I t/M ffifft H ft &W •& •/ {HP i ? 1 I'r' '' 1 1 I ■j'n...'''"?.'''! l-v l: !-' : ; : -,*-i; ■Hi p.-" 1 -- 1 Br. 1.1 n;,.|fT!i [■ ■""■: I lri" v '^*f : »fc':':' '.'.':' f'f? «••■'•''■ -: | •■■J!' !'.''•'.' iV- H ! ft ' i I RH 1 Hi'. ''■'■•■• III'- lfe'"'l ' = 1 i H 1' j THE /f£§ CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. BY J. S. HOWSON, D.D., DEAN OF CHESTER. NEW YORK: DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS. 762 Broadway. LECTURE I. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. In Paul's preaching I discover nothing of that spirit which delights in doing violence to the feelings of an audience, and takes its pas- time in communicating offensive truths in the most offensive manner. He is conscious of his commission, but has no wish on every occa- sion to put forth all its powers. On the contrary, nothing is more striking in the discourses of St. Paul than the tenderness and deli- cacy displayed in them towards the persons he is called upon to instruct, exhort, or reprove. He faithfully administers the worm- wood, but still anoints the lip of the cup .... So, in his pastoral intercourse with the people, practical good sense (as we should say of an ordinary man) ever governed his advice .... His maxims are all such as would be considered by the most politic children of this world judicious and wise .... And I cannot but observe what a fund of evidence for the truth of the Gospel lies in this feature of St. Paul's character — for as nobody, I am sure, can read his Epistles, and doubt for a moment the sincerity of his own belief in the doc- trines he was teaching, so no one can contemplate the considerate temperament, so distinctly manifested in him, without feeling equally sure that he was no visionary, no dupe to fancies of his own, but was a man to weigh testimony before he yielded to it. J. J. Blunt. pOPWTY OF T HBOL06IO^ LECTURE I. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. " Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time: Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye mag know how ye ought to answer every man." — Col. iv. 5, 6. The first, and by no means the easiest, duty of the Lecturer appointed to preach these sermons con- sists in the judicious choice of a subject. The conditions of the endowment under which the sermons are preached prescribe that their topics are to have some reference, to the Difficulties of Scripture or the Evidences of Christianity. Here is manifestly no very narrow restriction. But when it is considered that the subjects, however chosen, must be kept within the limits of four or five lectures* — that these Lectures, too, are to be really Sermons orally delivered — it does not seem * See the Preface. THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. judicious to aim at the construction of abstruse or learned treatises. And when, further, the Lecturer feels, as on the present occasion, that he is forced to take a modest estimate of his own powers, his wisdom is to decline what demands elaborate treat- ment or is embarrassed with peculiar difficulties. His natural course (while not forgetting the main purpose of the Lectures) is to choose some subject with which he himself is already familiar, which admits of being easily broken into separate portions, and which, however superficial, has yet, for its own sake, a fair claim to be listened to with interest and attention. These considerations have determined me to preach on the Character of St. Paul — not on the details of his journeys, not on the peculiarities of his style, not on his modes of teaching, whether doctrinal or moral — though all these must in- cidentally furnish materials — but on the features of the personal character of the man himself, whether those features were natural or the result of his religion. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 5 Here no doubt is a difficulty at the outset. It is not easy, in any Christian biography, to separate always what belongs to nature and what belongs to grace — not easy, in St. PauPs case, to distin- guish what he would have been, if he had remained a Pharisee, from what he actually became as an Inspired Apostle. But of Apostles, as of all con- verted men, it is true that much of the natural character is carried within the sphere of grace. And without attempting to draw this line of sepa- ration, at least for the present, I may successively take one characteristic at a time, and make it the subject of separate discourse. Nor can any one of such sermons be held unsuitable to any audience, whether it be a Scientific Congress at the bejrin- ning of the month,* or the influx of new Uni- versity Students at the end of it.f This plan, as I have said, admits of separate sermons, each having a unity of its own. Yet * This Lecture was delivered during the week in which the British Association for the Advancement of Science met at Cam- bridge. f See Lecture LI. 6 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. three purposes I wish to keep definitely before me throughout, (i.) In the first place, so far as the same features of character come easily and natu- rally into view from a survey of all the documents which supply our information — from all those parts of the book of the Acts which affect this Apostle, and from all the letters written by the Apostle himself — we obtain an argument for the authenticity of all ; for if we can follow one thread through the whole, even though that thread be a fine one, it is surely some indication that the tex- ture of the whole is coherent. (2.) Secondly, so far as a definite and self-consistent character emerges into view, on an examination of all that is written by St. Paul or concerning him, so far (it seems to me) we have rather a stubborn argument to present against the theory that Christianity, in the form in which the New Testament exhibits it, came together by a kind of accidental or mythical process. (3.) But, thirdly (and I cannot but dwell with most satisfaction on this), we have here, in all its parts, a religiously practical subject. There TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 7 is something very unsatisfactory in dealing in the pulpit with the mere abstract evidences of Christi- anity — in turning a consecrated building into a court of inquiry, and putting the Gospel, as it were, on its trial — when we ought rather to be thinking of souls to be saved. But this subject relieves us from any such necessity. And so far as we can accurately describe St. Paul's character, we must be fulfilling his precept, as contained in the text. We shall certainly thus be ' redeeming the time ; ; for time so occupied can never be lost. Our words will really be ' seasoned with salt/ be- cause they will have the wholesome flavour of Practical Christianity. As to the text which I have chosen, because it suitably introduces us to the first feature of St. Paul's character which I propose for consideration, it means rather more than at first sight appears. Even a careful reader might fail to catch the full meaning of the words which the Apostle uses here, and almost identically in the parallel Epistle, written at the same time to the Ephesians. They 8 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. belong to a class of metaphors characteristic of St. Paul, drawn, not (as is the case, for instance, with St. James*) from the natural world, but from the intercourse and employments of busy human life — ■ such as marriage, or the making of wills, or Greek games, or Roman soldiers, or agriculture, architec- ture, slavery. Here the metaphor is from the market. What the Apostle in effect says is this — ( Buy out of the market what you may never find so cheap again. Act like a wise and intelligent merchant. Seize the opportunity while you have * There is more imagery drawn from mere natural phenomena in the one short Epistle of St. James — ' the waves of the sea driven with the wind and tossed ' (Jam. i. 6), ' the flower of the grass' (ib. 10), ' the sun risen with a burning heat' (ib. n),'the fierce winds' (iii. 4), 'the kindling of the fire' (ib. 5), 'the beasts, birds, and serpents, and things in the sea' (ib. 7), ' the fig, olive, and vine,' 1 the salt water and fresh ' (ib. 12), ' the vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away' (iv. 14), ' the moth-eaten garments' (v. 2), 'the rust' (ib. 3), 'the early and latter rain' (ib. 7), 'the earth bringing forth her fruit' (ib. 18) — than in all St. Paul's Epistles put together. The reference to the growth of grain (1 Cor. xv. 37), and to the sun, moon, and stars (ib. 41), is perhaps the nearest approximation in St. Paul to imagery of this kind, but even there the context causes a characteristic difference. See the 'Metaphors of St. Paul,' pp. 94, 131. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 9 it. Say words that fit the occasion, and say them promptly. Be not insipid. Be definite and to the point, and remember to whom you speak. Gracefully conciliate. Do not rudely offend. It may be your last opportunity of winning a soul/ Now what St. Paul enjoins here he eminently practised. There was in him (while he keeps his main spiritual aim always before him) an extra- ordinary subtility and versatility, which adapted itself easily and rapidly to the circumstances of the moment. If I were to fix on any one charac- teristic which, after a little careful study, seems to stand out most prominently on the surface, I should say that it was his Tact and Presence of Mind. This of course is to be established by collecting scattered instances. Where shall we begin ? In itself this is not a matter of much consequence. But in treating St. Paul apologetically, I always feel inclined first to take my stand on that chapter (the last but one of the Acts of the Apostles) which describes the storm and the shipwreck on the voyage to Rome. It appears to me that no- 10 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. thing is more certain than that the writer was on board that ship and that he tells the truth.* It might be thought strange that so large a space, in a volume which we believe to be inspired, should contain so much circumstantial detail, with so little of religious exhortation and precept. The chapter might seem merely intended to give us information concerning the ships and seafaring of the ancient world; and certainly nothing in the whole range of Greek and Roman literature does teach us so much on these subjects. f What if it * In considering the whole varied and complicated subject of Christian Evidence, something depends on the road by which the ground is approached. Different minds too are differently affected. To some minds the most impressive approach is by the morality of the New Testament, or by the character of Jesus as given in the Gospels. A starting-point is thus gained which gives confidence in regard to the view of the whole subject. I venture to think that such confidence may reasonably be acquired by establishing the literal truth of this concluding part of the Acts, and then argu- ing backwards to the rest of the book, and backwards again to St. Luke's Gospel. If a conviction is thus obtained not only of the historical but of the Divine origin of Christianity, all other ques- tions of Christian evidence begin to" fall into their right places. f A reference may be allowed here to the 23 rd Chapter of the ' Life and Epistles of St. Paul,' and to the article Ship in the ' Dic- tionary of the Bible.' TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. II was divinely ordained that there should be one large passage in the new Testament — one, and just one — that could be minutely tested in the accuracy of its mere circumstantial particulars — and that it should have been so tested and attested j ust at the time when such accuracy is most search- ingly questioned ? This is certain, that thirty years ago there was no printed book in Europe that gave either a correct or an intelligible account of this voyage; while now, perhaps, it is more pel- lucid in all its parts than any of the longer narra- tives of the Sacred Volume. Nor would it be right on this occasion to forget that the first pub- lished illustration came from one of the early mem- bers of the British Association, one whose autho- rity is (I believe) among the highest in the geology of coasts, and who, by a happy application of scientific knowledge, combined with practical experience of the sea, has produced a Biblical Commentary that (within its own range) will never be superseded.* * The ' Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul,' by James Smith, 12 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. . But we were to look in this part of the Acts of the Apostles for some proof of St. Paul's tact and presence of mind. Now (leaving altogether un- noticed that serene self-possession which is con- spicuous enough throughout) I find an instance of ready resource and prompt good sense at one very critical moment.* The vessel is at anchor in a dark night on a lee shore in a gale of wind. Breakers are distinctly heard, the soundings show that the danger is imminent, and no one can possibly tell if the anchors will hold ; and, besides this, the ship is in so leaky a condition that it is highly probable she may go down before daybreak. The sailors are doing what is very selfish, but very natural, f They are lowering the boat, after having given a plausible excuse to the passengers, but simply with the intention of savino- themselves. If a tumult D Esq., of Jordanhill, has now for some time been recognized, both in England and on the Continent, as an original and exhaustive answer to all the nautical questions in this narrative. Soon after this sermon was preached, Mr. Smith published in one volume his chief essays on the geology of coasts ( • Researches in Newer Plio- cene and Post-Tertiary Geology : ' Glasgow, 1862.) * Acts xxvii. 29. f lb. 30. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 13 had been made, precious time would have been lost, and probably the sailors would have accom- plished their purpose. St. Paul said nothing to them or to the passengers, but quietly spoke to his friend the military officer and the soldiers who had charge of him ; and his argument was that which all men in such cases understand : * ' Except these abide in the ship, ye — ye — cannot be saved/ The soldiers before this time had found good reason to trust the Apostle's judgment; and the appeal to self-interest now was decisive.f With military promptitude they cut the ropes, and the boat fell off. Thus the lives of nearly 300 persons were saved by the right words being said to the right men at the right time. J We may without irreve- rence go further, and observe that, if those words had n'ot so been spoken, if those ropes had not been cut, our Bibles would have been destitute of that precious group of Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon, written from the imprisonment at Rome, and of that later and * Acts xxvii. 31. f lb. 33. J lb. 37, 44. 14 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. hardly less precious group, the Pastoral Letters to Timothy and Titus. Nothing tests a man's tact so much as his beha- viour on an emergency. And if we trace the nar- rative backwards from the shipwreck, our eye presently falls on another instance of the same kind. Here St. Paul is a temporary prisoner in the barracks of the tower of Antonia.* The events of the two preceding days had been peculiarly ex- citing and irritating, and to a nervous tempera- ment must have been very exhausting. In this time of depression St. Paul had just had, during the nis;ht, an encouraging vision. f We must not forget either of these things. Good judgment is not the less good judgment, because the calm mind rests on a Divine promise; and sagacious alacrity is never more admirable than when it shines steadily in the gloom of discouraging circum- stances. St. Paul's young nephew comes to inform him of the conspiracy which threatened his life, and which could only be baffled by some prompt * Acts xxiii. 16. f Acts, xxiii. 11. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 15 measure quite out of the Apostle's own power to take. Helpless delay would have been fatal. Dis- cussion elsewhere might have revealed the secret, and enabled the Jews to form some new combina- tion. St. Paul simply called one of the subalterns to him, and courteously said,* ' Take this young man to the chief captain : he hath a certain thing to tell him/ The young man seems to have had something of his uncle's discretion. The chief captain, who knew very well the difficulty and delicacy of his own position (St. Paul knew it too),f took the young man aside, heard his story, charged silence and secrecy, wrote a letter (not very candid, J it is true, but very definite and business-like) to the governor of the province, made immediate pre- parations for the prisoner's night journey, and * Acts xxiii. 17.. f lb. 22-30. X No careful reader can fail to notice the ingenious way in which Claudius Lysias brings forward two facts, but in a false connection (Acts xxiii. 27). It was true that the Apostle had been seized by the Jews and on the point of being killed, and that Claudius Lysias had rescued him with his soldiers, and had learnt that he was a Roman citizen : but, as Bengel tersely remarks, ' Non didicit antea, sed postea ; ' and he adds, ' De verberibus tacet Lysias.' l6 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. before the sun rose over the hills of Samaria, gilding the roofs of Antipatris, and touching the waves which broke on that level sand, St. Paul was half- way on his road to Caesarea.* All this part of the Apostle's biography is given in very minute detail : hence it affords our best supply of the examples we are seeking. Before proceeding to the two illustrations which invite the most prolonged examination, and on which I would chiefly rest the case, I will notice two other isolated instances, one connected with Jerusalem, the other with Caesarea, and without any close attention to the order of time. The scene which I select from among the in- to cidcnts at Jerusalem is that in which Paul stood before the Sanhedrim, and when, after he began by asserting his unbroken conscientious loyalty to the God of the Jews, the High Priest brutally ordered him to be struck upon the mouth.f That such an insult should have caused him to lose his self-command for a moment is not remarkable; # Acts xxiii. 31. f Acts xxiii. 2. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 1J but that after this irritation he should instantly have recovered, not only his temper, but all his usual tact and resource, is worthy of notice.* Now — seeing that part of his judges were Sad- ducees, and part of them Pharisees — he cried out in the Council, ' I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees : f it is for the hope and resurrection of the dead that I am here on my trial/ J Some persons are inclined to blame St. Paul for what he did here. He is accused of adopting an unworthy artifice, that he might throw confusion among his enemies and secure a party for himself. Now I am not indeed concerned on the present occasion with defending the Apostle's conduct. I am only * It is much to our purpose here to attend to two points marked by Bishop Sanderson in commenting on this passage. St. Paul (in v. 3) addresses as " brethren " those who had rebuked him, and promptly quotes the authority of Moses. These are indications of that habit of mind which we call tact. f The plural Qapio-atoov, which seems undoubtedly the correct reading, increases the force of the statement : and it may be remarked that St. Paul's assertion of the hereditary Pharisaism of his family is as apposite to his purpose here, as the reference to his teacher Ga- maliel was to his purpose in Acts xxii. 3. See below, p. 31. J Acts xxiii. 6. C l8 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. pointing out a characteristic trait of the man; and the trait is equally characteristic, whether he was to blame or not.* I venture to think, how- ever, that if we look below the surface, we shall see no reason for censure, f but rather for admira- tion, and (if it might be), under like circumstances, even for imitation. The Apostle (who had far more at heart than mere personal safety or a mere party victory) thought they would have listened to him when he claimed for himself the credit which he gave to them, Pharisees and Sadducees alike, for loyal attachment to the Jewish religion, and when he appealed to them for sympathy on this great common ground. But when rudely driven from this position, he rallied immediately and took up another. If conscientious attachment to the Law cannot be accepted as a common bond of * The very mention by St. Luke of St. Paul's thought and feel- ing; on the occasion implies a recognition of that characteristic habit, to which I have given the name of tact and presence of mind. f It is worth while to remark that, on a later occasion, he deli- berately refers to this appeal (xxiv. 21) in such a way as to imply that it was not culpable. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 19 sympathy and a fair starting-point among them all, at least the Pharisees will agree with him as regards the Resurrection. It was a narrower standing-ground than the former, but it was equally honest, and it was very adroitly chosen.* For the time, too, it was successful, and possibly some hearts among the Pharisees were touched. f However this may be, and however we may deem ourselves competent to sit in judgment on the Apostle's conduct, all must agree in this, that he ' walked in wisdom ' on that occasion, and that his speech was ' seasoned with salt/ The illustration from what happened at Caesarea is taken from his speech before Felix, in reply to what had been advanced by Tertullus, the pro- fessional advocate employed by the Apostle's enemies. Passing by much besides, that might be used for the purposes of this argument,! I turn * Acts xxiii. 9. t This too may be said, that it was a clear gain to Christianity that the controversy should turn very definitely on the Resurrection. See Acts xxiv. 15, 21. X Among these may "be mentioned the complimentary (yet far C 2, 20 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. at once to two incidental remarks, which might escape notice on a careless perusal, but which almost make us start when we read the speech closely. He says in one part of this address that he had come up to Jerusalem 'to worship,'* and in another part, that he had come ' to bring alms to his nation, and offerings' f He put these two motives forward, boldly and without hesitation, as the grounds of his visit to Jerusalem. Now, as regards the former, it is indeed stated, in an early part of the account of the voyage, that he was anxious, if possible, to reach that city by ' Pente- cost ;'% but I think any reader's first impression would be that this wish was connected simply with the opportunity a festival would afford for com- from flattering) address to Felix at the opening (v. 10), the devia- tion from his usual habit of describing the Jewish people by the word \a6s, and the use of %0vos instead (ib.), the employment of the term rS waTfjdxp ©ew, which would seem quite natural to the Heathen Felix, while doing no violence to the speaker's own con- victions, or the convictions of his Jewish listeners (v. 14), the ap- peal to conscience, which a Heathen could understand as well as a Jew (v 16), and the application of the words to z&vos /.lov to the C hnslians for whom the collection was made. * Acts xxiv. 11. f Ib. 17. % lb. xx. 16. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 21 municating the Gospel to a greater number and variety of people. As regards the latter, we cannot find anywhere in the Acts any previous trace of this bringing of alms. The whole subject starts suddenly into view in an apologetic speech, and there is no allusion elsewhere to anything of the kind. I can well imagine some persons feeling (for indeed I once felt myself) an uncomfortable sense of disingenuousness here on the part of St. Paul. Such an impression, however, gradually vanishes in proportion as we patiently realize (what is to be gathered also from all our other sources of information) that St. Paul was still a Jew in deep hereditary sympathy and affection, that his Jewish feelings, in fact, grew even more intense in proportion to the opposition he was forced to offer to the Jews and to Judaism. There is no reason to doubt that he did really come to the Holy City l to worship' — that among the various motives which drew him thither, one earnest desire was 'to stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem/* with the old national feeling that one * Ps. exxii. 2. 2,2 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. day in those courts was ' better than a thousand/* And why should it not be so ? Why should he have thrown off that passionate love of the old festivals to which he had been accustomed since his childhood ? Why should a convert become a bigot? It is only the narrowness of our party- spirit which leads us to suppose that a love of Jewish ceremonial and utmost purity of Christian doctrine could not possibly co-exist. The point before us is, that among the various things which St. Paul might have mentioned in regard to this coming to Jerusalem, he chooses that one which tells best on the audience, while he throws all others into the background. So with regard to the other phrase. The ' worship ' may probably imply the ' offerings ; ' and thus one part of the apparent difficulty may easily be dismissed. And as to these c alms to his nation/ we have only to consult the Epistles contemporaneous with his recent journey, to learn that this collection for the poor Hebrew Christians in Judaea was one of his * Ps. lxxxiv. io. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 23 most prominent occupations at this time, and that it engaged his feelings with the utmost intensity, for he hoped thereby to win the confidence of the Jews while asserting the liberty of the Gentiles.* This single sentence — used by St. Paul, on an emergency, in justification of himself — is one of the most curious of those half-concealed links which bind together the Acts and Epistles, re- moving at a glance, and as if by accident, the imputation of ciiscrepancy.f But it is not less remarkable, as supplying an instance of that versatile tact which never seemed to forsake this Jewish Apostle of the Gentiles. Here he is stand- ing before a Heathen judge, but with Jews for his accusers. Does he not show, in his recollection of all the circumstances of his position, that he was in the habit of walking; wisely ' toward them that are without/ 1 and that he well knew 'how to answer every man ? ; * See 1 Cor. (written at Ephesus) xvi. 1-4; 2 Cor. (written in. Macedonia) \iii. ix. ; Rom. (written at Corinth) xv. 25-33. *T The remarks of Paley at the opening of the ' Horse Paulina',' (Rom. No. 1) are familiar to all ; but> although familiar, they are not obsolete. 24 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. The examples which I have hitherto adduced have been isolated, and, so to speak, casual in- stances. But, as I have said, the same period of St. Paul's life supplies illustrations presenting the same feature on a larger scale, and inviting a more elaborate treatment. In the Acts of the Apostles there are three accounts of St. Paul's conversion. We have St. Luke's calm and simple story/'' and two narratives given by the Apostle himself under Apologetic conditions — ■ one addressed to the mob in the Temple-court, at Jerusalem, f the other to Festus and Agrippa, in the audience-chamber at Caesarea.J Our general course, and our natural course, in studying St. Paul's biography, is to combine these three accounts, for the purpose of obtaining a lull and complete history of this momentous trans- action. Here we are required rather to separate these narratives, that we may analyse those features of personal character which two of them display. § * Acts ix. f lb. xxii. J lb. xxv § I am not aware that these two speeches have ever been fully TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 2,$ As to the narratives in the twenty-second and twenty-sixth chapters, they are both (as I have said) 'defences/* So far they are similar to one another and broadly distinguished from the ac- count in the ninth chapter. Hence they have some features in common as opposed to that. Thus to notice only one insertion and one omis- sion. Both the later accounts state that the miraculous light was at midday. f PauPs purpose and minutely examined from the point of view here taken. There are a few remarks to our purpose in the Commentaries of Al- ford, Humphry, and Hackett ; and reference must be made espe- cially to the excellent but too brief discussion of Professor Birks, in the 'Horae Apostolicae' (the appendix to his edition of the'Horae Paulinae'), pp. 324-330. * St. Paul himself modestly and discreetly calls them both airoXoyicu. Not that we are to forget that St. Paul had a higher end in view, on both occasions, than any mere defence of himself. But this mode of speaking is in fact an illustration of the very point of character we are here considering. f Tlepl /nearm^piau, xxii. 6 ; and rather more strongly, -rj/xepas uearjs, xxvi. 13 ; where he also adds, virep tt]v XafiirporriTa too 7}\'wv. We must notice, too, in xxii. 6, the intensifying phrase A &5eA0e here (xxii. 13), and in ix. 1 7. There it is still moie marked, because throughout St. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. %$ chosen — to do what ? Ah ! here St. Paul is approaching the dangerous point — the mission to the Gentiles. But how lightly and skilfully he touches it ! The offensive word is not used. ( He hath chosen thee to be His witness unto all men.'* All the truth is here, but only in the form of a hint. And observe, too, how the name of Jesus is avoided. In the whole address it occurs only once, and then at a place where it could not be omitted. St. Paul uses merely a pronoun,f where we should expect an exact designation. Ananias, addressing Said, speaks of the Saviour as ' the Just One.'% He speaks, it is true, in the same context, of c calling on the name of the Luke's general narrative the name is SavAos. In connection with this, it is interesting to notice that in all the three narratives the words from Heaven are in the Hebrew form SaouA, SaouA, thus confirming (but most incidentally and undesignedly) the fact ex- pressly stated, where the Apostle was speaking Greek (xxvi. 14), that the words were 7r?7 'E/3pcu'5i StaAe/crw. Here (xxii.) he is speak- ing in Hebrew ; and the occurrence of such a comment would be quite out of place. It is worth while to add that in xxvi. the deck form 'Iepoo^Au/xa is consistently used, whereas elsewhere the name is often 'IepoucraAT^u.. * Acts xxii. 14-15. t Acts xxii. 17, 18. JActs xxii. 14. D 2 $6 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. Lord/* But, however much is meant in this phrase (and all Christianity is in the phrasef), the name is not used. It is very important, in analysing this speech for our present purpose, to observe not only what Paul savs, but what he omits. J He makes no mention of his journey to Arabia. § When he wrote to the Galatians, that fact was of conse- quence to his argument : here it is of no mo- ment. || Dwelling as he docs very fully on * Acts xxii. 1 6. f The theological importance of such passages as this, and Acts ii 21, and Rom. x. 12, compared with Joel ii. 32, and other places where the same verb is used in the LXX., need only be mentioned. I Two additions in the speech call for a remark. Here only (xxii. 10) is the question recorded ri 7roir)(Ta>, Kvpie; (for the corre- sponding words in ix. 6 are spurious). Why is this ? Perhaps to point as definitely as possible to Ananias, who is presently to be mentioned. Again, in xxii. 9, Paul says of his companions rr\v (pwwqv ovk r)Kovaav too AaXojvTos fxoi, words which have sometimes been very unfairly used as antagonistic to what is said in ix. 7. They saw the light and heard the sound ; but no articulate voice reached the ir souls. The turn of St. Paul's phrase might well have reference to the possible presence of some who had been with him on that journey, or of some who had heard the history from his actual companions. § Gal. i. 17. II Similarl/ the mention of the mode of escape from Damascus is TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 37 Ananias, and making much use of his important sanction, he yet says nothing of the vision seen by Ananias. He could not himself have been a witness of that vision, and therefore such a refe- rence would have been impolitic. Moreover, it would have delayed the rapid progress of the narrative. But especially, as will readily be re- membered, he must thus have used expressions very much adapted to irritate the Jewish mob.* fo the purpose in 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33 ; for the Apostle wishes to record some circumstances of humiliation. Such a reference on the stairs of the Temple could have served no good end. * Especially the expressions to7s ayiois aov (ix. 13), and ivwiriot/ idvuv (ver. 15), in the words addressed by Jesus to Ananias, and 6 Kvpios Irjcrois, in the words of Ananias to Saul (ver. 17). At the same time, if St. Paul's speech on the stairs is closely considered, it would be seen to imply some kind of divine communication to Ananias, and also a miraculous cure of the blindness. Whatever is peculiar to the vision of Ananias is of course only to be learnt from ch» ix. ; e.g. the important Ihov npocrevx^Tai. See also above, p. 20, n. Again : ' the laying on of hands,' is only mentioned there. But, on the other side, the ' tvash away thy sins,' with its con- fession of the guilt involved in persecuting Christians (see Stier, p. 189), and its warning to those who were similarly sinning now and its important doctrinal statement concerning baptism, is found only here. And how vivid is the personal reminiscence contained in iiriaTas and avrij rfj lipaavefSKetya els aurou, xxii. 13 ! Another 38 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. Nor does he refer to what he did at Damascus after his conversion. To have alluded to this might have called up some reminiscences of the persecution he endured in that city from the Jews: thus the allusion might haveseemed like a complaint. The generous tone* is similar to that at Rome on a later and calmer occasion : ( Not that I have ought to accuse my nation of.-f-' Besides this, the course of his argument urges him in all haste back to Jerusalem, and to the recounting of what took place there immediately on his return. Here it was, in the Holy City, and not only in the city, but in the Temple — the very sacred precincts mark of vividness may here be noticed. It was remarked above (p. 27, «.), that the minute topography connected with the cure of Paul's blindness, and his baptism, is omitted: but, on the other hand, the city where the conversion occurred is marked as sharply as possible. In ix. 6, it is eureAfle as Trjv iroXiv. In xxii. 10 it is iropzvov ejy Aa/j.acncui'. See also 5, 6, and 11. Damascus is men- tioned four times in this speech, only twice in the much lon er speech at Caesarea. Compare 2 Cor. xi. $z ; Gal. 1 17. * This spirit of forbearance will come under consideration in Lec- tures II. and III. Keen as was his sense of injury, nothing was more alien from St. Paul's mind than resentment. f Acts xxviii. 19. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 39 within which they were now listening — and not only so, but when he was praying there — here and when so occupied — he had a vision and a dialogue with the Almighty ; and all according to the re- cognized type of the Old Testament miracles, and the communications from heaven to the ancient worthies. Now all this information concerning the vision in the Temple we should never have obtained but for the apologetic requirements of the speech before us. It helps us to complete the history of this part of the Apostle's life, and to see the secret springs which directed his course from Jerusalem to Tarsus.* The narrative in the Acts tells us that he was driven away by persecution. But to have men- tioned this would have been unwise. There might have been some present who conspired to kill him on that occasion ; and no man likes to be reminded of his crimes. Both causes for the journey were true. Paul's tact was shown in omitting; what would irritate, and bringing forward what had a * Acts ix. 29, 30. 40 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. tendency to persuade.* But observe one thing further in regard to this vision. He is now close to the dangerous ground *on which he must tread at last : but he has been approaching it under the shelter of what (in their eyes) must have been the highest sanction. He did not quote the commis- sion as given by Jesus Himself on the road to Damascus. f What was said even by Ananias was only adduced as a hint.J He reserves it till he has shown how he longed to stay at Jerusalem, and till he has intensified the whole matter by alluding to the death of Stephen, in which he himself took a memorable part.§ Then it is that he says that a Divine voice in the Jewish Temple spake thus: ' I will send thee far off to the Gentiles/ We all know the result. A furious uproar * A similar instance of two separately-mentioned moving causes for a journey is to be found in connection with the Council of Jeru- salem. In Acts xv. z, we have the outward motive arising from cir- cumstances ; in Gal. ii. 2, the inward mission 'by revelation.' See 'Life and Epistles,' vol. i. pp. 254, 255. + See below, p. 36. X See p. 26. § Acts xxii. 21. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 41 drowned the speaker's voice, and they would hear him no longer. This is nothing to our argument. The Apostle's presence of mind was so far success- ful that, by means of it, he was able to say more than he could have done by any other method. A pulpit was, as it were, extemporised for him here on the stairs of the Temple, such as he never could have found by his own contrivance, for pressing on his countrymen the facts and lessons of the Con- version. And again soon afterwards, in the midst of continued suffering, Divine Providence gave him an opportunity of bringing similar testimony before the chief official people of the land. To that other address I now proceed. Of that which we are leaving I will simply add that I think no one who reads this speech carefully and patiently, will say that the preceding criticism is strained, or that the Apostle's words were not adapted, with eminent skill, to the case in hand. Nor can I conceive any one, in the calm possession of a candid judgment, supposing that the speech was forged to fit an imaginary scene, while certainly 42 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. the narrative is far too minutely exact to be derived from any mythical or accidental origin. On the next occasion when Paul recounts his Conversion, he is before a very different audience ; and his aim is correspondingly different, though (as we shall see) his judgment and practical wisdom are the same.* Surrounded by the civil and mili- tary state of the Governor, and with royal visitors, professing the Jewish religion, seated in the hall with Festus — here the Apostle has a freer range. It is no scene of violent excitement. It is indeed a precious opportunity to be wisely c redeemed/ He is doubtless in a difficult position; for his audience is mixed. But he does not speak under constraint, and with the fear at every moment of a violent interruption. It is true, too, that the chain is on the wrist of that handf which he * Or rather, we ought to say that his aim was identical (for the unvarying effort of his life was- to win souls to Christ), but that his mode of presenting the facts was varied. f We may notice, as a contrast in harmony with the two contrasted occasions, the difference between KaTeVetcre rfj x e *P'> Acts xxi. 40, and £ kt tiv as T7]v x e 'P a > xxvi. 1. Theie may have been something TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 43 stretches out while he speaks. He has probably also suffered in health,* for his detention at Csesarea has lasted nearly two years. f But he has for some time been under the calm protection of the Roman law, for already he has appealed to the Emperor. J Thus, though here too he is making a defence, § he can safely take a higher and a more distinctively Evangelical ground. Something was due to the fact that here the doctrine of the Re- surrection is the turning point, as at Jerusalem it was the Mission to the Gentiles; but there was more in the mere circumstances of the occasion, which gave to the Apostle a wide scope, that had been denied on the stairs of the Temple. Thus if Luke's plain narrative is a colourless sketch of the Conversion, and the account given by Paul himself of the same characteristic gesture in both cases ; but there is more urgency in the former (to say nothing of the Kara), more composure in the latter. See also /j.aKpo6v/.MS, xxvi. 3. * Dr. Beets calls attention here to the contrast between Paul, poor and mean in appearance, and the robust soldier to whom he was chained. — Pp. 235, 236. f Acts xxiv. 2;. + lb. xxv. 12. ■ § See above, p. 25, n. 44 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. on the last occasion was a Jewish picture of the same event, in that which is before us all the Christian features are marked as strongly as pos- sible. We see this difference at the outset. Addressing Agrippa, he says, without hesitation, that ' Jews' are his accusers; and he calls them Jews, as if he himself were something different from a Jew.* There is no special need to identify himself with them so closely, or to conciliate them so care- fully, as he did at Jerusalem. The immediate Jewish pressure is removed. Moreover, Festus is seated there with Agrippa. Paul is preaching the Gospel to both. It is not wise that anything should be said which would needlessly alienate either the one or the other. In this Nunc Di mitt is of the faithful Apostle, if we may so call his last defence before leaving the Holy Land,f he * Four times this word occurs in the opening part of the address. St. Paul's identifying himself with the Jews was illustrated above from an Epistle. — P. 25, n. 2. Mis separating himself from the Jews here may be similarly paralleled. See the use of lovdaia/j-bs in Gal. i. 14. t Luke ii. 32. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 45 must set forth Christ as the ' Lio-ht of the Gentiles as well as the ' Glory of the People Israel/ Yet another thing must be carefully noted. Not even here is this Apostle tempted to be false to his hereditary feeling. No ungenerous repudia- tion of his Hebrew birth and education is here, no retaliating by harsh words for cruel actions. The old tender sympathy with his fellow Jews is audible in every phrase. It is ' mine own nation/ It is ( our religion/ And here he says most ex- plicitly that he was a Pharisee. The Resurrection was now the main point in question; and Agrippa knew well the difference between the two great opposing sects. So below it is ' our worship/ ' the promise to our Fathers' — unto which ' our Twelve Tribes ' * (a very remarkable phrase, almost with- * Tb Sadeicd(pv\ov tjixcvv, Acts xxvi. 7. See James i. 1, Rev. vii. 4-8. It may be added that a strong personal and religious feeling in regard to the old constitution of the Chosen People seems to be shown in St. Paul's emphatic references to his own tribe, Acts xiii. 2i, Rom. xi. 1, Phil. iii. 5. No one in the New Testament is so closely associated with a specific tribe. The case which comes nearest is that of Anna, Luke ii j6. 46 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. out a parallel in the New Testament), e serving God night and day, earnestly desire to come/ But then immediately below he adds in his rapid way, and with characteristic alternation of feeling : 'for which hope's sake I am accused by Jews.'* So proceeding in the same strain (in the account of his own persecuting days), he calls the Chris- tians ' Saints/ f identifying himself with them, J as in his speech at Jerusalem he had identified himself with the unconverted Jews, calling them ' Brethren.'' He says his efforts were directed to make those saints ' blaspheme.' § To speak then against Chris- tianity was to blaspheme. Such a word, with such a meaning, would not have been tolerated in the Temple. All this free play of feeling corresponds with the comparative freedom of the occasion. I see also in every word the traces of sagacity and judgment. Let me add further (though this is not the point I am mainly urging) that this inter- change of emotion reminds us of the ebb and flow * 'Tirb 'lovdaiwu. There is no article. f Acts xxvi. 7. % 1d - 10 - § Acts xxvi. II. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 47 of feeling which we notice in the Epistles written shortly before this time.* And I can hardly imagine anything more likely to conciliate the respect both of Festus and Agrippa than this natural outpouring of the heart, tempered and controlled as it was, all the while, by the utmost discretion. The general remarks which were made at the outset on this speech at Caesarea, as summing up much of its significance, may be divided into two particulars. Being far more disengaged from local conditions than was the address at Jerusalem, it contains a far greater amount of Christian doctrine than the former ; and St. Paul is able to use this occasion, to a degree in which he could not use that, as an opportunity for pressing the truth on individual consciences. To ta.ke the second point first, it is very obser- vable how a reference to Consciencef marks this * See especially Gal. I. 6, iii. 1, iv. 12, 19; 2 Cor. ii. 4, vi. 11-13, vii. 3, 16, xi. 2, 16-20, xii. zi, xiii. 2, 10; Rom. ii. 1, 17-24, ix. 1-5, 19, 20, x. 1, xi. 1. f This feature of the speech is noticed again, and more fully, in Lecture 111. 48 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. speech. St. Paul says here that before his conver- sion he had conscientiously thought that he 'ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus ot Nazareth/* Again, it is here alone of the three narratives (for of course I must follow the true readings) that the remarkable expression occurs, ( it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks ' f — 'hard/ that is, 'for thee to resist these inward compunctions'/ — and again, of his subsequent con- duct his phrase is, ' immediately I was not dis- obedient to the heavenly vision/ J What a lesson was here for Agrippa and Festus ! If the sin and the duty of the Jews were gently indicated in what Paul said of himself at Jerusalem, here he preached still more pointedly through his own experience to his Gentile and Hebrew hearers. The momentous question for them was, whether they would resist the compunctions which they felt — whether they would become ( obedient to the faith/ And now as to doctrine (besides the great belief in the Resurrection, with all its logical results as * Acts xxvi. 9 f lb. 14. % lb. 19. § lb. vi. 7. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 49 regards the whole question of miracles), the follow- ing fundamental truths will be found in the sen- tences of this short address : — the existence and power of Satan, the reality of conversion, the necessity of the sufferings of Christ, the remission of sins, faith, repentance, good works the proof of repentance, the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, the enlightening of the mind and the supporting of the life by grace from above. A Creed or a Catechism might be constructed from this speech at Caesarea. But still, perhaps, .it is most to our purpose, on the present occasion, to dwell upon points of detail. Let me, therefore, before leaving this speech (and with this speech preparing to leave the whole subject), invite attention to one or two of its minor features. St. Paul at Caesarea does not mention Ananias at all, on whom he had laid so much stress at Jerusalem. Nor does he say any- thing of his own vision in the Temple. The authority of an obscure Jew of Damascus could have had no weight with Agrippa; and the E 50 THE CHARACTER OF ST PAUL. mention of a vision might have provoked the ridicule of Festus. The Apostle concentrates him- self on the full commission given to him by Jesus Himself;* and this he details far more copiously than we have it in Luke's own narrative. f So again with regard to his actual work in obedience to the vision. He briefly recounts his labours in Damascus, in Jerusalem, through Judaea, and in the Heathen world beyond. J His mission is to the Jew and the Gentile, to Agrippa and to Festus. Other particulars, too, might easily be mentioned — all illustrative of a noble tact and presence of mind — such as the judicious, complimentary, yet perfectly truthful, preamble; the mindful courteous * Acts xxvi. 16-18. f An important question arises here, as to whether the words in vv. 16-18 were liteially spoken by Jesus to Paul on the road to Damascus, or the Apostle condenses into one statement words spoken to him on different occasions. The determination of this question, however, is of no moment to the limited argument of this sermon. St. Paul's skill and discretion in giving fully here what he omitted at Jerusalem, are equally conspicuous, however and whenever the Divine communications were made. J Acts xxvi. TACT AND PRESENCE OF MIND. 5 1 w respect for authority shown in his mode of address- ing the Governor after an insulting interruption;* the credit given to Agrippa, not only for religious knowledge, but for some degree of religious faith ; f and, above all, the unparalleled skill with which he gives a new and exquisite turn to the king's sudden exclamation. J If ever — to use again the words of our text — if ever speech was ' with grace/ it was that admirable reply. But for the discussion of that point another occasion must be found. § On a general view of this whole address, it is clear that a careful analysis brings most distinctly into * Kpa.Ti(TT€ $7}(rTe, xxvi. 25. So he addresses Felix, xxiv. 3. So three times, in the phrase used by Festus himself (xxv. 24, 26), he says fiaatAcv 'Aypiinra (xxvi. 2, 19, 2?), giving the title which was the due, but only just the due, of this last of the Herodian monarchs. As to Festus's interruption and St. Paul's reply (vv. 24, 25), it is worth while to notice, as an indication of the mixture of enthusiasm and discretion in the Apostle's character, that he had previously been accused both of madness and of aio