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(^ioAc^-^c %4a^^y^>- 
 
The Divine Authority 
 
 of Paul's Writings. 
 
 BY 
 
 Malcolm MacGregor, D.D 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 henry Mcdonald, d.d. 
 
 • % If any man thinketh himself to be a firo^het, or spir- 
 itual, let him take kyiovuledge of the things tvhich I 
 -write unto you, that they are the commandment of the 
 Lord." PAUL. 
 
 gUtmttH : 
 
 The Foote & Davies Company, 
 printers and binders, 
 
 1898. 
 
 1898, 
 

 66 
 
 
 
 Copyright, 1898, 
 By Malcolm MacGregor, D.D. 
 
a — 
 
 - 
 
 Z 
 Hi 
 
 3 
 
 TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN A. BROADUS, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN 
 BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 
 
 WHOSE LOFTY CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, RARE ATTAINMENTS IN 
 CHRISTIAN LEARNING, AND GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS IN CHRIS- 
 TIAN WORK HAVE SHED A LUSTRE OVER CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR- 
 SHIP, AND PROVED A STIMULUS TO CHRISTIAN TOIL, AMONG 
 THE BRETHREN OF HIS OWN AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF HIS INTEREST IN, AND 
 
 APPROVAL OF, ITS PLAN AND SUBSTANCE, AND HIS 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE AUTHOR TO 
 
 COMPLETE AND PUBLISH IT. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This work is an attempt to supply, 
 in condensed form, what appears to 
 be a real and recognized want — a study 
 of the claims of Paul to absolute apos- 
 tolic authority, and the scope of that 
 authority over modern thought and 
 life. Though various learned treatises 
 have dealt, in a fragmentary way for 
 the most part, with different aspects 
 of the subject, there appears to be no 
 one work which presents the subject 
 comprehensively and concisely. The 
 writer has aimed at suggestiveness, 
 rather than exhaustiveness, of treat- 
 ment. In the prosecution of the work, 
 he has been encouraged, by not a few 
 brethren distinguished for their attain- 
 ments and their loyalty to the truth, to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 hope that in several respects, and in 
 some measure, this little volume may 
 prove helpful to the cause of New 
 Testament Christianity. For this he is 
 truly thankful. It only remains to be 
 said that nearly all the Scripture 
 quotations in the book are made from 
 the Revised Version; and that the few 
 other Scripture quotations are made 
 from the Authorized Version. 
 
 Malcolm MacGregor. 
 
 Atlanta, April, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. — Need of the Discussion. — Sure foundation 
 necessary to safe superstructure. Chris- 
 tianity founded on Old Testament and New 
 Testament Scriptures. Large part of New 
 Testament written by Paul. Inspiration 
 and apostolic authority of Paul vitally im- 
 portant. Ancient and modern anti-Paul- 
 inism 17 
 
 PART ONE. 
 
 BASAL POSITIONS. 
 
 II. — Nature of the Apostolic Office. — Christ's 
 appointment and training of "the twelve" 
 for office. Apostles had infallible guidance 
 of the Spirit. Their words were his words. 
 They were official witnesses of Christ's 
 resurrection. Chief organs of divine reve- 
 lation in new dispensation. Determiners 
 of Christian faith, ethics, and polity. 
 Their precepts the statute law, and their 
 example the common law, of the churches. 
 Divinely attested by gift of inspiration 
 and power of miracle-working 27 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 III. — Genuineness of Paul's Apostleship. — All 
 "signs of an apostle" present in Paul. 
 Had "seen the Lord." Was appointed 
 and instructed exclusively by Christ him- 
 self. Wrought many mighty miracles and 
 had full inspiration. Was "caught up in- 
 to Paradise. ' ' Defends his apostleship in 
 Galatian and Second Corinthian letters. 
 Mutual testimony of Peter and Paul. 
 Harmony of Paul and James 51 
 
 IV. — Extraordinary Character of Paul's Apos- 
 tolic Mission. — His mission to plant pure 
 Christianity in Gentile lands. His great 
 qualifications for the work. Special rela- 
 tions and adaptations of his apostleship to 
 
 Gentile peoples. 72 
 
 V. — Apostolicity of Paul's Writings. — Writ- 
 ing necessary to permanence of apostolic 
 teaching. Divine authority and impulse 
 to write. Significant groups of Pauline 
 Epistles. Letters of Paul apostolic in de- 
 sign and force. Paul commands churches, 
 prophets, and pastors. Alleged admissions 
 of occasional non-inspiration of Paul an- 
 swered 82 
 
 PART TWO. 
 PRACTICAL BEARINGS. 
 
 VI. — Practical Bearing on Christian History. 
 Epistolary correspondence the best source 
 of history. Letters of Paul, and "Acts," 
 by his companion, the principal data of 
 early Christian history 111 
 
 ■ 
 
CONTENTS. g 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 VII. — Practical Bearing on Christian Doctrine. 
 Characteristic Pauline doctrines. Ful- 
 ness of Paul's teaching. System of Chris- 
 tian doctrine established by Paul's writ- 
 ings 114 
 
 VIII. — Practical Bearing on Christian Ethics. 
 Relations of history, doctrine, and ethics. 
 Pauline ethics, wide in range and lofty 
 in character. Writings of Paul enlarge 
 and confirm Christian ethics 118 
 
 IX. — Practical Bearing on Church Order. — 
 Indebted almost exclusively to Paul and his 
 companion, Luke, for light on church order. 121 
 
 Section I. Nature of the Church. — 
 Church universal and invisible composed 
 of aggregate of finally saved. Church local 
 a self-governing body of believers. Depar- 
 tures from New Testament order. . . . 124 
 
 Section II. Officers of the Church. — 
 Apostles and evangelists in relation to the 
 work at large. Bishops (pastors) and dea- 
 cons the only officers of the local church. 
 Functions of pastors and of deacons. Im- 
 portance of training for the "business" of 
 the diaconate. Ignoring the model. . . 132 
 
 Section III. Position of Woman in the 
 Church. — Pauline prohibitions of women's 
 speaking in the church. Great positiveness 
 and agreement of exegetes on subject. 
 Womanly modesty and good taste acqui- 
 escing. Answers to objections 143 
 
TO CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 X. — Practical Bearing on Estimate of Chris- 
 tian Attainments. — Professions of high 
 attainments and superior light to be tested 
 by Paul's writings. Origen. Illuminati. 
 Quakerism. Swedenborgianism. Mor- 
 monism. Spiritualism. "Christian Sci- 
 ence." Christian Consciousness, etc. . 173 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 I. — The Five-Linked Chain. — A Study of a 
 Group of Pauline Doctrines in Romans 8: 
 29, 30 207 
 
 II. — Divine Estimate of Pastoral Office. . . 227 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Dr. MacGregor has wisely discerned 
 the salient position around which 
 another battle must be waged for the 
 truth as it is in Christ. In Paul's own 
 day there were those that resisted his 
 message by the denial of his aposto- 
 licity. It was a direct, positive and ulti- 
 mate assault. If Paul was not an apos- 
 tle, there was an end of the authority 
 which gave a divine sanction to his 
 teaching. This early opposition fur- 
 nished the opportunity for the fullest 
 assertion and clearest vindication of 
 his claim to the extraordinary office to 
 which he was called by the personal 
 appointment of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 "Old foes with new faces" verifies 
 
 ii 
 
1 2 INTR OD UCTION. 
 
 itself in that the modern assailants of 
 the nineteenth century are as deter- 
 mined to minimize the influence of 
 Paul as were his antagonists of the 
 first century. Hence the present vol- 
 ume/ 4 The Divine Authority of Paul's 
 Writings." 
 
 The Pauline Epistles, with their con- 
 tents, are constantly assailed by all 
 sorts of opposers — some formidable 
 by their display of learning;, others 
 almost contemptible by their show of 
 ignorance. At no time has a thorough 
 discussion of the whole subject been 
 more necessary than in the present. 
 The old plea of Romanism, maintain- 
 ing- a succession of men in the apos- 
 tolic office, has long* ag"o overthrown 
 the authority and teaching's of the 
 real apostles, and substituted for the 
 word of God the traditions of men. 
 Many who deem themselves far away 
 from the great error of Rome are 
 drifting into the same destructive ten- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 13 
 
 dency. Every enthusiast who has a 
 theory or organization to spring- upon 
 the world, for which no support, or 
 against which no positive prohibition, 
 is found in the Bible, finds it easy to 
 make the charge that the writings of 
 the New Testament were simply pro- 
 visional and temporary. In the times 
 of this ignorance, God winked at this 
 well-meaning antique delusion, but 
 the nineteenth century — this latter 
 day of Messiah — has come, and Who 
 are the apostles? especially, Who is 
 Paul? that we should bow our necks to 
 the bondage of the environments of 
 that early time. 
 
 The author's selection of his theme 
 and manner of discussion is wise 
 and timely. With reverence and cour- 
 age, with vigor and clearness, he 
 restates the fundamental truths in re- 
 gard to the apostolic office — the ap- 
 pointment of Paul, his authority in 
 his extraordinary commission, and the 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 apostolicity of his Epistles. These 
 positions are vital. They are sup- 
 ported not by fiery denunciations, but 
 by calm argument and fair, lucid state- 
 ment. You feel that the foundation 
 is true and abiding. Paul is still the 
 great apostle of the Gentiles, "even as 
 our beloved brother Paul also accord- 
 ing to the wisdom given unto him hath 
 written unto you .... in which are 
 some things hard to be understood, 
 which they that are unlearned and un- 
 stable wrest, as they do also the other 
 Scriptures, unto their own destruction. " 
 
 The second part consists in the 
 statement and discussion of the prac- 
 tical bearings of the basal positions 
 which have been so strongly sustained 
 in the first five chapters. 
 
 We have only to look at these 
 practical bearings to see how far- 
 reaching and instructive they are. On 
 church history, on Christian doctrine, 
 on Christian ethics, on church order 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 15 
 
 (nature of the church, officers of the 
 church, position of woman in the 
 church), and on estimate of Christian 
 attainments. 
 
 Possibly the discussion of woman's 
 position in the church may interest 
 more people by reason of the present 
 agitation of this subject. All the 
 chapters, however, are instructive 
 and profitable. While the book is 
 specially adapted to the present and 
 should be read by thoughtful people 
 in all of our churches, I am glad 
 to say that to all churches it com- 
 mends itself by its breadth of view 
 and the nature of the subject, free 
 from anything denominationally of- 
 fensive. 
 
 It would prove an admirable book 
 for a course of study in our young 
 people's various societies. 
 
 Dr. MacGregor has done his work 
 well. He shows that the pulpit is not 
 the only sphere in which he can do 
 
1 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 splendid work. His scholarly culture, 
 his profound reverence for the truth 
 of God, his lucid terseness of style, 
 have enabled him to write a book by 
 which he may hope to help the faith 
 of the children of God in holding the 
 great verities of revealed truth. May 
 its circulation be worthy of its merits. 
 
 Henry McDonald. 
 
 Atlanta, April, 1898. 
 
XLbe Divine Hutboritv. of 
 Paul's Writings. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 Without a sure foundation, no struc- 
 ture, whether material, mental, moral, 
 or religious, can be safe. The super- 
 structure is imperilled quite as much 
 by assaults upon the foundation as by 
 direct assaults upon itself. To under- 
 mine the foundation is to demolish the 
 superstructure. 
 
 Genuine Christianity, with its glori- 
 ous economy of salvation, with its sub- 
 lime facts, doctrines, and ethics ; with its 
 significant ordinances, simple but ef- 
 fective church organization and polity, 
 and vast scheme of work and wor- 
 ship, is based exclusively upon the Old 
 
 2 17 
 
1 8 NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 and New Testaments; and, for obvi- 
 ous reasons, very specially upon the 
 New Testament. It is " built upon 
 the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Christ Jesus himself being 
 the chief corner stone/' Without the 
 Scripture there can be no Christianity. 
 Unless the authority of Scripture be 
 firmly established, Christianity can 
 have neither definiteness, power, nor 
 stability. 
 
 The divine inspiration and conse- 
 quent infallibility of the Sacred Writ- 
 ings are, therefore, of vital importance 
 to the Christian religion. The abso- 
 lute inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures 
 is fundamental to their own authority 
 and claims, and to our certainty of 
 mind in matters of Christian truth and 
 duty. The unimpeachable and per- 
 fect truth of the Sacred Writings, as 
 established by their clearly proved di- 
 vine inspiration, together with their 
 explicit, implied, and oft-repeated 
 
NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 19 
 
 claims, must be held to, immovably, 
 as a first principle of genuine Chris- 
 tianity, and as a. sine qua non of prog- 
 ress and assurance in the knowledge 
 of divine things. To this prime and 
 impregnable position, all our theories 
 of the nature of divine inspiration, 
 and of the relations between the divine 
 and human elements in the products 
 of inspiration, must conform; or we 
 must discard theory upon the subject, 
 while boldly accepting the revealed 
 facts. 
 
 The inspired word is explicit enough 
 with regard to its own origin, charac- 
 ter, and claims. " The sweet psalmist 
 of Israel" said, " The spirit of the Lord 
 spake by me, and his word was up- 
 on my tongue. ,,a The prophet Jere- 
 miah averred, " The Lord said unto 
 me, Behold, I have put my words in 
 thy mouth. ,,b Inspired wisdom has 
 declared, u Every word of God is 
 
 a 2 Sam. 23: 2. t>Jer. 1:9. 
 
20 NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 pure." a In one form or another, the 
 Apostle Paul has asserted substantially 
 that "All Scripture is given by inspi- 
 ration of God." b The Apostle Peter 
 has told us concerning- inspiration, 
 that "Men spake from God, being 
 moved by the Holy Ghost. " c The Sa- 
 viour himself has said, that the " word 
 is truth," and that "the Scripture can- 
 not be broken." d On the divine ori- 
 gin, absolute inerrancy, and supreme 
 authority of the Holy Scriptures, 
 these and kindred testimonies are in- 
 disputable and final. 
 
 A very large and exceedingly im- 
 portant portion of the New Testa- 
 ment was written by the Apostle Paul. 
 More than one-fourth of the bulk, and 
 about one-half of the books, of the 
 New Testament, were written by him. 
 It is significant also that more than 
 one-half of the sacred writing known 
 
 a Prov. 30: 5. b 2 Tim. 3: 16. c 2 Peter 1: 21. 
 
 d John 10: 35. 
 
NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 2 \ 
 
 to us as " The Acts" of the Apostles 
 is simply a record of the sayings, do- 
 ings, and experiences of Paul, as the 
 Lord's great apostle to the Gentiles. 
 While no portion of either the New 
 Testament or of the Old has been ex- 
 empt from the assaults of infidel and 
 semi-infidel critics, it is both strange 
 and ominous that there should ap- 
 pear in various quarters, in current 
 times, a disposition on the part of 
 many who are not confessedly scep- 
 tical, but who claim to be essentially, 
 or even eminently, Christian, to speak 
 slightingly and even sneeringly of the 
 Apostle Paul and his Epistles, and to 
 act in disregard, or in defiance of him 
 and of them. Most of these anoma- 
 lous Christians fail to realize the dis- 
 loyalty and lawlessness of their con- 
 duct; and were they once clearly to 
 discern the true nature and actual 
 tendency of their course, they would 
 recoil from it as convulsively as 
 
22 NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 they would from downright infidelity. 
 This class of dissentients not only ad- 
 mit, but maintain, in general terms 
 the divine inspiration and authority 
 of all the Sacred Writings, and their 
 difficulty with Paul is simply their in- 
 herited or acquired dislike for certain 
 of his teachings and injunctions, the 
 force of which they are struggling 
 with great inconsistency to evade, or 
 the meaning of which, on account of 
 preconceived notions, they endeavor 
 to modify, or explain away. But 
 their course in this matter is perilous 
 to their own Christian faith and loy- 
 alty, and, through the contagiousness 
 of their example, perilous to the 
 Christian faith and loyalty of others. 
 But there is another class of anti- 
 Pauline dissentients, fewer, indeed, in 
 number, but more adroit and malig- 
 nant in their hostility, some of them 
 in influential positions, who see clearly 
 enough that their rejection of either 
 
NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 23 
 
 much or little of Paul's teachings and 
 injunctions can be justified only by 
 partial or complete disestablishment 
 of the divine inspiration and apostolic 
 authority of the great apostle; and 
 these fundamental claims, they do 
 not hesitate, covertly or openly, to 
 disparage and impugn. Preposses- 
 sions of rationalistic philosophy, the 
 blinding influence of unscriptural cus- 
 toms, and the warping force of adven- 
 turous love of novelty, overweening 
 self-conceit, and headstrong self-will 
 account very fully for most of this 
 dangerous anti-Pauline drift. 
 
 In the apostle's own day, chiefly in 
 the church of Corinth and in the 
 churches of Galatia, there were those 
 who had the gracelessness and the 
 temerity to question and belittle Paul's 
 apostolic authority in the face of 
 overwhelming proofs; but manifestly 
 from the record they were the most 
 unspiritual, pretentious, ambitious, de- 
 
24 NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 signing, contentious, unscrupulous, 
 and troublesome among all who at 
 that time professed the Christian faith; 
 and their course was vehemently re- 
 pudiated by the better quality and 
 great majority in the Christian com- 
 munities. 
 
 These presumptuous and arrogant 
 despisers of Paul's divinely consti- 
 tuted authority and mission made great 
 boasts of their prophetic and spiritual 
 gifts and attainments. For the sake 
 of the gospel truths and institutions 
 intrusted to him, Paul overcame the 
 natural modesty of his disposition, 
 and, in his Corinthian and Galatian 
 letters, powerfully asserted and de- 
 fended his independent, divinely be- 
 stowed apostleship; and we should be 
 profoundly thankful for the vast 
 amount of invaluable information con- 
 cerning Paul's apostleship thus provi- 
 dentially furnished to the world. In the 
 counsels of God, these men doubted 
 
NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 25 
 
 that we might be assured. The say- 
 ing- of Paul which constitutes the pith 
 and the motto of this little work is a 
 crucial test of, and a crushing retort 
 to, these would-be great ones — these 
 self-seeking and presumptuous im- 
 pugners of high apostolic authority: 
 "If any man thinketh himself to be a 
 prophet, or spiritual, let him take 
 knowledge of the things which I write 
 unto you, that they are the command- 
 ment of the Lord." a This test would 
 prove the genuineness or the spurious- 
 ness of their much-boasted prophetic 
 and spiritual gifts. 
 
 The things which the apostle wrote, 
 referred to in this passage, are not 
 merely those things contained in the 
 immediate context; but they include 
 all the rich and varied themes so fruit- 
 fully treated throughout this great 
 Epistle and all the contents of all his 
 Epistles. 
 
 a 1 Cor. 14: 37. 
 
26 NEED OF THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 In view of the ancient, and espe- 
 cially of the modern, anti-Pauline hos- 
 tility, it will be well to examine the 
 grounds on which we hold the divine 
 authority of Paul's writing's. For "if 
 the foundations be destroyed, what 
 shall the righteous do?" If one of the 
 main supports of our Christian faith 
 be weakened or removed, on what can 
 it be based instead? We shall find, 
 however, that the divine authority of 
 Paul's writings rests ultimately and 
 securely on four massive, closely re- 
 lated, and impregnable basal truths 
 — the nature of the apostolic office, 
 the genuineness of Paul's apostleship, 
 the extraordinary character of Paul's 
 apostolic mission, and the apostolicity 
 of Paul's writings. 
 
PART ONE. 
 
 BASAL POSITIONS. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 The term "apostle" primarily signi- 
 fies "one sent;" but even in the Old 
 Testament, the term "sent" came to 
 mean, in certain well-defined cases — 
 as in the commissioning of Moses and 
 Isaiah, "the sent of God" — the sent of 
 God on a special mission, with special 
 powers, to speak and write and act for 
 God, with fullness of divine authority. 
 The term "apostle" is used several 
 times in the New Testament in a non- 
 technical sense, as in the case of Bar- 
 nabas. In a pre-eminent way, Christ 
 himself is called in the Epistle to the 
 
 27 
 
28 NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 Hebrews, "the Apostle .... of our 
 profession." 
 
 Early in his public ministry — in its 
 first year, in fact — Christ chose the 
 term to designate the holder of an ex- 
 traordinary and all-important office, 
 which he was about to institute among 
 his disciples. 
 
 In some sort of parallelism with the 
 "twelve princes" and "seventy elders" 
 divinely appointed for the guidance 
 and government of ancient Israel, 
 Christ chose his "twelve apostles," 
 and, about a year afterwards, "seventy 
 others," of subordinate and unnamed 
 office, to aid him in accomplishing 
 his work among the Jewish people. 
 Of all the evangelists, Luke alone, 
 and only in one brief passage in his 
 Gospel, a tells us anything of " the 
 seventy;" and they are never again re- 
 ferred to in the New Testament. 
 
 The work of "the seventy" was con- 
 
 a Luke 10: 1-20. 
 
NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 2 g 
 
 fined, for the most part, if not alto- 
 gether, to the last year of our Lord's 
 personal ministry on earth before his 
 crucifixion; and it was apparently de- 
 signed to facilitate the completion of 
 Christ's prophetic work, his work as 
 preacher and teacher, before his rap- 
 idly approaching departure through 
 his atoning death. When the Lord 
 appointed "the seventy," he "sent 
 them two and two before his face into 
 every city and place, whither he him- 
 self was about to come." a 
 
 Of the Saviour's appointment of his 
 twelve apostles, and of their work pre- 
 vious to his death, the account of 
 Mark is as follows: "And he ap- 
 pointed twelve, that they might be with 
 him, and that he might send them forth 
 to preach, and to have authority to cast 
 out devils." b But the most character- 
 istic, and by far the most important, 
 part of the work of the apostles was 
 
 a Luke 10: i. b Mark 3: 14, 15. 
 
30 
 
 NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 to be done after Christ's resurrection 
 and ascension. The preparation of 
 these twelve chosen men, by a special 
 course of instruction and training, un- 
 der himself personally, to be followed 
 by extraordinary gifts and infallible 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the 
 higher duties of their office, may be 
 said to have been the chief, the central 
 work of Christ's earthly ministry, con- 
 sidered apart from his work of atone- 
 ment. Christ's preparation of "the 
 twelve" was the training of teachers, 
 leaders, and rulers. His training of 
 them was not primarily a training for 
 ideal saintship and seraphic personal 
 holiness; but a training for office, for 
 the peculiar and special work of apos- 
 tleship, by which Christianity was to 
 be fully formed, formulated, extended, 
 and made permanent. 
 
 Christ selected these twelve men 
 from among his followers, and set 
 them apart, that they might be with 
 
NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 3 1 
 
 him constantly, as heart-sympathizers 
 with him in his temptations and trials, 
 as ear-witnesses of his public dis- 
 courses and private instructions, and 
 as eye-witnesses of his majesty, of his 
 mighty works, and, above all, of the 
 crowning and most convincing" mir- 
 acle of his career — his resurrection 
 from the dead — in order that, by these 
 and other means, they might be spe- 
 cially prepared to act as his witnesses, 
 spokesmen, and vicegerents, after his 
 departure from the world. 
 
 After the ascension of Christ and 
 the descent of the Spirit, the apostles 
 were invested with several new and 
 transcendently important functions. 
 
 In the first place, they were divinely 
 required, through all their subsequent 
 lives, to act as official and respon- 
 sible witnesses of Christ's resurrection. 
 11 Ye are witnesses of those things," a 
 said Christ to them. "We are his 
 
 a Luke 24: 48. 
 
32 NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 witnesses of these things," a said the 
 apostles to their hearers. It is written, 
 also, that, " with great power gave the 
 apostles witness of the resurrection of 
 the Lord Jesus." b 
 
 Christianity was fact before it was 
 doctrine; and it is doctrine before it 
 becomes life. Considered as history, 
 as doctrine, as ethics, and as salvation, 
 Christianity rests mainly on the resur- 
 rection of Christ. All is secure if that 
 is proved; if that is disproved all fails. 
 Hence the divine appointment of the 
 apostles as special witnesses of this 
 basal fact ; and hence the overwhelming 
 proofs they constantly furnished of 
 that supreme event, and the great stress 
 they laid upon it. Christ's resurrec- 
 tion, besides certifying a future life, 
 proved Christ's divinity ; c and his entire 
 system of doctrine and ethics, whether 
 personally or apostolically uttered; at- 
 tested the genuineness, completeness, 
 
 a Acts 5: 32. b Acts 4: 33. c Cf. Rom. 1: 4 
 
NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFT ICE. 
 
 33 
 
 and efficacy of his atoning sacrifice; 
 proclaimed his power to save; and 
 warranted and invited the confidence 
 of mankind in him as the Divine Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 Again, the apostles w r ere constituted 
 the chief , the supreme, organs of divine 
 revelation in the new dispensation. 
 As Christ's declaration that "the Scrip- 
 ture cannot be broken" assures us of 
 the divine inspiration and infallible 
 truth of the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament ; so his promise of the trans- 
 cendent aid and direction of the Holy 
 Spirit to the apostles, to the effect 
 that their utterances would be, not 
 their words, but the words of God, as- 
 sures us of the divine inspiration and 
 infallible truth of the Scriptures of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Assuming the virtual, if not the ac- 
 tual, Pauline authorship of Hebrews, 
 then with the scarcely more than seem- 
 ing exceptions of Mark and Luke,who 
 
 ' 3 
 
34 NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 were apostolically endorsed compan- 
 ions and helpers of Peter and Paul re- 
 spectively, and with the merely minor 
 exceptions of James and Jude, the 
 Apostles, Matthew, Peter, John, and 
 Paul, were the writers of the New 
 Testament. Through the revelation of 
 Christ and the inspiration of the Spirit, 
 the apostles determined the doctrines, 
 the ethics, and the institutions of 
 Christianity. In common with many 
 other persons in the apostolic churches, 
 who, as we are informed in the Acts 
 and the Epistles, possessed prophetic 
 gifts, Mark, Luke, James, and Jude 
 must have exercised the prophetic 
 function, at least in the form of in- 
 spiration, whether in the form of rev- 
 elation or not. But the apostolic of- 
 fice, while it included the prophetic 
 function in all its forms, was superior 
 to, and authoritative over, that of the 
 New Testament prophets, and, there- 
 fore,over the ordinary office of pastors 
 
NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 3 5 
 
 and teachers and every other office 
 whatsoever. All this is plainly indi- 
 cated by Paul's statement, "God hath 
 set some in the church, first apostles, 
 secondly prophets," a and by Paul's 
 exercise of authority over prophets, in 
 restricting" their utterances to the re- 
 quirements of order: "Let the prophets 
 speak by two or three, and let the 
 others discern. But if a revelation be 
 made to another sitting* by, let the first 
 keep silence ;" b and it is indicated 
 more positively still by Paul's making 
 the divine authority of his writings a 
 test of the genuineness of claims to 
 the gift of prophecy and other spirit- 
 ual gifts: "If any man thinketh him- 
 self to be a prophet, or spiritual, let 
 him take knowledge of the things 
 which I write unto you, that they are 
 the commandment of the Lord." c 
 
 The apostles, acting for Christ and 
 by his authority, were the supreme de- 
 
 a 1 Cor. 12: 28. & 1 Cor. 14: 29, 30. c 1 Cor. 14: 37. 
 
36 NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 terminers of what should be taught 
 and believed and done in the churches 
 of Christ. They were the qualified 
 and responsible agents and supervis- 
 ors for Christ, in every department of 
 church activity. The expressed or 
 implied sanction or imprimatur of any 
 of them would at once determine the 
 canonicity of any writing-. Each of 
 them equally, and not Peter alone, 
 had the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; 
 and whatever any of them bound or 
 loosed on earth was accordingly 
 bound or loosed in heaven. They 
 were the authorized representatives, 
 ambassadors, spokesmen, scribes, vice- 
 gerents, legislators, and judges for 
 Christ in his church on earth; so that 
 whatever they said, or did — not, in- 
 deed, in their personal and private ca- 
 pacity, but in their official capacity — 
 was the veritable word and deed of 
 Christ speaking and acting through 
 them. 
 
NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 37 
 
 Special promises of extraordinary 
 supernatural aid, in the discharge of 
 their apostolic functions, were re- 
 peatedly made to them by Christ. On 
 four separate and special occasions — 
 first, when at the outset of their min- 
 istry, Christ commissioned the apos- 
 tles to preach the kingdom of God; 
 again, when Christ himself preached 
 his gospel to a vast concourse of peo- 
 ple; yet again, when he pronounced 
 judgment upon Jerusalem and the 
 Jewish nation; and once more, in his 
 valedictory discourse — the Saviour 
 made these wonderful promises of di- 
 vine aid. " But when they deliver you 
 up, be not anxious how or what ye 
 shall speak: for it shall be given you 
 in that hour what ye shall speak. For 
 it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit 
 of your Father that speaketh in you." a 
 "The gospel must first be preached 
 unto all the nations. And when they 
 
 a Matt. 10: 19, 20. 
 
33 
 
 NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE 
 
 lead you to judgment and deliver 
 you up, be not anxious beforehand 
 what ye shall speak: but whatsoever 
 shall be given you in that hour, that 
 speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, 
 but the Holy Ghost." a " Settle it 
 therefore in your hearts, not to medi- 
 tate beforehand how to answer: for I 
 will give you a mouth and wisdom, 
 which all your adversaries shall not be 
 able to withstand or to gainsay." b "I 
 have yet many things to say unto you, 
 but ye cannot bear them now. How- 
 beit when he, the Spirit of truth, is 
 come, he shall guide you into all the 
 truth: for he shall not speak from him- 
 self; but what things soever he shall 
 hear, these shall he speak: and he shall 
 declare unto you the things that are 
 to come, He shall glorify me: for he 
 shall take of mine, and shall declare it 
 unto you. ,,c 
 
 It would be inconceivable that the 
 
 a Mark 13: 10, 11. b Luke 21: 14, 15. c John 16: 12-14. 
 
NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 39 
 
 divine aid thus promised on these 
 occasions to the apostles should be 
 vouchsafed when they spoke, and not, 
 as some have ventured to allege, when 
 they wrote; that it should be granted 
 them when they spoke to a few per- 
 sons, and withheld from them when 
 they wrote concerning the great facts, 
 doctrines, duties, privileges, and hopes 
 of the gospel and kingdom of Christ, 
 for all mankind, and for all time. But 
 as a matter of fact, the apostles claim 
 absolute and divine authority for 
 their official words whether written or 
 spoken. Thus Peter speaks of the 
 apostolic letters, as well as of the apos- 
 tolic oral utterances, as "the com- 
 mandment of the Lord and Saviour 
 through your apostles ;' ,a and thus 
 Paul declares, "the things that I write 
 unto you are the command- 
 ment of the Lord." b Thus also Paul 
 exhorts the Thessalonians, " So then, 
 
 a 2 Pet. 3: 2. *> 1 Cor. 14: 37. 
 
40 
 
 NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 brethren, stand fast, and hold the tra- 
 ditions which ye were taught, whether 
 by word, or by epistle of ours." a Ab- 
 solute subordination to Christ who re- 
 vealed his truth and will to them, and 
 absolute authority over Christ's peo- 
 ple for whose instruction and govern- 
 ment Christ qualified and appointed 
 them, were the fundamental charac- 
 teristics of apostleship. 
 
 Further, the apostles were the au- 
 thorized agents of Christ in founding, 
 organizing, working, and governing 
 the churches according to his will, as 
 he supernaturally revealed it to them, 
 and supernaturally aided them in car- 
 rying it out. On the very day on 
 which the promised Spirit of God de- 
 scended upon, and took full posses- 
 sion of, the apostles, completing their 
 supernatural qualifications and seal- 
 ing their divine authority, they began 
 the organization of the first Christian 
 
 a 2 Thess. 2: 15. 
 
NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 41 
 
 church. The pattern which they thus 
 set and the principles which they thus 
 exhibited were to be the rule for the 
 founding", working*, and governing- of 
 all churches till the end of time. As 
 the Book of Acts clearly implies, what 
 the apostles said and did, in their of- 
 ficial capacity, and, therefore, under 
 the power of the Holy Ghost, was 
 really what Christ continued "to do 
 and to teach'' after his ascension to 
 the right hand of power. 
 
 All secular laws may be classified 
 as common law, or statutory law; the 
 former constituted by immemorial 
 custom and the decisions of the courts, 
 the latter by the acts of legislative 
 bodies. Similarly, the divinely in- 
 spired examples and the divinely in- 
 spired precepts of the apostles, who 
 alone were the lawmakers of Chris- 
 tianity, constitute respectively, the 
 common law and the statute law of 
 Christian life, and of the churches of 
 
42 NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 Christ; and each form of the revealed 
 will of Christ is as binding- as the 
 other. Apostolic patterns and apos- 
 tolic commands are of equal and of 
 absolute authority. Thus the inspired 
 example of the apostles, in holding" the 
 meetings of the churches for Christian 
 worship and service, and for commem- 
 oration of the resurrection of Christ, 
 on the first day of the week, rather 
 than on the seventh, is as strong 
 authority for the observance of ''the 
 Lord's Day" as the sacred day, as 
 could be furnished by an inspired 
 precept. 
 
 In the work of inspiration, the Di- 
 vine Spirit had full and absolute mas- 
 tery of all the faculties of the apostles 
 and other inspired penmen; yet he 
 worked in and through each of them 
 in accordance with their particular na- 
 tures and without destroying or ignor- 
 ing their individuality. As a master 
 musician will preserve the individual- 
 
NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 43 
 
 ity of the various instruments on which 
 he plays, while displaying" fully his 
 own individuality and genius in his 
 use of each of them, and in combin- 
 ing them all harmoniously, as in an or- 
 chestra; so the inspiring Spirit, while 
 preserving the individuality of each 
 Scripture writer — the violoncello 
 strains of Matthew, the stirring tabor 
 beat of Mark, the peaceful flute notes 
 of Luke, the trumpet peal of Peter, 
 the clarion ring; of James, the bugle 
 tones of Jude, the violin and harp mu- 
 sic of John, and the full organ diapa- 
 son of Paul — exhibits his own domi- 
 nant divine individuality, in each of 
 them, and in producing the full har- 
 mony of the entire orchestra of inspi- 
 ration. 
 
 Should it be asked, as it sometimes 
 is, " How could God secure infallible 
 presentation of his truth, while breath- 
 ing it through the souls of fallible 
 men?" it may be answered that he 
 
44 
 
 NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE 
 
 who brings being* out of nothingness, 
 light out of darkness, life out of death, 
 order out of confusion, good out of 
 evil, and who formed the sinless hu- 
 man nature of Christ out of the sinful 
 nature of the virgin, could as readily 
 secure the perfect presentation of his 
 truth through minds that he prepared, 
 sublimed, took possession of, and infal- 
 libly moved, directed, and controlled 
 for that very purpose. Left to them- 
 selves, in their private personal capaci- 
 ties, these men must needs be fallible 
 enough ; but when grasped, permeated, 
 inspired, moved, and managed by the 
 infallible Spirit of God, they must 
 needs be as infallible as himself. 
 
 It was necessary to the apostolic of- 
 fice, that the recipient of it should have 
 " seen the Lord;" that he should be 
 able to bear personal witness to the 
 resurrection of Christ; that he should 
 have received his apostolic commis- 
 sion from Christ himself, personally; 
 
NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 45 
 
 and that he should be able to exhibit 
 the " signs of an apostle/' in the exer- 
 cise of supernatural gifts and powers, 
 attesting" his apostolic appointment, 
 message, and mission. Thus, from 
 the very nature of the case, the apos- 
 tolic office, like the Melchizedek order 
 of priesthood, was unique, and with- 
 out succession. It could neither be 
 evolved out of, nor be merged into, 
 another office. In view of this, how 
 presumptuous, absurd, and vain are 
 the pretensions of those who claim to 
 be officially the successors of the apos- 
 tles, as if there could be any other 
 real and true apostolic succession than 
 that of keeping the apostolic doctrines, 
 ordinances, and precepts as "once for 
 air 5 ' they were delivered ! The apos- 
 tles had, and could have, officially, 
 neither predecessors, nor successors; 
 neither equals, nor substitutes. The 
 duration of the apostolic office was, 
 in fact, somewhat less than a full or- 
 
46 NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 dinary lifetime —from Christ's ap- 
 pointment of the apostolate, A. D. 31, 
 till the death of John under Trajan, 
 A. D. 100, a period of sixty-nine years. 
 The apostolic office was furnished 
 with adequate divine sanctions and 
 endowments for the due attestation of 
 its genuineness, and for the full exer- 
 cise of vitally important functions. In 
 accordance with the promise of Christ, 
 as we have already seen, the apostles 
 had complete divine revelation and 
 inspiration — the former, a supernat- 
 ural communication of knowledge to 
 them; the latter, a supernatural com- 
 munication of either natural or super- 
 natural knowledge through them to 
 others — whereby they became, in their 
 official capacity, through Christ and 
 his Spirit, infallible organs of divine 
 thought and will. They were, also, 
 divinely invested with miraculous 
 powers of the most remarkable char- 
 acter, to prove the truth, the divine 
 
NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 47 
 
 origin, and divine approval of their 
 message and their mission. " Many 
 wonders and signs were done by the 
 apostles ;" a "God also bearing* witness 
 with them, both by signs and won- 
 ders, and by manifold powers, and by 
 gifts of the Holy Ghost, according* to 
 his own will." b In attestation of their 
 apostleship and of the truth of their 
 message, they had the power to work 
 miracles of great variety, marvelous- 
 ness, and significance; and when oc- 
 casion required, they had the power 
 to enable other persons, on whom 
 they laid their hands, to work miracles 
 also; though the ability to impart mi- 
 raculous powers to others they re- 
 served exclusively for themselves. It 
 was only through the laying on of the 
 apostles' hands that the Holy Ghost 
 was given. Thus it would appear, 
 from the nature of the case, that the 
 miracles of the Christian dispensation 
 
 a Acts 2: 43. b Heb. 2: 4. 
 
48 NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 must have been confined to the apos- 
 tolic age — at most to the lifetime of 
 those Christian survivors of the apos- 
 tles, on whom the apostles had laid 
 their supernaturally gifted hands — 
 which accords with the divine proce- 
 dure under the old dispensation, in 
 limiting miracles, for the most part, 
 to the confirmation of newly delivered 
 prophecies, or other authoritative ex- 
 pressions of the divine mind and will. 
 Great as he was, in character and in 
 mission, John the Baptist, the fore- 
 runner of Christ, wrought no mir- 
 acle;** perhaps, in order that the wide 
 distinction between Christ and himself 
 might be more readily perceived, and, 
 most probably, also because the chief 
 work of John the Baptist was, not 
 to announce essentially new truth, but 
 to collect, condense, and focalize the 
 Messianic promises and predictions, 
 in "the law and the prophets" which 
 
 a John 10: 41^ 
 
NATURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 49 
 
 had already been supernaturally at- 
 tested; to announce their speedy ful- 
 fillment and the near approach of the 
 Messiah; and to summon the people 
 to prepare therefor, by genuine re- 
 pentance. But Christ and his apos- 
 tles, having* important new truth to 
 declare and an entirely new order of 
 things to establish, freely employed 
 miracles of great variety and power, 
 to attest the truth of their claims and 
 the divineness of their mission. It is 
 to be observed in this connection, that, 
 in one particular, miracles are like cre- 
 ative acts. Both are for the begin- 
 nings of things — the latter in the 
 kingdom of nature, the former in the 
 kingdom of grace. 
 
 The apostles were divinely furnished 
 with supernatural wisdom, to enable 
 them infallibly to detect hypocrisy, 
 treachery, lying, simony, and similar 
 evils, lurking in the bosoms of spuri- 
 ous professors of the new faith; and 
 
jo NA TURE OF THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE. 
 
 they were invested with divine au- 
 thority to pronounce and execute sum- 
 mary judgment upon desperate trans- 
 gressors, as in the case of Peter a 
 declaring and carrying out the judg- 
 ment of the Lord upon Ananias and 
 Sapphira, and as in a similar instance 
 in the ministry of Paul. b 
 
 In view of the nature of the apos- 
 tolic office, as essentially a duly certi- 
 fied organ of divine utterance and 
 action, the spoken or written words 
 of an apostle must be regarded as of 
 absolutely divine authority. 
 
 a Acts 5: i-ii. b Acts 13: 9-1 1. 
 
Chapter III. 
 
 THE GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 All the qualifications and " signs of 
 an apostle" were abundantly present 
 in Paul. It is true, he had not been 
 the companion and pupil of Christ 
 during; his earthly ministry, as were the 
 other — "the twelve" — apostles. Their 
 special mission to the Jewish people, 
 particularly those of Palestine, among 
 whom, exclusively, Christ had lived 
 and ministered, made it necessary 
 that they should have been thus privi- 
 leged. So when it became needful 
 for them to ascertain the divine choice 
 and appointment of a disciple to take 
 the apostleship rendered vacant by 
 the sin and doom of Judas, Peter, the 
 readiest of the eleven, said, "Of the 
 men, therefore, which have companied 
 
 51 
 
52 
 
 GENUINENESS OF PAUL S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 with us all the time that the Lord Je- 
 sus went in and went out among; us, 
 beginning- from the baptism of John, 
 unto the day that he was received up 
 from us, of these must one become a 
 witness with us of his resurrection." a 
 After prayer and the casting of lots, 
 " Matthias was numbered with the 
 eleven apostles," "to take the place in 
 this ministry and apostleship from 
 which Judas fell away." b 
 
 The Pentecostal outpouring of the 
 Spirit not having as yet occurred, it 
 was necessary for them to resort to 
 this device divinely sanctioned by the 
 Levitical law in particular cases, to 
 obtain a clear expression of divine 
 appointment of a new apostle, and on 
 the other hand, it was necessary that 
 the new apostle among the twelve 
 should be divinely appointed before 
 the Pentecostal descent of the Spirit 
 that he might share in common with 
 
 a Acts i: 2i, 22. b Acts i: 25, 26. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 53 
 
 the rest of the twelve, in the extraordi- 
 nary gifts and blessings of that mo- 
 mentous day. The coming of the en- 
 lightening, inspiring Spirit made it 
 unnecessary for them ever again to re- 
 sort to that or any similar expedient; 
 and his coming revealed no error in 
 their single use of it, but confirmed it, 
 and certified the divine action in the 
 premises in response to their call. 
 
 But while it was necessary, for the 
 reason already indicated, that each of 
 the twelve apostles should have been 
 a constant companion of our Lord, 
 virtually from his baptism to his as- 
 cension, it was not necessary that Paul, 
 whose mission was to be to peoples 
 among whom Christ had never lived, 
 should have been thus circumstanced. 
 Yet, even in Paul's case, though he 
 was not of the twelve, but held an 
 independent apostleship, personal ac- 
 quaintance with Christ was necessary. a 
 
 a i Cor. 15: 8. 1 Cor. 9: 1. Acts 22: 14, 15. 
 
54 GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 So we find that he had a full equiva- 
 lent for acquaintance with Christ in 
 his earthly life. He had "seen the 
 Lord," not merely after his resurrec- 
 tion, but after his ascension. The 
 risen and ascended Christ made a 
 special revelation of himself to Paul- 
 While all the other apostles, and more 
 than five hundred private Christians, 
 saw Christ after his resurrection and 
 before his ascension, only Stephen, the 
 first martyr, and John, the last of the 
 apostles, besides Paul, the great apos- 
 tle to the Gentiles, so far as can be 
 learned from the record, were favored 
 with post-ascension epiphanies of our 
 Lord. But from the heavenly glory, 
 Paul had numerous "visions and reve- 
 lations of the Lord." It was by a 
 personal appearance of the glorified 
 Christ, that Paul was converted, ap- 
 pointed to apostleship, and instructed 
 and equipped for his work. It was by 
 special, supernatural revelations of 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAULS APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 55 
 
 Christ from heaven to him, and not 
 otherwise, that Paul was effectually 
 instructed in the entire system of 
 Christianity, which he was called to 
 teach and establish. In this extraor- 
 dinary way, Paul became versed not 
 only in the facts, doctrines, ethics, 
 and institutions of the gospel, but 
 also in the distinctive characteristics 
 and mutual relations of the old and 
 new dispensations, and in the practi- 
 cal bearing's of the gospel to both 
 Gentiles and Jews. The revelation thus 
 made directly by Christ to Paul was 
 full and final, and it needed not to be 
 supplemented from any earthly source 
 or supervised by any earthly author- 
 ity. Paul solemnly asserts that he re- 
 ceived his gospel neither from other 
 apostles, nor from private Christians, 
 nor from any man or men whatso- 
 ever; and declares that he is " an apos- 
 tle (not from man, neither through 
 man, but through Jesus Christ and 
 
56 GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 God the Father, who raised him from 
 the dead. )" a Again he asseverates, 
 11 For I make known to you, brethren, 
 as touching the gospel which was 
 preached by me, that it is not after 
 man. For neither did I receive it from 
 man, nor was I taught it, but it came 
 to me through the revelation of Jesus 
 Christ" b Further he avers, "By rev- 
 elation was made known unto me the 
 mystery .... which in other genera- 
 tions was not made known unto the 
 sons of men, as it hath now been re- 
 vealed unto his holy apostles and 
 prophets in the Spirit; to wit, that the 
 Gentiles are fellow-heirs and fellow- 
 members of the body and fellow-par- 
 takers of the promise in Christ Jesus 
 through the gospel. ,,c Not only did 
 Paul receive the entire gospel exclu- 
 sively from the ascended Christ him- 
 self personally, but the very terms in 
 which, by divine inspiration, he ex- 
 
 a Gal. i: i. *> Gal. i: n, 12. c Eph. 3: 3, 5, 6. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAULS APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 57 
 
 pressed it, he knew to be " the word of 
 God," as he emphatically declares in 
 what is generally acknowledged to be 
 the first written of all his Epistles: 
 "And for this cause we also thank 
 God without ceasing, that, when ye 
 received from us the word of the mes- 
 sage, even the word of God, ye ac- 
 cepted it not as the word of men, but, 
 as it is in truth, the word of God." a 
 
 It is in view of his absolute certainty 
 of the divine source from which, and 
 the infallible way in which, he received 
 the gospel, and in view of the efficient 
 manner in which, through the Holy 
 Spirit, he made it known, and gave it 
 miraculous certification, that he so 
 sternly anathematizes those Judaiz- 
 ing teachers, who would "pervert the 
 gospel of Christ," as received and de- 
 livered by him: "Though we, or an 
 angel from heaven, should preach un- 
 to you any gospel other than that 
 
 a i Thess. 2: 13. 
 
58 
 
 GENUINENESS OF PAl^ S APOSTLESHIP 
 
 which we preached unto you, let him 
 be anathema. As we have said be- 
 fore, so say I now again, If any man 
 preacheth unto you any gospel other 
 than that which ye received let him be 
 anathema." a 
 
 As soon as he was commissioned 
 and instructed by revelation of the 
 glorified Christ, he set about his apos- 
 tolic work at once, without consulting 
 the other apostles, or any of them. 
 On this point, he says distinctly, " But 
 when it was the good pleasure of God, 
 who separated me from my mother's 
 womb, and called me through his 
 grace, to reveal his Son in me, that 
 I might preach him among the Gen- 
 tiles; immediately I conferred not 
 with flesh and blood: neither went I 
 up to Jerusalem to them which were 
 apostles before me: but I went into 
 Arabia; and again I returned unto 
 Damascus. Then after three years I 
 
 a Gal. i: 8, 9. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAUL S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 59 
 
 went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas 
 and tarried with him fifteen days. 
 But other of the apostles saw I none, 
 save James the Lord's brother." a It 
 would be at this time, three years after 
 his conversion, that there occurred 
 the interesting incident in the early 
 Christian life of Paul, which is thus re- 
 lated by Luke: "And when he come 
 to Jerusalem and assayed to join him- 
 self to the disciples and they were 
 afraid of him, not believing that he 
 was a disciple. But Barnabas took 
 him and brought him to the apostles 
 [Peter and James], and declared unto 
 them how he had seen the Lord in the 
 way, and that he had spoken to him, 
 and how at Damascus he had preached 
 boldly in the name of Jesus." b 
 
 As we learn from the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, Paul was three years in 
 actual and active apostleship before 
 he saw any of the other apostles; that 
 
 a Gal. i: 15-19. & Acts 9: 26, 27. 
 
60 GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 even then he had only one short inter- 
 view with Peter and James; and that, 
 for a long period afterwards, he "was 
 still unknown by face unto the churches 
 of Judea." a 
 
 In the same letter, he says, further, 
 that " fourteen years after" this brief 
 visit, "I went up again to Jerusalem," 
 "by revelation;' 5 "and I laid before 
 them the gospel which I preach among 
 the Gentiles." b "But from those who 
 
 were reputed to be somewhat 
 
 they, I say, who were of repute im- 
 parted nothing to me; but contrari- 
 wise, when they saw that I had been 
 intrusted with the gospel of the uncir- 
 cumcision, even as Peter with the 
 gospel of the circumcision (for he that 
 wrought for Peter unto the apostle- 
 ship of the circumcision wrought for 
 me also unto the Gentiles), and when 
 they perceived the grace that was 
 given unto me, James and Cephas and 
 
 a Gal. i: 18-24. t> Gal. 2: i, 2. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP. Q i 
 
 John, they who were reputed to be pil- 
 lars, gave to me and Barnabas the 
 right hand of fellowship, that we 
 should go unto the Gentiles, and they 
 unto the circumcision. " a 
 
 The business on which Paul, "by 
 revelation, " went up at this time to Je- 
 rusalem was the extremely important 
 matter relating to the liberties of Gen- 
 tile Christians, for which Paul con- 
 tended successfully in the apostolic 
 council there, as described with much 
 fullness in the fifteenth chapter of 
 Acts. 
 
 As has been already indicated, the 
 Epistle to the Galatians shows con- 
 clusively, and this is strongly corrobo- 
 rated by both Epistles to the Corin- 
 thians, that the entire gospel of Christ, 
 and the full apostleship to proclaim it, 
 and to establish its institutions, es- 
 pecially among the Gentiles, Paul re- 
 ceived, not from man, nor through the 
 
 a Gal. 2: 6-9. 
 
62 GENUINENESS OF PA UU S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 instrumentality of man, but directly 
 from his ascended and self-revealed 
 Lord. This, the other apostles ac- 
 knowledged as readily and fully as 
 he acknowledged the genuineness and 
 divine origin of the gospel they pro- 
 claimed and the apostleship they ex- 
 ercised. 
 
 Besides the post-ascension appear- 
 ings of Christ to him, Paul had one 
 experience, confirmatory of his apos- 
 tleship, more extraordinary, in its es- 
 sential character, than any undergone 
 by the other apostles, John in Patmos 
 not excepted. About the year 56 of 
 the Christian era, Paul (whether in the 
 body or out of the body, he knew not) 
 was "caught up into the third heaven," 
 11 caught up into Paradise, " and " heard 
 unspeakable words which it is not 
 lawful for a man to utter, ,,a which, 
 whatever they imported, strengthened 
 and confirmed him in his independent 
 
 a 2 Cor. 12: 2-4. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAULS APOSTLESHIP. 63 
 
 and absolute apostleship. This won- 
 derful experience, while it was followed 
 by an abiding and humbling* personal 
 affliction, was followed also by the di- 
 vine promise of grace all-sufficient for 
 his personal and apostolic duties and 
 trials. a In confirmation of his full di- 
 vine inspiration and of his true apos- 
 tolic message, mission, and authority, 
 Paul was divinely invested with ex- 
 ceptional miraculous powers. The 
 writer of the Acts says, "And God 
 wrought special miracles by the hands 
 of Paul: insomuch that unto the sick 
 were carried away from his body hand- 
 kerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases 
 departed from them, and the evil spir- 
 its went out." b In writing to the Ro- 
 mans, Paul himself says, " I will not 
 dare to speak of any things save those 
 which Christ wrought through me, for 
 the obedience of the Gentiles, by word 
 and deed, in the power of signs and 
 
 a 2 Cor. 12: 8, 9. t> Acts 19: 11, 12. 
 
64 GENUINENESS OF PA UL S APOSTLE SHIP, 
 
 wonders, in the power of the Holy 
 Ghost." a In writing- to the Corinthian 
 church, among* other things, concern- 
 ing its abuse of its manifold supernat- 
 ural gifts, especially the gift of tongues, 
 and, indirectly, concerning the claims 
 of his own apostleship, Paul says, " I 
 thank God, I speak with tongues more 
 than you all: howbeit in the church I 
 had rather speak five words with my 
 understanding, that I might instruct 
 others also, than ten thousand words 
 in a tongue." b "In nothing was I be- 
 hind the very chiefest of the apostles, 
 though I am nothing. Truly the signs 
 of an apostle were wrought among you 
 in all patience, by signs and wonders 
 and mighty works." c Paul had also, 
 in great degree, the exclusively apos- 
 tolic power of conferring spiritual gifts 
 by the laying on of hands — the gift of 
 tongues and the gift of prophecy par- 
 ticularly — as recorded instances dis- 
 
 aRom. 15: 18, 19. b 1 Cor. 14: 18, 19. c 2 Cor. 12: 11, 12. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PA UL *S APOSTLE SHIP. 6 5 
 
 tinctly show. a He had also, in full 
 measure, the apostolic power of visit- 
 ing summary and condign punishment 
 on notorious and specially pernicious 
 offenders, for the warning- of others, 
 doubtless; but, also, with a view, if it 
 might be, of bringing the transgress- 
 ors themselves to repentance. Thus 
 speaking of the pains and penalties 
 which he inflicted upon "Hymenaeus 
 and Alexander," by delivering them 
 for a time, into the dread hands of the 
 lord of all evil, because of their ship- 
 wrecking course concerning the faith, 
 Paul says, "Whom I have delivered 
 unto Satan, that they may be taught 
 not to blaspheme." b In the exercise 
 of this same judicial and punitive 
 power, the apostle writes peremptor- 
 ily to the Corinthian church, in rela- 
 tion to an exceedingly iniquitous of- 
 fender in its membership: "For I 
 
 a Acts 19: 6. 2 Tim. 1: 6. Cf. 1 Tim. 4: 14. 
 5 b 1 Tim. 1: 20. 
 
66 GENUINENESS OF PA UL S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 verily being- absent in body but pres- 
 ent in spirit, have already, as though 
 I were present, judged him that hath 
 so wrought this thing, in the name of 
 our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered to- 
 gether, and my spirit, with the power 
 of our Lord Jesus, to deliver such a 
 one unto Satan for the destruction of 
 the flesh, that the spirit may be saved 
 in the day of the Lord Jesus." a 
 
 In both of his Epistles to the Cor- 
 inthians, especially in the ninth chap- 
 ter of the First Epistle and from the 
 tenth chapter to the end of the Sec- 
 ond Epistle, and in the first and sec- 
 ond chapters of his Epistle to the Ga- 
 latians, Paul asserts, and defends his 
 apostolic standing and authority, with 
 great fulness and power — driven to it, 
 against his natural modesty, by the 
 contentiousness and disparagingmeth- 
 ods of the Judaizing teachers, and 
 their consequent evil influence toward 
 the pure gospel of Christ. 
 
 a i Cor. 5: 3-5. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PA UL S APOSTLESHIP. fy 
 
 In the stern rebuke which Paul ad- 
 ministered to Peter, recorded in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians, there is a 
 strong* illustration of Paul's independ- 
 ent apostleship. The ground of his 
 censure of Peter was not any official 
 difference of view as to gospel truth, 
 or order, but a temporary personal 
 and private inconsistency of conduct 
 on the part of Peter, in relation to so- 
 cial intercourse between Christian Jews 
 and Christian Gentiles — the momen- 
 tary cowardice of a really courageous 
 man, humbly trying to avoid giving 
 offense. This, not only on account of 
 the moral dereliction involved in it, 
 but also because of its evil practi- 
 cal bearing on gospel liberty, Paul 
 sharply, justly, and withal, fraternally, 
 rebukes. A few years afterward, Peter 
 in his Second Epistle, declares, in hum- 
 ble brotherly fashion, that "our be- 
 loved brother Paul" wrote "in all his 
 Epistles, ,, "according to the wisdom 
 
68 GENUINENESS OF PA UL S APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 given unto him, "and that Paul's words 
 thus written are "Scripture."* To 
 Peter's mind, " Scripture " was "the 
 word of God; " and, to Peter's knowl- 
 edge, Peter's Master had said, " The 
 Scripture cannot be broken." b So the 
 Apostle Peter's testimony corrobo- 
 rates the apostolic claim of Paul that 
 the things which he wrote "are the 
 commandment of the Lord." c 
 
 The seeming contradiction between 
 the teachingof Paul and that of James, 
 on the doctrine of justification, affords 
 no ground for disparagement of the 
 divine authority of either Paul or 
 James; for the difference between 
 them is merely apparent, and not real, 
 as a careful examination of their writ- 
 ings on the subject, considered from 
 the proper points of view, would 
 plainly show. In no degree, and in 
 no sense, are they either opposing, or 
 even referring to, each other's views. 
 
 a 2 Peter 2: 15, 16. * John 10: 35. c 1 Cor. 14: 37. 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP. 69 
 
 Each is contending* with a different 
 antagonist — Paul with the Christ- 
 less legalist; James with the lawless 
 antinomian. Each is treating of a 
 different sort of faith — Paul com- 
 mending an evangelical, living, fruit- 
 ful faith; James impugning a barely 
 intellectual, unevangelical, and wholly 
 barren faith. Each is speaking of a 
 different kind of works — Paul show- 
 ing the worthlessness of unevangelical, 
 legal, dead works; James showing 
 the value and acceptableness of evan- 
 gelical, and, therefore, really good 
 works, and their usefulness as evidence 
 of genuine faith. Each is discussing 
 different aspects, if not different kinds, 
 of justification — Paul the justification 
 of the soul by faith, before God; James 
 the justification of the believer's pro- 
 fession of faith by his works, before 
 men: and so, also, each, by way of 
 illustration, is referring to entirely dif- 
 ferent incidents and periods in the life 
 
jq GENUINENESS OF PAUL'S APOSTLESHIP, 
 
 of Abraham — Paul to the faith of 
 Abraham at the outset of his believing- 
 career, which was counted unto him 
 for righteousness; James to the obe- 
 dience of Abraham in an incident of 
 his life twenty years later, which justi- 
 fied, or proved, Abraham to all men 
 as a true believer. Each is governed 
 by a different purpose — Paul is en- 
 deavoring- to set right the man who is 
 building" on a false foundation; James 
 is endeavoring- to induce indolent and 
 inconsistent professors to build the 
 right superstructure. Paul endeavors 
 to plant the right root; James to de- 
 velop the rig-ht fruit. Paul endeavors 
 to lead his readers to attain true justi- 
 fication; James, to give true evidence 
 of their justification. 
 
 Nearly any two evangelical men 
 contending;, respectively, with legal- 
 ists and antinomians, and almost any 
 one and the same person contending- 
 with those opposite errors alternately, 
 
GENUINENESS OF PAULS APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 n 
 
 would be sure, especially if their argu- 
 ments were glanced at unreflectingly, 
 to show the same apparent, but un- 
 real, contrarieties of doctrine, while in 
 reality their teachings, like those of 
 Paul and James, would be, uninter- 
 ruptedly, in the profoundest harmony. 
 These two apostles, like two friendly 
 swordsmen standing back to back in 
 the midst of their enemies, in reality, 
 defend each other, while each is con- 
 tending with a different foe. 
 
 From every point of view, the proofs 
 of the genuineness of Paul's apostle- 
 ship are ample and convincing. 
 
Chapter IV. 
 
 THE EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER OF PAUL'S 
 APOSTOLIC MISSION. 
 
 The mission of the twelve apostles, 
 appointed early in the earthly minis- 
 try of our Lord, was to plant living- 
 Christianity in the heart of dead and 
 decaying- Judaism. Their humble ori- 
 gin, their provincial birth and rearing, 
 their scanty culture and even their 
 strong and narrow Jewish prejudices, 
 so far from being- hindrances to their 
 work, were in reality, conditions and 
 factors of their success. A broader 
 culture, a more cosmopolitan spirit, 
 would have been prejudicial to their 
 apostolic mission among the Jews resi- 
 dent in Judea and Galilee; for then, 
 they would have aroused against them- 
 selves and their cause, the spirit of 
 
 72 
 
CHAR A CTER OF PA UL'S APOSTOLIC MISSION. 
 
 73 
 
 prejudice, intolerance, and deadly hos- 
 tility. Their mission, like the earthly 
 mission of their Lord, was chiefly 
 Jewish in its immediate aims and bear- 
 ings. They were chosen as official 
 witnesses of the entire public ministry 
 of Christ, which, with the exception of 
 two brief incidents, was wholly among 
 the Jewish people in Judea and Galilee ; 
 and thus, also, Matthias was chosen, 
 probably from among" "the seventy," 
 in the place of the lost Judas. 
 
 The Christianity implanted by " the 
 twelve," in the midst of the Judaism 
 of Palestine, while in nature distinct 
 from it, as the mistletoe from the de- 
 caying oak in which it is rooted, was 
 never completely disentangled by them 
 from the roots and offshoots of Juda- 
 ism. 
 
 As a consequence, though not en- 
 dorsed by " the twelve," the Chris- 
 tianity of their Jewish converts was apt 
 to have a decidedly Judaistic flavor; 
 
74 
 
 CHAR A CTER OF PAUL'S APOSTOLIC MISSION. 
 
 and their converts in Jerusalem and 
 Judea were inclined to have an instinc- 
 tive and strong* Judaistic tendency. 
 The Jewish Christianity thus devel- 
 oped under "the twelve," who them- 
 selves had been singularly slow to 
 learn Christ's will concerning the gos- 
 pel call and reception of the Gentiles, 
 was of such a type that their Jewish 
 disciples were strongly disposed and, 
 indeed, obstinately determined, to Ju- 
 daize the Gentiles before Christiani- 
 zing them; to demand their submission 
 to rites and ceremonies of the Jewish 
 ceremonial law, which Christ's death 
 had fulfilled and rendered obsolete, 
 before admitting* them to the privi- 
 leges of the gospel — as if Christians 
 were merely a Jewish sect, loftier and 
 more advanced than older ones then 
 existing, but requiring that a Gentile 
 must become ceremonially and prac- 
 tically a Jew, in order to be admitted 
 into it. Though this characteristic 
 
CHARACTER OF PAUL S APOSTOLIC MISSION. 
 
 75 
 
 trend was not brought about, or coun- 
 tenanced, by "the twelve," neither 
 was it effectually counteracted by 
 them. Indeed, the Judaizing tendency 
 of the Jewish disciples of "the twelve/' 
 though without their apostolic war- 
 rant, and notwithstanding the explicit 
 decision against it, by the apostolic 
 council at Jerusalem, continued from 
 its inception, through all after-times, 
 to be, in all Christendom, a pernicious, 
 insinuating, and aggressive evil. 
 
 The characteristics and limitations 
 which helped to qualify "the twelve" for 
 the work of Christianizing their com- 
 patriots in their native land unfitted 
 them, largely, for a length of time, for 
 aggressive work in the Christianization 
 of the Gentiles, notwithstanding the 
 fact that under a divine compulsion, 
 Peter, in the case of Cornelius and his 
 household, opened the door of Chris- 
 tianity to the Gentiles, and notwith- 
 standing the fact that, in their later 
 
76 CHARACTER OF PA UVS APOSTOLIC MISSION 
 
 years and in other lands, Peter and 
 John and other apostles seem to 
 have worked almost indiscriminately 
 among- Jews and Gentiles. The work 
 of " the twelve " was primarily and pre- 
 eminently a gospel mission to "the 
 twelve tribes" — or what was left of 
 them — scattered everywhere ; for which 
 they were thoroughly qualified, and in 
 which, as we may infer from the early 
 portion of the Acts, from the testimony 
 of Paul, especially in his Galatian and 
 Corinthian Epistles, and from the gen- 
 eral Epistles of Peter, John, and James, 
 they were eminently successful. 
 
 But the "other sheep," who were 
 not of Christ's Jewish "fold," a of whom 
 Christ prophetically spoke and con- 
 cerning whom he greatly rejoiced in 
 spirit, could be gathered and brought 
 in, fully and effectually, only by another 
 — a more largely, variously, and spe- 
 cially gifted and equipped — kind of 
 apostolic shepherd. 
 
 a John 10: 16. 
 
CHAR A CTER OF PA UL\S APOSTOLIC MISSION. 
 
 77 
 
 The peculiar and extraordinary task 
 of introducing- and organizing Chris- 
 tianity, free from Judaistic taint and 
 tendency, on the enlarged basis of an 
 additional, new, and independent reve- 
 lation of Christ and his will, was re- 
 served for one who, by reason of his 
 unequalled natural endowments; his 
 great attainments in Hebrew Scrip- 
 ture and Jewish ceremonialism; his 
 intimate knowledge of pagan litera- 
 tures, philosophies and religions; his 
 Hellenistic birth and rearing; his Ro- 
 man citizenship and knowledge of the 
 world; his dialectic and oratorical 
 skill; and, above all, his miraculous 
 conversion, his personal meetings with 
 the ascended Lord, his instruction 
 through personal revelations of Christ, 
 his special appointment by Christ, to 
 apostleship, his own special Pente- 
 costal experience in the Spirit, and his 
 vast and varied supernatural knowl- 
 edge and powers, was qualified to be 
 
78 CHAR A CTER OF PA UL S APOSTOLIC MISSION. 
 
 at once the Moses and the Joshua of 
 the new dispensation. 
 
 No one of "the twelve/' nor all of 
 them put together, had a tithe of his 
 preparation and fitness for his peculiar 
 task of severing" and launching the 
 life-boat of Christianity from the sink- 
 ing hulk of Judaism ; of confronting on 
 their own ground, and overpowering, 
 the demons of paganism; and, while 
 recognizing and extracting the few 
 shrivelled grains of truth then existing 
 in Judaism, and the much fewer and 
 feebler grains of truth then existing 
 in paganism, broadly and thoroughly 
 implanting and developing Christian- 
 ity untainted with the poison, and un- 
 tinged with the hue, of either pagan- 
 ism or Judaism, in the great centres 
 and outlying regions of Europe and 
 Asia. How zealously, extensively, 
 uncompromisingly, and thoroughly, 
 he accomplished the mighty under- 
 taking, the sacred record abundantly 
 
CHARACTER OF PAUU S APOSTOLIC MISSION, 
 
 79 
 
 shows. His imperial apostolic influ- 
 ence has ever been present and pre- 
 dominant wherever Christianity has 
 obtained a foothold in the world. 
 Manifestly, also, he steadfastly re- 
 garded Christianity, in its true light, 
 as a universal and uncompromising 
 religion; and he constantly aimed at 
 the fraternal unification of Jews and 
 Gentiles under its banner of light and 
 love. 
 
 Though ready and eager to make 
 the first offer of Christ and his salva- 
 tion to the Jewish people, wherever 
 he met them in the Gentile world, still 
 his mission was essentially and su- 
 premely a mission to the Gentiles. 
 Immediately after his conversion, the 
 Lord said concerning him, " He is a 
 chosen vessel unto me to bear my 
 name unto the Gentiles and Kings, 
 and the children of Israel. " a In writ- 
 ing to the Christians in Rome, Paul 
 
 a Acts 9: 15. 
 
80 CHAR A CTER OF PA UL S APOSTOLIC MISSION. 
 
 says, " Inasmuch then as I am an 
 apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my min- 
 istry;'^ and, in writing- to Timothy, 
 he says, " I was appointed a preacher 
 and an apostle ( I speak the truth, I lie 
 not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith 
 and truth." b 
 
 While neither conflict, nor discrimi- 
 nation, may be admitted between the 
 apostles of Christ as to the authority 
 of their apostolic acts and writings, it 
 must be borne in mind that Paul is 
 peculiarly and pre-eminently the apos- 
 tle to the Gentiles; that, by Christ him- 
 self, he was specially called and com- 
 missioned to the Gentile apostleship; 
 and that Paul's writings contain the 
 fullest and most advanced revelation 
 of Christ's will — a revelation of 
 Christ's will which, while absolutely 
 binding on both Jews and Gentiles, 
 has, nevertheless, a peculiar breadth 
 and fitness of application to the cir- 
 
 a Rom. n: 13. t> 1 Tim. 2: 7. 
 
CHARA CTER OF PA ULS APOSTOLIC MISSION. 8 1 
 
 cumstances and needs of the Gentile 
 races. It was peculiarly his office to 
 determine and " teach" the truths, "set 
 in order " the institutions, and "ordain" 
 the order, of the Christian system, 
 among the Gentiles; and the things, 
 therefore, which he wrote are forever 
 to be received as "the commandment 
 of the Lord." So far, therefore, from 
 discriminating against, or disparaging, 
 or ignoring, the apostolic authority of 
 Paul, we, as Gentile peoples, should 
 give special heed to his writings, as 
 divinely designed for us in particular. 
 
Chapter V. 
 
 THE APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 The apostolic letters naturally suc- 
 ceeded the other work of the apostles; 
 and they were needed to supplement, 
 confirm, and perpetuate it. In the 
 earlier stages of their heaven-appointed 
 business, the work of converting* sin- 
 ners to Christ, of organizing believers 
 Into churches, and of instructing them 
 in the truths and principles of Chris- 
 ianity, could effectually be done only 
 by their word of mouth and personal 
 activity. But when exercising their 
 apostolic supervision and control of 
 the many widely separated churches, 
 apostolic writing became a necessity. 
 The oral teachings of the apostles 
 would be in the greatest danger of 
 mutilation and distortion, from popu- 
 
 82 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 83 
 
 lar forgetfulness and the inevitable 
 aberrations of tradition; and so, for 
 the full and perfect preservation of 
 their teachings in their own time, and 
 much more necessarily in all after- 
 times, they were obliged to have re- 
 course to the abiding instrumentality, 
 and minute accuracy of parchment, 
 pen, and ink. The vagaries, uncertai n- 
 ties, and contradictions of tradition, in 
 ages before and after apostolic times, 
 demonstrate its futility as a medium 
 of permanent divine revelation. The 
 safety of the Christian revelation 
 could be secured only by inspired 
 writings. 
 
 The authority and impulse to write, 
 and the matter and form of the writ- 
 ing, in the case both of prophets and 
 of apostles, were of divine origin. 
 Moses "wrote" " by the commandment 
 of the Lord;"* for, "the Lord said unto 
 Moses, Write this for a memorial in a 
 
 a Num. 33: 2. 
 
84 APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 book;" a and what he wrote was called 
 "the book of the law of Moses, which 
 the Lord had commanded to Israel," b 
 "the words of the God of Israel." 
 Speaking through Hosea, concerning 
 Ephraim, God said, " Though I write 
 for him my law in ten thousand pre- 
 cepts, they are counted as a strange 
 thing." d To Jeremiah, the divine 
 command to write came peremptorily, 
 "Take thee a roll of a book, and write 
 therein all the words that I have 
 spoken unto thee." 6 In the divine 
 communication of the Apocalypse, 
 the Apostle John many times received 
 the command to "write;' and he ap- 
 pends to this marvellous writing the 
 most solemn and terrible warning 
 against adding to, or taking from, " the 
 words of the book of this prophecy." ' 
 The apostolic and divine design of his 
 gospel he thus stated : "These [things] 
 
 a Ex. 17: 14. b Neh. 8: 1. c Ezra 9: 4. 
 d Hos. 8: 12. ■ Jer. 36: 1. ' Rev. 22: 19. 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 85 
 
 are written, that ye may believe that 
 Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; 
 and that believing ye may have life 
 in his name." a Peter writes, as an 
 " apostle of Jesus Christ," concern- 
 ing- the things of the gospel, as he tells 
 us, in order "that at every time ye may 
 be able after my decease to call these 
 things to remembrance ;" b and, as we 
 have already seen, he declares that 
 Paul, "in all his epistles," wrote, "ac- 
 cording to the wisdom given to 
 him," and, impliedly, places Paul's 
 writings on the same level of divine 
 inspiration and authority as that of 
 "the other scriptures." Paul himself 
 declares that in writing he has "the 
 mind of Christ" and "the Spirit of 
 God; " and that what he writes is " the 
 commandment of the Lord." 
 
 Concerning the divine origin of his 
 gospel teaching, and of the language 
 
 a John 20: 31. Cf. 1 John 1: 1-4. b 2 Peter 1: 1, 15. 
 c 2 Peter 3: 15, 16 
 
86 APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 in which it was couched, whether 
 written or spoken, Paul says, "which 
 things also we speak, not in words 
 which man's wisdom teacheth, but 
 which the Spirit teacheth ,,a — a state- 
 ment which at a single stroke shatters 
 the shallow and foolish theory of in- 
 spiration which maintains that while 
 the thoughts of the apostles concern- 
 ing the gospel were divinely imparted, 
 their words were left purely to their 
 unaided, undirected choice — a theory 
 which ignores the radical distinction 
 between revelation and inspiration, 
 and which, in effect, acknowledges and 
 discerns no inspiration at all. 
 
 By the Divine Spirit that possessed 
 them, the apostles, Matthew, Peter, 
 John, and Paul, were driven to write, 
 in order that the divine revelations 
 made to them might not become fugi- 
 tive and evanescent, but abiding and 
 available for all time. 
 
 a i Cor. 2: 13. 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 8/ 
 
 The writings of Paul and of the other 
 apostles, though epistolary in form, 
 were not private and temporary com- 
 munications, but were of general and 
 permanent character. Indeed, the 
 epistolary form was better adapted for 
 free, familiar, fraternal, yet authorita- 
 tive, communication of advancedChris- 
 tian truth having multiplicity of practi- 
 cal bearings, to redeemed, regenerate 
 brethren inside the church of Christ, 
 than the more formal, oracular style 
 of composition, anciently employed by 
 the prophets, toward the unbelieving, 
 carnal Jewish nation and the impeni- 
 tent, hostile world without. It was a 
 discriminating remark of Bengel, that 
 "The epistolary form is a pre-emi- 
 nence of the Scriptures of the New 
 Testament as compared with those of 
 the Old." 
 
 The Pauline Epistles naturally ar- 
 range themselves into several signifi- 
 cant groups, which suggestively pre- 
 
88 APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 sent Paul's conception of the nature 
 and work of apostleship, from various 
 points of view. First come the First 
 and Second Letters to the Thessalo- 
 nians; then the Letters to the Romans, 
 Corinthians and Galatians, which re- 
 semble one another in matter and aim ; 
 then the letters of the first imprison- 
 ment — Ephesians, Philippians, Colos- 
 sians, and Philemon; then the pas- 
 toral Epistles to Timothy and Titus. 
 Hebrews, whatever its relation to 
 Paul, stands by itself. The careful 
 study of these different groups of 
 Pauline letters, growing out of vari- 
 ous periods, circumstances, and ex- 
 periences, and showing the full sup- 
 ply of the Spirit granted him for every 
 apostolic situation and need, dem- 
 onstrate strikingly the great range, 
 power, and authority of Paul's func- 
 tion as an apostle. 
 
 In nine of the thirteen or fourteen 
 Epistles ascribed to him — leaving un- 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 8 9 
 
 determined the Pauline authorship of 
 Hebrews — Paul distinctly asserts, in 
 the opening sentences, his apostleship, 
 to remind his readers of the apostolic 
 character, purpose, and authority of 
 his letters; and in all his Epistles 
 alike, he exercises supreme apostolic 
 authority. From the outset onward 
 he was careful to secure, by his sign 
 manual and style of handwriting, the 
 identification of his apostolic letters, 
 and to guard them from being fraud- 
 ulently, or mistakenly, confounded 
 with the writings of any other person, 
 as is indicated by a letter belonging 
 to the first group of his Epistles: " The 
 salutation of me Paul with mine own 
 hand, which is the token in every 
 epistle: so I write/' a 
 
 Professedly, or impliedly, the let- 
 ters of Paul are apostolic in design 
 and force; and, in them, he exercises 
 the widest and most absolute author- 
 
 a 2 Thess. 3: 17. 
 
90 
 
 AP0ST0LICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 ity. In Second Thessalonians he says, 
 " We have confidence in the Lord 
 touching you, that ye both do and 
 will do the things which we com- 
 mand."* 1 " Now we command you, 
 brethren, in the name of our Lord Je- 
 sus Christ, that ye withdraw your- 
 selves from every brother that walketh 
 disorderly, and not after the tradition 
 which they received of us." b Writ- 
 ing to the Corinthian church, and giv- 
 ing specific commands, he says, "And 
 so ordain I in all the churches: " c " If 
 any man thinketh himself to be a 
 prophet, or spiritual, let him take 
 knowledge of the things which I write 
 unto you, that they are the command- 
 ment of the Lord: " d " Now concern- 
 ing the collection for the saints, as 
 I gave order to the churches of Ga- 
 latia, so also do ye." e Writing to 
 the Colossians, he makes reference to 
 
 a 2 Thess. 3:4. b 2 Thess. 3:6. c 1 Cor. 7: 17. 
 d 1 Cor. 14: 37. e 1 Cor. 16: 1. 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL S WRITINGS. 
 
 91 
 
 "Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, " and 
 says, "touching* whom ye received 
 commandments; if he come unto you, 
 receive him." a Writing" to Timothy 
 concerning the management of the 
 meetings of the churches, he says, 
 "But I permit not a woman to teach, 
 nor to have dominion over a man, but 
 to be in quietness." b 
 
 Such is the tone of unlimited, un- 
 qualified authority, which — often in 
 harmonious combination with tones of 
 tearful remonstrance and tender en- 
 treaty — pervades all the writings of 
 the Apostle Paul, concerning every 
 matter of Christian faith and duty, 
 in individual, social, or churchly life. 
 
 The function, therefore, of Paul's 
 writings is clearly, strongly apostolic. 
 They treat authoritatively of Chris- 
 tianity abstract and applied, and cover 
 the whole range of Christian thought, 
 feeling, and action. Like the other 
 
 a Col. 4: 10. t> 1 Tim. 2: 12. 
 
92 APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 apostolic Epistles, they are an ad- 
 vance upon the teaching of the four 
 Gospels and of the Acts. In the Gos- 
 pels, we have presented to us the na- 
 ture, character, work, and aims of 
 Christ, as manifested in the facts of 
 his earthly life, ministry, sufferings, 
 death, and resurrection. In the Acts, 
 we see Christ, the facts pertaining- to 
 him, and the salvation procured by 
 him, proclaimed by apostles, and other 
 preachers, to the world; the organiza- 
 tion of those who believed, into 
 churches ; and the beginnings of church 
 life and activity. But the Epistles 
 are, in fact, if not in form, inspired in- 
 terpretations and expositions of the 
 Gospels and the Acts; and, besides 
 that, they are divinely inspired com- 
 munications of larger, and more mi- 
 nutely applied, revelations of Christian 
 truth and duty — all made, not to the 
 outer unbelieving world; but to, and 
 within, the churchly circles of believ- 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 93 
 
 ers. Paul's letters are an authorita- 
 tive enlargement and exposition of 
 the revelation of God's truth and will. 
 In these letters, Paul apostolically ad- 
 judicates upon all manner of ques- 
 tions, doctrinal, experimental, and 
 practical; and though in many in- 
 stances the immediate occasions of 
 his discussions may have passed away 
 forever, yet the truths and principles 
 which he reveals, and sets forth, are 
 of everlasting validity and of univer- 
 sal application. Like Hale's "Analy- 
 sis," Blackstone's " Commentaries," 
 and Coke on Littleton — elucidations of 
 the meaning and applications of law, 
 which have the force of law them- 
 selves — Paul's letters, while giving us 
 Christianity expanded, give us, also, 
 Christianity authoritatively expounded 
 and applied. Paul's recorded deci- 
 sions on the many major and minor 
 questions, of various kinds, that came 
 before him for settlement, are inspired 
 
g 4 APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 precedents, for the decision of num- 
 berless analogous questions of all 
 sorts, in all ages, to the end of time. 
 Thus it comes to pass, that much of 
 our Christian knowledge, many of 
 our distinctively Christian principles, 
 and most of our Christian methods 
 of procedure, in every department of 
 Christian life and labor, are divinely 
 given us, through the Epistles of Paul. 
 Besides unfolding, in these letters, the 
 great mass of Christian truth and 
 duty in general, he, as peculiarly the 
 apostle to the Gentiles, particularly 
 makes known the mystery of their 
 call to the full privileges of the gospel; 
 defends their freedom from the yoke 
 of Jewish ceremonialism; and sheds 
 the fullest light on the entire gospel 
 of Christ, in its relations to the Gen- 
 tile world. These Epistles being, in 
 their entire contents, a perfect revela- 
 tion of the mind of Christ, given 
 through the inspiration of the Spirit 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS, 
 
 95 
 
 of God, are all, and every part of them, 
 of supreme authority, on all subjects 
 of which they treat, and to which they 
 apply. 
 
 The particular Epistle from which 
 the theme of this work is mainly de- 
 rived — the First Epistle to the Cor- 
 inthians — is very varied in its topics, 
 and exceedingly rich and fruitful in 
 its treatment of them. Principles of 
 lofty character, and far-reaching ap- 
 plicability and importance, are devel- 
 oped in it, often in a casual way, while 
 the apostle answers questions of local 
 or general, and temporary or perma- 
 nent significance — concerning the use 
 of meats offered to idols, concerning 
 celibacy, marriage, and divorce, and 
 concerning the use of spiritual gifts 
 in public religious exercises. From 
 these apostolic decisions there is no 
 appeal; and the principles apostolic- 
 ally laid down are of everlasting va- 
 lidity. 
 
96 APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 Strangely enough, there are not a 
 few persons, who, misapprehending" 
 Paul's meaning in three closely con- 
 nected passages in his First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians, and not observing 
 the drift of the argument of which 
 these passages are links, imagine that 
 while parts of Paul's Epistles are in- 
 spired, other parts of them are unin- 
 spired; and they maintain that Paul 
 himself so teaches in these brief, suc- 
 cinct portions of the Epistle. 
 
 Now suppose, merely for argument's 
 sake, that Paul is there admitting the 
 non-inspiration of these same parts of 
 this Epistle, then it follows that he 
 knows when he is inspired, and when 
 not; and that, in the latter case, he is, 
 as in duty bound, careful to point out 
 when his non-inspiration occurs; and 
 as there is no other such passage in 
 any of his Epistles, it follows that, with 
 the exception of these few, brief, plainly 
 indicated sentences, forming a small 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL S WRITINGS. 
 
 97 
 
 part of one chapter of one Epistle, all 
 Paul's writings are fully inspired. 
 
 But it can readily be shown that 
 these passages bear no such meaning, 
 make no such reference, and war- 
 rant no such inference; and that, on 
 the contrary, they necessarily involve 
 the highest claims to apostolic inspira- 
 tion and authority, and are, them- 
 selves, the strongest exercise of these 
 divine gifts. These short, interwoven 
 parts of the Epistle were the apostle's 
 replies to queries addressed to him 
 by the Corinthian church, relative to 
 marriage, in a time of great persecu- 
 tion and general disturbance, when 
 the Jewish nation was about to be 
 broken up, and the near approach of 
 the end of all things, foreshadowed 
 by that event, was commonly appre- 
 hended. In this time of disquietude 
 and unrest, there were those who 
 doubted whether the marriage bond 
 and relationship, even when both par- 
 
 7 
 
9 8 
 
 APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 ties were Christians, should be main- 
 tained ; who questioned more especially 
 whether mixed marriages already ex- 
 isting; between Christians and their 
 heathen husbands or wives should not 
 be promptly dissolved; and, further, 
 who had grave apprehensions as to 
 whether there was not grievous sin in 
 making, or in aiding and abetting the 
 making of, marriage contracts, even 
 in the case of virgins, in such perilous 
 circumstances, and in the face of such 
 approaching events and disasters. To 
 these three questions the apostle defi- 
 nitely replied. 
 
 Now, the whole mistake, so fre- 
 quently made concerning the passages 
 which contain his replies, consists in 
 gratuitously supposing that, in them, 
 Paul is contrasting the utterances of 
 Paul uninspired with the utterances 
 of Paul inspired, instead of recogniz- 
 ing that Paul is, on the one hand, 
 quoting the sayings of Christ, uttered 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 99 
 
 when he was personally on the earth, 
 or when speaking- through the Old 
 Testament prophets, and, on the other 
 hand, stating his own Spirit-guided 
 decisions, as Christ's fully inspired, 
 fully accredited apostle* In thus put- 
 ting his apostolic decisions side by 
 side with the mandates of Christ on 
 earth, Paul makes the authority of 
 both unquestionable. In the one case, 
 Christ was speaking with his own per- 
 sonal human lips; in the other, Christ 
 was speaking in and through his in- 
 spired apostle. 
 
 There had been divine commands 
 concerning marriage in the laws of 
 Moses, in the utterances of the proph- 
 ets, and in the sayings of our Lord dur- 
 ing his earthly ministry. These com- 
 mands covered some, but not all, of 
 the questions relative to marriage, 
 which constantly arose in mixed com- 
 munities, and among heathen converts 
 to Christianity, in apostolic times. 
 
100 AP0ST0LICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 The first of the three Pauline pas- 
 sages referred to relates to the ques- 
 tion of divorce of Christian husbands 
 and wives, and reads thus : " But unto 
 the married I give charge, yea not I, 
 but the Lord, That the wife depart 
 not from her husband (but and if she 
 depart, let her remain unmarried, or 
 else be reconciled to her husband); 
 and that the husband leave not his 
 wife. ,,a In the days of his flesh, our 
 Lord had spoken distinctly and em- 
 phatically enough, forbidding all such 
 separations : " So that they are no 
 more twain, but one flesh. What 
 therefore God hath joined together, 
 let not man put asunder." b " And I 
 say unto you, Whosoever shall put 
 away his wife, except for fornication, 
 and shall marry another, committeth 
 adultery: and he that marrieth her 
 when she is put away committeth 
 
 a i Cor. 7: 10 
 t> Matt. 19: 6. Cf. Mai 2: 14-16 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PA UL % S WRITINGS. \ 1 
 
 adultery." a This being the Lord's own 
 personal command during his life on 
 earth, Paul simply repeats it: " But to 
 the married I give charge, yea not I, 
 but the Lord, That the wife depart not 
 from her husband .... and that the 
 husband leave not his wife." b When 
 a true law exists that fully covers the 
 class of cases for which it was enacted, 
 why make another law in its stead ? 
 Had the Lord himself not already 
 given a command concerning the 
 matter, Paul, as his inspired apostle, 
 would have been prepared infallibly 
 to decide the case, but the Lord, while 
 on earth, having spoken, Paul simply 
 echoes and emphasizes his command. 
 The second passage occurs only two 
 verses further on, and relates to the 
 dissolution of mixed marriages then 
 existing between Christians and the 
 heathen. The divine commands by 
 the prophets under the legal Jewish 
 
 a Matt. 19: 9. b 1 Cor. 7: 10. 
 
102 AP0ST0LICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 dispensation forbade marriages of 
 God's ancient people with the heathen, 
 and required the putting- away of 
 heathen wives ; a but in his earthly life 
 and ministry among the unmixed 
 Jewish people in Judea and Galilee, 
 the Lord himself said nothing bear- 
 ing directly on the question, which in 
 the circumstances did not come up, 
 and needed not then to be discussed. 
 But now that, in entirely changed sur- 
 roundings, the question had arisen in 
 mixed communities and pressed itself 
 to the front, Paul, with the fullest 
 divine inspiration, as Christ's apostle 
 to the Gentiles, gives his positive, 
 authoritative decision, supplementing 
 previous revelations of Christ's will 
 and annulling Israel's ancient prophetic 
 law, so far as it might be thought to 
 have any bearing on the case. Here 
 is his apostolic decree: " But to the 
 rest say I, not the Lord: If any brother 
 
 a See Deut. 7: 3; 1 Kings 11: 2; Ezra 10: 3. 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 103 
 
 hath an unbelieving wife, and she is 
 content to dwell with him, let him not 
 leave her. And the woman which 
 hath an unbelieving husband, and he 
 is content to dwell with her, let her 
 not leave her husband." a Nothing 
 but the fullest consciousness of being 
 possessed of Christ's mind, and of be- 
 ing the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit, 
 could have warranted him in making 
 and enforcing such a decision. No- 
 where else does he exercise higher 
 apostolic authority, or imply the pos- 
 session of ampler divine inspiration. 
 
 The third and last of these passages 
 occurs thirteen verses still further on, 
 though it is virtually the resumption 
 of a subject started in the first part of 
 the same chapter; and it relates to the 
 question whether it w r as not utterly 
 wrong, in the circumstances, for vir- 
 gins to marry, or be given in marri- 
 age; concerning which matter, many 
 
 a 1 Cor. 7: 12. 
 
104 
 
 AP0ST0LICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS, 
 
 Christians were in painful doubt. On 
 this point, Paul gives no command 
 whatever — the Lord had given none 
 while on earth, neither does he give 
 any now by his apostle. On the con- 
 trary, Paul apostolically declares that 
 there was no sin, even at that time, 
 either in marrying, or in giving in 
 marriage; either in refraining from 
 marrying, or in restraining from mar- 
 rying. It was not a question of 
 right and wrong, but of personal ex- 
 pediency and private judgment. But 
 though Paul gives no command in re- 
 lation to this question, he, neverthe- 
 less, gives his apostolic judgment, or 
 advice, that, owing to the troublous 
 times, then existing, and still further 
 apprehended in the near future, or 
 "the present distress," as he calls it, 
 it would be better, on the score of 
 greater freedom from trouble and 
 greater liberty for Christian service, to 
 remain single. As one who has ob- 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. ^5 
 
 tained "the grace," the "mercy," of 
 full, inspired apostleship, in which to 
 be faithful, as a steward of the mys- 
 teries of the kingdom, in resolving all 
 such doubts and cases of conscience, 
 for the people of God, he gives his 
 apostolic judgment, or advice. It was 
 part of this apostolic counsel that, in 
 this particular matter, each person 
 should feel himself at liberty to act in 
 accordance with his private estimate 
 of his individual nature and circum- 
 stances. The passage runs thus : 
 " Now concerning virgins I have no 
 commandment of the Lord: but I give 
 my judgment, as one that hath ob- 
 tained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. 
 I think therefore that this is good by 
 reason of the present distress, namely, 
 that it is good for a man to be as 
 
 he is But and if thou marry, 
 
 thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin 
 marry she hath not sinned. Yet such 
 
106 APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL S WRITINGS. 
 
 shall have tribulation in the flesh: and 
 I would spare you." a 
 
 To sum the matter up: — In the first 
 of the three passages considered, Paul 
 gives no apostolic command, because 
 Christ in his earthly lifetime had given 
 one already. In the second passage, 
 Paul gives a full, firm apostolic com- 
 mand, for the reason that Christ while 
 on earth had given none bearing up- 
 on the case. In the third passage, 
 there is no commandment of the Lord 
 given, one way or the other; for right 
 and wrong were not involved in this 
 case; and while apostolic advice is 
 here given, part of it is, that, in this 
 matter, private judgment of one's own 
 case should be used in determining 
 the course to pursue. 
 
 It is utterly irrelevant, absurd, and a 
 sheer wresting of Scripture to inter- 
 pret these passages as if, in the slight- 
 est degree, they impaired, or impugned 
 
 a i Cor. 7: 25, 26, 28. 
 
APOSTOLICITY OF PAULS WRITINGS. 
 
 107 
 
 the apostolic function and authority 
 of any part of Paul's writing's. 
 
 A few verses later on, however, re- 
 ferring* to the same general question, 
 there is another Pauline passage, that 
 is sometimes spoken of as seeming- to 
 imply, upon Paul's part, a doubt of 
 his inspiration at that particular point 
 in the discussion: "And I think that 
 I also have the Spirit of God." a In 
 the Authorized Version, the meaning- is 
 much obscured; but in the Revised 
 Version, as just quoted, it is brought 
 out more clearly. The apostle is not 
 here expressing doubt, but certainty, of 
 his inspiration. The term he uses for 
 "think" (Soicco) does not imply doubt; 
 but, often, as in the Saviour's words, 
 " Ye think that in them ye have eternal 
 life," b expresses firm conviction. To 
 regard it as implying- doubt, after the 
 manner of the modern colloquial use 
 of the English word "think," is to 
 
 a 1 Cor. 7: 40. t> John 5: 29. 
 
108 APOSTOLICITY OF PAUL'S WRITINGS. 
 
 mistake the idiom and usage of the 
 Greek. Hear what the discriminat- 
 ing and candid Alf ord has to say upon 
 the passage: "This is modestly said, 
 implying more than is expressed by 
 it,— not as if there were any uncer- 
 tainty in his mind. It gives us the 
 true meaning of the saying, that he is 
 giving his opinion, as in verse 25: viz., 
 not that he is speaking without inspira- 
 tion, but that in the consciousness of 
 inspiration he is giving that counsel 
 that should determine the question. " 
 And so, substantially, say leading in- 
 terpreters generally. 
 
 The words, " I also," of the passage 
 — the "I' being emphatic — seem to 
 glance at the pretensions of certain 
 others, which, by strong implication, 
 strengthens the view that, then and 
 there, Paul felt, and, in the passage 
 before us, was declaring, the certainty 
 of his divine inspiration. 
 
 As, in the scheme of divine provi- 
 
RE CA PI TULA TIOX. \ 09 
 
 dence, the most massive and the mi- 
 nutest things — sidereal worlds and the 
 motes in the sunbeam — are all, neces- 
 sarily and equally, under divine in- 
 spection and control; so, in the scheme 
 of divine inspiration, the most minute 
 matters — such as Paul's epistolary re- 
 quest for his cloak, his books, and his 
 parchments — and the most massive 
 truths — such as the incarnation, the 
 atonement, and the election of grace 
 — are all, equally, under the infallible 
 guidance and government of the in- 
 spiring Spirit of God. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 In the progress of our argument, 
 hitherto, we have seen the divine au- 
 thority of Paul's writings to be firmly 
 established upon four adequate basal 
 truths: first, the nature of the apos- 
 tolic office — an infallible speakership 
 and vicegerency for Christ; secondly, 
 
1 1 o RECAPITULA TION. 
 
 the genuineness of Paul's apostleship 
 — certified by the manifestation of all 
 "the signs of an apostle/' in him; 
 thirdly, the extraordinary character of 
 Paul's apostolic mission — through 
 full and independent divine revelation 
 and inspiration, to institute and ex- 
 tend pure Christianity in the Gentile 
 world; and, fourthly, the apostolicity 
 of Paul's writings — each and every 
 part of them being apostolic in char- 
 acter and function, and, therefore, 
 divinely inspired, and "the command- 
 ment of the Lord." 
 
 The practical bearings of the de- 
 duction, thus securely drawn, are mani- 
 fold and important. To discuss them 
 exhaustively would be impossible in 
 a single treatise; but several of the 
 most important of them may be out- 
 lined in the following chapters. 
 
PART TWO. 
 
 PRACTICAL BEARINGS. 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 PRACTICAL BEARING ON EARLY CHRISTIAN 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 The epistolary correspondence of 
 the great personages, the principal 
 actors, and the attentive observers of 
 any period, country, or movement, is 
 the most important, trustworthy, and 
 available source of history. 
 
 The transparency of purpose, the 
 variety of topics, and the multiplicity 
 of undesigned coincidences, charac- 
 teristic of letter-writing, are the chief 
 secrets of its historical value. The 
 letters of Paul, when compared with 
 
 each other, with Luke's account of 
 
 in 
 
1 1 2 BEARING ON EARL Y CHRISTIAN HIS TOR Y. 
 
 Paul and other apostles in Acts, and 
 with contemporary Jewish and pagan 
 writers, furnish, incidentally, but effect- 
 ively, even apart from their inspired 
 character, a great mass of evidence as 
 to their own genuineness and minute 
 accuracy; as to the truth of the gos- 
 pel narrative; as to the main facts con- 
 cerning the other leading apostles; 
 and as to the historical character and 
 course of Christianity in the first cen- 
 tury. All this, such works as Paley's 
 " Horae Paulinae," Lardner's "Credi- 
 bility," and Conybeare and Howson's 
 11 Life and Epistles of St. Paul " abun- 
 dantly illustrate and confirm. But the 
 inspiration, apostolicity, and, there- 
 fore, divine authority of these letters, 
 being firmly established, we are not 
 left to mere conjecture, or remote in- 
 ference, as to the type and course of 
 the Christianity of the first century — 
 that is, the formative, and perpetually 
 authoritative type of true Christianity. 
 
BEARING ON EARLY CHRISTIAN HISTORY. 
 
 113 
 
 We have the nature of that Christian- 
 ity defined; its spirit interpreted; its 
 purpose unfolded; its history revealed, 
 with absolute truth and certainty. 
 Without the apostolic letters of Paul, 
 our knowledge of the early history of 
 Christianity would be of the most 
 meagre and unsatisfactory description. 
 With them, primitive and apostolic 
 Christian history is accessible, well 
 defined, and easily within our mental 
 grasp. 
 
Chapter VII. 
 
 PRACTICAL BEARING ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 All teaching is based on fact. The 
 rationale of fact is the substance of 
 doctrine. Christian doctrine is based 
 upon, and grows out of, the historical 
 facts of the New Testament — the facts 
 relating to the personal Christ, and 
 those relating to his apostles, officially 
 considered. 
 
 Of the vast body of Christian truth 
 thus revealed in the New Testament, 
 concerning God and man, law and 
 gospel, this world and the next, a 
 great part is attributable to the writ- 
 ings of Paul. For the sake of brevity, 
 cursory mention of a few characteris- 
 tic Pauline doctrines must suffice for 
 these pages; and Paul's teaching con- 
 cerning the unity and tri-personality 
 
 ii 4 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. \ \ 5 
 
 of God, the union of the divine and 
 human natures in Christ, may safely 
 be assumed without discussion. 
 
 The doctrine of vicarious and im- 
 puted righteousness is one of the 
 most characteristic of Paul's teach- 
 ing's. After proving that God, through 
 his law natural and revealed, requires 
 righteousness from all men, that all 
 men are in fact destitute of righteous- 
 ness, and that, for lack of righteous- 
 ness, or for positive unrighteousness, 
 all men are under legal condemnation, 
 the apostle shows that Christ, by his 
 obedient life and sacrificial death, of- 
 fered freely to God in our behalf, has 
 fulfilled the precept and exhausted the 
 penalty of the law, and that thus he 
 has brought in an infinite, everlasting, 
 and substitutionary righteousness; so 
 that, as to righteousness, he becomes 
 the end of the law, and the hope of the 
 gospel, to every one who believes in 
 him. 
 
Il6 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Of the election of divine grace, to a 
 full and inalienable interest in the vi- 
 carious work of Christ, and to all con- 
 sequent blessing's, regeneration, faith 
 and final salvation included — though 
 that truth is distinctly asserted by 
 Christ himself, by Luke, and by Peter 
 — Paul treats with great fulness and 
 power, maintaining that the election 
 to salvation is divine, gratuitous, per- 
 sonal, inalienable, eternal. 
 
 Justification by faith, while unques- 
 tionably present and potent in the 
 other New Testament writings, is pre- 
 eminently a Pauline doctrine; and our 
 apostle declares, proves, defines, il- 
 lustrates and enforces it, with great 
 energy, and fertility of resource; and 
 has made it the keystone of the arch 
 of Christian truth, and the key of the 
 ark of salvation. 
 
 The spiritual union of Christ and be- 
 lievers, a truth rooted in Christ's own 
 personal teachings, is taught by Paul, 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. \\j 
 
 with vast weight of argument, and 
 with great wealth of metaphor and 
 illustration. 
 
 Paul's discussion of the doctrine of 
 the resurrection of the body, has, to- 
 ward the close of his First Letter to the 
 Corinthians, particularly, a singular 
 breadth of view, a resistless sweep of 
 argumentation, and the swell and ring 
 of a prophetic poem and paean of vic- 
 tory. 
 
 On these and many other Christian 
 doctrines, Paul's teaching is full, ex- 
 plicit, authoritative, final; and in rela- 
 tion to each and all of them, it is 
 the province of reason, after discover- 
 ing that God infallibly speaks to us 
 through him, pimply to inquire, not 
 what he should say, but what he ac- 
 tually does say, and to receive it with 
 the meekness of submission and the 
 obedience of faith. * 
 
 * For a discussion of a group of characteristic Pauline 
 doctrines, see Appendix I. 
 
Chapter VIII. 
 
 PRACTICAL BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 
 
 As doctrine is founded on fact or 
 history; so ethics is founded on doc- 
 trine. Christian ethics is rooted in 
 Christian truth; and Christian faith 
 determines Christian duty. Christian 
 ethics presupposes Christian dogmat- 
 ics; and Christian doctrine is the 
 means of which Christian ethics is the 
 end. Accordingly, we find that Paul's 
 method, in his Epistles, is to make the 
 first two-thirds of each of them, on an 
 average, solid doctrinal foundation; 
 and the remaining third, firm ethical 
 superstructure. The ethics of Paul's 
 Epistles has an exceedingly wide 
 range, embracing, as it does, in a dis- 
 tinctively Christian way, the duties of 
 individual, domestic, social, business, 
 civic, and churchly life. 
 
 118 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 
 
 119 
 
 The motives employed in distinc- 
 tively Christian ethics are unique, 
 lofty, and powerfully constraining* in 
 kind, being drawn chiefly from the 
 character and cross of Christ; and, 
 through the medium of the living* and 
 active word of God, they are effect- 
 ually applied by the Spirit of grace. 
 Nowhere in Scripture, are Christian 
 motives more elevated in character, 
 more ample in volume, or more in- 
 tense in application, than they are in 
 the writings of Paul. 
 
 In his marvellously beautiful prose 
 poem on Christian Love — the thir- 
 teenth chapter of First Corinthians — 
 the great apostle brings that most 
 noble, generous, and God-like princi- 
 ple powerfully to bear upon the entire 
 structure of Christian character, and 
 upon all the relations and affairs of 
 human life. One of the strongest 
 applications and exemplifications of 
 Christian love is the Pauline ethical 
 
120 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 
 
 principle of Christian expediency. 
 This ethical principle differs radically, 
 from commercial, political and Jesuit- 
 ical expediency, in that it consists in 
 the loving* sacrifice of one's own per- 
 sonal rights and privileges, when need- 
 ful for the safety and best interests of 
 others, and in that it refuses to sacri- 
 fice moral for material considerations, 
 public faith for private or party gains, 
 or to employ evil means for the at- 
 tainment of even the most worthy 
 ends. 
 
 The writings of Paul unquestion- 
 ably add fulness, elevation, applica- 
 bility, and force to the system of 
 Christian ethics. 
 
Chapter IX. 
 
 PRACTICAL BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 Apart from the Epistles of Paul and 
 the Acts of the Apostles — the latter 
 written by Paul's inspired companion 
 and helper, and largely occupied with 
 the sayings, doings and experiences 
 of Paul — we have extremely little in 
 the New Testament, on the subject of 
 church order. Among the personal 
 utterances of Christ recorded in the 
 Gospels, we have one strong saying 
 from him, concerning his being per- 
 sonally and officially the foundation 
 of the church universal, and another 
 saying concerning three steps to be 
 taken in certain cases of discipline in 
 the church local — the brother sinned 
 against being required privately to see 
 the offender, and endeavor to win him 
 
 121 
 
122 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 to the right; that failing*, he is to take 
 with him one or two others, and with 
 them once more attempt to win the 
 transgressor to repentance; and should 
 that second measure fail, the matter 
 is to be brought before the local church, 
 which will make final disposition of 
 the case. This, taken from the heart 
 of Matthew's Gospel, is practically all 
 that the Gospels record as having 
 been said specifically by Christ, dur- 
 ing his earthly ministry, on the sub- 
 ject of the church and its order. 
 
 In the First Epistle of Peter, there 
 is a single passage — Peters address 
 to the elders — which, by assigning 
 to the elders the duties of overseer or 
 bishop, proves the terms " bishop " and 
 " elder " to be descriptive of one and 
 the same office; and which, while forc- 
 ibly setting forth the ministerial du- 
 ties of feeding and overseeing the 
 flock, also powerfully exhibits the 
 duty of affectionate tractableness 
 
BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 I2J 
 
 which the flock should exercise toward 
 its overseers, and the humility which 
 the members of the flock should exer- 
 cise toward each other. The teach- 
 ing; of the Epistles of Peter on the 
 subject of church order is almost 
 wholly confined to this. 
 
 The letters of Jude, James, and John, 
 while rich in nourishment for the 
 graces of true Christian fellowship, 
 contain almost nothing on the subject 
 of church order. 
 
 As is evident from the transactions 
 recorded in the earlier portion of the 
 Book of Acts, Christ must, either per- 
 sonally or by his inspiring" Spirit, have 
 furnished the twelve apostles with an 
 adequate revelation of his will on the 
 subject of church order; but he left it 
 for the inspired companion of Paul, 
 while introducing his record of the 
 greater part of Paul's apostolic minis- 
 try, to give us any knowledge of the 
 fact. 
 
124 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 For inspired direction on the sub- 
 ject of church order, we are confined, 
 therefore, almost wholly to the Epis- 
 tles of Paul, and to the Book of Acts, 
 written by the helper of Paul, and 
 treating- largely of Paul's career. 
 
 It is with peculiar significance, there- 
 fore, that certain words of Paul bear- 
 ing- on this subject appeal to us: "As 
 I g-ave order to the churches of Gala- 
 tia, so also do ye. " a "And so ordain 
 I in all the churches."* 
 
 Section I. — The Nature of the Church, 
 
 The writings of Paul furnish an 
 ample exposition of the nature of a 
 New Testament church. The teach- 
 ings of Paul, on this and every other 
 subject, are in perfect accord with the 
 teaching-s of all other New Testament 
 writers; but on the subject of church 
 order, and on almost every part of it, 
 
 a i Cor. 16: i. b i Cor. 7: 17. 
 
NATURE OF THE CHURCH. 125. 
 
 his writings are much more varied and 
 full than all theirs put together. 
 
 As did Christ in a single instance,, 
 so does Paul, several times, use the 
 term "church" in what, after all, is 
 its primary sense — the sense of the 
 church universal; by which is meant 
 the entire company of the finally saved, 
 whether now in heaven or on earth, 
 or yet to be. This, of course, is no 
 earthly or visible organization, but a 
 spiritual and heavenly body into which 
 souls are directly admitted by regen- 
 eration, redemption, and adoption. 
 
 But ordinarily, Paul uses the term 
 "church," as it is generally used in the 
 New Testament, in the derived sense 
 of the local, individual church; and 
 hence, he speaks of "the church which 
 is at Cenchrea," a " the church of God 
 which is at Corinth," b "the church 
 of the Thessalonians," c "the church 
 
 a Rom 16: 1. t> 1 Cor. 1:2. c 1 Thess. 1: 1. 
 
126 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 which is in his house," a and of "the 
 churches of Galatia," b "the churches 
 of Macedonia," "the churches of 
 Asia," d "the churches of the Gen- 
 tiles," 6 "the churches of God." f 
 
 As is plainly taught in the Paul- 
 ine letters, each properly constituted 
 church of Christ is a local society, com- 
 posed, exclusively, of credibly regen- 
 erated persons, duly baptized upon pro- 
 fession of faith in Christ, organized 
 and conducted for Christian culture, 
 worship, and work, and, especially, 
 for the dissemination of Christian 
 truth, for the keeping of the ordi- 
 nances, and for the evangelization of 
 the world. 
 
 These two significations of the term 
 "church" — the church universal and the 
 church local — are, properly, the only 
 ones known to the Pauline letters, or 
 to the New Testament. The secular 
 
 a Col. 4: 15. c 2 Cor. 8: 1. e Rom. 16: 4. 
 
 t> Gal. 1:2. d 1 Cor. 16: 19. f 1 Thess. 2: 14. 
 
NATURE OF THE CHURCH. i 2 j 
 
 use of the term, employed a few times 
 in the New Testament to denote a 
 popular assembly, in no way concerns 
 this discussion. The generic use of 
 the term, which, by a rhetorical figure, 
 speaks, in a very few instances, of 
 many churches in the singular num- 
 ber — just as we might speak generic- 
 ally of " the family in Russia" or " the 
 college in France " without implying 
 a confederation of Russian families or 
 of French colleges — gives no new 
 sense to the term, but only a special 
 application of its second and ordinary 
 sense. 
 
 Previous to the apostleship and 
 conversion of Paul, as we learn from 
 Acts, the principle that each church 
 should elect its own officers had al- 
 ready been established by the eleven 
 apostles at Jerusalem, when they in- 
 structed the church to choose for 
 itself a subordinate class of officers, 
 for the work of the diaconate; but the 
 
128 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 letters of Paul very forcibly enjoin the 
 local church to exercise deference and 
 kindly affection toward its officers, 
 and, in connection with the deacons, 
 to provide, for their pastors, adequate 
 temporal support. From the Pauline 
 letters, it is also evident that each 
 true local church of Christ has, under 
 the law of Christ, the right and duty 
 of complete and exclusive self-gov- 
 ernment, by virtue of which, the whole 
 body is to exclude unworthy mem- 
 bers and, by necessary presupposition, 
 to receive worthy ones; a to maintain 
 careful discipline over its members, 
 suppressing all disturbances and di- 
 visions; to manage its own pecuniary 
 affairs; and, without imperilling their 
 individual independence, or ignor- 
 ing their individual responsibility to 
 Christ, the churches have liberty to 
 combine their means and influence to 
 
 a Cf. Acts 10: 47. 
 
NATURE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 129 
 
 institute and conduct special Chris- 
 tian enterprises. a 
 
 With thorough, candid, inspection^ 
 of the letters of Paul, and careful com- 
 parison of them with the rest of the 
 New Testament, especially with the 
 Acts, there need be no great difficulty, 
 while this end is steadily kept in view, 
 in ascertaining the nature of a New 
 Testament church. Such a study of 
 the subject can scarcely fail to make 
 it evident that the great mass of nomi- 
 nal Christendom has, one way or 
 another, departed very far from the 
 simplicity of the New Testament and 
 its well-defined, and by no means 
 elaborate church model . 
 
 To call an ecumenical, national, or 
 provincial organization of churches — 
 whether allied or unallied to the state, . 
 whether governed by state officials, or 
 by ecclesiastical prelates, or by both 
 combined, or by other ecclesiastical! 
 
 a Acts 11: 29, '30. Gal. 2: 10. 2 Cor. chapters 8 and 9.. 
 9 
 
130 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER, 
 
 representatives — to call such an or- 
 ganization, exercising dominion over 
 the individual churches of which it is 
 composed, a church, is to ignore and 
 contravene the plain church princi- 
 ples of the New Testament. 
 
 In the light of the Pauline letters, 
 many of our Baptist churches, in cer- 
 tain portions of the United States are 
 not free from error and inconsistency 
 in church polity. There is prevalent 
 in the Baptist churches of New Eng- 
 land and in those of many Northern 
 and Western States, a system of things 
 in relation to one feature of church 
 polity, which is out of character with 
 Baptist principles, and foreign to the 
 New Testament. 
 
 The Baptist churches in question 
 are, indeed, local, spiritual bodies of 
 baptized believers, exercising their 
 own internal discipline. But they 
 have, for the most part, surrendered 
 the control of the church property and 
 
NATURE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 131 
 
 revenues, and, therefore, much in- 
 fluence pertaining" to the church, into 
 the hands of mixed societies — socie- 
 ties composed of the adult members 
 of the church and the adult members 
 of the congregation, though the lat- 
 ter are, with rare exceptions, uncon- 
 verted persons. In some instances, 
 these societies, uniting the church and 
 the world, are permitted to have a 
 voice in the selection of pastors. 
 These mongrel societies, and not the 
 churches proper, are incorporated and 
 recognized by the laws of the land. 
 Not a few excellent brethren in these 
 churches have acknowledged and de- 
 plored the evil of this state of things, 
 and, in a measure, have sought to 
 counteract it. 
 
 How this state of things came about 
 by Baptists weakly conforming* to 
 their denominational and political en- 
 vironments, would be an instructive 
 and admonitory story. How and 
 
132 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 when this now strongly entrenched 
 and mischievous anomaly is to be 
 rooted out, there is no prophet to fore- 
 tell. The moral of it all is, Let Bap- 
 tists, and all other Christians, beware 
 how they connive at even the slightest 
 aberration from the principles of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Section II. — The Officers of the Church. 
 
 The writings of Paul fully describe 
 the offices pertaining to a New Testa- 
 ment church. 
 
 The office of apostle was not filled 
 by the selection, nor did it belong to 
 the economy, of any one particular 
 church or any combination of churches ; 
 but it was filled exclusively by the di- 
 rect appointment of Christ, for the 
 purpose of witnessing to Christ's res- 
 urrection, and of revealing and ex- 
 ecuting Christ's will in relation to all 
 Christian things. From the nature of 
 
OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 *33 
 
 the case, as we have already seen, 
 there were, and there could be, no suc- 
 cessors to the original appointees. 
 
 The office of evangelist was that of 
 preachers of the gospel, doing special 
 missionary work of various sorts, 
 without pastoral charge — and such, 
 virtually, are many of our home and 
 foreign missionaries in modern times; 
 — but while the office, unlike that of 
 the apostles, needed to be perpetuated 
 for the wider dissemination of the 
 gospel, and for special work of one 
 kind and another in various individ- 
 ual churches, it belonged, like that of 
 the apostles, to the internal economy 
 of no particular church. 
 
 According to the Pauline Epistles, 
 the offices pertaining to the economy 
 of a New Testament church are two, 
 and two only, in number — first, the of- 
 fice of bishop, presbyter, or pastor, as 
 it is variously styled; and, secondly, 
 the office of deacon; and in these 
 
134 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 Epistles alone, have we a full account 
 of both. 
 
 Paul uses the terms " bishop," or 
 overseer, and " presbyter," or elder, 
 interchangeably and as equivalent, as 
 also does Peter; and they both connect 
 the duties of a shepherd, or pastor, with 
 the office designated by these terms. a 
 The scholarly Episcopalians, Cony- 
 beare and Howson, candidly admit 
 that "the terms 'bishop' and 'elder' are 
 used in the New Testament as equiva- 
 lent — the former denoting- (as its 
 meaning of overseer implies) the du- 
 ties, the latter, the rank of the office." 
 So, also, the learned Dean Alford, re- 
 ferring to Paul's interchangeable use of 
 the terms "elder" and "bishop," speaks 
 of "the fact of elders and bishops hav- 
 ing been originally and apostolically 
 synonymous." 
 
 The failure to recognize and prove 
 loyal to this plain New Testament 
 
 a Acts 20: 28. 1 Pet. 1: 2. 
 
OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 135 
 
 teaching, is responsible for all the 
 monstrous assumptions and pernicious 
 innovations of the Romish and other 
 hierarchies. 
 
 The duties of the pastoral office, 
 with the qualifications for it, are 
 clearly and fully set forth in Paul's 
 letters to Timothy and Titus, in his 
 address to the Ephesian elders, a and 
 in a less direct, but equally convincing 
 way, in his letters to the churches. In 
 general terms, the duties of the pas- 
 toral office may be said to be to preach 
 the gospel, to unfold the whole word 
 of God, to interpret and administer 
 the ordinances, to build up the Chris- 
 tian character of those under their 
 care, to superintend the discipline of 
 the church, to promote Christian ac- 
 tivity and enterprise in the extension 
 of the kingdom of Christ, and in the 
 practice of Christian benevolence and 
 mercy.* 
 
 a Acts 20: 17-35. 
 
 * See Appendix II. on Divine Estimate of the Pastoral 
 Office. 
 
!?6 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 In its primary sense, the Greek word 
 Skikovos, translated "deacon," means sim- 
 ply a servant, often a waiting-man, 
 and it is frequently used in the New 
 Testament in the ordinary sense of 
 servant, whether the service involved 
 be lowly or lofty. 
 
 In its special and technical sense, 
 as designating - the second order of 
 church officers, it is used but a few 
 times in the New Testament, and, in 
 these instances, chiefly by Paul. From 
 the primary meaning of the term, 
 from the way in which it is used when 
 denoting the office of deacon, from the 
 qualifications prescribed for the office, 
 and from the duties assigned to it, 
 serviceableness, thoroughgoing help- 
 fulness, is the prime characteristic, the 
 supreme purpose of the deaconship. 
 
 If we take the election and appoint- 
 ment of the " seven," to manage and 
 assist in the distribution to the poor, 
 recorded in Acts 6 : 1-7, as virtually 
 
OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 137 
 
 the origination of the office, it becomes 
 evident that deacons were designed to 
 be helpers of the ministers of the word, 
 by laboring- specially in the temporal 
 affairs of the church; and the qualifica- 
 tions for the office prescribed in Acts, 
 and especially those in Paul's First 
 Letter to Timothy, b show that they 
 were to be helpers of the ministers of 
 the word, by laboring to promote the 
 harmony of the church, to elevate 
 its spiritual tone, and to advance its 
 spiritual well-being and efficiency. 
 The work of the deacons is not to 
 govern, but to help the pastor, by serv- 
 ing tables, d — by providing, as it is of- 
 ten aptly expressed, for the table of 
 the poor, for the table of the minister, 
 and for the table of the Lord. 
 
 The office of deacon is no sinecure, 
 no idle compliment, no empty honor; 
 but an office designed for sagacious 
 
 a Acts 6: 3. c Acts 6: 1-3. 
 
 b 1 Tim. 3: 8-13. d Acts 6: 2, 3. 
 
I38 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 and loyal helpfulness, for self-sacrific- 
 ing- and plodding" toil; an office emi- 
 nently requiring for its right and full 
 discharge, faith, humility, integrity, 
 loyalty, wisdom, discreetness, sympa- 
 thy, patience, liberality, consecration, 
 and love. 
 
 The deaconship is a " business; " a 
 and that business is the working up, 
 developing, and caring for the finances 
 of the church — for current expenses 
 including pastoral support, for the re- 
 lief of the poor, and for missionary 
 enterprises at home and abroad. Be- 
 cause this truth is but little appre- 
 ciated, and but slightly put into prac- 
 tice, the cause of Christ is languishing, 
 in countless instances, the wide world 
 over, in the midst of innumerable 
 golden opportunities. 
 
 It would be an immense advantage 
 to the cause of Christ, were suitable 
 facilities for the proper training of 
 
 a Acts 6: 3. 
 
OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 139 
 
 deacons for their exceedingly impor- 
 tant work, commonly available — were 
 there a well-prepared and widely scat- 
 tered literature of the subject, and a 
 thorough and widely prevalent system 
 of institute work for this purpose. 
 Then, other things being equal, those 
 most important enterprises on earth, 
 home and foreign missions, with their 
 educational implications, would not 
 be hampered, imperilled, and all but 
 paralyzed, for lack of "the sinews of 
 war." 
 
 As it is, the culpable lack, or humili- 
 ating caricature, of Christian benefi- 
 cence, and the careless or covetous 
 withholding of untold millions of the 
 Lord's money from the Lord's work, 
 that are prevalent throughout Chris- 
 tendom, and that make its theory and 
 practice so much at variance, in this 
 particular, are attributable, in no small 
 degree, to the common inappreciation, 
 misconception, misuse, and neglect of 
 
I4 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 the office of the diaconate; for all of 
 which, not the deacons alone, but also 
 the church and the ministry are, on 
 many accounts, responsible. 
 
 One of the greatest perils of the 
 divine institution of the diaconate is 
 the modern, man-made invention of 
 the trustee board, as it exists wher- 
 ever prevail the previously mentioned 
 mixed societies, constituted by the un- 
 equal yoking* together of members of 
 a Baptist church and unconverted 
 people of its congregation, for the 
 management of the church's pecuni- 
 ary affairs. In these cases, which are 
 very numerous, the trustee board, 
 though a class of officials unknown to 
 the New Testament, often becomes 
 virtually an oligarchy, ruling the 
 church and the pastor in many things, 
 and usurping the principal functions 
 of the diaconate, thereby reducing it 
 to little more than a more or less orna- 
 mental nullity. 
 
OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 141 
 
 Besides this, in the many thousands 
 of cases referred to, the trustee board 
 is chosen, not by the church, but by 
 the unhallowed amalgamation of the 
 church and the world already spoken 
 of; and as a consequence — except 
 where churches with their anomalous 
 societies, organize or reorganize as 
 corporate bodies, under the provisions 
 of recent state legislation — very fre- 
 quently persons not connected with 
 the church, and not converted, are 
 chosen as members of the trustee 
 board, and thus gain power to con- 
 trol the use of church property and to 
 influence the policy of the church, in 
 many important particulars. 
 
 Herein is manifest the evil and the 
 insidiousness of the practice of sub- 
 stituting human devices for divine in- 
 stitutions. Deviation from Pauline 
 or other apostolic principles, prece- 
 dents, and precepts, blameworthy in 
 any case, is specially inconsistent in 
 
142 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 churches pre-eminently professing to 
 copy and uphold exclusively New 
 Testament models. 
 
 When the real character and di- 
 vinely assigned functions of the New 
 Testament, and in particular, the writ- 
 ings of Paul, with their manifold and 
 decisive bearings, are duly considered, 
 it is evident that all ecclesiastical legis- 
 lation on doctrines, ethics, institutions, 
 and ordinances of Christianity is a 
 presumptuous meddling with the ark 
 of God, and an utter usurpation of the 
 office of Christ and his apostles, who 
 alone have legislative power in the 
 church, and who, in the inspired Writ- 
 ings have given full revelation and 
 spoken the last word on these sub- 
 jects. 
 
 The attempts ecclesiastically to leg- 
 islate all manner of Christians into 
 nominal and superficial unity, by 
 means of compromise and external or- 
 ganization, though attractive to the 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 143 
 
 unthinking and unsettled, is a vain 
 and ill-starred enterprise. There can 
 be no true Christian unity except on 
 the basis of the New Testament; and 
 universal and complete return to the 
 New Testament is the only way to 
 bring it about. "Back to the New 
 Testament'' is the word. 
 
 Section III. — The Position of Woman in the 
 
 Church. 
 
 The writings of Paul determine defi- 
 nitely the position of woman in a New 
 Testament church. 
 
 As to the divine bestowment of son- 
 ship to God, with all the accompany- 
 ing blessings of salvation; as to faith 
 in Christ as the divinely appointed 
 means of procuring all these benefits; 
 and as to baptism as the divinely pre- 
 scribed form for avowing* that faith, 
 there is, as we learn from Paul, no 
 distinction as to race, class, or sex — 
 
144 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER, 
 
 "there can be neither Jew nor Greek, 
 there can be neither bond nor free, 
 there can be no male and female. " a 
 
 But Christianity has not abolished 
 the distinction of sex, either physically 
 or ethically. Though, besides grant- 
 ing* her an equal share with man, in 
 the great salvation, Christianity has 
 wrought marvels of mercy for woman- 
 kind, relieving her of many grievous 
 burdens, bestowing upon her many 
 inestimable privileges, elevating the 
 plane of her existence, and opening 
 up to her many suitable spheres of 
 usefulness; yet it has never contra- 
 vened or ignored, but has ever sanc- 
 tioned and insisted upon, the primary 
 law of her being, her supplemental, 
 auxiliary, and subordinate, though dig- 
 nified and honorable, relation to man. 
 Though Christ showed sympathetic 
 interest in, and gracious respect for, 
 womankind; though he drew women 
 
 a Gal. 3: 26-28. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 145 
 
 in purest, warmest, and most reveren- 
 tial devotion to himself; though he 
 imparted to them his most precious 
 and sacred thoughts; though he con- 
 stantly accepted their thoughtful and 
 kindly ministrations; and though, at 
 times, he employed them in impor- 
 tant practical errands; yet it is the 
 significant fact that he never called 
 any woman to be an apostle, or to be 
 a public preacher of the word. Though 
 the apostles recognized and highly 
 esteemed the glowing saintliness, the 
 heroic loyalty, and the self-sacrificing 
 devotion, characteristic of the best 
 Christian women, yet these divinely 
 inspired vicegerents of Christ never 
 appointed women to fill either of the 
 two constitutional offices of a Chris- 
 tian church; but directed that, in all 
 cases, these offices should be filled by 
 men. a Though Christianity has large- 
 use for the varied and facile powers of 
 
 a 1 Tim. 3: i, 2. 2 Tim. 2: 2. Acts 6: 3. 1 Tim. 3: 12,. 
 10 
 
I 4 6 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 woman, and of the direct and indirect 
 influence of woman, in the home, in 
 society, and in the church, yet it ever 
 avoids giving* to her undue, or unnat- 
 ural, publicity. 
 
 The writings of Paul strongly for- 
 bid women to speak, or to lead in 
 prayer, in mixed public assemblies. 
 " Let the women keep silence in the 
 churches: for it is not permitted unto 
 them to speak; but let them be in sub- 
 jection, as also saith the law. And if 
 they would learn anything, let them 
 ask their own husbands at home: for 
 it is shameful for a woman to speak 
 in the church. What ? was it from you 
 that the word of God went forth ? or 
 came it unto you alone ?" a 
 
 "If any man thinketh himself to be 
 a prophet, or spiritual, let him take 
 knowledge of the things which I write 
 unto you, that they are the command- 
 ment of the Lord." b "I desire, there- 
 
 a i Cor. 14: 34-36. t> 1 Cor. 14: 37. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 147 
 
 fore, that the men pray in every place, 
 lifting up holy hands, without wrath 
 and disputing. . . . Let a woman learn 
 in quietness with all subjection. But 
 I permit not a woman to teach, nor 
 to have dominion over a man, but to 
 be in quietness. For Adam was first 
 formed, then Eve; and Adam was 
 not beguiled, but the woman being 
 beguiled hath fallen into tran \± 
 sion. a 
 
 Nothing could be more explicit 
 than these apostolic injunctions. 
 
 The ripest exegetical scholars in all 
 the world have with singular unanim- 
 ity maintained that these passages 
 positively forbid women to speak in 
 mixed public assemblies. Here are a 
 few specimens of their expositions of 
 these, or of one or the other of these 
 passages: 
 
 Dr. John A. Broadus: " Now it 
 does not need to be urged that these 
 
 a 1 Tim. 2: 8, 11-14. 
 
1 48 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 two passages from the Apostle Paul 
 do definitely and strongly forbid that 
 women shall speak in mixed public 
 assemblies. No one can afford to 
 question that such is the most obvious 
 meaning* of the apostle's commands/' 
 
 Dr. A. C. Kendrick: " Both these 
 usages — women's speaking in public 
 assemblies, and sitting at meat in an 
 idol's temple — he has mentioned twice 
 in this epistle, and each time for a 
 distinct purpose of censure." 
 
 Ellicott: " Every form of public 
 address or teaching is clearly forbid- 
 den as at variance with woman's 
 proper duties and destination." 
 
 Meyer: " After the apostle has for- 
 bidden to the woman any activity in 
 the church assemblies as unbecoming 
 to her, he now points to the destiny 
 assigned her by God, the fulfilling of 
 which brings salvation to her." 
 
 Neander: " Spiritual receptivity, 
 and activity in domestic life, were 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. I4 g 
 
 recognized as the appropriate destiny 
 of women; and therefore the female 
 sex was excluded from the public dis- 
 cussion of religious subjects. " 
 
 Godet: The apostle " draws the 
 conclusion that the speaking- of woman 
 in public is in contradiction to the po- 
 sition assigned to her by the divine 
 will expressed in the law/' 
 
 Cony bear e and How son: "The 
 apostle's meaning is that women are 
 to be kept in the path of duty, not by 
 taking upon themselves the office of 
 the man (by taking a public part in the 
 assemblies of the church, etc.), but by 
 the performance of the peculiar func- 
 tions which God has assigned her sex." 
 
 With these interpretations coincide 
 those of Calvin, Lange, Hodge, Van 
 Oosterzee, Stanley, Schaff, Alford, 
 and many others. 
 
 As a general thing, through all the 
 ages, the good taste, native modesty, 
 and intuitive sense of Christian 
 
150 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 women, wherever unbeguiled by mis- 
 guided or designing" men, have readily- 
 perceived the meaning - , acknowledged 
 the propriety, and yielded to the au- 
 thority of these divinely inspired apos- 
 tolic commands. 
 
 Various, however, have been the 
 attempts from divers quarters, to 
 break or evade the force of this apos- 
 tolic interdiction. 
 
 Sometimes it has been objected to 
 the obvious meaning - of 1 Cor. 14: 34- 
 37, that inasmuch as Paul had men- 
 tioned the subject of women's speak- 
 ing in public, in 1 Cor. 11: 5, without 
 then and there condemning anything 
 about it, but the unseemly manner of 
 it, he can scarcely mean all that he 
 seems to mean in the later passage. 
 But in the former passage, Paul is 
 condemning indecorous demeanor in 
 public worship, and in the latter pas- 
 sage, he is censuring the maladmin- 
 istration of spiritual gifts; and the 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 151 
 
 censure of the manner naturally be- 
 longed to the earlier topic, and the 
 censure of the thing itself, to the later. 
 
 As Godet, Kendrick, and others 
 point out, when considering this ob- 
 jection, Paul deals in the same way, 
 in this same Epistle, with another sub- 
 ject of censure, the sitting at meat in 
 an idol's temple. In 1 Corinthians 8: 
 9-13, he objects to the practice, as it 
 might seem at first sight, only because 
 it might give off ense to weak brethren; 
 but later on, in 1 Corinthians 10: 14-22, 
 he condemns the thing in itself, as vir- 
 tual idolatry. 
 
 There is no inconsistency in the 
 apostle's method in either of these 
 twofold censures ; and the case must be 
 desperate that depends upon setting 
 the apostle at odds with himself. 
 
 Sometimes it has been objected, 
 that the apostle must have intended 
 that this prohibitory injunction should 
 apply to the Corinthian church only. 
 
152 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 But there is absolutely no evidence of 
 this. On the contrary, Paul's first let- 
 ter to "the church of God which is at 
 Corinth " — the address of the letter 
 thus implying* that there was but one 
 church in Corinth — says, " Let the 
 women keep silence in the churches,'' 
 thus making- the prohibition applicable 
 to all other churches. Besides this, the 
 similar prohibition in Paul's First Let- 
 ter to Timothy, a representative young 
 minister, must have applied not only 
 to the church in Ephesus, to which 
 he then ministered, but also to all the 
 churches to which, at any time, Tim- 
 othy or any one else, might minister, 
 as pastor or evangelist. There is a 
 strong conviction upon the part of 
 many eminent commentators, and 
 the American Committee of Re- 
 vision, that the prohibitory passage 
 in First Corinthians should have at- 
 tached to it the preceding clause, so 
 as to read, "As in all the churches of 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 153 
 
 the saints, let the women keep silence 
 in the churches." Be that as it may, 
 these prohibitory passages in First 
 Corinthians and First Timothy, re- 
 spectively, are, whether taken singly 
 or together, unlimited as to place. 
 
 It has also sometimes been objected 
 that the apostolic injunction under 
 consideration could be of only tempo- 
 rary force, and must have long since 
 become in fact, and according to orig- 
 inal intention, a dead letter. But 
 there is not the slightest hint in the 
 Corinthian passage, or its context, 
 that the command is anything less 
 than perpetual in obligation. Be- 
 sides the kindred interdiction in First 
 Timothy is apostolically founded on 
 two grounds that are as perpetual and 
 as wide as humanity — the priority of 
 man's creation and the priority of 
 woman's transgression — " For Adam 
 was first formed, then Eve; and Adam 
 was not beguiled, but the woman be- 
 
154 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER, 
 
 ing beguiled hath fallen into trans- 
 gression." a The priority of Adam's 
 creation indicated his natural headship ; 
 and Eve's priority of transgression 
 indicated her greater liability to be- 
 guilement, and her natural unfitness 
 for headship; and therefore the relig- 
 ious duties of speaking and praying in 
 public assemblies were apostolically, 
 and therefore, divinely, imposed ex- 
 clusively on men. But whatever may 
 be the precise logical sequence of the 
 apostle's thought, it is unquestionable 
 that he makes this injunction univer- 
 sal and perpetual, by basing it on 
 grounds that are as lasting and as wide 
 as the world. Remembering the dread 
 curse b pronounced upon all those who 
 add to, take from, or substitute any- 
 thing for, any part of the word of 
 God, who should dare to extirpate or 
 tamper with this or any other portion 
 of it? 
 
 a i Tim. 2: 13, 14. 
 b Gal. 1: 8, 9. 2 Peter 3: 15, 16. Rev. 22: 18, 19. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 155 
 
 Sometimes also, it has been thought- 
 lessly or venturesomely, objected that 
 the Greek word XaA&>, a form of 
 which is rendered " speak' in 1 Cor.. 
 14: 34, 35, means "to babble;" and 
 that, therefore, in that passage, women 
 are only forbidden to babble in 
 the churches — the apostle simply 
 declaring that it is not permitted to 
 women to babble, and that it is a 
 shame for a woman to babble in a 
 church. According to this extraordi- 
 nary interpretation, does the passage 
 imply that men never babble ? or that 
 they are fully permitted to babble ? or 
 that it is not disgraceful for women 
 to babble, unless it is in a church ? 
 Is not babbling wrong and disgrace- 
 ful in either men or women, at any 
 time or anywhere ? 
 
 While it is admitted that in classic 
 Greek, some such signification of the 
 word may sometimes be found, the 
 ripest scholars, among them the late 
 
I56 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 Dr. John A. Broadus, find no instance 
 of it in the New Testament. Various 
 forms of the word are found many- 
 scores of times in its sacred pages, 
 but never once do our translators 
 give it the meaning- of " babble," or 
 anything like it. To " speak ' is its 
 true signification; and so it is com- 
 monly used in the New Testament, 
 when God the Father, Christ, the Holy- 
 Spirit, angels, Moses, the prophets, 
 the apostles, as well as others, are 
 said to speak. There could be no 
 more preposterous or presumptuous 
 " babbling" than this attempt to sub- 
 stitute the word " babble ' for the 
 apostle's word " speak." 
 
 There are those who would arbitra- 
 rily restrict this apostolic interdiction 
 to women speaking in the pulpit or 
 on the platform. A person holding 
 this view commonly says, in relation 
 to this matter, " I draw the line at the 
 pulpit and platform; but I would have 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 157 
 
 women speak, without any restriction, 
 on the floor of the house." But what 
 the apostle says is not, " It is a shame 
 for a woman to speak in a pulpit or 
 on a platform; but " It is a shame" — a 
 disgraceful thing — "for a woman to 
 speak in the church" — in a mixed 
 public assembly. 
 
 If woman were apostolically per- 
 mitted to address mixed public assem- 
 blies, then, being shorter in stature 
 and weaker in voice than men, she 
 would have more need than men have 
 of the elevation of the platform; and 
 then if she were to retain any trace of 
 the modesty that is the glory of her 
 nature, the secret of her charm and 
 power, she would sorely need what- 
 ever shelter the pulpit could afford 
 her. 
 
 There are many who oppose the 
 Pauline prohibition before us, with 
 the argument from experience. It is 
 said, the speaking of women in mixed 
 
158 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 public assemblies cannot be wrong", 
 inasmuch as good has certainly come 
 out of it. But useful as true expe- 
 rience, when far extended, correctly 
 observed, and rightly interpreted, may 
 be, in many of the affairs of life, it is 
 wild, dangerous, impious, for any man 
 or body of men, to set fallible notions 
 of shallow human experience in direct 
 opposition to express injunctions of 
 the word of God. The interpretation 
 of experience that runs counter to the 
 divine word cannot be true, and if 
 trusted and followed, it must, in the 
 long run, bring on the evils against 
 which the divine counsels and prohi- 
 bitions were designed to guard. The 
 highest wisdom of man is only folly, 
 when it exalts itself above the wisdom 
 and will of God. 
 
 It is easy to mistake the meaning 
 of experience. A man may, for a 
 time, preach the gospel effectually to 
 others, and yet himself be not ap- 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 159 
 
 proved of God, and in the end be- 
 come a castaway. Infidels have been 
 converted to Christ, through their 
 own mocking observance of the Lord's 
 Supper and their own derisive mim- 
 icry of the preaching- of the gospel, in 
 their club-meeting revelry. Many 
 converts to Christ have been made 
 through the preaching of the gospel 
 by men who ultimately proved them- 
 selves to be unconverted and corrupt 
 at heart. Does it follow that infidels 
 and other unconverted men are justi- 
 fied in preaching the gospel, derisively 
 or otherwise, or that we would be jus- 
 tified in employing them thus to pro- 
 claim the gospel, or observe its ordi- 
 nances? That God may bring some 
 good out of the gospel truth spoken 
 by Christian women, even when it is 
 done in a way that is inconsistent with 
 his express orders, is neither to be 
 doubted, nor wondered at. But it is 
 monstrous and perverse to say that 
 
l6o BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 Christian women are, therefore, right, 
 when they ignore and disobey certain 
 injunctions and prohibitions of the di- 
 vine word. However expedient and 
 plausible it may seem to disregard 
 and violate the word of God, at any 
 point, it cannot fail to displease the 
 Almighty, who says, "To obey is bet- 
 ter than sacrifice, and to hearken 
 than the fat of rams;' ,a and despite 
 all apparent temporary advantages, it 
 must, sooner or later, result in profound 
 and far-reaching disaster. Through 
 all the ages, the great and fatal de- 
 partures from true and pure Christian- 
 ity, in doctrine, polity, and practice, 
 were brought about by men who con- 
 sidered themselves wiser than men 
 who were divinely inspired, and who 
 substituted their own vaporings about 
 experience and expediency, for the 
 word of God. " There is a way that 
 
 a i Sam. 15^ 22. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 161 
 
 seemeth right unto a man, but the end 
 thereof are the ways of death." a 
 
 There are, in our day, a widespread 
 disregard of, and hostility toward, the 
 Pauline prohibition of women speak- 
 ing* in mixed public assemblies. Un- 
 fortunately, with many persons, the 
 mere fact that the movement has an 
 air of popular novelty is sufficient to 
 establish, in their minds, its correct- 
 ness and expediency, the Sacred Writ- 
 ings to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 To such persons, the mere statement, 
 11 It has come to stay," appears cogent 
 and unanswerable argument, in favor 
 of any innovation, no matter how 
 unscriptural it may be. But let it be 
 remembered that Satan has come 
 to stay; that infidelity, idolatry, and 
 immorality have come to stay; and 
 that nevertheless, the battle must be 
 pressed to the gate against them 
 uncompromisingly and persistently. 
 
 a Prov. 14: 12. 
 11 
 
1 62 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER 
 
 Any other course would be cowardice 
 and treachery. Let the word of God, 
 and not popular crazes and captivat- 
 ing- innovations, be the supreme rule 
 and standard on this and every other 
 religious question. " Yea, let God be 
 found true, but every man a liar." a 
 
 The tendency of the anti-Pauline 
 woman's movement, so persistent in 
 our day, is to subvert the three divine 
 institutions — the family, the nation 
 and the church; to unyoke the di- 
 vine word from the neck of the con- 
 science, and to dethrone God in hu- 
 man society. The movement tends to 
 weaken the bonds of marriage, as its 
 history and the present condition of 
 things abundantly prove; and it rend- 
 ers the confusion of unscriptural di- 
 vorces worse confounded. It seeks to 
 introduce a new, subtle, and corrupt- 
 ing element into politics, already too 
 corrupt, by foisting upon the nation 
 
 a Rom. 3: 4. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. ^3 
 
 the principle of woman's suffrage. 
 Apt indeed was Horace Bushnell's 
 characterization of this feature of the 
 movement, when he made the title of 
 his book against it, "The Reform 
 Against Nature." The good sense of 
 the great majority of Christian women 
 has endorsed his account of it, by per- 
 sistently refusing to sanction the move- 
 ment, and, as is well known, leading 
 philosophic minds, of the sterner sex, 
 Christian and non-Christian alike, 
 that had once given a more or less 
 tentative approval of the scheme, are 
 now recoiling from it, and uttering 
 notes of warning against it. 
 
 The leaders of the movement, as 
 a rule, do not hesitate to proclaim 
 war against the Sacred Writings — 
 Old Testament and New Testament, 
 Moses and Paul alike — wherever they 
 do not coincide with their self-willed 
 and revolutionary notions. 
 
 A lady, long prominent in a partic- 
 
1 64 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 ular wing; of a certain moral reform 
 movement, but conspicuous, also, in 
 the cause of woman's suffrage, with 
 which she and others have sought to 
 ally it, has said, when speaking of the 
 Pauline prohibition of women speak- 
 ing in mixed public assemblies, 
 " Christ, not Paul, is my teacher." Yet 
 she, like everyone else, could not know 
 one syllable of Christ's teachings, ex- 
 cept as Paul, or other apostles, or 
 other inspired teachers, have reported 
 them. We have precisely the same 
 authority to prove Christ's declaration 
 that, after his departure, his apostles 
 would be divinely inspired, and that 
 their words would not be their words, 
 but his, as to prove that Christ uttered 
 the Sermon on the Mount, or any 
 other of his sayings whatsoever. To 
 reject Paul, or Peter, or John, or any 
 other apostle, is, therefore, to reject 
 Christ. Their injunctions are the 
 commandments of the Lord. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 16$ 
 
 Another lady, very prominent in the 
 woman's suffrage movement, most 
 profanely says, "The women who 
 crowd our Christian temples are sedu- 
 lously taught their inferiority in the 
 scale of being and their subjection to 
 man as sovereign; and the Old Testa- 
 ment represents her as a marplot in 
 creation, an afterthought, the orgin of 
 sin in collusion with the devil, cursed 
 of God in her maternity, and marriage 
 made for her a slavery." " It is 
 woman's position in the church and 
 the Holy books accepted as author- 
 ity, that make political equality so dif- 
 ficult/' So, like many another leader 
 and follower in the same and similar 
 movements, she virtually says, "Away 
 with the Bible, since, in the family, in 
 the nation, and in the church, it places 
 woman in a position auxiliary and in 
 a measure subordinate to man! ' Yet, 
 even her sacrilegious utterances are 
 less glaringly inconsistent than the 
 
1 66 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 course of those who, while professing 
 to regard the Scriptures as the word 
 of God, seek, nevertheless, to nullify 
 its precepts, or evade their force, as if 
 they were the puerile and fallacious 
 inventions of man. 
 
 But these misguided utterances of 
 the noted women just quoted, are 
 but fair specimens of the sayings of 
 the advance-guard of the movement 
 in question, and are a true indication 
 of its aims and spirit, and of its atti- 
 tude toward Biblical Christianity. 
 
 It is very noticeable and significant, 
 also, that this anti-Pauline, anti-Scrip- 
 tural modern development, naturally 
 aligns itself with, and finds its quick- 
 est growth among the votaries of dis- 
 belief and misbelief, among those who 
 reject what is most distinctive and vi- 
 tal in Christianity and who embrace 
 all manner of vagaries. Into what 
 unnatural and perilous associations 
 this movement would fain draw the 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 167 
 
 true followers of Christ ! It would be 
 well if, with regard to this whole mat- 
 ter, Christian women, and Christian 
 men, would "fear, lest by any means, 
 as the Serpent beguiled Eve in his 
 craftiness," their " minds should be 
 corrupted from the simplicity and 
 purity that is toward Christ/' 
 
 But one of the most significant and 
 astounding of isolated indications in 
 connection with modern anti-Paulin- 
 ism is the fact that a man of talents 
 and attainments, high in the councils 
 of a great Christian institution of 
 learning, should venture to say, with 
 reference to the matter in hand, " Men 
 are not going to perpetuate a foolish 
 custom, if an apostle himself advised 
 it." To how giddy a height can hu- 
 man presumption ascend ! That, too, 
 in the face of the apostle's warning 
 declaration in relation to the matter, 
 " If any man thinketh himself to be a 
 prophet, or spiritual, let him take 
 
1 68 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 knowledge of the thing's which I write 
 unto you, that they are the command- 
 ment of the Lord "! 
 
 But let us turn for a moment to a 
 different phase of the subject. The 
 vast characteristic distinctions be- 
 tween the sexes, in the economy of 
 human nature, are radical and inerad- 
 icable. 
 
 As his physical structure, mental 
 composition, and dominant impulses 
 preordain, it is characteristic of man, 
 in nature, society and art, to originate, 
 form, and achieve. With regard to 
 woman, on the other hand, as her 
 physical organism, constitutional apt- 
 itudes and proclivities render inevi- 
 table, it is characteristic of her in the 
 economy of human nature, to supple- 
 ment, aid, sympathize and cherish. It 
 is hers to give sanctuary and nourish- 
 ment to embryo and infant, to nurture 
 and mould the child, to be the helper 
 and solace of manhood, and the emol- 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. iQg 
 
 lient and moral and emotional atmos- 
 phere of the home. In this sphere she 
 finds her highest function, her natural 
 adaptation, her truest happiness. 
 
 The natural relations of the sexes 
 are the union of principal and auxili- 
 ary; the harmony of complemental 
 differences. 
 
 In answer to those who say that the 
 subordinate and auxiliary relation of 
 woman toward man is the result of 
 degeneracy of womanly type and the 
 primal and perpetual domination of 
 man, it is sufficient to say, that as all 
 the vital forces of both sexes unite in 
 the perpetuation of the race, there can 
 be no degeneracy or improvement of 
 type in any new generation, in which 
 the sexes do not equally share; and 
 that the persistently subordinate and 
 auxiliary position of the female sex 
 through all history cannot be ac- 
 counted for otherwise than on the 
 
170 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 grounds of woman's natural tendency 
 and instinctive choice. 
 
 Elevating- and refining culture, so 
 far from tending; to abolish these dis- 
 tinctions, emphasizes them, and ren- 
 ders the types of male and female 
 more divergent. It is only among the 
 more" degraded and savage tribes, 
 where brutality is most prevalent and 
 most unrelieved that the great distinc- 
 tions between the sexes are least ob- 
 servable, and the woman is least dif- 
 ferentiated from the man. 
 
 Manhood and womanhood, when at 
 their highest development and best es- 
 tate, manifest most of all, their organic 
 yet harmonious differences of type. 
 
 In all this, the book of nature and 
 the book of Scripture agree; and the 
 Pauline precepts, given by divine in- 
 spiration, concerning the position of 
 women in the church, accord with the 
 voice of God, concerning her, in cre- 
 ation and nature. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 171 
 
 Those, therefore, who, whether men 
 or women, rebel against these Pauline 
 prohibitions, fight against nature and 
 against God. 
 
 There is this consolation, however, 
 for those who, in these times of up- 
 heaval and confusion, tremble for the 
 safety of the ark of God, for the per- 
 manence of Christian institutions, for 
 the supremacy of Scripture, that inas- 
 much as nature and Scripture are in 
 profound accord and cannot utterly 
 be overthrown, no matter how great 
 and pernicious the perversions and 
 evils of any particular time may be, 
 the true people of Christ must finally 
 return to the absolute rule of the di- 
 vine word; and the latest Christian 
 centuries must conform to the princi- 
 ples divinely laid down for their guid- 
 ance in the first. 
 
 To close the matter up, it is evident, 
 in view of the clearly proved apostolic 
 functions and authority of Paul, that 
 
172 
 
 BEARING ON CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 his writings, which treat so fully of the 
 matter, have a decisive practical bear- 
 ing* on the subject of church order in 
 all its departments. 
 
Chapter X. 
 
 PRACTICAL BEARING ON ESTIMATE OF 
 CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 As they plainly claim and abun- 
 dantly prove, the Holy Scriptures are 
 divinely constituted the supreme 
 standard of truth and right, and the 
 final test of all opinions and practices, 
 whether of long standing or of recent 
 origin, whether generally prevailing 
 or of only local acceptance. Till the 
 end of time, all things are to be tried 
 by the word. " To the law and to the 
 testimony I if they speak not accord- 
 ing to this word, surely there is no 
 morning for them. ,,a "They have 
 Moses and the prophets; let them 
 hear them." b "And as many as 
 walk by this rule, peace be upon 
 
 a Isa. 8 : 20. b Luke 16 : 29. 
 173 
 
174 
 
 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 them, and mercy, and upon the Israel 
 of God." a " And we have the word 
 of prophecy made more sure; where- 
 unto ye do well that ye take heed, as 
 unto a lamp shining in a dark place." b 
 Such are the claims of the Scriptures 
 to the place of supreme authority in 
 all matters of faith and practice; and 
 they are not to be disputed. 
 
 We have already seen that the writ- 
 ing's of Paul, being divinely inspired 
 and being a constituent part of the 
 divinely prescribed standard of truth 
 and right, are invested with the abso- 
 lute authority characteristic of, and 
 inseparable from, Holy Scripture. 
 
 Now, the Pauline writings distinctly 
 claim to be the infallible touchstone, 
 the final test, of all attainments in 
 Christian things: " If any man think- 
 eth himself to be a prophet, or spirit- 
 ual, let him take knowledge of the 
 things which I write unto you, that 
 
 a Gal. 6 : 16. b 2 Pet. i : 19. 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 175 
 
 they are the commandment of the 
 Lord. ,,a This bold and crucial Paul- 
 ine challenge — selected as the motto, 
 and furnishing the motive of, this 
 work — clearly teaches and firmly in- 
 sists that no claims to spiritual and 
 high religious light that do not ac- 
 cord with the writings of Paul are 
 to be honored or recognized. 
 
 We are thus bound by the highest 
 authority to accept and employ the 
 writings of Paul as the decisive crite- 
 rion of all pretensions to special spirit- 
 ual insight and superior religious 
 light. 
 
 In the third section of the immedi- 
 ately preceding chapter, the specious 
 argument from experience, designed 
 to justify departure from, or modifi- 
 cation of, the rule of Scripture, was 
 considered and confuted. It was 
 shown that the genuineness of reli- 
 gious experience and the justness of its 
 
 a 1 Cor. 14 : 37. 
 
176 
 
 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 interpretation must be tested by Scrip- 
 ture, and that Scripture is neither to 
 be condemned nor disparaged on the 
 shallow ground of so limited and 
 misinterpretable a thing" as mere 
 human experience. It was shown, 
 also, that if argument from expe- 
 rience does not coincide with the 
 writings of Paul, or with any other 
 portion of Scripture, the experience 
 is spurious, or the interpretation of 
 it is false. On this point, nothing 
 further need be added for the pur- 
 poses of this discussion. 
 
 At various periods in the history of 
 Christianity, there have arisen in- 
 fluential persons or sects claiming 
 possession of high religious light de- 
 rived from other sources than the 
 Scriptures, and supplementing, modi- 
 fying, or superseding the Scriptures in 
 whole or in part. 
 
 Early in the third century, the cele- 
 brated Origen, a theologian of stu- 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 177 
 
 pendous intellect and intellectual in- 
 dustry, but saturated with the Platonic 
 philosophy, seriously perverted and 
 paganized much of the Christianity of 
 his own and later times, by pouring* 
 his Platonism into his theology, and 
 by indulging his propensity to inter- 
 pret Scripture in an arbitrary, fanci- 
 ful, and highly allegorical way — a 
 way which has reproduced itself in 
 many minds, in all succeeding ages. 
 Against this self-willed, imaginative 
 and sophistical tendency, how sharply 
 the warning of Paul rings out: " Take 
 heed lest there shall be any one that 
 maketh spoil of you through his phi- 
 losophy and vain deceit, after the tra- 
 dition of men, after the rudiments of 
 the world, and not after Christ"! a It 
 would have been well for the cause of 
 truth, in all ages, if Origen and all 
 others had given due heed to that 
 Pauline admonition, and to this Paul- 
 
 * Col. 2 : 8. 
 
 12 
 
i;8 
 
 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 ine injunction: " If any man think- 
 elh himself to be a prophet, or spirit- 
 ual, let him take knowledge of the 
 things which I write unto you, that 
 they are the commandment of the 
 Lord." 
 
 In consequence of the great intel- 
 lectual, political, and religious up- 
 heavals of the sixteenth century, when, 
 after ages of mental and spiritual 
 stagnation, the minds of men sprang 
 into volcanic activity concerning the 
 greatest of human interests, both tem- 
 poral and spiritual, there developed, 
 at different times thereafter, a strong 
 tendency to mysticism, which, as the 
 etymology of the term suggests, is a 
 closing of the eyes to the ordinary and 
 external source of religious light — that 
 is, the Scriptures — and a looking for 
 spiritual enlightenment from an inner 
 and preternatural source, virtually a 
 divine revelation to, and within, each 
 individual. 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS, 
 
 179 
 
 Several sects, organically uncon- 
 nected, holding- these or similar views, 
 claiming peculiar subjective light, 
 chiefly on matters of statecraft, phi- 
 losophy, morals, and religion, and bear- 
 ing the arrogant title of Illuminati, 
 arose in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and 
 eighteenth centuries, in various parts 
 of Europe and Asia. Most of them be- 
 lieved that by mental abstraction, un- 
 interrupted passive contemplation, 
 and mystic devotion to God, a divine 
 light was shed upon the soul, through 
 a supernatural sense, and in a trans- 
 cendental way. These, instead of 
 testing their inner light by the Scrip- 
 ture, tested the Scripture by their inner 
 light; and thus naturally came to re- 
 ject the Scripture, for the most part, 
 or altogether — thereby setting an ex- 
 ample that has been eagerly followed 
 by many in the present day. 
 
 In 1648, George Fox, a young Eng- 
 lishman, unlettered, but much given 
 
I go BEARING ON CHRIS TIANA TTAINMENTS. 
 
 to religious meditation and revery, 
 having* come to believe that in every 
 human being in all the world, there is 
 an inner light, furnished by Christ 
 and by the Holy Spirit, sufficient, 
 without the Scriptures, to secure the 
 salvation of men, if that light were 
 duly used, devoted himself to the work 
 of preaching the doctrine of the uni- 
 versal inner light, as largely supersed- 
 ing all other lights, and to that of 
 showing the necessity of trying men's 
 opinions and religions by the Holy 
 Spirit rather than by the Scriptures. 
 His message was virtually a protest 
 against what he regarded as the ex- 
 cessive " scripturalism" of that age. It 
 was in reality, largely a protest against 
 the dead formalism in religion, char- 
 acteristic of the time; but, in his un- 
 guarded recoil from that, he landed in- 
 to the mystical spiritualities and practi- 
 cal grotesqueries that have character- 
 ized so many of his followers ever since. 
 
BEARING ON CHRIS TIAN A TTAINMENTS. \ 8 1 
 
 It must not be overlooked, however, 
 that a large number of his followers, 
 known as Quakers or the Society of 
 Friends, have come in later times in- 
 to much closer accord with the beliefs 
 of evangelical Christians generally, 
 as several of their published state- 
 ments of belief clearly show — though, 
 indeed, the denomination has been far 
 from uniform in its tenets; yet, such is 
 the force of the doctrine of the "inner 
 light" still potent among them, though 
 less distinctly avowed than in former 
 times, that they reject altogether the 
 Christian ordinances of baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper, as too "unspirit- 
 ual " for their etherealized notions of 
 what is becoming to the gospel dis- 
 pensation, and on the same principle, 
 they reject also the scriptural rule that 
 women shall not be public preachers 
 of the gospel. 
 
 The opinion that the Holy Spirit in 
 the mind of the individual believer, at 
 
1 82 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. 
 
 any time contravenes and cancels his 
 own inspired word — and it has gained 
 much currency in our day — is a 
 nourisherof carnal self-sufficiency and 
 spiritual pride, and is a common 
 source of delusions and snares. "To 
 the law and to the testimony! if they 
 speak not according- to this word, 
 surely there is no morning for them." a 
 
 11 If any man thinketh himself to be 
 a prophet, or spiritual, let him take 
 knowledge of the things which I write 
 unto you, that they are the command- 
 ment of the Lord." 
 
 One of the most remarkable and er- 
 ratic of all the mystics was Emmanuel 
 Swedenborg — born 1688, died 1772. 
 Till his fifty-fifth year his life w r as 
 given to business, science, and philos- 
 ophy; but for nearly thirty years, the 
 latter part of his life was devoted to 
 theology and spiritualism. His native 
 strength of intellect, his scientific and 
 
 a Isa. 8: 20. 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. ^3 
 
 philosophic attainments, his exuber- 
 ant imagination and fancy render his 
 religious lucubrations of a highly in- 
 tellectual order, yet as full of vagaries 
 and phantasmagoria as an opium-eat- 
 er's dream. 
 
 Taking the subtle and fantastic 
 products of his prolific and overheated 
 brain as genuine revelations from God, 
 though unsubstantiated by either mir- 
 acle or fulfilled prophecy, he refused to 
 test them by the apostolic letters, but 
 actually sought to test the Sacred 
 Writings by them; and finding many 
 parts of Scripture incapable of being 
 warped so as to endorse his ideas and 
 theories, he rejected thirty-two out of 
 the sixty-six books of Scripture — of 
 the New Testament he rejected all but 
 the Gospels and the Apocalypse. In 
 his alleged interviews with angels and 
 spirits of men from heaven and hell — 
 apostles, prophets, and others — they 
 are made to lose their own individual- 
 
1 84 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. 
 
 ity and to speak the dialect and the 
 ideas of Swedenborg. As Emerson 
 says, "All his interlocutors Sweden- 
 borgianize." 
 
 Had Swedenborg recognized and 
 reverenced the divine inspiration and 
 authority of Paul's writings, and tested 
 his meditations by them, instead of 
 testing them by his meditations, he 
 would have saved himself and others 
 from rejecting one-half of the entire 
 word of God, and nearly all that is 
 distinctive in Christianity, and would 
 have saved the world from a deluge of 
 morbid and perverse imaginings. 
 
 The transparent and impudent im- 
 posture of Mormonism, founded on 
 pretended visions and revelations of 
 the crudest and most bizarre descrip- 
 tion, could never stand any serious 
 application of the test of Scripture to 
 its doctrines, its institutions, or its 
 morals. Though of vastly lower 
 moral grade than Swedenborgianism, 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 I8 5 
 
 Mormonism has nevertheless, several 
 strains of kinship with it, particularly 
 its spiritualism and its anthropomor- 
 phic conceptions of God. It shows 
 distinctly to what low levels spurious 
 Christians can sink, and into what far- 
 off regions they can wander, when 
 they cast themselves off from the 
 moorings of Scripture and embark on 
 the wild sea of their own vain imag- 
 inings and the world's alluring lies. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism, like ancient 
 necromancy, is an attempt to procure 
 light concerning the unseen and fu- 
 ture world by means of communica- 
 tions, to the living, from spirits of the 
 dead. The system is a revivification 
 and combination of the necromantic 
 superstitions of remote ages and 
 widely separated peoples. Sweden- 
 borgianism has had much to do, at 
 least indirectly, with preparing for it, 
 and with bringing it about. The lat- 
 ter half of the nineteenth century, a 
 
1 86 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A T7AINMEN1 S. 
 
 decidedly materialistic period, has wit- 
 nessed the rapid development of this 
 ghostly superstition. Despite the pov- 
 erty and inconsequentiality of its rev- 
 elations, the imbecile gibberish of its 
 alleged communications from the 
 mighty departed, the frequent and 
 thorough exposure of its fraudulent 
 phenomena, and the evident perni- 
 ciousness of its fruits, Spiritualism has 
 proved fascinating to people of a cer- 
 tain marvel-mongering and fanatical 
 type and tendency, in positions high 
 and low. Notoriously, it is a peril both 
 to right reason and to Christian faith. 
 Devout reverence for, and implicit 
 deference to, the writings of Paul and 
 the word of God generally, are the 
 specific antidote and prophylactic for 
 this moonstruck superstition and anti- 
 Christian craze. 
 
 Originating in the latter third of the 
 nineteenth century, and assuming 
 the pretentious name of " Christian 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. \ 87 
 
 Science," though innocent both of 
 Christian doctrine and the scientific 
 method, one of the most crass and 
 pernicious of popular delusions is now 
 running its course. It claims to be 
 a new discovery of vital truth and 
 mental power, by which the Bible is to 
 receive unique and authoritative inter- 
 pretation, and the world, relief from 
 all manner of evils, mental and phys- 
 ical alike. It may well be said of this 
 new discovery of truth, that what is 
 true in it is not new, and what is new 
 in it is not true; and furthermore, that 
 the great mass of it is only a farrago 
 of old or revamped philosophical cru- 
 dities and absurdities. It bases itself 
 on the sophistical doctrines of mon- 
 ism and extreme idealism, which 
 teach that matter and all its phenom- 
 ena, even such as body disease, are 
 unreal; that there is only one sub- 
 stance; that the one substance is spirit; 
 that spirit is God; and that God is all. 
 
1 88 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. 
 
 Thus its logical trend is toward some 
 species of pantheism. 
 
 It denies personality to God, alleg- 
 ing* that personality involves finiteness; 
 and, therefore, it makes the person- 
 ality of Jesus merely human, though 
 in view of a divine indwelling in him, it 
 is pleased politely and poetically to 
 call him "divine." Denying the reality 
 of matter, and, therefore, the reality 
 of disease, it instructs its votaries to 
 regard all physical evil as non-exist- 
 ent, as a mere figment of the imag- 
 ination. Regarding the reality of 
 physical evil and moral evil, alike, as 
 inconsistent with the goodness of 
 God, and both, therefore, unreal, 
 it proposes to train its adherents to 
 doubt and scout all physical and 
 moral evil out of the world. This 
 preposterous unbelief of obvious veri- 
 ties, it ventures to call faith — instead 
 of credulity and presumption. 
 
 That vigorous and cheerful minds 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. \ 89 
 
 may often beneficially influence per- 
 sons subject to various nervous dis- 
 orders and morbid mental states is 
 known to nearly every one; but to 
 dignify this truism with the title of 
 "mind healing," flourishing" it be- 
 fore all the world as a great discov- 
 ery, and offering it as a panacea for all 
 the ills that flesh is heir to, is arrant 
 charlatanism. 
 
 Like the Hagelian philosophy, 
 which minimizes the function of con- 
 science and the notion of sin, the 
 11 Christian Science" craze inevitably 
 belittles the sinfulness of sin, renders 
 nugatory the atonement of Christ 
 and the regeneration of the Spirit, 
 and repudiates the full inspiration and 
 authority of Scripture. Founded up- 
 on sophistical lies in philosophy and 
 upon daring negations of what is dis- 
 tinctive and fundamental in Chris- 
 tianity, it naturally develops delusion 
 in thought, maudlinism in sentiment, 
 
190 
 
 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 and laxness in morals. Invented by 
 a woman with whom marriage was a 
 failure, it boldly seeks to subvert the 
 relations of the sexes as divinely 
 determined in creation and redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 Brought to the test of Paul's writ- 
 ings, or of the word of God as a 
 whole, its folly and falsity become 
 manifest, and it appears in its true 
 character as " profane and vain bab- 
 blings, and oppositions of science 
 falsely so called. " a 
 
 Right in line with the many forms of 
 inner-light-ism strung along the ages, 
 the so-called " Christian conscious- 
 ness, " conspicuous in these latter dec- 
 ades, has been asserting the vast 
 claim of being either an independent, 
 co-ordinate, or collateral source of 
 religious light. 
 
 As the metaphysicians and lexicog- 
 raphers, in general, maintain, agree- 
 ably to the derivation of the word, 
 
 a i Tim. 6: 20 A. V. 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 I 9 I 
 
 consciousness is a knowledge and an 
 accompanying- knowledge, a knowing 
 of one's own self, of one's own exist- 
 ence and identity, in intimate con- 
 nection with a knowing of one's own 
 states and activities. It is a knowl- 
 edge of one's own being, in union 
 with a knowledge of one's own action 
 or passion, to use the latter word in its 
 older sense. Consciousness may be 
 said to be the personal perception of 
 self, together with the personally per- 
 ceived self-registration of one's own 
 thoughts, feelings, and activities. 
 
 In its own sphere, the authority 
 of consciousness is absolute — from it 
 there can be no appeal. Our sense of 
 what we actually think, feel, or will, is 
 developed in consciousness alone. 
 
 But it is not the function of con- 
 sciousness to determine the objective 
 truth of the thoughts present in the 
 mind, the legitimacy of its feelings, or 
 the wisdom of its volitions. All that 
 
1 g 2 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. 
 
 belongs to the reasoning; faculty, 
 broadly considered; and the only busi- 
 ness that consciousness has to do 
 with these things is to record their 
 simple presence in the mind, without 
 pronouncing" on their quality or their 
 validity. Thus so far as the proper 
 function of consciousness is con- 
 cerned, its deliverances are just as 
 valid in a heathen as in a Christian, 
 in a lunatic as in a sane man. It 
 simply records upon the tablets of the 
 cognitive self, the impressions made 
 upon the mind, whether these are the 
 vagaries of the insane, or the normal 
 mental action of the sane, whether 
 they are the superstitious thoughts, 
 feelings, and volitions of the heathen, 
 or the well-founded, well-digested, 
 well-defined experiences of the high- 
 est type of Christians. The ablest 
 and safest metaphysicians, from Kant 
 to Calderwood, so teach, substantially. 
 But many advocates of the new 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 193 
 
 theology, desiring", in some measure, 
 to supplement, modify, or supersede 
 the teachings of the Scripture, strive 
 to attain their end by assigning- to con- 
 sciousness, or at least to the con- 
 sciousness of Christians, or, as they 
 call it, " Christian consciousness/' an 
 entirely new and impossible function 
 — that of being an organ of objective 
 knowledge. They would make it an 
 authority on doctrine and ethics. 
 Whatever in Scripture accords with 
 their Christian consciousness, they 
 accept; whatever in Scripture does 
 not accord with their Christian con- 
 sciousness, they reject; and whatever 
 in Scripture has not as yet found or 
 reached their Christian consciousness, 
 they superciliously ignore. Many go 
 even further, and claim that their 
 Christian consciousness is a real and 
 safe light and guide where the Scrip- 
 ture is silent. Thus they regard Chris- 
 tian consciousness as a sort of divine 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 inspiration, differing, it maybe, in de- 
 gree, but not in kind, from that of 
 prophets and apostles. 
 
 But if Christian consciousness were 
 what is thus claimed for it — a divine 
 illumination and quasi-inspiration — 
 its utterances would be the same, or 
 consistent, in all Christian souls. Yet 
 it is notorious that there is no unity, 
 but only diverseness and discord in 
 the deliverances of the Christian con- 
 sciousnesses of the many who profess 
 faith in Christian consciousness as a 
 source of objective knowledge. By 
 thus assigning to consciousness a func- 
 tion entirely foreign to its nature and 
 design, and belonging solely to the 
 intellect, it comes to pass that con- 
 sciousness, whose deliverances in its 
 own proper sphere are final, is made 
 responsible for the objective validity 
 and divine revelation of the vagaries, 
 caprices, and whims of each individ- 
 ual, and, logically, those of all individ- 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 195 
 
 uals, however contradictory or absurd. 
 This is to make human notions of the 
 fitness of things, and human impres- 
 sions and impulses of all sorts, the test 
 of the Scriptures, the superior of the 
 Word of God. 
 
 Now, neither " Christian " conscious- 
 ness nor non-Christian consciousness 
 is, or can be, a source of objective truth, 
 either independently or subordinately. 
 The consciousness of a true Christian 
 has, indeed, or may have, a deep im- 
 pression of his intellectual, moral, and 
 spiritual perception and reception of 
 Christian truth; and it may thus enable 
 him more vividly to realize its pre- 
 ciousness and power. But we are all 
 dependent solely upon the under- 
 standing- for the perception of truth; 
 and the understanding is dependent 
 on the Scriptures for distinctively 
 Christian truth, and upon the Holy 
 Spirit's interpretive and strengthening 
 influence for the fullest, clearest, and 
 
I q6 bearing on christian a ttainments. 
 
 most effectual apprehension of the 
 truth in Scripture. 
 
 If, as is really the case, a Christian's 
 consciousness differs nothing from 
 any other consciousness, either in 
 kind, in function, or in validity; if, as 
 is equally true, it differs from any 
 other consciousness merely in its con- 
 tent; and if, as is no less true, it re- 
 ceives its content, like any other con- 
 sciousness, only through the intellect, 
 it would appear that the term " Chris- 
 tian, " as applied to consciousness, is 
 largely a misnomer, and that the join- 
 ing of these two words is no more 
 suitable as a discriminative, distinct- 
 ive appellation, than would be such 
 terms as " Christian intellect/' " Chris- 
 tian faculties," "Christian anatomy," 
 and " Christian physiology." 
 
 If the deliverances of "Christian 
 consciousness" do not accord with 
 the writings of Paul, or with any 
 other part of the word of God, the 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 197 
 
 true nature and office of consciousness 
 have been misunderstood, and the 
 errors of the head, of the heart, or of 
 the consequently warped conscience, 
 have been mistaken, as, with the 
 " Christian consciousness " theory, they 
 often are, for its utterances. "To 
 the law and to the testimony ! if they 
 speak not according- to this word, 
 surely there is no morning for them." a 
 "If any man thinketh himself to be a 
 prophet, or spiritual, let him take 
 knowledge of the things which I write 
 unto you, that they are the command- 
 ment of the Lord." 
 
 Closely connected, at some points, 
 with the " Christian consciousness" 
 error, is a prevalent delusion of subtle, 
 seductive, and very serious character, 
 relative to a particular part of the 
 work of the Holy Spirit upon believers. 
 Like many another dangerous error, it 
 is the perversion of an important and 
 precious truth. 
 
 a Isa. 8: 20. 
 
I g 8 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. 
 
 The work of the Holy Spirit in lead- 
 ing* and helping; the people of God — 
 in their thinking, loving-, choosing-, 
 and attempting; in their praying, 
 praising, and preaching; and in the 
 exercise of all the functions and activ- 
 ities of spiritual life — is something 
 that, as followers of Christ, we are 
 taught in Scripture to believe in, to 
 seek for, to expect, to rely upon, and 
 to be assured of. There can be no 
 warrantable doubt that in all the 
 forms of duty, active and passive alike, 
 true believers are led and aided by the 
 Spirit of God. "As many as are led 
 by the Spirit of God, these are the sons 
 ofGod. ,,a "The Spirit also helpeth 
 our infirmity: for we know not how to 
 pray as we ought; but the Spirit him- 
 self maketh intercession for us with 
 groanings which cannot be uttered; 
 and he that searcheth the hearts know- 
 eth the mind of the Spirit, because he 
 
 a Rom. 8: 14. 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. 
 
 I99 
 
 maketh intercession for the saints ac- 
 cording* to the will of God." a Un- 
 speakably great and precious are the 
 privileges of believers in the leading" 
 and help of the Spirit. 
 
 Notwithstanding the certainty of 
 these things, it is a gross delusion and 
 a perilous snare to believe, as many 
 unguarded souls are coming to be- 
 lieve, that the Spirit of God makes to 
 believers distinct revelations of divine 
 truth and of the divine will, other 
 than, and independent of, what he has 
 already set forth in his Holy Word. 
 That he inclines and enables human 
 souls to understand, receive, love, and 
 obey the inspired word is certain; and 
 that, in a secret yet effectual way, he 
 leads the people of God in the way of 
 life is not to be doubted. But, like 
 many of the most vital processes in 
 animated nature, these things are done 
 below consciousness. It is not possi- 
 
 a Rom. 8: 26, 27. 
 
200 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 ble to separate in consciousness be- 
 tween the work of the Spirit of God 
 and our own spiritual activities. Pro- 
 fession of ability to make such a dis- 
 tinction in consciousness is the unfail- 
 ing sign of fanaticism and the very 
 earmark of delusion. The results of 
 the Spirit's work, such as faith, re- 
 pentance, love, reverence, obedience, 
 prayerfulness, joy, and peace, come 
 into consciousness of course — these 
 being personal states or activities of 
 the soul — but the Spirit's direct ac- 
 tion upon the soul is entirely secret 
 and hidden. 
 
 It is a prominent characteristic of 
 the presumptuous delusion now under 
 consideration, that its victims often 
 come to regard their own arbitrary 
 and capricious notions, their morbid 
 impulses and disordered fancies, as 
 direct communications from the Spirit 
 of God. 
 
 A medical expert has alleged that 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 2 0I 
 
 the phenomena of snakes present in 
 optical illusion, to the victim of de- 
 lirium tremens is caused by the con- 
 gestion of a network of extremely 
 minute veins in a thin transparent 
 membrane of the eye, and the conse- 
 quent projecting* of the increased and 
 serpentine venous circulation upon the 
 field of vision. Thus the delirious in- 
 ebriate sees simply the minute and 
 tortuous circulation of the vital fluid 
 in his disordered eye; but he imagines 
 that he sees serpents of the largest 
 size and most horrible and deadly de- 
 scription. Even so, by projecting 
 their own presumptuous thoughts, 
 ambitious aspirations, and arbitrary 
 inclinations, upon the field of their 
 mental vision, the votaries of this 
 subtle craze mistake the subjective for 
 the objective, and mistake their own 
 minds for the mind of God. But 
 fanatical presumption needs to be 
 
202 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS. 
 
 guarded against, quite as much as 
 rationalistic doubt. 
 
 When they are wishing- to evade 
 the force of certain Scripture com- 
 mands or prohibitions that are dis- 
 tasteful to them, there are those who 
 delude themselves into the belief that 
 they receive from the Spirit of God, 
 inward answers to their prayers, re- 
 lieving" them from the obligations im- 
 posed upon them by Scripture. This 
 is a monstrous self-deception, a blas- 
 phemous presumption. It is not, and it 
 could not be, the way of "the Spirit of 
 truth" to produce in the minds of his 
 people repudiations, or modifications, 
 of the divine word which he himself in- 
 spired — he cannot deny himself. 
 
 This, like all other pretensions to 
 superior religious light, other than 
 that derivable from the Scriptures, 
 must be brought to the crucial and 
 decisive test of Scripture: "To the 
 law and to the testimony! if they 
 
BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 203 
 
 speak not according to this word, 
 surely there is no morning- for them." 
 " If any man thinketh himself to be a 
 prophet, or spiritual, let him take 
 knowledge of the things which I write 
 unto you, that they are the command- 
 ment of the Lord." 
 
 The brilliant advance in educa- 
 tional methods, in physical science, in 
 mechanical inventions, in travelling 
 facilities, and in material comforts, 
 during the last few decades, seems to 
 have turned the heads, hardened the 
 hearts, and perverted the moral judg- 
 ments of many of the men of our time 
 to such an extent that they neither per- 
 ceive the spiritual glory of the Scrip- 
 ture, nor realize their need of its illumi- 
 nating power. Thus the light that is 
 in them is darkness; and " how great 
 is that darkness" ! 
 
 Apart from the beneficent influence 
 of Scripture, the present age is morally 
 as blind, corrupt, and helpless as any 
 
204 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN A TTAINMENTS, 
 
 of its predecessors; and even now, 
 wherever the Sacred Writings are 
 widely discarded, a strong- tendency 
 to revert to the barbarisms and vice of 
 the darkest ages is distinctly manifest. 
 
 All modern claims and pretensions 
 to superior religious attainments, must, 
 like those of every earlier, and every 
 later, century, be tested by the super- 
 natural light that streams down to us 
 from the first century, through the at- 
 mosphere of the Sacred Writings; and 
 by these Writings, the Writings of 
 Paul included, must the principles and 
 practices, with the claims and preten- 
 sions, of this, and of all the centuries, 
 be finally judged. 
 
 Neither attainments in physical 
 science, burrowings among the roots 
 of dead or living languages, satura- 
 tions of pagan and paganizing phi- 
 losophies, nor achievements in any 
 other pursuit whatsoever, can ever 
 qualify or warrant any man to sit in 
 
I 
 
 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 205 
 
 judgment upon the divine word. The 
 most distinguished preacher, the most 
 noted theological professor, or the 
 most influential religious journalist, 
 must be condemned, who, in the 
 smallest particular, ventures to over- 
 ride, or fails humbly to sit at the feet 
 of, inspired apostles, whose words, 
 the Saviour said, would be, not their 
 words, but his words, and the words 
 of the Spirit who inspired them. 
 Hostile criticisms upon divinely in- 
 spired writings are the vaporings of 
 presumptuous folly and rebellious 
 self-conceit. 
 
 Whatever in our civilization and 
 customs, whatever in our religious 
 views and ways, whatever in our 
 church practices and pursuits, what- 
 ever in our women's movements and 
 organizations, and whatever in our so- 
 cieties and methods for the religious 
 training and culture of the young, are 
 inconsistent with apostolic precept 
 
206 BEARING ON CHRISTIAN ATTAINMENTS. 
 
 or precedent, must, on pain of divine 
 displeasure, and of disastrous conse- 
 quences sooner or later, be conformed 
 to the divine standard of the Sacred 
 Writing's in general, and, in particular, 
 the Writing's of Paul. 
 
 "If any man thinketh himself 
 to be a prophet, or spiritual, let 
 him take knowledge of the things 
 which i write unto you, that they 
 are the commandment of the 
 Lord." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 I. 
 
 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN.* 
 
 A Study of a Group of Pauline Doctrines in 
 Romans 8 : 29, 30. 
 
 "For whom he foreknew \ he also foreordained to be 
 conformed to the image of his Son< that he might 
 be the first-born amo?igmany brethren: a7id whom 
 he foreordained, them he also called: and whom 
 he called, them he also justified: and whom he 
 justified, them he also glorified!' 
 
 The Epistle to the Romans is the heart of 
 the Pauline Writings, and, indeed, of the whole 
 New Testament ; and the brief passage before 
 us is the heart of the Epistle to the Romans. 
 This microcosm of Holy Writ deserves our 
 most earnest and devout attention. 
 
 In demonstrating the completeness and se- 
 curity of those who are in Christ, the apostle 
 has adduced, in the previous part of the Epistle, 
 the vicarious and redemptive work of Christ in 
 
 * This dissertation, from the pen of the author of this 
 book, was published, April, 1886, in the Baptist Quarterly 
 Reviezv . Presenting a group of leading and characteristic 
 Pauline doctrines, it is here reproduced as a pendant to 
 Chapter VII., in the body of this work. 
 
 207 
 
208 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 their behalf, the quickening and sanctifying 
 operations of the Holy Spirit in their souls, 
 and the benignant acts of God the Father to- 
 ward them in justifying, adopting, preserving, 
 and enriching them. It is further shown that, 
 under the gracious control of God, nothing can 
 effectually work against, and that in reality 
 everything must work for, the interest of true 
 believers. "We know," says the apostle, " that 
 to them that love God all things work together 
 for good, even to them that are called accord- 
 ing to his purpose/' a Thus true Christians are 
 described, from the human side, as those who 
 love God, — love to God being evidently re- 
 garded as the summary and essence of Chris- 
 tian character and duty; and they are de- 
 scribed, from the Divine side, as those " who 
 are called according to" God's "purpose," — 
 the being called according to his purpose being 
 obviously considered as the root, or as the 
 well-spring, of love to God and of similar gra- 
 cious qualities in any human breast. At this 
 point, the passage under consideration comes 
 in, as further explanatory and descriptive of 
 the call according to God's purpose : "For 
 whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be 
 conformed to the image of his Son, that he 
 might be the first-born among many brethren : 
 and whom he foreordained, them he also called : 
 and whom he called, them he also justified : and 
 whom he justified, them he also glorified." The 
 logic of the passage has, for its major premise, 
 
 a Rom. 8 ; 28. 
 
GROUP OF PAULINE DOCTRINES. 
 
 209 
 
 God's eternal purpose of grace ; for its minor 
 premise, God's calling of certain human souls 
 into the exercise of faith toward Christ, love 
 toward God, and kindred Christian graces ; 
 and, for its conclusion, the final salvation and 
 glory of all who are effectually called. 
 
 It is important to observe that the five verbs, 
 7rpo€yvo), wpowpLcrev, c/caAecrei/, cSt/cataxrev, i$6£a<rev, 
 translated, respectively, " foreknew," "foreor- 
 dained," " called," " justified," " glorified," are 
 in the aorist tense, the well-known function of 
 which is to predicate completed action without 
 special reference to time when. These verbs 
 tell us what God did in purpose in the eternal 
 past ; for, from the nature of the case and from 
 the plain intimation of Scripture, his purpose 
 is, and must be, an eternal purpose. All that 
 God does in fact, he does in accordance with 
 his eternal purpose ; and all that God has done 
 in purpose, he does in the fulness of time, in 
 fact. Both with man and with God, the pur- 
 pose is the moral essence of the act. With 
 man, it is true, because of his blindness, weak- 
 ness, and changeableness, to will and to do are 
 seldom commensurate and identical ; but with 
 God, to purpose and to perform are, virtually 
 and morally, ever one and the same. With 
 God, the purpose and the result are inevitably 
 linked together, and invariably and exactly 
 coincide. God " foreknew," " foreordained," 
 " called," " justified," " glorified," in eternal 
 purpose, all those, and none other than those, 
 whom, "in the coming on of time," he eventu- 
 
 14 
 
2 1 o THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 ally calls, justifies, and glorifies in fact. The 
 aorist is also singularly well-fitted, and, in the 
 New Testament, is often used, to express the 
 virtual completion of the divine act in the 
 divine purpose; and Christ employed it very 
 strikingly, when, in his own personal and offi- 
 cial prayer, at the conclusion of his valedictory 
 discourse, though the cross and the grave were 
 still before him, he thus appealed to his eternal 
 Father, in the inflexible purpose and in the un- 
 wavering confidence of his heart : " I glorified 
 thee on the earth, having accomplished the 
 work which thou hast given me to do." Thus, 
 in virtually identifying the divine purpose and 
 the divine act in the passage before us, the 
 great apostle has closely followed the example 
 of his Divine Lord. 
 
 In addressing ourselves more directly to the 
 study of this five-linked chain of gospel truth 
 and grace, let us first of all determine, sub- 
 stantially, and with as much exactness as pos- 
 sible, the sense in which the term wpoiyvo), or 
 " foreknew," representing the first link in the 
 chain, is here to be taken. To interpret this 
 word as expressing mere naked prescience 
 would give no adequate sense ; for the good 
 and the bad, the finally saved and the finally 
 lost, are equally objects of divine foresight. 
 The term " foreknew" is evidently here used 
 to characterize and distinguish the attitude 
 and action of the divine mind toward those, 
 and those only, whom God has, from all eter- 
 nity, designed to make his own peculiar peo- 
 
GR O UP OF PA ULINE D O C TRINE S. 2 1 1 
 
 pie. Nor may we mentally supply, as some 
 interpreters have attempted to do, some such 
 words as " would repent, believe, love and 
 obey"; for there is no evident ellipsis in the 
 passage; nay, there is evidently no ellipsis in 
 the passage. The sense is complete as it 
 stands ; and to supply such words, or their op- 
 posites, or any other words, is eisegesis and 
 not exegesis, is interpolation and not interpre- 
 tation. Such treatment sets the passage in di- 
 rect opposition to the plainest teachings of 
 the apostle, not only in this but in other Epis- 
 tles, as witness the following specimen pas- 
 sages : God " saved us, and called us with a 
 holy calling, not according to our works, but 
 according to his own purpose and grace, which 
 was given us in Christ Jesus before times eter- 
 nal." a Again, M he chose us in him before the 
 foundation of the world, that we should be 
 holy and without blemish before him in love." b 
 Once more, " By grace have ye been saved 
 through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it 
 is the gift of God : not of works, that no man 
 should glory. For we are his workmanship, 
 created in Christ Jesus for good works, which 
 God afore prepared that we should walk in 
 them." c 
 
 The inserting of certain words after the 
 word " foreknew," in the manner already indi- 
 cated, has the effect of substituting the conse- 
 quent for the antecedent, the end for the 
 means, the effect for the cause. In that act of 
 
 a 2 Tim. 1:9. b Eph. 1:4. c Eph. 2:8-10. 
 
212 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 gracious omnipotence, accomplished by the 
 Spirit of God in the souls of those who are in 
 process of being saved, and variously denomi- 
 nated in Scripture, a new creation, a new birth, 
 and a resurrection, the soul, from the nature of 
 the case, is and must be passive ; though, in- 
 deed, in consequence of that quickening and 
 renewing energy, it is sure to become active in 
 the exercise of faith, love, obedience and other 
 Christian virtues. To say, then, that God 
 makes the foresight of such spiritual qualities 
 in human souls as could come to be in them 
 only as the effect of his own sovereign and re- 
 generating grace, the motive and raison d'etre 
 of his favorable regard, is to reason in a circle 
 and to become involved in an absurdity. 
 These two senses, therefore, for the word 
 " foreknew " — the sense of naked prescience, 
 and that of prescience of gracious qualities 
 quite gratuitously attributed — must be rejected 
 as unscriptural and absurd. 
 
 What, then, is the sense in which "fore- 
 knew" is here to be taken? It must be evi- 
 dent to every one capable of analyzing 
 thought and of weighing the force of lan- 
 guage, that to know or to foreknow a person 
 is something different from, and more com- 
 plex than, to perceive or to anticipate a fact. 
 But in order clearly to determine the signifi- 
 cance of the word as here used, it is of great 
 advantage to consider somewhat carefully the 
 Scripture usage with respect to the word 
 "know." It is obvious that the word "know" 
 
GROUP OF PAULINE DOCTRINES, 
 
 213 
 
 is frequently employed in the Sacred Writings 
 in quite another than the primary and literal 
 sense, though it will be found that the derived 
 and secondary meaning is a legitimate out- 
 growth, according to recognized philological 
 laws, from the literal and primary. The usage 
 of the New Testament, with respect to the 
 word "know," closely resembles that of the 
 Old Testament; in fact, there is a decidedly 
 Hebraistic element in the New Testament use 
 of the word ; and the reasons are not far to 
 seek. The religious conceptions of the writ- 
 ers of the New Testament were formed largely 
 by their familiarity with the Old Testament 
 Scriptures ; and their evidently intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the Septuagint, the Greek ver- 
 sion of the Hebrew Scriptures commonly used 
 in their day, naturally accustomed them to 
 use several important words of the Greek lan- 
 guage in a somewhat Hebraistic sense. Thus 
 they came to use the Greek jlvuxtko) in the 
 pregnant sense, and as the full equivalent, of 
 the Hebrew yada. Both of these words are 
 used in the Old and New Testaments respec- 
 tively, to represent acts of the understanding, 
 of the moral judgment, of the affections, and 
 of the will. Both are used in the senses of 
 love, choose, approve, appoint, and in the 
 complex sense of recognize, claim, and ac- 
 knowledge as one's own. Both are used to 
 express God's favorable regard and gracious 
 love, as in Amos, 3:2, "You only have I 
 known of all the families of the earth," and in 
 
214 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 I Cor. 8:3, "If any man loveth God, the same 
 is known of him." Both are used to convey 
 the idea of divine approval, as in Ps. 1:6, 
 " The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous," 
 and in Matt. 7:23, and 25:12, " I never knew 
 you," "I know you not." The term yada is 
 used to assert divine choice and appointment, 
 as is evident from Gen. 18: 19, as rendered by 
 the Revisers, and substantially by Gesenius be- 
 fore them, " I have known him," t. e., Abraham, 
 "to the end that he may command his children 
 and his household after him ;" and yuwK<o, 
 when used with the prefix irpo } as in our pas- 
 sage, is employed to affirm the eternal choice 
 and appointment of God, as is evident from 
 1 Pet. 1:20, as rendered in the Revision, where 
 Christ as the chosen Lamb of God is thus 
 spoken of, "Who verily was foreknown indeed 
 before the foundation of the world," i. e., as 
 the Authorized Version has it, "foreordained 
 before the foundation of the world." That 
 7rpoyiv(i(TK0) retains, as was to be expected, the 
 pregnant meaning of ywwo-KO) and its Hebrew 
 equivalent, is demonstrated by the passage 
 just quoted, and by other instances in which it 
 occurs, as, for example, in Rom. 11:2, "God 
 did not cast off his people which he fore- 
 knew, " i. e. y whom he fore-loved, fore-chose, 
 and fore-recognized as his own. 
 
 The fuller senses of yada, and of yiva>o-*co 
 with and without prefix, are a natural growth 
 from their primary and literal sense of per- 
 ceive or apprehend ; and the usage with re- 
 
GR O UP OF PA ULINE D O CTRINES, 2 1 5 
 
 spect to corresponding words in other lan- 
 guages, English included, furnishes a broad 
 analogy. As perception, or knowledge, real 
 or imaginary, is the necessary condition of 
 love, choice, appointment, and approval, these 
 latter come by metonymy to be expressed in 
 the terms belonging primarily to the former. 
 
 In the larger and fully authorized sense 
 already indicated, the term " foreknew" is 
 here to be taken ; that alone being consistent 
 with the apostle's argument and with the gen- 
 eral character of his teaching. But which is 
 the precise, or, rather, which is the more 
 prominent, shade of this larger meaning, in 
 which we should take the term, it is difficult 
 with minute accuracy to determine. The best 
 interpreters, though substantially in accord, 
 vary considerably in detail. Erasmus takes 
 the sense of the word as foreloved ; Calvin, as 
 elected and adopted ; Alford, in somewhat of the 
 ordinary sense, with an implicatio?i of the larger 
 meaning and in co-ordination with for 'e ordination ; 
 Tholuck, as foredecreed, in the earlier editions, 
 but in the later, as fore-recog?iized as his own; 
 Hodge, as peculiarly loved and elected; Brown, 
 as exercised peculiar and gracious complace?icy ; 
 and Lange, though not defining it sharply, 
 seems to regard the word as much the same as 
 the Hebrew yada which he defines as " the one 
 collective Hebrew term for knowing, loving, 
 being present at, and begetting." 
 
 But with all their variety in form of state- 
 ment, these interpretations, when analyzed and 
 
2l6 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN, 
 
 compared, are, in substance and logical effect, 
 the same. Though apparently distinct as the 
 billows, they are really one as the sea. They 
 are not antagonistic, but complemental, and, 
 to a certain extent, each implies every other. 
 They all, in effect, repudiate the sense of mere 
 naked prescience, and that of prescience of 
 spiritual qualities, as the meaning of the term 
 "foreknew," as here used; and, in effect, they 
 all maintain that the word implies and ex- 
 presses the eternal and distinguishing favor of 
 God toward those whom, on this account, he 
 determines eventually to save. These inter- 
 pretations thus oppose the same errors, uphold 
 the same truths, and cohere and inhere in one 
 common centre of unity. 
 
 In view of all the facts, therefore, we need 
 not hesitate to hold, with considerable confi- 
 dence, that the term "foreknew," as used in 
 this passage, declares, in a composite and am- 
 ple sense, God's sovereign and eternal favor, 
 love, choice, and recognition and acknowledg- 
 ment as his own, in regard to those whom, for 
 no possible reason in them, but for reasons im- 
 manent and hidden in himself, he, of his own 
 good pleasure, predestined to salvation and 
 eternal life. This much is demanded by the 
 logic of the passage ; and this much is sanc- 
 tioned and accorded by the usus loquendi of 
 Scripture and by the analogy of faith. 
 
 We may now proceed to consider the second 
 link in the chain of grace, represented by the 
 word 7rpo<i)pLo-ev, or "foreordained." The verb 
 
GROUP OF PAULINE DOCTRINES. 
 
 217 
 
 7rpoopt^o> occurs only six times in the New Tes- 
 tament, and it is translated uniformly in the 
 Revision by the word " foreordain. " The New 
 Testament uses it to predicate a fixed pre-de- 
 termination on the part of God as to the or- 
 dering of events and the final allotment of his 
 people; and so, perhaps, the term " predesti- 
 nated " employed here, and most frequently 
 elsewhere, for it, by the Authorized Version, 
 conveys the meaning more readily, on the 
 whole, to the ordinary reader. Once, the word 
 expresses God's Predetermining various things 
 to come to pass in connection with the death 
 of Christ. In the remaining five places in 
 which it appears, it denotes the divine ap- 
 pointment of God's chosen people to a glo- 
 rious destiny. In these instances, respectively, 
 it declares them to have been foreappointed to 
 divine sonship, to brotherhood, and likeness to 
 Christ, to future glory, and to be to the praise 
 of the glory of his grace. Here it teaches 
 that all whom God ''foreknew," that is, as we 
 have seen, all whom he has eternally loved, 
 chosen, and recognized and acknowledged as 
 his own, are by him predestined to brotherly 
 relations and likeness to Christ, his beloved 
 Son, by all of which the gk>ry of Christ, the 
 Elder Brother, will be eternally advanced, and 
 the blessedness of his younger brethren, the 
 redeemed from among men, will be eternally 
 promoted. This high destiny awaits all the 
 true people of God. The means for its attain- 
 ment are as truly foreordained as the persons 
 
 15 
 
2i8 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 are predestinated, and the end predetermined. 
 
 It is impossible that this sovereign and gra- 
 cious decree of God should be frustrated or 
 should in any way fail of final accomplish- 
 ment, for he who is infinite in truth, in wis- 
 dom, and in power, has sworn, " My counsel 
 shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure/' a 
 
 We come now to the third link in the chain 
 of grace, represented by cKaAeo-ev, or " called. " 
 The word Ka\ea> corresponds very closely, in 
 ordinary parlance, to our English word "call," 
 being used, as that is, to describe such acts as 
 the giving or uttering of a name and the invit- 
 ing or summoning of a person. Besides this, 
 it is used in an efficient or causative sense, to 
 which there is also some analogy in the use of 
 the corresponding English word. In the Gos- 
 pels it is sometimes, though rarely, used to 
 denote the merely external call or invitation of 
 the gospel. In the Epistles, however — and 
 this is of the utmost doctrinal consequence — it 
 is never so used. In them, when referring to 
 the divine call of human souls, it is used inva- 
 riably in the efficient or causative sense, and 
 means inwardly, effectually, savingly called. 
 It denotes the authority, energy, and efficacy, 
 with which the Holy Spirit inwardly applies 
 to human souls the outward call of the gospel, 
 so as to result infallibly in their conversion to 
 God, and in their translation out of the king- 
 dom of darkness into the kingdom of God's 
 dear Son. In the Epistles, the kXtjtol, or "the 
 
 a Isa. 46 : 10 
 
GROUP OF PAULINE DOCTRINES, 
 
 219 
 
 called, " are widely distinguished from, and 
 sharply contrasted with, those who have heard, 
 but who have not accepted, the gospel invita- 
 tion; as, for example, in 1 Cor. 1: 23, 24, where 
 the apostle says, "We preach Christ crucified, 
 unto Jews a stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles 
 foolishness; but unto them that are called, 
 both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of 
 God, and the wisdom of God." In the same 
 strain, the true people of God are divinely 
 addressed as distinctively the " called to be 
 saints;" divinely declared to be " partakers of 
 the heavenly calling;" and divinely exhorted 
 to "walk worthily of the calling wherewith" 
 they "were called." 
 
 There is a beautiful and suggestive connec- 
 tion between the terms, kXtjtol, or the " called," 
 and iKKXrjaLa, or " the church," which deserves to 
 be noticed, in passing. The KX-qroC, as we have 
 seen, are the savingly called, the genuinely 
 converted; the iKKkrjo-ta, on the other hand, is 
 the legitimate and constitutional assembly of 
 the savingly called — called out authoritatively 
 from their old relations to the world into or- 
 ganized unity, activity, and fellowship in the 
 gospel. 
 
 The calling of this passage, therefore, is an 
 effectual calling — a calling from death to life, 
 from darkness into light, and from the power 
 of Satan unto God. 
 
 The fourth link in the chain of grace, repre- 
 sented by cSi/ccuWev, or justified, now claims our 
 attention. The writer of the Epistle to the 
 
220 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 Romans, though a Jew by extraction, is a 
 Roman by citizenship, and he is versed in 
 Roman law and polity. He writes an Epistle 
 expository of Christianity to Roman citizens, 
 who, by their peculiar legal and political train- 
 ing, are specially capable of appreciating the 
 meaning of words, the force of arguments, and 
 the significance of analogies. In these circum- 
 stances, as might be expected from his marvel- 
 lous tact and skill, he treats his subject foren- 
 sically, especially as this method is really the 
 most germane to his subject, and so he employs 
 technical legal terms, well known to hisread- 
 ers, with which to set before them the central 
 and fundamental truths of the gospel. The 
 gospel truth which he most fully discusses is 
 the cardinal doctrine of gratuitous justification 
 by faith in the crucified Redeemer, and the 
 term, therefore, which he employs to express it 
 is one that is saturated with forensic meaning, 
 inwrought with forensic associations, and prac- 
 tically incapable of being employed in any 
 other than a forensic sense. 
 
 In the earlier part of the Epistle, the apostle 
 proves that all men are under divine law, 
 natural or revealed ; that all men are sinners — 
 transgressors of the law ; and that all men, in 
 their natural state, are therefore, actually, justly, 
 and inevitably under its dread sentence of con- 
 demnation. He then proceeds to show that by 
 means of the gospel God can accomplish what 
 he could not accomplish by means of the law; 
 that through the instrumentality of the gospel 
 
GROUP OF PAULINE DOCTRINES. 2 2I 
 
 he can do the very reverse of what he does, and 
 must do, through the law without recourse to 
 the gospel ; that is to say, he can and does 
 justify, through the gospel, many whom, under 
 the law, he inevitably condemned. 
 
 To those w r ho lived under the scientific, rig- 
 orous, and far-reaching Roman law, the term 
 " justify" meant the act of a righteous judge 
 toward accused persons proved innocent before 
 him, in acquitting them and pronouncing them 
 righteous ; and the term continues to this day 
 to be so used in systems of jurisprudence de- 
 rived from the legal system of ancient Rome. 
 This term the apostle deliberately employs to 
 express what God actually does to condemned 
 sinners who receive the gospel : God acknowl- 
 edges and declares them to be, and treats them 
 as, righteous. Just here lay the profoundest 
 problem of redemption ; and herein consists its 
 mightiest achievement. How God could be 
 just, and yet be the justifier of the unjust, none 
 but himself could have devised. The gospel 
 is his solution of the difficulty, and by it he is 
 enabled both to be just and to justify every 
 sinner who believes in Jesus. 
 
 We are forcibly taught, by the apostle, that 
 this gospel justification, so far as the divine 
 conferring of it on men is concerned, is abso- 
 lutely a justification "by grace," and that from 
 the very nature of the case, by grace alone could 
 it possibly be conferred. But by the same 
 decisive authority we learn that, so far as the 
 divine procuring of it is concerned, gospel jus- 
 
222 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 tification is not a mere arbitrary transaction, 
 but that it is a justification "by blood," by the 
 infinite and vicarious sacrifice and satisfaction 
 made for us by the God-man to the law and 
 justice of God. Thus " grace " reigns " through 
 righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." Without this stupendous 
 and unique provision, it would be as impossible 
 for God to justify a sinner as to forsake his 
 justice, to deny himself, or to cease to be. 
 
 The gospel is divinely declared to be "the 
 power of God unto salvation to every one that 
 believeth." But why? Because it reveals a 
 divine righteousness receivable by faith ; not 
 the righteosness of the divine character ; not a 
 righteousness of divine requirements to be 
 wrought out by every one for himself ; not even 
 a righteousness to be infused into the soul by 
 the Spirit of God, but a vicarious righteousness 
 planned by the Divine Father in his eternal 
 counsels, executed in the fulness of time by 
 the incarnate Son in his fulfilling the precept 
 and in his exhausting the penalty of the divine 
 law ; revealed by the Holy Spirit in the gospel 
 which he outbreathed, and freely imputed to 
 the soul when effectually called by that Spirit 
 into the exercise of living faith in Christ. 
 
 As far as human instrumentality in bringing 
 this grace-given and blood-bought justification 
 into personal possession is concerned, the 
 Scriptures declare with full-voiced emphasis 
 that it is received only by faith in Christ. From 
 the various and vivid inspired descriptions of 
 
GROUP OF PAULINE DOCTRINES. 
 
 223 
 
 this justifying faith, abounding in Scripture, it 
 is evidently not merely intellectual or specula- 
 tive, but pre-eminently affectionate, moral, and 
 spiritual in its character ; and so also it is at 
 once a first-fruit of the regenerating Spirit, a 
 spiritual ingrafting into the living Christ, and 
 the prolific germ and the generous nourisher 
 of all other spiritual qualities and virtues. 
 
 Justification being essentially, as we have 
 seen, a judicial act of God respecting the per- 
 sonal, juridical standing of believers before his 
 law ; being completed instantly at the first ex- 
 ercise of faith, and being of irrevocable and eter- 
 nal validity, it is not to be confounded with for- 
 giveness of sins, which, as distinguished from 
 justification, is more properly a parental act of 
 God, often repeated, often needing to be re- 
 peated, toward those whom, for Christ's sake, 
 he once and forever absolves from guilt, justi- 
 fies, and adopts as his children. Much less is 
 justification to be confounded with sanctifica- 
 tion ; for while the former is the divine reversal 
 of a sinner's legal state, the latter is the divine 
 renewal of his spiritual nature ; while the former 
 is grounded on the imputation of righteousness, 
 the latter is the means of the impartation of 
 righteousness, or holiness ; and while the 
 former is complete at the first moment of con- 
 version, the latter is progressive throughout 
 the entire subsequent life. 
 
 The fifth link — the final one in the chain of 
 grace — represented by cSo^acrev, or " glorified, " re- 
 mains to be considered. At first sight the term 
 
224 
 
 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 " glorify," like the term "glory," seems somewhat 
 vague in meaning. Like the first great verb in 
 our chain of five, this last, in the apostle's use 
 of it, is somewhat Hebraized, as a moment's 
 consideration of it will suffice to show. The 
 radical meaning of kabod, the principal Hebrew 
 word for glory, is weight, heaviness; and the 
 chief of its derived meanings are riches, honor, 
 majesty, and splendor ; so that it gives the con- 
 ception of a person burdened and weighed 
 down with opulence, splendor, honor, and dig- 
 nity. Very prominent also in the Hebrew con- 
 ception of glory is the element of brightness ; 
 and thus, in his golden diction, Ezekiel speaks 
 of "the brightness of the Lord's glory," or 
 rather " the brightness of the glory of Jehovah." 
 How natural it was, therefore, that the chief in- 
 spired writer of the New Testament, when com- 
 forting sorrow-laden Christians on earth with 
 the prospect of their heavenly destiny, should 
 speak of it as "a far more exceeding and eter- 
 nal weight of glory ;" and that when exalting 
 him who is at once the Jehovah of the Old 
 Testament and the Jesus of the New, he should 
 describe him as " the effulgence of " the Father's 
 "glory." 
 
 In the term " glorify," or " make glorious," the 
 dual conceptions of weight and brightness, sub- 
 stance and sheen, being constituents of the idea 
 of glory, are present and predominant. The 
 glorified are permeated with the bright essence 
 and radiant with the bright effluence of infinite 
 and eternal good. The glory of the redeemed 
 
GROUP OF PAULINE DOCTRINES. 
 
 225 
 
 is, in part, incipient during their earthly so- 
 journ, though greatly shrouded and obscured ; 
 but its fulness and effulgence are reserved for 
 the heavenly state. Even in this present life, 
 however, the believer is glorified with the glory 
 of divine sonship, though still in minority ; 
 with the glory of a regenerate and sanctified 
 likeness to Christ, though yet incomplete and 
 imperfect ; with the glory of an inner life and 
 abiding fellowship with God, though often be- 
 clouded and greatly circumscribed ; and thus 
 is fulfilled, partly at least, the saying of the 
 Saviour in his prayer to the Father, " The glory 
 which thou gavest me I have given unto them." 
 At the close of earthly existence, despite the 
 sinister shadows of death, the believer is glori- 
 fied in being borne by angels from the taber- 
 nacle of clay to the heavenly mansion, from 
 the grasp of the King of Terrors to the bosom 
 of God, forever to abide in his love and in the 
 light of his countenance. On his disentangle- 
 ment from mortal life the believer's soul-like- 
 ness to Christ will instantly become complete, 
 and the spiritual glory of his character will then 
 be ineffable. At the last day the Christian will 
 be glorified in the resurrection of his body from 
 the vile dust of death to immortality and like- 
 ness to Christ's glorious body. Like some 
 beauteous flower sprung from a seed that had 
 shrivelled for ages in the cerements of a 
 mummy, or like some insect that, having passed 
 its unsightly rudimentary state, glances gaily 
 in the sunbeams, all gleaming with crimson and 
 
226 THE FIVE-LINKED CHAIN. 
 
 gold, the Christian's body will be raised in un- 
 imagined glory, despite the dishonor in which 
 it was sown. In soul and body, reunited and 
 glorified, the redeemed will therefore be per- 
 fectly conformed to the image of Christ; and 
 through all eternity, amid the society and 
 splendor, the pursuits and enjoyments, of the 
 heavenly state, they will exult in the presence, 
 the glory, and the favor of Christ, and " shine 
 forth like the sun in the kingdom of their 
 Father. " Doubtless the ultimate completion 
 of the glorifying of believers in their heavenly 
 state is the great strategic point directly and 
 primarily indicated by this term of the apostle ; 
 but it also evidently implies and presupposes 
 the quickening and sanctifying processes pre- 
 paratory to, and, indeed, initiatory of, the final 
 consummation. 
 
 Thus the great chain of grace, constituted, 
 without one missing or faulty link, by divine 
 foreknowledge, foreodination, calling, justifica- 
 tion and glorification, unites the eternities of 
 the past and future, unites the mighty truths 
 of revelation, and makes doubly sure the assur- 
 ance of the gospel's final success and of the 
 believer's eternal salvation. 
 
II. 
 
 DIVINE ESTIMATE OF THE PASTORAL 
 OFFICE.* 
 
 There are now current a variety of influences 
 tending to depreciate the pastoral office in the 
 minds of possible ministerial recruits, in the 
 minds of ministers themselves, in the minds of 
 Christian people generally, and in the minds of 
 all sorts of people of the world. Among these 
 unfavorable influences are the supreme impor- 
 tance now commonly attached to wealth, the 
 feverishly eager pursuit of it, characteristic of 
 the time, the long and expensive period of 
 preparatory study requisite for the best results 
 of ministerial work, the general inadequacy of 
 ministerial support, and the growing demand 
 for highly sensational methods. In view of 
 these things, and as far as may be to counter- 
 act them, it would be well if the churches of 
 Christ, if Christian young men, and if the minis- 
 ters of the gospel would consider attentively 
 the divine estimate of the pastoral office. 
 
 I. The divine estimate of the pastoral office 
 is indicated by the qualifications divinely pre- 
 scribed for it. In various parts of the New Tes- 
 tament, particularly in the " pastoral Epistles" 
 to Timothy and Titus, there are summaries and 
 
 * This discussion was published in the Baptist Quarterly 
 Review, January, 1892, and it is here introduced by the 
 author as a side-light on the pastoral office already consid- 
 ered in Section II. of our ninth chapter. 
 
 227 
 
228 DIVINE ESTIMATE 01 PASTORAL OFFICE. 
 
 expositions of the rare combination of intellect- 
 ual, moral, and spiritual qualities and attain- 
 ments divinely required in those who enter the 
 Christian ministry. These men must have certain 
 natural and acquired abilities — capacity for 
 study, aptness to teach, and talent for administra- 
 tion and leadership. They must be men of strong 
 and consistent Christian character; their minds 
 must be well stored with divine truth; their 
 souls must be rich in ripe Christian experience ; 
 and their hearts must be filled with love and loy- 
 alty to the Saviour, with love and devotion to the 
 church, and with earnest and compassionate 
 desire for the salvation of sinners. They must 
 not be novices, " lest being puffed up," they 
 " fall into the condemnation of the devil," but 
 they must be men tried, and proved worthy of 
 confidence, of esteem, and of the high trust to 
 be committed to them; men " full of faith and 
 of the Holy Spirit;" " faithful men, who shall 
 be able to teach others also." They must be 
 men called of God into this service by a spe- 
 cial work of grace in their own hearts, and by 
 the voice of God summoning them to the office 
 through his people. Well might any man ex- 
 claim, "Who is sufficient for these things?" 
 
 2. The divine estimate of the pastoral office 
 may be perceived in the functions divinely as- 
 signed to it. The remarkable nomenclature 
 employed by the Holy Spirit in speaking of 
 the chief officer of a Scripturally-constituted 
 church indicates unmistakably the variety and 
 importance of the pastoral functions. The 
 
DIVINE ESTIMATE OF PASTORAL OFFICE. 
 
 229 
 
 Christian minister is commissioned as an " am- 
 bassador" of Christ; and, " as though God were 
 entreating" men by him, he is required to pro- 
 claim the gospel message of reconciliation. 
 He is sent of God, as a " preacher and teacher" 
 of divine and saving truth. He is a " minister " 
 or "servant" of Christ, and of the church for 
 Christ's sake; but he is to serve the church, not 
 as a menial or slave, but as an instructor, as a 
 leader, as a presiding officer chosen by the church 
 and appointed by Christ to act in these capaci- 
 ties for the good of the church and the glory of 
 the Lord. He is a "presbyter" or "elder," 
 charged with the work of counselling and guid- 
 ing the church. He is made by the Holy Spirit 
 a " bishop " or " overseer " of the church placed 
 under his personal and official care. He is the 
 " pastor " or " shepherd " of the flock, the church 
 of Christ, appointed to this office by Christ, the 
 Chief Shepherd. He is the "angel" of the 
 church, that is, the "angel" or "messenger" of 
 God to declare to the church the word of God, 
 and to watch and guard the vital interests of 
 the church and of the truth, in the Saviour's 
 name. 
 
 The nurture, training, leading, and well-being 
 of the church, and the conversion of sinners to 
 Christ, are to be his constant care. Thus the 
 functions of the pastoral office relate primarily 
 and pre-eminently to supreme and eternal in- 
 terests — the salvation of souls, the welfare of 
 the church, and the glory of God. 
 
 3. The divine estimate of the pastoral office 
 
230 
 
 DIVINE ESTIMATE OF PASTORAL OFFICE. 
 
 is evinced by the regards for it, divinely en- 
 joined. Esteem, love, deference, gratitude, in- 
 tercession, are prominent among the Christian 
 regards to be exercised toward those who, in 
 the name of Christ, minister in holy things. 
 
 Upon this point, " What saith the Scripture? " 
 " But we beseech you, brethren, to know them 
 that labour among you, and are over you in the 
 Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them 
 exceeding highly in love for their works' sake." a 
 11 Obey them that have the rule over you, and 
 submit to them ; for they watch in behalf of 
 your souls, as they that shall give account ; 
 that they may do this with joy, and not with 
 grief: for this were unprofitable for you. ,,b 
 "Touch not mine anointed ones and do my proph- 
 ets no harm." c "Let him that is taught in the 
 word communicate unto him that teacheth in 
 all good things." d " Brethren, pray for us," 
 '- and on my behalf, that utterance may be given 
 unto me in opening my mouth, to make known 
 with boldness the mystery of the gospel." e 
 
 Two opposite temptations are liable to befall 
 the Christian minister in relation to these 
 divinely enjoined regards on the part of his 
 people for his office. One of these is arrogantly 
 to claim these regards as a personal right, to 
 use them for his own gratification, instead of 
 receiving them humbly as a trust from Christ 
 to be used exclusively for the good of the 
 church itself and for the honor of the Master. 
 
 a i Thess, 5 : 12. t> Heb. 13 : 17. c p s . 105: 15. 
 d Gal. 6:6. e Eph. 6 : 19. 
 
DIVINE ESTIMATE OF PASTORAL OFFICE. 
 
 231 
 
 The other is to refuse such regards and weakly 
 throw them away, either from timidity, false 
 humility, or excessive and selfish desire to 
 please men. 
 
 But whatever the possible temptations in the 
 case, it is strikingly significant that the divine 
 word enjoins such regards for the pastoral 
 office and its occupant. 
 
 4. The divine estimate of the pastoral office 
 is manifest from the responsibilities divinely 
 imposed upon it. The pastor, in virtue of his 
 office, is brought into specially grave and re- 
 sponsible relations to the Judge of all ; and the 
 Scriptures abound with solemn admonitions 
 and warnings to pastors. Very awe-inspiring 
 is the warning of Godto the divinely appointed 
 spiritual watchman, whose business it is to hear 
 the word at the lips of God and to warn men 
 in his name: "When I say unto the wicked, 
 O wicked man, thou shalt surely die, and thou 
 dost not speak to warn the wicked from his 
 way ; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, 
 but his blood will I require at thine hand." a 
 Equally searching and solemn is the apostolic 
 admonition to the minister of the word : " I 
 charge thee in the sight of God, who quick- 
 eneth all things, and of Christ Jesus, who 
 before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good con- 
 fession ; that thou keep the commandment, 
 without spot, without reproach, until the appear- 
 ing of our Lord Jesus Christ." b The Lord will 
 reckon with his ministers for the many impor- 
 
 a Ezek. 33 : 8. b 1 Tim. 6 : 13, 14. 
 
232 DIVINE ESTIMATE OF PASTORAL OFFICE, 
 
 tant trusts he has committed to their charge ; 
 and he will hold them responsible for the man- 
 ner and spirit in which they have discharged 
 the various functions of their office. Better, far 
 better, for a minister, that he never were born 
 than to be unfaithful and unworthy, and to ap- 
 pear as such before the judgment-seat of Christ. 
 5. The divine estimate of the pastoral office 
 is evident from the final rewards to be divinely 
 bestowed upon it. Notwithstanding the diffi- 
 culties, trials, and anxieties peculiar to the 
 work of the gospel ministry, there are in this 
 life itself many great and precious spiritual re- 
 wards for the faithful minister, in the character 
 and privileges of the work, and in the special 
 relationships of the pastor to Christ and to his 
 true people. But the great rewards for the 
 faithful discharge of this office are reserved for 
 the future life. Near the close of the bright 
 prophetic Book of Daniel we read: "They that 
 be wise shall shine as the brightness of the fir- 
 mament ; and they that turn many to righteous- 
 ness as the stars forever and ever. ,,a In the 
 address of Peter to the elders, Christian minis- 
 ters who faithfully and lovingly fulfil the duties 
 of their office are told, " When the chief Shepherd 
 shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown 
 of glory that fadeth not away. ,,b It was pri- 
 marily to the "anger' or pastor of a church 
 that the glorified Redeemer said, " Be thou 
 faithful unto death, and I will give thee the 
 crown of life." c 
 
 a Dan. 12 : 3. t> 1 Pet. 5:4. c Rev. 2 : 10. 
 
 I?