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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

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GIFT OF
Library of
Robert Seneca Smith

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STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL

*By Robert E. Speer

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STUDIES

OF

THE MAN PAUL

BY

ROBERT E. SPEER
Secretary of the Presbyterian Board oi Foreign Missions

'I know a man in Christ."— a Cor. xli. 2.

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York Chicago Toronto
Publishers of Evangelical Literature

F l3o
SpZs

Copyright, 1900
by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

PREFACE
These studies have for their subject the character
of Paul, not so much his life or work or thought as
the man. Of course it is only by his life and work
and thought that the character of the man is re
vealed. But the aim of this little book is to study
as far as possible the man himself, the personality
of Paul. In some measure certainly what he did
shaped and moulded him. In truer sense what he
was determined and explained what he did.
The various chapters are divided into sections
and numbered divisions for the convenience of
Bible classes. They were prepared for Bible stu
dents, and have appeared in part, in the Record of
Christian Work for the use of a mid-week Bible
class. The simple name Paul, rather than Saint
Paul, is used in conformity with the invariable
usage of both the Authorized and the Revised
Versions. The references throughout are to the
Revised Version. Almost the whole of F. W. H.
Myers' Saint Paul has been quoted in these studies.
I wish that every one who reads this book might
possess and study that exquisite poem.
These simple studies are sympathetic, not critical.
Their purpose is wholly practical, and they pass by
in the main the questions with which criticism is con
cerning itself. Even in such practical studies, how
ever, it is impossible to avoid statements which in
volve judgments of one sort or another on these
questions. Yet the whole purpose has been to set
in the foreground Paul himself and not any second
ary interests, and in some richer and fuller way to
understand him.
In a sense, such a study is disappointing after a
study of the character of Christ in the Gospels. We
are conscious of having passed into a different

10 PREFACE
sphere. Yet what is this but a fresh testimony to
the uniqueness of Jesus and of the records of His
earthly life? And what can be the consequence
but increased reverence for the One who alone was
perfect and increased interest in the one who loved
Him so passionately but who called himself the
" chief of sinners " and recognized thus his endur
ing relationship to each man who, having been
tempted, cannot say of himself what was said of his
Lord that he " was without sin."
The very real humanity of Paul makes the study
of his personality a practical help to every man. It
strengthens the appeal which his character addresses
to each Christian. What the grace of God did in
Paul it can do in us, and what the Spirit of God did
with Paul in making him steadfast and true and
faithful, and eager in his love of Christ, the Spirit of
God can do with us. As Paul himself said, "The
things which ye both learned and received and
heard and saw in Me, these things do ; and the God
of peace shall be with you." (Phil. iv. 9.) He was
a man of like passions with us. (Acts xiv. 15.) We
also may be men of like passions with him.
Perhaps also as we come to know Paul better and
to form our own characters after his, as he formed
his character after Christ's, some of the things
which he wrote, " hard to be understood " (2 Peter
iii. 16,) will become more intelligible and clear.
He was "our brother Paul." (2 Peter iii. 15.)
We should know him better. To be sure "where
soever the Holy Church throughout all the world
doth acknowledge God, there Paul of Tarsus, is
revered as the great teacher of a universal redemp
tion and a Catholic religion, the herald of glad tid
ings to all mankind," (Conybeare and Howson,
Life and Letters of St. Paul, ch. xxvii.), but perhaps
we have revered him as a great and distant man,
and not as one who craved human love, who was
willing for his brethren's sake to be accursed, and
who would be to each of us a friend "in the blame
less family of God."
For he has not passed away. *' Even on earth Paul
could not die. He lives among us to-day with a life

PREFACE 1 1
a hundredfold more influential than that which
throbbed in his brain while the earthly hull which
made him visible still lingered on the earth. Wher
ever the feet of ttiem who publish the glad tidings
go forth, beautiful upon the mountains, he walks by
their side as an inspirer and a guide ; in ten thou
sand churches every Sabbath and on a thousand
thousand hearths every day his eloquent lips still
teach that gospel of which he was never ashamed ;
and wherever there are human souls searching for
the white flower of holiness or climbing the diffi
cult heights of self-denial, there he whose life was
so pure, whose devotion to Christ was so entire,
and whose pursuit of a single purpose was so un
ceasing, is welcomed as the best of friends."
(Stal'ser, Life of St. Paul, p. 166 f.)

CONTENTS page
I
Paul's Youth and Education  15
II
Paul's Development  25
III
The Holy Spirit in Paul's Life  39
IV
Paul's Opinion of Himself  51
V
Paul's Motives, Aims and Methods
I. His motives  65
II. His aims  70
III. His methods  74
1. Methods of influence and persuasion . . . 74
2. Methods of organization  82
VI
His Intellectual Characteristics and Some of His
Leading Opinions
I. His mental characteristics  88
II. His view of life  94
III. His view of the Old Testament  97
r3

14 CONTENTS FACE
IV. Some of his social and political views  ioo
I. His attitude toward woman and the family, ioo
2. Personal and social purity ...••.. 105
3. Paul's attitude toward civil government . . 106
4. His attitude toward servants and slavery . 1 10
5. Paul's view of money  113
6. His view of the world  113
V. Paul's view of Christ  "5
1. Paul's use of Christ's titles  115
2. Paul's conception of Christ  I4S
3. Christ's mastery of Paul  '55
VII
His Moral Characteristics
I. His genius for friendship  17 '
I. Barnabas  17 l
2. Silas  176
3. Timothy  179
4. Luke  184
5. Other friendships ..."  188
II. As a moulder and member of the Church . . . 192
III. Paul's standard of personal Christian life and
conduct  214
IV. His ambitiousness  231
V. His faith  238
VI. His strength and fullness of character  244
VIII
Paul the Apostle at Work
I. His prayer life  277
II. His apostolic work  284
III. His correspondence  289
IV. As a missionary  292
Questions for the Study of Bible Classes . . . 300

PAUL'S YOUTH AND EDUCATION

IS

paul's youth and education
i. His birth place. (Acts xxii. 3, xxiii. 34.)
, Cilicia was one of the southeast provinces of Asia
Minor. Tarsus, at the opening of the Cilician
Gates, was the mart of trade and import for the
mountain cities. " Its situation was favorable ; a
navigable stream gave direct access to the Medi
terranean ; it had communication on the one
hand with Syria, and on the other with the lands
beyond the Taurus and its trade was therefore
considerable. As a boy St. Paul must have
watched the rafts of timber which, hewn in the
forests of the Taurus and floated down the river,
were sent to the dockyards or other places as re-(
, .quired. Here, too, he must have seen bales of
goods, which having the names and marks of the
owners on them, lay on the quays. How pro
found an impression the very mercantile life of
Tarsus made on his young mind may be gathered
from the fact that his style, his mode of thought
and almost all his metaphors and illustrations are
drawn from it." (Iverach, The Life and Times
of St. Paul, p. if.) {See 2 Cor. i. 22; ii. 17,
iv. 2; Eph.i. 13, iv. 30; where Paul speaks of
"huckstering," "adulterating," "stamping or
sealing," "earnest -money.") It was a self-govern-'
ing city under Rome, and one of the leading uni
versity cities. Paul felt a pride in it. (Acts xxir
39.) Whatever the Japanese may think, as to
the antagonism of the universal spirit of Christi
anity and the local spirit of patriotism, whatever
17

1 8 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
the early attack on Christianity on this ground
may have been able to present in its support,
Christianity and patriotism were not antagonistic
in Paul's mind.
2. His ancestry. He came of the straitest
sect of Pharisees. (Phil. iii. 4-6 ; Acts xxiii. 6,
xxiv. 4, "5?) And he learned thus the futility of
the law. The law was an end, an absolute rule
of conduct to the Pharisee. "Fulfill the law,
and you shall live," was his motto. Paul had a
full opportunity to attempt it, and found it a
failure. On the Sadducee the law sat lightly.
With the Essene it was only "the starting-point
of his mystical reveries," and he could abandon
it where it seemed to interfere with his aspirations
after purity. (Lightfoot, Biblical Essays, p. 207.)
Only as a Pharisee could Paul test the law as a
means of righteousness. Paul never lost the best
of his Pharisee feeling. He loved the Jews and
the law. (Rom. vii. 12.) He felt a desire tc
attend the feasts. (Acts xviii. 21, xx^jjfi.) He
entered into the religious feeling of the nation ;
as a Pharisee he watched for the hope of Israel.
(Acts xxiii. 6.)
3. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. (Rom.
xi. 1.) " I was not descended from the rebellious
Ephraim, who had played fast and loose with the
covenant, as many Jews are, but from the select
tribe of Benjamin, always faithful to Jehovah.
All my ancestors were Hebrews." (Lightfoot,
Biblical Essays, p. 207.)
4. He had a sister (Acts xxiii. 16), whose son
was able to gain access to Paul when in prison.
5. He was taught a trade, the most common
trade in Tarsus, the hair of the Cilician goats
providing excellent material. (Acts xviii. 3.) It
was an honest Jewish custom, that each boy
should be given the breadth of sympathy, the moral

Paul's youth and education 19
discipline, and the resource in time of need whichv
are to be found in a trade. (Acts xx. 34.) Think >
of what we could gain by such a practice among
us! "I worked with my hands," says the will
of St. Francis of Assisi, " and I wish to continue
so to do, and I wish that all the other brothers
should work at some honest trade. Let those
who have none learn one, not in order that they
may be paid wages for their work, but to set a
good example and avoid laziness." (Sabatier,
Life of St. Francis, ch. xx.) Paul's later
teacher, Gamaliel, was the author of the saying
that "learning of any kind unaccompanied by a
trade ends in nothing and leads to sin."
6. He inherited Roman citizenship (Acts xvii.
22-29), and bis political rights held a large place
in his thought and life. There is a touch of
pride in his manly words, "I am free born."
Observe how the fact that he was a Roman citi-"]
zen influenced his career. (Acts xvi. 37 ff., xvii.
25 ff., xxiii. 27, xxv. 12.) And his citizenship
shaped his thoughts too, and his speech about
citizenship in the heavenly kingdom. "In the
guarantee it offered to individual freedom, in its
independence of circumstances of time or place,
in its superiority over inferior obligations, in the
sympathy which it established between all the
members of the community, and in the universal
ity of its application, lying, as it did, within the
reach of all, far or near, friend or foe — in all
these points it expressed, as no other earthly in
stitution could do, the eternal relations of the king
dom of Christ." " Behave as citizens worthily of
the gospel of Christ," he enjoins. (Phil. i. 27;
compare PhiLjik-2p ; Egh^iLjQ.) His political
education fitteilliirn for widFvieys, for the vision
of a kingdonl of Christ, greater JKjd more glori-y
ous than therkingdom of Csesar.

20 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
7. He grew up in a city, touched with the
urbanity of its life, and schooled by mercantile
surroundings to familiarity with the things of
which the world thinks, and which command
its covetings. Tarsus surpassed all the other
universities of the day in the study of phi
losophy, and educational literature in general.
How far Paul familiarized himself with the
literature of the time, we may not say. He
quotes a practical maxim from Menander (1 Cor.
xv. 33), " a religious sentiment of Cleanthus, re
peated by Aratus, himself a native of Tarsus"
(Acts xvii. 28), and a bit of satire from Epimen-
idesT" (Titiig.i- t> ) He may have been able to
quote miiplf more, and have simply refrained be
cause his originality rose above such assistances.
But, as Lightfoot says, there are but "very slen
der/grounds on which to build a suggestion of
learning." Still he was a man of the truest
education. He saw into and through the moral
and religious nature of the heathen world, was
not confused over the points of separation be
tween that world and his message, and sharply
set against its wants and wrecks the health and
salvation of the gospel.
Paul was able to speak Hebrew, scarcely a
popular language longer, as well as Greek. (Acts
xxi. 35);, 40, xxii. 2.) His education in Jewish
prejumce had not been neglected. (Acts vii. 58,
yi^_h 3, xxvi. 5.) He had learned to raise re
ligion above love (Acts ix. 1, 2, 13, 21), and to
do hateful and godless things in the name of God,
u kind of education that has not wholly ceased in
any land.
About the age of thirteen Paul came under the
influence and instruction of one of the seven great
doctors, Gamaliel, called by his contemporaries,
"The Beauty of the Law." He was a man of

Paul's youth and education 21
high character, not intolerant or hostile to Greek
culture. His speech recorded in Acts v. 34-39,
shows him to have been a man of fair, even
mind and reverent, noble spirit. (For the
method of Paul's education see Stalker's Life of
St. Paul, pp. 28-32 ; Farrar's Life and Work
of St. Paul, ch. iii.) At Gamaliel's feet, in Je
rusalem, Paul said he was brought up, " instructed
according to the strict manner of the law of our
fathers, being zealous for God." Paul's word for/'
zealous is derived from the Greek word meaning
"to boil," "to be hot." His expression is like
Henry Martyn's, "Now let me burn out for God. "¦=
Before he ever knew Jesus Paul had learned to
walk in His footsteps, in that devotion to God
which led His disciples to say of Him that the
zeal of His Father's house ate Him up. Paul be
came a devoted lover of God and an earnest
seeker after righteousness, who knew the way of
prayer. (Acts ix. n.) Often he sought and
cried for God, and such answer even through thei
law must have sometimes come to him as to have
made real with him in these days of his darkness
even, the experience of which he speaks in the
words Myers puts on his lips :
" God, Who at sundry times in manners many
Spake to the fathers and is speaking still,
Eager to find if ever, or if any
Souls will obey and hearken to His will ; —
" Who that one moment has the least descried Him,
Dimly and faintly, hidden and afar,
Doth not despise all excellence beside Him,
Pleasures and powers that are not and that are,
«' Aye amid all men bear himself thereafter
Smit with a solemn and a sweet surprise,
Dumb to their scorn and turning on their laughter
Only the dominance of earnest eyes ? "

22 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
However formal and irreligious the conduct
and spirit of others, Paul was always an earnest
man and desiring the fellowship of God.
Yet he harried the little Church like a Claver-
house. He furnishes an enduring illustration of
the folly and falsehood of the view that a man's
acts are justifiable if only they meet the approval
of his moral judgment. That is as absurd as to
say that if a man thinks thirty inches make a yard
he is entitled to sell goods on that supposition. A
yard is a yard. And right is right. And there is
a moral color blindness as real as ignorance of
linear measurement, and more culpable. And
earnestness of spirit cannot save from the conse
quence of error of moral judgment where light for
its guidance has been ignored. Even " the gen
tle-spirited Cowper " sings severely this truth :
" Man, on the dubious waves of error 'toss'd,
His ship half founder'd and his compass lost,
Sees, far as human optics may command,
A sleeping fog, and fancies it dry land ;
Spreads all his canvas, every sinew plies ;
Pants for it, aims at it, and dies !
Then farewell all self-satisfying schemes,
His well-built systems, philosophic dreams ;
Deceitful views of future bliss, farewell !
He reads his sentence at the flames of hell.
Hard lot of man — to toil for his reward
Of virtue, and yet lose it ! Wherefore hard ? 
He that would win the race must guide his horse
Obedient to the customs of the course ;
Else, though unequalled to the goal he flies,
A meaner than himself shall gain the prize.
Grace leads the right way : if you choose the wrong,
Take it — and perish."
8. Either through his own personal qualities
or through his family standing, Paul became a
young man of influence and prominence in Jeru
salem. He had access to the high priest and ap-

PAUL'S YOUTH AND EDUCATION 23
parently had his confidence. (Acts xi. i, 2.)
Perhaps he was a member of the Sanhedrin, for he
alludes to "my vote." (Acts xxvi. 10.) His
education and natural disposition had made him
an intense young man. He persecuted with a
vengeance. As Luke picturesquely describes him,
he "breathed threatening and slaughter." That
was the kind of " vital breath " that filled him.
9. It has been suggested that when, as still a
young man, needing the help of home and a
father's hand, and a mother's heart, Paul became
a Christian, he was cast out by his family and
wandered out alone into the strange new life.
Paul never mentions his family in his Epistles.
In two of them he entreats fathers not to provoke
their children to wrath, and in emphasizing the
duty of the obedience of children he adds that this
is due to parents "in the Lord." Is he recalling
some sad scene in his own life, when his father,
of the strictest sect of the Pharisees, heart-broken
at his son's apostasy, choked down his love and
pity for his boy, provoked him to anger, and drove
him out penniless to follow the Nazarene ? (Phil.
iii. 8.) In Tarsus and Jerusalem Paul had appar
ently needed nothing. As a Christian missionary
he earns his living by his own toil. Until his
journey to Rome he was a poor and homeless man.
(Ramsay St. Paul, the Traveller and Roman
Citizen, pp. 36, 310-312.)
" But well worth Poverty !
Our Prinee Jesus Poverty chose, and His apostles all,
And aye the longer they lived, the less goods they had."
The thought of his weary, lonely wanderings
adds a pathos to his references to wife and child,
to fathers, and the great Father, "after whom
every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is

24 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
named." (Eph. iii. 15.) He had none of these
human loves. Christ was his all.

" Christ 1 I am Christ's I And let the name suffice you;
Aye, for me, too, He greatly hath sufficed ;
Lo, with no winning words I would entice you ;
Paul has no honor and no friend but Christ.
" Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter,
Yes, without stay of father or of son,
Lone on the land and homeless on the water,
Pass I in patience till the work be done."

PAUL'S DEVELOPMENT

25

II
PAUL'S DEVELOPMENT
The whole story of Paul's inner life is suggested
by such a subject. Matheson has attempted with
much suggestiveness, to write this story "from
the day of his conversion to Christianity until the
day when he declared himself 'ready to be
offered,' " in his Spiritual Development of St.
Paul. We have from Paul's lips two accounts of
his life and experience up to the time of his jour
ney to Rome. One was addressed to the Jews
from the castle stairs in Jerusalem (Acts xxvi.
1-21) ; and the other to Felix and King Agrippa
in Csesarea. (Acts xxvi. 1-23.)
1. From Paul's narrative three stages emerge
in his development — the fanatic Jew, the Damas
cus road experience, and the vision in the temple
at Jerusalem.
(1) The angry Jew, who was quite cool and
composed until religious fanaticism was aroused.
Stephen described in his speech the attitude of
mind that marked Paul's associates and in some real
measure Paul himself. (Acts vii. 51-53.) In the
riot and murder which followed, Paul assumed a
share of responsibility, though he did not partici
pate. (Acts vii. 54-60, viii. 1.) Why? Pos
sibly Stephen's words were stinging him, but had
not yet aroused in him a passion of hate of others,
or a passion of dissatisfaction with himself, which
would have the same outward display. He soon
woke to active fury and exceeded in zeal his fel
low-religionists. (Gal. i. 13, 14.) Butthemem-
27

28 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
ories of that day though hidden under the fierce
ness of his persecuting wrath, haunted him un
ceasingly, the face of the martyr as it had been
the face of an angel, his patient suffering, his quiet
composed death. In telling the story of his con
version to the multitude from the stairs of the
castle in Jerusalem he recalls it, " And I said,
Lord when the blood of Stephen Thy witness, was
shed, I also was standing by and consenting and
keeping the garments of them that slew him," and
perhaps he is referring to him in Acts xxvi. 10.
At the last he calls himself " persecutor, injuri
ous." (i Tim. i. 13.)
" Saint, did I say ? with your remembered faces,
Dear men and women, whom I sought and slew
Ah ! when we mingle in the heavenly places,
How will I weep to Stephen and to you I
" Oh, for the strain that rang to our reviling
Still, when the bruised limbs sank upon the sod,
Oh, for the eyes that looked their last in smiling
Last on this world here, but their first on God ! "
If this was his thought later, we may be sure
that in the depths of the best nature of the man
his soul was stirring uneasily now.
(2) What was Paul's spiritual condition prior
to the vision on the Damascus road ? Dr. Alex
ander Whyte presents one view: "Some men
put off their conversion because they have no
sense of sin. But look at Saul. What sense of
sin had he ? Not an atom. He was an old and
heaven-ripe apostle before his full sense of sin
came to him. He was not groaning out the
seventh of Romans when he was galloping at the
top of his speed on his way to Damascus. ' ' ( The
British Weekly, November 2, 1899.) Somerville
thinks just the contrary: " I regard Rom. vii.

PAUL S DEVELOPMENT 39
21-25, as referring to Paul's state while still un-
regenerate ; his normal state as a Christian man
is described in Rom. viii. 1-5. To this, the view
held by all the great teachers, first departed from
by Augustine in his later writings, most modern
commentators have now returned." (St. Paul's
Conception of Christ, p. 125.) Dr. Whyte's
view surely is unsatisfactory. As Bruce says :
' ' Only on the assumption that some such thoughts ' '
as the hopelessness of legalism and Pharisaism,
and the possibility of the truth of the strange, fas
cinating, new doctrine into which Paul's keen eyes
were looking, " had been working in Saul's mind
does his furious, hyberbolical (Gal. i. 13) hos
tility to Christianity become intelligible. These
thoughts, combined with those ever-deepening
doubts as to the attainability of righteousness on
the basis of legalism, fully account for his mad
behavior. They also prepare us for what is com
ing." (St. Paul's Conception of Christianity,
P- 35-) " Who lights the fagot ?
Not the full faith ; no, but the lurking doubt."
Dr. Whyte says : " Not only had Paul no
sense of sin to prepare him for his conversion ; he
had no preparation and no fitness for his conver
sion of any kind whatsoever. He brought noth
ing in his hands." This is inconceivable. God
had certainly been at work in Paul's life. He
had called him from his mother's womb. (Gal.
i. 15.) As Bruce says: "It would be nearer
the truth to say that on the day Saul of Tarsus
was converted his spiritual development, to a large
extent, lay behind him. . . . The preparation for
the change had been so thorough that the convert
leaped at a bound into a large cosmopolitan idea
of Christianity, its nature and destination. The

30 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
universalism, e. g., which we associate with the
name of the Apostle Paul dates from his conver
sion. It was not, as some imagine, a late growth
of after years, due to the accident of some persons
of Gentile birth showing a readiness to receive the
gospel." Paul says it was not. (Gal. i. 15.)
It was on a prepared soul that the Damascus
vision broke — a soul sick of the failure of the legal
method of righteousness, sick of sin, of form, of
struggle, hungry for the living God and life,
though fanatic and fierce in stilling the inner con
flict by outer bitterness and threatening and
slaughter while yet meditating, perhaps, as he rode
along upon the words of Gamaliel as he pointed
out the evil and the futility of fighting against
these disciples of Christ, if indeed they were as
they might be, the messengers and servants of
God. And as Lightfoot says, that vision but
" flashed a new light on vast stores of experience
laid up unconsciously in the past. It quickened
into energy influences long forgotten and seem
ingly dead. The atoms of his nature assumed a
fresh combination. The lightning fused the apos
tle's character and moulded it into new shape,
and the knife of the torturer was forged into the
sword of the Spirit. " (Biblical Essays, p. 211.)
(3) The Gentile vision. In his account before
Agrippa, Paul says that the Lord spoke to him
about the Gentiles on the road to Damascus.
(Acts xxvi. 17, 18 ; compare Gal. i. 16.) In
his account in Acts xxii. he speaks of the Lord's
missionary charge to him in the temple at Jeru
salem later, "Depart, for I will send thee far
hence unto the Gentiles." The missionary vision
came to him with the first vision of Christ. It
was years before it laid hold of him with the divine
compulsion that drove him out to the evangeliza
tion of the world.

PAUL S DEVELOPMENT 3 1
2. From the vision of the Lord, from blind
ness and restoration of sight, stunned, his old
prejudices shattered, a new world ablaze with
light ahead, Paul went out into solitude. (Gal.
i. 15-17.) No mention of this trip into Arabia
is made in Acts. What was the significance of
this sojourn in solitude? Where was Arabia?
Lightfoot thinks Paul went down to Mt. Sinai.
Ramsay thinks he means only the adjacent coun
try on the east of Damascus, which was at the
time subject to the king of Arabia Petrsea, and
whither Paul retired without making such an im
portant journey as to Mt. Sinai, which we surely
might have expected Luke to mention in Acts.
There in solitude, in any event, there were great
solidifyings of character and new adjustments of
life to God. There in the early desert mornings
began the new intercourse.
" God with sweet strength,, with terror and with trancing
Spake in the purple mystery of dawn.
" Oh, what a speech and greater than our learning !
Scarcely remembrance can the joy renew :
What were they then, the sights of our discerning,
Sorrows we suffer and the deeds we do.
" Lo, every one of them was sunk and swallowed,
Morsels and motes in the eternal sea ;
Far was the call, and farther as I followed
Grew there a silence round the Lord and me."
From Arabia Paul returned to Damascus and
went to work. (Acts ix. 19-25.) His withdrawal
from the ranks of the persecutors seems to have
led to a temporary collapse of the movement.
(Acts ix. 31.) His increasing strength as a dis
putant angered the Jews at Damascus, and he was
forced to escape to Jerusalem. There, too, he
aroused opposition which aimed at his death.

32 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
(Acts ix. 26-29.) He seems not to have learned
the lesson of conciliation yet. And he then
went off to Tarsus, his own home, and was there
for eight or ten years. What were his relations
to his family? What was he doing ? Luke does
not tell. Paul does not say. (Gal. i. 21.)
Ramsay concludes that he " was still not fully
conscious of the full meaning of his mission. . . .
He had not yet learned, or at least he had not yet
so fully shaken himself free from the prejudices
of education and tradition as to act on the knowl
edge that God had opened a door of faith unto
the nations." (St. Paul, the Traveller and Ro
man Citizen, p. 46.) Doubtless it was " ten years
of quiet work within the range of the synagogue
and its influence," and of maturing opinion and
ripening character.
3. (Acts xi. 19-26.) " The tribulation that
arose about Stephen" scattered the disciples as
far as Phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, "speak
ing the word to none save only to Jews." Some
of them from Cyprus and Cyrene preached at
Antioch to Greeks also, and a great movement
began. When the report of it reached Jerusalem,
the Apostles sent Barnabas to examine into it.
He was delighted, and when he found the work
growing beyond his strength, went to Tarsus
for Saul, and together they spent a year at
Antioch. That year was evidently filled with the
knowledge and preaching of Christ, for the dis
ciples first came to be called by His name there.
It was doubtless a title of scandal or slang ; given
from the idea that Christos was one of the strange
gbds whom they worshipped. (Acts xvii. 18.)
From Damascus Paul and Barnabas went on the
errand to Jerusalem described in Acts xii.
(What can be said for and against the identifica
tion of this visit with the visit described in

PAUL'S DEVELOPMENT 33
Galatians ii. i-io ? See Ramsay's St. Paul, the
Traveller, chapter iii.)
4. Paul had had years of solidifying work and
experience now, ending with an official visit to
Jerusalem. His preparation for the Gentile work
was complete. That call which had come to him
on the Damascus road, and had been confirmed
in the Temple, was now to demand a full re
sponse. On his return to Antioch the Spirit laid
hold upon him and Barnabas, and sent them
away, the church recognizing the divine leading,
and bidding them God-speed. (Acts xiii. i, 2.)
The account of this journey is in Acts xiii., xiv.
It enlarged Paul's faith, trained him in organiza
tion, increased his confidence and sense of
power, widened his view, and strengthened his
consciousness of call to the Gentiles. (Acts xiii.
44, 45.) Whether he would or not, the Jews
forced upon him the fact of their unpreparedness,
their aversion to the gospel, and drove him to the
Gentiles. It was at Iconium (Acts xiv. 1-4), and
Lystra (Acts xiv. 19), as it had been at Antioch
in Pisidia. (Acts xiii. 46.) "It was necessary,"
said Paul and Barnabas, "that the word of God
should first be spoken to you ; seeing ye thrust it
from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of
eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." The
stones of Jews combined with the Spirit of God
to drive Paul to his mission. Even on this first
missionary journey we meet with Paul's broad,
generous, tactful representations of God's care as
extending beyond the bounds of Israel. (Acts
xiv. 15-17.) On returning to Antioch, he and
Barnabas reported the 'great lesson of this trip,
that " God had opened a door of faith unto the
Gentiles." (Acts xiv. 27.) Paul had begun on
this tour, too, to taste the hardships he was to
know in fullness ^e^=marfSiS=ssiaffering. He

34 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
met blasphemy, (Acts xiii. 45); persecution,
(Acts xiii. 50) ; attempt at stoning, (Acts xiv. 5) ;
actual stoning. (Acts xiv. 18.) "Through many
tribulations," he told the disciples, "we must
enter into the kingdom of God." He was learn
ing patience in the school of Christ.
5. The Gentile question grew in prominence,
and came to an open issue at the Council at Jeru
salem. (Acts xv.) The case arose at Antioch,
and was carried up to Jerusalem, perhaps at
Paul's suggestion. "With the vision of a states
man, or a judge, he saw that the Church must
have an administrative centre," and he was loyal
to Jerusalem and the apostles there. He saw also
that the issue raised was of momentous impor
tance. He already began to perceive something
of the scope of the Church's mission in the
world and knew that the question of the rights
of the Gentiles in the Church was the most vital
question she had faced yet and must be settled in
no narrow and short-sighted way. What part
did Paul play at the Council ? and what must its
influence upon him have been ? To stand for a
cause on the highest and most conspicuous stage,
is the most effective way to sharpen and to
solidify one's convictions. Paul was growing
into a clear perception of the issue of liberty and
life, which was the gospel. (Galatians ii. n-21.)
(On Ramsay's view, this discussion with Peter at
Antioch preceded the Council at Jerusalem. St.
Paul, the Traveller, p. 160.)
6. The second missionary journey followed
the return from the Council. (Acts xv. 36-xviii.
22.) Greatly as Paul had grown he had not yet
enough grace to avoid (if Paul was in the right
we should have to say that he had too much
grace to shrink from) a contention with Barna
bas. His severe judgment of Mark, the occasion

PAUL S DEVELOPMENT 35
of the disagreement, was subsequently modi
fied. Yet his circumcision of Timothy indicates
that he was becoming more careful and con
ciliatory in his bearing toward the Jews. (Acts xiv.
3.) It often happens that even a good man will
avoid offending strangers, while he falls into mis
understanding with his friends. How often we
speak impatiently to those we love, and turn at
once to speak suavely to strangers ! As he set
out on this journey he met the Macedonian vision.
(Acts xvi. 6-10.) "I will come to visions," he
wrote once. He was always coming to them.
Divine visions have not ceased even now. He
answered the call, which he " concluded " was in
the vision, and forthwith fell into troubles.
(Acts xvi. 19-34, xvii. 1-9,-13, xviii. 12-17.)
He pursued a conciliatory but not always fruitful
course in his preaching on this trip. (Acts xvii.
22-31.) That was especially true at Athens.
When he passed on to Corinth, he changed his
style of preaching somewhat, apparently discour
aged with the ill success at Athens of the method
of quoting heathen poets, and preaching natural
religion in "persuasive words of man's wisdom."
He determined henceforth to know and preach
only Christ, (i Cor. i., ii.) But still he strove in
every way to adapt himself to men and commend
his message to their minds. Distincter draw
ings to the Gentiles came to him. (Acts xvii. 1 2,
xviii. 6.) Yet Judaism clung to him. He had
a vow. (Acts xviii. 18.) On this trip he wrote
from Corinth, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, with
" Christ the Judge," or "The Tribunal," as their
dominant note. (Lightfoot.) While covering
in the main elementary problems and difficulties,
these Epistles show the ripening judgment of
Paul, his sanity of devotion, his perception
of the gospel's consistency, not with a time

36 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
of distress only, but with settled and permanent
social order. On this tour he swung out
into wider fields. On his first journey he had
merely visited the countries bordering to the
west and north on Cilicia, his own province.
Now he moved out into the world of culture and
life. He followed the routes of the great historic
movements of men. He went straight to the
centre of the Gentile world's wisdom and learn
ing. He " advanced from one Greek town to
another till he stood on the very spot where
Socrates taught and Demosthenes thundered."
His sense of the power of the gospel and of his
own power as its apostle had sensibly increased,
and his greater plans were maturing fast.
7. Third missionary journey. (Acts xviii.
23-xxi. 16.) Note his preaching of the Holy
Ghost at Ephesus where he did most of his work
on this trip, " because like a skillful general, he
would not leave territory in the rear uncon-
quered;" (Acts xix. 1-7), his miracles, (Acts
xix. 8-20) ; his desire to see Rome, (Acts xix.
21); his deep depression in Asia, (2 Cor. i.
8-1 1); his constant triumph in Christ. (2 Cor.
ii. 12-17.) At this time he wrote 1 Corinthians,
Galatians, 2 Corinthians, and Romans, with
"Christ the Redeemer," or "The Cross," as
their characteristic note. (Lightfoot.) Study his
view of his spiritual life at this time, as it had
been (Rom. vii.), and as it was., (Rom. viii.) Or
should we rather regard these two chapters as de
scribing the apostle's ever-continuing conflicts at
this time, instead of the victory completely won
after struggle by resting in Christ ? We feel now
his maturer touch, as in the strength and tender
ness of the address to the Ephesian elders at
Miletus. (Acts xx. 18-38.)
8. His first imprisonment. He would go to

PAUL S DEVELOPMENT 37
Jerusalem, though he knew what was coming. It
is not always our duty to avoid danger. It may
be our duty to walk into it.
" Because right is right, to follow right
Were wisdom in the fear of consequence."
(Acts xxi. 4, 13, 14.) He was still a Jew, and
loyal to the Jerusalem authority in Christianity.
(Acts xxi. 17-26.) Observe the result of too
much conciliation. (Acts xxi. 17-36.) Paul
had money now. Had his father died, and left
him means ? Felix gave him opportunity to buy
his liberty. (Acts xxiv. 26.) No, he would ap
peal to Caesar and Rome. (Acts xxv.-xxviii.)
The passion for wide service had long been
driving him to Rome. (Rom. xv. 19-24.)
Observe the mellowing trust and experience.
(Acts xxvii. 22-36), the kindly concern and au
thority, (Acts xxvi. 33-35); his view regarding
the unbelief of Israel and his zeal in Rome.
(Acts xxviii. 23-38.) He shows now an easier
authority, the composure of a great experience
and a calm confidence well justified by the
mighty disciplines through which he had come.
During this imprisonment he wrote Colossians, Phi
lemon, Ephesians, and Philippians, with " Christ
the Head," or "The Throne," as the char
acteristic note. (Lightfoot.) In the Epistles of
Aese different stages it is easy to note the char
acteristic differences, and easy also to press them
too far, and to see a development of doctrine
which did not exist. Sabatier's St. Paul will be
suggestive. 9. When released after two years Paul went
eastward to Philippi and Ephesus. (Phil. i.
25-27; Philemon 22; 1 Tim. i. 3, iii. 14, iv.
13; 2 Tim. i. 18.) Perhaps he went to Spain.

38 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
He visited Crete and left Titus there to organize
churches. (Titus i. 5, iii. 12.) Then he travelled
by Miletus (2 Tim. iv. 20), Troas (2 Tim. iv.
13), and Corinth (2 Tim. iv. 20), and was soon
in bonds as an evil doer in Rome. (2 Tim. ii. 9,
iv. 6, 9-12, 16.) He was alone, save for Luke
and Timothy, and in great need and distress.
At the first hearing he vindicated his cause and
was remanded to prison. (2 Tim. iv. 16, 17.)
But he was ready to go home, and home was
ready for him (2 Tim. iv. 6-8), and, to use his
own figure, like a ship, sailing in stately and fear
less fashion out to sea, he met a Roman's death
by beheading, and finished his course with joy.
There is the outline of a wonderful develop
ment here from the young Jew who superintended
Stephen's martyrdom to the prophet of the Gen
tiles, tender, strong, leaning like a little child on
the mercy and help of Christ, meeting his own
martyrdom with no anger at human sin, no
shrieks of fanatic disappointment, but the secret •
confidence that even in death he was being led in
triumph in Christ.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PAUL'S LIFE

39

Ill
/
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PAUL'S LIFE
/
As Paul had always believed in God the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and Since
his conversion in Ifesus Christ our Lord, so he
believed also in the Holy Ghost, and he lived his
life in His influence and control.
The Holy Spirit called him to the missionary
service. (Acts xiii. 2-4.) And as his own or
dination was of the Spirit he believed the Spirit
assigned all authority in the Church, and that his
selection of elders had been not his, but the
Spirit's. (Acts xx. 28.) He was a member of
the Council whose decree was issued in the name
of the Holy Ghost. (Acts xv. 28.) And he felt
His sovereign guidance in all his ways. Some
times he was guided to a course by the voice of
the Spirit forbidding other courses. (Acts xvi.
6-10.) Paul was_not a man to wait until he was
moved. He was moving allThe" time, and doubt
less many of his guidances were negative, the
Spirit affirming no positive course, but merely for
bidding those Paul tried until he caught the
Spirit's mind and chose the right one. He made
his own plans, and would speak of them right
positively. " I have determined to winter at
Nicopolis." (Titus iii. 12.) "I will go to
Spain." (Rom. xv. 28.)
The Holy Spirit sometimes showed him the
dangers and perils ahead without intending to
turn him aside to other courses. He went to
Jerusalem bound in spirit, "under mental con-
41

.4-2' STUDIES" OF THE MAN PAUL
straint from an overpowering sense of duty, which
rendered him indifferent to dangers and insensible
to remonstrances." (Acts xx. 22, 23.) At such
Climes the advance warnings of the Spirit did not
deter him. He drew his own inferences. Others
inferred that the prospect of such dangers was an
indication that it was not God's will for him to go
on. (Acts xxi. 4.) In the case of these disciples
of Tyre "the foreknowledge was inspired; the
advice based upon it was a merely human infer
ence. Paul accepted the information, but did
not yield to the warning. Christ's approval of
his conduct is implied in Acts xxiii. n." (Bible
Commentary, Acts, p. 493.) The Spirit's warn
ing of danger was to him the indication of the
Lord's will. (Acts xxi. n-14.) This was true
walking by the Spirit. (2 Cor. xii. 18; Gal. f.
16, 25.) The easy-going ways of the flesh, th*e
path of comfort and indulgence, he walked away
from, and chose the way of the Spirit, which the
Spirit revealed as stony and perilous. He sought
no ease or comfort, for he followed Christ and
had no fear of pain or ambition for praise. He
would rather suffer for souls and with Christ, both
from outward hardship and that inner agony
which all His true servants know. And for all
,this he found patience and consolation in the
Spirit. Paul, possessing the Spirit so that He filled
him (Acts xiii. 9), so that he commended him-
seinn~the~Holy Ghost (2 Cor. vi. 6), and that
his conscience bore witness with him in the Holy
Ghost (Rom. ix. 1), was anxious that others
should possess and be filled. (Eph. v. 18,) God
was to him the One Who " supplies mer/with his
Spirit" (Gal. iii. 5-), "Who givetl/the Holy
Spirit." (1 Thess. iv. 8.) His first "question of
the little band at Ephesus was, "Did ye receive

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PAUL'S LIFE

43

the Holy Ghost when ye believed ? " (Acts xix.
1-6.) No, they had not. Apollos had taught
them what he knew, but he was at the time a dis
ciple of John the Baptist, not of Christ. (Acts
xviii. 24-28.) He taught them to repent, but
not to believe on Christ. And there were two
conditions to be met: "Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
(Acts ii. 38.) These are the only conditions,
and when they complied with the second and be
lieved Christ, the Spirit came. (See McConkey's
Threefold Secret of the Holy Spirit.') There is
no evidence here in behalf of a " second baptism "
or a "second blessing." It only shows that the
God Who gives, gives when the conditions are
met, repentance and faith. As for later experi
ences and blessings, all life is made up of such.
All knowledge grows from more to more and
more of reverence in us dwells. These great do
ings of the Spirit were only foretastes. (Rom.
viii. 23; 2 Cor. i. 22, v. 5.)
In Paul's life in the Spirit and teaching of the
Spirit we meet three great antinomies. The first
is the contrast between spirit and letter, the second
between spirit and flesh, and the third between
the Spirit of God and the spirit of the world.
1. The spirit and the letter. (2 Cor. iii. 6-18.)
Read this passage and observe how the Spirit
glides into Christ the Lord in verses 17 and 18.
It is so in all of Paul's teaching and experience.
Otherwise his teaching and experience would have
been fraudulent. The Holy Spirit is not givenN
to obscure Christ, but to exalt Christ, and it is
possible to seek the Spirit for His own sake, or i
for the sake of what we call "power," when He
will not be found save for the sake of Christ. If
a man seeks the Spirit to use Him he will seek

44 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
in vain ; but if a man seeks the Spirit that He
may use the man for Christ's sake, he will surely
find. This contrast was a favorite one with Paul.
" Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
not in the letter." (Rom. ii. 29. ) " We serve in
newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter."
(Rom. vii. 6.) He set off the spiritual against
the literal (1 Cor. x. 3, 4), and saw the spiritual
even in the law. (Rom. vii. 14). He had a rugged
common sense that saved him from error in this
contrast. (1 Cor. xiv. 1-19.) He would
rather speak five words with the understanding
that he might instruct others than ten thousand
words in a tongue which might be very spiritual,
but literally meaningless. His gospel came to
men in words, warm, plain, stinging words,
because it came also in the Holy Ghost.
(1 Thess. i. 5.) He used speech, but it was
speech that hinted and trembled as the veil of
spirit, and not dead words.
The contrast between spirit and letter is the
contrast between reality and form. If the reality
can do without the form it is at liberty to do so.
If the form is without the reality it is worse than
worthless. We need to grasp the significance of
this contrast. We spend hours on the letter, the
form, the shell. The living spirit within is worth
more than all finish or form. " The word we speak
is nothing," wrote Chinese Gordon to his sister
(Letters,^. 13); "our emotions are often more
acted on by a look than by the sound of a word.
The influence is in the spirit, and not in the
sound, which passes away, while the effect on the
hearer's spirit remains." "It was not the argu
ments that convinced me," said a Christian con
vert from Mohammedanism in India. " I could
meet argument with argument. It was the spirit

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PAUL'S LIFE 45
which characterized the missionary who talked
with me."
_ Words spoken or read are only physical vibra
tions. Dead, they die; save as dying on the
outer edge of the human spirit, they start those
tremors in the soul that live. The letter is a
veil. "But whensoever a man shall turn to the
Lord, the veil is taken away." (2 Cor. iii. 15.)
2. The spirit and the flesh. (Rom. viii. 1-17.)
Flesh is not synonymous with body. That is
another distinction which Paul often draws, be
tween body and spirit. (1 Thess. v. 23 ; 1 Cor.
v. 3-5, vi. 17, xvi. 18; 2 Cor. ii. 13, vii. 13;
Col. ii. 5.) But flesh means the fallen nature,
the sinful passions. To the extent to which these
sinful passions reside in or spring from the body,
the body is flesh. To the extent to which they
spring from or reside in the mind or spirit, the
mind or spirit is flesh. There is a "filthiness of
the spirit," Paul says, " and a fleshly mind."
(2 Cor. vii. 1 ; Col. ii. 18.)
His contrast is not between the physical and the
mental, but between what is pure and impure,
whether in body or spirit — between the higher
and the lower nature. And yet, though flesh is
not synonymous with body, it is clear that with Paul
many of the fleshly lusts that war against the soul
had their seat in his body. " I buffet my body,"
he said, "and bring it under." (1 Cor. ix. 27.)
"If by the spirit ye mortify the deeds of the
body," he declared, "ye shall live." (Rom.
viii. 12, 13.) "It may surprise some that so
good and saintly a man as the apostle Paul should
have found in the body of the flesh so much of a
hindrance to the spiritual life. Surprising or not,
one may take it for certain that such was the fact.
. . . And who can tell what painful inner ex
periences the saintly man passed through in this

46 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
direction ? . . . That one statement, ' I buffet
my body,' is of more value to us as a guide to
his thought than all the monographs on the sub
ject. It tells me that Saint Paul, while a true
saint, was also a man of like passions with our
selves — that he had his desperate struggles with
the flesh under very common forms of tempta
tions (inferred from the prominent position given
to sins of impurity in his catalogue of the works
of the flesh — Gal. v. 19), and that his sanctity
was a victory achieved in that fell war by one
who was prepared to sacrifice an offending
member that the whole body might not be cast
into hell. For the comfort of those who are man
fully, though, as it appears to themselves, with
very indifferent success, fighting the same battle,
it is well to make this plain." (Bruce, St.
Paul's Conception of Christianity, pp. 264-267.)
Even in the case of our Lord must we not believe
that His " sinlessness in the flesh was not the sin-
lessness of His flesh, but His own sinlessness in
the flesh"? (DuBose, Soteriology, p. 268.)
With Paul it was not sinlessness of any sort, yet
it was a fierce and unresting struggle against sin
in his members. (Rom. vii. 23.)
" What was their tale of some one on a summit,
Looking I think upon the endless sea, —
One with a fate and sworn to overcome it,
One who was fettered and who should be free ?
' Round him a robe, for shaming and for searing,
Ate with empoisonment and stung with fire,
He through it all was to his Lord uprearing
Desperate patience of a brave desire.
" Ay, and for me there shot from the beginning
Pulses of passion broken with my breath ;
Oh thou poor soul, enwrapped in such a sinning,
Bound in the shameful body of thy death !

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PAUL'S LIFE 47
" Well let me sin, but not with my consenting,
Well let me die, but willing to be whole :
Never, O Christ, — so stay me from relenting, 
Shall there be truce betwixt my flesh and soul." \
Perhaps we may erroneously emphasize the
significance of this contrast of Paul's to the one
sided condemnation of physical sins and the
practical condoning of sins of disposition and
of the inner spirit. "When we look into sin,
not in its theological aspects, but in its everyday
clothes we find that it divides itself into two kinds.
We find that there are sins of the body and sins
of the disposition ; or more narrowly, sins of the
passion, including all forms of lust and selfish
ness, and sins of the temper. The prodigal is
the instance in the New Testament of sins of
passions, the elder brother of sins of temper."
(Drummond, The Ideal Life, p. 48.) This
fleshliness, this sin of the spirit, we need to hate
as well as the other fleshliness, the sin of the body.
Surely that " subtle and unseen sin, that sin in
the part of the nature most near to the spiritual,
ought to be more degrading than any other " and
most loathsome to us.
Paul presents this contrast, not as a past thing
only, or as an aspect of present life, but as the
forerunner of a judgment too. (GaL v. 16-26,
vi. 7, 8.)
3. The Spirit of God and the spirit of the
world. (1 Cor. ii. 6-16.) Notice how here, too,
Paul cannot speak of the Spirit without coming
sooner or later to Christ. (1 Cor. ii. 16.) If
was the Spirit of God as contrasted with the spirit
of the world who gave to Paul Christ's mind and
taught him the mighty secrets of the soul. " We
received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given us of God." (1 Cor. ii. 12.)

•48 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
These "spiritual things" he often spoke of
(1 Cor. ii. 13, ix. 11 ; Rom. xv. 27), and of the
spiritual men who could present them (Gal. vi. 1 ;
1 Cor. ii. 15, iii. 1, xiv. 37), and of the spiritual
wisdom and understanding which was in such
men. (Col. i. 9.) Of course it was only in the
Spirit that the vision of Christ was revealed.
(Eph. iii. 5.) And over against all this was the
. blinding spirit of the god of this world. (2 Cor.
iv. 4-6 ; Eph. ii. 1-3.)
Apart from the teaching gathered into these
three antitheses, Paul's life and letters are full of
the Spirit. He spoke of the Spirit of holiness
(Rom. i. 4) ; the Spirit of adoption (Rom. viii.
15) ; the Spirit of meekness (1 Cor. iv. 21 ; Gal.
vi. 1); the Spirit of faith (2 Cor. iv. 13); the
Spirit of wisdom (Eph. i. 17); the Spirit of
power and love and discipline (2 Tim. i. 7) ; the
Spirit of promise, by whom men were sealed
(Eph. i. 13); the Spirit of God, embracing and
producing all these (Rom. viii. 9 ; 1 Cor. ii. n);
,the^pirit--e^G^'ssoiPcrying "Father" in our
hearts (Gal. iv. 6), and the Spirit of CJirigt.
(Rom. viii. 9.) 4j ^ fv-Ai- . ''V^J-l OaC£
He speaks of the power of the Spirit (Rom. xv.
"13-19); the love of the Spirit (Rom. xv. 30);
the renewing and the communion of the Holy
Ghost (Titus iii. 5 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 14) ; the demon
stration of the Spirit (1 Cor. ii. 4) ; the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph. vi.
1 7) ; the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ
(Phil. i. 19); the fellowship of the Spirit (Phil.
ii. 1) ; the sanctification of the Spirit. (2 Thess. ii.
13 ; cf. Rom. xv. 16.)
He writes of revelation through the Spirit (1
Cor. ii. 10-14) ; justification by the Spirit of our
,God (1 Cor. vi. 11); of living epistles writtea'
with the Spirit (2 Cor. iii. 3); of sealing in the

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PAUL'S LIFE 49
Spirit (Eph. iyr-30) ; >of worship by the Spirit
(Phil. iii. 3-)Tof love in the Spirit (Col. i. 8) ;
of the guarding of the inner treasure through the
Holy Spirit dwelling in us (2 Tim. i. 14) ; of the
love of Godshed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
^RoHirv7^);""of the indwelling of the Spirit in
the mortal body (1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 19); of the
life-giving Spirit which the second Adam was (1
Cor. xv. 45); of the strengthening with power;
received through the Holy Ghost (Rom. xiv. 17.)'
The Holy Ghost was the fountain of a great joyv
to Paul. (1 Thess. i. 6.) He warns against griev-^
ing the Spirit (Eph. iv. 30) ; against quench-j
ing the Spirit. (1 Thess. v. 19.) He enjoins
"praying at all seasons in the Spirit" (Eph. vi.
18) ; and is sure of the presence of the Spirit
praying in and with believers (Rom. viii. 26, 27),
"helping our infirmity."
The Spirit guided and confirmed his teaching. .
The Spirit spoke expressly of the future. (1 Tim.
iv. 1.) The Spirit unravelled mysteries. (Eph.
iii. 5.) And by the Spirit he saw and knew what
without the Spirit men miss and deny. The Spirit
saved him from
" The sense that every struggle brings defeat
Because Fate holds no prize to crown success
That all the oracles are dumb or cheat
Because they have no secret to express
That none can pierce the great dark veil uncertain
Because there is no light beyond the curtain
But all is vanity and nothingness."
Paul held no such view of the unseen. It was to
him the enduringly real. Out of it the Spirit of
God was ever speaking to him. "This is my
judgment," Paul could say, "and I think that I
also have the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. vii. 40.)
He prized above all else the gifts of the Spirit

50 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
(Rom. i. ii ; i Cor. xii. i, xiv. i, 12), and
watched with interest the Spirit's diverse and
affluent distribution. (1 Cor. xii. 4-1 1.) He saw
in the Spirit the inspiration of all faith and con
fession, and trusted Him. (1 Cor. xii. 3.) And
in the Spirit he found the unity of the Church,
' ' One body, one Spirit. ' ' (Eph. i v. 4. ) And craved
for the Church the unity of* the Spirit. (Eph. iv.
3; compare Phil. i. 27.) Yes, in the Spirit he
saw even the unity of mankind, alien and Jew
(Eph. ii. 8), and waiting through the Spirit for
the hope of righteousness in himself (Gal. v. 5) ;
he saw in Him also, "the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief
corner stone; in whom each several building,
fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple
in the Lord : in whom ye also are builded to
gether for a habitation of God in the Spirit."
(Eph. ii. 19-22.)
r Life to Paul was rich in the presence of the
Spirit of God. It was to him no vain thing, no
undirected thing, no lordless thing. It was athrill
jirith divine meaning.
" Call ye life lonely ? Oh, the myriad sounds
Which haunt it, proving how the outer bounds
Join with eternity where God abounds ! "
Yes, but to Paul He abounds also in time.
Life is spirit. True life is the Holy Spirit.

PAUL'S OPINION OF HIMSELF

5»

IV
Paul's opinion of himself
There is a frank ingenuousness and childlike-
ness about Paul's disclosures of himself, which
commands confidence and wins love. He
was such a human man, so rich in human emo
tions, sincere and cordial, that he touches us as
the highly veneered, seclusive, self-suppressing
characters never do. Paul speaks right out about
his own thoughts, failings, and successes. He
lays bare his inner life. All his preaching was of
that experimental sort, illustrated by his own
strivings, which many preachers nowadays dep
recate and avoid. And yet, when the experi
ence is there, how can it be concealed ?
i. Paul's confidence in his own integrity was
absolute. Ritschl has spoken of this — " the con
sciousness of moral integrity that characterizes
Paul's Christian experience." We see this in his
accounts of his conversion. (Acts xxii. i, 2,
xxvi. 2-23.) He was so perfectly sincere, that
he never thought that the Christians would dis
trust him when he assayed to join himself to
them. (Acts ix. 26.) He assured Timothy that
he had served God from his forefathers in a pure
conscience (2 Tim. i. 3), and declared that he
"exercised himself to have a conscience void of
offence toward God and men always." (Acts
xxiv. 16; compare 1 Tim. i. 19; 2 Cor. iv. 2.)
He affirms that the testimony of his conscience is
that he had behaved himself "in lowliness and
sincerity of God " (2 Cor. i. 12), " holily, right-
53

54 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
eously and unblamably." (i Thess. ii. 10.) He
was sure of his own absolute constancy, and ap
pealed to all his conduct as a proof of his service
of the Lord in all lowliness of" mind. (Acts xx.
1 8.) And it was not in detached particular acts
only that he was sure he was displaying his obedi
ence to God. "Faith is not very plainly evi
denced in just one act. Impulse can manage
that. Emotional excitement can sustain that.
Faith is best seen in a series of acts, a long con
tinued series; faith is best seen in a whole life."
(Tuck, Revelation by Character, p. 25.) And
Paul held that his whole life had been earnest and
conscientious even before he came under the sway
of the Christian spirit and ideals of faith, no less
than after he felt their power and was transformed
by their beauty.
2. His fearlessness before God. On the
Damascus road he was unafraid, and answered,
without shrinking, the voice of the Lord. He
told the Council, after his arrest, "Brethren, I
have lived before God in all good conscience un
til this day." (Acts xxiii. 1.) He did not shrink
from God's scrutinies. "God is my witness"
(Rom. i. 9) ; "I call God for a witness upon my
soul." (2 Cor. i. 23.) His conscience bore witness
with him in the Holy Ghost. (Rom. ix. 1, 2.)
He spoke in Christ as though he stood in God's
presence. (2 Cor. xii. 19.) He was sure of his
divine calling and conversion, and of his Master.
(1 Thess. ii. 4.) He was sure God would testify
of his holy life. (1 Thess. ii. 10.) And he en
joined Timothy also to give heed to present him
self approved unto God, without fear or shame.
(2 Tim. ii. 15.)
3. His confidence in God's power in him, and
upon him. He had no doubt of his ability to
give spiritual help and blessing, or to accomplish

PAUL S OPINION OF HIMSELF 55
the divine work. He never hesitated because he
had no message, or feared he could not do the
work. (Rom. i. 9-13.) " I know I shall come
in the fullness of the blessing of Christ." (Rom.
xv. 19. Compare 2 Cor. i. 15.) He was full of
resource. The story of his shipwreck illustrates
that. And he was sure of the miraculous help of
God, and dealt in the judgments of God. (Acts
xiii. 10, 11.) Temptation bit him, but he was
sure it could not defeat him. (1 Cor. x. 13.)
His gospel was full of the Spirit's power. (1
Thess. i. 5.) His message was, he knew, the
message of God, and not the word of a man. (1
Thess. ii. 13.) He was sure of his inspiration,
and dared even to say that the ability to appreci
ate the divinity of his message was the test of a
man's spiritual capacity. (1 Cor. xiv. 37, 38.)
The consequence was that he spoke with bold and
conclusive authority. (1 Cor. xi. 2, 34.) God's
special grace had been given to him. (Rom.
xii. 3.) What was this special grace ? (Eph. iii.
8-13.) He was the last witness of the resurrec
tion. "I saw; I know," he said. (1 Cor. xv.
8.) He was the earthen vessel of God's power.
(2 Cor. iv. 7-15.) He liked this image of the
vessel made, shaped, used by the potter. (Rom.
ix. 21 ; 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21.) And he made his
own ali the confidence and freedom resident in this
metaphor. He could sing with Rabbi Ben Ezra :
" Look not thou down but up !
To uses of a cup,
The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal,
The new wine's foaming flow,
The Master's lips aglow !
Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst thou with
earth's wheel ? "
4. "Imitate me." He is a rare man who

56 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
dare say this. No one of us ever met him. Paul
is the only apostle who says it, and he says it
boldly and repeatedly. " I gave you an ex
ample," he told the elders of Ephesus. (Acts
xx. 35.) "Be ye imitators of me," he wrote to
the Corinthians. (1 Cor. iv. 16; compare Phil.
iii. 17.) His Own life he held up as a pattern in
the matter of struggle and conflict (Phil. i. 30),
of conduct (Phil. iv. 9), of self-respecting toil.
(2 Thess. iii. 7-9.) He commends Timothy for
following his "teaching, conduct, purpose, faith,
long-suffering, love, patience, persecutions, suf
ferings." He commands both Timothy and Titus
to be examples also " in word, in manner of life,
in love, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. iv. 12);
of good works, uncorruptness, gravity, sound
speech. (Titus ii. 7, 8.) Yet there was no pride
here. That was overcome by grace. It was
Christ in Paul who was to be imitated. What
was done by him Christ wrought. (Rom. xv. 18.)
The believers were to imitate him even as he was
an imitator of Christ. (1 Cor. xi. 1 ; 1 Thess.
i. 6.) And his face in the flesh was worth seeing
only as a mirror reflecting Christ. (Col. ii. 1-3.)
There was no weak conceit in this. (1 Tim.
i. 15.) It was Christ in Paul whom he was ex
alting, not himself. And he was what he was
only as Christ's representative. (Gal. ii. 20.)
" Once for the least of children of Manasses
God had a message and a deed to do,
Wherefore the welcome that all speech surpasses
Called him and hailed him greater than he knew.
" Asked him no more, but followed him and found him,
Filled him with valor, slung him with a sword
Bade him go on until the tribes around him
Mingled his name with naming of the Lord.

PAUL S OPINION OF HIMSELF 57
" So with the Lord ; He takes and He refuses,
Finds Him ambassadors whom men deny,
Wise ones nor mighty for His saints He chooses
No, such as John, or Gideon or I.
******
" Ay, for this Paul, a scorn and a despising
Weak as you know him and the wretch you see,-
Even in these eyes shall ye behold Him rising,
Strength in infirmities and Christ in me."
5. His sense of divine mission. " I was ap
pointed a preacher and an apostle (I speak the
truth, I lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith
and truth." (i Tim. ii. 7.) His Epistles are opened
with such assertions : "Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ through the will of God" (2 Cor. i. i)j
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to
the commandment of God, our Saviour. " (1 Tim.
i. 1.) The boldest statement of his mission is in
Gal. i. 15, 16. On a divine errand, of course,
he was entrusted with a divine word (Titus i. 3),
was an ambassador of Christ. (2 Cor. v. 29.)
What wonder that a man so possessed with the
sense of divine commission should have secrets
with God. (2 Cor. xii. 2-4.)
6. His sincerity. He prayed for the sincerity
of others (Phil. i. 10), using a splendid word
which means "that which being viewed in the
sunshine is found clear and pure." Peter uses
the same word once. (2 Pet. ii. 1.) Paul ap
plies this word to himself, too. ' ' We are not as
the many," he says, "who deal with the word of
God as hucksters who adulterate their goods, but
we are above board, out in the sunlight. We
speak of sincerity; yes, as of God, in the sight
of God, speak we in Christ." (2 Cor. ii. 14-17.)
He scorned " the hidden things of shame," and
craftiness, and deceitful statement, and, by the
manifestation of the truth, setting it out in the

5X STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
broad day, commended himself to every man's
conscience in the sight of God. (2 Cor. iv.
1-6.) So he used God's word without flattery
(1 Thess. ii. i-6), and he told men the truth
without fear. (Gal. iv. 16-18.)
7. And yet, while sure of his integrity, Paul's
very sincerity makes him frank almost to the point
of excessive self-disclosure about his early and
later shortcomings. He numbered himself among
those who "aforetime were foolish, disobedient,
deceived, seeking divers lusts and pleasures, liv
ing in malice and envy, hateful, hating one an
other." (Titus iii. 3.) "I was before a blas
phemer and a persecutor and injurious, the chief
of sinners." (1 Tim. i. 12-17.) He had lived
"in all good conscience," even in blasphemy
and sin. Something more is required of a man
than living "in all good conscience." He must
not only live up to his moral judgments; his
moral judgments must be right.
Paul was sensible, too, of the difficulties of
making his message clear, of doing his full duty
and of persuading others of that which he saw so
clearly himself. (Col. iv. 3, 4; Gal. iv. 19, 20.)
And yet he holds that if his gospel is not under
stood it is not his fault. (2 Cor. iv. 3, ii. 15, 16.)
8. His boastings. He was not a whit behind
the chiefest apostles, he claimed. (2 Cor. xi. 5.)
Though he might be rude in speech he was not
in knowledge. (2 Cor. xi. 6.) He had a self-
respecting spirit of self-support to which he ap
pealed. 2 Cor. xi. 8, 9, — "I have kept myself
from being burdensome, and so will I keep my
self. ' ' He was of family position and lineage of
which he was not ashamed. (2 Cor. xi. 21, 22.)
Read carefully the following list of his endurances
and sacrifices. (2 Cor. xi. 23-33.) He was
forced to such statements as these in self-defence.

Paul's opinion of himself 59
The new Christians then, as now, had short mem
ories, and soon slipped away fromtthe zealous love
and the simple words of the apostle. And yet
this boasting was distasteful to him, and he con
stantly apologized for it, showing his dislike of
it. "I speak as one beside myself," he says.
" If I must needs glory I will glory of the things
that concern my weakness. I must needs glory,
though it is not expedient ; but I will come to
visions and revelations of the Lord, and glory on
behalf of the man who has had these." (2 Cor.
xii. 1-10.) How far all this boasting was from
pride or elation or self-indulgence is shown by
his closing words: "I take pleasure in weak
nesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake." All this experi
ence he made the basis of the most earnest ex
hortation (2 Cor. vi. 1-10), and drew from it,
from his hardships, his patience, his firmness, his
kindness, his unfeigned love, an unanswerable
argument in commendation of his mission, and
his message, and his Master.
Such was the peace given him that he rejoiced
in his sufferings, as well as took pleasure in them,
and conceived of them as somehow fulfilling the
incomplete afflictions of Christ. (Col. i. 24.)
He spoke of suffering as a privilege granted to
Christians of the same sort as belief. (Phil. i. 29.)
Suffering and shameful treatment only made him
wax the more bold in God to speak the gospel in
much conflict. (1 Thess. ii. 2.)
His last letters to Timothy, written out of hard
ship and imprisonment, are naturally full of such
allusions as these. (2 Tim. i. 8, 16, ii. 9, iii. 10-
1 2, iv. 5 .) There is no boasting now, nor any need
of any. The old warrior's scars were too many,
and too evident — "Yea," he exclaimed bravely,
but solemnly, "and all that would live godly in

60 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim.
iii. 12.)
Boasting was contrary to his nature. ' ' Although
Paul endeavored to please all in the Lord," as
Thomas a Kempis writes, " and made himself all
things unto all men, yet with him it was a very small
thing that he should be judged of man's judg
ment. He did for the edification and salvation
of others what lay in him, and as much as he
was able; yet could he not hinder but that he
was sometimes judged and despised by others.
Therefore he committed all to God who knew
all : and with patience and humility he defended
himself against unjust tongues, and against such
as thought vanities and lies, and spoke boast
fully whatever they listed. Sometimes notwith
standing he made answer, lest the weak should
be offended by his silence." (Imitation, Third
Book, xxxvi.) He spoke of his own endurances
and pains, not to exalt himself, but to vindicate
his gospel, and to free himself from the irritating
and weakening trivialities which occupied small
men. "Far be it from me to glory," he ex
claimed, "save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through which the world hath been cruci
fied unto me, and I unto the world. . . . From
henceforth let no man trouble me : for I bear
branded on my body the marks of Jesus." (Gal.
vi. 14, 17.) And hungry, and wet, and weary,
and sore, though he often was, he was merrily
content. " I have learned the secret of content,"
he said. (Phil. iv. 11-13.)
And no one knew better than Paul, that great
as he was, he had not yet attained. "lam not
perfected yet," he said, "but I press on. Let
all of us who are perfect do this." As Bengel
remarks, " The perfect and the perfected are dif
ferent ; the former is equipped for the race, the

Paul's opinion of himself 61
latter is close on the prize." In such zeal for the
race and the goal, he challenged the Philippians
to imitate him. He was running himself. He
had not finished yet, but he was honest, and he
was working toward the goal. (Phil. iii. 12-16.)
And with all his boasting he was lowly and
meek. Note the pathetic words in 1 Cor. iv. 10-13 :
"We are made as the refuse and offscouring of
all things." . Humility, not pride, was his spirit.
(2 Cor. xii. 6 ; Phil. ii. 3, 4.) And observe his
admiration for the lowliness and humiliation of
Jesus. (2 Cor. x. 1 ; Phil. ii. 5-1 1.)
9. The ground of Paul's confidence in him
self was not in himself, but in God. " Our suf
ficiency is from God." (2 Cor. iii. 4-6.) He was
preaching not himself, but Christ. (2 Cor. iv. 5.)
He states at length his position, his confidence in
the weapons of the Spirit, and opens up his inner
spirit and purposes fully in 2 Cor. x. He ex
plains that he does not use fleshly weapons, verses
2-5 ; that he belongs to Christ, verse 7 ; he
makes no comparison of himself with others, verse
12; he has borne spiritual fruits, verses 14, 15;
he is reaching out with real missionary longing,
verse 16; however he may commend himself, he
says, the only commendation that is worth any
thing is the Lord's, verse 18. (Compare 1 Cor.
iv. 1-5.) He was bold, but he was bold in God.
(1 Thess. ii. 2.)
10. There is a large field for study in Paul's
various self-vindications, and his arguments and
entreaties are full of personal allusion and appeal.
He appeals to the fruits of his work (1 Cor. ix. 2) ;
to the significance of his own surrender of his
right to marry, and to live of the gospel. (1 Cor.
ix. 5, 14.) He preaches, he says, not profes
sionally, but because of a divine constraint, that
is as a wail of woe in his soul, if he keeps silence.

62 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
(i Cor. ix. 16.) Notice here his wise distinction
between gratuitous service and the service of
divine stewardship and constraint, (i Cor. ix.
17, 18.) If he preached at his own will, he might
as a reward charge for it. Because he preaches
at the will of God, his reward is that he may do
it for nothing. He rejoices in his adaptation to
all classes. (1 Cor. ix. 19-22.) He claims to
do everything for the gospel's sake. (1 Cor.
ix. 23.) And he is confident in his own perfect
consistency and openness, his freedom from all
fickleness, wavering, and deceit. (2 Cor. i. 15-22.)
Whatever else may be said of Paul, this may be
safely said : His speech was the speech of a man.
n. Now and then Paul lifts the veil higher
and shows us the inner self-discipline. He waged
a war with his body (1 Cor. ix. 24-27), and a
war with his thoughts. (2 Cor. x. 5.) He
brought both under and gave them into captivity
to Christ. And doubtless his paternal counsel to
Timothy was but the story of his own moral self-
education. (1 Tim. iv. 6-16.) But his life was
no mere ethical struggle to realize high principle
in conduct. It was a passion for Christ. He
will tolerate no indifference to Him. " If any
man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema"
(1 Cor. xvi. 22); and he himself lived in the
presence of Christ, and there toiled and forgave,
fought and rested at last. (2 Cor. ii. .10.)

PAUL'S MOTIVES, AIMS AND METHODS

PAUL'S MOTIVES, AIMS, AND METHODS
I. His motives.
Here was a mighty man working intensely,
scorning petty hardships, and perils that were not
petty, surrendering a position of great influence
among his own people to become a wanderer over
the face of the earth, losing, perhaps, his inherit
ance and his home through the change in his
opinions and course of life, made, as he said, "as
the refuse and offscouring of the world," but
keeping his repose of spirit, growing humbler as
he rose higher, and looking upon men not with
scorn, but only with increasing tenderness. What
were the motives under and behind this life ?
i . There was first of all in his soul a thorough
conviction of the true Messiahship of Jesus. As
a simple, intellectual conviction this was solid and
impregnable. "God according to promise hath
brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. . . . And
we bring you good tidings of the promise made
unto the fathers, how that God hath fulfilled the
same unto our children, in that He raised up
Jesus ; as also it is written in the second Psalm,
Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee."
(Acts xiii. 23, 33.) And this conviction, born in
the blinding vision on the Damascus road, was
deepened and confirmed by Paul's own deliver
ance by Jesus from the mass of soul-stifling and
distracting difficulties, with which he struggled
under the law. " By him, " he assured the people
65

66 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
of Antioch of Pisidia, "every one that believeth
is justified from all things, from which ye could
not be justified by the law of Moses. ' ' (Acts xiii.
39.) The burden which Jesus had lifted from
his own heart left it so light, and yet so heavy
with joyous obligation, that he could not refrain
from preaching that same Jesus to all heavy
spirits. 2. He worked with the sense of an inworking
God. The signs and wonders of which he and
Barnabas had been the agents, were not theirs.
" God had wrought them among the Gentiles."
(Acts xv. 4, 12.) He was only an ambassador
for God. (2 Cor. v. 20.) God was all with
Paul. In His work in His world Paul was only
an agent of His. What stronger motive could
there be than to be an instrument of God?
(2 Cor. v. 18, 19.)
3. The constraint of love. Christ's love held
him fast. (2 Cor. v. 13-17.) The word here
translated constrain means "to press on every
side," as in Luke viii. 45, xix. 43; "to hold
fast as a prisoner," as in Luke xxii. 63; "to be
holden with," or "afflicted with," as in sickness
(Matt. iv. 24), or a fever. (Luke iv. 38.) It is
the word used by Jesus in Luke xii. 50 : " How am
I straitened till it be accomplished!" and" by
Paul in Phil. i. 23 : "I am in a strait betwixt
the two." It was the strongest word he knew.
Christ's love held him fast, as a besieging army
about a city. It filled him as a fever. It strait
ened him. All else than Christ and His love was
but dross. (Phil. iii. 7-1 1.)
And the love of souls was joined to the love of
Christ. (Rom. x. 1.) As the passion for
Christ's love for him held him fast and en
thralled him, so his love for souls bound him
in a divine constraint of pity and desire. In

Paul's motives, aims and methods 67
one of his most solemn passages he declares :
"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my
conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy
Ghost, that I have great sorrow and unceasing
pain in my heart. For I could wish that I my
self were anathema from Christ for my brethren's
sake." (Rom. ix. 1-3.) Paul was ever in an
agony of desire for souls. This was his constant
cry: " Oft, when the Word is on me to deliver,-
Lifts the illusion and the truth lies bare,
Desert or throng, the city or the river,
Melts in a lucid paradise of air.
" Only like souls I see the folk thereunder,
Bound who should conquer, slaves who should be
kings.
Hearing their one hope with an empty wonder,
Sadly contented in a show of things.
" Then, with a rush the intolerable craving
Shivers throughout me like a trumpet call,
Oh, to save these, to perish for their saving,
Die for their life, be offered for them all ! "
4. He belonged to Christ. He was not his
own. He called himself the bondslave of Christ.
(Rom. i. 1 ; Gal. i. 10; Phil. i. 1 ; 2 Tim. ii. 24;
Titus i. 1.) He remembered that Jesus in His
lowliness had become a bondservant (Phil. ii. 7),
and he was the readier to serve the Divine Serv
ant who had served him, who, as he said, " had
died for us that, whether we wake or sleep, we
should live together with Him." (1 Thess. v.
10.) He denied that any man owned himself.
(1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.) Christ owned every man.
(1 Cor. iii. 23.) And He owned no man more
than He owned Paul. 2 Cor. x. 7,—" If any
man trusteth to himself that he is Christ's, let

68 studies of the man paul
him consider this again with himself, that, even
as he is Christ's, so also are we."
5. The example of Christ. In urging the
Corinthians to give generously toward the fund
he was raising for the poor saints at Jerusalem,
he appeals with a wise skillfulness to the example
of Jesus. "See that ye abound in this grace
also. . . . For ye know the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for
your sakes He became poor, that ye, through His
poverty, might become rich." (2 Cor. viii. 9.)
Again, he entreats the Corinthians " by the meek
ness and gentleness of Christ." (2 Cor. x. 1.)
And describing the lowliness of Christ, he says
to the Philippians, "Have this mind in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus." (Phil. ii. 5.)
He had the Lord always before his face, and His
life was the beautiful life which Paul desired to
imitate. 6. The terror of the Lord. (2 Cor. v. 11.)
Paul knew the horrors of sin, and its great and
coming doom. (2 Thess. i. 7-9.) He believed
in the judgment of sin. (Rom. ii. 1-16.)
" The Moving Finger writes ; and having writ,
Moves on : nor all thy Piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."
Reckonest thou, "O man," he asks, "that thou
shalt escape the judgment of God?" And he
warns them of the certain coming of " the day
when God shall judge the secrets of men, accord
ing to my gospel by Jesus Christ. ' ' And God was
to him not " a god of infinite good nature," but a
God of love and righteousness, Who "cannot
look on sin with any degree of allowance," but
must burn it out of His universe. Knowing all
this, "the terror of the Lord," he persuaded

Paul's motives, aims and methods 69
men. There is a wrath of God. (John iii. 36;
Rom. i. 18.) He warned men to flee from it to
the holy love of God. And he made appeal to
the Judgment always in the tones of the Saviour's
mercy. (1 Tim. i. 15 ; Rom. vi. 23.)
" Thunder the message that to me Thou gavest
Writ with the lightning in the skies it ran ;
Shepherd of souls ! it is not thus Thou savest ;
Nay, but with sorrows of the Son of Man."
7. Paul wasmoved, too, by his own anticipation
of divine judgment. He would himself be saved,
he knew, through the mercy of Christ; but he
knew, also, that his work would be tested as by
fire, and the life that he had lived be shown as a
wreck and failure, or as a success, to endure as
gold forever. "We must all," he wrote, "be
made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ,
that each one may receive the things done in the
body." (2 Cor. v. 10.) Jesus Christ was the
only possible foundation, but men could build on
Him hay or precious stones. The fire of judg
ment would determine which. (1 Cor. iii. n-15.)
He was moved himself by the great ambition
to build on Christ a lasting building of gold and
silver and precious stones, which would endure
the fire. The reward obtainable in that day Paul
desired, and he endured all things that he and
others might, though they died with Christ, also
live with Him, and if they endured, reign with
Him. (2 Tim. ii. 10-13, 'v- 8.)
8. Paul saw the contrast between the eternal
and the unenduring. He beheld the old " minis
tration of condemnation," the "ministration of
death," as he called the Old Dispensation, pass
ing away, and a more glorious one coming. And
every day he saw the immortal and the fleeting in
sharp distinction. " We look not at the things

70 studies of the MAN PAUL
which are seen, temporal, but at the things which
are not seen, eternal." (2 Cor. iv. 16-18.) And
this was very practical with him. He fixed his
own gaze on the eternities, and was unmoved by
the trifling hours. "The time is short. . . .
For the fashion of this world passeth away. I
would have you to be free from cares." (1 Cor.
vii. 29 ff.) His expectation of the eternal future
was ever present with him. It was made personal
and living by his hope of Christ's return. This
hope was a real motive to him. He desired it.
(2 Cor. v. 1-4; 1 Cor. xv. 51, ff.) He looked
for it. (Phil. iii. 20, 21; Titus ii. 13.) He
loved it. (2 Tim. iv. 8.) He used it as a mo
tive to vigilance (1 Thess. v. 4-6) ; to steadfast
ness and unblamableness (1 Thess. v. 23,
iii. 13) ; to the winning of souls (1 Thess. ii. 19);
to charitableness of judgment (1 Cor. iv. 5); to
purity (Col. iii. 4, 5) ; to patient suffering until
He brings deliverance and rest (2 Thess. i. 7) ;
to faithfulness and bravery in service. (2 Tim.
iv. 1, 2.)
Paul longed for the Lord's return. Bruce is
sure that he "expected it in his lifetime." He
certainly wished for it before he died, and his
daily watching, and his eager love, were sweet
and powerful motives to tenderness, to holiness,
to faithfulness, to a noble liberty of heart.
II. His aims.
1. To turn men to God. "We bring you
good tidings," he and Barnabas said to the peo
ple at Lystra, "that ye should turn from these
vain things unto the living God." (Acts xiv. 15.)
He rejoiced that this had been the result of his
work among the Thessalonians. They had
"turned to God from idols to serve a living and
true God — to wait for His Son from heaven." (1

Paul's motives, aims and methods 71
Thess. i. 9, 10.) It was not enough that individ
uals thus turned from darkness to light. His aim
embraced more than this. His turning of indi
viduals was with a view to the kingdom which he
was ever preaching. (Acts xx. 25.) The turn
ing of individuals involved an overturning of the
world. (Acts xvii. 6, 7.) Naturally such an
aim as this, expressed as Paul would of necessity
express it, was misunderstood by the Jews. " We
have found this man a pestilent fellow," they
declared, "and a mover of insurrection among
the Jews throughout the world, and a ring-leader
of the sect of the Nazarenes, who moreover
assayed to profane the temple. ' ' (Acts xxiv. 5-9. )
" This is the man that teacheth all men every
where against the people, and the law, and this
place." (Acts xxi. 28.) Paul, on the other
hand, believed that he was breaking no law of
the Jews, nor sinning against _the temple or
Csesar. (Acts xxv. 8.) Against Gentile idolatry
he must have seemed an iconoclast as implacable
as was Mohammed. (Acts. xix. 26, 27.)
2. To give new life. He turned away from
the Jews because they judged themselves un
worthy of eternal life. (Acts xiii. 46, 47.) And
this life was in the gospel, through repentance
toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ. (Acts. xx. 20, 21.) Of his course and
mission he wrote, "We are a sweet savor of
Christ unto God to them that are saved, and in
them that are perishing : to the one a savor from
death unto death ; and to the other a savor from
life unto life." (2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.) He held
forth the word of life. (Phil. ii. 16.) And he
desired men to lay hold on life. (1 Tim. vi.
12, 19.) Life was a word used more frequently
by John, but often used by Paul. (Rom. ii. 7, .
v. 18, 21, vi. 4, 22, 23, viii. 2, 6, 10, xi. 15;

72 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
2 Cor. iv. 10, ii ; Gal. vi. 8; Eph. iv. 18; Col.
iii. 4.)
3. To deliver the word of God. The ministry
which he had received from the Lord Jesus was
to. testify the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts
xx. 24.) He shrank not from declaring the
whole counsel of God. (Acts. xx. 27.) Why
should he shrink ? Nowadays men escape from
such shrinking by denying the truth of the things
from which Paul shrank not but faithfully accepted
and declared. He did not handle the word of
God deceitfully. (2 Cor. iv. 2.)
" Not in soft speech is told the earthly story,
Love of all loves ! that showed Thee for an hour,
Shame was Thy kingdom and reproach thy glory,
Death Thine eternity, the cross Thy power."
Those who heard him heard the word of God.
(Acts xiii. 7, 46, xvi. 32, xviii. 11, xix. 10.) And
he rejoiced if even his bonds encouraged men to
speak the word of God. (Phil. i. 14.)
4. To preach Christ. "We preach Christ,"
he said. (1 Cor. i. 23; 2 Cor. i. 19, iv. 5). "We
preach Christ that we may present every man per
fect in Christ." (Col. i. 28.) His aim was not
mere verbal proclamation, though he strove to
spread as far and as fast as possible" the knowl
edge of the gospel. He wanted to save men.
That was the end of his preaching. (1 Thess.
ii. 16.) He wanted to lead them to holy lives,
"testifying to the end that ye should walk
worthily of God, who calleth you unto His own
kingdom and glory." (1 Thess. ii. 12.) Paul
was preeminently a preacher of the gospel. He
made it his aim to preach the gospel where Christ
was not known. (Rom. xv. 20.) And the
gospel was on his lips ever. (Rom. i. 15 ; 1 Cor.
i. 1 7.) " Woe is unto me," he said, " if I preach

Paul's motives, aims and methods 73
not the gospel." (1 Cor. ix. 16.) He wanted to
get on with it to regions beyond. (2 Cor. x. 16.)
And he could tolerate no other gospel than Christ.
(Gal. i. 8, 9.) He was jealous for Christ, as he
wrote to the Corinthians. "I am jealous over
you with a godly jealousy, for I espoused you to
one husband, that I might present you as a pure
virgin to Christ." (2 Cor. xi. 2.) And he joyed
in the thrill of power he felt as he proclaimed
Christ to men and saw Christ save. (1 Cor. ii. 4.)
" Then I preached Christ : and when she heard the
story, —
Oh, is such triumph possible to men ?
Hardly, my King, had I beheld Thy glory,
Hardly had known Thine excellence till then.
" Thou in one fold the afraid and the forsaken, —
Thou with one shepherding canst soothe and save ;
Speak but the word ! the Evangel shall awaken
Life in the lost, the hero in the slave."
5. To please Christ. " We also make it our
aim to be well pleasing unto Him. " (2 Cor. v. 9.)
He was anxious that others should please Jesus
and let nothing deter them. (1 Cor. viii. 32, 33.)
And doubtless the sense of how he must have
displeased Jesus in those days when he persecuted
His little ones humbled him sorely, and made
him anxious not to grieve Him more. And even
in his new life he was sensible of often hurting
Christ, and on that account the more he desired
to please Him perfectly, and in his very failures
to be lifted up to new and sweeter service. He
longed to please Him even when in his failing he
knew he could not be pleasing Him.
" Also I ask, but ever from the praying
Shrinks my soul backward, eager and afraid,
Point me the sum and shame of my betraying,
Show me, O Love, Thy wounds which I have made 1

74 studies of the man paul
" Yes, Thou forgivest, but with all forgiving
Canst not renew mine innocence again :
Make Thou, O Christ, a dying of my living,
Purge from the sin but never from the pain.
" So shall all speech of now and of to-morrow,
All He hath shown me or shall show rrie yet,
Spring from an infinite and tender sorrow,
Burst from a burning passion of regret.
" Standing afar I summon you anigh Him,
Yea, to the multitudes I call and say,
'This is my King ! I preach and I deny Him,
Christ! Whom I crucify anew to-day.'"
III. His methods.
Paul's manhood was more than his method.
He was primarily a persuader of men, a moulder
of life. This work preceded with him the organ
ization of institutions. He had been a Christian
worker for years before the first missionary journey
which shows his organizing capacity. On that
tour he came back over his ground, tying up his
work, and assuring it such permanence as de
pended not on the Spirit of God only, but on
wise human adjustment. Roughly, we may
speak of Paul's methods then under two classes,
(i) methods of influence and persuasion, (2)
methods of institutional organization, leaving his
missionary policies and methods to be discussed
later. 1 . Methods of influence and persuasion.
His range here was pretty broad. He was an
illustration of his own advice, "Preach the
word; be instant in season, out of season; re
prove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and
teaching." (2 Tim. iv. 2.) He overflowed
with pathetic appeal and entreaty. (Gal. iv.
20.) The hardest work in the world, personal
spiritual influence, he was doing all the time with
an anguish of sympathy and longing.

Paul's motives, aims and methods 75
" Oh could I tell ye surely would believe it !
Oh could I only say what I have seen !
How should I tell or how can you reoeive it,
How till He bringeth you where I have been ?
" Therefore, O Lord, I will not fail nor falter
Nay but I ask it, nay but I desire
Lay on my lips Thine embers of the altar
Seal with the sting and furnish with the fire ;
" Give me a voice, a cry and a complaining, —
Oh let my sound be stormy in their ears !
Throat that would shout but cannot stay for straining
Eyes that would weep but cannot wait for tears.
" Quick in a moment, infinite forever,
Send an arousal better than I pray,
Give me a grace upon the faint endeavor,
Souls for my hire and Pentecost to-day ! "
(1.) He convinced men by proof. He knew
the terror of the law, and he held the threats of
God. He loved men and he strove to move them
by tenderness. He saw great and unspeakable
visions by which he sought to lure men. But
first of all and with all he offered men proof. He
sought to convince reason. He confounded the
Jews who lived at Damascus " proving that this is
the Christ." (Acts ix. 22.) And at Thessa-
lonica, "as his custom was, he went in unto the
Jews, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with
them from the Scriptures, opening and alleging
that this Jesus whom, said he, I proclaim unto
you, is the Christ. And some of them were per
suaded." (Acts xvii. 2, 4.) Paul was a man of
argument. (Acts xiii. 45, xv. 2.) He had
thought out his case and was prepared for all
comers. He was prepared to vindicate his faith
as reasonable. Here was a true rationalism ; for
even faith must secure itself by convincing reason
of its right to be. And Paul was a constant and
superb reasoner. At Athens "he reasoned in the

76 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons,
and in the market-place every day with them that
met with him." (Acts xvii. 17.) "And at Cor
inth he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath
and persuaded Jews and Greeks." (Acts xviii.
4; compare Acts xix. 8.) And observe his
tremendous power as shown in his defence before
Agrippa, which he turned into a personal per
suasion of the king himself (Acts xxvi. 24-29),
and in his argument before Felix when "as he
reasoned" Felix was terrified. (Acts xxiv. 25.)
And all his argument had a moral aim. He
reasoned to the end of redemption in character.
"The most approved ¦ teachers of wisdom, in a
human way," says Leighton in one of the aphor
isms of Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, " have re
quired of their scholars, that to the end their
minds might be capable of it, they should be
(purified from vice and wickedness. And it was *
Socrates' custom, when any one asked him a
question, seeking to be informed by him, before
he would answer them, he asked them concerning
their own qualities and course of life." Paul's
whole purpose was thus practical and moral. A
system of reasoned opinion perfected simply for
its logical consistency would have seemed worth
less to him. He was a theologian to the end of
practical renovation of life, not to the end of in
tellectual satisfaction.
(2.) Preaching. This was his incessant occu
pation. Immediately after his conversion he
began, and when driven from Damascus to
Jerusalem he preached boldly there. (Acts ix.
28, 29.) This was his means of making dis
ciples. His constant work is told in these words,
" And when they had preached the gospel to
that city they made many disciples." (Acts
xiv. 21.)

Paul's motives, aims and methods 77
Paul uses two great words for his preaching,
the one meaning, "to cry or proclaim as a
herald " (1 Cor. i. 23 ; Gal. ii. 2), and the other
"to tell good news." (Rom. i. 15, xv. 20.)
He uses some other terms, too, but these are the
main ones. God had called him to preach. (Gal.
i. 16.) Grace was given him to preach. (Eph. iii.
8.) At Rome he was still giving his time to
preaching. (Acts xxviii. 31.) It was for this that
Christ had sent him. (1 Cor. i. 17.) It was
"by the foolishness of preaching " that it pleased
God to save those that believe. (1 Cor. i. 21.)
He was the bearer of a message, "wherewith,"
as he said, "I was entrusted according to the
commandment of God our Saviour." (Titus i.
3.) The Lord stood by him in Rome on his
second imprisonment, to the end that through him
" the message might be freely proclaimed and that
all the Gentiles might hear." (2 Tim. iv. 17.)
This was Paul's chief method, talking. Preach
ing with him was not confined to formal public
discourse. It was colloquial, spontaneous. Paul's
kind of preaching is the kind every Christian is
called to do, to talk to men in conversation and
as every opportunity presents about Christ. Paul
was interested in all men and all things, but ever
with a view to bringing Christ to the former, and
using the latter as avenues of approach to Jesus.
A specimen sermon in outline is presented in
Acts xiii. 17-41. This was addressed to Jews
in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia. He
sketched the dealing of God with Israel from the
days in Egypt, outlining the wilderness journeys,
touching on the conquest of Canaan, the reign of
the judges, Samuel the prophet, Saul, and David
with interesting chronological references, then
leaping to Jesus and the Baptist, the rejection
and crucifixion of the Messiah, His resurrection

78 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
and the remission of sins, and liberty through
Him. "Beware," he concluded, "lest despising
and prejudice stifle faith." Such preaching
yielded results. (Acts xiii. 42-45.) Paul would
argue differently with us. He did argue differently
with Gentiles. He preached to these Jews in the
way he knew they would understand.
One sermon of Paul's to Gentiles is preserved
in Acts xvii. Was it a success or a failure ? Its
catholicity, its quotation from 'Aratus, its liber
ality, its emphasis on the fatherhood of God, its
tolerance, its description of God as overlooking
some things — seem to have been gratifying to the
Athenian audience. But "when they heard of
the resurrection of the dead, some mocked : but
others said, We will hear thee again concerning
this." (Acts xvii. 32.) And some clave to Paul
on account of that sermon and believed.
Sometimes he preached pretty long, and did
not hold the interest of all. (Acts xx. 7-9.)
But what a picture of real life, of human weari
ness, of love and kindness we have even here !
And Paul's preaching, like his argument, was
practical. As Beyschlag says: " Strong as the
theological elements are which his system con
tains, the practical and moral aim is always
dominant ; and so it is the speech, not of theology,
but of religion which we hear, and we hear it with
such power, fullness, and depth as, apart from
Jesus' own preaching, was never heard in words
before or afterward. . . . Paul in every tone
utters the experience of salvation and of faith, of
one praising and confessing, studying and fight
ing, reflecting and speculating." (New Testa
ment Theology, Vol. II., p. 25.)
(3.) Teaching. Paul was not content with
preaching as an occasional and stated thing.
He tarried and taught. ' At Ephesus "he entered

Paul's motives, aims and methods 79
into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space
of three months, reasoning and persuading as to
the things concerning the kingdom of God. And
when some were hardened and disobedient, he
separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the
school of Tyrannus. And this continued for the
space of three years, so that all they which dwelt
in Asia heard the word of the Lord." (Acts xix.
8-10.) At Corinth he dwelt a year and a half
"teaching the word of God among them."
(Acts xviii. 11.) Three months he spent in
Greece. (Acts xx. 3.) He had the habit of
constant, systematic itineration. (Acts. xiv. 21-
23, xv. 41, xviii. 18-23, xx- 2_I3-) Paul's idea
of preaching is indicated by his association of it
with "admonishing and teaching." (Col. i.
28.) Nothing could well be freer or more real
and living than this preaching and teaching in
the early church. The whole function of public
worship and teaching had not yet become absorbed
into the minister or priest. Christian teaching
was informal and colloquial as in some mission
fields still. " As religious questions were put to
him, or as the edifying conversation of members
of the congregation turned the thought to a par
ticular theme, the preacher entered into expla
nations and contemplatings, dwelling more fully
on one point and more briefly on another. A
methodic development of his own course of
thought could be brought out only so far as the
characteristics of his hearers, and as the questions
or objections raised by .them made this possible.
The preacher himself was only one of the speakers ;
even though he was the principal one. The others
were the co-speakers, who prompted the chief
speaker in his speaking, and who retained the
right to interrupt him at any time. Even when
the ministry was transferred to a designated class

80 STUDIES of THE MAN PAUL
of persons, this right of joining in conversation
with the preacher was not wholly surrendered by
the congregation." (Paniel. Pragmat. Gesch.
d. Christl, Beredsamkeit u. d. Homiletik, p.
135, quoted in Trumbull's Lectures on the Sun
day-school, p. 53 f.) This same liberty of col
loquial instruction we see in the little company
of Jesus. (John xiii. 36, xiv. 5, 8, 22.)
(4) Notice his wise habit of asking questions,
to clinch his teaching, to answer objections, to
clarify and vivify his arguments. Take the Epis
tle to the Romans alone, and study this habit
there, (ii. 3, 4, 21-23, 26, 27, iii. 1, 3, 5-9,
27-29. 31* iv- 1> 3. 9» I0» vi- i-3> I5. 21, vii.
1, 7» I3> 24> viii. 24, 31-36, ix. 14, 19-24, 30,
32, x. 6, 7, 14-16, 18, 19, xi. 1-3, 6, 12, 15,
24, xiii. 3, xiv. 4, 10.) We see this also in
1 Cor. ix.
(5) His conciliation and adaptation. He
would not temporize or conceal or deceive, but he
did not needlessly raise difficulties. (Acts xvi. 3.)
This was not because Paul had no feeling. He
became troubled just as missionaries and other
Christians do now. (Acts xvi. 17, 18.) But he
kept his cause above his feelings and adapted
himself and his ways. " Though I was free from
all men, I brought myself under bondage to all
that I might gain the more. ... I am become
all things to all men, that I may by all means
save some." (1 Cor. ix. 20-23.) In accordance
with this conciliatory and adaptive attitude he
went into synagogues constantly, and as a rule
spoke so as not to provoke disagreement prema
turely. I attended a synagogue service in
Urumia, Persia, once during the Feast of Taber
nacles. The Jews all listened respectfully to an
old Nestorian Christian when he rose at the close
of the service and tactfully preached the gospel to

PAUL'S MOTIVES, AIMS AND METHODS 5 1
them. It was so in Paul's day. At Antioch on
the Sabbath, " after the reading of the law and
the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto
them [Barnabas and Paul], saying, Brethren, if
ye have any word of exhortation for the people,
say on." Then Paul rose and tactfully spoke,
addressing both the Jews and the God-fearing
Gentiles who were present. (Acts xiii. 15, 16;
compare Acts xvii. 2, xviii. 4, xix. 8.)
Yet though he was so adaptive Paul was per
fectly self-respecting and independent. He would
not become dependent on men for a livelihood.
"I kept myself from being burdensome to you,"
he told the Corinthians, " and so will I keep my
self." (2 Cor. xi. 9, xii. 13.) And this was
typical of his inner dignity and self-dependence.
It is here too often that the adaptive man slips.
In his desire to comply with the standards of
others he betrays his own.
(6) Miracles. "And God wrought special
miracles by the hands of Paul. " (Acts xix. n.)
Some of these are recorded. The blinding of
Elymas led the proconsul at Paphos to believe.
(Acts xiii. n.) And Luke mentions the healing
of Eutychus (Acts xx. 9, 10) ; the immunity of
the poisonous serpent (Acts xviii. 3-6) ; the
healing of Publius's father (Acts xxviii. 8—10).'
Part of the report Paul and Barnabas made at the
Jerusalem Council was of the signs and wonders
God had wrought through them. (Acts xv. 12.)
But Paul placed the word of wisdom, the word of
knowledge, faith and gifts of healing in advance
of miracles in enumerating the manifestations of
the Spirit. (1 Cor. xii. 10.) And in speaking
of God's arrangement of authority and service in
the Church, his list ran, " first, apostles, second,
prophets, third, teachers, then miracles, then
gifts of healing." (1 Cor. xii. 28.)

82 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
2. Methods of organization.
These can be studied more fully in connection
with the missionary work of Paul and with his
views of the Church and his services in the
Church. Let us note here the simplicity of his
institutions. He kept life and fellowship upper
most. (Acts xiv. 23.) Apparently he did not
press for separate organization at first. He kept
his disciples in the synagogue until they were
forced out. Then " he separated the disciples "
and continued daily discussion elsewhere, in
Ephesus in the school of some friendly rhetorician.
(Acts xix. 9.)
When he had organized his simple little con
gregations with elders representing the slight cen
tral authority which there was in them, he kept
watch over them. He did not dominate them,
" From the Pauline Epistles it is clear beyond a
doubt that the Pauline churches managed their
own affairs." (Lechler, Apostolic and Post-
Apostolic Times, Vol. I. p. 169.) He kept in
touch with them, however, and appealed to them
when they went astray. His letters were written
to his churches, and he carried them on his heart.
(Acts xx. 17, 18.) The simplest official develop
ment, the completest liberty, and the warmest
love, filial love on their part, paternal on his — this
was Paul's method. Something of the loving
confidence and sweet comradeship of these rela
tions appears in the farewell meetings described in
Acts xx. 36-38, xxi. 5, 6.
To harden and professionalize this work of
Paul's, and to regard him as a vicegerent of
Christ, " with absolute power to govern His
Church," and ruling these little flocks with eccle
siastical authority is to read into the accounts of
his life and his own letters what is not there. We
see and feel instead only what Beyschlag calls

paul's motives, aims and methods 83
" the freedom, independence, and spontaneity of
the Christian communities," and we can under
stand that to Paul " every special office in the
Church of God goes back to the universal office,
the universal priesthood and prophetic function
of all believers." There is of course in Paul's
bearing and teaching, " everywhere present, in
the lofty and unwavering testimony, the sense of
an authority which makes all things sure, and
whenever occasions arise, as from Galatian per-
verseness or Corinthian disorder, it asserts its
unhesitating and uncompromising claims." (Ber
nard, Progress of Doctrine in the N. T.,p. 160.)
But this authority was moral, vital, not iegal and
mechanical. The Apostle Paul was a man, and
he was doing living work. He was not an official
playing with official statements or puppets, or
forms. No one ever believed more in the Church
than he, or ever did more for her, or more truly
regarded her as a vital organism ; his Church was
the living bride of Christ.

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS
AND SOME OF HIS LEADING OPINIONS

85

VI

his intellectual characteristics and some
of his leading opinions
No attempt to discredit Paul's originality, his
commanding comprehensiveness of mind, has yet
succeeded. The hypothesis that he and the other
apostles simply borrowed from the worship of
Caesar universal terms and conceptions, and ap
plied them to Jesus, is ludicrous. Neither Paul
nor Christianity was cast in that mould. He had
a great mind, and he was a great man. As Som-
erville says, "It is not only his amazing grasp of
mind and capacity for dealing with principles of
truth that strikes one. It is, above all, the fine
ness and delicacy of his spiritual touch, his power
of concentration on the problems of religion and
life, his vivid understanding of, and his sympathy
with the conflict of humanity torn by the contend
ing forces of good and evil ; all this marked him
out as preeminently fitted to discover for himself,
and tell to others, what the living Christ is and can
do as the Redeemer from sin and death, and all
that hinders the perfection of man." (St. Paul's
Conception of Christianity, p. 13.) Just how his
mind expressed this in his preaching we may not
fully know. Very little of his preaching is pre
served. But we have in his letters full evidence
of his mental power, and his methods of thought
and persuasion. They show him, as Stalker says,
to have been "the greatest thinker of his age, if
not of any age, . . . producing writings which
have ever since been among the mightiest intel-
87

88 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
lectual forces of the world, and are still growing
in their influence." (Life of St. Paul, p. 105.)
Of course he was concerned with the vastest things
and that influenced both his thought and speech.
As Austin Phelps said, " Great subjects insure
solid thinking, solid thinking prompts a sensible
style, an athletic style, on some themes a mag
nificent style, and on all themes a natural style."
The substance of Paul's thought was life and his
style was life.
I. His Mental Characteristics.
1 . His mind grasped the heart of things, and
he spoke out the central truth. He was direct,
incisive in his way of speech, with sharp and
definite opinions, and ready reply to question or
objection. " Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? "
the Philippian jailer asked. " And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved." (Acts xvi. 31.) Study in the Epis
tle to the Romans the -keen responses to cavils and
objections to 'his argument.
2 His quick-wittedness. He could see
through a situation, and take advantage of its
opportunities. When before the Council he saw
that he could make no headway against united
fees, he skillfully divided them, and made one
party his advocates. So much so that they
" stood up and strove, saying, We find no evil in
this man." (Acts xxiii. 6-9.) His sincerity and
goodness quickened his knowledge of men, and
his ability to sway and use them. As R. W.
Barbour, Drummond's friend, said, " ' We shall
meet where death shall not dissever.' I have just
read these words at the head of one of Knox's
letters. He had a way of writing something of
that sort at the top of the page — a prayer, or a

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 89
promise — and, like everything he does, it is as
full of beauty as meaning. His life is only an
other revelation of how rich their lives are made
who are truly God's people — how thoughtful, and
sympathetic, and suggestive. One learns on
every page how real goodness deepens a man's
humanity every way." (Thoughts, p. 115.)
Goodness helps a man's understanding and his
influence with men more than badness.
3 He was a man of acute perception, and the
most clear and tactful statement. Scarcely a
better illustration can be found than his answer
before the governor at Csesarea. (Acts xxiv.
10-21.) We see there Paul's courtesy, his ur
banity, his canny, yet candid way of -putting
things, his quiet, composed reasoning, his neat
reference to proper methods of procedure, his
proper appeal to the worthier sympathies. The
consequence was that Felix adjourned the case,
and ordered the centurion in charge to let Paul
have indulgence and the ministry of his friends.
4 But he was not cold, calculatingly intel
lectual. He was all intensity and zeal in his
thought and utterance. Even his reasoning was
hot and eager. (Rom. iii. 19-31.) And indeed,
the whole of the Epistle to the Romans, argu
mentative and logical, is yet blazing with earnest
ness. And often in Paul's writings we find . the
cold process of proof grow too tedious and vexa
tious, and the living heart within burst out in
some appeal that rushes past lead-heeled argu
ment, and burns in the living hearts without.
(Gal. iii. 1, iv. 19, 20.) Paul did not belong
to that school, for whom the juices have gone out
of life, leaving it, and all its concerns as dead as
the powders and drugs in the apothecary's, and to
be handled in the same dead, mechanical ways.
Evil and falsehood were not matters of mental

90 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
notion to him to be academically condemned
after cool analysis. He hated them. They took
shape personally before him and called for personal
assault. And so with truth and beauty. They were
not aesthetic things to be mildly admired in abstrac
tion. They too presented themselves to him
vitally. " No one could know him even a little,"
said a friend of Thomas Arnold of Rugby, " and
not be struck by his absolute wrestling with evil,
and, with the feeling of God's help on his side,
scorning as well as hating it. As he strove with
evil, so he loved Christ and clung to Him as the
one supreme object of thought, imagination and
affection. He was Christian to the core, and it
was the very ardency of his Christian interest that
kindled his fierceness." This was Paul, too.
5 In his eagerness it sometimes happened that
he tripped over his own speech, or even left one
thing incompleted, that he might burst forth on
the next, which could not wait longer. (Eph. iii.
1-7.) Notice the italicized words, and often sen
tences, which have been supplied in his Epistles to
complete and clarify his thought (1 Cor. xv. 1,
2 ; Rom. v. 18 ; Eph. ii. 1 ; 2 Cor. viii. 10-15),
and notice how he begins a sentence in one way,
and ends in another, (Gal. ii. 6), and how often
the great truths come crowding on one another.
(Eph. ii. 1-10.)
6 He was so sincere and earnest himself, and
valued spirit and reality so much above form and
fiction, that he was unconcealedly vexed with
sophistry, and wordy eloquence, and philosophy,
and rhetoric. " Take heed, " he warned the Co-
lossians, "lest there shall be any one thatmaketh
spoil of you through his philosophy and vain de
ceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudi
ments of the world, and not after Christ. " (Col.
ii. 8.) In his view, all the treasures of wisdom

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 91
and knowledge were hid in Christ, and he told
the Colossians this, that no "one may delude you
with persuasiveness of speech." (Col. ii. 3, 4.)
He hinted at the reproach of a man's being a babe
in mind, showing that it was not feebleness of in
tellect or of spiritual discernment that he ap
proved. (1 Cor. iii. 1, xiv. 20.) In escaping
meretricious culture, Paul did not err by depre
ciating culture that was true. He scorned the
" ever learning and never learned " (2 Tim. iii.
7), and the instability of those who are " tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine." (Eph. iv. 14.) But he abominated
also the " profane babblings of the knowledge that
is falsely so called." (1 Tim. vi. 20.)
7. He knew the real thing, and kept it clear
from all side issues. There was no time for profit
less disputations, "foolish questionings and fight
ings about the law, unprofitable and vain."
(Titus iii. 9.) The heart of matter, " the end
of the charge, was love out of a pure heart, and
a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." (1 Tim.
i. 3-6.) And the older Paul grew the more em
phatic he became on this point. " Charge them
that they strive not about words. Shun profane
babblings. Foolish and ignorant questionings re
fuse, knowing that they gender strifes." (2 Tim.
ii. 14, 16, 23.) And he had a penetrating dis
cernment of the tendencies, the implications that
lurked in courses of action, and sharp courage in
confronting them, a courage that made him fear
less even of great persons. (Gal. ii. 11-14.)
8. There was nothing of cant or common
place about Paul. He thought and spoke freshly
and richly. He was not afraid of great sweeping
statements. Some men's minds are arithmetical
in their exactness, and so miss that greater region
which lies beyond the line of mathematics. Paul

92 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
lived, and thought, and spoke among the liberties,
the comprehensions. "I can do all things
through Him that strengtheneth me." (Phil. iv.
13.) "Let each esteem other better than him
self." (Phil. ii. 3.) There is a hyperbolic sweep
about these sayings, which is yet the most sedate
truth. Yet he kept his feet on the ground. He
preferred to speak five intelligible and profitable
words, rather than ten thousand in a tongue which
no one would understand. (1 Cor. xiv. 19.) He
was fond of paradoxes. (2 Cor. vi. 3-10.) And
he used a most vivid style, full of catching
phrases, quick turns of thought, rich and exalted
suggestiveness. Mere rhetorical " persuasiveness
of speech" (Col. ii. 4) he reprobated, but his
speech was persuasive in a right sense. There
was nothing dense or stupid about it.
9. His dialectic skill. Study in Romans his
strong argumentative thought, and in Corin
thians, his answers to various cavils, objections,
and difficulties. Observe the na'ive way he con
demns the conceited intellectualism of the Co
rinthian church. " I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as
unto babes in Christ ... for whereas there is
among you jealousy, and strife, are ye not carnal,
and walk after the manner of men?" (1 Cor.
iii. 1-3; compare 1 Cor. i. 22-25, ii- I-5-) He
knew men, and how to turn from an argument on
principle to some keen reference to personal char
acter, which would require the disputant to reex
amine the ground of his difficulty. (1 Cor. viii.
1-3.) "There is no evil," says Kant, "but the
evil will." And while there is evil there, the
fruits of the will challenge suspicion. Paul was
not to be deceived into a divorce of a man's
opinion from the man's self, and he deemed it
fair in argument to produce in court the personal

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 93
characters which were back of the positions in
issue. Sin, or moral error is more than an aca
demic question, and more than mere intellectual
notion enters. Chinese Gordon held that it was
"evident that the root of sin is ignorance," but
Paul knew that it had other roots, and be in
sisted on exposing these. So in Galatians, where
he confronts the Judaizing apostasy, in Colossians
and Ephesians, where the issue is over the Gnos
tic heresy, and in Corinthians where church ir
regularities stand in the foreground, he goes
beyond opinion to character, which is rational
and right. Men think as they think, and act as
they act, because they are what they are. Paul
always moves the battle ground of argument into
the real citadel, the inner life.
10. He had a controlling love of truth. He
would go anywhere with the truth, and obey it
with heedless disregard of that with which it col
lided. But truth was to him not a nebulous thing.
Following truth with many is synonymous with
abandoning all moorings, all fixed stars, and
slipping out into the indefiniteness of everywhere.
There are some teachers who appear to mean by
seeking new truth the abandoning of all the old.
Paul was not this sort. He was free from all
slushy, invertebrate liberalism. He freely sought
the truth, but he did not swing back into a licen
tious indifference to all articulate statement, and
the objective, unalterable terms of truth. Truth
was the most solid thing in the world to him,
not the most inconstant and wavering. (2 Tim.
i. 14, ii. 2, iii. 14-17.) He believed in a "sound
doctrine" phrased in a "form of sound words."
(2 Tim. i. 13; Titus ii. 1 ; 1 Tim. vi. 3.)
1 1 . Yet he was not a slave of forms. Nothing
could be more foreign to him. He was marked
by great largeness of view. And he never dried

94 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
up into the phraseology of his message, haggling
about terms, and articulating systems. His views
ever ran straight to conduct and life — from the
principle of conduct to the conduct it enjoined.
"Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest
thou not thyself?" (Rom. ii. 17-29.) We need
to keep our balance here as Paul did. It is a
dreadful thing to be a professional teacher of re
ligion, and to speak our piece like an automaton,
proclaiming a gospel of life, while we ourselves
are conventional Pharisees, or whited sepulchres.
The outward thing is all a lie, Paul says, unless
it be accompanied by the inward reality. (Rom.
ii. 28, 29.) Preaching minus practice is perjury.
Nor can we ease conscience in the matter by prot
estations of readiness to practice what we preach
when our circumstances change, and make it
possible, as we say, easy, as we mean, for us to
do so. This intellectual sophism was beneath
Paul's contempt. In Paul, and in his mental
processes, and in his judgments, spirit and life
were above all intellectualism, or professionalism.
(1 Cor. i. 18, 21.) And this he made clear in
the two following chapters. And in 1 Cor. xiii. he
puts his view forcefully in setting love above
knowledge. Yet he realized that true knowledge
was an attainment, a growth. (1 Cor. xiii. n, 12 ;
Phil. iii. 12-15.) Large and vital in his thought,
he was ever sane and balanced. And his teach
ing is full of equipoise, and the checks pungent and
personal, needed by men. (Gal. iii. 1, 3.) He
knew "the manner of men," and fitted his word
to it. (Rom. iii. 5, vi. 19.)
II. His View of Life.
This is the correct point of view from which to
approach Paul. Paul was all for life. In itself,

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 95
his own life was keenly conscious and intense,
and in its relations to others, it was heedless of
itself, ready "to spend, and be spent out."
(2 Cor. xii. 15.) He gave himself to turning
human life to God as its governor and goal, the
One in whom it was to realize itself, and be com
plete. 1. His judgment of life in itself. He recog
nized its supreme value when he claimed his
readiness to esteem it valueless for Christ. (Acts
xx. 24.) Yet the mere physical life was to him
of small consequence in comparison with the real
and eternal life. He preferred being with Christ
to the retention of his bodily life. (Phil. i.
21-24.) He rejoiced even at martyrdom, if it
secured the blessing of others, or the interest of
the gospel. (Phil. ii. 17.) Life, eternal life,
was the great thing. To him thrusting away the
Word of God was judging one's self unworthy
of eternal life. (Acts xiii. 46.) Through Christ's
" act of righteousness, the free gift came unto all
men to justification of life." (Rom. v. 18.) We
are to "walk in newness of life." (Rom. vi. 4.)
"The free gift of God is eternal life." (Rom.
vi. 23.) " The spirit is life because of righteous
ness." (Rom. vii. 10; compare Rom. viii. 2,6,
10; 2 Cor. iv. 10-12.) And all sensible, ma
terial things were inconsequential in comparison.
" We look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen ; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which
are not seen are eternal." (2 Cor. iv. 18.)
2. His judgment of life in relation to God and
the future. True life to him is life in and from
God. (Eph. iv. 18; Col. iii. 3; Titus i. 2.)
Paul himself lived in the presence of God. All
life is to be spent there. And so in Paul's heart
there is only longing, and not fear for the future.

96 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
62 Cor. v. 1-8.) " Being always of good cour
age ... we are willing rather to be absent from
the body, and present with the Lord." All life
in his view belonged to God. (1 Cor. iii. 23.)
And He governs and quickens it. (2 Cor. i. 21,
22 ; Eph. ii. 4, 5.) Paul is rich in teaching of
God's sway in our human life. He ruled and
directed Israel. (Acts xiii. 17, 21, 23, 30, 33,
36, 37.) He worked in Paul and Barnabas among
the Gentiles. (Acts xiv. 27, xv. 4, 12, xxi. 19.)
"It is God that works," says Tyndale. "We
are but the instruments. We deserve no reward
for what God does by us, and can claim no merit
for it, any more than we could dream of ascribing
any merit to the sling and stone and sword with
which David slew Goliath." He is our Father.
(Acts xvii. 27; Rom. viii. 14, 16, ix. 26; Gal.
iv. 6 ; Phil. ii. 15.) In our trials He is a stay
and trust. (Acts xxvii. 24, 25.) He reveals
Himself to man. (Rom. i. 19 ; 1 Cor. ii. 10-12 ;
2 Cor. iv. 6.) He sheds abroad His love in our
hearts. (Rom. v. 5 ; 1 Cor. ix. 9.) He deals
His measure of faith to man. (Rom. xii. 3;
1 Cor. vii. 17, 24, xii. 6.) He fills men with
joy and peace. (Rom. xv. 13 ; 2 Cor. i. 3, vii.
6, xiii. n.) He shall shortly bruise Satan under
our feet. (Rom. xvi. 20.) He is the faithful
God, calling us. (1 Cor. i. 9; Col. iii. 13;
1 Thess. i. 4; 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14.) We are His
fellow-workers, His husbandry, His building, His
temple. (1 Cor. iii. 9, 16; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Eph.
ii. 22.) He sets limits to temptation. (1 Cor.
x. 13.) He articulates and organizes our human
body. (1 Cor. xii. 18, 24, 28.) He is in the
world in Christ, reconciling the world unto Him
self. (2 Cor. v. 19.) He makes all grace
abound toward us. (2 Cor. ix. 8, 14.) He is
the present standard of values in character-

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 97
(Gal. ii. 6.) He works in us to will His pleasure,
and to do it. (Phil. ii. 13.) He is the fulfiller
of every need. (Phil. iv. 19.) He, the bounti
ful God, gives all things. (1 Tim. vi. 1 7 ; 2 Tim.
i. 7.) God was very living and real in the view
of Paul, working now in His world as from the
beginning. And he had that spirit of reverence
and unselfishness, in its broad sense, of which
Amiel speaks as the result of such a view of life
as Paul's : " I feel most strongly that man, in all
that he does or can do which is beautiful, great
or good, is but the organ and the vehicle of some
thing or some one higher than himself. This
feeling is religion. The religious man takes part
with a tremor of sacred joy in those phenomena
of which he is the intermediary but not the source,
of which he is the scene but not the author or
rather the poet. He leads them voice, hand, will
and help, but he is respectfully careful to efface
himself, that he may alter as little as possible the
higher work of the genius who is making a mo
mentary use of him. A pure emotion deprives
him of personality and annihilates the self in him.
Self must perforce disappear when it is the Holy
Spirit who speaks, when it is God who acts.
This is the mood in which the prophet hears the
call, the young mother feels the movement of the
child within, the preacher watches the tears of his
audience. So long as we are conscious of self,
we are limited, selfish, held in bondage." This
will be the view of life which all will take who
see in it the discipline of the divine love and the
blessedness of the divine presence.
III. His View of the Old Testament.
As Paul saw God acting in life, and in the
world in his own time, so to him the Old Testa-

98 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
ment was the record of His acting in the fathers'
days. The living God had always worked in life.
The Old Testament was the account of His do
ings, "inspired of God, also profitable for teach
ing, for reproof, for correction, for instruction,"
to the end of rounded and complete character.
(2 Tim. iii. 15-17.) It was to Paul "a history
of divine acts, and of the unfolding of divine
ideas, continually manifesting the superintendence
of a divine Sovereignty : not a history of the
world or of all God's Providence in it, but only
of one kingdom and society, which was elected
out of the rest to exhibit principles applicable to
all kingdoms and societies, and to preserve certain
privileges with which it was provisionally endowed
in order that they might ultimately be extended
to the whole race of man." (Myers' Catholic
Thoughts on the Bible and Theology, p. 3.) In
his preaching he used the Old Testament copi
ously. (Acts xiii. 17-41, xvii. 2, n.) The Old
Testament was to him a book of living voices. (1
Cor. x. 1-1 1.) " St. Paul," says Maurice, " makes
his argument for the unity and permanence of the
Scriptures, and their suitableness to the ages in
which they were not written, depend upon the
fact that the events which they recorded were
sacraments of God's presence." How confidently
he trusted the Old Testament, and reasoned from
it, is shown in Gal. iii. 15-22, especially in
verse 16, where he builds on a singular number.
It is easy to call this rabbinism, but we are study
ing Paul, not calling him names. He believed
the Old Testament, as he said, "believing all
things which are according to the law, and which
are written in the prophets, and having hope
toward God." (Acts xxi v. 14.) That surely is
better than having neither belief nor hope. Yet,
about some matters we should like to ask him

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 99
questions — about that " spiritual Rock " (i Cor.
x. 4), and the Scripture talking to Pharaoh.
(Rom. ix. 17.) He had a great love for the Old
Testament allegories. (Gal. iv. 21-31.) He
constantly appealed to the Old Testament, " as it
is written.'' (Acts xiii. 29, 33, xv. 15, xxiii. 5,
14; Rom. i. 17, ii. 24, iii. 4, 10, iv. 17, viii. 36,
ix- I3> 33> x- ^j xi- 8, 26, xii. 19, xiv. 11, xv.
3, 9, 21 ; 1 Cor. i. 19, 31, ii. 9, iii. 19, ix. 9, x.
7, xiv. 21, xv. 45, 54; 2 Cor. iv. 13, viii. 15,
ix. 9 ; Gal. iii. 10, 13, iv. 22, 27.) The Old
Testament was a very living, present speaking
book to Paul, (1 Cor. iv. 6) and his Epistles are
saturated with it. What was written was not for
the fathers' sakes alone but for our sakes. (Rom.
iv. 23; 1 Cor. ix. 10.) " These things happened
unto them by way of example, and they were
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends
of the ages are come." (1 Cor x. n.)
Chinese Gordon had hold of this truth. It is a
truth easy to distort, but none the less true on
that account. "I have read the Scriptures," he
wrote, "and have got pearls from them, but, as
though from deduction or analogy, and not as
directly from God — not as though He spoke or
wrote to us. It is difficult to explain what I
mean, but what I want to say is this : I now look
on the Scriptures as alive — living oracles, and not
as a historical, religious book, as I have hitherto
done, even when feeling its mystical character. I
cannot say how important this vista is to me. I
have said that, as long as the newspaper affords
us more attraction than the Bible, something must
be wrong." (Letters, p. 178.)
And Maurice in his sermon on "The Sacra
mental Character of the Bible," sets forth "the
justification of those who insist," as Paul did,
" upon claiming the Bible for themselves and their

100 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
own time, who must take it as a message to their
hearts and consciences, must warp its words from
their apparent sense rather than not find that
sense in them. Here is the justification for their
meaning, the excuse for their outrages on philol
ogy. For if the Bible speaks of a Living God, a
God who reigneth forever and ever; if it sets
forth the principles of His government as uniform
amidst all changes in the outward tokens of it,
they must be right in the essence of their doc
trine ; they are bound to hold it fast against all
schoolmen and critics. What they want is, to
see that they may take the Bible more exactly than
they have taken it, and that they may read it
now, not less than in the old time, as a book con
cerning a society and that so it will become a
more precious book to themselves individually
than it has ever been. When they trace it as the
progressive history of God's revelations to a
family, to a nation, and to mankind, they will
understand more what support there is in it for
them as men, what awful admonitions to them as
men whom God has claimed, not as servants, but
as sons." (Lincoln's Inn Sermons, Vol. I., p. 31,
Sermon on 1 Cor. x. 11.)
IV. Some of His Social and Political Views.
1. His attitude toward woman and the family.
A man's attitude in this matter supplies a supreme
test of the soundness and divinity of his doctrine.
Paul has been much berated in our day because
of his supposed bigoted prejudice against woman,
and his assumption of superiority. " The Wom
an's Bible " proposes to omit those passages of his
Epistles which are believed to conflict with the as
pirations of "new women." In judging Paul's
words, consider the difference between Paul's

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 101
views and those of the founders or teachers of the
great non-Christian religions. Let the women
who think Paul would enslave them look at
women under Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucian
ism, or Islam, and under Christianity, and then
meditate upon Paul's relation to the matter.
Paul's bearing was ever most chivalrous and
brotherly to women. He was glad to preach the
gospel to women, to lodge with them, to receive
them into the Church. (Acts xvi. 13-15, 40,
xvii. 4, 12.) He held some women in high
esteem, commending them in his letters, as
" Phcebe, our sister. . . . Assist her in whatso
ever matter she may have need of you : for she
herself hath been a succorer of many, and of mine
own self." (Rom. xvi. 1, 2.) He makes men
tion of Priscilla, who had been willing to lay
down her own neck for him (Rom. xvi. 3) ; of
Mary (Rom. xvi. 6) ; of Junia (Rom. xvi. 7) ;
of Tryphena and Tryphosa (Rom. xvi. 12); of
Persis, the beloved (Rom. xvi. 12) ; of the mother
of Rufus, "his mother and mine" (Rom. xvi.
13); of Julia and the sister of Nereus (Rom.
xvi. 15) ; of Euodias and Syntyche, who labored
with him in the gospel. (Phil. iv. 2, 3.)
As to marriage, Paul's opinion, so often quoted,
was not a voluntary opinion, put forth as express
ing a positive view which he felt called to press
upon men. He had been asked for some advice.
" Could we see the letter of questions sent to St.
Paul by the Corinthians, a new light would be
shed upon his replies in this chapter (1 Cor.
viii.), to us somewhat obscure. The letter is lost,
but some of the questions we may infer from the
answers. . . . This is a chapter of casuistries,
or questions upon special cases submitted to the
apostle's judgment. St. Paul writes his answers
as if he thought that all relations of life were just

102 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
now of a very precarious tenure, for the times
were straitening, persecutions were threatening,
the earthly theocracy was swiftly tending to dis
solution and to a heavenly supersession. The
apostle's advice contains rather precepts for the
time than counsels for the centuries, and their
adaptation admits of elasticity." (Bible Com
mentary, New Testament, Vol. III., p. 286f.)
Paul's point was that God was to be reckoned
above the earthly condition. Each person would
do best, in view of the " present distress," the
uncertainty, the peril, the impending changes, to
keep free, to abide in the state in which he was at
the time of God's call. God's liberty was the
highest thing, (i Cor. vii. 23, 24, 26.) Paul
declared that he had a right to marry, just as
Peter. It would have been no wrong. He did
not blame Peter or the brethren of the Lord. He
chose to remain free. (1 Cor. ix. 1-5.) He
wished that all men were like himself, but he rec
ognized that each had "his own gift from God,
one after this manner and another after that." (1
Cor. vii. 7.) He was too wise to be extremist or
fanatic, and, as he grew older and saw more
clearly what the times would be, he gave wise,
sensible counsel, full of broad, generous recogni
tion of family relationships. He commended the
widows who had brought up children, and de
sired "that the younger widows marry, bear
children, rule the household." (1 Tim. v. 1-16.)
And he was anxious that the young women should
be trained "to love their husbands, to love their
children." (Titus iii. 4.) He condemned in
one of his later letters the heresy and asceticism of
enjoined celibacy. (1 Tim. iv. 3.)
It would be impossible to find nobler exaltation
of the marriage and family relationships than
Paul's. Husband and wife typified the relation

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 03
of Christ and His Church. (Eph. v. 22-33.)
His exhortation was not as in the Code of Manu,
or in the Koran, or in the Classics of Confucius —
ever of woman's duty to man. " Husbands," h«
bade, "love your wives as Christ also loved the
Church and gave Himself up for it. . . . Even
so ought husbands to love their wives as their
own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth
himself." It is a pathetic word from the lonely
apostle, who never knew the sweetness of a home,
or heard the calls of little children of his own.
He esteemed the family bond. One of his
charges against certain unruly men was that they
" overturned whole houses. " (Titus i. 11.) An
ordered home was a sweet thing in his view. (1
Tim. iii. 2, 4, 12.) Church officers must rule
their homes and their own children well, or how
could they rule well the Church ? He who had
no little child's hand to hold, nor any little curly
head to seek his breast, was thoughtful of the
mutual duties of father and child. (Eph. vi.
1-4; Col. iii. 20, 21.) He declared that every
human fatherhood was named from the divine,
and from it should take spirit and form. (Eph.
iii. 14, 15.)
It is in the light of all this noble teaching of
Paul's, and also of the convictions of the race to
which Paul belonged, that one must read and
interpret such words as are found in 1 Cor. xi.
1-15. It is well to remember, too, that here
again Paul is dealing with a question of church
order, as to the advisability of women's veiling
their faces in public assemblies in Corinth for
divine worship, and not volunteering teaching for
all and for all time. And who that has been in
an oriental church can fail to appreciate and ap
prove Paul's counsel of silence in the churches?
(1 Cor. xiv. 34-36.) The women who are unable

104 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
to appreciate the real principle that Paul is con
tending for, who instead persist in seeing here
some curtailment of their rights, are perhaps the
very ones to whom Paul's counsel, not in principle
only but in practice, would most pertinently apply.
Where did these rights come from save from the
gospel which Paul, more than any other man,
made operative in human life? Who but the
very man who spoke in this way stood and, under
God's providence, secured a lodgment in the con
science of our race for the principles which have
made woman free ? Paul, who is complained of,
is the man who brought to woman from Christ
the right and power to complain.
And for the people to whom he was preaching,
and whom he was trying to help, how could his
advice have been more wisely framed than it was ?
(i Tim. ii. 8-15.) He was speaking to Jews or
to Jewish Christians, and striving to secure for
woman her Christian privileges and position. As
Matheson says: "One of the most distinctive
elements in Paul's Christian experience was the
recognition of the claims of women ; in nothing
is he more sharply distinguished from his Jewish
countrymen. Even those passages in which he
seems to depreciate are dictated by a precisely op
posite motive — the desire to conserve for woman
that distinctive and peculiar sphere of which
Jewish politics had deprived her. When he dep
recates the notion that a woman should teach in
the public assemblies, he does so on the ground
that teaching in the public assemblies is not her
sphere, but inimical to her sphere. The sphere
which he desires to conserve for her, or rather to
create for her, is ministration. . . . The minis-
trant element, which Judaism had suppressed, is
to be made by Christianity her glory. Chris
tianity is to Paul, above all things, a feminine

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS I05
strength. Its masculine features are recognized
as mutable and perishable; prophecies were to
fail, tongues were to cease, knowledge was to
vanish away; but the strength that seeketh not
her own, that suffereth long and is kind, that is
not easily provoked, that vaunteth not herself,
that beareth, believeth, hopeth, and endureth all
things — this was to be the permanent essence, the
abiding power of the new evangel. ' ' ( The Spirit
ual Development of St. Paul, p. 266f.)
2. Coupled indissolubly with Paul's view of
the family on one side and of the believer's unity
with Christ, as of a bride with her husband, on
the other side, was his unqualified emphasis on
personal and social purity.
We see his association of these ideas in i Cor.
vi. 1 2-20. " He that is joined to the Lord is one
Spirit. Flee fornication." (i Cor. vi. 16.) On
this matter Paul spoke without any qualifications,
and he upheld the highest and strictest standards.
" If while her husband liveth a woman be joined
to another man, she shall be called an adulteress."
(Rom. vii. 2, 3.) There was to be no tampering
with such things. " I wrote unto you not to keep
company if any man that is named a brother be a
fornicator . . . with such a one no, not to eat."
(1 Cor. v. n.) The corrosion of such " leaven "
was to be put out. (1 Cor. v. 7, 13.) Let all
wickedness and uncleanness be put out. Let men
live in sincerity and truth. Moral impurity of
life was so hideous to him, and ought to be to all,
that it was not even to be named among Chris
tians. (Eph. v. 3.)
Paul was a clean man and he loathed unclean
ness. It was not the battle against moral evil
that he condemned. He waged that daily in his
own soul, bringing his body under, "lest, when
assayed in the testing fires of Messiah's advent, he

106 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
be found of inferior moral metal, rather spurious
than genuine. ' ' The idea of moral hypocrisy was
utterly repugnant to him, and, much as he loathed
sin, he would have loathed himself even more if,
while preaching purity to others, he had been an
unclean man himself. He condemned no man
for having, through the fierceness of his own
nature, to fight uncleanness. He called men to
this struggle, (i Thess. ii. 3, iv. 7) ; against the
very essence of sin. (Rom. i. 24, vi. 29 ; 2 Cor.
xii. 21 j Gal. v. 19; Eph. iv. 19, v. 3; Col. iii.
5.) And he warned them that no fornicator or
unclean person had ' ' any inheritance in the king
dom of Christ and God." (Eph. v. 5.)
Mere superior criticism of evil did not suffice in
Paul's view. He called Timothy to be a leader
in purity, (1 Tim. iv. 12), and to deal with his
flock "in all purity." (1 Tim. v. 2.) And he
summoned the Corinthians to an uncompromising
and aggressive antagonism. " Come ye out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing, and I will receive
you, and will be to you a Father, and you shall
be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty. Having therefore these promises, be
loved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement
of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear
of the Lord." (2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, vii. 1.)
It would be well if still among all Christians
there were the same steadfast, unyielding bitter
ness against all uncleanness of act or speech or
thought. 3. Paul's attitude toward civil government.
Paul was preaching "another King." (Acts
xvii. 7.) And his "citizenship, commonwealth,"
as the margin says, was in heaven. (Phil. iii.
20.) The Roman officials, also, with whom he.
came in contact, showed themselves little worthy

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 107
of respect. Felix hoped for bribes from him.
(Acts xxiv. 26, 27.) Even Gallio, acting under
the tolerant rescript of Claudius, and refusing to
entertain the case against Paul at Corinth, acted
contemptuously and with injustice toward Sos-
thenes, whom he allowed to be beaten before the
judgment seat, and could not have commended
himself to Paul. (Acts xviii. 12-17.) More
over, the later years of his life were spent under
the horrible rule of Nero.
Yet, in spite of all this, Paul valued the State
and was proud of his citizenship. He was not
troublesome or litigious, but he stood upon his
proper civil rights. It is to be noticed, however,
that he appealed to his rights only in self-defence,
never in prosecuting another or to avoid persecu
tion. He was self-respecting and he demanded
respect from others. He knew how to secure the
kind of recognition that would be of value in his
work, and also prevent imposition. (Acts xvi.
37-39.) How would Paul act if he were a mis
sionary now in China? Would he assist native
Christians in lawsuits? Would he make a dis
tinction between Christians as plaintiffs and
Christians as defendants? Would he appeal to
his own government for protection, for the se
curity of property, for the punishment of persecu
tors ? At a missionary conference in the Shantung
Province, China, in 1893, a posthumous paper by
Dr. Nevius was read, in which he quoted approv
ingly the words of Dr. Alexander and said:
" While Paul joyfully submitted to being seized,
scourged, and thrown into the inner prison, when
all might have been avoided by a word, we can
not but admire the moral courage, calm decision
and sound judgment which he showed in the as
sertion of his legal rights, precisely when it was
most likely to be useful to himself and others.

108 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
This is enough to show how far he was from put
ting a fanatical or rigorous interpretation on our
Saviour's principle of non-resistance, (Matt. v.
39 ; Luke vi. 29), which, like many other pre
cepts in the same discourse, teaches what we
should be willing to endure in an extreme case,
but without abolishing our right and duty to de
termine when that case occurs. Thus Paul
obeyed it, both in letter and spirit, by submitting
to maltreatment and by afterwards resenting it, as
either of these courses seemed most likely to do
good to men and honor to God." Dr. Nevius
added a number of wise suggestions, among them
contending that "the distinction should be ever
kept in mind between lawsuits in which the
Christian is the defendant and that to which he is
the plaintiff. As a defendant, if without fault he
is suffering for Christ, he may appear before civil
magistrates, thankful for the providential oppor
tunity of bearing witness to the truth, and strong
in the assurance of Christ's favor and the promise
of His help and His blessing ; but he should not
appear ' as a plaintiff ' except for the clearest and
most weighty reasons." In the discussion that
followed Dr. Mateer said : "I have observed that
about the worst thing for the progress of the
gospel is to have a persecution case taken up suc
cessfully and the persecuting party punished. It
is almost invariably the end of the gospel in that
neighborhood." The example of Paul is still use-
. ful and helpful in the problems of missionary life.
He sought no martyrdom and avoided suffering
when he was able to do so. (Acts xxii. 25-39.)
He availed himself of his right to appeal to Caesar.
(Acts xxv. 8-12.) He was not like an American
missionary in Japan, who declared that he was a
citizen of the heavenly commonwealth and owed
allegiance to no human government. He was a

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 109
Roman citizen in duty and privilege. Meditate
upon the dignity of this appeal of his to the em
peror. He was no oriental trifler. He would
go straight to the final court, and have this vital
issue of a Roman citizen's rights as to liberty of
religious conviction settled authoritatively. The
time had come to determine the status of Chris
tianity before the Roman law.
And as he respected law himself he advised
others to respect it. He apologized for irritat
ing insult to ecclesiastical authority. (Acts xxiii.
3-5.) And he strove for orderly subjection to
civil power. The greatness of the man and the
breadth of his mind are seen in his most saga
cious counsel given to the Romans. (Rom. xiii.
1-7.) Paul had himself already suffered griev
ous injustice from the civil power. (Acts xvi. 37 ;
2 Cor. xi. 25-32.) But he was too great a man
to be blinded to the principle of social order by
the fact that he personally had met with unjust
and unworthy representatives of it. Renan says
" he had too much tact to be an agitator." That
is Renan's way of characterizing Paul's political
good sense. There were three reasons for Paul's
giving his wise advice to the Christians at Rome :
(a) The Jews at Rome were a turbulent set and
their disorder could easily be charged against the
Christians, who were hardly yet distinguished
from them. Indeed, in Nero's persecution sus
picion did fall on them on just this account, (b)
Christians themselves were hardly clear yet as to
the true character of Christ's kingdom and its
relations to worldly kingdoms, (c) " The danger
was greatest at Rome, where Christianity was
brought face to face with the imperial power."
(Bible Commentary, New Testament, Vol. III.,
P- 2ii-)
Christians were to discharge their civil duties,

110 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
paying their taxes, and doing all that could justly
be expected of good citizens. (Rom. xiii. 7 ;
Phil. i. 27.) They were to pray "for kings, and
all that are in high places." (1 Tim. ii. 2.)
They were "to be in subjection to rulers, to
authorities, to be obedient, to be ready unto
every good work, to speak evil of no man, not to
be contentious, to be gentle, showing all meek
ness toward all men." (Titus iii. 1, 2.)
And yet, while Christians were to be subject to
the law, and not to put on airs of isolation and
domination because sons of God and subjects of
His kingdom, they were still to occupy a really
superior position. It was to be their privilege to
do all their duties, and not to claim all their
rights. (1 Cor. vi. 1-8.) The thought of Chris
tians in litigation before heathen was not pleasant
to Paul. He pleaded against it. Indeed, he de
spised the idea of any contention between Chris
tians. "It is altogether a defect in you, a dis
tinct loss to you, that ye have lawsuits one with
another. Why not rather take wrong ? Why not
rather be defrauded?" (1 Cor. vi. 7.) And
yet he kept his balance. He enjoined no course
here. He only warned against danger and ex
cess. And he closed with an appeal, not against
resisting wrong, but against inflicting it. (1 Cor.
vi. 8.) And he goes on to his customary empha
sis on pure conduct and true life as the essential
things and the gifts of Christ. (1 Cor. vi. 9, 11.)
4. His attitude toward servants and slavery.
Paul began no crusade against slavery. Gibbon
estimates that in a. d. 5 7 fully one-half of the one
hundred and twenty million of the population of
the Roman Empire were slaves. These slaves
were of the status of cattle. Cato gave permis
sion to sell an old or sick slave. Seneca, the
elder, said a slave had no hearth or religion.

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS III
Juvenal asked ironically "how a slave can be a
man." Plutarch says that Flaminius put a slave
to death merely to afford a spectacle to a guest
who had never seen a man die. (Brace, Gesta
Christi, pp. 47-51.) The Stoic Ulpian speaks
of " a slave, or any other animal ! "
Against all this — and Christianity has made
the cruelty of it seem terrible to us — Paul did
not hurl himself in any mad and futile denuncia
tion. He enjoined contentment. If slaves be
came Christians, their slavery was a trifle, though
it was desirable for them to accept liberty, if it
could " be obtained. But slaves were free in
Christ, and masters were bound. The great
thing was the right relationship to Him. (1
Cor. vii. 21, 22.) He wisely discouraged all
insubordination, or insolence, or impertinent fa
miliarity in slaves or servants toward their mas
ters. (1 Tim. vi. 1, 2.) It is a counsel needed still
on mission fields, where sometimes heathen servants
are preferred to Christian servants on this account.
Servants were to be in subjection, and serve well,
"pleasing their masters in all things, not gossip
ing, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity."
(Titus ii. 9, 10.) What present and pertinent
sense there is here for Christians in India, and
China, and all mission lands, and for us, too !
Read over Paul's counsels regarding masters
and servants. (Eph. vi. 5-9; Col. iii. 22-iv. 1;
Philemon 15, 16.) He spoke no more extrava
gantly than this. Contrast his temperateness with
the oratory and inflammation of that large class
of critics of our present social and industrial
organization, who denounce, and condemn, and
accomplish nothing. Paul was quiet and patient.
He did not scream and swear. And contemplate
the results of his work. In his quiet counsels
were the principles of brotherly love, of mutual

112 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
rights and duties, of the equality of all in Christ.
The end of slavery was in these. How could a
man's brother be his slave ? Christianity spread,
and when at last Christian emperors came upon
the throne, legal emancipation began, never to
end until in Christendom no man could be a
slave. It was a long struggle. Perhaps it is not
done now, but Paul's method will prevail, and
his teaching conquer, in whatever department of
life one man deprives another of his just rights
and liberty.
It is hard for the world to learn this. It uses
the phrases of Paul without using the powers relied
on by Paul for their realization. "The very
nation of humanity, and of the brotherhood of
man, is purely Christian. A world embracing
society, held together by law, was not dreamt of
before the gospel came; and since the gospel
came it is more than a dream. If you wrench
away the idea from its foundation, as people do
who talk about fraternity, and seek to bring it to
pass without Christ, it is a mere piece of Utopian
sentiment — a fine dream. But in Christianity it
worked. It works imperfectly enough, God
knows. Still there is some reality in it and some
power. The gospel first of all produced the
thing and the practice -and the theory came after
ward. The Church did not talk much about the
brotherhood of man or the unity of the race ; but
simply ignored all distinctions, and gathered into
the fold the slave and his master, the Roman and
his subject, fair-haired Goths and swarthy Ara
bians, the worshippers of Odin and of Zeus, the Jew
and the Gentile. That actual unity, utterly irre
spective of all distinctions, which came naturally
in the train of the gospel, was the first attempt
to realize the oneness of the race, and first taught
the world that all men are brethren." (Maclaren,

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 113
Week Day Evening Addresses, p. 127.) And
that is the only true way of social reform and
progress now. It, is right to attempt by wise
legislation to abolish evils and promote good,
but the only certain and lasting way is to in
fluence men's minds and wills and to plant within
life the forces which will produce naturally the
results which we desire and of which and of the
possibility of which we have been taught to think
alone by the gospel.
5. Paul's view of money.
Men loved money in Paul's time as now. His
words give a picture of our day as well as of his
own. (1 Tim. vi. 5-10, 17-19.) Paul himself
was scrupulous about money. He seems to have
displayed a prudent sagacity when it was to be
handled. (2 Cor. viii. 20, 21.) He kept free
from too much responsibility. The people who
raised it should appoint the bearers for it. (1
Cor. xvi. 3.) There was a fine sense of financial
honor in him. He supported himself by his own
toil at times, and collected money, not for his
own needs, but for poor brethren in Jerusalem.
He did not believe in borrowing, " Owe no man
anything." (Rom. xiii. 8.) But he did believe
in generosity, and he asked Philemon to put to
his account aught that Onesimus owed him, and!
"I," said Paul, "write it with my own hand.
I will repay it." (Philem. 19.)
6. Paul saw the world as the necessary frame
work of life. He was not a deluded Manichean, ,
deeming all the material world an evil thing. He
did not mopingly weep over the carnality of the
visible universe. He was in God's world, with
enough evil to fight to occupy his strength with
out any diversion of it to war against the harm
less, or the unavoidable. Life was a worthy
service in a world which God made, a great and

1 14 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
moral thing, healthy and sane, with a fuller,
nobler life beyond. Meanwhile men were here to
do honest man's work, as he had done it himself.
(Titus iii. 14.) The touch of the world would
not hurt them. Food and fellowship were not
evil things. (1 Tim. iv. 1-5.) Paul had no rep
robation of our —
" Gracious human life :
The splendors of the intellect's advance,
The sweetness of the home, with babes and wife ;
" The social pleasures, with their genial wit ;
The fascination of the worlds of art ;
The glories of the worlds of nature, lit
By large imagination's glowing heart ;
" The rapture of mere being, full of health ;
The careless childhood and the ardent youth ;
The strenuous manhood, winning various wealth ;
The reverend age, serene with life's long truth ;
" All the sublime prerogatives of Man —
The storied memories of the times of old,
The patient tracking of the world's great plan
Through sequences and changes myriadfold."
Only all this was but the stage and setting of the
human spirit, "not to be fashioned according to
this world, but to be transformed by the renewing
of the mind to prove what is the good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom. xii.
2.) Life was life only when in its spirit dwelt
the Spirit of God. "I am sure," wrote Sir
Thomas Browne in Religio Medici, " that there is
a common spirit that plays within us, and that
is the Spirit of God. Whoever feels not the
warm gale and gentle ventilation of this Spirit, I
dare not say he lives ; for truly without this to me
there is no heat under the tropic, nor any light
though I dwelt in the body of the sun. ' '

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 15
V. Paul's view of Christ.
Christ lived in Paul. Of himself Paul thought
nothing in comparison with Christ. He was
chief of sinners, and weak ; Christ was the sinner's
Saviour and King, and strong.
Accordingly his view of Christ is a living, per
sonal view — not speculative or historical merely.
And his teaching and theology were not reasoned
theories, but the writings of inner experience.
Christ was in him what He was in his preaching.
"It is here," as Somerville says, "in the con
sciousness of what the glorified Christ was to him
in his personal life, that we are to look for the
genesis of Paul's theology." "It is manifest,
says Paret, "that in his doctrinal conceptions
Paul in the main elaborates the experience of his
own inner life. His doctrine is a part of his per
son." That is true of every true man. And
Paul's inner life was Christ. His doctrine was
Christ. His motive was Christ. His aim was
Christ. His method was Christ. His spirit was
Christ. His end was Christ. To him to live was
Christ, to die was Christ. We cannot begin to
understand Paul until we see the unique, absolute
way Paul's personality was under the sway and
all its activities were filled with the presence of
Christ. It was a relationship most mystical, most
supernatural, most real.
We shall be able, perhaps, to understand Paul's
view of Christ by considering (i) Paul's use of
Christ's titles, (2) Paul's conception of Christ, (3)
Christ's mastery of Paul.
i 1. Paul's use of Christ's titles.
Paul uses many different names in speaking of
our Lord and he arranges these names in different
.ways.j (1.) Saviour. This was one of the first terms ~

Il6 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
used on his missionary tours. " God, according
to His promise, brought unto Israel a Saviour,
Jesus." (Acts xni^23j/ In the Epistles of his first
imprisbnmeiTrhe uses the same term in connection
with the body. Perhaps the sense of constraint
strengthened his thought of the Deliverer. ' ' Christ
is head of the Church, being Himself the Saviour
of the body." (Eph. v. 23.) "We wait for a
Saviour, who shall fashion anew the body of our
humiliation. ' ' (Phil. iii. 20. ) In his last Epistles
the term occurs yet more frequently, for the most
part applied to God — (1 Tim. i. 1, ii. 3, iv. 10;
Titus i. 3, ii. 10, iii. 4,) but also to Jesus — (2 Tim.
i. 10 ; Titus i. 4, iii. 6.) The old man is waiting
for the delivering Saviour, mightier than Nero.
(2.) ^Son of God, " His Son," he begins his
Epistle to the ^Romans, "who was born of the
seed of David according to the flesh, who was
declared to be the Son of God with power."
(Rom. i. 3, 4; cf. Rom. i. 9, v. 10, viii. 29; 1
Cor. i. 28.) In one place he calls Him God's
"own Son." (Rom. viii. 32.) " His Son," he
calls Him in 1 Cor. i. 9 ; Gal. i. 16, iv. 4 ; 1 Thess.
i. 10. "The Son of God" he says in 2 Cor. i.
19; Gal. ii. -20 ; Eph. iv. 13. In Col. i. 13 it is
" the Son of His love," or " His dear Son."
(3 ¦ ) Jesus^ This human name of our Lord was
n0t-Jb£__pne most used ^by-'Eaul. Somerville,
speaking oTthls name as describing the man Jesus
in His historical appearing, says that it "is never
employed to describe the spiritual fellowship of.
believers with the Son of God, Who sends the)
Spirit" ; and adds that "the historic Jesus has,
with the apostle, passed into the spiritual and
mystical Christ who lives in and reveals Himself
through believers " ; and " that the past circum
stances of the earthly Jesus have comparativelj
little interest for Paul, now that, as exalted, Chrisi

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 117
has entered on a present activity in the hearts of
men, in which He reenacts in their experience
what was most vital in His historical career and
repeats in them all that was most distinctive of
His own divine life. The poet represents the
apostle as longing that he had lived in the days
when Jesus was seen of men :
" ' Oh, to have watched Thee through the vineyards
wander,
Pluck the ripe ears and into evening roam,
Followed, and known that in the twilight yonder
Legions of angels shone about Thy home ! '
" There is, however, no trace of this feeling in
the apostle's recorded words." (St. Paul's Con
ception of Christ, p. 122.) It must be recognized
that this is substantially true ; yet Paul does, not
seldom, use the name Jesus, and with evident
reference to His earthly life; but oftener, when
thinking of what our Lord had been and done
among men, he uses the title Christ.
f Jesus was the theme of his preaching. " This
/ Jesus," he said in Thessalonica, "whom I pro
claim unto you is the Christ." (Acts xvii. j,)
h.t Athens, TDuke says, he was regarded as "a
setter forth of strange gods, because he preached
Jesus," the human title of a divine Person. (Acts
xvii. 18; cf. Acts xxviii. 23.) If anybody had
another Jesus to preach whom he had not
preached he was willing he should be received.
(2 Cor. xi. 4.) It was Jesus as the Christ whom
he preached and taught. (Acts xviii. 5, 28.)
He was the Saviour whom God had raised for
Israel. (Acts xiii. 23.) The resurrection 1 was
the resurrection of Jesus. (Acts xiii. 33 ; Rom.
viii. 11; 1 Thess. iv. 14.) And God will raise
up us with Jesus. (2 Cor. iv. 14.) God justi
fies the believer in Jesus. (Rom. iii. 26.) The

Il8 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL'
life of Jesus is in our "mortal flesh." (2 Cor.
iv. 11.) The truth which we receive is in Him.
(Eph. iv. 21.) All that we do is to be done "in
the name of Jesus." (Col. iii. 17.) "For
Jesus's sake," Paul and all "we which live are
always delivered unto death." (2 Cor. iv. n.)
And for Jesus's sake" Paul counted himself the
servant of men. (2 Cor. iv. 6.)
" For His dear sake, who trod alone for me,
Through weary days,
The paths of earthly sorrow, pain and loss, —
Such dreary ways, —
Who carried all my sins upon the cross."
He bore branded on his body ' ' the marks of Jesus, ' '
the scars of the sufferings and ill usage he had
met in the cause of Jesus. (Gal. vi. 17.) "He
says," remarks Chrysostom, " not simply I have
these marks, but I bear them about, like one ex
ulting in a trophy." And not only the marks of
Jesus on his body, but the very dying of Jesus in
his body .the apostle bore about with him. (2
Cor. iv. 10.) "There is a communion of bodily
death between the Lord Jesus and His confess
ors. ' ' No man speaking in the Spirit of God can
curse Jesus; He is Lord. (1 Cor. xii. 3 ; Rom.
iv. 24.) He delivers us from wrath to come. (1
Thess. i. 10.) And one day those who sleep in
Jesus God will bring with Him. (1 Thess. iv.
14.) At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.
(Phil. ii. 10.)
It will be seen that Paul does not confine his
use of the name Jesus to the Lord in His earthly
life and service. The divine Saviour filled Paul's
mind, and whatever the title, it was that Saviour
of whom he spoke. y/M^ •¦•'- ¦ ' - "{ ,. ,.„ > . ;/j.
(4. ) " Christ, ' '''come of Israel/' ' ' over all, God
blessed forever." (Rom. ix. 5.) "Should any

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 19
one knock at my breast and say, 'Who lives
here?" says Luther in Table Talk, "I should
reply, ' Not Martin Luther, but the Lord Jesus
Christ.' " This was what Paul said : "I have
been crucified with Christ, yet I live ; and yet no
longer I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. ii. 20.)
" Christ" was ever on his lips and ever in his
heart. Christ was foretold by John, (Acts xix. 4);
of the seed of Abraham, (Gal. iii. 16) ; the end
of the law, (Rom. xv. 3) ; meek and gentle. (2
Cor. x. 1.) Christ died and rose. (Rom. viii.
34, xiv. 9.) Why did He die ? For men, (Rom.
xiv. 15) ; sacrificed as our Passover, (1 Cor. v.
7) ; for our sins. (1 Cor. xv. 3 ; Gal. ii. 21.) By
His death Christ proved His Messiahship. (Acts
xvii. 3, xxvi. 23) ; saved the ungodly, (Rom. v.
6, 8; 1 Cor. viii. 11); made us who were far
away nigh by His blood, (Eph. ii. 13) ; endured
the sufferings which comfort us. (2 Cor. i. 5.)
By His rising Christ raised us, (Rom. vi. 4, 8,
viii. 11; Eph. ii. 5, 6; Col. iii. 1-3), and en
sures the coming resurrection, as well as guaran
tees our faith. (1 Cor. xv. 12-23.) How
richly and exultantly different this from Arnold's
sad faithlessness :

" That gracious Child, that thorn-crown'd Man !
— He lived while we believed.
" While we believed on earth He went,
And open stood His grave.
Men called from chamber, church and tent,
And Christ was by to save.
" Now He is dead ! Far hence He lies
In the lone Syrian town ;
And on His grave with shining eyes
The Syrian stars look down."

120 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
Christ was the Messiah. (Acts ix. 22, xvii. 3.)
He justifies us, (Gal. ii. 17); redeems us, (Gal.
iii. 13); frees us, (Gal. v. 1, 2, 4, 24; Col. ii.
11) ; loves us, (Eph. v. 2, 25) ; forgives us, (Eph.
iv. 32); receives us. (Rom. xv. 7.)
Christ was the object of Paul's preaching.
(Acts ix. 20, xvii. 3 ; Phil. i. 15, 16, 18; 1 Cor.
i. 23.) Paul was not ashamed of Him. (Rom.
i. 16.) Christ sent him to preach. (1 Cor. i.
17.) He calls his gospel the gospel of Christ.
(Rom. i. 16, xv. 19, 29; 1 Cor. ix. 12, 18; 2
Cor. ii. 12, iv. 4, ix. 13, x. 14; Gal. i. 7; Phil.
i. 27 ; 1 Thess. iii. 2.) His converts were pre
sented to Christ. (2 Cor. xi. 2.) Christ Him
self became the minister of the circumcision to
save all. (Rom. xv. 8.)
Christ is all and in all to Paul. (Col. iii. n.)
He was "that rock" to Israel. (1 Cor. x. 4.)
He is the head of every man. (1 Cor. xi. 3;
Eph. iv. 15, v. 23.) He is the power and wis
dom of God. (1 Cor. i. 24.) All feasts and
ceremonies are shadow, while He is the body,
(Col. ii. 17), the mystery of God holding all full
ness. (Col. ii. 2.)
Christ is all our life. (Phil. i. 21 ; Col. iii.
4; Gal. ii. 20.) Christ is in us. (Rom. viii. 10;
,2 Cor. xi. 10, xiii. 3; Gal. ii. 20, iv. 19; Eph.
iii. 17; Phil. i. 20; Col. i. 27.) We have cruci
fied our flesh with Christ, (Gal. v. 24), suffered
with Christ, (Rom. viii. 17; Phil. i. 29), are
crucified with Christ, (Gal. ii. 20), died with
Christ. (Rom. vi. 8, vii. 4; Col. ii. 20, iii. 3.)
We are Christ's. (1 Cor. iii. 23, xv. 23 ; 2 Cor.
x. 7, xi. 13; Gal. iii. 29, v. 24; 1 Thess. ii. 6.)
Our bodies are members of Christ. (1 Cor. vi.
15, xii. 12, 27; Eph. iv. 15.) And separation
from Christ is the dreadful thing. (Rom ix. 3.)
Paul could have sung St. Patrick's lines :

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 121
" Christ, as a light
Illumine and guide me !
Christ as a shield o'ershadow and cover me !
Christ be under me, Christ be over me !
Christ be beside me
On left hand and right !
Christ be before me, behind me, about me,
Christ this day be within and without me !
" Christ, the lowly and meek,
Christ, the All- Powerful, be
In the heart of each to whom I speak,
In the mouth of each who speaks to me !
In all who draw near me
Or see me or hear me."

Christ is the Saviour, (Rom. x. 6-9), giving
light, (Eph. v. 14), working in us. (Rom. xv.
18.) We serve Christ. (Rom. xiv. 18 ; 1 Cor. vii.
22; Gal. i. 10; Eph. iv. 6; Col. iv. 12.) We
are ministers of Christ. (1 Cor. iv. 1 ; 2 Cor.
viii. 23, xi. 23; Col. i. 7.) We have Christ's
mind. (1 Cor. ii. 16.) We learn Christ rather
than any notions however valuable and necessary
regarding Him. As Thomas Erskine wrote to
Lady Elgin, "Christ is far above all doctrines
about Him. He is the truth. A doctrine that
can be separated from Himself is a vanity and a
deception." (Eph. iv. 20.) We are under law
to Christ. (1 Cor. ix. 21.) We are Christ's
representatives, (2 Cor. iii. 3, v. 20, viii. 23),
joint heirs with Christ. (Rom. viii. 17.) Christ's
Spirit is necessary. (Rom. viii. 9.) We know
Christ, (2 Cor. v. 16), follow Christ, (1 Cor. xi.
1), wait for Christ. (2 Thess. iii. 5.) Paul
wanted to be with Christ. (Phil. i. 23.)
r~ One of Paul's greatest and favorite phrases is,
"In Christ." Deissman holds that Paul created
the phrase, and that the underlying idea is that

122 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
Christians live in the element Christ, as birds live
in the air, and fishes in the sea, and the roots of
plants in the earth. So Paul describes the closest
conceivable communion with Christ. Karl in
terprets the phrase as equivalent to the personal
influence of a_ spiritual Being, to which that man
is subject who can be described as "in Christ."
Weiss thinks the phrase does mean usually an
"abiding within the exalted Christ," but often
only the sphere within which any action takes
, place, e. g.,i Rom. xvi. 3, 9; Col. iv. 7; 1
<<&TJieji^m._?J' (Somerville, St. Paul's Conception
of Christ, p. 593 f.) At any rate Paul uses it
constantly and rejoices in all the glorious signif
icance which stood in it.
"I say the truth in Christ." (Rom. ix. 1.)
"We are one body in Christ." (Rom. xii. 5.)
His companions were fellow-workers in Christ.
(Rom. xvi. 3, 9.) It was only after others that
he was in Christ. (Rom. xvi. 7.) He calls
Apelles "approved in Christ." (Rom. xvi. 10.)
The Corinthian Christians were babes in Christ.
(1 Cor. iii. 1.) Yet later, he calls them "wise
in Christ." (1 Cor. iv. 10.) They might have
ten thousand tutors in Christ, but only Paul was
their father. (1 Cor. iv. 15.) He speaks of
"my ways which be in Christ." (1 Cor. iv.
17.) In Christ all are to be made alive. (1 Cor.
xv. 22.) The dead believers are asleep in Christ.
(1 Cor. xv. 18.) Hope in Christ for this pres
ent life alone is unsatisfying. (1 Cor. xv. 19.)
God establishes us in Christ, and anoints us.
(2 Cor. i. 21.) He also always leads us in tri
umph in Christ. (2 Cor. ii. 14.) Paul speaks
in Christ as of sincerity, as of God, in the sight
of God. (2 Cor. ii. 17, xvi. 19.) The old veil
is done away in Christ. (2 Cor. iii. 14.) If in
Christ, a man is a new creature. (2 Cor. v. 17.)

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 23
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Him
self. (2 Cor. v. 19.) Paul described himself as
"a man in Christ." (2 Cor. xii. 2.) He speaks
of the churches of Judea, which were in Christ.
(Gal. i. 22.) We are justified by faith in Christ
(Gal. ii. 16), but He is not the minister of sin, if
we are shown to be sinners while seeking or
claiming to be justified in Christ. (Gal. ii. 17.)
All who are " baptized into Christ put on Christ."
(Gal. iii. 27.) We are blessed with every spirit
ual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
(Eph. i. 3.) All things are to be summed up in
Christ. (Eph. i. 10.) All who have hoped in
Christ will be then to the praise of His glory.
(Eph. i. 12.) God's working to usward is dis
played in Christ, and in what He wrought in
Christ in His resurrection and ascension. (Eph.
i. 20.) Paul's bonds at Rome became manifest
in Christ. (Phil. i. 13.) There is comfort in
Christ and consolation of love and fellowship of
the Spirit, and tender mercies and compassion
are in Him. (Phil. ii. 1.) Paul found and longed
to hold at last the righteousness which is through
faith in Christ. (Phil. iii. 9.) The Colossian saints
and faithful brethren are in Christ. (Col. i. 2.)
Their faith in Christ was steadfast. The dead in
Christ shall rise first when He comes. (1 Thess.
iv. 16.) In Christ Paul had boldness to enjoy
what was fitting. (Philemon 8.) Would not
Philemon refresh his heart in Christ ? (Philemon
20.) "Our need," says George Bowen, "is not
so much of something that He can give as of
Himself. We find our strength, our wisdom, our
righteousness in Him. . . . Nothing in heaven
or in earth should possess loveliness or excellence
in the eyes of the believer until he is able to see
it in Christ." . . . Jesus Christ is not the enemy
of art or nature — He is not the enemy of anything

I24 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
truly excellent or beautiful ; all that is truly es
timable or lovely owes its existence to Him. All
things were made by Him and for Him. What
ever you lose and cannot find again in Christ is
better lost." (Love Revealed, p. 150 ff. Edin
burgh Ed., 1887.)
As all was "in Christ," what was there not
" of Christ " ? Paul speaks of the love of Christ,
(Rom. viii. 35; 2 Cor. v. 14; Eph. iii. 19); the
cross of Christ, (1 Cor. i. 17; Gal. vi. 12; Phil.
iii. 18); the mind of Christ, (1 Cor. ii. 16); the
blood of Christ, (1 Cor. x. 16; Eph. ii. 13);
the sufferings of Christ, (2 Cor. i. 5) ; a sweet
savor of Christ, (2 Cor. ii. 15) ; the glory of
Christ, (2 Cor. viii. 23) ; the meekness and gen
tleness of Christ, (2 Cor. x. 1) ; the truth of
Christ, (2 Cor. xi. 10) ; the grace of Christ,
(Gal. i. 6) ; the mystery of Christ, (Eph. iii. 4 ;
Col. iv. 3) ; the unsearchable riches of Christ,
(Eph. iii. 8); the gospel of Christ, (2 Gor. ii.
12); the kingdom of Christ, (Eph. v. 5); the
day of Christ, (Phil. i. 10, ii. 16; 2 Thess. ii. 2);
the circumcision of Christ, (Col. ii. n) ; the
name of Christ, (2 Tim. ii. 19) ; the patience of
Christ, (2 Thess. iii. 5) ; the person of Christ,
(2 Cor. ii. 10) ; the body of Christ, (1 Cor. x.
16; Eph. iv. 12); the afflictions of Christ, (Col.
i. 24) ; the judgment of Christ, (2 Cor. v. 10) ;
the obedience of Christ, (2 Cor. x. 5) ; the power
of Christ, (2 Cor. xii. 9) ; the law of Christ,
(Gal. vi. 2); the gift of Christ, (Eph. iv. 7);
the fullness of Christ, (Eph. iv. 13) ; the work of
Christ, (Phil. ii. 30) ; the word of Christ, (Col.
iii. 16); the fear of Christ, (Eph. v. 21); the
churches of Christ. (Rom. xvi. 16.) Christ was
everything and He waits to be everything in full
ness of love.

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 125
" It shall be
A Face like My Face that receives thee
A man like to Me
Thou shalt love and be loved by forever ;
A Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee,
See the Christ stand ! "
Christians are an epistle of Christ. (2 Cor. iii.
3.) Through Christ Paul had confidence to God-
ward. (2 Cor. iii. 4.) God's comfort abound-
eth to us through Christ. (2 Cor. i. 5.) We are
justified in Christ. (Gal. ii. 17.) He feared lest
the minds of the Corinthians should be corrupted
from the simplicity and the purity that is toward
Christ. (2 Cor. xi. 3.) He had espoused them
to one husband that he might present them as a
pure virgin to Christ. (2 Cor. xi. 2.) Epsene-
tus he speaks of as the first fruits of Asia unto
Christ. (Rom. xvi. 5.) The law was a tutor to
bring us unto Christ. (Gal. iii. 24.) The Church
is subject to Christ. (Eph. v. 24.) He cher
ishes her as a husband his wife. (Eph. v. 29.)
Servants are to serve in singleness of heart as unto
Christ. (Eph. vi. 5.) Paul prayed that the fel
lowship of Philemon's faith might become effec
tual unto Christ. (Philemon 6.) With Christ
Paul was crucified, (Gal. ii. 20), quickened,
(Eph. ii. 5)..-and he desired to depart, to be with
Him. (Phil. i. 23.) The Ephesians, before the
gospel came, were separate from Christ. (Eph.
ii. 12.) Those who would be justified by law are
severed from Christ. (Gal. v. 4.) Young widows
wax wanton against Christ. (1 Tim. v. 11.) All
our sin is sin against Christ. (1 Cor. viii. 12.)
And Christ will judge us. (Rom. xiv. 10; 2 Cor.
v. 10.)
It is not surprising that Paul claimed the pre
eminence for such a Christ, (1 Cor. i. 13, xv.

126 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
23; 2 Cor. vi. 15; cf. Col. i. 18), that he
counted all things but loss for Christ, (Phil. iii.
7; Col. ii. 8, 17), and that he subjected all his
thoughts to Christ. (2 Cor. x. 5.) " For Christ's
sake," he writes, "we are fools," (1 Cor. iv. 10),
and "for Christ's sake" he took "pleasure in
weakness, injuries, miseries, persecutions, dis
tresses." (2 Cor. xii. 10.) The phrase " for Christ's
sake," in the Authorized Version, occurred also
in Eph. iv. 32, but the Revised Version renders
that verse, " Even as God in Christ forgave you."
In Paul's view Christ was the present and in
dwelling God. Him he loved and in Him he
lived. (5) The Lord.- "The term Lord," Somerville
contends, " except wnere' he "qttoTSs from the Old
Testament (in which case Kvpt.o<s is used of God,
being the Septuagint translation) uniformly de
notes Christ in Paul's Epistles. TbaThe regards
if as^GmsTT properdeslgnation we see from
1 Cor. viii. 5, 6 ; also from Eph. iv. 5 ; 1 Cor.
xii. 5. Wherever 'Lord' occurs, we are to
understand him as referring to Christ. 1 Cor.
iv. 19, iii. 5, vii. 17; Rom. xiv. 4, which Weiss
adduces as exceptions, are so only in appearance."
(St. Paul's Conception of Christ, p. 135.)
\Eheu Jesus who had_ been among menj_P_auJk
called_the Lord. James wasf^the Lord's
brother,""- (Gal. i. 19), and he speaks elsewhere
of "the brethren of the Lord." (1 Cor. ix. 5.)
As it was "the Lord of glory" who had been
crucified, (1 Cor. ii. 8), so it was "the Lord"
whom God raised up. (1 Cor. vi. 14.) And it
was "the Lord" Paul saw in the Damascus
vision, (Acts ix. 5, 6, 27, xxii. 8, 10, xxvi. 15 ;
1 Cor. ix. 1), and "the Lord" then spoke to
him. But it is almost always of Jesus as sovereign

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 27
of the spiritual life and of all the service of man
that Paul speaks as "Lord." At Antioch he
ministered to the Lord. (Acts xiii. 2.) The
"hand of the Lord " was upon him. (Acts xiii.
11.) Ely mas perverted "the right ways of the
Lord." (Acts xiii. 10.) Paul preached the " word
of the Lord." (Acts xv. 35, 36, xvi. 32.) He
commended his churches to the Lord. (Acts xiv.
23:) Lydia was faithful to the Lord, Who had
opened her heart. (Acts xvi. 15.) Paul served
the Lord. (Acts xx. 19; Rom. xii. 11.) The
Lord assigns duty and privilege. (1 Cor. iii.
5.) He is the sole judge of life and service.
(1 Cor. iv. 4.) Paul made his plans conditionally
—"if the Lord will," (1 Cor. iv. 19), or "if the
Lord permit." (1 Cor. xvi. 7.) And such
phrases were not meaningless or piously parenthet
ical merely, as they so easily become with us.
"Lord," confessed good Thomas Fuller, "when
in any writing I have occasion to insert these
passages, God willing, God lending me life, etc.,
I observe, Lord, that I can scarce hold my hand
from encircling these words in a parenthesis, as
if they were not essential to the sentence, but
may as well be left out as put in. Whereas, in
deed, they are not only of the commission at
large, but so of the quorum that without them all
the rest is nothing; wherefore hereafter I will
write those words fully and fairly, without any
enclosure about them. Let critics censure it for
bad grammar, I am sure it is good divinity."
(Good Thoughts in Bad Times, xvii.) He knew
the Lord's mind and expressed it. (1 Cor. vii.
10, 12.) His authority for building up was from
the Lord. (2 Cor. xiii. 10.) He besought the
Lord to take away his thorn. (2 Cor. xiii. 8.)
He says that that man is approved whom the
Lord commendeth. (2 Cor. x. 18.) It was the

128 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
Lord who commanded him to go to the Gentiles.
(Acts xiii. 47.) The Lord knows His own
(2 Tim. ii. 19.) Out of all his dangers the Lord
delivered him, (2 Tim. iii. 11), and stood by
him and strengthened him. (2 Tim. iv. 17.) Life
under such a Lord was not a trivial or petty
thing, nor unintelligible and strange,
" A wisp of fog betwixt us and the sun ;
A call of battle, and the battle done,
Ere the last echo dies within our ears ;
A rose choked in the grass ; an hour of fears ;
The gusts that past a darkened shore do beat,
The burst of music down an unlistening street."
It was a mystery, but quick and heavenly and
clear, an obedience, a ministry.
The phrase "in the Lord," like "in Christ,"
shows this comprehending, sovereign place of
Jesus. He is the sphere and location of all.
The Romans were to receive Phcebe in the
Lord. (Rom. xvi. 2.) Amplias and Rufus
were beloved in the Lord. (Rom. xvi. 8, 11.)
They labored in the Lord. (Rom. xvi. n.)
Paul made his salutations in the Lord. (Rom.
xvi. 22; 1 Cor. xvi. 19.) "He that glorieth,"
He said, " let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor.
i. 31; 2 Cor. x. 17.) Timothy was faithful in
the Lord. (1 Cor. iv. 17.) Paul served in the
Lord as the Lord's bondsman. (1 Cor. vii. 22.)
Right marriages are in the Lord. (1 Cor. vii.
39.) The Corinthian Christians were his work
in the Lord, (1 Cor. ix. 1), and the seal of
his apostleship in the Lord. (1 Cor. ix. 2.)
"In the Lord" Christians labor not in vain,
(1 Cor. xv. 58) ; children are to obey their
parents, (Eph. vi. 1) ; we are to be strong,
(Eph. vi. 10) ; to rejoice, (Phil. iii. 1, iv. 4) ; to
stand fast, (Phil. iv. 1) ; to walk in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Doors were opened to Him in the

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 29
Lord. (2 Cor. ii. 12.) He was "the prisoner
ia the Lord." (Eph. iv. 1.) He spoke and
testified in the Lord. (Eph. iv. 17.) He called
Tychicus "a beloved brother and faithful minis
ter in the Lord." (Eph. vi. 21; Col. iv. 7.)
He described certain Christians as " the brethren
in the Lord." (Phil. i. 14.) He trusted in the
Lord that He might come to Philippi. (Phil. ii.
24.) He rejoiced in the Lord greatly. (Phil.
iv. 10.) If the Thessalonians stood fast in the
Lord, then He lived. (1 Thess. iii. 8.) He had
confidence in the Lord touching the Thessalonians.
(2 Thess. iii. 4.) Onesimus was a brother be
loved in the Lord. (Philemon 16.) He begged
Philemon, "Let me have joy of thee in the
Lord." (Philemon 20.) Ministry was received
by men in the Lord. (Col. iv. 17.) The
Ephesians were once darkness but now light in
the Lord. (Eph. v. 8.) Study also Rom. xvi.
13; 1 Thess. v. 12; Col. iii. 18; Phil. ii. 29,
iv. 2; 1 Cor. xi. n. And summarizing the
whole story of character and destiny, he says that
"in Christ Jesus each several building groweth
into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also
are builded together for a habitation of God in
the Spirit." (Eph. ii. 21, 22.)
And so also Paul is constantly using the phrase
"of the Lord." And why should he not use it
and expect us to walk worthily of the Lord, since
"all things have been created through Him and
unto Him, and He is before all things and in Him
all things consist " ? (Col. i. 10, 16, 17.) Study
the phrases he uses containing these words, " of
the Lord." He speaks of "the mind of the
Lord," (Rom. xi. 34 ; 1 Cor. ii. 16) ; the things,
(1 Cor. vii. 32, 34) ;. the table, .(1 Cor. x. 21);
the cup, (1 Cor. x. 21, xi. 27) ; the body and
blood, (1 Cor. xi. 27) ; the chastening, (1 Cor.

130 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
xi. 32); the commandments, (1 Cor. xiv. 37);
the work, (1 Cor. xvi. 10); the Spirit of the
Lord, where there is liberty, (2 Cor. iii. 17) ; the
glory, (2 Cor. iii. 18) ; the fear, (2 Cor. v. 11) ;
the grace of giving ministered by Paul to the
glory of the Lord, (2 Cor. viii. 19) ; vision and
revelation, (2 Cor. xii. 1) ; the will, (Eph. v.
17) ; the nurture and admonition, (Eph. vi. 4) ;
imitators of the Lord, (1 Thess. i. 6) ; the word,
(1 Thess. i. 8, iv. 15 ; 2 Thess. iii. 2) ; the day,
(1 Thess. v. 2) ; the face, (2 Thess. i. 9) ; the
exceeding abundant grace of our Lord, (1 Tim.
i. 14) ; the testimony, (2 Tim. i. 8) ; the mercy
of the Lord. (2 Tim. i. 18.) As the servant of
the Lord, Timothy must not strive. (2 Tim.
ii. 24.) The brethren at Thessalonica were be
loved of the Lord. (2 Thess. ii. 13.) "We take
thought," he says, "for things honorable in the
sight of the Lord." (2 Cor. viii. 21.)
With Paul the Lord was the norm and end of
all things. As to the observance of holy days,
eating and not eating, they were all to the Lord
with true men. (Rom. xiv. 6.) We live and die
unto the Lord. (Rom. xiv. 8.) Christians are
"joined to the Lord " and are one spirit, (1 Cor.
vi. 17), and are to " attend upon the Lord with
out distraction." (1 Cor. vii. 35.) When men
" turn to the Lord " the veil of obscurity is taken
away from spiritual truth. (2 Cor. iii. 16.) The
Macedonians in their giving did well because they
first gave themselves to the Lord. (2 Cor, viii.
5.) We must prove what is "well pleasing unto
the Lord," (Eph. v. 10; Col. iii. 20); make
"melody with our hearts to the Lord." (Eph. v.
19.) The family and human service rest on the
basis of loyalty to the Lord and their obligations
are to be met as to Him. (Eph. v. 22, vi. 7.)
We are to do all heartily as to the Lord. (Col.

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS I3I
iii. 23.) Peace is to be with all who call on the
Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Tim. ii. 22.)
Paul so called on Him as Lord. (Acts xxii. 19 ;
Rom. x. 16, xi. 3. Compare Acts ix. 5, 6,
xxii. 8, 10, xxvi. 15.)
Jesus was the Lord, the absolute sovereign and
director of Paul and is to be of us. So the
apostles had recognized Him by Galilee, and so
we must recognize Him now.
" 0 Church to-day ! If, in that morn's grey light,
Those dim eyed fishers recognized the Lord,
What shall we say, who with still clearer sight,
Behold His glory, — as with conquering word
He brings not fish but nations, to be stored
Within His mighty net ? What can we say
But ' Lord, 'tis Thou ! ' Be evermore adored,
Whether we look, or run, or work, or play,
• It is the Lord ! command us Saviour, every way ! ' "
He is the Son of God, Lord of heaven and
earth. (Acts xvii. 24.) As Lord over all, He is
rich unto all that call upon Him. (Rom. x. 12.)
His word was supreme. (1 Cor. vii. 10, 12.)
He calls each man to his special work. (1 Cor.
vii. 17.) He is Lord of and for our bodies.
(1 Cor. vi. 13.) We are to attend upon Him
without distraction. (1 Cor. vii. 35.) The
earth is His. (1 Cor. x. 26, 28.) He is not to
be provoked to jealousy. (1 Cor. x. 22.) To
confess that He is Lord is through the Spirit.
(1 Cor. xii. 3.) The Lord is the Spirit. (2 Cor.
iii. 19.) That man is approved whom the Lord
commendeth. (2 Cor. x. 18.) Blessed is the
man to whom He as Lord will not reckon sin.
(Rom. iv. 8.) His sayings are conclusive and
authoritative. (Rom. xii. 19, xiv. n.) "They
will not hear me," saith the Lord, (1 Cor. xiv.
21), and the Lord saith, "Be ye separate."
(2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.)

I32 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
All Paul's confidence was in the Lord and he
was in the confidence of the Lord. The Lord
knew the thoughts of the wise that they were
vain. (1 Cor. iii. 20.) When he doubted the
sufficiency of his simple message he remembered
that. When he gloried he was speaking "not
after the Lord." (2 Cor. xi. 17.) The Lord
had ordained that preachers should live of the
gospel, but this privilege Paul waived, (1 Cor. ix.
14), never losing sight of his right to surrender his
rights. Through the Lord he had confidence in
the Galatians' fidelity to truth. (Gal. v. 10.)
And from the Lord he and his Christians received
the recompense of the inheritance. (Col. iii. 24.)
The Lord would make his converts increase and
abound in love. (1 Thess. iii. 12.) He adjured
the Thessalonians by the Lord. (1 Thess. v. 27.)
The Lord should direct their hearts into the love
of God and patient waiting for Christ. (1 Thess.
iii. 5.) The Lord of peace Himself should give
them peace at all times, in all ways. (2 Thess.
iii. 16.) The Lord should be with them all. (2
Thess. iii. 16.) The Lord would give mercy to
the house of Onesiphorus. (2 Tim. i. 16; com
pare 2 Tim. i. 18.) The Lord would give Timo
thy understanding in all things, and Alexander
reward according to his harmful works. (2 Tim.
ii. 7, iv. 14.) And just as Paul boldly spoke as
the Lord's representative, in His name, so Timo
thy was to speak and charge in the sight of the
Lord. (2 Tim. ii. 14.)
Most of all did Paul think and speak of the
Lord as he looked forward. The Lord would
"execute his word upon the earth." (Rom. ix.
28.) In the midst of darkness this was his confi
dence, and " the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a
seed." (Rom. ix. 29.) The Lord's supper he
knew was established "until the Lord come."

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 33
(1 Cor. iv. 5.) In that supper, received from the
Lord, we show forth the Lord's death until He
come. (1 Cor. x. 23, 26.) And we err when
we do not discern in it the Lord's body which
was and will come again. (1 Cor. xi. 29.) Paul
desired Him ; so while present in body and ab
sent from the Lord, he yet longed to be at home
with Him. (2 Cor. v. 6, 8.) In that day, or
some day, each man shall receive again from the
Lord whatsoever good thing he hath done. (Eph.
vi. 8.) Even then the Lord was at hand, (Phil.
iv. 5), the avenger of all trangressions, (1 Thess.
iv. 6), who would some time appear from heaven
with the angels of His power, to destroy sin from
the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His
might. (2 Thess. i. 8, 9.) But the Christians
who are alive unto His coming, the Lord will
catch up to Himself. (1 Thess. iv. 15.) He,
the Lord, shall descend from heaven with a shout,
not despised nor rejected, but the dominant Lord
of time and eternity, and of the souls of the evil
and the good. (1 Thess. iv. 16.) The living in
Him shall meet the Lord in the air, and be one
with the Lord. (1 Thess. iv. 17.) The day of
the Lord he saw coming like a thief in the night,
(1 Thess. v. 2), but the Lord was faithful, who
would establish us for that day and guard us from
the evil. (2 Thess. iii. 3.) At that day, the Lord
the righteous Judge, will give to Paul, he believed,
and to all lovers of His coming, a crown, (2 Tim.
iv. 8), even as that same Lord, well Paul knew in
the cold and gloom of his Mamertine dun
geon, would deliver him from every evil.
(2 Tim. iv. 18.)
Who can wonder at Paul's passionate devotion
to such a Lord ? What a mass of assertion of
Christ's unique deity is in these statements of His
Lordship ! Believing in Him as divine, and as

I34 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
owner and emperor, is it strange that all things
dwarfed in comparison with Him ? Whosoever
calls on the name of the Lord, Paul said, shall be
saved. (Rom. x. 13.) All the Gentiles should
praise this Lord. (Rom. xv. 11.) After this
Lord men should seek, and all the Gentiles.
(Acts xv. 17.) He is the second man, the Lord
from heaven. (1 Cor. xv. 47.) Howsoever
many differences there may be, there is one Lord.
(1 Cor. xii. 5.) " One Lord, one faith, one bap
tism." (Eph. iv. 5.) Jesus Christ is this Lord.
(Phil. ii. n.) Whatsoever we do we are to do in
His name. (Col. iii. 17.) He is the blessed and
only Potentate, the King of them that reign as
kings, and Lord of them that rule as lords.
(1 Tim. vi. 15. Compare Rev. xvii. 14,
xix. 16.)
"Jesus, my Lord" — these were the central
words of Paul's life. He subjected himself, his
will, his whole being to Jesus as Lord. There is
irresistible power in a life like this. " I always
like to hear a man, especially a young man, call
Jesus, Lord," said Dr. A. J. Gordon once. Into
the human will which yields itself in such surren
der the divine will pours, and all the comforts and
powers of the Lord become His servant's. All
that is in the hymn, and more, was Paul's :

" Jesus, Thy name I love,
All other names above,
Jesus, my Lord !
Oh, Thou art all to me !
Nothing to please I see,
Nothing apart from Thee,
Jesus, my Lord !
« Thou, blessed Son of God,
Hast bought me with Thy blood,
Jesus, my Lord !

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 35
Oh, how great is Thy love,
All other loves above,
Love that I daily prove,
Jesus, my Lord 1
" When unto Thee I flee,
Thou wilt my refuge be,
Jesus, my Lord !
What need I now to fear,
What earthly grief or care,
Since Thou art ever near,
Jesus, my Lord?
" Soon Thou wilt come again !
I shall be happy then,
Jesus, my Lord !
Then Thine own face I'll see,
Then I shall like Thee be,
Then evermore with Thee,
Jesus, my Lord 1 "
(6) Jesus Christ. "The term Christ," says
Somerville, "when conjoined with Jesus in the
Epistles always points to the religious significance
Jesus has for believers."
In Paul's first Epistles, First and Second Thes
salonians, this title is not used. It is always
"the Lord Jesus Christ." And it is not used
much in the last Epistles. In First and Second
Timothy "Lord" is the usual title, or "Christ
Jesus . " " Jesus_ J^hrjgJLiLia~J'sed most^fre^ '
jjjierrtlyin Komaii]s^F-i*st-aiicLSecond Corinthians
jaruOSD^ FMTTppTans.
"" In some ways this~ seerffi:*tcrbe Chrisf s jmesL
ten3er~rttie7'*"* PauTappeared to have used it nat
urally in connection with the closest relationship
of Jesus to us, and His largest significance to our
heart and spirit. It is the title which sets first
the human Jesus, but adds at once His divine and
Messianic name/ As we repeat the words, we
see the~Tather*s Son in humanity who " had to

136 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
maintain obedience toward His heavenly Father
in the midst of a sinful world estranged from God,
not only by keeping Himself unspotted from this
world, but by revealing to it the whole of God's
holy love," who could not therefore " live to God
simply for Himself in quiet seclusion from the
world," but "had to enter into it as the Christ,
the God-sent Saviour, and allow the revilings of
those who revile God to fall on Himself. (Rom.
xv. 3.) He had to bear upon His heart in com
passion the sinful corruption of the world."
(Beyschlag, New Testament Theology, Vol. II.,
p. 70 f.) Jesus, of Joseph's family, and Christ,
the Anointed and Sent of God, man and God,
Paul conjoins here.
He had been called to be an apostle of Jesus
Christ, (1 Cor. i. 1 ; 2 Cor. i. 1 ; Eph. i. 1 ; Col.
i. 1 ; 1 Tim. i. 1 ; 2 Tim. i. 1), and an apostle
through Jesus Christ. (Gal. i. 1.) And he
called himself a servant of Jesus Christ. (Rom.
i. 1 ; Phil. i. 1.)
His gospel was the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"My gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,"
he calls it. (Rom. xvi. 25.) "Jesus Christ was
preached by us." (2 Cor. i. 19; Gal. iii. 1.)
He was taught his gospel by revelation of Jesus
Christ. (Gal. i. 12.) He wanted to know noth
ing but Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. ii. 2.) Why?
Jesus Christ was the only foundation, (1 Cor. iii.
2), the cornerstone. (Eph. ii. 20.) Jesus Christ
was the right title to use with such a figure of
speech, for Jesus Christ is the right seal of the
solemn covenant of the threshold. (See Trum
bull, The Threshold Covenant, p. 62.) Grace
reigneth unto righteousness, unto eternal life by
Jesus Christ. (Rom. v. 21.) The glory of God
has been revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
(2 Cor. iv. 6.) God has reconciled us to Him-

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 137
self by Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. v. 18.) " Not only
do we know God by Jesus Christ alone," says
Pascal, "but we know ourselves by Jesus Christ
alone. We know life and death by Jesus Christ
alone. Apart from Jesus Christ we know not
what is our life, nor our death, nor God, nor our
selves." We are justified by the faith of Jesus
Christ. (Gal. ii. 16.) The righteousness of God,
through faith in Jesus Christ, has been manifested
to all who believe, (Rom. iii. 22), and all by the
grace of the one man Jesus Christ who undid the
man Adam's woeful work. (Rom. v. 15.)
Once Paul calls Him "our Saviour Jesus
Christ." (Titus ii. 13.) We are the called of
Jesus Christ. (Rom. i. 6.) The grace of God
is given us by Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. i. 4.) We
have the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, into
which the faithful God has called us. (1 Cor. i.
9.) We are predestinated by Jesus Christ unto
Himself. (Eph. i. 5.) All the fruits of right
eousness are through Jesus Christ. (Phil. i. 11.)
The promise by faith in Jesus Christ is given to
them that believe. (Gal. iii. 22.) In Jesus
Christ the blessing of Abraham came to the Gen
tiles. (Gal. iii. 14.) In Jesus Christ, only
Jesus Christ and His faith availeth. Circum
cision availeth nothing. (Gal. v. 6.) And ex
cept we be reprobates Jesus Christ is in us.
(2 CorV xiii. 5.) " For our joy and our healing, "
says the author of The Vision of Piers, the
Plowman, "Jesus Christ of heaven, in a poor
man's apparel, pursueth us ever and looketh on
us in their likeness, and that with lovely cheer."
But whether in others or in ourselves, Jesus Christ
is seeking us and offering all to us.
The day of Jesus Christ will come. (Phil. i. 6. )
Until then we should with the Spirit of Jesus
Christ seek the things that are Jesus Christ's.

138 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
(Phil. i. 19, ii. 21.) For by Jesus Christ God
will judge the secrets of men. (Rom. ii. 16.)
And we shall reign in life by the one, Jesus Christ.
(Rom. v. 17.) To God, through Jesus Christ be
glory. (Rom. xvi. 27.)
Jesus Christ was very much to Paul. Through
Jesus Christ he thanked the Father. (Rom. i. 8.)
In the name of Jesus Christ he ordered out the
spirit of divination. (Acts xvi. 16.) Paul was
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles. (Eph.
iii. 1 ; Philemon 9.) Jesus Christ was showing
forth all long-suffering in Paul. (1 Tim. i. 16.)
Jesus Christ was his Lord. (Phil. ii. 1, 11.) He
wished Timothy "to remember Jesus Christ."
(2 Tim. ii. 8.) "Remember Jesus Christ risen
from the dead, of the seed of David, according
to my gospel." What richer memory can there
be than this ? Do we remember him ?
" According to Thy gracious word,
In meek humility,
This will I do, my dying Lord,
I will remember Thee.
" Thy body broken for my sake,
My bread from heaven be ;
Thy testamental cup I take,
And thus remember Thee.
" Gethsemane can I forget ,
Or there Thy conflict see,
Thine agony and bloody sweat,
And not remember Thee ?
" When to the cross I turn mine eyes,
And rest on Calvary,
O Lamb of God, my sacrifice,
I must remember Thee.
" Remember Thee, and all Thy pains
And all Thy love to me ;
Yea, while a breath, a pulse remains,
Will I remember Thee.

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 139
" And when these failing lips grow dumb,
And mind and memory flee,
When Thou shalt in Thy Kingdom come,
Then Lord, remember me ! "
We can be sure, though Paul only once uses
this expression, that his memory was a dwelling
place of Jesus Christ. Perhaps he had seen more
than he betrays. Perhaps he had not seen and
could remember Him only as others had told him
of His earthly life and as he knew Him in that
other life from which He had spoken to him.
But by day and night he recalled Him and lin
gered upon His memory.
(7) Christ Jesus. This title is used in the New
TestameHl^fJJ^aLfflalone save" in HebruTjl arid
T~Peter v. 10, 14, in the "Authorized" Version.
The Revised Version makes the first of these read
simply Jesus, and the others Christ. The same
words are used as in Jesus Christ, but their order
is reversed, and that is set first which was second
before, and that second which was first.
Paul was an apostle of Christ Jesus, (2 Cor. i.
1 ; 1 Tim. i. 1 ; 2 Tim. ii. 1.) He was the min
ister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles. (Rom.
xv. 16.) All things else he counted dross for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his
Lord. (Phil. iii. 8.) He longed to be appre
hended of Christ Jesus. (Phil. iii. 12.) And he
gave his charges to Timothy in the sight of Christ
Jesus. (1 Tim. v. 21, vi. 13.) He and we have
been baptized into Christ Jesus. (Rom. vi. 3.)
He wanted Timothy to be a good soldier, (2 Tim.
ii. 3), and a good minister of Christ Jesus. (1
Tim. iv. 6.)
Once he speaks of " Christ Jesus our Saviour."
(Titus i. 4.) It was on Christ Jesus that he led
the Galatians to believe. (Gal. ii. 16.) From
Christ Jesus came grace, mercy, peace. (2 Tim.

I40 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
i. 2.) Unto God be glory in Christ Jesus, (Eph.
iii. 21), as from Him comes our abundance, ac
cording to God's riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
(Phil. iv. 19.)
Paul preached not himself, but Christ Jesus as
Lord. (2 Cor. iv. 5.) He had been received by
the Galatians even as Christ Jesus. (Gal. iv. 14.)
There was one mediator, the Man Christ Jesus.
(1 Tim. ii. 5.) Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. (1 Tim. i. 15.) Christians
were to be of the same mind one with another,
according to Christ Jesus. (Rom. xv. 5.)
' ' In Christ Jesus ' ' with Paul is a favorite phrase,
though less so than "in Christ." Christ Jesus,
like Christ, is the sphere of our li!e7its*source,
its power, its0 meaning, its goal: •- Paul speaks* of
redemption "in Christ Jesus," (Rom. iii. 24); : the
spirit of life, (Rom. viii. 2); faith, (1 Tim. iii.
13; 2 Tim. iii. 15; Gal. iii. 26; Col. i. 4); the
love of God, (Rom. viii. 39) ; iiberty, (Gal. ii.
4); the will of God, (1 Thess. v. 18); God's
kindness, (Eph. ii. 7); glorying, (Rom. xv. 17);
living godly, (2 Tim. iii. 12); the peace of God
keeping our hearts and thoughts, (Phil. iv. 7);
salvation, (2 Tim. ii. 10) ; grace, (2 Tim. ii. 1) ;
grace given, (2 Tim. i. 9) ; faith and love, (1
Thess. ii. 14) ; the high calling of God. (Phil.
iii. 14.) In Christ Jesus we are created for good
works, (Eph. ii. 10) ; sanctified, (1 Cor. i. 2) ;
made nigh, (Eph. ii. 13) ; are to reckon ourselves
alive to God. (Rom. vi. 11.) And in Christ Jesus
God purposed to make known His wisdom, (Eph.
iii. 11) ; and we are to glory. (Phil. iii. 3.) Paul
speaks also of saints in Christ Jesus, (Phil iv. 21);
helpers, (Rom. xvi. 3); heavenly places, (Eph.
ii. 6) ; churches of God in Christ Jesus, (1 Thess.
ii. 14); fellow-prisoners in Christ Jesus. (Phile
mon 23.)

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 141
(8) The Lord Jesus. It was the Lord Jesus
who established- ~ the^Supperr •~"iTTor7^T"T0"''
"The Jews killed, the -Lord' Jesus, (i Thess. ii.
15.) Paul recalled the words of the Lord Jesus.
(Acts xx. 35.) God raised up the Lord Jesus,
(2 Cor. iv. 14), and the ministry which Paul
had was received of the Lord Jesus. (Acts
xx. 24.)
In "the name of the Lord Jesus," Paul spoke
boldly. (Acts ix. 29.) For that name he was
ready to die. (Acts xxi. 13.) In it he passed
judgment on the Corinthians' sin. (1 Cor. v. 4.)
The Colossians were to do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, (Col. iii. 1 7) ; and he prayed that it
might be glorified in the Thessalonians. (2 Thess.
i. 12.) Confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus was a
condition of salvation in Paul's view. (Rom. x. 9.)
In the Lord Jesus he was persuaded nothing was
unclean. (Rom. xiv. 14.) The faith of the
Ephesians was in the Lord Jesus. (Eph. i. 15.)
Philemon's faith was toward the Lord Jesus.
(Philemon 5.) He hoped in the Lord Jesus to
execute certain plans. (Phil. ii. 19.) He ex
pected the Thessalonians in the Lord Jesus to
work and please God. (1 Thess. iv. 1.) Note
the place of the Lord Jesus in the judg
ment of the sinful members at Corinth. (1 Cor.
v. 4.)
The day of the Lord Jesus is coming. The
Corinthians would be saved then. (1 Cor. v. 5.)
They would be Paul's glorying then. (2 Cor. i.
14.) So also would the Thessalonians, before
the Lord Jesus at His coming. (1 Thess. ii. 19.)
He would come with all His saints. (1 Thess.
iii. 13.) At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from
heaven there would be vengeance on sin, (2
Thess. i. 7) ; and against all that obey not the

I42 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thess. i. 8.) The
lawless one the Lord Jesus shall slay with the
breath of His mouth. (2 Thess. ii. 8.)
The phrase " our Lord Christ " is used twice —
once of not serving, and once of serving. (Rom.
xvi. 18; Col. iii. 24.) <=^
(9) Jesus Christ, our Lord. So he begins
the Epistle to the Romans. "The Son of God,
Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we receive
grace and apostleship. ' ' (Rom. i. 4. ) He speaks
of the fellowship of " His Son Jesus Christ, our
Lord," (1 Cor. i. 9) ; and "eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord." (Rom. v. 21, vi. 23.)
"Who shall deliver me out of the body of
this death" of hopeless struggle against inward
sin? he asked, and answers exultantly, " I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom.
vii. 25.)
(10) Christ Jesus our Lord. He is sure that
he cannot be separated "from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. viii.
39.) He protested by the glorying in the Corin
thians which he had in Christ Jesus our Lord that
he died daily. (1 Cor. xv. 31.) He speaks
richly of God's "eternal purpose which he pur
posed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have
boldness and access in confidence through our
faith in Him." (Eph. iii. n, 12.) "The free
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord." (Rom. vi. 23.) He counted " all things
to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord." (Phil. iii. 8.) And he
expected the Colossians as they received Christ
Jesus the Lord to walk in Him, rooted and built
up in Him. (Col. ii. 6.) He sent Timothy
grace, mercy, peace, from Christ Jesus our Lord,
(1 Tim. i. 2 ; 2 Tim. i. 2), and he looked up
gratefully to Christ Jesus our Lord for that He

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 43
counted Him faithful, appointing him to His serv
ice. (1 Tim. i. 12.)
(11) The Lord Jesus Christ, or our Lord
Jesus Christ. Qbh_wasJhe full, formal title, sub
ordinating nothing, emphasizing no part of Jesus'
name, but setting it forth in all its dignity and
dominioiLj It is the phrase repeatedly used by
TaTtflnTiis benedictions. /(Gal. vi. 18 ; i Thess.
v. 28 ; Rom. xvi. 20 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 23 ; 2 Cor.
xiii. 14; Phil. iv. 23; 2 Thess. iii. 18; Phile
mon 25; Rom. i. 7.) "Ye know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ," he writes to the Corin
thians, " how that though He was rich He became
poor." (2 Cor. viii. 9; compare 2 Thess. i. 12.)
In the opening verses of his Epistles it is "grace
and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ," as at the
end. (1 Cor. i. 3 ; Gal. i. 3 ; Eph. i. 2 ; Phil.
i. 2; 2 Thess. i. 2; Philemon 3.) He speaks of
peace with God secured through our Lord Jesus
Christ, (Rom. v. 1); "of peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," (2. Cor. i. 2);
"of faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," (Acts
xx. 21) ; "of joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ," (Rom. v. 11); and "salvation of our
Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Thess. v. 9) ; of peace
and "love with faith " from God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. vi. 23.)
And so the Lord Jesus Christ is represented as
the Lord of the spiritual life. " Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
(Acts xvi. 31.) "Put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ." (Rom. xiii. 14.) "Our Lord Jesus
Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might
deliver us out of this evil world." (Gal. i. 4.)
And by the Lord Jesus Christ Paul makes
exhortation, and His grace he entreats. (Acts.
xv. 30; 1 Thess. iii. 11; 2 Tkess. ii. 16, iii. 12;
2 Tim. iv. 22.) And he appeals to "the name

144 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAU_,
of the Lord Jesus Christ," (i Cor. i. 10, v. n)>
gives thanks always for all things in the name of,
the Lord Jesus Christ, (Eph. v. 20) ; commands-
in His name, (2 Thess. iii.6) ; and blesses all that
call upon it. (1 Cor. i. 2.) For through our
Lord Jesus Christ are all things, and we through
Him. (1 Cor. viii. 6.) He gloried only in
"the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Tim.
vi. 3-)
Our Lord Jesus Christ is divine. His Father is
God, the Father of glory. (Rom. xv. 6 ; 2 Cor.
i. 3; Eph. i. 3, 17; Col. i. 3.) If, therefore,
any love not the Lord, let him be anathema,
(1 Cor. xvi. 22), but "grace be with all of them
that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptness. "
(Eph. vi. 24.)
Our Lord Jesus Christ will come again.
(1 Thess. v. 23; 2 Thess. ii. 1.) We wait for
the revelation, (1 Cor. i. 7), and His day, (1 Cor.
i. 8), even for Him, the Saviour, " the Lord Jesus
Christ who shall fashion anew the body of our
humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body
of His glory. (Phil. iii. 20, 21.) And mean
while we continue " in the work of faith and
labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ before our God and Father."
(1 Thess. i. 3.)
Two things among many are clear from this
study of Paul's use of Jesus' titles : (1) One is
that there is no iron rigidity in their use. While
some general differences are quite clear, Paul is
not bound in any way. A writer in a secular-
paper recently declared that in the Epistles a
fixed terminology was always accurately main
tained, as follows : " Jesus, the Saviour. Christ,
the Messiah or Anointed One. Jesus Christ, as
living or dying on the earth, when the person is
prominent. Christ Jesus, as risen and ascended,

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 45
whenever the office of the Christ is the prominent
thought. Jesus Christ our Lord, as having pur
chased us with His blood. Christ Jesus our
Lord, as having sealed and anointed us with His
Spirit from heaven." But a glance at the refer
ences shows the inaccuracy of this statement.
"(2) But whatever Paul's use of the various terms,
the great truth is clear that no claim could be
made for Jesus which he did not make. The
Lord of whom he speaks with such variety of
phrase filled the whole horizon of his thought and
¦love, and was to him Saviour, Friend, King, and
.God.) This is not exaggerative of Paul's esti
mate of Jesus. He held for Paul the place of
God, whose Son and messenger He was, and yet
in his absorbing sense of His deity Paul never
lost sight of the fullness of Christ's human sympa
thy and he fell ever upon His mercy, as the One
who knows and understands.
" Not as one blind and deaf to our beseeching,
Neither forgetful that we are but dust,
Not as from heavens too high for our upreaching,
Coldly sublime, intolerably just.
" Nay, but Thou knowest us, Lord Christ, Thou knowest,
Well Thou rememberest our feeble frame,
Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest
Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame.
" Therefore have pity ! not that we accuse Thee,
Curse Thee and die and charge Thee with our woe :
Not thro' Thy fault, O Holy One, we lose Thee.
Nay, but our own, yet hast Thou made us so !
" Then tho' our foul and limitless transgression
Grows with our growing, with our breath began,
Raise Thou the arms of endless intercession,
Jesus, divinest when Thou most art man ! "
2. Paul's Conception of Christ.
First of all, Jesus was, in Paul's view, the

I46 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL

Saviour of men„_„," God commendeth His love
Toward" us^'m that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Much more then, being now
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the
wrath through Him. For if, while we were ene
mies, we were reconciled unto God through the
death of His Son, much more, being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life." (Rom. v. 8, 9,
10.) Here is Paul's estimate of the death of
Jesus, and the heart of God toward us. "Noth
ing," as Somerville says, "could be farther from
Paul's thought than the idea that the death of
Christ was needed to win the love of God for us,
or to overcome any reluctance in Him to show
mercy to sinners. On every page of his writings^
we are taught that the event on Calvary, so far
from begetting love in God's heart, simply re
vealed and put into exercise the love that was j
there from eternity." But it was more than a I
revelation of the love of God — it was a redemp
tion and a service. It was an offering on our be
half of what we ought to, but could not offer to
God, but what, offering for us, He enables ugg
also to offer for ourselves. (Rom. xii. 1.) "As
Paul puts the matter, it is not that God reveals
His love in the death of Christ, and so redeems
us, but rather that God redeems us by the death
of Christ, and so reveals His love." (Somer
ville, St. Paul's Conception of Christ, p. 77.)
But what was Paul's view of the earthly life of
Jesus ? What did he know of it ? Hausrath
says, " That he knew, in a particular case, to give
the historical even to detail is proved by his own
statement to the Galatians, that he had so set
Jesus before their eyes as the crucified One, that
he never believed he would have reason to fear
that they would turn to another gospel. His
knowledge embraces the whole life of Jesus. He

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 47
mentions His Davidic descent, (Rom. i. 3, ix. 5),
and he knows of His baptism and makes an al
legorical use of it in his Epistles. (Col. ii. n; 1
Cor. x. 2; Rom. vi. 3, 4.) He knows the preach
ing of the kingdom of God, and the sending forth
of the apostles, and their being furnished with
power over the devils, (2 Cor. xii. 12; 1 Cor.
xii. 10, 28, 29 ; Gal. iii. 5), and he has so accus
tomed himself to call them the Twelve, as in the
time of Jesus, that he uses this expression even
when it was no more applicable. (1 Cor. xv. 5.)
The poor life of Jesus, (Phil. ii. 4-8), the spirit
of meekness and gentleness that animated it, the
self-forgetting, humble, serving love — all this is
perfectly present to the apostle. (2 Cor. v. 15 ;
Gal. ii. 20 ; Phil. i. 8.) He has a more accurate
knowledge than the evangelists themselves had of
the history of the Passion. At least his narrative
of the Lord's Supper in the night on which He
was betrayed corrects the differences of the syn-
optists, (1 Cor. ix. 23) ; it is not unknown to him
that it was the princes of this world, and not the
people, that wished the death of Jesus, (1 Cor. ii.
8), and the treachery of Judas. (1 Cor. xi. 23.)
The reproaches of the Crucified One, (Rom.
xv. 3), His weakness on the cross, (2 Cor. iii.
4) and the nailing to it of the handwriting of the
proconsul, (Col. ii. 14) — all this stands in so liv
ing a way before his soul that he can picture it
also before the eyes of others. The narrative of
the appearances of the Risen One is, in particu
lar, given by him with regard to detail." (1 Cor.
xv. 3. Der Apostel Paulus, p. 142, 143, quoted
by Somerville, p. 264 f.)
Jowett, in his commentary on 1 Thess. iv. 15,
on "What did St. Paul know of the life of
Jesus?" says: "In 1 Cor. xv. 3-10 the apostle
describes himself not only as preaching to the Co-

148 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
rinthians the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus,
but as dwelling on the minute circumstances
which attested it. As far as we can trace it," he
adds, " it was not the sayings or events of the life
of Christ, but the witness of the Old Testament
prophets that formed the largest part of St. Paul's
teaching, the external evidence by which he sup
ported in himself and others the inward and liv
ing sense of union with Christ, the medium
through which he preached Christ crucified."
This was natural and necessary in dealing with
the Jews. But does it seem strange that in
speeches and letters to Gentiles and Gentile
Christians he did not fall back more on the story
of Christ's life and the words of Christ? Could
he assume that all this had been provided by the
written or oral Gospels ? Did not some of his let
ters antedate the Gospels ?
/^Paret says, that had Paul indulged in details of
Christ's teaching he would thereby have followed
the fashion of the scholastic Pharisaism of his day,
which adduced in order quotations from the say
ings of the ancient Rabbis, and second, that in the
principles and inward spirit of his teaching he
was conscious that he was in perfect harmony
with the mind of Christ, so that he did not need
support or proof from individual quotations.
While Somerville says that "his references to the
teachings of his Master are exceedingly scanty and
do not bear on the great principles of religion so
much as. on matters that are of comparatively
trifling import," and he remarks on the absence
of reference to "those features of character in
which He is an example to His people."
"--"Still Paul knew. His friend Luke was a
careful student of the life of Jesus, and of all that
any one had said or written of it, and he was a
constant companion of Paul's. (Luke i. 1-4.)

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 49
We must believe that they shared these studies
of which Luke speaks. The only saying of our
Lord's preserved to us, outside of the gospels re
garding which we may be confident, is found in one
of Paul's speeches. " It is more blessed to give
than to receive." (Acts xx. 35.) And we need
not believe that Paul's declaration that those
"who were of repute imparted nothing to him"
(Gal. ii. 6), is meant to imply that he and Peter
did not, as Dr. Bonar imagined in his sermon,
walk through Jerusalem together on the occasion
of Paul's visit, and talk of all that Peter had seen
and that was burned eternally in his mind and
heart. Yes, and even if Paul had never seen it,
it was burned eternally on his mind and heart
too, and he speaks more than once of the suffer
ings of Christ. (2 Cor. i. 5 ; Phil. iii. 10.) And
his thought upon them must have been the more
painful because he then had no sympathy with
them. Quite otherwise.
" Ah, with what bitter triumph had I seen them,
Drops of redemption bleeding from Thy brow !
Thieves, and a culprit crucified, between them,
All men forsaking Him, and that was Thou."
If he fell back, usually, in his speaking and
writing of Christ upon the Old Testament, that
was not because he was either ignorant of Jesus'
life and words, or indifferent to them, but because
he saw in them the fulfillment of the divine pur
pose, the realization of all the divine shapings of
human history in the past. The Old Testament
was to him a living history in which the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world had had
His part, and the God who had lived in it was
the living God whom Jesus had come to reveal
and incarnate among men. We should perceive
Paul's view if we sympathized more with a living

150 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
view of the Old Testament, and a living view of
history such as Maurice had when he wrote —
"The conviction has been fixing itself deeply in
my mind that the Old Testament ought to be
read much more simply, and according to the
letter, than we are used to reading it,"
Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament', p.
n), and when he complained of Bishop Colenso's
book on the Pentateuch, that " his idea of history
is that it is a branch of arithmetic."
...And further, with Paul the historic Jesus was
\o the end of an eternal Jesus, God bound to man
not for a day, but forever, unchangeable : as the
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews said, "Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."
(Heb. xiii. 8.) The exalted Jesus filled Paul's
mind. "Paul does not come to us as a commen
tator or an interpreter of the words of Christ, but
as an interpreter of Christ Himself, and of the re
lation of His death and risen life to the religious
wants of men." The history and memories of
Jesus he did not disparage. But they were pre
paratory to the personal knowledge of the living
Christ, and " we cannot wonder that the interest
that belonged to the earthly Son of Man was for
him overshadowed by the grandeur and power of
the conception he derived from intercourse with
the risen and glorified Son of God."
Paul had not known the historic Christ. (See
Matheson, The Spiritual Development of St.
Paul, p. 321.) All the coming generations
would be in the same position. He was raised
up to interpret Jesus for these. His history of
struggle had prepared him for the divine Saviour.
" It is not only Paul's amazing grasp of mind and
capacity for dealing with principles of truth that
strikes one," as Somerville says, "it is above all
the fineness and delicacy of his spiritual touch,

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 151
his power of concentration on the problems of re
ligious life, his vivid understanding of and keen
sympathy with the conflict of humanity, torn by
the contending forces of good and evil ; all this
marked him out as preeminently fitted to discover
for himself and tell to others what the living
Christ is and can do as the Redeemer from sin
and death, and all that hinders the perfection of
man. . . . The consciousness of sonship to God
and of spiritual freedom, of separation from all
that had dragged him down, and union with
hopeful effort after the loftiest ideals of life and
conduct that had hitherto moved him only to de
spair, a sense of peace and moral power " — these
testified to the reality and power of the new spir
itual force, and "it is here, in the consciousness
of what the glorified Christ was to him in his per
sonal life, that we are to look for the genesis of
Paul's Christology," and for understanding of its
character. Christ to Paul was the Saviour of life. He took
away' the dishafmonies^lfnd_anehored "life again
iii God. - This was the core of all. TtTRobertson
of Brighton said : ' ' The central doctrine of Chris
tianity is the atonement. Take that away and
you obliterate Christianity. If Christianity were
merely the imitation of Christ, why then the im
itation of any other good man, the apostle Paul
or John, might have become a kind of Chris
tianity. If Christianity were merely martyrdom
for truth, then, with the exception of a certain
amount of degree, I see no difference between
the death of Socrates and the death of Jesus
Christ. But Christianity is more than this.
It is the At-one-ment of the Soul. It is
a reconciliation which the life and death of
Christ have wrought out for this world — the rec-
^pnciliation of man to God, the reconciliation of

152 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
man to man, the reconciliation of man to self, and
the reconciliation of man to duty." (Sermon on
Reconciliation of Christ.)
A Saviour who could do this divine work must
have been a divine person. And Paul does not
divorce the person and work of Jesus. As Gess
says, " It is only real insight into Jesus' work that
opens up to view the heights and depths of the
Being that is able to do this work."
Somerville's analysis of Paul's Conception of
Christ is this: (1) Christ, the archetype of hu
manity, the spiritual " man, '^ftesg^Stfii^of-God
'made mail ; "for "tffatfftn'an"^lone," sayTRothe,
"is the adequate medium through^j^j^hGod
can* reveal ^Himself?1-' "»Je9i!r!rt§*merevelatioir6f
the div-ine»udeaL of kuman nature, the second
man, (1 Cor. xv. 47) ; the heavenly man, (1
Cor. xv. 49); the ' 'last ^man. (1 Cor. xv.
45.) " Jesffs" Christ is so true to us because He
is so perfectly the truth of us. We recognize by
the instinct of a true humanity," says Du Bose,
"that He is the very truth of humanity. " (So-
teriology of the N. T., p. 80.) Jesus is the re
ligious ideal, (Gal. iii. 22) ; the moral ideal.
(Rom. xiii. 14.) "Here is not a man merely,
but the Archetypal Man, and we are forced back
on the recognition of a nature in Him that is an
absolutely new fact, and is identified in a special
way with the life of God, on an origin that is ex
ceptional, on a function in relation to the spiritual
history of the human race that is His alone."
Matthew Arnold wrote of Goethe :
" For he pursued a lonely road,
His eyes on Nature's plan ;
Neither made man too much a god,
Nor God too much a man."
Very artificial and unnutritious appear such judg-

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 53
ments beside the living, vivifying outbursts of
Paul, who saw man in God as God had planned
him, and God in man as the fulfillment of His
plan. (2) Christ Jhe Redeemer and Founder of the
new HumanTty, by "His death restoring mankind
to life. "In His death sin', both in itself and in
its physical consequences, had been destroyed,
and in His resurrection a new order of beings,
spiritual and immortal, has been founded. In
Him, as its second Adam, mankind is at once
reconciled to God and regenerated in all its pow
ers. Thus has He become the Founder and
Head of a new Humanity, with which He remains
united as the permanent source of its life and the
pledge of its perfection in glory." (Rom. iii. 25,
iv. 25, v. 8, 14, 16, vi. 3, 6, 10, viii. 3, x. 9;
2 Cor. iv. 10, v. 15, 19-21; Gal. iv. 4, v. 24,
vi. 14.)
• (3) Qhrist the Life and the Lord of the new
'Humanity. He is immanent in man. He is "the
organ of the activity of God's Holy Spirit in the
hearts and lives of men, and dwells in them as
the power of a new Humanity that embodies the
same principle as that which was realized in Him,
^and that lives by the same life." He Himself
was supremely endowed with the Spirit. ( 1 Cor.
iii. 5 ; Gal. i. 1 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 3 ; Rom. xv. 18-
29.) Others in the early Church emphasized the
peculiar "gifts" of the Spirit; Paul, "the sur
passing worth of the moral and religious effects
of the Spirit's working in the renewal of charac
ter." " Paul inaugurated," says Pfleiderer, " that
decisive change of view by which Christianity
made the transition from the miraculous world of
ecstatic feeling and apocalyptic phantasy into the
true spiritual world of religious and moral per
sonal file, by which it could become the regener-

154 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
ating leaven of the history of mankind." (Hib-
bert Lectures, p. 82.) Paul identifies the Spirit
of God and the Spirit of Christ with one another
and with the very Person of Christ. (2 Cor. iii.
18; compare 1 Cor. xv. 45 with vi. 17.) So "the
attempt to separate the Spirit of God from Christ,
to cultivate the higher life without faith in the
historical Christ results in failure. The life of
the Spirit cannot maintain itself unless it is fed
from the fountains of spiritual passion that flow
from the Person of Christ. ' ' Accordingly, Paul
bears down with all his power on the truth of our
membership in Christ. The Church is His body.
(1 Cor. xii> 12.) "Ye are all one man in Christ
Jesus." (Gal. iii. 28.) It is of Christ as Life
and Lord that Paul is speaking in his constant
use of the phrase "in Christ." To emphasize
Christ as the Life alone is to fall into an unregu
lated mysticism. Paul corrects this by his em
phasis on the transcendence and Lordship of
Jesus. So the Lord and God are said to do the
same thing, e. g., to judge. (Rom. ii. 16; 2
Cor. v. 10.) "There is no doubt that to Paul
and the mass of believers the Man Christ Jesus,
risen and exalted, stood in the place of God, and
was the object of worship. In Him they saw God
manifested in a human form." " See to it," says
Luther in "Table Talk," "that thou know no
God, and pay homage to no God, except the Man
Christ Jesus; but lay hold of Him alone, and
continue hanging with thy whole heart upon Him,
and let all thoughts and speculations about the
Majesty go their way. In this business look
straight at the Man alone, who presents Himself
to us as Mediator, and says, ' Come to Me all ye
that are weary and heavy laden. ' ' '
(4) Christ the fullness of God, the Head of
the Church"7afid of all principalities alRf powers J

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 55
"the fullness of God," (Col. ii. 9, i. 15, 19);
"the image of the invisible God," (Col. i. 15.)
Through His fullness we are to become His full
ness. (Eph. iv. 13.) He is the reconciliation of
man to man, (Col. i. 14, 19, 20; ii. 13, 14;
Eph. ii. 13) ; the Head of the Church, His body,
(Col. i. 18 ; Eph. iv. 15) (and this is in the
earlier Epistles too, Rom. xii. 4, 5 ; 1 Cor. xii.
12); head over all powers, (Col. ii. 10); the"
end or goal of creation. (Col. i. 16; Eph. i. 10.)
With such a conception of Christ what other
cry could he have than this ? —
" This hath He done, and shall we not adore Him ?
This shall He do, and can we still despair ?
Come let us quickly fling ourselves before Him,
Cast at His feet the burden of our care.
" Flash from our eyes the glow of our thanksgiving,
Glad and regretful, confident and calm,
Then thro' all life and what is after living,
Thrill to the tireless music of a psalm.
" Yea, thro' life, death, thro' sorrow, and thro' sinning
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed :
Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning,
Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ."
3. Christ's Mastery of Paul.
(1) Raul's conversion flung him from excessive
Jia^d_jntojS-zeaious lover- fr'was-a'gTeaTaffec-
"tion for Christ, T5ofrT of a"great struggle against
Christ. We may not know how much of Paul's
persecuting eagerness was due to the necessity of
subduing the thoughts that would arise in his
heart about Jesus. It may be that outward en
thusiasm against Christ's cause may have covered
a real inward suspicion of the truth of His claims.
Paul had not found satisfaction in Judaism.
There was a rival. It met boldly issues that

156 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
Judaism did not meet. Perhaps it might be true
and satisfying. It was human nature that Paul
should attack it the more bitterly, the more un
certain he felt of his grounds of opposition to it.
" He may have divined the genius of the new
faith better than its own adherents." When the
change came on the Damascus road, the prepared
nature swung like a pendulum from hate to love.
He who had been the first of enemies, became
now the first of lovers, because realizing most his
need of the Saviour's loving help. It is so with
strong natures. Paul's powerful devotion was
as great as his preceding passionate antagonism.
" He, as He wills, shall solder and shall sunder,
Slay in a day, and quicken in an hour;
Tune Him a music from the Sons of Thunder,
Forge and transform my passion into power."
Samuel Johnson's verses are a study of this
great transformation in Paul.
" The Will Divine that woke a waiting time
With desert cry and Calvary's cross sublime,
Had equal need on thee its power to prove,
Thou soul of passionate zeal and tenderest love.
" O slave devout of burdening Hebrew school,
Proud to fulfill each time-exalted rule,
How brake the illusion of thy swelling wrath
On that meek front of calm, enduring faith !
" Then flashed it on thy spirit mightily
That thou hadst spurned a love that died for thee
And all the pride went down in whelming flood
Of boundless shame and boundless gratitude.
" What large atonement that great conscience pays
For every wounding slight, a psalm of praise ;
Unending worship shall the debt consume,
For hours of rage a life of martyrdom.

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 157
" Yet in such morning glow, such vital day
What chilling sense of debt or claim can stay?
O wondrous power of noble love, to free
From binding Law to glorious Liberty !
" Dream not that one hath drained the exhaustless sea,
Full pours the tide in widening stream for thee ;
Lift for new liberties that conquering sign :
Shatter the severing walls with power divine."
(2) Paul unreservedly acknowledyjjedJiyirjsiLs--.-
ownership bf^s^SE— 5fe~tallea Christ owner
of life. ( j^GerrrilT 23. ) "The love of Christ, ' '
he said, "constrained him." (2 Cor. v. 14, 15.)
This was the heart of all. Christ's love girt Paul
round, filled him, held him captive, hedged him
in, lifted him up as on wings, penetrated and
crowned all. We cannot mistake by over-em
phasis here. " He is so learned a teacher," says
Maurice, " there are in his Epistles so many turn
ings and windings of thought, so much of intel
lectual subtlety, that many have been inclined to
fancy that he was elaborating a great system of
theology. But all simple readers feel that they
are in the presence of a man of action, and not
of a schoolman ; of one who has been conversant
with men and their ways, with all the perplexities
of human society, as well as with all individual
conflicts. Luther laid it down as a canon, that
no person could thoroughly understand Cicero's
Epistles, who had not been a statesman for thirty
years, or St. Paul's, who had not been occupied
in ecclesiastical affairs for forty. But through all
this doctrinal wisdom and practical life, there
runs a stream of vehement passion, of personal
feeling. No one can ever pretend that the heart
has been in the least degree crushed by the un
derstanding, or has grown colder from an experi
ence of the world's indifference or unkindness.

158 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
The teacher and the ruler is essentially, and at all
points the man ; he magnifies his office, he feels
himself to be nothing, and yet, Paul himself is as
distinct a person when he is seeking to heal the feuds
in Corinth, or to remind the Galatians of the grace
from which they had fallen, as when he is insist
ing that the magistrates of Philippi should fetch
him out of his prison ; or beseeching Philemon,
for his sake, to deal kindly with the slave who
had become his brother. Now, when we look
for 'the pulse of this machine,' we shall seek it
in vain in one quality or other of the apostle's
mind. We contradict his express and habitual
words, if we trace his primary impulse to any
feeling or calculation. There was a power of love
which was urging him on, in spite of all natural
reluctance, to right thoughts and good deeds;
which could, in spite of his natural selfishness,
make him live and act as a brother and a fellow-
worker in Christ's Church. He yielded himself
to that power, he besought others to yield to it,
since it was for them as much as for him, since he
judged that Christ died for all, that all were dead
without Him, that all might live through Him.
This was the secret of his theology, his philoso
phy, his arguments, his passionate appeals to
other men's consciences and hearts, his struggles,
his joys, his sorrows, his vehemence, his weak
ness, his self-justification, his self-contempt, his
rejection of the Law, his submission to the Law,
his freedom to do all things, his labors to bring
his body into subjection, his fear that he might be
a castaway, his confidence that 'neither height,
nor depth, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, should sepa
rate him from the love of God which was in Christ
Jesus his Lord.' " (Lincoln's Inn Sermons, Vol.
iii., p. 199 f.)

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 59
(3) And more even than this he is willing to
say. Qhrisfs love constrains him. ButJ)eyond
that, ChrisFs fifel_is Ins. *" To Trie" to live is
Christ.""" (Prut i. 21.)' "Christ, our life."
(Col. iii. 4.) This sovereignty of Christ over
him was absoLuteT~*His ^ w1ffoTe™m'e^waTfiil'ed''Jwith
Christ, and under Christ's rule. He was Christ's
servant. • (Gal. i. 10.) And he had the great
ness of a servant, the real magnitude and dignity
of character of one who was a slave and felt no
shame in its avowal.
" Many if God should make them- kings
Might not disgrace the throne He gave.
How few could as well fulfill
The holier office of a slave ! "
He spoke often about pleasing Christ, (i Cor.
vii. 32 ; Gal. i. 10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 4.) He bade the
Corinthians to make this an object of ambition,
(2 Cor. v. 9), and he reminded the Romans that
pleasing one's self had no warrant in the example
of Christ. (Rom. xv. 3.) To the mastery of
Christ Paul had fully surrendered, yielding to His
personality, " a personality so intense, so vivid as
to excite the most ardent affection, for 'never
man,' as one has said, 'loved Christ with so ab
sorbing a passion as did Paul.' His love for
Christ is indeed without a parallel in the history
of religious emotions. He never lost the vision
of Him whom he saw but once, on the way to
Damascus. Dedicating his whole being to the
Christ 'who had loved him and given Himself
for him,' he had no thought but to please Christ,
no aim but to advance His glory." (Somerville,
St. Paul's Conception of Christ, p. 57.) This
is the secret of all great life. " It is only," said
Phillips Brooks, "in personal love and loyalty
that life completes itself." "My Jesus, my

l6o STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
King, my Life, my All," wrote David Living
stone in his journal. " I dedicate my whole self
to Thee." "Oh, my soul, my body, my intel
lect, my very love," wrote Charles Kingsley to
his future wife, "I dedicate you all to God."
Where in the whole world is there anything so
beautiful as devotion, whether of man to God, or
man to man, or dumb creature to his master?
During "the White Winter," as any one may
read in Bob, Son of Battle, " they found old
Wrottsley, the squire's head shepherd, lying one
morning at Gill's foot, like a statue in its white
bed, the snow gently blowing about the venerable
face, calm and beautiful in death. And stretched
upon his bosom, her master's hands, blue and
stiff, still clasped about her neck, his old dog Jess.
She had huddled there, as a last hope, to keep
the dear, dead master warm, her great heart
riven, hoping where there was no hope. That
night she followed him to herd sheep in a better
land. Death from exposure, Dingley, the vet.,
gave it \ but, as little McAdam, his eyes dimmer
than their wont, declared huskily, ' We ken
better, Wullie.' "
(4) He had yielded himself to Christjo frilly
that all things else were^as' nothing. """ For Him I
have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but dross." (Phil. iii. 8.) He had be
come an outcast from his own home, his own peo
ple, he had abandoned his whole early ambition,
and esteemed the loss as nothing in comparison
with Christ and Christ's service. As David Living
stone said : " For my own part I have never ceased
to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an
office (as that of missionary). People talk of the
sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my
life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice
which is simply paid back as a small part of a

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS l6l
great debt owing to our God, which we can never
repay ? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own
best reward in healthful activity, the consciousness
of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope
of a glorious destiny hereafter ? Away with the
word in such a view, and with such a thought !
It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say, rather, it is
a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or dan
ger, now and then, with a foregoing of the com
mon conveniences and charities of this life, may
make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver and
the soul to sink, but let this only be for a mo
ment. All these are nothing when compared with
the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and
for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we
ought not to talk when we remember the great
sacrifice which He made who left His Father's
throne on high to give Himself for us : ' who be
ing the brightness of that Father's glory, and the
express image of His person, and upholding all
things by His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high.' " The only thing Paul
would speak of was the love of Christ, " through
which," he said, "the world hath been crucified
unto me, and I unto the world." (Gal. vi. 14.)
(5) ^iajimal^yJjaiJUmme^MabLeJniluence
m the. Jifa.of Paul. It transfigured^ all his powers.
It filled all his. being. As. Stalker says 7* ""What
may be called the inner or spiritual life of St.
Paul may most of all be said to have been all
Christ. His own theory of this innermost life is
that it is a kind of living over again of the life of
Christ. . . . He is the very soil in which
this life grows, and the atmosphere which it
breathes. St. Paul loves to say that he is filling
up that which is lacking in Christ's sufferings for
the sake of His body, the Church. He says that

162 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
the heart of Christ is yearning after men in his
heart ; that the mind of Christ is scheming for the
kingdom of God in his brain." (The Preacher
and His Models,^. 196, 197.) He was an able
man before. Christ touched his powers, and they
sprang into new might. As Pascal says : "Jesus
Christ is the goal of all, and the centre to which all
leads. Who knows Him, knows the reason of all
things." Or as Mrs. Browning wrote when love
discovered and revealed her to herself:
" The face of all the world is changed I think,
Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul
Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stole
Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink
Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,
Was caught up into love, and taught the whole
Of life in a new rhythm."
It is so also even of us. However weak, un
sightly and cramped we may be there is power in
Christ to transform.
" The lives which seem so poor, so low,
The hearts which are so cramped and dull,
The baffled hopes, the impulse slow;
Thou takest, touchest all, and lo !
They blossom to the beautiful."
Jesus's sovereignty made Paul tender and con
siderate. He thought and spoke lovingly of " the
meekness and gentleness of Christ," and carried
himself as a lowly man among his fellows. (2
Cor. x. 1.) And he was jealous for the "sim
plicity and the purity that is toward Christ." (2
Cor. xi. 3.) Paul expressed and set forth in his
life before men, the sweet truth of William Law's
Spirit of Prayer : "Enter, therefore, with all thy
heart into this Truth, let thine eye be always upon
it, do everything in view of it, try everything by

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 63
the truth of it, love nothing but for the sake of it.
Wherever thou goest, whatever thou doest, at
home or abroad, in the field or at church, do all
in a desire of union with Christ, in imitation of
His tempers and inclinations, and look upon all
as nothing but that which exercises and increases
the Spirit and Life of Christ in thy soul. From
morning to night keep Jesus in thy heart, long for
nothing, desire nothing, hope for nothing, but to
have all that is within thee changed into the spirit
and temper of the holy Jesus. Let this be thy
Christianity, thy Church and thy religion. For
this new birth in Christ thus firmly believed, and
continually desired, will do everything that thou
wantest to have done in thee ; it will dry up all
the springs of vice, stop all the workings of evil
in thy nature ; it will bring all that is good into
thee ; it will open all the gospel within thee, and
thou wilt know what it is to be taught of God.
This longing desire of thy heart to be one with
Christ, will soon put a stop to all the vanity of
thy life, and nothing will be admitted to enter into
thy heart or proceed from it, but what comes from
God, and returns to God ; thou wilt soon be, as
it were, tied and bound in the chains of all holy
affections and desires; thy mouth will have a
watch set upon it, thine ears would willingly hear
nothing that does not tend to God, nor thine
eyes be open but to see and find occasions of doing
good." All Paul's longings and strivings were satisfied
in Christ. He found " all treasures in Him."
(Col. ii. 3, 9.) He was the long-hidden, long-
expected hope of glory, the mystery of God.
(Col. i. 25-27.) And nothing could mar the rest
of his life in Him. In one of his sonnets, Mat
thew Arnold tells of meeting with a minister, in
the East End of London.

164 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
" 'Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green,
And the pale weaver, through his windows seen
In Spitalfields, look'd thrice dispirited.
" I met a preacher there I knew, and said :
' 111 and o'erworked how fare you in this scene ? ' —
* Bravely ! ' said he ; ' for I of late have been
Much cheer'd with thoughts of Christ, the living bread."
And John Bunyan tells in "Grace Abounding,"
of a night that " Was a good night to me, I never
had but few better. I longed for the company of
God's people, that I might have imparted unto
them what God had showed me. Christ was a
peculiar Christ to my soul that night ; I could
scarce lie still in my bed for joy, and peace, and
triumph, through Christ." That marked Paul
which Dr. Stalker recalls in R. W. Barbour, "the
sacred extravagance with which he lavished him
self and his many talents," the deepest source of
which " was nothing else than the passion for
Christ." And because he was tender toward
Christ and men, and knowing Him, knew them,
Paul did ever what Barbour advised all preachers to
do, "Speak to men's fleeting hopes and passing
interests ; speak also to their grey hairs and to
their midnight hours."
And a fierce zeal for the honor and dignity of
Christ which he had himself insulted, came to
him with Christ's mastery. No malignity was
ever in his heart, nor a breath of hate or littleness.
Nor did he ever speak of the Jews who had cruci
fied Jesus as Peter and Stephen spoke. (Acts ii.
23, 36, iii. 13-15, iv. 10-12, v. 30, vii. 51-53.)
We could almost put into Stephen's mouth, or
perhaps Peter's, the stern feeling of the late Mr.
Herman Melville's verses about Lincoln's martyr
dom ; we could not put it in Paul's :

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 65
" Good Friday was the day
- Of the prodigy and the crime,
When they killed him in his pity,
When they killed him in his prime
Of clemency and calm —
When with yearning he was filled
To redeem the evil-willed,
And, though conqueror, be kind ;
But they killed him in his kindness,
In their madness and their blindness,
And they killed him from behind.
" There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land ;
But the people in their weeping
Bare the iron hand.
Beware the people weeping
When they bare this iron hand.
" He lieth in his blood —
The father in his face ;
They have killed him, the Forgiver —
The Avenger takes his place,
The Avenger wisely stern,
Who in righteousness shall do
What the heavens call him to,
And the parricides demand.
For they killed him in his kindness,
In their madness and their blindness,
And his blood is on their hand.
" There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land ;
But the people in their weeping
Bare the iron hand.
Beware the people weeping
When they bare this iron hand."
Paul must have felt the shame and horror of
that dark day, but his letters contain no bitter re
proaches of the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus.
What arouses him is the crucifixion of the Son of
God afresh, the denial of His singular uniqueness,
the completeness and the solitariness of His per-

1 66 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
son and mission. Christ so mastered him that
there was room for none else and room for the tol
eration of no other mastery in the lives of other
men. There is unlimited power in such a personal
devotion as this. As Dr. Trumbull says in
Friendship the Master Passion : " He who has
a pure and unselfish love for any one being in
the universe, has thereby a new life, new powers,
new possibilities, and new perceptions of all ; and
the very universe itself is a new universe to him,
as viewed from his new centre of love and light."
(P- 3%3-) And Emerson says :
" O friend, my bosom said,
Through Thee alone the sky is arched,
Through Thee the rose is red ;
All things through Thee take nobler form,
And look beyond the earth ;
The mill round of our fate appears
A sun path in thy worth.
Me too thy nobleness has taught
To master my despair ;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair."
There is no other alchemy like love's. It is the
fountain of life and power and eternal youth.
There is a wonderful beauty and worthiness in
the bowing down of a strong man in such wor
ship and love. It makes Paul lovely. And very
sweet, too, was his longing to be with Christ. He
had a desire to depart to Him, (Phil. i. 23), and
he groaned to be unburdened of his earthly body
and to be clothed upon in his Lord's presence
with the new body. " We are willing," he adds
"to be absent from the body and present with the
Lord." (2 Cor. v. 1-10.)
The end of it all was a glad meeting with the
Lord he loved and served. Out of the heavy

HIS INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 67
shadows which hung about his prison he spoke
with a calm and restful voice : "The end has
come and I am not afraid, for I go to Him.
Henceforth there is laid up for rne a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love His appear
ing." (2 Tim. iv. 8.) It is true it is dark, and
that evil is gathering thick, but " the Lord has
stood by me, and strengthened me ; that through
me the message might be fully proclaimed, and
that all the Gentiles might hear ; and I was de
livered out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord
will deliver me from every evil work, and will save
me unto His heavenly kingdom ; to whom be the
glory forever and ever. Amen." (2 Tim.
iv. 18.)
"Where lives the Christian," asks Hermann,
"who could with truth presume to say that he
treasures the thoughts of Paul as his very own ?
Surely all of us read the apostle with the feeling
that he has a different measure and a different
energy of faith from ours." (Intercourse with
God, p. 186.)

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS

169

VH
Paul's moral characteristics
I. His Genius for Friendship.
Some great men isolate themselves. They are
self-sufficient, and ask no help from others.
Others who have no such sense of adequacy, and
who truly crave the comforts and supports of
trustful human relationships, have yet no capacity
for winning or holding friends. " They say I am
cold," a certain statesman is reported to have
said, "but I cannot help it. I want to make
friends, but I cannot be hail-fellow-well-met with
all men." His dignified but cold ways cost him
a great deal. Now Paul was dignified and re
served enough, but he was all warmth toward the
susceptibilities of friendship. He had a genius
for the love . of men, and he bound them to his
soul with links of steel. Let us study some of
his friends and friendships.
i . Barnabas.
The key to the character of this good man,
who had so large a portion in starting Paul in his
great work, is found in Acts xi. 24. " For he
was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and
faith." We read of him first in Acts iv. 36.
His name was originally Joses. The apostles
surnamed him Barnabas, "Son of Consolation,"
evidently because of the grace of sympathy he
possessed and displayed in the dark hours of the
beginnings of the Church. He was a Levite, yet
171

172 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
owned land. His country was the island of Cy
prus, forty-five miles from the coast and known
for its forests and rivers. He threw his wealth
into the treasury of the needy Church. There
was no social regulation enjoining communism in
the early Church. Indeed, Peter expressly told
Ananias that his land was his own, to sell or not
as he pleased, and that the proceeds of the sale
were his, too, to be used as he wished. (Acts
v. 4.) But the believers were one, and in the
sweet excesses of love they had all in common.
What was not a legal requirement was then a re
quirement of love, and is now, and will be ever. It
would seem that such an act of genuine Christian
devotion must have influenced those who had
known Barnabas. We read later of earnest mis
sionary-hearted Christians coming from Cyprus
and preaching the Lord Jesus in Antioch. (Acts
xi. 20.) Perhaps these were the fruit of Barna-
bas's first work and of the example he set of a
sincere and simple faith.
There is an old legend that Paul and Barnabas
had been in Gamaliel's school together. Whether
they had or not, Barnabas was just the man to
judge generously of new converts, and when
Paul came to Jerusalem after his conversion, and
"assayed to join himself to the disciples, and
they were all afraid of him, not believing that he
was a disciple," Barnabas took him and brought
him to the apostles, and stood sponsor for him,
declaring his belief in Paul's story. (Acts ix.
26, 27.) As Barnabas watched the young man
he saw with kindly faith the great possibilities in
him, and when, shortly after, a great work began
at Antioch, and Barnabas was sent there from
Jerusalem, and found the prospect hopeful beyond
all expectations, he went off to Tarsus to find
Paul, and when he had found him he brought

Paul's moral characteristics 173
him unto Antioch, and together they went ear
nestly to work rejoicing in the evident presence of
the Holy Spirit among the Greeks there. There
was no such feeling of reluctance and prejudice
in their hearts as there had been in Peter's, to re
ceive others than Jews into the new company.
(Acts x.) In this glad work at Antioch, Barna
bas and Paul grew closer together, and when
Agabus foretold a famine they were made the
delegates of the warm-hearted Antioch Christians
to carry relief to Jerusalem, whence in due time
they returned with a young relative of Barnabas,
named John Mark, and resumed work at Antioch,
where a democratic company of earnest workers
had grown up with Barnabas at their head. Saul
is named last in the list. (Acts xiii. 1.) They
had wisely trained a body of capable helpers, and
Antioch became henceforth the great missionary
centre and starting point.
As these workers worked and prayed together
the missionary call came, separating Barnabas and
Saul, and at once, after fasting and prayer, they
were sent away on their divine errand. As they
met their new problems and did their new work
the older man began to shift the responsibilities
*o the shoulders of the younger, whose capaci
ties he had long before foreseen. He pushes him
forward, does not quarrel with his growing promi
nence, happily slips into the second place after
their visit to Antioch in Pisidia, and finds his joy
in the increasing power of Paul. Here is the
picture of a large-natured, fine-spirited, sagacious
old man, doing the greatest work of his life in
developing Paul and lovingly shaping his growth.
On returning from this trip, bearing in their
bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus as scars of
triumph, they rested and wrought in Antioch
until the question of the rights of Gentile converts

1/4 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
in the Church arose, and it was determined to
send a deputation, headed by Paul and Barnabas
— not by Barnabas and Paul now — up to Jerusa
lem to have the matter authoritatively settled. On
their way, as we might be sure good old Barnabas
would do, they left a trail of joy behind them.
(Acts xv. 3.) The conference decided in favor
of the views of the deputation, which brought
back a letter and two brethren and a great deal
of consolation, which was the way of Barnabas.
(Acts xv. 21.)
And now there comes a rupture in this friend
ship. A sharp, decisive difference of opinion
arose between Paul and Barnabas as to the worthi
ness of young John Mark. Paul thought he was
not plucky enough for missionary work, and Bar
nabas wanted to try him again. He saw good in
him, as he had seen in Paul ; and when others
distrusted him, as they had Paul, Barnabas
thought there was hope. Possibly Gal. ii. 13,
which records a time of wavering on the part of
Barnabas with reference to principles which Paul
regarded as vital, may help to explain this
breach. At any rate they parted, and there
is no record of their meeting again. But Paul
always remembers Barnabas kindly, and by
and by he came round to Barnabas's view of
Mark. In Col. iv. 10, he commends him as a
relative of Barnabas, and he finds at last the good
in him which the tolerant generosity of the "Son
of Consolation " had seen in him from the begin
ning. (Philemon 24; 2 Tim. iv. n.) In 1 Cor.
ix. 6 Paul mentions Barnabas honorably, imply
ing that he was still at work, unmarried, and toil
ing with his own hands. Perhaps the rupture
was for the best. Perhaps it helped John Mark
to see his failings. Perhaps the gospel was more
widely preached because of it, and love survived

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 75
it, as it always does with true men. We must
believe, therefore, that it was not a rupture of the
friendship ; that like every true friendship, this
one outlived a difference of opinion, and sweet
ened the lives of the friends to the end, and after
the end. And it is better not to apply to it, as
has been done, the lines from Coleridge's " Chris-
tabel," however true they may be of some of life's
paroxysms :
" That to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain :
And each spoke words of high disdain
And insult to his heart's best brother.
They parted — ne'er to meet again :
But never either found another
To free the hollow heart from paining :
They stood aloof, the scars remaining.
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder."
"We came in sight of Cyprus," says Luke in
Acts xxi. 3. Did Paul lean on the ship's side as
they sailed past and tell Luke and Aristarchus and
his other companions of his dear old friend and
the good work of God they had shared ?
Tradition relates that Barnabas became Bishop of
Milan ; that ' he preached in Rome and converted
Clement ' ; that ' he died a martyr in Cyprus. '
But whatever his later life, we have enough
for which to love and honor him in what he was.
He was a man who esteemed the interests of the
cause greater than his personal interests, and sold
his property and risked his reputation in support
ing the poor and defending Paul. He was a good
judge of men, however he may have become con
fused over principles or issues. He brought out
Paul and Mark. He was of slow and gentle tem
per, just, calm, sympathetic, conservative — a
simple, good man, full of faith and of genial
consolations, and yet energetic and lion-hearted

176 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
and fearless of hardship and trial. It was of in
estimable value to Paul to have a friend like this.
All his life long he must have been grateful for
such a privilege, and felt the moulding influ
ence of the noble character of Barnabas, who, as
is said of "Chinese" Gordon on his monument
in St. Paul's, "at all times and everywhere gave
his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor,
his sympathy to the suffering, his heart to God."
Happy is the young man, enthusiastic, icono
clastic, impetuous, who has for his counsellor and
friend an older man, faithful, truthful and kind,
as brave and true as he, but wiser and more
patient, and "full of the Holy Ghost."
2. Silas.
Silas was one of the two brethren sent from
Jerusalem down to Antioch with the deputation
who had come up to confer as to Gentile rights in
the Church, to bear back the decision of the Coun
cil. He had been a leading man among the
brethren in Jerusalem, and was accounted a
prophet. (Acts xv. 32.) "Such men," says
Hooker, "having otherwise learned the gospel,
had from above bestowed upon them a special
gift of expounding Scripture and of foreshowing
things to come." This was their chief function.
The New Testament prophets are sometimes
represented as foretelling events — e. g., Acts xi.
28, xxi. 10, 11 — but exposition was their work.
" The exercise of their gift is noticed along with
prayer in the congregation. (1 Cor. xi. 4.)
Prophets come next to the apostles (Eph. iii. 5),
before teachers. (1 Cor. xii. 28, xiv. 6.) They
are placed between apostles and evangelists. (Eph.
iv. 11.) Prophecy is foremost in the enumeration
of gifts, (Rom. xii. 6), comes immediately after
miracles, (1 Cor. xii. 10), before tongues, (1 Cor.
xiii. 8), and is commended above all other gifts.

Paul's moral characteristics 177
(1 Cor. xiv. 3-5.)" (Bible Commentary, N. T.,
Vol. II., p. 439.) In a real sense this prophecy
has never ceased. The vision of God and the
Spirit-helped utterance, the splendor and beauty
of the clear sight of the Unseen — are they not
still given to men ? Thus Horace Bushnell wrote
to his wife as his life was nearing the end :
" I have had some delightful times and pas
sages since I came here, such as I never had be
fore. I never so saw God — never had Him come
so broadly, clearly out. He has not spoken to
me, but He has done what is more. There has
been nothing debatable to speak for, but an infi
nite easiness and universal presentation to thought,
as it were by revelation. Nothing ever seemed
so wholly inviting and so profoundly supreme to
the mind. Had there been a strain for it, then
it could not be. O my God ! what a fact to pos
sess, and know that He is ! I have not seemed
to compare Him with anything, and set Him in a
higher value ; but He has been the all, and the
altogether, everywhere, lovely. There is nothing
else to compete — there is nothing else, in fact.
It has been as if all the revelations, through good
men, nature, Christ, had been now through, and
their cargo unloaded, the capital meaning pro
duced, and the God set forth in His own proper
day — the good, the true, the perfect, the all-holy
and benignant. The question has not been
whether I could somehow get nearer — nearer my
God, to Thee — but as if He had come out Him
self just near enough, and left me nothing but to
stand still and see the salvation ; no excitement,
no stress, but an amazing beatific tranquillity. I
never thought I could possess God so completely.
What is to come of it? Something good and
glorious, I hope."
Silas was a man of personal knowledge of God

178 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
and the gospel through prophetic vision, and of
deep power with men through prophetic utterance.
And when the separation came between Barnabas
and Paul, the younger man chose Silas as his part
ner in work, and they went forth commended by
the brethren to the grace of the Lord. (Acts
xv. 40.)
He was imprisoned with Paul at Philippi, (Acts
xvi. 19-40), showing by his spirit that he was a
fit companion for the hero-missionary apostle to
the Gentiles. He is mentioned with Paul at
Thessalonica, (Acts xvii. 4), and at Berea. (Acts
xvii. 10.) When Paul went on to Athens, Silas
remained with Timothy in Macedonia, but Paul
was very hungry for their companionship, and they
rejoined him in Corinth. (Acts xviii. 5 . ) " What
we read of the effect produced upon his mind
and work, when Timotheus and Silas rejoined
him, tends to show us how much his happiness
was increased by the presence of his friends, and
what a reserve of true religious force resided for
him in the mere fact of companionship. Some
are too ready to throw upon others the work
which they ought to do themselves ; but he in
creased in zeal and activity when he could obtain
others to help him." (Howson, Companions of
St. Paul, p. 201.) When Paul left Corinth, Silas
doubtless went with him, touching at Ephesus on
the way to the feast in Jerusalem. Of the rest
of his life we know nothing, or whether he and
Paul ever met after they said good-bye at Jeru
salem. Paul mentions bim in three of his letters,
(1 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Cor. i. 19) ; but
they were all written before they parted. In the
first two, his greetings are sent to the church with
Paul's, and he is mentioned before Timothy.
Out of the blessings of his friendship with
Barnabas, Paul slipped into the blessing of his

PAULS MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 79
friendship with Silas, a man doubtless more nearly
his own age. He was ready for more equal as
sociation, and this new friendship we may be sure
God had provided for the further growth and
power of his life. He went from strength to
strength, from the strength of one friendship
to the strength of another, losing nothing of the
old, let us believe, and gaining more through the
new. 3. Timothy.
This was the closest and dearest of Paul's
friendships. "Ye have the proof of him," he
wrote to the Philippians, about Timothy, "that
as a child serveth a father, so he served with me
in furtherance of the gospel." (Phil. ii. 22.)
It was at Lystra that Paul met him. Apparently
his conversion was one of the fruits of Paul's
visit to Lystra on his first missionary tour. (Acts
xiv. 6.) He speaks of Timothy as his own son
in the faith. (1 Tim. i. 2.) On Paul's later
visit, recorded in Acts xvi. 1, Timothy was al
ready a disciple. Paul speaks of Timothy's per
sonal knowledge of his sufferings at Antioch, Ico-
nium, and Lystra, (2 Tim. iii. 11), so that they
were not strangers when they met at that time.
There was a godly ancestry back of Timothy,
in his mother and grandmother, who had his un
feigned faith, and from his babyhood he had been
taught the "sacred writings which are able to
make wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. i. 5, iii. 14, 15.) We
do not know whether Timothy's Greek father
ever became a Christian, but his mother was a
believer, and he himself had gained a good repu
tation. On his second journey, when he came to Lystra,
Paul was sore still at the disagreement with Bar
nabas, and he eagerly took, as a new associate,

l8o STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
the fine spirited young man, to whom he had
been drawn on his previous visit. Timothy ac
cepted the privilege offered to him, and never
faltered in his devotion to Paul or in his service of
Christ, and to the very end Paul joyed in his love
and trusted him with perfect faith. From this
beginning at Lystra, when Timothy submitted
himself to circumcision for the sake of the preju
dice of the Jews of his region, (Acts xvi. 3), he
took part with Paul in the great itineration through
Macedonia, and shared in the establishment of
the great churches of Philippi and Thessalonica.
(Phil. ii. 22.) As a young man and inconspicu
ous, he seems to have escaped imprisonment with
Paul and Silas at Philippi. He was the least
prominent of the three. (1 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Thess.
i. 1.) With Silas he was left behind at Berea,
and rejoined Paul in Corinth, having visited the
church at Thessalonica. (Acts xvii. 14, 15,
xviii. 5.) Paul was willing to endure the ioneli-
ness of separation for the sake of the Thessalo-
nian Christians, and his great concern for them.
As he tells them, revealing the deep affection of
his nature, "When we could no longer forbear,
we thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and
sent Timothy, our brother and God's minister in
the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to com
fort you concerning your faith." (1 Thess. iii.
12.) Timothy brought back glad tidings of their
faith and love, and their loyalty to the apostle,
and together they journeyed on to Jerusalem.
(1 Thess. iii. 6; Acts xviii. 18-22.) Thereafter
he went with Paul to Antioch, and probably on
his journey through the region of Galatia and
Phrygia, and to Ephesus. From Ephesus, Paul
planned a tour through Macedonia and Achaia,
and a journey then to Jerusalem, saying, "After
I have been there I must also see Rome." (Acts

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS l8l
xix. 20, 21.) Meanwhile he stayed in Asia for a
while, and sent "into Macedonia, two of them
that ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus."
(Acts xix. 22.) Corinth was one of the places
which Paul intended Timothy to visit, partly to
strive to correct some of the errors of the church
there, partly to prepare the way for his own com
ing. "For this cause have I sent to you Tim
othy, who is my beloved. and faithful child in the
Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my
ways which be in Christ, even as I teach every
where in every church. ... I will come to you
shortly." (1 Cor. iv. 17.) Paul bespoke also
for his young assistant a reassuring welcome. He
was timid still in Christian work, and perhaps
without the confidence and bearing which com
manded respect. Paul writes, accordingly, " See
that he be with you without fear ; for he worketh
the work of the Lord as I also do ; let no man
therefore despise Him." (1 Cor. xvi. 10, 11.)
In later years, in writing to Timothy, Paul seems
to imply that he was still disposed to shrink from
too public duty, and tells him that the spirit given
to us is not "a spirit of fearfulness, but of power,
and love, and discipline." Paul bids him there-
>fore not to be ashamed of the gospel, or of any
humiliation to which its preachers are put, (2
Tim. i. 8, 12), and not to be hesitant and timor
ous, but to stir into flame the gift which had been
given him. (2 Tim. i. 6.) He was training
Timothy in the earlier days, and at Corinth he
wanted his friends to respect and encourage him.
Timothy either waited at Corinth until Paul came,
or joined Paul in Macedonia on his way to Greece.
(Acts xx. 1. ) At any rate, he was with Paul when
he was in Corinth next ; for Paul sends his salu
tations to the church in Rome in the letter which
he wrote from Corinth. (Rom. xvi. 21.)

1 82 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
When Paul left Greece, after three months, for
Asia, returning by way of Macedonia instead of
sailing direct for Syria, a plot having been laid
for him by the Jews, (Acts xx. 3, 4), he had as
sociated with him a large company of friends
representing many churches. Timothy was
among them, and this is the last mention of his
name in the Acts. " How long this large apos
tolic company continued to travel together we do
not know. Some of them were probably trustees
for the collection which St. Paul had been gath
ering for the poor saints at Jerusalem. (Rom.
xv. 26.) Sopater of Berea, or Aristarchus, and
Secundus of Thessalonica, may have returned
back to Macedonia from the neighborhood of
Ephesus. It is very likely that Tychicus re
mained there, and possibly that Timotheus and
Gaius went together to their native neighborhoods
of Derbe and Lystra. ' ' (Howson, Companions of
St. Paul, p. 205 f.) Trophimus went on to
Jerusalem, and was the innocent cause of Paul's
getting into trouble there. (Acts xxi. 29.)
Aristarchus went with him to Rome. (Acts
xxvii. 2.) Would not this imply that Aristarchus
must have gone over to Jerusalem with Paul in
stead of turning back, as Howson suggests ?
From Paul's Epistles we learn that Timothy
soon joined Paul in Rome, and adds his name to
Paul's in the introductions of the letters to the
Colossians and to Philemon. (Col. i. 1 ; Phile
mon 1.) Demas and Luke were with Paul, but
their names are not joined with his as Timothy's
is. And how much confidence Paul had in him
is shown by his words in his letter to the Philip-
pians, written from Rome. (Phil. ii. 19-25.)
"But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy
shortly unto you, that I also may be of good com
fort when I know your state. For I have no

paul's moral characteristics 183
man like-minded who will care truly for your
state; for they all seek their own, not the
things of Jesus Christ. But ye know the proof
of him, that, as a child serveth his father, so he
served with me in furtherance of the gospel. Him,
therefore, I hope to send forthwith, so soon as I
shall see how it will go with me." This was
Paul's view of Timothy during his first imprison
ment. He was the most trusted man he had, the
most unselfish, the most loyal. He would send
him to Philippi, but not until he knew what the
issue of his trial would be. He needed his
sympathy and companionship until, as he said,
" I shall see how it will go with me."
Between Paul's two imprisonments we may be
sure that Timothy was still living with him and
became yet more beloved. When he was set free
at Rome, and went East again, he left Timothy
in Ephesus while he himself went on into Mace
donia, that Timothy might repress heresy and
keep the essential realities of the faith above the
endless questionings of some men who had
swerved from love out of a pure heart and a good
conscience and faith unfeigned, and had turned
aside unto vain teaching. (1 Tim. i. 3-6.) In
this letter Paul again speaks endearingly to Tim
othy, calls him "my child," and hints at proph
ecies which preceded Timothy's ordination and
marked him out for great service. (1 Tim. i. 18.)
At the time he wrote he hoped to come to visit
Timothy. (1 Tim. iii. 14, iv. 13.) When he
wrote his second letter he was close to the end,
and his heart was all tenderness and desire in its
thought of Timothy. "My beloved child," he
calls him, and he goes on to tell him, "I thank God,
whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure con
science, how unceasing is my remembrance of
thee in my supplications, night and day longing

184 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
to see thee, remembering thy tears that I may be
filled with joy." He speaks to him with loving
counsel, warns him against a young man's lusts,
charges him as to his own health and solemnly as
to the future, tells him peacefully of the approach
ing end, and begs him to come quickly, especially
to come before winter, bringing with him a cloak
and some books. (2 Tim. iv. 9, 21.)
"That the Epistles to Timothy and Titus do
not proceed from Paul himself, but can only be
historically understood as productions of the post-
apostolic period, should no longer be disputed,"
says Begschlag (New Testament Theology, Vol.
II., p. 501), and supports this view by proof that
does not satisfy. These are just the letters
we should expect from Paul to his dear friend,
and more humanity and appreciation of the ways
of human friendship and the liberal play of the
human spirit would save men from the wooden
conviction that no one has a right to enlarge his
vocabulary, to expand his opinions, or to talk like
a man to his friend.
These Epistles are of a piece with all the past
relations of these two men, and I am sure the way
young men's hearts answer still to them and find
in them an old man's farewell counsel of wisdom,
and judgment, and nobility, is good evidence of
the aptness and reality of their first purpose.
They still speak winsomely what they said to Tim
othy, "Let no man despise thy youth, but be
thou an ensample to them that believe, in word,
in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity."
(1 Tim. iv. 12.)
4. Luke.
This man, who was so much to Paul, and to
whom we owe so much of our knowledge of both
Paul and Paul's Lord, is named only three times
in the Bible, and never by himself. (Col. iv. 14;

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 85
Philemon 24; 2Tim. iv. 11.) From Col. iv. 11, 14,
where Paul does not include him among those
of the circumcision, we may infer that he was a
Gentile. Eusebius and Jerome say that he was a
Syrian of Antioch, and there are other suggestions
of this. Acts vi. 5 speaks of Nicholas of Antioch,
without mentioning the place of any of the six
other deacons. He may have been a proselyte
of the gate — /. <?., a Gentile who joined in Jewish
worship and recognized the Jewish law, but was
not circumcised. He has some Gentile habits of
speech, and yet he knows the Septuagint and is
well acquainted with Jewish opinion and cus
toms. (Acts '.. 19, iii. 1, v. 5.) The date of
his conversion is uncertain. He says he was not
an eyewitness of Christ's life. (Lukei. 1.) Per-
haps he was one of Paul's converts. Tertullian
calls him " a disciple of Paul without a doubt."
We know he was a Christian before he met Paul
at Troas and became a fellow-traveller. (Acts
xvi. 11.) From Troas he accompanied Paul to
Philippi, where he remained during the second
and third journeys of Paul — a period of seven
years. We know he stayed behind there, for
"they" supplants "we" in Acts xvi. 40, when
Paul and Silas leave Philippi. We may be sure
he was not idle; 2 Cor. viii. 18 indicates that he
had been busily preaching, but he never boasts
of himself or obtrudes his own name or work.
Indeed he makes absolutely no mention of this
work. When Paul came to Philippi, at the end
of the third missionary journey, Luke joined him,
(Acts xx. 5), to accompany him to Jerusalem.
(Acts xxi. 15-18.) And after this he was a very
constant companion. He was with Paul in his
imprisonment at Csesarea, (Acts xxiii. 33, xxiv.
23), he sailed with him to Rome, (Acts xxvii.
1), was with him during his first imprisonment

1 86 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
with other "fellow-laborers," (Acts xxviii. 16 ;
Col. iv. 14; Philemon 24), though when the
letter to the Philippians was written he was away,
or Paul would have sent his greetings. He must
have been on some errand of love and service.
He was with Paul during his second imprison
ment. "Only Luke is with me," says the old
man pathetically. (2 Tim. iv. n.)
There is something very sweet in this modest,
faithful friendship. Perhaps there was none to
which Paul owed more, or which lay more fully
in the bounds of that holy land where men keep
the loves which they do not sully with over-speech.
It was a warm, close, uninterrupted friendship,
unmarred by a rupture or a disagreement, and full
of mutual service. One need not tarry to think
of what such a friendship meant to Luke. It
meant no less to Paul. In his sicknesses, in his
work for souls, in his literary work — where Luke's
great taste and skill must have been invaluable —
in his very language, which shows traces of Luke's
medical terminology, (1 Tim. i. 10, iv. 2, 8, v.
2^ ; vi. 4, 2 Tim. ii. 1 7, iv. 3 ; Phil. iii. 2, 8 ;
Col. iii. 5), in his loneliness and care, the beloved
physician was a constant strength and comfort to
him. Paul did not share the contemptuous view
of doctors which some earnest people of our day
express. He was a sane and steady man, and he
respected the gentle, ministering skill of Luke.
Whoever will read Ramsay's book, St. Paul,
the Traveller and Roman Citizen, will gain a
fresh respect for the honest, modest, careful man
who was Paul's biographer, physician and friend,
and will understand something of what he must
have been to Paul. For one thing he seems to
have been a very cheery, hopeful man, capable of
large interests, and kind and encouraging. He
loves to preserve consoling and bracing words,

Paul's moral characteristics 187
(Acts xviii. 9, 10, xxiii. n, xxvii. 22, 25),
and he notes humane courtesies, (Acts xxvii. 3),
and times of exhilaration, (Acts xxviii. 15), and
it has often been remarked that his Gospel is
full of the jubilant notes of praise, (Luke i. 28-
33. 46-55> 68-79, n- i.4» 29~32 0 of j°y> ("• I0>
xv. 10;) of thanksgiving, (ii. 20, v. 25, 26, vii.
16, xiii. 13, xvii. 15, xviii. 43, xxiii. 47).
When the care of all the churches and the news
of heresy and moral defection lay heavy upon his
soul, it must have been a vast relief to Paul to sit
down in the genial cheerfulness of Luke's
company and be rested by that calm equipoise,
that patient acceptance of what cannot be helped,
that resolute, indomitable will to accept nothing
evil which can be helped, which fill the atmos
phere of every " beloved physician " with balm
and strength.
Surely of this true friend Keble sings truly
when he warrants his presence at the martyr's
sicis; " But if there be, who follows Paul,
As Paul his Lord, in life and death,
Where'er an aching heart may call,
Ready to speed and take no breath ;
" Whose joy is, to the wandering sheep
To tell of the great Shepherd's love ;
To learn of mourners while they weep
The music that makes mirth above ;
" Who makes the Saviour all his theme,
The gospel all his pride and praise —
Approach ; for thou canst feel the gleam
That round the martyr's deathbed plays.
" Thou hast an ear for angel's songs,
A breath the gospel trump to fill,
And taught by thee the Church prolongs
Her hymns of high thanksgiving still."

1 88 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
5. These were the four great friendships of
the apostle. How varied and rich they were !
From Barnabas he must have learned those
secrets of confidence in men, and of comfortable
speech which made him patient and tender
toward all who suffer. By Silas perhaps he
was helped to make practical those joyous views
of Christianity which he urged upon the
Ephesians and Colossians when he told them to
rejoice, to sing and make melody in their hearts,
to sing with grace in their hearts. (Eph. v. 19 ;
Col. iii. 16.) Perhaps Silas raised the tunes in
the Philippian jail. We never read of the
apostle's having sung elsewhere. From Timothy
he learned those lessons which an older man can
gain from a younger friend, and his heart must
have taken deep comforts from the vision of the
daily growth and enlarging usefulness of one who
lived for him, and who was without any failure
his dear and faithful son. Of what Luke was to
him we have seen. And the way these friend
ships came to him just when he needed them and
grew for him with his needs, is another of the
evidences of God's dear ways with him.
Beside these great friendships, Paul had count
less other, friends, men and women whom he
loved, and who loved him : Apollos, an eloquent
and honorable man, who presented perhaps a
more intellectual and gnostic type of Christianity
than Paul's, but with whom Paul had cordial
relations, (1 Cor. iv. 6), who was with him when
he wrote First Corinthians, whom he tried to
persuade to go back to Corinth, but who refused
to go, and convinced Paul that he was doing
God's will in refusing, (1 Cor. xvi. 12), whom
Paul respected, and trusted, and endeavored to
help in his own work for their common Saviour.
(Titus iii. 13.)

Paul's moral characteristics 189
Paul loved Titus so that once he gave up a
promising opportunity in order to go in search of
him. "I had no relief for my spirit because I
found not Titus my brother," he said. (2 Cor.
ii. 12, 13.) Titus was a great comfort to him.
(2 Cor. vii. 6, 13, 14.) He walked by the same
Spirit and in the same steps as Paul. (2 Cor.
xii. 18.) And Paul boldly declared of him and
his companions, " Whether any inquire about
Titus, he is my partner and my fellow-worker to
youward; or our brethren, they are the mes
sengers of the churches, they are the glory of
Christ." (2 Cor. viii. 23.) He wrote a letter
to Titus whom he had sent doubtless to Crete, in
which he calls him " My true child after a com
mon faith," (Titus i. 4); and urges him when
Artemas or Tychicus comes to him, to give
diligence to join Paul at Nicopolis, where he
intends to spend the winter. (Titus iii. 12.)
Titus is not mentioned in the Acts in spite of his
close relationship to Paul. Ramsay suggests that
he was a relative of Luke, and that Luke
" thought it right to omit his relative's name, as
he did his own name from his history."
This Tychicus Paul calls "the beloved
brother, and faithful minister, and fellow-servant
in the Lord," (Col. iv. 7) ; and he was one of
his close and intimate companions. (Acts xx. 4 ;
Eph. vi. 21, 22; 2 Tim. iv. 12.)
Aquila and Priscilla : these friends Paul seems to
have met first at Corinth. (Acts xviii. 1, 2.) There
he abode with them and wrought at their common
trade of tentmaking. When he left Corinth they
accompanied him, (Acts xviii. 18), and we meet
them next at Ephesus, (Acts xviii. 19), where
they remained while Paul went on to Jerusalem.
When Apollos came, they took him in hand and
taught him what he had not learned about the

190 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
gospel. When Paul returned to Ephesus they
were still there, (1 Cor. xvi. 19), and had a
church in their house. Soon after, they left
Ephesus and went back to Rome, the death of
Claudius having made their return possible.
(Rom. xvi. 3-5 ; Acts xviii. 2.) In his references
to them in Romans, Paul calls them his helpers
in the Lord, and declares that they laid down
their necks for his sake. Again at Rome they have
a church in their house, as Nymphas had in hers at
Colosse, (Col. iv. 15), and Philemon in his.
(Philemon 2.) Early Christianity was a home
religion. When Paul wrote 2 Timothy, Priscilla
and Aquila were back in Ephesus, (2 Tim. iv. 19),
and Paul sends greetings to them, naming the
wife first, as in Acts xviii. 18, and Rom. xvi.
3. Compare Acts xviii. 2, 26; 1 Cor. xvi. 19.
What a help Priscilla must have been to young
Timothy in his relation to the women of Ephesus.
And what a help she has been to all Christians if
as Harnack suggests she wrote the Epistle to the
Hebrews. Paul counted many other women among his
friends, Euodias and Syntyche, whose quarrels he
tried to compose, (Phil. iv. 2) ; Lydia, a woman
of ability and wealth, (Acts xvi. 14, 40) ; Phoebe,
a deaconess of the church at Cenchrea, who had
been a succorer of many and of him, and who
went, apparently on som* legal business, to Rome,
(Rom. xvi. 1, 2) ; the mother of Rufus, whom he
counted his own. (Rom. xvi. 13.)
Other friends were Andronicus and Junia, his
kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, well known to the
apostles, and Christians before Paul himself, and
other kinsmen, Lucius and Jason and Sosipater,
(Rom. xvi. 7, 21); Epaenetus and Amplias and
Stachys, each called "my beloved," (Rom. xvi.
5, 8, 9) ; Aristarchus, who went to Rome with

PAULS MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 191
him and experiencerrms trials by sea, as he
had previously shared his hardships on land,
(Acts xix. 29), and who was with him during his
first imprisonment, (Philemon 24) ; Mark, who
also was with him then, who had been a real
comfort to him, (Col. iv. 10), and of whom dur
ing his last imprisonment he wrote to Timothy,
so vindicating Barnabas at last, "Take Mark and
bring him with thee, for he is useful to me for
ministering," (2 Tim. iv. 11); Epaphras, "our
beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister
of Christ," (Col. 1.7), who always strove for the
Colossian Christians in his prayers, that they
might " stand perfect and fully assured in all the
will of God," (Col. iv. 12, 13); Epaphroditus, a
brother and fellow-soldier, a messenger between
Paul and Philippi, who was troubled because his
friends had heard that he was sick, and who
hazarded his life for Paul, (Phil. ii. 25, iv. 18) ;
Onesimus, a native of Colosse, who had escaped
from his master Philemon, and to whom as a
brother now Paul sent him back, (Col. iv. 9 ;
Philemon 10) ; Onesiphorus of Ephesus, who
when in Rome, had often refreshed Paul, seeking
him out with no shame of his chains, (2 Tim. i.
16-18, iv. 19) ; Trophimus, who went with Paul
from Greece to Jerusalem, (Acts xx. 4, xxi. 29),
but who, on a later journey, was left at Miletus
sick, (2 Tim. iv. 20) ; and many, many more,
the names only of some of whom are preserved, to
us, who could not be numbered. He had a
nature, not hard, but full of sympathy and
sociability and affection. (Rom. xv. 24 ; 2 Cor.
vii. 2-4, 7 ; Eph. vi. 22 ; Acts xx. 36-38 ; xxi.
11-14.) A man who could love like this could also hate.
And he preserves quite frankly the names of the
men he disliked — Alexander, who did him much

I92 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
evil and who would re wis due, (2 Tim. iv.
14) ; Hymen aeus and Philetus, gangrenous men,
who had missed the truth and were spreading
lies. (2 Tim. ii. 17.) He speaks also of some
who were not held fast by his love, but turned
from him to other affections. " Demas for
sook me, having loved the present world," he
says mournfully. (2 Tim. iv. 10.) Phygellus
and Hermogenes and "all that are in Asia," he
says sadly, "turned away from me." (2 Tim. i.
15.) Whoso would love right and truth, and
right and true men, will find himself inevitably in
hatred and opposition to wrong and falsehood
and the liars in whom they lodge. " He said
once," writes Horace Bushnell's daughter of her
father, "that he was never tempted to hate but
one man, and him only because he was a liar."
And because he felt such temptation he was fit to
love and be loved.
That Paul in his greatness, his singular power,
his enormous personal force, had so many friends
is a testimony to the strength of his genius for
friendship. It is evidence, too, of one chief
function of the gospel. God's iove revealed to
men sets men on to love one another. As we
find God in a divine friendship we enter into a
warmth of human friendship in God. The great
apostle, stern in his mission and set keenly on
accomplishing his ends, had time for love, and
made up in unselfish friendships for the want
of a proprietary human affection ; and, having no
home, founded and so found homes in all lands.
II. As a Moulder and Member of the Church.
1. Paul's life was a persuasion of men to
Christ. But he was not content with presenting
each man to Christ as his personal Saviour and

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 93
Lord and leaving HjMatter so, as though re
lationship to Christ "dicTnot involve also relation
ship to all of Christ's. He was the great indi
vidualist, never allowing the institutional to over
shadow the personal; but he was also wholly
alive to the social realities of the gospel and the
visible and indissoluble communion of men in
Christ. When a man came to Him he came out
of one set of relationships into another — not less
real and tangible and human, but only more vital
and enduring, because divine and eternal. This
separate and communal life was most actual and
practical to Paul. It made Christians a temple
to be kept holy for divine fellowship. (2 Cor.
vi. 14-18.)
The Church was a building in Christ, Christ
Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone, and
each believer had come into a new relationship,
not only with Him, but in Him with all other be
lievers. (Eph. ii. 19, 22.) Whether Maurice's
statement of the real relationship not of
believers only but of all men to Christ is true or
final, neither he nor any man can overstate it with
reference to those who have heard His voice and
by following Him declared themselves His.
"Now, my dearest mother," he wrote to his
mother, " you wish or long to believe yourself in
Christ ; but you are afraid to do so because you
think there is some experience that you are in
Him necessary to warrant that belief. Now, if
any man, or an angel from heaven, preach this
doctrine to you, let him be accursed. You have
this warrant for believing yourself in Christ — that
you cannot do one loving act, you cannot obey
one of God's commandments, you cannot pray,
you cannot hope, you cannot love, if you are not
in Him. . . . What, then, do I assert? Is
there no difference between the believer and the

194 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
unbeliever? "tes, the greyest difference; but
the difference is not all»r the fact, but pre
cisely in the belief of the fact. God tells us,
' in Him ' — that is, in Christ — ' I have created all
things, whether they be in heaven or on the earth.
Christ is the head of every man.' Some men be
lieve this, some men disbelieve it. Those men
who disbelieve it walk after the flesh. They do
not believe that they are joined to an Almighty
Lord of Life — One who is mightier than the
world, the flesh and the devil ; One who is
nearer to them than their own flesh. . . . But
though tens of hundreds of thousands of men so
live, we are forbidden by Christian truth and the
Catholic Church to call this the real state of
any man. The truth is that every man is in
Christ ; the condemnation of every man is that
he will not own the truth — he will not act as if
it were true that except he were joined to Christ
he could not think, breathe, live a single hour."
(Quoted in Tulloch's Religious Thought in
Britain During the Nineteenth Century, p. 269.)
And not only was each believer thus joined to
Christ and living only in Him, but the whole
Church was Christ's body, (Col. i. 24, ii. 19, iii.
15) ; and from Him " fitly framed and knit to
gether through that which every joint supplieth, ac
cording to the working in due measure of each sev
eral part," the body makes increase "unto the
building up ofitself in love." (Eph. iv. 16.) Both
the unity and the love of the Church in herself,
and the perfection of her living and full relation
ship to her Lord, were indicated in Paul's figure
of husband and wife. " For the husband is head
of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the
Church. . . . Husbands, love your wives, as
Christ also loved the Church. . . . For this
cause shall a husband leave his father and mother,

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 19$
and shall cleave to his wife, and the twain shall
become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I
speak in regard of Christ and of the Church."
(Eph. v. 22, 23.) What a full and real concep
tion of the Church this is !
2. The Church is assuredly, also, in Paul's
view, the witness to the truth. He expressly calls
it " the Church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth." (i Tim. iii. 15.) But as
truly as it is the Church of the " living " God is it
the witness to a " living ' ' truth. ' ' I have changed
in many things," wrote Newman, justifying his
union with the Roman Catholic Church, " in this
I have not. From the age of fifteen, dogma has
been the fundamental principle of my religion.
I know no other religion, I cannot enter into the
idea of any other sort of religion." (Apologia,
p. 49.) There is a real place for dogma in reli
gion, but the man who has room for nothing else,
whose mind has set in the grooves in which the
Apologia, one of the most painful books a free
spirited man can read, shows that Newman's
mind has set, has drifted far away from the sim
plicity, and reality, and human naturalness of
Paul. All of Paul's figures of the Church, save this
one of " pillar and ground " are living metaphors.
They speak of freedom, of movement, of eternal
expansion. And even here, (1 Tim. iii. 15), he
guards against the lethargic, immobile idea. His
idea of the Church is of a growing thing, the at
tainment of any one day not to check us from
passing through the attainment of another day
toward the divine ideal. We have not grasped
yet the whole of any single truth or vision of
God, and to think that we have, and to try to
settle the hot mass of life into its mould now is
fatally impossible. As Thomas Arnold wrote to

196 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
his friend Justice Coleridge : " There is nothing
so revolutionary, because there is nothing so un
natural and so convulsive to society as the strain
to keep things fixed, when all the world is by the
very law of its creation in eternal progress ; and
the cause of all the evils of the world may be
traced to that natural, but most deadly error of
human indolence and corruption, that our busi
ness is to preserve, and not to improve. It is the
ruin of us all alike, individuals, schools, and na
tions." (cf. Heb. vi. 1, 2; Eph. ii. 21.)
Not that the Church is to originate new truth for
the world. (Gal. i. 9, 1 2 ; 1 Cor. xv. 1 ; Phil.
iv. 9 ; Col. ii. 6 ; 1 Thess. iv. 1 ; 2 Thess. iii.
6, ii. 15.) As Bishop Ewing says in his dis
courses, Revelation Considered as Light : "Rev
elation does not come from the Church, but to
the Church. She is a witness, not a source. . . .
Christianity is to be that which Christ was on
earth. ... It is the communication of a divine
life through the manifestation of a divine life. It
is the raising up of a divine life in our souls,
through the knowledge of the divine life in the
Son ; the spirit of the Son entering into our
spirits, and we becoming sons also in our meas
ure. If there is any difficulty as to this inner
authority — this light within us revealing the light
of God — there is at least no substitute for it:"
3. Of course in such a Church as this, men
may err — will err. The struggle toward the final
fullness of truth is part of God's intentional dis
cipline of man. "If we could only have an in
fallible Church — an unerring guide ! " was once
said in the presence of Thomas Erskine. "Oh,
no! " he replied, "such a thing, if it could be,
would destroy all God's real purpose with man,
which is to educate him and to make him feel that
he is being educated ; to awaken perception in

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS I97
the man himself — a growing perception of what
is true and right, which is of the very essence of
all spiritual discipline. Any infallible authority
would destroy this, and so take away the mean
ing of a Church altogether." (Tulloch, Reli
gious Thought in Britain During the Nineteenth
Century, p. 132.)
In the Church as Paul conceived and founded
it among men wherever he went, there was unde
niably a great deal of irregularity and movement
of the human spirit. His idea of the Church
was not of a human, tensely governed, highly
organized, elaborate system. It was a sort of
great family in God, with all the interplay of
forces, the spontaneous checks of intercourse and
unordered relationships which secure the highest
development of character, the fullest joy of life,
and the greatest Christliness of service. He
found much to struggle against in himself, and a
great deal to disappoint him in his churches.
But he kept a splendid optimism in the face of
human sin. " His letters are directed to the cor
rection of the sins of Christians in the churches
which he founded. But these facts did not breed
in his mind any suspicion of the failure of Christ
to accomplish in the actual experience of men so
mighty a work of moral regeneration as is im
plied in their dying to sin and living to holiness.
He held by the omnipotence of the Ideal in spite
of facts : he could not contemplate the possibility
of sin having any lasting significance for those
who had entered on the new life in Christ. He
transferred to all believers his own experience of
the transforming effects of the love of Christ, and
insisted that men have only to realize what Christ
is to them and what they are in Christ in order
to exemplify by their character and conduct that
God has indeed made Christ to be a Power of

198 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
real death to sin and of actual holy living."
(Somerville, St. Paul's Conception of Christ, p.
"SO 4. Paul's Church was a place of wide liberties.
There were no stifling chains of uniformity load
ing it down. There was room in it for every
man who wanted to be there and had a heart for
Christ, and full play for all the gifts and tastes of
men. As Dean Stanley wrote, so Paul would
have said: "For myself, I should not ask more
to make up the unity of the Church even in
heaven, than that they all loved one another as
Christ's redeemed servants, and all loved God in
Christ." In this richly constituted Church Paul
conceived that there was an affluent variety of
function corresponding to the diversity of services
in the body. "Even as we have many members
in one body," he wrote, "and all the members
have not the same office ; so we, who are many,
are one body in Christ, and severally members
one of another." (Rom. xii. 4.) He would
have a charitable and unenvying recognition of
the diverse gifts of men. One of the most splendid
passages in his letters is the twelfth chapter of
First Corinthians, which he begins by the com
prehensive declaration that there was room for
every man who could say "Jesus is Lord," that
no man who had the Spirit of God could say
otherwise ; that this one test met, under the same
Spirit there were boundless diversities of gifts, of
ministrations, of workings, but the same Spirit,
the same Lord, the same God, who worketh all
things in all. It must be so. No one man can
see it all, or do it all, or know it all. As Robert
son said, "God's truth must be boundless."
Those who stay out of the Church sometimes
allege its narrowness as an excuse. But they do
not know the apostle Paul and his mind. The

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 99
Church is wide enough for all good and too
narrow only for sin.
5. Yet diverse and varied the Church is one.
All these members are yet members of one body.
"And whether one member suffereth, all the
members suffer with it ; or one member is honored,
all the members rejoice with it." (i Cor. xii.
26.) Because he knew Christ so thoroughly, the
divine bond of all who are in Him, who by His
cross broke down partition walls and brought men
nigh, (Eph. ii. 13, 15), he was full of the keenest
sympathies, and wanted to see the Church a place
of real fraternity. " I long to see you," he wrote
to the Romans, "that 1 may impart unto you
some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be estab
lished ; that is, that I with you may be comforted
in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours
and mine." (Rom. i. n, 12.) It was said of
Robertson that " he did not seek for sympathy.
He was accustomed, as he said, to consume his
own smoke," and he himself wrote, "The soul
collects its mightiest power by being thrown in
upon itself, and coerced solitude often matures
the moral and mental character x marvellously. "
And Paul, too, knew what it meant to be alone
and to sound those depths where Christ and the
soul may be found alone and none others. And
had he not been once "caught up into Paradise
and heard "unspeakable words which it is not law
ful for a man to utter? " (2 Cor. xii. 4.) But he
did seek for sympathy and to give sympathy.
And the Church was to him a place where men
bore one another's burdens while they bore their
own, (Gal. vi. 2-5), where no man held that all
must serve each, but only that each must serve
all and where accordingly all were served — be
cause all served.
6. In this body of men and women, bound all

200 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
to Christ and each to all, Paul ' could not endure
the idea- of schism or partisan division. " God
tempered the body together," he said, "that there
should be no schism in the body ; but that the
members should have the same care one for
another." (i Cor. xii. 24, 25.) And he ap
pealed to the divided Corinthian church, "I be
seech you, brethren, that there be no division
among you ; but that ye be perfected together in
the same mind and in the same judgment." (1
Cor. i. 10.) And he asks them severely,
" Whereas there is among you jealousy and strife,
are ye not carnal, and walk after the manner of
men?" (1 Cor. iii. 3.) And he longs to com
pose all disagreements. (Phil. iv. 2.) But some
things are above unity. Unity becomes immoral
and intolerable when it is purchased at the price
of fidelity to Christ, or the law of Christ in life.
In warning the Roman Christians against "them
which are causing the divisions and occasions of
stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye
learned," and to turn away from them, Paul adds,
" for they that are such serve not our Lord Christ,
but their own belly, and by their smooth and fair
speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent."
(Rom. xvi. 17, 18.) In the same way he en
treated the Corinthians to preserve unity in the
name of Christ. (1 Cor. i. 10.) Only two
things were with him ground for disruption and
division. One was disloyalty and unfaithfulness
to Christ, and the other, impenitent sin. There
was room for wide range of opinion and great
variety of character. But there was no room for
treachery to Christ, or immorality of life. He
would not tolerate any trifling with his Lord.
" If any man loveth not the Lord," he sweepingly
declared, "let him be anathema." (1 Cor. xvi.
22.) That was the most dreadful heresy. It was

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 201
the feeling of this that led Robertson to say to the
workingmen of Brighton, when he spoke to them
in the town hall on infidel publications, " I refuse
to permit discussion respecting the love which a
Christian man bears to his Redeemer — a love
more delicate far than the love which was ever
borne to sister, or the adoration with which he re
gards his God — a reverence more sacred than
ever man bore to mother." And as for unclean
ness in the Church, Paul stood on the truth,
though perhaps in a varied sense, of Scott's
teaching, which Newman says for years he used
almost as a parable, "Holiness rather than
peace." 7. Of course this rendered discipline neces
sary, and Paul fearlessly provided for it. "If
any man that is named a brother be a fornicator,
or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner ; with such a one no
not to eat. . . . Put away the wicked man from
among yourselves." (i Cor. v. n, 13.) He did
not believe in tolerating persistent and willful
moral uncleanness in the Church. His charity
was nobly generous, but it had its bounds. It
would not tolerate anything that betrayed Christ
or chastity. And he drew in this matter no ir
rational and immoral line between men and
women. In Paul's view the law of purity was equally
binding upon all, and men or women who
trampled on it had no place in the Church. The
very mention of uncleanness was to be kept out
of it (Eph. v. 3), and as for its membership, he
declared that " neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God." (1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.)

202 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
There was nothing harsh or unkindly in his
provision on this subject. " A man that is
factious," he said, "after a first and second ad
monition, avoid." (Titus iii. 10.) And to the
Thessalonians he said, in advising certain separa
tions, " Yet count him not as an enemy, but ad
monish him as a brother." (2 Thess. iii. 14, 15.)
Paul was a lover of order. He disliked dis
turbance and indecency, and wanted the churches
to be quiet and at rest. (Col. ii. 5 ; 1 Thess. v.
.13, 14; 2 Thess. iii. 6, 15.) He warned the
Thessalonian Christians against disorderly and
gossiping ne'er-do-wells, and he deemed their
noisy shiftlessness an immoral thing. And the
Corinthians he reproved for the boisterousness and
ill-ordered clamor of their worship, and punctured
the fanaticism that submerged the responsible will
and the personal spirit in lawless confusion.
" God is not a God of confusion," he said, " but
of peace." (1 Cor. xiv. 33.)
8. The peculiar times in which he lived, and
his sense of the present critical condition, and the
more anxious times that were to come, led him to
discourage the spirit of restlessness, of innova
tion, of uneasiness of occupation and condition.
But also he was always fond of quiet ways, and
the honest discharge by each in his place of com
mon duties. " Let each man abide in that call
ing wherein he was called. . . . Let him therein
abide with God," (1 Cor. vii. 20-24), eyen
though his calling be obscure and menial. " For
the growing good of the world," says George
Eliot in Middlemarch, " is partly dependent on
unhistoric acts ; and that things are not so ill
with you or me as they might have been, is half
owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden
life, and rest in unvisited tombs." And Pascal
carries the thought further: " Brave deeds are

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 203
most estimable when hidden. When I see some
of these in history they please me much. But,
after all, they have not been wholly hidden,
since they have become known. And though all
has been done to hide them that could be done,
the little whereby they have appeared has spoiled
all, for what was finest in them was the desire to
hide them." This is to be the spirit of all service
in the Church, Christians preferring one another
in honor (Rom. xii. 10), looking not on their own
things, but each on the things of others (Phil. ii.
4), and with no spirit of eye service as men pleas-
ers, but as servants of Christ doing the will of
God from the heart. (Eph. vi. 6.)
9. This test of usefulness, of worthy brotherly
service, was a great check and safeguard in the
Church. Spiritual gifts were valuable, and to be
honored and desired in proportion as they served
really useful and practical ends. With his infalli
ble good sense he said, that for himself he would
rather say five useful, sensible words in church,
"that I might instruct others also, than ten thou
sand in a tongue." (1 Cor. xiv. 19.)
But above all there must be love in the Church.
Eloquence, spiritual insight and expression,
boundless munificence, are no more than clang
ing cymbals beside real love. (1 Cor. xiii.)
There was no straitening in his own love of his
churches, and he wanted them to have hearts of
great expansive, generous love. (2 Cor. vi.
11-13.) He addressed the Philippian Christians
as " my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy
and crown." (Phil. iv. 1 ; cf. 1 Cor. iv. 14, 15.)
He strove for all Christians, that their hearts
might " be comforted, they being knit together in
love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of
understanding, that they might know the mystery
of God, even Christ." (Col. ii. 2.) And this

204 aiuunts OF THE MAN PAUL
love was not to be vague or impractical, but alert
and pertinent to useful ends, (i Cor. xvi. 1-9),
and to be given large and capacious range.
(1 Thess. iv. 9, 10.) One of the humble, and
efficient, and glorious ways in which this love was
to be displayed, was in forgiveness and brotherly
helpfulness. " Brethren, even if a man be over
taken in any trespass, ye*which are spiritual re
store such a one in a spirit of meekness ; looking
to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye
one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ. Let each man prove his own work, and
then shall he have his glorying in regard of him
self alone, and not of his neighbor. For each
man shall bear his own burden." (Gal. vi. 1-6.)
Now here was proper emphasis on that proper
self-reserve and independence of spirit and duty,
without which there can be no just self-respect ;
but here also was all necessary altruism and self-
repression. It is precisely in forgiveness that this
combination is most required and exemplified.
" Be ye kind one to another," he enjoins, "ten
der-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God
also in Christ forgave you." (Eph. iv. 32.)
This is the very Christliness of life. So Horace
.Bushnell wrote to a correspondent. "Nothing
does God require more explicitly than a clean
forgiveness. Your provocations are multiplied
and aggravated. The rasp that is drawn across
your sensibilities without respite for successive
years, is rough and sharp enough to require the
concentration of all the Jobs in Christendom.
Be not dismayed; only believe. Great trials
make great saints. Deserts and stone pillows
prepare for an open heaven and an angel-crowded
ladder. But you are indeed sorely probed, and
from the depths of my soul I pity you. If this
is any comfort to you, let down your bucket to

Paul's moral characteristics 205
the end of your chain, with the assurance that
what is deepest and most tender in me is open to
your dip. But your victory rests with yourself.
Kinghood over the vast territory of self must be,
in order to a genuine forgiveness. To tear your
self from yourself, to double yourself up and
thrust yourself under your heels, and make a
general smash of yourself, and be all the more
truly yourself for this mauling and self-annihila
tion — this is the work before you, and a mighty
work it is. To accomplish this we must be close
enough to Immanuel to feel the beating of His
heart. By the time you are through your strug
gle you will be a god fit to occupy a seat with
Christ in His throne. Kings alone can truly
forgive, as kings alone can reign. You know the
import of the cross. Set your heart like a flint
against every suggestion that cheapens the blood
of the dear, great Lamb, and you will as surely get
the meaning of Christ crucified, as that He left
His life in the world." (Life and Letters of
Horace Bushnell, p. 519.) How broadly and
nobly this spirit marks all of Paul's counsel to
his churches. "See that none render unto any
one evil for evil; but always follow after that
which is good, one toward another, and toward
all. Hold fast that which is good ; abstain from
every form of evil." (1 Thess. v. 15-22.) In
his own life, too, as well as in his admonition to
the churches, we feel what was noted in Keble,
"the cooling shadow of his lowliness," showing
itself in this spirit of loving forgiveness. Yet in
this, Paul in himself and in his influence over his
churches, kept a balance of steadiness between
love and truth. Like John Sterling, as Carlyle
described him, he was " a man of perfect veracity
in thought, word, and deed. Integrity toward all
men, nay, integrity had refined with him into

206 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
chivalrous generosity : there was no guile or base
ness anywhere found in him," " a perfectly trans
parent soul." We may be sure of him, also, that
his converts saw in him what Carlyle remarks in
Sterling, " the kindly, but restless, swift glancing
eyes, which looked as if the spirits were all out
coursing like a pack of many beagles beating
every bush." He was quick to condemn sham
and insincerity, but he was equally eager to for
give and condone. (2 Cor. ii. 5-1 1.) And if he
did not hesitate to rebuke and to enjoin rebuking
"them that sin in the sight of all," (1 Tim. v.
20), and in some cases sharply (Titus i. 13), he
was, on the other hand, anxious to comfort and
to console. (1 Thess. v. n, margin; 2 Cor. i.
3, 4; 1 Cor. xiv. 3; Phil. ii. 1.) Like Barna
bas, he was, as an old man at least, a "Son of
Consolation," and he would have the Church a
place of comfort. Do we make it so ?
" Comfort one another,
For the way is often dreary,
And the feet are often weary,
And the heart is very sad.
There is heavy burden bearing,
When it seems that none are caring,
And we half forget that ever we were glad.
"Comfort one another,
With the handclasp close and tender,
With the sweetness love can render,
And the look of friendly eyes.
Do not wait with grace unspoken
While life's daily bread is broken :
Gentle speech is oft like manna from the skies."
10. In the Church men have many rights,
Paul taught, which it is not necessary for them to
exercise. "All things are lawful for me," he
said, " but not all things are expedient. All things

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 207
are lawful for me, but I will not be brought un
der the power of any." (i Cor. vi. 12.) He had
a right to eat meat. He had a right to charge
for preaching. He would not exercise either of
these rights. (1 Cor. viii. 9-13, ix. 18.) He
held that rights were not individual things to be
used by men as they pleased, but relative, to be
used with reference to the effect of their exercise
on others. We have a right, he held, to surren
der our rights. As George Macdonald says,
" The grandest thing in having rights is that, be
ing your rights, you can give them up." In any
church built on love this doctrine will prevail.
Liberty and freedom are ours, but they are not to
be used as a cover of selfishness or a stumbling-
block to the weak. (Gal. v. 13 ; cf. 1 Peter ii.
16 ; 1 Cor. viii. 9.)
This denial of the right of selfishness was
part of Paul's democracy. The Church was not
a hierarchy, an aristocracy or a monarchy with
him. It was an equal brotherhood. Of course
there will be order in the Church, and Paul en
joins respect for its proper authorities; but the
very terms of his admonition regarding respect
for authority indicate his democratic spirit. ' ' We
beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor
among you and are over you in the Lord, and ad
monish you ; and to esteem them exceeding highly
in love for their work's sake." (1 Thess. v. 12,
13.) His doctrine of equality was not academic
or theoretical, but like all his views, decidedly
practical. "I say not this," he wrote to the
Corinthians regarding the collection for the poor
saints in Jerusalem, " that others may be eased,
and ye distressed ; but by equality ; your abun
dance being a supply at this present time for
their want, that their abundance also may be
come a supply for your want ; that there

208 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
may be equality." (2 Cor. viii. 13, 14.)
It was an equality of privilege he advocated,
expressea in equal privilege of service and unsel
fishness. He would have no caste lines. (Gal.
iii. 28; Col. iii. 2.) He would have a clear fel
lowship of purity and love. He disliked strife,
jealousy, wrath, factions, backbitings, whisper
ings, swellings, tumults (disorders, marg.). (2
Cor. xii. 19, 21.) And he insisted on a new
and holy walk in God, the lusts of deceit put
away, and the spirit of the mind renewed, and the
" new man put on, which after God hath been
created in righteousness and holiness of truth."
(Eph. iv. 17, 24.)
Only in such a veracious and holy life can the
requisite sanctions of human confidence and trust
be found. Thus the catechism of the Council of
Trent declares, " By insincerity and lying, faith
and truth are lost, which are the firmest bonds of
human society ; and when they are lost supreme
confusion follows in life, so that men seem in
nothing to differ from devils." But in sincerity
and truth and holiness, confidence is established,
and human trust ; and in these equality may stand
— not elsewhere.
n. Scarcely any sweeter passage occurs in
Paul's Epistles than the series of admonitions in the
Epistle to the Colossians as to the life of Chris
tians in the Church. (Col. iii. 12-17.) " Put
on, therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a
heart of com passion, kindness, humility, meekness,
long suffering; forbearing one another and for
giving each other, if any man have a complaint
against any ; even as the Lord forgave you, so
also do ye ; and above all these things put on
love, which is the bond of perfectness. And let
the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the
which also ye were called in one body, and be ye

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 209
thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing
one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.
And whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God the Father through Him." How rich is any
Christian life fed on the Psalms and made melo
dious with their music ! Paul knew them well,
and so did Jesus ; and very full is their range of
spiritual emotion, and very beautiful their fidelity
to the universal and eternal needs of the soul, if
you read them, Mr. Hutton says, " you will find
in them the germs of all the affections generated
in His disciples by Christ's own teaching — the
shame, the grief, the remorse, the desolation,
the hope, the awe, the love in its highest
sense, which human beings feel in the presence
of a human nature holier, deeper, richer, stronger,
nobler than their own, when they have sinned
against it and are conscious of its displeasure, its
retributive justice, its joy in human repentance
and its forgiveness." (Modern Guides of Eng
lish Thought in Matters of Faith, p. 126.) We
would have more gracious singing in our hearts
unto God, and even to men, if we knew them as
well as Paul did.
12. Paul held his churches under the spell of
the hope of Christ's return and of His unfailing
nearness to their life. "The apostles and the
early Christians seem to have hoped for its oc
currence during their lifetime." (Strong, Sys
tematic Theology, p. 568.) No one could speak
more strongly of the place this truth had in
the early Church than did Charles Hodge.
"That the apostles understood Christ to predict
His second coming in person does not admit of
doubt. Indeed, almost all the rationalistic com-

2IO STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
mentators teach that the apostles fully believed,
and even taught, that the second advent, with
all its glorious consequences, would occur in their
day. Certain it is that they believed that He
would come visibly and with great glory, and that
they held His coming as the great object of ex
pectation and desire. Indeed, Christians are de
scribed as those who ' are waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ ' (i Cor. i. 7) ; as those
who are ' looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ ' (Titus ii. 13) ; it is to
them who look for Him He is to 'appear the
second time, without sin unto salvation ' (Heb.
ix. 28) ; as those who are expecting and ear
nestly 'desiring the coming of the day of God.'
(2 Peter iii. 12.) It is a marked characteristic
of the apostolic writings that they give such prom
inence to the doctrine of the second advent.
'Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord
come.' (1 Cor. iv. 5.) 'Christ the first fruits;
afterward they that are Christ's.' (1 Cor. xv.
23.) 'Ye are our rejoicing in the day of the
Lord Jesus.' (2 Cor. i. 14.) 'He . . . will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.' (Phil.
i. 6.) ' That I may rejoice in the day of Christ.'
(Phil. ii. 16.) ' Our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ.' (Phil. iii. 20.) 'When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with Him in glory.' (Col. iii. 4.)
'To wait for His Son from heaven, whom He
raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come.' (1 Thess. i. 10.)
' What is our hope . . . are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? '
(1 Thess. ii. 19.) ' Unblamable in holiness
... at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with

Paul's moral characteristics 211
all His saints.' (1 Thess. iii. 13.) 'We which
are alive, and remain unto the coming of the
Lord . . . shall be caught up . . . in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever
be with the Lord.' (1 Thess. iv. 15-17.) In his
Second Epistle he assures the Thessalonians that
they shall have rest, ' when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven.' (2 Thess. i. 7.)
The coming of Christ, however, he tells them,
was not at hand ; there must come a great falling
away first. Paul said to Timothy, 'Keep this
commandment without spot, unrebukable, until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.' (1
Tim. vi. 14.) ' There is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love His appear
ing.' (2 Tim. iv. 8.) . . . From these- pas
sages, and from the whole drift of the New Testa
ment, it is plain (1) that the apostles fully believed
that there is to be a second coming of Christ ; (2)
that His coming is to be in person, visible and
glorious ; (3) that they kept this great event con
stantly before their own minds, and urged it on
the attention of the people as a motive to patience,
constancy, joy ..and holy living." (Hodge,
Systematic Theology, Vol. III., pp. 794-796.)
The hope of Christ's return never left Paul or his
friends. It was the solace and inspiration of all
their days. Is it of ours? Do we ever think
of His coming at all ? Do we not forget
wholly John's admonition, " And now, my
little children, abide in Him, that if He shall
be manifested we may have boldness, and
not be ashamed before Him at His coming ? ' '
(1 John ii. 28.) It was a motive in Paul's
churches to holy and sober vigilance (1 Thess.
v. i-ii), and it was this in his own life.

212 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
It would be so to us, too, if we could say with
B. M. :
" So I am watching quietly
Every day.
Whenever the sun shines brightly
I rise and say,
• Surely it is the shining of His face,'
And look unto the gates of His high place
Beyond the sea,
For I know He is coming shortly to summon me.
And when a shadow falls across the window
Of my room,
When I am working my appointed task,
I lift my head to watch the door, and ask
If He is come :
And the angel answers sweetly
In my home,
' Only a few more shadows,
And He will come.' "
13. Of all the other sane and healthful coun
sels of Paul, none is more characteristic or ever
applicable than his constant emphasis on the real
thing as against all unessentials. He contrasts
good services, which are profitable to men,
with foolish questionings, which are to be spurned
with genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about
the law, all unprofitable and vain. (Titus iii. 8,
9.) Fables, disputes, profane babblings, are un
essential and troublesome things, he represented.
A stewardship of God in faith he valued. The
end of all, he declared, was "love out of a pure
heart and a good conscience, and faith un
feigned." (1 Tim. i. 3-5, vi. 20, 21.)
The beginning and end of all is Christ. He is
the one vital and essential thing. All that is less
than Christ or apart from Christ is imperfect and
unessential, a species of idolatry, as Thomas
Arnold would have held, because placing some
thing else in the room of Christ, alone perfect, es-

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 213
sential, and complete. Thus he wrote to Stanley
with reference to certain teachers. "The moral
fault, as it appears to me, is in the idolatry — the
setting up some idea which is most kindred to our
own minds, and then putting it in the place of
Christ, who alone cannot be made an idol, and
cannot inspire fanaticism, because He combines
all ideas of perfection, and exhibits them in their
just harmony and combination. Now to my own
mind, by its natural tendency— that is, taking
my mind at its best — truth and justice would be
the idols that I should follow ; and they would
be idols, for they would not supply all the food
that the mind wants, and whilst worshipping
them, reverence, and humility, and tenderness,
might very likely be forgotten. But Christ Him
self includes at once truth and justice, and all
these other qualities, too. In other men I can
not trace exactly the origin of idolatry, except by
accident in some particular cases. But it is clear
to me that  and his party are idolators ; they
put Christ's Church, and Christ's sacraments, and
Christ's ministers, in the place of Christ Himself;
and these being only imperfect ideas, the unre
served worship of them unavoidably tends to the ne
glect of other ideas no less important ; and thence
jsome passion or other loses its proper and intended
check, and the moral evil follows. Thus it is
that narrow-mindedness tends to wickedness, be
cause it does not extend its watchfulness to every
part of our moral nature, for then it would not be
narrow-mindedness, and this neglect fosters
the growth of evil in the parts that are so neg
lected. Thus a man may ' give all his goods to
feed the poor, and yet be nothing ' ; where I do
not understand it of giving out of mere osten
tation, or with a view to gain influence, but that
a man may have one or more virtues, such as are

214 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
according to his favorite ideas, in very great per
fection, and still be nothing ; because these ideas
are his idols, and worshipping them with all his
heart, there is a portion of his heart, more or less
considerable, left without its proper object, guide,
and nourishment, and so this portion is left to
the dominion of evil. Other men, and these the
mass of mankind, go wrong either from having
no favorite ideas at all, and living wholly at ran
dom, or else from having ideas, but indistinctly,
and paying them but little worship, so that here
too the common world about them gives the im
pression to their minds, and thus they are evil.
But the best men, I think, are those who, wor
shipping Christ and no idol, and thus having got
hold of the true idea, yet from want of faith can
not always realize it, and so have part of their
lives more or less out of that influence which
should keep them right — and thus they also fall
into evil; but they are the best, because they
have set before them Christ and no idol, and thus
having nothing to cast away, but need only to
impress themselves with the ideas more constantly ;
' they need not save to wash the feet, and are
then clean every whit.' " (Stanley, Life of Dr.
Arnold, Vol. II., p. 47 f.) Paul in the Church
was but Paul in Christ, and he saw nothing in the
Church that was not there from, and through, and
unto Christ.
III. Paul's Standard of Personal Christian
Life and Conduct.
1. The general evil of sin in the world and
the general duties of Christians in their associa
tion in the Church did not obscure in Paul's
thought the personal evil of sin in the individual
life and the personal duties of Christians as stand-

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 215
ing each to his own Master and subject to a per
sonal standard of righteous conduct and holy life.
The work of Christ, in Paul's view, covered all
of these things, and the glory of His death was
that it offers moral renewal to each soul and de
liverance from the power and dominion of sin.
" Weizacher and others maintain that it is in what
he says on this subject that we are to recognize
the distinctiveness of the teaching of Paul on the
death of Christ, and that he is alone and original
among the teachers of apostolic Christianity in
the emphasis he lays on that event as a death to
sin, containing in it the potentiality of our death
to it, and our certain deliverance in this way from
its power. . . . That is the teaching of Rom. vi.,
where the very idea of a man continuing in sin
who had been saved by the grace of God is re
pudiated as inconsistent with the fact of his posi
tion as a believer, for ' baptized unto Christ he is
baptized unto a fellowship with Christ in his
death, ' and in that death the ' old man was cruci
fied that the body of sin might be destroyed.' "
(Rom. vi. 3, 6.) (Somerville, St. Paul's Con
ception of Christ, p. 98 f.)
, In the Epistle of Barnabas Christians are de
scribed as a new type of man. " Having received
the forgiveness of sins, and placed our trust in the
name of the Lord, we have become new creatures,
formed again from the beginning." (Epistle of
Barnabas, ch. xvi.) This is Paul's view. "Christ
died for all, that they which live should no longer
live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their
sakes died and rose again. . . . Wherefore if
any man is in Christ he is a new creature : the
old things are passed away ; behold they are be
come new." (2 Cor. v. 15, 17.) The Christian
has broken with old standards. He is dead to
his old life. He is to walk in newness of life.

2l6 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
(Rom. vi. 4.) Christ has become his life and is
in him a world of new ideals of righteousness
and divine power to attain them. (2 Cor. v. 21 ;
Gal. ii. 20.) The old man with all his doings is
put off, and a new man has been put on, re
newed in knowledge of what is best and in desire
to realize it. (Col. iii. 1-10.)
A new and distinct standard of life is set up for
Christians. Their manner of life is to be worthy
of the gospel of Christ. (Phil. i. 27.) They
are so to act that they may be blameless and
harmless, children of God without blemish (Phil.
ii. 14, 15), walking honestly, having put on the
Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for
the flesh to fulfill its lusts. (Rom. xiii. 12-14.)
Their life was to be a walk in Christ worthy of God
(Col. ii. 6, iv. 5 ; 1 Thess. ii. 12), whom they
were to please. , (Col. i. 10.) It was by appeal
to the superiority of their lives that the early
Christians could answer their opposers. "What
'mark do we exhibit," asks Tertullian, "except
the temperance by which we abstain from other
men's goods ; the chastity which we pollute not
even with a look ; the compassion which prompts
" "lis to help the needy; the truth which makes us
. give offence ; and liberty for which we have even
learned to die ? Whoever wishes to understand
who the Christians are must needs employ these
marks for their discovery. ' ' (AdNationes, Book I. ,
chapter iv.)
2. This new standard of life which Paul
pressed on men absorbed of course all those
worthy moral ideals which were already written
on men's souls. Especially it emphasized and re
inforced the claims of the stainless moral life.
The " members upon the earth " were to be mor
tified, "fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil
, desire and covetousness, the which is idolatry."

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 21 7
(Col. iii. 5.) These things were to be slain for the
sake of that which could not exist with them. In
the case of the man who thus mortifies them " the
balm of death numbing his lower nature releases
him for the scarce disturbed communion of a
higher life." (Drummond, Natural Law in the
Spiritual World, p. 200.) But these things are
loathsome in themselves and must be slain be
cause worthy only of death. They cannot be
tolerated, defiling the precincts of a temple of
God, such as each Christian's body is. (1 Cor.
iii. 16, 17.) "Let us cleanse ourselves from all
defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God." (2 Cor. vii. 1.) Pureness
was one of the things in which Paul felt he could
commend himself. (2 Cor. vi. 6.)
The world on which Paul was pressing these
views was a decayed world, and men cannot now
speak of the details of its pollution. In the first
chapter of his Epistle to the Romans Paul hints
at some of them, and he demanded of all Chris
tians and of himself an utter abhorrence of these
things. " This I say, therefore, and testify in the
Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also
walk, . . . who being past feeling gave themselves
up to lasciviousness, to make a trade of all unclean
ness with greediness. But ye did not so learn
Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and
were taught in Him, even as truth is in Jesus :
that ye put away, as concerning your former
manner of life, the old man which waxeth cor
rupt after the lusts of deceit ; and that ye be re
newed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the
new man, which after God hath been created in
righteousness and holiness of truth." (Eph. iv.
17-24; 2 Tim. ii. 20-26 ; 1 Thess. iv. 2-8.) It
was impossible that there should not grow up
from his teachings among men a fierceness against

2l8 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
evil. The Christian must, as Jude put it, hate
the garments spotted by the flesh. (Jude 23.)
"If therefore," say the Clementine Homilies
(Homily XL, chapter iii.), "ye have not right
eous fire, I mean indignation, against evil lusts,
learn from what good things ye have been seduced
and by whom ye have been deceived and for
what punishment ye are prepared ; and then your
mind being sober and kindled into indignation
like fire by the teaching of Him who sent us,
may be able to consume the evil things of lust.
Believe me, that if you will you can rectify all
things." 3. Paul appealed for a life of clean, open per-
fectness. "We pray to God," he wrote to the
Corinthians, "that ye do no evil. This we also
pray for, even your perfecting. Be perfected."
(2 Cor. xiii. 7, 9, n.) The life that coveted
such perfecting, that sought righteousness, was
the essential thing, and the test of all. (2 Tim.
ii. 19-26.)
As in his own life there was perpetual war be
tween flesh and spirit, so he recognized the pres
ence of this conflict in every life. " I say, Walk
by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh. . . . And they that
are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with
the passion and lusts thereof." (Gal. v. 16-26,
vi. 8.) Even among Christians who died with
Christ there were continuances of this struggle,
(Col. ii. 16-23), and Yet tne Spirit of the Lord
was the Spirit of liberty and transformation. (2
Cor. iii. 12-18.) Could there be no~ present
peace and satisfaction of life ? Are not Christians
full in Christ, who is fullness? (Col. ii. 10.)
Yes, but it was in Christ that they were to be full
and satisfied, and to the extent that they were not

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 219
"found in Him," (Phil. iii. 9), or any of their
life lay outside, they could not have in fact what
was theirs in right in Him.
" If, in a sense, we are already ' dead ' in
Christ, we are, nevertheless, to ' reckon ourselves '
to be dead, to cultivate insensibility to the desires
and ambitions of the old life. We are to crucify
the desire of the flesh, to live to God, to walk in
the Spirit of the new life. The imperative mood
is used as well as the indicative. We are per
sonally to become what in Christ we already are.
We must make our own personal possession that
freedom from sin and the flesh which was made
good for all humanity when Christ died to sin,
and that spirituality of divine life which was
secured for all when Christ rose from the dead.
And here we are to observe Paul's method as a
moralist, as one who has found in Christ the
secret of a victorious moral life, the key to the
attainment of the moral ideal. He does not say,
• Act as Christ acted in this and that detail of His
earthly life.' He does not dwell on separate
features of the character of the historic Jesus, or
bid us imitate Him in these. He sets the risen
Christ before us as our Model, and bids us follow
Him who is as the embodiment of our true life,
and contains in Himself the potentiality of all
grace and holiness of character. Only die with
Christ to the flesh, and rise with Him to live the
life of the Spirit, and all goodness will grow out
of that root ; concern yourself with the principle,
details will follow. It has been said, ' Take care
of the little things of life and the great ones will
take care of themselves,' is the maxim of the
trader which is sometimes, and with a certain
degree of truth, applied to the service of God.
But much more true is it that in religion we
should take care of the great things, and the

220 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
trifles of life will take care of themselves. Chris
tianity is not acquired as an art by long practice ;
it does not carve and polish human nature with a
graving tool ; it makes the whole man ; first, pour
ing out his soul before God, and 'then casting
him in a mould.' It was thus that Paul appre
hended and applied Christianity as an ethic.
Setting the once crucified, but now risen Christ,
before his readers as the embodiment of the prin
ciple of the true life, he bids them die with Him,
and the Spirit of His life will do the rest."
(Somerville, St. Paul's Conception of Christ,
pp. 102-104.)
What he appealed for was that development of
life which would make men mature in virtue and
babes in vice. He prays them to lay aside all
childishness with reference to truth, to go on
toward maturity. This is his thought in Phil.
iii. 15, where he uses the word "perfect" as
meaning "full-aged" in opposition to "babes,"
(Eph. iv. 13, 14). He puts this plainly. "Breth
ren, be not children in mind ; howbeit in
malice, be ye babes, but in mind be men." (1
Cor. xiv. 20.) And again, "I would have you
wise unto that which is good, and simple unto
that which is evil." (Rom. xvi. 19.) He did
not believe that it increased the power of life to be
familiar with its prurient side. Indeed, he plead
for the sweetest purity of conversation. He be
lieved in wholesome human intercourse. Inter
course he knew there must be :
" So that no man there breathes earth's simple breath,
As if alone on mountains or wide seas,
But nourishes warm life or hastens death
With joys and sorrows, health and foul disease,
Wisdom and folly, good and evil labors,
Incessant of his multitudinous neighbors,
He in his turn affecting all of these."

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 221
No one ever held a stronger organic view of life
than his, and no one ever had a more social nature
or a more irrepressible passion for social influence.
He would have the contact of men's minds health
ful and sweet. " Let no corrupt speech proceed
out of your mouth but such as is good for edify
ing." (Eph. iv. 29.) "Let your speech be
always with grace." (Col. iv. 6.) "Forni
cation and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it
not even be named among you, as becometh
saints ; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking or jest
ing, which are not befitting." (Eph. v. 3-6.)
And above all are his noble words to the Phi-
lippians, enjoining that beauty and holiness of
thought which cannot yield anything but rich and
worthy speech. (Phil. iv. 8.)
4. Paul's standard for Christians was not in
the nature of an analyzed moral code. He was
not setting up a new law in place of the old.
Legalism had been the bondage from which
Christ delivered him. He never fell into the
temptation of reviving it. What he offered men
was an indwelling divine life, a Christlike temper,
which would yield in life the fruits of the Spirit
of Christ. Yet on the other hand he demanded,
without abatement or compromise, the presence
in life of these results of the indwelling life. He
was neither legalist nor antinomian. Christ
within was the sole spring of Christian conduct
without. But Christian conduct without was the
sole evidence of Christ within. On the basis of
this rich principle Paul makes no attempt to
specify all the things Christians must do and be
or must not do and be. What things he does
specify flow out of the special exigencies of the
churches and people to whom he writes. His
zeal is for the inner secret of life. Christ in men
will do Christian things through men.

222 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
5. Christ would certainly do through men.
There could be no indolent isolation from life
with His life within. All of Paul's Epistles are
tense with the spirit of vital action. Men were
to be busy doing good. " Let us not be weary
in well doing." (Gal. vi. 9.) "As we have
opportunity let us work that which is good toward
all men." (Gal. vi. 10.) We have been "cre
ated in Christ Jesus unto good works." (Eph.
ii. 10.) " God is able to make all grace abound
unto you that ye may abound unto every good
work." (2 Cor. ix. 8; compare 1 Cor. iii. 13-15,
xv. 58, xvi. 10; Phil. ii. 30; Col. i. 10; 1
Thess. i. 3, v. 13 ; 2 Thess. ii. 17 ; 1 Tim. v. 10,
vi. 18 ; 2 Tim. iii. 17 ; Titus ii. 7, 14, iii. 8, 14.)
He commended daily toil and the quiet pursuit
of trades for livelihood. (2 Thess. iii. 10-13.)
He believed in the moral discipline of orderly
living. Perhaps his own roving life, bare of the
comforts and peace of a settled home, made him
the more keenly sensible of the divine order of
the family life and the quiet society of the church.
He felt himself, at any rate, that deliverance from
so much that is petty which a great burden of
duty brings, and he desired others to feel also the
quieting influence of work. (1 Thess. iv. 11,
12.) "Perhaps I may venture for a moment,"
wrote Lewis Carroll, explaining his motive in
writing Pillow Problems, "to use a more serious
tone, and to point out that there are mental trou
bles, much worse than mere worry, for which an
absorbing object of thought may serve as a rem
edy. There are sceptical thoughts which seem
for the moment to uproot the firmest faith ; there
are blasphemous thoughts which dart unbidden
into the most reverent souls; there are unholy
thoughts which torture with their hateful presence
the fancy that would fain be pure. Against all

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 223
these some real mental work is a most helpful
ally. That ' unclean spirit ' of the parable, who
brought back with him seven others more wicked
than himself, only did so because he found the
chamber 'swept and garnished,' and its owner
sitting with folded hands. Had he found it all
alive with the ' busy hum ' of active ' work ' there
would have been scant welcome for him and his
seven." (Collingwood, Life and Letters of
Lewis Carroll, p. 322.) The principle involved
here was axiomatic with Paul. He constantly
follows his exhortations against sin with sugges
tions for some positive course of action. "Let
all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor,
and railing, be put away from you with all
malice." Yes, but how? "Be ye kind one to
another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other."
(Eph. iv. 31, 32.) "Be not overcome of evil,"
he says. Yes, to be sure, but how? "Over
come evil with good." (Rom. xii. 21.) The
best way to avoid slipping to the foot of the hill
is to climb to the top. The safest way to flee
from the devil is to draw nigh to God.
6. One striking feature of Paul's message to
the individual was its sobriety, its moderation.
The gospel was and is a revolutionary thing. It
summoned men to a supernatural change of char
acter, to a new and amazing view of life. It rose
sheer above all naturalism of philosophy or
ethics. It came accredited by wondrous evi
dence. And yet Paul applies it to personal life
with a quietness and ease which are scarcely less
astonishing than the claims of the gospel itself.
We are accustomed to compare Mohammed and
Buddha and Confucius with Christ. We should
rather compare them with Paul and learn so to
see his superiority, as we contrast his connection
of Christianity with life and society with their

224 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
ethical applications of their doctrine. He preached
a more superhuman and difficult doctrine than
they, and he taught men to realize it in life more
quietly, practically and rationally, and men found
in it not the sterilization of life and its immobil
ity, as in the case of the other teachers, but its
quickening and unresting progress.
7. In pressing the moderate, self-denying
qualities of character, Paul does not lose sight of
those that are virile and aggressive. Both his
military metaphors, (Rom. vii. 23, xiii. n-13;
2 Cor. ii. 14-16, vi. 7, vii. 5, x. 3-6; 1 Thess.
v. 5-8; Eph. vi. 10-17; 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4; Col.
ii. 15 ; 1 Tim. i. 18 ; Phil. iv. 7; 1 Cor. xv. 23,
52), and his athletic metaphors, (Acts xiii. 25,
Xx. 24; 2 Thess. iii. 1 ; 2 Tim. ii. 5, iv. 7, 8;
Rom. ix. 15, 16; Gal. ii. 2, v. 7; Phil. ii. 16,
iii. 12-14; J Tim. iv. 7, 8, vi. 12; 1 Thess. ii.
2; Col. iv. 12; 1 Cor. iv. 9, ix. 24-27, How
son, Metaphors of St. Paul, chapters i.-iv.), are
proof of that. The Christian life was to him a
warfare, a struggle, and the imagery of Roman
armies and of Greek games, furnished him with
his figures of speech. But this is not surprising.
The thing to be noted is that the gospel as he
preached it took up the gentle and non-resistant
virtues and exalted them. He bade Timothy to
pray for ""kings and all that are in high places,
that we may lead a tranquil and godly life in god
liness and gravity." (1 Tim. ii. 2.) He com
mended the disposition of lowliness and gentle
ness, (Phil. ii. 1-11), of moderation and yielding-
ness, (Phil. iv. 5), by which he distinctly did not
mean the spirit which " discountenances strong
emotion, profound convictions, unsparing efforts ;
tends to look on evil with only a cool dislike, and
on good with only a mitigated and philosophic
love ; is prepared to deal with great articles of

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 225
faith, perhaps, as always open questions ; cer
tainly is unprepared to live and die in their de
fence," but rather " the grace which manifests it
self in a calm, bright, willing superiority of
thought and purpose to considerations of self's
comfort, credit, influence." (Moule, The Spirit
ual Life, p. 51.)
Paul pressed on men a sane and steady life,
held in calm poise, but when it struck at sin or
wrong, striking with irresistible power. There
was -to be no trifling or dawdling in life, but a
holy and sober vigilance, (i Thess. v. i-io), self-
respecting, and commanding the respect of men,
(1 Tim. iv. 12), the strong, enduring spirit of
prayer and peace, (i Tim. ii. 8; 2 Thess. iii.
6.) The chapters of practical exhortations at the
close of Epistles like those to the Romans and
Ephesians show how well balanced was his view
of Christian character and behavior.
8. One striking regard in which he bade men
to rise above littleness and the sense of wrong is
shown in his counsel as to litigation. He held
that Christians should not sue one another before
heathen tribunals. If difficulties arise let appeal
be made to Christian arbitration. But better still,
let litigation be disarmed by submitting to wrong.
As for doing wrong, that could not be thought of
in Christians. Paul closes this passage, as others,
with an appeal to the lofty moral status of Chris
tians, and the way such questions as had arisen at
Corinth should be impossible on the plane on which
Christians moved. (1 Cor. vi. 1-11.) The great
changes which Christianity has produced, hav
ing woven itself into sentiment and institutions
and affected jurisprudence (however much our
laws may still be Roman rather than Christian),
have altered the circumstances of Christians, but
there are still many who walk literally according

226 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
to Paul's injunction. This was one of. Robert
Carter's principles. " He had the best of all dis
positions," his daughter writes, "naturally a
quick temper, under perfect control. He had his
own strong convictions on important subjects, and
was not afraid to express them when necessary,
but he had a large charity for other people's con
victions, and the petty affairs which many people
quarrel over were to him trifles unworthy of a
thought. ' Why do ye not rather suffer wrong ? '
was a text often on his lips. . . . Another point
upon which he was very decided was that he
would never engage in a lawsuit. He preferred
to suffer wrong rather than violate his peace-lov
ing principles. Again and again he was placed
where other men would have gone to law, but he
held to his principle, and was never a loser by it
in the end, and sometimes he was a great gainer. "
(Life of Robert Carter, pp. 178, 60.) That was
the spirit of Paul, too, and yet, as a citizen of
the Roman Empire he had his duties as well as
his rights, and he objected to irregular procedure
which affronted the rights of citizenship, (Acts
xvi. 37, xxii. 25), and was not loath to appeal
his case to the court of Caesar, when, as Agrippa
said, " he might have been set at liberty if he
had not appealed." (Acts xxvi. 32.)
9. The Christian life should be set upon the '
best things, in Paul's view. " Abhor that which
is evil," he said, "cleave to that which is good."
(Rom. xii. 9.) " Ever follow that which is good."
(1 Thess. v. 15.) But above all such love of
good he exhorted, " Covet earnestly the best
gifts," (1 Cor. xii. 31, a. v.), and proceeded to
set forth the more excellent way of love. (1 Cor.
xiii.) Love filled his heart and his teaching.
(1 Thess. iv. 9, 10; 2 Tim. i. 7; Rom. xiii. 8;
Eph. v. 2.) Twice He quotes the words, "Thou

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 227
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Rom. xiii.
9; Gal. v. 14.) There is something of the
reserve of a deep nature in his infrequent use of
the word "love," but it cannot be suppressed.
And his poem on love in i Cor. xiii. is still its
richest praise. It was truly the light above all
lights. " Surely one star above all souls shall brighten,
Leading forever where the Lord is laid ;
One revelation thro' all years enlighten
Steps of bewilderment and eyes afraid.
" Us with no other gospel thou ensnarest,
Fiend from beneath or angel from above !
Knowing one thing, the sacredest and fairest,
Knowing there is not anything but Love.
>• Ay, and when Prophecy her tale hath finished,
Knowledge hath withered from the trembling tongue,
Love shall survive and Love be undiminished,
Love be imperishable, Lpve be young.
" Love that bent low beneath his brother's burden,
How shall he soar and find all sorrows flown !
Love that ne'er asked for answer or for guerdon,
How shall he meet eyes sweeter than his own !
" Love was believing, — and the best is truest ;
Love would hope ever, — and the trust was gain ;
Love that endured shall learn that Thou renewest
Love, even Thine, O Master, with Thy pain."
In that analysis and exaltation of love Paul
sums up the whole Christian ideal. It is not an
abstract study. It is a breathing reality. He
felt himself and desired in others a love that was
disinterested, took no account of ill, never failed.
How could it fail and be love ?
" Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or tends with the remover to remove :

228 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
O no ! It is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
It is the star to every wandering bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and -cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out e'en to the edge of doom."
And this spirit of enduring love, stronger than
death, was to rule the Christian life and subdue
to self-control and peace those strong and unrest
ing passions which Christ begat in men. (2 Tim.
ii. 24; 2 Cor. x. 1.) Paul did and would have
others do that which John Woolman did, who
"under an abiding sense of the goodness and
long-suffering of God, wrought his work in
gentleness and compassion, with the delicate
tenderness whicb comes of a deep sympathy with
the trials and weaknesses of our nature, never
allowing himself to indulge in heat or violence,
persuading rather than threatening," and who
could say of himself, " This state in which every
motion from the selfish spirit yieldeth to pure
love, I may acknowledge with gratitude to the
Father of Mercies, is often opened before me as a
pearl to seek after." (Whittier, John Wool-
man' s Journal, pp. 44, 47.)
And this love was to sway life practically, in
clining men to bear one another's burdens, while
they bore their own, and keeping them tender
toward the failings of others in the memory of
their own. (Gal. vi. 1-5.) It was to permeate
all the reaches and relations of life, filling the
home with love, (Eph. v. 22-33, yi- I_4)> as —
" Pure religion breathing household laws,"
touching all society, and beautifying its bonds
with the grace of God. (Titus ii. 10-14.)

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 229
10. But it would be an endless task to draw
out the qualities of moral character which Paul
felt must be displayed in the man who followed
Christ. Paul never attempted to draw them out
himself. As Ruskin says in Stones of Venice :
"In the early ages of Christianity there was
little care taken to analyze character. One
momentous question was heard over the whole
world : Dost thou believe in the Lord with all
thine heart? There was but one division among
men, the great unatonable division between dis
ciple and adversary. The love of Christ was
all, and in all; and, in proportion to the near
ness of their memory of His person and teaching,
men understood the infinity of the requirements
of the moral law and the manner in which it
alone could be fulfilled. The early Christians
felt that virtue, like sin, was a subtle universal
thing, entering into every act and thought, ap
pearing outwardly in ten thousand diverse ways
— diverse according to the separate framework
of every heart in which it dwelt, but one and the
same always in its proceeding from the love of
God, as sin is one and the same in proceeding
from hatred of God. And in their pure, early,
and practical piety they saw that there was no
need for codes of morality or systems of meta
physics. Their virtue comprehended everything,
entered into everything ; it was too vast and too
spiritual to be defined, but there was no need of
its definition. For through faith, working by love,
they knew that all human excellence would be
developed in due order, but that without faith
neither reason could define, nor effort reach, the
lowest phase of Christian virtue. And, therefore,
when any of the apostles have occasion to de
scribe or enumerate any forms of vice or virtue
by name there is no attempt at system in their

230 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
words. They use them hurriedly and energetic
ally, heaping the thoughts one upon another in
order as far as possible to fill the reader's mind
with a sense of the infinity both of crime and of
righteousness. Hear St. Paul describe sin :
'Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornica
tion, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness;
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ;
whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobe
dient to parents, without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful.' There is evidently here an intense
feeling of the universality of sin, and in order to
express it the apostle hurries his words confusedly
together, little caring about their order, as know
ing all the vices to be indissolubly connected one
with another. It would be utterly vain to en.
deavor to arrange his expressions as if they had
been intended for the ground of any system, or
to give any philosophical definition of the vices.
So also hear him speaking of virtue : ' Rejoice
in the Lord. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything let your requests be made known unto
God ; and whatsoever things are honest, whatso
ever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things.' Ob
serve, he gives up all attempt at definition ; he
leaves the definition to every man's heart, though
he writes so as to mark the overflowing fullness
of his own vision of virtue. . . . And all early
Christians taught in the same manner. They
never cared to expound the nature of this or that
virtue, for they knew that the believer who had
Christ had all. Did he need fortitude ? Christ

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 23 1
was his rock. Equity ? Christ was his righteous
ness. Holiness? Christ was his sanctification.
Liberty ? Christ was his redemption. Temper
ance ? Christ was his ruler. Wisdom ? Christ
was his light. Truthfulness? Christ was the
truth. Charity? Christ was love." (Stones of
Venice, Vol. II., chapter viii., paragraph 45.)
IV. His Ambitiousness.
"If we look abroad upon the great multitude
of mankind, and endeavor to trace out the prin
ciples of action in every individual, it will I think,"
wrote Hughes in The Spectator, " seem highly
probable that ambition runs through the whole
species, and that every" man in proportion to the
vigor of his complexion, is more or less actuated
by it." Paul assuredly made no concealment of
his ambition. There was nothing of lukewarm-
ness or indifference in his disposition. He was
set to accomplish things and he reached out
toward huge achievements.
1 . Thrice he uses the word which means " to be
ambitious," " to covet honor. " (Rom. xv. 20; 2
Cor. v. 9 ; 1 Thess. iv. 11.) The first refers to his
own ambition to preach the gospel where Christ
had not been named. The second is a statement
of his ambition to be well pleasing to Christ. And
the third is an exhortation to the Thessalonian
Christians, in some turmoil of expectation of the
speedy coming of Christ, to be ambitious to be
quiet. The idea of ambition, of dissatisfaction,
of desire was with him an idea essential to life.
As Augustine says " The citizens of the Holy City
who live after God, fear and are ambitious, grieve
and rejoice, and because their love is right they
have all their affections right also." "Religion
does not demand," says Butler, " new affections,
but only claims the direction of those we already

232 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
have. Let the man of ambition go on still."
" If thou wilt seek a glory, seek a glory, but one
that is immortal," says Chrysostom. Men must
have desires, even if they be desires for no desire.
They can only choose the objects of their desire.
Paul chose vast service and the spirit of subjection
to Christ for himself. How could he have chosen
a worthier one? "I hope," wrote Emerson,
" America will come to have its pride in being a
nation of servants, and not of the served. How
can men have any other ambition where the rea
son has not suffered a disastrous eclipse." (Mis
cellany, p. 422.)
2. In Paul's ambitions there was no selfishness.
What he longed and strove for he desired not for
his sake but for its sake and Christ's sake. He
longed to be useful to men and women, to
discharge his debt to them. "I would not have
you ignorant, brethren, ' ' he wrote to the Romans,
" that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you that
I might have some fruit in you." (Rom. i. 13.)
" I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience
bearing witness with me in the Holy Ghost, that
I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my
heart. For I could wish that I myself were
anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my
kinsmen according to the flesh." (Rom. ix. 1-3.)
" Brethren my heart's desire and my supplication
to God is for them that they may be saved."
(Rom. x. 1.) He longed to save some of his
own people. (Rom. xi. 14.) He longed to save
all. "I also please all men in all things, not
seeking mine own profit, but the profit of the
many, that they may be saved." (1 Cor. x. 33;
cf. 1 Cor. ix. 22.)
3. He would endure anything to accomplish
his end, even spiritual sacrifice or the rejection of
his love. "I seek not yours, but you," he told

paul's moral characteristics 233
the Corinthians, " and I will most gladly spend
and be spent to the uttermost for your souls."
His love was spontaneous and would not abate
even though it received no response from them.
(2 Cor. xii. 14-16.) "All true love draws its
strength and fragrance from the riches not of the
loved one's but of the lover's soul," says Mr.
Cable. He told Timothy he would endure any
thing for "the elects' sake, that they also may
obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory." (2 Tim. ii. 10.) The doctrine
of unselfish love which he had preached to others
he practiced himself. He could not hold back
from his passion for men. He labored that he
might present every man perfect in Christ,
" striving according to His working, which worketh
in me mightily." (Col. i. 28, 29.) He was will
ing to impart to the Thessalonians who had be
come very dear to him not the gospel only but also
his own soul. (1 Thess. ii. 8.) And the sorrows
and loneliness of his weary work were as nothing.
" Yet not in solitude if Christ anear me
Waketh Him workers for the great employ
Oh not in solitude, if souls that hear me
Catch from my joyance the surprise of joy.
" What was their sweet desire and subtle yearning,
Lovers and women whom their song enrolls ?
Faint to the flame which in my breast is burning,
Less than the love wherewith I ache for souls."
4. His supreme interest was in the enduring
life of man. He set the " tables that are hearts of
flesh" above the tables of stone. (2 Cor. iii.
2, 3.) There was undoubtedly a great deal of
idealization in his view. Many of these people
were very uninteresting and commonplace, but
he saw in them the image of Christ, the deep
needs which Christ could satisfy. But did not

234 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
Christ Himself idealize us and see in us not only
the unloveliness that was there but also the love
liness that was not there but that He could create.
"I sink you even cannot much Christ-yanity
practice vis anybody," said Senda in the story
of "The Entomologist," "vissout you idealize
sem." (Cable, Strong Hearts, p. 156.) He
saw the souls he strove to reach
"Bound who should conquer. Slaves who should be
kings,"
and he knew that whether they would hear or
reject he had yet deliverance for them, "the lost
souls " as Mr. Ruskin calls them, " yet locked in
their polluted flesh."
5. While on one side it was the deepest in
men, their real and enduring life, themselves, not
their things, that appealed to Paul, it was a real,
living message he longed to deliver to them. " I
long to see you," he told the Roman Christians,
" that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift."
(Rom. i. n.) He himself had seen. There
burned in him a word for men which it was woe
to him not to deliver. (1 Cor. ix. 16.)
6. Although there was no selfishness in Paul's
ambitions, they yet absorbed all his self with its
longings and aspirations, and they included his
deep cravings for perfectness and for Christ.
There was a sense in which he was satisfied. "I
have learned," he said, " in whatsoever state I am,
therein to be content. I know how to be abased,
and I know also how to abound ; in everything
and in all things have I learned the secret both to
be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to
be in want." (Phil. iv. 11, 12.) And in Christ
he felt himself possessor of all things, in his God
who was ready to fulfill every need. (Phil. iv.

paul's moral characteristics 235
19.) And yet he was not satisfied or content.
He wanted more of what he- had already tasted.
He had not attained and he followed hard after
the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
(Phil. iii. 12, 13.) He was sensible of the
bitterness of failure but not less of the eager
ness of fresh desire.

" Let no man think that sudden in a minute
All is accomplished and the work is done ; —
Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldst begin it
Scarce were it ended in thy setting sun.
" Oh the regret, the struggle and the failing !
Oh the days desolate and useless years !
Vows in the night, so fierce and unavailing !
Stings of my shame and passion of my tears !
" How have I seen in Araby Orion,
Seen without seeing, till he set again,
Known the night-noise and thunder of the lion,
Silence and sounds of the prodigious plain !
" How have I knelt with arms of my aspiring
Lifted all night in irresponsive air,
Dazed and amazed with over much desiring,
Blank with the utter agony of prayer.
" Shame on the flame so dying to an ember !
Shame on the reed so lightly overset !
Yes, I have seen Him, can I not remember ?
Yes, I have known Him, and shall Paul forget ? "
This unrest drew Paul on. George Herbert
sang of it "as 'the pulley' of God's providence,
by which man is drawn ever upward toward in
finite and eternal good. The saintly poet pictured
God as giving to man, at his creation every pos
sible gift save rest, and withholding that, lest its
satisfying possession should deprive man of all
longing for a better state than his present one.

236 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
' For if I should, said He,
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in nature, not the God of nature ;
So, both should losers be.'
T-et man keep the other gifts of grace, He said,
' But keep them with refining restlessness.
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.' "
(Trumbull, Aspirations and Influences, p. 22 f.)
And by as much as Paul had entered deeply
into Christ did he know that there were depths
of love unsounded yet, heights of joy untouched.
And he reached out beyond the limitations of flesh
and blood. " I have the desire to depart and be
with Christ, for it is very far better." (Phil. i.
23. ) " For verily we groan, longing to be clothed
upon with our habitation that is from heaven, . . .
that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life."
(2 Cor. v. 4. ) From the long struggle with the
flesh he looked for deliverance in the fullness of
being in Christ.
••Oft shall that flesh imperil and outweary
Soul that would stay it in the straiter scope,
Oft shall the chill day and the even dreary
Force on my heart the frenzy of a hope : —
" Lo as some ship, outworn and overladen,
Strains for the harbor where her sails are furled ; —
Lo as some innocent and eager maiden
Leans o'er the wistful limit of the world,
" Dreams of the glow and glory of the distance,
Wonderful wooing and the grace of tears,
Dreams with what eyes and what a sweet insistance
Lovers are waiting in the hidden years ; —

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 237
" Lo as some venturer, from his stars receiving
Promise and presage of sublime emprise,
Wears evermore the seal of his believing
Deep in the dark of solitary eyes,
" Yea to the end, in palace or in prison,
Fashions his fancies of the realm to be,
Fallen from the height or from the deeps arisen,
Ringed with the rocks and sundered of the sea ;—
" So even I, and with a pang more thrilling,
So even I, and with a hope more sweet,
Yearn for the sign, O Christ !. of Thy fulfilling,
Faint for the flaming of Thine advent feet."
Then would his longings be turned to jubilant
fulfillment and in the present Christ the character
he had sought to develop and which he had al
ways known was his in Him would become his
in himself and he would have his crown, his com
pletion, his realization of the righteousness he had
sought all his life long. (2 Tim. iv. 8.)
Yes, and in that day his love of others above
himself, his readiness to yield his soul for theirs
would have its glorious vindication too. He
would meet those whom he had won. " For
what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying ?
Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at His
coming ? " (i Thess. ii. 19.) " Ye are our glory
ing in the day of our Lord Jesus." (2 Cor. i. 14.)
" Hearts I have won of sister, or of brother,
Quick on the earth or hidden in the sod,
Lo every heart awaiteth me, another
Friend in the blameless family of God."
He whose ambition it had been for others and
for Christ to lose himself and his life, would in
that day find himself and his life enriched ten
thousand fold in them and in Him.

238 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
V. His Faith.
1. In St. Paul and Protestantism, (p. 58), Mat
thew Arnold after quoting Paul's words, "Jesus
Christ gave Himself for us that He might redeem us
from iniquity," adds: "If ever there was a case
in which the wonder-working power of attachment,
in a man for whom the moral sympathies and the
desire of righteousness were all powerful, might
employ itself and work its wonders it was here.
Paul felt this power penetrate him ; and he felt,
also, how by perfectly identifying himself through
it with Jesus, and in no other way, could he ever
get the confidence and the force to do as Jesus did.
. . . The struggling stream of duty which had
not volume enough to bear him to his goal, was
suddenly reinforced by the immense tidal wave of
sympathy and emotion. To this new potent in
fluence Paul gave the name oi faith. " Mr. Arnold
goes on to say that to Paul to have faith in
Christ means to be attached to Christ, to embrace
Christ, to be identified with Christ, and all this
by dying with Christ to the law of the flesh and
rising with Christ to the law of the mind. How
ever naturalistic Mr. Arnold's interpretation of this
idea of Paul's as a " real salutary emotional force
of incalculable magnitude," he has done well to
reemphasize Paul's vital notion of faith. Faith is
not our acceptance of an externality merely. We
accept Christ's death, for us, Paul says, that there
may be a real death within us, and His resurrec
tion that there may be a real resurrection in us.
(Rom. vi. 3-9.) Faith is living union and identifi
cation with Christ. The Holy Spirit works faith in
us and so unites us to Christ. (Shorter Catechism,
Question 30.) Faith unites the soul to Christ
and by it penitence for sin, love of holiness, hope,
patience and temperance are laid hold of and made
personal. (Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, vol. ii. p.

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 239
532.) " Faith is the soul's laying hold of Christ
as its only source of life, pardon and salvation.
And so we see what true religion is. It is not a
moral life ; it is not a determination to be religious ;
it is not faith, if by faith we mean an external trust
that somehow Christ will save us ; it is nothing
less than the life of the soul in God, through
Christ His Son." (Strong, Systematic Theology,
P- 445-)
2. Faith with Paul meant a real community,
a living fellowship, and those moods, impulses
and dispositions which spring therefrom. His
faith in Christ was absolute. Everything was to
be found in Him. He himself was submerged in
Him. This was not formal merely. What Christ
had been and done in Himself He was to be and
do in Paul. (2 Tim. ii. n, 12.) His greatest
longing was to " gain Christ and be found in Him,
not having as my righteousness that which is of
the law but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith : that
I may know Him and the power of His resurrec
tion and the fellowship of His sufferings, becom
ing conformed unto His death." (Phil. iii. 9, 10.)
To be comforted with Christ was one of the privi
leges of having suffered with Him. (2 Cor. i.
5.) Paul was content with His Master's lot and
in his common life by faith entered into the
Saviour's ministry of anguish in a world of sin.
" Yet it was well, and Thou hast said in season
* As is the master shall the servant be ' :
Let me not subtly slide into the treason,
Seeking an honor which they gave not Thee :
« Never at even, pillowed on a pleasure,
Sleep with the wings of aspiration furled,
Hide the last mite of the forbidden treasure,
Keep for my joys a world within the world ;—

240 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
" Nay but much rather let me late returning
Bruised from my brethren, wounded from within,
Stoop with sad countenance and blushes burning,
Bitter with weariness and sick with sin,
" Then as I weary me and long and languish,
Nowise availing from that pain to part,
Desperate tides of the whole great world's anguish
Forced through the channels of a single heart, —
" Straight to Thy presence get me and reveal it,
Nothing ashamed of tears upon Thy feet,
Show the sore wound and beg Thine hand to heal it,
Pour Thee the bitter, pray Thee for the sweet.
" Then with a ripple and a radiance through me
Rise and be manifest, 0 Morning Star !
Flow on my soul, thou Spirit, and renew me,
Fill with Thyself, and let the rest be far.
" Safe to the hidden house of Thine abiding
Carry the weak knees and the heart that faints,
Shield from the scorn and cover from the chiding,
Give the world joy, but patience to the saints."
3. Faith to Paul was such a deep identity
with Christ. Living in Him and possessing
Christ in himself, in a mystical and most real
union of life, what he did for Christ was done as
in the person of Christ. (2 Cor. ii. 10.) Living
in the reality of such a supernatural relationship,
(Gal. ii. 20), Paul was full of the trustfulness,
the expectations, the confidences of faith. No
shadow of doubt crossed his mind as to Christ or
the reality of God in the gospel. It was to Him
"the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth." (Rom. i. 16.) He had no ap
prehension whatever as to his own fate. " The
Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and
will save me unto His heavenly kingdom." (2
Tim. iv. 18.) He would not be dismayed by
the blindness of human hearts
" O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon."

paul's moral characteristics 241
Had not his own heart been blind ? Had he
not a thousand times seen God's
" Terrible and fiery finger
Shrivel the falsehood from the souls of men " ?
What had been done in their lives and his could
be done in all. The word of his message was
not the word of men, but in truth, the word of
God, (1 Thess. ii. 13), and when he spoke it he
felt " that rise which prepares the creature to stand
like a trumpet, through which the Lord speaks to
His flock." (Whittier, John Woolman's Jour
nal, p. 61.)
" Lo as some bard on isles of the ^Egean
Lovely and eager when the earth was young,
Burning to hurl his heart into a paean,
Praise of the hero from whose loins he sprung ; —
" He, I suppose, with such a care to carry,
Wandered disconsolate and waited long,
Smiting his breast wherein the notes would tarry,
Chiding the slumber of the seed of song :
" Then in a sudden glory of a minute
Airy and excellent the proem came,
Rending his bosom for a god was in it,
Waking the seed, for it had burst in flame.
" So even I athirst for his inspiring,
I who have talked with him forget again ;
Yes many days with sobs and with desiring
Offer to God a patience and a pain ;
" Then thro' the mid complaint of my confession,
Then thro' the pang and passion of my prayer,
Leaps with a start the shock of His possession,
Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there.
" Lo if some pen should write upon your rafter
Mene and Mene in the folds of flame,
Think ye could any memories thereafter
Wholly retrace the couplet as it came ?

242 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
" Lo if some strange intelligible thunder
Sang to the earth the secret of a star,
How should ye catch, for terror and for wonder,
Shreds of the story that was pealed so far ?
" Scarcely I catch the words of His revealing,
Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand,
Only the power that is within me pealing
Lives on my lips and "beckons to my hand.
" Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest
Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny :
Yea with one voice, O world, tho' thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side for on this am I."

4. He stood thus in his faith in an immov
able steadfastness,- while Christ wrought in him
" by word and deed, in the power of signs and
wonders, in the power of the Holy Ghost."
(Rom. xv. 18, 19.) And he had no fear that
Christ would fail him. (2 Cor. xiii. 3, 4, 10.)
He had learned from Gamaliel the great truth
that "we can do nothing against the truth, but
for the truth." (2 Cor. xiii. 8 ; cf. Acts v. 38,
39.) His faith in Christ in him was a comforta-'
ble quietness of conscience regarding himself.
We are forever distrusting ourselves and our abil
ity to do our work in the divine strength. Some
times Paul was overborne in his work. The
human instruments were so frail, troubled, dis
tressed, cast down, but the power of Christ raised
and upheld them while in its mightiness they
seemed smaller still. (2 Cor. iv. 7-12.) Yet
even so his work was as a continual triumphal
procession in Christ in whom he delivered his
message as of sincerity, who through him breathed
out the fragrance of God to those who desired
Him, (2 Cor. ii. 12-17), and his preaching was
" not in word only, but in power, and the Holy
Ghost and much assurance." (1 Thess. ii. 5.)

Paul's moral characteristics 243
5. This idea of faith as a living relationship,
a communal life, of course included in its sweep
not Christ only, but Christ's, and we hear Paul
speaking to Philemon of ' ' the faith which thou
hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the
saints." (Philem. 5.) We identify ourselves by
faith not with Christ only but with one another.
"We are members one of another," says Paul.
(Eph. iv. 25.) We are one body with Christ by
faith, (Eph. iv. 4, 12, v. 30), and by faith we
are one body in Christ. (Rom. xii. 5 ; 1 Cor.
x. 17, xii. 12, 13, 27.) "Paul's mystical con
ception is not complete without its relation of us
to our fellow-men, as well as its relation of us to
Jesus Christ. . . . Jesus Christ's life, with which
we by faith identify ourselves is not complete, his
aspiration after the eternal order is not satisfied,
so long as only Jesus Himself follows this order,
or only this or that individual amongst us men
follows it. " (Arnold, St. Paul and Protestantism,
p. 67.) The Christian life stands not in indi
vidual identity with Christ alone, but in the "real
communion of saints," the fellowship of faith,
(Philem. 6), the love in faith, (Titus iii. 15),
the household of faith, (Gal. vi. io), that mys
tical relationship of severed hearts by which in the
unity of the faith they are some day to be com
plete in the stature of the fullness of Christ.
(Eph. iv. 13.) The heart of Paul's social doc
trine was faith, and all our deepest speculations
as to society, its constitution, its destiny, are far
short still of the noble conception which he strove
to realize on earth. By faith he had lost and
found his life in Christ. By faith he lost and
found it also in men.
6. Such faith as Paul's was its own irrefuta
ble evidence. Its existence was its authentication.
Life does not need to demonstrate itself. And

244 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
consciousness and personality are self-accredited.
Paul's faith was life. Accordingly, it could ac
cept placidly all that came to it. When Paul
preached the resurrection at Athens and some
mocked, (Acts xvii. 32), the incredulity of such
cultivated people made not the slightest impres
sion upon him. The solitary stranger was supe
rior to " The shining city
Full of all knowledge and a God unknown."
He only stiffened the terms of his message and
girded himself to ampler declaration of Christ.
(1 Cor. i. 18-31, ii. 1-9.) And not only did
Paul's faith stand firm in all present trials. It
rested in calm confidence for the future. " I
know whom I have believed," he declared,
"and I am persuaded that He is able to guard
that which I have committed unto Him against
that day." (2 Tim. i. 12.) He assures the
Philippians that he is confident that God who had
begun a good work in them would perfect it until
the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. i. 6.) The
sufferings of any present time were not worthy to
be compared with the glory that was to be re
vealed when the groaning creation should at last
meet its deliverance at the revealing of the sons
of God. (Rom. viii. 18, 19.) His faith "which
was life was hope also.
"And I saw," wrote George Fox in his Jour
nal, "that there was an Ocean of Darkness and
Death : but an infinite Ocean of Light and Love
flowed over the Ocean of Darkness ; and in that
I saw the infinite Love of God."
VI. His Strength and Fullness of Character.
1. No one can study Paul without feeling the
fullness of his moral nature. ' He had deliber-

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 245
ately made his choice of concerns in life, or as
he would have put it, God had made choice for
him while yet he was not born. (Gal. i. 15.)
The limitations of such definite mission Paul
cordially accepted. He lived for God, and for
God in religion, believing that the great thing in
life is not political reform or literary culture, each
good, but the redemption of man in Christ. And
he found his life instead of a contracted thing a
jubilant possession of the best. One of his fa
vorite words is "riches," descriptive of what a
Christian may have in his own experience of the
presence and fullness of God. (Rom. ii. 4, ix.
23, xi. 33; Eph. i. 7, 18, ii. 7, iii. 8, 16; Phil.
iv. 19; Col. i. 27, ii. 2.) Intellectually he was
conscious of no narrowing. His sympathies
ranged broadly over life. His very vocabulary
testifies to this. It is full of metaphors from
classical architecture, (Acts xvii. 24, 29, xx. 32;
Rom. xv. 1, 2, 20; Gal. ii. 9, 18; 1 Cor. iii. 9-
17, viii. 1, 10; Eph. ii. 20-22, iv. 16; Col. ii.
6, 7 ; 1 Tim. iii. 14, 15), from ancient agricul
ture, (1 Cor. iii. 6-9, ix. 7, 9, 10, xv. 35-38, 42-
44; Gal. vi. 7, 8 : 2 Cor. ix. 6-1 1 ; Col. i. 6;
Phil. i. 11; Rom. vii. 4, 5, xi. 16-24; 2 Tim.
ii. 4-6; 1 Tim. v, 17, 18), from law courts,
(Rom. vii. 3, 4; Gal. iii. 15, iv. 1), from the
shining stars, (1 Cor. xv. 41), from the life of
little children. (1 Thess. ii. 7, 11.) With Paul
true life lay in the love of God and the godlike
service of men, and he displayed the large and
liberal character which such love and service be
get, and illustrated its rich combinations of
quality. 2. Largeness of nature in Paul was not the
equivalent of colorless and inexpressive emotion.
He was not so broad as to be shallow. There
was a stern intensity in him. He played havoc

246 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
with the Church in the days of his darkness.
(Acts viii. 3, ix. 1, 13, 21.) And as a Christian
he was a man of enthusiasm and eagerness, and
he did not attempt to suppress his heart or to
subject it to conventionalism. (2 Cor. v. 13; 1
Cor. iv. 10; 1 Tim. i. 15-17.) He did his work
with all of a man's intensity of devotion. (Acts
xx. 31.) He called his life a fight, (2 Tim. iv.
7, 8), and he flung his whole soul into it. The
idea of the contemplationist's view probably never
occurred to him, or the Lotus Eater's thought,
" What pleasure can we have to war with evil
And is there any peace in ever climbing up the climb
ing wave ? "
The very purpose of life was to war with evil.
(1 Tim. vi. 12:1 Cor. ix. 26.) There was noth
ing of the spirit of Erasmus in him : "I have al
ways been cautious. ... I would rather die
than cause a disturbance in the State. . . .
When we can do no good, we have a right to be
silent. A worm like me must not dispute with
our lawful rulers. . . . We must bear almost
anything rather than throw the world into confu
sion. There are seasons when we must even con
ceal the truth." (Froude, Life and Letters of
Erasmus, pp. 249, 255, 295.) There was none
of this "constitutional dread of enthusiasm"
about Paul. His soul was ablaze and in a time
of moderatism and indirectness and frivolity he
would have exemplified and approved the spirit
of Newman's words, " I do not shrink from ut
tering my firm conviction that it would be a gain
to the country were it vastly more superstitious,
more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its
religion than at present it shows itself to be."
(Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua, p. 46.) The
very greatness of Paul, the steady balance of his

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 247
character, its preservation of a calm sanity in the
midst of its fierce intensity, are indicated in the
far wiser and nobler words which he did speak
exactly to Newman's purpose, to the Roman
Christians. (Rom. xiii. 11-14.) And Paul him
self, high-strung, and eager in his work, yet bore
a front of soberness and knew to escape all fanat
ical excess. He was free of our feverish ways,
restful and still, and possessed that for which we
pray. (Phil. i. 12-25.)
" Calm Soul of all things ! Make it mine
To feel, amid the city's jar,
That there abides a peace of Thine
Man did not make and cannot mar.
" The will to neither strive nor cry,
The power to feel with others give !
Calm, calm me more ! Nor let me die
Before I have begun to live."
3. " Certain it is that the acutest theories, the
greatest intellectual power, the most elaborate
education, are a sheer mockery when, as too often
happens, they feed mean motives and a nerveless
will. And it is equally certain that a resolute
moral energy, no matter how inarticulate or un
equipped with learning its owner may be, extorts
from us a respect we should never pay were we
not satisfied that the essential root of human per
sonality lay there." (James, The Will to Be
lieve, p. 141 f.) But in Paul acute theories, great
intellectual power and wide education were
coupled with resolute moral energy, a clean sub
jection of life to a dominant will serving right
eousness. There was no cowardice in him. It
was not that he never felt fear. He says he did.
(1 Cor. ii. 3 ; 2 Cor. vii. 5.) But he rose up
above his fears. "A stolid indifference to dan
ger is not a sign of true courage. He who never

248 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
knew what fear is, cannot know what is bravery.
The courageous man faces danger with a full un
derstanding of the risks involved. He goes for
ward not without fears, but in spite of them."
(Trumbull, Character Shaping and Character
Showing, p. 103.) He faced resolutely the great
apostle Peter and withstood him. (Gal. ii. 11.)
He preached in synagogues and houses and pris
ons and palaces boldly. (Acts ix. 20, xiii. 46,
xiv. 3, xx. 8, xxvi., xxviii. 31; Eph. vi. 20.)
Men lay in wait for his life but he went on with
his work, (Acts ix. 24, 29, xx. 3), always of
good courage. (2 Cor. v. 6.) Neither prospec
tive sufferings, (Acts ix. 16), nor present danger,
(Acts xviiH 10), deterred him. And he would
unhesitatingly walk into the gravest peril. (Acts
xix. 30.) There was no rashness in this. He
was simply fearless in the way of his ministry of
men, (Acts xx. 24, xxi. 13), belonging with
Anselm "in the nobie company of the strong and
meek, who have not been afraid of the mightiest,
and have not disdained to work for and with the
lowliest." (Church, St. Anselm, p. 355.) Paul's'
resolution was a quite placid thing, not boast
ful and boisterous. He had a steady, cool way
in his perils, and did not throw chances away.
(Acts xxiii. 16, 17, xxvii. 21-25, 33; 2 Tim. iv.
16-18.) He shrank neither from life nor from
death. He rested resolutely in the will of God,
knowing the measure of truth in John Brown's
fatalistic declaration, " I have no fault to find
with the manner of my death ; the disgrace of
hanging does not trouble me in the least. In
deed, I know that the very errors by which my
scheme was marred were decreed before the
world was made." (Sanborn, Life and Letters
of John Brown, p. 624.) Paul knew and taught
that such conviction will not save any man from

paul's moral characteristics 249
receiving before the judgment-seat of Christ the
things done in his body whether good or bad, (2
Cor. v. 10 ; Rom. ii. 6), but he knew also that
in his own life Christ was living (Gal. ii. 20),
and God was working (Acts xxi. 19; Col. i. 29),
and he could be at peace. He stood himself, as
he told the Colossians Epaphras was praying that
they might stand, " perfect and fully assured in
all the will of God." (Col. iv. 12.)
4. Moral resolution displayed not in passive
endurance, but in active effort, takes the form of
decision of character. Paul was alert for great
things. When the vision of the Man of Macedon
came to him he sprang at once to the largest in
terpretation of the summons and straightway
sought himself to go forth into Macedonia, "con
cluding that God had called him for to preach
the gospel unto them." (Acts xvi. 10.) In his
work he was restless for large opportunity and
new fields. He rejoiced in open doors, (1 Cor.
xvi. 9; 2 Cor. ii. 12; Col. iv. 3), and did not
assume that apparently closed doors meant no en
trance there. Paul was not a man to stand irreso
lute before an opportunity or to wait helplessly for
some audible command. He tried many things.
Sometimes the Spirit forbade, (Acts xvi. 7);
sometimes duty hindered, (Rom. i. 13, xv. 22),
and sometimes Satan, (1 Thess. ii. 18), but for
the most part Paul succeeded.
There was a direct straightforwardness in him
which testified to the sincerity of the man. His
conversion wrought an absolute reversal in his
convictions. He at once proclaimed in the syna
gogues that the Jesus whom he had been reviling
was the Son of God. (Acts ix. 20.) In the same
frank open spirit he had spoken to the Lord on
the road to Damascus, "Who art Thou, Lord?"
(Acts ix. 5.) So too he immediately proposed to

250 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
join the disciples in Jerusalem when he returned
there. (Acts ix. 26.) There was no dilatoriness
(Acts xx. 16) or furtiveness of character in him.
And when in later years he was arraigned before
the Council, he spoke out evenly with a level voice
and a steady eye. (Acts xxiii. 1.) The issue
which separated him and Barnabas grew out of
Paul's candid directness. Barnabas had wavered
in his devotion to certain principles which Paul
knew were vital. (Gal. ii. 13.) That was fol
lowed by the disagreement over Mark, whom
Paul thought " not good to take with them." He
had not gone on to the real work of the preceding
tour, (Acts xv. 36-40), and Paul could not have
with him unreliable and vacillating men. He
wanted men who could see through situations,
who were fertile in expedients, as he was himself,
shrewd yet ingenuous, (Acts xxiii. 6-10), of quick
instinct and personal power.
He himself was a man of authoritative personal
force. He stood out as a man of leadership
wherever he was. His qualities irresistibly lifted
him. He soon overbore Barnabas. (Acts xi. 30,
xiii. 2, 7, 9, 13, 46, 50, xv. 22, 36.) He became
naturally the champion of the rights of the Gentiles
in the Church. (Acts xv. 12; Gal. ii.) He
stood out as the heroic figure in the shipwreck
on the journey to Rome. (Acts xxvii.) The
huge moral nature of the man, his enthusiasms
for holiness, his abhorrence of uncleanness, his
sense of integrity gave him a moral authority
which could not be suppressed. This is what
blazes out like the wrath of the Lamb, (Rev. vi.
16), in his denunciation of the hideous immoral
ity of the Corinthian Church. (1 Cor. v. 1-8.)
Yet his sharp moral ruggedness did not make
Paul overbearing or harsh. Sometimes when he
has spoken tempestuously, in the surge of his

PAULS MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 25 1
oceanic impulse, he seems to feel that he has gone
too far, and he breaks out with some gentle, lov-.
ing speech. (Gal. iv. 19; 2 Cor. ii. 4; Rom.
ix. 1-3.) Sometimes when he has spoken deci
sively with positive assertion of his power, he
turns the edge of it with a modest phrase or a
humble recognition of the authority and devotion
of others. (Rom. i. 8-12.) It is of this combina
tion of power with restraint and modesty that
Newman speaks in his verses :
" I dreamed that with a passionate complaint
I wished me born amid God's deeds of might,
And envied those who had the presence bright
Of gifted prophet or strong-hearted saint,
Whom my heart loves and fancy strives to paint.
I turned, when straight a stranger met my sight,
Came as my guest and did awhile unite
His lot with mine, and lived without restraint.
Courteous he was and grave ; so meek in mien,
It seemed untrue, or told a purpose weak ;
Yet in the mood could he with aptness speak
Or with stern force or show of feeling keen,
Marking deep craft, methought, and hidden pride ;
Then came a voice, ' St. Paul is at thy side ! ' "
5. Paul had always been an intense and reso
lute man. But he had not always been an open-
minded man. On the other hand he had been
most bigoted and fanatical, as he confessed.
(Phil. iii. 6; Acts xxvi. 9-1 1.) His conversion
meant a transformation of his intellectual nature.
The narrow-minded Pharisee, the most bitter per
secutor of believers, became the most generous
and broad-minded Christian in the early Church.
He perceived soon the universality of the gospel
and adjusted his convictions to the enormous
changes which the idea of universality as opposed
to Jewish racialism involved. The Acts show to
us the growth of Paul's thought and conduct in

252 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
this regard, (Acts xiii. 46-48, xiv. 27, xv. 3,
6-35, xvi. 3, xvii. 4, 12, 17, xviii. 4, xxi. 19;
xxii. 21, xxvi. 17-23, xxviii. 26-28), and the
Epistle to the Romans gives an insight into the
working of his mind upon the problem.
Paul recognized the larger field of religion not
only in the world of men, but also in the life of
man. It had been a matter of ordinances. It
was to be a living spirit. (Col. ii. 20, iii. 3.)
And it was to include the whole of each man,
all his faculties and all his activities. In all
things Jesus Christ who was the head of each
man was to have preeminence. (1 Cor. xi. 3 ;
Col. i. 18.) And through all the capacities of
life Christ was to come in. The heart, Paul
said, had eyes for Him as well as the mind,
(Eph. i. 18) ; darkness there would obscure the
vision and obstruct the truth, (Rom. i. 21 ; Eph.
iv. 18), and it as truly as mind or will was an
organ of belief. (Rom. x. 8-10.) " The heart
has reasons," says Pascal, "which the reason
does not know. It is the heart that feels God,
not the reason. There are truths that are felt and
there are truths that are proved, for we know
truth not only by the reason but by that intuitive
conviction which may be called the heart." And
so Romanes wrote to Dean Paget of Christ
Church, "Oddly enough for my time of life, I
have begun to discover the truth of what you
once wrote about logical processes not being the
only means of research in regions transcendental."
(Life and Letters of George John Romanes, p.
375.) It is significant that the most powerful
mind in the early Church most clearly discerned
the rights of the heart.
Paul's large and open mind was free from petty
envy. He took delight in the success and service
of others. "We rejoice," he assured the Corin-

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 253
thians, "when we are weak and ye are strong."
(2 Cor. xiii. 9.) He speaks pleasantly of Apol
los, (1 Cor. xvi. 1 2), and of the apostles of the
circumcision. (Gal. ii. 7-10.) And when at
Rome some Christians, desiring to irritate him,
"preached Christ even of envy and strife."
(Phil. i. 15-18.) the nobility of Paul's nature,
the breadth of his mind displayed itself in his
comment on the course of these un-Christian
brethren. He might have scorched them with
his withering contempt. " Whether in pretense
or in truth, Christ is proclaimed," he said, "and
therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." "Never
surely did such a controversialist, such a master
of sarcasm and invective commend, with such
manifest sincerity and such persuasive emotion,
the qualities of meekness and gentleness ! Never
surely did a worker who took with such energy
his own line, and who was so born to preponder
ate and predominate in whatever line he took, in
sist so often and so admirably that the lines of
other workers were just as good as his own.
(Arnold, St. Paul and Protestantism, p. 32.)
(Rom. xvi. 1, 2; 1 Cor. xv. 9, xvi. 15, 16; Eph.
ii. 20, iii. 5,iv. 11.) "Grace be with all them
that love our Lord Jesus Christ in uncorruptness."
(Eph. vi. 24.) His mind and heart made room
for all to whom Christ was truly dear.
6. In this openness and tolerance of mind
there was no indifference to the sacred exclusive-
ness of truth, no desire for the soft praise of men,
no easy dissimulation. He had a strong dislike
of all wavering indefiniteness or compromise. He
saw issues distinctly and stood by right principle.
(Gal. ii. 11-14.) He was an honest man. (Acts
xxiv. 26.) He would not confuse moral dis
tinctions. (2 Cor. vi. 14-18.) He had, what
the Duke of Argyle remarked in Tennyson, that

254 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
" absolute truthfulness " which "is one of the
rarest of human attributes," and which does not
surrender to conventional standards. (Memoirs
of Lord Tennyson, by his son, Vol. II., p. 514.)
It displayed itself in Paul's rugged speech, (Rom.
xvi. 18 ; Phil. iii. 2 ; 1 Tim. vi. 5), as well as in
his rugged conduct. The truth of Christ was in
him. (2 Cor. xi. 10.) He pitied those who
could never come to the knowledge of the truth
because of unveracious and pliable character.
(2 Tim. iii. 7.)
He had the independence of a true man. He
did not seek to please men. (Gal. i. 10 ; 1 Thess.
ii. 4.) His eye and heart were single toward
God. (Eph. v. 5-7; Col. iii. 22.) He was
content with testimony of the truth in a good
conscience. (2 Tim. i. 3.) As John Woolman
wrote, " That purity of life which proceeds from
faithfulness in following the pure spirit of truth,
that state in which our minds are devoted to serve
God, and all our wants are bounded by His wis
dom, has often been opened to me as a place of
retirement for the children of the light, in which
we may be separated from that which disordereth
and confuseth the affairs of society, and may have
a testimony for our innocence in the hearts of
those who behold us." (Whittier, John Wool-
man' s Journal, p. 36.) Paul was anxious to have
this testimony borne to him. He wanted to
please God alone, and he was subject only to his
own conscience. And yet he wanted to please
men, too. (1 Cor. x. 33.) And he was solici
tous for the conscience of others. (1 Cor. viii.
10, x. 29.) " We have renounced the hidden
things of shame," he says in his scorn of covert
and surreptitious ways, "not walking in crafti
ness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully ;
but by manifestation of the truth, commending

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 255
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God." (2 Cor. iv. 2.) He did not care, he
said, for the judgment of men, (1 Cor. iv. 3, 4),
but he said he did care also, (2 Cor. viii. 21),
and at least two of his Epistles, (2 Corinthians and
Galatians), are taken up with the deep under-
sobbing of his soul because he was misunderstood.
There is one of the real and salutary antinomies
of life here. We see it in fullness in Paul.
Charles Kingsley sets it forth clearly :
"For there has been gradually revealed to me
(what my many readings in the lives of fanatics
and ascetics ought to have taught me long before),
that there is a terrible gulf ahead of that not car
ing what men say. Of course it is a feeling on
which the spirit must fall back in hours of need,
and cry, ' Thou God knowest mine integrity. I
have believed and therefore I will speak ; Thou
art true, though all men be liars ! ' But I am
convinced that that is a frame in which no man
can live, or is meant to live ; that it is only to be
resorted to in fear and trembling, after deepest
self-examination, and self-purification, and ear
nest prayer. For otherwise, Ludlow, a man gets
to forget that voice of God without him, in his
determination to listen to nothing but the voice of
God within him, and so he falls into two dangers.
He forgets that there is a voice of God without
him. He loses trust in, and charity to, and rev
erence for his fellow-men ; he learns to despise,
deny, and quench the Spirit, and to despise
prophesyings, and so becomes gradually cynical,
sectarian, fanatical.
" And then comes a second and worse danger.
Crushed into self, and his own conscience and
schema mundi, he loses the opportunity of cor
recting his impression of the voice of God within,
by the testimony of the voice of God without ;

256 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
and so he begins to mistake more and more the
voice of that very flesh of his, which he fancies
he has conquered, for the voice of God, and to
become, without knowing it, an autotheist. And
out of that springs electicism, absence of tender
ness for men, and want of sympathy with men ;
as he makes his own conscience his standard for
God, so he makes his own character the standard
for men ; and so he becomes narrow, hard, and
if he be a man of strong will and feelings, often
very inhuman and cruel. . . .
" Against this I have to guard myself, you little
know how much, and to guard my children still
more, brought up, as they will be, under a father,
who, deeply discontented with the present genera
tion, cannot but express that discontent at times.
To make my children 'banausoi,' insolent and
scoffing radicals, believing in nobody and nothing
but themselves, would be perfectly easy in me if
I were to make the watchword of my house,
' Never mind what people say. ' On the contrary,
I shall teach them that there are plenty of good
people in the world, that public opinion has pretty
surely an undercurrent of the water of life, below
all its froth and garbage, and that in a Christian
country like this, where with all faults, a man
(sooner or later) has fair play and a fair hearing,
the esteem of good men, and the blessings of the
poor, will be a pretty sure sign that they have the
blessing of God also ; and I shall tell them, when
they grow older, that ere they feel called on to
become martyrs, in defending the light within
them against all the world, they must first have
taken care most patiently, and with all self-dis
trust and humility, to make full use of the light
which is around them, and has been here for ages
before them, and would be here still, though they
had never been born or thought of. The anti-

Paul's moral characteristics 257
nomy between this and their own conscience may
be painful enough to them some day. To what
thinking man is it not a lifelong battle ? but I
shall not dream that by denying one pole of the
antinomy I can solve it, or do anything but make
them, by cynicism or fanaticism, bury their talent
in the earth, and not do the work which God has
given them to do, because they will act like a
parson who, before beginning his sermon, should
first kick his congregation out of doors, and turn
the key ; and not like St. Paul, who became all
things to all men, if by any means he might save
some." (Life of Charles Kings ley, pp. 230-232.)
7. Paul was one of the last men to at
tempt to live only to himself. He stood as
sharply alone as a man should. He spoke out
with the asperity of just indignation at times,
(Acts xxiii. 2-5), and at times with the sharpness
and sting of sarcasm. (1 Cor. iv. 10 ; 2 Cor.
xi. 19, 20.) But his temperament was not of
isolation and distinctness. (Rom. xiv. 7.) His
doctrine of the Church, his doctrine of faith, his
disposition of heart, all opened him to others and
shaped his way and will. He fed his life with the
necessary solitudes and separations, but he lived
with men and his work was to move them. He
was full of -"adaptation accordingly, in canny
speech, (Acts xxvi. 22), in sagacious conduct,
(Acts xviii. 2, 3), and in the whole spirit of his
life,. (1 Cor. x. 33.) He had the range of na
ture and experience that enabled him to do this.
For " you cannot take a bit out of another man's
life and live it, without having lived the previous
years that led up to it, without having also the
assured hopes for the years that lie beyond. The
attempt is constantly made by amateurs of all
kinds, and by men of temporary purposes and it
fails." (Hamerton, The Intellectual Life, Part

258 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
x., Letter I.) Paul had a natural urbanity and
suavity, a capacity for courteous speech, which
helped him greatly in this. (Acts xxiv. 10-21,
xxvi. 2, 3, 25.) He had a rare faculty of gra
cious compliment and commendation, (Rom.
xv. 14, 15, xvi. 19; Col. i. 5, 6; 1 Cor. i. 4-9,
xi. 2; Eph. i. 15, 16; Gal. iv. 15; 2 Cor. vii.
14-16, viii. 24, ix. 2 ; 1 Thess. i. 8), which re
vealed the generous and wholesome heart within
him. That thoughtful considerateness which
marked him in small things, (Acts xvi. 28), in
great things became a careful spirit of kindness,
(2 Cor. ii. 6), in nothing more evident than in the
noble forgiveness of his nature and his emphasis
on the necessity of forgiveness in any society that
is not to be wrecked on individual caprices and
animosities. (2 Cor. ii. 7, 10; Eph. iv. 32;
Col. iii. 13.) His very word for "forgive,"
•(apiZofiou a rich word, he uses sixteen times,
while it occurs only four times elsewhere in the
New Testament, and those four in Luke's writings.
(Luke vii. 21, 42, 43 ; Acts iii. 14.) His dis
position was conciliatory, (Acts xvii. 22-31, xxi.
17-26), yet there was never any truckling or.shuf-
fling. (1 Cor. x. 20. Note the curt close of the
Epistle to the Galatians, vi. 15-18.) He prized
the gentler qualities, (Rom. xv. 1-7), and his
ideal of a Christian worker was expressed to Tim
othy, "The Lord's servant must not strive, but
be gentle toward all, apt to teach, forbearing,
in meekness correcting them that oppose them
selves." (2 Tim. ii. 24, 25.) In a true sense he
was a gentle man.
He was very sensitive to the support of human
friendship, (2 Cor. ii. 13, vii. 6), and his heart
gave and craved love. "Open your hearts to
us," he wrote to the church at Corinth. "Ye
are in our hearts to die together and to live to-

PAUL S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 259
gether." (2 Cor. vii. 2-4.) His appeals to
those who were in danger of breaking away or be
ing misled are full -of this outgoing of his na
ture. " My little children, of whom I am again
in travail until Christ be formed in you; yea, I
could wish to be present with you now, and to
change my voice ; for I am perplexed about you."
(Gal. iv. 19, 20.) And he knew the manliness
of tears. " Out of much affliction," he wrote to
Corinth, "and anguish of heart, I wrote unto
you with many tears ; not that ye should be made
sorry, but that ye might know the love which I
have more abundantly unto you." (2 Cor. ii. 4;
cf. Acts xx. 19, 31; Phil. iii. 18.) He did not
annul the sympathies of the heart. (Rom. xii.
15.) In the greatness of his own soul and his
own work he found time to write with exquisite
loveliness in behalf of a slave. (Philem. 16.)
As Wordsworth said of Milton,
" Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart ;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea;
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free ;
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on itself did lay."
To be great in the spectacles of life is one thing.
To be great in the whole range of life, spectacle
and obscurity, is another. And it adds to our
sense of Paul's fullness of character to see him
admirable in the little sympathies of life. (1 Tim.
v. 23 ; Phil. ii. 26, 27, iv. 2, 3.) Paul never
hardened . He grew more tender with the years, and
was at the end (2 Tim. i. 5, 16-18) as loving as he
had been when he wrote to the church in Cor
inth, "Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all mercies and
God of all comfort ; who comforteth us in all our

260 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
affliction, that we may be able to comfort them
that are in any affliction, through the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
. . . Whether we be afflicted, it is for your com
fort and salvation ; or whether we be comforted
it is for your comfort." (2 Cor. i. 3-6.)
8. Expressive as this affectionateness of na
ture made him, it did not betray him beyond the
bounds of a just reserve of the sanctity of his
inner life. He had an inviolate respect for his
own just integrity. He would preserve that and
he would maintain not only his self-respect, but
also the respect of men. (2 Cor. xi. 7-10.)
" It were good for me rather to die," he declared,
"than that any man should make my glorying
void." (1 Cor. ix. 15.) In this spirit he would
not touch money to which he was entitled for his
support where its acceptance, as he thought, would
make him feel uncomfortable or affect in the
slightest degree his power and independence.
(2 Cor. xi. 8-12.) On the other hand he de
lighted to receive from a church like the one at
Philippi with which his relations were always
loving and worthy. (Phil. iv. 14-18.)
How reticent and reserved Paul could be is
shown by two revelations he makes in the twelfth
chapter of Second Corinthians of which elsewhere
he says not one word and at which he barely hints
here. They show how much there must have
been in his life which never emerged. One was
his rapture into Paradise, (2 Cor. xii. 1-4), and
the other the "thorn in the flesh " which he says
was given to him, "a messenger of Satan to buf
fet me, that I should not be exalted over much."
(2 Cor. xii. 7.) He had asked the Lord to take
this away, " and He hath said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee : for My power is made per
fect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I

Paul's moral characteristics 261
rather glory in my weaknesses that the strength
of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Cor. xii. 8, 9.)
What the thorn in his flesh was, Paul does not
say. Some have thought it was high spiritual
temptations, others some form of carnal tempta
tion, others the opposition and persecution with
which he met especially from one leader who was
a " thorn in his side," others that it was epilepsy,
others acute ophthalmia, others malaria. (Farrar,
The Life and Work of St. Paul, Vol. I., Excursus
x. ; Ramsay, St. Paul, the Traveller and Ro
man Citizen, pp. 95-97 ; Conybeare and How
son, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, chs. viii.,
xvii.) Surely he means some painful bodily infirm
ity. (Bible Commentary, N. T, pp. 475-477.)
Perhaps he alludes to it in Gal. iv. 13-16, and
some have supposed with less reason in Gal.
vi. 17; 2 Cor. iv. 10. Possibly it quickened
his desire for that body of glory which he was
some day to receive in exchange for the body of
his humiliation. (Phil. iii. 21 ; 2 Cor. v. 2-4.)
But what the " thorn " was is of little consequence.
The significant thing is that Paul accepted it
quietly and never complained. Mr. Colvin notes
of Robert Louis Stevenson that "except in the
single case of the essay ' Ordered South, ' he would
never in writing for the public adopt the invalid
point of view, or invite any attention to his in
firmities. 'To me,' he says, 'the medicine bot
tles on my chimney and the blood on my hand
kerchief, are accidents; they do not color my
view of life ; and I should think myself a trifler
and in bad taste if I introduced the world to these
unimportant privacies.' But from his letters to
his family and friends these matters could not
possibly be quite left out. " ( The Letters of Rob
ert Louis Stevenson, Vol. I., p. xliii.) Even in
letters to his friends Paul left them out and bore

262 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
his pain in manly silence. Matheson suggests
that the reason of Paul's silence was that " he did
not want his fellow-men to think that his had been
a special case. He wanted them to feel that they
might triumph over their calamities in the same
manner as he had conquered his. To accom
plish this end, he thought it best that no suffering
man should be able to say, when referred to him
as an example, ' Paul had quite a different trial
from me. ' ' ' (Matheson, The Spiritual Develop
ment of St. Paul, p. 55.) That does not sound
like Paul. It is more natural to feel that it was
his instinctive reticence about a matter that lay
in a sphere where he and his Lord had dealings
which were not for the eyes of men, and that
while he would speak of his public and official
hardships, so to say, he would bear without pub
licity his own inner weakness.
9. Yet his silence here is illustrative of more
than his reserve. It introduces us to his clean,
heroic grit. When he found that his " thorn "
was to be a part of his discipline and that he was
to do his work in spite of it, the warrior joy rose
up supreme in him. "Most gladly therefore,"
he declared, "will I rather glory in my weak
nesses. ... I take pleasure in weaknesses, in
injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in dis
tresses for Christ's sake : for when I am weak,
then am I strong." (2 Cor. xii. 9, 10.) "What
can't be cured must be endured," we say re
signedly. "What can't be cured must be en
joyed," said Paul exultingly. "I thank Thee,
O Lord my God, for these my sufferings,"
cried good Francis of Assisi out of his half-
blindness and pangs of pain, "and I beseech
Thee to increase them a hundredfold ; for
this shall be most acceptable to me that Thou
spare not to afflict me, for the fulfillment of Thy

paul's moral characteristics 263
holy will is to me an overflowing consolation. "
(Oliphant, St. Francis of Assisi, p. 279.) No
such morbidness marked Paul, but he was as
serenely brave through a whole life to which
Punch's lines regarding Livingstone's death might
be applied. " 'Tis the last mile of many thousands trod
With failing strength but never failing will.
By the worn frame now at its rest with God,
That never rested from its strife with ill.
" Or if the ache of travel and of toil
Would sometimes wring a short, sharp cry of
pain
From agony of fever, blain and boil
'Twas but to crush it down and on again."
He did live in this way a life of suffering.
One writer even says, " He was so weak and ail
ing that under circumstances of danger he was
personally helpless : that he had to be passively
conducted from place to place, that it was almost
impossible for him, I will not say only to preach,
but even to get through the ordinary routine of
life without companions to guide, and protect and
lead him by the hand." (Farrar, The Life and
Work of St. Paul, Vol. I., Exc. x.) The writer
of the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla,
however, in his otherwise rather unattractive de
scription of Paul's personal appearance calls him
"well built" or "healthy," and we must believe
that he had a great deal of tenacity of constitu
tion or he could not have endured the frightful
experiences of his arduous life. (2 Cor. xi.
23-33.) And there were strains upon him more
severe than these mere physical sufferings imposed.
His work constantly outran his strength. (2 Cor.
iv. 7-18.) And he felt beyond measure the spir
itual anguish of it. (2 Cor. vi. 4-10.) Body

264 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
and soul he walked with Christ and rejoiced in
his sufferings which filled up on his part "that
which was lacking of the afflictions of Christ."
(Col. i. 24.) "Unto this present hour," he told
the Corinthians, " we both hunger and thirst, and
are naked and are buffeted, and have no certain
dwelling-place; and we toil working with our
own hands : being reviled we bless ; being perse
cuted, we endure; being defamed, we intreat;
we are made as the filth of the world, the offscour
ing of all things even until now." (1 Cor. iv.
11-13.) This was what he felt most keenly, the
insults, the contumely, the insolence of the world.
Yet he acted toward it in the spirit of Christ, while
the angels looked upon the spectacle. (1 Cor. iv. 9.)
And he was content. The sufferings of this pres
ent time were not worthy to be compared with the
glory that was to be revealed. (Rom. viii. 18.)
As Herrick quaintly says,
" Tears though they're here below the sinner's brine
Above they are the angels' spicSd wine.
' If little labor, little are our gains ;
Man's fortunes are according to his pains.
"If we endure," said Paul, "we shall also reign
with Him." (2 Tim. ii. 12.)
He did not. go in search of such hardships.
He simply accepted them in the way of duty.
He was prudent and careful and escaped danger
when he could do so without disloyalty to duty.
(Acts xiv. 6.) " All strength of character," says
Mr. Ruskin, "begins in temperance, prudence
and lowliness of thought." He was not in the
least foolhardy, but wary and cautious, (Acts
xvi. 39, 40, xviii. 10, 14), and he dealt with the
difficulties of his life with a clear and far-seeing
mind, (Acts xxiv. 19, 20, xxvii. 10), and with tact
and steadiness of will. (Acts xxvi. 26-29.)

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 265
Of course it was an incalculable source of
strength to him in his trials that he was not afraid
of death. What more could all these trials at their
worst amount to than that ? And did he not long
for it and to see Christ ? (Phil. i. 23.)
" Oh what a hope ! and when afar it glistens
Stops the heart beating and the Jips are -dumb;
Inly my spirit to His silence listens
Faints till she finds Him, quivers till He come.
" Once for a night and day upon the splendid
Anger and solitude of seething sea
Almost I deemed mine agony was ended,
Nearly beheld Thy Paradise and Thee, —
" Saw the deep heaving into ridges narrow.
Heard the blast bellow on its ocean-way,
Felt the soul freed and like a flaming arrow
Sped on Euroclydon thro' death to day.
" Oh but not yet He took me from my prison, —
Left me a little while, nor left for long, —
Bade as one buried, bade as one arisen
Suffer with men and like a man be strong."
That was one of the glories of his sufferings.
They were for men, (Eph. iii. 13) a part of his
constant unselfishness, (Philem. 7, 17, 18; Titus
iii. 13; Acts xxviii. 8), not a morbid stultifica
tion of the personal life, but in the way of his ef
fort to lead each life to realize itself in God. How
different his view of life and selfishness from
Gautama Buddha's, who " enjoined absolute un
selfishness, not because selfishness appeared to
him mean and demeaning in itself, not because
he recognized unselfishness as something noble
and ennobling in itself, but because all individu
ality, all personal life was utterly worthless to his
mind. He wished men to sink in themselves,
not that they might thereby rise in God, but sim
ply because he conceived existence to be in itself

266 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
an absolute evil and the source of all misery."
(Eitel, Buddhism, p. 79.)
10. Paul's "thorn" and sufferings did not
make him morose and sombre. He persisted in
seeing the salutary uses of evil, (1 Cor. xi. 19),
and rejoicing in his infirmities. (Col. i. 24; 2
Cor. xii. 9, 10; Phil. ii. 17, 18.) His irrepress
ible cheer' rose supreme in all trials. He sang
in jail with his feet in the stocks, (Acts xvi. 25),
and he heartened his fellow-passengers in the
shipwreck with bright words, "Sirs, be of good
cheer." And his spirits prevailed, and "they
were all of good cheer." (Acts xxvii. 25, 36.)
"Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, " was
one of his aphorisms. (Rom. xii. 12.) He saw
the element of tribulation in his trials, " the moral
uses of dark things." The word which he uses
for tribulation is derived from the verb 0X{/3w, to
press (as grapes). The Vulgate uses the word
from which " tribulation " is derived. " Tribula-
tio" was the act of separation of grain from the
husk, and the metaphor was caught up by some
Christian writer, as Paul had used the metaphor
of pressing the grapes, to indicate the separation
in men by tribulations, threshings or pressings
"of whatever in them was light, trivial and poor
from the solid and the true." (Trench, On the
Study of Words, p. 49 f.) As George Wither
wrote in the seventeenth century :
" Till from the straw the flail the corn doth beat,
Until the chaff be purged from the wheat,
Yea, till the mill the grain in pieces tear,
The richness of the flour will scarce appear.
So, till men's persons great affliction touch,
If worth be found, their worth is not so much,
Because like wheat in straw, they have not yet
That value which in threshing they may get.
For till the bruising flails of God's corrections
Have threshed out of us bur vain affections :

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 267
Till those corruptions which do misbecome us
Are by Thy sacred Spirit winnowed from us ;
Until from us the straw of worldly treasures,
Till all the dusty chaff of empty pleasures,
Yea, till His flail upon us He doth lay,
To thresh the husk of this our flesh away ;
And leave the soul uncovered ; nay, yet more,
Till God shall make our very spirit poor,
We shall not up to highest wealth aspire :
But then we shall; and that is my desire."
And so also Michael Angelo :
" As when, O Lady mine, with chiselled touch
The stone unhewn and cold,
Becomes the living mould.
The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows;
So if the working of my soul be such
That good is but evolved by Time's dread blows^
The vile shell day by day
Falls like superfluous flesh away.
Oh ! Take whatever bonds my spirit knows :
And Reason, Virtue, Power, within me lay."
Yet there was more in Paul's content and cheer
in suffering than this resignation to its discipline.
He took the sacrifices and hardships of his life
with real hearty good will as in the line of a sol
dier's duty. (2 Tim. ii. 3-5.) David Living
stone represented this spirit when he said in his
paper on "Missionary Sacrifices," "It is some
thing to be a missionary. The morning stars
sang together and all the sons of God shouted for
joy, when they first saw the field which the first
missionary was to fill. . . . We will magnify
the office. . . . Pathetic plaints are penned
about laying their bones on a foreign shore by
those who never thought of making aught of
their bones at home. (Bone dust is dear no
where, we think.) And then there is the never
ending talk and wringing of hands over mission-

268 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
ary 'sacrifices.' The man is surely going to be
hanged, instead of going to serve in Christ's holy
gospel. Is this such service as He deserves who,
though rich, for our sakes became poor? . . .
He asks a willing mind, a cheerful obedience.
. . . Our talk of sacrifices is ungenerous and
heathenish. ' ' (Blaikie, Personal Life of Living
stone, p. 475 f.)
And Paul could always see beyond his present
affliction. "It is but for a moment," he said,
"and worketh for us more and more exceedingly
an eternal weight of glory." (2 Cor. iv. 16-18.)
He even took a bright view of his difficulties,
(Phil. i. 19-26; 2 Tim. iv. 18; Actsxxviii. 15),
and he assured the Roman church, " The God of
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. ' '
(Rom. xvi. 20. ) Indeed his own sufferings seem
only to beget in him a softer and sweeter
hope and a greater pity and tenderness toward
human woe and wrong. Did he not believe in
Christ and wait patiently for Him ? (Rom. viii.
21-25 ; 1 Thess. i. 3.)
" What can we do, o'er whom the unbeholden
Hangs in a night with which we cannot cope ?
What but look sunward and with faces golden
Speak to each other softly of a hope ?
" Can it be true the grace He is declaring ?
Oh, let us trust Him, for His words are fair !
Man, what is this, and why art thou despairing ?
God shall forgive thee all but thy despair.
" Truly He cannot, after such assurance,
Truly He cannot and He shall not fail ;
Nay, they are known, the hours of thine endurance,
Daily thy tears are added to the tale :
" Never a sigh of passion or of pity,
Never a wail for weakness or for wrong,
Has not its archive in the angels' city,
Finds not its echo in the endless song."

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 269
11. Paul's hope was never light or careless.
His sense of responsibility was too constant and
sphering. "I have a stewardship entrusted to
me." (1 Cor. ix. 17.) "Let a man so account
of us, as of ministers of Christ and stewards of
the mysteries of God. Here, moreover, it is re
quired in stewards, that a man be found faithful."
(1 Cor. iv. 1, 2.) And he was on a great mis
sion where a divine will was constraining his
way. He had become an apostle " through the
will of God," (1 Cor. i. 1 ; Rom. i. i), and as
he moved on his journeys he had constant assur
ance that a greater plan than any of his own was
unfolding in his life. " And the night following,
the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good
cheer : for as thou hast testified concerning Me at
Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at
Rome." (Acts xxiii. n.) " I believe I have been
driven to the determination to be a missionary,"
wrote Dr. Nevius, " by a solemn and increasingly
oppressive sense of duty taught me by God's
Word, and the call of Providence and the Church
and God's spirit. I feel that few have been so
much blessed and are so much indebted to God
as I am, and I desire to consecrate my all to
Him. ' ' (Life of John Livingstone Nevius, p.
109.) A real necessity constrained Dr. Nevius,
constrained Paul, the glad and free necessity of
love, not like poor Thompson's
" Necessity supreme,
With infinite Mystery, abysmal, dark
Unlighted ever by the faintest spark
For us the flitting shadows of a dream.'
The divine will said to him, "Thou must,"
and his heart leaped joyfully to reply, " I am free
to answer, I will." (Acts xxii. 14; Rom. xv.
32 ; Eph. i. 5, vi. 6.)

270 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
12. With such sense of responsibility and
duty there came to Paul also a great dignity and
a great humility. A solemn demonstrativeness
sometimes marked him. (Acts xiii. 51.) Again
he spoke with great elevation of bearing, " If
then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed any
thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die : but if
none of those things is true, whereof these accuse
me, no man can give me up unto them. I appeal
unto Csesar." (Acts xxv. 11.) And he bore
himself without diffidence or shame. (2 Tim. i.
8, 12 ; Rom. i. 16.) Perhaps he did not do this
without a struggle. The frequency of his allusions
to not being ashamed indicates perhaps an effort
of his own life, and certainly a sense of what
ought to characterize every Christian's life.
(Phil. i. 20; 2 Tim. i. 16; Rom. v. 5, ix. 33,
x. 11.) Paul must have felt the humiliation and
indignities to which he was subjected, and he
knew how much the early Christians, constantly
reviled and their worship caricatured, would have
to bear. There was another sort of shame with
which he would not be defiled — the shame of
outer professions covering inward falsehoods.
(1 Tim. i. 5, iii. 9, v. 22.) The shame of im
pure speech and thought, too, he would escape.
(Eph. v. 12; Phil. iv. 8.) As Marcus Aurelius
said, "Accustom yourself, therefore, to think
upon nothing but what you could freely reveal,
if the question were put to you ; so that if your
soul were thus laid open, there would appear
nothing but what was sincere, good-natured and
public-spirited — not so much as one voluptuous
or luxurious fancy, nothing of hatred, envy, or
unreasonable suspicion, nor aught else which you
could not bring to the light without blushing."
(Meditations, Book iii., § 4. Titus i. 15 ; 2 Tim.
ii. 19-22 ; 1 Cor. vii. 34.)

PAUL'S MORAL CHARACTERISTICS 271
And he was truly, reverently humble. He ad
vised men not to think of themselves more highly
than they ought to think, but to think soberly, to
condescend to lowly things, to be not wise in
their own conceits. (Rom. xii. 3, 16.) And he
warned them against that ascetic and conscious
humility which is the subtlest kind of pride.
(Col. ii. 18, 19.) He was lowly among the Co
rinthians, (2 Cor. x. 1), and he told them that he
knew he was not rhetorical and polished in speech
as Apollos was. (1 Cor. xi. 6, i. 17, ii. 4, 13,
iv. 6, 7.) "I know," he said, "that in me, that
is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." (Rom.
vii. 18.) And he did not wish a reputation be
yond his just desert. (2 Cor. xii. 6.) And
though God had honored him with great revela
tions, He had taken care, too, Paul says, that he
should not be exalted above measure by these.
(2 Cor. xii. 7.)
Paul's view of righteousness tended to confirm
the spirit of humility. In this it was diametrically
opposite to the righteousness of the law which he
had sought before his conversion, and which was
in him as in other Pharisees, only the source of
blinding pride. But what Paul valued " so highly
in the righteousness of Christ, is that while it is a
most real righteousness, an actual fulfillment by
ourselves of our law, yet the fact that it is at the
same time not of ourselves, but of God in us, ex
cludes from it all that element of boasting, of self-
conceit and pride which would contradict its chief
virtue and beauty; viz, its selflessness, its mod
esty and humility. Assuredly to be all that
righteousness is and to do all that it requires, and
yet to take none of the merit or glory of it to our
selves, makes righteousness a vastly better and
greater thing than if it were otherwise. What
else could combine such lofty assurance, such

272 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
divine confidence of being able to be all things
and to do all things, with such meekness and
lowliness, such humility and modesty, as we see
originally in our Lord Himself, as we see deriva
tively in St. Paul and in all true Christians!"
(Du Bose, Soteriology of the New Testament, p.
74 f.)
In Paul reverence was true. There was no
"levity or flippancy in thought or language
about divine things," as was said of Tennyson.
" He was full of a kind of awful wonder, — of a
silent worship." And he had the power of rever
ence without which, as Carlyle says in Sartor
Resartus, "Thought is barren . . . does not
live, like sowing, in successive tilths and wide-
spreading harvests, bringing food and plenteous
increase to all time."
There was a great deal in his life to feed won
der and reverence and humility. He had seen
Christ, and spoken with Him. (i Cor. xv. 8.)
He had been in Paradise. (2 Cor. xii. 4.) Jesus
had called him to be an apostle. (1 Cor. xv. 9.)
And yet was he not chief of sinners? (1 Tim.
i. 12-16.) Had he not participated in the death
of the martyrs? (Acts xxii. 20.) He lived in
the lowliness of a great repentance and the rever
ence of a great love.

" Also I ask, but ever from the praying
Shrinks my soul backward, eager and afraid,
Point me the sum and shame of my betraying,
Show me, O Love, Thy wounds which I have made.

" Yes, Thou forgivest, but with all forgiving
Canst not renew mine innocence again :
Make Thou, O Christ, a dying of my living,
Purge from the sin but never from the pain 1

Paul's moral characteristics 273
" So shall all speech of now and of to-morrow,
All He hath shown me or shall show me yet,
Spring from an infinite and tender sorrow,
Burst from a burning passion of regret :
" Standing afar I summon you anigh Him,
Yes, to the multitudes I call and say,
' This is my King ! I preach and I deny Him,
Christ ! whom I crucify anew to-day.' "
13. Perhaps the strength and fullness of Paul's
character can be best described by saying that he
combined the spirit of the warrior and the spirit
of the child. That combination accounts for the
rich contrasts his character presents.
"In all the best men you meet," wrote Prin
cipal Shairp, "perhaps the thing that is most
peculiar about them is the child's heart they bear
within the man's. However they have differed
in other respects — in their tempers, gifts, attain
ments — in this they agreed. With those things
they were, so to speak, clothed upon, — this was
their very core, their essential self. And this
child's heart it is that is the organ of faith, trust,
heavenly communion. It is a very simple thing
— so simple that worldly men are apt either not
to perceive or to despise it. And young persons,
when they grow up and enter the world, are
tempted to make little of it. They think that
now they are men they must put away childish
things, must learn the world and conform to its
ways and estimates of things. But the childish
things which St. Paul put away belong to a quite
different side of child-nature from the little child
which our Lord recommended for our example,"
and whose heart we see in Paul.
But he was a warrior, too, and his life is stern
with the strife of a man. (1 Cor. ix. 26, 27, xvi.
9.) No one could say more truly than he,

274 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
" And so I live, you see,
Go through the world, try, prove, reject,
Prefer, still struggling to effect
My warfare ; happy that I can
Be crossed and thwarted as a man.
Not left in God's contempt apart,
With ghostly smooth life, dead at heart,
Tame in earth's paddock as her prize.
*******
Thank God, no paradise stands barred
To entry, and I find it hard
To be a Christian, as I said."
His life was calm and strenuous with the strenu-
ousness and calm alike of warrior and of little
child. He struggled as warrior and child with
out complaint, yet as warrior and child his heart
would cry for rest, and twice the cry escaped his
lips. (Rom. xv. 32 ; 2 Thess. i. 7.)

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK

275

VIII
PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK
I. His Prayer Life.
He was not more a man of action than a man
of prayer. He was what he was as a man of ac
tion because he was what he was as a man of
prayer. His work was prayer because his prayer
was work. He made room for supernatural
powers in his life, expecting them and walking
by them. Direct revelations of the will of God
came to him, (Gal. i. 12, ii. 2), and he believed
that direct interventions of the power of God
were vouchsafed to him. (Acts xxvii. 23-26;
2 Tim. iv. 17.) Paul was one of those men,
whom Fleming Stevenson described in speaking
of Falk, Wichern, Fliedner, Gossner and Harms,
"who maintain that God exercises some direct
influence in the affairs of the world ; who there
fore appeal to Him in any puzzle or difficulty ;
who expect His help, and as they believe that He
has the hearts of ail men in His hand, do not
know any special type of actions, within which
that help must be limited. They distinctly be
lieve in God as their Father, and never care to
realize Him either as a pure, infinite Intelligence,
or as an eternal Law. They believe, also, that
prayer is not an arbitrary provision for temporary
circumstances, but that it is fixed in the ways of
God, and in harmony with the settled relations
of the world and the laws of human conduct.
277

278 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
And they believe that if in God's name they be
gin a fitting work, God will establish it; answer
their prayers regarding it ; enable them to deal
wisely and righteously and prosperously by it;
and that behind every other means, and often
supplanting the others, there is prayer itself."
(Praying and Working, p. 7.)
Paul's Epistles contain no argument for prayer
nor any explanation of prayer. Paul assumed its
reality, its naturalness, its power. All these were
contained for him in the one fact that in our
hearts the Holy Spirit has taught us to cry " Fa
ther." (Gal. iv. 6.) He believed prayer to be
just as truly a force and natural action in the uni
verse as any of the processes of nature or human
affection. As Ruskin says, "The whole confi
dence and glory of prayer is in its appeal to a
Father who knows our necessities before we ask,
who knows our thoughts before they rise in our
hearts, and whose decrees, as unalterable in the
eternal future as in the eternal past, yet in the
close verity of visible fact, bend, like reeds, be
fore the faithful prayers of His children." (On
the Old Road, Vol. II., § 286.) Prayer does' no
violence to the integrity of the will of God. Part
of His will is that our wills should enter into His.
" Thou with strong prayer and very much entreating
Wiliest be asked, and Thou shalt answer then,
Show the hid heart beneath creation beating,
Smile with kind eyes and be a man with men."
Many of our difficulties about prayer, and re
ligion also, grow out of misconceptions which
never entered Paul's thought. One of the most
evil and weakening of these Arthur Hallam dealt
with in a discussion before the "Apostles" at
Cambridge. "With respect to prayer, you ask
how am I to distinguish the operations of God

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 279
from motions in my own heart ? Why should
you distinguish them or how do you know there is
any distinction? Is God less God because He
acts by general laws when He deals with the
common elements of nature? . . . That fatal
mistake which has embarrassed the philosophy of
mind with infinite confusion, the mistake of set
ting value on a thing's origin rather than on its
character, of assuming that composite must be
less excellent than simple, has not been slow to
extend its deleterious influence over the field of
practical religion." (Memoirs of Tennyson, by
his son, Vol. I., p. 44.) Paul's belief was that
God dwelt in him, that his life was Christ, (Phil.
i. 21 ; Gal. ii. 20), that our very prayer is the
operation of the Holy Spirit of God, (Rom. viii.
26), the Spirit of God within us answering to the
Spirit of God without us. (Rom. viii. 9,11; 1
Cor. iii. 16 ; Gal. iv. 6.) To live as a Christian
was to Paul to live a life of prayer, of intercourse
between the believer and the Saviour, between
the child and the Father.
1 . He and his converts led a mutual prayer life.
(1) He was ever praying for them, that they
might do no evil, (2 Cor xiii. 7-9), that their
love might abound more and more, that they
might choose the excellent things and be sincere
and innocent, (Phil. i. 9-1 1), that they might be
filled with the knowledge of His will, that they
might live worthily and fruitfully, (Col. i. 9-12),
that they might be worthy of their calling, and
that every desire of goodness and usefulness
might be fulfilled in them. (2 Thess; i. n, 12.)
How lovingly he carried these friends on his
heart in prayer is shown in his declaration to the
Philippians, that always in every supplication of
his on behalf of them all, he made his supplica
tion with joy, and had them in his heart, and

280 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
longed after them all "in the tender mercies of
Christ Jesus." (Phil. i. 3-8.) And he longed
in his prayers to see those from whom he was ab
sent. "What thanksgiving can we render again
unto God for you," he asks the Thessalonian
church, "for all the joy wherewith we joy for
your sakes before our God ; night and day pray
ing exceedingly that we may see your face and
may perfect that which is lacking in your faith ? "
(1 Thess. iii. 9, 10.) "I thank God," he tells
Timothy, "how unceasing is my remembrance of
thee in my supplications, night and day longing
to see thee, remembering thy tears that I may be
filled with joy." (2 Tim. i. 3, 4.)
" When hearts are full of yearning tenderness
For the loved absent, whom we cannot reach,
By deed or token, gesture or kind speech,
The spirit's true affection to express,
When hearts are full of innermost distress,
And we are doomed to stand inactive by,
Watching the soul's or body's agony
Which human effort helps not to make less —
Then like a cup capacious to contain
The overflowings of the heart ; is prayer ;
The longing of the soul is satisfied,
The keenest darts of anguish blunted are ;
And tho' we cannot cease to yearn or grieve,
Yet we have learned in patience to abide."
What he prayed for for his churches is summed
up doubtless in the invocation at the close of the
third chapter of 1 Thessalonians. (1 Thess. iii.
(2) He was ever desiring their prayers for
himself. Prayer to him was a great and practical
cooperation. He asked the Corinthians to help
together on his behalf by their supplication "that
for the gift bestowed upon us by means of many,
thanks may be given by many on our behalf."

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 281
(2 Cor. i. 11.) Those to whom gifts had been
given could best repay through prayer. (2 Cor.
ix. 12-15.) And in the direction and planning
of his own life, the prayers of his friends were
counted upon as a determining factor. (Phil. i.
19, 20.) His letters are full of requests.
" Brethren, pray for us," he adjures the Thes
salonians. (1 Thess. v. 25.) And he specifies
the things for which he wishes them to pray, that
he may be delivered from opposers, that his
ministry may be acceptable, that he may come to
his friends and rest with them, (Rom. xv. 30-32),
that he may have bold utterance, (Eph. vi. 18-
20), that God may open him doors for the word,
(Col. iv. 2-4), that that word may "run and be
glorified," and that he may be delivered from evil
and unreasonable men, (2 Thess. iii. 1, 2), that
he may escape from imprisonment. (Philem. 22.)
2. Paul reveals to us many of the character
istics of his prayer.
(1) He prayed unceasingly. (Rom. i. 9, 10 ;
1 Cor. i. 4; Eph. i. 15, 16; Phil. i. 3-5; Col.
i- 3> 9-) "Whole days and weeks," said White-
field, "have I spent prostrate on the ground. in
silent or verbal prayer." In the Thessalonian
Epistles where he exhorts others to pray cease
lessly, (1 Thess. v. 17; cf. Rom. xii. 12), he
speaks repeatedly of his own fidelity in this
regard. (1 Thess. i. 2, 3, ii. 13 ; 2 Thess. i.
3, n, 12, ii. 13-15.)
If we with earnest effort could succeed
To make our life one long connected prayer,
As lives of some perhaps have been and are,
If never leaving Thee we had no need
Our wandering spirits back again to lead
Into Thy presence, but continued there,
Like angels standing on the highest stair
Of the sapphire throne, this were to pray indeed.

282 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
But if distractions manifold prevail,
And if in this we must confess we fail,
Grant us to keep at least a prompt desire,
Continual readiness for prayer and praise,
An altar heaped and waiting to take fire
With the least spark and leap into a blaze."
The altar of Paul's soul was aflame always.
So common was prayer to him that it does not
occur to him to mention it with watchings, fast
ings and the spiritual experiences of 2 Cor. vi.
4-10. (2) He prayed with constant thankfulness and
gratitude. He thanked God for the faith of be
lievers like the Romans known far and wide,
(Rom. i. 8), for the deliverance wrought in him
by Christ, (Rom. vii. 24, 25), for the faith and
love of the Colossians (Col. i. 3-5) and Thes
salonians, (2 Thess. i. 3, 4; cf. 1 Cor. i. 4; Eph.
i. 16; Phil. i. 3-5; 1 Thess. i. 2, ii. 13; 2
Thess. ii. 13), and what he practices he enjoins.
(Eph. v. 4 ; Phil. iv. 6 ; Col. ii. 7, iv. 2 ; 1
Tim. ii. 1.)
(3) His whole heart was in his prayers. (Rom.
x. 1.) His love and joy overflowed. (2 Tim.
i. 3, 4 ; Phil. i. 4 ; Philem. 4-7 ; 1 Thess. iii.
9, 10.)
(4) He rejoiced in the thought of united in
tercessory prayer. (2 Cor. i. 11.) " Martyn
observes, I think it is in his journal," writes Dr.
Moule, "that at times of inward spiritual dryness
and depression, he had often found a delightful
revival in the act of praying for others, for their
conversion or sanctification, or prosperity in the
work of the Lord." (Secret Prayer, p. 113.)
(5) His prayers were not formal. What he
desired he says he "groaned" for, (2 Cor. v.
2-4), even as the Holy Spirit "groaned" in His
utterances on our behalf. (Rom. viii. 26.) We

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 283
see his recognition of the value of real intensity
in prayer in his commendation of Epaphras.
(Col. iv. 12.)
(6) When he had made his prayer and pressed
his desire he was content with the will of God. He
asked for the removal of his thorn, and he ac
cepted gladly the decision of Christ that he should
keep it with grace sufficient for him. (2 Cor. xii.
8-10.) "I cannot think that there are any
promises for answers to prayer made for temporal
things," wrote Gordon in journal at Khartum,
September n, 1884; "the promises are to hear
prayer and to give strength to bear with quiet what
may be the will of God." The first half of Gor
don's doctrine Paul did not hold, but he bore
with quiet the will of God when it retained his
thorn or frustrated his plans.
(7) His prayer was himself in his natural rela
tionship to God in Christ. The reality and order
of that relationship made prayer as much an ac
tivity of his inner life as breathing and sleeping
were of his outer life.
3. It is clear that Paul regarded nothing as
beyond the reach of prayer. He prayed for the
salvation of Israel, (Rom. x. 1), for the enlarge
ment and perfection of his missionary work,
(Rom. ii. 10; 1 Thess. iii. 10), for his "habita
tion which is from heaven," (2 Cor. v. 1-4), for
the larger revelation of God to men. (Eph. i.
IS-23-) From these passages in his Epistles we can im
agine what his prayer must have been. (Eph. i.
15-23, iii. 14-21 ; Col. i. 9-23.) Doubtless
these are evidence of his usual habit of prayer and
how noble and reverent and adoring they show
his prayer to have been ! "I consider the reli
gion of the day," said the devout Charles Simeon,
" as materially defective in this point. I do not

284 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
see as much as I could wish, a holy reverential
awe of God." There was this awe in Paul, and
there were in his life the irresistible power and the
peaceful calm which come with the burial of the
heart and mind and will in the quietness of the
spirit in prayer in Christ in God. "In true
silence," said John Woolman, "strength is re
newed and the mind is weaned from all things
save as they may be enjoyed in the Divine
will. . . . Being weaned from all things except
as they may be enjoyed in the Divine will, the
pure light shines in the soul."
II. His Apostolic Work.
1. By the will of God, Paul claimed, he had
been appointed an apostle, (1 Cor. i.'i; Gal. i.
1 ; Eph. i. 1 ; 1 Tim. i. 1), not inferior to the
other apostles. (1 Cor. ix. 1, 2; 2 Cor. xi. 5,
xii. 11.) Into all the disagreements and misun
derstandings in the early Church, it is not neces
sary to enter. There were great divisions.
"However great may be the theological differ
ences and religious animosities of our own time,
they are far surpassed," says Lightfoot, "in
magnitude by the distractions of an age which, clos
ing our eyes to facts, we are apt to invest with an
ideal excellence. In the early Church was ful
filled, in its inward dissensions, no less than in its
outward sufferings, the Master's sad warning, that
He came 'not to send peace but a sword.' "
(Lightfoot, St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians,
Andover edition, 1885, p. 212.) The first Epis
tle to the Corinthians gives a picture of such par
tisan dissension in one church, and the Epistle to
the Galatians shows its evil working in another
form in a different section. There were personal
difficulties. Sin kept breaking in, as the second

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 285
Epistle to the Corinthians shows, and heresy after
heresy crept through the Church. Above all was
the great controversy with the Judaizers who in
sisted that Gentiles could become Christians only
by becoming Jews too, and that, too, although, as
Paul charged Peter, the Judaizers were not them
selves consistent Jews. (Gal. ii. 14.) It cannot
be wondered at that there were difficulties. It
was an enormous question with which Christian
ity had to deal, to adjust the new faith to life and
also to the old faith. The marvel is that it was
done so well. It could not have been done so
had not God been in it, and the human agent He
used was Paul. He saw the issue, and through
calm and controversy, against friend and foe, he
stood for the truth and liberty of the gospel.
(Gal. ii. 5.) In this controversy many denied that
Paul was an apostle in the sense in which Peter
and John were apostles. To what extent Paul's
apostleship was recognized at Jerusalem, we do
not know. We know only that the authorities
there recognized that Paul had a mission to preach
to Gentiles. (Gal. ii. 9.) But whether recog
nized or not, Paul asserted it. "I reckon," he
said, "that I am not a whit behind the very chief-
est apostles," (2 Cor. xi. 5), and history has more
than vindicated his claim.
2. He was not only an apostle. He was the
apostle of the Gentiles. (Rom. xi. 13.) He told
Agrippa that among the things that Jesus said to
him on the road to Damascus was a charge to go
to the Gentiles and preach to them. (Acts xxvi.
17, 18.) He told the Jews in Jerusalem that
when after returning from Damascus he had gone
into the Temple, he prayed and fell into a trance
and saw Jesus saying to him, " Depart, for I will
send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." (Acts
xxii. 17-21.) It was years before he came finally

286 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
to this work as the supreme and absorbing work
of his life. He began among the Jews and worked
out gradually into the apostolic work he did for
Christ and the Church among the Gentiles. He
was content to grow into his task and so came
to it and its huge problems not in his time, but in
God's. And in God's time he came to it and
swept over the Roman Empire from east to west,
the apostle of the Gentiles always, even when he
was a prisoner in bonds. (Eph. iii. i.)
3. Yet he never lost love or relaxed effort for
the Jews. (Rom. ix. 1-4, x. 1, 2, xi. 13-24.)
" He desired the salvation of every man, but as a
true patriot longed most profoundly for the con
version of his own nation. ... He believed that
the salvation of the heathen would redound to the
benefit of the children of Abraham." He under
stood his call to the Gentiles "to mean not that
he was to forget or neglect his own countrymen,
but that he was to improve every opportunity that
might offer itself to win such of them as he came
in contact with while carrying on his world-wide
mission ; that he was in fact to win every man he
could, whether Gentile or Jew." (McGiffert,
The Apostolic Age, p. 183.) He was no narrow
man, able to do only one piece of work. He held
his mind in adjustment to all men's minds and
sought all men's souls, his countrymen's and
strangers'. He was the apostle of the Gentiles,
but he was the apostle of Christ.
4. He had a wonderful way of handling his
churches. Now he was gently paternal, (1 Thess.
ii. 7, 8, 11), now brotherly, (1 Thess. ii. 17, 18),
now sympathetic and tender, (1 Thess. iv. 13-18),
now plain and practical, (Titus iii. 14) ,now half-
feignedly haughty, (Gal. iv. 11), now he touched
a chord of plaintive recollection, (Gal. iv. 13,
14), and now of irony, (1 Cor. iv. 8), of stinging

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 287
sarcasm, (i Cor. iv. 10 ; 2 Cor. xi. 19, 20), of
pity, (Gal. iii. 1), of scornful surprise, (Gal. i. 6),
and now of playfulness. (2 Cor. xii. 16.) Now
he thunders, (2 Cor. xiii. 2, 3 ; 1 Cor. iv. 18,
19; Gal. i. 8, 9), and now he pleads with a
father's pathos and a father's love, (1 Cor. iv. 15 ;
Gal. iv. 19, 20; 2 Cor. vi. n-13), and now
with generous and confident praise. (2 Thess.
ii. 14.) Now he plays one church off against an
other in worthy emulation. (2 Cor. viii., ix.)
He felt with these churches. He kept in close
contact with them, sending to them, making in
quiries about them, telling them about his work
and experiences, writing them letters. (1 Cor.
iv. 17, xvi. 17, 18; Eph. vi. 21, 22; Col. iv.
7-9; 2 Cor. vii. 6-16; 1 Thess. iii. 1, 2, 6-8.)
He had a profound love for them. (Phil. i. 3-1 1 ;
2 Cor. xi. n ; 1 Thess. ii. 7, 8, 17-20, iii. 6-8.)
In his list of his trials and sufferings he men
tions, above his external hardships, the constant
strain of anxiety for his churches which pressed
upon him daily. (2 Cor. xi. 28, 29.) He had
identified himself with these churches utterly.
" Ye are in our hearts," he assured the Corinthi
ans, "to die together and to live together." (2
Cor. vii. 3, 4.) " Now we live," he told the
Thessalonians, "if ye stand fast in the Lord."
(1 Thess. iii. 8.)
It tore his heart to be disappointed in the
churches, especially if he found them in disorder,
confusion and strife, (2 Cor. xii. 20), or rent in
schism and faction. (1 Cor. i. 10.) " In even
ing prayer," wrote David Brainerd in his journal,
August 23, 1743, " God was pleased to draw near
my soul, though very sinful and unworthy; so
that I was enabled to wrestle with God and to
persevere in my request for grace. I poured out
my soul for all the world, friends and enemies.

288 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
My soul was concerned not so much for souls as
such, but rather for Christ's kingdom, that it
might appear in the world, that God might be
known to be God, in the whole earth. And 0
my soul abhorred the very thought of a party in
religion. Let the truth of God appear, wherever
it is : and God have the glory forever. Amen. ' '
That was the spirit of Paul, not in hours of ec
stasy alone, but always.
5. But it was not love and tact and appeal
alone with Paul. He bore authority. He was
in himself " a magerful man," and his apostle-
ship sealed his masterfulness. He forbore light
threatening. (Eph. vi. 9.) He was reasonable,
and he appealed to the moral judgment of men,
(2 Cor. i. 13, iv. 2), assured of an answer in
their conscience. (2 Cor. v. 11.) His speech
respected the intellectual independence of men,
(Phil. iii. 18), and his authority he would never
use in any negative or destructive way merely.
(2 Cor. xiii. 10.)
But he had authority, and used it. He had
the authority of experience. " All the faithful
are not called to the public ministry," said John
Woolman, "but whoever are, are called to min
ister of that which they have tasted and handled
spiritually," and they have the power which be
longs to him who is able to say, " I know." Paul
could say that. (Rom. xiv. 14; 2 Cor. xii. 2,
3; Phil. iv. 12; 2 Tim. i. 12.) His gospel was
not given to him indirectly. It came to him im
mediate from God, (Gal. i. n, 12), and no
man added to it for him. (Gal. ii. 6.)
Possessing authority he recognized it, (Col. ii.
1), used and asserted it, (2 Cor. ii. 10; Titus i.
13, 14, ii. 15; Gal. ii. 1-10; 1 Cor. iv. 18-21,
v. 3, 11, 12; 1 Tim. i. 20), even when he waived
its exercise as he did in the matter of support, (2

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 289
Cor. xii. 13; 1 Thess. ii. 6; cf. Phil. ii. 30, iv.
10-20), or gracefully asked for what he might
have enjoined, (Philem. 8, 14), or recognized its
limitations. (2 Cor. i. 23, 24.) And always it
was an authority springing from and leading to
Christ. He bade men to be imitators of him,
"even as I also am of Christ." (1 Cor. xi. 2.)
He was father of his converts, but it was unto
Christ. (1 Cor. iv. 15.) He would present them
as a pure virgin unto Christ. (2 Cor. xi. 2.)
He would present every man to Christ. He him
self was only a minister. (Col. i. 23, 25.) "Our
selves your servants for Jesus' sake," (2 Cor. iv.
5), he says, and "Paul a servant of Jesus
Christ," and adds, having set "servant" first,
"called to be an apostle." (Rom. i. 1; cf.
Titus i. 1 ; Phil. i. 1.)
III. His Correspondence.
" History is half dream — ay even
The man's life in the letters of the man.
There lies the letter, but it is not he
As he retires into himself and is."
And yet nothing else is so valuable as the man's
letters to show us the man. We know far more
about Paul himself from his own letters than we
could learn from his history in the Acts alone.
They show us his character with all its varied ele
ments, his religious intensity, his originality,
freshness and depth of thought and his intellec
tual boldness and strength, while they reveal to
us also, his rich moral nature and his human heart
enlarged by the grace of Christ,
*' The man's life in the letters of the man."
It has been assumed here that he wrote thirteen
Epistles, all those attributed to him in the cap-

290 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
tions of our English Bibles, except the Epistle to
the Hebrews. He may have written others also
which have not been preserved. (1 Cor. v. 9 ;
Col. iv. 16.) But we have enough to show us
the rich qualities and noble character of the great
apostle. And how characteristic the letters are
in their style and character of the style and char
acter of the man they reveal, and as we see him
as Luke describes him in the Acts !
There is no spirit of domineering in him. He
relies always on reason and argument. It is all
very different from what a man with some modern
notions of authority would have done. " Why
all this labor in proving what might have been
decided by a simple announcement from one en
trusted with the word of God ? Would not the
apostolic declaration that such a statement was
error, and that such another was truth, have suf
ficed for the settlement of that particular question.
Doubtless ! but it would not have sufficed to
train men's minds to that thoughtfulness whereby
truth becomes their own, or to educate them to
the living use of the Scriptures as the constituted
guide of inquiry. " (Bernard, Progress of Doc
trine in the New Testament, p. 159.)
There is no harshness or incivility in him.
Compliments are so pleasantly and sincerely
given. (1 Thess. i. 8, 9; 2 Thess. i. 3, 4, iii. 1,
2; 2 Cor. vii. 14-16, ix. 14; Rom. i. 8.) There
is such a gracious warmth, (2 Tim. ii. 1 ; 2 Cor.
vii. 6-16), such hearty encouragement, (Phil. i.
27-30; Col. ii. 5), and yet such plain and faiths
ful remonstrance, (1 Cor. v.), and such well-de
served rebuke and scorn, followed always by ten
der pleading and gentle entreaty. (Gal. iv. 19;
2 Cor. ii. 4 ; Rom. ix. 1-3.)
And what human impetuosity and rush of eager
earnestness ! (Gal. iv. 12-20.) It is not sur-

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 29 1
prising that Irensus should have felt called upon
to defend the apostle because he " frequently
uses a transposed order in his sentences, due to
the rapidity of his discourses and the impetus of
the spirit which is in him." (Against Heresies,
ch. vii., § 2, referring especially to Gal. iii. 19,
and 2 Thess. ii. 8.)
Sometimes he wrote with his own hand, and
sometimes he dictated to an amanuensis. Tertius
wrote the Epistle to the Romans for him, (Rom.
xvi. 22), and thanks to the unfailing courtesy of
Paul, sent his greetings in the first person, Paul
not treating him as a mere machine but as a fel
low-Christian and a brother. The democratic
character of the early Church is indicated in the
following verse. Gaius, a wealthy householder,
and Erastus the city treasurer, join with Quartus,
some simple artisan probably, of whom nothing
could be said but this, which was everything
then, that he was a Christian brother, all of them
being present probably while Paul was dictating
the letter, in sending greetings to the Christians
at Rome. (Rom. xvi. 23.) He wrote the saluta
tion at the close of 2 Thessalonians with his own
hand, "which is the token in every Epistle," so
preventing deceptions such as had perhaps been
practiced on this church. (2 Thess. ii. 2.) That
would seem to indicate clearly that the rest of the
Epistle an amanuensis had written. He seems to
have written the Epistle to the Galatians himself,
and in a large hand, "the boldness of the hand
writing answering to the force of the apostle's con
victions." (Lightfoot.)
The most exquisite of Paul's letters, as a letter,
is the little Epistle to Philemon, which shows
beautifully his graceful tact, his lovely generosity,
his refinement of spirit, and his true Christianity.
If some of Paul's other Epistles are " weighty " as

292 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
he said, (2 Cor. x. 10), or "hard to be under
stood," (2 Peter iii. 15, 16), let it be remembered
that Paul was one who, planting for Eternity, wrote
as one who planted not shallowly, but " into the
deep infinite faculties of man."
IV. As a Missionary.
"Even before his conversion, Paul desired to
be not merely a rabbi but a missionary ; to de
vote his life to the propagation of true righteous
ness and to the overthrow of everything which in
any way interfered with its advance, and which
in any way hindered the people from giving them
selves undividedly to the practice of the law."
(McGiffert, The Apostolic Age, p. 117.) (Acts
xxii. 3 ; Phil. iii. 5, 6.) His conversion changed
his passions and desires from one object to an
other, fitted to increase their intensity tenfold, and
he who would have been a missionary of Phari
saism became a missionary of Christ. What his
field was to be, Christ told him at his conversion.
(Acts xxvi. 17, 18.) The separation of him and
Barnabas at Antioch to go to the work to which
God had called them was accordingly only the
consummation of long cherished plans and of the
natural disposition of his character.
He wished to begin at Jerusalem, and was there
for a short while, but his experiences there were
always such as to indicate that that was not his
field, even as Jesus had told him, (Actsix. 26-30,
xxi. 17-36, xxii. 17-21), and he was swept out
into the world-wide work for which he had been
raised up. From Antioch he went out through
Asia. From Asia he crossed into Macedonia and
Achaia. He preached as far as Illyricum, hav
ing fully preached .the gospel from Jerusalem
thither. (Rom. xv. 19.) Then he passed on to

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 293
Italy and Rome, and in arranging for his visit to
Rome, expressed his purpose of going onto Spain.
(Rom. xv. 28.) Here was an ever-expanding
work. Many men lay out gigantic ambitions,
and their life story is the sad account of the con
traction of their schemes. The work of Paul
grew and spread with the years.
The principles of this missionary work of Paul's
are valuable for all time.
1. He knew the secret of giving work away.
Perhaps he had learned this from Barnabas, who
had no small part in his training. But even
so he was always training others and setting them
to work. (Acts xiii. i, xvi. 1-3, xx. 4 ; 2 Tim. ii.
2; Titus i. 5; Eph. vi. 21, 22.) He won men's
love that he might school them in work for Christ.
2. He counted on the willingness of men to
work for Christ, and on the motive-power of
Christianity to hold them in such service. He
had not organized a central missionary agency for
the employment of missionaries. Changed days
render such agencies wholly in accord with his
principles. But in each land he believed in plant
ing Christianity as an indigenous thing which
could take root and support itself upon the nour
ishment to be found about it. (Acts xx. 32.)
3. He supplied his churches with a simple,
flexible form of organization, (Acts xiv. 23; Titus
i. 5), and he kept as we have seen the closest
sympathetic connection with them, returning to
visit them. It was he who proposed such a course
to Barnabas with regard to the churches estab
lished on the first missionary tour. (Acts xv. 36.)
4. He combined careful deliberation with
evangelistic haste. He wanted to reach untouched
regions, (Rom. xv. 20, 21 ; 2 Cor. x. 16), yet he
believed in doing his work thoroughly as he went
along. (Rom. xv. 19; Acts xx. 25-27.) He

294 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
believed there was need of haste, that the Saviour
might return, yet he stayed two years in Ephesus
and would retrace his steps when he might have
reached new fields.
5. He despaired of no situation. He did
much of his work in great cities, not fearing the
difficulties they presented. Indeed the gospel
took such hold there that heathen were called
soon ' ' Pagans, " " country people. " " Heathen ' '
is of just the same meaning, — people of the heath.
To be sure in many regards cities presented the
most hopeful field to Paul. But even hopeless
fields, the Pretorian guard, (Phil. i. 13), Caesar's
household, (Phil. iv. 22), were not beyond his
courageous effort.
6. He was an incessant personal worker.
(Acts ix. 28, xx. 20, xxviii. 30, 31.) In prison,
(Acts xxvi. 29), in shipwreck, (Acts xxvii. 23-25,
35), wherever he was, he seized every opportunity
to speak of Christ. That was what Christ had
sent him for. (1 Cor. i. 17, 23.)
7. He set for his converts a standard of life
no lower than his own. They might have been
gladiators or slaves. They were capable of any
thing in Christ, and he did not lower his moral
principles for the sake of any Christian. All
were to have the Holy Spirit. (Acts xix. 1-6.)
All sin was to be stopped. (Eph. iv. 25-32.)
His desire and aim as he preached was that "we
may present every man perfect in Christ."
(Col. i. 28.)
8. His reliance was in the gospel and the
divine power resident in it. There was no in
direction, no irresolution, no timidity, no faith
lessness in him. He believed the gospel was
"the power of God unto salvation. (Rom. i.
16; cf. 1 Cor. i. 18, 24; 1 Thess. i. 5.)
He had no thought of preparing people to

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 295
receive the gospel, by long processes of pre
liminary education. But his gospel was very
personal and simple and direct. "We preach
Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your serv
ants for Jesus' sake." (2 Cor. iv. 5.)
Paul, the missionary, was a lover of heroic con
ceptions. He saw a world " delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the
children of God." (Rom. viii. 21.) He saw
the end of all disorder and death and the utter
triumph of Christ. " And when all things have
been subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also
Himself be subjected to Him that did subject all
things unto Him, that God may be all in all. ' '
(1 Cor. xv. 28.) And he glorified his service in
such a cause, (Rom. xi. 13), and counted his
work a gracious gift from his trusting God. (Gal.
i. 15; Eph. iii. 8; 1 Tim. i. 11; Titus i. 3;
Rom. i. 5.)
An ordinary man or an extraordinary man with
out Paul's belief in God and in the working of
God through him would have fainted under the
burden. How could a man hope to accomplish
in the mass of human selfishness and sin any work
of holiness and purification. Paul had the peace
of truth in his soul and its wisdom in his ways.
He did not assail " those institutions in which
that selfish spirit exhibits itself." He saw as
Blakesley wrote to Tennyson, that "this was not
the true method; but that we must implant
another principle with which selfishness cannot
coexist, and trust that this plant as it grows up
will absorb the nourishment of the weed, in which
case those wickednesses and miseries, which are
only the forms in which the latter develops itself,
will of their own accord die away, as soon as their
principle of vegetation is withered and dried up."
(Memoirs of Tennyson, by his son, Vol. I., p. 69.)

296 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
That was Paul's principle. (Rom. xiii. 14; Col.
iii. 5, 10.) He believed in what Kingsley called
" the Lord Jesus Christ's great ways in the deep."
He buried in the life of man the life and truth
committed to him of God and trusted the results
to the Eternal Will and Love. ' ' Looking at
things upon a large scale," says Buckle, "the re
ligion of- mankind is the effect of their improve
ment, not the cause of it." (History of Civiliza
tion in England, Vol. I., p. 185.) Paul is the
refutation of that statement for his own time, and
his influence on the world the refutation of it for
all ages since.
Resting thus deeply on the very ways of the
will of God, Paul met a missionary's death as he
had lived a missionary's life, with no fear upon
his heart. He had lived for Christ; for Christ
he was ready to die. In life God always led him
in triumph in Christ. (2 Cor. ii. 14.) And as
for death, Jesus Christ had robbed it of sting, and
it had been " swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor.
xv. 54-58.) "As for 'General Death,'" wrote
Romanes to Huxley, "I think it must be easier
to withstand his boast of Veni, vidi, vici, if in re
ply one can say, Vixi." But it was Paul, not
Death, who said "Vici," too.
" The good soldier," said Thomas Fuller, "be-
grudgeth not to get a probability of victory by
the certainty of his own death, and fleeth from
nothing so much as from the mention of flying.
And though some say, He is a madman, our sol
dier knows that he shall possess the reward of his
valor with God in heaven, and also making the
world his executor, leave to it the rich inheritance
of his memory."
" I am already being offered, and the time of
my departure is come," said Paul. " I have
fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 297
have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up
for me the crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at
that day, and not only to me, but also to all them
that have loved His appearing." (2 Tim. iv.
6-8.) Yet though Paul died and rested from his labors,
awaiting the resurrection in which he unwaver
ingly believed, his work did not cease. He lives
still in the words that he spoke and wrote, in the
impress he left upon Christianity, and in the en
during influence he is exerting upon mankind.
The Christian Church is still working at his
thought and with no prospect of exhausting it.
All the movements of human progress draw on
toward his ideals and take strength, even uncon
sciously, from him. The universal mission of the
gospel in which he believed and which he did
more than any other man to declare, increasingly
constrains the spirit and purposes of Christians,
and the name of the Saviour whom he so passion
ately loved, is made known in new lands and to
all people, according to the words of Isaiah of
which he was fond :
" They shall see to whom no tidings of Him came
And they who have not heard shall understand."
And wherever the Saviour's name is spoken, there
is spoken lovingly the name of His great apostle
and servant.
He was not content to be a man of culture, a
humanist, a master of expression, of pure taste,
of refined judgment. When we compare him
with Petrarch, Erasmus, Tennyson, we are sensi
ble at once that we are dealing with a different
type of man. He, too, was a man of powerful
mind, of rich expression, of original judgment,

29^ STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
but he was above all a religious man. And religion
with him was not a part of the activity of his life or
the whole of the spirit of his life. It was all his life,
activity and spirit, aim and purpose and achieve
ment. He was a poet, but in the original sense
of the word, a doer of great things, a maker of
new men and new worlds. Because Paul gave
himself utterly to religion, the men of culture, and
indeed the men of industry too, have been able to
feel and say and do what without Paul would have
been impossible. Indeed, they have existed only
because of Paul. He said there were diversities ,
of operations of the Divine Spirit, and he taught
men to follow their own gleams, but the lesser
men who have helped and strengthened and com
forted the world since have all stood in the strength
and shadow of that greater man who was deter
mined to know only Christ. The battle against
sin, the cultivation of the human spirit, the re
newal and enlargement of life, the love of holi-
riess — all that is truest and best in our possessions
lays us under debt to the huge character of Paul,
the bond slave of Christ.
And to the end of time it is with Christ's name
and not with the names of men that Paul's will
be associated. Christ was to him God and Lord,
and no one can be Paul's friend and not call Him
so. Paul was only his Master's servant and man.
We cannot compare their lives without feeling
this, that Christ was God come down into fellow
ship with man, and Paul was man lifted up into
fellowship with God. We see in Jesus the human
possibility of God. In this Paul worshipped Him.
We see in Him also the divine possibility of man.
In this Paul imitated Him, with shortcoming but
with all his soul.
Jesus truly made Paul. He changed his charac
ter. He made his thought, his work, his Epistles,

PAUL THE APOSTLE IN HIS WORK 299
his gospel. The man lay in the hands of God in
Christ and spoke and wrote and wrought for Him,
as no other man has ever spoken or written or
wrought. His words and work stand still as
the words and work of God for men. And if he,
the greatest man since the Man Christ Jesus, were
asked to describe himself, doubtless he would re
ply simply, "A man in Christ." (2 Cor. xii. 2.)

QUESTIONS FOR THE STUDY OF BIBLE
CLASSES
These should be assigned for advance study,
and some original work should be required.
i. What facts are available regarding Paul's
early life ?
2. What were the elements of his education ?
3. What means of support had he in his youth
and in his later work ?
4. What was his mental and spiritual condition
at the time of his conversion ?
5. Sketch the stages of his religious develop
ment. 6. Sketch the outlines of his life-work.
7. What place does Paul attribute to the Holy
Spirit in his life ?
8. With what is the Spirit of God contrasted in
his Epistles ?
9. What does Paul say about his own integrity
and purity of motive ?
10. What is his view of his own conduct and
character generally ?
11. How could he, who was only a man, ven
ture to say, " Imitate me"?
1 2. What were Paul's motives ?
13. What were Paul's aims ?
14. What did he do in his work? How did
he set about it ?
15. To what extent did he organize his work?
16. Enumerate some of his intellectual traits
and illustrate.
17. What was his view of life ?
300

QUESTIONS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 301
18. What was his attitude toward the Old
Testament ?
1 9. Was Paul in error as to his view of woman's
place ?
20. What was the principle he advocated in
this matter of woman's position ?
21. Indicate Paul's views on the subject of
social purity.
22. What was his view of government and po
litical rights ?
23. How did he deal with slavery?
24. State his views on money, on the world?
25. What titles does Paul apply to Christ ?
26. What is the significance and use of each of
these in his Epistles ?
27. What was his conception of Christ?
28. What did he know of and how did he
treat the earthly life of Jesus ?
29. What aspects of Jesus' work dominated his
thought ?
30. What were his feelings toward Christ ?
31. What relationship of Christ toward his life
did he exalt ?
32. Describe the influence of Jesus upon Paul.
33. Who were his friends ?
34. Do you share his ideals and practices of
friendship ?
35. Point out what he owed to each of his
friendships. 36. What was Paul's view of the Church?
37. Cite the passages which describe the mis
sion of the Church in the world.
38. Is an infallible Church or authority in the
Church desirable ?
39. What were the offences which justified di
vision and separation ?
40. Study Paul's doctrine of discipline.
41. Study his view of love, of rights.

302 STUDIES OF THE MAN PAUL
42. How large a place did the hope of Christ's
return fill in his life and work and teaching ?
43. Analyze Paul's standard of Christian life
and conduct.
44. Do you grasp his idea of reckoned char
acter made real ?
45. Give illustrations of the various classes of
metaphors used by Paul.
46. Does Paul attempt to enumerate all the
virtues of the Christian life ? If not, why not ?
47. Is ambition tolerable in a Christian?
48. What were the objects of Paul's ambition ?
49. - What were the objects of his faith?
50. Explain the social significance of faith.
5 1 . Did Paul ever feel shame ?
52. What do you make out of his allusion to
his "thorn"?
53. Illustrate his qualities of aggression.
54. Illustrate his qualities of endurance.
55. Illustrate his qualities of expressiveness.
56. Illustrate his qualities of reticence.
57. Is the heart an organ of knowledge?
58. Which qualities predominated in him, the
qualities of strength or the qualities of tender
ness? 59. What place did prayer have with him in
life, in work ?
60. Did he believe that prayer accomplished
anything ?
61. What place had authority in his work as an
apostle ?
62. What were his relations to the other
apostles ?
63. Did he write his own letters ?
64. Study carefully the Epistle to Philemon.
65. What were the main features of his mis
sionary work?
66. Was he a patient man ?

QUESTIONS FOR BIBLE CLASSES 303
67. Was he a humble man?
68. Was he a narrow man ?
69. Are his opinions obsolete ?
70. What were his place and mission in the
development of Christianity ?
71. State in writing in fifty words your opinion
of Paul.
72. State in writing in fifty words Paul's in
fluence upon you and upon the Church and the
world as you see them.

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