, may have the ability to 
 apprehend with all the holy, with all saints, what is the 
 breadth, and length, and depth, and height [of love] ; and 
 to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that 
 ye might be filled even unto all the fullness of God." ' 
 
 This, as we have already seen, is Paul's concep- 
 tion of religion ; it is not obedience to any external 
 law, whether human or divine, though such obedi- 
 ence proceeds from religion ; it is a new and divine 
 life, a life from within, the life of God in the soul 
 of man, who is to be filled absolutely full, even 
 unto all the fullness of God. And it is that men 
 may thus be filled with God that he has appointed 
 a church, and in it ordained various officers. 
 The whole scope and end of the Church, its sole 
 function, is making divinely filled men, conform- 
 ably to Christ, who is the ideal Man, that he may 
 be the first-born among many brethren.^ 
 
 " And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, 
 and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teach- 
 ers, for the perfecting of the holy in the work of service, 
 to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all come 
 unto the unity of the faith and of the perfect knowledge 
 of the Son of God, unto a perfect manhood, unto the 
 1 Eph. iii. 14^19. ^ Rom. viii. 29. 
 
298 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ; in order 
 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro 
 and carried hither and yon by every breath of teach- 
 ing, in the mere hap-hazard of men, in all sorts of ways 
 after the method of the wanderer ; but, speaking the 
 truth in love, may in everything grow up into Him who 
 is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, 
 fitly joined and knitted together, by that bond of union 
 which is furnished by all the joints, makes increase of 
 the body unto the buUding of itself up in love, as the 
 vital energy is effectual in every part."^ 
 
 Yet it is no mystical experience apart from life, 
 which Paul commends to his readers. As he has 
 told the Romans, in the twelfth chapter of his let- 
 ter to them, what practical results will flow from 
 the life of sonship with God, so in his letter to the 
 Ephesians he condemns that pseudo-piety which 
 disregards morality, and makes the liberty of the 
 children of God an excuse for living like the chil- 
 dren of the flesh. 
 
 " This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye 
 no more walk as the other nations walk, in useless 
 thoughts, being darkened in the understanding, being 
 alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance 
 which is in them, because of the hardness of their 
 hearts ; who being without feeling, have given them- 
 selves over to outrageous conduct, to work out every 
 form of impurity in their inordinate desires. But ye 
 have not so learned Christ, if indeed ye have paid heed 
 to Him and been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus ; 
 that ye put aside that which accords with your former 
 1 Eph. iv. 11-16. 
 
LETTERS TO EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS 299 
 
 manner of life, the old man, that which is corrupt, that 
 which is formed in accord with delusive desires ; and that 
 ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind [i. e. the spiritual 
 faculties of your nature] and invest yourselves with the 
 new man, that which is created in accord with God, in 
 righteousness and in that piety which is of the truth." ■^ 
 
 lu our own time Oriental philosophy has again 
 crossed the ocean and come to America, borne on 
 the wings of the wind in literature, or brought by 
 missionaries of an Oriental faith. Their messages 
 are welcome. There is something we have to learn 
 from them. For we must not forget, as we often 
 have forgotten, tbat Christianity was born midway 
 between the Occident and the Orient ; that it is 
 neither Oriental nor Occidental in its origin ; that 
 it has something of the quality of both. We must 
 not forget, what we sometimes have been inclined 
 to forget, that we are Occidentals, and perhaps 
 have seen Christianity only in part. We must 
 remember that all our creeds and confessions re- 
 present, not Christianity, but certain Occidental 
 phases of Christianity : the Apostles' Creed, primi- 
 tive Christianity ; the Creed of Pius Ninth, Ro- 
 man Christianity ; the Westminster Confession of 
 Faith, Calvinistic Christianity ; the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, Anglican Christianity ; and even the 
 writings and sermons of Maurice and Brooks and 
 Erskine and Bushnell and Beecher, modern Anglo- 
 Saxon Christianity. Mozoomdar has taught us 
 by his " Oriental Christ " that there is a concep- 
 1 Eph. iv. 17-24. 
 
300 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 tion of Christianity possible to the Oriental which 
 we, who are inclined to think that nothing is true 
 which cannot be mathematically defined, have not 
 yet been able to comprehend. And if these mes- 
 sengers from the Far East, setting their Oriental 
 philosophy before us, shall compel us to reexamine 
 our Christianity, and the character and the life of 
 Christ, not in the light of any of our creeds, an- 
 cient or modern, but in the light of the larger 
 knowledge of the nineteenth century, they will 
 render us a service. 
 
 But, on the other hand, if we meet this philoso- 
 phy in the spirit of Paul, we shaU not meet it as 
 those who say, We can take something from Ori- 
 entalism, something from Christianity, and amal- 
 gamate them, and out of them get a universal 
 religion. Christianity is absolutely exclusive, be- 
 cause it is absolutely inclusive. There is but one 
 God — not a Jehovah and a Jupiter and an Odin 
 and a Thor : one God. And there is but one 
 Lord Jesus Christ — not a Confucius and a Soc- 
 rates and a Siddartha and a Mohammed and a 
 Joe Smith and a Jesus Christ : one Lord Jesus 
 Christ. And to accept Christianity is to accept 
 him as the one and only Messiah of the world. 
 That is what the apostle means when he says 
 there is none other name given under heaven 
 among men whereby we can be saved. Jesus 
 Christ is the world's Saviour ; not a Saviour of 
 the Hebrew race or of a Christian people, while 
 other people are to be saved by their own religions 
 
LETTERS TO EPEESIANS AND COLOSSIANS 301 
 
 in other ways. And this Christianity is an exclu- 
 sive religion because it is an inclusive religion. 
 Maurice has said that Christianity has in it aU 
 that is best and true in other religions. We may 
 use other spiritual thinkers to interpret this our 
 religion ; but we may not amalgamate this with 
 other religions, or think we have yet to search the 
 world for a universal religion because we think 
 that the one we now have is provincial. 
 
 Religion as a philosophy has four questions to an- 
 swer : "What is God ? What is man ? What is the 
 relation between God and man ? What is the life 
 which man is to live when he understands and en- 
 ters into that relation ? There is no other question 
 than these four. Christianity has given its answer 
 to each one of these four questions. What is God ? 
 God is one ; the true, righteous, loving, helpful 
 Father of the whole human race. And God is 
 love. And love, God's love, perfect love, is inter- 
 preted by the life Jesus Christ lived on the earth. 
 What is man? Man is in the image of God. If 
 he is not, if he fails in that, he fails of being truly 
 a man. Not until he has come to be in the image 
 of God will he be a man. Is this a statue ? I can 
 see a nose and a mouth emerging from the half- 
 hewn marble. No, it is not a statue ; it is a 
 half-done statue. Wait until the sculptor is 
 through with his work, then shall we see the statue. 
 Not till God is through with his work shall we see 
 a man ; and the world has seen only one true man, 
 the man Christ Jesus. What is the relation be- 
 
302 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 tween this God and this man ? It is that of the 
 most intimate fellowship of which the human soul 
 can conceive ; one life dwelling in the other life, 
 and filling the other life full of his own fullness. 
 No closer relationship between God and the human 
 soul than that can be conceived. When this full- 
 ness has been realized, when we have the fullness 
 of God in us, when God has finished the man, 
 what will be the result in life ? Just such a life as 
 Christ lived, with all the splendor of self-sacrifice, 
 all the glory of service, all the heroism, all the 
 enduring patience. What has Orientalism to add 
 to this response which Christianity makes to the 
 problems of life ? It offers reincarnation on eartln 
 for a new and nobler life in a spiritual sphere. It] 
 offers a dream of the Infinite for a living com/ 
 panionship with a living God. Sin and repentance 
 it knows not ; nor redemption, for it cannot know 
 redemption save as it knows sin and repentanc^. 
 And for the eternal life which the gospel of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ offers, and for the rest whicH 
 comes from fullness of life, it offers Nirvana — tW 
 rest of the grave and of an endless sleep. 
 
CHAPTEE XVI 
 
 THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS 
 
 Paul had been mobbed in Jerusalem, and ar- 
 rested because he was mobbed, and then brought 
 before the judge, and, finding little hope of justice, 
 had taken an appeal, as a Roman citizen had a 
 right to do, to Caesar. He had been put on board 
 a government vessel for Rome. He had taken a 
 long and dangerous passage — dangerous in the 
 winter season, and proving itself especially dan- 
 gerous in his case. He had come up to Rome a 
 prisoner in bonds. He had appealed to Caesar, 
 and more depended on the appeal than his own 
 personal liberty ; for he stood for religious free- 
 dom. Up to this time religious freedom had been 
 recognized in imperial Rome. The various reli- 
 gions of the various provinces had been suffered to 
 live, and to proclaim their tenets ; there had been 
 no governmental persecution of any of them ; and 
 Paul stood for this right to preach the religion 
 which he himself professed. But the case dragged, 
 as cases will even in our time. For two years he 
 remained in Rome a prisoner, though with liber- 
 ties. Part of the time he appears to have been 
 chained to a soldier to prevent his escape ; part of 
 
304 PAUL TEE APOSTLE 
 
 the time he went, as it were, on parole and lived in 
 his own hired house, and men came to him and he 
 instructed them in the principles of the gospel of 
 Christ. 
 
 It was at this time that he wrote the epistle to 
 the Philippians. It is of all the epistles the least 
 a treatise, except that very short letter, which is 
 hardly more than a note, called the Letter to 
 Philemon. It contains no distinct theological doc- 
 trine, though it is theological as everything which 
 Paul wrote was theological — that is, pervaded 
 with a deep religious spirit formulated in. theologi- 
 cal statements. The Philippians had sent him 
 what I may call a missionary box as a token of 
 their affection, and as a provision for his supposed 
 needs. His letter is a letter of personal thanks to 
 them for this remembrance of him. 
 
 In it, more than in any other of his epistles, we 
 see the heart of Paul — his inmost life. Says 
 Lightfoot, " It is the noblest reflection of Paul's 
 personal character and spiritual illumination, his 
 large sympathies, his womanly tenderness, his deli- 
 cate courtesy." To the same effect is Sabatier: 
 " These pages were written from a single inspira- 
 tion. We may add that they do not so much 
 exhibit the apostle's theological creed as the feel- 
 ings of his heart and the maturity of his religious 
 life. There is here a wealth of Christian experi- 
 ence, a fullness of faith, a strength and delicacy 
 of affection, which remind us of the finest chapters 
 in the second letter to the Corinthians. There is 
 
TBE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS 305 
 
 the same overflowing inner life ; only prolonged 
 meditations have deepened, calmed, and matured 
 it." Equally explicit, and not less eloquent, is the 
 witness of our own great American scholar. Dr. 
 McGiffert, of Union Theological Seminary : " The 
 whole epistle, in fact, with its warm expression of 
 affection, with its hearty recognition of the devo- 
 tion of the Philippians, and with its unaffected 
 gratitude for their liberality, combined with its 
 kindly and yet frank and earnest admonitions, 
 furnishes one of the most charming illustrations 
 we have of the apostle's personal character, and of 
 the closeness of the ties which bound him and his 
 coevals together." 
 
 It is not easy to phrase such a letter in words 
 other than those in which the writer himself has 
 phrased it. It is not possible to reformulate it, 
 as one can reformulate theology, in different and 
 modern language. We must try to see what his 
 life has been, what his present circumstances are, 
 and then turn to the epistle itself and read in his 
 own words some of these utterances which express 
 his heart's inner life. 
 
 It is twenty-eight or thirty years since Paul's 
 conversion. They have been years full of hardship 
 and disappointment. When he was first converted, 
 with the enthusiasm of a young convert he thought 
 that he had but to expound his faith, and the Phar- 
 isees, of whom he was one, would accept it. He 
 argued with the Lord that Jerusalem was the place 
 for his ministry, because the Pharisees knew him, 
 
306 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 understood his prejudices, and would listen to his 
 message.^ Hard as his experience and bitter as his 
 disappointment were, he never seems to have gotten 
 over this sanguine faith in man. Whenever he 
 went into a new city he always went into the syna- 
 gogue first, always preached to the Jews first, al- 
 ways seems to have expected that they would hear 
 him, and to have suffered a new disappointment 
 when they refused. One cannot but admire this 
 hopefulness, that nothing can discourage, nothing 
 can overthrow. 
 
 Twenty-eight or thirty years have passed by, and 
 Israel, whom he so loves that he says, " I could al- 
 most be willing to be accursed from Christ myself 
 if I could only bring them to know him and to love 
 him," still rejects the Christ and will none of him. 
 But it is not alone in the old church which he has 
 left that he is disappointed ; in the new which he 
 has entered he is also disappointed. From the very 
 first he was looked upon with suspicion. The dis- 
 ciples knew him only as one who had persecuted 
 them, and feared that he was pretending conversion 
 that he might get into their conventicles and the 
 better carry on his persecution. He knew none of 
 them, he says, by face, except one or two.^ Even 
 the leaders looked at him askance. If subsequently 
 he withstood Peter to his face, doubtless Peter 
 withstood him to his face also. James was doubt- 
 ful about his course, and counseled him to take a 
 different one, — counsel to which in one unwise 
 1 Acts xxii. 17-21. 2 Gal. i. 18, 19. 
 
THE LETTER TO TEE PHILIPPIANS 307 
 
 moment lie yielded, bringing disaster into his life.^ 
 This faction in the Christian Church which looked 
 on him with suspicion never ceased while Paul 
 lived, nor for many years after. Wherever he 
 went he was followed by Judaizing Christians, who 
 could not understand his gospel and who vigo- 
 rously antagonized it. It is not easy to stand in a 
 Christian pulpit and preach a Christian gospel and 
 believe that you are interpreting the Christ, and 
 have brethren of your own in the church think 
 that you are undermining faith and destroying it, 
 and misunderstand and misreport and misrepre- 
 sent you. This was Paul's experience at a time 
 when the opportunities for correcting misappre- 
 hension were far less than in our own time. 
 
 Disappointed in the Christian Church, he was 
 again and again disappointed in his expectation 
 from the Gentiles. He looked out upon its dark- 
 ness and its misery, and he felt sure that he had a 
 faith which, if he could put it into the hearts of 
 the children of men, would revolutionize the world, 
 dissipate the darkness, take away the misery, eman- 
 cipate mankind, bring in the kingdom of God. 
 But in this also he was disappointed. Athens 
 laughed at him. Corinth listened, for the most 
 part, contemptuously, and went back to its worldli- 
 ness. Philippi persecuted him. Ephesus mobbed 
 his companions, and would have mobbed him could 
 the mob have reached him. His auditors among the 
 pagans were gathered from the poorer and lower 
 1 Acts xxi. 18-30. 
 
308 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 classes. You see, he said, not many rich, not many 
 wise, not many noble, are called.-' He was, as Cole- 
 ridge has said, one of the finest gentlemen of 
 whom history gives any record ; not without some 
 means ; a man of culture ; of fine education ; who 
 had added to education that culture which travel 
 brings ; and yet his constituency were the poor, the 
 outcast, the ignorant, the despised, the freedman, 
 and the slave. There were few among the people 
 whom he knew from whom he could draw life. 
 
 Moreover, his own churches, those which had 
 grown up under his ministry, turned against him. 
 Again and again the planting of his own hands he 
 saw perverted or corrupted. He had been received 
 by the Galatians with enthusiasm ; and he had 
 seen them dropping away from him, suspecting his 
 motives and abandoning his ministry, and going 
 back into Judaism. He had been welcomed by 
 enthusiastic disciples in Corinth ; and he had seen 
 them dividing into sects, and himself traduced by 
 emissaries who undermined his authority and ques- 
 tioned his motives. He had been so aroused with 
 indignation that once he started to go back to Co- 
 rinth, by his own personal presence to do battle with 
 those who had misrepresented and misreported, 
 and then stopped because he did not quite dare to 
 trust his temper under the circumstances. He had 
 seen corruption enter into the churches of Ephesus 
 and Colossse ; he had seen them turned away from 
 the simplicity which was in the Lord Jesus Christ 
 
 1 1 Cor. i. 26, 27. 
 
TBE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS 309 
 
 by the Orientalism which had been imported from 
 Alexandria, and under its influence a mongrel reli- 
 gion grow up — polytheistic and pantheistic, lack- 
 ing the simplicity of the Hebrew faith. And these 
 were the churches he had himself established. 
 Sometimes the question must have come upon him 
 whether anything he had done would stand after 
 he had left. " The care of the churches which 
 comes upon me daily," he puts as the climax of all 
 the burdens which he bore. 
 
 And yet there was a still heavier burden. Dis- 
 appointed in his own people, disappointed in the 
 Christian Church, disappointed in the instability 
 of the pagans, disappointed in the recreancy and 
 the apostasy of the churches which he had himself 
 established, he was disappointed in his own spiritual 
 hopes. He had fully believed that Jesus Christ 
 would come in a very little while. He had looked 
 for his return from month to month, from day to 
 day. He had entered on his mission with a strong 
 faith that the Lord was about to establish by power 
 the kingdom of God on the earth, and he had thought 
 that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the attes- 
 tation and evidence that he would so come and 
 would overthrow imperial Romanism and establish 
 the kingdom of God in its place. But the days 
 had lengthened into months and the months into 
 years, and the years into more than twoscore years, 
 and still there was no sign of his coming. Hope 
 deferred might well have made the heart sick. 
 He no longer looked for the coming of the Lord 
 
310 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 and the establishment of the kingdom in his own 
 time. 
 
 Then hope had taken a new form : the hope that 
 Rome, imperial Rome, would itself become a Chris- 
 tian power. Four centuries later it did ; but four 
 centuries is a long while to wait. Paul had hoped 
 to live to see the day. And now he was beginning 
 to question whether he should even be permitted to 
 give the message of this Christ in the Roman Em- 
 pire. The clouds of approaching persecution were 
 gathering upon the horizon, the mutterings of the 
 coming storm could be distinctly heard, while he 
 stands in Rome for that liberty wfhieh up to that 
 time never had been denied. And he was alone ; 
 a prisoner ; part of the time chained to a soldier 
 companion ; forsaken by others ; his own compan- 
 ions scattered ; alone ; uncertain as to the issue of 
 the trial ; wondering whether it would end in death, 
 not only to him, but to the liberty of the gospel ; 
 or in his emancipation and in a larger liberty and 
 a larger opportunity. What is more likely to take 
 the life out of man than this perplexity and uncer- 
 tainty ? 
 
 But more than all this, suppose he won a victory, 
 what then ? Already his prophetic vision forecast 
 the future. He saw — he could not have failed to 
 see, and this epistle to the Philippians gives us 
 hints that he saw — that the Judaistic faction which 
 had followed him all his life was about to triumph 
 over him in the church which he had founded. 
 That faction would enthrone itself in Rome. If 
 
TEE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS 311 
 
 imperial Rome became Christian Rome, Chris- 
 tian Rome would also become imperial Rome ; 
 the Christianity which would centre itself there 
 would not be a gospel of liberty ; it would be a 
 law proceeding from a human head and enforced 
 by human pains and penalties. The shadow of 
 this fear crossed his path and added to his sad- 
 ness. 
 
 Disappointed in his own people ; suspected in 
 the Christian Church ; more than once deserted by 
 the churches which he had founded ; disappointed 
 in his own earlier faith of Christ's speedy coming ; 
 beginning to question whether he would not be 
 disappointed in his second expectation of the con- 
 version of the Roman Empire ; alone ; imprisoned ; 
 forbidden the liberty of action in which such a soul 
 as his finds relief ; and already beginning to fore- 
 shadow defeat in that which was vital to him — the 
 liberty wherewith Christ makes free — he writes 
 this letter to the Philippians. It records Paul's 
 religion under trial. It would not have been 
 strange if such a man in such circumstances should 
 have written a letter like the Forty-second and 
 Forty-third Psalms. It would not be strange if in 
 this letter were found hope struggling with despair 
 in the alternate cry, " O God, my soul is cast down 
 within me ! " and the answer, " I shall yet trust in 
 him who is my God." What do we find? Joy 
 — thanks : and this is the motif of this symphony, 
 which runs through it all : — 
 
 "I thank my God upon my every remembrance of 
 
312 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 you, always in every supplication of mine on behalf of 
 you all making my supplication with joy for your fel- 
 lowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day 
 until now ; being confident of this very thing, that he 
 which began a good work in you will perfect it until the 
 day of Jesus Christ : even as it is right for me to be 
 thus minded on behalf of you all, because I have you in 
 my heart, inasmuch as, both in my bonds and in the 
 defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all par- 
 takers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how 
 I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ 
 Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound 
 yet more and more in knowledge and aU discernment ; 
 so that ye may approve the things that are excellent ; 
 in order that ye may stand the test of the light, nor 
 cause others to stumble, even unto the day of Christ ; 
 being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are 
 through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of 
 God." 1 
 
 Joy sings through this letter from beginning to 
 end. This is the song of the apostle whom one 
 might well expect to have been discouraged, and 
 ready, if not to abandon hope, to cling to it with 
 despair. He has told the Corinthians that the 
 last enemy to be destroyed is death ; the last 
 enemy has been destroyed for him. He fears him 
 no longer. 
 
 " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But 
 if to live in the flesh, — if this is the fruit of my work, 
 then what I shall choose I know not. But I am in a 
 
 1 Phil. i. 3-11. 
 
THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS 313 
 
 strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and 
 be with Christ ; for it is very far better : yet to abide 
 in the flesh is more needful for your sake." ' 
 
 I have stood by the bedside of men who wished 
 to die, and who, coming back to life again, saw 
 recovery as a defeat ; and I have stood by the bed- 
 side of men who wished not to die, and to whom 
 the going was like a crucifixion. But here is a 
 man who, when death knocks at his door, says, 
 Come in and I will rejoice ; stay out and I will re- 
 joice ; for to live and continue in my work is good, 
 but to depart and be with Christ is still better. 
 
 He tells the Philippians what is Christian life 
 and Christian character in a passage which is often 
 quoted for its doctrinal bearing on the person of 
 Christ, but which, as Paul used it, is chiefly an 
 exposition of what should be the spirit of the 
 Christian : — 
 
 " Be intent within yourselves on this on which Christ 
 Jesus was intent, who, although formerly he bore the form 
 of God, yet did not think that this equality with God was 
 something to be eagerly clung to, but emptied himself 
 of it, so as to assume the form of a servant, in that he 
 became like unto men, and being found in fashion as a 
 man he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto 
 death, and that the death of the cross." ^ 
 
 This the mind — not to count even equality with 
 
 God a prize to be seized upon ; ready to step down 
 
 from any office or any rank, how high soever it be, 
 
 in order to serve others ; ready to empty one's self 
 
 1 PhU. i. 21-24. 2 ptii. ii. 5_8. 
 
314 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 of scholarship, wisdom, place, honor, emoluments, 
 so that by emptying himself he may fill others. 
 Easy to preach ; not so easy to live. But when 
 one has this life, then he can say, as Paul says a 
 little later, " I know both how to be abased and 
 how to abound." That is a difficult knowledge. 
 There are some men who know how to be abased 
 and walk in humility ; there are some men who 
 know how to abound and walk in wealth and large- 
 ness of life ; but to know how to go from the val- 
 ley to the mountain top and from the mountain 
 top back into the valley again, and go singing all 
 the time, alike in fog and sunshine, alike in dark- 
 ness and light — who knows this secret, save him 
 who has the mind which was in that One who 
 emptied himself and was made in the form of a 
 servant ? and where in human history will you 
 find the man who shows more of this mind of 
 Christ Jesus than this Apostle Paul ? And yet he 
 does not count himself to have it, he only counts 
 himself eagerly to desire it : — 
 
 " Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I 
 counted loss for Christ. Yea verily, and I count all 
 things to be loss by reason of the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : through whom I 
 suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but 
 refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not 
 having a righteousness of mine own, even that which 
 proceeds from the law, but that which is through faith 
 in Christ, the righteousness which proceeds from God 
 and is bestowed upon faith : that I may know him, and 
 
THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS 315 
 
 the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his 
 sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death ; if by 
 any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the 
 dead." ^ 
 
 Observe the strange climax ! First, the power 
 of Christ's resurrection; next, the fellowship in 
 his suffering ; last of all, conformity to his death 
 — this the highest, this the most desired. 
 
 " Not that I have already obtained, or am already 
 made perfect : but I press on, if so be that I may lay 
 hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ 
 Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid 
 hold on him : but one thing, forgetting the things which 
 are behind, and stretching forward to the things which 
 are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of 
 the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus." ^ 
 
 As Matthew sat at the receipt of customs, and 
 Christ came and touched him on the shoulder and 
 said, " Follow me," and he left his table and fol- 
 lowed, so Paul conceives himself as sitting in the 
 market-place, and Christ coming and touching him 
 and saying, " Follow me," and himself rising up 
 to foUow him. Yet he always follows a fleeing 
 Christ ; always drawing nearer, yet always seeing 
 Christ still on beyond ; always hearing the voice 
 crying to him, " Onward ! forward ! " rejoicing 
 even in the dangers and the failures and the dis- 
 appointments, because out of them grows a larger, 
 a richer, a diviner life. 
 
 Do we not wish that Paul had told us how we 
 1 PhU. m. 7-11. = Phil. iii. 12-14. 
 
316 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 might enlarge this life of ours ; how in our poverty, 
 in our imperfect Christian experience, we might 
 grow into the larger, richer life ? These words 
 "Have faith in Christ," have almost lost their 
 meaning ; they are too conventional ; we do not un- 
 derstand ; we want some plain, practical, simple 
 directions how to cultivate in ourselves this life 
 that will rejoice in wrestling, in conflict, in disap- 
 pointment and in sorrow ; that shall follow on and 
 never attain, and yet always rejoice to follow on ! 
 Paul gives it to his friends and readers : — 
 
 " Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatso- 
 ever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, 
 whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
 whatsoever things are of good report; whatever is vir- 
 tuous, and whatever is praiseworthy, think on these 
 things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and 
 received, and heard, and seen in me, practice these 
 things, and the God of peace shall be with you." ^ 
 
 Look out, he says, upon this world. You may 
 look on its bad side, its cruel side, its shameful 
 side, but there are other things to see. There are 
 pure things and honorable things, there are glori- 
 ous things and heroic things ; there are noble sides 
 to human nature and splendid sides to human life. 
 Look on those things, think on those things, feed 
 on those things, and then, thinking, feeding, look- 
 ing, seeing, do those things, and the peace of God 
 shall dwell with you. 
 
 Paul is acquitted. The right to preach the 
 I Phil. iv. 8, 9. 
 
TEE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS 317 
 
 gospel is triumphant. And he goes his way, and 
 travels as far west as Spain, preaching ; and comes 
 back again ; and three or four or five years later is 
 rearrested and brought again to Kome. The era 
 of cruel persecution has set in ; the charge against 
 Nero of setting fire to Rome Nero has determined 
 to escape by putting it upon the Christians. Paul 
 is brought to trial, and there is no offense found in 
 him, save only this, that he is a Christian. And 
 now he has no hope — or shall I rather say, no 
 fear ? — of acquittal ; now he sees that presently he 
 shall indeed depart and be with Christ, which is far 
 better ; and he sums up the whole story of his life, 
 all his past, and the whole prophecy of his life, 
 all its forelooking in one luminous sentence in his 
 second letter to Timothy : ^ " I have fought a good 
 fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the 
 faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown 
 of righteousness, which God the righteous Saviour 
 will give to me, and not to me only, but to all them 
 that love his appearing." The whole of Paul's 
 theology is summed up in that last parting word of 
 his to his friends in Jesus Christ. Life is a battle 
 — fight it bravely ; life a course — run it eagerly ; 
 life a faith-keeping — hold it firmly; but do not 
 think to win the righteousness by your battle, by 
 your race, or by your faith-keeping : God wiU give 
 it to you ; it is his free gift, if you simply love him 
 and wish to see him. 
 
 1 Whether he wrote the letter or not this sentence is thoroughly 
 Pauline in its spirit. 
 
CHAPTER XVn 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 In bringing this volume on the life and epistles 
 of Paul to a close, I purpose, in this chapter, to 
 indicate the relation of his theological teaching, as 
 here interpreted, both to the theology which pre- 
 ceded and to that which has followed it. 
 
 Paganism has generally represented God or the 
 gods as wrathful with men because of their sins. 
 It has represented, therefore, the necessity of ap- 
 peasing that wrath in order to secure the forgive- 
 ness of sins. The religious ceremonials of pagan 
 religions, with few if any exceptions, have been, 
 not for the purpose of ascertaining the will of God, 
 or of praising him, or even of confessing sin to 
 him, but chiefly for the purpose of placating his 
 anger and avoiding the evil consequences which 
 would come from that anger. They have generally 
 also assumed a great gulf between man and God, 
 and the necessity of some intermediary to mediate 
 between man and God or the gods ; and these inter- 
 mediaries they have called priests, the object of the 
 priest being to represent man to God, because man 
 was so estranged from God by his sins that he 
 could not himself come into the presence of God or 
 the gods. 
 
CONCLUSION 319 
 
 Thus has grown up the system of sacrifices and 
 of priests, with all that which has gathered about 
 them. The essential principles of Mosaism — that 
 is, of the teaching of Moses, as it is to be found in 
 the oldest book of the Bible, the Book of the Cove- 
 nant ^ — struck at the heart of this whole expiatory 
 conception. Its fundamental declaration was this : 
 God is a righteous God, and he demands righteous- 
 ness of his children, and he demands nothing else. 
 On the one hand was the affirmation that, no mat- 
 ter what sacrifices are offered and no matter what 
 priests are employed, if man is not righteous he 
 will not appease God's wrath, and will not be satis- 
 factory to him. On the other hand was the decla- 
 ration that, if man is righteous, if he obey God's 
 law, if he does do what God has told him to do, 
 God will ask nothing else, he will be satisfied. By 
 obedience and only by obedience can man be recon- 
 ciled to God, and be acceptable to him.^ 
 
 Thus there were two conceptions presented be- 
 fore the world : First, the conception that God or 
 the gods are angry and must be satisfied by sacri- 
 fices offered to them ; second, the conception that 
 God is a righteous God and is satisfied by obedi- 
 ence to his law. These two intermingled in the 
 Jewish nation, and out of them grew the Levitical 
 system. In this system the original and simple 
 teaching of Moses was radically modified. The 
 
 1 Exodns XX. -xxiv. 7. 
 
 ^ See for example Ex. X7. 26 ; Lev. xxvi. 3 S. ; Deut. xxviiL 
 Iff. 
 
320 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 Levitical system insisted upon sacrifices, but very 
 much simpler sacrifices than did the pagans. The 
 pagans measured the value of sacrifice by the cost 
 of the thing sacrificed. The Levitical system 
 reversed this ; it forbade giving to God an imper- 
 fect gift of little value to the giver, but it put no 
 emphasis on the cost of the gift : a man might 
 offer a bullock or a lamb or a pair of doves or a 
 sheaf of wheat. The value depended, not on the 
 thing offered, but on the spirit of the offerer. But 
 still, under the Levitical system, sacrifices were 
 required, and in its later development they were 
 required to be offered in one place (a certain tem- 
 ple in Jerusalem), and they were required to be 
 offered through a certain priesthood appointed for 
 that purpose, and no one else was permitted to 
 approacb the Almighty with those sacrifices. The 
 priesthood was necessary ; the sacrifices were ne- 
 cessary. Thus the old paganism, modified by 
 Mosaism, was wrought into the Levitical law. 
 Against it the prophets protested again and again. 
 Again and again they declared of Jehovah that he 
 desired not sacrifices, that the sacrifices of God 
 are a broken spirit ; again and again they repeated, 
 in substance, the declaration of Micah, " What 
 doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, 
 love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God ? " 
 Thus there were in Jewish history three systems — 
 the pagan system, the Mosaic system, and the in- 
 termingling of the two in the Levitical system. 
 When Jesus Christ came to the world, he re- 
 
CONCLUSION 321 
 
 peated the teaching of the Old Testament prophets, 
 bo far as we know, he never offered a sacrifice him- 
 self, and he never advised others to offer sacrifices. 
 When men confessed to him their sins, he told them 
 their sins were forgiven ; never did he send them 
 to the priest to make the offering for sin which, 
 under the Levitical code, as under the pagan sys- 
 tem, was regarded essential in order to secure the 
 forgiveness of sin.i He thus disregarded, though 
 he did not directly assail, the pagan and the Levit- 
 ical system. And, further, he undermined it by 
 denying its fundamental postulate. He always 
 represented God as a Father who is ready at once 
 to receive the erring child the moment he returns 
 to his Father with contrition and confession.^ 
 
 But he went far beyond Mosaism, even as it 
 had been interpreted by the most radical of the 
 prophets. Mosaism had said, You must render 
 yourself acceptable to God by obedience to law. 
 But Christ in the Sermon on the Mount declared 
 that obedience to external law is not enough. A 
 man might not commit adultery and yet might be 
 impure. A man might not be guilty of profanity 
 and yet might lack in simplicity of nature. A man 
 might not kill and yet be wrathful. Nothing, he 
 said, will satisfy the law of God except purity of 
 heart. " Except your righteousness exceed the 
 righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees," that 
 
 1 The case of the leper told to show himself to the priest is no 
 exception. Luke xrii. 14. See ante, p. 192. 
 
 2 Luke XT. 20 ff. 
 
322 PAUL THE AFOSTLE 
 
 is, unless there is something very different from 
 and something far beyond obedience to laws which 
 you suppose God has issued from his judgment 
 throne, your righteousness will not avail. You 
 must have an inward life. Your outward life must 
 flow from this inward life. And then, in the close 
 of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells his disci- 
 ples how this inward life is to be obtained. As a 
 father will give to the child that which it asks, so 
 the heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to 
 those that ask him.i " Ask, and ye shall receive ; 
 seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be 
 opened unto you." Life is God's gift. Ask for 
 it, obtain it, then live it. This is the Sermon on 
 the Mount. 
 
 The disciples, however, did not understand ; and 
 after Christ died they interpreted this message of 
 the gospel through Mosaism, and later theology 
 modified it to make it harmonize with Leviticalism. 
 To Paul above all the apostles we owe the inter- 
 pretation of this gospel of Christ, as contrasted 
 with paganism, with Leviticalism, and even with 
 Mosaism. According to Paul, God gives his own 
 life freely to all who are willing to receive that 
 life. This gift of life Paul customarily calls grace, 
 a word identical in origin with the word gratis, 
 which we have borrowed from the Latin. It means 
 free gift. Paul, then, declares that God gives life 
 as a free gift. It is not to be purchased. The 
 pagan is wrong in thinking that it must be pur- 
 1 Luke xi. 13. 
 
CONCLUSION 323 
 
 chased by great sacrifices ; the Levitical law is 
 wrong in thinking that it must be purchased by 
 any sacrifice ; and the Pharisees are wrong in 
 thinking that it must be purchased by obedience to 
 law. It is not to be purchased at all. There is no 
 price to be paid for it. It is not bought by a sac- 
 rifice, nor by obedience, nor by repentance ; it is 
 not bought at all. God gives life to all who are 
 willing to receive it. And this willingness to re- 
 ceive it, this desire to possess it, this determination 
 to have it, this choice of it with all which that 
 choice involves, this is faith. So Paul says the 
 pagan is wrong, there is no wrath of God to be ap- 
 peased by sacrifice ; the Jew is wrong, there is no 
 distance from God to be bridged by a priest and an 
 altar and a Jewish ritual ; the Pharisee is wrong, 
 there is no satisfaction of God to be purchased, no 
 reconciliation with him to be bought, by obeying 
 the laws which he has issued. We are simply to 
 take the free gift of God — his life — and then live 
 freely, spontaneously, naturally, because we have 
 received it. " Whosoever will, let him take of the 
 water of life freely." ^ 
 
 Hardly had the Roman Empire been nominally 
 converted to Christianity, before the northern bar- 
 barians conquered imperial Rome. Then began a 
 gradual process in which the paganism of the 
 northern barbarians and the Judaistic Christianity 
 of Rome, that is. Paganism, Judaism, Mosaism, 
 and what I will call Paulinism, intermingled to 
 
 1 Rev. xxii. 17. 
 
324 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 make historic Christianity. The days of our week 
 borrow their titles from paganism. Monday is 
 Moon's day ; Sunday is Sun's day ; Tuesday is 
 Tiw's or Zeus's day ; "Wednesday is Odin's day ; 
 Thursday is Thor's day ; Friday is Freyja's day ; 
 Saturday is Saturn's day : each a day dedicated 
 to a pagan god or goddess. It is not possible that 
 we should have borrowed so much of our life from 
 paganism as to have entitled the very days of our 
 week by the names of pagan deities, and not bor- 
 rowed something of their thought and incorporated 
 it in our theology and our ecclesiasticism. If our 
 secular life became thus pervaded by the traditions 
 of a northern paganism, it ought not to surprise us 
 that paganism entered our church services, our sys- 
 tems of theology, and our church life. By the 
 fifteenth century Christianity was so modified by 
 the legalism of Judaism and by the paganism of the 
 barbarians that it is difficult to say how much of 
 the Christian churches was Christian and how much 
 was pagan. They had borrowed certain essential 
 features from paganism. Christian theologians 
 believed and taught that God was a wrathful God, 
 whose wrath must be appeased. They believed and 
 taught that a great gulf stretched between this 
 God and his children, so that he must be interceded 
 with by the Son, and the Son must be interceded 
 with by the Virgin Mary, and the Virgin Mary 
 must be interceded with by the saints, and the 
 saints must be interceded with by the priests. So 
 far had ecclesiastical teachers gone from the teach- 
 
CONCL VSION 325 
 
 ing of Christ that God is like the father who ran 
 out to meet the wayward son when the son turned 
 toward home.^ 
 
 It is true that pagan sacrifices were no longer 
 offered, but there was a temple and an altar. It is 
 true that the Levitical sacrifices were no longer of- 
 fered and no bloody torrent poured down from the 
 altar to be carried away by underground conduits ; 
 but in place of these bloody sacrifices was what is 
 known as the bloodless sacrifice of the mass. The 
 doctrine was taught that the priest, who must be 
 the intermediary between man and God, offered in 
 every communion service a real sacrifice in which 
 he poured out the actual blood of Christ and in 
 which he broke his actual body. The sacrifice was 
 offered afresh every Sabbath day. That is the 
 doctrine of the mass in the Roman Catholic Church 
 to the present time. * 
 
 While thus theologians borrowed theology and 
 ceremonialism from paganism, they borrowed legal- 
 ism from the Jews. One could reach the mercy of 
 God only through the intercession of priests. He 
 could reach it only through a bloodless sacrifice. 
 But he could also reach it only by obedience to the 
 laws of God as they were embodied in an elaborate 
 ritualism. The disciple must come to the priest ; 
 he must teU the priest what he had done, and the 
 priest prescribed the things which he must do to 
 
 ^ This is not saying that this was the official and authoritative 
 teaching of the Roman Church ; but it would be easy to show 
 that it was taught, without serioiis protest, in the Roman Church. 
 
326 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 win back the lost favor of God — the penances he 
 must suffer, the money he must pay, the pilgrim- 
 ages he must make, the duties he must perform. 
 
 Thus there was in medisevalism an intermingling 
 of paganism and Judaism, but an intermingling 
 also of Christianity. For under the Greek philo- 
 sophy no prayers, no entreaties, no sacrifices, could 
 avail to placate the wrath of the avenging Nemesis 
 following close on the heels of the sinner. But in 
 medisevalism there was mercy. Let the sinner es- 
 cape to the cathedral doors, enter, lay hold, as it 
 were, on the horns of the altar, submit himself to 
 the priest's direction, accept the benefit of the 
 bloodless sacrifice of the mass, obey directions and 
 perform the prescribed penance, and he would have 
 mercy ; the avenging Nemesis would stay his foot- 
 steps, the penalty would not fall upon him, he 
 would be forgiven. Thus medisevalism borrowed 
 forgiveness from Christ, law from Judaism, sacri- 
 fice from paganism, and intermingled them in one 
 common amalgam. 
 
 In the sixteenth century arose Luther. He had 
 studied the Bible ; especially the Gospels and the 
 writings of Paul. He had been spurred to read 
 them by the wretchedness of a heart tossed and 
 tortured by the belief that he must buy the favor 
 of God. He learned from Paul and from Christ 
 another lesson — the lesson of the unbought love 
 of God. He repudiated the whole intercessory 
 system, the whole sacrificial system, the whole 
 legalistic system of Eome, and declared that no 
 
CONCLUSION 327 
 
 intercession was necessary. Every man shall give 
 account of himself : that was his first declaration. 
 There is nothing to he paid for God's favor and 
 forgiveness : that was his second. Justification by 
 faith was his fundamental tenet ; the doctrine that 
 it is enough to accept the life which God freely 
 gives. 
 
 Thus Christianity received a fresh equipment of 
 life through Luther. Lutheranism was a revival 
 of Paulinism. If all Protestants had been as radi- 
 cal as Luther, the Christian world would have 
 made more rapid progress toward Christian life 
 and Christian liberty. But progress in the world 
 is very slow, and Protestantism resumed in a dif- 
 ferent form phases of paganism and Judaism from 
 which Luther would have emancipated it. It pre- 
 sently divided into two streams, and in these two 
 streams were seen, in varying ratios, the pagan 
 element of sacrifice and the Jewish element of law. 
 On the one hand, there still remained in the Lu- 
 theran and the Anglican communions the temple, 
 the altar, the sacrifice, though greatly modified 
 from the Koman Catholic forms. On the other 
 hand, there remained in the Puritan churches the 
 conception of law : the notion that men cannot be 
 acceptable»to God except by obedience to certain 
 laws, ceremonial or ethical. Sometimes it was. 
 You must be baptized by immersion or you cannot 
 enter the church. Sometimes it was, You must 
 pay particular observance to a particular day or 
 you cannot be a good Christian. Sometimes it 
 
328 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 was, You must obey the Ten Commandments, or 
 the epitome of the Ten Commandments — the two 
 commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart and soul and strength, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself — or you cannot receive the 
 love of God. But in all these forms of teaching, 
 the doctrine was taught that the only way to win 
 God's love is by obedience to God's law ; that his 
 love must be bought by obedience, ceremonial or 
 ethical. The doctrine that God's love is freely 
 given to the undeserving was practically, if not in 
 words, denied. 
 
 Thus there grew up in the Reformed Churches 
 these two elements intermingling with Christianity 
 which we have seen before intermingling — the 
 paganism that demanded a sacrifice, and the legal- 
 ism that demanded obedience, before one could be 
 a child of God. And still the voice of Paul might 
 have been heard, if the clamor of theological con- 
 troversy had not deafened the ears of men, and 
 still what Paul would have been saying would have 
 been this : " For his great love wherewith He 
 loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses 
 and sins." Nevertheless there was more Chris- 
 tianity, more gospel, more Paulinism, in the Re- 
 formed churches than in the Roman Church, as 
 there was more in the Roman Church than there 
 was in the Jewish Church. Paganism said there 
 must be sacrifices, and their value is dependent 
 upon the cost of the object sacrificed ; men must 
 be ready to sacrifice their own sons in order that 
 
CONCLUSION 329 
 
 they may placate the wrath of God. Leviticalism 
 had said : An ox, a lamb, a pair of doves, a sheaf 
 of wheat, will suffice. Romanism had said : Neither 
 ox, nor lamb, nor pair of doves, nor sheaf of wheat 
 is needed ; a bloodless sacrifice will suffice. Pro- 
 testantism said : If you will only believe that some 
 one else has offered the sacrifice for you, that is 
 sufficient. The sacrifice was banished from the 
 temple and the altar to the creed. 
 
 I shall not attempt here to trace still further the 
 progress of Paulinism. I shall not try to point 
 out how the two Wesleys, John and Charles, 
 brought a larger gospel to the world and re-repeated 
 the message of Paid — the unbought love of God. 
 They taught, indeed, that there had been a sacrifice 
 and that it was necessary, but they taught that the 
 sacrifice had provided a free gift of love and life 
 for all, which all might have who would take it. 
 They gave Paul's message of free grace, though 
 they based it on a foundation other than that of 
 Paul. I shall not try to point out how this mes- 
 sage of free grace was repeated again by Coleridge 
 in philosophy ; by Robertson and Maurice and 
 Erskine, prophets of the Old "World ; by Horace 
 BushneU and Henry Ward Beecher and PhiUips 
 Brooks, prophets of the New World. It is not 
 necessary further to elucidate my proposition that 
 the history of actual organic Christianity through 
 the ages is the history of the intermingling of these 
 three conceptions : The pagan conception of God 
 as one whose wrath must be satisfied by a sacri- 
 
330 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 fice ; the Jewish conception of God as a Lawgiver 
 who can be approached only by obedience to his 
 laws ; and the Christian conception of God as a 
 Father who gives life freely to all who will accept 
 the gift. 
 
 StiU these three ideas are strangely intermingled 
 in our conglomerate theology. StiU the gospel of 
 God's infinite and unpurchasable love finds its way 
 gradually, slowly, but surely, to the hearts of the 
 children of men. For Paul was not only in ad- 
 vance of his own time ; he is still in advance of all 
 times. Wherever we find in modern theology the 
 doctrine taught that man can be saved only by a 
 sacrifice offered to placate the wrath of an angry 
 God, we find a relic of paganism. Wherever we 
 find the doctrine taught that man can trust the 
 love of God only as he has first proved himself a 
 righteous man by obeying the law of God, we find 
 a relic of Judaism. Wherever we find men put- 
 ting up an altar and a sacrifice and a priest, and 
 insisting upon it that only through the altar, the 
 sacrifice, and the priest can one come to God, we 
 find a relic of paganism. Wherever we find men 
 putting up a law, whether ceremonial or ethical, 
 and teaching that there is no way to acceptance 
 with God except through water baptism — sprin- 
 kling or immersion — or that there is no acceptance 
 with God except by compliance with some ritual 
 or ceremony, or insisting that the essence of the 
 gospel is the Ten Commandments, or the epitome 
 of the Ten Commandments — Thou shalt love the 
 
CONCLUSION 331 
 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself — insisting, in other words, 
 that the essence of the gospel message is not what 
 God does for man, but what man should do for 
 God, we find essential Judaism. And wherever 
 we find the message that God is infinite and eternal 
 love, that the way to his heart is always open, that 
 he gives life without price, whether we find it in the 
 free gospel of the Methodist, or in the large and 
 spiritual teaching of such ministers as Brooks and 
 Beecher and' Maurice and Robertson, or in such 
 movements as the Keswick Movement, so called, 
 or such ministries as the ministry of the so-called 
 Higher Life, or such theologies as the misnamed 
 New Theology, we find a revival of Paul's teaching. 
 Whatever there is in the teaching of Jesus Christ 
 that seems to confirm the notion that a sacrifice is 
 necessary to appease the wrath of an angry God — 
 and confessedly there is very little such in his 
 teaching, almost nothing but his institution of the 
 Lord's Supper, and his interpretation of it in the 
 sixth chapter of John — it is capable of a much 
 clearer, simpler, and more rational and spiritual 
 interpretation. Wherever there is such language 
 in Paul's epistles, it is because he uses the lan- 
 guage of a philosophy he does not believe in order 
 that he may counteract it. And wherever it is 
 found in the Old Testament, it is the expression of 
 an as yet imperfect spiritual apprehension of God 
 and God's love as the secret of man's true life. 
 There is a sacrifice. But it is not a sacrifice 
 
332 PAUL THE APOSTLE 
 
 which man offers to God ; it is a sacrifice which 
 God offers for man. There is an intercession. 
 But it is not an intercession which man must 
 make to secure the favor of God ; it is the in- 
 tercession which God makes with man to bring 
 his erring child back to him again. There is a 
 priest, if a priest means one who stands between 
 God and man, to bring man and God together ; 
 but this priest comes from God to man in Jesus 
 Christ to reveal the divine love, infinite and 
 eternal, to his blind and erring child,- not from 
 man to God to find a mercy hard to be entreated. 
 There is a law of God — the law of his own in- 
 finite and blessed life ; the law which we observe, 
 not that we may receive that life, but because we 
 have received it. The earth does not yield its 
 flowers to beseech the shining of the sun ; the sun 
 bathes the winter-clad earth that the earth may be 
 clad in flowers. This is the gospel of Paul. By 
 God's free gift we are saved ; " not of works ; we 
 are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works." 
 
 Eartli gets its price for what earth gives us : 
 
 The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in ; 
 The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us ; 
 
 We bargain for the graves we lie in. 
 At the devU's booth aie all things sold, 
 Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold ; 
 
 For a cap and bells our lives we pay ; 
 Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking : 
 
 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 
 'T is only God may be had for the asking.' 
 
 1 James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal. 
 
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