BS 2650 .H84 1868 
 Howson, J. S. 1816-1885. 
 The metaphors of St. Paul 
 
THE METAPHORS OF 
 ST PAUL 
 
THE METAPHORS OF 
 ST PAUL 
 
 Cr — "-— 
 * MAR 1 190< 
 
 By JOHN S. HOWSON, D.D. 
 
 UEAN OF CHESTER. 
 
 ^M-xcRajBH, 
 
 STRAHAN & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 56 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 
 1868 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 I. ROMAN SOLDIERS, ...... I 
 
 II. CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE, . . . 40 
 
 III. ANCIENT AGRICULTURE, . . . -87 
 
 IV. GREEK GAMES. . . . . -125 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 
 
 1 "VERY part of Holy Scripture has its own 
 
 distinctive imagery : and through the 
 
 medium of this imagery its instruction is often 
 
 conveyed. Thus, when we read the prophecies 
 
 of Amos, ''who was among the herdmen of 
 
 Tekoa," — himself a ''herdman" in a wild and 
 
 pastoral district, — the images are such as these : 
 
 the fat ''kine of Bashan, which say unto their 
 
 masters, Bring and let us drink;" "the lion 
 
 A 
 
THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 roaring in the forest ;" " the seven stars of Orion, 
 before the shadow of death is turned into the 
 morning;" "the basket of summer fruit ;" "the 
 grasshoppers in the shooting up of the latter 
 growth." Unless we rightly apprehend the cir- 
 Imstances. the scenery, and the pursuits, in 
 connexion with which it was God's will that His 
 prophet should speak, we cannot fully under- 
 stand the meaning of His words ; and so far, to 
 us, their force and instructiveness is diminished. 
 The imagery of the Book of Amos is an em- 
 phatic and strongly marked instance of a prin- 
 ciple which is applicable, in various degrees, to 
 all parts of the Bible. The life of Joseph, the 
 Ufe of Moses, the life of Ruth, the life of Elijah, 
 all have their appropriate atmosphere and 
 colouring ; and if we look at them without 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 
 
 reference to these, they fade away into something 
 abstract and dead. And so it is with the New 
 Testament. But here, though the principle is 
 the same, we feel that we are brought into a new 
 world, and that the principle must be applied to 
 very different details. Every part of the Old 
 Testament has an oriental complexion. We 
 illustrate it by referring to what travellers tell 
 us of the tents of the Bedouin Arabs, of the 
 courts of Eastern princes, of caravans and 
 j camels and palm-trees. And so it is, no doubt, 
 \ to some extent, in the case of the New Testa- 
 ( ment. But still, on the whole, in passing from 
 one to the other, we are conscious that a change 
 has come over the scene, and that God has begun 
 to speak to us now through similitudes of a differ- 
 ent kind. We find ourselves brought in contact 
 
4 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 with circumstances far more nearly resembling 
 those which surround us in modern life. We are 
 in fact, when the New Testament is our study, on 
 the borders or in the heart of Greek civilisation, 
 and we are always in the midst of the Roman 
 Empire. It is no more possible fully to under- 
 stand what the Apostles say to us, than what the 
 Prophets say to us, if we dissever their words 
 from the circumstances of their lives. The meta- 
 phors they use are drawn (as indeed they must 
 have been drawn, to be intelligible at all) from 
 the things which were around them. My endea- 
 vour will be, in four sections^ to illustrate certain 
 groups of images which are common in one part 
 of the New Testament, and, in the present sec- 
 tion, while keeping in view especially one very^ 
 notable passage in the Epistle to the Ephe- 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 5 
 
 sians, to elucidate the military metaphors of St 
 Paul. 
 
 It seldom occurs to us to consider how large a 
 portion of his time St Paul spent in the close 
 proximity of soldiers. He lived under the sha- 
 dow of the greatest military monarchy which the 
 world has seen. Englishmen are less able than 
 others to realise all that is implied in this simple 
 fact : hence they are startled into the impres- 
 sion of novelty, when they first travel in France 
 or Austria, and see troops filing through the 
 streets of every city, and large barracks in every 
 country town. But such sights were no novelty 
 to St Paul. No doubt they were more frequent 
 and conspicuous in some parts of the Empire 
 than others. In Philippi, for instance, in Troas, 
 and the Pisidian Antioch, which were Roman 
 
6 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Colonies, we may well believe that the warlike 
 symbols of Rome were more prominent than in 
 other cities which he visited : and the state of 
 Syria, which was a very uneasy province, and was 
 held by a standing army of 60,000 men, was very 
 different from that of Achaia or Bithynia, which 
 were comparatively quiet and settled districts. 
 But, wherever he resided, military uniforms and 
 military quarters were familiar objects ; wherever 
 he travelled, he was liable to meet troops on 
 their march from one province to another, or in 
 the pursuit of banditti, or acting as an escort of 
 prisoners. 
 
 But we are not left to this general kind of 
 illustration. We are well acquainted with seve- 
 ral incidents of his life, which connected him, in 
 a manner peculiarly intimate, with Roman sol- 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 
 
 diers and their officers and their armour. It is 
 enough to make a simple reference to his arrest 
 in the court of the Temple, when the command- 
 ant of the garrison of Antonia, with some of his 
 subalterns and a body of troops, ran down and 
 took him into custody, — then to the time which 
 the Apostle spent in the barracks within An- 
 tonia, and to the events which took place there, 
 — then to his night journey to Antipatris, under 
 the charge of a guard almost as numerous as 
 half an English regiment, besides a squadron of 
 dragoons, — then to his captivity of two years at 
 Csesarea, the centre of the provincial military 
 government, where he was probably chained by 
 the hand to a soldier, — then to his adventurous 
 voyage, when an officer of a distinguished corps 
 was his close companion, and when the swords 
 
8 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 of the soldiers under his command, which had 
 cut the fastenings of the boat, were only just 
 prevented from taking the Apostle's life and 
 the lives of his fellow-prisoners, — then to the 
 delivering up of the prisoners to the commander 
 of the Praetorian Guards, after which, though 
 Paul was suffered to dwell by himself, yet it 
 was not without "a soldier who kept him," — 
 and lastly, to the facts hinted at in passages of 
 the Epistles written at Rome, as when he says, 
 in affixing his autograph to the Colossian letter, 
 " the salutation by the hand of me Paul," and 
 then, feeling the chain clank on his wrist as he 
 writes, he adds, '' remember my chains," — or, in 
 the Ephesian letter, when he describes himself 
 as "an ambassador in bonds," — an ambassador 
 of the free Gospel, fastened to a soldier ; — it is 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 
 
 enough to enumerate these things, in order 
 to see how natural it is that St Paul should 
 speak to us in military metaphors, nay, how- 
 unnatural it would be (if I may say so with 
 reverence) were no such metaphors to be found 
 in his writings. 
 
 Our best mode of approaching the direct 
 illustration of our selected context is first to 
 notice some of those other texts where imagery 
 of the same kind is more lightly touched by 
 St Paul, and so to rise by successive steps to 
 the allegory in which the Christian warrior is 
 set before us in the full panoply of God. 
 Then it will not be irrelevant if we turn in 
 conclusion to some other passages, where 
 similes from the same source are employed by 
 the Apostle, less obviously but not less forcibly. 
 
lO THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 The first of these passages is in the thir- 
 teenth chapter of the Romans * That Epistle 
 was written at Corinth, which, both as the 
 seat of local government, and because of its 
 critical position on a strait between two seas, 
 must have been garrisoned by a strong mili- 
 tary force. The image which always rises 
 before my mind when I read the passage, is 
 this : I fancy St Paul — after a day spent in 
 hard work, partly in tent-making and partly 
 in preaching and in visitation among his con- 
 verts — writing far through the night to the 
 Christians in Rome, and just at daybreak, 
 when the sentinels are changing guard, and 
 the morning light glances on their armour, — 
 while at the same time the last sounds of 
 
 * Rom. xiii. II-13. 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. II 
 
 debauched revellers in the street fall upon his 
 ears, — expressing himself in the now familiar 
 words, "The night is far spent, the day is at 
 hand ; let us therefore cast off the works of 
 darkness, and let us put on the armour of 
 light ; let us walk honestly, as in the day, 
 not in rioting and drunkenness." 
 
 As to the phrase " armour of light," it is 
 evidently equivalent to the phrase ^^ arni02ir 
 of righteousness y' which he uses elsewhere,* — 
 i,e.j spiritual armour for the contest against 
 spiritual foes. But in the place where this 
 last expression occurs, the idea is more fully 
 developed than in the former case. Here it 
 is "the armour of righteousness on the right 
 hand and on the left." We have not simply 
 
 * 2 Cor. vi. 7. 
 
12 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 armour in the abstract, as in the other in- 
 stance, but armour specially described as of 
 two kinds, " on the right hand arid on the 
 lefty" — i.e., offensive and defensive, represented 
 generally by the sword and the shield. St 
 Paul is here describing himself, and his own 
 attitude in regard to the resistance he had 
 met with at Corinth in the progress of his 
 apostolic work. This is not the only occasion 
 in this severe Epistle (as we shall see after- 
 wards) where he uses military language in 
 describing his own position in reference to the 
 enemies of the truth. 
 
 We reach something still more definite and 
 specific, when we come to the fifth chapter 
 of the first letter to the Thessalonians.* " We 
 » I Thess. V. 5-8. 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. I3 
 
 are not of the night .... therefore let us 
 not sleep . . . They that be drunken, are 
 drunken in the night .... Let us, who are 
 of the day, be sober, putting on the breast- 
 plate of faith and love ; and for an helmet, 
 the hope of salvation." The chief remarks 
 to be made here, I think, are that this Epistle 
 was written from Corinth, like that to the 
 Romans, but on a previous visit; that the 
 whole context is very similar to that which 
 has been quoted from the Romans ; and that 
 while this passage contains many more details 
 than that just adduced from the second Cor- 
 inthian Epistle, yet it is entirely limited to 
 defensive armour. As to any observations 
 on two pieces of armour that are specified, 
 — " the breastplate of faith and love," and the 
 
14 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 " helmet of salvation," — these belong more pro- 
 perly to our discussion of the allegory in the 
 sixth of Ephesians,* which claims from us 
 now a more direct consideration. 
 
 Enough has been quoted already to prove 
 that the use of military metaphors is a fami- i 
 liar thing to St Paul. And in the passages 
 hitherto adduced, these metaphors have one 
 general type, which Is quite in harmony with 
 the longer extract before us. In examining 
 its different parts, I should wish to be guided 
 by the reverent belief that each word has a 
 meaning, — that each word is the best that 
 could be used,— and, at the same time, I \ 
 should wish to be on my guard against that 
 pedantry of interpretation which tortures the 
 * Eph. vi. 10-17. 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. je 
 
 Bible into meanings which it was never in- 
 tended to bear, and which, in this case, would 
 deprive the Apostle's imagery of all its fresh- 
 ness and elasticity. 
 
 I have called the passage an allegory. But it 
 cannot strictly be described by that term. It is 
 a series of images with a running explanation. 
 In a pure allegory, the key of interpretation 
 is to be derived from the context, or from 
 the circumstances, or from analogy. But here 
 the image and the interpretation are given 
 side by side. We '' wrestle " or engage in 
 close conflict, but "not with flesh and blood," 
 —ue., (as we see from a passage where the 
 same phrase is used in the Galatians,) not 
 with man, but with spiritual foes. We wear 
 "armour," but it is the armour of light, the 
 
l6 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 armour of righteousness, the panoply of God. 
 We carry a ''shield/' but it is the shield of 
 faith. We wield a " sword," but it is the 
 sword of the Spirit. This is St Paul's man- 
 ner. He explains his metaphors as he pro- 
 ceeds. We have, therefore, no need to waste 
 our time discussing the principles of the 
 interpretation of allegory. We may begin at 
 once to go in order through the clauses of 
 which the passage is composed. 
 
 One of the first thoughts which occur to 
 us in looking at the introductory words is 
 this, that the armour is of no use to us unless 
 we put it on. We are not to be passive in 
 the matter. The opening words give a posi- 
 tive injunction ; and the only way to obey 
 the injunction is to put on the armour, and 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 17 
 
 to wear it and use it. Another obvious 
 thought relates to the perilous condition of 
 those who are destitute of this armour. With- 
 out it we are utterly defenceless. And it is 
 no light matter to be defenceless in the pres- 
 ence of a foe, who is not only hostile, but 
 accomplished in stratagem, and who com- 
 mands an army such as that which is described 
 in the verses before us. There is a story 
 of a Spartan soldier, who went into battle 
 without his armour, and who was fined by 
 the Senate, though he had been victorious. 
 This anecdote supplies a very useful admoni- 
 tion to the Christian soldier. 
 
 One word in this introductory portion is 
 unfortunately translated in the Authorised 
 
 Version, The phrase, " having done all," is 
 
 B 
 
l8 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 by no means, in my opinion, an adequate 
 rendering of the Greek. The marginal trans- 
 lation, " having overcome !' is more correct. 
 The original denotes that we are to beat 
 down all opposition, and having done this, 
 to " stand," to hold our ground. And this 
 word ^^ stand!' which occurs once and again, 
 sets before us the true nature of the Chris- 
 tianas conflict. We have a defensive military 
 position to hold for God, and we must hold it. 
 Our duty is no light skirmish, which might be 
 half an amusement to those who enjoy a 
 fray ; but it is a serious and momentous 
 struggle to hold the field where we are 
 posted, like the struggle of those who fought 
 at Inkermann. 
 
 I find in two of Chrysostom's sermons on 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. I9 
 
 this chapter some remarks on these introduc- 
 tory verses, so good and forcible, that I think 
 they deserve to be quoted. With reference to 
 the wiles of the devil, he expresses himself as 
 follows: "The Apostle saith not. Against the 
 fighting, nor Against the hostilities, but Against 
 the wiles. This enemy is at war with us, not 
 simply, not openly, but by wiles : i.e., he tries 
 to deceive us, and to take us by artifice. He 
 never proposes to us sins in their proper 
 colours. Thus, he does not speak of idolatry, 
 but he sets it off in another dress, making his 
 discourse plausible, and employing disguises." 
 In reference to the expression just alluded to, 
 " having subdued all," he adds : " That is, hav- 
 ing subdued our passions and vile lusts, and all 
 things else that trouble us. The Apostle speaks 
 
20 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 not merely of doing the deed, but of completing 
 it, so as not only to slay, but to stand after we 
 have slain ; for many who have gained this 
 victory have failed again. Having subdued all, 
 saith he, not, Having subdued 07te and not an- 
 other ; for even after the victory we must stand. 
 An enemy may be struck, but things that are 
 struck revive again." And once more, in refer- 
 ence to the word " stand," Chrysostom says : 
 " The very first feature in tactics is to know 
 how to stand well, and many things will depend 
 upon that. In the case of mere athletic exer- 
 cises, the word of command which the trainer 
 gives before anything else is this, to stand firm. 
 Much more will it be the first thing in military 
 matters. The man who, in a true sense, stands, 
 is upright ; he stands not in a lazy attitude, not 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 21 
 
 leaning upon anything. The luxurious man 
 does not stand upright, but stoops ; so does the 
 lewd man, so does the lover of money." 
 
 This is enough concerning the attitude and 
 posture of the Christian warrior. We come now 
 to the annour itself which he wears. As de- 
 scribed to us here, we observe that it consists 
 of six pieces. A few words may be devoted to 
 each of them. But first let us bear in mind 
 how much reality and life are communicated to 
 the description, when we recollect where St 
 Paul was when he wrote it. He was in the 
 midst of the Praetorian Guards, the elite of the 
 Roman army, a body of men raised far more 
 conspicuously above the legions than our 
 Guards, or even the French Imperial Guard, 
 are above the regiments of the line. But not 
 
22 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 only was he in the midst of them, seeing them 
 continually, and hearing daily all the sounds of 
 barrack life, but he was fastened to one of 
 these guardsmen while he dictated the letter, 
 and he felt the chain on his wrist while he 
 affixed his signature. 
 
 First in order of enumeration we have the 
 BELT — *' having your loins girt about with 
 truthy By this we are not to understand a 
 loose sword-belt, like that which our own 
 officers wear, nor any ornamented girdle, but 
 a very strong girding apparatus, made of 
 leather, and covered with metal plates, and 
 fastened firmly round the loins. The appear- 
 ance and use of it are best seen in ancient 
 statues in the British Museum and elsewhere. 
 It was the first part of the armour which the 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 23 
 
 soldier would put on, and it was of essential 
 use to him for the purpose of safety, and 
 especially for the sake of standing firmly. It 
 was to the Roman soldier exactly what Truth 
 is to the soldier of Christ. Of Christ Himself it 
 is said in the prophecy, that " righteousness 
 shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness" 
 (the word is truth in the Septuagint) "the 
 girdle of His reins." * 
 
 The BREASTPLATE is next to be considered. 
 It is described as the " breastplate of righteous- 
 ness!' A question might be raised here as to the 
 meaning of the word " righteousness," whether 
 it denotes the justification which belongs to the 
 believer by virtue of his union with Christ, or 
 refers to that rectitude of character which cannot 
 
 Isaiah xi, 5. 
 
24 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 be wanting in a true Christian. I feel little 
 doubt that the latter is the true meaning of St 
 Paul ; and this for two or three reasons. In the 
 first place, justification would seem to belong 
 more naturally to the " shield of faith," which 
 is mentioned below; but, again, it appears to 
 me that all the parts of defensive armour men- 
 tioned here designate graces of Christian char- 
 acter. Moreover, in the shorter allegory of 
 the first Thessalonian letter, the breastplate is 
 described as made up of " faith and love," a 
 perfect account of that principle in a Christian 
 which leads him to feel rightly, to think rightly, 
 and to act rightly ; but hardly such a defini- 
 tion as we should expect of a sinner's state of 
 pardon and acceptance with God. But there is 
 another reason, which, to n^y mind, is almost 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 25 
 
 decisive. St Paul is here again using Greek 
 words from the Old Testament, (and it is im- 
 portant to observe this ; for there is seldom any 
 long passage in St Paul's writings without some 
 quotation from the Septuagint,) and there we 
 find it said of the Lord Himself, that *' He put 
 on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet 
 of salvation on His head." * The incongruity is 
 obvious on the former interpretation. " It is 
 God that justifieth." 
 
 This reference to Isaiah leads me to break 
 the order of St Paul's words, and to take '' the 
 helmet of salvation " next after the " breast- 
 plate of righteousness ; " for they are coupled 
 together in the same clause by the prophet 
 from whom he quotes. Clearly we might have 
 
 * Isaiah lix. 17. 
 
26 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 some difficulty here in assigning a precise 
 meaning to the Christian's helmet, were it not 
 that the Apostle himself comes to our assist- 
 ance ; for he says to the Thessalonians, that it 
 is "the hope of salvation" which we are to take 
 for a HELMET. I conceive, then, that we are 
 to see here a representation of that cheerful 
 and courageous hope which is so important 
 an element in the Christian s warfare, and so 
 bright an ornament and crowning point to all 
 the other graces of his character. 
 
 The helmet is perhaps the brightest and most 
 conspicuous part of a soldier's equipment ; but 
 there are other parts, less showy, but not less 
 essential. A soldier badly shod can never last 
 well though a campaign. Many of us have a 
 vivid remembrance of what we read in the 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 27 
 
 newspapers concerning some passages of the 
 Crimean war. St Paul does not leave his de- 
 scription of the Christian warrior incomplete 
 in this respect. " Have your feet shod," he 
 says, "with the preparation (or with the prompt 
 ready movement) of the Gospel of peace T It is 
 needless to enter here into any details concern- 
 ing the military equipment of the feet, which 
 enabled the Roman armies to march to the 
 conquest of the world ; but we should observe 
 the holy irony with which St Paul gives an un- 
 expected turn to his mention of this part of the 
 Christian armour. The Roman soldiers were all 
 on the alert in obeying orders to carry into every 
 nation the miseries of War. The like alacrity 
 ought to be shown by us in our obedience to 
 our Captain ; and no slip-shod indolence ought 
 
28 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 to make us slow in moving on this happy 
 errand of Peace. 
 
 The words in which the Authorised Version 
 introduces the SHIELD are again (I conceive) 
 inadequate, or, at least, obscure. '* Above all " 
 conveys the impression of "especially," as though 
 the Apostle were now about to mention what is 
 most important. And perhaps "the shield of 
 faith " is, in fact, the most important of all the 
 defences of the Christian soldier. But I think 
 the Greek words mean simply " over all," " on 
 the outside of all." The great Roman shield re- 
 ferred to here was very different from the small 
 bucklers which were used in some kinds of 
 ancient warfare. Sculptured representations of 
 it may be seen on Trajan's Column. It covered 
 and protected the whole body; and whatever 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 29 
 
 weak points there might be in other parts of 
 the armour, this supplied their deficiencies, as 
 faith comes to the rescue when all other graces 
 are failing. True faith. is invaluable and invul- 
 nerable. It is competent to quench even the 
 " fiery arrows " of the Evil One. Here the 
 image of the Christian conflict assumes all the 
 animation of a siege ; and one of the best 
 illustrations I am acquainted with of the words 
 used by the Apostle is in the history of one of 
 the sieges of Rhodes, during which arrows 
 charged with combustible materials were sent 
 against the ships, and the very expression chosen 
 here by St Paul is employed by Diodorus Siculus 
 in describing the defences used for quenching 
 the fire. 
 
 One part of the armour remains — THE SWORD 
 
30 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 — " the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word 
 of God," — i.e., the sword which the Spirit gives, 
 and which is none other than God's revealed 
 truth. This is the one offensive'weapon. We are 
 not sanctioned in the use of any other : all the 
 rest of our armour is defensive : and this is very- 
 instructive. Our conflict is not with man, but 
 with sin. We have no angry passions of our 
 own to gratify. Our duty is stedfastly to 
 resist : and when we strike, we must strike only 
 with the weapon which God puts into our 
 hands. All this is made more emphatic, if we 
 observe that one weapon — the most character- 
 istic weapon of the Roman soldier — the great 
 pilum or pike, which Lord Macaulay has intro- 
 duced with strict truth into one of his " Lays of 
 Rome" — this weapon is entirely omitted. Here 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 3I 
 
 the parallel is left incomplete. Can we doubt 
 that this was done purposely ? The silence of 
 Scripture has its meaning as well as its actual 
 words. 
 
 I abstain from further and closer practical 
 comments. These would enter into the region 
 of Christian experience, and would belong to 
 a treatise of a deeper kind. I will only now, 
 through a few remaining paragraphs, follow the 
 same thread of thought, where it conducts us to 
 one or two other places, in which (as I have 
 said) military metaphors are employed, less 
 obviously at first sight, though not less forcibly. 
 
 Some of these relate to the long operation of 
 campaigning^ rather than the mere putting on 
 of armour. Thus, when Timotheus is admon- 
 ished to "endure hardness as a good soldier of 
 
32 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Jesus Christ," it is added by the Apostle: "No 
 man that goeth on a campaign entangleth him- 
 self with the common affairs of life, that he may 
 please him who hath chosen him to be a sol- 
 dier."* It is to be regretted that the expres- 
 sion ^^ tJiis life" should have found a place in 
 the English Version, inasmuch as it mixes the 
 metaphor with the thing intended, besides stat- 
 ing what is not true. For if one thing above 
 all others belongs peculiarly to this life, it is 
 War. This, however, does not hinder war, in 
 the form of a prolonged campaign, from fur- 
 nishing most apt illustrations of three things 
 which are expected from the Christian, — patient 
 endurance, — firm separation from those inte- 
 rests which are not compatible with his main 
 
 * 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4. 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 33 
 
 purpose, — and an earnest desire to please his 
 Commander. 
 
 There is again a passage in the early part of 
 the second Epistle to the Corinthians,* which 
 involves no difficulty as to its general meaning, 
 but great part of the vividness of which we lose 
 by not noticing hov/ imagery, drawn from the 
 conduct of a campaign, runs through the whole 
 of the context. In the last passage the refer- 
 ence was to an individual soldier : here it is to 
 a commander. St Paul is speaking in peremp- 
 tory language of his apostoHc power and autho- 
 rity. The military phraseology starts suddenly 
 to view in the third verse — "Though we walk 
 in the flesh, we -do not war after the flesh." 
 This is clear enough. But in what follows it is 
 
 * 2 Cor. X. 3-6. 
 
34 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 not always remarked that every phrase to the 
 end of the sixth verse is appropriate to some 
 part of a campaign, and drawn in fact from the 
 famih'ar experience of those terrible Roman 
 wars which were well remembered in every 
 region through which the Apostle travelled. 
 No one will question this as regards the words 
 "weapons," and ** warfare." But the "strong- 
 holds" are the rock forts, such as those which 
 once bristled along the coast of his native 
 Cilicia, and of which he must often have heard, 
 when his father told him how they were " pulled 
 down " by the Romans in their wars against the 
 pirates. Those "high things that exalt them- 
 selves" — those high eminences of the pride of 
 nature — occupied in force by hostile troops, — 
 had been a familiar experience in many wars 
 
 J 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 35 
 
 throughout Asia Minor, while one of the grand- 
 est of all was the Acropolis that towered over 
 Corinth. But this is not all. Ancient warfare 
 ended with the taking of prisoners, who w«re 
 carried into some safe place (such as this very 
 Acropolis) where obedience would be secure. 
 So the Apostle speaks of "bringing into cap- 
 tivity eveiy thought to (or rather into) the 
 obedience of Christ." And then, further, if in a 
 country that had been conquered on the whole, 
 rebellions were here and there to break out 
 again, it was not the habit of the Romans to 
 desist till complete subordination was estab- 
 lished. So the Apostle holds himself in readi- 
 ness to " revenge all disobedience," even when 
 on the whole (for this he will not doubt) the 
 general " obedience" of the Corinthian church is 
 
36 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 "fulfilled." Here then are a series of phrases 
 which describe the vigorous prosecution of a 
 campaign, and the determined subjugation of 
 the last symptom of rebellion. And who will 
 say that we do not lose by failing to notice this 
 character of the language } Who will say that 
 we do not gain by allowing it to have its natural 
 and close association with what history tells of 
 the course and the consolidation of Roman 
 military conquest.? 
 
 And more yet remains to be said concerning 
 even this portion of the subject. St Paul pur- 
 sues the progress of the campaign till it reaches 
 that which, in a Roman's eyes, was the most 
 glorious of all consummations — the progress of 
 the triumphal procession after final victory ; and 
 he introduces God Himself as the victor and 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 37 
 
 the leader of the triumph. Twice we find this 
 image expressed, with the technical and classical 
 word which belongs to the subject : once when 
 the great conquest effected through the death of 
 Christ is the topic of the Apostle's enthusiastic 
 sentences,* and once when the progressive ad- 
 vance of the Gospel of Christ is represented in 
 language strictly suitable to the long procession 
 of conqueror and captives by the Sacred Way 
 to the Capitol."}* In the former case the words 
 are brief and simple, which describe the '^ open 
 display" of the defeat of "principalities and 
 powers." In the latter the description is pro- 
 longed and given in detail. The doctrine 
 preached by the Apostle "in every place" is 
 compared to the fragrance which filled the 
 
 * Col. ii. 15. +2 Cor. ii. 14-16. 
 
38 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 streets from clouds of incense ; while the fatal 
 doom of the captives contrasted with the exult- 
 ing joy of the citizens is a vivid representation 
 of the awful alternative which separates the 
 hearers of the Gospel into ^'them that are 
 saved," and ^* them that perish." 
 
 And still the whole subject of the military- 
 metaphors of St Paul is not exhausted. There 
 are other passages where the same expressive 
 imagery occurs : as when he tells us that 
 "without were fightingSy within were fears," a 
 description of his own experience which may 
 well give encouragement to us :* or as when he 
 speaks of the " law in our members ivagmg war 
 against the law of the mind and taking us 
 captive;" and perhaps our own experience is 
 enough to make us aware that no metaphor 
 
 * 2 Cor. vii. C. 
 
ROMAN SOLDIERS. 39 
 
 would be more suitable to the case than one 
 derived from the dreadful realities of war:* or 
 as when he assures his most consistent converts 
 that " the peace of God, which passeth all under- 
 standing, shall garrison their hearts and minds 
 through Christ Jesus."f This is an unexpected 
 — almost an ironical — turn, like that which we 
 noticed before, when we saw that " the prepara- 
 tion of the Gospel of peace" was an essential part 
 of the "armour of God." And the natural conclu- 
 sion of these remarks is an allusion to the Great 
 Resurrection, when ^^ the trumpet shall sound" % 
 and every faithful Christian warrior shall have 
 his place in his own "order" or ^^ division" of 
 the vast Army of the Lord of Hosts.§ 
 
 * Rom. vii. 23. t Phil. iv. 7, 
 
 % I Cor. XV. 52; see xiv. 8. §1 Cor. xv. 23. 
 
II. 
 
 CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 /^^UR last section was on the military me- 
 taphors of St Paul, with especial refer- 
 ence to the middle portion of the sixth chapter 
 of the Epistle to the Ephesians. The present 
 will deal with the architectural metaphors of 
 the same Apostle, with prominent but not by 
 any means exclusive reference to a passage in 
 the third chapter of the Sexiiefid Epistle to the 
 Corinthians. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 41 
 
 The thought which lies at the basis of these 
 essays is this : that in order to understand an an- 
 cient writer it is not enough to study his books, 
 but necessary also to know something of the 
 fashion of his times, — not safe simply to work 
 from the Dictionary, without some regard to the 
 records of Monumental History, — without some 
 effort to reproduce and reahse manners and 
 customs, and the outward expression of the old 
 social life. Even in order to understand the 
 bare meaning of the words, we must know some- 
 thing of the life. Much more, when we desire 
 to appreciate the nicer shades of meaning, and 
 to enter into the full force of illustrative lan- 
 guage. For this purpose we have need of 
 Archaeology as much as of Philology. The two 
 cannot prudently be dissevered. And more 
 
42 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 than this. Unless our Archaeology is correct, 
 — our Philology, being connected with ana- 
 chronisms, will lead us into positive errors. 
 
 These observations, true of ancient writers 
 in general, are quite as true of Sacred as 
 Profane. Moses and Luke, Ezra and Paul, 
 did not write independently of the circum- 
 stances with which they were surrounded, or 
 of the tastes, pursuits, and habits of their 
 time. If they had done so, they would have 
 been unintelligible when they wrote. And 
 they will only be approximately intelligible 
 to us, unless we have the means of re-setting 
 the words in their true associations. When a 
 man has once seen a really Oriental city, and 
 made himself familiar with the sights and 
 smells of a bazaar, walked on the flat roofs, 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 43 
 
 or stood among the camels, he has acquired 
 a power of appreciating the Old Testament, 
 such as no dead Lexicon could ever give him. 
 And how great a help for the New Testament 
 is gained, — when, in some good museum, a 
 man has taken into his hand a silver Dena- 
 rius, and looked at the fine features of Tiberius 
 — worthy of a nobler character — and turned 
 the coin round, and read the Latin inscrip- 
 tion, and reflected on the possibility that this 
 might have been the very piece of money that 
 was shown to our Saviour, on the high pro- 
 bability that it was minted at the same time, 
 and on the certainty that it was exactly like 
 it, in size and material, in the "image and 
 superscription ! " 
 
 These are only superficial illustrations : but 
 
44 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 they are illustrations of a principle : — and the 
 application of the principle becomes import- 
 ant, exactly in proportion as the writer in 
 question, whoever he may be, has some favour- 
 ite classes of imagery drawn from the circum- 
 stances of his time, — and in proportion as 
 those circumstances, from which the imagery 
 is drawn, are in themselves peculiar and re- 
 moved from the sphere of our own customary 
 thoughts. 
 
 Now thus much may be said, without any 
 danger of dispute, concerning St Paul's favour- 
 ite illustrations, that they are drawn, not from 
 the operations and uniform phenomena of the 
 natural world, but from the activities and 
 outward exhibition of human society, from 
 the life of soldiers, the life of slaves, from 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 45 
 
 the market, from athletic exercises,_frQiiL.^g«- — 
 culture, from architecture. 
 
 That there is a strong tendency to architec- 
 tural metaphors in St Paul's Epistles no one 
 will dispute. But it is worth while to remark 
 that this tendency to refer to buildings may 
 be observed not only there, but in his speeches 
 too. Let us call to mind two speeches, uttered 
 in busy centres of population, and in the midst 
 of those who had glorious architectural works 
 every day before their eyes. At Athens how 
 grandly does the Apostle point mentally, if not 
 literally, to the Parthenon and Propylsea and 
 their associated statues on the Acropolis, tell- 
 ing his hearers that God, "seeing that He is 
 Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in 
 temples made with hands" and that the God- 
 
46 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 head is not '' like unto gold, or silver, or stonCy 
 graven by art or man's device!"* And at 
 Miletus how significantly and strongly does 
 he conclude his address to those who had \ 
 come from Ephesus, where Diana's temple 
 was the most magnificent and prominent ob- 
 ject, — *^Now, brethren, I commend you to 
 God, and to the w^ord of His grace, which is 
 able to bitild you up!"-\ How or why St 
 Paul's style had this tendency it is needless 
 to determine. It might be a matter of tem- 
 perament or of education. He might have a 
 taste for Architecture, natural or acquired. 
 That he was a man of fine perceptions and 
 strong social feelings cannot be doubted. And 
 to such men it is natural to enter into the 
 * Acts xvii. 24, 29 ; see verses 1 6 and 23. f Acts xx. 32. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 47 
 
 Spirit of a great city and its outward expres- 
 sion as given in its buildings. Again we are 
 told that Gamaliel, under whom the Apostle 
 was instructed, was a man of enlarged mind, 
 and by no means destitute of sympathy with 
 the culture of the Greeks. However this may 
 be, St Paul, writing under Divine inspiration, 
 does use ideas drawn from buildings, as vehicles 
 of instruction. Architectural phraseology is 
 inwoven into the texture of his Epistles, and 
 to a much larger extent than would at first 
 sight be supposed. 
 
 Let us take, in the first place, in elucidation 
 of this topic, a single word, the word ^^ edify r 
 This verb, or its substantive, ^^edification!' oc- 
 curs in some form or other about twenty times 
 in the New Testament ; and in every instance, 
 
48 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 except one, it is used by St Paul ; and that 
 exception is in the Acts of the Apostles * a 
 book written almost certainly under St Paul's 
 superintendence. This fact is remarkable, and 
 well adapted to arrest the attention. But it 
 becomes still more marked, when we observe 
 that, on proceeding to look for the Greek word 
 of which " edify " is the English translation, (or 
 rather the Latin translation, introduced from 
 the Vulgate by Wycllffe,) we find that other 
 passages must be added to the list, and all in 
 the same Apostle's writings. To quote the 
 places where " edify " and " edification " occur 
 in the English would be needless. They are 
 all ready in our memories for use when occa- 
 sion requires. But, in order to transfer our 
 
 * Acts ix. 31. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 49 
 
 associations to the Greek word, which is actu- 
 ally St Paul's word, and to which they more 
 properly belong, I may observe that the lan- 
 guage is precisely the same when he lays down 
 the principle of non-interference with another 
 Apostle's work — '' I will not build (edify) on 
 another man's foundation ; " * that the same 
 favourite image occurs when he expresses the 
 utter inconsistency involved in a return from 
 Christianity to Judaism — " If I proceed to build 
 up the edifice which I took so much pains to 
 pull down, I make myself a transgressor ;"f and 
 that, with regard to moral practice, he uses 
 " build up " in a bad sense as v/ell as a good 
 one, when he says, after laying down the truth 
 that it is Christian love which "builds up," J 
 
 * Rom. XV. 20. f Gal. ii. 18. J i Cor. viii. i, 
 
 D 
 
50 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 that if the strong brother approaches too near 
 association with idolatry, the conscience of the 
 weak brother may be " built up," * so as to eat 
 that which is sacrificed to idols — may become, 
 in fact, a structure of sin. In this passage 
 the Authorised Version has " edify " in the 
 margin ; and this is the word in Wycliffe's 
 version. The word is " build " in the other 
 two passages which I have just quoted. It is 
 evident that even then the words " edify " and 
 " edification " were narrowing themselves to 
 their theological sense, while '' edifice " has 
 still continued to have its widest sense. Not 
 that the narrowing process was completed for 
 some considerable time. Spenser uses ** edify " 
 in the sense of building ; and I find it said of 
 
 * I Cor. viii. lo 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 51 
 
 the Castle of Corfu in Hakluyt's travels, (under 
 the date 1553,) "It is not only of situation 
 the strongest I have seen, but also of edi-fica- 
 tionr 
 
 We might follow this disquisition on a single 
 word into results of considerable interest. 
 
 The question has a bearing on Christian Evi- 
 dence. It is something that the same prevalent 
 metaphor is used, and in the same kind of way, 
 in several of the Epistles which bear the name 
 of St Paul. Unity of style tends to prove 
 unity of authorship. If one man wrote all 
 these Epistles, then all are authentic. So, 
 again, it is always interesting to find a peculi- 
 arity which marks the Epistles marking also 
 the speeches which are assigned to this Apostle 
 in the Acts. It helps to prove that the Paul of 
 
52 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 the letters is the Paul of the narrative ; and 
 this, too, is something. Here it must in can- 
 dour be added, that this argument, if applied 
 to the Epistle to the Hebrews, tends to separate 
 it from the Epistles which were undoubtedly- 
 written by St Paul. On some grounds, I am 
 strongly inclined to believe that he did write 
 the Hebrews ; but this argument, so far as it 
 goes, has a tendency the other way. In those 
 passages, " He who hath builded the house 
 hath more honour than the house : for every 
 house is builded by some one ; but He that 
 built all things is God,"* — and " a greater and 
 more perfect tabernacle, not of this building " f 
 — and again, " Abraham looked for a city 
 which hath foundations, whose builder and 
 
 * Heb. iii. 3, 4. t Heb. ix. II. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 53 
 
 maker is God " * — in these passages it is re- 
 markable that the original words are quite 
 different from those which are customary with 
 St Paul when he speaks of building or edify- 
 ing. 
 
 But again, the topic before us has a bearing 
 on Christian Doctrine. I have an impression 
 that we have acquired the habit of using the 
 word " edify " in a way slightly different from 
 that of St Paul, from whom we borrow it. We 
 give it an individual application. We say that 
 this or that — a book read in private — a sentence 
 from a sermon — a providential occurrence — is 
 edifying to the individual Christian, without 
 reference to his social position in the Church. 
 But " edify " with St Paul is always a social 
 
 * Heb, xi, 10. 
 
54 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 word, having regard to the mutual Improve- 
 ment of members of the Church, and the growth 
 of the whole body in faith and love. " The 
 Churches in Judaea and Galilee and Samaria/' it 
 is said, "had rest and were edified."* Paul 
 says to the Corinthian Church, ''We do all 
 things for your edifying." -f- He says to the 
 members of the Thessalonian Church, " Edify 
 one another." % And he tells the Ephesian 
 Church that various ministrations are given, '' for 
 the edifying of the body of Christ § .... from 
 Whom the whole maketh increase of the body 
 unto the edifying of itself in love." || So, too, 
 he says that Christians are, collectively as well 
 as individually, the Temple of God. There are 
 
 * Acts ix. 31. t 2 Cor. xii. 19. + i Thess. v. II. 
 § Eph. iv. 12. II Eph. iv. 16. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 55 
 
 two passages,* one in the first and one in the 
 second Epistle to the Corinthians, which may 
 be instructively compared in reference to this 
 point. Now, all this, if we consider the matter 
 closely, is almost implied in the word, and in 
 the metaphor which it represents. A building 
 is an aggregate thing. And believers are not 
 buildings, but parts of a building. St Peter 
 calls them "living stones.^' I think we are 
 sometimes too apt to forget this, and to treat 
 Christianity (if I may use the expression) as if 
 it were monolithic. We may lose in precision 
 by not attending to the metaphors which are 
 involved in Scripture words, and thus the pro- 
 portions of our doctrine may be disturbed. 
 It is not too much to say that, with regard to 
 
 * I Cor. vi. 19; 2 Cor. vi. 16. 
 
56 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 the point before us, we might, out of St Paul's 
 use of the word " edify " or *' build," get a whole 
 commentary on that article of the Creed — " I 
 believe in the Holy Catholic Church." 
 
 However this may be, nearly all will agree 
 that such passages as these have a very im- 
 portant bearing on Christian Practice. "All 
 things may be lawful for me, but all things do 
 not edify!' * " We ought not to please our- 
 selves, but let every one try to please his neigh- 
 bour for his good unto edification!^ \ " Let us 
 follow after the things which make for peace, 
 and things wherewith one may edi/j/ another." J 
 The force of this last passage is much enhanced 
 by the words which follow — " For the sake of 
 meat do not run the risk of pulling to pieces the 
 
 * I Cor, X. 23. t Rom. xv. I, 2. J Rom. xiv. 19, 20. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 57 
 
 work — the building — of God." The word here 
 translated " destroy " in the English Version is 
 not that which is so rendered a few verses 
 above, (" For meat destroy not him for whom 
 Christ died/') but it is the contrasted word op- 
 posed to '' build," just as in that phrase, quoted 
 before from another Epistle, (again an instance 
 of the unity of St Paul's style,)—'' If I build up 
 again what once I pulled down " or " pulled to 
 pieces/' How vividly do we see this moment- 
 ous duty of respecting scruples and prejudices, 
 of forbearance in social intercourse, of control- 
 ling our vehemence and censoriousness, when we 
 think of those around us as parts with ourselves 
 of a building, which ought to be advancing in 
 beauty and solidity ! Those disorderly tempers 
 disturb the proportion, that selfishness of ours 
 
S8 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 mars the unity, those hasty words, those care- 
 less acts, are the pickaxes which loosen the 
 mortar. And so with regard to public minis- 
 trations, " He that speaketh in a tongue, build- 
 eth up himself : he that prophesieth, buildeth up 
 the church " * — " Forasmuch as ye are zealous 
 of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to 
 the building up of the church," f — " Verily thou 
 givest thanks well, but the other is not built 
 upr X If we neglect the principle involved in 
 such a context as this — if we are bent on dis- 
 play and power and self-advancement — well 
 may the Church be dilapidated instead of built. 
 So, again, of the contrast of knowledge and 
 love: "Knowledge inflates;" it only produces 
 a bubble that will burst ; but " love edifies '' — it 
 
 * I Cor. xiv. 3-5. t I Cor. xiv. 12. J I Cor. xiv. 17. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 59 
 
 constructs what is solid — its work is to be pa- 
 tiently building a noble and enduring palace. 
 
 But it is time that we advance from words to 
 sentences. Let us examine a few passages 
 where the architectural metaphor is more fully 
 developed. We will follow a natural order, and 
 take first the foundation, then the step, and then 
 the furniture of the house. 
 
 We have seen that St Paul says he will not 
 " build on another man's foundation," when he 
 means to say that he will not trespass on an- 
 other man's Missionary province. But he uses 
 the same image in a deeper sense in various 
 emphatic passages. In two of them there is the 
 same juxtaposition of what is agricultural and 
 what is architectural, which we have in this third 
 chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians : 
 
6o THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 " Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's build- 
 ing."* Just so, on turning to the Ephesians and 
 Colossians, (again an illustration of the unity of 
 authorship,) we find in one — "That ye, having 
 your root and your foundation in love — your 
 root as a tree, your foundation as a building -f — 
 may be able to know what is the love of Christ" 
 — and in the other — "As ye have received 
 Christ, so walk in Him, having your root struck 
 down deep into Him and raising up the building 
 on Him as your foundation J' % A glance at the 
 Greek shows that the language is the same in 
 both passages. The only difference is, that in 
 the former the Ephesians are addressed as hav- 
 ing been set on a safe foundation, the Colos- 
 sians are reminded of the duty of raising up the 
 
 * I Cor. iii. 9. + Eph. iii. 17. t Col. ii. 6, 7. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 6l 
 
 structure so founded. Nor is this the only place 
 in the Epistle to the Colossians where reference 
 is made to the foundation.* 
 
 But let us turn to two other passages, where 
 the imagery is presented to us in detail. Both 
 are good illustrations of what Paley calls St 
 Paul's peculiarity of "going off at a word." In 
 the nineteenth verse of the second chapter of 
 the Ephesians, after he has happened to use the 
 word "household," it seems as if the whole 
 house rose before him, from foundation to roof, 
 and transformed itself into a temple. The 
 chapter concludes thus : " Ye are built upon the 
 foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone ; in 
 Whom all the building fitly framed together 
 * See Col. i. 23. 
 
62 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL, 
 
 groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord : in 
 Whom ye also are builded together for an habi- 
 tation of God through the Spirit"* Now, all I 
 will observe on this quotation is this : that I 
 do not believe that the apostles and prophets 
 are the foundation of which St Paul speaks ; but 
 that Jesus Christ is foundation-stone and corner- 
 stone in one. I would render it thus : " Built on 
 the apostolic and prophetic foundation-stone" — 
 the stone which apostles and prophets laid, and 
 on which they themselves rest — for " other foun- 
 dation can no man lay, than that is laid," — viz., 
 Christ. The other passage is in the Second 
 Epistle to Timothy. Having spoken of the 
 overthrowing of the faith of some, the Apostle 
 adds : " Nevertheless, the foundation of God 
 
 * Eph. ii. 20-22. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 63 
 
 standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord know- 
 eth them that are His : and. Let every one 
 that nameth the name of Christ depart from ini- 
 quity/''*' What two grand inscriptions ! Two 
 eternal principles, one expressing the immutabi- 
 lity of God, to drive away despair, the other 
 describing the character of God's people, to 
 drive away presumption. Well may they be 
 indelibly cut on the apostolic and prophetic 
 foundation."!* 
 
 I said I would pass from the foundation to 
 the step. The text to which I refer is again 
 in one of the Pastoral Epistles : — " They that 
 have used the office of a deacon well purchase 
 to themselves a good degree." J This is an 
 interesting passage, and I hardly think it is 
 
 * 2 Tim. ii. 19. f See Rev. xxi. 14. J i Tim. iii. 13. 
 
64 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 to be understood as it is commonly explained. 
 The English word ^'degree'* is correctly used 
 in the sense of a step for further progress^ as 
 it is used in Shakspere's *' Julius Caesar" of 
 the climber up ambition's ladder : — 
 
 " But when he once attains the utmost round, 
 He then unto the ladder turns his back. 
 Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees 
 By which he did ascend." 
 
 I do not say that the words just quoted from 
 St Paul are generally interpreted in the spirit 
 of this speech of Brutus ; but the popular in- 
 terpretation involves some risk of taking this 
 direction. I cannot but hesitate to believe 
 that St Paul urges deacons to a discharge of 
 duty either by the prospect of promotion, or 
 by the charm of a higher position in the 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 65 
 
 esteem of men. I should rather suppose that 
 he alludes to their making sure of a firm 
 spiritual standing, as before God and in pros- 
 pect of the great day. This is more in har- 
 mony with the context. The *'good degree" 
 is coupled with "great boldness in the faith." 
 All this they secure "to themselves." Besides 
 doing service to the Church, they advance 
 more and more in the confidence of their own 
 spiritual life. With this expression it may be 
 useful to compare what is said at the end of 
 this Epistle (though there perhaps the metaphor 
 is mixed) of the " laying up in store for our- 
 selves a good foundation against the time to 
 come, that we may lay hold on eternal life. " * 
 And it is certainly a coincidence of some in- 
 
 * I Tim. vi. 19. 
 
 E 
 
66 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 terest that all the passages which I have just 
 been adducing in reference to the foundation 
 and basement of buildings, are from Epistles 
 addressed to Ephesus — where that celebrated 
 Temple was, on the substructions of which 
 immense labour and expense had been lav- 
 ished, that Temple which was full in sight 
 when the mob cried out for two hours — 
 '' Great is Diana of the Epheslans." 
 
 But let us enter the house under the Apostle's 
 guidance, and see what spiritual application he 
 makes of the fzirniture which we find there. 
 I follow the context of a passage which has 
 already been partially quoted. In the Second 
 Epistle to Timothy, in the second chapter, 
 having described the foundation, he passes on 
 to say : — " But in a great house there are not 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 67 
 
 only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of 
 wood and of earth ; and some to honour and 
 some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge 
 himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto 
 honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's 
 use, and prepared unto every good work." * 
 In the nineteenth verse he seems to set before 
 us the Church in its essential character, as 
 resting on an exclusive basis and marked by 
 eternal principles : here, in what follows, the 
 Church is exhibited to us in its mixed and 
 outward character, lest erroneous conclusions 
 should be drawn from the preceding. We 
 have here a parable like the parable of the 
 net : but we have something more than in the 
 parable of the net. Not only are there two 
 
 * 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21. 
 
68 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 classes — vessels of rich material to honour, 
 and vessels of mean material to dishonour — 
 but there are gradations in each class, gold 
 and silver in the one, wood and earth in the 
 other, not all among the good equally good, 
 not all among the bad equally bad. A great 
 house has a vast variety of furniture. In the 
 twentieth verse we have the duty and the 
 responsiblHty which arise from the considera- 
 tion of this fact. 
 
 Our thoughts are carried, by natural asso- 
 ciation, from this passage to another of still 
 more solemn import, where the same imagery 
 is employed. I mean those verses in the ninth 
 of the Romans, avowedly difficult even to the 
 sternest Predestinarian, where the vessels of 
 wrath are contrasted with the vessels of mercy 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 69 
 
 — the former fitted (not by God) to destruction, 
 the latter expressly prepared (by God) unto 
 glory.* I think we gain something, in the 
 exposition of this passage, by following the 
 line of St Paul's metaphorical language, and by 
 putting the words In the Romans side by side 
 with the other more explicit words addressed 
 to Timothy. In that place we see that the 
 Apostle does not urge his illustration beyond 
 the point of contrast and classification. He 
 does not say that because the furniture in a 
 great house is separated into great classes, with 
 subordinate gradations in each, therefore the 
 members of the Church on earth are irrevo- 
 cably so divided. He adds, that if a man 
 keeps himself clear from association with the 
 
 * Rom. ix. 21-23. 
 
70 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 meaner vessels, he will himself become one of 
 the nobler. So in the Romans we have the 
 two classes set before us ; the sure tendency 
 of the one to destruction, unless there is a 
 recovery ; the great truth that the glorious 
 condition of the other is due to God only. 
 All else is left open and untouched. The 
 language is not so much argumentative as 
 illustrative. It is of great importance, in the 
 interpretation of Scripture, not to press a me- 
 taphor beyond the point which it was intended 
 to elucidate, and not to deal with allegory as 
 though it were logic. 
 
 Now, in drawing towards the conclusion of 
 this section, I wish to revert to a remark which 
 I made at the outset, viz., that a careful notice 
 of the significance of imagery is all the more 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 71 
 
 incumbent on us, In proportion as the circum- 
 stances from which that Imagery is drawn may 
 be peculiar. We ought to keep in mind the 
 distinctive character of Classical Architecture, 
 and to remember that it was from this archi- 
 tecture that St Paul drew his Illustrations. We 
 are apt to give too Oriental a colouring to the 
 New Testament, and this for an obvious reason. 
 The Classical world has passed away. We must 
 reproduce it, if we wish to see It as it was. But, 
 to realise the outward circumstances of the Old 
 Testament, we need only read the books of 
 travellers, and study the pictures of modern ar- 
 tists. We see Abraham in every sheik ; Rebecca 
 is at the well near every village ; the climate 
 and the seasons are in the main unaltered. But 
 the colonial llctors at PhilippI, the Pr^torium at 
 
72 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Rome, Pilate with his official chair on the piece of 
 tesselated pavement — these must be reinstated 
 in the scene, if we are to see them at all. The 
 materials for reproducing the life exist in abun- 
 dance in literature and museums, but the life 
 itself does not exist ; and the work of reproduc- 
 ing it requires the union of exact scholarship 
 rightly applied, with a lively imagination under 
 the control of judgment. Now, the illustrations 
 which St Paul connects with human habitations 
 are not drawn from the wilderness — not from 
 the transient dwellings of nomadic life, but from 
 the solid cities of the Greeks and Romans. We 
 might quote, in elucidation of this, a verse 
 where he uses that very contrast to heighten 
 the emphasis which he wishes to give to a for- 
 cible passage : " I know that if this earthly 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 73 
 
 dwelling, which Is only a tent, is taken to pieces, 
 I have a building of God, a house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens." * Nor is 
 it from any Eastern kind of architecture, but 
 from Classical architecture, that St Paul draws 
 his metaphors of this class. There is one pas- 
 sage which might at first sight be thought an 
 exception ; but it is not really such. I allude 
 to that place in the Ephesians where he says 
 that Christ has " broken down the middle wall 
 of partition, that He might reconcile both Jews 
 and Gentiles unto God in one body." f I ima- 
 gine there is a tacit reference to that partition 
 wall in the Jewish Temple, on which notices 
 were put up, forbidding Gentiles to enter the 
 inner court. But then Herod's Temple was of 
 
 * 2 Cor. V. I. f Eph. ii. 14, 16. 
 
74 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Classical architecture, like the great structures in 
 Athens and Ephesus — not, as Solomon's may- 
 have been, of some eastern Phoenician style, like 
 the buildings of Tyre. Josephus gives us a full 
 description of the Corinthian columns. Even 
 the notices on the partition wall were in Latin 
 and Greek. The complexion of Palestine in 
 St Paul's day was probably European rather 
 than Asiatic ; and we should be quite in error if 
 we were to imagine the monotony of a modern 
 Eastern town to be the type of what he habitu- 
 ally saw in Csesarea, or even in Jerusalem. 
 
 Now, are there any peculiarities of Classical 
 Architecture which we ought to take into ac- 
 count when we comment on any of the illustra- 
 tions which, for our instruction, St Paul was 
 inspired to draw from that source .-* It seems 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 75 
 
 to me that there are two. One is this, that all 
 conspicuous Greek buildings, and most of the 
 conspicuous Roman buildings, of his time, were 
 characterised by vertical columns, supporting a 
 horizontal entablature. 
 
 The significant application of this peculiarity 
 is seen at once in that passage, where, in a time 
 of controversy, he adduces the support of James 
 and Cephas and John, who had the recognised 
 reputation of being " pillars " in the Church.* 
 Here the Church is evidently treated as a build- 
 ing — a palace, or temple, or the like ; and these 
 three men are spoken of, not simply as stones 
 in the building, just as ordinary Christians 
 might be, but as characteristic and essential 
 parts — as both ornaments and supports.f Now, 
 
 * Gal. ii. 9. t See Rev. iii. 12. 
 
76 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 apply this to another context, concerning which 
 some dispute has almost always existed : 
 " These things I write, that thou mayest know 
 how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the 
 house of God, which is the Church of the living 
 God, the pillar and ground of the truth." * I 
 hold it to be an indefensible distortion of the 
 passage, from polemical reasons, to take these 
 last words and connect them with what follows, 
 thus : " The pillar and ground of the truth, and 
 without controversy great, is the mystery of 
 godliness." I see no reason why the Church 
 should not be called a pillar and support of the 
 truth. What, indeed, would become of the light 
 without the candlestick ? But I am very much 
 disposed, notwithstanding, to think that this is 
 
 * I Tim. iii. 14, 15. 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 77 
 
 not the meaning of the passage. I am inclined 
 to believe that Paul says this to Timothy : *' I 
 write to thee, seeing that thou hast a prominent 
 and responsible place in the house of God, in 
 order that thou mayest fill that place aright, 
 and be thyself indeed a pillar and support of 
 the truth." In favour of this view, we have the 
 analogy of the passage just adduced from the 
 Galatians. We have also this consideration, 
 that the Church is a building, not a pillar, while 
 a pillar is a partial support of a classical build- 
 ing, and one ornament out of many. It is in the 
 criticism of just such a passage as this that I 
 would claim for Archaeology its right to be 
 combined with Philology. Not that there is any 
 grammatical objection to the interpretation I 
 am advocating ; nor is the sanction wanting of 
 
78 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 early commentators, whose instinctive sense in 
 a case of this kind is of considerable moment. 
 The other architectural feature of ancient 
 cities, to which I desire to invite attention, 
 brings us at once to the passage from that third 
 chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 to which reference was made at the outset. I 
 believe that in such cities as Ephesus, where the 
 letter was written, or Corinth, to which it was 
 addressed, there was a signal difference (far 
 greater than in modern European cities) between 
 the gorgeous splendour of the great public 
 buildings, and the meanness and squalor of 
 those streets where the poor and profligate re- 
 sided. The former were constructed of marble 
 and granite ; the capitals of their columns and 
 their roofs were richly decorated with silver and 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 79 
 
 gold ; the latter were mean structures, run up 
 with boards for walls, with straw in the inter- 
 stices, and thatch on the top. This is the 
 contrast on which St Paul seizes — slabs and 
 pillars of marble and granite, and gold and 
 silver, on one hand — wood, hay, stubble, on the 
 other — to set forth two very different results of 
 the spiritual edification (I use the word in its 
 neutral sense) which goes on in the Church. 
 Sometimes the passage Is treated as though the 
 picture presented were that of a dunghill of 
 straw and sticks, with jewels, such as diamonds 
 and emeralds, among the rubbish. But such an 
 image would be utterly improbable in itself, and 
 out of harmony with all the context. The whole 
 allegory is strictly and consistently architectural.* 
 * See pp. 126-129. 
 
8o THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 In order to enter into the full significance of 
 the allegory, Ave should look at the context. St 
 Paul is addressing those who were addicted to 
 the spirit of party, and is speaking of the right 
 estimate of Christian Ministers. He first uses 
 an agricultural metaphor, and then he passes to 
 an architectural. Our approach to the architec- 
 tural structure Hes, as it were, through a garden 
 or orchard. Here Paul has planted the preci- 
 ous trees. Apollos, and probably others with 
 him, as subordinates and successors to Paul, are 
 watering them. Suddenly the image changes to 
 a new one, more capable of being turned to 
 what the Apostle wishes to enforce. A build- 
 ing in progress rises before us. Paul has laid 
 the foundation — laid it once for all, and laid it 
 well. He has no objection to say this, for it has 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. Si 
 
 been done by the grace of God. On this foun- 
 dation Apollos and others are building. As to 
 building on another foundation, this is set aside 
 at once. The work is going on, and will go on 
 indefinitely in the future ; but it will be tested. 
 A day will come when the fire will burn up 
 those wretched edifices of wood and straw, and 
 leave unharmed in their glorious beauty those 
 that were raised of marble and granite, and 
 decorated with silver and gold. The men who 
 raised such structures as these shall not only be 
 safe, but rewarded ; the men who lost their time 
 on the others shall just escape out of the confla- 
 gration, because they built on the right foun- 
 dation, but their escape shall be barely an 
 escape. 
 
 It is a most serious admonition to the Mini- 
 
 F 
 
82 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 ster of the Gospel " to take heed how he build- 
 eth," that is, with what materials — what kind of 
 teaching, what kind of parochial arrangements, 
 what kind of provision for the young, what kind 
 of care for tender consciences or for desperate 
 guilt. He should consider, too, what his mate- 
 rials have cost him. If they are cheap and 
 worthless, the first that came to hand, what 
 fate can he expect for his building in the day of 
 trial } Is it not well worth his while to see that 
 the quarry is worked for the stone, and the mine 
 explored deep for the silver and the gold, that all 
 his materials may be precious, solid, and good, 
 and may survive the fire, as the temples of 
 Corinth itself survived the conflagration of 
 Mummius, which burnt the hovels around ? 
 It will be gathered that I think the building 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 8$ 
 
 itself in this passage is not simply the develop- 
 ment of doctrine and the promotion of sound 
 practical truth. These I look on as the mate- 
 rials of building. The building itself I should 
 regard, in analogy with all that has preceded, as 
 th.Q J^erso/is, or rather I ought to say the cJiarac- 
 ters^ which result from this good or bad edifica- 
 tion. 
 
 But still the passage may be lawfully applied 
 to remind us of the importance of regular and 
 systematic instruction in religious truth. And 
 hence a lesson may be drawn, which has refer- 
 ence to the responsibihty of the recipients, not 
 the givers, of instruction. And we may con- 
 clude with an extract from the first of the 
 Catechetical Lectures of St Cyril, which he 
 delivered about the year 347 A.D. in the grand 
 
54 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Basilica erected by Constantine the Great: 
 " Abide thou in the Catechisings," he says. 
 "Though our discourse be long, let not thy 
 mind be wearied out. For thou art receiving 
 thine armour against the antagonist power : 
 against heresies, against Jews, and Samaritans, 
 and Gentiles. Thou hast many enemies. Take 
 to thee many darts/' He uses here the military 
 imagery, which was the subject of the first of 
 these essays. Presently he uses the agricul- 
 tural imagery, which will be the subject of the 
 next of the series. " Study the things that 
 are spoken, and keep them for ever, — consider- 
 ing this to be the planting season. Unless we 
 dig, and that deeply, how shall that afterwards 
 be planted rightly, which has once been planted 
 ill ? " And then — quite in St Paul's own man- 
 
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE. 85 
 
 ner — he passes to the simile with the con- 
 sideration of which we have been occupied in 
 the present essay: — "Or consider Catechising to 
 be a kind of building. Unless we dig deep, and 
 lay the foundation, — unless by successive fasten- 
 ings in the masonry we bind the framework of 
 the house together, that no opening be detected, 
 nor the work be left unsound, nought avails all 
 our former labour. But stone must succeed 
 stone In course, and corner must follow corner, 
 and, inequalities being smoothed away, the 
 masonry must rise regular. In like manner, we 
 are bringing to thee stones, as it were, of know- 
 ledge. Thou must hear concerning the living 
 God ; concerning the Judgment ; concerning 
 Christ ; concerning the Resurrection : and many 
 things are made to follow one the other, which, 
 
86 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 though now dropped one by one, at length are 
 presented in harmonious connexion. But if 
 thou wilt not connect them into one whole, and 
 remember what is first, and what Is second, the 
 builder indeed buildeth, but the building will be 
 unstable." 
 
III. 
 
 ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 
 
 "P) APID transitions from one metaphor to 
 another are characteristic of St Paul. 
 One transition of this kind is to be found in 
 the eighth verse of the tenth chapter of the 
 Second Epistle to the Corinthians. St Paul 
 has been using language drawn from the inci- 
 dents of a campaign to describe the course 
 which he himself might be forced to adopt, 
 if those to whom he writes, or others, were to 
 
88 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 persist in their disobedience. In such a case 
 he might be compelled to put all his spiritual 
 power into action, and to "pull down" their 
 "strongholds" of arrogance and pride, just as 
 the rock-forts of his native Cilicia were de- 
 stroyed in the Roman wars with the pirates. 
 Such a course of procedure would be a cause of 
 deep regret to him : for, as he says in the verse 
 before us, the "authority" which "the Lord 
 had given," was intended for purposes of " edi- 
 fication" or building up, not for purposes of 
 " destruction" or pulling down. This is the last 
 echo of the military image, — or rather not the 
 very last echo, — for the identical phrase is 
 found again at the very close of the Epistle,* — 
 but it is an echo of the military image, though 
 
 * See 2 Cor. xiii. lo. 
 
in the English version it is muffled, as it were, 
 so as to be almost inaudible : and the fact to 
 which attention is invited is the close juxtapo- 
 sition in one sentence of the military and the 
 architectural metaphor. 
 
 Another instance of rapid transition may in- 
 troduce us directly to the subject of the present 
 section. The agriculttiral metaphors of St Paul 
 are not by any means the most prominent, 
 but they constitute a sufficient topic for one 
 essay. *' Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's 
 building,"" he says to the Corinthians, in the 
 ninth verse of the third chapter of his First 
 Epistle. The agricultural and the architectural 
 image are here side by side, as, in the last case, 
 the architectural and the military. We have 
 already given our attention to the architectural 
 
90 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 allegory which follows this point of transition. 
 Our subject now is the agricultural allegory 
 which precedes it. "I have planted, Apollos 
 watered ; but God gave the increase. So then 
 neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he 
 that watereth : but God that giveth the increase. 
 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are 
 one : and every man shall receive his own re- 
 ward according to his own labour. For we are 
 labourers together with God : ye are God's hus- 
 bandry."* 
 
 Paley points out very acutely the delicate yet 
 perfectly unconscious harmony of this passage 
 with what we read in the Acts, and uses it as 
 an argument for the authenticity of both the 
 Epistle and the History. Not only must Paul 
 
 * I Cor, iii. 6-9. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 9I 
 
 have been at Corinth before Apollos, but 
 Apollos must have been there in the interval 
 between the Apostle's visit and the writing of 
 this letter. This is not our subject now, except 
 so far as this, that it leads us to mark more 
 closely the Providential sequence of one teacher 
 after another in God's gracious work of prepar- 
 ing and maturing His Church. 
 
 This image of a large cultivated garden, in 
 which many are employed, is indeed a most apt, 
 a most copious illustration of nearly all the 
 main characteristics of the Christian Ministry. 
 There is first the succession of which I have 
 spoken, — the tasks assigned now to one and 
 now to another, according to the law of the 
 seasons and the will of the great Master of the 
 garden — one beginning when another has left 
 
92 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 off — one completing what another has prepared. 
 At the same time there is justice to each : 
 '' Every man shall receive his own reward ac- 
 cording to his own labour." And yet all the 
 work is one. Though many hands are em- 
 ployed, according to their aptitude and the 
 time when they are required, the progress is 
 one through the advancing year to one result : 
 " He that planteth and he that watereth are 
 one." All, too, is entirely dependent on an un- 
 seen power : '' Neither is he that planteth any 
 thing, neither he that watereth : but God that 
 giveth the increase." Then there are the lessons 
 of cheerfulness, hopefulness, and patience — the 
 habit of not looking for immediate results — but 
 at the same time the confident expectation that 
 in spite of adverse weather the flower and fruit 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 93 
 
 will come at last — which all are necessarily asso- 
 ciated with the very thought of a garden, and 
 which should be diligently fostered by every 
 Christian Minister in his own heart and mind. 
 And lastly, there is the duty of giving diligent 
 heed to the young plants. How much may be 
 expected, if they are vigilantly and carefully 
 tended at first, one by one ! " Let us get up 
 early to the vineyards ; let us see if the vine 
 flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and 
 the pomegranates bud forth." * \ 
 
 It has been said before, that the references to 
 nature in St Paul's writings are almost entirely 
 to nature in connexion with human labour ; not 
 to its beauty and to the impressions which the 
 mind passively receives from it, but to its useful 
 * Cant. vii. 12. 
 
94 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 and beneficent processes under the work of cul- 
 tivation. There is hardly any mere natural 
 imagery in his Epistles. We find more of this 
 kind of illustration in the one short Epistle of 
 St James, than in all the writings of St Paul. 
 What we read in the fifteenth chapter of the 
 first letter to the Corinthians : — " There is one 
 glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, 
 and another glory of the stars : for one star dif- 
 fereth from another star in glory,"* — is no real 
 exception to this. This is not an outburst of 
 adoring admiration, like those of the Psalmist 
 " when he considered the heavens, the work of 
 God's fingers, the moon and the stars, which He 
 had ordained." f It is really the continuance 
 of the preceding argument, and a new illustra- 
 
 * I Cor. XV. 41. t Ps. viii. 3. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 95 
 
 tion arising out of that which he had used be- 
 fore. He had been speaking of the difference 
 between "bodies terrestrial," or the organisation 
 of beings Hke ourselves adapted to an existence 
 on earth ; and '' bodies celestial," or the organi- 
 sation of beings, like the angels, adapted to a 
 heavenly residence. And nothing is more natu- 
 ral (if I may so speak) than that this contrast 
 should suggest another connected with the hea- 
 vens themselves. The sun, the moon, and the 
 stars, though they all give light, are very diffe- 
 rent among themselves, and each is suited to its 
 own place and its own function. So above he 
 had said that among the organisms of animal 
 life on the earth there are great varieties, 
 each according to its office in the economy of 
 God's world : " All flesh is not the same flesh ; 
 
96 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 but there Is one kind of flesh of men, another 
 flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of 
 birds." Now, going backwards again along the 
 line of the Apostle's illustrations, we have the 
 passage which I am aiming at : " But some man 
 will say. How are the dead raised up ^ and with 
 w^hat body do they come ? Thou fool, that 
 which thou sowest Is not quickened except it 
 die : and that which thou sowest, thou sowest 
 not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it 
 may chance of wheat, or of some other grain : 
 but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, 
 and to every seed his ovm body." * Here we 
 have that reference to nature In its connexion 
 with human labour and its productive operations 
 rather than its mere phenomena, to which allu- 
 * I Cor. XV. 35-38. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 97 
 
 sion was made just now. As, In speaking to 
 the uneducated Lystrians, St Paul had urged 
 "the rains from heaven and the fruitful seasons" 
 as an argument for gratitude and a lesson 
 against Idolatry, so here he presses on the 
 speculative Corinthians the facts with which they 
 were familiar in the sowing and reaping of every 
 year, as one reason for casting aside all theo- 
 retical objections to a resurrection of the body. 
 The grain and the corn-plant, the seed and the 
 harvest, are the same, and yet not the same. 
 They are so connected as to be Identical, and 
 yet a wonderful change of form and organisa- 
 tion has taken place under the operation of 
 mysterious laws. Why should It be otherwise 
 with our own frames ? He returns to this illustra- 
 tion again, after deviating just rapidly to touch 
 
 G 
 
98 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 the other illustrations : " So also is the resur- 
 rection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, 
 it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dis- 
 honour, it is raised in glory : it is sown in weak- 
 ness, it is raised in power : it is sown a natural 
 body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a 
 natural body, and there is a spiritual body." * 
 We have here, then, what I think may truly be 
 termed an agricultural allegory. The appeal is 
 to the universal experience of man in the work 
 of husbandry. And if there is just one Jewish 
 touch where the subject is first approached in 
 this chapter — '' Christ the first-fruits, afterwards 
 they that are Christ's at His coming " — this is 
 quite what we should expect, "f 
 
 This image of the harvest, in various applica- 
 
 * I Cor. XV. 42-44. t I Cor. xv. 20, 23. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 99 
 
 tions, as we know, pervades the whole of Scrip- 
 ture, from its very earhest portions, from the 
 dreams of Joseph or of Pharaoh, and the glean- 
 ing of Ruth and her mother. But St Paul 
 uses it so pointedly, and so much in a way of 
 his own, that I think it may be included as an 
 element in his characteristic style. The pro- 
 gressive change of organisation, along with abso- 
 lute identity of being, has just been adduced 
 as a type of the Resurrection. How solemnly 
 is this thought (in the sixth chapter of the 
 Galatians) connected with the ultimate results to 
 ourselves in eternity of the life which we lead in 
 the moments of our time ! '' Be not deceived ; 
 God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man sow- 
 eth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth 
 to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; 
 
lOO THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the 
 Spirit reap life everlasting." * Here is the prin- 
 ciple of inevitable retribution, the growing and 
 growing, according to irresistible laws : the 
 moral organism passing into new forms without 
 losing its identity, just as the rich waving har- 
 vest is developed from the poor shrivelled grain. 
 And clearly here the human side of the subject, 
 the actual agricultural process, is a very promi- 
 nent part of the image and the lesson, whether 
 it be viewed in the aspect of warning or of en- 
 couragement And the same train of thought 
 meets us in a nearly contemporary Epistle, in 
 reference to another subject, — namely the bless- 
 ing, "twice blest," of generous giving "He 
 which soweth sparingly shall reap also spar- 
 * Gal. vi. 7, 8. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. lOT 
 
 ingly : and he which soweth bountifully shall 
 reap also bountifully ;" *' God loveth a cheerful 
 giver." It is written of such a man that he 
 'disperses abroad — he gives to the poor" — and 
 yet he is no loser — his "righteousness" — or 
 rather it ought to be, his liberality and benefi- 
 cence, his power of doing good — "endureth" 
 still.* A man is no loser by sowing his grain, in 
 faith, with an open hand ; he . secures the har- 
 vest, and he secures a larger supply of grain 
 than ever, for sowing in future over wider fields. 
 In the encouraging verses which conclude the pas- 
 sage, I will not stay to inquire whether the true 
 reading gives the Apostle's words in the form 
 of a promise or a prayer ; for indeed promises 
 and prayers in the Apostolic writings run into 
 
 * 2 Cor. ix. 6-9. 
 
I02 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 one another, so that we can hardly distinguish 
 them, even as the readings of the manuscripts 
 do in such passages. " Now He that minister- 
 eth seed to the sower" in the world of nature 
 and in the work of agriculture — " may He mul- 
 tiply (or, He shall multiply) your seed sown, 
 and increase the fruits of your righteousness," — 
 or rather, as before, " your liberality and bene- 
 ficence," — " being enriched in everything unto 
 all bountifulness, which causeth through us 
 thanksgiving to God." * No imagery could set 
 before us more vividly the rich and increasing 
 reward which waits upon faithful and generous 
 service on our side, or the overflowing blessing 
 on God's side, which gives life and abundance 
 and growth to all honest spiritual husbandry. 
 
 * 2 Cor. ix. lo, II. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 103 
 
 This passage leads me to single out a word 
 which is certainly very characteristic of St Paul. 
 The word " riches'' has often been noticed as 
 marking his style ; and the same is true of the 
 word ^'fniit;" and not merely is this a verbal, 
 but also a moral characteristic. It seems to me 
 to express that kind of exuberance, so to speak, 
 which will never allow him to hope and believe 
 by halves. The former word is a metaphor 
 from the market, the latter from the corn-field 
 or the orchard. He desires to visit the Romans, 
 that he may '* have some frtnt among them 
 also, as among other Gentiles," * Writing to 
 the Philippians of the precariousness of his Hfe, 
 he says (so I understand him) that he valued 
 this continuance **in the flesh" as the condition 
 * Rom. i. 13. 
 
I04 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 of bringing forth ^' fruiV' in his work.* Writing 
 to the Colossians, his expression concerning the 
 Gospel is, that in all the world it is ever " grow- 
 ing," and ever ''bringing forth fndtr^ And 
 this I notice (unless I am mistaken) as a mark 
 of St Paul's way of using this word, that he 
 always applies it to what is good. And that this 
 should be so seems to us very appropriate and 
 very beautiful. The blessedness of the righteous 
 man is that, planted as he is "by the water- 
 side," he "bringeth forth his fruit in due sea- 
 son," whereas the ungodly is '^ike the chaff 
 which the wind driveth away." J The passage 
 which most naturally occurs to us here is that 
 in the Galatians where the fruit of the Spirit is 
 contrasted in detail with the works of the flesh.§ 
 * Phil. i. 22. t Col. i. 6. X Ps. i. 3, 4. § Gal. v. 19-23. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. I05 
 
 It is a contrast very similar to that which we 
 find elsewhere between the wages of sin and the 
 gift of God * Nor is that passage in the Gala- 
 tians a solitary instance. We find the same in 
 the Ephesians — " Walk as children of the light ; 
 for the fruit of light is in all goodness and 
 righteousness and truth/'f — the force of which 
 is very much enhanced by our observing what 
 follows : '' Have no fellowship with the imfniit- 
 fd works of darkness." And similar language 
 is found in the Epistle to the Romans — " What 
 fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye 
 are now ashamed V but '' now, being emanci- 
 pated" from that dreadful master, sin, and 
 " become servants to God, ye have your fruit 
 unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."| 
 
 * See Rom. vi. 23. f Epli. v. 8, 9, 11. % Rom. vi. 21, 22. 
 
Io6 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Sometimes the phrase is applied generally, as 
 (not to repeat again that passage concerning 
 " the fruits of righteousness " addressed to the 
 Corinthians) * when he desires that the Philip- 
 pians may be "filled" with those '^fruits of 
 righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the 
 glory and praise of God/'f or that the Colos- 
 sians may be ^^ friiiifitl in every good w^ork, and 
 increase in the knowledge of God." J Some- 
 times the reference is specific, as when he says 
 that he is going to Jerusalem to deliver and lay 
 up safely in store, and to seal, "\h.Q frtiit" of 
 the liberality of the Christians in Macedonia 
 and Achaia ;§ or when he says afterwards of 
 similar generosity which came to himself from 
 
 * 2 Cor. ix. lo. t Phil. i. il. 
 
 X Col. i. 10. § Rom. XV. 28. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. I07 
 
 Macedonia, " Not because I desire a gift ; but I 
 desire y^//// that may abound to your account;"* 
 or when he urges in one of the Pastoral Epistles 
 that they who profess Christ's religion must 
 learn to maintain good works, and contribute to 
 those wants of others which must of necessity be 
 brought before them, in order that with all this 
 profession they " be not tmfniitftd!' f But in 
 all these cases, whether they are general or spe- 
 cific, the reference is to what is good. One ap- 
 parent exception may very naturally here come 
 into the mind, namely, that passage in which 
 two consecutive verses end, the former with the 
 phrase "bring forth fruit unto God," the latter 
 with the phrase *^ bring forth fndt unto death.^J 
 But these verses occur In the seventh of the Ro- 
 
 * Phil. iv. 1 7. + Tit. iii. 14. % Rom. vii. 4, 5. 
 
lo8 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 mans, and even if the image were the same, I 
 think it would be natural to call the passage an 
 oxymoron, and so it would really be an instance 
 of the rule, and not an exception. I conceive, 
 however, that the image is different, and that 
 the reference is to fruit as the offspring of mar- 
 riage. I believe it will be found true, that when 
 St Paul applies to moral subjects the word 
 " fruit," as derived from the corn-field or the 
 orchard, he applies it to what is good. I say 
 nothing of the other parts of Scripture. But it 
 is as if he thought the term too honourable — 
 expressing as it does the result of man's honest, 
 useful labour, in subordination to and in depend- 
 ence on the bounteous and life-giving influences 
 of heaven — too honourable and too cheerful to 
 be applied to what is bad. " The root of the 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. IO9 
 
 righteous yieldeth fruit."* "He shall be as a 
 tree planted by the waters, neither shall cease 
 from yielding fruit." f 
 
 One particular passage — a remarkable and 
 difficult passage — in that Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans, now claims a moment of close attention.^ 
 I allude, of course, to the allegory drav/n in the 
 eleventh chapter from the grafting of the olive- 
 tree. The Image first appears in the sixteenth 
 verse, and (as we have seen in other instances) 
 in close combination with another image — ''If 
 the first-fruit be holy, the lump Is also holy ; and 
 if the root be holy, so are the branches;" and 
 then it is rapidly developed with varied and 
 pointed application up to the end of the twenty- 
 fourth verse. With all the great doctrinal and 
 
 * Prov. xii. 12. t Jer. xvii. 8. t Rom. xi. 16-24. 
 
no THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 historical questions arising from this passage, 
 we have on the present occasion nothing to do ; 
 our concern is with the outward imagery, and in 
 it there is this very strange circumstance, that 
 the lesson is drawn from the grafting of branches 
 of a wild olive-tree on the stock of a good olive- 
 tree— the grafting of branches of a wild fruit- 
 tree on the stock of a good fruit-tree— a process 
 unheard of among gardeners. Commentators 
 have tortured themselves with this difficulty, 
 and some of them have adduced instances of 
 this process with certain supposed good results 
 as regards the productiveness of the olive. I con- 
 fess I am very sceptical on this point, and the ex- 
 planation which I suggest is very simple, though 
 I am not aware of having seen it previously sug- 
 gested elsewhere. I beHeve that here partly is 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. Ill 
 
 the very point of the parable, that the grafting 
 was contrary to the law of nature. So strange 
 a grafting as that which had taken place in the 
 case of the Gentiles made the lesson far more 
 emphatic to them. It was the very cojitrary to 
 the grafting which took place in the olive- 
 grounds to which all readers of the Epistle were 
 accustomed. This work of artificial cultivation 
 is indeed the basis of the parable, but it is the 
 basis by way of contrast rather than of compari- 
 son. So our Lord, in St Luke's Gospel, com- 
 pares God to a selfish man and an tmjiLst judge, 
 and makes the argument for the answering of 
 prayer all the stronger.* Or let us take another 
 illustration. St James says to the rich tyrants 
 of his day, " Your gold and silver is rusted, and 
 * See Luke xi. 8, xviii. 6. 
 
112 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 the rust of them shall be a witness against you."* 
 Now gold does not rust. St James was quite 
 aware of this. But herein, I apprehend, is one 
 part of the point of the image. Their very gold 
 should become mysteriously their curse. So in 
 the case before us. St Paul knew very well the 
 processes which took place in the olive-grounds 
 which were abundant then, as they are now, in 
 all parts of the Levant. He must have seen 
 them often when he was a boy at Tarsus. Boys 
 notice all such things ; and the experience of 
 early life becomes, even in an Apostle, the basis 
 of religious teaching. To find fault with him 
 for inexactness, seems to me very like finding 
 fault with him (as some critics do in these days) 
 for inaccurate applications of the Old Testa- 
 
 * James v. 3. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. II3 
 
 ment. He knew the Old Testament, and so did 
 his Jewish readers, far better than we do. But 
 we must not leave our proper subject. 
 
 And one other side of the subject must be 
 touched before it has been handled completely. 
 Agriculture has to do with the animal as well as 
 the vegetable world ; and something within this 
 province, too, in the writings of St Paul, will 
 reward our careful attention. 
 
 I have sometimes been impressed with the 
 
 fact, while thinking of this topic, that the 
 
 critical words addressed to the Apostle from 
 
 heaven at the threshold of his Christian career, 
 
 were In truth an agricultural metapJior — '' Saul ! 
 
 Saul ! it is hard for thee " — Who knows — I write 
 
 it with reverence — whether at that moment the 
 
 operations of ploughing might not be going on 
 
 H 
 
114 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 within sight of the road along which the perse- 
 cutor was travelling ? At all events, the image 
 is certainly drawn from those operations, as cer- 
 tainly as the images in the Sermon on the Mount 
 were drawn from the lilies which grew in the 
 field, or the birds which flew over it. All who 
 have journeyed in the East, or even in the south 
 of Europe, are familiar with that ox-goad, the 
 resistance to which only increases the suffering 
 of the restive animal, and in allusion to which 
 the force of conscience, sharpened by God's 
 Spirit, is depicted in the words, " It is hard for 
 thee to kick against the pricks."* And it seems 
 to me interesting to notice, on the one hand, 
 that our blessed Lord's words spoken on this 
 occasion from heaven were a parable, like the 
 
 * Acts xxvi. 14, 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. I15 
 
 parables which He graciously uttered on earth, 
 and, on the other hand, that they are in harmony 
 with, and might almost be fancied to have given 
 a holy suggestion of, one class of the Apostle's 
 own habitual imagery. 
 
 I may remark that what was said in the ear- 
 lier part of this section in reference to orchards,., 
 vineyards, and corn-fields, has its counterpart 
 here in reference to flocks and oxen. St Paul's 
 illustrative language deals with human labour 
 and its useful results, rather than with nature 
 viewed poetically on the side of beauty and 
 mere expressiveness. Accordingly, the animals 
 under the care of man are presented to us more 
 on the industrial side than the contemplative. 
 It is the farmer near the large town, rather than 
 the shepherd in the wilderness, who comes be- 
 
Il6 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 fore us in the pages of this Apostle. It is re- 
 markable that nowhere, in all his unquestioned 
 Epistles,* is Jesus Christ set forth as the Good 
 Shepherd. I do not forget those touching 
 words in the address at Miletus, " Take heed to 
 the flock ; feed the church which God hath pur- 
 chased with His own blood ; for grievous wolves 
 shall enter in, not sparing the flock." f And 
 perhaps it would be strange if no one instance 
 were found in St Paul of the employment of an 
 image which is almost universal throughout the 
 rest of Scripture. But still it is not character- 
 istic of his style. It is very different with regard 
 to St Peter, in whose first Epistle these words, 
 " Feed the flock ; be examples to the flock," J 
 are a true echo of the words at the end of 
 
 • See Heb. xiii 20. + Acts xx. 28, 29. Z i Pet. v. 2, 3. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 
 
 117 
 
 the Gospels, "Feed my sheep, feed my 
 lambs." * 
 
 With St Paul's habit of illustration the con- 
 course of men, where business goes on and buy- 
 ing and selling, is more in harmony than the 
 solitary mountain-side, where the sheep are fol- 
 lowing their shepherd and diligently cropping 
 the thin herbage on the rocky slopes. We see 
 this in that passage of his Epistles when he does 
 mention the flock. " Who goeth a warfare any 
 time at his own charges ? who planteth a vine- 
 yard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or 
 who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk 
 of the flock ?"-|- the real meaning of which is 
 this, '' Who keeps a vineyard or a flock of sheep 
 without living by the profits of the grapes and 
 
 * John xxi. 15-17. f I Cor. ix. 7. 
 
Il8 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 the milk, when they are brought into the mar- 
 ket ?" In this case, as in so many others, three 
 metaphors — one miHtary and two agricultural — 
 are rapidly thrown together. The point on w^hich 
 they are brought to bear is the claim which 
 Christian Ministers have on the support of the 
 people, whether or not they may find it neces- 
 sary or politic to urge that claim. With this it 
 seems natural to combine another passage in 
 another Epistle (remarkable also for the heaping 
 up of metaphors), though there the duty of the 
 minister to labour among his people is urged, 
 his support being assumed, while here it is their 
 duty to support him which is pressed, his labour 
 being assumed. "No man that enters on a 
 soldier's career mixes himself up with the com- 
 mon business of life ; no man, striving in the 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. IT9 
 
 games, will obtain the prize unless he has kept 
 the rules ; the husbandman that laboureth must 
 be first partaker of the fruits;"* i.e., it is the 
 farmer that works who has the first claim to the 
 profits of the produce of the farm. The idle 
 Farmer, the idle Clergyman, deserves to starve. 
 Perhaps the word " fruits" might more naturally 
 seem to connect this sentence with the earlier 
 part of this section , but it is better to have taken 
 it in its present connexion, because of the com- 
 mon bearing of both these passages on one sub- 
 ject — the Christian Ministry — which also is the 
 subject of the one remaining passage with which 
 I am now about to conclude. 
 
 " Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox 
 that treadeth out the corn." When a sentence 
 
 * 2 Tim. ii. 4-6. 
 
I20 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 from the Old Testament is more than once 
 quoted in the New Testament, it always seems 
 to have a peculiar claim on our reverent atten- 
 tion. And St Paul quotes this sentence from 
 Deuteronomy* twice, in two Epistles written at 
 very different periods, and each time brings it 
 to bear on the same topic. " It is written in the 
 law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth 
 of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God 
 take care for oxen ^ or saith He it altogether 
 for our sakes } For our sakes, no doubt, this is 
 written : that he that plougheth should plough 
 in the hope of a harvest, and he that thresheth 
 should do this in the hope of partaking of the 
 harvest," "f (for so I conceive the true meaning 
 of the latter words would be given.) The eye 
 
 * Deut. XXV. 4. I I Cor. ix. 9, 10. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. 121 
 
 ranges here over the whole agricultural process, 
 from the ploughing and sowing to the reaping 
 and threshing, and all this ought to be con- 
 ducted In hope ; otherwise all the cheerfulness, 
 all the elasticity of the work Is gone. The 
 Christian people ought to be very careful that 
 their Clergy are not weighed down by the per- 
 petual harassing care of the maintenance of 
 their families and the education of their children. 
 When they see all the harvest of wealth around 
 them, they ought. If they labour patiently, at 
 least to have some small share of it. There may 
 possibly, as Chrysostom says, be a hint to them 
 — to this effect, that they do labour diligently, 
 that they be not Impatient under the Irksome 
 monotony of routine, and that they be content 
 with. It may be, a very scanty portion of all this 
 
122 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 profusion of wealth. But the main lesson is to 
 the Christian people, that they support the 
 hearts and the strength of their Clergy by en- 
 dowments, and gifts, and liberal payments, and 
 still more by sympathy, and respect, and large 
 co-operation. The lesson is riveted for ever on 
 the Church, in strong words, by the other pas- 
 sage, " Let the elders that rule well be counted 
 worthy of double honour, especially they who 
 labour in the word and doctrine ; for the Scrip- 
 ture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that 
 treadeth out the corn." * How beautifully is 
 this large lesson of charity and justice developed 
 out of what might seem a very trivial and un- 
 important precept ! " Doth God take care for 
 oxen ? " Certainly He does, but He takes care 
 * I Tim. V. 17, 18. 
 
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE. I23 
 
 for man much more. When He tells us that it 
 is a duty to be considerate of the former, He 
 reminds us that it is a still more urgent duty to 
 feel sympathy for the latter. It is our Lord's 
 argument, " Not a sparrow falls to the ground 
 without your Father : ye are of more value than 
 many sparrows;"* and again, "Which of you 
 shall have a sheep fallen into a pit on the Sab- 
 bath and will not lift it out ? How much is a 
 man better than a sheep .'* " "l* By thus incul- 
 cating the duty of considerately caring for dumb 
 animals, the Jewish Law really enforces the 
 general principle, the wider duty, which em- 
 braces all things, '' both great and small." Our 
 poet's words come here irresistibly into the 
 mind, — 
 
 * Matt. X. 29, 31. + Matt. xii. Ii, 12. 
 
124 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 ** The dear God who loveth us 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
 And indeed this considerate care in the minor 
 instance is itself a training for humanity and 
 kindness in reference to the greater. Such a 
 suggestion as that of this little precept in the 
 Pentateuch, furnished to a thoughtful, devout, 
 and feeling mind, spreads out into a thousand 
 instances, and finds its opportunities in all the 
 relations of life, and especially those relations 
 where service on our behalf has established a 
 
 claim to our gratitude. 
 
IV. 
 
 GREEK GAMES. 
 
 'T^HE four short essays in which I am invit- 
 ing attention to four of St Paul's favourite 
 metaphors, do not by any means exhaust the 
 characteristic imagery of that Apostle ; and in 
 order to give a better completeness to the series, 
 it may be useful to prefix to this last essay a 
 few general remarks on the whole subject. 
 
 A single example, selected out of those which 
 have previously been given, may (though at the 
 
126 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 risk of some repetition) conveniently introduce 
 these general remarks. St Paul, in writing his first 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, says to them, as we 
 have seen,* " Ye are God's building." These 
 simple words are like the striking of a key-note. 
 There follows immediately the full swell of a 
 familiar passage,! with all its melodious rhythm, 
 and its intricate verbal and moral harmonies. 
 There is no need to occupy ourselves again 
 with the religious meanings of the passage. 
 Attention is simply directed to the charac- 
 teristic nature of the allegory. If we place 
 ourselves at Ephesus, where the letter was 
 written, or at Corinth, where the letter was re- 
 ceived, and mark the evident and outward char- 
 acteristics of such places, we see at once the 
 * See p. 78. + I Cor. iii. 9-15, 
 
GREEK GAMES. 127 
 
 significance of the language. Conspicuous in 
 these cities were vast public buildings, such as 
 the Temple of Diana at Ephesus,* and similar 
 edifices at Corinth — strong, firm, and magni- 
 ficent, with columns and slabs of marble, por- 
 phyry, and granite — " precious stones " — and 
 richly completed with metallic decorations — 
 ^* gold and silver." But close beside them 
 were the hovels of the poor, with a sharpness 
 of contrast to which we are not accustomed, 
 but which we can In some degree set before 
 our minds by imagining some of our great 
 public edifices to be densely surrounded by an 
 accumulation of wretched villages, with huts 
 hastily run up with '^wood," the interstices 
 filled with "hay," and the roof thatched with 
 
 * See Acts xix. 27. 
 
128 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 "stubble." And now suppose a fire to take 
 place in such a scene, and you have imme- 
 diately the simple outward image on which 
 the Apostle's manifold parable rests. All these 
 wretched hovels, so cheaply, so carelessly built, 
 would be burnt up ; and all that could be hoped 
 for to the poor man himself, in any one of them, 
 would be a bare personal escape through 'the 
 flames. The great building, on the other hand, 
 might be scorched and blackened, but it would 
 stand steady and erect, and exhibit still all the 
 proofs of patient working in the quarry, of good 
 and solid masonry, and of rich and elaborate 
 ornament. In listening to expositions of this 
 passage, we often find that this plain and 
 simple way of looking at it has never occurred 
 to the expositor, and we are presented with 
 
GREEK GAMES. 
 
 129 
 
 the unreal and grotesque image of a rubblsli- 
 heap, consisting of sticks and straw, and con- 
 taining also some contents of a jeweller's shop, 
 diamonds, rubies, and garnets. This is not the 
 style in which St Paul would be likely to write 
 to educated men. And misconceptions of such 
 a kind arise from this, that men, in inter- 
 preting Scripture, so often look only at the 
 words and not at the things; so often forget 
 that every writer in the Bible drew his illustra- 
 tions from the circumstances with which he was 
 surrounded, and especially those circumstances 
 which were most in harmony with the tem- 
 perament of mind which the Holy Ghost, 
 in that particular case, consecrated and em- 
 ployed. 
 
 The general notion, then, of these essays is 
 
 I 
 
130 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 this, that in order to enter into the full force 
 of St Paul's writings, it is needful to have, not 
 only that clear apprehension of the meaning of 
 his words, which we obtain through our exact 
 stydy of Greek literature, but also that appre- 
 hension of the familiar sights and sounds, cus- 
 toms and institutions, surrounding him, which 
 is furnished by our knowledge of history and 
 antiquities, science and art ; and further, to 
 consider carefully what portions of that outward 
 environment he most employs by preference or 
 habit in the inculcation of religious truth. In 
 studying the Bible, the dictionary of things is 
 almost as important as the dictionary of words ; 
 and St Paul's writings are no exception to this 
 rule, but one of its best exemplifications. 
 
 As to his own temperament and predilection, 
 
GREEK GAMES. I3I 
 
 we may again revert to a remark which was 
 made before,* that his metaphors are usually 
 drawn, not from the operations and phenomena 
 of the natural world, but from the activities 
 and the outward manifestations of human life. 
 In this respect, St Paul's illustrative language 
 has already been contrasted with that of St 
 James, '' The vapour, the fierce wind, the 
 fountain, beasts and birds and serpents, the 
 flower of the grass, the wave of the sea, the 
 early and latter rain, the sun risen with a burn- 
 ing heat,"t — these are like the figures of the 
 ancient prophets. There is more imagery of 
 this kind, I think, in the one short Epistle of 
 St James, than in all the speeches and letters 
 of St Paul put together. The address to the 
 * Page 94. t James iv. 14; iii, 4, 7, 11,12: i. 6. 10, 11 ; v. 7. 
 
132 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 idolaters of Lystra,* country-people as they 
 were in a rude and remote district, if it is an 
 exception at all, is exactly that kind of ex- 
 ception which makes the general rule more 
 palpably evident. 
 
 St Paul's favourite figures are undoubtedly 
 taken from the midst of the busiest human 
 society. Four of these have been selected for 
 careful examination, and we are now proceed- 
 ing to consider the fourth. But others of the 
 same general type might easily have been 
 added to the list ; and again, for the sake of 
 completeness, it may be desirable to name 
 two or three instances. Thus, first, how large 
 a portion of St Paul's attention is given to 
 money - matters ! How often are his images 
 
 * Acts xiv, 15-17. 
 
GREEK GAMES. 133 
 
 drawn from the market ! To take only three 
 instances : — " Owe no man anything, but to love 
 one another."* It would be impossible, per- 
 haps, by the use of any other illustration, to 
 express with equal force all that this sentence 
 implies. Again, in the phrase, "Redeem the 
 time,"t what is really said is this, "Buy out 
 of the market what you may never buy so 
 cheap again ; use the opportunity while you 
 have it, and use it thoroughly." So again, his 
 reference to the law cotirts and the adminis- 
 tration of justice, even when he is arguing 
 points of theology, is an instance which strikes 
 us forcibly. An interesting question arises, 
 whether in such passages he refers mainly to 
 Jewish law or to Roman law, especially wheri 
 
 * Rom. xiii. 8. t Eph. v. 16 j Col. iv. 5. 
 
134 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 the allusion is to marriage* and the making of 
 wills ;f but in either case his consistency is 
 preserved as regards the characteristic nature 
 of his imagery. A third instance is that of 
 slavery, as was almost inevitable for such a 
 writer at this period of history. In the ancient 
 world, war and slavery ran into one another; 
 and throughout the Roman Empire the whole 
 of society was made up of the contrasts of 
 "bond" and "free," J with the freedmen (and 
 such, probably, were St Paul's own ancestors) 
 intermediate between the two. Hence, when 
 speaking of the most momentous alternatives 
 in the condition of the soul, his language is 
 drawn from the experience of slaves. The 
 
 * Rom. vii. 3, 4. f Gal. iii. 15 ; iv. I. 
 
 + I Cor. xii. 13 ; Gal. iii. 28; Col. iii. ii. 
 
GREEK GAMES. I35 
 
 great and decisive change is expressed thus : — 
 " Being emancipated from that cruel master, 
 Sin, ye are now the happy slaves of a good 
 master; God." '^ But it is time to proceed 
 without delay to our proper subject. The 
 imagery to which our special consideration is to 
 be given now is the most animated of all, being 
 derived from the Hvely and exciting games of 
 the Greeks. 
 
 There is an obvious reason why images of 
 this kind should have been very familiar to St 
 Paul's thoughts, and why, when made the 
 vehicles of instruction, they should have been 
 very helpful to his converts. Wherever he was 
 residing, at Corinth, at Athens, and in all places 
 where a Greek population was predominant, 
 
 * Rom, vi. 18, 22. See vii. 23 ; viii, 21. 
 
136 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 (and this was, in fact, over the whole of the 
 Levant,) the athletic games of the Greeks came 
 before his notice, as a subject which caused the 
 most engrossing and universal interest. The 
 Gymnasium, or place of training, and the Sta- 
 dium, or ground for running, were among the 
 most conspicuous and most frequented spots in 
 the architecture and embellishment of the cities. 
 Of many of them the remains can still be 
 traced. Wrestling, boxing, and especially foot- 
 races, with all the preliminary training, with the 
 assembled and applauding multitudes while the 
 contest was going on, with the formality of the 
 heralds and the strict observance of the rules, 
 with the umpires and prizes and eager congra- 
 tulations at the close, with the poems which 
 perpetuated great victories like heir- looms 
 
GREEK GAMES. I37 
 
 through successive generations, — these things 
 were almost a religion among the Greeks, and 
 they caused an enthusiasm which we ourselves 
 can hardly understand, though it does happen 
 that In our day athletic sports are a fancy and a 
 fashion, and really In some cases, it would seem, 
 almost a religion. 
 
 I said, especially the foot-race. This was 
 pre-eminently the struggle which caused the 
 most eager Interest In that age and In those 
 countries. And this is pre-eminently the Image 
 which seems to come obviously to the Apostle, 
 when he employs comparisons of this kind. We 
 find Instances In the book of Acts. Thus, when 
 he is preaching one of his great missionary ser- 
 mons at Antloch in PIsidia, and has occasion to 
 mention John the Baptist, he speaks of him as 
 
138 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 ^^ fulfilling his coursc,^^'^ which literally means, 
 " running the race he had to run ;" and this lively 
 expression is evidently a fitting representation 
 of that career, which did not last very long, 
 but was very energetic while it lasted. So in 
 addressing the elders at Miletus, and speaking 
 of himself, and alluding with deep feeling to the 
 "bonds and afflictions" which awaited him, he 
 says : " None of these things move me, neither 
 count I my life dear unto myself, that I may 
 finish my cotLvse with joy." f He knows that his 
 course requires a vigorous effort — he feels that 
 there are many things to dissuade him from it 
 and to cause him to turn aside — but he braces 
 himself up, like a runner, for the struggle, 
 throws himself into it with all his force and 
 * Acts xiii. 25. t Acts xx. 24. 
 
GREEK GAMES. 
 
 139 
 
 Spirit, and thinks of the joy and exultation 
 which await him at the close. 
 
 Similar, and very frequently, is his language 
 in the Epistles. It is well worth our while to 
 observe how generally and variously this figure 
 is distributed through them. Some phrases of 
 this kind must appear strange to those who do 
 not consider the context of circumstances by 
 which the Apostle was surrounded. Thus, to 
 take as our guide the same English word which 
 we have observed in the Acts : " Pray for us," 
 he says to the Thessalonians, '' that the word of 
 the Lord may have free eotcrse and be glori- 
 fied." * Here the Gospel itself is the runner, 
 for which he desires a race that shall be vigor- 
 ous, rapid, free from obstacles, and triumphant 
 * 2 Thess. iii. i. 
 
140 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 at the end. Again, to turn to most pathetic 
 language having reference to himself, he writes 
 to Timothy, " I have fought the good fight : I 
 have finished my course : I have kept the faith : 
 henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of 
 righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
 judge, shall give me at that day." * We must 
 be careful here to give the right meaning to the 
 word " fight." This term has nothing to do 
 with war. It denotes an athletic contest. And 
 the particular kind of athletic contest, which he 
 specifies in his customary way, is the foot-race. 
 But now he is writing near the close of life. 
 The race is nearly run, the struggle is all but 
 over, he is weary, as it were, and panting with 
 the effort, but he is successful, the crown is in 
 
 * 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, 
 
GREEK GAMES. 141 
 
 sight, and the judge, the "righteous" judge, 
 who cannot make a mistake, is there, ready to 
 place that bright wreath upon his head. 
 
 And as with the word " course,'" so with the 
 verb that corresponds with it.* "It is not of 
 him that willeth, nor of him that rtmnctJi,'' says 
 St Paul in an argument,t which turns all our 
 confidence towards Him who "hath compas- 
 sion" and "showeth mercy." His anxiety re- 
 garding the success of his own Apostolic work, 
 is expressed by the same image in two very 
 different Epistles, written at widely-separated 
 points of time. He tells the Galatians that at 
 an early period he negotiated very carefully at 
 
 * In 2 Thess. iii, i, the margin has " run." No use is here 
 made of Heb. xii. i, simply because in these essays it is not 
 desirable absolutely to assume the Pauline authorship of tb^t 
 EpisMe. t Rom. ix. 15, 16. 
 
142 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Jerusalem, " lest by any means he sJwiild run or 
 Jiad run in vain ; " * and writing long afterwards 
 from Rome to the Philippians, he expresses his 
 desire that they may be consistent, in order that 
 he himself " may rejoice in the day of Christ, 
 that he has not nin in vain." -f And the meta- 
 phor which he applies to the progress of the 
 Gospel committed to him, he applies also to the 
 practical consistency and progress of those who 
 had learnt the truth from him. " Ye did run 
 well," he says to some, who had grievously 
 failed and fallen : " who hath hindered you, that 
 ye should not obey the truth t " % " Ye were 
 running the Christian race successfully and 
 well : who put these obstacles in your way, 
 which have thrown you down, and brought 
 * Gal. ii. 2. + Phil. ii. i6. + Gal. v. 7- 
 
GREEK GAMES. 
 
 143 
 
 you to shame ? " The whole language, as read 
 in the original Greek, is far more easily recog- 
 nised as applicable to the foot-race, than can 
 possibly be perceived in the English version. 
 
 Thus we see that both direct and indirect 
 advantages may be gained, by pursuing a nar- 
 row line of thought suggested by mere words. 
 We here perceive the harmony of St Paul's lan- 
 guage in his speeches and his letters, and lay 
 hold on one of the small collateral proofs of the 
 genuine and honest character both of the Acts 
 and the Epistles. We are very far, however, as 
 yet from having mentioned all instances of the 
 use of such metaphors in these latter docu- 
 ments ; and perhaps their use, in fact, strikes us 
 all the more, when the actual words, to which 
 our attention has hitherto been given, are not 
 
144 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 employed. Thus, when St Paul says to Tim- 
 othy, *' Exercise thyself unto godliness," * the 
 word he employs is most distinctly taken from 
 the training and practising for gynniastic con- 
 tests. And then he adds : '' Bodily exercise 
 profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto 
 all things, having the promise of the life that 
 now is, and of that which is to come" "I* — a pas- 
 sage often misinterpreted. It is, in fact, fre- 
 quently distorted in two ways. The "bodily 
 exercise" is taken to mean religious asceticism, 
 and the contrast is understood to lie between 
 this and some supposed "godliness" not con- 
 nected with bodily self-denial ; whereas the 
 comparison is simply between the training of 
 the body for the games, and the training of the 
 
 * I Tim. iv. 7. t Ver. 8. 
 
GREEK GAMES. 145 
 
 whole man, body, soul, and spirit, in the life of 
 religion. And this helps us to avoid the other 
 mistake, which is often committed in the inter- 
 pretation of the passage. It would be a strange 
 thing, if St Paul were to urge his disciple to the 
 practice of a strict religious training of his char- 
 acter, by any promise relating chiefly to this 
 life. He does nothing of the kind. He points 
 out that, if the athletes will do so much for a 
 reward which is merely of this world, we ought 
 to do much under the influence of a promise 
 which relates not merely to this world, but also 
 to the next. God has indeed a blessing for this 
 world, as the blessing of Esau, but His highest 
 blessing is for the next world, even as the 
 blessing of Jacob. It is as if St Paul said to 
 
 Timothy, (and we could well imagine that such 
 
 K 
 
146 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 recollections of the past were in his mind as 
 he wrote,) " My son Timothy, thou rememberest 
 how, when we were 'at Corinth,* with our bro- 
 ther Silas, and Crispus, the ruler of the syna- 
 gogue, we watched the athletes training for the 
 games ; young men of noble forms, eager and 
 active, patient and persevering. It was a foolish 
 toil, for a worthless reward. But we may learn 
 a serviceable lesson from them. The children 
 of this world are in their generation more dili- 
 gent than the children of light. Train thyself 
 — thy religious character — with the like eager- 
 ness and activity, patience and perseverance. 
 Thy reward is not only earthly, but heavenly." 
 And similar trains of thought might be followed 
 in reference to other phrases, where not ob- 
 * Acts xviii. 5, 8. 
 
GREEK GAMES. j.y 
 
 viously at first sight, but still really, images 
 from the games are imbedded in the context of 
 the Epistles. Thus, when he says that he him- 
 self has spoken the Gospel of God "with much 
 contention," * or that others have been -striv- 
 ing fervently" t in intercessory prayer, or when 
 he tells Timothy to -fight the good fight of 
 faith," J the metaphor is really agonistic, though 
 the variations in the English version conceal 
 the fact. But we must turn now to more 
 copious passages, where the agonistic allegory 
 is presented in its most animated form. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Philippians St Paul 
 writes thus: -Not as though I had already 
 attained, either were already perfect— but I fol- 
 low after. This one thing I do, forgetting those 
 * I Thess. ii. 1. t Col. iv. 12. X I Tim. vi. 12. 
 
148 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 things which are behind, and reaching forth 
 unto those things which are before, I press 
 toward the mark for the prize of the high call- 
 ing of God in Christ Jesus." * Was there ever 
 a more vigorous picture of a runner in earnest ? 
 Here is the eager pressing towards a definite 
 end in view— the feeling that nothing else is to 
 be thought of for the present — the determina- 
 tion that nothing shall interfere with the matter 
 in hand ; — and at the same time, with this strong 
 effort of the will, there is the utmost alacrity 
 and activity of movement. Here is no looking 
 back, no thought of giving up the struggle. 
 The whole energy of mind and body is bent 
 upon success; and till success is achieved, no- 
 thing is done. It would be easy to dwell on 
 
 * Phil, iii. 12-14. 
 
GREEK GAMES. 149 
 
 these points at greater length; but really the 
 best commentary on the passage is supplied by 
 the familiar facts of a well contested foot-race. 
 
 And there is yet a still more copious and 
 lively instance of the same kind of illustration. 
 As in the discussions of the other metaphors, 
 some one passage was selected as furnishing the 
 best sample, and as containing in fact the main 
 basis for the discussion, so here we turn natu- 
 rally to some verses in the ninth chapter of the 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians : " Know ye not 
 that they which run in a race, run all, but one 
 obtaineth the prize ? So run, that ye may ob- 
 tain. And every man that striveth for the 
 mastery is temperate in all things. Now they 
 do it that they may obtain a fading crown ; but 
 we an unfading. I therefore so run, not as un- 
 
150 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 certainly ; so fight I, not as one that beateth the 
 air : but I keep under my body, and bring it 
 into subjection ; lest that by any means, when I 
 have preached to others, I myself should be a 
 castaway." * It may perhaps be a help towards 
 our entering fully into the spiritual meaning of 
 this passage, if we try to associate one practical 
 topic with each one of the four verses. 
 
 And the topic which we may associate with 
 the first of the verses is this : the earnestness of 
 purpose that is essential to the Christian's career. 
 " Know ye not that they which run in a race, 
 run all, but one rec*eiveth the prize } So run, 
 that ye may obtain." St Paul appeals to the 
 experience of the Corinthians. There was no- 
 thing with which they were better acquainted 
 
 * I Cor. ix. 24-27, 
 
GREEK GAMES. 151 
 
 than these famous foot-races. Their own games 
 near their own city were among the most cele- 
 brated in the world. They " knew" well that 
 each race was eagerly contested, and that "one" 
 obtained the prize. But at this point we must 
 mark a difference. In that race there was com- 
 petition ; and because there was competition, 
 each runner was In earnest. In the Christian 
 race there is no competition. The prize is with- 
 in the reach of all. But then each runner must 
 be as much In earnest as though there were 
 competition and only one prize. And this Is 
 what the Apostle expresses. He does not say 
 (as I understand his words) " run so — in such a 
 way — as to obtain," — but, " run so — as those 
 runners rim — in order that ye may obtain." In 
 their case there is rivalry, and therefore they 
 
152 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 are in earnest. In your case there is no rivalry; 
 but their earnestness of purpose is an example 
 to you. 
 
 And certainly no pattern of earnestness can 
 be a more forcible example, than the earnest- 
 ness that arises from eager competition. " Run 
 in the Christian race as the athlete in the foot- 
 race runs." All his nerves and sinews are strung 
 up for the effort he is making. Nothing else is 
 thought of; and as the distance between his 
 feet and the winning-post diminishes, he does 
 not flag, but throws more and more exertion 
 into the movement of his limbs. Whatever 
 strength and elasticity he can summon up, 
 whatever struggling remainder of his short and 
 failing breath he can muster, all may be wanted 
 at the very last moment. And what a contrast 
 
GREEK GAMES. 
 
 153 
 
 this is to our dull and languid Christianity ! 
 We go and take our place in the course as 
 though the prize could be won without any 
 running at all, or as if there were no prize worth 
 running for. We dream and loiter and fold our 
 arms ; we turn aside to look at every object of 
 passing interest ; or if we did begin with some 
 vigour, all the zest and warmth of the struggle 
 grows feebler and fainter when it ought to be- 
 come more animated, and, like the Galatians, 
 we care little what hindrances occur to stop our 
 course, and to risk a dishonourable fall. Earnest- 
 ness of purpose is what we want, and there is no 
 picture of earnestness more forcible than that 
 which is drawn from the ardour of competition. 
 But now we pass to the next verse — " Every 
 man that striveth for the mastery is temperate 
 
154 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 in all things;" and the lesson is pointed by a 
 contrast — "They do it to obtain a corruptible 
 crown, but we an incorruptible." The success- 
 ful athlete in the Greek foot-race received for 
 his prize a crown of green leaves, placed by the 
 judge upon his head. In itself it was of no 
 value; but it was the mark of victory. The 
 winning of this crown was sung in poetry : it 
 was the subject of pride and congratulation to 
 the city from which the successful runner came ; 
 and it was the ground of boasting for long 
 generations afterwards in his family. For the 
 winning of this, exertions were made involving 
 the utmost patience and self-denial, and no 
 waste of strength and activity was thought too 
 great if only it could be secured. And yet it 
 was only a corruptible, a fading crown. 'Its 
 
GREEK GAMES. I55 
 
 beauty passed away sooner than the beauty of 
 those leaves which are stripped off from our 
 trees by the winds of November. And indeed 
 all human glory is a fading crown. It "iniist 
 wither and die in the end. Yet what trouble 
 men take to obtain it ! And what an example 
 in this respect is the eager lover of glory to the 
 Christian ! His crown can never fade. To 
 lose that crown, as it certainly may be lost, by 
 neglect, by indolence, by turning out of the 
 right course, by falling headlong over tempta- 
 tions that lie before our very feet, this is surely 
 the strangest and most unaccountable folly ; 
 while to win it is worth far more, ten thousand 
 times, than all the toil of the most faithful ser- 
 vant of Christ, all the torture of the most suffer- 
 ing martyr. 
 
156 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 This verse, however, points not to suffering, 
 but to self-restraint, which self-restraint is itself 
 a blessing ; and the topic which we may asso- 
 ciate with these words in the Apostle's com- 
 parison might be expressed thus — self-restramt 
 inspired by hope. It is often worth a man's 
 while to give up something which he values 
 for the sake of some higher good in prospect. 
 This is what was done in the Greek athletic 
 sports when the competitors were under train- 
 ins- ; and so indeed it is now, sometimes to an 
 absurd extent, in English athletic sports. Clas- 
 sical authors furnish us with materials, by help 
 of which we might, if it were necessary, describe 
 the strict discipline to which these young Greeks 
 were subjected under the trainer— the diet, the 
 exercise, the hard life, the fixed hours, the' per- 
 
GREEK GAMES. 157 
 
 emptory abstinence from everything likely to 
 hinder the end in view. It is the example to the 
 Christian presented by this discipline which is 
 the point before us. Nor is this the only place 
 where the same Apostle makes a similar refer- 
 ence. In writing another of his Epistles, he 
 says, *' If a man also strive for masteries, yet is 
 he not crowned, except he strive lawfully;"* 
 i.e.y he cannot obtain the prize unless he com- 
 plies with the regulations ; and these regulations 
 included, among other things, very strict and 
 systematic methods of discipline and training. 
 And the gospel strife with earthly sin for a 
 heavenly prize has likewise its strict regulations. 
 There is a preparatory discipline and training to 
 which the Christian must be subjected before he 
 
 * 2 Tim. ii. 5. 
 
158 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 can be fit to enter on his reward. The disci- 
 pline, however, is, as was said before, itself a 
 blessing. The training is a training for happi- 
 ness. The Apostle expresses it thus — "tem- 
 perance in all things ;" the habit of self-restraint 
 running through the whole life ; a check placed, 
 not only on the passions, but on the words; 
 moderation strictly practised in food and in 
 sleep ; those eager desires for amusement and 
 novelty kept in control ; so that the man is 
 always master of himself Thus under God's 
 grace that character is formed, which commands 
 respect and exerts influence in this life, and is 
 prepared to enter on the future life, where no 
 sin and folly disturb the balance of the puri- 
 fied soul. It is the hope of that life which 
 furnishes the motive for self-restraint, just as 
 
GREEK GAMES. 
 
 159 
 
 the hope of victory in the foot-race gives the 
 athlete patience to submit to all the discipline 
 and training required by the rules. 
 
 *' I therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so 
 fight I, not as one that beateth the air," is the 
 next of the Apostle's sentences. Definiteness of 
 aim, then, in the Christian's race and contest, is 
 our next topic. And it will be observed that 
 St Paul presents this subject under two images, 
 one drawn from running, the other from boxing. 
 The foot-race was, as I have said, the most 
 popular athletic contest among the Greeks ; and 
 it suppHed to the Apostle his favourite com- 
 parison, in connexion with subjects of this class. 
 But the pugilistic contest was also constant and 
 familiar at the public games, and he combines 
 this contest with the other in illustration of the 
 
l6o THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 point which is now before us. Not only does 
 the Christian act with earnestness of purpose, 
 not only is he encouraged to practise self-re- 
 straint, but he is definite in his aims. And in 
 two ways he is definite. He has a distinct view 
 of the objects of his desire, and a distinct view 
 of the enemies against which he must contend. 
 
 " I so run, not as uncertainly." A man who 
 does not know his own mind is seldom success- 
 ful. That is a very unhappy temperament 
 which is easily turned this way and that, and 
 which always yields to the latest influence, is 
 always persuaded by the last new argument. 
 Such a man is continually in the hands of 
 others. He is never his own master. He never 
 does anything well. And there is another very 
 unhappy habit of mind : when a man does not 
 
GREEK GAMES. l6l 
 
 go direct to his point — when he tries experi- 
 ments on the right and on the left — when he 
 loses time by hesitation, or follows circuitous 
 methods, whereas the straightforward course is 
 always the best. They are both opposed to the 
 true dignity of Christian principle. The dis- 
 ciple of Christ should be known as a simple- 
 hearted man. His eye is single. He has one 
 great object before him. His desire is to be 
 like Christ, to prepare for spending eternity 
 with that Blessed Master, and meanwhile to 
 honour Him by doing good to all around him. 
 And nothing could express this in a more 
 lively manner than the comparison with the 
 runner in a race. Direct — with the goal 
 straight before him — with his whole frame vigor- 
 ously moving that way — moving, too, by the 
 
 L 
 
l62 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 shortest path — such is his course. Let such be 
 our course. " Forgetting the things that are 
 behind, and reaching forward to the things that 
 are before, let us press toward the mark of the 
 prize of our high calling." 
 
 But still, while we have a course to run, we 
 have also enemies to fight ; and, to express this, 
 another metaphor is appropriate — " So fight I, 
 not as one that beateth the air." St Paul 
 passes here from the runner to the boxer, and, 
 drawing a comparison from this source, he 
 points out that the Christian has very definite 
 antagonists. With the pugilist it is no mere 
 striking for striking's sake, no mere pastime, no 
 dealing of blows in the air for the exercise of 
 the muscles. When the Corinthians or Athe- 
 nians or Ephesians came in crowds to see their 
 
GREEK GAMES. 163 
 
 favourite athlete engaged in this contest, it was 
 no showy and unmeaning attitudes that they 
 came to witness, but the vigilant and most 
 active employment of hand and eye for the pur- 
 pose of victory over an opponent equally active 
 and vigilant. And the best application which 
 we can make for ourselves of this apostolic 
 comparison is this — that we must be on the 
 alert against our besetting sins — that we must 
 keep our attention fixed upon them, and deal 
 our blows steadily against them. Now, in order 
 to do this, we must first know what our besett- 
 ing sins really are. This is a most serious sub- 
 ject. It is not sin in general that we have to 
 contend against, not the sins of our neighbours, 
 not the sins which we have no temptation to 
 commit, but " the sin which doth so easily beset 
 
164 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 US." * What is that sin ? Has the reader dis- 
 covered his besetting sin ? If not — this is not 
 the place for dogmatising on spiritual things — 
 but it may well be doubted whether it is pos- 
 sible for us to be saved at all, unless we have 
 found out our besetting sin. 
 
 Now let us consider the last of these four 
 emphatic verses : " I keep under my body, and 
 bring it into subjection : lest that by any means, 
 when I have preached unto others, I myself 
 should be a castaway." The image of the pugi- 
 list is still continued here; and we have to 
 observe, first, w/iat the Apostle does, and, 
 secondly, w/iy he does it. He resists his carnal 
 nature, systematically attacks it, and perseveres 
 till he has subdued it ; and this he does under 
 
 * Heb. xii. i. 
 
GREEK GAMES. 165 
 
 the influence of a salutary fear, lest, whilst he 
 has been made a blessing to others, he himself 
 should fctil to obtain the reward. The topic then 
 suggested by this part of the passage might be 
 expressed thus: persevering effort inspired by fear. 
 The simple fact of St Paul using this image 
 at all is a very grave fact. This pugilistic en- 
 counter was no mere light and languid amuse- 
 ment. Very often it was a matter of life and 
 death. And certainly there is something very 
 revolting in the thought of such a combat 
 (whether in Ancient Greece or in Modern Eng- 
 land) being made an entertainment for a crowd 
 of spectators. But these Corinthians, Ephe- 
 sians, and Athenians, were heathens, and what- 
 ever we may feel on this subject does not affect 
 the strong significance of the Apostle's com- 
 
l66 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 parison. It is the intense reality of the struggle 
 which constitutes the point of resemblance. 
 Those heavy blows, dealt by one combatant 
 with tremendous force upon the other, are taken 
 to signify the resolute and incessant warfare 
 which the Christian maintains with whatever is 
 sinful in his human nature. These fleshly in- 
 clinations are determined to give him no rest, 
 and he is determined to give tJiem no rest : and 
 he perseveres till the blows of this opponent 
 become weak and faint, and he is master of the 
 field. This is a very serious picture of the 
 Christian life in one of its aspects : and it shows 
 it to be very different from what it is sometimes 
 supposed to be — a mere habit of passive acqui- 
 escence in certain opinions — a mere decorous 
 comphance with certain rules of society — a 
 
GREEK GAMES. 167 
 
 mere receiving of impressions from without, 
 unaccompanied by any spring of resolute energy 
 from within. 
 
 But it is quite as important, and even more 
 important, to observe the motive of the Apostle 
 in this energetic and vigilant resistance. His 
 persevering effort is inspired X^y fear. " I keep 
 under my body, and bring it into subjection : 
 lest that by any means, when I have preached 
 unto others, I myself should be a castaway." 
 ^^ Lesf — never was a little word more weighty 
 in any sentence ; and the writer makes it more 
 emphatic, by the addition of " by any means y 
 Could there be a more solemn admonition of 
 danger } Here is this great Apostle, to whom 
 the establishment of Christianity in the world is 
 due more than to any one else, telling us that 
 
l68 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 he carried on a watchful and vigorous warfare 
 against his fleshly nature, for fear lest, in the 
 midst of all these ministrations, he himself 
 should lose his reward. Well, then, may we 
 fear for ourselves ; and, most of all, those 
 amongst us who are actively endeavouring to 
 do spiritual good to others. What thought can 
 go with greater power into the very depths of 
 the conscience than this : " God may be using 
 me for the spiritual good of others, and yet my 
 own heart may not be right ; my own soul may 
 not be safe, through the mysterious power of 
 sin in my fleshly nature : I may be falling away 
 farther from God, even while I am drawing 
 others nearer to Him ? " It is of course obvious 
 that we are here brought into contact with the 
 doctrines of predestination and election, and 
 
GREEK GAMES. 169 
 
 that a difficulty arises when such a passage as 
 this is compared with passages supporting these 
 doctrines. It is easy to range texts on both 
 sides of such a controversy as that, and not 
 easy to reconcile them, except by making one 
 set of texts give way to another. And this we 
 have no right to do. With other parts of Scrip- 
 ture before us, we might meditate with advan- 
 tage on the sweet comfort which is derived from 
 the conviction that those who have placed their 
 souls in the care of Christ are safe, and that no 
 one can pluck them out of that Saviour's hands. 
 But that is not our subject now. We must take 
 the Bible as we find it. St Paul does most dis- 
 tinctly tell us- in this place that with him the 
 fear of being " a castaway" was a commanding 
 motive. Hope and fear are the two poles of 
 
lyo THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 the Christian's life ; and certainly fear has a very- 
 conspicuous place in Holy Scriptures. " Be not 
 high-minded, but fear!' "Pass the time of 
 your sojourning here m fear." "Let him that 
 thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." * 
 
 The general subject of St Paul's habit of 
 taking metaphorical language from the athletic 
 games is by no means yet exhausted. Even in 
 the context which we have been examining at 
 considerable length, there is at least one other 
 agonistic allusion, which might easily escape 
 notice. When St Paul speaks in this passage 
 of " having preached to others," the true ren- 
 dering is, "having been a herald to others." 
 And the reference is to that officer in the con- 
 course at the games, whose business it was, with 
 
 * Rom. xi, 20; I Pet. i. 17; i Cor. x. 12. 
 
GREEK GAMES. 171 
 
 his voice, or with a trumpet, to summon the 
 competitors to the exciting struggle. Much 
 more, too, might be said on various points of 
 detail, which have been only lightly touched, 
 such as the training,* the rules,t the judge,J 
 the prize, § the attending spectators, || and the 
 jubilant joy^ with which the victor was re- 
 ceived at the close of the race. But it is now 
 time to lay the subject aside ; and this short 
 series of papers on St Paul's illustrative lan- 
 guage may be briefly concluded by two reflec- 
 tions, one of which has reference to the Apostle 
 himself, the other to the Bible at large. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel, in pursuing such 
 studies as these, that we have not merely St 
 
 * I Cor. ix. 25 ; I Tim. iv. 7, 8. t2Tim. ii.5. J 2 Tim. iv. 8. 
 § I Cor. ix. 24 ; Phil. iii. 14. 1| i Cor. iv. 9. IT Acts xx. 24. 
 
172 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 Paul's instruction and exhortation, but his per- 
 sonal example, before us. We always feel that 
 we should like to know something of the char- 
 acter of a man who produced such wonderful 
 effects in the world as the Apostle Paul. And 
 certainly, we have no lack of materials for 
 forming a judgment on this subject. Among 
 other things, we have his customary language. 
 A man's customary language (at least if he is 
 a man of mark) generally shows something of 
 his character; and perhaps especially the lan- 
 guage which he uses in his letters. For in 
 letter-wTiting we are free from the disturbing in- 
 fluences of conversation, while yet the personal 
 element is strongly present. Four groups of 
 St Paul's favourite similes have been before 
 our attention, and perhaps each of them might 
 
GREEK GAMES. 173 
 
 furnish a suggestion in regard to his character. 
 Thus, in his architectural imagery we might be 
 reminded of his steady adherence to first prin- 
 ciples, and of his constructive ability (under 
 God's Spirit) in regard both to doctrine and 
 the Church ; while his illustrations drawn from 
 agriculture seem to present him before us in 
 his sympathising care for the spiritual growth 
 of his converts and his reliance on the exercise 
 of God's beneficent power. But perhaps it is 
 more easy to make this use of the metaphors 
 which he draws from Roman soldiers and Greek 
 games. We can hardly be mistaken in beHev- 
 ing that by combining them together we obtain 
 an approximate picture of the man. In both 
 cases his references to such subjects are copious, 
 natural, and customary. From this we should 
 
174 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 conclude that there was something of the 
 Soldier and the Athlete in his moral and reli- 
 gious constitution. And so in truth it was. 
 He had much of what we should call tenacity 
 of character — a great power of elastic recovery, 
 when he was beaten back by opposition — a 
 strong will, not deterred by difficulties — and at 
 the same time a remarkable alacrity and ver- 
 satility and readiness of resource. We know 
 this to have been the case, from the facts of 
 his life ; but we see it also in the imagery which 
 he is in the habit of borrowing from the Roman 
 Soldiers and the Greek Games. 
 
 As to Scripture in general, the remark which 
 suggests itself in conclusion is this, that the 
 careful student can in every part of it enter 
 upon large and precious trains of thought, and 
 
GREEK GAMES. 175 
 
 can find a germinating power even in what seem 
 to be its secondary portions. In these short 
 essays we have been following very narrow 
 paths through a very Hmited portion of God's 
 Word ; and yet we have found a good deal to 
 interest and instruct us. It is a great proof of 
 the endless variety and richness of the Bible, 
 if we can gain so much by merely pursuing the 
 course of a peculiar word or a characteristic 
 metaphor. God's Word is like God's World, 
 very varied, very rich, very beautiful. You 
 never know when you have exhausted all its 
 secrets. The Bible, like Nature, has something 
 for every class of mind. As in the phenomena 
 around us there are resources and invitations 
 both for science and for poetry, so does God's 
 Revelation furnish materials both for exact 
 
176 THE METAPHORS OF ST PAUL. 
 
 theological definition and for the free play of 
 devout thought and feeling. Look at the Bible 
 in a new light, and you straightway see some 
 new charm. This is true, even in regard to 
 very minute particulars. The view from a 
 commanding Alpine summit, which has been 
 climbed by great labour, and where half a king- 
 dom is spread before you, is very glorious and 
 not to be forgotten : but the quiet footpath 
 along the slopes of the lower eminences may 
 also be full of beauty at every turn. And such 
 has been our modest course in these essays. It 
 is something to have obtained a deeper convic- 
 tion than before of the inexhaustible charms and 
 advantages of even the byways of Scripture. 
 
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